Chapter 4
Nora woke at first light to the sound of a rooster crowing. Slowly turning on her side as she stretched her arms over her head, she watched the plain yellow curtains swirling in the breeze. The picture was undeniably intoxicating, but she had to blink hard and fast for several seconds to remember where she was, but as soon as she shifted her gaze and saw the ring on her finger, her mouth expanded into a smile. She sat straight and pushed the blankets aside as she discarded the sheets in favor of the orange calico dress. Smoothing her hands down the skirt as she glanced at her reflection in the mirror, Nora started to tie her hair over her head when the memory of Henry’s voice declaring the he liked the way it hung over her shoulders flooded her mind. Maybe it was far from fitting for a rancher’s wife to go around looking like a schoolgirl, but she opted to go against the grain as she laced up her boots and left the room to meet the day.
There was no sign of Henry as she stepped towards the kitchen, and she imagined his large hands already hard at work as he baled hay and fed the livestock. No doubt he had left the house before the stars evaporated in the massive sky hanging overhead. What would happen when the man finally made his way into her bed to sleep at her side? Would she rise with him and see to it that he had his coffee and a proper breakfast prior to making his way into the fields? The idea caused her heart to skip a beat. For now, she would have a feast waiting for him when he left the land to look in on her.
As Nora cracked three fresh eggs and stirred them in a cast iron pan over the range, the sound of heavy footsteps startled her. Henry was early, and she wiped her hands with the nearest rag. The breakfast would prove a bonus; she intended to meet him with a smile.
“Henry, I--”
Her voice caught in her throat as she flung the door open, and Nora took a firm step back at the sight of two men attired in long dark coats with matching gloves and hats. The shorter man barged into the house and looked the room over a smirk.
“Excuse me,” Nora demanded as she tried to keep her voice from cracking as her heart flipped in her chest. “What business do you have here?”
“Where’s the man of the hour?” the small man asked. “Trying to spin dust into gold?” Snorting around the question, he tore off a hunk of bread. Crumbs scattered on the floor as he gnashed his teeth, and Nora’s blood boiled as she tried to wrench the stolen food from the man’s stubby hand.
“Think the better question is who are you, pretty lady?”
Slowly turning on her heel as her lip quivered, Nora faced the taller man. His long face was covered in a finely trimmed beard, and the sinister light in his eyes made her want to crush her palm to his cheek.
“You come barging in here and you presume to ask the questions?” Nora asked as she struggled to stay strong. Her eyes shifted ever so slightly towards the nearest window, and she wished for Henry’s return when a gloved hand found its way under her chin and forced her eyes into the path of his stare.
“Never known Russell to bring home the girls from the saloon,” the tall man sneered. “Then again, you don’t actually look like a working girl. Except for the hair.”
The man tried to take one lock between her fingers, and Nora winced at his touch and smashed into the smaller man’s portly chest. His tobacco tinged breath wafted down her neck, and Nora’s soul dropped to the pit of her stomach as she read the intentions in their cruel eyes.
“I’m not a working girl,” she weakly protested. “I’m going to be his wife.”
Holding out her ringed hand, her fingers trembled as the small diamond sparkled, and the man at her back grabbed her wrist and released a sharp whistle.
“Wonder how he managed that?” he said. “Got any ideas on the matter, Davis?”
Davis nodded his head as he bared a mouthful of yellow teeth, and he pulled Nora closer as his tongue flicked across his lips.
“Makes no difference to me,” he started. “Might be a way that he can start to settle some of his debts.”
“What are you going on about?” Nora asked. She nearly repeated the question when Davis tore the ring from her finger. She watched with wide eyes as he narrowed his eyes on the diamond and stuffed the ring into his breast pocket.
“We’ll take this right here and now,” he continued. “Wonder what else we might find.”
Davis’s voice trailed off as he leaned close for a kiss, and Nora started to go limp when the sound of the door opening again brought her back to life.
