Loving Eliza (8 page)

It made her want to take him in her arms and
protect him from the harsher realities of the world.  He seemed to be in such a sheltered environment.  In some ways, she envied him that.  She hadn’t been that way since she was fourteen and her parents died.  Nothing was the same for her after that, and there was no turning back the clock and doing things differently.  Besides, just how much could a fourteen year old do?

She slowly exhaled and
sat across from him
.  “It’s late.  We should call it a night when you’re done with that sheet of paper.”

He didn’t answer her.  Instead, he carefully wrote another M on the paper.  His letters were still sloppy, but she noted the progress.

“You’re doing great, John.  Why, you’re going to master this in no time.”

Again, he just continued writing, not bothering to acknowledge her statement.

She sighed and took a drink of the cool water.  A slight breeze blew in from the window.  July was a hot month and it took the nights to cool things off enough so she could be comfortable.  The humidity wasn’t so bad up here though.  That was nice.

Her eyelids grew heavy. 
She wondered what time it was.  She should’ve checked the clock when she was getting the water.  Yawning, she forced her eyes open and stretched the muscles in her neck.  When she was done, she glanced at John who had stopped writing to look at her.

She
straightened up.  “Do you need something?”

He motioned to her and then pretended to be asleep.

“Yes, I’m tired.  We’ve been doing this for a good five hours.  I’m ready to sleep, aren’t you?”

He shook his head but stood up and helped her up.  He put his arm around her shoulders and led her to the kitchen door.

She was too tired to protest.  Instead
, she leaned against him as they left
his house.  The night was quiet except for a round of crickets chirping.  Saturday night was so peaceful out here, unlike the rowdy noise in the saloon back in Omaha.  One thing was for sure, she didn’t miss that place.

John’s steps came to a halt.

“What is it?” She yawned and glanced up at him.

He pointed to the sky.

She smiled.  There was a full moon out tonight and the thousands, if not millions, of stars sparkled in the clear night sky.  “It’s really something
,
isn’t it?  Every time I look up there, I feel insignificant.  We’re so small in the whole scheme of things.”

His gaze met hers and he grinned back.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

He nodded and then touched her cheek, softly tracing her skin with his fingers.

“You think I’m beautiful too?”

He nodded again.

It was such a touching thing for him to tell her in his own way
, and for a moment, she thought
if
Daphne never did show, then maybe he’d be free to marry her after all.  She quickly blinked and shoved the thought away.  She’d been a prostitute for goodness’ sakes.  He’d never even
kissed a woman.  He deserved someone
as pure as him.

So she decided that she wouldn’t acknowledge
the compli
ment
. 
“Will you take me to church tomorrow?”

A frown crossed his face before he nodded.

She sighed
and looked down at the grass which blew softly in the breeze
.  She didn’t like hurting him.  Why he figured she was the one for him, she didn’t know.  There was nothing special about her.  In fact, in many wa
ys, she was far from ideal.  And
she’d read Daphne’s letter.  Now there was a lady.  A
real lady.  One who’d never get
into a man’s bed unless she’d already exchanged vows with him.

Once again, Eliza wondered how things might have played out if her parents hadn’t died when she was fourteen.  Then her mother’s sister wouldn’t have taken her in, and
then she’d never have
to deal with her uncle
.

Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself that she’d survived.  Her lif
e was better now.  Preacher
Peters assured her that God
could work al
l things for good for those who
loved Him.  And she did
love Him
.  That’s why she wouldn’t rob John of Daphne...or Daphne of John.  They would do well together.  They’d have a house full of children.  Lots of laughter and love.
An ideal family.  A situation she could never have.

“Will you take me to church tomorrow?” she softly asked.

He winced.

“I know you don’t like the way some of those people are in town.  I bet they go to church too, don’t they?”

He nodded.

“Do you think God is like them?”

He shrugged.

“He’s not, John.  You can’t base God on what people do.  It’s people who aren’t perfect.  And I’ve learned that just because someone claims to be a Christian, it doesn’t mean they’ll act like one.”

Which explained the minister and other pristine looking church men who had arranged for her to ac
commodate their needs in an out-of-the-
place area
.  They didn’t want to look bad
on Sundays...or in front of people who knew them.  At the time, she didn’t care about God, so it didn’t matter to her.  How things changed in the span of three month
s from the moment she met Preacher
Peters.

“Do you mind if I take myself to town?”

He shook his head in a way that she knew meant he didn’t want her to go without him.

“I’d like to go to church, John.  I know I have my Bible, but it’s not the same as going.”

Slowly exhaling, he finally nodded.

“You’ll take me?”

He indicated his agreement.

“I’ll be with you. 
You won’t have to face them alone.  And there are some good people there.  Addy and Frank attend, I bet.  Then there’s Charity.  I met her on the stagecoach I came on.  She married the marshal, you know.”

He nodded again.

“She’s nice.  So is her aunt.  I don’t think it’ll be as bad as you fear, and if people start giving you a hard time, we’ll just leave.  I promise.”

Taking her hand in his he motioned to her ring
finger and looked at her with the
all-too-familiar question in his eyes.

She groaned.  “No.  I’m not going to marry you.” She chuckled.  “I’m going to
my quaint home before you get even more
bold, mister.  I need to go to sleep.  I’ll see you at sunrise.”

