by Lydia Olson
The cat sat down in front of Eloise and stared up at her, swishing her tail back and forth. Eloise imagined Piper telling her to go back to bed and worry about this in the morning. She had always believed that animals were better judges of danger than people were, but Eloise dismissed Piper’s interference as a product of her overactive imagination and stepped past her toward the door.
“I’m just gonna go see what Ryan’s been burning, and then I swear I’ll be right back,” she whispered, reassuring herself more than the cat.
Eloise cautiously entered the yard and scanned the pastures for any sign of Ryan. She found it odd that Ryan seemed nowhere to be seen when he had just left, even though he left a fire unattended at the edge of their properties. Eloise grabbed a shovel out of the shed and darted toward where small flames could be seen glistening orange and gold against the dark of night.
She ran as fast as she could, fearing that without someone nearby to maintain the fire, the flames would spread onto her family’s property, and they’d have yet another out of control fire to deal with. The few small flames still flickering at the edge of the ditch illuminated the area around it, confirming that nobody was nearby. As she approached, she realized why the flames weren’t spreading.
“Why were you lighting a fire inside the ditches, Ryan?” Eloise muttered. “Were you just too embarrassed to tell me you were camped out at the edge of our property? Were you watching for Wilson?”
As she moved closer to the flames, Eloise smelled something strange, like something other than wood and grass was burning. Smoke blew into her face as she looked into the pit, making it so she couldn’t see what the smell was coming from. Instead, Eloise began shoveling dirt onto the flames, trying to put them out completely before investigating the scent further.
Eloise had hardly gotten anywhere with her plan when she noticed something shiny reflecting the light of the flames from within the pit. The glimmer was coming from what appeared to be several silver buttons, atop silky black fabric.
Eloise knelt down to get a closer look and used the shovel to push dirt away from the fabric. With the dirt out of the way, Eloise recognized what she was looking at immediately.
“These are Wilson’s...” Her jaw dropped. “Oh, Ryan, you didn’t!”
Shock, anger, and sadness swirled around inside Eloise’s mind. She thought back to the kid she’d grown up with and couldn’t imagine him becoming this man. Ryan had always been the responsible one.
Although, she thought, it would explain why he was no longer as scared or timid as he used to be. If he was guilty of what this made it look like he was, Ryan was more dangerous now than he ever had been before.
“He was willing to kill to keep Wilson and me apart...” she muttered, still in shock. “He was gonna trick Daddy into giving him everything. Did I even know him at all?”
Examining the pit, Eloise realized Ryan had started the fire at the opposite end, almost like he’d intended to get the coals nice and hot before throwing the clothes in.
He knew it was going to take a lot of heat to destroy the clothes beyond recognition, but it didn’t look like he expected to be drawn away from the ditches before he had the chance to finish the job.
In his hurry to get to Eloise, Ryan had covered the clothing with dirt to keep it out of sight, but had likewise kept much of it from being burnt by the flames. The only portion which was fully exposed were the now searing-hot metal buttons. Luckily for Wilson, the clothes were hot and damaged, but it was still obvious they were the same ones he’d worn the previous night.
“I’d better get out of here before Ryan comes back to finish the job,” Eloise realized, leaping to her feet.
She pressed the shovel beneath the clothing and scooped it out of the ditch. After quickly shaking the dirt off of the garments and making sure nothing was still burning, she hung the clothes over her arm and headed back home to show her father. She had to extend her arm in front of her, however, to avoid brushing the hot, metal buttons of the jacket against herself.
Eloise avoided the risk of Ryan seeing her by looping around toward the barn instead of walking in a direct path to the house.
If Ryan should appear, then she could easily duck behind the barn or the men’s house and wait for him to pass. She felt uneasy not knowing where he was, but comforted herself by remembering that he had no reason to still be on her family’s property.
A few feet away from the barn, Eloise heard something moving nearby and ducked into the building. Even if it had just been a cow wandering away from the pastures, she couldn’t risk being spotted with Wilson’s clothes. It was pitch black inside the barn, but in this situation, the darkness was comforting. Ryan wouldn’t be able to see her in here.
“Anything on your side?” she heard Henry saying to someone outside.
“Nah, besides that pit fire on the McKinnon side, nothing out of the ordinary,” Henry’s brother, John, replied. “I just talked Ryan and he said that fire was his doing, so that’s nothing to worry about, either.”
“What’s he lighting fires so close to the border for – pitted or not? I hope you explained to him that he best not be doing that at this time of year... and if he’s gonna do it, anyway, he should do it somewhere that it’s only putting his resources at risk.”
