Finally, he folded the letter and placed it in his pocket. There was an odd look of determination in his eyes, as if he’d mulled something over and finally made up his mind. “Do you like them? These letters sent to you?”
Her eyes rested on the pocket of his vest. “I do.”
He ran his thumb across the bottom of his jaw and sighed. “I must admit, I did not expect you to find my secret so directly. Evelyn, I am the man who writes you these letters.”
Her jaw dropped. Surely there was a mistake. Those letters were from Jesse, weren’t they? “If those letters are from you, where was the first letter placed? It wasn’t in the knothole.”
“Of course not. I placed it . . .” He hesitated for a moment, and then his eyes lit up. “I placed it on the porch.”
Her heart sank. She’d been deluding herself the entire time.
As if he’d known that he’d entered her thoughts, Jesse suddenly passed by the tree. He gripped the worn saddle horn as his black mustang trotted past the house. Surely he could see her, even out of the corner of his eye. She stood as plain as day in front of him! But he ignored her just the same.
Her gaze flipped from the cowboy who couldn’t seem to care less about her to the earnest man standing before her. Now John was holding her hand, his well-manicured fingers gripping hers for dear life. “I was the one who wrote you the love letters. I’ve wanted to court you for so long. Tell me my hope has not been in vain, Evelyn Lancaster.”
She found she didn’t even have the heart to remove her hand from John’s grasp. Her eyes trailed after Jesse’s retreating form. The corners of her eyes stung with saltwater tears. Foolish hopes; that was all she’d pinned on him. Once again, she’d let her imagination get the better of her. She’d even imagined he had feelings for her.
She blinked back the tears threatening to fall and wished for an escape hole to suddenly appear beneath her black buckled boots. “I . . . I do not know what to say.”
“Promise me you’ll let me court you, in the proper fashion and approved by your father.” John Cooper gripped her other hand, and she felt the uncomfortable sensation of his hands squeezing both of hers. She doubted she could run away even if she tried. “I will make you the happiest woman in Hamilton.”
She wanted to laugh. Promises. What good had a promise ever done her?
Turn around, she wanted to call to Jesse. She squinted at his profile heading down the trail. If he turned around in three seconds, then he did care for her. She hadn’t been imagining his feelings for her. Desperate hopes bubbled in her heart.
Three . . .
Two . . .
“Turn around,” she whispered beneath her breath.
One.
Evelyn bit her lower lip so hard she tasted blood. “I accept your proposal.”
“What did you say?” John asked.
With a lifeless voice, she repeated, “Yes. You may court me.”
John dropped her hands in surprise and grinned. “You will not regret this, Miss Evelyn Lancaster. You are worth the wait. Our future marriage will be the most lavish affair Texas has ever seen. I want you to be happy.”
She wanted to be sick.
She spun around, retreating back into the safety of her home. She didn’t know what had possessed her in that moment. It didn’t matter anymore who she was with.
Every man was now the same to her.
Even Jesse Greenwood.
• • •
Jesse turned his head back in the direction of the tree. Evelyn was no longer standing there. John remained instead, the tall man pacing up and down the porch with excitement. His hands were clasped behind his back, the black leather gloves making him look even more ridiculous than normal.
Why had Evelyn been speaking so intently with John, anyway? Jesse thought back to earlier that afternoon. He’d ridden toward the porch when he saw Evelyn emerge from the house. But John beat him to her in the yard, and Evelyn didn’t seem to mind. She even looked glad to see John.
Jesse had ridden away as soon as he saw them together. Clearly Evelyn hadn’t wanted to be disturbed. She’d seen him riding past the tree and said nothing, just ignored him as if she couldn’t be bothered to speak with him when she was with John.
He scowled, turning his head back around to urge the horse into a gallop. Why had he even looked? Clearly all she needed was John Cooper to keep her company.
“Giddyap!” He removed his hat to slap the wide brim across the horse’s rump. The horse followed his command as he weaved down the road and toward Loretta’s house.
