She bolstered her courage with a lungful of air. “At that time I was wrong. I intentionally misled you into escorting me to that fair because I didn’t want to be seen without a gentleman. I apologize again for that, but this time it’s different. There is someone else.”
“Not this foolishness with Sterling again.” He took to pacing the room. “Who has sold you these nickel notions that you can take up with him? What is it you intend to do, live in a sod house with rats crawling over your bare feet while you wait for him to come back from the range?”
“I’m getting tired of you casting aspersions upon Dusty and me. Is it any wonder that I don’t wish to become your wife?”
“Your father will never let you marry his former employee.” He marched over to the couch and dropped beside her. “Let me remind you that your family is one of the wealthiest in this town, second only to mine. How well do you think you’ll be received for wanting to be with another man, one who dirties his feet in cow dung and works with Negroes and whoremongers?”
Sophie was speechless at the lengths Chad went to express himself.
He taunted her. “You thought I didn’t know? The owner Mabrey took out a loan for that ranch. I personally went out there to make an account of the property’s value. I saw the caliber of men he hires.”
“They may be a rough lot, but they work hard. And I met Mr. Emmers. He’s as diligent and upright in character as any man.”
“You have become quite liberal.” Chad assessed her with a sneer. “It’s unfortunate for you that the influentials of the town don’t see things your way.” He dug into his coat pocket and pulled out a small item. “Put that on.” He tossed it into her lap.
Sophie picked up the ring. The gold band and inlay of large diamonds lay heavy in her hand. “Take it back. I won’t wear it.”
“I will not take it back. You’re going to wear that ring and you’re going to marry me after the September elections. Snub me again, and I’ll ruin you and your family.” His smooth tone belied his abrasive words. “I’ll make sure the whole town knows the type of lady Miss Charlton is. One who lusts after yokels and sympathizes with former slaves.”
The blood in Sophie’s veins became ice and fire as she watched Chad leave the study. She expected him to be angry about her not wanting to marry him, but not so vindictive that he’d personally see that her family’s good name was dragged into the streets.
She closed her fist tighter around the ring until the edges of the diamond cut her skin. She failed to think things through when she expressed her feelings for Dusty. Chad was accurate in that a lady of her status couldn’t just up and do what she wanted without bringing disgrace to her parents.
The door opened and in walked her mother. “Sophie, how are you feeling? Better enough to go home?”
She blurted. “He didn’t propose to me, Mother. Chad never asked me if I wanted to marry him.”
Her mother stooped down and felt her brow. “No fever.”
Sophie moved away. “How could you and Daddy allow him to stand before all those people and claim me like I was some prize to be handed out at a carnival?”
“How dare you take that tone with me, young lady?”
“Mother, please, tell me why.”
Her mother sighed. “I was not happy with the way Chad announced the engagement. Your father and I thought he would ask you first before he told the guests. But is that not a small disappointment that you can get past, in light of the fact that you did want to marry him?” She smiled with genuine tenderness. “You’ll still have a wedding.”
Sophie cringed, the full weight of her situation finally sinking in. Chad didn’t have to say anything to ruin her family. If she didn’t keep quiet and put on that wedding veil, she could do it all by herself.
CHAPTER 25
F OR THE FIRST time in her life Sophie dreaded going to church that Sunday morning. She dreaded witnessing word of her engagement to Chad Hooper spread like prairie fire in the town, dreaded seeing people that her family knew, and hated standing still for her friends as they cooed over the gaudy ring on her finger.
Chad sat with her family. Throughout the service, he kept one arm draped possessively over her shoulders. Between hymns being sung and Reverend Winford delivering the sermon, pairs of eyes would look her way, until finally she hid her face.
She looked in vain for Dusty. Since moving out to the ranch, he had not appeared in church. She knew he was a faithful believer and churchgoer, so she suspected he had stayed away on her account.
“I’ll see you Tuesday evening.” Chad kissed her hand before leaving church with his family.
Sophie wiped it on her skirt when no one watched. She felt like a Jezebel, having let two men show her affection, one of whom didn’t even know that she was now engaged to be married. A frightening thought took over as she settled into the wagon with her family. What if Dusty had heard about her engagement?
She needed to talk to him. She had to tell him why it was necessary to go through with the wedding. A sharp pain struck her chest and resided into a dull ache across her body when she imagined his reaction.
At the farm, David pulled her aside before she could go into the house. He scratched at the first dark sprouting of hair that formed on his chin. “When are you gonna tell Ma and Pa that you’re sweet on Dusty?”
Sophie played down her awkwardness at being asked such a question by her younger brother. “Why do you ask?”
