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“Admirable?” Mr. Parker shrugged his narrow shoulders. “For a woman your age, I suppose it is, but Lacey—”
Sadie turned her back on the storekeeper, dismissing him with a roll of her eyes that said she had heard it all before. Addressing Lacey directly, she said, “I couldn’t help hearing your conversation, and I’m thinking it might be lucky for both of us that I happened to come in here to get some things I ran out of in the restaurant this morning. The fact is, I’m going to be shorthanded at the restaurant soon. Millie—you know, the redhead with all the freckles—she’s leaving to get married at the end of the week. I’m going to be needing somebody who’s looking for good, honest work.”
Lacey’s heart jumped a beat.
Sadie searched her expression. “It’s not easy work, mind you. There’s a lot of running involved when things get busy.”
“I’m not afraid of hard work.”
Appearing pleased at her response, Sadie replied, “Well then, as far as I’m concerned, you’re hired. The restaurant is busiest in the early morning and during the supper hours. I have a woman who helps at night, so I’ll try you out in the morning. If you’re agreeable, you can start at the end of the week when Millie leaves. I’ll pay you what I was paying her.” Sadie winked. “I’ll be expecting to get more work out of you, though, because Millie’s mind hasn’t been on her job lately.”
“That’s fine with me.” Lacey added, “And…thank you.”
Lacey watched as Sadie walked to the back of the store to scout out her purchases. Her heart was pounding. She had a position and she’d start at the end of the week! She’d have money to pay for her board at the boarding house and she—
Lacey’s high spirits plummeted as she bid the disapproving storekeeper goodbye and started back toward the Gold Nugget with the prospect of moving from the Gold Nugget suddenly looming closer. Also plaguing her was the prospect of informing Scully that she had agreed to take a job. He’d be angry, but she’d remind him that she’d be able to take the room at Mrs. McInnes’s sooner than she thought. That would please him. Lacey pondered that thought. But how would she feel about moving to the boarding house? Mature…responsible…finally self-supporting?
Lonely.
She’d had enough of loneliness. She had thought her loneliness had come to an end when she came home and Scully had welcomed her with open arms.
It looked as if she was wrong.
Scully looked up at a knock on his office door. The knock was tentative…uncertain. It could be no one else.
“Come in, Lacey.”
“How did you know it was me?”
Lacey stood framed in the doorway, platinum hair piled casually atop her head, intense blue eyes putting to shame the pale blue of her dress, delicate features composed in a half smile. A lovelier picture than Scully had ever expected would be his, even temporarily. The thought was disconcerting. He refrained from answering her question. Instead, he stood up, reached for his hat and said, “Come on with me. I have something to show you.”
Around the desk in a moment, Scully took Lacey’s arm. She hesitated momentarily, then said, “I suppose we can talk later.”
Talk. Talk meant continuing the same argument they’d had earlier that morning. He’d had enough of it for the day.
He drew her out of the office with him toward the saloon’s rear door.
“Where’re we going, Scully?”
Again ignoring her inquiry, Scully ushered Lacey along with him, then pushed open the door of the back entrance and urged her out ahead of him into the narrow yard.
He felt the shock that rippled through her.
Lacey gulped. She took a deep breath. Tears brimmed in her eyes as she started toward the hitching post where the small burro was tethered.
It couldn’t be…but it was!
“It’s…Careful!”
The burro’s name emerged from her lips with a sob as Lacey reached the animal in a few running steps. Careful turned his head toward her with a welcoming bray and tears streamed down her cheeks. She slid her arms around Careful’s neck and hugged him tight….
She was a child again. The days were long and sun-filled, and Careful was her loyal playmate, helpmate and friend.
The choking stench of the fire hung on the air. Her grandfather lay dead in front of her and the charred remains of her home behind her. She was terrified and alone, but Careful stood steadfast nearby.
The road was long, the sun hot. Her head throbbed, her legs ached and her throat was parched. She was afraid. She couldn’t walk any farther, but Careful trudged on beside her, limping every step of the way.
The Gold Nugget came into view at last. She couldn’t make it. She couldn’t walk another step, but Careful wouldn’t give up, and neither could she.
She was sick. She didn’t want to get better. She didn’t want to remember…but Careful was alone, and he needed her.
She was fully recovered. She was leaving for boarding school to be educated as her grandpa always wanted. She was leaving Careful behind, and the emptiness inside her ached….
So many years in between. So many clouded memories and uncertainties, but she was home again at last. She knew that now, because Careful was with her again.
Uncertain how long it took to compose herself, Lacey turned back toward the big man who stood silently watchful behind her. Aware that words could not adequately express the full scope of her emotion, she said simply, “Thank you,” then walked into Scully’s embrace.
Enveloped in joyful tears as Scully held her comfortingly close, Lacey was not aware of the well-dressed man lurking in the shadows nearby. She had not seen him lingering in the mercantile, listening intently to her conversation at the counter. Nor had she noticed him following her at a safe distance when she left the store and started across the street.
