Page 49 of Hank and Elsie
Nodding, Mary reached for Elsie’s hand and squeezed.
At the supportive gesture, tears pricked Elsie’s eyes. Sniffing, she released her sister’s hand, stood, and silently let herself out of the house. She used the outhouse and had a drink at the well before striking out, striding as fast as she could to get away before someone saw her and called her back.
She kept to the dirt path between the house and the fields, not needing much light to tread the familiar path and walking as fast as she could. Only after a few minutes, her huffing and puffing reminded her of the stamina she’d lost by living in town, and she forced herself to slow. Still, in her misery, she spared a grateful thought to be without the restrictive corset.
Once past the fields, with the sky lightening to expose hersilhouette, another French word she’d learned from Miss Taylor, she set off to an old buffalo hollow, where she could rest out of sight from anyone searching for her.
At the bottom of the grassy hollow, she waited and waited and waited, sometimes sitting and staring blankly at the opposite side, sometimes rising and pacing in an angry circle, stewing about her parents and Hank pressuring her to marry. Finally, her stomach cramped with hunger and, sure Hank and Brian would have left by now, she climbed out and started back, her pace dragging.
But when she reached the house, with dismay, she saw both horses saddled and tied to the small corral outside the barn. Just as she was about to retreat, Hank came out of the house.
He saw her and stopped. “Elsie,” he said softly, holding out a hand as if trying to calm a skittish horse to keep it from running off. Yet, he remained in place, not moving forward to crowd her.
She made a slashing motion. “Don’t you dare talk to me, Hank Canfield. I have nothing to say to you.”
“But will you listen, Elsie? Please let me explain…before I leave?”
She summoned her anger to burn away the pain and shook her head. Instead of heading inside, and facing the recriminations from her parents, she whirled and marched to the back of the chicken coop, where no one would see her from the house or think to look for her.
Pressing her back against the wood, Elsie slid to a sitting position, drawing her knees to her chest. Wrapping her arms around her legs, she lowered her head until her forehead rested on her knees and burst into tears.
On the rideback to town, Hank and Brian remained silent. Not the comfortable silence that usually lay between them, but one thick with unspoken thoughts.
Hank wanted nothing so much as to get home and shut himself inside his cabin and away from the world.I’ll never leave Three Bend Lake again. Whether he likes it or not, Brian will have to become the errand boy, fetching supplies from now on.
After an hour or so, Brian sent him an oblique glance. “Your Elsie had me coming around to the idea of a woman living at Three Bend Lake.”
“She’s notmyElsie,” he ground out.
“I don’t know about that,” Brian said in a matter-of-fact tone. “I, too, saw the way she looked at you. Like her father said, she’s sweet on you.”
Hank had thought so too.
“Quite a muck up, though. Not like you to be so ham-fisted.”
“Elsie flat-out told me that she wanted to continue her life as it is for a few years, at least until she’s twenty. I made my peace with her timing because she seemed open to the idea of our courtship.”
“Guess her pa heard the wordcourtand jumped to a wedding like a dog after a bone.”
“Sank his teeth into my arm and pulled me right along. If I’d had known what was about to come out of his mouth, I’d have tugged him back and made him listen to my plan.”
“Did you tell Elsie that?”
“She refused to talk to me.” He was afraid she never would.If I could explain, surely, she’d understand.
“You givin’ up?”
“What else can I do?”
They rode along in silence for a while.
Brian slid him a sly glance. “Not like you to give up.”
Despondent, Hank just shrugged. He didn’t even have the energy to say more. He could only despair at the thought of not having Elsie, the light of his heart, by his side for the rest of his life.My life will be gray, indeed.
“Seems to me, your best bet is to lay all your cards out for Miss Taylor. Once she knows you’re not about to snatch away her assistant and that you truly love Elsie, she can encourage her to talk to you.”
Hank remained silent, thinking through Brian’s suggestion. Miss Taylor did seem to approve of him and, with Dr. Angus courting her after their own rough start, surely, she’d understand and be supportive.
