“Yes, of course,” Maddie said. “Where is everyone?”
“Brand has already gone. He has a church board meeting every Monday morning, and he likes to walk the children to school beforehand.” Laura waved Maddie into an empty chair and went into the kitchen for a moment.
She returned and settled into her own place again and folded away the copy of the newspaper she’d been reading. A moment or two later, Ana came in with a breakfast plate piled high with scrambled eggs, a thick steak, biscuits, and gravy. It was enough for three and smelled delicious but Maddie wasn’t hungry. She took a bite of the fluffy eggs, fingered the shamrock on her fork before she set it down.
“Has Tom been down yet?” She wondered if he’d been able to sleep.
Laura avoided Maddie’s gaze a second, then sighed.
“I thought you knew he was leaving on the early stage to Dallas.”
“No. I …” Stricken, Maddie’s heart stumbled. Her hand went to her throat.
He hadn’t said a word last night. He’d left her on the porch without so much as a good-night, let alone a good-bye. She closed her eyes against a rush of tears. Laura was on her feet and beside her in a second.
“Oh, Maddie. I’m so sorry. I thought you knew.”
“He’s really gone?” Hands shaking, she wove her fingers together in her lap.
Laura reached into the pocket of her apron and pulled out a letter. “He left you this.”
Maddie’s hand shook as she took the letter. She stared down at the letters that formed her name. Those she recognized.
“I can’t read it. He left me a letter that I can’t even read.”
“He wanted me to wait and give it to you when you were able to read it for yourself. He asked me not to give it to you until then, but seeing you this way —”
“That could be months,” Maddie whispered. “Years, even.”
“I think he knew that. I don’t think he wanted you to have it until then.”
“Why?”
Laura pulled out the chair beside Maddie and sat down. “Maybe he didn’t want to influence you.”
“Why are you giving it to me now?”
Laura smiled through her own tears. “Because you’re my sister and your heart is breaking, and maybe this will help.”
“Read it to me.” Maddie handed it back.
Without hesitation, Laura broke the seal and quickly scanned the page. A hint of a smile lifted the corners of her lips.
“ ‘Dearest Maddie,’ ” she began. “ ‘Congratulations on learning to read. I knew you could do it. By now you have settled into your new life in Glory, and I am no doubt still doing the work I was meant to do.’
“ ‘I’m sure there will be times that I try to convince myself that you chose to stay in Texas so that I would have the life you think I wanted. Just as I left you there so that you can have a bright future with a family that loves and cares for you. A family that can give you everything.’
“ ‘I wonder how often I will ask myself if perhaps we didn’t love each other too much. If you had asked me to stay with you, to give up my work as a Pinkerton, I would have. But I could have never asked you to give up your chance at a new life for one that included me — a reminder of your past.’
“ ‘I hope by the time you read this letter that our lives have unfolded and that we are both content, if not happy, with the choices we’ve made for each other. One thing I do know for certain, Maddie Grande. I will always love you. Sincerely, Tom.’”
Laura handed her back the single page. Maddie looked down at the jumble of words. Tom’s bold writing was soon blurred by her tears.
She felt Laura’s arm slip around her shoulder.
“You know that no matter where you go or what you do, you’ll always be my sister.” She forced Maddie to raise her head and slipped a kerchief out of her pocket with a laugh. “I’ve found that with children around, it’s a good thing to keep a lot of hankies at the ready.”
She dabbed away the tears on Maddie’s cheeks and looped Maddie’s hair back behind her ear.
“Go after him, Maddie. There’s still time, but you’ll have to hurry. If there’s one thing certain about the stage to Glory, you can always count on it being late.”
“But—” Maddie searched Laura’s eyes. “We’ve just found each other.”
“Are you staying because you truly want to, or for me?”
Maddie tried to picture Laura as a child, a helpless big sister screaming as they were separated, a big sister who had lived with the guilt of breaking a promise to their dying mother.
A sister who loved her so much that she deserved the truth. Laura, above all people, deserved the truth.
