“Because his wife died?” Her own problems forgotten, she wanted to know more about her new husband and daughter.
“Oh dear, no. Kirsten’s death was nothing more than a relief for poor Nathan, especially after what she did to him and Rachel. Oh, that did sound a little hard-hearted, didn’t it? Anyone’s death is a sad thing, but even thinking about that woman makes me so mad.”
Laura tried to follow Beth’s wandering monologue but surrendered to her own frustration and resigned to asking questions. “What did she do?”
“Why, she left Nathan after nearly bankrupting him, then sent a letter telling him he had a daughter that she’d left with a family in California.”
“She abandoned her own child?”
“Oh Laura, it was much worse than that. Not long after he received the note from Kirsten, the family who’d been raising little Rachel arrived at the farm. Apparently Kirsten promised them money and told them they had to get it from Nathan. Rachel was filthy and malnourished, just a little slip of a thing when they approached him.”
Laura gasped. “How terrible.”
“Rachel sat huddled in the corner, staring off into space, rocking back and forth. When Nathan picked her up, she did nothing but scream. She still doesn’t talk. And she just sits, staring off into space, rocking. To this day no one knows what those terrible people did to her or if Kirsten did something to the child.” Beth paused to wipe at a tear in her eye.
Laura struggled with the outrage pouring through her. How could anyone lucky enough to have a child abandon her to complete strangers? How could anyone responsible for a child treat her so shamefully?
Beth took a deep breath and continued. “When Kirsten left Nathan, she ran away with an actor in a traveling troupe. Nathan didn’t know if she was pregnant at the time, so he wasn’t sure if Rachel was his child or not. When the couple threatened to sell her to a workhouse if he didn’t pay them, he couldn’t say no. I think her tragic life touched him. It took her a long while, but eventually she’s learned to accept Nathan’s touch. No one else can reach past the barriers she’s erected. Some of his neighbors even think she’s possessed by the devil.”
“That’s utter nonsense.” Laura couldn’t believe people would think that of a child.
Beth took her hand and smiled. “I knew the minute I saw you, you’d understand. This isn’t a task for a squeamish woman or one who’s only interested in her own desires. You’ll have to be determined and strong. They both need someone to heal them. Nathan is as much a wounded soul as his daughter.”
* * * * *
The next morning, Laura stood on the railroad station platform waiting to board the train to take her to St. Louis, the first leg of her trip west. The steam from the engine swirled around the massive metal, billowing clouds in the cold morning air.
“Are you sure I can’t buy your tickets? Nathan provided ample funds for your trip west,” Neil said as he saw to the loading of her belongings.
“No sir. I’ve been independent for far too long. Nathan can pay my way once I’m there,” Laura had stubbornly insisted. Besides, it was important to her that she protect Neil, Beth and their children from anyone who might be searching for her. If she traveled under her old name until she arrived in St. Louis, then changed to her married name, perhaps Nigel would find it difficult to locate her.
“Laura, I want to talk to you before you leave.” Neil grasped her by the elbow and maneuvered her to a secluded spot on the platform.
“What did you wish to say?” The seriousness of his tone sent a shiver of apprehension over her body.
“I want you to know that my brother has always been an honorable man. Even after the war, he’d always been a happy, fun-loving man. Then he met his wife.” He let out a heavy sigh. “Slowly, throughout the years of their marriage, something changed in him.”
“Because he was married?”
He shook his head. “No, marriage didn’t change him. The type of woman his wife was did. Even though Nathan treated her like a queen, giving her everything she wanted even when it nearly bankrupted him, she wanted more.”
“More things?” Laura hated sounding so dense, but she wasn’t quite sure what her brother-in-law was trying to tell her.
“More things, more attention, more…men.” He turned red around the collar at the last statement.
“Oh. Oh, I see.” Her own cheeks heated with embarrassment.
