Robyn- A Christmas Bride Read online

  Robyn

  A Christmas Bride

  Jacqui Nelson

  Contents

  Book Description

  Bonus Content

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Dear Reader

  Story Inspiration

  Dedication

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  Excerpt - The Calling Birds

  Also by Jacqui Nelson

  About the Author

  ROBYN: A CHRISTMAS BRIDE

  Who’s the perfect match for a flame-haired Welsh tomboy who loves driving wagons?

  Raised by three free-spirited older brothers, Robyn Llewellyn has learned to fight for what she wants—and now she wants to transform her boss and best friend, Max Peregrine, into a lifelong partner. Determined to become the image of what a marriage-minded man wants, Robyn trades her trousers for a dress and heads to Max’s hometown of Noelle, Colorado. But changing who she is with the help of the now happily married Brides of Noelle puts her friendship with Max at risk.

  Who’s the perfect match for a work-addicted Denver business owner who loves his independence?

  Defying his brother and grandpa’s wishes for him to stay with them in Noelle, Max Peregrine has created his dream job—leading a highly successful branch of Peregrines’ Post and Freight while working beside Robyn, the only person who makes him smile every day. But when she leaves without a word, Max follows her to Noelle where the choices they both must face could make it impossible for them to stay together beyond Christmas day.

  Inspired by My Fair Lady, The Gift of the Magi, and the spirit of gift giving, Robyn: A Christmas Bride is a classic Western historical love story set in a small town high in the mountains during Christmas 1877.

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  Chapter 1

  Denver, Colorado

  December 21, 1877

  “She’s gone?” Max Peregrine shouted, disbelief then panic raising his voice to a roar. “Where?”

  Lined up shoulder to shoulder inside the Denver office of Peregrines’ Post and Freight, the three Llewellyn brothers studied him intently, not with surprise but curiosity. And something more. Something his careening thoughts couldn’t identify.

  Brynmor, the eldest by several years, heaved a sympathetic sounding sigh. “She’s—”

  “Fine,” Heddwyn interrupted, embracing his status as the swift-talking middle brother who needed to do everything quick, including driving freight wagons at breakneck speed. He shot his brothers a secretive glance. “Remember our plan. He sounds upset, but we need to know more.”

  “Stuff your plans!” Max threw down his pencil and stormed around the desk where he’d been working on his ledgers. He’d throttle his answers from Robyn’s brothers if need be. “Why—did—she—leave!?”

  Griffin, the youngest but also the largest, folded his arms over his barrel of a chest. “He sounds more than upset.”

  “Good.” Standing on either side of their flame-haired baby brother, Brynmor and Heddwyn spoke and nodded in unison, like matching musclebound bookends with the same auburn hair and sky-blue eyes. Except Bryn had one eye clouded white. Max had yet to learn why.

  The Llewellyns were fond of talk but notoriously unforthcoming on certain subjects. Like, at the moment, Robyn’s departure.

  “He’s regretting something,” Griffin added.

  Max froze. Leave it to Griff to pinpoint Max’s state of mind while never addressing his own. Griff’s hair color matched his sister’s, but his reputation as the Llewellyn sibling with a short fuse was his alone.

  “I regret”—he unlocked his clenched jaw and tried to speak normally—“that your sister might have put herself in jeopardy.”

  Heddwyn snorted. “Little Red can take care of herself.”

  “Hedd’s right. The wee one is all grown-up,” Bryn proclaimed with another sigh.

  “She’s as tough as she is beautiful.” Griff’s gaze narrowed, studying him even more keenly. “Or do you believe otherwise?”

  “I don’t,” Max muttered, thinking of Robyn’s lean strength, steely blue gaze, and stunning smile. A smile he’d been blessed to see every day since he moved to Denver. A smile he craved more than a miner coveted gold. A smile that had become increasingly melancholy of late. “Whatever’s wrong and wherever she’s gone, she needn’t be alone. I would’ve traveled with her.”

  “You sure ’bout that?” Hedd released a low whistle as he pointed at Max’s face. “Look! Dog Bone’s turning the same shade of red as Ruddy does when he’s near to exploding.”

  In Welsh, Griff meant ruddy, but that hothead remained poker-faced as he said, “We have eyes, Peaceful. No need telling us something we can plainly see.”

  Max’s entire body burned with outrage. Not because of the teasing titles the Llewellyns loved to dole out, for themselves and others. In Welsh, Heddwyn meant blessed peace, a constant source of ribbing for a man who had too much energy to stand still. Max had learned to look below the surface of their name tomfoolery after Robyn revealed her brothers called him Dog Bone because he never stopped gnawing problems into submission.

  He didn’t give up. A trait all of the Llewellyns found admirable. If they assigned you a name, even one you didn’t find flattering, it meant you’d earned their respect. They didn’t waste their time on people they didn’t like.

  Robyn’s explanation along with her easy smile had ended his dislike for long conversations. But only with her. They’d talked about everything after that, argued as much as they’d agreed, but always ended up smiling.

