by Lydia Olson
“Are you saying I should talk more like you...?” Ryan demanded.
“No, because I’m not trying to sell anything right now,” he explained. “I’m not trying to sound sophisticated, so my drawl matches my words – do you see what I mean? But if I was trying to convince a crowd of people that I’m more intelligent than I am, I might talk a bit differently.”
Eloise stifled a laugh. They’d been apart almost ten years, but they bickered just the same. Still, Eloise knew by the look in Ryan’s face that this time was different..
“Have you come here for a purpose, or are you just here to waste the Hastings’ time?” Ryan wondered.
“As a matter of fact, I am just here to waste time – how could you tell?” Wilson responded sarcastically. “Was it my appearance here at first light or the fixed hole near the fencepost that gave it away?”
“Why do you never just answer a question directly?”
“Why do you ask so many accusing questions?”
“That’s enough – both of you!” Eloise yelled, smacking each of them on the shoulder. “This kind of thing might’ve been alright when we were children, but now you just sound like two grown men who aren’t matured enough to carry a conversation.”
“The absence of maturity has always been an issue with this one,” Ryan huffed. “Well, I would have liked to have a conversation with Ellie, but I see that it’s not a good time. I’ll take my leave.”
“‘Take your leave’...?” Wilson scoffed. “Since when did you say stuff like that?”
“Wilson!” Eloise hissed.
“Sorry,” he muttered under his breath. “But really, ‘take my leave’...?”
Ryan stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
It hurt Eloise’s heart to know that these two could no longer be friends, and the severity of how poorly they got along in the future would be because of her. They had always been rivals, in a way, but she didn’t like being at the center of their adult rivalry. What was worse, to her, was that Wilson had yet to learn of the proposal.
After seeing them interact today, she was even more reluctant to tell him.
“What happened to him?” wondered Wilson. “I knew he was strange as a child, but he’s never been this abrasive with me... or has he, and I’ve somehow forgotten it?”
“No, he hasn’t,” Eloise admitted, quietly.
“Well,” Wilson said. “I hope he hasn’t grown out of our innocent, little arguments and took what I said personally – I didn’t mean to offend him. Anyway, I should get back to work. I told your father I’d help him with some heavy lifting as soon as I’d managed to get you out of your room and into the kitchen.”
“I-I’ll come, too,” she added, dreading that Ryan may come back and catch her alone. “I’ve been secluding myself long enough for one morning, don’t you think?”
“Okay – but not until you’ve eaten,” Wilson said, gesturing toward the kitchen.
“You’ll come with me?” Eloise asked.
Wilson furrowed his brow and folded his arms, but he nodded. As they walked, he looked over his shoulder at the door, which made Eloise worry he was piecing together that her behavior had something to do with Ryan. He had always been quick, she thought, which meant if she didn’t tell him about the proposal, he would likely figure it out soon on his own.
After eating a few morsels of food from the kitchen, Eloise followed Wilson into the stables to help her father. For the next two days, Wilson was a regular hand around the ranch.
He went so far to help Dillion as to buy work clothes, so he could come back every day without dirtying his suit. Eloise watched Wilson and her father laugh and talk in a way that brought her hope for a better future. She longed for the day her father would say he preferred she marry Wilson over Ryan.
The more she was around Wilson, the less frightened Eloise felt – and the more alive. It made her sad to think that in two days, she and Wilson had grown closer than she and Ryan had in ten years.
With Wilson, she played as if they were kids again, turning work into games and sighs into laughter. With Ryan, everything was about work, and laughter was rare. It made Eloise wonder if they ever really were friends.
“Is this the last one?” Wilson asked, dumping a bucket of water into the water trough.
“No, there should be a few more...” Eloise said, grinning.
“You’re planning something.” Wilson wagged his finger in the air, pretending not to see the bucket behind her back. “I can tell.”
“Planning something?” she echoed, smiling innocently. “And what would that be?”
“It’s just that we’re still two to one in our little competition, and I know how frustrated you get when I’ve been in the lead for too long,” he teased. “You get almost desperate...”
“Desperate?” Eloise scoffed. “How’s this for desperate?”
As she spoke, Eloise revealed the bucket of water she’d been failing to conceal behind her back, flinging the water at Wilson and soaking him from head to toe.
