Linda Ford (18 page)

T
he next morning, as soon as Griff rode out, Ruby faced Inez. “I have decided to leave for Tyler today.”

Inez stilled, her expression sobering. “May I ask why?”

Ruby waved a hand, as if waving away any arguments to her decision. “It’s best this way. Putting off my leaving will not make it any easier and it’s probably best if I don’t insert myself into a family gathering.”

“You know that to me and Griff you are family.”

Inez’s simple words were almost Ruby’s undoing. But she managed to hold herself together. “That’s a very kind thing to say, but at best I am a family friend. And please believe that I will always consider myself your friend.”

Inez took a step forward and touched Ruby’s arm. “Whatever happened between you and Griff, I’m sure—”

Ruby stepped back, afraid she would shatter at
the next touch. “Please. I’ve made up my mind.” She pulled an envelope from her pocket and set it on the counter. “Would you give this to Griff when he returns?”

“Of course.” Inez’s shoulders slumped. “Will you at least let me send someone to town with you? Griff will want to know that you arrived safely and have found accommodations.”

Ruby wavered for a minute. She’d rather not take anything else from them, but Inez was right. If she didn’t accept an escort, Griff would no doubt feel obligated to ride after her and make certain she was okay. “Thank you, that’s very thoughtful of you.”

Thirty minutes later, Ruby was passing underneath the wrought-iron arch that guarded the entrance to Hawk’s Creek, Archie riding on a horse ahead of her. The sudden thought that this was likely the very last time she would pass this way was enough to bring a lump to her throat.

She reached down and stroked Patience’s head. “It’s just you and me again,” she said thickly. “But don’t you worry, things are going to work out just fine. Spending Thanksgiving at Hawk’s Creek would have been a mistake—we’d have been comparing every other Thanksgiving to that one from then on.”

But she wondered who she was trying to convince, Patience or herself? Because whether she attended the Thanksgiving festivities or not, she had a feeling deep inside that she’d be comparing every home she ever lived in from here on out to the one she’d experienced briefly there at Hawk’s Creek.

“What do you mean, she’s gone?” Griff stared at Inez as if she’d gone mad. There had to be some mistake.

“She left first thing this morning. I sent Archie with her. He should be back soon.”

“Why’d you let her go?”

“This isn’t a prison. She’s free to go whenever she wants.” Inez snatched an envelope off the counter and handed it to him. “Here. She left this for you.”

A note.

Griff sat down at the table and tore it open.

Griff scanned it a second time, trying to read between the lines and understand what she’d been attempting to convey. Unfortunately, the truth seemed clear. Despite everything, she still wanted to start that new life in Tyler.

How could he have been so foolish? Apparently he’d read something into that kiss they’d shared that just hadn’t been there. He should have realized. She’d just been through a very draining experience, had relived the most awful day of her life and then cried until his shirt was drenched with her tears. It had been reaction to that emotional turmoil, nothing more.

She didn’t love him, at least not enough to give up her dreams for him.

He should be used to this by now—after all, he’d been through it before.

Except he hadn’t. What he’d felt for Belle and Martha had been schoolboy fancies—he realized that now. He’d been taken with the
idea
of being in love and so had decided that’s what he felt. But those feelings had been mere shadows of emotion compared to what he felt for Ruby.

“Griff.” Inez’s voice cut across his jumbled thoughts. “I don’t know what she says in that note, or what passed between you to make her feel she had to leave, but I do know that she loves you. I see it every time she looks at you. The same way I see your feelings when you look at her.”

“You’re wrong. She wanted her life in the city more.” He stood. “I’ll be working on putting Mother’s sitting room back to rights. Let me know when Archie gets back.”

He marched out of the room without waiting for a response. He needed to be alone to work off some of this raging drive to follow her. Moving furniture was just the ticket.

There was no one to blame in this mess but himself. She’d been oppressively tied to Cleebit Springs, to people who wished her elsewhere, for most of her life. If being on her own with room to breathe and a future that was hers alone to chart was what she needed, then he wouldn’t stand in her way, even if it strangled something deep inside him.

The next day Griff worked himself until he was drenched in sweat and too tired and sore to do more than eat and go to bed. Archie had assured him that
Ruby had secured a room in a genteel boardinghouse in one of the nicer parts of Tyler. That had alleviated one of his worries, but he still lay awake most of the night wondering how she was faring being truly on her own for the first time in her life.

Sadie and Ry and their families arrived on Wednesday and Griff tried to put aside his roiling thoughts to give them the welcome they expected and deserved. And it
was
good to have everyone at Hawk’s Creek again. Inez had been right—it had been much too long since they’d had a proper family gathering.