  No topic had been taboo, or so he thought. Why hadn’t she spoken to him before she left? And how could her brothers question his resolve, especially when it came to Robyn?

  Their lack of faith left him not only furious but frustrated and flummoxed. “If your sister asked, I’d have gone anywhere with her.”

  Bryn raised an eyebrow in challenge. “You said differently in the past.”

  “I did not.”

  “Did too,” Hedd shot back. “Then Rob said she had to go there. No other place would do.”

  “Took the Clydesdale.” Griff thrust his thumb over his shoulder. “In better weather, she’d be there by now.”

  Max’s gaze leapt in the direction he’d indicated, hoping to see Robyn behind her brothers. That this was all some colossal joke.

  Driven by a fickle wind, his world spun faster than the snow outside the window. She couldn’t be gone. Not in such a storm. Not when he needed her, when they all needed her. She was the thread that held everything together. Did her brothers seriously believe he wouldn’t have accompanied her on any journey? They’d lost their minds. He couldn’t do the same. He had to find Robyn.

  “Where is there?” he asked through clenched teeth. “Tell me what she said. Exactly.”

  Griff drew in a breath that swelled his chest to even more massive proportions and said with exaggerated precision, “I need to spread my wings and try new things.”

  “Those are my words!”

  “Really?” Hedd replied with mock surprise.

  “You know they are. I said t
hem when you and Robyn swarmed me like bees on a new honeycomb asking questions about me coming to Denver to open a hub for Peregrines’ Post.” He’d used the same words when his family wondered why he couldn’t stay with them in Noelle, the once dying but now thriving mining town high in the mountains.

  A year and a half had passed. He hadn’t gone back. Not even for a visit. The only family he’d seen was Birdie and Grandpa Gus. The petite mail-order bride who’d married his brother last Christmas had bundled his grandfather onto a wagon and visited him twice last summer.

  He liked his sister-in-law’s industrious nature and her adoration whenever she mentioned Jack. Despite them being at brotherly loggerheads, he was relieved Jack had finally found happiness with Birdie. His brother had lost more than most, both in the war and later when his first wife betrayed him.

  During her visits and in her letters, Birdie always urged Max to come home. Noelle was prospering. Nearly a year ago, twelve marriages—including Birdie and Jack’s—had given the town stability. The train line, promised in exchange for those unions, had been completed. Hardt’s mine continued to produce silver. Despite all that good news, Noelle had its fair share of turmoil. Investing all of your time in one tiny town wasn’t wise.

  “Trying new things led me to Denver. My family’s business had to diversify to survive. We have lots of work here. There’s no need to go anywhere.” Now that he’d met Robyn, he had another reason to enjoy being in Denver, but work was the best way to reason with her brothers.

  Who now stared at him, jaws slack, eyes wide. Gone was their teasing humor and their previously unidentifiable expressions.

  Their hope had been replaced by despair.

  “We expected too much from him.” Bryn sounded as disappointed in himself as in Max.

  “He’s back to talking about business. Same as when we first met.” A flush rose on Griff’s face. “We’re all idiots.”

  “Our plan didn’t work.” Hedd paced in a circle, long strides sending him round and round.

  “Oh, it worked.” Bryn crossed to the window and leaned heavily against its frame. “Just not in our favor.”

  Only Griff remained facing Max, his silver eyes flashed accusingly from a face so red it rivaled his hair.

  “Tell me what you hoped for?” Max demanded.

  “To learn if you were man enough for our sister. You’re not.” Griff’s fists, held rigid by his side, shook as if struggling not to strike Max for that failure.

  “You’re married to your business. You can’t change. Not even a little.” Hedd’s words whipped out, quick as his strides and his wild gesturing. “But she’ll change. A lot! And we’ll never”—his arm cut the air, like an axe delivering a fatal blow—“see the real Rob again.”

  Max’s gut coiled with dread. “She doesn’t have to change.”

  “We know that,” Griff growled.

  “Unfortunately, Rob’s decided differently.” Bryn stood still as a statue, contemplating the city outside. “Denver’s narrow-minded busybodies have made her question herself.”

  “Their wagging tongues speak as loudly as those who”—the scorn emanating from Griff burned Max—“say very little.”

  He’d said more to Robyn than anyone, but he’d clearly not said enough. “Your sister is perfect as she is.”

  Bryn spun away from the window. Hedd abandoned his pacing. Both men resumed their places flanking their brother. Their reunited line of three pressed toward Max.

  He didn’t retreat.

  “Why didn’t you tell her that?” Bryn asked.

  “I did.”

  “What else did you say?” Griff raised his index finger as if preparing to prod the answer from Max.

  Max pushed his hand aside. “That I enjoy working with her. She’s become my best friend.”

  “Lord have mercy.” Hedd’s spine sagged as he rubbed his brow. “This is bad.”

  Bryn reached around Griff and shoved Hedd’s shoulder. “But not a disaster.”

