When the strangers bumped into her, she faltered. Hazel wrapped a hand around her elbow after she had jumped for the tenth time. It was most crowded, Della decided, and she was relieved when they reached the train and she was helped onboard. Hazel handed over her luggage and offered a small wave.
Then Della was alone.
Taking a deep breath, she swallowed and took her two bags into the car where she found the compartment that Hazel had helped her reserve. It was a tiny room, but she had it all to herself. Her heart was pounding as she took a seat and tried to grasp what she had just done. Everything had fallen into place so quickly that she worried she wasn’t holding all the pieces.
Her parents were out for the day with their friends, so she had easily left undetected. She had been slowly packing things into her bags for the last week with Hazel’s help. There had been several purchases to make, several plans to organize. Della hadn’t had a full night’s sleep in nearly a month, and she could feel the exhaustion seeping into her bones.
A whistle sounded. The floor beneath her began to move. Della gasped as she fell back against the bench. Her breathing grew short and loud, overwhelmed with everything that had just happened.
It was rare for her to be somewhere new, let alone not with her parents or a maid. For a minute, she tried to both breathe and swallow the panic rising in her throat. Closing her eyes, Della focused on gathering her breath. These moments of panic had come often enough to her as a child. She thought of Elsie, the cook, humming to her back in those days to give her the courage to recover. Della tried to remember the words.
“Morning stars are growing light, let’s say farewell unto the night,” she whispered to herself with her eyes tightly closed. “And sing in joy for all is well.”
After another verse, she started to feel better. Della grew used to the repetitive movements of the train. It was just like any other carriage that she had ever ridden. And then she gathered her courage and swallowed the fear.
This was what she wanted. New York City had nothing there for her. She was finally going to escape and go somewhere. It was a dream that she was making come true.
This slowly dawned on Della what she had just accomplished. After a moment, she laughed in amazement.
She had done it. She had escaped New York; she had escaped the eternal confinement her parents had kept her in. For the first time in her life, she was free. Della laughed, clapping her hands before settling down. She was no longer trapped in her house with nothing but books for her friends. Now, she was on her way to a man who wanted her.
In her fourth letter, she had finally gathered the courage to explain she had a birthmark. A large one on her face that didn’t look pretty, but it didn’t prevent her from doing anything. She had already described her long blonde hair and large blue eyes that were gifts from her mother. Telling him about the birthmark had terrified her. She had followed it up with her fifth letter where she asked how much he cared about people’s looks. Though he never addressed her birthmark, he had eventually responded to say that looks meant little for it was the heart that mattered.
Della slowly began to relax as her journey continued.
There was so much to think about. She tried to imagine what he looked like. Zack Heston. He mentioned he was tall and thick shoulders along with blue eyes and blond hair himself. She wondered if he was handsome. Though the man had mentioned he was older, she didn’t mind. He had sounded like a good man, and that was what mattered most.
It wasn’t until she arrived in Dawson, Montana that Della wondered if she would really find love.
Her heart pounded as she stepped out into the sunlight. Carrying her bags off the train, Della mustered all of her courage to look up. She had put the netted veil back across her face but knew she couldn’t keep it on forever. She only prayed that he was still willing to look past it into his heart.
All she wanted was someone brave enough to want her. And she was more than ready to return the favor.
Chapter 4
Zack couldn’t stop pacing.
He had tried to stand still. But then his legs started dancing, and he kept rubbing his hands. Nothing seemed to help. It felt like there were ants all over him, and he couldn’t stop moving. His heart thumped loudly, and he considered again just walking away.
But he could just imagine Ella’s frown for such bad manners.
“This was a mistake,” he mumbled under his breath to respond to the image of his wife in his mind. He shook his head and fiddled with the hat on his head. “A big one.”
Then Ross’s sober face came to mind. His boy had lost weight and a lot of laughter in the last couple of years. His little man had been struggling. At first, there had been nightmares. There were weeks on end where Zack had to go wake him up every night to stop the cries. Then Ross had stopped wanting to play with his toys or read.
Grief had drained them both of energy.
While
