Wanted: Gravedigger

by Christine Sterling

  Yes, stress was an understatement.

  “Well, there are other contributing factors.” Hattie drained her tea and looked at the wilted flowers at the bottom of the cup. “When was your last menses?”

  Tess stopped her cup halfway to her mouth and put it back on the saucer. “My menses? I don’t know. Last month?” Tess thought hard. Perhaps it had been longer than that. “Why are you asking?”

  Hattie leaned over and took Tess’s hands, cupping them in both of hers. “If you are in trouble, you would let me know, wouldn’t you?”

  “Of course, I would.”

  “Did something happen to you?”

  “Happen to me? Like what?”

  “I know there have been quite a few strange men coming and going from town. Did someone take advantage of you?”

  Tess pulled her hand back and looked in disbelief at her friend. “What are you getting at, Hattie? You normally don’t beat around the bush.”

  “Tess, I believe you are with child. I would say about eight weeks along.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “Possible, it is. And you are. That is possibly why you reacted so strongly to the confrontation with your momma.”

  “I can’t be.” Tess shook her head.

  “I understand the shock you must be feeling. I know it won’t be easy as a single mother, but you have people here to support you.”

  “What?” Tess stood up. “You think I’m a loose woman?”

  “Not at all.”

  She could see from the look on Hattie’s face that she was struggling with the conversation. Not from a doctor-patient perspective, but from a friend to friend one. “Let me assure you I am not a single mother.”

  “But Tess, you are pregnant, there is no doubt about it. You will be showing soon.”

  “Then I have to get to New Harbor.”

  “Running away isn’t going to help you, Tess.”

  “I’m not running away,” Tess said determinedly. “I’m going to get my husband.”

  Chapter 2

  Tess walked down the main street in New Harbor. Hattie had taken the news remarkably well and then offered her wagon and Marty to drive her to the small waterfront town the following day.

  Marty had a small list of supplies to pick up for Hattie, so Tess was to meet him back at the livery in two hours if she couldn’t accomplish her mission.

  She left a message at the hotel where Dawson stayed the last time he was in New Harbor. If the hotel clerk recognized her, he didn’t say anything. He also didn’t confirm if Dawson was staying at the hotel or not, which frustrated Tess to no end.

  She was headed back to the livery when she saw a tall man with a cowboy hat walking towards the center of the waterfront town. Tess would recognize that walk anywhere.

  “Dawson!” she called, but she was too far away for him to hear. She weaved in and out of people trying to keep the cowboy hat in her sight.

  She had just reached the sidewalk where the mercantile stood when she saw the man in front of a set of swinging doors. The man turned and looked in her direction.

  It was Dawson. She would know those eyes anywhere. She waved her hand hoping to get his attention, but he didn’t seem to notice her before he entered the Saloon.

  She lifted her skirt to make it easier to jump over the rocks on the wooden sidewalks and made her way to the swinging doors.

  Lifting herself up on her toes, she peered over the wooden boards to look inside. Hopping from one foot to another she finally noticed him at the corner of the room.

  There he was. Now she just had to get his attention.

  He was leaning against the bar with a whiskey glass in his hand listening to the man next to him. The man was gesturing wildly with his hands. Taking a sip of the liquid in his hand, he looked around the room. When he caught a glimpse of Tess peeking over the doors, his face went hard, and his eyes zeroed in on her.

  Tess returned the stare and pushed through the doors, her heels clacking on the wooden floor.

  “I thought that was you,” she said with all the courage she could muster. She could see his jaw lock and his lips flatten. The hand around the glass was now clenching it with white knuckles.

  The man next to him stopped his chatter and looked at Tess as she made her approach.

  “Who is this?” he asked Dawson.

  “I don’t know her.”

  Tess bit her bottom lip. “What do you mean?”

  “I need you to leave,” he whispered under his breath, putting the glass back on the bar. When he turned back at her, his voice had a growl like she had never heard. “Look lady, I don’t know who you are, but you’ve mistaken me for someone else.”

  Tess looked into his eyes. They were the same hardened emerald color as when she last saw them, looking at her with hate from across the room when he thought she was promised to another. She longed to see them soften to allow herself to get lost in the deep pools. Instead, she felt the chill to her bones.

  She wanted to tear the hat from his head and stomp it, but instead she returned his stare until he shifted and moved away.

  “What do you want with my friend, here?” His companion asked. Tess looked at the man. He was in his late forties with silvering hair and glasses. He held himself tall, taller than Tess, and he wore a dark suit with a white shirt. His eyes were rimmed red, almost as if he was a little much in the bottle.

  Tess surmised he was a banker or a journalist or perhaps even a lawyer from the notebook in his hand. It was then Tess noticed his shoes stood out from the rest of him. The side was starting to break away from the sole. If his suit was so impeccably made, why would he wear shoes that most definitely needed repair?

  “And who are you?” she asked, turning her nose up in the air.

  He didn’t give a name. “My friend and I were just discussing business. This is no place for a lady.”

  Dawson snorted and turned his head back around to look at Tess. “Does she look like a lady?”

  Tess gasped.

  “How dare you…” she started, lifting her hand to slap his handsome face.

