by Annie Boone
But Amy wasn’t one to give up that easily.
“You might feel that way now, but if you ever change your mind, I think that a mail order bride might be just the thing for you. I’d never considered it before yesterday when I got to spend time with that charming Elizabeth Brown.”
Hearing the name of the girl he had encountered the day before made Clayton instantly uncomfortable. He didn’t know why, but there was something about her that had drawn him to her. When he had grabbed her in his arms to keep her from falling flat on her face, Clayton had felt something deep within him stir, a kind of attraction he hadn’t experienced in a very long time, an attraction he didn’t want to feel again, especially not toward the fiancé of Mason Reeve.
“So,” Clayton spoke up, running his finger absentmindedly across the top of the table. “Tell me a little bit about Elizabeth.”
Although he didn’t really want to think about the beautiful young woman from the south, Clayton found it almost impossible to ignore the questions that were running through his mind.
Amy took another bite of her cobbler.
“She’s lovely. Just a lovely girl all the way round.”
“How did she meet Mason Reeve?”
“Oh,” Amy exclaimed, before giggling and raising her eyebrows.
“She had never met him until yesterday. No, Elizabeth simply answered a newspaper advertisement he had placed. It seems that she was in a pretty difficult situation with both her parents dead and her uncle having inherited everything. When her uncle took over the family plantation, Elizabeth was left homeless and facing life out on the streets. She started writing to Mason out of desperation more than anything else.”
Clayton felt his heart ache as he considered the plight of the young woman. He certainly remembered what it was like to be homeless and unwanted. Thankfully, the sheriff and his family had been there to take him in when he was a boy. If it hadn’t been for them, he had no idea where he would be now.
“She certainly got things better than many girls in the same situation,” Amy continued. “She was blessed when she found Mason. He’s a good man, upstanding, kind, caring, and honorable.”
“Sure is,” Bart agreed with a nod of his own. “He’ll make a fine husband of any girl. She’s lucky to have him.”
Bending to give his wife a kiss on the cheek, he added, “I’m just glad I managed to snag you before he could look your way.”
Amy laughed, a blush crossing her cheeks.
While the happy couple made some silly comments to each other, Clayton sat in silence, trying to process everything he was hearing. Sometimes it was difficult to simply sit by and listen as the people closest to him praised Mason Reeve with such adoring fervor.
Clayton’s mind wandered as he considered things that had happened in the past, situations that caused him to question whether Mason Reeve was truly as upstanding a citizen as everyone else thought.
“You look troubled, Clayton.”
Amy’s voice made Clayton look to see her studying him with a confused expression.
“Oh, it’s nothing. Just … you know, work, a sheriff’s life isn’t easy at times. You should know that as well as anyone.”
“What’s going on now?” Bart asked, leaning back in his chair.
Using his fork to scoop up the last bite of cobbler, Clayton tried to sound unconcerned.
“Nothing really. It’s just that several ranchers have complained about their livestock going missing. Not huge herds, but a few head.”
Allowing his deepest concerns emerge, he admitted, “I just hope we’re not having a problem with rustlers.”
Silence pervaded the room and Clayton almost regretted sharing his fears. Finally, realizing he had certainly given Amy and Bart enough trouble for one night, Clayton pulled himself to his feet.
“Well, I’d better get back to the sheriff’s office.”
Amy rose to her feet as well. “Clayton, you know you’re always welcome to spend the night here.”
Before she could finish, Clayton was nodding his head and assuring her. “I know, sis, but I feel like I need to be in my own bed and at my own post.”
Giving her a teasing wink, he added, “You know that trouble never sleeps.”
He pulled his sister into a lengthy hug and gave his brother-in-law a handshake. Clayton then headed out and mounted his horse for the short ride back to Plainsville.
Riding along the path, Clayton had to admit to himself that he wanted to get back to his small cot in the sheriff’s office for more than just one reason. He needed to be alone and he needed the quiet. He loved being with his sister but, whenever he was with Amy, he was overtaken by the sense that he didn’t belong and overwhelmed with the reality of how lonely his life truly was.
Forcing his mind to travel to other thoughts, Clayton found his brain invaded by images of Elizabeth Brown.
“Poor girl,” Clayton whispered. “What a life she’s in for.”
But, even as the words slipped off his tongue, Clayton felt guilty for saying them.
He had no proof that Mason Reeve was a bad man or that he would mistreat a wife. All Clayton had was simply suspicion.
“Suspicion and a dead body,” Clayton muttered under his breath.
Clayton had arrested Dudley Spencer, a popular town thug, for being drunk and disorderly. He had thrown Dudley in jail for the night, hoping he’d sober up by morning. Dudley had talked nonstop before he finally passed out on the cot in the jail cell and Mason Reeve had been the topic of his discussion.
“He’s stealing cattle,” he kept screaming.
Dudley had tried to warn Clayton as the sheriff led him to the jail cell.
“You’ve got to get him, Sheriff. He’s the one who ought to be here in jail, not me. He knows that I know what he’s doing, rounding up cattle and selling them right out from under other folks’ noses. You’ve got to stop him.”
