Mail Order Bride: The Master: A Historical Mail Order Bride Story (Mail Order Brides) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Master’s wife—or, rather, future wife. But still, perhaps he ought to obey her as he would the Master.
    Well, either way, he couldn’t just abandon the post the Master had given him. He would wait until Polly brought up the subject with the Master. He would wait until he received his orders from the Masters lips.
    He tiptoed after Polly but this time, he made sure to follow even farther behind her than before. He would make certain she didn’t see him again.

Chapter 7
    Polly kept on around another corner next to the church yard. Matthew watched her from behind the hotel and waited until she emerged from behind the elm trees. Then he could duck behind the trees until he found the next hiding place.
    But she didn’t come out. Had she discovered the spot where he watched her at her window? Maybe she was lying in wait for him, to catch him following her when she’d told him not to. Should he follow her and run the risk of being caught? Or should he stay put? What would the Master say if he lost her? His loyalty to the Master made up his mind. He started forward, creeping around the elm trees.
    At first he didn’t see anything, and his heart sank to think she’d given him the slip. But the sound of muffled voices drew him attention to the church yard. He spotted Polly between the grave markers, and with her was Noah Bartlett.
    The scruffy hooligan clutched Polly with his arm circled around her waist, leering his slobbering grin of rotten teeth and grizzled whiskers into her face. Polly leaned back as far as she could against his arm and averted her face. She strained against his grip and shoved against his chest with both hands, but he only laughed and hissed in her face more ferociously than ever.
    Matthew froze. Running for the Master never crossed his mind. He gaped at the scene in petrified horror.
    “So you still think you’re gonna marry that namby-coated prince of yours, do ya?” Bartlett growled. “You still think you’re gonna ride off into the sunset on a white horse? Well, you just wait until tomorrow, dearie. Old Noah’s got a rare treat planned for you and your lover-boy. Don’t you worry.”
    “Get away from me!” Polly cried. “Get your hands off me!”
    “Did you tell him about me?” Bartlett hissed. “Did you tell him we met at the train station? No? You kept it a secret, didn’t you? You kept it a secret when you saw what a kitten you’d agreed to marry. You’d rather have a real man like me, wouldn’t you?”
    “Let me go!” Polly snapped.
    With one wild flail of her arms, Polly reared back and struck Bartlett across the side of the head.
    He recoiled once, but he recovered himself with a more terrible expression on his face than ever. Polly quailed when she saw his reaction. “So that’s how it is, is it? Well, I’ll teach you who’s the Master in this town, and it ain’t no bookworm schoolteacher.”
    With those dreadful words, Bartlett reached into his belt and pulled out his pistol. He pointed it at Polly’s heart.
    “I told you before I’d kill you if you stood against me,” Bartlett snarled. “I gave you a chance. You could have lived peaceably in this town if you’d been friendly to me. But you blew your chance, Missy, and now you’re gonna pay.”
    The thought that he had to do something kept repeating in Matthew’s head. But he couldn’t think what he ought to do. He couldn’t run for the Master. Polly would be dead by the time they got back.
    He took a few more cautious steps forward into the church yard—just enough to let Bartlett and Polly see him. His footsteps acted on Bartlett the way he hoped they would. Bartlett turned his attention away from Polly and toward the intruder.
    When he saw Matthew, Bartlett’s hideous snarl turned to a mask of fury. “What are you doing here?”
    Matthew didn’t say anything. Contrary to his best intentions, he didn’t do anything, either. He just stood there, watching. It was the only thing he could do.
    But it