Chapter 13
The ride home took two grueling, cold days, and Daisy hoped she never had to take another long-distance trip when snow was falling.
It was near dark when they made it back to Silver Falls, not a soul to be seen.
Graham pulled his horse to a stop by the livery stable.
Just seeing it made her heart hurt. If things were as they had been, Clay would have come out to greet them and bed down Graham’s horse for the night.
Today, no one came out. Gunter Reeves, the owner, had already retired for the evening.
They left the sleigh in Elkin, where Graham had rented it, and had to make the last leg of their journey on the back of Graham’s horse. It had been cold and uncomfortable, but it was over now.
Her legs ached when Graham helped her to the ground; her back was stiff. Graham nodded to the house with his head after taking the horses' reins. “You go on ahead. I’m sure they’re all waiting for you.”
She didn’t reply; instead, she headed home as he said.
The two-story house she’d grown up in was a welcoming sight.
Lights were flickering behind the window panes, and she knew once she stepped inside, they'd bombard her with questions. As much as she loved her family, she wasn’t in the mood to see them yet.
Her heart hurt. Leaving Clay in Butte had been hard.
More so when she thought of Liam’s offer, knowing he may never come back.
Was it possible for her to sneak in and crawl into bed without being spotted?
Doubtful.
She blew out a breath and climbed the steps to the porch. The moment she opened the door, Violet stuck her head out of the kitchen doorway.
“She’s here!”
Violet was the first to reach her, enveloping her in a tight hug before Rose, Gramps, and Josiah took hold of her. They had beaming smiles on their faces, their lips moving so fast she couldn’t tell what anyone was saying.
Her eyes misted with tears, and as their questions kept coming, the heartache she’d been fighting for the past two days finally got the best of her.
The tears came unbidden when she started crying.
All four of them stilled, their smiles vanishing, and she felt someone’s arms wrap around her the moment she closed her eyes.
Time stood still, the warm embrace of someone comforting her was welcome after all she’d been through the past few weeks.
She lifted her head long minutes later, her vision clouded with tears.
Violet was the first one she saw. Her eyes were glassy, as if she, too, had been crying, and knowing Violet, she probably had been.
Gramps moved Violet aside and embraced her, followed by Rose.
Graham was standing by the stairs with Josiah, the look on Graham’s face saying he knew why she was crying so hard, and the tears started flowing again.
“You need to rest,” Violet said, taking her arm and turning her toward the stairs. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up and into bed.”
Violet led her upstairs. She turned her head as she ascended the steps, looking back down at Rose, Graham, Josiah, and Gramps.
They were talking, all four of their heads close together.
When Rose looked up at her, she knew Graham was telling them about Clay.
The fact that he wasn’t there made her chest ache again.
She removed her cloak when they reached her room and Violet left to fetch warm water as she removed her boots.
She sat on the edge of the bed, staring at nothing in particular, when Violet came back, a pitcher of water in her hands.
She filled her washbowl, setting out a few washcloths and the fancy soap that was imported all the way from Paris.
Violet left her to bathe, making her promise to come get her when she was finished.
She didn’t. She put on her nightdress and crawled into bed, pulling the covers up to her ears, and was almost asleep when she felt a hand on her arm.
Her eyes opened to find Violet in her room.
She sighed and rolled onto her back. “Can this wait until morning?”
“No,” Violet said. “You’re upset, and it won’t do you any good to lie up here and wallow in whatever grief you’re dealing with.”
“I’m sure Graham has already told you plenty.”
“He didn’t say anything other than that you had a lot to tell us.”
“I don’t even know where to start.”
The door opened, and Rose stepped into the room. She crossed to the bed and sat on the edge as Violet said, “Start from the beginning.”
Daisy blew out a breath and sat up, pulling the blankets to her waist before saying, “Bandits robbed the stagecoach.” Recalling what had happened since they had left Elkin all those weeks ago was cathartic.
