“You know it’s me, Mrs. Fitz.” Flo had to squeeze the words through her pinched lips because Mrs. Fitzpatrick’s fingers were squeezing her cheeks. “It’s always me.”
“Yes, yes. I just couldn’t tell. I rarely see you arguing. And never over a young man. Come, let’s do some shopping together.” Satisfied that there were no demons in Flo, Mrs. Fitzpatrick turned the young woman away from Marian and marched her closer to the arguing men, who were no longer fist fighting but who were definitely still having a heated discussion. From the look on Johnny’s face, Flo could tell he had not heard what happened between him and Marian.
He looked almost… frightened. But what would scare Johnny so that he couldn’t hide it from everyone else?
“Who are those men?” Flo asked, glancing at Mrs. Fitzpatrick, who was hurrying her past them all. The older woman looked at the men and then back in front of her where she was going. A large, covered wagon was parked outside the general store and the women used it to hide them from sight.
“Those men… I have seen them before. They are… bandits, I think. I haven’t seen them commit a crime. But I’m willing to bet their pictures are hanging up in a sheriff’s office somewhere in Texas. Or maybe California or Arizona. Somebody wants them for something, I promise you that.”
Flo kept flipping her eyes from Johnny to the other men. She could make out some of the words they were yelling at each other. They were looking for someone. But they gave what sounded like a Mexican name. It seemed to Flo they were searching for him. Something like Juan. Riveria or Rivera. She couldn’t tell.
It must have been someone Johnny knew. The look on his face revealed as much. It was someone he cared about. He’d never mentioned he knew any Mexicans, though.
Not that she cared if he did. He knew a few Indians, too, but she’d never judged someone by the way they looked. She waited until she saw the things they did. That was the best way to judge whether she wanted someone in her life or not.
“You gotta be mistaken,” she heard Johnny saying as she and Mrs. Fitzpatrick passed the men by.
“I ain’t and you know it. Last I heard, you were the one to ask. You gotta know where he is. Bekker’s been lookin’ for him for a long time now. Whatever it is he wants with the man, it’s gotta be important.”
“I reckon if I could help you, I would,” Johnny said, his voice firm. “But nobody here knows who you’re talkin’ about. I suggest you move on.”
Flo didn’t like the tone Johnny was using. It sounded like he was lying. He was no better at lying than she was. Unless she was the only one who could tell. She tried to turn back to where he was arguing with the others but Mrs. Fitzpatrick held on to her like she was a life raft.
“No, no,” the woman said in her Scottish accent. “You need to follow me, dearie, and stay away from the men and their problems.”
“But Johnny might need my help,” Flo said, trying to at least stay where she was so she could help if she needed to.
Mrs. Fitzpatrick gave her a sideways grin. “That man doesn’t need your help. He can handle himself. Plus, those men might be bandits but they haven’t hurt anyone since they came to town. Haven’t even seen them brandishing a gun.”
“Then why are they in the street fighting if they aren’t here to hurt someone?”
Mrs. Fitzpatrick shook her head. “I don’t know the answer to that. But I suggest you don’t get involved. They haven’t hurt anyone but there’s always a first time and you don’t want that first time to be you.”
They were three stores down when Flo finally succeeded in halting in place so she could keep an eye on Johnny. Mrs. Fitzpatrick shook her head and rolled her eyes but she stayed by the young woman’s side, watching as the men broke off into pairs and began talking. It wasn’t like a typical fight. It made Flo wonder if Mrs. Fitzpatrick was right in her assessment of the bandits.
Who was the man they were looking for? And why did it make Johnny so concerned? She was sure she’d never heard the name before. She ran ideas through her mind. Perhaps he was a servant or a ranch hand who had worked for the Mason ranch. Maybe now he was a criminal or he had been before but now wasn’t, and Johnny wanted to protect him.
She couldn’t think of many reasons why Johnny would protect a man other than if he was either innocent or had paid restitution in time or effort to make up for his wrongdoings. Who was this Juan Rivera? And why did Johnny feel obligated to him?
Chapter 16
The next week was one of surprising isolation for Flo. It wasn’t intentional but through the entire week, Monday through the next Saturday, Flo felt like she’d seen more of Marian than Johnny. And that was never a good thing in her book. Then again, she hadn’t really seen Marian either and to her, that meant she and Johnny were spending more time together.
The one thing she didn’t understand was how Johnny thought getting engaged to her was a good idea. That meant that every time he was seen wooing Marian like he wanted to do, and receiving her attention like he wanted to do, he would be causing a scandal. And how would that make her look?
She would look like a fool with egg on her face. She stayed waiting for the first person to ask her if she knew what Johnny was doing.
