Page 46 of The Rancher's Wedding

It stopped right there, in the middle of the sentence, but Jacob had read enough.

Secret? Father? He thought Estelle was an orphan. Was that what the secret was? And why would her father want to come all the way out to Utah to get her?

“Jacob?”

He turned around and saw Estelle in the doorway.

“What are you doing in here?”

***

Estelle saw the paper in Jacob’s hand and, in an instant, knew that he knew.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

He put the paper down, an apologetic puppy dog look on his face. He wasn’t upset, but when he took a step toward Estelle, she took one back in response. She didn’t want Jacob any closer to her than he already was.

“I came here,” he said, “to say that I was sorry for telling you to go away.” He looked back toward the desk. “I was going to write you a letter... It doesn’t matter. I tried coming here to make things right and I read something I wasn’t supposed to, so I just ended up with another thing I owe you an apology for.”

Estelle was furious, clenching her fists together. She closed her eyes and bit her tongue, like her father had taught her whenever she’d had anger spells, and calmed down enough to think clearly.

Maybe this was better. She hated having to hide her secrets from everyone, particularly the people who had become her family. Now that it was out to Jacob, she could at least get an idea of how Michael might react and the best way to tell him.

So, just like she told Orion, she told Jacob.

“I’m not an orphan,” she confessed. Jacob nodded. She was sure he had questions, but he kept them to himself—at least, for now.

“In fact, I come from a very wealthy family in Philadelphia. My father wanted to marry me off to someone whom I not only didn’t love, but actively detested. That wasn’t the life I wanted for myself, so I did whatever I could to get away from it all. And that brought me here.”

Jacob’s face was completely blank to Estelle. If he had any thoughts about what she had just said, she couldn’t read them. She allowed the pause to fill the room until he eventually responded.

“Have you told Michael?”

“No.”

Jacob sat down on the desk chair as Estelle moved over to her bed, taking a seat at the edge.

“But I intend to,” she added.

Jacob considered this. “He’ll know you’re hiding something,” he said. “You’ve been around him long enough and, to be honest, you don’t come off as the orphan type.”

That was something of a relief. It wouldn’t come as a complete shock because he already didn’t believe her.

“I think you should just tell him. Just like you just told me,” Jacob said. “Michael’s an understanding guy, most of the time.”

Estelle thought about Michael raising his voice at Jacob through the cabin door, losing his temper, and wondered if that was the real man she married. Perhaps everything else was an act. He might have seemed to be understanding, but what if he wasn’t?

“Perhaps, but I don’t think he wants to be married to a liar.”

“Well, I don’t want to be rude, but heismarried to a liar. And the longer you don’t tell him the truth, the longer it is that he’ll be married to a liar. The good news is once you talk to him, he won’t be married to a liar anymore, will he?”

That made sense to Estelle. Why was it that she thought telling him the truth would make her a liar? It was the exact opposite.

“I’ll tell him when the time is right,” she promised.

Jacob stood up. “And when might that be?”

“Soon,” she said.

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