Garrett turned from Victoria and stepped into the street. As comfortable as he was with the proper woman, he didn’t love her. His heart belonged to one woman. The woman who often left him speechless with a single smile. Elizabeth. His love. He would make this right. He had to.
Chapter 26
The pinks and pale yellow of the early morning sun began to slip over the mountain peaks, but Garrett was already halfway through town. The gate to Victoria’s father’s home appeared at the end of the row of houses, and he stepped up his pace. He’d bear the repercussions of calling at such an unwelcome time.
He all but sprinted the remaining distance, and rapped hard on the heavy oak door. It took a few moments for the maid to approach and answer.
“Mr. Jones,” the maid said, shocked. “The household is still asleep.”
“Please. I wouldn’t come at this time unless it was of great importance. I need to speak with Victoria.”
The maid pursed her lips as if contemplating the repercussions of letting him in. “You can sit on the swing in the corner of the porch. I’ll send Ms. Vikki down.”
“Thank you.” He doubted the maid missed the desperation in his voice.
The sun was halfway over the mountain by the time Victoria slipped quietly from the front door. “Garrett. Is everything all right? Where did you go last night? I had to make the rounds without you and lie to everyone about your rude departure.”
He stood from the porch swing, and waited for her to approach and sit before he took his seat once more. “I’m sorry about that. I should have made my own excuses.”
“I’ve never known you to be so impolite. In the future, you must take care to avoid such slip ups.”
“Victoria…Vikki,” he began, trying to hide the desperation he felt down to his core. “I…I came to beg of you to release me from our contract.”
“What?” She grasped her throat in a show of surprise. “Certainly not.”
“If we go through with this marriage we are destined to live unhappy lives. I cannot in good conscience allow you to marry me, when I know you do so simply because our fathers wish it.”
“That’s not true. You’re an honorable man, wealthy, and in good standing. And I know that together we can make both of our businesses greater than they are now. I couldn’t ask for a better match.”
“Yes, you could.” He turned toward her. “You could find someone to adore you as much as you deserve to be doted upon. I cannot give you that.”
“I beg your pardon?” Her face flashed with surprised fury.
“Please, hear me out. You’re a beautiful woman and will make some man very happy, but I am in love with someone else. I can’t give you my heart. I can’t give you the one thing on earth that you need. Love.”
“Elizabeth.” She pinched her lips together.
“I’m sorry.” God, his pleading didn’t seem to help. The look in her eye spoke of a woman digging in her claws to keep what she wanted. “I tried to deny it. Fought to put honor above my heart, but I can’t. I can’t get her from my mind, or heart. Please, if there is any decency in you, let me go. Let me be happy.”
“I can’t.” She swallowed hard. “I need this, Garrett. Big Mountain is part of my family’s legacy. The only way I will be able to take part in it is through a husband, and I know you will allow me such liberties. Another husband might not. I can’t let you go and jeopardize my plans. Besides. It’s already announced.”
“We’ll retract it. We’ll write a post in the newspaper and retract the announcement. What if there’s another way to get what we both want?”
“How?”
“The railroad logging system. We use it as leverage to get your father to give you stock in the company without a husband. This concept is going to revolutionize logging in Montana. And my team are the only ones in the entire state who have done it, but we won’t unless you are in charge. While I was up the mountain, Wall and I had my lawyer apply for a patent. This particular logging system is ours. We can use this to our advantage. Appeal to our fathers’ business senses and both get what we want. You get a part in the lumber company, and I get Beth. If my father objects, I’ll take my patent to another railroad company, but you and only you get first rights to use it.”
Victoria stared at the quiet road in front of the manor. The air remained quiet except for the gentle beat of Garrett’s heart, desperate to be free. She sucked in a deep breath, and slowly released it.
A few more moments of silence ticked by until, finally, Victoria broke down and smiled. “This could work. I’ll talk to my father. I want to be happy, and although I love you like a brother, you’re right. You’re not the one for me.”
“I’m sorry, Victoria.”
“Don’t be. Just promise to make Elizabeth a good husband. She not only deserves to be loved, but needs a strong man to do it.”
Garrett couldn’t help but let out a desperate, yet relieved, laugh. “I swear.”
“Now, fetch your father and come back at a reasonable hour. We’ll approach this together and won’t take no for an answer. If they wish to combine their companies, they can do it by using us professionally and not personally.”
Garrett stood at the same time she did, and took her up in an embrace. “Ah, Victoria. You will make some hardened businessman not only a good wife, but an exceptional partner. Will you do one more thing for me? After we speak to our fathers.”
“Of course,” she pulled her head back and stared at him in confusion. “Anything.”
* * * *
Beth watched the street goers rush around the walkways with hardly a glance to the other patrons searching the shops of Higgins Street. The night before, after hearing the engagement announced for all Missoula to hear, she ran. She wanted to wait as he requested, but for what? A dance that would do nothing more than tear her heart from beneath her bodice and replace it with an empty hole? She could bear no more.
Today she woke with a determination to forget the name of Garrett, and all of the heartbreak that accompanied the word.
“Your hair is growing quite nicely,” Carrie said, and dashed out of the way of a small boy chasing a marble down the boardwalk.
