by Kari Trumbo
“Last day of school.” He squeezed her hand for a moment, then let go. “Graduation is tomorrow. Then I leave. I may not see you again for a long time.”
She shook her head. “You may never see me again. You could find the perfect woman while you’re gone. I would be surprised if you didn’t.”
He didn’t say a word, but he had to know that there would be more women in Boston than there were in Deadwood. Better choices than quiet Daisy Arnsby.
“I’ll never forget you, Daisy.” He picked up her hand and quickly kissed her knuckles, sending her heart into a racket, then he dashed off toward home.
Elias bumped along the city streets in his auto, following the two police officers to Mr. Payton’s. According to Sheriff Spanner, Mr. Payton lived on the outside of town on a large lot that spanned about two acres. The police carriage in front pulled in and he followed down the long drive. Mr. Payton had about ten sheds and out buildings that he could see, and those would be his to check.
The two officers got out and headed to the door to knock and announce the warrant. As soon as Elias turned off his car, he ignored them. He didn’t care what they did, as long as they let him know if they found Daisy. He’d asked for a doctor to be present, but they hadn’t agreed, citing it would take too long to round one up. He couldn’t fight that logic.
The sheds all sat in a random array around the rear of the property, as if some past owner had filled one and built the next wherever he dropped the lumber. All were chipped and had been white at some point in history. They were roughly four feet by six, with one door and no windows. Each was about five feet tall. He started with the first. It was too quiet to call out. His voice would be startlingly loud, and he wanted to be able to hear the officers, in case they yelled for him. If he was outside screaming his head off, he wouldn’t hear. More likely than not, they would find Daisy and Alma in the house.
Even though the judge had suggested they avoid looking for clues, that was his aim. What else could he expect to find in the land around the house except graves. He shuddered and said another prayer for Daisy. Had he ever told her that he’d loved her? Had he admitted that he’d loved her since the very beginning? That if she’d have asked him to stay in Deadwood that long-ago spring day, he’d have thrown off his parents’ wishes and stayed. He’d put too much stock in quiet Daisy’s voice, but she hadn’t yet found it then. If they didn’t find her soon, he might never hear her voice again.
The first shed held nothing. He’d never seen an old shed that was completely empty before and he sat examining it for a moment, wondering what purpose Payton could have for so many sheds if they had nothing within them? He moved on to the next and the next, each one empty.
By the fifth one, he was frustrated. Payton wasn’t hiding anything out there and the officers were still inside the house. They hadn’t found anything either or hadn’t let him know if they had. He pushed on to the next shed and flung the door wide. There, on the floor, lay Alma. Behind her, his precious Daisy sat slumped against the wall. She was filthy, with streaks of dirt down her face. She lay propped against Alma’s hip, her mouth slack. He rushed to her as he yelled something he hoped would bring the officers.
Her eyes fluttered open and she blinked but didn’t focus on him. Had Payton done something to her eyes?
“Daisy?” He knelt down next to her.
Her mouth opened, but no sound broke from her dry, cracked lips. He pulled her close, cradling her to his chest. Praise God, she was alive. He held onto Daisy as he checked Alma’s wrist from where it lay on her hip. Her skin was burning hot, and her pulse was weak, but she was alive.
“I’m here. I’ve got you,” Elias whispered to Daisy as he held her close.
One of the officers ducked in the door and gently lay Alma on her back, checking her vitals.
“We’ve got to get this one to the hospital.” The officer glanced up at him. “How about that one?”
Daisy clutched the front of his jacket, her unfocused eyes glancing all around him as if she were trying desperately to see.
“I’ll take her home and watch her. If she needs, I’ll bring her in to see a doctor. You can come by and talk to us in a few days.”
The officer nodded and carried Alma out of the shed. Daisy hadn’t made a move to stand and he wasn’t even certain she could.
“Didn’t he give you anything? Food, water?” He pushed the clumps of dirty hair out of her eyes.
