The Replacement Wife Page 4

  ~ ~ ~

  Ruth Broder had been packing; the office was more a maze of boxes than anything else, and she blotted the dusty sweat on her brow as she considered what Amy had explained to her. “Miss Chase,” she said, “I really wish I could help you, but I’m sure my sister explained that we’re closing up shop here.” She extended an arm to the boxes that were stacked behind her. “I honestly don’t have a single man left who’s not spoken for. What with the new mine opening and harvest season, most men in town are too busy to get married now anyway. Joss Peterson was the last one I accepted, and that’s only because he’s the landlord.”

  “Miss Broder, I don’t think you exactly understand my situation. I thought that this was going to be my salvation,” Amy said, “but it turns out that I’m in the same boat I was in back home. If I had known what Joss was going to be like, I never would have done this.”

  “Well, look at it this way,” Ruth said. “Mr. Peterson is one of the richest men in the county. You’ll have a comfortable life and you’ll have a lovely home. You’ll never want for a single thing.”

  “Except a husband I can love.”

  “Well...that may be true,” she admitted. “You wouldn’t be the first woman in that position, by the way. But if you really can’t imagine going through with it, then don’t marry him. It’s a free country.”

  “But I’ve got no kin around here,” Amy said. “I’ve got nobody and nowhere to go.”

  Ruth could only offer her a shrug and a sad smile. There was nothing more she could say, and after a moment Amy mumbled goodbye and stepped out into the sunshine. For most people, it must have seemed like a beautiful day—the mid-September sun was warm and bright, there was a fresh breeze, and huge, puffy clouds were scudding along high over the town. Amy noticed none of it. She was numb.

  She started walking—exactly where, she didn’t know, but the movement seemed like some kind of progress—and after a few minutes was roused from her deep thoughts by a raucous hoot from across the street.

  She turned to see a couple of men dressed like the local miners who had just emerged from an establishment with a faded sign over the door reading “Miners’ Oasis”. Based on how unsteadily the men were leaning on each other as they weaved their way down the sidewalk, Amy could guess just what kind of place it was. Certainly not the kind of place she was interested in. She was going to continue on her way when she spied a young woman there in the window of the bar. She was about Amy’s age and she was scanning the street as if looking for somebody. There was nothing at all about her that looked odd or disreputable; Amy never would have suspected that she was the kind of woman who frequented taverns. It wasn’t until the woman turned to clear the dirty glasses from a windowside table that Amy realized that she wasn’t a patron; she was a waitress.

  Amy’s brow furrowed unconsciously. Maybe I could get a job like that, she thought. I’d just bring the drinks around and clean up afterwards. Nothing more than that. Working as a waitress had never been a goal in her life, but given the alternatives, it might have to do.

  The tavern doors opened and the waitress stepped out into the street, directly across from Amy now, which gave her a better look at the kind of person who might be her future coworker. She was plainly dressed but presentable; Amy presumed that one would probably want to avoid wearing finer clothes in case of spills. It was something she’d have to remember.

  The waitress looked up and down the street, perhaps looking for somebody, perhaps just enjoying the fine weather. Amy tried to study her without being too obvious. Her shoes and clothing seemed to be in good repair—they weren’t the most fashionable things Amy had ever seen, but they were decent enough. It didn’t look like the girl was just scraping by, in any case.

  That was a good sign. If Amy got lucky she might be able to find a cheap place to stay until...well, for some time, anyway. There might be a time someday when she’d be able to permit herself the luxury of dreams, like for a loving husband and a caring family, but before she could get there she had to take care of her more immediate concerns. A job like this might not be glamorous, but it might be just what she needed.

  She watched as the girl caught the eye of a man heading her way; Amy couldn’t hear what the waitress had said, but from the way she blocked his path, her arm extended toward the tavern doors, she understood enough. The man may not have intended to stop into the bar today; for all Amy knew he was on his lunch break, heading home to where his wife and family waited for him. Yet when the waitress laid her hand on his arm, rubbing his bicep, Amy could practically see his plans change.

