A whistle sounded loudly that pulled him from his thoughts.
Sweat dripped down his spine, and he winced. The train had arrived. His nerves only grew more frantic as he rubbed his hands together and then tried to wipe the damp sweat on his pants. It was a cold December day with two feet of snow. But all he could feel was a heat burning down on him.
He had to be there for her. He couldn’t just tell the woman to come and then leave her stranded in a strange place. Ella would have had his head for such a cruel action.
So he would pick her up. Leah had offered to keep the girl at her place until their wedding.
A wedding. Just the thought of a second wedding made his stomach bottom out. It was hard to breathe as he tried to imagine promising himself to someone else. He wasn’t certain that Ella would have wanted that. They had planned to be together for the rest of their lives. Not for only seven short years.
After he had written to Miss Della Prescott of New York City to invite her to formally join him in Montana, Zack had sent her that final letter to explain that he couldn’t have another marriage like the one he had before. It would be a marriage of convenience. They would only wed when he was prepared for it, and that was only if Ross took to her. But he didn’t want to rush into any commitments, and he couldn’t love her like he had loved Ella.
Zack paused. No, he corrected himself. He still loved Ella. Even if she was gone.
The train had come to a stop ahead of him at the station. People were beginning to gather around. The station had been only built in the last year and stops were still rare. It was a spectacle for the town to see, though few people ever boarded the contraption from their northern town. And only a handful of people ever climbed off at their stop.
It was a sunny December Wednesday as four people stepped down from the stairs on the train platform. Zack froze as he studied each of them.
The first was an old woman with white hair who scowled at everyone except for a young woman who arrived to lead her away. The second and third were a young couple with bright red hair who hurried off through the crowd.
Then the fourth was a slim figure of a woman dressed in a dark blue traveling outfit and a dark veil. It looked like a net that tucked under her chin. She carried a bag in each hand as she shakily climbed down onto solid ground. He stood there for a minute as the figure paused and looked around. She wasn’t hurrying off to greet anyone. No one was coming up to her.
Although he knew Ella was gone, he could have sworn he felt her hands on his back nudging him forward. Zack found the energy to start moving his legs toward the young lady on the other end of the platform. He pulled off his hat as he watched the veil lift and tucked over the small hat.
It wasn’t a useful hat, for it hardly covered part of her head. That would never keep anyone warm. Zack then dropped his gaze to the face and paused. Blonde hair and blue eyes. A pert nose and plump lips. Then she had pale skin except for something on her cheek. At first, he thought it was a scab. When he reached her, he realized it was a birthmark.
Though he wanted to ask why she hadn’t mentioned such a thing to him before, Zack was too uncomfortable to say anything besides, “Miss Prescott?” He tried to swallow the lump in his throat and was glad he hadn’t eaten anything that morning. Zack wasn’t certain it would have stayed down.
Her eyes widened before she nodded. “Yes. Yes, that’s me. Della. Are - are you Zack Heston?”
Zack shifted uneasily. “Yes.” His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. Dropping his gaze, he glanced at his hat in his hands. A wind chilled his ears, so he hurriedly put it back on. He dropped his eyes from her down to the ground, not knowing where to look. Not the birthmark. Anywhere but the face. “Are those all your bags?”
When she nodded in confirmation, he grabbed them. “The wagon is this way.”
She trailed behind him as he led her to the wagon. Zack ransacked his brain for words to say to her, but he couldn’t think of anything. Nothing sounded right in his head. He couldn’t remember being so tongue-tied around Ella.
Fortunately, his body remembered what to do. He helped the young woman into the wagon and then climbed up the other side to take the reins. Zack offered Della a short nod and then started them off down the lane. Leah would be ecstatic to have another woman around, and maybe she could help him remember how to talk to people.
But there wasn’t any chance of marrying if he couldn’t communicate with her.
Chapter 5
“Miss Della Prescott! Welcome, oh welcome!”
The tall woman wrapped her arms around Della before she could even react. She stopped in amazement and wondered if the woman was mad. They didn’t know each other. Society always deigned an introduction. But
