Daring to Start Again: An Inspirational Historical Romance Book

by Grace Clemens

  She almost vomited right then and there. She put one hand on her mouth, squeaking and then coughing. It felt like her heart would come out of her chest.

  She squeezed her eyes shut to hold in the tears that stung her lids. Sarah wasn’t going to let herself cry. Her father would not see that weakness in her.

  Sarah almost jumped out of her skin when a hand settled on her shoulder and she looked up through wide eyes. Relief flooded her when she saw it was young Jonathan, the son of the hotel owners. He was often at the reception desk when Sarah came in to have brunch with Clara and the kids or with Bobby.

  “Howdy, Miss Sarah.” Jonathan smiled his greeting, blinking his dark brown eyes purposefully, as if he had to make sure they were really closed before opening them again. It was a habit he had that helped make him the unique young man he was. Sarah had a soft spot for him. He and his parents were immigrants from India, the warmest family of people Sarah had ever met. She always felt good in their presence and their food was beyond heavenly delicious. And it was always amusing to hear Jon and his parents trying to speak using American words and slang. They tried very hard to do it right.

  “Howdy, Jon,” she replied softly, trying to clear her tears away.

  “You look upset. Are you okay?”

  “I’m not really okay,” Sarah conceded. “But you don’t have to worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

  Jon frowned. “I do not like seeing you upset,” he said. He moved to the other chair and sat down, giving her a direct look. “Will you let me help you?”

  Sarah felt a warm affection for the boy wash over her. He was tall, with dark brown hair and eyes and a slender body that went well with the long thinness of his face. He had a rather large nose that protruded a little further than most. But he was a handsome young man and would make a fine husband someday.

  “I’m in kind of a dilemma. I don’t want to go into details, but I find myself in a place where I need a great deal of money to save lives and I… I just don’t have it. I can’t ask Bobby, before you suggest that.” She didn’t know if he would have or not, but it was best to get that out of the way first. “So, if I don’t come up with this money…” She sighed, looking into the sparking flames in the fireplace. “Oh, it doesn’t matter if I have the money or not. I’ll just need more and more and more… it’s never ending.”

  “Are you saying it would save lives if you had a good deal of money right now? How much are you in need?”

  Sarah shook her head. “I have no idea. I don’t think it would end there, anyway. I would just need more.”

  Jon leaned closer to her, though he was still seated. He hung one hand over the armrest and took it in his other hand, his brown eyes intent on her. “If you could come up with a number that you think would satisfy, what would it be?” he persisted.

  Sarah knew she wouldn’t get away from Jon without answering, so she spat out the first number that came to her head.

  “Three-hundred dollars,” she said, tossing the figure out there. She didn’t know why Jon was asking. He was an eighteen-year-old boy. He didn’t have that kind of money just lying around. She knew very few people who did, and none of them were teenagers like Jon.

  Jon surprised her by standing up, never taking his eyes from her face. “Will you wait here a moment? There’s something I need to check.”

  Sarah felt like she was in a cloud of confusion as she watched him walk through a door behind the reception desk. It was only a few minutes till he came back through, but she felt like she’d been stuck in an eternity of wondering what the heck he was doing.

  When he returned, he didn’t sit in the chair next to her. He handed her an envelope. Her hands shook as she pushed the two folds apart and looked inside.

  Tingles spread over her body when she saw the money. She immediately shook her head and handed the envelope back. “I can’t take this. No. Jon, don’t put me in this position.”

  “But it is a gift from me to you,” he said in a pleading voice.

  Tears rose to Sarah’s eyes. She shook the envelope, still holding it out in front of her. When Jon folded his arms over his chest and shook his head, she hopped to her feet.

  “Jon! This is your money! You can’t give it to me like this. You must have plans for it. Don’t you have a girl to spend it on? Don’t give your money away like this.”

  Jon tilted his head to the side. She could feel him studying her closely.

  “I’ll make a deal with you,” the boy said. He raised his eyes and looked thoughtfully at the ceiling, lifting one hand and tapping his index finger on his chin. “I will require your services, or that of your daughter, to… to help me… learn to speak English just like you do!”

  He gave her the most satisfied look, she had to smile. “I’d have to teach you for the next three years to make this kind of money, and I still wouldn’t have paid you back. I can’t take it, Jon.”

  Jon shook his head. “I do not speak like you do. I wish to. You and your daughter can help me. You can come here once a week and spend some time with me. I would be so happy for that.”

