by Barbara Goss
“Then I won’t worry about her impending arrival. She can’t have you.” She looked up at him. “You’re mine.”
Ned kissed her lips and held her tightly. “I love you, Maria; Ellen is wasting her time.”
Ned and Maria spent the rest of the evening enjoying each other’s company. She sat on his lap and he held her closely. They didn’t talk much; they didn’t need to.
Travis stopped by to see Ned the next afternoon, just as he and Hugh were returning from cleaning out the shearing shed. Ned invited him in the back door, since he and Hugh had to remove their dirty, knee-high boots and leather coats.
Once they were seated at the kitchen table, Helena brought them tea.
“Something smells heavenly, Helena,” Ned said as she poured tea into each of their cups. “What’s for supper?”
“A leg of lamb with all the trimmings,” she said. “I got it into the oven a bit late, so it won’t be ready for another hour or so.”
“I can hardly wait,” he said as she walked back to the sink where she was peeling potatoes.
“What’s up, Travis?” Ned said.
“Uh-oh,” Hugh said, “he looks serious.”
“It’s serious but not necessarily bad news,” Travis said. “Peter Balcomb stopped by again. He’s not my friend, but I find it hard to be rude, so I invited him in. Evaline, however, refused to offer him tea or coffee. In fact, she left the room. I wished I could have. I tried to act as unfriendly as I could, Ned, honestly.”
“Wait, Travis,” Ned held up his hand. “You don’t have to be rude to him just because of what he did to me. I’m the one who’s got the grudge and I plan to settle it very soon.”
“That’s what he’s afraid of, Ned. He asked me to speak to you, so I am. He doesn’t want to fight you.”
“I’m sure he doesn’t,” Ned said.
“He wants to know if there’s anything he can do for you to make up for what he did? Do you want some money or for him to do you a favor? He basically said to name your price,” Travis said.
“Ned doesn’t need money,” Hugh said. “He’s just become a ranch owner—I’m giving him the ranch, and it’ll be official on Friday, when we sign the papers.”
“Congratulations, Ned,” Travis said, as he stood to leave. “Well, I’ve delivered my message, so now I’ll be leaving you to your delicious supper.”
Travis stopped once he’d reached the back door, “Oh, fair warning: Ellen’s train is due to arrive on Friday, just so you know.”
“I’ll be sure to steer clear of your place for a while,” Ned said. “Thanks for the warning.”
Sitting at Rosie’s Eating House, having a sandwich and tea, Evaline asked Maria, “So, you and your mother are really having a double wedding?”
“Yes. It’s so exciting. I started out seeing Ned so my mother could be with Hugh, and she and Hugh were doing the same thing for Ned and me, so it’s only fair we get married together,” Maria said. “I’m so glad you and Travis will be with us.”
“We shopped for your accessories today, but what about your wedding dress?”
“My mother sent all the way to Kansas City from a catalog for our dresses.” Maria could hardly contain herself, she was so excited. “You should see them, Evaline, they’re gorgeous, and they match. Hers is a rose color and mine is light beige or ecru. Hers will have a red sash and mine will have a violet one.”
“I’m so happy for you and Ned,” Evaline said, patting Maria’s hand. “You two are perfect for each other. I’m sure the four of us will be good friends for many years to come. Ned is like a brother to Travis.
“And while I hate to spoil your enthusiasm, there’s something I need to tell you,” Evaline said as she put her napkin down on her empty plate. “Ellen is arriving from England on Friday.”
Maria felt her elation turn to grief in a matter of seconds, resulting in a hot flush. “Why is she coming here? I thought she hated Kansas.”
Evaline sipped her tea for a much longer time than usual. Was she thinking of how to break some news to her? She thought nothing could spoil her mood, but of course, Ellen’s name always put her off balance.
“She…um…” Evaline faltered.
“Tell me, Evaline. I’m confident in the love Ned and I share and there is nothing Ellen can do to hurt us.”
