Always, Ellis

by Reina Torres

  “Hello, Mr. McCain,” Ellis greeted him with as much genuine hospitality as he could, “may I help you?”

  Ransom took a step forward, and then another, his eyes carefully moving from him to Virginia. His expression lightened then, but only by a bit. “Miss Halston, I believe?”

  She nodded, and her smile brightened a little. “I’m the newest curiosity in town, I guess. People know of me, but I don’t know of them.”

  Ellis couldn’t help but turn an approving glance in her direction. Virginia certainly had a way about her.

  Extending his hand, Ransom approached her slowly. “I’m Ransom McCain. My wife and I have a home a few streets away. I believe you’ve met Delia.”

  Virginia beamed at him. “Of course! Delia and Tillie were there when I had tea with Mrs. Hawkins when I first arrived. How is your wife faring these days?”

  Ellis watched Ransom’s dark look melt from his face as if it had been made of candle wax and Virginia had held a flame just close enough to make a difference.

  There might have even been a smile on Ransom’s face. “She’s faring well, Miss. Thank you for asking.”

  “I hope that we will have a chance to get to know each other better. It’s always difficult to make friends when one moves every few years from one town to another.”

  Ransom’s face hardened again, and Ellis braced himself for what he knew was coming. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, Miss Halston.”

  That got her interest. She folded her hands before her, drawing Ellis’ attention to the soft porcelain color of her skin against the deep blue backdrop of her skirts.

  “You’re new here and so is Mr. Cooper.”

  Tilting her head to the side she asked a question of Ransom. “Yes, but I heard he has an uncle in town. Mr. Samuel Cooper? The blacksmith?”

  “Yes,” Ransom acknowledged that as the truth, “and Sam is one of our most respected citizens in town, but-”

  Ellis tensed, worry pinching between his shoulder blades.

  “If you’ve a need for help, you might want to ask one of the other riders for their assistance.”

  A bit of nervous laughter escaped her lips. “I think Mr. Cooper would be a fine choice to help me, Mr. McCain. What I need done only needs a little patience and a little exertion.” She darted a glance to Ellis who stood beside her. “As far as I can tell, he’s fit for the job. Unless there’s a risk to his health from digging a few post holes, I think we’ll get along just fine.”

  Ransom pressed a little more. “Miss Halston, I do believe that you should speak to your father first or wait and speak to Mr. Hawkins before you engage Ellis to do any work for you. I don’t think your father would agree that he’s suitable for the position.”

  Ellis watched as she drew in a breath, her lips thinning to a pale line across her face.

  She squared her shoulders and spoke directly to Ransom. “I believe your heart is in the right place, Mr. McCain. I believe your wife to be a sweet and gentle soul and because of that, I hope that your primary concern comes from a heart as good and as pure as her own.

  “But I feel as though your warnings will sail directly over my head. And what you’re trying to say, without actually saying it, is that I’m not capable of deciding who to hire without my father’s say so.

  “I, although you may not know it, am an excellent judge of character. If I choose to hire Mr. Cooper, I can assure you that I will. The job will be paid for from my purse and because of that, it will be my decision which man I aim to hire.”

  Ellis could see the struggle in Ransom’s eyes. He liked the man. Well, as much as one could like someone who was just waiting for you to mess up. Then again, if he was Ransom and saw her standing with a man who had just spent almost two years in jail, he’d feel honor bound to say something too.

  “Miss?” He could hear the apology in his own voice. He certainly felt his middle twist up into a knot as she turned to look at him. “What Mr. McCain is trying to say is that I was in prison until recently. Mr. Hawkins was kind enough to offer me a position, hoping that I would have a chance to prove myself trustworthy and a hard-working man.” He saw the tight set of Ransom’s jaw ease up just the littlest bit. “I am real grateful to you for your insistence on giving me a chance to help, but I think that it’s best you know the truth of my past before you make your final decision.”

