She gathered up her books and papers and then hurried out of the schoolhouse. She seemed to always be the last one out of the building and because of this, she was responsible for leaving it closed up for the day. She fumbled at the door since her hands were so full, trying to pull it closed and hold the books at the same time.
“May I help you with that?” The low voice made her jump and her books and papers tumbled to the ground.
Lana spun around to find Henry standing much too close for comfort. “Henry, what are you doing here?”
Lana made no attempt to keep the hostility from her voice. She did not care if Henry knew that he was the last person that she wanted to see or talk to.
“I needed to speak to you. After our conversation before, I just can’t stop thinking about you.”
Lana strangled a groan. Why couldn’t Henry just move on? Where they were right now was his fault and yet, he acted as if she was being unfair to him with her decisions.
“I don’t have time for this. I need to get home. I have already made myself clear.” Lana avoided meeting his gaze. She didn’t need to be reminded of the time she had wasted with Henry and she didn’t need old feelings being brought up. She had managed to avoid him for practically two weeks now. It was just misfortune that he had managed to catch her leaving the school.
“Here.” Henry had gathered up half of her things before she could and handed them to her. Having no choice but to do so, Lana took them from him firmly. “Please, Lana, just talk to me for a second.”
“Henry, what is it that I have to tell you to get you to leave me alone?”
“I just want you to hear me out. If you don’t like what I have to say, I will stop bothering you.”
Henry’s promise sounded good enough, but Lana was slow to believe it. “I have heard you out countless times before. What will make this time any different?”
“I need to explain what happened.”
Lana fought back another groan of frustration. “You’ve explained multiple times and I have told you multiple times that I don’t care what your explanation is.”
“I love you, Lana. I just can’t lose you.” For a moment, Lana almost believed him. His voice sounded sincere and his expression seemed hurt, in a way haunted. “Remember we were going to get married? I still want to marry you. It was just a moment of indiscretion. Can’t you just overlook it?”
“You know, I used to think that it was true that you loved me, but if you really did, you wouldn’t have been with other women. I want to get one thing clear, Henry. You had your chance. You threw that chance in the trash. If you can’t commit to one woman you can’t expect any woman to commit to you.” Lana held her hand up to keep him from saying anything further. “I want you to stay away from me. Stop trying to convince me to come back. Stop trying to talk to me and stop pretending we have anything left between us.”
Before Henry had the chance to say anything further, Lana turned and walked away. She kept her shoulders straight and strong, determined not to let their conversation affect her.
There was a certain freedom in telling Henry exactly what she thought of him and what she expected. She had restrained herself for so long, trying to be the better person, but that had obviously been a mistake.
Lana glanced at the post office as she passed it. She wasn’t expecting another letter from Ginger for at least another week.
“Miss Lana! Miss Lana, please wait!” The sound of the old man from the post office calling her name made her turn.
He was hurrying out of the office after her, waving a letter in his hand. Lana turned and walked back toward him.
“Why didn’t you stop by? You almost always do,” the older man said through puffs of breath.
“I’m sorry. I just wasn’t expecting anything this morning.” Lana wanted to laugh at the irony that on the one day she hadn’t stopped she had received an unexpected letter.
“Here, this came in this morning. It’s a telegram. I figured you would want it right away.”
“Thank you.” Lana gave the older man’s hand a squeeze as he handed her the telegram. “I really appreciate it.”
He nodded and then turned back to the post office, hobbling back at a slower pace now that he wasn’t in a hurry to get to her.
Lana watched him go until he had disappeared inside and then looked down at the envelope curiously. ‘To Lana Smith from Ginger Merriweather’ was scribbled across the folded paper.
She usually didn’t get more than one letter from Ginger every three to four weeks; it was strange to get one so soon after the last. And it was definitely unusual to get a telegram.
She opened the telegram hurriedly, her curiosity as to what had caused the change in timing making her anxious.
As she read the telegram her heart fell into her stomach. There had been an accident. Ginger’s husband, Daniel, had died and Ginger had a broken leg. She had never met Daniel, but Ginger’s letters had been full of nothing but good things about him and her love for him.
What really made her head swim was the last three lines of the letter.
