by Lydia Olson
“Well,” Deputy Wilkens said, casually brushing tears out of his eyes. “Mr. Lawson, Miss Hastings – make sure this feller doesn’t leave town. The investigation will continue, and we don’t want anyone else’s reputation damaged needlessly... No one else needs to get hurt here.”
All three of them nodded, but none knew what to say. Myra’s confession was helpful to Wilson, but now Eloise could see just why Lawson was so worried about it. She could only imagine the pain Deputy Wilkens must’ve been feeling as he left the jail and slunk down the road.
“And I thought I was having a bad day,” Wilson lamented.
“I didn’t expect things to go like that,” admitted Lawson. “Seems she didn’t tell me everything there was to know about what happened between her and the sheriff, after all. That poor Wilkens.”
“I’m just glad he didn’t marry her,” Eloise put in, folding her arms. “He’s too nice of a man to put up with a woman who only likes men for their power.”
“He’s too nice?” Wilson echoed. “Just last night, you were calling him a bumbling idiot.”
“I didn’t know anything about him back then, and if I recall, it was you who called him a bumbling idiot,” she pointed out. “I was really starting to like him.”
“I’d say I’m sure he’ll find better someday, but we all know how few women there are to choose from here,” Wilson said. “He might just get married to the sweets and the bottle.”
“That’s mean, Wilson,” Eloise scolded. “As soon as this is over, I’m gonna go check on him, and I think both of you should come. I hate to say it, but I don’t think he’s tough enough for what just happened to him.”
“Very thoughtful of you, Miss Hastings,” Lawson said. “Now, if you would, I don’t think it’s wise for the two of you to be seen in here, particularly while Mr. Pace is not in a cell. I think it would cause some problems if he is seen free, so you’re gonna have to find somewhere to hide.
“I think Miss Maudie will provide you with somewhere, but we won’t be able to arrange it until tonight. We can’t risk Earl and Vincent knowing which room is yours. They might even check all the rooms when you turn up missing from your cell. So stay hidden, understood?”
“Understood,” Wilson said. “Ellie, come with me.”
Wilson took Eloise’s hand and led her out the door, down the road, and into an alley far from the busy town center. Between the blacksmith’s and a recently abandoned building, they sat on a stack of firewood to catch their breath. Eloise smiled at Wilson. She hadn’t expected it to work, her attempt with the deputy, but somehow, it had.
“You’re a free man now,” she announced, beaming. “How does it feel?”
“I’m not free quite yet,” he reminded her.
“How do you mean?” Eloise said, furrowing her brow.
“Did you not hear what Wilkens said? He doesn’t want me leaving town, because he knows that even Myra’s statement isn’t going to be enough for some people,” he said. “So many people in this town want me dead, and they probably knew about the sheriff and Myra long before the deputy did.
“Even if she comes forward and admits to the whole town that she was with the sheriff and she saw me leave the alley – assuming they don’t already know – they will find some way to discredit me. Even Ryan wants so badly to believe that I did it, he will bring up my charm in the sheriff’s hand.”
“Why was that charm in the sheriff’s hand?” Eloise wondered.
“Beats me,” he admitted. “I lost that thing days ago. I didn’t even need it anymore, though, because I only kept it in the first place to remind me of you.”
“Really?” Eloise smiled. “After all these years, you kept an old shard of metal?”
“Sure did – had it polished and everything, too,” he told her. “I still can’t place what it came off of, maybe a stagecoach wheel or something, but I’ve had it for ten years now. I think of you every time I look at it, and I think that’s what makes it lucky. It must’ve fallen out my pocket sometime between my poker game with the sheriff and when they found it in his hand last night.”
“I think what you’re really saying is that you’re secretly the sentimental type,” Eloise said, nudging him with her elbow. “No matter how hard you try to say you’re not, you are.”
“I can be sentimental about the things I really care about,” he relented. “But when I think about it, there had to be something better I could’ve taken with me to remember you by than a sliver of metal that I only gave to you to make you forget your cow had died.”
“So Ryan was right?” Eloise gasped.
“What, did he tell you that?” asked Wilson. “He was always doing that, wasn’t he? Just had to contradict everything I tried to do to make you even just the tiniest bit happier.”
“Well, he said it while they were arresting you,” she said. “Ryan thinks that you never actually meant what you said to me, when you tried to cheer me up.”
“I don’t think Ryan understands you very well,” Wilson said. “Or me, for that matter.”