  Sarah knew she wasn’t going to win. She bit her upper lip, slowly bringing the envelope back to herself. She pushed the folds open and counted the money inside. It wasn’t three hundred dollars. It was four hundred dollars. There was no way she was giving her father all that money. She lifted her eyes to Jonathan again.

  “I have a question, Jon. Just one favor to ask of you.” She glanced down at the money in the envelope. “Actually, two.”

  “Anything, Miss Sarah.”

  She swallowed hard and said, “I need an old coffee can, if you have one, to stash this money in. I don’t want it to be so obvious.”

  Jon smiled brightly. “I do have one, in fact. Let me get it.” He turned to hurry off and then spun back around to face her. “Pardon, you said there were two favors?”

  “Will you get Mitch McKinney and tell him Sarah Huggins is here to see him and that I’ll meet him on the front porch? He’s a guest here.”

  “Yes, I will do these things for you,” Jon replied, turning and hurrying through the door behind the reception desk again.

  Moments later, he returned with a small coffee can with a lid. While he was getting Bruce, Sarah went out to the front porch and sat on one of the chairs. A soft breeze chilled her, and she shivered slightly, missing the warmth of the fire.

  It was a little longer than she thought it would be before her father finally came through the door. She chided herself for not staying inside where it was warm until he came out.

  She had to hold in the disgusted bile that rose up in her throat, seeing his smug face.

  “So, you decided to come, did you?”

  “Yes, I… I thought that I’d get the money I had and come out here to you. I… I thought I would maybe go with you and my brothers. I… don’t like being a wife and mother. I’d… rather just go with you guys. You won’t need to pursue Bobby or Sammy. You can just leave them alone.”

  Bruce’s eyebrows shot up. He stared at her for a moment. “Stand up,” he said. “I don’t like talking to you when you’re sitting down. What’s that?”

  Sarah dropped her eyes to the can cupped between her hands. “It’s a coffee can. What does it look like?”

  Bruce curled his lip, his snake eyes flicking up to her face. “Awful cheeky, aren’t ya? What’s in it? Why you carryin’ it?”

  “It has money in it. It’s where I keep my money. In a coffee can.”

  Bruce grunted. “Don’t know why you’d want to do that?”

  “I don’t want everyone to know I’m walking around with money, obviously. There’s a hundred dollars in this can. You can have it if you just leave me and Bobby and Sammy alone.”

  “Thought you was comin’ with us,” her father quipped. Chills covered her when she realized that she had said that, after all. The rejected idea had just slipped out of her mouth unwillingly and now she was being held responsible for it.

  “I… I
mean, yes, as long as you leave Bobby and Sammy alone.” She didn’t want to leave her family. The mere thought of living without them was breaking her heart. “I just want them safe. You just leave them alone.”

  “I believe they are what’s called loose ends, my dear,” Bruce said in a warning tone. “And even though I just hate to take people’s lives away from them, sometimes it has to be done. I don’t want to be in jail, now do I?”

  “Why would you go to jail?” Sarah asked frantically. “I can give you this money and you can walk away. Just walk away. Please. Leave them alone.”

  “Can’t do it. Too late for all that. They know everything that’s going on.”

  “They… they don’t!” Sarah tried not to be too loud. It might draw the attention of the few people walking around that crisp early morning. “Sammy doesn’t know anything! She’s five!”

  Bruce snorted. “So much for not wanting to be a wife and mother,” he said, reminding her of the botched attempt at making up a plan on the fly. “I knew you were nothin’ but a liar. From the moment you were born, you weren’t nothin’ but trouble. Just another mouth I gotta feed. You’re gonna give me that money, girlie, and if I need more, I’ll let you know.”

  Sarah snatched the coffee can away from him, holding it in both hands as she spun her upper body to the right to avoid him.

  “No!” she exclaimed. “Not unless you promise me you and Danny and Bart won’t hurt my family.”

  “They ain’t with me no more,” Bruce said in a pathetic voice.

  Tingles ran through Sarah’s body. Had her brothers gone off on their own to protect themselves from their father getting them killed? Or would they pursue a similar kind of lifestyle?

  “They aren’t? Where are they? I thought they were here yesterday. I was told they were in town.”

  “Oh, yeah? By that long-suffering husband of yours?”

  “Yes, Bobby told me. Where are they now? Did they leave?”

  “They ain’t left Comstock,” Bruce said, turning his eyes to watch as a pretty woman passed by. She completely ignored him, much to Sarah’s satisfaction. “There’s too many people out now.” Bruce took her arm in a painful grip and yanked her down the steps. He moved up the street to a secluded area in the middle of three buildings, creating something like a triangular space. A tall set of bushes lined the fourth side. Gaps in the middle allowed people to pass through to the other side without having to go around the bushes or the buildings.