“Yeah, I mentioned something,” John confirmed. “But he made up some excuse about how the land on our side of the fence was already burned out, so there was no way it would spread.”
“Sure,” said Henry, sarcastically. “That boy’s gotta stop making up excuses to get closer to Ellie.”
“Yeah, he sure is trying hard, though.” John laughed. “If it wasn’t such a bad match, I’d honestly feel kinda sorry for the guy. Everyone else can see she has no interest in him that way... except him.”
Suddenly, the hair on the back of Eloise’s neck stood on end. She could’ve sworn she heard something behind her. John and Henry’s footsteps disappeared into the men’s house, but Eloise remained frozen where she stood. There was something else in the barn with her.
Carefully, Eloise inched toward the door. When she was close enough to the exit that the moonlight would pour over her as soon as she took one more step, Eloise paused and listened to see if she could pick out what the strange sound had been. She could hear crickets chirping, and what may have been mice scurrying through the hay. Outside, the wind rustled the grass.
After thinking about it for a minute, Eloise considered that a bandit would probably be armed and not feel the need to hide, and a wild animal would still be able to see her in the dark. If she was going to get attacked, she likely would have already. Breathing deeply and puffing her chest up as trying to convince herself she wasn’t scared, Eloise made herself known.
“I-is someone else here?” she called out. “Come on; show yourself!”
“Oh, is that you, Ellie?” Ryan stepped into the light right in front of her.
Relieved that she hadn’t stepped into the light yet, Eloise widened her eyes and felt her heart rate rising.
If she had taken one more step before speaking, she would have unknowingly revealed to Ryan that she’d found the clothing he was trying to burn, while he was mere feet away from her. Still, it was odd to run into him like this. What reason would he have to hide in the barn if he had just had a conversation with John, and the brothers knew he was here?
“What are you doing in my barn?” Eloise asked.
“I heard someone coming this way, and I thought it might’ve been Wilson coming back,” he explained. “I wanted to see where he was going without him seeing me, but then you ran in here before I got a good look at you. I honestly thought I was standing in here with Wilson this entire time.”
“But didn’t you leave some time ago?” said Eloise. “Why are you still all the way over here?”
“I, uh, stopped to talk to the men – warn ‘em about Wilson,” he told her. “After you dashed away, I was worried you were keeping something from me about him, so I thoug
ht maybe Henry or John would know more. I just wanted them to make sure you stayed safe.”
“And what did Henry and John know?” She tapped her foot impatiently.
“John said that he didn’t know anything about Wilson other than he was a good worker and he seemed to really care about you and Dillion. And Henry hadn’t gotten back from his rounds yet. I was waiting for him to get back just now, but it sounds like I missed him.”
“And he wouldn’t have known nothing, either. You wanna know why?” Eloise demanded sarcastically. “Because there is nothing for them to know! Now, I’m still in my, uh, night clothes, so I’d like to ask you to leave before me and not turn back around while you’re leaving. It’s inappropriate.”
Ryan sighed and narrowed his eyes. Eloise was uncomfortable with how long it took for him to decide whether or not he would humor her. Either he didn’t value her or her privacy enough to respect her wishes, or he knew she wasn’t telling him the truth.
“Why did you come outside in your night clothes in the first place?” he asked.
“I, uh, thought I heard some coyotes, and you know how I am – I didn’t wanna risk them getting to the calves,” she said. “I ran out here to check on ‘em without thinking about how it might look.”
“You heard them going toward my property?” he said. “Shouldn’t you be worried about my herds, too?”
“No, uh, I heard them behind the house, but then I saw Henry and John were out, and I didn’t want them to see me like this, so I circled around to the other side of the barn,” she said.
“Henry and John weren’t together until after I came into the barn, which would’ve been after I heard you on the other side of the barn,” Ryan pointed out.
“I know!” Eloise retorted quickly, a tinge of fear slipping out in her voice. “I saw them both separately, that’s why I had to go the long way around! You know how the men can be... not that I don’t trust Henry or John to be respectful and look away if they saw me, but I just think Henry would never let me hear the end of it. He likes to tease people and make jokes out of everything.”
“Fine.” Ryan folded his arms. “Put your hand out into the light so I know you’re not lying to me.”
“Lying?” said Eloise, insulted. “Why do you keep assuming I’m lying to you?”