“She said she won’t leave Kansas until she gets Ned back,” Evaline said. “Mind you, Travis and I are on your side. We’ve already told Ned that will ask her to leave if she does anything to displease us. We aren’t going to put up with her butting into your relationship.
“As soon as she arrives and has settled, my Father, Travis, and I will sit down and spell out the rules to her.”
Maria had a strange feeling ever since Evaline mentioned that Ellen on her way. She knew that, somehow, it would affect her negatively. Would Ned see her and remember all the passion they’d once shared?
She had to stop doubting Ned. If they were ever to have a good marriage, she had to trust him, she knew that, but she still felt ill after hearing the news that Ellen would soon be back in town.
Evaline squeezed Maria’s hand. “Are you all right? You’re looking a bit pale. I assumed Ned had already mentioned it to you, but I wanted to be sure of it.”
Maria nodded, but she was deep in thought.
“I’m fine,” Maria finally said. “Ned did tell me. I trust the love Ned has for me, and I know that—without a doubt—he’d never go back to Ellen, but what I fear is that she may try something sinister. Anyone who’d forge a letter is capable of anything. She scares me, Evaline.”
Chapter Twenty
Robert met Ellen at the train depot and drove her to Travis and Evaline’s house. He seemed pleased to see her. She cringed at the sight of Hays, but this was where Ned lived and she hoped they’d be able to compromise on their living arrangements. She knew that alone would be enough to get him back. They could live in the summer in one country and the winter in the other. It was the perfect solution, she thought.
“I’ve missed you, Father,” she said as the carriage proceeded down the main street of Hays. “Mother’s been such a grouch since you left, I just had to get away.”
“I understand, but I’m going back next month to give our marriage another try. It’s the Christian thing to do. Reverend Moran counseled me the other day, and while he influenced me to give her another chance, he also said God didn’t want to see anyone abused, either. He said that if she doesn’t change for the better, that I had every right to separate myself from her as often as necessary in order to be happy.”
“How’s Ned?” she asked. She could hardly wait to lay eyes on him.
“He’s fine, now, but he was beaten to a pulp by a man named Balcomb and his gang of five men. He nearly died, but he’s recovered. Now, however, he plans to fight Balcomb, one on one, and we’re all trying to talk him out of it,” Robert said.
“Oh, no! Poor Ned!” she cried.
Her father slowed the buggy and turned to her. “Now, listen, Ellen: he’s with someone else, now. He’s is very happy, and I want you to leave him be. Do you understand?”
“But Father, I know he still loves me, I just know it.”
“He and Maria are betrothed, and I want you to leave him and Maria alone,” he said sternly. “I mean it.”
Ellen sat the rest of the way, fuming.
After she unpacked her suitcase in the room her sister had given her, she sat down and wondered at the half-hearted welcome from Travis and Evaline and shrugged. She heard voices in the kitchen, walked there, and stood in the doorway, listening.
A handsome stranger was in there speaking with Travis, and she wondered who he might be. She crept a bit closer in order to hear the conversation.
“Did you talk to Ned for me?” the visiting man asked.
“He’s not interested, sorry,” Travis said. “I tried.”
The man sighed. “You mentioned I’d pay any price he asked?”
“I did,” Travis sa
id, “and he isn’t interested.”
The man didn’t look happy. She wondered what the man wanted Ned to agree to. Just then, the handsome young man looked up and over Travis’s shoulder and spotted her.
“Oh, hello,” he said. Then he turned to Travis. “I didn’t know you had a houseguest.”
She heard Travis groan as if he wasn’t exactly thrilled to introduce them, so she stepped forward.
“Hello, I’m Ellen Radcliffe, Evaline’s sister.” She smiled at him.
“Pleased to meet you, I’m Peter Balcomb. I am—or was—a good friend of Travis’s.”
When she heard the name, Balcomb, she almost let her surprise show. So, this was the man who had nearly killed Ned. She took an immediate disliked to him.
When Travis made no move to correct him as to the status of their relationship, Balcomb turned to the door. “Well, thank you for trying, Travis. I don’t know how many times I can say how sorry I am.”
