Her Winding Path_Seeing Ranch series_A Historical Romance Read online

  Tom ran his fingers through the hair on his bowed head. Still, he didn’t look at her. “I’m going outside for a minute.”

  “Tom.”

  “Just for a minute,” he harshly repeated. His chair loudly scraped across the floor. In a moment, he was out the door.

  Ida Rose stared after him, her body and mind buzzing. The truth was sitting right in front of her, and yet, she could not get her mind around it. Her father… Tom’s father…

  They had been half-brothers.

  Which meant that she and Tom were cousins.

  Her stomach rolled, bile pushing up into her throat. Covering her mouth with her hand, she sealed her eyes shut and pushed the nausea down.

  No. How can this be?

  Out of all the men who had read her ad in the mail-order bride paper, Tom had been the first to write in. The first to take a liking to her. The only one to ask her to move out west and be his wife. Was this a cruel joke God had played on them?

  “Ida Rose?”

  She opened her eyes and looked at Elizabeth through a haze of tears.

  “Are you all right?”

  “I...” She gasped for air. No, she was not all right. She could never be all right again. The man she was to marry—the man she loved—was her first cousin.

  Did Elizabeth even remember that? Or had she already retreated back into that dark cave where few memories of her life outside of it could follow?

  “I need to talk to him. I need to.” She quickly stood from the table, her head shaking. Her knees shaking. Her hands shaking.

  Every bit of her trembled. It was another earthquake—this one as bad as the first, but coming from within.

  And this one, Ida Rose really wondered if she would survive.

  Taking her convulsing body across the room, she exited the hotel and covered her eyes. The street was bright, a small handful of women walking down it. At the far end, next to the church, children played outside of the schoolhouse.

  But there was no Tom.

  “Tom?” Lifting her skirts, she jumped down from the porch, not bothering with the steps. Where had he gotten off to?

  She needed to talk to him. She needed to tell him… What?

  She did not know, but felt certain that once she saw his face, the words would come.

  “Tom?”

  He was not around the side of the building, nor in the backyard. Making a full circle of the hotel, she ended up back front, by the hitching post. The empty hitching post.

  Ida Rose’s stomach fell. Worst yet, it landed nowhere. It just kept going and going, taking her on an endless, painful ride.

  Tom had left. Upon discovering they were cousins, Ida Rose had wanted to talk about it, to make absolutely sure there had not been some kind of mistake. Though the truth was written right in the family bible, a part of her still refused to accept it.

  But it seemed Tom had. And it also seemed he was moving on.

  20

  20. Tom

  Chapter Twenty

  Eddie scrunched up his face and gave Tom a long look. “Aren’t you going to hurt yourself carrying that much?”

  Tom looked away, huffing and puffing as he set the heavy bag of grain in the middle of the barn. Dust flew up from where it hit the ground.

  “Go get yourself together and we’ll head for town.”

  He still didn’t look at Eddie, but he heard the boy shuffle out of the barn.

  His shoulders aching, Tom ran his palms down the sides of his jowls and sighed heavily. He was running on hardly any energy, thanks to just having had the worst night’s sleep of his life. His eyes had closed maybe two or three times, but he’d never fully drifted off.

  All he could think about was Ida Rose and he hated it. She was the one thing that he couldn’t have, and yet, he wanted her more than he ever had before. The idea should have disgusted him. He hated himself for not wanting it to.

  Pushing up his sleeves, he saddled the horse up and waiting in the yard for Eddie. The two of them silently rode out, the horses not needing any guidance.

  “I can help with the store,” Eddie said, breaking the silence.

  Tom made himself smile. He’d been cruel to Eddie in the barn and it wasn’t right. “That’s good of you, Eddie, but you need to head on home and check on your family.”

  Eddie only nodded and they continued. Halfway to town, he turned off, trotting for his family’s house that sat down by the river. Tom went on, the knot in his stomach tightening as he did.

  He’d wanted to refuse to help rebuild the general store today. Cutting and nailing wood for the building would mean having to be in town. And being in town meant possibly running into Ida Rose.

  Leaving the way he had, without saying goodbye, had been a cowardly act. And Tom supposed that’s just what he was: a coward. He was afraid, broken.

  He had only loved one woman in all his life, and now, their wedding was going to have to be called off. Cousins. They were cousins… First cousins.

  Tom shook his head. He wanted to curse. He wanted to fall to his knees and scream till there was no breath left in his body. But instead, he just rode on.

  He would continue because there was nothing left to do.

  And Ida Rose? Would she go back to New York? Stay in town and find someone else to marry? Shallow Springs might have been short on women, but it certainly had an ample supply of men.