Wilson pursed his lips and glared playfully at Eloise as she laughed and ran away. Her laughter intensified as Wilson chased her around the stables, through the yard, and back. The more muddied he became, the harder Eloise laughed, until she was giggling too hard to keep running and Wilson caught a hold of her.
“And now it’s three to two!” Wilson announced, lifting Eloise off the ground and dunking her in the water trough.
“Aw, I was so close!” Eloise groaned, giggling.
“You think that, but I’m always one step ahead,” Wilson assured her.
Eloise climbed out of the water trough, sat down on the ground, and leaned against the fence. While she stared at the sky, Wilson sat down beside her and nudged her playfully on the arm. The two smiled at each other, then looked back up at the clouds.
“Ah,” Eloise sighed, putting her hands behind her head. “Daddy’s not gonna be happy.”
“Nor should he be,” Ryan pointed out, appearing from behind the stables.
Startled, Eloise leaped to her feet, slouched her shoulders, and stared wide-eyed at Ryan. Wilson stood up slowly beside her, furrowing his brow as he recognized the strange tension between his two friends. Ryan turned the corner of his mouth into a snide grin.
“Wilson,” he said, tipping his hat. “I see you’re still here.”
“I’m glad you can see that,” Wilson replied calmly.
“Eloise,” Ryan said, ignoring Wilson. “I see Wilson’s convinced you to behave like a savage, as usual. Don’t you think you better go change out of that disgusting clothing?”
“Excuse me?” Eloise raised her eyebrows.
“Not to worry,” Wilson said, hoping to defuse some of the tension. “I’ve been neglecting my business in town as it is – I think I had better... ‘take my leave...’”
Ryan glared intensely at Wilson as he passed him by, fuming even more as Wilson continued to smile and ignored his glare. As Wilson disappeared into the stables, Ryan failed to notice that Eloise was glaring just as intensely at him as he was at Wilson. Her glare, however, was much more frightening. A chill shot down Ryan’s spine the instant he turned back toward Eloise.
“Why’d you do that, Ryan?” she asked, coldly.
“D-do what...?” He was trembling.
“You’re supposed to be helping my daddy, but instead, you’re scaring his workers away,” she informed him, holding her glare. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think that you’re not really here to help.”
“I-I swear to you,” he stammered. “I’m here to help! You know, your brother didn’t like Wilson, either. I just thought... in his a-absence... I should act the way he would? To protect you?”
“But Wilson was your friend,” Eloise reminded him, calming her tone slightly. “You always seemed to like him before. Why should it be any different now – because he’s wealthy?”
“We’re not children anymore, Ellie,” he said. “It’s time we learn to a
ct as adults do, and that man is not capable of such a thing. He never was.”
“Oh, and you think you are?” she countered, raising an eyebrow. “Because the way I remember it, you just came over here and made me look a fool in front of one of my daddy’s men – because that’s what Wilson is, as long as he’s working here. Is that the way a husband should treat his wife? To ridicule her in front of the men because her clothes are dirty...?”
“Just look at you!” he pressed, gesturing to her clothes. “You’re a mess – and it’s only that way because Wilson came back. He’s changing you, Ellie!”
“He’s changing me?” she echoed. “Did you ever, for a second, think that maybe this is who I am?”
“Ellie, I know who you are...” he began.
“I don’t care if you do!” she said. “But if you ever talk to me like that again, you will regret it!”
Ryan’s eyes widened, but Eloise didn’t give him the chance to say anything.
She was tired of hearing his excuses for the way he’d been treating her lately, and the anger surging through her made her wet clothing feel hot and uncomfortable. She never felt this way when she was with Wilson. Without saying a word to the men working between her and the house, Eloise stormed past them, through the door, and up to her room.
It was time she made a new plan.
Chapter Nine
“Daddy?” Eloise said, sitting with him in the parlor that evening.
“What is it, sweetheart?” He glanced up from his reading.
“Suppose... I could find another suitor? Someone else with property and wealth?” she said.
Dillion set his book in his lap and stared quizzically at the wall in front of him. With a deep, frustrated sigh, he picked the book back up and slammed it on the table.
“Sweetheart,” he said, sternly. “I am aware your upbringing has been far from what mine was. You’ve been raised on the same land since you were born – and you’ve lived comfortably. But I did not have that same experience in my youth. Where I was raised, wealthy men did not give their daughters an option for who they marry. Women married out of duty.