  He looked the waitress up and down and a silly grin spread over his face. Even from across the street Amy could see that his smile was genuine; the woman’s smile was forced. The man either didn’t notice or didn’t care. He slipped an arm around the waitress as they stepped inside, then dropped his hand lower and squeezed her bottom like she belonged to him. At least for a little while.

  Amy felt heat rise in her cheeks, as if she were embarrassed for the waitress and the way the man had touched her. She couldn’t help wondering how the woman had ended up in a job like that. Maybe, once upon a time, she had found herself in a hard spot. Maybe she’d had no other choice. Maybe she had started out just carrying drinks too.

  Amy raised a hand to massage her temples. I’ll starve on the street before I lower myself to that, she swore to herself. In only a moment, however, her emotions had overtaken her. If she didn’t figure out something soon, starving on the street was going to be a real possibility.

  ~ ~ ~

  Even if he hadn’t recognized her dress, Joe would have noticed Amy from a block away. There was something about the way that she carried herself, plain for all to see that she wasn’t just one of the simple farm girls that abounded in Mineral Point. She was something special—but then again, he’d known that from the moment he’d first met her.

  He hadn’t even planned to see her this morning; Joe had been out running errands, checking on his father’s properties, but here she was, right across the street from one of the bar girls outside Miners’ Oasis. Joe snorted. Looking from one side of the street to the other, you couldn’t have imagined a greater gulf between the two women.

  He let a pair of riders pass and pulled slightly on the reins, directing the carriage to Amy’s side of the street. It wasn’t until he’d gotten a little closer and was rolling to a stop that he noticed her distress. He could see a flash of pain in her eyes before she raised one hand to her face, as if to shield her eyes from something awful. Or to hide the fact that she’s crying, he thought. His heart tore a little just then. There was something intrusive about watching her like this, and he was tempted to give the reins a quick shake and head on down the street before she had a chance to notice him.

  Still, it must be a difficult thing, to pick up and leave your family for a brand-new life far from home, he thought. She’s probably feeling pretty lonesome right about now.

  “Well, good morning!” he called out. “Beautiful day, isn’t it?” He could see that he’d startled her, and he turned his gaze away as if he were admiring the clouds. “Ever see a sky so blue?” he asked. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her wipe away her tears.

  “It’s really something,” she said, though her voice was a muted rasp.

  He nodded, just taking in the sun and sky for a minute before he turned to look at her again. She had composed herself, though the redness of her eyes made his heart ache all over again. “How about I give you that tour of the city I promised?”

  “That would be very nice.”

  Joe jumped from the driver’s seat and held out his hand, helping her from the plank sidewalk up to the driver’s seat of the runabout. In a moment they were rolling along and he had begun narrating their trip, pointing out the school and the post office, the general store and the barber shop, this place and that place.

  “I saved the best for last,” he said, after they had spent half an hour driving around. He
had shown her everything there was to see—with one exception. “Here’s the most important place in town,” he said, pointing to the building across the street as he let the carriage roll to a stop.

  “Point Plaza,” Amy said, reading the sign over the doors. “What’s that?”

  “It’s a hotel. Actually, not just any hotel. Best one in the county. The whole state, maybe,” he said. “This is ours.”

  Amy craned her neck to take a better look. The building was very large—it took up most of the block from what she could see, and at three stories it was one of the taller buildings in town. She could see lace curtains in the windows of the guest rooms, and it was obvious at a glance that the construction had been careful and skilled. This was no ramshackle inn like one might have expected in a mining town; the place would have fit in nicely at any seaside resort back East.

  “This is really something,” she murmured.

  “My granddad started things back in the frontier days,” Joe said. “He only had a three-room guest house at first, but he kept working, expanding it as he went, and eventually he was able to build this place.” He looked at the sign above the door and felt a familiar swell of pride.

