by Lydia Olson
“Sarah,” David said, “I need to tell you something.”
A look of elation and shock was on Sarah’s face. “Yes,” she said. “You can tell me anything.”
David approached her. “I know…I know that you said we’re meant to be friends. But after last night, after everything we’ve been through … well, I think we’re more than that.”
Sarah said nothing. She simply nodded and smiled.
“So,” David continued, “I’m not the only one that believes this, right? Do you … feel how I’m feeling?”
Sarah inched closer to David, just mere inches from his face. “Tell me,” she said. “Tell me how you feel.”
He knew the words he wanted to speak. The prospect of actually saying them was simply quite terrifying. David rallied the courage to speak, drew a breath and held his head high. You’ve fought in wars. You lived more in life than most men your age. You can do this.
You can do this.
David reached out and grabbed Sarah by the hand. He opened his mouth—but he still couldn’t say it. Shaking his head in defeat, he looked away.
“No, no!” Sarah said, turning his head back by laying her palm on his cheek. “You can tell me, David. You can tell me anything.”
Do it, David.
Do it!
“I love you, Sarah Harris,” he said, eyes closed. “I love you. I didn’t expect it, I didn’t plan on it, but I’m not going to fight it anymore. I love you, and because I love you, I want you in my life however I can get you. I want to protect you. I want to be your friend. And I want you to know that no matter what, I will always be by your—”
Sarah was kissing David before he had a chance to finish. The whole world felt like it was a shade brighter as David felt Sarah’s lips on his own. The moment seemed to last forever, the sun shining on them as a cool breeze blew—just like in Sarah’s dream.
Sarah broke the embrace. She held David’s face in her hands. “I love you too, David Bryant,” she said. “So much, I do.”
The couple embraced again and said nothing more. It was the happiest moment they’d ever had in their entire lives up to that moment.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The sight of the train depot in the small town that Silver Paw told him about should have made David happy, but he was more forlorn at the fact that it signified his time with Sarah—alone by themselves—was coming to an end. But none of that mattered—they had confessed their love to one another. What that looked like in the long run, David wasn’t sure, but he still felt hopeful that fate would turn in their favor. The sky overhead was bluer than he had seen in days. The way the sun cut through the billowy clouds was picturesque and pristine to the point that it was almost as if God himself had made it that way just for the two of them.
The town they arrived in was a one day train ride away from Clarendon. The town itself, Atwater, was small with only the depot, a post office, and a hotel residing within the township proper. As David took note of the citizenship inside of the town, he saw that there were very few people, and most appeared to work for the post office or the train depot.
This is a one-horse town, David thought. The last stop before Clarendon.
Sarah rode on the back of the horse as they entered Atwater. Her arms were wrapped around David’s waist, and the occasional smile and giggle were elicited during their journey, due to the confessions they had made the night before.
“Tell me, David,” she said, “how are we going to pay for our train tickets?”
“I figured,” David said, patting the horse’s neck, “that we could sell this horse and gather enough funds to make that happen.”
“Sounds like a good plan.”
David smiled. “I figured it might.”
A playful smile came into Sarah’s expression. “Oh, well, you must be the smartest man in all of the state then, aren’t you?’
David laughed. “Are you giving me a hard time, Miss Harris?”
“Indeed,” she said as she kissed him on the cheek. “And I plan on doing it as much as possible.”
David squeezed her hand as they bantered. A moment later, they arrived outside a blacksmith shop across from the train depot and dismounted. The shop gave off the appearance of a barn, with a litany of stables providing inside housing over a dozen horses. David approached the owner, a wiry man with jet black hair and a beard, and set about haggling a price for the horse. After a brief conversation, David secured enough money for them to purchase two tickets to Clarendon. Once the tickets had been acquired, they waited on the platform for the train to arrive with only one other man in a suit standing a few feet away from them.
“How long will it take for us to get to Clarendon?” Sarah asked.
David shook his head. “Not long. A day, maybe less.” But what about Michael Crane? he thought. What about Sarah’s arrangement with him? “Sarah,” he said, “I think there’s something we need to discuss.”
Furrowing her brow, Sarah said, “This sounds dour.”
“No, not at all. I’m just …” David struggled to find the words, “I’m just trying to figure out how we’re going to handle this … situation.”
“Oh. Right. You mean with the deputy?”
David nodded.
“Well,” Sarah said, “obviously, I do not wish to follow through with my arrangement with him. But I’m struggling to figure out what my exit from it looks like.”
“Do you think that the deputy will accept, well, that you and I are … what we are?”
Sarah shrugged. “I’ve never met him,” she said. “I cannot say for certain. In the letters, he seemed like an understanding man. I guess we’ll just have to wait to meet him and find out.”
