A Matter of Marriage by Ann Collins Page A

stood up. “You saying I’d do harm
to Julia?”
    Alex
slowly pushed to his feet. “You obviously don’t want her running the hotel
anymore than Chalmers, the desk clerk, does, and he’s our prime suspect.”
    “I
would never hurt Julia, or force her to do something she didn’t want to do. She
means a great deal to me, as she well knows.” He turned to her. “Julia, if
you’d just marry me the way I asked you to last Christmas, all your problems
would be solved. No one would dare hurt my wife.”
    On
shaking legs, she rose from her chair and swallowed hard. It was now or never.
“Tom, I would—”
    “She’s
already spoken for, Marshal.” Alex strode to her side and linked his hand in
hers.
    Afraid
she might be dreaming, she said and did nothing except school her face into an
expression that kept her emotions to herself.
    Tom’s
nostrils flared.
    “Tomorrow,”
Alex added, “Julia will become Mrs. Alexander MacLean.”
    “The
hell she will!” Tom thundered. “I don’t believe it. I’ve heard nothing about
this, and I would have heard.” He thrust his index finger at Alex. “I’ve got
half a mind to put you in jail for lying.”
    “Tom,
you will not arrest”—she tasted the next two words on her tongue, liked how
they tasted and spoke them—“my fiancé.” An amazing sense of peace flowed into
her, calming the turmoil that had been her life since the day Mr. Byrnes read
her father’s will to her.
    “Julia,
you can’t be serious,” Tom said.
    “It’s
true, Tom. The ceremony is tomorrow evening.”
    Alex
squeezed her hand. “You’re invited, if you can be civil.”
    Tom
sputtered, looking as if he were about to suffer a fit of apoplexy.
    Alex
went on. “Once Julia and I are wed, she will continue operating the Hotel Grand
Victoria. I have no intention of interfering in her work unless her safety is
at risk. From you, Marshal, we want your help in discovering the identity of whoever
wants her dead.”
    Reminded
of the danger, she shifted closer to him. She needed Alex’s strength, and she
wanted to believe that her future and the hotel’s were no longer in question.
    Tom’s
gaze whipped from their joined hands to their faces. “Something’s not right
here. How long have you and he been courting?”
    “My
wedding has been planned for some time,” she said. Thankfully, only the Dolans
and her lawyer had known the name of her husband-to-be. If Tom knew she was
going to marry a stranger, he might put her in jail just to stop the
proceedings.
    “ Our wedding,” Alex added.
    Tom’s
gaze darted between them. “I’m not convinced. Julia, with your father gone,
somebody has to watch over you. Someone like me. And what I’m seeing is you
promising yourself to a man you introduced to me not twenty minutes ago as a
guest, but who looks like he can’t afford a new shirt let alone a room here.
What’s the story?”
    She
lifted her chin a notch and gripped Alex’s hand tighter. “I appreciate your
concern for my well-being, Tom, but I don’t have to explain my choice of
husband to you.”
    “Marshal,”
Alex said, his eyes narrowed, “we’ll show you out now. You’ll want to get
started on your investigation.” He pulled her with him toward the door and
opened it wide.
    Scowling
and grumbling, Tom stomped past them into the hall, then twisted around. “I’ll
start my investigation all right. With you, MacLean. Then we will see what’s
what.”

Chapter Six
     
    Alex
shut the door behind the marshal, restraining himself from slamming it. “Overbearing
ass. Give a man a badge and he thinks he can step on whomever he likes. If he
spends all his time investigating me, he’ll end up compromising your safety.”
He might even find what Alex had spent the last three and a half years trying
to put behind him.
    “Did
you really mean it?” Julia asked softly.
    “Mean
what?”
    “That
you’ll marry me.”
    “I
wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it, and I think you know that.