Balcomb smiled at Ellen. “It was nice meeting you, Ellen.” He turned and left.
No sooner had he left, than Evaline and Travis came in and announced they were about to have a family meeting. Evaline invited everyone to sit down at the table.
Ellen listened for thirty minutes to each of them as they warned her to stay away from Ned and Maria. She yawned. Then Travis told her, “And if we hear anything even hinting that you’ve butted into their relationship, you’ll have to stay elsewhere.”
Ellen inhaled quickly. Where else would she stay? While she couldn’t believe her own family had turned against her, she simply sat and listened to them. When they’d finished, she conceded. “I won’t seek out either Ned or Maria, and I promise not to do anything Ned doesn't want me to, but when he hears I’m in town, I know he’ll want to see me.”
Ellen knew that as soon as Ned saw her he’d want her again, since he’d remember the passion they’d shared. When he didn’t come to see her at Travis and Evaline’s after three days, she decided to go into town, hoping she’d run into him. She didn’t dare go to his house for news of it would surely get back to Travis and her sister.
She walked up and down the wooden walkway doing some window-shopping, but she didn’t want to go into the stores for fear she’d miss Ned if he came to town.
“Well, hello there!” a male voice called from behind her. She swung around to see that Balcomb fellow, the one who’d hurt Ned. She put her nose in the air to make sure he knew he’d been snubbed, and then she kept walking.
He ran ahead of her and stood in her way. “Let me buy you lunch and explain what happened that night.”
“You hurt the man I love. Why would you do that? I don’t want anything to do with someone who would harm Ned,” she said.
“You sure are pretty when you’re angry,” he said in a teasing voice. “Just give me a few minutes of your time over a quick bite to eat at Rosie’s.”
She was hungry from walking up and down the walkways. What harm could it do to listen to him, walk out, and never have a thing to do with him again? Besides, she might learn something valuable about Ned through him.
Ellen breathed out loudly. “All right, but it had better be good.”
Once they were seated across from each other at Rosie’s, sipping tea, and waiting for their sandwiches, Ellen said, “So, tell me: why did you hurt Ned?”
“Let’s eat first and then I’ll tell you everything,” Peter said.
Ellen wished this man hadn’t been the man who had hurt Ned, because he was very handsome, and he had a way of swiping the hair from his forehead that was endearing. If circumstances had been different, she might consider him seriously, especially if she wasn’t able to win Ned back. Since Ned must already know she’d arrived, and he hadn’t come to see her, it wasn’t a good sign.
When the sandwiches arrived, they ate without talking. Whenever she looked up at Balcomb, he was looking at her with a stimulating smile. She wondered how anyone with a smile like that could do harm to anyone. Then she warned herself that he could be dangerous.
When they’d finished eating, Rosie refilled their teacups, and Ellen waited for Balcomb to explain.
“Well?” she urged.
“All right, but promise you won’t interrupt until l’m done.”
She rolled her eyes. “I promise.”
“One evening, I took Maria for a carriage ride. She’s a pretty little thing, and she smiled at me every time I looked at her. I usually ran around with a wilder type of woman, and I sort of got my signals mixed. She was being friendly, but she wasn’t inviting me to take liberties, I know that now. Anyway, I made some bold, romantic advances, and she yelled like a coyote. Ned happened to come upon the scene and he picked me up and threw me out of the carriage. He split my lip and made a complete fool of me in front of Maria. It was humiliating.
“I wanted to get even, but I’ve never been a fighter, and fisticuffs have never been my thing. I got a new job at a cattle ranch and found myself in a gang of rough cowboys. I wanted them to like me, but all they’d done since I arrived on the job was rile me. So when they asked me to join them on mischief-making trips, I went along and tried to act tough like them.
“One day, I confided in them about what Ned had done to me. They told me I should fight him and they’d stand nearby, and if Ned got the upper hand in the fight, they’d step in. I had no idea they’d go that far in beating him. Honest. I wanted to go back for him later, but I was afraid he was dead and I’d be blamed. I’ve never been so scared in my life.
