Chapter Seventeen
Amos’s expression was grim, which told Ethan everything he needed to know about the journey ahead. Luke and Will had joined Jonathan, a veteran of the Bozeman Trail, to scout ahead the next few miles. Amos had called over Ethan and Derek after receiving their news.
Ethan hadn’t spoken to Derek since confronting him after he’d wrecked the wagon.
It surprised Ethan that Derek hadn’t insisted on discussing things because he so often sought out confrontation, always full of self-righteous fury, but Ethan hadn’t seen any reason to force the issue.
It was awkward, though, standing beside one another with that great, unresolved tension between them.
“Is it possible to go around the mudslide?” Amos asked.
Jonathan removed his hat and slapped it against his thigh. “I reckon we could try,” he said, running a hand through his thinning gray hair. “But I have to be honest, Amos, I don’t like it. The storms have washed away a huge part of the road. I don’t know if I trust the rest of it to hold.”
“There anything specific that’s got you so worried?” asked Will.
“The possibility we go over and the road washes away with us on it. Even if the road stays solid, I don’t know if I trust those makeshift bridges ahead to hold,” Amos said. “There’s a less traveled route we can take, but it’ll be longer.”
“Do we have enough supplies to manage a longer trip?” Ethan asked.
Worry gnawed at his stomach. Ethan was accustomed to hard living. Most of the travelers were. But he also knew that men could be dangerous when faced with unexpected hardship, no matter how much bravado they had.
Amos frowned. “We’d be able to forage a little. We’re moving into an area that has some game and a bit of plant life.”
“Not enough to survive on,” Jonathan said.
“Can we test the road?” Luke asked. “Send someone over it to make sure it’s safe?”
Amos shook his head. “If there’s something like a deep crack in the road, every wagon that goes over it will weaken it further. Just because a few wagons can get over it doesn’t mean everyone will be able to, and I’d rather not risk it.”
“It sounds like we have to take the detour,” Derek said, the first words he’d spoken the entire time. “It’s better to be safe than to risk a bunch of us getting hurt. If we have to treat injuries, that’ll make the journey take longer too. We don’t want Doc to be overwhelmed either.”
“Precisely,” Amos said.
Ethan reluctantly nodded. It wasn’t the first time he’d agreed with Derek over something, but every time he did, a sense of unease swept over him.
“At least we sent someone ahead,” Amos said. “We’d be in an even worse position if we just kept moving forward, realized the trail was washed out once we arrived, and then had to turn around.”
“Agreed,” Jonathan said.
It sounded like the matter was settled, so Ethan let his gaze wander over the others. He could admit now that he was really looking for Grace. Ever since he’d opened up to her, an inner calm had settled inside him. He found himself thinking about Grace even more than he usually did.
He found that he actually cared quite a bit if she liked him or not, which wasn’t something he was used to feeling. When Ethan thought about it, he couldn’t recall ever caring how a woman might feel about him before. Not until Grace, that was.
At last, he spotted her. She wore a pretty blue dress with a white print of some kind.
He couldn’t see her exact expression because her bonnet obscured her face, but he didn’t need to.
Grace was speaking to Zachariah, but her body—turned slightly away from him, her arms held behind her back, with a hand tightly gripping the other arm—indicated that she would rather be elsewhere.
Zachariah didn’t seem to notice, as he had his hand extended forward, seemingly trying to offer her something.
At last, Grace reluctantly unclasped her arms and accepted the offering.
Yet Zachariah still didn’t leave. If anything, he seemed emboldened by her acceptance of whatever it was he had handed her. He started gesturing broadly with his hands, trying to engage her even more.
Derek scoffed from beside Ethan. “Is he dense? I already told him that Grace wasn’t interested in finding a husband.”
Ethan blinked at him, surprised. “Did you?”
Derek seemed equally startled, as if he hadn’t expected for Ethan to hear the words, much less respond to them. “I did. He was telling me last night that he’s interested in courting her. He thinks Grace is pretty and…” Derek trailed off, looking vaguely uncomfortable.
“And what?” Ethan asked. “Did he say something vulgar?”
A surge of protectiveness shot through him, accompanied by the vaguely defined notion that he was more than prepared to defend Grace’s honor if necessary. He believed very strongly that women should be respected.
“No,” Derek said, a knowing look crossing his face. “Why? Would you go and defend her honor if he had?”
Ethan startled. How had Derek known that was precisely what he’d been thinking?
