“I knew you’d be extremely angry with me,” she choked to Fatima. “After all, you’ve been very clear that you wanted a match between Shane and me.”
Fatima sighed in—was that maybe understanding? Ellie wiped at her eyes, trying to see the fairy woman’s expression.
“Perhaps you weren’t ready to accept it,” Fatima said grudgingly. “I want a lasting match and your happiness, Ellie. Not just an end to my assignment, but the right end.”
Standing, Fatima picked up the black wand from the window seat and waved it at Ellie. Amid a sparkle of gold dust, the rose returned to its former beauty.
“And,” Fatima said with a cautioning finger, “don’t get me wrong. I am severely perturbed, because you’ve been an extremely difficult assignment. However, I’m willing to make allowances for your error in judgment, since I found Withers after I met you.”
“Then you and he have worked out your own differences?”
“Excellently.” Fatima smirked in satisfaction. “Shane’s going to have to find a new valet, since Withers and I will wed as soon as I tie up this assignment.”
Ellie scooted over to the edge of the bed. “If Shane will still have me, that might be very soon. I’m going to see him. This time if he refuses to talk to me, I’ll do the talking.”
Suiting action to words, Ellie dressed and ate breakfast, glad to find the meal enjoyable instead of a plate of burned offerings. She was ravishingly hungry after missing dinner the previous evening. But the moment she heard movement overhead indicating either her sister or stepmother was awake, Ellie hurried out of the house and to the barn.
Knowing she would prefer riding Cinder, she had dressed in her riding clothing, although Fatima had disagreed and thought she should let her conjure up another new dress. Saddling the gelding, she mounted, only to find Fatima waiting in the shadows inside the barn door as she started to ride out.
“I’ll want to know what happened, Ellie,” the fairy woman said. “And I want you to know that I do wish you happiness.”
“Thank you,” Ellie said honestly. “I wish you and Withers the same, Fatima.”
Ellie rode out the door, her thoughts following her. After last night, I’m going to need more than just best wishes. I might really need Fatima’s magic. So it’s a good thing she’s not angry at me.
What she found in town made her wonder if even magic could help her. At the front desk, a different clerk informed Ellie that Mr. Morgan had checked out.
Ellie stood stunned as though her entire world were crumbling around her—which she felt like might actually be happening. Through the fog of her remorse, she heard the clerk continue to talk, saying Mrs. Morgan was still in residence, at the moment having breakfast in the dining room. Although reluctant to face Mariana, Ellie slowly walked away from the desk.
In the dining room, she found Mariana Morgan with a forlorn look on her face matching the feeling in Ellie’s heart. She crossed the room, and Mariana rose as soon as she saw her.
“My dear,” Mariana said, rounding the table and giving Ellie a hug. “Please join me. I would very much like to know what happened last night.”
Ellie sat, and Mariana waved the waiter over. Well-trained, the man already carried an extra coffee cup, and he poured Ellie a cup from the silver server, pushing the silver tray holding cream and sugar closer before he discretely left.
Ellie toyed with the cup handle. Given the acid feeling in her stomach, coffee didn’t appeal right now.
“Would you rather have some tea or juice?” Mariana asked.
Ellie pushed the cup away, shaking her head in denial. She didn’t want anything. Not food-wise, anyway. In fact, the food she had eaten at the ranch lay heavy amid the sick feeling in her stomach.
“I turned down Shane’s proposal last night,” she said without preamble.
Mariana gasped in dismay, and Ellie avoided looking at her, knowing she would see deep disappointment in the older woman’s eyes. Disappointment not even close to the devastating knowledge in Ellie’s own mind that she had turned down the only man she could ever love. Had made possibly an irreversible mistake, since she doubted Shane would ever want her again after this.
What man could want a wishy washy woman who didn’t know her own mind? What man could forgive her after she turned down such a heartfelt offer of his love, especially a man with a recently-healed broken heart from another woman?
“He didn’t say what had happened in the note he left for me,” Mariana said, drawing Ellie’s attention back to her as surely as though she had dangled Shane’s presence in front of her.
