Chapter 3
Lizzy felt her world turn upside down as it had when she had fallen from the scaffolding only a few hours earlier. This time, though, there seemed to be no rope wrapped around her ankle, saving her from dashing herself on the ground below.
Almost without conscious thought, Lizzy took a step away from Troy. She didn’t know why she felt so betrayed. He hadn’t made any promises, hadn’t done anything but be her friend—and yet she felt her heart breaking in one horrible moment.
The silence that followed Emily’s words seemed to drag out interminably until Julie and Andrew stepped forward and went to greet the new arrival properly.
Troy seemed to be glued to his spot. His cheeks were pale and his eyes wide. If he were a machine, Lizzy would have thought something had gotten stuck in his gears, making it impossible for him to move.
“Troy!” Michael barreled down on him. “Have you forgotten your manners?” He put his arm around his brother’s shoulders and forced him forward. Troy moved as though his boots had taffy underneath them.
Lizzy took another step back, and suddenly, Tim was there. Her little brother’s brown eyes were alight with excitement.
“Did you see?” he asked. “Jeff bought sweets. He got a whole big bag of them.” Timothy held out his grubby hand. Nestled in his palm was a selection of butterscotch boiled sweets and peppermints. “Do you want one?”
His hands were filthy.
“Good heavens, Tim,” Lizzy chided. “Have you never heard of washing your hands? No one should eat sweets you’ve handled.”
“Why?” he demanded. “It’s good clean dirt from the garden.” He wiped one hand down his trousers and then transferred the sweets to the slightly cleaner hand and wiped the other one. “See, all better. Have one.”
“I’m fine, thanks,” Lizzy said. “I don’t want a sweet now.”
Timothy raised his brows. “Well, maybe you should have one. You look as though you just sucked on a particularly sour lemon.” He sighed, watching the knot of people welcoming Emily to the town.
Troy and Michael were in that knot, their sandy hair standing out against the browns and blonds and darker hair of the crowd.
“So, did you know she was coming?” Timothy asked, eyeing his sister.
Lizzy shook her head. “Neither did Troy. He was so shocked that I honestly don’t think he invited her out here.”
Frowning, Timothy turned to look at the newcomer. “So, why is she here?”
Lizzy shrugged. “I don’t know. I was wondering about that myself.”
It would be rude not to greet Emily Gardener, and so Lizzy joined the people introducing themselves and bidding her welcome. When it was her turn, she shook Emily’s gloved hand with her rough, scarred one, and wondered what it must be like to be so dainty.
“Hello, I’m Lizzy Lupo,” Lizzy said. “And this is my brother, Timothy.”
Tim beamed at Emily, a boiled sweet in his mouth. “Peppermint?” he offered.
Emily peered at the candy in his still mostly grubby hand and smiled before refusing. “It’s good to meet you. Are you the Lizzy who works so closely with Troy?”
Lizzy hadn’t expected Emily to know anything about her. She nodded. “Yes, we work together all the time.”
Troy, who was standing nearby like an awkward fifth wheel, nodded.
“Lizzy is a wonderful farrier. She can do things with metal that I’m pretty sure shouldn’t be possible.
” The smile he treated her to was warm and genuine.
Lizzy’s heart should have brightened, but she was too confused and unsure of things now to know how she was feeling.
She managed to smile at him. When Emily began to speak again, Lizzy wished she had a good reason to leave.
She needed time to think, to sort out her feelings.
“How interesting to have a female farrier,” Emily commented. “I’ve always insisted that women can learn any trade a man can if they don’t mind the toll it might take on their hands and skin. I see you don’t mind.” Her gaze drifted to Lizzy’s hands.
Acutely aware of her many scars and calluses, Lizzy clasped her hands in front of her and gave a curt nod. “Hope you get settled in.” She turned to go.
“Speaking of that … Lizzy, would you help Julie get Emily settled?” Andrew asked before she could take more than a step.
All eyes were on her. Kyle was smirking at her from across the crowd. He raised his brows. It was a challenge. Could Lizzy stand to be near this woman who had arrived out of the blue and stepped between her and Troy so very easily?
“All right,” she said with a heavy sigh.
Julie spoke to her husband in a low voice. “Look, Troy didn’t tell anyone she was coming, so we’re not prepared. Will you go and set up a tent for her? I think close to our hut will be best.”
Andrew nodded. “Of course.” He kissed his wife’s cheek and walked away.
“Did he mention anything about her to you?” Julie asked Lizzy.
“Not a word.” Lizzy sighed and turned back to Emily, who was still shaking hands and meeting people. “Where are your bags?”
