Chapter Thirteen
Brody heard hoof beats pounding toward the house and he was out of the bed in seconds. He grabbed his rifle and ran out onto the porch in his white long johns, ready to shoot whoever was coming to harm his family in the middle of the night.
His eyes widened and he leaned the rifle against the banister when he recognized Jacob. Jacob jumped from the saddle and stumbled toward him. Brody could tell his big brother was hurting just from the look on his face in the moonlight.
Elizabeth came out of the house with a lamp in one hand and a revolver in the other, with her hair hanging loose around her face and wearing nothing but her white nightdress.
"Hello you two." Jacob slurred as he walked over, weaving in his drunkenness.
"You're drunk!" Brody growled with irritation. Brody had never been a big drinker. He found that it often caused more problems than it fixed.
"I'm not drunk," Jacob argued.
Elizabeth and Brody shared a look and then she nodded, "I'll go reheat the coffee." she said before disappearing back into the house.
Jacob and Brody stood outside in silence for a while, both of them looking up at the stars. Finally Brody sighed, "You've got five minutes to tell me what you woke me up for."
"I finally see that you were right all those years. Women are only good for three things. Sex, complaining and cooking.. Of course I found one more thing to add to that list... Lying. They're nothing but a bunch of liars."
"Since you're drunk, I'll let that slide." Elizabeth stated, walking back out of the house.
"Liz, you're an exception to all those rules," Jacob assured her with sadness, "Too bad you said no when I asked you to marry me."
Brody's eyes flew to his wife as her eyes widened and she stuttered several times, "Come again?" Brody asked, raising a brow.
"Yeah, I asked her to marry me and she shot me down." Jacob said as he raised his hand like a gun and pretended to pull an imaginary trigger. "Do you know who didn't turn me down? Alice, or should I say Ellie? No, she agreed to marry me. I should have known something was wrong with her. Pa always warned us about things that seem too good to be true."
"Is there a reason I didn't know about my brother asking you to marry him?" Brody asked Elizabeth.
Elizabeth squared her shoulders and met his gaze, "Because it happened when you were dead, I said no and it's not important."
"We'll talk about it later," Brody promised.
Elizabeth shrugged, "There's nothing to talk about."
"Can we focus on me and my miserable life for a minute?" Jacob grumbled. His drunken haze was clearing just a little and he was growing angry.
"Come on in," Brody said. He led Jacob into the sitting room while Elizabeth went into the kitchen to get him some coffee.
"I take it you talked to Ellie and she told you about Otis?" Brody asked.
Jacob's eyes narrowed, "You knew! How long have you known?!" he demanded.
"Keep your voice down, my kids are asleep," Brody warned. "I've known since this morning."
"She opened up to you about it before she did me?" Jacob asked, feeling extremely hurt.
"No, you idiot." Brody replied calmly, "Joshua Morrow told me that she'd been sending and receiving wires through an Otis Black. Since I knew about Otis, I figured she wasn't on the straight and narrow."
"She's a damn con artist, Brody. She makes men fall in love with her and then she takes off with the engagement ring and whatever valuables she can get."
"Yeah, she told me," Brody replied. "I told her to come talk to you...Since you're hear hating women and drunk in the middle of the night, I'm guessing that didn't go well?"
"She wasn't going to talk to me! I caught her walking back to her room and I confronted her."
"But then how did you know?" Brody asked as he lit a cigarette.
"I uh... I read her diary," Jacob replied sheepishly.
Elizabeth slammed the coffee cup she had just entered the room with down on the table in front of Jacob and put her hands on her hips, "You did what?!"
"Susie read it first," Jacob quickly spat as he rubbed his temples. His head was starting to hurt. He never had been able to handle alcohol. "She told me I should read it. And I'm glad I did. I was gonna marry the woman!"
"You mean you aren't now?" Brody asked slowly.
Jacob looked at him as if he'd grown a second head, "Are you crazy?!" he demanded. "The woman lied to me."
"To protect her sister," Brody replied.
"What are you talking about?" Jacob asked as he took a sip of the coffee.
"I'm not going into the details with your stubborn ass, that's her business. If you want to let that woman get away that's your own choice to make but it would the dumbest thing you've ever done," Brody warned.
"Is that so?" Jacob asked with a sneer that reminded Brody of Sally. Jacob sure was a moody ass when he got drunk.
"Yeah that's so," Brody shrugged and leaned back in the chair, "The woman had her reasons for doing what she did and she really does love you. Maybe you should go talk to her about that instead of jumping to your own conclusions."
"I did talk to her..."
Brody cut him off, "I know how your talks go when you get angry. You yell a lot, you say what you want to say and then you never let the other person say a single word in their defense."
"No I....."
Brody cut him off again, "Yes you do," he snapped.
Elizabeth smiled behind her own coffee cup, "It must run in the family," she mused. Both men glared at her.
"Go talk to your woman," Brody grumbled as he stood up. "Trust me when I tell you that it hurts like hell when the woman you love is suddenly gone. You got a chance to keep yours, so take it. Talk to her and hear her side of things. You'll see that she didn't have much of a choice in the matter."
"I think you should listen to Brody," Elizabeth added.
Jacob looked at her, "I'm guessing Brody told you all about whatever it is he knows and won't tell me?" he demanded and Elizabeth nodded. Brody grabbed Elizabeth's arm gently and pulled her to her feet, "Get out of my house, Jacob, and go take care or your business. It's late, the kids are asleep and my wife and I are going back to bed."
"We are?" Elizabeth asked defiantly.
Brody nodded, "Yep." The look of fire in his eyes was enough to make Jacob want to empty the whiskey contents from his stomach onto the fancy braided rug.
