Bride Pact

Prologue "I must be drunk," Liam Anderson said, pushing his empty shot glass toward his friend Seth Barnes. "I just agreed to protect and see after your wife and you don't even have one." The tinny music of the saloon's piano filled the air along with shouts and conversation by rowdy miners and other male members of Collins. The Montana Territory was a rough and wild place, working in the mines a dangerous profession. Life was perilous at best. Richard Randolph tossed back a shot of rotgut whiskey and pointed at his Liam. "You have to vow, Anderson. I don't want my woman claimed by one of these bastards." He waved his hand around the room pointing out the rough edged men that surrounded them. The other men at the table nodded their heads in agreement. "Perhaps claiming a woman should be our first steps," Aaron Moore added, his voice slightly slurred. He was the least sober among the group of four. "Damn time you got yourself hitched," Seth Barnes said, filling everyone's glasses from the half empty bottle on the table. "What about you?" Aaron asked. "I'll know her when I see her." Seth tossed back his next shot with a wince, wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. "You're not going to die anyway," he told Aaron. "You're too big, too smart to let Death take you." "A woman would be smart to keep her distance," Richard countered. "She'd surely be crushed beneath him if he tried to bed her." All of the men laughed at that. "You'll do it?" Richard asked Liam, sounding sober as he did so. Liam met his friend's stare, held it. "I promise." "And you?" Aaron questioned Seth. "I'll protect your woman just as I know you'll protect mine." "Now let's drink to old age," Liam called out, raising his glass. The other men lifted theirs as well, content that the pact was made, their words bound by their honor, but they all knew it would never need to be fulfilled. They were too bullheaded to get themselves killed. Part I Charlotte