  The barn went about as quiet as barns could get. Somewhere behind him a rat dove through the hay and a cat burrowed in after it. One of the horses kicked a hoof against a wall and another snorted a few stalls down.

  But standing together, the three remained nearly silent themselves.

  Virginia lifted her gaze away from Ellis’ face and he tried not to let his expression show how disappointed he was. Miss Halston didn’t need to worry about his soft feelings. “Well, it looks like I have both of you to thank for trying to protect me. Mr. McCain, I am again sure that your wife is a very lucky woman indeed.”

  Ellis felt his mouth go dry in anticipation.

  “And Mr. Cooper?”

  He lifted his gaze from the dirt floor to her eyes. “Yes, Miss Halston?”

  “As I understand, you came to Three Rivers to focus on your future and put your past behind you.”

  He nodded, but he wasn’t sure she could see much movement, given how tense his muscles felt, so he had to say it out loud. “Yes, Miss. That’s what I’m trying to prove.”

  Virginia smiled and nodded, centering her attention on his face. “Then that’s what we shall both concentrate on. I will do my best to give you that chance and you will endeavor to prove me right.”

  “To prove what right, Miss?” Ellis could feel Ransom’s hard gaze on him even though he couldn’t see him off to the side.

  “To prove,” she repeated, “to Mr. McCain that I am indeed an excellent judge of character.” With her point made she stepped back from both men. “Do you have some free time tomorrow, Mr. Cooper?”

  Ellis gave a single nod in a slow deliberate movement of his head. “Yes, Miss. After feeding the horses and mucking out their stalls, I have the rest of the morning off. I’d say a good three… three and a half hours?”

  She nodded and smiled at him as if he had just given her a gift, her eyes alight with pleasure.

  In that moment, he knew his first taste of joy since his imprisonment. It was a heady thing to feel coursing through his veins.

  “Then come by the Marshal’s office when you’re done in the barn and I’ll put you to work.”

  She looked at each in turn. “Thank you both for taking the time to speak with me. Good bye.”

  And in what seemed like the blink of an eye, she was gone. Taking his heart with her.

  Chapter 4

  If she didn’t know herself better, Virginia would have said she was suffering a bout of heat stroke. Oh, she’d had her share when her father had worked in the cow towns south of Three Rivers. There, when the sun blazed overhead, and the town streets seemed to collect heat like a griddle, and the thousands of cattle milling about in pens and the growing muck under their hooves… The combined temperatures and smells had put many a person in their sickbed. And conditions like that made people angry.

  Angry enough to fight with fists and lead.

  But this, her current state wasn’t because of anything to do with heat. If anything, it was still chilly enough at times to see her breath in front of her.

  No, the flutterings in her middle and the flush on her cheeks was from the idea that in a few hours she’d have a visitor. A visitor that she would have to make sure stayed busy.

  But not too busy.

  He would be there to work.

  But not so much work that he ran away from the next time she had something that needed to be done.

  Taking out a spare scrap of her patterning paper, she fished a pencil from her apron. Laying the paper on her palm she jotted down the words.

  Post Holes

  _Measure

  _Dig


  _Set

  _Secure

  _String Line

  Virginia read through the list again and one more time. She didn’t want to look like a ninny. Not in front of Ellis.

  “Ellis.” She said the name out loud and felt the hiss of her breath over her lip at the end. “That’s Mister Cooper to you, young lady.” She scolded herself on her parents’ behalf. “One doesn’t call a young man by his first name.” And there she was talking to herself.

  She had something for him to do. Well, a lot of things for him to do, but that couldn’t be enough. She would pay him, of course. The man needed to earn a living.

  She had to set up their house.

  Her father’s house, she corrected herself. Not a house for herself and…

  Shaking her head, she brushed away her fanciful thoughts. It was all her own fault. She usually handled moving with more aplomb. She usually handled it because they weren’t moving into a home that was new to her but not new in and of itself. All it usually took to get them settled at home was moving furniture around to her satisfaction and then putting things away.