Standing still unseen, Barret Gould paused to coldly assess the emotional scene unfolding. He had overheard the statement Lacey Stewart made in the store minutes earlier. She said she had returned to Weaver with plans for the future that had nothing to do with Jake Scully. She’d added that her plans didn’t include waiting around for the right man to come along. Both were commendable statements that appeared innocent enough to the average person.
Yet the average person did not know Lacey’s secret—a secret she did not know he shared.
A slow elation expanded inside Barret. He was being given a second chance for success in a plan that had met with devastating failure ten years earlier.
He would succeed this time, and the distinguished future that had escaped him—for which he was destined—would finally be his.
Lacey Stewart didn’t stand a chance.
Chapter Three
“The answer is no!”
Lacey stood opposite Scully in the morning shadows of her room. The events of the previous day, when Careful was returned to her, had left her shaken. She hadn’t had the heart for the argument she knew was certain to ensue when Scully learned she had accepted a job in Sadie’s restaurant, but he had appeared at her door that morning for breakfast, and she had known it was now or never.
Never was not an option.
Lacey took a deep breath, then said, “Try to understand, Scully. I—”
“I said, the answer is no. You aren’t going to do that kind of work.”
Her reply was spontaneous. “I don’t recall asking your permission.”
Scully’s gray eyes pinned her. Somehow, he had never looked bigger or more intimidating than he did at that moment as he towered over her in his anger, but Lacey did not back down when he replied, “No, you didn’t ask my permission, but you should have.”
“You forget. I’m eighteen years old—an adult. You’re not my guardian anymore.”
“I’m not, huh?”
Regretting her harsh statement, Lacey took a conciliatory step toward him and said, “Please…I don’t want to argue with you, especially after yesterday. You’ve done so much for me, and taking care of Careful all those years while I was gone…I appreciate every bit of it, but I can’t let it go on, don’t you see? I have to start out on my own sometime.”
“Sometime…but not now.”
“When, Scully? Am I supposed to let you support me until I wither on the vine waiting for ‘the right fella’?”
“You don’t stand a chance of ‘withering on the vine,’ and you know it.”
“No, I don’t know it. And neither do I care. It’s time for me to take responsibility for my own life.”
“That’s good thinking. It’s premature, that’s all. You need time to settle down here for a while so you can get reacquainted with the real world.”
“The real world…” Lacey took a stabilizing breath. “You’re right. The world I lived in these past ten years is far removed from Weaver. It wasn’t a real world—not for me. I knew it then, and I know it now. Many of the memories of my life with my grandfather are unclear, but they aren’t so dim that I wasn’t able to see the differences. I belong here. This is my home, and the sooner I make myself fit back in, the better it will be.”
“You’re rushing things. You’re not giving yourself a chance.”
“I’m ready now to step back into my life, Scully. I need to, for so many reasons.”
“None of those reasons are good enough. You need time. You deserve better than you’re asking for yourself.”
“Do I, really?” Lacey took another step closer. “Do I deserve better than working in a place where hardworking men like my grandpa felt privileged to have a good, hot meal set down in front of them at the beginning of the day? Do I deserve better than getting to know them so I can share a part of their sometimes lonely lives?”
Lacey paused, forcing back a gradual thickening in her throat as she continued, “I miss Grandpa, you know? He loved me. With his dying breath, he gave me the best advice he knew when he placed his Bible in my hands and told me to depend on it and the Lord to guide my way, and then when he sent me to you. He taught me so many things that’ll stay with me the rest of my life. But somehow, so many of my memories of him have become vague and cloudy in my mind. I was robbed of those memories that last day, and I want them back. I don’t know any other way to get them except to make a place for myself here so they’ll eventually become clear.”
Lacey looked up at Scully’s still, unemotional expression. She said, “Those memories are all I have left of the only family I knew. The blank spots nag at me. They give me no rest. I need to fill them in so I can be whole again, and I’m doing that the only way I know how.”
Lacey saw the brief flicker of change in the gray eyes regarding her so closely, yet she was unprepared when Scully said, “Are you ready for breakfast?”
Taking a moment to recover, she responded, “Y-yes, I guess I am.”
“Let’s go, then.”
Lacey halted abruptly when they stepped out into the hallway. When he looked down at her, she said, “You did hear what I said, didn’t you, Scully?”
“I heard you.”
“Then you understand.”
Silence his only response, Scully ushered her toward the staircase.
The noisy hustle and bustle of Sadie’s restaurant continued around him as Scully sat at the corner table he shared with Lacey. His empty plate in front of him, he sat silently as he had through the entire breakfast meal. Frowning, he glanced across the table at Lacey, who was picking at her food, then scanned the occupants of the crowded restaurant. They were a varied lot: transient wranglers obviously eager to be on their way, businessmen engaged in conversation, a few ranchers, some locals who looked to have spent a night on the town and a grizzly prospector or two in for their first good meal in months. He saw Doc Mayberry in deep conversation with Reverend Sykes at a table in the far corner. His frown darkened when he looked at the table occupied by three women from the Gold Nugget who looked to have remained active long after the Gold Nugget doors had closed for the night. Millie White, her plump, freckled face flushed and her hair in disarray, moved almost breathlessly between the tables.