“What did he say?” Ethan asked, hoping to draw attention away from his reaction. “Grace deserves to be treated with respect.”
He remembered Zachariah’s earlier teasing of Grace and how rude it had been, and the thought of him speaking inappropriately about her filled him with fury.
Derek sighed. “Look, I know you’ll think I’m just being immature, but I suppose I don’t care about that.
He mentioned that Grace’s pa is really rich, and that Grace probably has a lot of money.
It just bothered me that he said such things because I thought it…
I don’t know. I don’t think he’s really interested in Grace herself, and I think she’d prefer not to be bothered by a man who only wants to marry her for money. ”
Ethan dug his nails into his palms, watching as Zachariah took a step closer to Grace. “Maybe the world is ending,” Ethan said.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because I agree with you,” Ethan replied. “She’s obviously uncomfortable, and that son of a gun just keeps going on and on. I can’t tell if he doesn’t realize it, or just doesn’t care, but I know she can do much better than Zachariah Sterling.”
Derek whistled between his teeth. “She sure can.”
Ethan started for the two of them, trying to walk casually, but his blood roared in his ears.
Grace was visibly on edge, and that was the only reason he was interfering.
Well, that, and because Derek was—shockingly—right.
If Zachariah only wanted to court Grace because her pa was rich, that was a problem.
Grace deserved much more than a greedy excuse of a man scheming after some assumed fortune.
She deserved a good, kind man who would treat her well.
Ethan cleared his throat as he approached Zachariah and Grace. Grace turned to him when she noticed his presence, her expression clearly relieved.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Ethan lied. “I need to speak to Grace.”
Zachariah laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. The man’s posture was loose and his mouth tipped upwards in a smile, but Ethan saw the poorly concealed anger in his eyes.
“That’s not a problem,” he said. “I was just having a friendly conversation with Grace here.” As if Zachariah realized he wasn’t fooling anyone, his expression suddenly brightened.
If Ethan hadn’t already seen that smoldering anger, he might have believed that Zachariah genuinely wasn’t bothered about being interrupted. Ethan had seen it, though.
‘He’s a liar through and through,’ Ethan thought.
Maybe not in the most literal sense of the word, but Zachariah was a snake for sure.
He had that kind of polish that told Ethan he was upper-class, or had once been, but that never quite rang true.
It was the sort of oily disposition that Ethan had always associated with mayors and lawyers; friendly on the surface, but with an undercurrent that set his teeth on edge.
Worse, that kind of polish came with a certain way of living.
Ethan was acutely aware that Grace, standing there in her pretty blue dress with its little white flowers, looked far more suited to the kind of life Zachariah Sterling had likely come from than his own.
Grace was accustomed to fine fabrics and fancy parlors, to silver cutlery and books and educated men.
Ethan was none of that. He never would be.
He might wish he was.
“What did you need?” Grace asked, a silent plea in her eyes.
Zachariah Sterling might want to marry Grace for her pa’s money, but it was also clear that he had some money himself, or knew how to get it. He came from something much closer to Grace’s world and could give her everything that Ethan never would be able to.
“My sister was looking for you,” Ethan said, his voice sounding distant even to his own ears.
It shouldn’t matter what he could or couldn’t give Grace.
Ethan wasn’t looking to marry any woman, and, as far as he knew, Grace wasn’t looking to marry either.
Even if she was, why would she ever look at Ethan when Zachariah was right there?
“Oh,” Grace said. “Of course. I should go find Hannah.”
“Probably,” Ethan agreed. “She’s been looking for a while, and she said it was something important she needed to speak with you about. Urgently.”
Grace smiled apologetically at Zachariah. “I’m sorry,” she said, in an appropriately contrite tone. “But I really must go. I don’t want to keep Hannah waiting.”
“Of course not,” said Zachariah. He didn’t look angry. Instead, he oozed a simpering, deceitful charm. A snake indeed.
Before either of them could say another word, Ethan trudged away.
He’d only interfered because Grace had seemed uncomfortable.
That was all. There was no need to think about any deeper meaning his actions might have had, or for him to feel so torn up inside over the realization that Zachariah was not necessarily a better man for Grace, but he was wealthier than Ethan, and he could give her more.
He was the more marriageable man.
Ethan clenched his teeth together so tightly that it hurt. He didn’t love Grace either; he just thought she was a decent woman. He admired her, that was all. And it was madness to compare himself to the likes of Zachariah.