“Henry?”
Her voice was frail as she spoke his name and saw him with dirt on his clothes and mud caking his boots. His nostrils flared, and Nora tried to break free from Davis when his friend captured her waist and backed their bodies into the wall.
“It’s been far too long,” Davis said as he straightened his collar and extended his hand.
“Not long enough,” Henry hissed as he batted Davis’s hand away and pushed past him. He was almost at the wall, his eyes ablaze, when Nora’s captor pulled a small dagger from his side pocket. Flinching and feeling the tears filling her eyes as the tip of the blade made contact with her neck, Nora prayed that this would prove a dream, a nightmare fueled by her mother’s warnings.
“Now, now hold up, Turner,” Henry said. “You don’t need to do that.”
“Don’t we?” Turner challenged. “Feels like the first thing in a long line of months that has your attention.”
Nora whimpered as the blade threatened to slice her skin wide open, and Henry balled his large hands into tight fists as he hung his head and muttered under his breath.
“Fine,” he said. “You have it. But let her go.”
Turner giggled like a greedy child into Nora’s burning ear, and Davis slapped Henry’s heaving back as he grasped his elbow and forced the rancher to meet his gaze.
“Now what would be the sense in that?” Davis asked. “This is a little thing called leverage. You want that we should waste this fine lady tossed right into our laps?”
She stopped squirming as Henry slowly lifted his head and clenched his jaw. Nora held her breath as Henry took a step back and reached into the nearest drawer. He pulled out a bound burlap satchel and handed it over with a light groan.
“Here,” Henry said. “It’s nearly one hundred dollars. Does that buy me the right?”
“Right to what?” Davis asked.
“To get Turner’s filthy hands off of her.” Henry did not pose it as a question, and Davis carefully counted the bills and pocketed the currency along with Nora’s ring as he twirled one finger into the air.
“Stay of execution,” he said. “Let the girl go.”
“But she feels so soft,” Turner whined.
“Now is not the time,” Davis said. “Our boy here has to be happy so he can keep up with his payments.”
Trying to make sense of the words she was hearing, Nora gasped when Turner followed his friend’s orders and pushed her away from his body and the blade. She stumbled forward and tried to latch her fingers around the air. Henry caught her as she started to fall. He gathered her in his strong arms and held her tight as he took a step back and pressed his palm to the back of her head. Terrified to look up, she buried her head in his shoulder and felt his kiss on the sweat-soaked strands of her hair as he intensified his embrace and scoffed at the intruders.
“You’ve made our point,” Henry sneered. “I’ll thank you to leave my home now.”
“But it’s not exactly yours now, is it?”
Nora looked away from Henry’s chest and watched Turner pocket his knife as Davis moved towards the eggs turning black and rubbery in the pan.
“Not much of a cook now is she?” Davis teased. He pulled a handkerchief from his other pocked and seized the handle. Dumping the ruined eggs to the floor just beside the scattered crumbs, the man dropped the pan with a great crash and stared hard as Nora shivered and Henry squeezed her arms.
“But if you keep us in the green, you can have her. We’ll see you again next week. Looking forward to
it.”
“Agreed,” Turner said. The men surveyed the room one last time before stalking off. Nora was only able to exhale once she was sure that they were gone, and she started to fall to her knees.
“Easy,” Henry said in a low voice as he kept her on her feet and managed to cradle her face in his hands.
“Henry, what is this?”
Unable to finish the thought, she still wound her arms around his neck and sighed as he picked her up and carried her back to the bedroom.
“It’s alright now,” he promised. “You just need to lie down. I will stay with you, Nora.”
She let him unlace her boots and felt the heat from his body melding with hers as he tenderly stroked her face and laid light kisses on her brow. Henry curved his arm around her waist and traced random shapes into her sides through the pattern on the dress when she suddenly stopped his hand and gripped his wrist.
