Chapter Twenty-Eight
After a week spent mostly lying prone in the wagon, Ethan found that his muscles were cramped and tight. He clenched his jaw and stretched, raising his arms over his head. His thoughts, however, weren’t consumed with his aches and pains, but with Grace. Her gentleness, her beauty, and her care.
Hannah had also stayed with him during his illness, but she was his sister who loved him. Of course Hannah would remain at his side when he was sick, but Grace…
Grace was not his family. She hadn’t been obligated to stay with him, yet she still had. Ethan thought that he probably shouldn’t linger too much on that thought. Grace was a good woman, and it was entirely possible that she’d been doing him a favor. Maybe not even him.
Maybe she’d been doing Hannah a favor.
“It’s good to see you up and about again.” Hannah sat in the driver’s seat a few feet away from him. The sun had set, and soon she and Grace would begin cooking dinner.
“Thanks,” Ethan said. “I’m a lucky man. You and Grace took wonderful care of me.”
“Of course we did.”
Ethan rolled his shoulders and glanced at his sister, considering her for a long moment.
Hannah raised an eyebrow at him and grinned. “What’s that look for?” she asked.
“I was thinking.”
“Mm?”
“About Grace.”
Hannah smiled slyly. “What about her?”
“She is a handsome woman.”
Hannah laughed and covered her mouth with a hand. “Is she? I think she’s a little more than handsome.”
Ethan scowled. He had just resolved to admit his feelings for Grace to his sister, and he desperately needed her to let him speak before he lost his nerve entirely.
“Beautiful,” he said hastily. “Fine. She is.”
“You have feelings for her,” Hannah said, her lips twitching into a smug smile. “Don’t you?”
Ethan gave her a hard stare, which sent Hannah into another peal of laughter. “I knew it!” she exclaimed.
“You could have at least feigned surprise,” he said dryly.
Hannah shook her head, her eyes sparkling with mischief. “Why would I do that? I’ve known how you feel about Grace for a very long time. I’m surprised it took you this long to realize it.”
Ethan heaved a melodramatic sigh. “Fine, you got me,” he said. “Now, here’s my question: how do I court a woman like that?”
“Like that?” asked Hannah, tilting her head a little. “You court her the same way you court any woman, Ethan.”
“I don’t have any experience in that regard, as you well know.”
“But you must remember what some of the boys did back in Clay County,” Hannah said. “You go on rides with her. You compliment her and give her flowers. You make yourself look better than usual.”
“Better?” He self-consciously patted his hair, quite aware that it was oily, stringy, and disheveled from lying in the wagon for several days.
“Yes,” Hannah said. “Trim your hair and beard. You’re beginning to look like Nebuchadnezzar coming out of the wilds.”
Ethan gave her a look of mock offense. He was familiar enough with Hannah’s sense of humor to know that she was exaggerating.
“You are so discouraging,” he sighed.
“I’ll remember that you doubted me when you convince Grace to marry her,” replied Hannah. “Now, I have work to do.”
Ethan saw Amos coming toward them and straightened up. “Looks like I do too.”
Hannah stretched onto the tips of her toes and placed a quick kiss on Ethan’s cheek. “See you at supper. I’m glad you’re feeling better.”
Ethan grunted in response, vaguely embarrassed that his sister had decided to be so openly affectionate in front of other people. Amos glanced briefly at Hannah and tipped his hat to her as she departed.
“Amos,” Ethan said. “Sorry for inconveniencing y’all.”
He was supposed to be one of their leaders. Needless to say, he hadn’t done much leading as of late.
“Just stay out of the rain from now on,” Amos said dryly. “We don’t want to get stuck with just Derek again. He’s doing a decent job, but he needs someone wiser to rein him in.”
Ethan nodded. Amos was right, but Ethan would begrudgingly concede that Derek was performing much better than expected. He had talked with Derek earlier that day, and their conversation had been pleasant.
Derek had even shown some real maturity.
He was trying, and he was somewhat successful.
Ethan hadn’t seen him drinking with Zachariah and the men in a while, and there hadn’t been any more wagon accidents because of him.
Derek was still young and na?ve, but he seemed to be growing into a better man, just a little bit.
“Something odd happened when you were sick, though. It seems there’s been a string of thefts in the camp,” Amos informed him.
He didn’t quite know what to make of that. It seemed like strange behavior. There had been no thefts noticed earlier in the journey. Why had they suddenly begun after this much time?
“Really?”
Amos nodded. “That’s what I came to you to talk about. Derek noticed the first one, as far as we know. We were missing a sack of flour from the communal supplies. At first, we thought maybe someone had just made a mistake in keeping track of the inventory.”
Ethan crossed his arms. “That’s plausible,” he said.
There must be more, though. A lot more, for Amos to say ‘thefts’ rather than just ‘misplaced items’. But who’d be brazen enough to steal from camp with so many people around?
“Then Zachariah noticed some of his whiskey had gone missing,” Amos continued. “Again, maybe just a mistake. But there’s been a lot more since then—tools, saddles, food, a lot of things.”
