Mail-Order Man by Martha Hix Page A

here in Texas.” Swallowing the bile that soured his tongue as well as his soul, Brax closed his eyes for a moment. “And he was right.”
    â€œUncle Titus was a strange man, but I find it hard to believe he’d be so callous. He spoke warmly of you.”
    â€œWho’s to know his feelings? They died with him.”
    Sensing his needs, Skylla refilled Brax’s glass. He quaffed the shot of mean-eyed moonshine, which whirled like a tornado in his stomach. She started to pour him another, but he put his hand over the glass.
    â€œYour family in Vicksburg,” she said, “did they come through the war all right?”
    â€œThey did not. And I’ve said all I’ll say about them. Ever. So, I’d appreciate your not broaching the subject.”
    â€œIf you wish.” She closed her small chapped hand over his fingers. “There’s one thing I feel compelled to say, so I beg your indulgence. From what you’ve said, I presume you answered the advertisement for a special reason. Since Titus St. Clair let you down, you feel you deserve a stake in his ranch.”
    â€œThat about sums it up.”
    â€œThen something good has come out of your pain. You will fight for this place.”
    Lying to a straightforward woman didn’t come easy. “All of my efforts will be for this ranch.”
    The lyrical sound of a woman’s contralto floated through the open shutter. “Skylla sweet? Where are you?”
    Skylla smiled a smile that gripped Brax smack in the solar plexus. “That’s Claudine. You’ll love her!”

Five
    Her nerves ajitter from meeting Braxton, Skylla found relief in hearing Claudine beckon from outside the kitchen. Agreeing the Nickel Dime needed husbands, then facing the first one—different propositions altogether. Yet he had her mightily impressed. He was a good man, a family man aggrieved for lost relatives. Just as she knew loss, he had suffered it.
    â€œShall we go?” he asked, offering his arm.
    She took it as well as a certain comfort, despite her discomfiture, in his arrival here. Uncle’s indifference would be remedied. While Brax would have to marry to be part of the ranch, he was a man with a stake in its success. He would be good to, and for, the Nickel Dime.
    That’s not all you feel for him . Her gaze lifted to his face. The intriguing patina of burnished gold in his hair, plus the green of his eyes, reminded her of another man. James. Her fiancé who had been lost at sea.
    Braxton opened the door and waved her outdoors, where Claudine stood by the well, calling, “Hello, hello!”
    Straightening her spine, Skylla led Braxton to the beauteous redhead. She didn’t doubt, he’d be smitten. It was always that way with men.
    Somehow Skylla pushed introductions past her tumbleweed-dry throat. As suspected, his attention centered on the cameo-fair Claudine; he took her hand and his lips seemed to linger on her knuckles. And the redhead went into action.
    â€œMy dear Sergeant Hale, never in my wildest dreams did I think a man so handsome and gallant would come our way.”
    â€œYou’re too kind, ma’am.”
    Claudine batted her lashes, then whirled around. Sunlight sparked the brilliance of her hair; she lifted her arms skyward. Her exuberance sliced years off her thirty-three.
    â€œThis is truly a day for celebration! Let’s do celebrate. After your long journey, a man deserves to be pampered.”
    Like others of his gender, he puffed his chest. “Name me a man who doesn’t enjoy pampering? I, myself, like to give as good as I get.” He winked at Claudine, then had the benevolence to gift Skylla with a second one.
    They had a tiger by the tail, Skylla decided on the uplift of a brow. Braxton’s ragged uniform, too-thin frame beneath wide shoulders, and courtly manners did nothing to mask the sensuality of a passionate man just waiting to brand a woman his