He hoped that Reed had been successful because he was starting to have unfamiliar but exciting thoughts. Perhaps it was seeing Tom and his devoted wife, perhaps it was all the other families around him on the train, perhaps it was his own sister's happiness, or perhaps Thaddeus was just growing up.
He couldn't say what sparked his desire to make an honest man out of himself, but if Ellie would have him, he knew he would try his damnedest to be a good husband to her.
With the best of intentions still circulating through his mind, Thaddeus smiled broadly when his sister opened her front door.
"Hi, Charlie," he said, waiting for her to hug him as she always did. She, however, greeted him with a full-blown scowl and her mouth grimly set, gesturing him inside without a welcoming embrace.
He'd had only a moment to take in her burgeoning stomach and rounded cheeks when Reed appeared and said, "In good conscience, I have to do this," and punched him in the mouth.
Charlotte cried out, voicing the stunned surprise that Thaddeus felt as his hat went flying.
With difficulty, he barely stopped himself from retaliating against Reed. Barely. For a man who'd been alone for so many years, Thaddeus had never had the option of not defending himself. But this was his sister's husband.
"What the hell?" Thaddeus said, touching his cheek to see if it was bleeding. It wasn't, and he hadn't lost any teeth. Reed had pulled his punch... a little. But Thaddeus wasn't going to take another hit. He tossed his bag down and with fists held in front of him and his legs apart, he waited for an explanation.
For a moment, Reed's clenched jaw and Charlotte's grim expression were the only answers.
"I don't suppose you two want to give me a clue what in blue blazes that was for. It seems like I've returned to a nut house," Thaddeus said.
Charlotte eyed her husband. "No more fisticuffs, please."
Reed shrugged as his expression turned a shade sheepish before he visibly relaxed his stance.
"It was my duty," he insisted.
Thaddeus wondered if, somehow, Reed had found out that he and Ellie had been intimate in the bed upstairs and felt honor-bound to defend her.
As if confirming his suspicions, Charlotte said, "It's Eliza," and her look of worry sucked all the fight right out of him. He lowered his fists.
"What about her? Where is she?"
His sister glanced at her husband, who nodded for her to continue. "She's gone," Charlotte said.
Thaddeus felt the same surge of fear that had rushed through him when seeing Stoddard's men haul her away. "Gone? Gone where? When?"
"It's been three days," Reed said. "She slipped by the marshal, but he was looking for men coming after her, not expecting her to sneak past him. I don't suppose you have any idea where she would go?"
Thaddeus ran a hand through his hair, feeling utterly helpless. "For Christ's sake, I wouldn't be asking you if I knew. Back to Spring City, maybe."
He rubbed the back of his neck and saw them exchange a quick glance, the meaning of which he couldn't fathom.
Three days. He'd missed her by so little. But in that amount of time, she could be damn near anywhere. "Did she get her annulment?"
"She did," Reed said, sending Charlotte a quick glance. "Darling, you should sit down."
He held out his hand and she acquiesced, letting him lead her to the parlor in the back of the house. Thaddeus had no choice but to follow.
"Why on God's green earth would she run away then?" he demanded, after Reed stopped fussing over his pregnant wife.
Reed leveled him with a stare. "Unfortunately, Miss Prentice doesn't know her marriage is annulled. She ran out of patience, it seems. I informed you both early on that annulments take more time than divorces, especially when we're dealing with a hostile, uncooperative husband."
Thaddeus found himself making fists again. The word husband didn't sit particularly easily, not when it applied to Stoddard.
"And Miss Prentice's former husband has been particularly uncooperative," Reed continued, crossing his arms. "The judge, on the other hand, saw the merits of our case. Proceedings went well until we tried to get Mr. Stoddard's signature. I sent one letter after another, then I sent messengers, all to no avail. My partner, John Trelaine, is on his way back now, however. I had a telegram from him a couple days ago; he was successful."
"So Stoddard signed, and Ellie is a free woman," Thaddeus said, "except she doesn't know it."