  Dawson grabbed her wrist and pulled her close to him, until her nose was level with his chin. “Does a lady behave like this?” he asked before his lips came down to claim her own.

  Tess went still for a minute, before she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, losing herself in his embrace.

  She heard a cough and the hoots and hollers of appreciation in the distance. She opened her eyes and pulled back breathlessly, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

  “You… you… cad!” She looked up at Dawson and his eyes were lush pools, the color of liquid grass. They regarded her with tenderness and then his mask slipped back in place.

  “I guess I know you better than I did a few minutes ago.” He snapped his fingers to the bartender, dismissing her. “I’ll have another.”

  Tess clutched her skirt and ran out of the saloon not looking back. When she reached the alley next to the saloon she ducked in and dry heaved until she couldn’t gasp breath. Once her belly relaxed, she returned to the sidewalk and headed towards the hotel.

  Dawson Elliot watched her retreating figure from the bar. She definitely was a spitfire, walking into the saloon after him. Unfortunately, he was with a man that the Pinkerton’s were trying to press an embezzling operation on. He didn’t want his wife mixed up in that.

  He had fallen in love with Tess the moment he saw her pointing a gun at him. He had snuck into her father’s workshop to escape the rain and she found him there.

  The rest was history – they fell in love as they worked to build coffins for the residents of Silverpines that had died in the earthquake.

  He nearly lost her because of his own stubbornness and pride.

  He didn’t declare his love because he thought she was going to marry Dr. Robert Childs, a mail order groom her mother had sent for. Instead, Robert married Hattie, Tess’s best friend. When he did come to his sens
es he didn’t want to wait a minute before making Tess his wife and they married immediately. He didn’t think anyone knew about the marriage … yet. It was something he planned on rectifying as soon as this case was solved.

  He would spend the rest of his days making up for being so far away when she needed him. Something important must have driven her to find him; especially to a saloon.

  The sound of someone clearing his throat brought his thoughts back, and he returned to the conversation he was having with the potential ringleader of this crime group. He couldn’t risk anyone knowing the truth. That he had a weakness in the form of the curvy figure, with long blonde hair and cornflower blue eyes.

  “Are you sure you don’t know her?” Mr. Shippenbottom asked of his companion. “She seemed to know you. Very intimately, it seems.”

  “Perhaps I remind her of someone,” he said. Dawson placed his glass back down, the contents untouched. “Mr. Shippenbottom, I think we need to have this conversation at a different time. I’m afraid my concentration has been broken and it wouldn’t be fair to you to continue our business. Please excuse me.”

  “Where are you going?” He called after Dawson’s retreating figure.

  “To see a man about a horse.”

  Tess saw Dawson come out of the saloon. He did not look pleased. She tried to increase her pace, but he quickly caught up with her, his long legs closing the distance in no time.

  He didn’t say anything. Instead he grabbed her by the elbow and guided her down the road. They continued to walk towards the main part of town with Tess running on her tiptoes trying to keep up.

  Finally, she got her breath and pulled her arm from his grasp. “Stop it, Dawson.”

  Dawson looked around to see if anyone had heard her call him by his name. “Not here, Honeybee. Let me get you somewhere safe.”

  “I’m perfectly safe.” Dawson took her elbow, gentler this time and directed her towards the hotel.

  “Not in this section of town.”

  Tess looked around and realized that she was further down the road than she thought when she followed Dawson. The crowd here had considerably thinned from the main part of town and gunslingers could be found leaning against the wooden buildings.

  Several of them had lecherous leers as they ogled her. Perhaps Dawson was right, and she should return to the hotel as quickly as possible.

  “Mr. Hatcher!” a man called from behind them.

  Dawson stopped and turned towards the man. Tess took a long look at the stranger approaching them. It was the same man she just saw Dawson with in the saloon. He was waving a cane in the air as he picked up his pace to catch up with them. He swayed a little as he rushed forward.

  He jabbed the ground with his cane, his breath heaving as he finally got close enough to speak. “Mr. Hatcher, we were not finished!”

  “I apologize, but as I told you, something urgent came up and I needed to leave.” Dawson turned to walk away.

  “What do you want with my friend, here, young lady?” His companion asked. Tess looked at the man. “You must be someone important for him to drop everything and run out of the saloon when we haven’t finished our business.”

  “I don’t believe I caught your name,” she replied.

  “Theresa…” Dawson warned under his breath.

  The man took his hat off the top of his head and gave her an exaggerated bow. “Mr. Montgomery Shippenbottom, at your service, dear lady. My friend and I were just discussing business, and we hadn’t quite finished up. This section of town is no place for a lady.”

  “So you’ve said.” Tess was not impressed.

  Dawson snorted and turned his head back around to look at Tess. “I was just telling her that myself. Now, if you will let me get her back to her hotel, I’ll come back in about an hour. Does that sound good?”

  “Of course. I will be waiting. Ma’am, it was a pleasure.” Mr. Shippenbottom placed his hat on top of his head and moseyed back towards the saloon.