“For you,” Maddie felt a sadness of a different sort. “I’d be staying here for you. I don’t want to break your heart.”
Laura hugged her close and said, “My prayers have been answered just knowing you’re alive and knowing where you are. I can’t ask you to sacrifice your love for Tom. You know where I am. Come home anytime you want.”
Home. She knew that no matter where Laura was, she would have a home if she wanted one.
“But—what about the children? And Brand?” Maddie was already on her feet, already wondering if she should take time to collect her things, throw them in her bag, or just run out the door. “Will you tell them good-bye for me? Will you explain?”
“Of course,” Laura assured her. “Of course I will.”
Her sister was crying but her cheeks were bright with color, and she was smiling through her tears.
“Hurry,” she said. “Run upstairs and get your things. The carriage is hitched up. I’ll get Jesse to drive you down the street.”
“Will you go with me?” Maddie hated to leave her so soon. She couldn’t bear telling Laura good-bye yet.
Laura’s dimples deepened and she laughed.
“Oh, Maddie, I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
Earlier, as Tom wandered around the Mercantile and Dry Goods store awaiting the stage, Harrison Barker dogged his steps.
“We’ve got a nice assortment of moustache cups.” Barker waved a feather duster over a row of the aforementioned ceramics when Tom stopped to stare at them. “If you’re thinking about growing one, that is.”
“Not really,” Tom replied, moving on to the aisle where rows of men’s western style boots were on display. He wasn’t thinking of anything at the moment but Maddie and whether or not she’d be shocked to discover he’d left without so much as a good-bye.
Taking the coward’s way out didn’t sit well with him, but he was afraid that if he tried to tell her good-bye he wouldn’t be able to leave. He’d find himself accepting the job of sheriff and spend the rest of his life if it took that long trying to wear Maddie down, trying to convince her they belonged together.
He found the telegraph office opened early, so he took the time to wire Allan Pinkerton that he was headed back to New Orleans. Hopefully there would be a case waiting for him when he arrived. Something, anything, to take his mind off of Maddie.
“We’ve some very affordable boots.” Barker was still at his elbow.
Money wasn’t a problem. Laura had written him a very generous bank draft for a job well done. He tried to turn it down but she insisted he accept. As he pocketed the check, he found himself wishing he’d ignored his hunch and never brought Maddie to Texas.
Outside there came the sound of hoof beats as the stage pulled up.
“Would you look at that?” Harrison pulled out his watch. “First time in a year they been ahead of schedule.” He turned to Tom, extended his hand. “Well, Mr. Abbott, it was nice meeting you. Too bad you’re not staying in town.”
If he wondered why Maddie wasn’t leaving with him, Barker didn’t say. Then again, Tom remembered, this was a small town. Between the Larsons and the McCormick children everyone probably already knew that Maddie was Laura’s sister and that she’d come to stay a while.
Tom walked to the front door, pi
cked up the bag he’d left on the floor, and went outside. He was the only passenger waiting to board and discovered he had the entire stage to himself.
The driver held the door and waited for Tom to hand his bag up to the guard. Tom adjusted his hat and couldn’t resist a last glance down Main toward the McCormick’s house. There was no sign of anyone on the porch. He wondered if Maddie was still asleep or if she had learned that he was gone.
He mounted the coach step and the stage sank on its springs. The driver closed the door, climbed up onto the box. He cracked the whip, the team pulled in their traces, and the coach lurched forward as they headed away from the McCormick house, away from Glory.
CHAPTER 36
Maddie hadn’t wasted time in putting up her hair. It lay loose and wild about her shoulders in a tangled fall. She didn’t care. She’d thrown her clothes in her bag, dressed in the black skirt and white blouse from Baton Rouge, and donned her cape. At the last minute, she grabbed her gay little hat, anchored it with a hat pin, and was ready.
She glanced in the mirror on the way out of her room. Her hat was already askew but she couldn’t take time to right it. Flying down the staircase, she nearly tripped and fell headlong before she caught herself.
