by Rosie Harper
Chapter Four
In a quiet moment, once he had blocked the text for the pages that Mariette and Melissa had given him, Edward quickly scrawled a couple of letters to friends he had made during his years in Dallas. He prayed one of them would give him a job, and soon. He couldn’t stay here. He wondered how much, if anything, Annie might have said to Mariette, he was sure she had been looking at him differently recently. It was strange, she was the kind of woman people just seemed to open up to, and Annie needed a friend. She had suffered so much loss, such hardship. A friendly ear would probably have been something she had long gone without.
He had kept himself hidden, rushing between the ranch and the newspaper office, head down and keeping himself to himself since she had arrived, but it was only a matter of time before they bumped into one another. Much as he wanted to see her, wanted to reassure her that it hadn’t been him that killed her Mammy. Tell her that she wouldn’t have suffered, that the shot from Gable’s gun had been true. But he couldn’t do that. He could never let anyone, not even her, know that he was a part of any of it.
“Edward,” Melissa called from the upstairs office. “Could you do me a huge favour?”
“I’m sure I can try,” he called up the stairs.
“I need some letters posting, and I need to go to the Saloon to collect a bottle or two of whiskey for Caleb. He and Hardy are hoping that all the calving will be done tonight – sorry you probably know that better than I,” she laughed as he nodded. “Well, I thought we could have a little party at ours tonight to celebrate. Mariette has asked her cook to do the food, and has generously provided some French champagne for the women, but I know you boys.” Edward forced a smile, he didn’t really want to leave the safety of the workplace, but he had to mail his own letters too, and maybe a trip to the Saloon wouldn’t be a problem, after all he was pretty sure Annie didn’t hold with drinking, after having seen her admonish her Father last time he had snuck back to Silver City.
He met Melissa halfway on the stair and took her letters, grabbed his own on the way out and hurried to make sure he got them onto the mail coach he knew would be leaving town in just a few minutes. He was in such a hurry that he almost collided into the back of a young woman standing to pay her own postage. “Miss, I’m so sorry,” he blustered. She turned. Damn, it was Annie.
“Mr Cole, it is no problem,” she replied, a gentle smile playing over her luscious lips. “I was in quite a rush to make it on time myself. I was just writing to my sisters, and my brothers back at home in South Dakota. Wanted to let them know I have arrived and am settling in well.”
“And are you?” he asked politely. He could tell that she was trying hard to maintain a façade of correctness. She wasn’t behaving at all like the Annie he had always known. Annie had always been warm, open. This woman was tight-lipped and cool. He supposed he couldn’t be surprised given everything she had gone through, but it made him sad. He wished every day that he could turn the clock back, for none of it to have ever happened – but that didn’t ever change a thing.
“I’m sorry?” Her eyebrow arched questioningly.
“Sorry, are you settling in?”
“I think so. My cottage is lovely. The school is well appointed, we have lots of books and the children seem eager. What more could I ask for?”
“Indeed!”
“I hear you have been helping Mariette’s husband with the calving? I was once engaged to the son of a rancher. We rarely got to spend even a moment together at this time of the year they were so busy.” She watched his face for even the tiniest flicker of movement. He prayed he didn’t give himself away. He was right, the sooner he got out of town the better. Annie was suspicious, and she could be like a dog with a bone once she got an idea in her head.
“I was too,” he replied trying to sound nonchalant. “I mean, I was the son of a rancher. It wasn’t for me though. I wanted to be in the city, in the hub of everything happening.”
“And yet you ended up here in Stephenville?” She was too sharp, and he was foolishly leading her right where he didn’t want her to go.
“Indeed. I thought I had done enough of it all, wanted the peace and quiet. But, I don’t think it is for me here.” He waved the letters in his hand. “In fact, I was just writing to some old friends to enquire if there was any work back in Dallas. I’m not as ready for a quiet life as I thought,” he said, now anxiously praying she wouldn’t see Mariette before he himself did. He didn’t want her to find out his plans from anyone else. He had huge admiration and respect for his employer, and hated the idea of leaving Stephenville, but Annie’s happiness was more important than his own.