  When they moved to Three Rivers, the house still had sawdust on the floor and two of the windows stuck because the paint had dried over it. It had taken quite a bit of elbow grease and a few smothered words to open the worst of them, but she had done it.

  But there were boundaries to even her own ingenuity. She was willing to do nearly everything but split open her skin on the shovel handle. It would be near to impossible to do her mending if she were liable to smear blood across the fabric.

  With a wince and a cringe, she pulled her thoughts away from the idea and tried to set her thoughts on a course to settle her nerves.

  Picking up her father’s shirt she laid it across her lap and found the needle where she’d woven it a couple of times into the seam allowance to save her place.

  It was a dark blue flannel, a color her father favored in general. She had made dozens of shirts for him since she’d been old enough to complete the task and rarely had to think over a stitch or a step when she made a new one.

  There were times when she would sit down to work and if her father didn’t come home until supper he’d find her bent over the task working on the final stitches of one side or another with dinner unmade.

  Luckily for both of them, her father didn’t mind sandwiches and fruit for a meal. He wouldn’t even grumble much. He’d just sigh and busy himself with something until she could quickly assemble the meal.

  But she had vowed to do better this time. Surely at eighteen years of age she could manage to be more mindful of the time. Surely, she could finally prove that she wasn’t a youthful girl anymore. That she was a-

  “Miss Halston?”

  Virginia shook her head and started her stitch again.

  “Miss Halston? Are you home?”

  Narrowing her eyes, she leaned toward the door, training her ears on the noise.

  “Miss Halston? Are you all right?”

  Who was that?

  I wasn’t expecting anyone this-

  “Oh goodness!” She shot up from her seat and nearly tumbled her work to the ground. Making a quick grab for the cloth she managed to pierce the needle through the flesh of her finger. “Ow!” She lost hold of the garment all together and pushed her finger into her mouth trying to ease the pain.

  “Miss Halston!” The front screen door banged, and she heard footsteps inside the house. “Miss Halston!”

  Just a few more steps and the doorway into the hall was filled with the startled visage of Ellis Cooper. His eyes wide with concern he braced his palm on the frame of the door.

  “Miss Halston,” he huffed out a breath and drew another in, “what happened?”

  She was sure her cheeks had flamed with color, perhaps even her ears for they felt as if they’d caught the fire of her shame.

  Virginia pulled her finger free. “I’m quite fine, Mr. Cooper. I was just-” her gaze dipped down to her finger and she saw the blood nearly coating her finger in red, “Goodness!” She pressed her finger back into her mouth and struggled not to faint in front of the poor man she’d given such a fright to.

  The pain only seemed to intensify with the action.

  She thought to look up at him and find some way to apologize without speaking but found herself peering directly into his face. In shock, she almost fell backward but was saved by his quick reflexes.

  Her wide-eyed stare softened as his look of concern slowly changed to a smile.

  There wasn’t a hint of mockery in his expression, only a hint of happiness.

  “I thought the worst,” he explained in a soft voice. “I called in and you didn’t respond. I should be glad your door was unlocked, Miss.”

  As he spoke he took out a folded handkerchief from a pocket inside his coat and shook it open.

  “I’m just glad you’re in one piece,” with a smile he quickly folded the kerchief into one long strip across the grain and held out his hand. “I can only imagine that your father would have put me in irons if you’d really been hurt.”

  She put her hand in his before she realized what she was about and watched as he cleared the skin first on an inch of cloth a few inches from the center. Looking at her fingertip he turned and saw the shirt on the floor, the shining needle winking in the sunlight spilled across the floor. “Just a little pinch,” he assured her, and she couldn’t help but smile at the sunny glint in his eyes. “Won’t take more than a moment.”

  And with that reassurance, she watched as Ellis Cooper bandaged her finger with all the gentle care of a gentleman and ease of a doctor.

