Annie And The Cowboy (Western Night Series 3) (3 page)

Chapter Three

Annie looked around her new home. Mariette had clearly had more than a hand in its furnishings and decoration, it had her clean and uncluttered style written all over it. It was fresh and bright as a button. She had to admit it was lovely.  Mariette was clearly bursting with pride at her efforts. “It was only finished yesterday, sorry if you can still smell the paint!”

“I don’t mind one bit. Thank you, this is everything I could have ever dreamed of. To be honest, I hadn’t even noticed that a house came with the job, so it is more than I ever dreamed! I just hope I won’t let anybody down.”

“Annie, you will be fine. You have that get on and do it attitude, I can tell.”

“How on earth can you tell that?” Annie asked incredulously. She had barely met this woman, but then she thought about it – she had worked out that Mariette was determined and feisty and let nothing stand in her way within five minutes of meeting her. Why wouldn’t this wonderful woman, sussed her out, just as quickly? “No don’t answer, I suppose heading out on a journey like mine and taking such a risk speaks for itself!”

“Indeed, and there is something lurking behind your eyes, tells me there’s still inside you that has been put the test and you’ve come through it. I hope you will trust me enough one day to tell me all about it.”

“I’m sure I probably will,” Annie said, glad to know she had already made such a firm friend. She paused, trying to decide if she should ask about the man she had met the night before, then decided she had to. “Mr Cole, has he been in town long?” she asked, trying to sound polite.

For a moment she had thought it was David, her idealistic, lost fiancé. But, what reason could he possibly have for hiding his identity? She had to stop being so fanciful. Just because a man resembled a boy she had once known almost as well as she had herself, did not mean that they were one and the same person. She hadn’t wanted to believe he was dead, had prayed he would turn up one day alive and well – but even she had finally given up hope as the years had dragged on. The David she knew would never have left her or his Mama to such torment.

“No, he arrived along with our shiny new printing press, not that it is so shiny anymore. We have printed our first three editions and it is starting to look a bit used and abused,” Mariette chuckled. “A bit like I feel most of the time. No, he came highly recommended, was working on one of the big daily newspapers in the city. I wanted the best, and so offered him an inordinate amount of money to come and work for us out here. He jumped at it. I think he maybe must have come from ranching stock, he’s been helping Caleb and Hardy out with the calving. Apparently he’s a deft pair of hands. If you don’t mind me asking, you looked a little surprised when I introduced you?”

“He just reminded me of a man I once knew, well was due to wed. But he disappeared without a word and never came back. I’d just lost my Mother, and to lose him too was almost too much to bear. But, we are women, we have no choice,” she said grimly, the little nugget that he may have come from a country background snagged in her mind, fuelling her suspicions once more. Mariette nodded.

“Indeed we do. It is a man’s world, or so they say – yet it is always women who clean up the messes they leave behind them. It must have been terrible to lose them both.”

“It was. Rumours around town said he had been part of a group of men who kidnapped the Governor. They wanted to make him change his policies – some of them were causing such hardship throughout the State. He may have been, but if he was then he would have been partly to blame for my Mammy’s death and I would hate to think he was a part of anything with such malicious intentions. Maybe it got out of hand, maybe there were members of the group who took things too far. I will never know.”

“Whatever happened? I hate to be ghoulish, but what an incredible story,” Mariette said. Annie couldn’t blame her for her interest. It had been all anyone had talked at back home in Silver City for years. She could even tell the story now without tears – but it never stopped hurting, like someone had taken hold of her innards and twisted them until they were all tied in knots.

“Mammy was found shot, with the Sheriff and his young Deputy on a mountain pass. Later a carriage was found, the man who had alerted the Sheriff in the first place had been the driver, said my Mammy was his only passenger. When he had been found on the road, dazed from the massive blow they gave him to the head, he had no clue why they would have taken her. None of us knew either – then we found out about the Governor’s coach also going missing, along with the Governor himself. He came back a few days later, unharmed and not wanting to say a word about what happened to him – but he changed a number of the laws he had made soon after.”

“Was David the only man from town who disappeared?”

“No, a few of his friends did too. That’s why folk said they were all in it together. Nobody wanted to press for details. Nobody wanted to think their son, their brother could have killed my Mammy in cold blood. Some of them came back, my David and a man called Gable Forrester never did. We buried a casket in the graveyard once he had been gone five years. We all needed some kind of end to it all.”

