Page 29 of My Heart Will Find You

“He was fixing a wagon hitch. He was very nice-looking and I...”

You wanted to rip his clothes off, Etta thought.Just like my sister felt when she saw her future husband.But Alice was too innocent to hear that. “Was he one of your brother’s men? Or does he work for Cornelia’s father?”

“Oh no! Max said he’s a lawyer. He’s new to town.”

“A lawyer?” Etta thought about her brother-in-law, Phillip. He could talk and he was smart. Had he grown up in a more prosperous family, he could have been a lawyer. That this man was working with his hands was also like Phillip. “Dark hair? Tall? Shoulders...” She held out her hands wide.

“Oh yes,” Alice said in a dreamy way.

“Your brother said women who came here get married quickly. What about eligible men?”

“It’s worse with them. There isn’t a lot of choice in men. I mean ones who are up to snuff. Women go after the good ones right away.”

“I can understand that. This guy has a lucrative job, and he probably doesn’t drink his whole paycheck every Saturday. And I suspect that he takes a bath in something besides a horse trough. Sounds top-notch to me.”

Alice giggled. “You are funny. Now I see why Max kept you out so long. He promised to bring you straight home, but he didn’t.” She cocked her head. “Did he take you to the old homestead?”

“Yes, he did.”

Alice was quiet for a moment. “He thinks no one knows about that place, but we all do. Everyone stays away from it and lets him have his peace.”

“He said that if I stay here a year, he’ll build me a house on that land.”

Alice was so astonished she couldn’t speak.

“I’m sure he would have said that to anyone he married.”Especially since the house and land were a substitute for the real marriage he wasn’t going to give her.

“That’s not true,” Alice said. “Max liked your letters best.”

“Were there a lot of choices in women?”

Alice laughed. “Oh yes! I’m the one who put the advertisement in the Kansas City magazine. He wasn’t happy that I did it, but if I hadn’t done something drastic, he was going to end up married to Cornelia. They would have killed each other! So, as Max said, I offered him up like a prize bull with a ring of roses around his neck.”

Etta laughed. “And he got a lot of bidders.”

Alice was laughing in memory. “Many of them. Women from sixteen to forty-one.”

“I was the compromise. The middle choice.”

“None of them had been to school for as long as you,” Alice said in a placating way.

“But that didn’t matter because no one could compare to the divine Miss Cornelia. So he settled for me.”

Alice looked puzzled. “I guess so.” She changed the subject. “So what shall we do this afternoon? I can get Max to send someone for the dressmaker. I think you should wear green.”

Etta stood up. “I need to talk to him. Where is he? Out wrestling cows? Branding them or whatever?”

“He’s in his office.”

“Of course he is. He’d want to be nearby in case you call for help.”

“Did something bad happen between you and Max?”

“Nothing whatsoever happened between your brother and me. Didn’t happen and never will. He made that clear. I have a purpose here, and I don’t think it has anything to do with him. Or with me, for that matter. Point me in the right direction, please.”

Alice didn’t go with Etta to her brother’s office.Is she afraid of him?Etta wondered. Or was she dreading what looked to be an argument? Alicia, the peacemaker, always intervened when harsh words were spoken.

When Etta got to his office, the first thing she saw was Henry’s giant desk, but there was no carving on the front of it. The sight of it threw her for a moment. Sampler, jacket, desk. All bought at an auction. Was it from a descendant of the man who was sitting behind the desk? Or from Alice? Did she marry some cowboy who looked good in a wet shirt? Or the new lawyer?

---