Page 36 of The Rancher's Wedding

The sight of Michael’s old ranch was horrifying to Estelle and she couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for him that night. One day, everything was normal and then, without warning, it all got taken away from him for no reason. There was no maliciousness by anybody, nor was it a result of incompetence. It was just an act of nature—nothing could have prevented it.

It was so different from what she was hiding. She was hiding a past she’d run away from on her own. It was a choice she’d made in response to actions taken from other people. There were villains in her story, though the main villain was the person she cared about the most: her father. If only he had listened to her, their relationship could have been saved. But he hadn’t—and it meant that, until he learned to accept her new life, he’d be just as dead to her as Michael’s parents.

“Did you ever know your family?” Michael asked Estelle as they rode back to the ranch. He looked over at her and noticed she avoided looking back at him. She concentrated on the path ahead of them, but she did not respond.

“I know you were orphaned,” Michael said, “and I can understand if it’s a touchy subject, but I want to know about you. Everything. The good and the bad.”

He waited for a response and could see there were thoughts moving around in her head. Maybe she was going to tell him. He’d sprung it on her all of a sudden, but they’d been together long enough at this point that she should have expected a question or two about her past.

She opened her mouth to speak. “Look there,” she said.

Estelle pointed across the prairie at a mountain goat eating a plant at the edge of the canyon. It looked over at them with curiosity, tilting its head as it chewed. The two riders were far enough away so as to not pose a threat.

“Yeah, that there’s a mountain goat,” Michael told her. “They’re rare, but you see them from time to time, especially out here.”

He sighed. The mountain goat was just a distraction. She wasn’t going to tell him about her past right now, and possibly ever. He could have told himself it didn’t matter and, so far as he could tell, there wasn’t any good reason that it should. But he wanted to know and so long as she didn’t tell him, there was a part of her that was closed off to him and she remained, to some degree, a stranger.

He still had hope, however. A lifetime together could be a long time and, though it felt to Michael like they’d been together a while at this point, it hadn’t been more than a month or so.

Patience, Michael, he thought. It was just like she was saying about Jacob. He needed to give her some space and not push her. If she ever felt like telling him, she’d do it. And, until then, there was nothing he could do to make her.

They arrived back at the ranch and Estelle put Orion away on her own. She was a quick learner—Michael only had to show her how to do it once. Then she went upstairs and closed the door to her room while Michael sat downstairs waiting for her to return. She did come back down around supper time to cook, but she didn’t say anything to Michael during that time until he asked her if she wanted help, which she politely declined.

Michael knew she wasn’t being rude. She was thinking. He’d looked at her and thought he could sense how she felt because he’d been in her position not too long ago. The story of the fire and what happened to his parents had been stuck in his stomach, begging to come out, but no matter how much he’d felt he needed to tell her, he just couldn’t do it.

After supper, she returned to her room, closing the door on Michael once again.

He waited for her to come back down, playing solitaire with a worn deck of cards to pass the time. She did return a couple hours later, but only for a moment.

“Michael,” she said, as she came up behind him, nearly startling him.

“Yes?” he asked, hoping that maybe the time she’d spent alone with her thoughts would lead her to giving him anything about her past.

“I just wanted to say goodnight,” she said.

I guess I won’t be hearing about it tonight, Michael thought.

“Goodnight, Estelle.”

And she went back to her room, closing the door for the rest of the night.

Chapter Fourteen

Grafton Town seemed busier than usual when Estelle headed toward the general store to pick up some bread. While the town center typically had a few stragglers wandering around, now there were teams of people piling wood together and building, hammering away and making a terrible ruckus.

There were half-built booths and what looked like it could be the beginning of a stage, with one overworked police officer frantic in his attempt to direct horse and foot traffic around all the construction.

She almost didn’t see Calvin, as she was too distracted by the commotion.

“Morning, Estelle,” he said, sitting in his usual spot by the front of the store and keeping an eye on everything.

“Good morning, Calvin. What’s going on here?”

“Michael hasn’t told you?” Calvin asked.

“I don’t believe he has.”

His eyes lit up and the man, who had to have been in his 60s, suddenly had the face of a child. “Why, it’s the town fair!” he said, in a voice higher in pitch than what Estelle was accustomed to. “Last year’s had to be canceled on account of the rain, but this year, there ain’t a cloud in the sky. It’s fantastic fun!”

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