CHAPTER SEVEN
Well, this was right up there with the stupidest things she’d ever done.
Gritting her teeth, Pearl walked into the wind. It hadn’t been snowing when she’d departed the Diamond but now it was falling with right ferocity, obscuring her vision and making her query the wisdom of continuing, however she were too far from the Diamond to turn back and with the way the snow was falling, she would get turned around besides and end up in the altogether wrong direction. At least she’d rugged herself up well and good, her boots fur-lined, her mittens thick, and her coat waterproofed. You didn’t live in these here parts without being prepared for the cold.
In the distance, a faint glow suggested shelter was near, and then a cabin that could only be Garrett’s appeared. She stopped in her tracks, staring at the light as relief poured into her. A light surely meant he were there. The porch was already starting to be banked with snow, but there was still a clear path to the door. Lifting her fist, she banged as loudly as she could.
The door opened and Garrett filled the space. His frown cleared the moment he spied her., his normally impassive mien all manner of surprised. “Miz Pearl?”
It took her a few goes to get her voice to work. “Garrett.”
He looked past her to the snow and a frown again drew his brows, this time paired with concern in his eyes. Wordlessly, he stood aside and she took that as the invitation it were.
The moment she crossed the threshold blessed warmth surrounded her, an almost painful sting against her cold skin. The fire burned cheerily on the opposite wall and she rushed to place herself before it, stripping herself of her mittens and coat. Once she was warmer, she would do the same to her shoes. Slowly, she felt again her toes and her fingers, each stinging with the return.
Turning so her back were warmed by the fire, she finally had the sense to look about the cabin. The fireplace behind her doubled as a cooking hearth, with pans hung above the mantle and a cupboard filled with basic foodstuffs. A sturdy wooden table paired with one chair were in one corner and in the other were an enormous, neatly-made bed, but then Garrett were an enormous man, weren’t he? All along one wall were bookshelves groaning with books, and another table that were more a desk piled high with ledgers and papers. The tools of Garrett’s trade were arranged meticulously in a cabinet beside the desk, gleaming with care.
Garrett stood to one side, regarding her quiet-like. He had not said a word since letting her into his cabin. Belatedly she realised the mess she had made, the wet on the floor and the untidy pile of her garments. “I’ll tidy them in a moment.”
“No need.” Grabbing a blanket from his bed, he handed it to her before removing her clothing from the floor to hang it on a line looked strung for that purpose. He then returned to regarding her once more.
Wrapping the blanket around her shoulders, she shifted under his gaze, the foolishness of her decision grating on her. His look weren’t helping none, and she knew he were castigating her in his own mind and wanted to speak but for some godforsaken reason would not do so. “You might as well speak, Garrett. I know you’re dying to.”
He stared at her, his brows drawn. He started and stopped a few times before he said, “Is your clothing wet?”
She blinked. It was wholly outside what she expected him to say it took her more than a moment to respond. “No.”
He nodded as if to himself, as if her words assured some internal argument he were having with his own self.
“Thank you for opening your door to me,” she said.
His frown deepened. He looked as if he were about to respond, but then he shook his head and said instead, “What were you doing out in that weather?”
“I’m returning your property. You left this at the Diamond.” Holding out the hat Simon had discovered on the bar that morning, she dared him to comment. He didn’t say nothing, but she could almost see the words floating around in his head. “It weren’t snowing when I left, and it didn’t look as if it would neither,” she said defensively.
His jaw worked. Gaze hard, he ground out. “It’s just a hat. I could have collected it when next I were in town, and if it weren’t there, they sell them for two dollars a pop at the general store. It ain’t worth the cost of you, Pearl.”
Her skin prickled. Garrett looking at her like that, so she could not look away and all she could see where his green eyes burning into hers, telling her he would notice the loss of her, and what’s more it would make him mourn…she didn’t know how to respond.
Breaking their gaze, he dragged a chair before the fire. “Sit down.”
The strange feeling passing, she said, “I’m fine.”
“Anyone can see that for the lie it is. Sit down, Miz Pearl, until you’re warm again. That wind out there is saying you won’t be leaving for a little while anyway, so you might as well be comfortable while you wait.”
Well, she couldn’t much argue with that, could she? She lowered herself into the chair and, now that she’d stopped, it was becoming rapidly clear how much her bones ached.
Putting his kettle on the fire, he then brought the chair from his desk over and sat himself. “It can’t only have been a hat. Why have you come?”
She didn’t rightly know why she’d been so insistent his hat were returned to him immediately, especially with unpredictable weather on the rise. It made her look a ninny, but all she knew was as soon as she’d learned it had been left behind, she’d burned with the desire to return it to its owner, to the point where she could not let it go.
She jumped as the kettle whistled shrilly.
Standing, he made his way to the cupboard and took out two mugs, dumping in tea and sugar. Once the water was poured and the tea steeped, he held it out to her. “This will warm you.”
She accepted the mug, wrapping her hands around the warmth.
“Well? Don’t think I haven’t noticed you ain’t answered.”
She stared at him, unable to think of a response. She couldn’t just…She hadn’t…“You ain’t been at the Diamond,” she burst out. “Again. For days and days, you haven’t come and no one’s seen you besides, not even that mother of yours who will tell all and sundry about how uncomfortable she is and how primitive she finds Ironwood, and will spout to any who will listen about her ancestors going back to the apple, but she had no notion where here son was, though it’s been days since anyone has seen you, and she just waved her hand and said you always turned up. How can a mother say such with such lack of concern?’
“You asked me mother about me?” A small smile tugged at his mouth. “You were worried about me.”
“What? No. Why would I be worried?”
The smile widened, turning the hard line of his lips soft. “I don’t rightly know. Why would you have been worried?”
She opened her mouth to protest again only to close it with an audible snap. She had no idea how to answer his question. She had been worried, and she hadn’t been able to relax until she knew he were safe and well and ignoring her and everyone else. Then, she could be safe old regular angry, instead of the sick churn of her stomach and the pain in her chest telling her something was horribly wrong. “You’re the one who was nowhere to be found, and you didn’t come for your hat, and I know you love that hat, and I couldn’t…I could only think…” She had thought the worst. She had thought he was out here alone and no one knew and that he might even have been— Pushing that thought aside, she lifted her chin. “But I can see you are here and as ornery and obstinate as ever. I’ll remove myself and leave you to whatever it is that has kept you from town for days.” Shoving to her feet, she grabbed her clothing from the line, the string rocking with the violence of her action.
The smirk fell from his face. “I don’t think it’s an idea for you to—”
Ignoring him, she strode for the door and wrenched it open.
Dismay filled her. It had darkened outside, though it couldn’t be more than partway into the afternoon, and the snow fell from the heavens so thick you couldn’t see more than ten feet ahead.
She felt more than saw Garrett come to stand behind her, his big body looming over hers as they stared out at the wall of white. Finally, he said, “I don’t believe you’ll be going anywhere, Miz Pearl.”
Outside, the wind howled.
To always receive the latest chapter, sign up for Cassandra’s newsletter