Beth plucked the toy from the ground, and handed it to the child. Her breath seized as she realized where she stood. The exact spot she’d bumped into Garrett on the way to Carrie’s house that fateful day. She clutched her stomach.
“A bit of shopping will get your mind off Garrett.” Carrie looped her arm through hers and started to lead her through the doors to the mercantile.
“Elizabeth! Carrie!” she heard a woman call from the streets.
She turned as Victoria eased her buggy to a stop before the platform.
“Have you come to gloat some more?” Carrie asked, with little care to the decorum she preached about.
“Aren’t you silly.” Victoria gave a smile that made Beth want to run home.
“Out shopping, or finding someone else to make cry?” Carrie tilted her head as she spoke.
“Aren’t you quite the challenger today?” Victoria said, and motioned to the empty seats in the back of her buggy. “Actually, I’ve come to fetch you. I stopped at your house, but you weren’t there. Your maid said I would find you shopping.”
“Fetch us? Why?” Beth asked, afraid of the answer.
“You’ll see. If you take a seat, we can be on our way. Hurry now, it’s of utmost importance.”
Carrie stared longingly at the dainty bonnet in the storefront, and then back at Beth. She shrugged. “I should wait to see if the price drops on the gloves that match the bonnet anyway. Why not? We’ve already taken on a river and won. We may as well brave Victoria’s driving.”
Beth shook her head. The last thing she wanted to do was spend the day hearing Victoria’s wedding plans. “You go ahead. I’m not feeling well. I think I’ll go home and lie
down.”
“Nonsense,” Victoria stated. “You’ll come with us. I insist.”
Beth shook her head. “I need to go home.”
“Then I’ll drop you off. It’ll be dark soon, and if you’re truly feeling ill, taking a buggy would be faster than walking.”
Carrie shrugged. “She’s right, you know.”
Reluctantly, Beth stepped into the open-aired buggy following her friend. As she settled, Victoria whipped the reins and sent the buggy in motion.
“You can take a left and go over the bridge.” Beth pointed to the only road over the river, but Victoria ignored her and snapped the reins to pick up speed. “What are you doing? That’s the only way to my home.”
“We’re not going home yet, dear Elizabeth.” Victoria shouted over her shoulder and the clop of horse feet on the dirt road. “We’ve a stop to make first. Best sit back and relax. It may be a few minutes.”
Carrie sent Beth an apologetic smile, and leaned closer. “I’m sorry. Had I known she planned to railroad us into running her errands with her, I would have declined.”
“What’s done is done.”
“I wonder where she’s headed.” Carrie stretched her neck to peek around Victoria’s shoulders to view the road.
“To hell,” Beth muttered quiet enough only her dearest friend could hear.
Carrie muffled a laugh.
The buggy slowed the closer they grew to the train depot, until Victoria brought it to a stop, and then turned in her seat. “I’ve left something on the train and need to pick it up on the platform. Would you be a dear and fetch it for me Elizabeth?”
Beth glared.
“I’d do it myself, but this horse is new and needs constant commands,” Victoria said.
“Come on,” Carrie said, and motioned toward the buggy steps. “I’ll go with.”
“It really requires only one person to carry it. Off you go, Elizabeth.” Victoria waved her hand as if she shooed her away.
Beth wanted to tell her to go eat dirt, but that wasn’t who she was, and she suspected Victoria knew as much. With great reluctance, she stepped from the carriage and headed toward the platform on the other side of the train depot building.
The sight that greeted her as she rounded the corner stole her breath and made instant tears fill the bottom of her eyes.
“Beth.” Garrett stood in the center of the platform, surrounded by candles that flickered in the fading light. The rivermen sat in the doorway of a stopped boxcar, and along the edge of the platform. Simon among them. Garrett took a step closer. “I’m sorry. Victoria and I, we aren’t engaged anymore.”
“What?” She moved closer to him.
“I begged my father to let me free of the contract last night at the dance, but he refused. That’s why I asked you to wait, but you left.”
“I couldn’t bear to be in the room after you announced your engagement.”
“My father announced it, but he’s since seen the light. Thanks to Victoria, and my lawyer.” Garrett dropped to one knee. “I love you, Elizabeth Sanders. More than life itself. You’ve bewitched my soul, my heart. It’s yours if you’ll have it. Marry me? Be mine until the day we leave this earth. Make me whole again.”
Beth pinched her lips together to force back the tears of happiness threatening to fall. She tried to speak, but couldn’t.
He waited a few seconds longer and spoke again, “I love you, Elizabeth. I have since the day I first saw you. Will you marry me? I’ll make you happy every day. I swear it. Say you’ll have me.”
She couldn’t hold back the tears any longer and let them fall. “I will. I love you.”
Garrett stood and crushed her in a kiss that seared her soul and made her weak. The rivermen, Simon, and the women crowded around them with cheers and good wishes. Beth could ask for no better day than this—surrounded by those who had brought them together. Those she loved. This was what she went up the mountain for.
This was where she was meant to be.
About the Author
A country girl born and bred, Dawn Luedecke has spent most of her life surrounded by horses, country folk, and the wild terrain of Nevada, Idaho, and Montana. She enjoys writing historical and contemporary romance and spends as much time as she can working on her current manuscript. For more information visit www.dawnluedeckebooks.com.
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