I know that this is too much to ask, but if you would consider coming I would greatly appreciate your help at this time. I could provide a place for you to stay and of course, there is plenty of food and everything you would need on the ranch. I am afraid to go on alone and you are the closest thing I have to family besides my husband and brother. And my brother will try to do everything alone but I know he can’t.
I anxiously await your response,
Love, Ginger
Her friend was asking her to move out west to Missouri. It was understandable, considering the circumstances, but could she?
Lana’s life had always been in the city. She had grown up here with her parents. She had buried her parents here. Her job was here. Her history was here.
She had never considered going to live out west. Despite all the stories she had heard about the fortunes that people found out west, she had always thought that it was an adventure for others.
She couldn’t possibly leave everything she knew for a new life. She folded the telegram up and tucked it between her books, quickening her pace back home. She would have to think about Ginger’s request. If she went, it would be one of the most frightening things she had ever done. And yet, if she refused, what kind of a friend would she be? With a broken leg, two children, and a ranch to care for Ginger was surely struggling.
---*---
Lana stared out the window of her little townhouse. Ginger’s request had not let her mind rest in peace since she had read it. She was now imagining the way she could get west and what she would do with her home or the school class she was responsible for.
Her eyes fell on her shawl hanging by the door. She needed to talk to someone to help her make this decision. It wasn’t something she could just decide on her own.
She stood and wrapped her shawl around her shoulders and stepped out into the crisp morning air.
She hurried down the streets of the town, making quick turns, weaving in and out, heading for a house she knew well.
Mrs. Miller lived down this street. Lana was fairly certain that many people went to Mrs. Miller for advice. She was older than most peoples’ grandmothers and always seemed to know what to do.
When Lana reached the little house, she knocked timidly. She had never come this early before. While Mrs. Miller had never turned her down before, Lana had to wonder if this was too early.
A moment later, the door creaked open and Mrs. Miller was standing there with a wide smile on her face. Wrinkles pulled on the edges of her sparkling eyes and wisps of white hair curled around her weathered face.
“Lana! It’s so good to see you this morning. Why don’t you come in?” Mrs. Miller motioned for her to enter and Lana obliged. The house that Mrs. Miller lived in was a little larger than where Lana lived.
Lana knew that she had shared it with her husband and two children. Both her children had moved to other parts of town a
nd her husband had passed away nearly six years ago.
Lana sat down on one of the parlor chairs and waited nervously as Mrs. Miller could be heard bustling around the kitchen preparing some tea.
After several moments, she came back into the parlor with two cups of steaming hot tea. “There we are, now we can have a proper chat. Tell me, dear, what’s going on?”
Lana took the tea and began to sip it, then she let everything that had happened tumble from her lips.
Mrs. Miller had been there to hear about her woes after her falling out with Henry. She had been one of the people that had helped Lana keep going, despite everything happening around her.
Lana took another sip of the warm tea and felt it slide down her throat, leaving a warm trail behind.
“So you’re wondering if you should leave or not.” Mrs. Miller’s eyes held a glint of something that looked almost mischievous.
“I don’t know what to do. If my friend needs me… Part of me wants to go, but do you think it’s a wise thing to do? Should I leave everything behind? I don’t know anything about country living. I’ve lived in the city all my life. I don’t know how to be a ranch woman at all.” As she said it out loud, Lana realized how afraid she really was.
Maybe she was afraid of the memories she had made in this city being left behind along with her life here.
“I know that you’ve had a hard time here, since everything that happened with Henry. Maybe you should see this as an opportunity that God is giving you to start over.”
“So you think I should go?” Lana leaned forward. She wanted someone to tell her what to do. It was something she missed about her mother. She missed having someone to organize everything in life, leaving her to just do it.
“I can’t tell you what to do, dear. I know that you would like me to lay out everything and make it easy for you, but we all have to make our own decisions in life.”
“I know, it’s just… it’s so hard for me to decide. What if I make the wrong decision?”
Mrs. Miller shook her head. I don’t think there is necessarily a wrong decision. Either way, you have to make a life for yourself. My question for you is, will you look back on this moment and wish you had gone? Or wish you had stayed?”
Lana thought about the question for a moment. She tried to imagine what she would think in five years. It wasn’t as easy as she’d thought. A lot could happen in five years.