Break your neck, Maddie, and you’ll never see him again.
Despite the near accident, she found herself excited and almost happy for the first time in a long, long while. All she had to do was get to the Mercantile before the stage left.
“Are you ready?” Laura was at the bottom of the stairs in a stylish waist-length fitted jacket and a wide-brimmed hat with a sweeping ostrich feather that bounced when she moved.
“Ready.” Maddie studied Laura’s face, searching for a sign that her sister was upset about her decision, but Laura was all smiles.
“I’m truly happy for you,” Laura assured her. “Follow your heart, Maddie.”
If there was nothing else to convince her they were sisters, there would still be Laura’s uncanny ability to know what was on her mind.
She reached out and gave Laura a quick hug. Then she took a deep breath and tightened her hand on her satchel.
“Let’s go,” Maddie said, heading for the front door.
“This way,” Laura grabbed her arm. “Jesse has the carriage at the back door.”
It took them longer to climb into the carriage and get settled than it did to drive down the street to the Mercantile. Maddie breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the stage wasn’t there, but Tom wasn’t waiting out front.
“He’s probably inside,” Laura told her. “I’m sure Harrison is bending his ear.”
Maddie didn’t wait for Jesse to come around and hand her out. She climbed down on her own and Laura tossed down her carpetbag. Jesse tied the carriage horse to the hitching post and was reaching for Laura’s hand when Maddie turned around and nearly bumped into Harrison Barker as he strolled out of the store with a feather duster in hand. He took one look at her bag and his brow crinkled into a frown.
“Thought you were staying on.” He looked over her shoulder and called to Laura, “Heard this young lady is your long-lost sister and that she was going to be stayin’ on.”
Laura stepped onto the boardwalk and let go of Jesse’s hand. Brand’s son stood by in stoic silence, arms folded across his chest, leaning against the carriage.
“She was, but now she’s not. Not that it’s any of your business, Harrison.” Laura stood beside Maddie. “Is Mr. Abbott inside?”
Maddie thought Tom had surely heard them. The fact that he hadn’t come out yet didn’t bode well for her.
Harrison reached up and ran his fingers along the part that divided his hair down the middle and smiled at Maddie.
“I’d be happy to show you around town, at your convenience, of course,” he offered.
Maddie found herself at a loss for words.
Laura didn’t. “Harrison, please. Where is Tom Abbott?”
“Oh, the stage has already come and gone. Can you believe it? Ahead of time.” He addressed Maddie again. “You’ll have to wait for the afternoon stage to come through.”
He’s gone.
Tom’s gone.
Maddie didn’t hear what else Harrison Barker had to say. The stage had come early. The stage that was usually late. And Tom was gone.
Maybe we’re not meant to be together. Maybe it’s best I let him go.
“One thing I know for certain, Maddie Grande. I will always love you.”
It didn’t matter that he’d gone or why he’d left her. What mattered was that he loved her. That he would always love her. No matter what she’d been in the past, no matter that she’d turned him away.
Laura had a hold of her arm and was saying something.
Maddie blinked, suddenly aware Harrison was staring at her. So was Jesse, with his crooked half smile. Laura was watching her, too, expecting her to say something.
“What?” Maddie said.
“I asked what you want to do now,” Laura said.
“I suppose we should go back to your house. I’ll wait there and then take the afternoon stage to Dallas.”
“I hate for you to go all the way to Dallas alone,” Laura said.
Jesse stepped forward, hands on hips.
“Make up your mind, ladies. I ain’t got all day.”
By the time Tom realized he’d made the biggest mistake of his life, Glory was miles behind him. Alone in the stagecoach, he was reminded of the journey with Maddie beside him. He missed her nearness, her smile, her touch. It was one thing to leave her behind thinking that it would be easier than seeing her every day, but it didn’t take long for him to decide he’d rather be with her than without her.
