The door opened, and a bright smile appeared on Lara’s face.
“Lavinia, girls, come in! I had a beautiful walk with Garrett. He’s really quite the lyricist, did you know? Poetic rhyme rolls off his tongue with ease. Now, the subject matter may be cattle, cactus, and roundups, but still.” She gave a small laugh. “He said Henry and Clint are here. Were they at your . . .” Her brows drew down, and her smile disappeared. “What’s happened? You all look like you’ve lost your best friend.” She held the door wide and Lavinia stepped inside, followed by the rest. “Tonight’s meeting must have been a disaster. You all look quite morbid. Please, Lavinia.” She glanced around at them again. “Tell me what’s troubling you. I’ll do all I can to help.”
With the large bed positioned by the window for a nice view of the distant mountains, there was plenty of room to get comfortable. Lavinia, too nervous to sit, rehearsed in her head how she’d broach the heartbreaking subject. Mavis and Belle leaned against the bed; Emma took a seat at the desk chair; Katie took the reading chair. Poor Lara, not knowing what was about to descend on her, just watched them through worried eyes.
“What?” she said more insistently. “Don’t keep me in suspense. I fear something horrible has happened and you want to spare me the details. Take my word on this, not knowing is much worse than the things I’m thinking.”
Lavinia stretched out a shaky hand, her thoughts growing darker. Were the articles the reason Lara had chosen to stay in Eden after the wedding? To learn more about their lives here to sell to the newspapers? How could someone they loved as a sister have betrayed them so horribly?
Lara, her brow crunched in consternation, came forward and took Lavinia’s outstretched hand. To Lavinia’s surprise, the warm connection she’d always felt between them was still there. Maybe Lara had a good reason for doing what she’d done.
“I’m sorry,” Lavinia said. “We don’t mean to scare. It’s just that it’s been brought to our attention that a newspaper in San Francisco has run some articles about our family.”
Lara’s palms flipped up and her smile was back. “Isn’t that to be expected when such a man as your father passes on, making heiresses out of you all? The story is fascinating. I’d think you’d enjoy some of the notoriety. I’d also think that kind of noteworthiness would be good for the Brinkman-Harding name and business.”
Lara straightened, just a little, as if she only now felt the tension in the air. Would she deny her actions? Would she actually lie?
“Something else is the matter. I’m sorry, but as close as we are, I’m not a mind reader. You’ll have to spell things out for me. That is, if you want my help.”
Mavis mercifully picked up where Lavinia could not. “The articles, a series of three, actually, ran three weeks in a row. Mr. Laughlin brought them with him and showed Henry and Clint, who in turn brought them to our attention. They’re the reason he decided to make Eden his home.”
Lara was nodding along. “Exactly what I was saying. I think they’d be good for Eden.”
She was an extraordinary actress for the blank look of ignorance on her face. Had she received a large amount of compensation for her knowledge? Did she betray them for money?
“And?” She shook her head and laughed. “I just don’t know what to think of your odd behavior. Stop this and spit out the problem.”
“The articles contained untold amounts of personal information about all of us,” Mavis went on. “Not just how Father left us the ranch, silver mine, and businesses, or his letters, and such. It told how I almost got fired when I lost a deposit from Thornton House, how Katie almost failed getting her teaching certificate—”
“How in love I was with both my employer’s sons!” Emma added, her face still a bright pink over the embarrassing fact.
“All exceedingly personal accounts,” Lavinia went on, having had a small reprieve. She tried to read Lara’s thoughts, but their friend was holding her reaction close to her chest. “And that’s only a small sampling. There is more—much more . . .”
“That’s horrible!” Lara’s face was rigid in shock as she glanced around the room. “I can’t imagine how you’re all taking this so calmly. I’d be sick. I’d take to my bed. I’d, I’d . . .”
Belle nodded. “Exactly. How I accidentally spilled the inkwell on the teacher’s desk and then lied so I wouldn’t be punished. That’s something I’m embarrassed about, even though I finally confessed and took the penalty.”
