A Deal with the Cowboy’s Tangled Heart: A Historical Western Romance Book

by Cassidy Hanton

  Dropping his head, he sighed. He was a fool. That’s all he was. It’s all he had ever been and it was all he would ever be.

  I never should have come to Livingsfield. What was I thinking? Running into the family of the woman who died was bound to happen eventually. It was a mistake to settle here. I should have kept going. There were five years where I could have picked up and left. Five years where I could have avoided this mistake.

  “I’m such an idiot.” Chester groaned aloud in the silence.

  Trying not to shift his arm too much, he rubbed his face again as though he could rub the frustration from his mind. He wished it were that simple. That would make his life much easier.

  It appeared that his only option was to move on. Arthur had to be wrong. He couldn’t talk to Blossom anymore. Chester didn’t think she would listen to him. He had been so cruel to her before that she wouldn’t bother to hear out his reasons. And she wouldn’t want to know the truth afterward anyways.

  Unless she did want the truth and still cared.

  There was the chance he might be wrong. Every time he thought he had come to a conclusion, Chester found himself running backward.

  It was still happening as he found a familiar figure headed down the road toward his home.

  They caught his eye when they slowed down near the Bretts’ house. Chester glanced up with a frown, wondering if his neighbors were expecting any guests. Arthur and Betty usually let him know in advance in case he happened to be outside, which he usually was. Except they hadn’t mentioned anyone stopping by.

  He craned his neck around, leaning forward. There was a large berry bush by the road that was blocking most of the figure’s face and side. Chester could see a stocky build with a hand repeatedly tapping on a thigh, but that was it. Most likely a man, but he had very little to presume otherwise.

  Just as he was beginning to wonder if he should go talk to the man about what he was doing so close to the Bretts’ house but not quite in their yard, the figure took two steps back to look around the dusty lane.

  Chester jolted up in surprise.

  He was moving before he knew what he was doing. Seeing Mr. Everett was not the person he had expected to find all this way on the other side of town.

  As he hurried over to help Blossom’s father, Chester couldn’t help but wonder exactly what the man was doing there. He swallowed hard. Perhaps Blossom had told him what he had said. And then what? Did the man want Chester to apologize? Or was he there to fight?

  Maybe he knew the truth. Chester’s stomach tightened. Maybe Mr. Everett knew that he had been there the day he lost his wife. That made him stumble.

  But he didn’t stop moving. He couldn’t. Though he desperately wanted to step away and never have to think about the Everetts again with all the pain he had caused them, Chester owed them his life. Because of Mrs. Everett, he had left a dangerous group of men and found his freedom. No matter what happened next, he swore, he had to do the right thing.

  “Sir?” Chester cleared his throat. “Mr. Everett?”

  They had met not too long ago with the older gentleman lying on his back in the dirt. He was a stubborn old man, though appeared rather good-natured otherwise. Blossom claimed he was a good man, also. Chester believed her. And he was a dedicated teacher, from what he heard.

  But he was willing to push limits if he was walking all the way across town after an incident that had made him collapse like that only the other week.

  The man stared at him through large owlish eyes. “Young man. Chester, isn’t it?” His eyes narrowed before he turned away and glanced back at the Bretts property. He gestured vaguely before looking around. “Where is my daughter?”

  Chester stared back at him for a minute before he instinctively had a glance around the area for himself as well. There was the grove of trees by the houses to their left. On the right were farms with their houses a quarter mile away. There were wildlife and wild plants all over the place. It was beautiful, untamed land. The path they were on in that moment was rough even for the horses who had used it all their lives.

  It was beautiful and he was glad to call it home.

  But Blossom wasn’t anywhere nearby.

  Furrowing his brow, Chester turned back to her father to slowly shake his head. She hadn’t been over there since that morning. The two of them had started onward to town before he had turned back for home alone. He hadn’t stayed to watch where she had gone. But it only made sense that she would have kept moving around town to her own home.

  “Blossom?” Chester shook his head. “She’s…”

  They had parted ways hours ago that morning. She would have reached her home by then. And if her father had used the same trail, they would have crossed paths. It didn’t make any sense for him to have come all the way over there to Chester’s side of town.

  “Didn’t she come home?” Chester finished his thought at last, still puzzled. This didn’t make any sense. “We parted ways much earlier.”

  Such a confirmation should have been comforting to her father. The man hadn’t appeared to like him before, and Chester didn’t want to force his presence on him any longer than necessary. Once Mr. Everett was good to move along, then Chester would leave him alone.

  But his words only worried Mr. Everett more. The wrinkles in his brow deepened. He grabbed his hands together and wrung them like wet laundry. Looking around, he let out a deep breath. First he took a step to the left, and then another to the right. Yet he went nowhere, as if he wasn’t certain of where to go.