The house he’d purchased for Loretta stood on the outskirts of Hamilton, but not as far as Breighton and not nearly as isolated. The trail only continued for another ten minutes until it reached Hamilton’s main avenue. The house was large enough to fit four people comfortably, and without the added acres around the property to manage, the upkeep wasn’t much at all. The blue house had white shingles, a small porch, and—Jesse furrowed his brow. Two maids running around the front?
He slowed his horse to a halt and stepped out of the stirrups. He’d barely set his feet on the ground before one of the maids rushed toward him.
He stepped back as she flung her arms around him, instantly wetting his shirt as she cried into his chest. She howled, shaking her head against his shirt as if he were already wrong before he’d even supplied a word. He slowly pulled her back from his soaked cotton shirt and placed both of his hands on her shoulders. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Loretta!” The maid wailed again and wiped her tears with the side of one of her sleeves. “She’s run away.”
His heart stopped cold. “What?”
“She’s gone!” The woman threw out her arms into the air, a defeated expression on her face. “One moment I was clipping her clothes on the hanger to dry, the next moment I come in her room to check on her and she’s fled the house!”
“How do you know?”
“She left this note.” The maid pulled out a piece of scrap paper. He grabbed the note from her and instantly recognized Loretta’s handwriting. The curly, looping letters seemed to taunt him with the carefree way she wrote. His face blanched as he read.
Jesse,
I have decided to take my future into my own hands. Preston and I are going to elope. Do not even try to send the sheriff after me, for I will have left Hamilton before you even read this note. Preston and I are going where you cannot stop us. I do not wish to remain trapped in a loveless marriage or always regret giving up on my love, no matter how financially comfortable I will be. I will not repeat your mistake. Give the doctor’s son my best regards.
He rubbed his jaw. He didn’t imagine her behavior would ever come to this. He crushed the letter in his hand. The foolish girl. If anyone in town found out about this, she’d be ruined.
After thanking the maid, he stuffed the crumpled paper into his pocket and galloped back to Breighton. When the horse finally pulled up to a stop in front of the ranch, the clearing was empty. He couldn’t help but feel a small wave of relief that John Cooper’s horse was gone.
Jesse leaped off his mustang and stormed straight to the door of the big house. There was no time to lose. The longer he waited, the farther away Loretta could be. He needed to speak to Mr. Lancaster about this.
The door was locked. He wrapped his knuckles hard against the wooden door. “Mr. Lancaster! I need to speak to you immediately.”
When the door swung open, Evelyn stood there instead of her father. Jesse swallowed. He hadn’t noticed her appearance when he’d passed by her earlier in the day. She wore a bright green dress, one that brought out the emerald in her eyes and contrasted with her long dark hair, tumbling in soft waves. He ignored the itching to run his fingers through it.
Instead, he pulled the letter out of his pocket. After straightening it out, he shoved it in her hand. “I need to speak to Preston. Does your father know where he is?”
She gasped as she read the contents. A pretty flush spread over her c
heeks. “I gave him the day off. He said he needed a day of rest, and I thought . . . there was no reason to suspect him.”
He cursed under his breath.
“I apologize.” Evelyn handed the letter back to him. “I had no idea he was planning to see Loretta.”
“Do you have any idea where he might be?”
“He said something about riding to the next town over . . . Harleigh.”
He gritted his teeth. Harleigh was larger than Hamilton. She could be anywhere.
Still, it was a better lead than none. He turned to walk back to his horse, until he felt a small hand grip around his wrist. The door locked and footsteps trailed behind him. Evelyn stood in front of him, finally letting go of his wrist.
“I am coming, too. I may not be fit enough for ranch work at the moment, but I can walk on my ankle.” Her hands were on her hips and her legs were spread the same width apart as her shoulders. She looked so determined, Jesse expected her to stamp her foot against the floorboards.