"Correct," Reed said.
"Why would she up and leave when she was so close to getting what she wanted?" Infernal woman! It was almost as if she begged for trouble. And he just knew, somehow, that he was going to have to extricate her. He looked at their grim faces.
"Ellie hasn't changed a bit, has she? I bet she up and left and never even thanked you." When he saw her again, he was going to tan her backside—after he'd kissed her, of course. "I need a smoke."
"No, Teddy, listen," Charlotte began, but he already knew what she was going to say.
"I know," he muttered. "You're like Ellie; you don't like the smell. I'm heading outside."
With that, he was up and out the back door onto the deck before they could stop him. The sea was as dark and fierce today as his emotions.
Lighting a cigarette, he sucked in the smoke at the same time as white hot anger coursed through him, both at Ellie for her headstrong ways and at Stoddard for his delaying tactics. Mostly, he realized, he was angry at himself, for thinking he'd come back to find her all domesticated and waiting for him.
Damn! He'd told her to stay put. And what had she done? The very opposite.
Just then, the door opened and Charlotte stepped out, casting him a grim glance before standing beside him at the railing, staring out at the ocean.
"What is wrong with that woman?" Thaddeus asked her. "I come clear across the country to tell her—"
"She's expecting," Charlotte blurted out, wrapping her arms around her own developing stomach.
His sister's words seemed to reverberate inside his brain, like an echo in his copper mine; he heard the last one over and over. Expecting. Expecting. His child!
Well, hell! He hadn't seen that coming. He dropped the cigarette and ground it out with his boot while his heart slammed around against his chest wall. No wonder Reed had hit him.
"And she doesn't want me to know?" he surmised.
"I don't know what she's thinking," Charlotte admitted. "Obviously, she has feelings for you. And you for her?"
He nodded, feeling desperate now to talk to Ellie.
Charlotte looked at him, apparently seeing the anguish he felt, because she reached up her delicate hand and placed it on his cheek. "I'm sorry, Teddy. You were wrong by the way; she did thank us. She left a note."
His gaze darted to hers. "What did she say? Did she leave a message for me?"
Charlotte's expression told it all. Ellie hadn't mentioned him. "All she said was thank you, expressed with heartfelt gratitude, and that she'd be in touch."
He gripped the railing. After all they'd been through, she'd left without a word for him.
"Teddy, Eliza may be experiencing a myriad of feelings; she might be ashamed or she could be angry."
Ashamed of having relations with him? That made the most sense. But he could also imagine her furious at the way he'd left her. But he'd had to go; he'd had to set up his future so he didn't need to depend on gambling ever again. Hadn't he told her he'd be back? Evidently, she hadn't believed him.
"Women don't always think reasonably when they're in my condition," she offered. "I can attest to that. Besides, Eliza might not know how you feel about her."
He heard the harder edge to her tone, condemning him.
"Teddy, we'd heard nothing from you, and you've been gone a long time."
Over four months, and he had thought of Ellie every day. He ought to have done more than that. He should have sent her a telegram the minute he'd got to the station in Butte and before he got on the train to Boston. Would that have made
a difference? Or would she have fled even sooner?
Right now, he needed more answers from Reed, and he had to decide which direction he'd go to look for Ellie—for he had no doubt in his mind that he would track her down. He turned to go inside, but his sister's hand on his arm stopped him. One glance at her face and he realized Charlotte was getting her hackles up.
"So, what are you going to do regarding Eliza having your child?"
Thaddeus wanted to growl at his sister. Ellie was out in the world somewhere, probably annoying people, making enemies—and now she carried his baby along.
He felt helpless, and he hated that, hated the way his breathing came in spurts when he thought of her in danger, the way his stomach sank at the idea of not being able to help her. But he saw the concern on Charlotte's lovely face, and he calmed himself.
"I intend to marry Ellie and raise my child."
She paused, judging his sincerity with narrowed eyes. "What about your incessant wandering?"
"I came back, didn't I?" he ground out. So much for staying calm.
