Chapter 16 #2
He nodded. “Sure have,” he said. “Got every dollar locked in a safe now, I’ll tell you that.”
“Good. Just keep your eyes open. If you hear anything, any gossip, any talk, you let me know, won’t you?”
“That I will, Sheriff, you can count on it.”
Nathaniel nodded and left the office, moving down along the street past the mercantile. He’d spoken to the Talbots earlier and suggested they keep their guard up. He headed for the boarding house.
Troubled, he walked around to the back, where he eyed the cabin but saw no movement there. The door was closed and Chloe was nowhere in sight. He turned to the house and stepped through the open back door and into the kitchen. His mother stood at the worktable by the stove, kneading biscuit dough.
She looked up. “Nathaniel,” she smiled. “What brings you over here in the middle of the morning?” After he gave her a small shrug, she smiled. “Chloe’s upstairs having some tea and cookies with Millicent.” She paused, her hands and wrists covered with flour. “You need to speak with her?”
He shook his head, fighting a frown. “I’m not sure.” He spoke softly. “Mother, has Chloe told you anything about her husband?”
She eyed him for several moments as she shook her head. “No, but I’ve told her if she ever needs to talk, I’m willing to listen.” She tilted her head and got back to kneading. “What’s wrong?”
He said nothing but pulled the bullet cartridge from his pocket and held it between his thumb and index finger. “She found this in one of the chicken hutches yesterday.” His mother stared at the bullet a moment and then met his gaze. “She tell you about it?”
Dalia shook her head. “No.”
He pondered that. “I’m not sure what it means.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “Does it have to mean anything?”
He frowned. “You think finding a bullet in a chicken hutch doesn’t mean anything?”
She turned to him and sighed. “It could’ve come from anywhere, Nathaniel.
Jackson might have dropped one into that batch of straw we got from him a couple of weeks ago.
” She paused. “Or it could have been even longer than that and been caught in a bale of hay we bought from the Richardson’s last fall. ”
“You really think so?” He watched his mother’s slow frown. “Nathaniel. Really, I wish you didn’t look at everything so … suspiciously.” She glanced at the bullet. “Does it have to mean something?”
Dalia shrugged. “It could have been in there for ages.”
“It’s not that old,” he mused, glancing down at it. “It could have—”
“Nathaniel,” she interrupted gently, gesturing at the bullet with her chin. “When was the last time you changed the straw in the chicken hutch?” She didn’t let him answer. “I’m not accusing, I’m simply pointing out that it could have been there for months … years even.”
“I don’t think so—”
“Why not?”
“It doesn’t look old.”
She heaved a sigh. “If it’s been stuck in there in a corner of a hutch, protected from the weather, it wouldn’t.” She paused and studied his face for several moments before her eyes widened slightly. “You think her husband found her, followed her here, don’t you?”
“I don’t know.” He hesitated. “I don’t even know if he’s alive, but to find a bullet casing in a chicken hutch?”
She shrugged. “I realize it’s your job to be suspicious, Nathaniel. Heaven knows, you take after your father that way. But we’ve all gone out to collect eggs,” she said. “And it could have been in there for a while, even before Chloe came.”
He nodded. That was true. He could be overthinking things. Still, it wasn’t enough. “I need to talk to her.”
Dalia paused in her kneading and turned to him, her gaze somber.
“You can’t order her to talk to you, Nathaniel.
She’s done nothing wrong, and from what she’s already told us, she’s trying to overcome a very difficult time in her life.
Do you really think that forcing her to dredge it up again is useful? ”
He leaned a hip against the table, crossing his arms over his chest. “She might’ve brought her past troubles here, Mother, to Cedar Bluff, to this boarding house.”
“Might. Perhaps. Maybe.” She gave him a soft smile. “Life is full of those, isn’t it, Nathaniel?” She paused, gazing down at the dough before turning back to him. “Whatever you decide to do, remember one thing. What you do and what you say to her may affect her in ways you can’t imagine.”
Confused, he frowned. “What do you mean?”
She returned to her kneading though she glanced at him a time or two. “Memories and emotions are tricky things, son. I believe you know that as well as I do.”
She was speaking of his father’s death, he felt sure of it. “I still don’t understand what you mean.”
She didn’t answer right away, but turned the pile of dough over and started kneading again with her knuckles. “I’m just saying that sometimes dredging up the past can cause just as much damage as the incidents themselves.” She glanced at him.
“Chloe has just experienced a frightening experience with the stagecoach attack. She could have been killed. She’s just found a daughter that she felt forced to relinquish to an orphanage years ago, and why?
Because she was afraid. No, she was probably terrified and had no one to turn to, no one to ask for help. ”
“What’s that got to do—”
His mother stopped kneading and placed her flour-covered hands on her hips. “Nathaniel. Do you have any idea how terrified she must’ve been to even consider leaving her child behind? Not only to save herself but her child? Do you—”
“Mother, I need to know more about her past. If I don’t, I can’t do much to protect her, don’t you understand that?”
She eyed him for several moments. “Nathaniel. You’re a good man and a good sheriff. Your father would be so terribly proud of you. But you can also be quite intimidating. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up scaring her away and what good is that going to do?”
“I’m not going to scare her,” he scoffed. His mother stared at him, searching his eyes. “I’m not going to scare her, Mother,” he insisted. “But there’s times when secrets need to be exposed, not only for safety’s sake, but for justice.”
“Nathaniel,” she said softly. “She didn’t have to show you that bullet. If she was involved in something … nefarious or illegal, do you honestly think she would’ve shown it to you?”
No, he didn’t, but at the same time he was convinced she was hiding something, and had been from the beginning. He shook his head. “We’ve put a roof over her head and for her child. We’ve given her protection and a job and food and shelter. Don’t you think that she owes us just a little bit?”
Dalia shook her head. “She’s already told us about her past, Nathaniel. You already know that her husband was not a nice man and she’s obviously still terrified of him finding her. Isn’t that enough?”
He knew he wasn’t going to win this disagreement.
“I’ll leave things be for now, but I want you and Lillian to be extra careful and watchful.
If someone, meaning her husband or anyone else, comes asking about Chloe or knows she’s here, they could be dangerous to more than Chloe. You know that, don’t you?”
His mother stopped kneading again, straightened her back, and turned to him.
“I’ve been a sheriff’s wife and mother for most of my life, Nathaniel Cross, and I have a good amount of common sense to go along with that!
” she exclaimed, then took a deep breath and softened her tone.
“You don’t need to worry about me or your sister.
We know how to protect ourselves, as your father and then you have taught us. ”
He knew nothing else he said at the moment would sway her, so he simply nodded and left the house, more confused now than ever.
He stood outside in the yard eyeing the cabin, knowing without a doubt that Chloe was scared of something.
Yet his mother was right. If he confronted her in the wrong way, he would add to her fears and she might disappear, her and Eliza both.
It was at that moment that he realized that he had grown feelings for not only Chloe, but for Eliza.
They both had added something to their lives, something that he hadn’t realized right away.
His mother seemed happier than she had been in a very long time and Lillian was finally starting to live again as well.
As for him, well, he realized something about himself too. He could see that there was a future in front of him, if he only chose to open his mind, clear his heart, and move forward instead of always looking back.