A Bride for Adam

finally said, “All right.”
“I’ll see if I can get off a few minutes earlier from work. If I can do my paperwork while I steer the boat, maybe I can get off fifteen minutes earlier. I’ll ride home faster, too. Now, don’t you worry.”
Rhea picked Bethany up right after breakfast. “I’ll have her home by two o’clock.”
Greta bit her bottom lip. “Um...I have some errands to run. Can you take her home with you? Adam said he’d pick her up after work.”
“I’d love to,” Rhea said as she led Bethany to the front door. “She can help me bake some cookies.”
Greta spent most of the morning pacing the sitting room. What should she do? She couldn’t risk Adam getting shot. Of course, she didn’t want to get shot herself either. Miles sounded a bit crazy and full of ridiculous notions. He could be like a dog—all bark and no bite—or he could be dangerous. He sure had Martha scared.
She still wondered if Adam really loved her or if he’d just gone along with the plan his parents had set up for him to keep Bethany in the family. He seemed sincere, and he was affectionate, but he didn’t often tell her that he loved her. When they’d first realized their feelings, he’d told her, and again, on their consummation night. She wished he’d say those three magic words more often. Now that she thought about it, she didn’t tell him she loved him much either. Why were those words so difficult for them to say?
She felt Adam knew that she loved him since she’d admitted to fondness for him since she was thirteen. Why had she told him that? She thought about how he’d settled so well in Texas and had even found a job. Was that the way he showed his love?
Greta had confided her doubts to her grandmother one day, and Tilde had said that men do more showing than telling when it came to love. She supposed her grandmother was right, but she needed more than that. Maybe it was because she’d lost her parents at such an early age, but she needed more assurance.
She envisioned the gunfight and Adam, who’d never been in one before, getting killed. Miles had already killed a man in a shootout, according to Martha. Adam was no match for Miles since his gunfights had all been pretend ones with Isaac. It gave Greta a sick feeling in her stomach. She had to do something.
Greta saddled a horse and rode into town. She headed for the lumberyard, but she was told that Miles had quit his job over a week before. Greta thought it a strange thing for him to do.
She knew he’d been living in a small flat over the barbershop. Greta stopped in front of the place and tied her horse. She walked up the flight of stairs and knocked on the door of Miles’s flat.
Miles answered the door. He froze when he saw her in the doorway.
“We need to talk, Miles,” she said.
He grabbed her by the wrist, pulled her inside, and slammed the door shut. “No talking. I’ve had enough talking from you. You broke your promise.” He spoke between his teeth and acted like a madman, and that made Greta shiver.
Greta hoped that if she answered calmly, he’d relax a bit. “I never promised anything. I said I’d allow you to court me when my annulment was final, but it was never finalized.”
 “You’re coming with me.” He grabbed his gun belt from the wall and put it on.
Greta tried to pull away and run, but he had her tightly by the arm.
“You are going nowhere,” he snarled. He dragged her down the stairs, put her on his horse, and jumped up behind her, his gun barrel poking her in the back. Miles galloped around behind the businesses in town and headed for the woods.
~~~~****~~~~
Thankfully, Adam managed to get out of work that day by explaining his hardship to the night captain who agreed to work a double shift so Adam could leave. The man claimed he didn’t mind since he needed the extra money.
Adam rode directly to the lumberyard to challenge Miles Tanner to a shootout. He was disappointed to learn Miles no longer worked there. Adam found out where he lived from Miles’s former boss and headed for the barbershop. When he got there, he reined in his horse and froze—Greta’s horse was tied to the post.
“Dear Lord,” Adam prayed.
He pounded on the door of Miles’s flat, and the door flew open. He searched the place but neither Miles nor Greta was there. He ran down the stairs two at a time and looked for some trace of where they might have gone. The tracks in the dust showed that he had gone behind the buildings and into the woods.
Adam jumped on his horse and followed the tracks, but he was shocked when he met Miles, slowly trotting out from the woods.
“Where’s my wife?” Adam yelled at Miles as he approached.
“In a safe place,” Miles replied calmly. “We made a deal. She said she’d annul your marriage if I didn’t kill you.”
Adam snarled, “I came today to challenge you to a shoot-out. You’ll be too dead to marry my wife, I’ll see to that.”
Miles gave Adam a sickly smile, one that gave Adam a hint that the man might be deranged.
“I will have to refuse the challenge. If I kill you, Greta won’t marry me.”
“You yellow-bellied, sapsucking leech!” Adam yelled, drawing his gun on Miles.
Miles looked at the gun pointed at his heart and simply laughed. “Go ahead and shoot me and you’ll never find your wife. I’ve hidden her well.”
“If you’ve hurt her—”
“Oh, I do have morals, Mr. Sutherland. I’d never hurt the woman I love, and I won’t make love