“She destroyed something good in my brother. She took away his ability to trust, she destroyed his reputation in his community, and when she left him she made him a laughingstock. At least that’s what he believes.”
Laura tried to reassure him with a smile. “I promise you, I’m not that kind of woman, Neil.”
He took her hand and patted it, reassurance and kindness softening the worry around his eyes. “I know that, my dear. I just wanted you to know that my brother’s welcome may be reserved. But he’ll never hurt you. On that you have my word.” He cleared his throat and released her hand. “And if somehow you can find a way to undo the damage done by his first wife… Well, I would be forever in your debt.”
Before Laura could answer him, the conductor called the all aboard.
Neil led her to the Pullman car and assisted her up the steps. “I wish you well, Laura.”
She smiled at him. “Thank you for everything you and your family have done for me, Neil. I won’t forget it.”
Finding her seat, she settled in for the long ride. While waiting for the train to pull out of the station, she mulled over the information both Beth and Neil shared with her.
What had she gotten herself into? She was married to a man who wouldn’t trust her and the mother of a little girl no one could reach?
Then she thought of what awaited her back in Washington. There she had a future only of drudgery and spinsterhood, or death. Life in Colorado might be challenging, but at least there she would continue to live.
Just as the train began to move, Otis stepped up from the shadows near the station and hopped on to the second-to-last car. He’d almost missed the fat little pigeon this morning at the station. And the boss wouldn’ta liked that. No sir, he sure wouldn’t have.
He worked himself up to the front car and found a seat near the door. There she was, sitting in the center row of seats talking with some little brat. Good. If she talked as much to this kid as she had the one on the way from Washington to Baltimore, he’d be able to close his eyes for a while.
Yesterday he’d lost her at the station. The woman had stored two boxes there then just disappeared into the crowd. He’d spent the entire night sitting on a hard wood bench watching her boxes. They’d been his only chance at finding her again. He’d just dozed off when she came back to claim them.
At the thought of losing his prey, fear ran through him once more. The boss’d hunt him down and slit him from belly to gullet. No sir, the boss didn’t like failure.
He pulled out a flask and took a swig of the fortifying liquor inside. Then, slinking lower in his seat, he pulled his bowler hat over his eyes. He wouldn’t wanna be the fat little pigeon up in the center row when the boss got hold of her. No sir, he sure wouldn’t.
Chapter Three
Two weeks later, Laura sat on a cold, hard wagon seat making her way through the final mountain pass from Denver to her new home in Doverton, Colorado.
“Doverton be just around this here mountain, Miz Cantrell, ma’am.” Zeke, her driver, spat a long stream of tobacco juice over the side of the wagon and snapped the reins on the rumps of the pair of mules pulling the supply wagon through the packed ice and snow.
The entire trip through the mountains he’d been spitting and talking, regaling her with tales of trappers, miners and Indian raids. From the appearance of his scraggly white beard and wrinkled, shoe-leather skin he’d probably witnessed most of those stories firsthand. Even if he’d embellished them in spots, she’d enjoyed his company and the telling of them, despite the bitter cold.
It
felt good to finally be on the last leg of her long journey. After traveling by train for days from Baltimore to St. Louis, she’d had only a two-hour layover before boarding her next train, which was just enough time to see to the loading of her boxes.
A sudden snowstorm in the mountains just beyond Denver kept her stranded there for nearly a week. Having lived her whole life in the cosmopolitan environment of Washington, she hadn’t minded the layover in the burgeoning city of Denver. Each day she’d ventured out among the miners, merchants, cattlemen and families, talking with anyone and everyone who had a moment to spare.
Finally the passes opened enough for her to finish her journey. Despite the cold seeping through the layers of sweaters she wore beneath her coat, the snow-covered mountains and magnificent scenery surrounding her thrilled her imagination and warmed her soul.
“You’ve made the trip most enjoyable, Zeke,” she said, meaning every word even though he shot another stream of brown spittle flying onto the snowy trail.