Charlotte made a disparaging sound that he knew meant "too little, too late." Then she sighed, "But how will you keep her?"
A few months ago that question would have made him stammer with uncertainty. Now, it wasn't even an issue. "I have money, dear sister. Plenty of it and an income. More than enough to keep a wife and son... or daughter. But all I have right now is a missing woman who thinks she's still married to another man."
He grasped her hand and dragged her back into the parlor.
Patiently waiting for their sibling discussion to come to an end, Reed stood up. "Ready to go?"
It seemed he understood Thaddeus's near-frantic desire to head out immediately.
"Yup." He reached for his bag when he noticed silent tears slipping down Charlotte's cheeks. Even before Reed could reach for her, Thaddeus pulled her into his arms.
"Charlie, it's going to be all right," he promised, though all he could do was hope he was telling the truth. "I'm going to find that woman and hogtie her if need be. You wouldn't mind Ellie being your sister-in-law, would you? I mean, I know she's not your favorite person in the world."
Charlotte managed to stop crying and wiped her face with a handkerchief that she pulled from her sleeve.
"Of course I wouldn't mind, Teddy. Don't be ridiculous. I've come to quite like her, actually. She's awfully smart and was good company. But she has a melancholy about her that goes bone deep. So if you're marrying her solely because of the baby..." She let her words trail off, looking as though her tears were about to start flowing again.
He wanted to comfort her, but the last thing Thaddeus intended to do was discuss his conflicting feelings for Ellie with his sister and his brother-in-law.
Reed cleared his throat. "It's her condition," he offered. "My dearly emotional wife cries over everything. Frankly, I'm surprised it's taken twenty minutes for the tears to start."
"Stop teasing me," Charlotte said, shooting her husband a watery smile. Then she looked up into Thaddeus's face. "Do you want to take some of her things with you?"
He frowned. "Didn't she take them?"
Charlotte shook her head. "Eliza left most of her new clothes. She took only her carpetbag."
Glancing uncertainly at Reed, she added, "We thought she was coming back at first because she had so little with her."
Thaddeus shrugged. "That woman can travel light, I tell you. She's not coming back. I'm sure she has everything she needs in that bag. But don't you worry. We'll send for her clothes as soon as I find her and get her settled."
Please God, let him find her safe. "I've got to go, Charlie."
"I'll take you to the station," Reed said.
Thaddeus sat mutely in the clarence beside Reed. He felt exhausted and energized at the same time. Which way to go first? Reed was talking, but Thaddeus couldn't concentrate on his words.
He'd scarcely had time to digest the incredible news—Ellie was carrying his child. A small smile crossed his lips, and he shook his head in wonder. His child. Good Lord! He had damn well better convince Ellie he could do the job of husband and father. He couldn't remember ever wanting anything more than to claim Ellie as his wife and to raise their baby.
Yet she'd run away from the one place she knew he could find her, and a nagging fear kept telling him that she didn't want him, not in either of those capacities. To her, he would always be aimless, a drifter, slightly on the wrong side of legal. A thief, she'd called him. Is that how she truly saw him? Not worthy of her or their child.
"Miss Prentice is completely out of debt," Reed said, bringing Thaddeus's attention back to the specifics of Ellie's case. "I stipulated that Mr. Stoddard dismiss her so-called debt of $10,000. After all, she claims he cheated."
"That left only the ring," Reed continued, "and John had it with him when he and two marshals went to Hamilton. We decided that seeing it would make Stoddard sign in accordance with the judge's ruling if nothing else would. It worked, too."
Shit! Thaddeus broke out in a cold sweat. "Does Ellie know that Stoddard has his ring back?"
"No." Reed frowned. "She'd become increasingly removed the past two weeks and didn't even want to discuss her annulment. She wanted to know when it was complete, and that was all. When she left so abruptly, I never had a chance to tell her what my partner was doing."
Wild thoughts raced through Thaddeus's brain. What if Ellie decided to go back to Stoddard?