“What was that, Henry?” she asked. “What am I in for with you?”
Chapter 5
Henry pulled back but never left her eyes. Nora bit down on her lip and started to weep into the pillows when he reached back for her hand and tried to lace his fingers around hers.
“No!” Nora said as she moved to the other side of the bed and brought her knees to her chin. She tried to keep her body from shaking as Henry lowered his head to her stockinged feet and softly kissed her ankles.
“Give me a chance to tell you,” he pleaded. “To explain.”
Her hands were nearly at his head when she drew her fingers back and kept her touch as far away from him as she could as she waited for his words.
“Then talk,” Nora managed. “I want to know.”
Henry’s eyes filled with hope as he left the bed and opened another drawer. Nora waited with watery eyes as he laid a lengthy ream of paper before her knees and swallowed hard.
“I… these are hard times,” he confessed. “And I did a stupid thing.”
She tried to examine the document through her tears when the words became too much to bear. Terms like final notice and foreclosure swirled around her brain, and Nora nearly tore the paper to shreds before Henry reached for her face.
“It’s all there in black and white,” he kept confessing. “My crops die as soon as I lay the seeds in the ground. I needed the more money to keep the cows fed. So I danced with the devil, Nora.”
As she touched her hand to her cheek and felt the spot that Turner had nearly sliced, Nora nodded her understanding.
“You’re in hock,” she said. “Up to your ears.”
“You already know me so well.”
Henry craned closer, and she almost accepted his kiss when she moved away and looked at her face, her body in the mirror. The ring was gone. But the dress was still intact even if it was marked by unwanted hands. Her shoulders slumped as Henry left the bed, and she let him touch her as she met his eyes in the space of the glass.
“So why, Henry?” Nora asked. “Why would you bring me out here with a song and know that it was a lost cause.”
His eyebrows lifted, and Henry pressed his hands deeper into her shoulders as he dropped his head to her neck.
“It’s just been so lonely,” he muttered. “And maybe I thought… maybe I hoped that you just being here could make it right.”
Henry’s kiss trailed up her cheeks and nearly made its way to her mouth when Nora shifted her head to the side and focused on her reflection again.
“So what was the plan?” she asked. “I was going to be, what? An act of magic? We’d fall in love and all of your problems would be solved?”
Her hand coiled into a fist, and she was ready to strike his jaw hard when he suddenly stepped back and pulled another slip of paper from the pile that signaled his doom.
“Don’t stand there and tell me that you didn’t hope for the exact same thing.”
Nora’s breath came to a halt as she recognized her handwriting across the page rubbed raw by his fingers reading the same lines over and over again. The memory of taking pen to paper struck her to the core, and she waited for him to read her words, to throw them back in her face, when he suddenly recited them without looking.
“But even though we have yet to meet, I feel sure that I can find a new meaning for happiness if I am just given the chance to stand by your side.”
Slipping back to the bed, Nora hung her head and tapped her fingers on her legs. She heard his sigh as he paced before the bed, and she felt his hands just brush against her face when she pulled back and moved away. Peering up through her fallen hair, Nora watched him at the window as he surveyed the land that was only his on borrowed time.
“Henry, I… please look at me.”
He obeyed her order, and his face seemed to have taken on ten years.
“Maybe we… yes,” he started. “We promised our hopes to one another and thought that they would come to pass.”
“And now it’s a brand new day,” Nora said. “We are seeing things so much more clearly now.”
Struggling to leave the bed, she stepped back into her boots and saw her suitcase lingering in the corner. Not knowing how she would make her way back to the train, let alone purchase a ticket, she still started to pack her meager belongings when he rushed towards her and pried her hands away from the bag.
“What does it really matter?” he demanded. “You’re here. And with a little bit of luck I’ll pay back the debt and make things right.”
Wanting to believe him as she softly touched his face, Nora let their noses touch and felt the small puffs of air from his expectant sighs mingle with her own.