Daisy shook her head slowly. Her body shuddered and the muscles in her legs visibly convulsed and quivered. He lifted her as gently as he could and carried her back to his car. At least two and a half days without water. Not fatal, but she would need hydration. A bath would be a good start, with slow and steady rations of water. He’d take care of her, he owed her that much.
Elias clutched her closer. “I’m so sorry for believing the lies. I…” He didn’t know what else to say. There would be time later for I love you when he’d sufficiently made up for his mistake. For now, his ‘I’m sorry’ would have to be good enough.
He set her in the seat of his car and wished there was some way to secure her. She’d have to lean against him once he climbed in. The officers were already gone and nothing else on the property had been disturbed. Mr. Payton and Martin Potters were still missing.
As he climbed in, Daisy leaned against him, clutching his arm.
“Can’t believe you’re here,” she whispered, so softly he had to lean in to hear her.
“Yes, I’m here, darling. I’m finally here.”
Now, he needed to get her home, and nurse her back to health, along with caring for his parents, who could arrive any time. He wouldn’t burden her with that right now. All he wanted was to get her back to his house, with him, where she belonged.
Chapter 22
Gracie bounced about underfoot as Elias tried to maneuver Daisy into the house. The neighbors had all come out to stare as he’d walked up to the house, carrying Daisy as best he could, but none had offered to help. Probably best that way as he wasn’t sure what he was going to do now. He lay Daisy on the bed. Her eyes were closed. He’d need to get some liquid in her. Her body would absorb some of it in a bath, and she needed one to rid her of the filth from the shed, anyway. But how could he manage that? He didn’t know any other women in Custer, except his new housekeeper, and she wouldn’t be along for hours.
He left his bride to go fill the tub. Even though he had pump water to the kitchen and a water closet in the lavatory, he didn’t have water to the tub. He first moved the kitchen rug near the stove, so he wouldn’t have to port the water far, then he set to heating enough water in the big copper boiler that Daisy used to wash clothes. It would take a long time for all that water to get to boiling, so he used that time to add cold water to the tub first.
When he got the tub half-full, he went back to check on Daisy. She hadn’t moved, and he knelt by their bed. He’d never taken advantage of a woman, and knew she needed his care, but he couldn’t help feeling like he was doing something he shouldn’t. He gripped her hand and pulled her knuckles against his forehead.
“Daisy, I hope you can forgive me. I’m so sorry. I never should’ve believed that you would ever willingly go with Payton, not after he scared you so terribly. I was weak, weak in my belief in you. I was weak in my belief in myself to be an adequate husband to you. I want to be more, I want to be a man you can be proud of. A husband you would never want to leave.”
His voice left him, and his chest ached as the first tears of his adult life choked him. “I love you, Daisy.”
She squeezed his hand and he glanced up to find her sweet blue eyes on him. She had no voice, but mouthed the words, “I love you, too.”
He raised and sat on the bed. “I’ve got a bath ready for you out in the kitchen. Do you think you can walk?” He prayed she could. If he had to help her with her bath, he’d be lost.
Her eyes sought his and she shook her head. Her mouth opened to speak, and she clutched her throat.
“I trust you,” came the weak rasp of a voice too dry to speak.
He lifted her off the bed and prayed, like he never had before, for the strength to do what he had to. She was his wife, he reminded himself. Very few other married men went a week and a half after being married without laying eyes on their wife, but his situation was not common. At least, not as common as it once was.
After he lifted her gently from the bed and made it down the hall to the kitchen, he felt exposed. Anyone could come to the door and see his wife, bathing in front of the stove. He hadn’t considered that fact when he’d filled the tin plunge bath. He set Daisy down on a kitchen chair and knelt before her. Starting with her bodice, his hands trembled as he freed the buttons down the front and slid it off her shoulders. It had been a beautiful bright white with ruffles down the front, giving her the appearance of a tiny waist and wider shoulders than she really had.
