Page 43 of A Forgotten Heart
Rebekah was folding up a spare dress. “With everything that’s happened, Ed will want to go to the homestead. We’d already planned to be there over Christmas. Now we’ll just go earlier than planned.”
Rebekah seemed calm, while Elsie was tied up in knots.
Rebekah put the folded dress in the bag. “The McGraws are a close-knit bunch. Nick is especially close with his nieces and nephews. They’ll have him singing carols and performing tricks with his dog.”
Elsie could easily imagine Nick in the boisterous family gathering Rebekah described. There was a time she’d prayed to be a part of the McGraw family too.
“Will you take the train home for Christmas?” Rebekah looked up from her packing.
“No. Not this year.” Elsie’s quick answer made Rebekah’s brows draw together.
Even before Arnold’s letter, Elsie had planned to stay in her rented room after Christmas. Alone.
Back home, the weight of her parents’ expectations felt suffocating.
The crinkle of paper in her pocket reminded her of Arnold’s expectations too. What was she going to do?
Rebekah moved across the room to a shirt hanging from a peg, took it down. “You said you and Nick had only just met. I suppose Merritt introduced you.”
Rebekah’s gently prying words hurt. Elsie had known Merritt for years. They’d met when Elsie was twelve and Darcy had brought Merritt home during a semester break. Merritt and Darcy had inspired Elsie to become a teacher herself.
“No,” Elsie said softly.
“No?” Rebekah echoed. “I thought Nick had asked Merritt to help him find a bride?—”
She must’ve seen the words hit. Elsie felt them like a physical blow.
“I’m sorry. I just assumed?—”
Elsie whirled, heading straight for the stairs. It was far past time to leave.
“Wait!” Rebekah called out, but Elsie kept on, grabbing her coat from the back of the chair, taking the stairs two at a time.
In all the wild fantasies she’d conjured in the past twenty-four hours—even the most plausible ones where Nick raged at her for letting him get close—she’d never considered he might be courting someone else. Engaged. Smitten.
She burst out onto the boardwalk, the door slamming behind her. She couldn’t breathe, not when the cold slammed into her. Not with tears choking her.
She shoved her arms into the sleeves of her coat.
Dusk was falling, only a few stragglers out.
She stepped off the boardwalk and onto one of the shoveled paths tunneling through the drifts toward her rented room, but she slowed to a stop.
She didn’t want to be alone in her meager room. She needed to talk to someone.
Wind pelted her in the face, making her teeth chatter.
Merritt. Merritt could help her process the past few days.
She only hesitated a moment on the thought that Merritt was Nick’s cousin.
She hurried down the street, conscious of its emptiness. How the snow muffled her footsteps.
She scanned the street as the hair on the back of her neck rose. A gust of wind swirled the snow into a mini cyclone.
Her mind must be playing tricks on her. Replaying the terror she’d lived through. It was not much farther now…
Just before the turn to Merritt’s street, she caught sight of two figures. In the distance.