“Our thieves aren’t very subtle,” Ethan pointed out. “If I was going to go about stealing a bunch of stuff, I’d at least try to take things that wouldn’t be missed.”
“A lot of people would,” said Amos. “That tells me that whoever’s doing this is someone that don’t care a lick about being caught, and that’s what concerns me.”
“The thefts started right around the time I was sick too,” Ethan said.
“As far as we know,” Amos cautioned. “It’s possible they’ve been going on for a while and people just assumed they’d lost or misplaced things. That happens to everybody. Besides, that’s not the sort of thing you go around talking to everyone and their mother about, either.”
“I guess.” Ethan crossed his arms, thinking for a long moment. “What about Bill and his men? They’re newest to the camp. Even if the thefts have been going on longer than we think, I doubt it’s been the whole trip. We’d have noticed already.”
“Maybe.”
“The timing is suspicious.”
Amos shrugged. “Maybe. But the fact is, it could be anyone. We can’t just go around accusing folks without proof.”
Ethan sighed and offered a reluctant nod. As much as he hated to admit it, Amos was right. “So what do we do?”
“Keep an eye out,” Amos said. “Our thief will slip up eventually, and we’ll be ready.”
***
Later that day, Ethan returned to the camp.
He’d noticed a patch of pale blue wildflowers growing nearby and had decided to follow Hannah’s advice.
While he was picking them under the glow of the setting sun, he’d nearly convinced himself not to take them to Grace.
He’d spent so long considering whether he should or not that the sky had turned dark and he was forced to head back before he missed supper.
Ethan left the flowers in the wagon and ate with Hannah, Grace, and her family before going back to the wagon.
The flowers were still there, lying in the wagon like a challenge.
Ethan didn’t grab them just yet. First, he trimmed his beard and hair, feeling a little foolish.
He had been on the trail for a while, so he probably did need to freshen up a little.
Putting in that much effort after not feeling the need to for so long was a bit strange at first. Once that was finished, Ethan looked at himself.
He had never been so uncertain about his own appearance before, but Grace inspired some extra effort, and no small amount of nervousness.
He steeled himself, grabbed the flowers, and set about looking for Grace.
“Evening,” Bill said as Ethan passed him.
Ethan tried not to let his suspicion show.
Thus far, Bill had been a careless thief and hadn’t tried very hard to conceal his thefts; at least, not as far as they could tell.
The last thing Ethan wanted was for the man to realize that he was suspected of stealing from around camp, as then he might wise up and start being more careful.
Besides, Ethan had another, more important matter to attend to at the moment. Tonight, he would try expressing his feelings to Grace. He knew better than to tell her directly, and so early on, that he had this new feeling for her, something strange and tense.
Ethan had decided that he would approach Grace slowly and respectfully. He would subtly express his intentions and let her tell him if she felt similarly.
It all sounded quite simple in theory, but Ethan suspected implementing this plan would be much harder than he thought.
His heart nearly stopped when he found Grace sitting a little distance away, her head tilted upward and her eyes gazing at the stars.
Ethan’s breath caught in his throat. Somehow, approaching her suddenly seemed like the most terrifying thing in the world. He cleared his throat.
“Good evening.”
Grace glanced over her shoulder, and a smile swept across her face. “Good evening. How are you feeling?”
She had asked that multiple times a day for a full week, yet Ethan had never tired of hearing it. Grace’s questions were proof that she cared about him. All that remained to be determined was the nature of her care. Was her concern that of a neighbor…or that of a potential wife?
“May I join you?” he asked, feeling unlike himself.
She laughed. “Of course. I’m just thinking and looking at the stars.”
Ethan sat beside her. He swallowed hard and held out the flowers, not daring to look at her. “For you. For taking care of me,” he added, concerned that the flowers needed some kind of justification.
In the next second, he silently cursed himself. How was Grace supposed to realize he was falling in love with her if he framed everything as an arrangement? A gift in return for care, a service in return for money.
Ethan ran a hand through his hair. A wild energy hummed through his entire body. Hannah hadn’t said that trying to court a woman would be so humiliating, but Ethan felt for all the world like some foolish adolescent trying anything he could think of to impress a girl.
Was this how Derek felt? It was certainly how Derek acted.
“That’s kind of you,” Grace said, taking the flowers with care. “I count myself lucky to have a great friend like you.”
Friend. A better man would be pleased at being called a friend, but Ethan selfishly ached to hear her call him something much fonder than that.
He just barely dared to look at her. Grace’s expression was soft, almost shy, as she looked at the flowers.
Ethan thought his heart might beat out of his chest as he watched her. Now what should he do?
It was as if by resolving to court Grace, he’d changed everything between them. Ethan no longer knew how he ought to be acting around her. He cleared his throat, and Grace’s brow furrowed in concern.
“Are you sure you’ve recovered?” she asked
Ethan forced a dry chuckle. “I am, truly. I just—I was going to ask if you know your constellations.”
Grace smiled and tilted her head up to the sky. “I do,” she said softly. “Do you?”
“Only a couple.”
Grace shifted, her shoulder brushing against Ethan’s own. His muscles tensed, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“Well,” said Grace. “You’ve taught me so many things. Let me teach you this.”