The Doctor's Guardian Read online

  Paulina pushed aside her daughter’s hand. “I am your mother. Do not tell me what I can or cannot do.” She indicated the handkerchief still in Nika’s hand. “Be putting that away. You are not supposed to be using it. It will not be new if you do,” she said crisply in an attempt to maintain her abrupt facade. “And then we will he having to find something else for you to go with the borrowing and the old and blue,” she retorted, reciting the age-old articles that each bride was supposed to have in her possession as she walked down the aisle toward her future husband.

  Paulina squared her shoulders as she reclaimed her composure. She and her daughter—her beautiful, beautiful daughter—were momentarily alone in the small room reserved for the bride within the church where, a few short minutes from now, her second-born was going to become a married woman.

  Her Nika was going to be the wife of a fine young man who had come to Paulina to ask for her daughter’s hand. She knew things like that were not done here in this day and age, so the fact that Cole Baker had done this specially pleased her. Her husband, she knew in her heart, would have approved of the match.

  “Yes, Mama,” Nika said dutifully, then smiled warmly at her mother. “But this really is a happy time,” she repeated, her voice soft but firm nonetheless.

  Paulina raised her chin and sniffed. “I know that,” she declared.

  Josef heard the exchange between mother and daughter just as he was about to look in on them. He was to give the bride away, and even after having done so five previous times, the responsibility still filled him with pride.

  He opened the door wider now. Somewhere in the background could be heard the beginning strains of the song that placed all brides center stage.

  “She is your mother,” Nika’s uncle pointed out. “She is knowing everything.”

  Nika slanted a quick glance toward her mother. There was a time that would have had her mother’s back up—she took offense at every word Nika’s uncle and aunt said—but this time Nika saw her mother nod her head, as if she had just been given her due.

  “When it is coming to matters concerning my daughters,” Paulina said solemnly, “the answer is being yes.”

  As if on cue, Nika’s three sisters came in, all but flooding the room. Alyx took Nika’s hands in hers and beamed even as she shook her head. “I can’t believe you’re getting married ahead of me.”

  “Only by two weeks,” Nika pointed out. “And then we switch positions and I get to be your maid of honor.”

  “Matron of honor,” Henryka, the youngest of the foursome, corrected. “You’ll be Alyx’s matron of honor,” she repeated, putting a great deal of stress on the word. And then she laughed, her eyes shining as she teased her older sister. “You’ll be an old married lady, Nika.”

  Paulina rallied, defending Nika. It was all well and good for her to be critical of her daughters, but no one else could be, not even her other daughters.

  “Which is what you need to become,” she informed her youngest, her pointed gaze shifting from Henryka to her third-born. “Both of you.”

  Looking over her shoulder, Josef raised his voice. “Magda,” he called out.

  A moment later, his wife appeared in the doorway just behind him. The room had become far too crowded for her to enter.

  “Yes, Josef?”

  “Please finding a nice escorter—”

  “Usher,” Magda corrected her husband patiently.

  “Usher,” he repeated, without missing a beat, “to be taking Paulina to her place of honor now, please.”

  Nika knew her uncle had phrased it that way to appeal to her mother’s need for recognition. It seemed to work. Paulina allowed herself to be drawn from the room by her sister-in-law as Magda took hold of her arm.

  “I will see you in the front,” Paulina promised Nika, brushing a quick kiss against her daughter’s cheek.

  With peace once again restored, Nika’s sisters all filed dutifully out of the room as the music grew louder.

  And then it was just Nika and her uncle.

  Josef presented his arm to her and she slipped hers through it. Adrenaline began coursing through her veins. This is it, she thought excitedly.

  “Your father,” Josef told her, his eyes shining with tears it did not become a man to shed, “would be being very proud of you at this moment. As he always was,” he added.

  “Thank you, Uncle Josef.”

  He nodded. “All right, now we must be walking. You do not wanting to keep your nice young man waiting.”

  And with that, she and her uncle walked out into the hall as she took the first steps that would lead her to the rest of her life.

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-1448-4

  THE DOCTOR’S GUARDIAN

  Copyright © 2011 by Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9, Canada.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  For questions and comments about the quality of this book please contact us at [email protected].

  ® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

  [http://www.Harlequin.com] www.Harlequin.com

  * Cavanaugh Justice

  ** The Doctors Pulaski

  † Kate’s Boys

  †† The Fortunes of Texas: Return to Red Rock

  ‡ The Baby Chase

  ‡‡ Matchmaking Mamas

  *** The Fortunes of Texas: Lost…and Found

  † Forever, Texas

  †† Montana Mavericks: The Texans are Coming!

  Table of Contents

  Letter to Reader

  Books by Marie Ferrarella

  About the Author

  Dedication

  Contents

  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

  Epilogue

  Copyright