“I can see why you all look like someone has died.” Lara released her clenched fingers and rubbed her forehead, thinking. “What else was written? Can I see the papers themselves?” She paced a trail back and forth across the room. Finally she stopped.
Glanced around.
All color drained from her face. Hurt flashed across her eyes. For several long seconds, Lavinia thought she might burst into tears. That didn’t happen.
“You think I’ve done this?” She slowly punctuated each word. “Went behind your back to spill all your precious confidences?” Her mouth snapped closed, and her eyes gripped tight for one moment. “How very kind of you. Your silence now gives you away. That’s exactly what this is about.”
“We’ve all shared our closest secrets with you, Lara, for as long as we can remember,” Lavinia said. Perhaps she’d gotten jealous when they went off and left her. And then, mad when she learned they were all very wealthy. Lavinia could point out how easy it would have been for her to write to the paper in San Francisco, to any paper, for that fact, but it would be best for Lara to simply confess and ask for forgiveness. They all loved her like a sister. Everyone was guilty of some transgressions in their life—the sisters certainly were. They’d all forgive her, and things could go back to normal.
“How could you suspect me after all our years of friendship? My heart is shattered. Has your new station changed you all so much?”
Lavinia stepped back, astounded. “Our hearts have been shattered as well, Lara, to have been so badly betrayed. Your older brother, Calvin, left two years ago and now resides somewhere in the West. Is he in San Francisco?” Lavinia didn’t recognize the hardness in her own voice.
“I, I . . .”
With all the seats taken, and most likely not wanting to sit on the bed so close to them all, Lara went to the fireplace and lowered herself down on the hearth. Her face, the one Lavinia knew so well and still loved, was set in an expression Lavinia had never seen before, never once over all the years. Lara’s gaze was riveted on the floor, probably trying to figure out how they’d put two and two together. Didn’t she think they’d suspect her? Who else had every tiny bit of background on them, even about the Crowdaires’ treatment, how their guardians had made them wear aprons and serve them in the parlor like little maids? Would she and her sisters ever live down that humiliation, especially now that it was public? She didn’t think so.
“Do you have anything to say?” Mavis whispered, her tone soft, conciliatory.
Everyone, Lavinia was sure, would be willing to put this behind them the moment Lara admitted her transgression and asked for forgiveness. That’s all they wanted. But it didn’t look like Lara was thinking along those lines. And at the moment, the opposite appeared true.
“I didn’t sell your confidences to any newspaper.” Lara glanced away but couldn’t stop her tears. They spilled over and coursed down her cheeks.
That was almost Lavinia’s downfall. She glanced at Mavis, then Katie, Belle, and Emma. What should they do?
Standing, Lara marched to the bed, hunkered down, and pulled her travel satchel from beneath. She brushed away her tears with the back of her hand. “I’ll pack tonight. If the men are still here, I’ll ride back to Eden with them. That is,” she said stiffly, “if they can stand being in the company of a snitch.”
“They’re on horseback,” Lavinia said, when she really wanted to beg her not to go. Not yet. Things had gotten murkier instead of clearer. They needed to bring this to a resolution. Talk it out. The argu
ments her family went through usually ended in tears, more talking, and then hugs and forgiveness. Lavinia would not sleep tonight, and neither would her sisters if things were left unresolved.
And neither would Lara. She’d drawn blood on her lower lip by her munching with vengeance.
“You don’t have to go tonight . . . or ever. That’s not what we want,” she found herself saying. She tried to take Lara’s hands, but her friend snapped back defensively, the first time in her life she’d ever done so. “We don’t want you to leave, Lara. Just tell us why.”
“Not go?” Fury filled her voice. “You just want me to admit to something I didn’t do and apologize as well. You want me to say I did it so you can forgive me and we can all get back to being best friends. Well, that’s not going to happen. So sorry if I disappoint you, again!” She opened a drawer on the tallboy and began stuffing her clothes into her case, not caring in the least that she was rumpling them all.