“You can’t believe how relieved I was when I learned Ned was alive and on the mend. I wanted to apologize, but I knew I wouldn’t be welcomed at his home, so I tried to get word to him through Travis. And that’s the whole story—the honest truth.”
Ellen could relate to his story, and she believed him. He had the most darling brown eyes, a few shades lighter than her own. When he smiled, he had slight dimples. She found herself sympathizing with him.
“I believe you, mostly because you and Travis were once friends, so if you were such a horrible person, he’d have detected it long ago,” she said. “You just got in a bit over your head with the ruffians.”
“I was arrested, and my father bailed me out, but I was told to make restitution to all involved. I apologized to Maria, and I’m still trying to reach Ned with one. I also can’t associate with the cowboys anymore, so I had to quit my job at the ranch.”
“Don’t you need a job? How will you live?” she asked.
“My father owns a magnificent horse breeding stables and has the best horses this side of the Mississippi. He holds auctions and horse shows. We have five stables, full of the best breeds,” he said. “Would you like to see it sometime?”
Ellen perked up when he mentioned his father’s wealth.
“Will you own the ranch one day?” she asked.
“He expects either me or my brother to take it over one day, but like most young, foolish, men I wanted to succeed on my own,” he said. “I no longer want that,” he laughed. “I’ve learned a hard lesson. My father is showing me the workings of horse breeding, so I work with him each day. He pays me well, too. I’ve even started going to church again. All of this from my guilt about what happened to Ned. I’ve atoned in every way except to get Ned to accept my apology.”
“It’s all that Maria’s fault,” Ellen said. She was sure of it. More than likely, she’d flirted with him and led Peter to make a move on her.
“No, it isn’t,” he conceded. “She’s a genuinely decent woman.”
“I don’t like her, one bit. I’d like to see her out of the picture.”
“So you can have Ned back?”
“He was mine before he met her. If she was out of the picture, he’d come back, I know he would.”
“Don’t get your hopes up, Ellen. Nothing is going to change,” Peter said.
“It could,” she stared at the tea in her cup for a few seconds, thinking. “If something horrible happened to Maria, it’s possible.” She
wondered if Peter might help her get rid of Maria. When she saw the shocked look on his face, she realized that wasn’t going to happen.
“What are you saying, Ellen?”
“Nothing, just wishful thinking, is all.”
“Well, now you’ve heard the whole story, I’ve offered Ned money, I’ve asked him how I can make it up to him, but he refuses to answer. All he wants is to give me a taste of what those cowboys gave him,” Peter said.
Ellen had a plan, but she needed to know Ned and Maria’s daily routines. “How does Ned court Maria? Does he go to her house at night or does she come to his place?”
“I’ve noticed they keep busy. They don’t do a lot of romancing, at least, not in public. They sometimes race their horses out behind Ned’s place. There’s an old cattle drive trail back there that’s perfect for racing. Travis used to race with Ned, but now he races with her. That’s usually on the weekend because Ned works with Hugh during the day. Then, in the evenings, Ned rides out and spends time with Maria at her house.” Peter scratched his head. “Why do you need to know all of this?”
“Um…to avoid them, of course,” she said, but she had a devious plan, and she was obsessed with it.
“So, when would you like to see our horse breeding ranch?” Peter asked.
“Why not now? I’m not doing anything.”
“Good, where’s your horse?”
“Tied in front of the general store.”
“Let’s go, then,” Peter said, standing and leading her out of the eating house.
Peter showed her all around the stables and she was impressed, not only with the buildings but the house he lived in, as well. The horses didn’t interest her much. To her four legs and a saddle was all she needed in a horse, but it got her thinking deviously, again.
“What color horse does Maria ride?” she asked.
“Maria has an unusual horse. Her mother bought it from my father.” He pointed to a pinto. “Her horse looks just like this one, only the mane on hers is black,” he said. “Why?”