Eloise sighed and listened to the echo of the blacksmith’s hammer from inside his shop. She wasn’t sure what to make of Ryan’s behavior that afternoon, but she knew sharing it would only make Wilson worry about her. After all, she knew she had to convince him to leave no matter what it took, and he wouldn’t leave if he thought Ryan was a danger to her.
“You know your best option is to leave town, don’t you?” Eloise said.
“And leave you, Deputy Wilkens, and Lawson to face the consequences?” Wilson countered. “Don’t you think those two have stuck their necks out enough for me? Wouldn’t running away after they asked me not to just make me look guilty, and make them look like fools for trusting that I wouldn’t?”
“Everyone knows how this town works,” Eloise pointed out. “The innocent have to run away, too, when someone wants to send ‘em to the noose.”
“I hate to say it, but you may be right,” said Wilson. “I’ve been thinking it over, and I don’t really see another option. Dillion and Ryan refuse to believe me, and if I stay at the Saint George again, either one of them is sure to hear about it. It won’t end well, I’m sure.”
“I think so, too,” she said. “That’s why, even though I’ll miss you terribly, I want you to run.”
“Is that what you really want?” Wilson said.
The bright blue of Wilson’s eyes caught the sunlight as he looked at Eloise, causing his gaze to sparkle. Drawn in, Eloise threw her arms around him and held him tight. Wilson wrapped his arms around her and ran his fingers through her hair.
“It’s not what I want for myself,” Eloise told him. “But it is what I want, because it will keep you safe.”
“Ellie, I promise you I’m innocent,” he said. “As much as I hate the people in this town, I would never do anything to harm them. I wouldn’t hurt innocent, defenseless people, and I wouldn’t even shoot the less innocent ones unless I had no other option.”
“I know,” said Eloise. “I never doubted that for a second. Although I’m not completely certain why you never mentioned that you have my father’s land deed.”
“I didn’t want to embarrass you,” he confessed. “I thought that it was a matter of pain for you, and I didn’t want to bring it up until you were comfortable talking about it. I kept trying to get you to tell me about it while we were working, but you quickly changed topics each time. I wasn’t going to force you.”
“That’s what I thought it was, but Daddy wasn’t convinced,” Eloise explained. “He saw it as a matter of great deceit that you didn’t mention it to him directly, but I think that if you had, he would’ve had the same kind of reaction. He would’ve felt undermined.”
“Your father’s not handling his old age well, is he?” Wilson enquired. “The way he acts so familiar with the ways of the world today, and then gets upset if you ever question him... It is absurd to me that he would force you to consider marrying someone you have no interest i
n marrying.”
“Yes, well, there’s more to it,” Eloise said. “Ryan has offered to help my daddy with his land claim by merging our properties. He just wants my hand in marriage to agree to do it – well, and some other things, I think. He wants everything to be left to him more and more over time.”
“That sounds like a losing deal – wait, did you say merge your properties?”
“Yeah, he has ownership of his land, so he’s trying to merge our properties to save my daddy from losing his ranch, and to keep me living nearby for as long as I want,” she explained. “It doesn’t seem like a terrible offer, but I just can’t do it if I have to marry Ryan. Why can’t he just expand the deed and sell our land back to us?”
“Or why wouldn’t he just claim the land and then let you keep it if he has the ability to?” Wilson said. “But... there was something, I could’ve sworn... Are you sure Ryan owns his land?”
“Yeah, he said he does, and I think he showed Daddy the paper for it,” she answered.
“Well, if he has the paper for it, then he must... but I could’ve sworn I saw his land in the stack of claims I won off the sheriff. Problem is, they took everything from me when I was arrested. It’s sitting in a stack somewhere at the jail now, collecting dust,” he said.
Eloise sighed and furrowed her brow. Ryan’s behavior was getting less and less like him, the more she thought about it. Could he really be trying to trick her father out of his land? Eloise was startled out of her thoughts when she heard yelling down the road.
“What’s going on?” she worried. Wilson was already peering around the corner.
“Looks like they’ve noticed I’m gone and they’re not too happy about it,” he said. “There’s a couple of guys yelling at Lawson, and Lawson has his hands in the air like he did earlier when he was trying to calm Wilkens down... If I’m gonna get out of here, it looks like now’s the time.”
“Oh, dear... but what do I do...?” Eloise joined him at the corner. “If they notice you’re gone, I’m gonna be the first person they look for next... and Ryan and Daddy will probably be really upset with me.”
“I’m sure they will,” he agreed. “Are you sure you want me to leave you to deal with that alone?”
“I can handle it, as long as I know it’s keeping you from getting hung.”
