"Rose, are you all right?" He was more concerned about his wife at the moment than who the important people were stepping off the train.
Before she could answer, a woman's voice called from the platform. "Rose! Oh, Rose, how good it is to see you!"
Slowly, he turned his head and realized the woman racing toward them looked like an older version of Rose. Her hair was dark, with streaks of white around her face.
The man still standing on the platform didn't look happy. And dread started to creep in as Elijah realized he had to be looking at Rose's parents.
Another taller man stepped down from the car and looked around in disdain at the small town they'd stopped in. But as soon as his eyes found Rose, his face lit up. Elijah fought against the jealousy he could feel raging inside him as he noticed how well dressed and immaculate the man in front of him looked.
By now, the woman was hugging Rose and crying with how much she missed her. Rose had her arms around her, but she lifted her head to look at Elijah. He could see pain in her eyes as she carefully watched him.
"Rose Lambert. Do you want to tell me what you were thinking running off to the other side of the country without a word to any of us?" The man was stomping toward them, so Elijah instinctively moved to stand between them.
He put his hand out to the man. "Sir, my name is Elijah Thorpe. Welcome to Squirrel Ridge Junction."
The shorter man reluctantly put his hand into his, shaking it quickly. "I'm Andrew Lambert, solicitor at Lambert, Davis, and Harvey in Ottawa. I'm here to collect my daughter and take her back home."
Anger welled up inside Elijah at how the man had already dismissed him to move toward Rose, determined to drag her back home. The look on her face indicated to everyone watching that she wasn't happy to see this man.
"I'm not going home, Father."
Everyone around them went quiet as Rose stood firm. Her mother pulled back, and quickly brought a hanky to cover the sob that escaped as Rose spoke.
"Yes, you are. I don't know what you were trying to prove by taking off out here, but I won't have it. Did you think I wouldn't find you?" Her father shook with anger.
"No, I knew you'd find me. But I also knew by then it would be too late."
Elijah watched as the man’s face turned an ugly shade of purple as he struggled to control his fury.
By now, the other man who'd stepped out of the car had come over and put his hand on Mr. Lambert’s shoulder. "Andrew, let's just go somewhere more private so we can all sit down and talk about everything civilly."
Something about the man made Elijah nervous. He was a tall man with not a single hair out of place. He wore a suit that looked like it had recently been pressed, and that he hadn't just sat in a train car riding across the country.
He put his hand out to Elijah.
"Thanks for the welcome. My name's Robert Harvey, Rose's fiancé."
Chapter 14
Rose's eyes hadn't left Elijah's face and she wanted to move closer to him, grab him by the hand and get him away from the platform they stood on. Joel looked ready to come over and throw Robert to the ground, while Evelyn looked at her with concern.
But Elijah just stood staring at Robert, letting his hand drop as they finished shaking. Slowly, he turned to look at her. "I find that difficult to believe, since Rose is now my wife."
"Your wife?" Her father's voice roared in her ears.
She whipped around to face him.
"Yes, Father. His wife. Which I'm sure you already knew was going to happen since you managed to find me out here somehow." She was shaking with anger as she confronted her father.
"I knew you were planning to marry some Mountie out here in British Columbia, but the man I hired to find you didn't mention the marriage had already happened. I thought you'd have more common sense than to marry the first stranger you happened upon just to spite me."
"Andrew, dear, calm down. There's no sense making a scene." Her mother turned to her, and Rose wanted to shout at the woman to stand up to her husband for once. "Rose, why don't we all go back to your place, and you can show us to our rooms."
Rose clenched her teeth together as she fought her anger. "Mother, I don't have rooms. I have a room. One room. You will all have to stay at the small hotel set up by the stagecoach station."
Her mother looked horrified as she quickly glanced around the dusty town. It was far from the atmosphere they were used to.
Robert had remained quiet, but now was moving slowly toward her. "Rose, I know we may have argued, but to run off like this was very unseemly. Does your new husband know why you had to run away so abruptly?" He turned to face Elijah, and Rose was sure her heart stopped when she saw the look on her husband's face.
"Rose?" Elijah wasn't listening to Robert. He was giving her the chance to tell him herself.
"Robert and I were promised to be married, but it was never an engagement I agreed to." She tried to move to Elijah, but he backed up slightly.
"So, you had an argument with your fiancé and decided to get back at him by coming out here to marry a stranger?" His voice sounded hurt, and she just wished everyone else would leave so she could explain it all to him.
"No. He tried to ruin my reputation and force me to marry him, so I took matters into my own hands and decided to get away from him." She whirled around to face her father. "And away from people who never let me make my own decisions about my life. Who would have more concern about their own standing in society than to believe that the man they were forcing their daughter to marry accosted her to ensure she had no other choice."
Tears were falling down her cheeks as she looked around at the shocked faces staring at her. Once again, she was sure everyone had already made up their minds. Her new friends would think she was some kind of spoiled rich girl who was mad at her handsome fiancé.