“I know you like him more than you do Chad. You never snuck off to see him at the bank the way you did for Dusty at the ranch.”
She realized that David was no longer of the age where she could give him a pat answer and send him on his way. “I’m never going to say anything to our parents about Dusty. You saw how the town responded last year when Reverend Winford started courting Marissa. It was a scandal.”
“Most people don’t talk about her being a saloon girl now that she’s his wife.”
“That’s because he’s a minister, and she being his wife has put her into a more respectable position. We’re Charltons. We can’t get away with doing as we please. You see that now with Daddy not wanting you to be a cowhand.”
“I’ll be a man soon, and Pa can’t say anything to me.”
Sophie refrained from scolding him for thinking of falling out with the family when she had been doing outrageous things herself as of late. “You may find yourself disinherited.”
“I’m not spending my days tending the land. I don’t care if he gives the farm to Bernard.”
“You may think different once you’re trapped in a bunkhouse, penniless.”
“Better to be poor doing something you love than rich hating every minute of your life.” David stomped off.
She tamped down the unrest that grew in her as she considered her upcoming wedding date. Thirty-four more days before she had to call the Hooper house her home. Maybe it was the bad oysters, or maybe something entirely different, but suddenly the Hooper’s glittering china, sumptuous furnishings, and rich food had lost their appeal. Unlike her brother, she’d take as much time on the farm as she could get.
Sophie pursed her lips in thought.
But perhaps not. Maybe life on a ranch could work just as well.
The week passed slowly as Sophie waited for an opportunity to visit the Zephyr Ranch. She went to town with her family on Saturday and visited Linda at the seamstress shop, where her friend could not stop talking about Wes Browman.
“Do you think I should let him court me? If my father gives him permission, I mean?” she asked with a wistful look in her eyes.
“If he treats you kindly and you enjoy his company.”
“Oh, I do. He’s very sweet, which is unexpected for a tanner. I suppose a seamstress can be courted by a tanner.”
Sophie forced a smile. Linda had finally found a beau. She told herself that she should be happy for her friend, even if her own circumstances weren’t so cheerful. “You can stitch embroidery on the leather he finishes treating.”
Linda giggled. “We can combine our trades.” She went to attend a customer that came through the door.
Sophie wished she did not feel envy at her friend’s position. Linda had a bit more freedom when it came to choosing bachelors. No one would fault her much if she didn’t pick the most eligible man in town.
“I have the skirt finished on your wedding dress.” Linda resumed when the woman left with a newly altered blouse. “It looks just like the one in Godey’s Ladies Book. Do you want to see it?”
“Maybe when my mother comes in from the Arthurs’ shoe store.”
“Sophie, you’re getting married in one month. Less than that. Twenty-eight days.” Linda pushed back the hair that always seemed to droop forward when she was working. “You don’t seem yourself. Is it because Chad’s away on business again?”
Sophie took to examining the dress forms in front of the shop. “No.”
“Well, what is it? I’m sure it can’t be so awful.”
Sophie adjusted the dress form’s measurements to that of her own. “Linda, I told Chad before he announced the engagement that I no longer wished to be courted.”
Linda’s gasp resounded in the shop. “What on earth has gotten into you? You like Chad, don’t you?”
She expected such a reaction. “I thought I did once, but I don’t anymore. I’m not sure I ever have.”
“But you’ve been courting for over two months and he’s given you flowers and a necklace. And before he went away to school you used to flirt with him all the time.”
“Chad is different from what you think, Linda. He changes when he isn’t in front of people. You should have heard the way he spoke to me in the study after the mayor’s party.” Shivers ran down her spine thinking about it. “His behavior was horrible.”
“But I saw him carry you there in his arms. He was so gentle with you, like Lord Haverston.”
Sophie lost her restraint. “Stop painting him as gallant and dashing. This isn’t The Adventures of Lady Whitecastle.”
Linda’s eyes widened as she stood dumbstruck, as though Sophie had taken her by the shoulders and given her a good shake.
“I’m sorry, Linda. I didn’t mean it. You and Wes can certainly have that kind of romance. It will not be that way for Chad and me.”
She came to stand between Sophie and the dress form. “If you spoke to Chad the way you just spoke to me, then what reaction did you expect of him? I can’t see any man taking kindly to that.”
Sophie felt so alone. Her closest friend didn’t understand. “Chad was demanding before I confronted him. It’s part of the reason I did it.”
“What are the other reasons?”
She chewed her cheek and gazed out the shop window. Linda’s reflection showed realization dawning on her face.
“Don’t tell me this is about Dusty.”
