Short Straw Bride by Dallas Schulze Page B

that nothing less than a team of wild horses would be able to change her mind.
    Eleanor ignored the knot in her stomach and met her aunt’s angry gaze. If Luke wanted to get married in two weeks, then two weeks it would be. It wasn’t as if she were leaving behind a happy home, she thought. Besides, two weeks gave Luke less time to change his mind and decide that hiring a housekeeper would be better than taking a wife.
    Luke smiled at his fiancée, thinking that he’d made a wise choice. They weren’t even married yet and she was already anxious to please him.
    “It’s not possible,” Dorinda said, but there was defeat in her tone.
    “We’ll manage.” Eleanor’s tone was quiet but implacable. She wondered if her aunt’s desire to delay the wedding wasn’t based on the hope thatLuke would come to his senses and choose Anabel, after all.
    “A rushed wedding is bound to cause talk. People will wonder if there isn’t a reason for hurrying things along.” Dorinda’s tone was concerned, but the look she shot between the two of them was suspicious, as if she were wondering if they knew each other better than she’d thought. “There’ll be talk.”
    “Not in my hearing,” Luke said. “Not more than once.” The cool threat in the flat statement was enough to silence even Dorinda Williams.
    So the date was set for two weeks from the coming Saturday. Not long after, Luke took his leave. As a newly engaged woman, Eleanor was allowed to walk him out to the front porch without a chaperon. Though, engaged or not, she couldn’t see why she’d need a chaperon, not when the porch was in full view of anyone riding by.
    Luke’s horse stood in front of the house, reins looped through the iron handle that an enterprising blacksmith had attached to an old cannonball. The gray stood on three legs, drowsing in the late-afternoon sun, switching his tail occasionally to discourage flies.
    Eleanor linked her hands together in front of her and tried to think of something to say. She’d just become engaged to this man. There must be a greatmany things that needed to be said, but not a one came to mind.
    “I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it back to town between now and the wedding,” Luke said.
    “That’s all right. I know you’ve a great deal of work to do and I’ll be busy with the wedding preparations and suchlike.” She risked lifting her eyes to his face and found him watching her with an unreadable expression.
    “You’re sure about this?” he asked abruptly. “About marrying me?”
    “I’m sure. Unless…unless you’ve changed your mind.” She had to force the words out through a throat that suddenly felt much too dry. If he’d changed his mind…
    “I haven’t.” The flat reassurance slowed the pounding of her heart.
    “I’ll do my best to be a good wife to you, Mr. McLain.”
    “Don’t try too hard. I don’t want too high a standard to live up to.” His crooked grin made her breathless all over again. “And I’d guess you’d better start calling me Luke.”
    “Is it short for Lucas?”
    “Yes. But the only person ever called me Lucas was my mother, and that was only when she was scolding me.”
    “I’ll try to keep that in mind. It might come in handy to have a way to let you know when I’m upset with you.”
    The quick, teasing smile surprised him and so did his reaction to it. He had the urge to pull her into his arms and press his mouth to hers, to see if that smile tasted as sweet as it looked. And probably scare her to death in the process.
    He looked away from temptation, squinting out into the sunlight instead. When he looked at her again, her smile had faded but a trace of it still lingered around her mouth. She was looking at him with those big brown eyes, innocent as a newborn fawn. But the thoughts she inspired in him were far from innocent. The slight fullness of her lower lip drew his attention. He probably wouldn’t see her until the wedding, which was over two