But the one that stung the most was the way Elijah was looking at her. He believed her parents and Robert. He thought the worst of her.
"I came here to find someone who could possibly care for me, and maybe have a chance at a normal life, away from the stares and the restrictions of the society life you expected me to live."
"Rose, you've always had anything you ever wanted. What do you have now? A one room shack that you live in, in the middle of a run-down town. You won't last a month."
Robert was looking at her in shock, shaking his head as though he just couldn't understand what she was saying.
"And I never forced myself on you, if that's what you're implying. You were quite happy to let me kiss you."
She balled her hands into fists and started to move closer to Robert. At this point she didn't care if her husband had to arrest her for beating up a man.
"All right, that's enough. I think everyone needs to get some rest and try to have this discussion in a more private location." Joel had stepped forward, and was now in the middle of them. He turned to face her parents, and Rose caught a glimpse of Evelyn standing to the side. Her friend offered her an encouraging smile, so she could only assume Evelyn had asked her husband to step in.
Rose quietly mouthed a thank-you to the other woman.
"I will escort you to the rooms in the hotel, while Elijah and Rose head home. Whether you believe it to be true or not, they are married, so whatever your concerns are, they will have to wait."
"I will not be sent away without a chance to speak to my daughter in private. Don't you know who I am?" Her father was fuming as he faced the two Mounties.
Finally, it was Elijah who spoke. "Unless your name is Sir Wilfrid Laurier, I don't care who you are. I have no obligation to do anything you ask, and I certainly do not take orders from you. Now, you can walk away on your own, or I can take you in to our office and detain you for being a public nuisance. I'm sure since you've pointed out exactly who you are back in Ottawa, you can understand how the law works."
By now, her mother was crying and they had managed to draw a large crowd that was gathered around them. Squirrel Ridge Junctio
n didn't have a whole lot of excitement, so this was something no one wanted to miss.
Her father squinted his eyes together as he pointed his finger at her. "This isn't over, young lady. You might think you've won, but I can assure you, I will make sure this marriage of yours never happened."
He stormed away, and her mother and Robert followed, with Joel right behind them.
"Elijah, I can explain everything. I wanted to tell you what happened back home, but I was scared you wouldn't believe me."
He was looking over her shoulder, and she could see the muscles in his jaw moving as he fought his anger. She put her hand out to place on his arm, but he pulled it away.
"Rose, you should have trusted me. I don't know what to think right now."
He turned and walked back to his horse that had remained grazing next to the platform. Throwing his hat on his head, he hopped onto the horse and pulled on the reins to turn it around.
She stood with tears falling as she watched him ride out of town. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, she was sure he was also riding out of her life for good.
Chapter 15
He couldn't get the look in her eyes out of his mind. Everything that happened on that station platform played over and over in his head, while he tried to get comfortable on the hard ground, looking up at the stars above him.
She'd been hurt as he'd walked away, but he'd been so angry he was scared of what he'd say.
Why hadn't she just told him the truth? He could tell after just meeting the man one time that Robert Harvey was a swine. And Elijah hated to say anything bad about anyone, but Rose's father was even worse. It was no wonder she'd had to run as far away as she could get.
But the fact that she hadn't trusted him enough to tell him the truth bothered him. He'd always tried to be a fair and patient man, and he thought Rose must have known that about him by now.
Suddenly, a loud noise cracked in the woods beside him. Jumping up, he grabbed his gun and pointed it in the direction the sound had come from. In the light of the full moon, the moose that was always hanging around town, ambled out of the bushes and stared directly at him.
Monty.
That was the name Rose had told him Miss Hazel had given the moose. It seemed like a fitting name for the big animal that was standing in front of him. He knew moose could be dangerous if provoked, even this one that the women had all decided should be some kind of pet.
Did he have something hanging on his antlers? From here, if he didn't know any better, Elijah was sure he was walking around with a pair of women's underthings draped over the top of his left antler. And on the right side was a shawl he'd seen Rose wear more than once.
Monty shook his head at Elijah as though even he was angry that he hadn't stayed to talk things over with Rose.
"Well, what do you know you big, blundering clod?"
Elijah ended up shaking his own head as he realized he was trying to rationalize with a wild animal. To be fair, though, Monty was hard to consider in a class of wild animal as he stood shaking the women's clothing free from his antlers.
"Fine. I will take these back to Rose and sit down and talk to her. Is that what you want?"
Deciding he was truly losing his mind, he realized he needed to get home to speak to Rose before he started imagining the animal talking back to him. Elijah walked closer to pick up the clothing that was now lying on the ground. Monty gave him a nod and turned to walk back into the bush he'd come out of.
Grumbling under his breath at the ridiculous animal that was always hanging around, Elijah folded his bedroll and threw his leg over his horse. He tucked the clothes inside his bag and headed for home.
No one would ever believe he'd just had Monty the Moose tell him he needed to get home to his wife.