He hurried back to the office and was glad to find Melissa had already headed for home. He had forgotten the whiskey, but he could always pick it up on his way to the party later on. “Mariette, do you have a moment?” he asked. She looked lost in thought, and was scribbling furiously at a piece for the paper.
“For you Edward, always. How can I help?”
“Why do you assume I need help?” he asked, stunned at how much she could pick up from virtually nothing.
“You have that slightly wheedling tone people always have when they want something,” she laughed. “Now what is it?”
“Well, it is more that I have to make an apology, than that I want something. I have just written to the owners of all the big Dallas and Houston newspapers. I’m sorry Mariette, but if any of them are good enough to offer me a position I will be leaving Stephenville.”
“I see,” Mariette sighed. “You know, you’ve been so quiet over the last few days. I’d put it down to the busy days here and endless nights at the ranch, but it isn’t, is it? You’ve been odd since Annie Fitzpatrick showed up.” Hell, she really was too perceptive. “Look I don’t want to pry, but she told me about her family, her fiancé. She really was taken aback when she saw you, and I think you were too when you saw her beside me that first night. Now, I know a little – but I have a feeling there is so much more that you just aren’t telling me, either of you.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about!” Edward tried to protest. Inside him David was screaming, ‘Tell her, finally someone who will hear you out, and she won’t judge you.’ He did his best to silence David. He hadn’t existed since that terrible day.
“Don’t even try that with me. You know her, and I think you once knew her very well. You’re the missing fiancé aren’t you?” He sank down into the chair in front of her desk, and cradled his head in his hands. Her face wasn’t hard, or cold, merely curious. The warmth in her eyes was still there.
“Yes,” he whispered, and let the tears he had longed to shed for seven long years fall. “Yes, I watched as her Mammy died, and then I ran like the coward I am, and it is why I am running again. She cannot ever know. It is better for her that she continue to believe that David Evans is dead, buried and gone.”
“You can’t make up her mind for her, and you can’t keep running forever. Don’t you know that your past will always catch you up until you turn around, stare it in the face and deal with it,” she said kindly. “Look at me, at all that stuff with Bartlett Greive and poor Melissa. I almost stood by and let him ruin that poor girl’s life. But, I knew I had to be honest, to stand up for what was right. You do too. I know you aren’t a bad man. And I know that Annie refuses to believe it too.”
“Your uncanny powers of perception again?” he said bitterly. “Or do you have mind-reading powers too?”
“She gets misty-eyed when she talks about her David, and she said almost as much. Whatever you did, whatever part you played in it, don’t you think she deserves to at least hear what truly happened to her Mammy?”
“Damn it, of course I do, but it will break her heart?”
“Oh Edward, her heart is already broken. Why else do you think she ended up here? Look at us all. Everyone who comes out West is broken. The great thing is often the West puts us right back together. Now, are you going to stop behaving like the craven coward I
know you are not, and start acting like the man I employed? He was strong, honest and stood up for what was right. I know that is who you truly are.”
“I just don’t know if I can bring myself to tell her, to see her pain, to know I caused that.”
Chapter Five
“Annie,” Mariette walked purposefully into the schoolroom. “What are you doing this evening?”
“Nothing, I haven’t exactly got much I can do except grade the children’s work!”
“Wrong, you are coming to a party at Caleb and Melissa’s place. We are celebrating the end of calving, and I have invited pretty much everyone in town. So, get home, get your glad rags on and I have arranged for Albert to pick you up at seven.” She swept out before Annie had even the tiniest chance to object. She had already begun to understand entirely why so much seemed to happen in this town – as soon as Mariette got involved there was no stopping her.