“This isn’t your concern. I don’t want to drag you into this.” He looked down at the letter, finally admitting the truth to himself. “It’s my fault she ran away.”
“Nonsense.” Her voice remained firm. It was the same tone she used to boss the other ranch hands around. “Preston works for my father’s ranch. If anything goes amiss, we are responsible, too.”
“I can’t believe he would do something like this.” He shook his head. Preston had been one of his good friends since he arrived at the ranch as a boy. How could he betray him by running away with his sister?
“It was probably more of Loretta’s doing than his own,” Evelyn added. “We will keep this scandal to just the two of us. I will not let any of the other ranch hands know. But if both of us go after them, we might be able to find them faster.”
He looked up and met her determined gaze. “All right. Saddle up.”
Harleigh ended up being farther than Jesse anticipated. Or at least the town felt like a million miles away, because each second that ticked by without him finding her was another moment his sister could end up eloping and invoking the talk of a whole town. He urged his horse into a gallop as soon as they’d hit the open road. Evelyn kept up with his pace with ease, even sprinted faster than him for most of the ride.
When he and Evelyn finally stepped off their horses, Jesse pointed in the direction of Harleigh’s general store. The building was nearly twice the size of the general goods store in Hamilton. “I’ll ask the manager if he’s seen ’em.”
She followed him into the store, her footsteps matching his own against the polished oak floor. Numerous stacks of expensive flour and piles of colorful cotton shirts were strewn every which way. For a store so massive, the customers divided in only a few aisles and gave the store a generally empty look.
The general store manager waited behind one of the desks for customers to purchase goods. He smiled when he first saw Jesse and her, but quickly furrowed his brow when he noticed they were holding nothing for purchase.
“I want to know if you’ve seen a blond girl and a dark-haired man pass by here. They’re from Hamilton, so you might not have seen ’em before today.” Jesse took out a tintype of Loretta that he kept in his wallet. He smoothed out the likeness and placed it on the counter. “This is the girl. A little over five feet in height, curly blond hair . . .”
“Might I interest you in some wonderful calico shirts? They’re a rare bargain, I must say. Top-of-the-line quality and at merely half the price you’d find in Hamilton.” The manager winked and gestured to the right side of the store. “Or perhaps some fine leather boots with a tough sole for ranch work. You look like a rough fella—”
Evelyn’s clipped tone cut him off. “Not interested. Just answer the question.”
The manager glared at her but complied with the request. “All right. Well, I ain’t never seen the boy you’re talking ‘bout, but that girl did come in here about an hour ago.”
Jesse’s heart lifted. “Where did she go afterward? Did she say anything about where she was headed?”
The manager shrugged. “Don’t reckon so. How would I know? She didn’t even buy that much. Just a few items of stationery, nothing else.”
“Which direction did she take when she left the store?” Evelyn pressed, leaning forward.
“Right. She turned right after leaving my store.” The manager sighed. “Now if that’s all, I must say the beautiful embellished stationery she bought was quite an extraordinary price, such a marvelous bargain, if I may add—”
Evelyn spun around and started walking toward the door before the manager could even finish his sentence. Jesse followed her, resisting the urge to grin. If she hadn’t decided to take care of a ranch, she would have made an excellent sheriff.
She stopped outside on the wooden sidewalk, waiting for him. When he caught up to her, she pointed in the direction the manager hinted Loretta had traveled. “What I can’t figure out is why Preston wasn’t with her. The manager said he only saw Loretta. If they really eloped, where would he be?”
“Maybe he was waiting outside.” He started moving, and she marched in step as they scanned the shops.
He entered the saloon, where the bar manager admitted he heard her talking about a tailor. Evelyn dropped into the tailor’s, where the man said he thought he saw her go in the direction of the jeweler. Jesse went to the jeweler, who said he’d never seen the girl in his life.
