“All right, Blake,” Hannah answered. “We can try to be friends. I agree that there is something between us that deserves pursuing in that respect. But, if things ever become questionable—”
“I know, Hannah,” Blake interrupted with a broad smile. “If things ever change or near a point they shouldn’t, I promise I’ll step back. But let’s not bank on that. Let’s just take things day by day.”
“Very well,” she replied, trying to quiet her racing thoughts and heart.
TEN
Hannah spent her weekend off considering everything that Blake had said and trying to decide if she’d made the right choice. But, as the hours and days passed, she realized that her thoughts were moot. There was no way she could know if she’d made the right choice until she saw how things actually played out with Blake. This was one of those instances where only time would tell.
With that in mind, Hannah went to work on Monday with a renewed spring in her step. Once at the shop, she interacted with Blake briefly before they each started their day. The uncomfortable distance was gone, and some of their closeness had returned, which brought both Hannah and Blake a sense of peace and joy.
As the day progressed, things continued to go well. They conversed on several occasions. They joked. They laughed. They enjoyed each other’s company, just as friends do. By the end of the work day, Hannah felt pleased, and she left the bakery very hopeful. Perhaps this can work, she told herself. Perhaps we can maintain a friendship and nothing more.
The next day at work, Hannah’s musings were affirmed. She shared another lovely day at work with Blake, including an impromptu lunch break spent together. On a few different occasions, she found herself admiring Blake’s masculine physique, or thinking about him in romantic ways. But she shrugged these things off as par for the course and did whatever she had to do to chase such thoughts from her head.
Unbeknownst to Hannah, Blake was enduring a similar struggle. He, too, occasionally had thoughts about Hannah or found himself staring at her figure or face for just a moment too long. Yet he also chased those thoughts from his head, usually by leaving the room to tend to other business matters.
The rest of the work week played out this way, and, by the end, Hannah felt optimistic about both her friendship with Blake and her position at the bakery. Although Cara occasionally came into the shop and was critical of Hannah and her job performance, Blake seemed very pleased by her work, and all signs pointed to her procuring a permanent position in his bakery.
All things considered, Hannah’s spirits had been lifted, and she spent the next weekend in a carefree state, which was much better than the sulking and deep thoughts she’d entertained over the previous weekends. She even socialized with two of the girls from the boardinghouse and joined them on a church picnic that Sunday afternoon.
Hannah had great fun at the picnic. But, unfortunately, her housemate Edna did not. While Edna was playing ball with some of the children, she fell and hit her head on a rock. She lay on the ground unconscious for a few moments before standing up again. Then she began to complain of great dizziness and pain.
Hannah quickly decided that Edna needed to go to the doctor. The other girl who had joined them at the picnic was off talking to a man who’d been courting her, so Hannah decided to let her enjoy her time and take Edna to the doctor herself.
At the doctor’s house, Hannah sat waiting in the receiving room for over an hour, before the doctor came out to speak with her.
“Your housemate has suffered what is called a concussion,” the doctor explained. “She’ll need to stay here overnight, under my nurse’s watch, so that I can further assess what, if any, damage has been done.”
“Oh, my,” Hannah gasped, very worried about her friend. “Is there anything I can do?”
“Not really,” the doctor answered. “Just go home and take care of yourself. I’ll see to it that she’s brought back to the boardinghouse once she is well again.”
“Thank you,” Hannah sighed, feeling helpless.
She left the doctor’s and started to make her way back to the boardinghouse. But she was unfamiliar with this particular part of town and quickly got lost. She experienced a rising sense of dread, as it was starting to get dark out, yet she remained strong and tried to find her way back to a familiar spot.
Hannah looked around for landmarks, so that she could get her bearings. She saw what she thought was the town general store, but it was on a parallel street, and she couldn’t quite figure out how to get to it. Just then, she spotted an alleyway. She knew it probably wasn’t the safest street to travel at these hours, but she decided to take it nonetheless.
As she turned into the alley, the backdoor of one of the buildings swung open, and a young couple, entwined in each other’s arms, fell out. They were kissing passionately and touching each other in very provocative ways.
Hannah blushed at their public display and stepped back. She decided not to go into the alleyway, after all. But, right as she was about to leave, she paused for a moment. The woman who was enveloped in this heated embrace looked familiar to her. She was tall, thin, and quite pretty, and she had a certain arrogance about her…
“Oh, Cara,” purred the man who was embracing her, confirming Hannah’s suspicions. “I can’t wait until we’re together again. I know we’ve been seeing each other for years. But, oh, how I long to have you all to myself!”
“In time, Henry,” Cara purred back. “In time.”
Just as Cara slapped her lips against Henry’s again, Hannah ran off as fast as she could. She found her bearings again in no time, and made it home to the boardinghouse shortly after that.