The reality of the situation began to settle in for David. Yes, he thought, we have confessed how we feel for one another—but what does the future of that look like? I’m in love with a woman who agreed to take up with a deputy in the town I plan to reside in.
Will there be consequences?
Will the deputy allow her to make her own choice?
Will there be some kind of repercussion for her, for me, if he doesn’t?
“Something is troubling you,” Sarah said. “I can see it in your eyes.”
David didn’t want to panic Sarah. He didn’t want her to feel as nervous as he did at the fact that their entire plan had changed. So much had happened since they first met on that stagecoach. Their worlds had collided, and they had gone from friends to lovers in what felt like the blink of an eye.
“I’m thinking too much,” he said, waving her off. “I’m sure that everything will sort itself out fine once we get to Clarendon.”
“When we do,” she said, “what should we do first?”
“Well, we should talk to the deputy. I mean—you should. You have to tell him about us, about how you feel. How you decide to do this is entirely up to you.” He took her by the hand. “But I want you to be sure, Sarah. I don’t want you to throw a life away with this man for me unless that is truly what you want.”
Sarah’s eyes widened as she took David’s face in her hands. “Of course, it’s what I want!”
“You’re certain of this?” he asked. “I mean, you don’t think we’ve simply gotten caught up in the heat of the moment?”
“David,” she said softly, “I know how I feel. I’m certain of it. I want to be with you, and whatever we have to do to figure that out, we’ll do it.”
“You’re certain?” David asked again as he held her close.
Planting a kiss on his lips, Sarah then said, “Without question,” as the sounds of the incoming train sounded from a distance. She turned and watched until the leviathan of a locomotive rolled to a stop at the depot. Steam trickled out of the engine and under the wheels like some kind of mythical beast. The chugging of the train was so loud that David could feel the reverberations in his chest. The scent of coal in the chute was heavy, and a man in greased overalls set about shoveling it into the furnace. The horn sounded to
signal its arrival, and a few minutes later the carriage man, dressed in a red uniform, gestured for them to come on board.
Sarah and David handed over their tickets as they clutched each other’s hands. They were instructed to take any open seat in the third of the six cars being pulled by the engine. It was a sight for sore eyes for David to see cushioned seats and windows as they made their way through the car. The train was not exactly regal or high-class, but the fact that they were able to trade a four-footed animal for a locomotive was certainly a welcome sight. They slipped into their seats, with Sarah beside the window looking out to the platform as she rested her head on David’s shoulder.
The carriage man entered the car and braced himself against the seats. “We’ll just be a few minutes, folks,” he said. “Just need to square a few things away, and then we’ll be headed out.”
David smiled as the carriage man exited the car. He looked at Sarah, her head resting on his shoulder. He kissed the top of her head which caused Sarah to look up and stare lovingly into his eyes.
“I just realized something,” she said.
“What’s that?” David asked.
“Well, it appears that I’ll be a ranch woman now, if I am to live with you.”
“Quite true. I didn’t think about that.”
“You’ll have to show me around,” she said. “There’s a lot I’ll have to learn.”
David shrugged. “I’ll probably have to fix a few things up, according to the letter I received. There’ll be a lot of long days and late nights.”
Sarah squeezed his arm. “Nothing sounds better than to be by your side while you go about doing that.” She once again nuzzled herself into his shoulder, and David rested his head on hers in return.
“You know,” David said, “if you’re to live with me on the ranch … shouldn’t we be …?” His mouth was open, but he didn’t finish his thought.
“What?” Sarah asked. “What were you going to say?”
Marriage, David thought. That’s what I want to say. No, don’t ruin the moment. You’re certain that you’re going to ask her at some point. But now is not the time.
“I’ll tell you later,” David said as he squeezed her hand reassuringly. “I promise.”
The beam on Sarah’s face grew wider. “I’ll hold you to it,” she said as she looked out of the window.
Silence held sway. Being with Sarah felt so comfortable, so natural that even when they weren’t speaking, he felt secure with her in that moment.
“It feels like a dream,” David said. “This whole thing does.”
Sarah nodded. “I agree. And it’s one that I hope I don’t ever wake up from.”
“My mother and father will certainly be happy that their son found a lovely young woman during his travels.”
“And I can’t wait to meet them,” she said as they held each other close and waited for the train to depart the station. A minute later, the train signaled its departure, lurched forward and began the final trek toward Clarendon as David and Sarah closed their eyes to catch up on a little bit of sleep. Had they not been so lost staring into each other’s eyes they would have noticed two deputies from Clarendon watching them from across the street.
