by Pema Donyo
“How do you know?”
“She left this note.” The maid pulled out a piece of scrap paper. He grabbed the note from her and instantly recognized Loretta’s handwriting. The curly, looping letters seemed to taunt him with the carefree way she wrote. His face blanched as he read.
Jesse,
I have decided to take my future into my own hands. Preston and I are going to elope. Do not even try to send the sheriff after me, for I will have left Hamilton before you even read this note. Preston and I are going where you cannot stop us. I do not wish to remain trapped in a loveless marriage or always regret giving up on my love, no matter how financially comfortable I will be. I will not repeat your mistake. Give the doctor’s son my best regards.
He rubbed his jaw. He didn’t imagine her behavior would ever come to this. He crushed the letter in his hand. The foolish girl. If anyone in town found out about this, she’d be ruined.
After thanking the maid, he stuffed the crumpled paper into his pocket and galloped back to Breighton. When the horse finally pulled up to a stop in front of the ranch, the clearing was empty. He couldn’t help but feel a small wave of relief that John Cooper’s horse was gone.
Jesse leaped off his mustang and stormed straight to the door of the big house. There was no time to lose. The longer he waited, the farther away Loretta could be. He needed to speak to Mr. Lancaster about this.
The door was locked. He wrapped his knuckles hard against the wooden door. “Mr. Lancaster! I need to speak to you immediately.”
When the door swung open, Evelyn stood there instead of her father. Jesse swallowed. He hadn’t noticed her appearance when he’d passed by her earlier in the day. She wore a bright green dress, one that brought out the emerald in her eyes and contrasted with her long dark hair, tumbling in soft waves. He ignored the itching to run his fingers through it.
Instead, he pulled the letter out of his pocket. After straightening it out, he shoved it in her hand. “I need to speak to Preston. Does your father know where he is?”
She gasped as she read the contents. A pretty flush spread over her cheeks. “I gave him the day off. He said he needed a day of rest, and I thought . . . there was no reason to suspect him.”
He cursed under his breath.
“I apologize.” Evelyn handed the letter back to him. “I had no idea he was planning to see Loretta.”
“Do you have any idea where he might be?”
“He said something about riding to the next town over . . . Harleigh.”
He gritted his teeth. Harleigh was larger than Hamilton. She could be anywhere.
Still, it was a better lead than none. He turned to walk back to his horse, until he felt a small hand grip around his wrist. The door locked and footsteps trailed behind him. Evelyn stood in front of him, finally letting go of his wrist.
“I am coming, too. I may not be fit enough for ranch work at the moment, but I can walk on my ankle.” Her hands were on her hips and her legs were spread the same width apart as her shoulders. She looked so determined, Jesse expected her to stamp her foot against the floorboards.
“This isn’t your concern. I don’t want to drag you into this.” He looked down at the letter, finally admitting the truth to himself. “It’s my fault she ran away.”
“Nonsense.” Her voice remained firm. It was the same tone she used to boss the other ranch hands around. “Preston works for my father’s ranch. If anything goes amiss, we are responsible, too.”
“I can’t believe he would do something like this.” He shook his head. Preston had been one of his good friends since he arrived at the ranch as a boy. How could he betray him by running away with his sister?
“It was probably more of Loretta’s doing than his own,” Evelyn added. “We will keep this scandal to just the two of us. I will not let any of the other ranch hands know. But if both of us go after them, we might be able to find them faster.”
He looked up and met her determined gaze. “All right. Saddle up.”
Harleigh ended up being farther than Jesse anticipated. Or at least the town felt like a million miles away, because each second that ticked by without him finding her was another moment his sister could end up eloping and invoking the talk of a whole town. He urged his horse into a gallop as soon as they’d hit the open road. Evelyn kept up with his pace with ease, even sprinted faster than him for most of the ride.
When he and Evelyn finally stepped off their horses, Jesse pointed in the direction of Harleigh’s general store. The building was nearly twice the size of the general goods store in Hamilton. “I’ll ask the manager if he’s seen ’em.”
She followed him into the store, her footsteps matching his own against the polished oak floor. Numerous stacks of expensive flour and piles of colorful cotton shirts were strewn every which way. For a store so massive, the customers divided in only a few aisles and gave the store a generally empty look.
The general store manager waited behind one of the desks for customers to purchase goods. He smiled when he first saw Jesse and her, but quickly furrowed his brow when he noticed they were holding nothing for purchase.
“I want to know if you’ve seen a blond girl and a dark-haired man pass by here. They’re from Hamilton, so you might not have seen ’em before today.” Jesse took out a tintype of Loretta that he kept in his wallet. He smoothed out the likeness and placed it on the counter. “This is the girl. A little over five feet in height, curly blond hair . . .”
“Might I interest you in some wonderful calico shirts? They’re a rare bargain, I must say. Top-of-the-line quality and at merely half the price you’d find in Hamilton.” The manager winked and gestured to the right side of the store. “Or perhaps some fine leather boots with a tough sole for ranch work. You look like a rough fella—”
Evelyn’s clipped tone cut him off. “Not interested. Just answer the question.”