Mariana had to know where Shane was. But when Mariana continued, Ellie’s spirits dived right through the floor.
“He only said he was going back to New York,” Mariana said. “I checked with the doorman to see when he left, but the one who’s there now isn’t the one who was on duty last night. I was on my way to the depot to ask the station master which train Shane took. I have a train schedule, but it appears to indicate it will be another two days before I can leave myself.”
Ellie nodded sadly. “Might I go with you?” she asked, fully expecting Mariana to tell her that she had no business making another assault on Shane’s emotions.
But Mariana said, “Of course, dear,” and Ellie’s hopes rose. Perhaps she could catch up to Shane before his resolution set too firm—before it destroyed any chance she had to convince him she had changed her mind.
Mariana rose, and the waiter hurried over, staring at the still full table. “I hope nothing was wrong with the meal or coffee,” he said.
“No, everything was fine,” Mariana assured him. Holding out a hand and refusing to make any further explanation, she took Ellie’s arm and led her out of the hotel.
As soon as they got out on the street, Mariana removed a fan from her reticule, waving it in front of her face and reminding Ellie how much Shane had hated the Texas heat. It didn’t really bother Ellie, accustomed to it since she worked out in it daily. But Darlene and Elvina both moved slowly through the summer afternoons, as did a lot of the other women Ellie knew.
Thinking of the heat reminded her of how Shane’s skin glistened with sweat after they made love, slick under her palms. Knowing she was the cause of his passion had once stirred her femininity and desire to give so much back to him in return. Now she didn’t know how she would ever make it through the rest of her life without ever losing her being with him inside her again.
Despite Mariana not being able to read her mind, Ellie glanced guiltily she glanced at Mariana, knowing her thoughts weren’t something she should be fostering in the company of Shane’s mother. Her cheeks flushed, and when Mariana saw that, the other woman offered Ellie her fan. Ellie shook her head.
The train depot came into view. When they reached it, they went inside and questioned the station master. Mariana questioned him, anyway. Ellie stood there falling deeper and deeper into the gloomies, as she had called them when she was a small child. Shane had been determined to leave last night. He evidently went to not a little trouble to find a way to get away from her. If what the station master indicated were true, Shane rode Blackjack all the way over to Dallas in order to catch a train.
Outside the depot once again, Mariana led the way to one of the waiting benches on the side of the building. She sat and indicated for Ellie to join her.
“Well, I guess that’s that,” she said. “The station master said that was the last train headed for New York until day after tomorrow, either here or over in Dallas. I’ll wire Shane and tell him I’ll be on that train, so he can have someone pick me up at the station.”
She scooted around to face Ellie. “In the meantime, I hope you don’t change your mind about accompanying me, Ellie. And that you’ll let me spend some more time with you here. I do want to get to know you better, and even if things don’t work out between you and Shane, I want us to be friends.”
“I already like you a lot, Mariana,” Ellie said, taking the hand the othe
r woman offered.
In the middle of the mutual squeeze, she and Mariana heard a commotion somewhere away from the depot building. Gazing in that direction, Ellie focused on a huge striped tent rising into the air, and smaller outlying tents interspersed among animal cages.
“Another circus,” Ellie said. “I’ve had so much on my mind, I wasn’t even aware another one was scheduled, although we do have several over the course of a summer.”
“I saw the posters around town,” Mariana admitted, “and I’d been hoping to be able to attend. I do like a good circus.”
Ellie glanced at her in surprise before she recalled Shane saying his mother enjoyed circuses.
Mariana chuckled. “What? You think a New York society woman wouldn’t be interested in a circus? I’ll have you know, both my side of the family and Shane’s father’s family have highly adventurous genes in our makeup.”
Ellie stood. “Would you like to go over and watch them set up, then?” she asked. At least it would give her something to occupy her mind other than her horrid sadness.
“I would indeed.”