The only problem was, for him, there was an important someone missing.

He’d thought he was doing a good job of hiding his unfocused and generally gloomy thoughts, though, until that evening when he stepped out on the front porch to be alone for a minute. Within moments Sadie had followed him.

“All right, brother mine, let’s hear it.”

“Hear what?”

“Whatever it is that has you in this pensive mood. Is there something wrong with the ranch operations?”

“No. Everything here is just fine.”

“Then it’s something else.” She stared at him a moment, then smiled. “Could it be lady troubles? Oh, Griff, have you finally found your true love?”

Griff rolled his eyes. “Now you sound like a fairy tale.”

“That’s not an answer.”

He turned and leaned against the porch rail, trying
to keep Sadie from seeing how close to the mark she’d hit. “Don’t you have a daughter to see to?”

“Mercy me, it
is
a girl.” Sadie joined him at the rail, practically bouncing on her toes. “Who is she and when can I meet her?”

“It’s no one you know and you won’t be meeting her.” He looked out over the front lawn, wondering what Ruby was doing this Thanksgiving eve. “She doesn’t feel the same about me,” he added reluctantly.

Sadie stilled. “Are you sure?”

“She as much as told me so.”

“What’s that you have in your pocket? Did she write you a letter?”

Griff realized he must have unconsciously patted his pocket when he answered her. Like a lovesick fool, he’d been carrying Ruby’s letter with him, pulling it out to read periodically, trying to figure out how he could have read the woman herself so wrong.

“Can I read it?”

He glared down at her. “It’s private.”

She kept her hand out. “I thought you might want a woman’s perspective on what she wrote.”

He started to refuse her again, then found himself pulling the note from his pocket. She’d just keep nagging until he showed it to her, he told himself. Yet a little voice in his head kept whispering that perhaps she
would
see something he’d missed.

Sadie read the letter through and then read it again, finally looking back up at him, a smug smile on her face. “Oh, yes, she definitely loves you.”

Griff’s pulse kicked up a notch but he knew it was
just a false hope. “Thanks for the nice try, Sadie girl, but you can’t possibly—”

“Of course I can. The way she talks about your
powers of persuasion
and her pleas for you to not follow her, that’s a girl who knows she can’t say no to you. The statement that her time at Hawk’s Creek left her with happy memories, the regret over leaving without saying goodbye and the hope that you’ll visit her, all speak to her deep affection for you. And her closing—
Yours, always
—my goodness Griff, can the girl be any clearer than that?”

“I’d like to believe you, but then why did she leave when we gave her every encouragement to stay?”

“You must have done something to send her running.”

That’s what he kept telling himself. But for the life of him he couldn’t figure out just what it had been.

“Tell me a little about her and how you met,” Sadie urged. “She mentions a small service she did for you?”

“I was escorting her to Cornerstone from a town about a days’ ride from here when I got sick along the way—coughing, high fever, couldn’t stay upright to get home under my own power. She got me here and helped Inez tend to me until I got better.”

“Oh, my, that’s some small service.”

“Exactly. She’s rather amazingly generous and spirited.”

“And you fell in love with her.”

How was it his little sister was making him feel like a schoolboy and she was the teacher? “I did.”

“But did you tell her?”

“No. I mean, I only just realized it a few days ago myself. And we’d only known each other a little over a week. I thought it best to go slowly.”

Sadie shook her head in disgust. “Men.” She raised a brow. “I suppose you did manage to tell her, though, just how grateful you were for all her help.”

“Of course.”

“I thought so.” She held up Ruby’s letter. “It’s all here, plain as day.”

“What’s all there?”

“Look at this.” She began reading random snippets from the letter.
“Thank you so much for all the kindness and generosity…your efforts to repay me…when you are determined to be generous…please don’t feel obligated.”

“So?”

“She thinks you feel gratitude, not love. Though why that should send her scurrying—”

“Not gratitude.” Griff felt as though the fog was beginning to part. It was
obligation
she saw in his actions, the kind of oppressive, resentful sense of obligation from others that had haunted her life for years. No wonder she’d left him.

“No?” Sadie sounded deflated.

Griff grabbed her by the shoulder and gave her a resounding kiss on the cheek. “Sadie, my girl, you are the best sister a fellow could ask for.”

“Of course I am. But what did I do?”

“You just gave me a reason to hope.”

R
uby looked at the stack of books on her bedside table. Which one would she read today?