  “So, are they in the hotel?” Sarah asked, glancing over her shoulder at the tall building, wishing they would come out if they had decided to become gentlemen. Then, they could help their sister.

  Once they were out of the way of the infrequent passersby, Bruce grumbled his answer as if he thought everyone around them for miles would hear the answer. “Yeah, they’re in there sleeping. Say they’re thinking of staying here in Comstock. Guess they like it here.”

  “Maybe they just want to get away from you, Bruce,” Sarah said, keeping her voice low.

  “Give me that.” Bruce abruptly snatched the can from Sarah’s hand, catching her off-guard.

  Fear slipped through her and she slapped out at him, trying to get it back.

  “That’s mine!” she said, frantically.

  “You don’t have anything anymore, girlie. I’m going to take care of your man and the brat and then you’ll be all alone in the world. I don’t want you with me, your brothers don’t care what happens to you, and you’ll be a childless widow. How does that feel?”

  His words cut into her like a hot sharp knife. She felt the pangs of agony ripping through her heart. “You can’t do that! I won’t let you do that!”

  She yanked her arm from his grip and grabbed for the coffee can. He released her arm and slapped her face so hard she spun around and landed in the dirt on her hands and knees, her skin stinging painfully, her eyes immediately filled with tears.

  Chapter 27

  “Let’s go get Sheriff Cooper first,” Bobby said as he and Steven rode down the main road to the hotel. He could see the building in the distance. The sheriff’s house and the jail were both before the Inn. “Might be good to have a badge on our side.”

  Steven nodded. “Yeah, I’m bettin’ that’s true, especially if there’s three of them against us. Always good to even the odds.”

  The two men entered the jail, looking in both directions for the sheriff, taking their hats off in unison. The only person in the lobby area was Deputy Clark, who was sitting behind a desk directly opposite of them. There were two jail cells to Bobby’s right, both empty.

  “Mornin’, Huggins, Dyer.”

  “Mornin’, Clark,” both Steven and Bobby answered at the same time.

  “We need some help, Clark.”

  The older deputy stood up, placing both hands down on the surface of his desk and leaning his weight on them. He gave them a serious look, green eyes moving from one to the other. “What’s going on?”

  “You’ve met Sarah, haven’t you?” Bobby asked. He quickly ran through his memory and didn’t recall whether Sarah and Deputy Clark had actually spoken to one another. But surely the man knew who his wife was. He was relieved when the deputy nodded.

  “A’course. That bein’ yer wife. What’s happened? She okay?”

  “She’s not, actually,” Bobby replied. “She… she’s gotten herself in a pickle. She… Her father… isn’t a man of the law. He doesn’t follow the law. He’s angry, bitter, one of those fellas who likes to take out his bad life on women. On anyone, really, but especially women. Can’t defend themselves.”

  Steven snorted and Bobby gave him a swift glance. Steven shrugged, tilting his head to one side and lifting both hands in the air. “Sorry, but some women sure can defend themselves. Always thought Sarah could handle herself.”

  Bobby widened his eyes, glaring at Steven. What was he doing? Trying to talk the deputy out of coming? He frowned and shook his head. “You got anything helpful in that brain of yours?” he asked. “Because that ain’t it.”

  Steven pulled down one side of his lips, giving Bobby a regretful look. “Sorry about that.” He turned to the deputy, who looked confused. “We do need yer help,” he said. “Sarah has been hurt by her father and brothers before and we worry that they are hurting her now.”

  Deputy Clark’s eyebrows shot up. “Right now?” he asked in an urgent voice.

  Steven and Bobby glanced at each other, nodding. “Could be,” Bobby said. “I don’t know what time she left this morning, but her pillow was still a little warm, as well as the bed sheets. It couldn’t have been too long. I doubt she’s left the hotel. I thought it would be a good idea to take you along so we have the law on our side.”

  Deputy Clark tapped the top of his desk with one fist, the other one still propping him up as he leaned over it. “Hmmm. Well, I don’t suppose you can tell me what she’s doin’ at the hotel with them if she don’t want to be?”

  Bobby sighed. He reluctantly pulled out the letter from the inside pocket of his vest and handed it to the deputy.

  Deputy Clark looked a little surprised as he took the folded note.

  It took him less than a minute to read the letter. Bobby watched the man’s green eyes scan down to the end.