Page 62 of A Secret Heart
She seemed to shake herself out of her thoughts. “I just want to go home.” The wind fluttered her skirts. “I mean…I want to go back to the ranch with you. But what about your shopping?”
“It’ll wait.”
Her lips firmed. “But your business with the bakery won’t.”
The estimate he’d worked up rustled from where he’d wedged it beneath a stone on the wagon seat. And then blew out of the wagon to land near Rebekah’s feet. He moved, but not before she snatched it up. “Got it.”
Her smile faded as her eyes fell to the page. He saw her freeze.
“I know this handwriting.” Her whisper cut through him.
Rebekah was smart. Of course she would figure it out if given the chance.
The curls around her face bounced as she shook her head. “This can’t be.” The paper lowered, her eyes peered into his. Questions, disbelief, all of it on her face. “Ed, tell me this isn’t true. This is the handwriting that was in every letter from Isaac.”
He tried to push the words out. But they stuck behind his breastbone.
She stared at him, realization dawning. “You weren’t surprised. When I told you I’d written him. I thought…”
It was as if she read the answer in his face. “Those weren’t Isaac’s letters at all. They were your letters.” Her eyes fell to the estimate again, and more words rushed forth. “Were you—poking fun at me behind my back?”
“No! It wasn’t like that.” He swallowed hard. “You admitted you had a plan to win Isaac. Well, Drew and Kaitlyn masterminded the plan to find Isaac a wife. The ad.”
She shook her head slightly. He pressed on.
“I didn’t want any part of this. Not at first. But when I read your letters, everything changed. Writing to you—I started having feelings for Ree. Don’t you see?”
She slapped the estimate against his chest. He brought his hand up to cup hers, but she jerked her hand away, and he was left holding the paper.
Her eyes lit with fire as she talked through gritted teeth. “I admitted everything to you, andyoudidn’t say a word.”
Everything in him spun, slowing his responses and muddling his brain. How could he make her understand?
“Rebekah, just listen?—”
She spun away when he reached for her.
Her nostrils flared, eyes filling with tears. He was cut to the bone. Rebekah never cried.
“I suppose you were laughing when you read my…proposal to Isaac.”
“Your what?” His head buzzed. His limbs froze.
She’d proposed to Isaac.
Because she’d always wanted Isaac. And Rebekah was never afraid to go after what she wanted.
“Is everything all right?”
He hadn’t even heard the marshal come out of the jail. Her steely gaze took in everything.
Rebekah was silent.
Ed cleared his throat. “We were about to head home.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Rebekah snapped.
The marshal looked between them. “I can see Rebekah settled at the boardinghouse. Set a patrol.”