The manager glared at her but complied with the request. “All right. Well, I ain’t never seen the boy you’re talking ‘bout, but that girl did come in here about an hour ago.”
Jesse’s heart lifted. “Where did she go afterward? Did she say anything about where she was headed?”
The manager shrugged. “Don’t reckon so. How would I know? She didn’t even buy that much. Just a few items of stationery, nothing else.”
“Which direction did she take when she left the store?” Evelyn pressed, leaning forward.
“Right. She turned right after leaving my store.” The manager sighed. “Now if that’s all, I must say the beautiful embellished stationery she bought was quite an extraordinary price, such a marvelous bargain, if I may add—”
Evelyn spun around and started walking toward the door before the manager could even finish his sentence. Jesse followed her, resisting the urge to grin. If she hadn’t decided to take care of a ranch, she would have made an excellent sheriff.
She stopped outside on the wooden sidewalk, waiting for him. When he caught up to her, she pointed in the direction the manager hinted Loretta had traveled. “What I can’t figure out is why Preston wasn’t with her. The manager said he only saw Loretta. If they really eloped, where would he be?”
“Maybe he was waiting outside.” He started moving, and she marched in step as they scanned the shops.
He entered the saloon, where the bar manager admitted he heard her talking about a tailor. Evelyn dropped into the tailor’s, where the man said he thought he saw her go in the direction of the jeweler. Jesse went to the jeweler, who said he’d never seen the girl in his life.
He sat outside the shop, his hat in his hands. The search was proving to be useless. It had been hours since Loretta left her note back at the house. Loretta and Preston could have hightailed it to the next town by now. Maybe there was nothing he could do anymore. Her revenge was finally taking her marriage into her own hands.
Evelyn joined him on the bench. “Why do you look as if you have given up?”
He shrugged. “What’s the point? We
just keep going in circles, and Loretta’s in none of these places.”
The wooden bench creaked underneath her added weight. Her honeysuckle scent filled his nostrils. One of her hands rested against his shoulder, and he nearly felt a spark of fire where she touched him. “You cannot give up. Not yet.”
Her full lips looked even riper as she scolded him. Jesse ran a hand through his hair. He didn’t know which irritated him more, Loretta running off or Evelyn’s lips distracting him at every moment.
“I’ve swallowed my pride at this point, Eve.” Her nickname flowed out of his mouth like water before he stopped the leak. She rubbed his back, and waves of comfort washed over him. “I reckon we wouldn’t even be here if I had just agreed to let her marry Preston. Then she wouldn’t have run away.”
“We are not finished searching.” Evelyn clucked her tongue. She continued her ministrations, and Jesse wondered if she did this for all her “friends.” Her voice was nearly as soft as her touch. “Give her a chance. Maybe she can explain herself when we find her.”
“Explain what? That I was forcing her into a marriage she didn’t want?” He spit at the ground. She flinched and dropped her hand from his back. “I thought eventually she’d like him. He’s a nice enough fella. He’s always wanted to court her.”
“What about him is better than Preston?”
“He’s from a good family. Loretta would never get that social status otherwise.”
“Since when have you been concerned with social status?”
He scowled. “I’m concerned for Loretta, that’s all. I care about her.”
“So does Preston.”
His mouth felt dry suddenly. Preston had probably wanted to court Loretta longer than the doctor’s son did, in fact. “He’s just a cowboy.”
“So were you when I wanted to marry you. When did you change your mind?”
His head jerked sharply at her words. She stared back at him, both a look of sincerity and a challenge in her eyes. There were no traces of remorse for what she’d said.
“The same time you changed yours. Wasn’t me being just a cowboy the reason you broke it off between us?”
“I think I made a mistake.” Evelyn’s lower lip quivered. The fierceness in her green eyes contrasted the tremble in her quiet voice. “I realized that, you know, when you left. I made a mistake by not choosing to marry you.”
Jesse was silent, his mind churning.
She laughed, but it had a bitter ring to it. “Say something.”
“You could have stopped me.” His voice was rough. His head swam with the alternate futures for them if she hadn’t chosen to shut him out. Unspoken words coated his throat. “We could have gone to California together.”
“What can I do about the past, Jesse? What can I do to apologize?” Her eyes were round, studying his reaction to her words. She pursed her lips, as if considering the possibilities with him. “How can I change what has already happened? The past is behind me.”
He wasn’t sure how to respond. Putting the past behind her equaled moving on from him, didn’t it? But just how much had she forgotten?
“Besides, we have finally become friends again.” Her lower lip quivered, the way she did when she was nervous. Her green eyes swam with hope. “That is what we are, right? We are friends.”
He felt the stinging burn of the word like a branding iron. Friends. What had once seemed like too much to hope for with Evelyn now didn't seem like enough. It was like she was lassoing him into a title. He tried to wait for the right moment to shuck off the rope, to get beyond being her friend. The longer he waited, the harder it was to escape.
“Reckon so. We’re friends.” Jesse shifted his weight on the bench. He never heard a word so cursed in all his life. Friends. That was all Evelyn saw him as; that was all she’d ever see him as.
“Good. I was worried you were trying to ignore me lately.” She managed a small smile, but he caught the tremble in her voice, as if she still didn't believe his words. “There is no reason we should let the past define our present relationships.”