Mariana rose, and they walked down the depot steps, heading toward the activity of the circus preparations. They covered perhaps half the distance before a small figure appeared around the side of one of the smaller tents, racing in their direction, legs windmilling and feet kicking up puffs of dust in the hot air. When he got nearer, Ellie recognized one of the town children, a small boy of around ten years old named Lucky.
Curious as to the trouble, she held out her hand to stop Lucky when he got close. Lucky plowed to a halt, small chest heaving as he panted.
“Ain’t neither one of you ladies a mid-wife by no chance, are you?” he asked when he caught his breath.
“No,” Ellie said. “But I’ve helped at animal births on the ranch.”
Lucky grabbed her arm in a dirty hand and tugged. “Then you’d be what they need,” he said urgently. “They sent me to find Doc, but I didn’t figger he’d come to help a horse birthin’. And she’s a’gonna die for sure if someone don’t help her.”
Mariana gasped, but Ellie ignored her and followed Lucky, joining the boy’s run when he found his second wind and raced toward one of the small tents. He didn’t stop at the tent though; he pounded around behind it, where a mare lay on her side. Head stretched out, her flanks heaved in agony as she tried to birth her colt.
An overweight man stepped in front of Ellie. “Ma’am, this ain’t no place for you. I might have to shoot this mare, and I don’t think you want to see that.”
Ellie shoved him aside, not taking time to refute his orders. Kneeling at the mare’s head, she stroked her muzzle and breathed into her nostrils until the mare opened her eyes and gazed at her.
“You’re going to be all right,” she promised the horse. “I’m here to help, and we’ll get through this. Then you’ll have a beautiful little baby to love you.”
The mare nickered faintly, and after one last pat, Ellie moved to the back of her. “Someone get me a bucket of water and some strong soap.”
Evidently they already had this ready, because one of the other men there handed it to Ellie. Glad she had worn a short sleeved blouse, she washed her hands and arms, then covered her right arm again with soap suds. Sending the men into gasps of amazement, she reached inside the mare, feeling to see what was wrong with the colt.
She found the little head turned back onto the colt’s shoulder instead of straight out, as it should have been to lead the way down the birth canal. With a firm effort, she managed to tug the head into the proper place just as another contraction wracked the mare.
Ellie managed to jerk her arm free before the contraction crushed it, and she watched closely, giving a cry of joy when she saw the colt’s muzzle appear. The mare heaved again, and a small, brown and white colt slid out onto the straw beneath its mother.
Something was wrong, though. After a few seconds, the mare struggled to her feet and turned, nuzzling her baby and urging it to rise and suckle. The colt tried to comply, but Ellie saw that one of its rear legs was deformed. Still, after a few attempts, the colt made it up, its stance wobbly but effectively allowing it to walk. It nudged its head beneath the mare and grabbed a teat, broomtail switching as it enjoyed its first nourishing meal.
“Hell,” the fat man said. “I’ll let it eat, I guess. Won’t matter whether I kill it with a full belly or an empty one.”
Ellie whirled on him, spying Mariana beside him for the first time.
“What do you mean?” she asked the fat man with narrowed eyes.
“Deformed colt ain’t no good to me,” he said with a shrug. “Can’t be trained for the ring. It’ll just cost me money to feed it, and I ain’t got no money to feed no animal that don’t pay me back by performin’.”
Ellie caught Mariana’s eyes, and almost as though they communicated without words, Ellie knew what the heartbreak on Mariana’s face meant. Shane had faced some of the same snide, bigoted remarks when he became deformed. Her horror at the way she had treated Shane last night deepened until she could barely breath.
Someone handed the fat man a rifle.
Ellie rushed forward and jerked it away from him. “I’ll give you five hundred dollars for that mare and colt,” she said.
“What?” He pulled his hands back from trying to retrieve the rifle, a contemplating frown settling into his piggy eyes. “Well, now, Missy, that there mare is one of my performin’ horses. She’s worth quite a bit to me, even if her colt ain’t.”
Mariana stepped forward. “Didn’t your circus perform in New York City once?”
The man puffed out his fat chest even further. “It sure did, ma’am. And we’re goin’ back in the fall.”
