She Proposed Marriage to Silent Rancher to Stop Her Aunt—He Said Yes Before She Finished Asking
Chapter 1
“I’ll marry you.”
The words escaped Clara Whitmore’s mouth before she had even finished explaining why she had come.
Elias Boone stopped repairing the leather bridle in his hands.
He slowly lifted his eyes.
Clara stood before him in the dim ranch barn, her bonnet crooked, her cheeks flushed from riding, and both hands gripping the folds of her blue traveling dress.
Outside, thunder rolled over the distant hills.
She took a breath.
“My aunt intends to send me away if I refuse Mr. Pembroke.”
Elias said nothing.
“She says I have no choice.”
Still nothing.
“She has already arranged everything.”
Clara swallowed.
“And I thought if I were married, she couldn’t force me.”
Elias watched her.
Clara rushed on.
“So I thought perhaps you might—”
“Yes.”
She blinked.
“What?”
“Yes.”
“You’ll marry me?”
He nodded.
“Yes.”
“But I haven’t finished asking.”
“I know.”
For a moment, Clara simply stared at him.
Elias returned to the bridle.
She stepped closer.
“Why?”
He finally looked at her.
“Because I’ve been waiting three years.”
Her heart skipped.
“Waiting for what?”
“For you.”
She couldn’t answer.
Before she could ask another question, carriage wheels sounded outside.
Her aunt had arrived.
And Clara suddenly realized that the marriage she had proposed as an escape might become something neither she nor Elias had expected.