Once she was up in her room, she thought about everything she’d just witnessed and tried to figure out what she should do about it. She felt that Blake needed to know that his wife was being unfaithful to him, but she questioned whether she should be the one to tell him such a thing. She didn’t know whether he would believe her, or if he’d think she was just saying such a thing because of her own interest in him.
Hannah was at odds with herself and simply didn’t know what to do. She tossed and turned all night, thinking over what she had seen. But, in all of her thoughts, she never once considered that, just as she’d seen Cara, perhaps Cara had seen her.
The next morning, despite the fact that she was exhausted, Hannah rushed off to work. She’d made up her mind to tell Blake about the incident, and she wanted to get there early to do so.
Yet, when she arrived at the bakery, Hannah was met by all too familiar a scene.
Rather than being back in the kitchen, as he usually was at this hour, Blake was out in the front of the store, near the register, with an unsettled expression on his face. And, much to Hannah’s surprise, Cara was there, too, wearing a similar look.
“Good morning,” Hannah said uncertainly as she walked into the shop, trying to gauge their moods.
Neither Blake nor Cara replied immediately.
“I need to talk to you about something,” Blake finally said, in a very serious tone.
“All right,” Hannah replied hesitantly.
“This morning, when I came into work,” Blake began, “I went to clear the register, as I usually do on Mondays, to take our profits to the bank. But the drawer was empty. All of the money was gone.”
“What?” Hannah exclaimed.
“You heard him,” Cara answered. “All of our money is gone. All of last week’s profits—gone!”
“I…I…I don’t understand,” Hannah stuttered. “What does any of this have to do with me?”
“Well,” Blake answered, bowing his head, “other than myself, you’re the only one who has access to the key to the drawer. I haven’t given the other two bakers any customer service responsibilities yet… So, since they couldn’t access the drawer—and since I know I didn’t take the money—that leaves only you.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Hannah shouted, standing up for herself, much as she should have done back
at Mrs. Thomas’s shop. “You know me, Blake. You know I’m not capable of stealing. You know I’d never steal from you—and, even if I did, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to come back here for work.”
“But, Hannah,” Blake sighed, shaking his head, “no one else has access to the key. You’re the only—”
“What about your wife?” Hannah asked, looking at Cara. “Doesn’t she have access to the key?”
“Yes, but—” Blake started.
“Are you suggesting I robbed my own husband’s store?” Cara interjected, laughing loudly. “That’s absurd!”
“Well, perhaps you robbed him to buy some time at a hotel with your lover,” Hannah fired back.
“What?” Blake inquired, alarmed.
“I saw your wife in the arms of another man last night, someone she called Henry,” Hannah explained in a huff. “They were kissing and petting and exchanging lover’s talk in an alley on the outskirts of town, near the doctor’s house. I was going to tell you about it this morning. But—”
“How convenient,” Cara hissed, reminding Hannah of Daisy. “You come here with some tall tale to discredit me, so that you yourself can’t be discredited for what you’ve done. If you think my husband will buy your nonsense, you’re sadly mistaken. You’re grasping at straws here, dear—and there’s no way Blake will believe you over me, especially in light of the evidence stacked up against you.”
“But I saw you!” Hannah snapped. “And I didn’t take any money from that drawer. I’m not a thief. I’m not a liar. I’m not—”
“You’re not to be trusted,” Cara retorted. “You’re nothing more than a loathsome wretch. You’ve accused me of adultery. But you’re the one who should bear such shame. I’ve seen the way you act around my husband, how you flirt with him and egg him on.”
Hannah was fuming. She looked to Blake for some sort of defense. But Blake just stood there with a forlorn expression on his face. “I didn’t do it, Blake,” Hannah said ardently. “I didn’t steal from your register… And I did see Cara with another man last night. You’ve got to believe me!”
“I don’t know what to believe,” Blake replied, looking up at Hannah with sad eyes.
That was it. Hannah could take no more. She was disappointed to find herself in yet another position in which she had been accused of something she hadn’t done, and she was even more disappointed that Blake, her closest friend, didn’t believe her or stand up for her in any way.
She turned and ran out of the store. Once outside, she kept running, and, as she dashed madly along the road, she burst into tears. She didn’t care one bit about what anyone else saw or thought. She’d had enough of caring about others’ opinions. This was her time to do what she needed to do.
Hannah made her way back to the boardinghouse and up to her room, where she threw herself on the bed and continued to sob. She couldn’t believe the predicament she was in and wanted desperately to escape it. Given the fact that she hadn’t slept much the night before, and considering the toll her tears were taking, Hannah soon fell into an unsettled sleep.