A knock sounded on the door.
“Belle?” Blake asked through the door. He and the others had listened to the sisters air their suspicions before coming upstairs. “Is everything all right?”
Lara whipped around, facing them all. Her eyes narrowed as she glanced between them. “The men know? All of them? Blake, Clint, Henry? Couldn’t you have asked me first before whipping me and hanging me out to dry?”
Lavinia sought Mavis, then Belle.
“I don’t keep any secrets from Blake,” Belle answered.
Blake knocked again, this time with a little more force.
“We’re fine,” Belle called back, then did what Lavinia felt like doing. She drew a handkerchief from her skirt pocket and dabbed at the corner of her eye.
This had not gone the way they’d all thought. Something horrible had happened. Something that could never be fixed. Lavinia felt as if they’d crossed a burning bridge that was crumbling into the river. Going back was impossible.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll go back downstairs.”
They remained like blocks of ice, unsure how to proceed. Lara, on the other hand, couldn’t pack her bag fast enough. Her pretty face was twisted in a horrible expression that Lavinia thought she’d never forget. After enough time had passed that all of them were sure Blake was good and gone, she marched to the door and opened it wide. “Thank you so much for the enlightening talk. I don’t want to take up any more of your precious time. If you don’t mind, I’d like to finish my packing, and in the morning, if it’s all right with you, perhaps one of the ranch hands might drive me into town. I’ll stay in the hotel until I get a ticket home. Thank you for your hospitality. You’ve been exceedingly kind.”
Lavinia wanted to pull Lara into her arms in the worst way. She’d had tirades before, but they were always directed at someone else. Unfortunately, there was nothing Lavinia could do now to save the situation. There was no fixing this.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
In a silence born of worry, Clint rode alongside Henry in the moonlight, the light bright enough that they could see the way twenty feet ahead. Tonight had been troubling. The sisters had been devastated to learn their good friend had betrayed them.
He thought he felt Alibi falter. Nothing big, just a slight step off. Maybe his horse had picked up a stone.
Clint reined to a halt.
Henry pulled up himself. Looked over.
“Alibi’s off.” Clint dismounted and ran his hand down the sixteen-hand sorrel’s right leg, lifting it in the darkness. They weren’t that far from town, maybe a mile or so, with several hills to pass. He rubbed his fingers over his gelding’s hoof, probing the frog. Finding nothing, he set it back to the earth.
“Anything?”
Henry’s voice sounded old. For the first time ever, his age was showing. The sisters had been in Eden not yet six months, and poor Henry was the worse for wear. Clint wondered if John had realized what bringing five citified girls to Eden would do to his friend.
To all of us. He slipped a quick look at his friend, nine years older than himself, which made Clint thirteen years older than Mavis. He shook his head. She needed a younger man than himself. “Nothin’ I can see now. I’ll walk him back. You go on ahead, if you want.”
They started forward, Clint leading Alibi and Henry again riding by his side.
“I’m in no hurry,” Henry said. “I’m enjoying this evening air. My rooms above the mercantile can sometimes feel like a prison cell.”
Hmmm. Was Henry getting ready to pop the question to Elizabeth Smith? The two had been keeping close company for the last few months. They sat together in church. Spent Saturday nights in the hotel café, he and she and little Johnny, eating supper and finishing up with pie. Perhaps Elizabeth was getting impatient, still living in the boardinghouse. Once they married, they’d have to get a new home, a proper home, maybe one of the small ones where Clint lived, along the river.
“I know how you feel.” Clint glanced up at the few stars that could be seen in the night sky. “Sometimes I yearn for the trail. Every night a different horizon.”
“You’ve been in Eden a long time. You were here when I came.”
“True enough. Since I was sixteen, only leaving to fight in the war.”
Those were years he didn’t dwell on often. Once Cash’s mother came along, the nightmares had softened. Remembering, Clint smiled. Ella had waltzed into his life, a tall, strapping girl with a smile as wide as her hips and hands. They’d stood eye to eye—he should say smile to smile. He couldn’t ever remember that girl not smiling. His heart stumbled and he looked at the north horizon. Well, he could actually. Once. The day she’d learned she was dying.