  “Ah,” The older man managed at last. “I see.”

  A tight feeling grew in Chester’s stomach when he realized Blossom’s father wasn’t comforted by those words. He waited for Mr. Everett to answer his question. But when the man never looked at him or answered, he decided to try talking again. “Mr. Everett? Sir? What is it? Didn’t Blossom come home?”

  Her father jerked up to attention at her name. “Blossom? No. No, she hasn’t been home all day. She insisted on leaving early this morning. Said something about a walk.” The man spoke hesitantly even as he tried his best to articulate every word clearly. He waved his hands around for emphasis. “She talked about you several times, and said that you lived over here. I thought if she wasn’t with you that I would at least find her along the way. But if she’s not with you, then where could she be?”

  Chester didn’t like how neither of them could answer that question.

  Glancing around, he studied the surrounding landscape hard to see if there were any potential answers. It wasn’t like she would just disappear.

  Blossom was not the type of woman to run away. She cared too much for her father to leave him alone. There was not a chance in the world that she would leave him willingly. Chester knew that for sure. She loved her father and her home with her horse and duck.

  Guilt hung in his heart as he remembered his harsh words to her that morning. Though she had clearly been hurt, he didn’t believe that she would run off and hide because of the pain. She was too responsible for that. Blossom would not ignore her loved ones when she was in pain. It reminded him of how much she had told him about her mother and all that she had gone through.

  He swallowed hard before turning back to Mr. Everett.

  They were right to worry, he knew, but there was no need to panic. Blossom was indeed responsible. They had to think smart like she would. What would stop Blossom from returning home? Chester couldn’t think of a lot of reasons. It could all be a simple misunderstanding, after all.

  “Are you certain she wasn’t planning to run errands today? Perhaps she went to visit someone sick or ill?” he suggested to her father hopefully. He swallowed the desperation as he tried to be reasonable. “I know how much Blossom cares about everyone. I’m sure she’s just helping out a friend or neighbor.”

  Mr. Everett huffed in annoyance. “I suppose,” he mumbled. “I passed a few folks, but I haven’t talked to everyone. But I don’t like this. Something doesn’t feel righ
t. It’s getting late and she usually has supper started by now. She always prepares it early for me.”

  “Oh.” Chester bit his tongue as he contemplated their options. “Well. I don’t know. Maybe we can start looking together?”

  The older man’s eyes flickered up to meet his. “So you haven’t seen her all day?”

  “I did,” Chester reminded him slowly. “Only this morning, and it was for a short while.”

  Mr. Everett’s frown kept growing deeper and deeper. “And you haven’t seen her since?”

  Shifting, Chester fixed his sling before offering a quick nod. “That’s right. I haven’t. I don’t know why that happened to her. She had started walking in the direction of your home when I left her.”

  Mr. Everett’s eyes opened wide before they narrowed. “You left her? Why would you do such a thing? She’s an innocent young woman. She shouldn’t be walking along the road by herself. Blossom is better than that. She’s a young lady. Anything could have happened to her. Thieves, robbers, murderers, and worse.”

  Chester’s mouth dropped open as he tried to think of something to say in response to that. But he wasn’t sure what he could say. The man had a point. His stomach tightened even more as he struggled to find the right words to say in response.

  “No,” he started. “No, I- I’m worried, too, sir.”

  “If anything happened to her, if a hair on her head has been put out of place,” Mr. Everett glared at him, “Then you are done for, young man. Do you understand me?”

  Though Chester wasn’t used to threats, he already knew he would never forgive himself if anything happened to Blossom because he wasn’t there for her when she had needed him most.

  He had to do something. After what he had just told her, after what he had just done to her, he could hardly believe he had done all this. Chester swallowed down the pain and aching to focus on the real problem at hand.

  “I do,” Chester nodded to Mr. Everett. “Completely. I didn’t do this, whatever this is though, okay? I promise, sir, I promise. I would never harm Blossom. And I am going to help you find her even if it takes us all night. I mean it.”

  “Mhm.” The man gave him a sharp gaze. “It better not.”

  Chester couldn’t help but agree. He didn’t like the idea of Blossom being out alone at night. “I promise,” he reminded her father emphatically. “I would never harm Blossom. And I’m going to help you find her. Let me saddle my horse and we’ll get started right away, sir.”

  Mr. Everett didn’t like the idea of dawdling for too long, but Chester insisted in case they wanted to cover more ground. They also stopped by to talk to Arthur and Betty to see if they had seen Blossom. Since they hadn’t, Chester asked them to keep an eye out for her while they were gone.

  Then the two men took off.

  They walked further down the road with their eyes peeled.

  Neither of them had much to say to the other, and that was all right. Chester didn’t know what to say to Mr. Everett. It was clear they weren’t comfortable around one another and he didn’t want to cause trouble. So he focused his attention on looking for Blossom.

