A Bride in Store (9 page)

She hoped her fears over Axel were unfounded. Though she’d hated her mother for ruining their family twelve years ago by disregarding her vows and abandoning her father to pursue acting, Eliza had spent all day yesterday fabricating reasons to go back on her commitment to Axel.

Was an inclination for turning one’s back on a promise an inheritable trait?

Had she just about let emotions and a fear of the unknown turn her into her mother?

Will sped up to overtake Eliza as she turned off Main Street. He didn’t want to hold on to this letter and prolong the inevitable. He felt his chest pocket, making certain the missive was still there. Thankfully, Axel’s father hadn’t seen the note for Eliza tucked into Will’s when he’d delivered it. Mr. Langston would have been sore that his son had written to her and not to him.

How would Eliza react? Would she sigh in relief or act disappointed? Would either reaction keep his wandering thoughts contained?

He couldn’t think around Eliza, and his productivity had
decreased. The gun he’d been working on for two days should have been finished in one, but he couldn’t keep his eyes off her. She wasn’t flirting with the customers, but the more time she spent with one, the more he wanted to count how long she made eye contact or smiled as if he were the only man in the world.

Why didn’t she smile at him that way?

He groaned at the overwhelming desire to know the answer.

Eliza stopped and looked over her shoulder. “William.” She turned, waiting for him to walk the last few feet to catch her, hiding her stitches with a palm pressed against her cheek. Which was silly, since he’d examined them before she left work.

“Are you coming to check on Irena?”

“Yes.” He ought to anyway. “Can I walk with you?”

She shrugged and returned to walking. “You might as well hear about my trip to the sheriff’s.” Her lips twitched, and she glanced toward him. “I only got ten dollars back. Enough to pay for my board and maybe—”

“Now, wait a minute.” Will shook his head. “My doctoring’s supposed to pay for that.” If she paid her room and board, she’d have nothing left.

She sighed and trudged along.

Had she really believed she’d recover all her money? She was lucky to get ten.

He played with the bead on his ring. He might as well broach the topic now. “Axel sent me a letter.”

Eliza stopped midstep. “So where is he?”

He halted beside her, his mouth suddenly fuzzy. “Don’t know.”

Her eyebrows gathered together. “Still?”

“He didn’t tell me where he was.”

She narrowed her eyes. “That seems to be a habit of his.”

A habit Will had never been more annoyed with than now. “He’s evidently laid up at some ranch outside of Atchison. His horse bucked him. He hit his head and messed up his leg.”

With her hand over her mouth, Eliza looked misty-eyed. “And here I’d thought . . .”

“He said he’d be fine.” He certainly would be, once he learned he had a woman like Eliza in tears over him. Would he have risked the ride home if he knew his fiancée was waiting?

Eliza’s face seemed to go through a series of emotions, some downright heartrending, others contemplative. What was she thinking so hard about?

“Did he say how long he’d be gone?”

“Some doctor told him to stay put until he could ride his horse safely.” Why Axel was that far away to begin with, Will couldn’t guess.

“Since Axel will be gone awhile, why don’t we work to get the store’s counter up front while we wait?”

Will snapped up straight. That’s what she’d been thinking about? Even though he’d said they should wait for Axel to return? “We don’t have the money for that.”

Her adorable pout made him want to smile.

He dropped his eyes. Finding another man’s intended adorable was a bigger problem than if Eliza destroyed all his shelving and ordered him to build new ones from uncut trees. “Though I suppose I could do most of the work without purchasing much.”

Her eyes brightened.

“But how could I attend customers if I’m playing carpenter? And I’m no good at woodworking. You’d be unhappy with the wait—and the result.”

She scrunched her lips. Surely thinking up an argument for the project.

“And how many customers would be annoyed by the construction mess and leave?”

“A few days of lost business would be worth it if the result was more customers in the future.”