She told them how they ended up staying with Liam, and the old man’s offer to Clay, and why he didn’t come home with them.
She glossed over a few things, especially the night Clay found her in the bath, but she didn’t leave out the kisses.
“I told you he was sweet on you.”
She hid a smile and said, “I think it's more than that.”
Rose’s eyebrows raised as she said, “Oh? Do tell.”
She reached over to her nightstand and picked up the book Clay had given her before opening it. “He gave me this.” She turned it so Violet and Rose could see the illustrations.
Violet’s eyes widened, a smile curving her lips. “This is the sign language the school was going to teach you!”
“I know. Clay said I could still learn it even if I didn’t go to that school.” She ignored the look on her sister's face at that statement. She knew they’d still want her to go.
Flipping to the page with the sign for I love you, she pointed at it. “He made this sign for me the day he gave me the book.”
“And how did you feel about that?” Rose asked.
“I gave it back to him as we left town.” It hadn’t been planned, but when Graham steered the horses around the corner, her chest had tightened, and she turned without thought. Seeing Clay still looking at her had healed a small broken part of her heart, even though he wasn’t coming with her.
Graham had asked her what she was doing, but she lied and told him she was waving. He didn’t question her after that, but it didn’t matter. Clay had seen it, and that was all that mattered.
She closed the book and leaned her head against the headboard. “Do you think he’ll come back?” Her voice was barely above a whisper, as if saying the words out loud would somehow make her worst fears a reality.
She’d thought more than once on the way home that Clay was right where he wanted to be. He loved Butte. Had told her more than once he did, and with Liam’s offer, it would be even more tempting.
“He’ll be back,” Violet said, laying her hand on top of her own.
“How can you be sure?”
She smiled and said, “Because he loves you. He’ll come back because you’re here.”
One month to the day she’d come home, Daisy saw him. She’d been staring out her bedroom window, the late afternoon sun blinding her and obscuring the road into town, but when he reached the livery stable, he’d paused, still sitting tall on his horse, his gaze turned to her house.
Her breath had caught, and she nearly tripped down the stairs as she hurried down them so fast. She forgot her cloak when she ran out of the house. A gust of wind so cold it chilled her to the bone made her turn around and run back in and grab it.
Her grandfather stepped out of the kitchen to look at her. “Where are you headed in such a hurry?”
She grinned and said, “Clay is back,” before running out of the house. Clay was no longer in the street, so she hurried down the slick steps to the walkway.
The snow had frozen over. Whoever had shoveled it off the sidewalk had done a poor job.
If Clay had been here when it fell, the entire town's sidewalks would be passable.
She stepped carefully as she headed to the livery stable, taking her time to avoid a fall, and was giddy by the time she made it.
The door was heavier than she remembered it being, and it took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the dim light inside the stable.
She saw him when they did. Only he wasn’t alone. Veronica was there, her arms around his neck. Her vision went hazy, her heart pounding so hard the world tilted as a dizzy spell nearly brought her to her knees.
Turning and quietly leaving, she staggered to her house and up the stairs to her room.
Leaning against her bedroom door, the tears she’d been holding back fell, her heart breaking into a hundred jagged pieces.
What had she just witnessed? The scene inside the barn replayed in her head on a loop, and the confusion it brought had her questioning everything.
Clay loved her. Didn’t he? He said he did.
Then why did he come home and end up in Veronica’s arms and not hers?
She slid down the door, her legs no longer able to hold her up. Every second they’d spent together over the last two months replayed in her mind. Had it all been a lie? Would Clay have given her such sweet kisses if he didn’t really love her?
A memory of Rose telling Violet when she was younger that all men were no good liars came back to her. Rose was married now, so did that mean she’d been wrong? Or was it only that Graham was a decent man?
Embarrassment made her heart ache when memories of the night she’d bathed at Liam’s crossed her mind. Why had she done that? Why had she let him see her like that? Touch her. Kiss her. Her face burned. Was that night the reason he’d said he loved her? Just so he could…
No, she couldn’t believe that. He’d not touched her again like he had that night.