He sat outside the shop, his hat in his hands. The search was proving to be useless. It had been hours since Loretta left her note back at the house. Loretta and Preston could have hightailed it to the next town by now. Maybe there was nothing he could do anymore. Her revenge was finally taking her marriage into her own hands.
Evelyn joined him on the bench. “Why do you look as if you have given up?”
He shrugged. “What’s the point? We just keep going in circles, and Loretta’s in none of these places.”
The wooden bench creaked underneath her added weight. Her honeysuckle scent filled his nostrils. One of her hands rested against his shoulder, and he nearly felt a spark of fire where she touched him. “You cannot give up. Not yet.”
Her full lips looked even riper as she scolded him. Jesse ran a hand through his hair. He didn’t know which irritated him more, Loretta running off or Evelyn’s lips distracting him at every moment.
“I’ve swallowed my pride at this point, Eve.” Her nickname flowed out of his mouth like water before he stopped the leak. She rubbed his back, and waves of comfort washed over him. “I reckon we wouldn’t even be here if I had just agreed to let her marry Preston. Then she wouldn’t have run away.”
“We are not finished searching.” Evelyn clucked her tongue. She continued her ministrations, and Jesse wondered if she did this for all her “friends.” Her voice was nearly as soft as her touch. “Give her a chance. Maybe she can explain herself when we find her.”
“Explain what? That I was forcing her into a marriage she didn’t want?” He spit at the ground. She flinched and dropped her hand from his back. “I thought eventually she’d like him. He’s a nice enough fella. He’s always wanted to court her.”
“What about him is better than Preston?”
“He’s from a good family. Loretta would never get that social status otherwise.”
“Since when have you been concerned with social status?”
He scowled. “I’m concerned for Loretta, that’s all. I care about her.”
“So does Preston.”
His mouth felt dry suddenly. Preston had probably wanted to court Loretta longer than the doctor’s son did, in fact. “He’s just a cowboy.”
“So were you when I wanted to marry you. When did you change your mind?”
His head jerked sharply at her words. She stared back at him, both a look of sincerity and a challenge in her eyes. There were no traces of remorse for what she’d said.
“The same time you changed yours. Wasn’t me being just a co
wboy the reason you broke it off between us?”
“I think I made a mistake.” Evelyn’s lower lip quivered. The fierceness in her green eyes contrasted the tremble in her quiet voice. “I realized that, you know, when you left. I made a mistake by not choosing to marry you.”
Jesse was silent, his mind churning.
She laughed, but it had a bitter ring to it. “Say something.”
“You could have stopped me.” His voice was rough. His head swam with the alternate futures for them if she hadn’t chosen to shut him out. Unspoken words coated his throat. “We could have gone to California together.”
“What can I do about the past, Jesse? What can I do to apologize?” Her eyes were round, studying his reaction to her words. She pursed her lips, as if considering the possibilities with him. “How can I change what has already happened? The past is behind me.”
He wasn’t sure how to respond. Putting the past behind her equaled moving on from him, didn’t it? But just how much had she forgotten?
“Besides, we have finally become friends again.” Her lower lip quivered, the way she did when she was nervous. Her green eyes swam with hope. “That is what we are, right? We are friends.”
He felt the stinging burn of the word like a branding iron. Friends. What had once seemed like too much to hope for with Evelyn now didn't seem like enough. It was like she was lassoing him into a title. He tried to wait for the right moment to shuck off the rope, to get beyond being her friend. The longer he waited, the harder it was to escape.
“Reckon so. We’re friends.” Jesse shifted his weight on the bench. He never heard a word so cursed in all his life. Friends. That was all Evelyn saw him as; that was all she’d ever see him as.
“Good. I was worried you were trying to ignore me lately.” She managed a small smile, but he caught the tremble in her voice, as if she still didn't believe his words. “There is no reason we should let the past define our present relationships.”
“Agreed.”
She cleared her throat. “Loretta may not be making a mistake after all. She may be making the right choice.”
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