Sophie continued to watch the passersby in the streets.
“I was just teasing you about him when I said those things a month ago. I didn’t think you really fancied him, that you would actually want to . . . oh, Sophie, this is a terrible jumble.” Linda put distance between them. “You can’t have feelings for your hired help.”
She had heard similar words from her mother, but listening to her friend say them brought a different kind of condemnation. “No one knows that I acted upon them.”
“You sinned with him too?”
“We shared a kiss.” Sophie couldn’t look at Linda. “It was wrong, but I thought you would understand.”
“Why, because I’m being called upon by a tanner and not a rich man like Chad? It’s not the same as you amusing yourself with the attentions of two men. That’s deceitful.”
Sophie gulped hard as tears started to burn behind her eyes. Was everyone set on making her seem like a scheming shrew? “I said I was wrong and I’ve been trying to make it right since. I’ll come back later to try on my wedding dress.”
“Sophie, wait. Don’t get mad. Just put everything in order before it gets worse. Tell Chad you were remiss in saying you didn’t want to marry him. All of this will be forgotten.”
“He’s not thinking about it anymore. You saw him sit with me in church. We’re considered a definite pair.” A perfectly matched set on the outside, but an unsightly motley work on the inside.
Her friend sighed with relief. “Oh, thank goodness he’s so forgiving. How can you not fall in love with a man like that?”
“I’ll see you in church tomorrow.” She left the shop before Linda could say more. A spirit of heaviness hung over her as she dealt with the new knowledge that her friend was never going to comprehend the depths of what she was experiencing. Linda just couldn’t see Chad any other way except for the polished, ambitious person that he showed himself to be. Even Sophie’s family didn’t know of the jealousy that sparked in his eyes whenever he spoke of Dusty, or the insecurity that he kept well hidden.
Searching for her mother, Sophie hurried across the street to get to the shoe store before a horse and rider came down the road. Stopping on the sidewalk, she saw that the rider was Wilcox from the Zephyr Ranch. He tied his horse to the post outside of McIntyre’s before going inside the restaurant. She reversed course and followed.
The restaurant smelled of smoked meat and giblet gravy. She heard it sizzling on the stove as a server came from behind the kitchen door. Her eyes took in the patrons at each table as she looked for Wilcox among them. If he was back in Assurance, then Dusty had to be too. A roar of laughter from the back of the restaurant made her lift her head. Joe, Freeman, Wilcox, and Dusty shared a table, partially blocked by a wooden support beam that reached from floor to ceiling. Wilcox made a remark that sent the other men into uproarious laughs again.
“You need a table, Miss Charlton?” A server at the front approached her side. “Or are you looking for your brother David?”
Another server came by the cowhands’ table to remove the empty plates. Once the clutter was gone, she spotted her brother seated amongst them at the far end. “I came for my brother. Thank you.”
Heart pounding like it did at the mayor’s party, she walked to the back of the restaurant, feeling the eyes of the patrons following her. It didn’t slip her mind that what she was doing could be potential gossip fodder, a lone woman going to have a seat with the cowboys of Zephyr Ranch. S
he hoped that her brother’s presence along with Chad’s engagement ring would be enough to quiet tongues and ease assumptions that she was up to no good.
Or the ring could serve to make the situation much worse. She hoped not to faint again.
David’s welcome was an annoyed stare. “I thought you were visiting Linda.”
“I was. Now I’m here.” She greeted the cowhands. “Hello, gentlemen.”
Wilcox and Freeman gave her cold stares. Joe lowered his head. Dusty looked puzzled by their reaction. He ran his hand through his hair, a light brown in the restaurant’s dim interior.
“Let your sister have a seat.” He ushered her brother from his chair. David rolled his eyes and went to the opposite end of the table.
“They didn’t say nothing to him,” David whispered in her ear.
Freeman left. Joe and Wilcox went too, until only Sophie and Dusty remained at the table. She took the now empty seat beside him, darting a glance at David, who kept his head studiously away, appearing to read one of Mayor Hooper’s political tracts nailed to the wood beam.
“They’re not being uncivil,” Dusty explained. “They think you just want to talk to me alone.”
She wished he had heard something about her engagement. The announcement was proclaimed in Monday’s paper. She rationalized that the ranch was far enough from town where news couldn’t get to them on time. “I didn’t know my actions were considered predictable.”
“Isn’t that why you’re here?”
She liked the way his eyes twinkled when he was flirting. “I can’t talk to you this way anymore, Dusty. I went to Chad and attempted to have a word. You’re not going to like what happened but I had no choice.”
A Windswept Promise Page 24