Chapter 11
Sheridan entered Sullivan’s, the little bell announcing her arrival, expecting to see Tresia behind the counter where the register resided, but today, there was no one there. “Hello?”
“I’ll be right with you.” A woman’s sweet voice called out from an open door tucked toward the back of the store.
A moment later, the young woman appeared, pencils stuck in her sandy-blonde hair, glasses perched on her nose, carrying a heavy book.
“How can I help—” Her face paled and she let out a startled gasp.
The heavy book dropped from her fingers onto the floor, making a loud thud, which seemed to startle her, too.
“Are you all right?”
The woman recovered her initial shock and gave a short laugh. “Oh, you gave me such a fright.” She picked up the book and moved forward, though to Sheridan, her stride seemed hesitant. “I thought, for a minute, you were Josie. You look just like her. You must be Sheridan.”
“I am.”
“She talked about you, at least to us girls.” The young woman held out her hand.
“Corianna March. I used to work for your mother before she….” She didn’t finish the sentence, but Sheridan knew what she’d been about to say.
Marshal Goodrich, Lucy, Mr. Applebaum, and Lily had all told her how Josie passed, though the conversations had been difficult.
“Now I work here. Miss Tresia offered me this job, after what happened. She’s been good to me, as good as Josie was.” She ran her finger over the embossed title, almost lovingly, even as her eyes welled up. “I miss her. I can never repay her for what she did for me.”
It wasn’t the first time Sheridan had heard how her mother had helped someone else. By now, it was becoming an all too familiar refrain. “What are you reading? Something scary?”
“Oh no.” She laughed. “I’d never read anything frightening. Don’t need to. Life is scary enough.” She held up the book so Sheridan could see the title.
“Gray’s Anatomy.” Impressed, as she was familiar with the book, she asked, “Are you studying to become a doctor?”
Corianna shook her head, the ringlets bouncing.
One of the pencils stuck in the curls dropped to the floor.
She didn’t notice. “A midwife. Doctor Ben loaned me this book. He’s been helping me study.
I’m apprenticing with him, watching what he does.
Mrs. Haggarty—she’s already a midwife—is allowing me to apprentice with her as well.
” A bright smile lit up her face. “I helped to deliver a baby just a few weeks ago. My first one. It was…” The smile dimmed just a bit “—one of the most emotional things I ever witnessed.” She bowed her head, then looked up.
“I admit, I cried, but not until Doctor Ben and I were on our way home.” She straightened her shoulders, standing tall, apparently unembarrassed she had cried.
“Oh! I’m sorry. Just listen to me prattling on. How can I help you?”
Sheridan laughed. She liked this woman. Corianna seemed to be sweet and personable enough to put a laboring woman at ease. Indeed, in just a few minutes, she’d worked her magic and put Sheridan at ease, too. “I’m looking for a thank-you gift.”
“I see. For what? Or perhaps, I should ask for whom?”
She didn’t want to say. It might embarrass him or make the wagging tongues in Serenity wag a little more.
Already, it was known that she’d spent the afternoon with Wyatt at his ranch.
Some of the gossips were careful to mention that Delilah and Royce were there, as well, in an attempt, she assumed, to protect her reputation, though it was scandalous enough that she lived in a brothel.
She didn’t let that bother her. She’d been the talk of the town when she first arrived in Serenity. She still was. “It’s for a man.”
The woman laughed. “Well, that certainly narrows it down.” Her eyes widened as did her smile. “Is it for your sweetheart?”
A flush heated Sheridan’s face. She could feel it rising from the décolletage of her dress all the way up to her hairline and quickly shook her head. “No, just a friend.”
Corianna waved her hand over the glass countertop and all the items displayed on a bed of dark blue velvet beneath. “Well, we have a lot to choose from. Were you thinking maybe a ring?”
Sheridan laughed even as her flush deepened to encompass her entire body. “A ring? Good gosh, no!”
“All right. What about this gold money clip?” She gestured to the clip, the small diamond chip glittering in the lamp light.
“No, that doesn’t seem like something he would use.”
“It would help if I knew who this would be for.”
Sheridan admitted, “Wyatt MacLean.”
“Oh, Mr. MacLean! He’s such a nice man. Always treats me with kindness whenever he comes in.
Handsome, too.” She folded her arms across her chest, and rocked back on her heels, her mouth pursed in deep thought.