  Hedd glared at Bryn and then Max. “It is if Rob wants—”

  “We Llewellyns,” Bryn interrupted, “don’t always get what we want. When we don’t, what do we do?”

  Hedd straightened like a soldier relaying an order. “We modify our plans.”

  The flame heating Griff’s face eased. “We work with what we have.”

  Bryn sighed. “Dog Bone’s persistence can get the job done. Work is his family, his mistress, his reason for living.”

  “Listen, Big Hill.” Max stifled the urge to jab his finger into the puffed-up chests of all three brothers while making use of his knowledge—courtesy of Robyn—of Brynmor’s name in Welsh. Bryn meant a hill. Brynmor meant, even more fittingly, a large hill. “Can you move your lofty hulk any faster? Can any of you Llewellyns speak plainly?”

  Bryn’s smile held amusement and commiseration. “This month’s been the busiest on record. January won’t be any different. You need all hands at the ready including Rob.”

  Even though he’d asked for it, the bluntness in that truth made him squirm. “She’s more to me than an employee.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Hedd rolled his eyes. “She’s your best friend.”

  “A good friend can save your soul,” Bryn murmured.

  “But not your eye,” Hedd and Griff replied as one, then spun to stare at their brother with equally horrified expressions.

  Bryn didn’t move a muscle, but the unhinged look in his good eye raised the hair on the back of Max’s neck. The calm giant often got lost in contemplation, but he’d never looked like he’d lost—everything. A beast had risen inside Bryn and devoured the soul he’d mentioned.

  Hedd raised his palms and pitched his voice low and placating. “Bryn, we weren’t thinking straight.”

  “We’re idiots,” Griff repeated his earlier edict. He bowed his head but kept his gaze on Bryn. “We didn’t mean to say—”

  “And you’ll never, ever,” Bryn snarled like a wolf reminding his pack they’d overstepped a boundary, “do so again. I refuse to waste time discussing something I can’t change. Today is about Rob. Our sister has taken the lead. We do whatever it takes to help her.”

  “Yes, we take care of what he loves.” Griff gestured behind Max, to the rear of the office stacked with freight awaiting transport. “His business.”

  “While he gets going.” Hedd pointed to the door. “And brings home what we love. Our sister.”

  “I’d already be on my way if you’d tell me where Robyn went.”

  The three brothers exchanged glances and then said as one, “Noelle.”

  Disbelief struck Max like a rogue wave. In its wake, a cold understanding left him reeling. “This is why you questioned my resolve.”

  Bryn stood firm. “Saying once that you’d go anywhere with Rob holds little weight after saying numerous times you’d never return to Noelle.”

  Max slumped against his desk. “Why would she go there? She’s never been there. She knows no one there!”

  “You introduced her to your deryn.” Griff’s voice was sharp with accusation.

  More waves of surprise and insight rocked him. Only his grip on his desk kept him upright. In Welsh, deryn meant bird. Or so Robyn had revealed after the Llewellyns had meet his sister-in-law and grandpa during a Denver visit. “Birdie’s been writing to Robyn.”

  Griff huffed. “We liked your deryn at first. Birdie’s tiny but tough. Sweet but savvy. Then we found out she’s a meddler.”

  “Birdie sent our deryn a dress and said she’d introduce Rob to women eager to teach her whatever she desires, like”—Hedd waved his hands around his head—“taming her hair and Lord knows what else.”

  “Honestly.” Griff shot Hedd a pitying look. “Sometimes you’re as scatterbrained as Max’s grandfather. More than anything, Rob stressed she wanted to learn how to dance.”

  Suddenly Max longed to learn the exact same thing. Then he’d have a reason to hold Robyn in his arms. “I’m going after her.”

  �
��And then?” Bryn prompted.

  “I’m bringing her home to Denver.” Where he would convince her that they were more than friends.

  “Good.” Bryn looked as relieved as Max felt, now that Max had voiced his decision. “We want our sister to settle near us.”

  Max wanted to be even closer to her, to share a home with her. He’d build her one in Denver. He couldn’t ask her to reside in his office. No more living only for his work. But he wasn’t a master carpenter like his brother. And the winter weather would delay his start. It might take him until spring or summer, but then he’d be ready to court her properly. In the meantime, he could discover how interested Robyn was in marriage—especially to someone like him.

  “If the right man had taken notice of her,” Griff grumbled, “Rob could’ve married in Denver as swiftly as in Noelle.”

  Max’s heart skipped a beat. “She mentioned marriage?”

  Bryn shrugged. “We teased her about becoming a mail-order bride.”

  “But she said—” Hedd frowned at the ceiling as if trying to catch a wayward thought. “She didn’t need a matchmaker.”

  “That’s when she told us that your deryn and her married friends were going to transform her into a lady.” Griff wrinkled his nose. “And that Noelle’s already planning a special party that’d benefit the town and her. She hopes to see her perfect man there, and that he’ll see her as a lady and propose marriage that evening.”

  Max grabbed the calendar on his desk. “When is this party?”