Wilson smiled, wrapped his arms around Eloise, and pulled her back away from the edge of the building into the alley. When he was sure they were out of sight of any passersby, he put his hand beneath her chin and lifted it until her lips touched his. He kissed her, sweetly, for a long while.
This time, Eloise felt a connection to Wilson that ran deeper than the childish butterflies during their very first kiss. Wilson, too, seemed to feel that deep connection that Eloise was beginning to believe was what love must feel like. She couldn’t put it into words, but she recognized it for what it was.
“I don’t have the lucky charm to return to you, so I hope you’ll accept this as a new lucky charm,” Wilson said as he paused from kissing her.
“I-I will,” Eloise said, smiling and then kissing him again.
Wilson held the gentle kiss for a long while, brushing his fingertips against Eloise’s shoulders and to the small of her back. Calmly, the two of them pulled away and stared each other in the eyes for a moment, until Eloise rested her head against his chest.
“I’ll write to you as soon as it’s safe,” Wilson assured her, resting his head against hers.
“Which will be very soon, won’t it?” Eloise pleaded, getting teary-eyed. “Lawson’s gonna figure something out, and you’ll be able to come back to town in no time.”
“Yes, he will,” he agreed. “And as soon as he does, I’ll be back for you.”
“Wilson, I was so scared when I saw you running away last night,” she confessed. “Or, I suppose, when I thought I saw you running from me. It took me back to when we were kids, and it made me think that I might not ever see you again. And then, to learn it wasn’t you... I thought I’d finally get to keep you near me. And now, again, you have to go.”
“This isn’t the same as it was then,” Wilson said. “And I must tell you, I couldn’t get you out of my mind the entire time I was in California. If I came back to find you after ten years, you must know it doesn’t matter how long it takes, I will always come back for you.”
“I was too young to be thinking of such things... but now that I’m grown, it’s all I’ll be able to think about when you’re gone,” she told him. “I’ve never worried the way I worry for you now.”
“And I for you.” He kissed her forehead. “I know I haven’t been put in the best position to prove that I’m a man of my word yet, but you have my word – I will be back for you. And when I am, it’ll be under the kind of circumstances we need to make the best of the rest of our lives, if you’ll have me.”
“If circumstances will allow it,” Eloise amended, staring at the ground. “This town hasn’t been fair to you for your whole life, and now it’s not looking to be fair to me, either.”
“If leaving and then coming back has taught me anything, it’s that we’re both capable of rising above our circumstances,” he assured her. “Please believe in that, and hold onto it for me for as long as it takes, okay?”
“O-okay,” Eloise agreed, as the tears pooled in her eyes.
Though Eloise still had so much she wanted to say to him, the sound of angry voices drew nearer to them, and Wilson moved further away. He jumped a fence and ran out into the desert, looking over his shoulder repeatedly for fear of being seen. Eloise watched him go, sobbing quietly as he slipped between sagebrush and disappeared into the distance.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Daddy?!” Eloise yelled as she entered her home that evening.
A faint light shone from her father’s study, but there was no noise coming from it. When Eloise learned that her father had left to go home instead of staying in town, she immediately knew something was wrong, and that it most likely had something to do with Wilson’s escape. Cautiously, she tip-toed toward the study, praying that her father had simply fallen asleep.
“Daddy?” she said again, with her voice just above a whisper.
“Yes, Eloise?” he said.
Her heart sank. Not only did his tone give away how upset he must be, but his use of her full name was more often than not a bad sign. Eloise built up her courage to face her father, but in her head, her mind was racing through all the possible things he could be upset with her about.
“I heard you came all the way home rather than stay with Maudie tonight, and I wondered... is everything all right?” she asked, entering the study.
Dillion sat facing away from her, but his body language said it all. He tapped his finger on the arm of his chair and refused to turn around.
After holding his breath for a moment, almost like he was trying to keep from screaming by holding the air in, Dillion turned his head just enough that she could hear him easily but he didn’t have to look her in the eye.
“Is everything all right?” he scoffed. “Ha, what an interesting question, coming from you.”
“Daddy, if this is about Wilson escaping, I –”
“Oh, you think this is about his escape?” Dillion said, sarcastically. “Yes, let’s talk about the escape of the man who sullied my daughter’s honor and skip right across everything else involved in it!”
“Daddy... what are you talking about?” Eloise sat down to keep from fainting.
“I heard through the grapevine that a certain man – who I welcomed into my home – took you to his bed with him and disgraced you,” Dillion spat. “And before you deny it, let me tell you, the statement came to me from someone who heard it in your own words.”
