Chapter 10 #2
She turned to him, eyes wide with surprise. He could tell that she wanted to deny it the moment she started to shake her head, but then she seemed to surrender, her shoulders slumping slightly and her eyes filling with tears once more.
“Yes,” she admitted.
“You’ll be all right,” he said, wanting to believe it, wanting her to believe it too.
He was struggling with some feelings of his own, disappointment mainly. He hadn’t quite settled his thoughts in his own mind, learning that she was still a legally married woman, he struggled with that knowledge, but there was nothing much he could do about it.
Of course he wanted to know more about the man, but he wouldn’t pry. If Chloe wanted to talk about him, she would. He didn’t like it when his mother or sister or anyone else poked at his business and he didn’t think that Chloe would appreciate it coming from him.
“While you’re getting to know each other, we’ll start cleaning out the cabin and fixing up the place a little to make it more comfortable for both of you.
” She said nothing and he continued. “There’s an old bedframe in the spare room at the back of the house, but I can build a smaller bedframe for Eliza. ”
She turned to him, her eyes searching. “Why are you and your family being so nice to me after all that I’ve done?”
He lifted an eyebrow. Her eyes pivoted to his, and he answered, “What were you expecting? Did you expect us to throw stones at you?” He slowly shook his head, his hands loose on the reins, his upper body shifting slightly with the momentum of the buggy. “Judge not lest you be judged.”
She stared. “I didn’t figure a sheriff would say something like that.”
“Why not? In my job, I try to follow the Ten Commandments to the best of my ability, and I’m not a judge, nor am I an executioner. I’m a law man. I follow the law.” Of course, he couldn’t tell her about his own thirst for vengeance against the outlaws who had killed his father.
More than once he’d had to remind himself that his job was to find them, capture them, put them in jail and let the courts decide what was to be done with them.
He had to trust that they would be punished accordingly.
He wouldn’t take the law into his own hands just because he wore a silver star pinned to his chest.
After that, he left her alone with her thoughts. She had a lot on her mind. When they returned to the boarding house, she climbed down out of the buggy before he could help her and without a word, rushed into the house through the back door and up the stairs to her room before he could talk to her.
He paused at the base of the stairs and then heard the murmur of voices in the parlor. He stopped short in the doorway when he saw a young man sitting in the room with Lillian.
“Nathaniel, meet our new house guest.” She turned to indicate a young man roughly around Nathaniel’s age with wavy blonde hair, clean but rather travel-worn clothes, and saddlebags draped over his knee. “This is Thomas Hale. He came into town while you were gone.”
The man stood, eyeing Nathaniel and the badge on his chest. Nathaniel extended his hand. “Nathaniel Cross,” he introduced himself.
Lillian stood as well when Nathaniel glanced her way and noted her flushed cheeks. He frowned.
“Thomas has been in the area for the past week or so, camping out just south of the bluff,” Lillian explained. “I ran into him this morning at the mercantile. He’s looking for a job. I mentioned that we have a room to let here.”
Nathaniel nodded and glanced once more at Thomas. “Welcome.” He turned back to his sister. “Where’s mother?”
“At the cabin.” She glanced at the newcomer. “Come along. I’ll get you the key to your room. Supper is served at five sharp.”
Thomas offered a smile and a nod. “Thanks for the hospitality.”
Lillian spoke to Nathaniel. “I was waiting for you to get back.” She glanced self-consciously at the young man standing nearby then lowered her voice. “I’ll help Mama as soon as I get him settled.” She left the room and the man followed her into the study opposite the parlor.
Nathaniel watched the man a moment, his saddlebags now slung over his shoulder.
At first glance, he seemed all right. Still, he could tell the moment he’d seen her face that his sister found their new boarder interesting.
With a slight shake of his head, he strode down the hallway and out the back door.
As he made his way to the cabin, he eyed it critically.