  Both possibilities made Tom furious. Setting his jaw tight, he resolved not to think about it anymore. He had work to do. Life would unravel as it wished. It had already been proven to him that he didn’t have a lick of dang control over it, anyway.

  Making sure to drive around town so he wouldn’t have to pass by the hotel, he met the group of men already congregating in front of the general store. It was the last structure that needed rebuilding. The plan had initially been to put it up before the hotel, but that had been put on hold when a temporary shop had been set up under a tent in front of the wreckage.

  Tom stayed to the side while the tasks for rebuilding were distributed. The whole time, he felt as if his neck was on fire. Right behind him, just down the street, was the hotel. Was Ida Rose in there? Did she know he was in town?

  Could she be looking at him that very moment?

  “We need someone to go and haul some more logs from the riverbed,” McGraw said. “We have enough now to build about six feet up, but we’ll need more soon.”

  Seeing an opportunity, Tom spoke up. “I’ll go and get them.”

  Getting away from town would do him good. He wouldn’t have to fear running into Ida Rose. Plus, chopping and hauling trees was going to be hard work. If he was lucky, it would exhaust him so much there wouldn’t be any energy left for thinking.

  Borrowing McGraw’s team and wagon, Tom jumped onto the bench and drove out of town. Just as he left, a familiar figure appeared in the corner of his eye. A woman, walking toward the hotel. He knew that blue dress and that gait… Ida Rose?

  Tom forced himself not to look. Keeping his gaze fixed straight ahead, he drove on. Setting eyes on her—if it was her at all—would only torment him.

  At the river, he carefully navigated McGraw’s team into the shade of a copse of trees. Chopping and hauling logs himself would be difficult. A couple of the men had offered to come and give Tom a hand, but he had waved them off. He needed to sweat, to feel the rough bark under his palms and the hot sun on his back. He needed to be alone, just him and God.

  He had a lot of questions for his creator, but wasn’t quite ready to ask them yet. Soon, he would. Just not today. Today, he would work himself to the bone. If he was lucky, he would make himself tired enough to get a few hours of sleep that night.

  Thwack. Thwack.

  The axe hit the base of the tree, creating deep dents. One tree fell, then another. He stripped them of their branches and loaded them onto the wagon. Time passed, but Tom didn’t count it. He only worked and tried not to think.

  “Hello there.”

  The voice made
him jerk. He turned from the half-filled wagon in surprise.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to creep up on you.” The speaker was a tall, lanky man with a worn hat and a toothy grin. A stranger, someone Tom was sure he had never seen in the area.

  Tom used his forearm to wipe sweat from his eyes. “That’s all right.”

  The man hooked his thumbs in his belt and smiled wider. “Looks like you have quite the task going there.”

  Tom nodded. “There’s rebuilding that needs to be done.”

  “Up in town?”

  “Yes, sir.” Tom inspected him closer, trying to be innocuous in the process. He was absolutely certain now that he did not know this man. “Are you new to town?”

  “Will be soon.” He tipped his hat further back, still smiling. “I’ve been traveling a long time, looking for the right place to settle down. The wife and kids are back east, waiting on my old self to go back and fetch them.”

  “Will you be staying in Shallow Springs, Mister...”

  “I’m hoping to, if I can just find my way there,” he chuckled.

  He had not picked up on Tom’s hint for his name. Or he just didn’t feel like introducing himself.

  “If you can show me there, I would be much obliged.”

  Tom nodded west. “It’s right up that way. A mile or so. You can’t miss it.”

  The stranger ran his tongue across his front teeth. “Maybe you can walk me there? My horse is right up in the field.”

  “I’m afraid I have work to finish here.” Tom used his axe to gesture at the logs in the back of the wagon.

  “That’s a shame. You sure I can’t convince you? I’ve been traveling all through the night and day and I might just get lost on my way to town.”

  Tom didn’t understand. Why was this man so insistent that he join him?

  “Really, Shallow Springs is just a mile away. Straight on the road. No detours, nothing. You can’t miss it.”

  The tall man bobbed his head in acknowledgment. “That sure is easy. All right, young man. Thank you.” He tipped his hat. “I reckon I’ll see you in town real soon.”

  Tom gave him a nod. “Have a good day.”

  He watched the man climb and vanish over the side of the bank. A strange, prickling sensation was growing in his gut. When the man had first appeared, he’d had a brief thought that the stranger could be one of the bandits.

  But he hadn’t robbed Tom. Hadn’t put a gun in his face or forced him to go anywhere.

  Although he had been rather insistent about them walking to town together…

  A chill went right through Tom’s heart. Could it be the man hadn’t been heading for town at all? Had he wanted to get Tom out of the riverbed, lure him to another area? An area where he could then be captured by the bandits?