***
Deputy Owen Adams, assisted by Deputies Alan and Schmidt, had scoured three towns after Deputy Crane instructed them to track down Sarah Harris and David Bryant. He was tired, hungry, a bit on edge, and wanted nothing more than to know if the two were dead or alive. Atwater was the last town they planned on looking in before linking back up in the next town over with the other men that Crane had dispatched, and Adams was starting to feel like Sarah and David were lost to the next life.
“God almighty, Owen,” Schmidt groused, as they walked to the blacksmith shop across the street from the train depot. He was a short man with blond hair parted down the middle. “How much longer are we going to look before we call it quits?”
“Until we find out what happened to them,” Adams said. “You know what Crane will do if we don’t find these two.”
“Well,” Alan said, “we found the bodies of the ones that Tucker cut loose from the stagecoach. We’re sure that’s not them?”
Adams shook his head, recalling the body of the woman named Samantha Cole that was discovered—and disposed of—earlier that morning in the prior town they visited. “No,” he commented. “She didn’t match the description. It’s a good thing she’s gone, though. The last thing we need is more witnesses to Tucker’s exploits than we already have.”
Deputy Alan, a thicker gentleman whose belly spilled over his belt, shifted the tobacco dip in his lip over to his other cheek and spit on the ground. “They’re most likely dead like the others,” he said in his thick Texas drawl. “I’ll put good money on it. No one’s seen these two in any of the towns we’ve scoured.”
Adams pointed a finger. “Then we keep looking until we find them, you hear me?”
Alan and Schmidt said nothing. They held the same rank that Adams did—but he was the man that Crane put in charge, so the way they saw it, they were being instructed directly by Crane himself.
The trio arrived at the entrance to the blacksmith shop, Adams using his finger to whistle to the shop owner. “Hey, you,” he said as he tapped the golden star of a badge pinned to his chest. “Come here.”
The blacksmith approached Adams with a fearful look in his eyes as he looked at the badge. “Yes, sir,” he said. “How can I help you gentleman?”
Adams sighed as he set about repeating a statement that he had made what felt like hundreds of times. “We’re looking for a man and woman that might have travelled through here. Their names are Sarah Harris and David Bryant. She’s around five-foot-four. Petite. Brunette hair. Pale complexion. He’s taller, a bigger man. Has a—”
“I think I just saw them,” the blacksmith said.
Adams couldn’t believe his ears. “Come again?”
The blacksmith nodded. “You heard me right. I think they were just here. The man sold me a horse to pay for a train ticket going into Clarendon.” He pointed across the street. “That’s them, right there.”
Adams, Schmidt, and Alan swiveled their heads quickly toward the train that was headed toward Clarendon. Sure enough—they spotted Sarah Harris and David Bryant seated in the third car with smiles on their faces.
“Alan,” Adams said, “get the horses. Quick.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Listen up,” Tucker said to the two men with him as they hid behind a pair of rocks facing the train tracks in a bowl-shaped part of the valley. “The train left not that long ago from Clarendon. You know your jobs. Don’t mess this up. If either of you do, I’ll put a bullet in the back of your heads. Are we clear?”
The two men, Childs and Miller, nodded as they used the kerchiefs tied around their necks—Childs’s red, Miller’s brown—to cover their faces. Only their eyes peeked over the tops. They were dressed in black, like Tucker, to try to confuse any witnesses that were left behind to identify them. Tucker followed suit and put a black kerchief over his nose and mouth before cocking back the hammer on his silver six-shooter and looked at the train tracks cutting through the desert about twenty feet ahead of them.
Tucker smiled. “There’s a lot of money in this, boys,” he said. “Take what you can. Try to leave a few people alive just so we don’t irritate the persnickety Michael Crane.”
“But none of the Treasury men?” Childs asked.
Tucker held up a finger in Childs’s face. “None of the Treasury men,” he said. “Last thing we need is federal warrants chasing us. Now, get ready. Our payday is almost here.”
The trio waited for close to ten minutes before the sound of the approaching train was heard in the distance off to their left. A mile off, Tucker deduced.
Tucker slapped Childs on the shoulder. “Go. Now. You know what to do.”
Childs raced toward the tracks. Tucker and Miller broke left and headed toward another grouping of rocks. If T
ucker’s plan worked out as he outlined it, they would be at the rear of the train by the time Childs forced it to a stop.
Childs, standing in the middle of the tracks, waited on a marker made by a large pair of rocks that Tucker placed there. He adjusted his weight, making sure he was positioned in the right place, like an actor hitting his mark on a stage. Drawing a breath, his heart racing, Childs said, “Okay, let’s make this happen,” as he turned around. His back faced the oncoming train that looked miniscule off in the distance. He then lay on his side, arms out, trying to make himself appear like a dead body.
“Good,” Tucker said with a smirk. “Now, we wait for the train.”
Miller glanced at Tucker skeptically. “What if the train doesn’t stop in time?”