“I did not wish to be as the wealthy of my homeland are. When you were born, I told myself we were in a new land, and with this new land would come a new way of life – far from England. But I had at least hoped that I’d raised you well enough to understand a sense of duty when our home is in crisis. Do you feel that I was wrong in some way for raising you differently?”
“I’m not saying I don’t have a sense of duty, Daddy. I care about the ranch just as much as you do. But there’s no reason we have to settle on Ryan,” she said.
“My dear,” Dillion said, laughing and gesturing at her clothes. “Do you think that your mannish clothes and unkempt hair are what a man looks for in a wife? A man wants a woman. Not some tomboy...”
Eloise gasped and put her hand over her heart. The two of them stared at each other. Dillion seemed to regret his words as soon as he’d spoken them, but the damage was already done. The energy in the room sank and grew cold.
“Ellie, that’s not what I...” he tried, stumbling over his words.
“I’m going into town,” she interrupted, rising to her feet.
“No, it’s late, don’t go – I –”
“No, Daddy!” she yelled. “Does it not bother you that I’ve cried more in the last three days than I did in my entire childhood? And then you have to go and say things like this? Why would you–? I'm going into town. And don’t be surprised if I stay there!”
“Ellie, I didn’t mean – you don’t have to go,” Dillion called out as she left the room. “Ellie, I didn’t mean it.”
Eloise ran to the stables and prepared her horse much quicker than usual, but to her, it felt like it took an eternity. At any moment, her father or one of the men could burst in here and try to stop her from leaving. It was getting late, and she knew as well as they did that this was the prime time for roads to be crawling with drunken, angry bandits.
Thinking to herself that she could escape easily if she rode fast enough, she climbed onto the saddle and urged the horse to run at full speed.
Her father was nowhere to be seen as she left the stable, and there was no sign of the men, either. She smiled to herself, thinking she had escaped, but as she turned onto the road, she noticed one of the fenceposts seemed wider than she remembered. Gasping, she realized it was because there was a man leaning against it.
“Hold it!” he said, stepping into the middle of the road in front of her.
Eloise had to direct the horse in a circle just to stop him from running the man down where he stood. It wasn’t easy to stop a horse so abruptly at this speed, and she knew the man probably knew that. Fuming, she glared directly at him, suddenly realizing who it was.
“Henry,” she said sternly. “You’d better not try to stop me!”
“If I were trying to stop you, there’d be about a half a dozen other men out here with me,” he informed her.
“Did Daddy send you?” she demanded, her lip quivering.
“He tried to send me to the stables, but I said I wouldn’t go,” he said. “Thought about it, then realized I may be responsible for your inclination to run off to town every time there’s trouble – thought I’d better talk to ya... You know what the roads are like at this time, Ellie.”
“Yeah, but I’m not wor– Wait, did you just say you told Daddy no?” she asked.
“Well, not so direct as you would, but yeah – I said it was a bad idea to stop you,” he explained. “I told him you’re a free spirit, and any attempt to control you would cause an even stronger rebellion.”
“Sure, he listens to you,” she grumbled.
“He didn’t, at first,” said Henry. “He tried to go out to the stables, anyway, but then I reminded him that you’re acting the way you are ‘cause you felt like he’s trying to control your marriage, and if he stops you from going to town now, you would react worse, then he’d keep trying to stop you, and you’d react worse and worse to each other – until, one day, he’d lose you for good.”
Eloise was silent. She wanted to disagree, to say that her father would never lose her, but she knew Henry was right. Confused, she wrinkled her nose and furrowed her brow. “Why’d you come then?”
“You took too long to leave,” he said.
“Yeah, and you think you could’ve saddled your horse any faster?” she sneered.
“Done it,” he said, thoughtlessly kicking dirt away from a rock in the road. “Your problem is you waste time on extra steps. You tie like you wanna be sure the horse will look clean in a blizzard – but I trust my ties and horse look fine. As long as they do their job and can keep me ridin’ in any condition, it don’t matter to me what they look like.”
“You mean, you just came out here to criticize me for the way I prepare my horse?”
“Nah, I came out here to tell you to be faster,” he said. “I told you I wasn’t gonna try to stop you, but now it’s gotten to that time of day... and there’s something my brother and I been thinkin’ about that I think you should know before you go out at this hour.”
“I’m listening,” she told him. “But it’s not gonna change my mind.”