“Agreed.”
She cleared her throat. “Loretta may not be making a mistake after all. She may be making the right choice.”
“How do you figure that?”
“She does not have to wonder, years later, what her life would have been like if she’d just married the cowboy in the first place. She is not letting her fear hold her back.” Evelyn licked her lips, and his eyes fell to them.
His gut clenched with regret at his action. Her lips were as red as freshly picked strawberries. Was that what they tasted like?
“I know if the town gets hold of the news, she may be the subject of gossip. But maybe not all the consequences are terrible. Loose talk never lasts for a lifetime. At least she and Preston will not be making the same mistake we did.”
He could barely believe the words he was hearing. She regretted it? “Mistake?” He furrowed his brow. His throat felt like gravel, as if the words had difficulty reaching his mouth. “Eve, you wish you’d come to California with me?”
She smiled. There was a sadness to the upward curve of her lips, and moisture pricked the ends of her eyes. “How can I change the past? I think I would have, Jesse. I think I would have followed you anywhere.”
She leaned closer as she said the words. Her head tilted, and her lips parted slightly. He felt his whole body lean toward her, like a bear to honey. Their lips edged closer and closer to one another’s, until the scent of her enveloped him. He opened his eyes at the last moment, taking in the sight of her beauty before him.
But his eyes narrowed at a shape behind her. He’d seen him before. Cowboy hat, familiar faded red trousers, stained wool shirt—
Wait, was that—?
“Preston!” He stood up, calling his friend’s name again. “Preston Dean, get over here!”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Evelyn nearly fell onto the bench after Jesse stood up. Every time he used her old nickname, her heart started beating faster at the familiarity. Still, discontent prodded her heart. She’d been so sure he was going in for a kiss. Her lips still tingled with the aftereffect, as if her body was physically aware of what should have happened moments ago.
She shook away all romantic notions. They needed to find Loretta first.
Jesse walked down the steps and strode over to Preston. To Evelyn’s alarm, he picked up Preston by his coat lapels and shoved him hard against the nearest wall. She ran toward them.
Preston seemed to be waving his hands in defense. “I swear! I did nothing to encourage her! She suggested we come to Harleigh, and then she started talking about eloping once we got here.”
“She gave you no warning about running away for good?”
“I swear she didn’t!” Preston kept flailing his arms, as if it would wave away Jesse’s anger.
“You should have known not to indulge her.” He stared daggers at Preston and pulled him up still higher by the lapels. “If you really love her as you say you do—”
“Enough!” Evelyn raised her hand to rest on one of Jesse’s arms. He resisted at first, but slowly lowered his grip until Preston’s two feet were standing back on the ground.
She turned to Preston and placed her hands on her hips. “Where is Loretta now?”
Preston shook his head. “She ran away from me as soon as I told her we shouldn’t elope.” He snuck a cautious look at Jesse. “I know it’ll ruin her. She got angry at that, though, said her brother had got to me, and just took off.”
Jesse’s glare didn’t ease up. She had never seen him so angry before. “You let her go?” he seethed.
“I’ve been looking for her this entire time,” Preston declared. “I don’t plan to leave Harleigh till I find her.”
Jesse’s scowl remained. Still, he unclenched his fists, Evelyn noted with some relief. “Until we find Loretta, I’m not letting you outta my sight.”
Preston turned to her, his eyes searching for a speck of sympathy
. “Trust me, I know now that coming here with her was foolish. I figured I’d spend one last day with her before she was married to someone else, that’s all.”
Evelyn placed her hands on Preston’s arms and shushed him. “You need to help us find Loretta. That would be mighty appreciated.”
“You believe me, don’t you?”
“I believe you.” She winced. “I cannot say Jesse does, though.”
Jesse had already started walking down the long line of stores by the time she turned around. She ran after him and grabbed his wrist to stop him. This time he shrugged her off. She nearly tripped backward, taken aback by his sudden jerk of her hand.
“We are trying to help you.”
“How? Now that we’ve found Preston, we have no idea where she is. How can you help?” he snapped.
Evelyn narrowed her eyes at him. “Loretta is my friend, too. And she considers Preston her sweetheart, whether you like it or not. We do not like this situation any more than you do.”
“What’s your great idea, hmm?” He scuffed one of his boots against the dirt, causing a plume of dust to rise up. “Think we can just keep jawing and standing around and my sister will just show up outta nowhere?”
“No, I think we will keep talking and reason this situation out.” She scowled. “You were always all action. You never actually think through a situation, do you? This is not Preston’s fault. He wants Loretta found and safe as much as you do.”
His jaw tensed as he saw Preston catch up to them. Still, she believed her words had some effect on him. He wasn’t glaring at Preston anymore. That was progress.
“Where was the last place you saw her?”
Preston pointed to outside the nearest hotel. “She was trying to convince me to stay there with her. I refused. You know me. She just gave her words a lick and a promise. I said she was going to be married, that it wasn’t proper.”
“Then?”
“She ran on into the hotel before I could stop her.”
Jesse folded his arms over his chest. “Why didn’t you go in after her?”
