“She has everything to do with this.”
Esther tried holding her breath so she could not smell the heavy scent of liquor coming from his breath. A memory impressed in her mind surfaced. The stagecoach. He’d been the man riding on it with her and the Smiths. He sat across from her and made her uneasy even then. She had not placed him before. How had they gotten on the same coach? Did he follow her and if so why?
Obadiah swore an oath. “How? You killed my Ma. She’s not a threat to you, but I am.”
James laughed. His body pushed harder against her. The blade started to cut deeper in. Blood trickled down her throat. Swallowing hard, she tried not to scream. Her husband’s eyes widened when he noticed. He paced while opening and closing his hands. She prayed he wouldn’t do something to get them both killed, but if he did at least she knew what love meant. Not the kind where you have to follow rules to be loved as they wanted at the home, but the kind that you were loved no matter what you did. She’d be always thankful to her husband for this gift.
“What can a half-breed do to me?”
“Kill you.” Obadiah didn’t hesitate with his response.
“Not likely. See. I have your whore here. If you move, she dies.”
Pain shot through her heart at this man’s words. She had carefully done everything to never be thought of as a whore like her Ma was. All those years she tried her best to be a good girl. She waited till she was married to sleep with a man and still it wasn’t enough. The stains and scars her Ma had left her with by being a prostitute followed her even to her new home. Tears slide down her cheeks.
“I’m not a w-” She couldn’t bring herself to say the word.
“As I see it, you came from a Mandelion home. They try and make whores into saints.”
How? No. None here knew where she came from. She’d not even told her husband as she didn’t want him to think the worse of her. Many people wouldn’t understand she’d not slept around, but had been brought there as a baby. They only saw the stains on the girls there and not how they tried so hard to change. Shame washed over her in waves like the waterfall behind them, drowning her and making it hard to breathe. Her eyes cast down. She couldn’t bear to see the disgust in her husband’s eyes.
No.
She wanted to ask James how. Except it didn’t matter. Her secret was out in the open. Her life now turned upside down and once again, she’d be on her own again.
“I bet you want to know how I found out?”
She didn’t respond.
“Simon come tell him all about his wife.”
Esther snapped her head up. The blade cut into her neck again. Her heart shattered into so many pieces no one would ever be able to pick them up again. She blinked a few times. Amazingly, the loan shark walked to her. His hand went to her throat, pushing the blade away. She narrowed her eyes. He’d found her. She’d make sure he got nowhere near Ruth. Take the beating for them both, let him hurt her and use her. The thought made her stomach roll.
“I told you that I’d find you. Time to pay.”
“Never.”
***
If James hurt his wife again, they’d never find him. He’d be at the bottom of the lake swimming with the wildlife there, or maybe he’d feed the man to the bears stocking up for the winter. The blood trickling down her neck had him seeing red in more ways than one. Pacing helped to get his head clear and not act too fast. He had to make sure she was safe in all this. The man hadn’t noticed the scared glance she threw his way.
Deep inside his gut rolled. Her safety meant more than anything in this world. He’d give his last breath for her to live. The thought of living without her tore him in half, hurting more than the scar he got from fighting a grizzly bear. The other man, he thought James called him Simon, brushed his hand on her cheek. Death crossed her face. She hated this man and he didn’t need to ask her - he was able to tell.
When he mentioned the place she use to live in, everything went black in his vision. A marked past…his was nothing like this but still for a woman it was the worst kind of thing ever. One that followed her around. Her body pressed against some other man’s. No!He shoved the thought away not able to handle even the thought now. Is this why she didn’t have with a second thought about his past after she tore into him for being an outlaw?
Jedidiah couldn’t handle this information. He’d tell him to divorce her and start over. She couldn’t change. None of them were able to. He didn’t need this complication in his life. Throwing his hands up. He had to get out this of his head and get her out of this situation and then they’d deal with her past.
“Get your hands off my wife.”
Simon turned to face him. A cigar hanging from his mouth, grey and white hair slicked back. The black suit he wore had ashes sprinkled across it. The cigar moving as he started to talk. “See, she owes me. One way or another, I’ll get what’s mine. Her body or money.”
“I’ll never be with you.”
Esther struggled in James’s grasp. She kicked him in the shins, charging for the other man when he lost his grip. A hard kick to the other man. Pride flooded Obadiah as he saw her fight her captors. Simon struck a hand out
