Page 81 of The Rancher's Wedding

Ethan bought a bouquet of red roses from the local shop, and paid with a dollar bill he’d made himself. When he received his change, it was genuine US currency.

“Thank you, kindly,” he said to the shopkeeper, and smelled the flowers as he walked into the sun. If there was anything Ethan had learned in his life, it was how to appear unassuming and respectable. Fresh faces that saw him wouldn’t be able to rely on reputation to judge him and, as a result, he had to provide comfort to them. And nothing did this better than a bright smile and the appearance of wealth. After all, why would a man with money be trustworthy? Why would anybody steal something if they could just buy it and have it legally?

The other element was to ensure that the other person thought they were getting the better end of the stick.

That’s what his father taught him so many years ago. The Williams family didn’t have a son to carry on the family business, so that was the offer his father made to Richard: Ethan would carry on the bank in the form of a merger that would ensure the success of the Williams name for years to come. It was win-win for Richard. The only hard part was convincing him that it wasn’t too good to be true.

That was easy, too. Ethan needed guidance, his father said, and if Richard could serve as a mentor to teach him how to run the bank, that would make things even. Through the process, Ethan continued to convince Richard that he was the son Richard always wanted.

And it was all about to come to fruition. Ethan took a stagecoach ride back to the Holden Ranch, with the roses in hand, ready to take Estelle away with him to marry.

After arriving at the ranch, he knocked on the door to the house, and Michael answered.

“Please, Ethan, come in,” he said.

Ethan smiled and walked through the door. Immediately, he felt two hands on his wrists. They forced him into a chair and, before he knew it, a rope had been wrapped around him and Richard came out from behind him.

“Hello, Ethan,” Richard said, pulling a chair across from him. “I think we have a few things to discuss, don’t we?”

“I don’t understand,” Ethan said, squirming in his seat, “what’s going on?”

Richard pulled a document out from his pocket and placed it in Ethan’s face. Ethan skimmed through it and smiled.

He wondered if he could try and come up with an explanation for why his or his father’s name wasn’t attached to the bank. Maybe he could act confused as if the bank had been stolen out from under them.

But they’d gotten him and he was caught.

“Well,” he said, “I guess you got me.”

Sometimes the best move in the game was to take the path of least resistance. If they thought he was cooperating, he might be able to bargain with them. And if that didn’t work, the appearance of cooperation would make it easier for him to escape later.

Chapter Thirty-Four

“I came to a realization,” Michael said to Estelle as they sat in the house, looking at the window, keeping an eye on Ethan, whom they had tied to a tree while Richard left to get the sheriff.

They were at the table together, sipping their afternoon tea, and Michael wished they could truly be alone as they had the conversation. They’d take the horses out as far as they could go and be the only two people for miles in each direction.

As it stood, they were preoccupied with Ethan. How were they supposed to get him out of their minds when they couldn’t allow him out of their sight?

“What was it?” Estelle asked.

“It was me looking into the future and trying to imagine what life would be like without you,” Michael said. “I just couldn’t. I couldn’t imagine my life without you in it.”

“I’m sure it wouldn’t be much different than it was before I came into it,” Estelle said, sipping her tea.

Michael shook his head, frustrated. How could he express it in words? It was like the time before she arrived wasn’t real. Or at least it wasn’t him. Before she came into his life, he was a different person. Before her, he didn’t realize what life could be. It was just sand falling through a timer, one grain at a time until, at some point, it ran out.

With her, it wasn’t sand falling through, it was diamonds. Every one more valuable than the next, each one devoid of any imperfections, demanding to be cherished.

“It would be,” Michael said. “I’ve lost people I’ve loved before, as you know, and it changed me. I could barely hold it all together the first time — Jacob couldn’t. I had to stay strong for him. If I lost you, I don’t know what I’d do.”

Estelle smiled. “You flatter me, Michael. Imagine what my life would be without you. Do you see that poor excuse for a gentleman we tied to that tree?”

Michael looked at Ethan, not even struggling underneath the rope. Ethan had accepted his defeat so easily that it made him said. If Michael had been in Ethan’s shoes, tied to that tree, he would fight until he ran out of breath just to spend his life with Estelle.

“I would wake up every morning,” Estelle said, “and that would be the face at the other end of my breakfast table. I would be sealed off like the animals here, forced to remain in my stable without even the hope of a ride through the open desert every now and then. At least Orion and Buttercup have each other to keep each other company. I’d have nothing. Can you imagine how dull it would be?”

In all honesty, Michael couldn’t imagine such a life. He hated being inside doing nothing. To him, a good day was one where he only saw the inside of his house when he woke up and when he went to sleep. And then there were even days, such as those when he’d be performing a cattle drive, where he could sleep out under the stars. Perhaps he’d take Estelle on the next visit to another city and show her what that was like.

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