Not seeing anyone wasn’t her fault, in that instance. Mr. and Mrs. Fitzpatrick decided it was time for an overhaul of the entire house. Furniture was moved from one room to another and the furniture from that room was moved to a different room. There were extra sets of dining tables and chairs in the cellar to be brought up and switched out for the ones that were there.
The entire week, Flo couldn’t count how many times she’d heard Mrs. Fitzpatrick say, “This’ll confuse ‘em.” and giggle like a little girl. The woman was referring to the ghosts or spirits, whatever one chose to call them.
All of the Fitzpatrick employees were involved when the house got an overhaul. They hired on several boys for the light ranch work they needed done outside and they had two ladies that worked in the kitchen, one as the main cook, the other as the scullery maid who filled in for the cook when the lady wanted a day off. It worked out fine because both the maid, Linda, and the cook, Maggie, were fine chefs and made delicious meals for their Scottish employers.
So outside of the rest of the employees, Flo didn’t see anyone she usually saw on trips into town. When Saturday rolled around, she was anxious to finish the last room and go shopping for supplies for the next week. She was going with Maggie and Mrs. Fitzpatrick might go along, too. After a week of messing with the ghosts, she wanted to spend some time around the living. Those were her exact words.
Maggie was a big woman, standing half a foot taller than both Flo and Mrs. Fitzpatrick and twice as wide as either of them. She was an Italian woman with a booming voice that she rarely used to its full capacity.
She would drive the horse and buggy while Mrs. Fitzpatrick and Flo sat in the back like proper ladies. Maggie never said a word about not being included like Flo. But it was also well-known that the Fitzpatricks regarded Flo as the daughter they’d never had. So, it was expected for her to be at the woman’s right hand whenever she went into town.
Mrs. Fitzpatrick must have seen the saddened look on Flo’s face because as soon as they were heading into town, she took Flo’s hand and patted it softly.
“Tell me what’s on your mind, dear. But first let me apologize for keeping you from your man this entire week. If he wasn’t already such a hard worker he would have come to help us out, just to spend time with you, I’m sure.”
Flo wasn’t so sure about that. If Johnny had really wanted to see her, he would have made an effort to come to the Fitzpatricks to talk to her. But she hadn’t seen him but once and he was only there to deliver lumber from town.
They’d had a few minutes to talk and when she’d told him she missed him, he’d blushed and looked away. But he hadn’t said it back. And he’d gone on to say something about Marian popping up wherever he went. He told her he was surprised every time he saw her. He’d al
so told her Marian seemed to come around whenever he was thinking about Flo.
What did that mean? He’d asked her. But she didn’t know the answer. She rejected the idea he had, which was that God meant for him to be thinking about Marian, not Flo. She told Johnny she didn’t believe that for a minute. She’d never thought Marian was right for him and she thought so even more now.
He wanted to know why she thought that.
“I talked with Johnny while he was at the ranch a few days ago. I think he’s been seeing a lot of Marian Voorhees. They used to see each other sometimes, you know.”
Mrs. Fitzpatrick scoffed, waving one hand. “Bah. That woman doesn’t know a thing about anything. Surely Johnny has no interest in her.”
“He always had a thing for her,” Flo replied. She didn’t want to gossip about Johnny but she needed to vent to someone. Who better than Mrs. Fitzpatrick, who thought on a different level than everyone else Flo knew?
“But he gave you his mother’s ring,” Mrs. Fitzpatrick replied in a “let’s be reasonable” voice. “Surely that wouldn’t change in the span of one week? Not even a whole week. It was six days and he came to the ranch during that time.”
Flo blushed, embarrassed by the secret she was keeping. She wanted more than anything to tell the woman everything, how the engagement wasn’t supposed to be real but that time away from Johnny clued Flo in that her feelings for him ran deeper than the friendship they’d been enjoying all this time.
But she couldn’t say anything. Mrs. Fitzpatrick would be so disappointed in her for lying to everyone and going along with the scheme. It had occurred to her that if Johnny needed to make Marian jealous for her to see she really did like him, she wasn’t worth all the effort.
It was impossible to force someone to love. No matter what was done, love could not be forced. It was a natural feeling and has to already be there to grow stronger. If it isn’t there, it isn’t there.
In Flo’s mind, Marian showed zero signs of loving Johnny, much less being in love with him. And what Johnny displayed when he was around Marian couldn’t be considered love either. It was more like obsession.
He wanted someone he couldn’t have and was desperately trying to get. And to her own detriment, Flo was going along with him, helping him.
“I don’t know if… if it’s going to work out.”