She dressed carefully. She wanted to make a good impression on her new neighbours. Didn’t want any of the parents of her students to think she would be in any way a bad influence on them. She pressed the ribbons and lace on her best dress carefully, and curled her hair becomingly. When she finally looked at herself in the mirror she was pleased with the effect. She looked pretty, but not too girlish; respectable, but not too much like an old maid. When Albert knocked on her door at seven she was waiting nervously.
Albert had a smart little pony and a comfortable gig. He drove sedately. It didn’t entirely surprise her. Everything about Albert was steady and reliable. But she liked him a lot, and he was bright and passionate about passing on his knowledge to his students. He offered her his hand to help her down when they arrived, and though she knew she didn’t need his help she took it. He was the type that would be offended if she didn’t she was sure.
The ranch house was magnificent. It had clearly had a lot of work done to it, and quite recently too. The paint looked fresh and bright, and there were twinkling candles in jars all around the yard and on the wide porch. “I am so pleased you came,” Melissa said as she hurried out to greet them. “Your dress is lovely Annie, and don’t you look smart tonight Albert!” Their hostess hustled them inside, where it seemed the entire town was waiting to greet their new schoolteacher. Annie was more than glad she at least had a few friendly faces in the crowd to help her through the mass of new ones.
In the corner of the vast kitchen there was a face she had known her entire life, even though it couldn’t possibly be him. Edward looked as if he would rather be anywhere than here, and that reminded her of David too. He had never enjoyed big parties. He had enjoyed more intimate evenings, with just a few of his closest friends. She couldn’t help it, she needed to be sure. And even though she knew this was hardly the time, or the place she found herself drawn to the man who was, in fact, a stranger to her. “Good evening Mr Cole.”
“Good evening Miss Fitzpatrick.” He seemed nervous, and fidgeted as if he longed to move away, but was too polite to offend her so.
“I understand you have been a real help to both ranches, have helped every night. That must have been hard, given you have a very difficult job to do in the daytime too – one that needs a lot of attention to detail.”
“It has indeed been hard, but I grew up with it. It was strangely good to be back out on the land. It has been a long time,” he said wistfully. Annie tried to look past the carefully waxed moustache, the wide sideburns to see if he could be her David, but there was enough that was changed to make her doubt her senses – even though they were screaming at her that it had to be him. She had never felt attracted to anyone but him, and now her body was reacting to this stranger in just the way it had done to David. She could feel the Goosebumps rising on her skin, the tingling of anticipation as they stood so close together that she could smell the warm musky smell of his skin. Every part of her felt alive, alert in a way it hadn’t since he had gone. She supposed it was because he was just so like him, but something told her it was more than that.
She knew that people could have doppelgangers, but she doubted that they would even smell identical to one another. She had known twins once who had been completely identical in virtually every way, but they had both had a distinctive smell, Gabriel of lemons and Abraham of spice. She had so loved David’s manly scent, soap and musk, and the mint from his tooth powder. She would know him anywhere from that alone, and that was why she was sure that this man was her lost love. But, what she couldn’t fathom was why he would lie about it, would not even acknowledge that he had once known her.
“May I speak to you outside for a moment,” she said finally plucking up the courage to face this head on. He looked at her carefully and she was sure she could detect a touch of fear in his eyes, but he covered it well and bowed graciously.
“Lead the way,” he said resignedly as if he too knew what she needed to ask.
The evening was cool, and they could still hear the hubbub of voices from the merrymakers inside. She turned to him once they were out of earshot of the house, and just stared at him for a moment. “Yes,” he said simply before she even asked her question.
“David?” she asked, tears pouring down her cheeks. “Is it really you? We all thought you were dead? Why didn’t you come back with Clayton and the others?” She moved towards him, wanted to hold him and never let him go again. He stepped away from her, and put his hands up in front of him.
“Oh Annie, don’t you think I wanted to a million times? But how could I? I had been so stupid. I never even realised the others had drifted home. I didn’t leave with them. I left them all that night, that horrible night. I couldn’t bear the thought that I had been a part of such chaos, such stupidity, such tragedy. I didn’t pull the trigger, but I was part of it, part of why your Mammy is no longer here with us. I loved her, and my actions led to her death. I could never forgive myself for that, and would never expect you to forgive me for it either.”