If she got anywhere near the man and tried to use possession of his precious ring as protection, she'd be defenseless. But why would she go near Jack Stoddard? True, she was pregnant and might be having some crazy notions, but he had no reason to believe she'd do anything rash—except try to force Stoddard into giving her an annulment.
Obviously, she'd grown tired of waiting—both for Stoddard to agree and set her free and for Thaddeus to return.
His stomach roiled with uncertainty. It felt like he'd swallowed a bag of rocks.
"I'm sorry," Reed said into the silence, "that I let her get away, especially in her condition."
"It wasn't your fault. Hell, the woman's escaped from captivity before, even without my help. She can do just about anything she sets her mind to."
As he said it, Thaddeus realized it was true and how much he truly admired Ellie for the incredible woman she'd become. If only he could tell her to her face.
"You should have articulated to Miss Prentice how you felt," Reed admonished, saying his first condemning words over the whole unsavory situation. "And you shouldn't have promised her you'd return when we both know you weren't certain of doing so."
Reed shot him a sideways look as they reached the train station.
Thaddeus met his gaze for a moment, then dropped it. How did the man know how conflicted he'd been when he'd left Boston? In his usual impulsive manner, Thaddeus had told Ellie what he knew she'd wanted to hear, and in his heart, he'd meant it, wanting to be with her, just as he'd always wanted to. However, in his head, he'd been planning a new life.
If he'd liked it enough, he might still be in Montana—if he was the kind of man he'd previously believed he was, one who could live for making money, live without family, and live without the woman he loved.
And make no mistake, he realized as swiftly and surprisingly as Reed's punch to his jaw that he loved Ellie with all his heart. And nothing else in his life was worth more than that, not the copper mine, the poker games, and not his cherished freedom.
Chapter 13
Eliza couldn't stop crying and it made her madder than a stuck pig. Head bowed, she leaned against the window in the corner of her train seat. Train travel without Thaddeus was like trying to eat without a fork or a spoon. Just plain wrong, but it was better than staying put, abandoned by him, and wondering if she'd ever see him again.
After the first month at Charlotte's, Eliza hoped he'd return. A month seemed like long enough to finish whatever business he had. Daily, she looked out for the mail, hoping T
haddeus had at least sent her some missive concerning his situation.
Once she'd realized she was pregnant, she'd spent her days trying to hide it, hoping he'd return to whisk her away before his family realized the extent of her shamefulness. When the second month had passed, she'd begun to feel resentful. While she felt her body changing in subtle ways, he was off somewhere freely living his life. Without her.
She doubted if he thought of her at all. Their association had been brief and troublesome, and he'd never offered her any clue or hope about his intentions. Neither Charlotte nor Reed had heard from him, either, and as Reed said in passing one day, a man could easily lose himself in the west.
By the third month, when her stomach was given to retching even while empty, she'd grown angry. Damn him! And damn her for a fool! When Charlotte approached her in private one afternoon to confirm that she was with child, it had been the single most humiliating experience of her life, worse than when Stoddard had made her strip naked looking for his ring.
To her credit, Charlotte had not offered her pity regarding her condition, nor hope that Thaddeus would come back, merely understanding, plain and simple—and Jeanine's special tea for soothing the stomach.
Reed was doing what he'd promised, getting her an annulment—methodically, legally, and it seemed, excruciatingly slowly. Eliza stopped asking why it was taking so long, after he'd mentioned Stoddard's refusal to sign. Perhaps the blasted gambler would never sign and she'd be stuck on the wharf in Boston forever.
Except she would still be waiting for Thaddeus, pathetically mooning over a man who'd had no trouble leaving her. Truthfully, she was plain tired of herself. Her father was probably turning over in his grave and her mother, too.
Then, one evening, she realized that she didn't have to stay. She could simply leave; no one was forcing her to remain. And she could only imagine the relief the Malloys would feel after her departure. She decided at the end of the third month, if Thaddeus still hadn't shown up, she would leave.
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