Spending a day lost in the pages of a book was something she’d often dreamed about, and now she had that chance. She couldn’t help but feel a little tug of longing, though, when she thought of how she had planned to spend Thanksgiving just a few days ago.

Griff’s family would all be at the ranch by now. And Inez would have most of the feast prepared with just a few last-minute items still cooking. Would Inez even remember the venison and gingered-parsnip pie Ruby had planned to make? Not that it mattered—there would be more than enough food without it.

Sunshine streamed in through her window, which meant the tables would be set out on the side lawn at Hawk’s Creek rather than in the barn.

She glanced at Patience, curled up on the coverlet of her bed. “As soon as it warms up a bit outside we’ll go for a walk. I promise.”

Before Ruby could open her book, someone knocked at her door. She looked at her clock—just a few minutes after seven. Mighty early for callers. Especially since she didn’t know anyone here.

Ruby opened the door to find Miss Bermont, the boardinghouse proprietor, standing there with a frown on her face.

“Can I help you?” Ruby asked.

“You have a visitor.” The woman lifted her chin. “It is quite early in the day for visitors, especially
gentleman
visitors.”

Ruby’s pulse quickened. She could only think of one person who would come calling. But he’d have had to set out before breakfast… “Did he give a name?”

“Mr. Lassiter.”

Why had he come when she’d asked him not to? She should send him away. But, oh, she did so want to see him.

“Well? Should I send him on his way?”

What if it wasn’t what she thought? What if Inez needed her for something? She’d never know if she didn’t see him. “Please tell him I’ll be right down.”

Miss Bermont pursed her lips disapprovingly, but nodded. “Very well. But please see that you leave the parlor door open while you are entertaining guests. I run a reputable house here.”

“Of course.” Ruby moved to the vanity and checked her appearance, fluffing her hair with hands that shook slightly. She moved to the door, then, deciding it might be a good idea to have something to
hold on to, turned and picked up her cat. Then she hurried from the room before her courage failed her.

Reaching the parlor door, she took a deep, steadying breath, then entered with a smile. “Mr. Lassiter, how nice to see you again.”

“Hello, Ruby.”

He stood there, hat in hand smiling at her, and her knees nearly buckled. The look in his eyes, the warmth of his tone left her breathless and warm and wanting. Oh, but she had it bad. She loved him. Truly, deeply loved him.

And something inside of her was breaking all over again at the thought that he didn’t return the feeling.

Trying to get herself back under control, Ruby bypassed the settee and took a seat on one of the high-backed chairs. “Did your family make the trip okay?” she asked, thankful that Patience was tolerating her lap.

“They did. All eight of them arrived yesterday and the house is ringing with their voices. But I didn’t come here to talk about them.”

She was too much of a coward to ask what he
had
come here to talk about. Instead she nervously tried to fill the pauses. “Shouldn’t you be back at Hawk’s Creek, celebrating Thanksgiving with all of them?”

“I have something I need to take care of first.”

“Oh?” Was he here running errands and had just stopped by to say hello? She wasn’t sure how much more of this she could stand. Yet she didn’t want to see him leave, either.

He moved to stand directly in front of her. “Yes. I need to tell you that I love you.”

Ruby’s hand stilled on the cat’s back and she stared up at him, afraid she’d misunderstood. “What did you say?”

He knelt down in front of her. “I said I love you. I don’t feel merely obliged, or grateful or honor-bound. I love you, deeply, completely, madly. And I couldn’t bear to go another day without making certain you knew it.”

“But…but you hardly know me.”

“On the contrary, I know you are incredibly generous, and forgiving and strong in ways that humble me. You have spirit and a joyful heart that not even the darkest of circumstances could dim. And I know that you are the one person who makes me feel complete. So you see, I know everything about you that matters. As for the rest, it would be my great pleasure to take the remainder of my life discovering your other qualities.”

Was he actually proposing? “Oh, Griff, I do so love you.” She let Patience jump down and leaned forward to place a hand on his chest. “I think I began falling for you the first time we met, when you stooped to help me with the dropped dishes.” She laughed, a laugh that ended on a sob of happiness. “Your heroic rescue of Patience just sealed the deal.”

Griff gathered her up in his arms and gave her a kiss that rivaled that first one they’d shared. When he was done, he tapped her nose. “Now, while I still have
a shred of self-control left, go and get your things. We have a Thanksgiving celebration to attend.”

She stood, and moved to the door on feet that had wings.

“And Ruby,” he called after her, “I mean all of your things. You won’t be returning here—you’re coming home.”