  At first, he was certain that she had been caught up along the way with a neighbor or friend.

  But the more he thought about it, and the more they looked, the more Chester began to worry. He remembered the way she had run off with tears in her eyes. And he remembered the threatening gaze that Elijah had given him the last time they had spoken. A dark cloud hung over Chester that he couldn’t ignore.

  Something bad was about to happen. He could feel it.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Blossom’s Hope

  “Chester is my little brother.”

  Blossom inhaled sharply when Lowry told her the truth so casually as though it were as simple as mentioning the clouds in the sky.

  Her next breath came out shaky as she tried to comprehend this. It made sense. Their voice was so similar. And their features. Yesterday when she had woken up on the horse beside him, she had been so dazed and confused.

  At first, she supposed it was because of her sleepy state. But the strange sensation hadn’t faded and eventually she had found her courage to ask him about Chester.

  Leaning against the small window, she glanced outside to see the surrounding landscape. Most of it was greenery. There was leveled flatland for several yards until the trees started up. It went on for miles and it was all she could see.

  The only thing that changed it up was where Lowry was chopping wood. The men needed it to cook at night, and everyone had to help out around there. Though she had offered her services due to boredom, no one had agreed just yet to her help.

  Blossom grasped the bars on the window with her tied hands. She pressed her face closer to them as she studied Lowry’s face. She looked for the kindness that Chester had in his, for the integrity and the goodness.

  “Then why are you here?” she breathed quietly.

  His face darkened like a storm cloud. He stomped forward. “Because I’m not a coward,” he snarled at her. “I’m not like him. Do you know how long it took me to convince Elijah I wouldn’t run out like Chester did? Years. The others still don’t trust me.”

  Furrowing her brow, she shrugged. “Then maybe you should leave. These men aren’t very nice.”

  That made him laugh. She didn’t know why, but he laughed. Blossom was trying to evaluate her situation there and understand the men to learn what she could. Every new piece of information could help her stay alert and alive. But at the same time, every discovery left her bewildered.

  “Nice?” Lowry repeated harshly. “We’re not nice, kid. That’s not what we aim to be. Of course we’re not.”

  She flushed bright red, hating herself for feeling shame. Blossom took a step back to reevaluate her direction with the man. She thought quickly, swallowing before she licked her lips.

  “I’m sorry,” she ventured at last. Trying to soften her voice, she offered a tentative smile. “You’re right. I don’t know very much about any of you. I don’t think anyone has said very much to me. It’s not like I really know what I’m doing here. Do you think, perhaps, that you could explain? You stole me away and put me in this room. I don’t know what you even want from me.”

  Before he could answer, someone barked his name. “Lowry!” They both jumped. The voice came from right behind Blossom. She whirled around in surprise, having never heard Elijah enter her room. “Get back to chopping wood.”

  When Blossom glanced back through the window, Lowry was back at work. She regretted her actions. He had sounded frustrated.

  Now, she had probably gotten him in trouble. That wasn’t what she had meant to do. Having a friend through all this trouble could have been helpful and advantageous.

  She bit her lip before reluctantly turning back to face Elijah.

  Her heart pounded. With her back pressed against the wall, Blossom tried to count herself grateful. So far, no one had hurt her any worse than pushing her around like they had on the saddle.

  She hadn’t been able to sleep for fear a man might come for her in the night. But no one had entered the room and eventually she had dozed off while sitting up in the corner of the room until porridge was dropped off by the door at sunrise.

  The men had moved around the building and talked, exchanging conversations about chores and errands and other muffled topics that she couldn’t always make out. Though tired and aching, Blossom knew her situation could have been worse.

  She had spent a good hour in prayer with the Lord thanking Him for being alive and asking for guidance before finding Lowry outside her window.

  While Chester’s brother intimidated her, it was Elijah she feared the most. He commanded the men with such a power that no one argued. They hardly questioned him. And if they were willing to kidnap an innocent woman, Blossom noted, then they were probably willing to do anything at his request.

  He crossed his arms as he eyed her up and down. Elijah did so slowly, savoring eac
h second. She couldn’t help but squirm. It made her skin crawl as though there were ants dancing over her body.

  Elijah stalked over and grabbed her chin hard. “Stop moving,” he demanded.

  She froze. It made her wonder what he was doing, what he was really looking for. But he said nothing for a long moment. The seconds ticked on until she couldn’t take it anymore. The tension was killing her.

  “What?” she croaked. “What do you want? Why?”

  His eyes narrowed on hers as he leaned forward. “You’re not that pretty.”

  Blossom stared back in confusion, wondering what he was talking about. “What?” He tightened his grip, lowering it against her windpipe. She gagged, instinctively raising her hands to hold his wrist. For a moment, her vision blurred.