“You poor thing,” Mariette said, clearly unsure whether she should comfort her or not. Annie was used to such a reaction. People rarely seemed to know what to say when they found out. Annie certainly had never worked any of it out herself. Maybe if the boys who had returned had ever told what had really happened that night it might have made it easier to bear – but David’s continuing absence had told her what she needed to know. Either he was dead, and had been killed by whoever had killed her Mammy, or he was alive and was the one who had done the shooting. She could have believed it of Gable, never of her David – and so assuming he truly was dead had become a comfort of sorts.

“Well,” Annie said as she rolled up her sleeves, determined to not be the subject of anyone’s pity. “I’d best get on and get myself unpacked.” She could see Mariette had taken the unspoken hint, she was a kind, but also a very tactful woman. Annie was almost certain she had already made a good friend, and was glad of it. But she was a relatively private person, was used to coping alone. She didn’t want to burden anyone with her troubles, she was too scared that if she did so she might just start to feel the pain they had caused. If that happened she may not ever recover her senses again.

“I have made sure your pantry is full of supplies. I think I thought of everything, but if there is anything else you need don’t hesitate to holler, I’m at the newspaper office until late most days. Albert Dalligan will stop by in the morning to show you the school. He is the schoolmaster for the boys. He’s been here about six months, but we decided our girls need an education too! I will wish you the best of luck, and again welcome Annie.” 

Mariette swept out of the tiny cottage, and Annie felt the silence descend around her. Now she was gone she wished she hadn’t sent Mariette away. But not one to feel sorry for herself, she quickly got on with unpacking her things and arranging the furniture the way she wanted it to be. Once she had made her new home into something cosy and inviting she headed to the small kitchen. She was tired and hungry but glad she had gotten everything done tonight. She very much believed in doing things right away, hated to have a task hanging over her head.

Mariette truly had thought of everything. The pantry was full of everything she could ever need. She pulled out eggs, butter, milk and the crustiest loaf of bread she had ever seen. She rummaged in the cupboards for a skillet and popped it on the stove. Popping a knob of butter into the pan, she quickly beat the eggs with the milk in a bowl, added a little salt and then mixed them quickly over the heat. She poured the eggs onto a plate, buttered a slice of bread, and went to her table to sit and eat her supper, wondering again if the mysterious Edward Cole was her David. He truly did look very like him indeed.

Chapter Four

In a quiet moment, once he had blocked the text for the pages that Mariette and Melissa had given him, Edward quickly scrawled a couple of letters to friends he had made during his years in Dallas. He prayed one of them would give him a job, and soon. He couldn’t stay here. He wondered how much, if anything, Annie might have said to Mariette, he was sure she had been looking at him differently recently. It was strange, she was the kind of woman people just seemed to open up to, and Annie needed a friend. She had suffered so much loss, such hardship. A friendly ear would probably have been something she had long gone without.

He had kept himself hidden, rushing between the ranch and the newspaper office, head down and keeping himself to himself since she had arrived, but it was only a matter of time before they bumped into one another. Much as he wanted to see her, wanted to reassure her that it hadn’t been him that killed her Mammy. Tell her that she wouldn’t have suffered, that the shot from Gable’s gun had been true. But he couldn’t do that. He could never let anyone, not even her, know that he was a part of any of it.

“Edward,” Melissa called from the upstairs office. “Could you do me a huge favour?”

“I’m sure I can try,” he called up the stairs.

“I need some letters posting, and I need to go to the Saloon to collect a bottle or two of whiskey for Caleb. He and Hardy are hoping that all the calving will be done tonight – sorry you probably know that better than I,” she laughed as he nodded. “Well, I thought we could have a little party at ours tonight to celebrate. Mariette has asked her cook to do the food, and has generously provided some French champagne for the women, but I know you boys.” Edward forced a smile, he didn’t really want to leave the safety of the workplace, but he had to mail his own letters too, and maybe a trip to the Saloon wouldn’t be a problem, after all he was pretty sure Annie didn’t hold with drinking, after having seen her admonish her Father last time he had snuck back to Silver City.

He met Melissa halfway on the stair and took her letters, grabbed his own on the way out and hurried to make sure he got them onto the mail coach he knew would be leaving town in just a few minutes. He was in such a hurry that he almost collided into the back of a young woman standing to pay her own postage. “Miss, I’m so sorry,” he blustered. She turned. Damn, it was Annie.

“Mr Cole, it is no problem,” she replied, a gentle smile playing over her luscious lips. “I was in quite a rush to make it on time myself. I was just writing to my sisters, and my brothers back at home in South Dakota. Wanted to let them know I have arrived and am settling in well.”

“And are you?” he asked politely. He could tell that she was trying hard to maintain a façade of correctness. She wasn’t behaving at all like the Annie he had always known. Annie had always been warm, open. This woman was tight-lipped and cool. He supposed he couldn’t be surprised given everything she had gone through, but it made him sad. He wished every day that he could turn the clock back, for none of it to have ever happened – but that didn’t ever change a thing.