  “It must be nice to have a family business.”

  “Yeah, it is. But this isn’t just a business. It’s my family’s work, my family’s history, all right here,” he said. “I don’t remember my grandfather, but when I inherit the hotel, I’ll be carrying on his work. It’ll be like I’m connected to him somehow.”

  “Can we go inside and look around?”

  “How about we save that for another time? There’s one more thing I wanted to show you,” he said. “One of my favorite spots. I probably won’t have much time to go up there anymore once I start the new job, so I wanted to head over myself anyway.” He directed the carriage onto a street that quickly took them away from the town center, passing through a residential area which in turn gave itself up to the grasses of the open prairie. Soon they were on a hilltop, parked in the shade of a tamarack, overlooking the town. Joe set the brake and leaned back as he let out a contented sigh. “Isn’t this a sight?”

  Amy let her gaze sweep over the rolling hills, so green with summer growth. An enormous shadow slipped slowly across the town as one of the puffy clouds above hid the sun, only to reveal its brightness again a moment later. “It’s beautiful,” she said.

  Joe nodded. “I love coming up here. It’s my favorite place to just sit for a while and think,” he said. “Shame I won’t be doing that anymore.”

  “Won’t be thinking, you mean?”

  He laughed. “Well, I guess nobody’s accused me of doing too much of that before anyway,” he said with a grin. “But I did think you’d like the view from up here. Was I right?”

  She took another look across the valley. Everywhere she looked she could see the strength and beauty of the land, from the lush grasses and thick stands of trees that covered the opposite hills, to the fields beyond the town that were awaiting their harvest. Things looked so healthy and peaceful that it was easy to forget for a moment that life was so dissimilar.

  She raised a hand to shield her eyes, but the tears were already beginning to flow. Joe could only watch as her shoulders trembled with her quiet sobs.

  “Amy, I’m sorry,” he muttered. “Did I upset you somehow?”

  “It’s nothing you did,” she said, though her voice was thick with emotion now. “It’s just that you’re so nice, so...different from your father.”

  Joe let out a short laugh, though Amy continued. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t be talking about him like that.”

  “It’s okay,” he said. “You think I don’t know what kind of hard nut that man is to crack?” Joe reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a fresh handkerchief, the creases still stiff and sharp. “I’ve lived with him all my life and I still feel like an employee most days. Like he’s one bad mood away from sending me packing, just like Carol,” he said as he gave her the handkerchief.

  “Why do you put up with it?” she asked, blotting her cheeks.

  Joe shrugged. “I don’t have much choice,” he said. “He’s the only family I have. For now, anyway.” He gave her a half-smile, like he was acknowledging a sad truth. “But I’ll keep on working, save up my pennies, and someday I won’t have to rely on him. Someday soon, I hope.” He bit his lower lip in thought, as if trying to decide how much to say. “You know, before you got here I was in a real rut.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “I was just doing the same work I had since I was a boy, carrying suitcases up and down the stairs all day, jumping to it whenever I heard them ring the bell at the front desk,” he said. “One day I woke up and I couldn’t remember what day it was. Sad thing is that it didn’t even matter.” He snorted and shook his head at the memory. “Every day was the same. Years had gone by and I didn’t have a thing to show for it. I felt like...well, have you ever seen amber?”

  Amy nodded. “My aunt had a necklace made out of it.”

  “I had a teacher one time who showed me a piece of amber with a fly stuck inside,” he said. “Think about that. Thousands of years, maybe more. Stuck there inside a drop, nothing changing, while the world goes on all around you. That’s how I felt. Like a fly in amber.” He was quiet for a moment and his gaze went blank, like he had been overwhelmed by the memory. “Sorry,” he finally mumbled, “probably all sounds silly to you.”

  “It doesn’t sound silly at all. Do you still feel like that?”