“I wish that could be true,” she muttered. “But I saw those men. They won’t take no for an answer. And I… Henry, I’m sorry but I just can’t be a part of this.”
She started to reach for her case when his hand was on hers even as he avoided her eyes.
“Don’t leave me,” he pleaded. “Can’t you give me another chance?”
Had he written as much down in a letter for her unsuspecting eyes, Nora might have excused his shortcomings and still left her life to see him up close. But the truth was too much to bear.
“I think I’ll miss you,” she said. “And I’ll hope that you can find your way.”
Expecting him to cut her off again with his words or his lips, Henry went stiff and kicked into the floor as he denied Nora the feel of his hands.
“Fine!” he said. “I never wanted your pity. So we will forget.”
Nora considered rushing back to ask after his next plan of action. But she no longer had the ring on her finger, and his last words burned their way into her soul as she looked around the ranch house one last time and started back, her head heavy with defeat as she wished that he could have been someone else.
Or that she truly could have found a way to solve his problems and stay at his side.
Chapter 6
The vastness of the land seemed almost insurmountable without the benefit of his horse to carry her across the grass or his arm in hers. Nora trudged forward as she glanced down at her dress. Making off with the gift seemed wrong, but when the wind picked up she knew that she needed the cover. She spied a stray oak tree and ducked behind the bark, looking every which way before she reached behind her back for the buttons and started to undress. The dress would stay with the land that wasn’t his, and she was nearly back in her traveling outfit when the sounds of harsh snickers hit her ears.
“Hold up.”
“We’re enjoying the show.”
Nora clutched her blouse closer to her chest at the sight of Davis and Turner coming around the bend, and she looked over their shoulders in the hope of seeing Henry. He was nowhere to be found, and she was ready to run when the men were on her.
“Go away!” Nora screamed. “Haven’t you done enough?”
A hard hand made its way across her mouth, and Nora whimpered and wished for a way out when a silver haired man on a dark stallion rushed onto the scene and cracked his whip into the earth.
; “Have you men no shame?” he demanded. “This young girl could be my daughter.”
Nora almost recognized the welcome intruder as she buried her head in the ground and started to cry.
“Last I heard this wasn’t your spread,” Davis challenged.
“And I could say the same for you. Now make tracks. Touch her again at the risk of your lives.”
She heard the click of a cocked gun and waited until she was sure that the danger had passed until she dared to glance up and cocked her head to the side at the sight of the man abandoning his horse to help her up.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
“Yes, I think I know you.”
“Zachary Welsh,” he continued. “From the train. Forgive me but I don’t--”
“Where is Beatrice?”
The man smiled and wiped the dirt from her simple skirt and blouse as he helped her onto his horse.
“Come along, he said. “She will be happy to see you again.”
Nora wanted the same thing, and she clung to the man’s back as his dark horse carried her across the plains to a grand house. If she was being honest, this was the sort of place that she had imagined when she read Henry’s letters over and over again, and even though the picture was lonely without him, she still smiled when she saw Beatrice hurrying forward with her baby in her arms.
“My friend!” she cried out. “Did something happen to--?”
“Nothing that we can’t handle,” Welsh said. “Let’s help our guest inside and see to it that she gets a real rest.”
Nora went limp as two pairs of arms guided her to a waiting bed and covered her with a patchwork quilt. She snuggled into the warmth and wanted to fall asleep when she suddenly shot up and gripped Beatrice’s arm.
“Henry. If he finds the dress…”
She couldn’t form even one more word as Beatrice sat and smoothed the fallen hair from her face.
Just the way that Henry liked it best.
“Can I tell you?” Nora begged. “I listened to you.”
Beatrice nodded her head in understanding, and Nora let the story fall from her lips.
Romance: Western Mail Order Bride Bethany's Love -Clean Christian Historical Romance (Western Mail Order Bride Short Shorties Series) Page 155