He reached around her, unsnapping the two metal snap closures on her skirt. Lifting her slightly, he pulled the fabric out from beneath her, leaving her in her stays, and what appeared to be all one piece of chemise and drawers. Daisy held fast to the edge of the seat, chin to her chest to hold herself upright in the chair.
When they had stayed at her room in the boarding house, she’d unfastened her stays from the front, but if he did that, he’d touch her more intimately than he intended. There was only one way around that. It might be more difficult, but he wouldn’t force her to endure his touch. He stood and untied the back of her stays, gently loosening it first from the waist to the top, then from the waist to the bottom, each set of strings being independent and tight. He’d restring it if he had to, but at least it would be off.
Then she sat there in front of him in just the very thin fabric of her underthings. How he wished he’d listened to Daisy. He didn’t want the first time he saw his bride to be when she couldn’t respond. How utterly unfair and embarrassing for her. Daisy took a deep breath and peeled her undergarments down to her waist. She reached for him and he held his breath as he helped her stand. They slid the remainder of the way to the floor. He kept his eyes averted, but it was the biggest test of will he’d ever had.
It was only two steps to the tub and Daisy made a valiant effort to walk, but he had to help her into the bath when she got there. As she lay back in the warm water, he went for a glass, so she could drink while she soaked. The tub was a nicer one that curved up at the head, supporting her back, so she was able to relax without fear of falling in. It was six feet long, so when she was ready, she could submerge, though he suspected he would be washing her hair. She just didn’t have the strength.
He brought the cup to her lips and she slowly drank about half of it, then rested her head again. After he’d washed her up, trying to remain as detached as he could, Daisy grasped his hand. He stopped what he was doing, terrified that once she could make any noise, she would be furious with him.
Her voice still hadn’t returned to normal, but the husky, scratchy sound was still music to his ears. “Elias, I love you, too.”
After soaking in the bath until she shivered and drinking more water than she thought she could ever consume, Daisy laid her head back against the rim of the tub. Elias knelt behind her and massaged soap into her scalp, he’d warmed more water and was letting it cool to rinse the soap from her hair. His fingers gently rubbed, sending a pleasant quiver from her neck to her toes.
She knew she should be embarrassed, laying there in front of her husband who had yet to lay an intimate hand on her, but she didn’t. He was her husband and she desired him. It wasn’t wrong to do so. He gently eased her forward in the tub and she tipped her head back. He poured the warm water over her slowly, directing it so that it did the most good.
“Are you feeling better? Are you strengthened enough to try to walk back to our room?”
While her mind was finally clearing of all the muddled thoughts and her throat felt less like broken glass and closer to scratchy, she wasn’t at all sure she could make it all the way back to their room on her cramping, wobbly legs. But, she also didn’t want to force Elias to touch her if he didn’t want to. He’d bathed her with the efficiency of a nurse, detached from the job, then let her just soak in the tub for an hour. After she’d rested, he’d washed her hair. It was foolish to be disappointed. Even if he’d excited her, she couldn’t have enjoyed it, but she was disappointed all the same. Elias was a good man, too good, and he still didn’t want to hurt her.
She did her best to push herself out of the tub, but her thick blood from her long lack of water sent vicious spasms down her legs and she slipped back down under the water with a small cry.
Elias was there in a moment with a towel. He slid his hands under her arms and hoisted her out and onto the rug, waited until she caught her balance, then wrapped her in the towel. Faster than she could think, he lifted her in his strong and capable arms and carried her back to their room.
He’d been so stoic, like a stranger, and it hurt her pride. Was she so very plain that even in her current state, he was unaffected by her? Hadn’t he said he loved her? Slowly, so very gently, he laid her on their bed. He moved around behind her, sat on the mattress and gathered her wet hair out from underneath her. As he brushed each snarl, soft tingles of awareness fired from her head to her heart. He was loving her in the only way he would allow himself. She wanted to cry at his tender ministrations, but the tears would not come.