“You won’t if I decide you won’t,” Mariana warned him. “My name is Mariana Morgan, and I’m on the board of the organization that decides just what type of entertainment we allow in our city. And also what we don’t want there. Ellie has offered you two hundred and fifty dollars for this mare and colt. I’d suggest you take her offer.”
The fat man glared at her. “She said five hundred!”
“Two hundred,” Mariana said.
The fat man gulped. When Mariana began to speak again, he interrupted her.
“Sold,” he said. “But you’ll have to figger how to get her and the colt out of here yourself. I can’t spare nobody to help you haul her off.”
“I’ll arrange for that,” Ellie said. “And go by the bank before you leave town. My banker will have the money ready for you.”
“Here.” Mariana dug in her reticule and pulled out a roll of bills. She peeled off a few and handed them to the man. “Ellie can pay me back. I don’t want her to have to deal with you again.”
Her sarcasm didn’t bother the fat man. Shrugging, he grabbed the bills and shoved them into his pocket, then hurried away.
“So what are we going to do with this little mite and its mother now?” Mariana asked.
“Maybe I can help.”
When Ellie looked up, Fatima stood across from them, with Withers beside her. They must have just appeared, because they hadn’t been there a moment ago. Aware of Fatima’s attire, Ellie glanced at Mariana to see her reaction.
Mouth open in awe, Mariana asked, “Are you Fatima? The woman who cooks out at the ranch?”
Ellie dropped her gaze. Obviously from Mariana’s expression, she saw Fatima as she really was: her red hair piled willy-nilly and held in place with multitudes of jeweled hair pins flashing every color under the sun; her gold dress bodice cut scandalously low; her red, yellow, green, purple and black skirt swirling above-knee length, and black stockings with a red diamond pattern encasing her legs and feet. Feet on which she wore red and black high-heeled slippers.
Then Ellie realized she had been judging the fairy woman, also, just as other people had judged the colt and Shane. Lifting her head, she walked over to Fatima and hugged her.
“I’m so happy to see you,” she said, and a h
uge smile worth every bit of humility Ellie tried to put into her words spread across Fatima’s face. “I need you.”
Fatima cupped Ellie’s cheek. “I’m your fairy godmother, Ellie. I’m here to grant your wishes.”
“Thank you.” Ellie nodded at the mare and colt. “Could you whisk them out to the ranch, into one of the stalls?”
Fatima lifted her wand and pointed it at the mare and colt. When the gold dust subsided, they were gone.
“Done,” Fatima told Ellie. “And I’ll make sure Shorty gets the urge to check in the barn. What else?” But before Ellie could speak, Fatima continued, “I hope whatever your next wish is has to do with finding Shane and accepting his proposal.”
Ellie glanced at Mariana, but the other woman had actually sunk to the ground and was staring at Fatima as though about to faint. Ellie hurried over to her side and helped her back to her feet.
“She’s real,” Ellie assured Mariana. “Please don’t think you’re crazy. I did at first, but believe me, Fatima is real.”
A glass of ice water appeared hovering in the air between them, and Ellie handed it to Mariana. The older woman stared at it in awe for an instant, then drank it gratefully. Handing the glass back to Ellie, she stared at Fatima again.
“I saw it, so it has to be true,” she mused. “And I’ve lived long enough that I should be able to accept this. It was just a huge shock initially.”
She gracefully rose and walked over to Fatima, holding out a hand. “I’m very pleased to meet you. Again,” she said with a smile.
Ellie breathed a sigh of relief, then looked at Fatima. “Shane’s gone back to New York, and we can’t get a train out of here for two more days.”
Cocking her head, Fatima tapped an index finger on her cheek in contemplation. “I can get you there, but I’ll want to do it my way.”
“Any way at all,” Ellie pleaded. “Just get me to Shane.”
“He’s probably still on the train,” Mariana murmured. “It’s a full day and a half trip to New York City from here, and the train only left Dallas this morning.”
Southern Charms Page 26