“Sorry you had to ride on this here wagon the whole way, but up here in the mountains the passes can change as quick as the wind. The coach won’t be comin’ out this way ’til long after the spring thaw.”
“I’m just glad you had room for me and my belongings on your supply wagon. I hate to be a bother.”
Zeke cackled in his raspy way. “T’ain’t no trouble a’tall, ma’am. Wouldn’t miss you meetin’ old Nathan for love nor money.”
Puzzled, Laura started to ask him what he meant, but they made the final turn around the mountain and the valley below spread out before them. Nestled in the center were two intersecting roads with buildings and shacks of various sizes lining both sides of each.
“Does Mr. Cantrell live in the town?”
“No ma’am. He has a piece of land further out. It’s a nice little farm.” Zeke let out another stream of spittle. “Nathan don’t cotton to most of the town folks’ highfalutin’ ways. No siree. Keeps mostly to hisself.”
Her husband lived a hermit’s existence. Laura filed this information away with the other facts she’d already learned about him. Was this due to his embarrassment over his first wife or because of something else?
“Are there any schools or a library in the town, Zeke?”
He cackled again then coughed hard, his whole body shuddering with the effort. “No ma’am, but we got us four saloons.”
“Four?”
“Mostly they’s left over from the played-out silver mines here ’bouts. But we also got us a bank.” He pointed to the large brick building they were passing then nodded to the large store in the town center where the two streets intersected. “And that there be the mercantile.”
A wagon with two beautiful workhorses stood outside.
Laura looked farther up the street where a wood building with a steeple sat back away from the rest. She’d read once that small towns used the church for services on Sunday and school for the children the rest of the week. “Does the school meet in the church?”
He just shook his head. “No ma’am, but the town uses it for public meetin’s.”
“Is there someplace where I can send a message to Mr. Cantrell that I’ve arrived?”
“No need to, ma’am. That be Nathan’s rig there.” He drew past the wagon and stopped his team in front of the mercantile also. He then nodded toward the shadows. “And that be Nathan hisself.”
Staring into the shadows, at first all she could see was the red glow from a cigar. As he took shape, stepping into the light, Laura’s heart picked up its pace. Something in the depth of his deep blue eyes, the steeliness of his jaw and the stern set to his lips beneath his dark moustache held her mesmerized. Black hair curled out beneath his hat. His sheepskin coat was turned up at the collar and stretched across his broad shoulders. His long legs were covered in the blue dungarees she’d seen so many men in Denver wearing. He wore heavy boots and in his left hand he held the glowing cigar.
In her need to escape Nigel and the whirlwind of activity in Maryland, she hadn’t given much thought to what her husband might look like. But after meeting his brother, she’d imagined him to be a younger version of the polite, kindhearted lawyer and family man. Nothing prepared her for this very handsome, very large man whose entire being hummed with intensity.
Laura exhaled heavily. She’d never handled men with the same coquettish flair of her cousin. She’d hoped to have a shy husband, perhaps one she could easily learn to live with. But she’d never had anything in life go easily, so why should her marriage be any different?
Nathan studied the young woman seated on the wagon seat.
Damn. What had Neil been thinking?
He’d assumed from the list of requirements he’d given Neil his brother would send him an older woman like the governess they’d had growing up. Older, strict, unappealing. Certainly not this round-faced miss with the warm brown hair pulled back in a serviceable knot, flushed pink cheeks and excitement in her eyes.
Dammit, Neil.
His brother knew he wasn’t in need of a wife for his own physical desire and he certainly wasn’t ever falling for the foolishness others called love again. No, he’d learned his lesson the first time. Women—especially young, beautiful women—couldn’t be trusted.
Nathan ground his thin cigar under his boot toe before stepping forward to offer a hand to the woman. She hesitated, a look of fear darkening the excitement he’d seen in her eyes. For a moment he thought she’d refuse him. Then something in her changed. Whatever frightened her—him or the new town—she shoved it aside, took a deep breath, sat a little straighter and put her hand in his.