She awoke some time later. Judging by the position of the sun in the sky, it was late afternoon. She was still very upset, but she felt rested and refreshed. Her dedication to herself was renewed. She decided that she wasn’t going to be bullied again. She wasn’t going to let Cara get the better of her, as Daisy had done. She was going to stand up for herself. She was going to make her voice heard. She was going to go back to the bakery, confront Blake, and demand that he hear her out and do whatever it took to have the matter fully investigated and resolved.
Hannah stood up from her bed, straightened her shoulders, and left her room. She walked down the stairs to the front door—which she opened to discover Blake himself standing on the other side!
“What are you doing here?” Hannah gasped, surprised. “Shouldn’t you be at the bakery?”
“I should,” Blake replied. “But I had to close early today. There was…an incident.”
“You mean another incident?” she asked, opening the door wider to let him in. The two of them walked into the parlor.
“Yes,” Blake replied, taking a seat. “I came here to explain it all to you.”
Hannah sat down also. “Very well,” she replied. “Explain.”
“Shortly after you left this morning, Cara went off to meet with her friends,” he began. “And I went about my business in the bakery. I was still very upset and confused, mind you, but I had customers who needed to be served.
“About three hours later, Marvin Matthews came in. He’s the manager with whom I conduct my business at the bank… Anyway, he seemed very worried, and he asked me if everything was all right. I assumed he was talking about the fact that I didn’t make my usual weekly deposit this morning, so I set out to offer him some hollow explanation as per why. But he stopped me abruptly and told me that my deposit wasn’t his concern. My withdrawal was.
“Marvin went on to tell me that Cara had been to the bank about two hours earlier. She told Marvin that there was an emergency and filled out a slip to withdraw all of the money from our account. Marvin said he was a bit suspicious. Yet, seeing as how the account is in both of our names, he couldn’t deny her request. But, since I wasn’t there to cosign the withdrawal, he decided to limit it and gave her only half of the total sum.
“He said he tried to press Cara for more details, but that she quickly dismissed him and left. I thanked Marvin for coming to talk to me, then shut down the bakery straightaway. I hightailed it back home, hoping to find Cara there and learn what was going on… When I got there, she was nowhere in sight. But this was.”
Blake reached out and passed a folded sheet of paper to Hannah. She took it from him, unfolded it, and started to read. A few lines in, her eyes widened, and her heart began to ache.
Dear Husband,
Your tart at the bakery was right—about everything. It was, in fact, I who stole the money from the register. And indeed, I took it so as to provide for myself and my secret lover, Henry. However, I didn’t take it to front the cost of a hotel. I took it to serve as part of the nest egg we will need to start our new life together, which we are starting NOW. In other words, Husband, I’m leaving you and our children. Henry and I are running off together, and we’ll be using the money I stole from you—both from the register and from our bank account—to get ourselves settled.
All the best,
Cara
“Oh good heavens,” Hannah mumbled, still reeling from all that she’d read. “How…how horrible!”
“That’s one word you could use to describe it,” Blake said, shaking his head. He leaned closer to Hannah. “Here I was, feeling guilty about falling for you,” he added, “while my wife was out there betraying me right under my nose. She was unfaithful to me. She stole from me. She abandoned my children and me… Dear God, I’m a fool—and I don’t know how I’ll ever get through this.”
“I’ll help you,” Hannah replied softly, leaning closer to Blake, as well, and placing her hand on his knee. “I’ll help you however I can.”
“But why should you help me, Hannah?” Blake inquired as tears filled his eyes. “I saw how upset you were when you left the bakery this morning. I know you were disappointed in me for not standing up for you. I know you expected more from me, and I let you down. How can you help me in light of all of that?”
“I can help you,” Hannah replied with a smile, “because I want to. Friends help each other out. It’s the right thing to do.”
Blake smiled back at her—and, in that moment, they both knew that everything would turn out in the end.
And sure enough, in time, everything did. A week after Cara left town, Blake took her letter to the local magistrate, who granted him a quick divorce, along with an order granting him full custody of the Mason children. For the next two months or so, Blake and Hannah worked diligently at the bakery to make up for the financial losses Blake had suffered at Cara’s hands, and they continued to nurt
ure their friendship.
After another month or so, Blake and Hannah officially began courting—and, two months later, they were married in the church in Silver City. Shortly thereafter, once the newlywed couple had had some time to settle into married life and the bakery was flourishing again, they sent for Mrs. Howell and Jason, who traveled to New Mexico to live with them in their happy home.
The End
12. THE NEW MEXICO Bride
Copyright © Hope Sinclair 2018
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher and writer except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a contemporary work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.
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Contents
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
EPILOGUE
ONE
“Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” Mr. Larrabee quipped, his dark eyes glimmering with the distinct glint of ungentlemanly intentions as he leaned forward on the worn-through elbows of his soot-stained work shirt and beamed up at the dainty waitress poised over his table. “Janet, is it?” he asked, lacing his ashy fingers together.
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