  When he’d tied a tidy bow with the pointed ends of the cloth he gave her a smile.

  Virginia looked down at the bandage and felt that same odd, unsettled feeling in her middle that she’d had the last few times she’d seen Ellis. It wasn’t just the matter of him being pleasant to look at. He also had a youthful energy that drew her attention. She knew of his past, but instead of his struggles turning him into a dark and surly man, she could feel a lightness within him that warmed her like the sun.

  “Thank you, Mr. Cooper.” She lightly cradled her bandaged hand in the other and laid both up against her stomach. “I was distracted by my sewing and startled when I heard you call through the door.”

  She saw his smile falter and the smooth flesh between his brows pinched in a frown. “I am sorry if-”

  “No, please!” She tried to ease his worry, reaching out to stop him from apologizing. “My father has always despaired of my lack of attention to outside matters. I was glad you called out so that your time wouldn’t be wasted. That was not my intent.”

  There was a myriad of emotions that seemed to cross his face and she found herself wanting to ask him what they were and why he felt them. Her father was a man with a stoic mien. She could tell when he was displeased, and she could tell when he was weary. Anger was also another expression that had presented itself carved into his features often enough, but the gentle shifts of emotion on Ellis’ face, was a curious distraction.

  “I will be sure to wash and return your kerchief in the morning, but we should be about the work before we lose the afternoon light.”

  A soft smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. “You don’t have to wash it, Miss. I’ll be happy to take on the chore. I’m used to the work.” He gestured toward the door.

  She bent to pick up her work and set it aside in her basket before preceding him from the room. “Nonsense,” she murmured over her shoulder as she reasoned, “I’ll use the line we put up to dry it, but there will be blo- there will be a stain if I don’t scrub it out tonight. You shouldn’t have to suffer for your chivalry.”

  “Chivalry?” He moved quickly to open the door for her, and she felt his curious gaze on the side of her face. “I don’t know what that is about, but I was glad to ease your pain. Someone as beautiful as you are shouldn’t have cause to hurt like that.”

  Her steps stuttered, and she would hav
e stumbled down the steps into the dirt if he hadn’t taken hold of her elbow and eased her down onto both of her feet.

  When he joined her there she managed to look up at him without incident. She wanted to thank him for his kindness. To thank him for calling her beautiful, but she was sure that the words were just that… a kindness. When he’d taken the time to think about it, he’d likely feel foolish over the words and she didn’t want to bring undo attention to it.

  Instead, she held out the paper she’d written on earlier and listened as he read the list out loud.

  “The supplies,” she explained as she gestured to the pile of wood and rope tucked up against the side of the house, “are over there.”

  “And the shovel?”

  “Oh,” she laughed, “yes, those would be helpful, wouldn’t they?” picking up one side of her skirt she walked around to the back of the house and stopped before the small shed that had been built for just such an occasion. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a key and set it in the lock. “Your uncle made this lock, I believe?”

  Ellis was standing beside her and she looked up to see his face transformed with a smile. “I wouldn’t doubt it. He’s a clever man with hands to match.” Holding up his own hands, Ellis gave her a shrug. “Don’t ask me how he makes some things that look as though they were more art than substance, but even with his huge hands he can create some of the most delicate things.”

  The lock succumbed to the key and popped open.

  Ellis surprised her by removing the lock from the loops holding the door closed and swinging it open. He picked up the two shovels inside and met her gaze. “How deep are we digging?”

  “A foot?” They both heard the confusion in her voice. “Two feet?”

  He dropped his chin to his chest and gave her a curious look. “You don’t know?”

  She opened her mouth to speak to him, stopped, and then started again. “I’ve never had to put one up before,” she admitted. “In the past we always took the home after the last Marshal or Sheriff left it, so we didn’t have need to do much besides find places for our things.” She gestured to the house beside them. “This is the oddest place so far. I’m not sure I like the idea of sharing a wall between the house and the Marshal’s office. It feels a little too close for comfort.”