Annie stood and stared at him. This man was not the confident, happy man she had once known. This man was tortured by his past, by the damage he had unwittingly caused. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. “David, what actually happened that night?” She didn’t know if she could offer him absolution, but she had to know.
“Gable Forrester joined us unexpectedly. Clayton had been unable to keep him from following him. We only ever intended to kidnap the Governor, to scare him enough that he would stop taxing everyone so unfairly, that he would find a way to help all those who were struggling. You know how we all were, young and idealistic – sure we could change the world. Everything was so corrupt.”
“Well, that part of the plan worked, at least until a new Governor was elected,” Annie said trying to keep the sadness that was welling up in her from overflowing.
“We stopped the coach, it was dark, we hadn’t taken into consideration that anybody else would be travelling that road that night. Foolish boys in too deep, we didn’t think about anything we should have done. We got to the shack we had intended to hold him in for a few days, just to scare him mind, never to do him any harm. I opened the door, it was your Mammy. I couldn’t believe it. But I promised her everything would be fine, that she wouldn’t be harmed. I knew the others would still want to try and implement the plan if we could – and that meant we had no time to take her home. I left her there, fully intending to return as soon as I could and ensure she got home safely.”
“Did she know it was you?”
“I don’t think so, not then. We disguised our voices, wore handkerchiefs over our mouths. But she knew I was there later.” He sobbed, and Annie found herself moving to his side, wrapping her arms around him and letting him release the pain he had been holding inside him for so long. She was amazed that she wasn’t angrier with him. All she could feel was sadness, that this poor young man had ruined his entire life so easily, so foolishly, so tragically.
“We did manage to get the Governor, and it didn’t take five minutes for him to agree to every one of our de
mands. I went to go back, to take Nell home, Clayton offered to come with me, and a couple of others. But everyone decided that we shouldn’t split up until everything was done. Even though the Governor was already promising to abide by everything we asked of him, we doubted he would stick to his word. We decided to take him back to the shack as planned. We were heading back there, when we saw your Mammy, and the Sheriff’s. I tried to tell everyone to stay calm, we could have stayed in the woods, they would have ridden right by us – but Gable wanted to take more definite action. He didn’t want to take any chances, he rode right at them and fired, and fired, and fired.” David had crumpled in a heap, Annie’s heart broke for his pain. She missed her Mammy terribly, but he had to live every single day with the sound of the gunshots that had taken her life – and it was clear they were replayed in his mind over and over again.
“He was an idiot, but you didn’t fire those shots David, he ignored your advice, you could never have stopped him. I remember him. He was always shooting at poor animals, and he picked on all the younger kids. My brother’s told me he had even gotten some girl out on the Plains into trouble. He was always bad news and you are not responsible for his actions.”
Annie was surprised at her words, she would have thought she would hate anyone who had been within a mile of her Mammy’s death, but she knew that nobody could stop a man like Gable Forrester. Like David, he had left town too, but a picture of him had returned within just a few months – with a reward for his capture. He had killed two men, just to get a horse they hadn’t wanted to sell to him. She didn’t know if he had ever been caught, but it hadn’t surprised her then, and finding this out now held no shocks either, not really.
She kissed him gently on the forehead, and smoothed the stray lock of hair that had escaped from the slick of Brilliantine he had used to try and tame the cow’s lick that always stood up at the back of his head. He looked up at her, his face was so tortured – as if her kindness hurt more than her condemnation ever would have done. She leant down and kissed him on the lips, not surprised that the merest touch of them made her shiver. She had missed him so terribly, had never stopped loving him for even one moment. For a moment he didn’t respond, and she got scared, was about to pull away when she felt his arms close around her, crushing her to his warm, muscular body. His lips parted and his tongue darted into her mouth, it probed and quested and she timidly made flickers of her own, tasting his sweet warm mouth as nervous as she had been that very first time.
