Historical Cowboy Romance Two Book Box Set - Mail Order Brides by Linda Bridey

spot. She
had an idea.
    “Yes, and you said that the clouds become
dark gray, like dull metal,” Tessa said.
    Dean nodded. “Yep, I did.”
    Tessa tensed beside him and raised her head
so their eyes could meet. “Your letter said no such thing. You
didn’t write those letters, did you?”
    Dean knew his goose was cooked. “Look, I’m
not good with words, so I had Marcus help me out.”
    “Marcus? He wrote them?” Tessa moved away
from him. “Did he read the letters I wrote back?”
    “Yes. He had to so he knew how to answer
them,” Dean said. It seemed reasonable to him.
    Fury blurred Tessa’s vision for a few
moments. “I said many personal things in those letters, Dean.
Things I didn’t think anyone else would ever read! How could you do
that? How could you lie to me?”
    Dean propped himself up on an elbow. ‘I
didn’t lie. Everything in those letters was true.”
    Tessa got up and brushed grass from her
skirt. “How would you know?” she shouted. “You didn’t write them!”
She turned and headed for the house.
    Dean rose and went after her. He caught her
arm and turned her back around. “Everything in them was true.
Marcus only wrote what I told him to write. He just said it better
than I can,” he said.
    “Did you approve them before he sent them?”
she asked stiffly.
    Dean scowled. “No. I figured he knew what he
was doing.”
    Tessa looked down at her arm. “Kindly unhand
me. I don’t care to be touched by someone I don’t know.”
    “What? You can’t be serious. Not after the
past few days,” Dean said.
    Tessa colored because she knew he was
referring to their lovemaking. “Yes, well. That won’t be happening
again. That was when I thought I knew the man I married.”
    “Tessa, you do know me,” Dean insisted. “And
I know you. I read every one of your letters, over and over. And
we’ve spent so much time together over the last couple of months.
How could we not know each other?”
    Tessa ripped her arm out of Dean’s grasp. “I
said let me go. I came here based on what was said in those
letters. You don’t even know what was in them. I fell halfway in
love just from what they contained. I think I married the wrong
brother.”
    She whirled and entered the kitchen. Tessa
marched to their bedroom and packed up her belongings in her
suitcases. Dean watched silently as she finished.
    “I’m not leaving the house. I’m moving back
upstairs. I don’t want to leave the children and I’ll do my wifely
duties, all but one,” Tessa said giving him a meaningful look. “I
can’t share a room with a man I don’t know.”
    Dean began to get angry. “This is ridiculous.
You’re blowing this way out of proportion.”
    “Really? Am I?” Tessa’s eyes blazed with pain
and anger. “I don’t think so. Now, if you’ll move out of the way,
please.”
    Dean could see by the stubborn set of her jaw
and stiff posture that she wasn’t going to budge. “Fine. Have it
your way,” he said and left the house.
    Only when she was in her old room upstairs
and had deposited her things on the floor did Tessa let the tears
come. She shut and locked the door and lay down on her bed. She
sobbed quietly into the pillows. Tessa was hurt because Dean had
essentially lied to her and he couldn’t see it. He didn’t think it
was a big deal, but to her it was. Had it not been for what was
said in those letters, she would have never left home to come west.
She would not be married to a man who had deceived her and thought
she didn’t have a right to be hurt.
    Suddenly, she wanted her mother just like she
had when she was a little girl and had suffered some kind of hurt.
She needed her mother’s strength and comfort, but could not have
it. Tessa cried herself to sleep as she realized how alone she was
and how foolish she had been to come to Montana all alone.

Chapter Eleven
     
     
    When Lydia and Charlie brought the kids back
a few days later, Lydia could tell that something was going on with
the