He tried to stand up and pound on the roof to get the driver’s attention, but the wheels hit a pothole and he was knocked back onto his seat. He pulled off his boot, tightened one hand around the window frame, and started banging the boot heel on the roof.
He heard the crack of the driver’s whip and the coach picked up steam. The wheels kicked up dust and rocks as the stage bounced along the only road across the middle of nowhere.
Tom plopped back down and shoved his boot on, then took off his hat. He grabbed hold of one of the swaying handles dangling overhead, stuck his head and shoulders out of the open window as far as he dared, and started whistling and shouting to the driver and the guard.
The bouncing jarred his teeth as he hung half in and half out of the window. He’d given another sharp whistle, hoping he wasn’t wasting his breath, when the guard’s face suddenly appeared above him.
Tom shouted, “Stop!”
The guard pulled back and disappeared but a few seconds later the driver reined in the team and they gradually rolled to a stop. The driver climbed down as Tom opened the door and stepped out of the coach. He winced, his ribs bruised from the jarring they’d taken in the window frame. It took a minute to regain his balance once he was on steady ground.
The driver, his white moustache stained red-brown, spat a stream of tobacco juice into the dirt and eyeballed Tom with a hard squint.
“This better be good,” he said.
“I changed my mind. I want to go back,” Tom told him. “I’ll pay extra.”
The man threw back his head and guffawed. “I’m ahead of schedule for the first time in years and you wanna go back? Are you plumb crazy?”
Crazy in love, Tom thought. Crazy for taking no for an answer. Crazy for thinking I can live without Maddie.
“No, sir,” he said with a smile. “For the first time in a long time I’m pretty sure I’m not crazy.”
“Well, I’m not going back, not for all the tea in China. Best I can do is let you out right here.”
Tom looked around. He was miles from nowhere. The plain undulated into valleys sliced by creeks and washes, over hillsides covered with last summer’s dried grass. There was no sign of any cattle, no ranch houses, no humans. Nothing but miles and miles of land that stretched far and away in every direction.
But he was on a main road. Surely someone would be coming along sooner than later.
“You armed?” The driver looked him up and down skeptically. Tom wasn’t dressed like a westerner. He looked more like a city slicker in his matching coat and trousers than a man able to handle danger.
“I’m from New Orleans,” he assured the weathered driver. “I don’t go anyplace without a sidearm, a Bowie knife, and a derringer.”
“Well …” The driver spat again. “That settles that. I won’t feel too bad about leaving you alone out here. You sure?”
“I’ll stay.” He’d made up his mind before he had taken off his boot.
“Could be a long wait.” The driver grabbed hold of the side handle and climbed aboard again. “Could be you’ll sit here till another stage comes along.”
“When’s that?”
“Could be this afternoon. Could be tomorrow.”
Tom sighed. He never came by anything of worth easily. Maddie was worth however long it took to get back to her. “I’ll walk and hope sooner or later I get a ride back to town.”
The guard, cradling a rifle across his arm, leaned over to Tom’s side of the road again and shook his head. “Consider yourself lucky the renegade Comanche ain’t stirred up any trouble in these parts for a few months now.”
“What renegade Comanche?”
Before the man could answer, the driver cracked his whip, whistled to his team, and the coach was off in a thunder of hooves and the rumble of wheels.
When the dust settled, Tom pulled off his hat and wiped his face with the back of his coat sleeve. Then he picked up his bag and started walking to Glory.
CHAPTER 37
I’m so sorry, Laura. I never meant for you to be on this wild-goose chase.” Seated on the edge of the backseat of the elegant carriage, Maddie clung to the seat in front of her. Jesse’s hands were sure on the reins as he pushed the mare to a near breakneck speed. It had been his idea to try to catch the stage.
“We’re on a mission in the name of love,” Laura assured her before she turned to the young man beside her and nudged his shoulder. “Jesse, slow down,” she told him. “I want to reunite Maddie with Tom in one piece, not at her funeral.”
Heart of Lies Page 25