The windows were filthy. Weeds grew in clumps around the yard, and the small garden plot on the east side of the cabin had gone to weeds as well.
He stepped inside, immediately noting the faint scents of old wood, dust, and more than a little neglect.
“Mother, you in here?”
She emerged from behind a curtain separating the main room from a small bedroom in back. Her hair looked a bit mussed and a piece of a spider web dangled from her left shoulder. She held a broom in one hand and a rag in the other.
“How did it go at the orphanage?” she asked. “Did Chloe find her daughter?”
Nathaniel nodded. “She did.” His mother looked past him toward the yard spanning the distance between the cabin and the back of the house. “She went up to her room the moment we got back. She didn’t say much on the way back home.”
“She’s upset?”
Nathaniel shrugged. “I don’t know what’s put a bee in her bonnet. The girl is her daughter, a pretty little thing that looks a lot like her, no doubt about it.” He paused, glancing around. The place not only needed a good scouring but some furniture.
“Is the child upstairs with Chloe?”
“No,” he said. He strode across the floor, his boots thudding heavily on the planks.
He peeked past the old curtain hanging in the doorway to the bedroom before turning back to his mother.
“Bethany thought it would be best if the two of them got to know each other a little bit before she moved in. I think it’s a good idea too.
The child is wary to say the least. And Chloe’s …
well, she’s skittish, and I can’t much blame her. ”
“A mother will always be a mother,” Dalia said softly.
“I suppose that’s true, but Eliza doesn’t know her and the same goes for Chloe.
There may be a blood bond, but even so, I don’t know if Chloe told Eliza that she was her birth mother.
” He saw the query on his mother’s face and explained.
“Bethany and I gave the two some privacy after they were introduced.”
“She didn’t say anything on the way home?”
“No, not really. I asked her if she was scared and she said she was, and I told her that everything would work out okay.” He sighed. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that but I didn’t know what else to tell her.”
Dalia smiled and laid a hand on his shoulder. “She’s a good woman. She’ll find her way.”
Nathaniel nodded, gazing once more about the place.
“I’ve got things to do,” he said, sweeping a hand over his jaw, his whiskers scratchy.
“I’ll get some of that furniture out of the back room and bring it out here later.
” He hesitated. “I told her that I’d build a bed frame for Eliza, so I’ll pick up some bedding at the mercantile in the morning as well. ”
His mother smiled up at him. “You’re a good man, Nathaniel. When was the last time I told you how proud of you I am?”
He grinned. “Actually, it was a couple days ago.”
She laughed softly. “And I’ll keep saying it.” She looked around and sighed. “Well, I hear we have a new border so I suppose I need to get inside and start supper.”
“Put Chloe to work, Mother,” he said softly. “She’s got a lot on her mind and sitting up in her room by herself dwelling on it all isn’t going to do her much good.” He turned to leave but hesitated in the open doorway. “You know anything about this Thomas Hale?”
“Not much other than he’s been camping near the bluff for a while, moving around, looking for work.”
He recalled the blush on his sister’s cheeks. “Lillian likes him.”
“I noticed.”
He crooked his arm and grinned at his mother.
With a sigh, she drooped the rag over the top of the broom handle and leaned it against the wall before taking his arm and allowing him to escort her back to the house.
Once inside, he heard a trill of laughter.
Lillian had never met a person she didn’t like, but he was slower to make snap judgments.
He wasn’t sure how long this Hale fellow planned on sticking around, but if it was more than a few days, he would ask around, find out what he could about the man.
As far as Chloe went? Well, maybe he would try to do a little digging into her past as well, get a handle on this missing husband of hers.
Chances were he was dead after all these years without contact. Still, perhaps it would help Chloe to know the answer one way or the other so she could finally move ahead with her life, especially now that she’d found her daughter.
As for him and his attraction to her, well, that was over and done with. She was a married woman. Even so, after leaving the house and heading back to the jail, he had to force his mind to focus on something other than Chloe Whitfield.