Strangely, he hadn’t given Millie much thought before this, except to wish her luck when he learned she had finally set the date for her wedding with her seemingly recalcitrant boyfriend. The thought that Lacey would assume her frantic pace between these same tables at the end of the week held little appeal.
Scully compared the two women. The result was no surprise. Lacey was slender, almost fragile in appearance. Her delicate features were faultless, almost mesmerizing. With her pale hair and vividly blue eyes, she drew speculation wherever she went. Conversely, Millie’s only outstanding feature was her freckles. Although a pleasant enough girl, Millie could be easily lost in a crowd with her common appearance.
That could never be the case with Lacey. He had known the moment he saw Lacey that first time when she was a frightened, injured child that she was special in so many ways. The years had only served to confirm his opinion of her. She was lovely and sweet…and innocent. He needed to protect that innocence, to hold her safe. She was too friendly, too nice. The world held too many unnamed dangers for someone like her, and the mix of people she would meet in this place only increased the threat involved.
“Scully…” He hadn’t realized he was staring at Lacey until she continued, “It’s obvious that whatever you’re thinking, it isn’t good.” She smiled…a glorious, apologetic smile as she added, “Don’t worry so much. I’ll be fine. Sadie’s right behind the counter if I need her for anything, and you’re across the street. What more could I ask?”
Scully was saved from a response to Lacey’s question when Doc Mayberry appeared unexpectedly beside their table with an all-too-familiar man in a dark suit. He said, “Scully…nice to see you again.”
Scully shook the hands extended to him and replied with limited courtesy, “Doc Mayberry…Reverend Sykes.”
“And this must be the Lacey Stewart I’ve been hearing about all around town.”
Doc’s smile was too gracious. The old fellow had an agenda that went beyond a simple introduction. That thought was confirmed the moment he added, “Reverend Sykes and I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Lacey.”
Enforced courtesy never his greatest strength, Scully said, “Lacey, it looks like these two fellas are determined to meet you.”
Flushing slightly at Scully’s brusque manner, Lacey replied, “I’m pleased to meet you both, gentlemen.” She added without a moment’s hesitation, “The girls at the Gold Nugget speak very highly of you, Doctor.”
Scully’s head jerked toward Lacey at the thought of what those conversations between Lacey and “the girls” had included.
Lacey continued, “And your name was one of the first I heard on my arrival in Weaver, Reverend Sykes—with an extremely favorable comment, of course.”
“You’re referring to Pete Loughlin, I’m sure.” Reverend Sykes’s smile broadened. “Pete told me you and he were passengers in the same stagecoach. He was very impressed with you, which is one of the reasons I wanted to meet you. Like you, my wife and I are recent arrivals in Weaver. Our church and the size of our congregation aren’t very impressive yet, but we have great hopes for a change in the right direction. I’d like to extend an invitation for you to join us for worship.” He added, “We’d appreciate any extra time you could spare for us, too. We need all the help we can get.”
Appearing delighted at the invitation, Lacey replied, “Thank you. We’ll both come, won’t we, Scully?”
The brief silence that followed spoke volumes.
Scully stood up unexpectedly and said, “Lacey and I have some important business to tend to this morning. If you’ll excuse us…”
Ignoring Lacey’s shocked expression as he drew her to her feet, Scully dropped his coin on the table and turned her toward the door.
“I don’t like seeing you taken advantage of.”
“No one was taking advantage of me—except for you, that is.”
Lacey was livid. Common courtesy had been thoroughly ingrained in her since childhood—common courtesy that had been severely abused when Scully dismissed both Reverend Sykes and Doc Mayberry so abruptly. Scully and she had arrived back in her room minutes earlier after their exit from the restaurant and a rush that had left her breathless. She continued with astonishment, “How could you be so rude?”
Scully did not smile. Without realizing it, Lacey proved his point. Of the many things he had been accused of in his lifetime, being rude ranked very low on the list—yet Lacey spoke as if he had committed one of the cardinal sins.
He hadn’t, and he knew the difference.
“It should’ve been obvious to you what was happening, but it apparently wasn’t, so I decided to save you from yourself.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It was a ploy.”
Lacey did not speak.
“Come on, Lacey, it’s obvious what happened. Your friend, Pete Loughlin, went to see Reverend Sykes because he didn’t like the idea that I was the man who was meeting you here—because he thought I’d be a bad influence on you.”
“That’s ridiculous! Why would he think that?”
“Because I threw Pete Loughlin out of the Gold Nugget a while back, and he obviously hasn’t forgotten it.”