  He sat up straighter. “No,” he said, clearly and firmly. “I finally realized that nobody was going to live my life for me. I have to do it myself. That’s why I convinced my father to give me a chance at the new job.”

  “And got the horse?”

  “That, too,” he said. “It was time for me to do something I wanted to do, you know? It was time for a change.”

  “Time for a change,” she repeated softly, nodding.

  “Anyway, I didn’t mean to talk your ear off like that,” Joe said. “I actually just wanted to say that we’re happy you’re here, and that you should let me know if you need anything. I’m sure it’s tough, coming all the way out here alone. You must be missing your family something fierce.”

  “I don’t have any family. None that count, anyway.”

  “What? What about your parents?”

  “They died when I was a baby,” she said. “All I have from my mother is this locket. I never even knew her.” Her voice had died nearly to a whisper, and she paused to take a breath and regain her strength. “Joe, I have no right to ask this of you, and you have no reason to say yes. But I don’t have anybody else in this world, and God knows I need help now.”

  The concern welled up in his eyes. “What is it?”

  She reached for his hand. “I can’t marry your father. I don’t know what to do, but I can’t marry him. Will you help me?”

  Her skin was warm on his, and as he stared at her he was again struck by her beauty, regardless of whether she had red-rimmed eyes, tear-stained cheeks, and windblown hair. Still, at that moment it didn’t matter what he thought of her. She wasn’t his father’s fiancée just then, and he wasn’t Joss’ son. They were just two people sitting there, one opening her heart and asking for help from the other.

  Joe let his gaze slip away and he took one last glance at the town below. It was the same view, the same landmarks, the same hills rolling away to the horizon that he’d seen a thousand times, but he had the sense that things would be very different from now on.

  “Of course I will,” he said.

  Chapter 5

  Two hours. Amy could only shake her head as she thought about how much could change in so little time. Surely, somewhere out there, little babies had been born in the last two hours, and other people had passed away. Disappearing from this world, or making your entrance, all in so short a period. For some people, two hours could make all the difference, just as it had for her: in the morning, Joss�
��s house had seemed like it would end up being her nicely appointed prison. Now, in the afternoon, it was more like a hotel. She wouldn’t be staying here long.

  She went to the parlor’s front window and looked out to the street. There was still no sign of Joe, although Carol had not returned from the market yet either, so on the whole things could have been worse. Amy took her seat on the sofa again and went back to trying to think of a way out of her engagement to Joss. The ideas had been few and far between. In that way, two hours hadn’t made much of a difference at all.

  After she had explained herself to Joe, the ride back into town had been mostly quiet; surely he had been surprised, and Amy supposed that he must have been mulling things over as he’d driven her back to the house. In fact, he’d departed with barely a word, taking his father to run errands, and when Carol had stepped out to do the shopping, Amy had been left all alone with her thoughts. It had not been a fruitful time. She was no closer to solving her problem than she had been the day before.

  Still, in a way, that doesn’t even matter, she thought. Joe said he’d help, and that’s what counts. It had been so long that anybody had really been on her side—practically all her life, in fact—that the very idea was almost foreign, like it was some custom from a faraway land where they did things differently.

  She heard the heavy clunk of the front gate closing and glanced out the window in time to see Joe heading up the walk. Amy hopped up from the sofa and hurried down the hall to meet him at the door. For the briefest moment, she was surprised at how much lighter her heart felt just because of his arrival. But then, why wouldn’t I be happy to see him? He’s a friend, and it’s been a long time since I’ve had one of those, she thought. It’s all perfectly natural.

  By the time she reached the door and pulled it open, her grin was as wide as could be. Joe’s eyes lit up as soon as he saw her, and her smile was met with one from him, though he almost immediately wiped it from his face. Instead, he fixed a businesslike expression and nodded at her, as if he were trying to demonstrate how important he understood her situation to be. “Good afternoon, Miss Chase,” he said as he climbed the porch steps.