Dudley was known for his tall tales when he had too much liquor, so Clayton had ignored him completely. Now, Clayton regretted that decision.
After letting Dudley out the next morning, Clayton was surprised when he found the drunk’s dead body laid out in a field on the outskirts of town. Dudley had been shot through the heart and left lying in the field. There seemed to only be one explanation that Clayton could think of. Mason Reeve had wanted the drunk silent and he’d used a bullet, which was the only way to get the job done permanently.
Well aware that his thoughts were nothing more than wild speculation, Clayton tried to rein them in as he drew near to Plainsville. However, regardless of the steps he took to still his mind, Clayton wished that Elizabeth Brown hadn’t gotten herself tangled up in this entire mess. If only she had waited a few more months until Clayton had time to properly investigate Reeve before she came on to the scene.
“But she didn’t,” Clayton said almost angrily into the darkness. “And there’s nothing you can do about it. Elizabeth Brown is here now, like it or not. And she’s going to marry Mason Reeve, even if you don’t want her to.”
But as the words slipped off of his tongue, Clayton couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Elizabeth would turn out to be the ticket he needed to catch Mason red-handed and put the man away once and for all. If she truly was a good girl, then she wouldn’t put up with aiding a cattle thief. Clayton had no doubts that she would discover her husband’s evil actions if she went on to marry him.
Perhaps Elizabeth’s arrival in Plainsville was an act of fate in disguise.
Chapter Four
Elizabeth felt a surge of excitement course through her body as the buggy led them into Plainsville township. Seated beside her fiancé on the wagon, she thought she might be unable to contain herself.
As thankful as she was to have Mason in her life, she had to admit that her first week on his ranch had been unbelievably boring. He spent most of his time out with his ranch hands leaving Elizabeth alone with no one but Martha to keep her company and entertainment. While Martha was a nice enough ho
usekeeper, she was a very quiet woman who did nothing to provide Elizabeth with any companionship.
Elizabeth could never remember a time when she had been more anxious to socialize with people in town. Even when she was living with her widowed father, he had tried to make her life pleasant and she had also had the slaves to keep her company.
“Now, we need to make a stop by the general store and then we’ll see about getting an order put in for a wedding dress at the dress shop.”
Mason rattled off his plans for the afternoon as he guided his horse toward the small store that served the town and the area locals.
“I also have to order some feed and perhaps pick up a bag of seed.”
Motioning toward the crowd gathered outside the nearby saloon, Mason lowered his voice. “You just make sure you follow me and don’t do anything to sneak off.”
While Elizabeth appreciated her fiancé’s attempts at keeping her safe, there was something about his commanding manner that spurred her to feel somewhat alarmed. Rather than feeling like a soon-to-be-bride, Elizabeth battled with the recurring feeling of being treated like a child. She could only hope that, the longer she knew Mason, the less he would feel the need to control her.
Following him into the general store, Elizabeth smiled as Mason introduced her to several of the patrons that were busy shopping along with the storekeeper.
“This is my fiancé, Elizabeth Brown,” Mason told them, giving a nod in Elizabeth’s direction.
The storekeeper was beaming as he stuck out a weathered hand.
“My my, it’s good to meet you. Mason told us he was corresponding with a young lady, but we didn’t know what to expect. You sure are a beauty. You come from …”
His voice trailed off and Elizabeth cleared her throat before filling in for him.
“Georgia sir, I come from Georgia.”
“Yes,” Mason interrupted before she could say anything else.
“Georgia was her home. The girl’s from a good family that owned a fine plantation until her father died. God rest his soul.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
The storekeeper’s wrinkled eyes showed true sympathy.
“What happened?”
Elizabeth opened her mouth to answer his question, but Mason once again burst in to explain.
“He’d been sick for a while. Poor Elizabeth had to suffer greatly watching him waste away.”
As Elizabeth listened to her future husband speak on her behalf, she wondered if he would eventually give her a chance to speak for herself. It was beginning to look like there was no chance for her to even open her mouth. How could she hope to make friends and meet people if Mason did all the talking for her? She felt less like a person and more like a puppet as the minutes passed.
Maybe it’s simply because the shopkeeper is a man. Perhaps Mason is jealous and doesn’t want me to strike up a conversation with any man besides himself.
While that felt like a plausible explanation, it was soon proven wrong. When they moved forward to talk to some of the ladies, Mason took the lead again, leaving Elizabeth mute.
The store wasn’t the only place where Mason dominated the conversation. Elizabeth endured a similar experience in the dress shop with her fiancé picking out the material and the pattern for the wedding dress without even consulting her. Elizabeth could see that the dress maker, a woman named Mrs. Jennings, viewed Mason with obvious disdain, but she kept her comments to herself.
By the time they reached the feed store, Elizabeth was very annoyed with Mason and unable to comprehend why she wasn’t allowed to speak at all.
Mason was soon caught up in an important conversation about cattle with someone outside the store, and Elizabeth found herself looking absentmindedly at her surroundings. She was trying to remind herself to be thankful for the home she had and the fiancé who had saved her from her uncle, but it was hard to keep a pleasant outlook in these circumstances.