  Dawson offered his arm to Tess who took it and he led her down the street. Tess tried not to look at the men along the boardwalks. If these were the kind of men that Dawson was hunting, no wonder he didn’t want to tell her about it. They were downright terrifying.

  It didn’t take long for them to return to the hotel. Tess was correct in guessing which one Dawson was staying at. It was the same clerk behind the desk as when she first came to New Harbor in May looking for Dawson. But he was going by the alias, Clive Adair at the time.

  The clerk still had the same beady eyes and a hawkish nose with glasses perched on them. His thinning hair was combed in a circle to hide a bald patch and he wore an apron over his clothes.

  “Mr. Hatcher, is everything alright?” he asked, looking from Tess to Dawson and back again.

  “It will be in a few minutes,” Dawson said, taking the key from his hand. “This is my wife. Tess, this is Mr. Cooley, who operates the hotel.”

  “Ma’am, I had no idea. My apologies.”

  Tess gave a timid smile and moved further behind Dawson.

  “Mrs. Hatcher will be spending the night tonight. I have to finish some business; can you please arrange for dinner to be brought up to our room a little later. I don’t want her dining in the dining room alone. I should be back by six.”

  “Of course, Mr. Hatcher. Would you prefer chicken or steak?”

  Tess tugged on Dawson’s sleeve. “I can’t stay…”

  “Steak,” Dawson answered for her, before taking her hand and guiding her towards the stairs.

  He led her down the hallway and opened the door in the farthest corner, holding it so Tess could enter the room.

  Tess had never stayed in a hotel, so she was fascinated looking around the room. The walls were decorated in rich navy and regal red with gold accents. It matched the red blanket on the bed.

  There was a large wooden desk against one wall with a wooden chair. In addition, there was an overstuffed chair that Tess could envision herself reading in for hours. The chair was next to a picture window, which had the most enchanting element of the room: an unspoiled view of the harbor.

  It all seemed very rich, and intimate. Tess blushed at the thought.

  She was staring out the window when Dawson walked up, putting his arms around her. He pulled her close and kissed her hair.

  “I’m so glad you are here. I’ve missed you, Honeybee.”

  Tess savored the feel of his arms a moment more before she pulled away and turned to face him. “I came to tell you something that happened in Silverpines. Even right now, it is very inappropriate for me to be here.”

  Dawson looked puzzled. Tess stared into the deep pools of his eyes and absently brushed a bit of hair that had fallen over one of them.

  “Whatever it is, it can wait.” He took her hand and pressed a kiss in the palm, before closing her fingers around it.

  “It really can’t.”

  “Yes, it can. It has been too long since I’ve kissed you.”

  Before Tess could respond he leaned down and gently captured her lips with his. Tess could feel her knees go weak. It happened every time he kissed her. She lifted her arms around his neck to keep herself from falling.

  He gave her a quick hug and broke the kiss, setting her back down on her heels.

  “Now, that we got that out of the way, why don’t you tell me why you are here, Honeybee?”

  Dawson looked at his wife in disbelief. No, not his wife. She just confirmed that. He couldn’t believe that Reverend Skinner was a shyster and a fraud.

  Her blue eyes were pleading with him, as if she had done something wrong. He blamed himself. If he wasn’t in such a hurry to marry her before he headed off to find the Devers gang, he probably would have spent more time checking into the background of the man who married them. He was in such a rush to make Tess permanently his that he let his guard down and didn’t do his due diligence.

  Sloppy work, Elliot, he chided himself.

  The more he thought about it, t
he angrier he got. What if they weren’t the only couple, and he was sure they weren’t, that was taken in by this charlatan? How many other couples were finding themselves in the same position?

  “How many people know this?”

  “I guess everyone in town. Momma told me…”

  “Of course, she did,” Dawson interrupted. He knew that his mother-in-law would take great glee in spreading the juicy gossip to Tess. Unfortunately, she didn’t know the devastating effect it would have on her. And him.

  Tess’s face morphed from anger to hurt. “I know she isn’t one of your favorite people, but she is still my mother.”

  Dawson had the decency to look chagrined. He shoved his hand in his overgrown locks and pushed them out of the way of his face.

  “I know, and I apologize. I meant to ask, how many people know we are married?”

  “Other than Hattie? None. I had to tell her yesterday because I fainted.”

  Dawson grabbed both her arms. Alarm went through his body. Was she ok? Was something wrong? “What happened? Did Hattie tend to you?”

  Tess gave him a quick squeeze, as much as she could with her arms pinned. “It is nothing to worry about, honestly. I think it was just the shock of hearing about Reverend Skinner and then finding out about our expanding family.”

  Dawson stood so still, it was as if all the life had left his body. He could see the concern and fear rise up in Tess’s eyes, but he couldn’t respond.

  A father. He was going to be a father.

  Suddenly he let out a whoop and grabbed Tess, twirling her around the room.

  He planted a quick kiss on her lips and let her go so he could continue to jump around.

  Tess laughed, “So you aren’t upset?”

  “Not at all! In fact, I’m delighted.” But then he sobered. “I need to get you out of here and back to Silverpines. How did you get here?”

  “Marty brought me. He had errands to run for Hattie. I was supposed to meet him at the livery by now.”