Mrs. Fitzpatrick sucked in a breath. “Oh dear. Do you really think Johnny is that type of man? Do you think he has been going after Marian while you’ve been stuck at the ranch helping us? Oh my, that is very disappointing. I would never have thought…”
“I don’t know,” Flo said quickly. “I’m not saying he has been. I just… I guess I just miss him and wish that he had come to see me more often this week. That one time… wasn’t enough.” Flo was surprised by the honesty she was able to convey in her words. She didn’t have to lie about missing Johnny. She wanted to spend every waking moment with him.
Knowing she couldn’t made her deeply depressed.
Mrs. Fitzpatrick patted her hand again. “My dear girl, that is very common. You two have set a wedding date, haven’t you?”
Flo nodded. They had chosen a month and thrown a dart at a calendar to find a date. After many misses of the calendar altogether, Flo’s dart finally landed on the 27th. Three months in the future. Now two months and two weeks.
Flo’s stomach churned.
“Well, I’m sure the closer it gets to the date, the more nervous you will feel. This is natural. You shouldn’t worry about it. You will have many things to worry about and that shouldn’t be one of them. I’m thinking when we get to town you will see Johnny and all will be well in your soul. What do you think of my prediction?”
Mrs. Fitzpatrick gave Flo one of her most charming smiles. The look was so warm, Flo instantly felt better. She pulled in a deep breath and nodded.
“I like your prediction, Mrs. Fitz,” she said in a quiet voice. “Thank you for comforting me. I… I guess it could be my nerves. I’m just…” She wasn’t sure what words could express what she was feeling correctly. So she let her voice trail off, shrugged and shook her head.
“I know, I know. You’re worried. You have a lot going on, a lot in your life that isn’t really in your control. We all want to keep control of our lives as much as possible. But sometimes you have to roll with the waves; just let them take you wherever they take you. You and Johnny will have a good life together. That is another prediction of mine. And you just watch and see if that doesn’t come true. I can see it when you think or speak of him, I can see it in your eyes, I can feel it in my bones.” She lifted both hands and clutched at her slender neck.
Flo noticed how distant her eyes were and that she was looking past Flo, instead of at her.
When the woman directed her eyes toward Flo again, they were bright and sharp. “Flo, it is meant to be for you and Johnny. And I don’t say this to anyone. Back in Scotland, when I was a girl, I would have visitors… they were real people, I see what you are thinking in your eyes.”
Flo couldn’t help grinning sheepishly.
“These people, however, were seeking answers. Answers they thought only I could provide. Answers… from the other side.”
“You were a medium?” Flo asked in surprise, staring at her employer, who nodded.
“Yes, I am a medium. I don’t often do the work anymore but when I do it is for an important reason. I want to reassure you that I see good things in your future with Johnny. There will be hardships, obstacles you must overcome. But you will, Flo. Always. And remember this what I’ve told you. Whenever it gets difficult, you think of this prediction. It will be good for you both.”
Chapter 17
Johnny was standing outside the saloon when the Fitzpatrick buggy pulled into the square. His heart immediately jumped into overdrive, and the blood raced through his veins. He’d wondered all week if she was thinking about him, if he should go see her. He had to admit, it had opened the door for Marian and she did her best to fill the space.
Despite the fact that she’d been with him nearly every day, Johnny was beginning to realize his attraction to her was waning. For some reason he was seeing her true nature, seeing past her beauty to the kind of woman she was.
He wasn’t highly impressed.
He’d contemplated going back after the one time he went to the Fitzpatrick ranch. He almost convinced himself that the look in Flo’s eyes was one of desire and attraction, not just warm friendship. But whenever he made the decision to go see Flo, Marian showed up and distracted him from his original plan. It was like she knew what he was thinking.
Some of the men in town asked him if he’d changed partners because they saw him around Marian more than Flo the entire week. He just shrugged and said Flo wasn’t coming into town, that she was busy at work all week.
He was fully aware he was throwing the blame in Flo’s direction. So on top of all the lies and deception, he was covering for himself and letting Flo take the blame if they broke up. He was constantly ashamed of himself, and that kept him from going to see Flo along with everything else.
But now that he’d seen the buggy and knew Flo was in it, he became aware of his true feelings in the matter.
He was seeing Marian in a new light because he’d started the ball in motion with Flo. He was already noticing how much he and Flo had in common, and how compatible they were.
Flo constantly supported him when she liked the path he was taking. And she wouldn’t hesitate to tell him her thoughts if she didn’t like what he was doing or who he was doing it with.
Flo, his best friend in the whole world, had sacrificed her reputation for a piece of land and a cottage out in the country between Austin and Hot Springs. It would be perfect for her, since she would be a virtual outcast after he dumped her for Marian.
Just the thought of that happening made him feel a little sick to his stomach.
True Love Leaves no Doubts: An Inspirational Historical Romance Book Page 10