When he’d finished meticulously freeing her hair from all the knots, he braided it in a thick plait and tied one of her ribbons around the end, then leaned forward and left the gentlest kiss behind her ear.
“Lay here and rest. I’ll go clean up everything in the kitchen. Mrs. Marks has been coming for the last two days and she makes supper and tidies the house for a few hours in the evening. She’ll be coming in about an hour. I’ll keep her out of this room, so you can rest. I put a bell by the bed, so you wouldn’t have to yell. Just ring it if you need me.” He kissed her once again, then draped a blanket over her and left.
There was still too much to say, and not enough voice to say it, but at least she’d managed the important bit. She’d told him of her love, but he’d also told her of his. There was hope for a real marriage, because there was love. Strange that a husband should court his wife after they were wed, but that’s exactly what had happened. They had married, courted, and then loved.
She snuggled into the pillow, her head still sensitive to every touch after Elias’s tender care. It didn’t even matter that she was laying in their bed without a stitch on. She was home, and where she belonged. Her last thoughts in the shed had been of Elias back in school. He’d promised to never forget her, and he hadn’t, he’d remembered her.
She heard a faint knock on the front door and Elias’s exuberant welcome. His parents were there. Suddenly, laying abed without her under clothes on, seemed quite impractical. His parents certainly wouldn’t come back to their bedroom, but it was enough to make her heart race.
“Mom! You can’t go back there!” Elias yelled as the door slammed open and a petite woman with the same sandy hair and chocolate eyes as Elias burst through the doorway.
Her eyes danced with mirth as she shut the door behind her. “I somehow knew his new bride would be you.”
“How?” Daisy didn’t move. She was still under the covers and towel; his mother might not see if she didn’t disturb the blanket.
“He used to talk about you all the time. Daisy Arnsby. You had his heart from the fifth grade.” She clucked her tongue. “Well, Elias said you’d had an ordeal and he just sent you to bed, but we drove so far, I just had to make sure it was you. You rest now, and I’ll help him get the kitchen all back to rights. We’ll have a good talk when you’re feeling up to it.”
“Can you ask Elias to send a telegram to Beau and Ruby? I didn’t get a chance to.” She was suddenly exhausted, but the arrival of Mr. And Mrs. Laury reminded her she’d never made it to the post.
“I’ll do that, dea
r. Rest now. We’ll have a nice long talk in the morning.”
Chapter 23
The next day, Elias’s mother, Margaret, set a tray of hot soup and a tall glass of water over Daisy’s lap. The creamy broth with big chunks of potato and the golden thread of melted butter made Daisy’s stomach rumble. She’d been so focused on water that she’d forgotten how hungry she was.
After his mother left the room the day before, Elias had come in and helped her put on a night dress, and that was how she remained.
“You seem to be getting your strength back quickly. I’m glad to see it.” Margaret sat on a chair next to the bed and regarded her. There was reservation in her eyes that hadn’t been there when she’d visited the day before.
“Yes, I’m feeling better. Elias took good care of me.” She felt like a child to say such a thing, but he had.
“Did he? Well, that’s good at least.” Margaret took a lengthy breath and paused. “I pride myself on being a forthright woman, Daisy. Daryl and I slept upstairs last night, across from the room where your cat sleeps.” Her eyebrows rose. “Now, aside from the fact that I question why you need a bedroom for a cat… Why is your trunk upstairs?”
The soup lost all its lovely fragrance in the span of a moment. She stirred it around, biding time, thinking of what to say that would be honest, yet not hurt her husband. Elias had said that his mother would understand, would even explain to her the need to stay apart, so why would his mother find it so odd that she wasn’t in the same room as her son?
“I am there because that is where Elias would like me to be, and I’ve come to agree with him.” At lease in words, not in her heart.