“All on the cart, I expect,” she said without looking in Lizzy’s direction.
She and Julie went to the cart and found Jeff offloading several pieces of luggage.
“Here you go,” he said. “They’re heavy. Maybe Troy should help.
Since this mess is his problem.” Jeff seemed out of sorts.
“I have to say, I wasn’t too happy to find her waiting at the train station.
It was dumb luck she found me at all. She heard me mentioning Troy’s name when I went to pick up the parts you and Troy ordered.
She came over, bold as brass, and showed me one of the letters he wrote her.
I didn’t know what to do, so I brought her home.
” He shrugged. “Anway, the parts you asked for are here too.” He indicated the boxes on the back of the cart.
“Thanks,” Lizzy said. “I’ll take them once I’ve dealt with this.”
“No rush,” Jeff said. He patted her shoulder. “Chin up. I don’t see that one lasting here long.” He looked over at Emily. “This isn’t the place for someone like her.”
“You look harassed,” Julie said to her brother-in-law. “Was she a handful?”
“More of an earful,” Jeff said. “I’ll be glad for a couple of hours of silence.”
“Chatty, is she?” Lizzy asked with a raised eyebrow.
Jeff grinned and turned back to his offloading.
Lizzy and Julie exchanged looks as they helped to take the bags down. It turned out that Emily had a lot of bags. Two carpetbags that were dreadfully heavy, two valises, and a trunk, to be precise.
“What is in all of these?” Lizzy asked. “We’ll never manage them on our own.” Turning, she looked for Troy. “Troy! Come help!”
He came loping over to the cart with an air of relief. “I’m so sorry,” he said as he reached Lizzy. “I don’t know what happened. I didn’t mean?—”
“Just pick up the bags,” Michael snapped at him. He arrived in his brother’s wake like an angry shark. “We will be having a discussion about this later.”
Troy frowned at his brother. “And you’re still not our father, Mike. Stop acting like you’re in charge of me.”
Michael, his face red, gritted his teeth, making the cords stand out in his neck. “Listen to me. You brought that woman out here, and you will make sure that she is comfortable. It’s the least you can do for leading her on.”
“I didn’t—” Troy began, but Emily walked over, all smiles, and they stopped their fight.
Julie shot a look at Lizzy. She shrugged and picked up a carpetbag. It didn’t seem to be terribly full; however, it weighed a ton.
“What have you got in here?” Lizzy asked Emily. “Rocks?”
Emily shook her head. “No, silly.” She smiled at Troy as she picked up one of the valises, the lightest one from the way she held it.
“As Troy will no doubt have told you all, I’m a schoolteacher, so I had to bring my books.
” Emily smiled brightly, as though the knowledge that they were carting books through the camp should make them happy.
“I believe that an engaged mind is a happy mind, and nothing engages one quite as well as a book.”
“Actually, Troy has been rather tight-lipped,” Julie said with her usual warm smile as she negotiated the other valise, which was clearly heavier than the one Emily was carrying.
“Oh?” Emily asked, turning to Troy. “Why? Weren’t you happy when I wrote that I was coming out? I would have thought you would tell folks I was on my way.”
“I don’t recall reading that,” Troy said softly.
“It was in a telegram,” Emily said. “I sent it just before I left Washington DC.” Her smile slipped. “You didn’t get it, did you?”
Troy shook his head. “You might have noticed how far we are from a post office out here. We only get mail when we go to San Antonio once a month. I explained all of this in my letters.”
Emily frowned. “You did?”
Troy raised his brows and nodded. “I did. Three times, I think it was. Every time you complained that it took me a long time to respond to your letters.”
Emily’s expression slipped for a moment, and Lizzy saw fear in her eyes. What was she afraid of? And then, just like that, the mask was back in place.
“Well, I apologize,” Emily said with that brittle smile fixed on her lips. “I must have misread parts of your letters.”
“Whole sections,” Troy said. He was lugging the other carpetbag.
He stopped and put it down. It made a dull, thudding noise on the ground.
“In fact, I don’t know why you’re here.” He was angry, something Lizzy had rarely seen in the cheerful, kind man she’d come to know.
“Why did you come? We never said anything about meeting in person.” He glared at Emily.
Lizzy’s first reaction was to be happy that he was upset, but then she felt sorry for the woman. There had been a misunderstanding, and now she was here in the middle of nowhere with no one to care about her.
“Troy!” Lizzy warned quietly.
He turned his angry gaze on her. “I thought you would be on my side!”
“Troy, a word.” Michael took him by the arm and walked Troy away from them.