“I’m sorry?” Her eyebrow arched questioningly.

“Sorry, are you settling in?”

“I think so. My cottage is lovely. The school is well appointed, we have lots of books and the children seem eager. What more could I ask for?”

“Indeed!”

“I hear you have been helping Mariette’s husband with the calving? I was once engaged to the son of a rancher. We rarely got to spend even a moment together at this time of the year they were so busy.” She watched his face for even the tiniest flicker of movement. He prayed he didn’t give himself away. He was right, the sooner he got out of town the better. Annie was suspicious, and she could be like a dog with a bone once she got an idea in her head. 

“I was too,” he replied trying to sound nonchalant. “I mean, I was the son of a rancher. It wasn’t for me though. I wanted to be in the city, in the hub of everything happening.”

“And yet you ended up here in Stephenville?” She was too sharp, and he was foolishly leading her right where he didn’t want her to go.

“Indeed. I thought I had done enough of it all, wanted the peace and quiet. But, I don’t think it is for me here.” He waved the letters in his hand. “In fact, I was just writing to some old friends to enquire if there was any work back in Dallas. I’m not as ready for a quiet life as I thought,” he said, now anxiously praying she wouldn’t see Mariette before he himself did. He didn’t want her to find out his plans from anyone else. He had huge admiration and respect for his employer, and hated the idea of leaving Stephenville, but Annie’s happiness was more important than his own.

He hurried back to the office and was glad to find Melissa had already headed for home. He had forgotten the whiskey, but he could always pick it up on his way to the party later on. “Mariette, do you have a moment?” he asked. She looked lost in thought, and was scribbling furiously at a piece for the paper.

“For you Edward, always. How can I help?”

“Why do you assume I need help?” he asked, stunned at how much she could pick up from virtually nothing.

“You have that slightly wheedling tone people always have when they want something,” she laughed. “Now what is it?”

“Well, it is more that I have to make an apology, than that I want something. I have just written to the owners of all the big Dallas and Houston newspapers. I’m sorry Mariette, but if any of them are good enough to offer me a position I will be leaving Stephenville.”

“I see,” Mariette sighed. “You know, you’ve been so quiet over the last few days. I’d put it down to the busy days here and endless nights at the ranch, but it isn’t, is it? You’ve been odd since Annie Fitzpatrick showed up.” Hell, she really was too perceptive. “Look I don’t want to pry, but she told me about her family, her fiancé. She really was taken aback when she saw you, and I think you were too when you saw her beside me that first night. Now, I know a little – but I have a feeling there is so much more that you just aren’t telling me, either of you.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about!” Edward tried to protest. Inside him David was screaming, ‘Tell her, finally someone who will hear you out, and she won’t judge you.’ He did his best to silence David. He hadn’t existed since that terrible day. 

“Don’t even try that with me. You know her, and I think you once knew her very well. You’re the missing fiancé aren’t you?” He sank down into the chair in front of her desk, and cradled his head in his hands. Her face wasn’t hard, or cold, merely curious. The warmth in her eyes was still there.

“Yes,” he whispered, and let the tears he had longed to shed for seven long years fall. “Yes, I watched as her Mammy died, and then I ran like the coward I am, and it is why I am running again. She cannot ever know. It is better for her that she continue to believe that David Evans is dead, buried and gone.”

“You can’t make up her mind for her, and you can’t keep running forever. Don’t you know that your past will always catch you up until you turn around, stare it in the face and deal with it,” she said kindly. “Look at me, at all that stuff with Bartlett Greive and poor Melissa. I almost stood by and let him ruin that poor girl’s life. But, I knew I had to be honest, to stand up for what was right. You do too. I know you aren’t a bad man. And I know that Annie refuses to believe it too.”

“Your uncanny powers of perception again?” he said bitterly. “Or do you have mind-reading powers too?”

“She gets misty-eyed when she talks about her David, and she said almost as much. Whatever you did, whatever part you played in it, don’t you think she deserves to at least hear what truly happened to her Mammy?”

“Damn it, of course I do, but it will break her heart?”

“Oh Edward, her heart is already broken. Why else do you think she ended up here? Look at us all. Everyone who comes out West is broken. The great thing is often the West puts us right back together. Now, are you going to stop behaving like the craven coward I know you are not, and start acting like the man I employed? He was strong, honest and stood up for what was right. I know that is who you truly are.”

“I just don’t know if I can bring myself to tell her, to see her pain, to know I caused that.”