Page 28 of A Bride for Brodie

CHAPTER7

Brodie’s stomach roiled. What he was about to say made him sick. He was afraid whatever inroads he’d made as a husband were now shattered. He took a deep breath. “Lottie, I’m in trouble. I lost a lot of money gambling and the man who has my IOUs wants two-thousand dollars.”

She furrowed her brows and put her hands on her hips. “You gambled away two-thousand dollars?” Her voice softened on every word.

She was angry. Maybe angrier than she’d ever been, and he didn’t blame her.

He huffed out a breath. “No. I lost nine-hundred, but he says since I didn’t pay him on time, it’s now two-thousand.”

“Two-thousand? How will you pay that much money? How could you get into this much trouble in the first place? It was Jake Flannery, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, but how do you know?”

She threw up a hand, turned away from him, paced to the window and stared at the countryside for a minute before turning back toward him. “Seamus gambled there. I think they cheat but Seamus was always so drunk when he came home. He couldn’t tell me how much he’d lost, but he never had any money on him. I was lucky if he bought food before he took his pay for the week and drowned his sorrows at the bar.”

He ran his hands through his hair and circled the room. “I don’t have any excuses that will make sense or that are true. I was stupid and selfish. I was jealous of my brothers, who all seem to have a special place in the family. Something they can do to help the ranch. I don’t. The plans I had to use thesupposedwinnings for won’t happen now. I’ll have to ask Ross. I’m entitled to one seventh of the earnings of the Circle C, but we usually put most of it right back into the ranch.”

She took a deep breath. “I know, but this is a unique situation. Surely he can see that."

“He won’t like it.”

She walked over to him. “He’s your brother. Ross won’t disown you for making one mistake any more than I will divorce you, though if I was of that mindset, this would be a good reason.”

“I know you’re right.” He ran his hand around his neck. “I’m sorry, Lottie. I never wanted to be the man who put money ahead of family. I never wanted to—”

“It doesn’t matter now what reason you had. This is what we have to deal with, and blood is thicker than water.”

He smiled. “I see you’ve read Sir Walter Scott.”

She tilted her head. “Guy Mannering was one of my favorite novels when I was working for Mrs. Haynes.”

He tried to place his arms around her.

She stepped away. “Don’t touch me. I’m too angry and I don’t know when I’ll get over this. You’ve shattered my dreams.” She looked down for a moment, then back up, her eyes narrowed. “Time for you to talk to Ross.”

“I will. But not right now. I don’t want to interfere with his time with his family. I’ll talk to him tomorrow while we muck the stalls in the barn.”

“Fine. I need to go. I have chores to do.”

“Okay. I have some work to do here.” He leaned forward to kiss her.

She backed away. “I’m not kissing you. You’ve started our marriage off on a very poor note. I don’t know when I’ll want to kiss you.” She walked out of the house.

He stood on the porch and watched her head to the big house and then went back inside. Would their marriage survive his poor judgement?

* * *

A slight breezecooled her as she walked in the hot, late afternoon sun back to the big house. Lottie muttered expletives under her breath. Things she would never say out loud unless alone. She was approaching the barn when she got an idea.

She would play poker with Flannery for the money. He wouldn’t be able to resist the idea of getting more of the Campbell money. Even though she had her portion of the robbery, one-thousand dollars to use as a stake, to him it would be Campbell money. She entered the barn and saddled Bluebell. Time to see if she was as good as she thought she was.

* * *

A little overtwo hours later, it was well past six at night when she entered the saloon and went to the bar at the back of the room. Even this early in the evening, the saloon was full. As she walked through the room, the music stopped and the men all stared at her. She kept her head high and kept walking toward the bar.

She placed both forearms on the bar and clasped her hands together.

The barkeep walked over to her. “We don’t normally serve your kind in here, but then again, we don’t normally see your kind.”