“Again, we ought to wait for Axel to return.” He tugged the
note from his pocket. “He sent this for you with my letter. He didn’t know you were here, of course. He asked me to meet you at the station.” He tried to smile. If he’d known about her and Axel before she arrived, could he have steeled his heart enough to deflect that jolt he’d felt while stitching up her cheek?

“Too bad I didn’t come when scheduled.” She pursed her lips and took Axel’s letter. “I’d still have money.”

He couldn’t figure out what to do with his hands, so he anchored them to his belt. “If your letter gives you a better idea of his location, I could fetch him while you run the store.”

Her big eyes widened, a small glimmer dancing within her dark pupils. “You’d trust me to watch the store?”

He shrugged. “If it would get Axel back sooner . . .” Because he really, really needed Axel home.

“Of course.” Her voice descended as if he’d given the wrong answer.

Did she not want Axel to return? He gripped the back of his neck and shut his eyes tight against the desire to hope she didn’t.

Starting slowly back down the road, she opened the letter. No seal, no envelope. Did she know how tempted he’d been to read it himself?

She scanned the paper as they walked. At the bottom porch step of Mrs. Lightfoot’s boardinghouse, she sighed. “No more information than you had. He did tell me which bank I should put my money in.” She snorted. “And that I should hold off introducing myself to his parents.”

She folded the letter. “Guess it’s you and me for a while. Hopefully not too long.”

“Right.” How many days could he be alone with her before he said something he’d regret?

She stopped at the front door, her hand on the knob, and turned to face him. “Would you visit Axel’s family with me tomorrow after work?”

He rubbed his temples. Spend more time with her away from the store? “Axel told you to wait.”

“Yes, but he didn’t know I’d already revealed myself to his father.”

“I don’t think it would be wise to—”

“Fine. I’ll go by myself.”

He crossed his arms. “And that definitely wouldn’t be wise.”

“Then, you’ll come?”

The woman was bound and determined to trip him up. If she only knew what a mess the Langstons were.

“I can’t let Axel’s father’s anger fester any longer than it has if I’m going to stay, so I need to visit them as soon as possible and make amends. They’ll be more comfortable with me if you come.”

He cupped the back of his neck and pinched the tense muscles running across his shoulders. He hadn’t visited the Langstons much since childhood. He had no idea why Axel’s parents didn’t get along, but it didn’t take an adult to understand the marriage wasn’t good—at all. After Jedidiah’s reaction to Eliza the other day, Will expected their marriage hadn’t improved over the years.

“Why don’t you stop thinking and tell me yes?”

He shook his head at her bossiness but couldn’t smile. “I guess a bad relationship with the in-laws isn’t a good way to start a marriage.”

“Exactly.”

“Then I suppose I shouldn’t say no.” But how he wished he could.

Chapter 7

Axel’s parents’ home sat on a quiet lot at the edge of town, apart from the other houses. Weeds were growing over the rock pathway meandering up to the front door, and a scraggly bush obscured most of the ivy climbing the walls. The intrusive vines had pried off the siding in places, and sun-bleached curtains hung behind grubby windows.

Eliza gripped the wagon’s seat as Will pulled his horse to a stop. Perhaps she should have brought a gift, or waited another day and baked something. Something that might mitigate Axel’s father’s displeasure, something that would’ve made a good impression. She looked down at her best dress—not fancy by any standard. Her looks certainly weren’t in her favor.

She wiped her palms on her skirt before William helped her down. “You still think this is a bad idea?”

“Would it change your mind if I did?”

“Maybe.”

If he had misgivings about her and Axel, why didn’t he say something? “Don’t keep things from me. I’m going to have to marry the man, for goodness’ sake. And you . . .” She poked him in the chest. “You know him best and have nothing at stake, so why not spit it out? If there’s something I should know about Axel, as the
woman planning on tying myself to him for the rest of my life, you need to tell me. Now. Before it’s too late.”

William’s jaw worked back and forth, and she backed away from his intense glare.