Far off in the mountains, coyotes took up their song.
Thank God he’d had Cash to get him through those months and years. He and his son were a good team. Cash looked a lot like his ma in his smile and expressions. That was one way he’d been able to hold on to her memory for so long.
“You’re pretty quiet over there,” Henry murmured. “I hope me mentioning the war didn’t dredge up bad memories for you. I know it does for a lot of fellas.”
“No. Actually I was thinking about Ella. I haven’t done that in a while. Seems less and less these days.”
“Any reason why?”
Henry had that tone. He never asked a question he didn’t already have the answer to—or at least think he had the answer to. Clint had seen him standing in his office window plenty, watching the town. He couldn’t have missed the many times Mavis dropped by the sheriff’s office. Perhaps with what happened today, those times were over, he thought with a pinch of sadness.
“No, not really. Just life getting lived. You know Nicole lives with Cash and me. As easy as my son is, never getting into any trouble, Nicole keeps me guessing. I worry about her gallivanting all over town by herself. She thinks she’s invincible, and I don’t want to see her hurt.”
Henry nodded, swaying with his horse’s stride. “I hear ya. How old is she now? Nineteen?”
“No! That’s the problem. She’s sixteen going on twenty-five. Give me five sons over one headstrong, well-developed, sassy-mouthed half sister. I swear. She’d drive me to my grave if I let her.”
“What about Mavis? She has all those sisters and years of experience. I’ve seen her visit your office. Can’t you ask her to help?”
Sly as a fox but you don’t fool me. That was Henry’s lawyering voice, used when he was fishing for information. He was worse than a gossipy old lady.
“Sure I can. And I have. But Nicole is a day-to-day battle. She just needs to settle down . . .”
“And find the right man?”
“Hell no! She’s only—”
Henry laughed into the darkness, the sound squelching the owl that had taken up with the coyotes.
Clint snapped his mouth closed. His friend had baited him with ease.
“You like the control, Clint. I worry about the man who ever tries to win her heart.”
With a shrug, Clint moved o
n. He wondered if Henry knew the truth behind Mavis’s habitual wearing of gloves. What a stupid ass he’d been. He’d never forget her horrified expression as the glove dangled from his hand. Or the way disgrace and hurt had replaced the horror. What did one little finger mean out here in the West? Nothing!
“You still with me?” Henry asked. They only had one more sloping hill and they’d be back in Eden.
“Yeah, I’m here,” he responded.
“Where’s Nicole tonight?”
“I assume she’s home with Cash—at least, that’s where she’s supposed to be. For the last week, she’s been helping ol’ man Little set up the new tannery and get the place running properly. Once that job is over, she’ll have more time on her hands, and that means trouble.” He huffed out a disgruntled sigh. His sister really was turning him into an old man.
Clint lifted his gaze, and what he saw made him pull to a halt. “A campfire. I wonder what that’s about. You hear of anyone, or any strangers, out on the land?” The light twinkled, barely a prick of light, way off, and high in the mountains. He’d thought he was the only one to ever ride out that way.
“Sure haven’t. I wonder if this has anything to do with Laughlin’s idea about the Brinkmans drawing men to town.”
“If that’s the case, why camp? And by the size of the fire, I’d think they don’t want to be spotted.” He reached over and ran a hand along his gelding’s neck. “If not for Alibi’s possible lameness, I’d check it out right now. I got nothing better to do.”
“You want to take my horse? I don’t mind walking. We’re almost to town.”
“Tomorrow will be soon enough. I’ll get a horse from Maverick.” And maybe have a chance to smooth things over with Mavis in the process. If she came into Eden tomorrow. With the way the sisters looked when they’d left, Clint wasn’t all that sure any of them would show up. And he couldn’t blame them in the least.
True Heart's Desire Page 13