He’d only given her heart-stopping kisses and slept with her wrapped tightly in his arms. Wiping her face dry of tears, she stood and got ready for bed.
There had to be an explanation of what she saw, and until she could look him in the face and ask him why she’d found him and Veronica together, she’d not jump to any conclusions.
She wanted him to explain himself and make her believe it meant nothing.
And if he didn’t, she’d harden her heart where he was concerned and never speak to him again.
Getting Veronica off of him was as difficult now as it had been the day he left town to take Daisy to Butte. He had to pull her arms from his neck and push her back, holding her away to keep her from jumping on him again.
“I didn’t think you were ever coming home!” she said, the smile on her face wide. She was looking at him as if he’d hung the moon, and he sighed before letting go of her arms.
He took a step back, straightening his coat. “Veronica, you have to stop doing that.”
Her bottom lip jutted out into a pout. The glint in her eyes told him it was all for show. “But I missed you.” She took a step toward him, and he took another one back.
He’d been riding hard all day to get here.
The trip from Butte had been brutal and cold, and the snow had forced him to stop along the way.
Luckily, the small town he’d found himself in had a boarding house that had served him a hot meal, along with giving him a room and shelter for the horse Liam let him borrow.
His thoughts had been on Daisy the entire ride.
He couldn’t stop thinking about her, and the past four weeks had been as close to torture as he ever wanted to get.
Having Veronica throw herself at him the moment his feet hit the ground had made the bone-tired weariness even worse, and now he had to do the one thing he’d been trying to avoid since she got to town and took an interest in him. He had to break her heart.
“Veronica, I—”
“—Yes?”
She interrupted him before he could even get a sentence out.
She was bouncing on her heels, with that wide smile still in place.
He blew out a tired breath and rubbed the back of his neck before looking up at her.
Sometimes it hurt less if you were just blunt with some people, and he had a feeling Veronica was one of them.
“Veronica, whatever you think is going on between us, isn’t.” Her smile faltered before she laughed. When she opened her mouth to speak, he talked over her and said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t…” Damn, why was this so hard?
“You don’t what?” she said when he didn’t say anything else. Her smile was gone now, the shine he’d seen in her eyes earlier gone as well.
He met her gaze, making sure he had her full attention. “Veronica, I don’t want you to keep thinking anything is ever going to happen between the two of us because it isn’t. My heart belongs to Daisy.”
“Daisy?” she sputtered indignantly. “That deaf and dumb girl?”
The small amount of pity he’d felt at having to tell her there would be nothing between them vanished in an instant. “Daisy is not dumb.”
“But she’s deaf.”
“She is, and it’s one of the many things I love about her.”
Veronica’s face turned a blistering shade of red, her lips held so tight together they were nothing but a harsh, white line across her face. A muscle in her cheek ticked as she clenched her jaw, and the fire in her eyes should have killed him where he stood.
She turned on her heel and huffed out of the stable without a word.
He exhaled the breath he’d been holding.
“Well, that was easier than I thought it would be.” He saw to his horse, bedding him down for the night before exiting and turning toward Daisy’s house.
His steps faltered when he got to the sidewalk.
A glance down at himself made him grimace.
He’d been riding hard for two days to reach Daisy, and he probably smelled like it.
There was mud on his boots and his pant legs, and he hadn’t shaved in over a week.
He ran a hand over the whiskers on his face.
He didn’t want her to see him like this.
He loved her and was desperate for even a small glimpse of her, but she deserved more than a saddle bum who stank of horses and sweat.
Giving the Campbell house one last hard stare, he turned on his heel and headed to the jail, to the little room behind it he’d been calling home since Josiah and Violet were married.
Seeing Daisy could wait one more night. He needed a bath and a shave, and come first thing tomorrow, he’d ask her to marry him.