When Elizabeth caught sight of Amy walking across the street, she felt like she had just seen her only friend in the world. Already irritated with Mason, she turned on her heel and started off after Amy. She wasn’t going to miss her opportunity to talk with her acquaintance, even if it did go against the wishes of her future husband.
“Amy!” Elizabeth called out as she hurried past the sheriff’s office.
Seeing a door open, Elizabeth stopped in her tracks. Clayton Ward had stepped out of the small building and stood on the plank sidewalk, completely blocking her way and making it impossible for her to keep moving forward.
“Elizabeth Brown, we need to talk for a minute.”
Clayton spoke rudely and then he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the sheriff’s office. Elizabeth was suddenly overcome with a deep sense of fear. While she wanted to trust Amy’s brother, there was something about the sheriff that felt odd. Surely it wasn’t normal to simply be grabbed by a man and whisked away with no explanation.
Once they were in the safety of the sheriff’s office, Clayton’s green eyes got serious and he studied Elizabeth as if he was suspicious that she had committed a crime.
“Sheriff,” Elizabeth started in protest. “I’m not sure why you’ve grabbed me, but I can assure you that I have no reason to be here in this…” She glanced at the stained walls of the nearby cells and shuddered inwardly. “This… jail.”
“Miss Brown.” Clayton’s voice was somber as he spoke her name. “I don’t want to startle you and I don’t want to upset you, but I need to ask you a few questions.”
Although his words sounded somewhat comforting, his urgency and the concern in his voice made Elizabeth feel a deep sense of foreboding. Glancing out the window, she gauged the chance she had to make a break for the door and call for help before he stopped her. She didn’t have much of a chance.
“Miss Brown, I’ve been hearing some strange reports and I just need to ask you. Have you seen anything suspicious happening around the Reeve Ranch?”
Suspicious? What was the sheriff talking about? Nothing was as suspicious as what was happening right now.
“What do you mean?” Elizabeth asked, holding back her rising anger from creeping into her voice. How dare this man pull her into the shadows to suggest that something suspicious had been going on at her fiancé’s ranch?
“What would be suspicious?” She asked again, crossing her arms defiantly across her chest.
“Sheriff Clayton, I don’t know where you’re getting at, but Mason Reeve has been nothing but a gentleman since I came to Plainsville.”
Lifting a hand, Clayton hurried to explain. “I don’t want to upset you but I need you to know that your fiancé may not be all that he seems. There is another side to him. I believe that there is a dark side to him.”
As the words escaped the sheriff’s lips, Elizabeth had to fight to keep a shudder from running down her spine. Despite her loyalty to her fiancé, the suggestion that he might not be all he seemed made her nervous. What kind of dark side did the sheriff mean?
“Ma’am,” Clayton said in a lowered voice as if Mason might be able to hear them. “I don’t want to frighten you and I am also aware that I might be completely wrong, but I have heard rumors that your fiancé is involved in illegal activity. While I can’t confirm these rumors, I do believe that there might be some truth to them. There is evidence.”
Elizabeth felt the hairs on her skin bristle. Although his words were frightening her, there was a side of her that wanted to protect Mason at whatever the cost. Mason had been the one to take her in when she had nowhere else to go. She wouldn’t allow the sheriff speak badly of him while she simply stood by and took it.
“If you see anything, if anything happens that seems off, or if you hear something …”
Clayton left the statement incomplete, using his eyes to let her know what he wanted her to do, and succeeding in making Elizabeth even more furious.
“If I do, then what?” She asked, stomping a foot against the floor. “You want me to
come and tattle to you?”
“Yes, for the good of Plainsville and for your own safety, then yes,” Clayton answered.
Elizabeth couldn’t remember a time when she had been any angrier. She had already been dealing with a wide assortment of unpleasant emotions after Mason dominated all the conversations. Now her anger had grown even more, and it was time to vent, to vent her frustrations at the sheriff for this silly display.
“I’d die first.” Elizabeth said angrily.
Turning on her heel, she reached for the door and jerked it open, stepping back out into the street. But she heard Clayton quiet’s reply in the background.
“That might be just what will happen.”
Jerking the door shut behind her, Elizabeth wished she could willfully forget all the horrible things she had just heard the sheriff say. He couldn’t be serious. He couldn’t be telling the truth. She simply had to ignore him and continue on with her life. Mason had offered her a good home. She wanted to appreciate that and accept it. She didn’t have the luxury of second-guessing her decision.
Looking down the street for Amy, Elizabeth made her way toward the general store where she could see her friend sorting through some produce that had been displayed out front.
Raising a hand, Elizabeth started to wave when a man’s steely grip clasped her wrist.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Turning her head in surprise, Elizabeth was totally stunned to see her fiancé standing at her side, an angry scowl on his handsome face. Catching the eye of a passerby, Mason released his grip and forced a smile before adding with feigned kindness, “Elizabeth, it’s time to go home.”
“But I want to talk to my friend.”
Elizabeth opened her mouth to explain, but Mason’s frown warned her to say nothing else.
Once they were both seated in the wagon and on their way out of town, Mason allowed his true feelings reveal themselves.