He wasn't even sure he believed it himself.
Rose let the coolness of the approaching autumn air kiss her cheeks as she sat on the front step. She could see every star for miles, and the light from the full moon was reflecting off the mountains in the distance. The sound of an owl calling out in the darkness of the woods outside of town sounded sad and lonely, mirroring her own feelings.
After Elijah had flown out of town on his horse, she'd walked back home alone, determined to make him listen when he got back, whether he liked it or not.
Only, he hadn't come home. She'd eaten dinner alone and sat waiting to hear the sound of him coming through the door. When she went to bed, he still wasn't back and her stomach was in knots as she worried what would happen.
Once again, her father had made sure she had no control over what happened. He'd purposely come here to destroy anything she'd done without his consent. He could never let her have any say, and if he thought she'd somehow "won," he wasn't going to let it go.
She felt terrible that Elijah had been dragged into all of it, but she'd gotten the impression from Miss Hazel that this Mountie she was coming to marry needed her just as much as she needed him.
Now she wasn't so sure. Everything was in a mess, and she hated to think what everyone in town must be thinking of her.
A wealthy, spoiled harlot who had been caught with a man outside of marriage, and who had run off to teach them all a lesson after a silly argument. At least that was the picture that was being painted.
Tucking her feet up under her warm nightgown, and pulling her knees up so she could rest her chin on them, she wished she could pull her favorite shawl around herself for warmth. But thanks to Monty, she was sure that shawl was halfway across British Columbia.
The only company she'd had today after the scene at the train station had been the silly moose who stumbled through her wash line. He'd brought a smile to her tear-stained face, and she'd been sure he’d stood watching her for a long time before racing off into the bushes faster than she'd ever seen him move.
"You look a bit chilly. I thought you might like to have this."
Rose jumped at the sound of Elijah's voice. Her head flew up and she saw him standing at the edge of the step holding her shawl in his hand. He moved closer and laid it around her shoulders.
"Thank you. I thought for sure I'd never see it again."
He reached into his bag and pulled out the other item Monty had run off with. She was horrified as Elijah handed them to her with a sheepish grin.
"Oh, my…thank you."
He came over and sat on the step beside her, letting one leg stay straight out while the other one bent to rest his arm on. He was looking down at the ground, seeming to be interested in the dirt under his shoes.
"I never heard you ride back into town." Her voice sounded loud in the stillness of the night around them.
He nodded slightly and lifted his head to look up at the stars. "I came in the other way so you wouldn't have heard me. I just got back."
She knew he hadn't been assigned to go out on rounds, but she decided not to question where he'd been. If he'd needed some time to figure everything out, she was glad to give it to him.
They sat together, quietly listening to the lone howling of a wolf in the distance. The sound was eerie, making Rose shiver.
Suddenly, Elijah's arm came around her and pulled her in to his side. He still hadn't said a word, but somehow she felt safer. With a relieved sigh, she let her head fall to rest on his shoulder.
This man had every right to be angry, and even hate her for what had happened today. Yet here he was, letting her know he wasn't just going to walk away from her without giving her a chance to explain. He was willing to believe in her, which was more than any other person had ever done for her in her life.
As she sat beside him, soaking in his warmth, she realized that somewhere between needing to get away from home and finding her own life, she'd fallen in love with the Mountie she'd married.
Chapter 16
"Rose, you know your father means well, and he only wants what's best for you. You've broken his heart by running away like this."
She was sitting in the small dining room of the hotel
across from her mother, while her father and Robert had gone to the telegraph office to send a message back to their firm. She was sure they were probably looking into what they could do to make sure her marriage wasn't legal, but she didn't care.
She was staying here with Elijah, and there was nothing they could do to stop her.
"Mother, the only thing Father has ever cared about is what will be beneficial to him and his career. He doesn't care what I do, as long as it suits him."
"And poor Robert. He was devastated when you ran off. The humiliation he had to endure. You're lucky he's still determined to marry you and give you the security of his name."
Her mother wasn't even listening to her. She'd become so accustomed to listening to her father and blindly following everything he said, the woman couldn't even think for herself. She truly believed everything she was saying, even though anyone with eyes in their heads should have been able to see the truth.
"Lucky? Mother, he was the one who ruined my own good name, or have you forgotten that? He forced himself on me, knowing we would be caught. I'd told him our engagement was off, and I didn't care what Father said. So Robert made sure I was left with no choice but to marry him. And neither one of you cared about how that made me feel. You were all too worried about your own good names."
"Rose Lambert, that's not true."
"My name is Rose Thorpe now, Mother."
Her mother waved her hand dismissively as she shook her head. "That's no matter, dear. Your father will fix all of that, and before long we will all be headed home."
Rose could feel her anger rising, and she knew she had to try and keep it under control. There were other people in the dining room, and she didn't want to do anything that would embarrass Elijah in town.
RNWMP: Bride for Elijah (Mail Order Mounties Book 2) Page 6