  He didn’t have anything of worth on him, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be used as leverage. A kidnapped person could have a ransom placed on their head. They could be forced to reveal where the best treasures in town were.

  Maybe he was being paranoid. Or maybe he wasn’t.

  Either way, he was done chopping down trees for the day. Closing the back of the wagon, he guided the team along the river and to the even spot where they could easily pull the wagon out. The whole time, his eyes and ears were on high alert, watching and waiting for danger.

  No one was in the field or on the road to town. Tom ushered the team on, making them go as fast as they could with such a heavy load behind them.

  In town, he went straight to the building site. “Anyone seen a stranger come into town?” he breathlessly asked.

  The men all looked at him and shook their heads. Hammers stilled and feet shuffled forward.

  “Tall, wearing a brown, tattered hat.”

  The men glanced at each other.

  “No one like that has come by here,” Beau said.

  “I was just up at the hotel,” Baxter added, “And no one new was there. You’re talking about a stranger, correct?”

  Tom’s throat had gone dry. “That’s right.”

  McGraw’s eyebrows angrily pushed together. “What happened with this man? Which way did he go?”

  Tom shook his head. “Apparently not into town, like he said he would.”

  Suddenly, the group broke into chatter. Angry voices rose, all the men drawing conclusions about what the stranger might have been up to.

  “Hey, now,” a deep, gravelly voice called. “What’s this about?”

  Sheriff Mayes sauntered up next to Tom. With bags under his eyes and his shoulders drooped, he looked older and more tired than usual.

  Tom’s exhale burned, he was so worked up. “I think I just ran into a bandit, Sheriff. Right outside town, just down at the river.”

  “You sure?”

  “I think so. I didn’t know him. He said he was coming to town, but then, he didn’t.”

  The sheriff nodded. “All right, then. I’m gonna ride out and look for him. You show me the way.”

  “Yes, Sheriff.”

  “I’ll need at least six more men.”

  Tom clenched his jaw and stared at the dirt as men offered their help. He should have been happy that the bandits were so near. This meant they were close to being caught.

  But really, he was anything but pleased. With everything that had been happening with his mother and Ida Rose, this new addition of danger being so close just seemed like nothing but a bad omen.

  There was real darkness in the world. Tom had always known it. He’d just never thought it could be so close.

  21

  21. Ida Rose

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Ida Rose peeled the last potato and deposited it in the bowl on the kitchen table. Just as she did so, a familiar voice came through the open door.

  “I am dying to have some blueberries,” Gemma gushed from somewhere in the hotel’s dining room. “I simply cannot wait until they are in season.”

  Ida Rose froze. She did not want to speak to anyone at the moment, and surely, Gemma was headed right for the kitchen.

  Mrs. Garrison responded to Gemma, but with her softer voice, her words were muffled. Wiping her hands on her apron, Ida Rose quickly stood and pushed her way out the hotel’s back door. Keeping close to the exterior wall, she darted for cover. She left the building without a bonnet or hat and with her braid no doubt a dishevelled mess, but it did not matter.

  She was ashamed to face Gemma. She was ashamed to face everyone. There was only one person she wanted to see and she did not even know why. Talking to Tom would do no good; it would only cause her heart to break further.

  When Gemma had found her crying on the bed the day before, Ida Rose told her the truth, revealing that she and Tom were cousins. Her friend had held her while she cried and Ida Rose had found a small amount of comfort in Gemma’s not trying to find the right words. There were no right words to say. Nothing could fix what had happened and, for now, no assurances could close the gaping wound in her soul.

  Now that a whole twenty-four hours had passed, the shock of it all was lessening and shame was setting in. Despite what she knew, Gemma could not help how she felt for Tom. He was still the same handsome, strong, and brave man who had pulled her from the wreckage of the general store. Nothing would change that fact.

  She knew Gemma would not tell anyone about the discovery, but that did not make her feel any less ridiculous. She was a woman who had fallen for a cousin, albeit unknowingly. She was not a fool, yes, but something had to be innately wrong with her. Why else would she be so drawn toward a man she was related to?

  Just for a little while, she needed to be alone. Soon, she would face Gemma. And Elizabeth. And even Tom.

  But not yet.

  Glancing over her shoulder to make sure Gemma had not followed her after all, she skirted the side of the hotel.

  “Whoa, there!”

  With a gasp, Ida Rose skidded to a stop just before crashing into a man.

  “I am sorry. Please forgive me.”
/>   “That’s quite all right. You looked like you were preoccupied.”

  She looked for the correct words, knowing she needed to say something, but not feeling up to speaking with anyone. Twisting her hands in her apron, she remembered the condition she was in and blushed. Sweaty face. Mussed hair. Dirty apron. It was not the state her mother had taught her to leave the house in.