Chapter 3 #2
Heather turned around and found herself face-to-face with a handsome young man. He had scruffy, unkempt brown hair that curled at his neck. His dark green eyes were bright and expressive, and his smile was boyish and friendly.
“I am,” Heather said. “And you are?”
“Mark Ellis,” he said, patting his chest with a long-fingered hand.
Gosh, he’s handsome. Thank you, Lord, she thought a little dazedly.
Mark’s gaze was quite hypnotic. Heather had no desire to look away, though, and she found she was as fascinated by him, drinking in each feature one at a time, as he seemed to be with her.
“Is all of this yours?” a female voice asked.
The woman it belonged to was a little taller than Heather, with blonde hair and hazel eyes. She had a thin white scar stretching from the corner of her left eye into her hairline. “That is a lot of stuff.”
“No kidding,” a giant bear of a man said. He grinned at Heather. “What’s in there? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Fabric,” she replied. “Well, mostly.”
“What for?” Mark asked, looking confused. Hadn’t she written to him saying that she meant to bring the makings of a haberdashery? Surely she had.
“I need it for my business,” Heather explained.
“Oh, wonderful. At least it won’t be too heavy,” the woman said, trying to lift the crate. She let out a gasp. “Well, it’s too much for me, but I’ll bet old Muscles over here can do it.”
The man she’d called Muscles nodded. “I’m sure I’ll manage.” He picked up one side of the crate with one hand. “Yeah, it’s fine.”
“Don’t show off like that, Ben,” another woman commented.
She was also blonde, but her eyes were blue.
She smiled kindly at Heather. “Hi, I’m Evelyn, Clary’s sister.
” She pointed to the other blonde. “We drove the stagecoach to come and fetch you. I have to be honest; we were expecting less luggage.”
“Really? But I wrote to Mark—” Heather began, but Evelyn cut her off.
“Oh, don’t worry about it. We’ll pack it all in, won’t we, sis?” Evelyn asked, grinning.
Clary nodded. “Yup. We will.” She was inspecting the crates. Sizing them up.
“Thanks,” Heather said, a little confused and overwhelmed but grateful. She looked over at where Uncle Alex had been moments before. He was gone, and so was the supervisor. Perhaps they had to do some paperwork or something. The baggage handlers were gone too.
“I hate to rush you, Heather,” Mark said, knocking her out of her thoughts. “It’s still over an hour to Unity. We have one other stop to make here, and we’re losing daylight.”
“It’s best to get that trip home done in daylight,” Evelyn said knowingly. “Trust us on that.”
“Yes, as I wrote about in my letters, sometimes we’re beset by bandits,” Mark explained, shooting Evelyn a look.
“But it’s not bad, and it’s not always. It’s just better to be safe than sorry.
” There was something in his tone, a note of annoyance.
Heather wondered if it was directed at her or the aforementioned bandits.
Heather recalled the letters that told stories of bandits, but Mark always made it seem that they were no real threat. Why was he behaving as though he was scared of them? Had something happened in the week since their last correspondence?
“Right,” Heather said. But hurrying now would no doubt mean leaving before she could say goodbye to Uncle Alex. He would wonder about her if she didn’t. He might think something had happened to her or that she was rude. It would reflect badly on the Millers.
Maybe she could leave a note with someone for Uncle Alex. That would be acceptable, wouldn’t it? Or perhaps she could leave a note on one of his crates.
That was a good idea. Turning to Mark, she said, “I just need to leave a note for someone.”
“Okay, who?” Mark asked, sounding odd, almost abrasive. He looked nervous. What did he think, that she had met a romantic interest on the train and was desperate to say a final farewell? “Who do you need to leave a note for?”
“It’s just an old friend of my adoptive parents,” Heather explained.
“He was traveling to Texas on the same train as I was. He kept me company for the trip.” She looked around, hoping that Uncle Alex would reappear, but there was still no sign of him.
“I would love you to meet him. He’s really wonderful. ”
“Where is he?” Mark asked.
“He was here a minute ago,” Heather said and then launched into an explanation about what had happened to Uncle Alex’s crate. “I suppose he’s taken the issue up with management. He expects a certain amount of professionalism from everyone.”
Mark seemed to visibly relax. “Oh, okay. I do think you should leave him a note. We can’t wait around since we’re losing daylight and all.”
Heather hurried over to where Uncle Alex’s crates stood baking in the sun. The black thing that had briefly poked out was back inside, and the wooden plank had been pushed back in place.
Heather took out her notebook and hastily scribbled,
Dear Uncle Alex,
Thank you so much for making this long voyage far more pleasant than it was bound to be without you. I truly appreciate your company and your care. Now you need to take care of yourself and your new endeavor. I hope that it all works out well for you and that nothing is broken inside the crate.
Please keep in touch. Unity is not far from here, and you can leave word at the post office in San Antonio. They know how to reach me.
Anyway, I hope to see you soon, possibly at a certain wedding.
Take care of yourself,
Heather.
The crate had plenty of places where she could wedge in a note, and Heather made sure it stuck up in an obvious manner.
When she went back to where her luggage was, she found it had moved. Only Mark was left behind waiting for her.
“All done?” he asked.
“All done,” Heather confirmed with a nervous smile.
“The coach is this way,” Mark said, leading her through the station and out onto the street. There she saw a large stagecoach that had her crates loaded on the luggage rack on the roof already. Ben lifted her trunk, tucked it into the coach, and turned to smile at her.
“Are you ready now?”
Hesitating for only a moment, Heather wondered if she really was ready and found that she was. Yes, she was ready to embrace a whole new chapter in her life. Smiling, she walked over to the coach and climbed inside.