She quickly ran to her
home before he could stop her.

***

Eliza put on
her best dress, which happened to be her blue one.  She pulled her hair up and tucked it under her hat.  A part of her was apprehensive about going to church.  She’d gone to
Preacher
Peters’ church for about a month and a half before she left Omaha.  The people there had known about her past and had accepted her.  But the people here didn’t know anything about her.  This was a clean slate.  Even so,
she had to quench the nervous anxiety in her body.  She took a deep breath and looked at herself in the small mirror.

“I can do this.  I am a lady now.”

She picked up her small purse and left her home.  She made it halfway across the yard to John’s house when she saw him emerge from the small barn.  Smiling, she watched him as he led the geldings and the wagon in her direction.  He really was an attractive man, and that was so much more evident when he dressed up in a dark blue suit.

She waited
until he reached her before she spoke.  “Thank you for taking me.  I promise that when we get back, I’ll make you a little something special for dessert.”

To her surprise, he didn’t smile, but when his eyes met hers, she understood that he didn’t want to go but was
going
for her
sake
.  She considered saying that they could stay.  Then she thought that if he was going to get over his aversion to town and some of the people in it, he needed to go and face them.  The best way to conquer a fear was to confront it.

She wasn’t sure what to talk to him about on their way to town, so she rambled on about everything from the beautiful weather to the deer she saw leaping across the fields.  He listened...at least she thought he listened.  He could have been tuning her out.  It was hard to tell if a man who didn’t talk at all was paying attention or not unless he made eye contact or did a gesture.  When she stared at him, his focus remained on the
dirt path in front of them.  And so, she continued to ramble just to ease the tension.

When they entered the church, she noticed the shocked looks on the people’s faces.  Well, this she could handle.  She’d dealt with those types of stares before whenever she ventured out of the saloon in Omaha.

She searched the group and found Charity and her aunt.  Reaching for John’s hand, she led him forward.  “Good morning, Charity, Bethany.  How are you doing?”

Bethany was the first to answer
.  “Eliza!  How good it is to see you again.  W
e
wondered how you fared.”

Eliza’s body relaxed.  It felt good
to be
talking to people she knew.  Not that she knew them well, but after spending a long time in a stagecoach with them, she felt that they had become friends.  She motioned to John.  “This is my friend and employer.  Did you hear what happened to Melissa Peters, the one I was supposed to work for?”

“Yes, and what a terrible tragedy that was.”

“It was terrible.  I’m sure she’s singing with the angels now.”

“Yes.”

A moment of silence hung in the air as Eliza tried to think of what to say next.  Finally, she patted John on the arm.  “You know, it was really a godsend when John ran into me in town.  I don’t know what I would have done if he hadn’t.
”

“Oh.  That’s good,” Charity said, appearing to be uncertain.

Eliza searched her mind for another topic and quickly found it.  “How are things with the marshal?”

Charity blushed.  “Ralph is a very kind and good man.  I’m lucky I was his mail-order bride.”

“That’s wonderful!  Isn’t that wonderful, John?  Apparently, John’s mail-order bride was supposed to come on the same stagecoach we were
on but
never made it.  Maybe she’ll show up on the next one.  I read her letter.  She sounds like a real nice lady.  Who knows?  Maybe you two will like her.”

Bethany and Charity exchanged looks that couldn’t be good.

Did they think the same way some others in this town did?  That John was stupid just because he couldn’t talk?  She couldn’t go through this service without setting them straight.  “Excuse us for a moment,” she politely said.  She found a pew in the middle of the church and led John to it.  “Why don’t you sit here for a bit and I’l
l see what’s going on with them,
” she whispered.

His eyes gr
ew wide and he shook his head.

“I’ll be right back, John.  Just sit tight.”

He obviously wasn’t happy about it but he obeyed her.

She returned to Charity and Bethany who stood with the marshal.  “He’s not dumb,” she told them.  She didn’t care if they found her manner offensive or not.

“Who?” the marshal asked.

“John Evans.”

“We never said he was dumb,” Charity protested.

Eliza eyed them.  “Then why were you put off by him just now?”

“That should be clear,” Charity replied.  “You are living in sin.  It’s wrong.”

“I am not!” she argued, careful to keep her voice lo
w.  “I’m staying in the workshop
on his property.  I really didn’t have a job, and he gave me one so I could stay here.”

“I don’t know,” Charity slowly said.
 
“
It doesn’t seem possible for a man to keep his hands off a woman when there’s no one around.”

Before Eliza could correct her thinking, Ralph threw back his head and laughed.  “Charity, my dear, I assure you that John Evans is as safe as they come.  He’
s not like other men.”

Now Eliza focused her intense
stare on him.  “What is that supposed to mean?”

He sighed.  “He doesn’t have all his lights on.” He tapped his head.

“That’s not true.  He can’t talk but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t think like everyone else.”

“I’m two years older than him.  We practically grew up together.  His parents sheltered him a lot, but
we all knew
he’d never be like the rest of us.”

She gripped her purse.  “I’m teaching him how to read and write.”

“Young children can learn to read and write.  I’m not saying that he doesn’t have some things to learn, but he’ll never be like a full-grown adult.”