It had Elizabeth's resolve melting as she turned her gaze to Jacob, "Yes, you need to leave and go handle your business."
"No problem," Jacob scoffed. He took a big gulp of his coffee and then stood and walked to the door, "Thanks for the coffee, Liz, and Brody, thanks for being a big enough ass to make see what a blockhead I was being."
Jacob walked out the door and Elizabeth looked up at Brody, "I've never heard him cuss before."
Brody shrugged, "Must be a drunk Jacob thing," he replied and then he scooped her up in his arms. "Let's go to bed."
***
Jacob took his time going back to the ranch. His drunkenness had faded, leaving him with a pounding head and an aching heart. Brody had been right. He hadn't listened to a single thing Ellie had tried to tell him. If Brody thought she deserved forgiveness then she must have a good reason for being the way she was. Her diary hadn't gone into details about her life and he hadn't read it close enough to catch any details that might have been there. He'd been too blinded by the other things he'd read.
Jacob put his horse in the barn distractedly and then headed for the house. He would wake Ellie up and at least listen to what she had to say. He wasn't sure if there was any way to save what they had but at least he'd give her a chance to explain.. And if she needed help, he would help her.
He walked into the house and went down the hall to Ellie's room. He knocked on the door but got no response. She was probably sleeping or just ignoring him. He opened the door and through the shadows he saw that the bed was empty. He quickly lit a lamp and it revealed that she was not here. Her trunk was sitting by the edge of the bed but she was gone.
"Where is she?" he asked the walls.
Jacob listened closely but could hear no movement in the house. He was about to go check the outhouse when a piece of paper on the floor caught his eye. It was a letter. He knew he shouldn't read it but since he'd already read her diary, he figured reading a letter was a small offense.
He read the letter and then just to clarify that he had read it correctly, he read it again. Whatever kind of woman Ellie had been before coming to the ranch, she had tried to stop being, and now this Otis Black had her sister. Jacob stuck the letter in his pocket and ran out of the room. He ran up the stairs, hoping that maybe Ellie was in his room, waiting on him but his room was empty. He saw the office door was open and his heart fell.
He walked in and held up the lamp to see that the safe was open and empty. He'd been a fool. She had needed help. She had tried to tell him and he hadn't been willing to listen to word she said. He knew she couldn't have been gone long because the office door had been closed when he'd left for Brody's. Maybe he could catch her and convince her to come back. Maybe he could convince her that he would help her get her sister and get away from that man.
Jacob ran to the barn and saddled a fresh horse, realizing that there was indeed a horse missing. He hoped she'd taken the main road so he'd be able to find her. He wasn't any good at tracking, especially at night.
***
Ellie was beginning to wish that she had waited until first light to leave. The darkness seemed to be pushing down on her; taunting her and her sadness. Her heart was still back at that ranch with the man who now hated her. Ellie wanted so badly to stay and make him see that she really did love him. To make him see that during the last week he had seen the real her; the her that no one ever got to see.
But she couldn't. She had to get back to San Antonio and save her sister and once Jacob realized she had robbed from him, he would probably send Brody to get her and take her to jail. After all, they knew who she really was.
She heard a coyote yip in the distance and she shivered. She didn't have a gun or any other way to defend herself. All she could do was hope that she didn't run into any trouble. She rubbed her hand over her bare arm and shivered, not with cold, but with sadness, fear and desperation.
Ellie heard hooves thundering behind her and felt panic welling up. That was either Brody coming to arrest her or it could be a bandit or an outlaw who would harm her. She didn't even look behind her before urging her horse into a gallop.
"Ellie! Ellie, stop!" Ellie was sure she must be hearing things because that sounded an awful lot like Jacob's voice behind her. "Ellie, please stop!" he called again, closer this time.
She looked beside her and watched him ride up alongside her horse, "Do you think we could slow down a bit?" he asked and she pulled up on the reins and brought her horse to a stop while he did the same. "You forgot this," he said, holding up the letter that Otis had written her.
Ellie snatched it from his hand and shoved it in her pocket, "Did you read it?" she demanded. He nodded. "You really should learn not to read other people's personal things."
Jacob's green eyes met hers, "Please come back to the house and talk to me."
Ellie swallowed hard and tried to hide the hope she was feeling. She didn't want to get her hopes too high that he was going to forgive her, only to be let down, "You didn't seem too eager to talk earlier," she reminded him.
Jacob rubbed his face with his hand, pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers to combat his headache and then looked at her. His green eyes were pleading, "Please, come back. I'll listen this time, I promise. And I'll help you."
Something snapped inside Ellie and she burst into tears right there on her horse. How long had she prayed that someone would come along that would help her? Her emotions were too raw to keep them hidden from Jacob.
Jacob pulled his horse closer to hers, grabbed her arm and slid her onto his horse, sitting her backward in the saddle so that her legs were straddling him and her head was buried in his chest. He started back toward the ranch and whistled so the other horse would follow.
Ellie breathed in his comforting scent, though she was sure she smelled the scent of liquor that wasn't normally there. She looked up at his smooth jaw and wrapped her arms tight around him, "I do love you, Jacob." Jacob stiffened. God, he loved her too but he wasn't ready to admit that just yet. He still wasn't sure he could be with her anymore. Trust and honesty were a big deal to him and clearly they didn't mean nearly as much to her.
He rubbed her back but kept his eyes trained straight ahead, "Let's just get you back to the ranch. You can tell me everything and we can get your sister. Everything else will have to wait."
Ellie bit her lip and felt new pain fill her. He might be willing to listen, he might be willing to help her, but he didn't love her anymore. She had ruined that with her lies. Damn you, Otis Black.