But in the end, she knew the answer. She would regret not helping her friend. She would regret knowing that her friend had needed her and she had been able to help but had done nothing.
“I would regret not going,” Lana said softly at last.
Mrs. Miller nodded. “Then I think you’ve found your answer. Though I know many people in town will miss you, I believe that God has big plans for your life. Sometimes we have to go where we are led in order to find our true home. And if you put your mind to it you can learn all the things you don’t know how to do. You may surprise yourself.”
Lana smiled and nodded. Sometimes Mrs. Miller spoke in riddles that were hard for her to understand, but somehow, deep down, she felt as if they made sense.
She and Mrs. Miller continued talking late into the morning as they sipped tea. Lana let herself relax and let the pressures of choosing her next step and dealing with life slip away as she talked with the older woman about every topic that they could think of.
---*---
The train let out a shriek as it pulled out of the station. Lana leaned back in her seat, setting her satchel down beside her ankles.
She was finally leaving town. She had been waiting for this day since she had decided she would be going during her conversation with Mrs. Miller.
She had spent the last two weeks preparing and getting everything ready for her departure. She had finished out the last couple of weeks of classes, said goodbye to her students and sold most of her belongings. Her little house was bare except for the bed that she was leaving there for the landlord to pass on to the man who had bought it.
She has felt a bit sad as she told the landlord that she would no longer be a tenant in the little townhouse she had lived in for so long. He had said that he was sad to see her go and thanked her for being such a good tenant.
Lana stared out at the empty train platform. There were still a few lingering people standing around to see their loved ones off, but almost everyone had already left.
For a moment, a chord of sadness played in Lana’s heart. There had been no one to see her off this morning.
She knew that there were a few select people in town who would miss her, but she had insisted that she didn’t need anyone at the platform waiting for the train to leave. She now regretted that decision. It would have been nice to see them one more time as she left town.
For a moment, her mind thought of a time when Henry might have been out there, waving at her, wishing her a good trip. Since the time she had told him in no uncertain terms that there were no second chances, he had stayed away.
Lana had still found him watching her from afar when he thought she wasn’t looking, or heard that he had been asking about her at places she frequented. But overall he hadn’t been demanding conversations with her anymore.
It didn’t make it easier though. He worked at the general store next door to the school so Lana had inevitably seen him every single day when she had gone to teach and it always made her feel a bit bitter when she thought about him.
She wanted herself not to care. She had told herself not to look. But being betrayed like that would be hard for anyone to get over and Lana was no exception.
Lana’s body lurched as the train gathered a bit of speed. She watched as the people and then the town became smaller in the distance and eventually resembled specks on the horizon.
There was no turning back now. All of her earthly possessions were in her satchel at her feet and the trunk under the train, and she was speeding away to a strange place in the Wild West to seek out a new life and help her friend.
Nervousness tugged at her. She didn’t exactly know Ginger that well in person as an adult. She could only hope that the relationship that they had built through their childhood and letters to each other would keep their friendship strong.
She smiled as the trees as brush rushed by her window. There was something very exciting about this trip. Despite the soft ache in her heart at leaving everything she knew behind, she felt happy and curious about the journey ahead.
Maybe, just maybe, she would have adventures in the west that she had only dreamed of. She had certainly heard enough stories in town.
How bad could it be? Every town or city started somewhere. Besides, Ginger had told her that there were shops and other things in the town near them. Maybe the west wouldn’t be that different from living in the city after all.
Chapter 4
A loud knocking on the cabin’s door brought Nick leaping from his bed. Who was here at such an early hour? It had been only two weeks since he had lost his brother-in-law and brought his sister and her children to his home while his sister started recuperating. He couldn’t imagine who would be by so soon. They had just had Daniel’s funeral the week before. He was in no mood to see anyone.
He pulled on his pants and slammed his hat on his head before opening the door. He was surprised to see one of the deputies standing there. It was drizzling and the man was practically soaked.
“How can I help you?” Nick asked gruffly.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean no bother. But we’ve got to clear the wreckage from the accident. You said you wanted to have a look before we took it away.”
An Encounter of Courageous Hearts: A Historical Western Romance Book Page 3
