Free Alma's Mail Order Husband (Texas Brides Book 1) by Kate Whitsby Page B

going and what your plans are.”
    “I’m not going to check with you before I go
somewhere,” he shot back. “I won’t be tied to your apron strings
all the time. I’m used to coming and going as I please, and I won’t
change now, just because I’m married.”
    Alma bristled. “I didn’t say I wanted you
tied to my apron strings. As you can see, I don’t even have any
apron strings. You can come and go as you please and I don’t give a
rip. I just said you should tell us what your plans are so we
aren’t standing there waiting for you when we have work of our own
to do. If you want to ride from here all the way to Mexico City,
it’s fine with me. Just tell me so I know what you’re doing.”
    “No man in his right mind would stoop so low
as to inform a woman about his plans and movements,” Jude snapped.
“If you’re gonna be my wife, you better get this into your head
now. You tell me your plans and movements, so I know
what you’re doing, not the other way around. You’re a woman. That’s
your place.”
    Alma stared at him. Then, she frowned. “First
of all, I’m not going to be your wife. I am your wife.
Second of all, I would tell you my plans and movements out of basic
respect for your time. I wouldn’t leave you standing around
wondering where I was or what I was doing. That’s just simple human
consideration. Or is that too much for you to comprehend?”
    Jude squinted at her from under the brim of
his hat. “You better learn to watch that tongue of yours.”
    Alma’s eyes flew open. “What has gotten into
you? What happened between this morning and now to make you so
hostile all of a sudden? After last night….”
    Jude cut her off. “Don’t talk about last
night. Don’t talk about anything private between you and me in
front of your sisters. What happened last night is none of their
business, and it doesn’t have anything to do with what’s happening
right now. So don’t talk about it.”
    “All right,” Alma replied. “I won’t talk
about it. And I won’t ask you anything more. Just tell me if you’re
coming up to the main herd with us right now, because if you’re
not, we’ll go and leave you here to do whatever it is that you want
to do. We’re late already, and we have to get going.”
    “I’m not coming with you,” Jude told her. “I
have other things to do. You go ahead.”
    “Fine,” Alma snapped.
    She yanked her horse’s head around and jabbed
the animal in the flanks with her spurs. He shot away underneath
her, and Alma galloped off with her sisters at her heels.
    They charged up an embankment and down a
gulley. Then they plowed up another small hill and Alma pulled her
horse up on top of it. Amelia and Allegra reined in their horses as
well, so that the three sisters sat side by side on their horses,
overlooking the plain below them.
    Their cattle ranged on the floor of the
plain. Clusters of dots speckled the landscape as far as the eye
could see. Alma scanned the herd with her eye, making a mental note
of the number and location of their stock.
    Jude’s sudden change in behavior annoyed her
and distracted her. What could be wrong with him? Could she rely on
him to tell her at some point? Would they reconcile whatever
precipitated this conflict? Or would he let it fester and drive a
wedge between them?
    How could this happen so soon in their
marriage? They’d been married less than twenty-four hours, and
already, they’d had their first quarrel. Not a good start to their
life together.
    Alma closed her eyes on the cattle. She
couldn’t sigh in front of her sisters without revealing to them
that she gave Jude’s behavior a second thought. She wouldn’t reveal
it. She wouldn’t give them any reason at all to doubt her decision.
She couldn’t doubt it, either. She had to stick with it and make it
work, no matter what. Isn’t that what marriage was supposed to
be?
    Alma opened her eyes. “Let’s get down there
and start rounding them