Maybe she shouldn’t have been so direct. “Please?”

He rubbed a hand down his face. “That’s just it. I really can’t say anything bad about him, except . . . except . . .”

“What?”

“He drinks occasionally, and sometimes he’s not the best worker.” William huffed. “But sometimes a man only needs a wife—and a child or two—to get himself straightened out.” His hand massaged the back of his neck.

She glanced at the front door. “So why doesn’t anyone seem . . . happy for me?”

“He wasn’t exactly a well-behaved kid. He’s been working on being a better person, though. But people in small towns have long memories.”

“Are
you
happy for me?”

He licked his lips. “Should I not be?”

“I suppose you don’t know me well enough to know what would make me happy, but what about Axel? Are you happy for him?”

He cleared his throat. “I couldn’t wish for him anything better.”

His intense gaze was unnerving. He hadn’t wanted to visit the Langstons’ with her, and here she was interrogating him. “Well, since I dragged you here, I might as well get on with it.”

“Hold on a second.” He grabbed her hand. “When making a big decision, you shouldn’t be careless. You should be picky.”

“That’s why I’m here. To help me decide.”

William dropped her hand and put his back in his pockets. “I wish I could help you know what to do.”

She beckoned for him to precede her. “Well then, say a prayer this visit goes well.”

“Is that what you want?”

After she nodded, he scurried up the uneven stone sidewalk and knocked.

Eliza tried to peer into the window speckled with prairie dust, but sunshine obscured everything. Silence stretched between them until William knocked again, louder.

The door creaked open, and a woman with a messy blond bun peeped through the crack. “Can I help you?”

“Mrs. Langston?”

She tilted her head back and pushed her wire-rim spectacles closer to her face. “William Stanton?”

He nodded, swallowing hard. “I’ve brought a visitor. This is Miss Cantrell.”

“Eliza?” Mrs. Langston swung the door open, but instead of the scowl her husband had worn, her frown lines disappeared with a smile. “From Pennsylvania?”

“Yes.” She took a step closer. “I suppose your husband told you I’d come?” Apparently, his anger hadn’t affected his wife.

“Oh no. Axel’s told me about you several times.”

He had? But why keep their engagement from his father?

“Come in!” Mrs. Langston swung the door open wider.

William smiled at Axel’s mother, and Eliza’s breath caught. She closed her eyes, hoping he’d not noticed the mouthful of air she’d swallowed. Had he ever smiled at her like that?

Yes, her first day in Salt Flatts. However she’d only gotten half smiles since then. Why was that thought troubling?

“Let me get some refreshments.” Mrs. Langston bustled away.

Eliza walked in behind William and blinked against the dimness. The front room wasn’t exactly well kept. Fabric was strewn everywhere, a half-made dress hung from a rafter, and several trouser legs lay across the back of the sofa.

Mrs. Langston walked around the corner carrying a plate of rolls. “I baked these this morning. I have company so rarely. Please ignore my mess and find a seat. Can I offer you coffee or tea?”

William grabbed a roll for each hand and slumped in his chair. “Tea, please.”

Once Mrs. Langston disappeared again, Eliza leaned over to whisper, “Do you think Mr. Langston’s here?”

“Nah,” William mumbled around a mouthful. “Mrs. Langston’s too happy.”

“I suppose her being excited to meet me is a good thing.”

“Very good.” His chewing slowed, and he got a faraway look in his eye.

When Mrs. Langston reappeared, Eliza mirrored the lady’s smile. Axel’s mother appeared careworn, with harsh lines framing her mouth and a dull color beneath her eyes, but she’d been pretty in her day. Perhaps Axel
was
as handsome as William. If so, he might easily be too handsome to want her. She rearranged herself in the lumpy chair, removing the beginning of a man’s coat sleeve from underneath her.

Mrs. Langston set a glass of tea in front of William, then handed her one. She sat, adjusted her skirts, and smiled expectantly.