“Let’s see. What would a man like Mr. MacLean like?
” Her gaze roamed over everything in the glass case before finally stopping and pointing to an intricately engraved silver flask. “What about that?”
“What is it?”
Corianna glanced at her like she had three heads before she smiled. “It’s a flask. It’s used to carry whiskey or brandy or….” She moved a glass panel and removed the silver flask. “Whatever they want, I guess.”
Sheridan accepted the flask, turned it this way and that, noticing the pattern of the engraving, which turned out to be that of a stag in the forest. It was beautiful, but was it Wyatt? She didn’t know him well enough to know. “I’m not sure.”
“There are other things.” Corianna’s gaze went back to the items in the case. “What about a gold tie clasp?”
Sheridan shook her head. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen him wear a tie. He’s a rancher. He wears work clothes and cowboy hats and boots but never a tie.”
“That’s right. He is a rancher. Have you been out to Stone Creek?”
“I have. It’s lovely, but I got the distinct impression he hasn’t owned it that long.”
“Just a little more than three years now. He bought it from the Widow Contreras because Katie wanted it.”
“Katie? Who is Katie?”
“The woman he was supposed to marry.”
That came as a surprise to her. She hadn’t known. No one had mentioned Wyatt had been engaged before now. Was this Katie still in the picture? Did he still love her? Why didn’t they marry?
Before she could ask any one of the myriad questions rambling through her brain, Corianna spoke.
“I don’t know all the details. You’ll have to ask him.
But what I do know is that she left him at the altar and ran away with a gambler.
It had the gossips’ tongues wagging for months.
I felt bad for him. Katie shouldn’t have done that. ”
Sheridan didn’t say anything. She couldn’t.
Her heart hurt for Wyatt and the pain he must have gone through.
No one should experience that kind of devastation, or the embarrassment of having someone love you one moment, then run away with someone else the next.
What a horrible thing for Katie to have done.
And her grandmother said men can’t be trusted. Maybe some women couldn’t be trusted either.
She brought her focus back to the task at hand—finding a thank you gift for Wyatt—but thoughts of Katie and who she was kept intruding, and she couldn’t concentrate. “Let me think about what an appropriate gift for him would be,” she said. “I have a few more errands to run, but I’ll be back.”
Corianna nodded. “I’ll think about it, too, and see what I can come up with.”
“Thank you. It was lovely to meet you.”
“You as well.”
Sheridan left the store, the little bell chiming as she opened and closed the door and walked across the town square.
Several people nodded in her direction, but she didn’t stop to chat.
She hadn’t lied to Corianna. She did have more errands to run—Sullivan’s had been her first stop.
Second on the list was Goldwater’s General Store.
Striding into the building, she noticed how busy it was.
A line of people waited patiently while their orders of fresh vegetables and other items were rung up by Winston and his wife, Gemma.
When it was finally her turn, she walked up to the counter. “Good afternoon, Gemma.”
“And good afternoon to you, Sheridan. What can I do for you?”
“Mrs. Gallagher sent me over to pick up the mail.”
Gemma turned away from the counter toward a big wooden box nailed to the wall filled with cubbyholes, some big, some small, just the size of a letter.
All had the names of the ranching families, farming families and the like, clearly labeled.
She pulled several letters from the cubby hole marked as Josie’s.
“Looks like you have quite a few letters. I hope it’s all good news. ”
“Thank you, Gemma. Have a good day.” She took the bundle of letters and slowly walked toward the door, her fingers methodically going through the pile, noticing the names of who those letters were addressed to as well as who they came from.
She let out a sigh. Bills. Bills. And more bills.
Mrs. Gallagher would handle them as competently as she always did.
There were a few personal letters to the girls as well, which made her smile.
It wasn’t until she got to the last letter in the pile that her smile disappeared. Her hands started shaking and her heart stopped for a brief moment.
She’d recognize that spidery penmanship anywhere.
She paused, but only long enough to rip open the envelope and start reading while she walked to the door. Tears gathered in her eyes.
They were coming. The two people she didn’t want to see were on their way here. Right now.
She pushed through the door, the letter in front of her face, and bumped into a strong chest.
“Oh! I’m so sorry.” Sheridan apologized before she even looked up. When she did, it was right into the startling tiger’s eyes of Wyatt MacLean. The letter slipped from her fingers.