Ryan laughed sarcastically, put a hand on his hip, looked at the ground, and shook his head. Eloise was so nervous about the look in his eye that she took a step back. The sound of crunching beneath her feet caught Ryan’s attention, and he jerked his head up.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“I’m, uh, I’m just moving into a better position to put my arm in the light,” she told him, frantically. “What are you so nervous about all of a sudden? It’s making me nervous.”
“I’m not nervous,” he said, stepping directly in front of the door. “I’m just curious why you’re hiding from me. You can see me. Why can’t I see you?”
“I told you, it wouldn’t be appropriate,” Eloise cried. “Why are you blocking me in here?”
As Eloise looked at Ryan now, the warmth of the burnt clothing on her arm reminded her that this wasn’t her friend anymore.
All she could see when she looked at this man was a fraud, and maybe even a cold-blooded killer. Eloise wasn’t sure what to do. Ryan was blocking the door so she couldn’t run, and if she stepped away to try and hide, she would have to do so slowly or the hay would make noise.
“I just wanna see the sleeve of your nightgown,” he said. “I admit, I am struggling to trust you, and that is the only reason I’m asking for proof. I’m not trying to be inappropriate; I just know you’ve made some decisions to withhold the truth today, and I need to be able to trust you.”
“I’m just not comfortable with that,” she insisted, leaning forward so she sounded like she was standing in the same place. “Can you explain to me what exactly I did to make you not trust me, in detail, so I can better understand, and better explain my side?”
Eloise knew it was a long shot, but Ryan tended to be long-winded when given the chance, and if she could keep him talking without having to respond, maybe she could sneak into the back of the barn and hide before he knew she’d moved. Then, he would have to go find a light source, and she’d have the opportunity to run back to her house without letting him see what she was holding.
“It’s like I told you,” he began. “You’ve allowed your reputation to be damaged, because you lied to the deputy about being in Wilson’s bedroom during the night. You also lied to me about your relationship with him because I, uh, heard someone say they’d seen you kissing him in the alley last night.
“You’ve withheld important information, and even your father has told me you’ve been acting outrageously since Wilson’s return, and he expects there’s been some manipulation. He believes Wilson is making himself appear good to convince you to leave your father, and to leave me.
“And it’s not just that... Wilson has been heard speaking of how he wishes to leave this place, and he’s taking the deed to your land with him. He didn’t tell you about that – which I’m sure he had an excuse for – but you have been willing to trust him, no matter the deception he uses.
“It worries me that you are allowing someone who lies so frequently to influence you, and I fear his influence is the reason for your newfound need to deceive. That is the reason I have been sick to my stomach trying to prevent him from stealing you away, only to hurt and leave you again.”
Eloise was silent. During his presumptuous and repetitive explanation, she’d managed to make her way all the way to the darkest corner of the barn. She watched as Ryan’s expression shifted from confused to nervous. He reached out into the darkness where she had previously been, and as soon as he recognized she wasn’t there, he waved his hands frantically in the dark.
“Ellie?” he screamed. “Why did you run, Ellie? Where did you go? What are you hiding?”
Eloise held her breath and pressed her back into the wall. Ryan didn’t come into the barn enough to know his way around in the dark, but Eloise knew exactly where the best hiding places were.
All she had to do was feel along the wall to get there and hope she didn’t step on anything that might make a noise. In this darkness, it was extremely unlikely Ryan would find her hiding spot, crammed between a stack of hay and the wall.
“Come out, Ellie!” Ryan screamed.
Eloise could hear him walking right in front of her, and the hay rustling as he patted it down. She continued to hold her breath and put her hand over her racing heart. She feared what may happen if she was found, now that she knew the truth about her old friend.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Eloise sat in the dark, silent barn, still too frightened to stand. Only a moment before, she’d felt the wind of Ryan’s hand right above her head, and she hadn’t been able to move since.
Ryan hadn’t found her, and he’d left the barn, and Eloise knew if she didn’t leave before he returned with some form of light, he would be able to find her and corner her more easily. She couldn’t risk him going back to check the pit and finding the clothing missing as well.
“Okay, legs, you gotta move!” Eloise whispered, tapping her legs with her hands.
Slowly, Eloise stood on her feet, which felt numb and jelly-like. There was a numb pain on her arm, as well, where she noticed she’d accidentally burned herself on the metal button of the jacket. She’d been so terrified of being found that she didn’t even notice it when it happened.
Again, she slunk to the front of the barn and waited just inside the shadows, listening for any sound of movement outside. Even the crickets sounded quieter now. After several seconds of waiting, Eloise peered out of the barn, looking toward Ryan’s property. A sound and a shuffling movement behind her made her realize she’d chosen to look the wrong way.