“I’m Laura, Mr. Cantrell.” She gave him a determined look as he helped her down from the wagon.
Standing on the ground she came only to the top of his shoulders and had to tilt her head back to look up at him. For a brief moment he was caught in the clear appraisal of her deep emerald eyes. A hint of roses, reminiscent of his mother’s garden, wafted up to him.
A movement to his right caught his attention. He glanced around and stiffened. The townsfolk had stepped out of their businesses to watch.
Anger flared inside him. It wasn’t idle curiosity that brought them out like rats searching for food. They wanted to make his business fodder for their gossip mill once more.
Damn. He hated their scrutiny, had his fill of it while Kirsten lived and then again when he’d brought Rachel home. He needed to get out of here. He’d be damned if he’d discuss this situation with his new wife on the streets of Doverton.
Grasping his bride’s elbow, he half hauled, half led her to his wagon.
“Mr. Cantrell.” Her prim voice stopped him before he actually tossed her up onto the seat. “I think I can manage this myself, if you wish to get my belongings.”
“Your belongings?” He released her and glanced back at Zeke’s wagon where the old coot had unloaded two boxes.
“Yer wife done brought a few things with her, Nathan.” A large carpetbag landed beside Laura’s wooden boxes. Zeke leaned against the wagon’s tailgate, grinning like an idiot.
Nathan glanced around the street. Everyone stood watching him to see if he’d accept Laura as his wife or send her packing. Getting a complete stranger to marry him in order to have someone to care for Rachel was a mistake. He never should’ve listened to Micah’s crazy scheme.
With a look up at his wife, he saw her staring ahead, her back ramrod straight and her lower lip caught between her teeth. She knew everyone was watching them. Her quiet dignity doused his indignation.
Muttering an oath, Nathan hefted up the first of the boxes. What the hell does she have in here? Bricks? He nodded at Zeke. “Don’t just stand there, help me get it all loaded.”
The wiry mule skinner lifted the carpetbag and set it in the wagon. He walked around to the side where Laura sat. Nathan shoved a heavy crate onto the wagon as Zeke doffed his worn raccoon hat and offered his hand to Laura.
“Ma’am, it sure was a pleasure makin�
� yer acquaintance. You ever need anythin’ at all, you just give old Zeke here a holler.”
Without hesitation, Laura took his hand and shook it once. “You were a delight to travel with, Mr. Zeke. Your stories made the time pass quickly. Thank you for bringing me safely here.” She settled a very sincere and tender smile on the old man. The smile lit up her eyes, softened her features and transformed her face into beauty that struck Nathan so hard he nearly dropped the box he was lifting onto the wagon.
“Yer most welcome, ma’am.” The mule skinner’s weathered skin turned a deep red under his beard and he actually scuffed his boot in the dirt as if he were a smitten pup.
Recovered from his reaction to her smile, Nathan rolled his eyes and settled in the seat beside the woman. She had the old man blushing—great. He’d married another flirt. He flicked the reins and set the horses in motion. His new wife grabbed hold of the seat to keep from falling out. Zeke jumped out of the way.
Heading west out of town, Nathan stewed for the better part of the five-mile trip. No way was he keeping another flirt for a wife. His gut instincts told him she was nothing but trouble. But then, weren’t all women?
He glanced at the woman beside him. She sat stiffly, looking off to the side. The only clue the town’s rudeness had upset her was the way she clutched at the wagon seat with one hand and fingered a locket hanging on a chain against her coat.
She sure was a quiet one. Totally unlike Kirsten.
From the moment they’d met, Kirsten chatted and flirted with him until she had him married to her and her hands on his money. He’d done anything she wanted, loved her with all his heart and given her every dime he had. It was never enough.
Now he knew better than to trust a woman with anything—even one that appeared different from his she-bitch first wife.
The team turned the bend in the road just below his farm.
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