Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Insert from Ch 28

"I will court who I want to! With, or without, your permission or blessing!" Nick slapped his hat on, biting off his next words." Also, I will find someone else to accompany us to Fremont. I am sorry to have wasted your time!" He stormed out of the room and up the stairs just as Jarrod, who had taken an extra long walk around Hayden, walked into the boarding house.

"They're gone." Heath was once again standing in the boarding house's living-room, his arms folded across his chest.

"What?" Victoria's face paled. "But when and how? We would have seen them." She looked towards the front door.

While Jarrod felt strongly that there was something Heath wasn't saying, he wasn't going to waste time trying to get the blonde-haired cowboy to talk. It would have been easier to pry open a bear trap than to do that when time was of the essence. After all, it hadn't even been ten minutes since Nick stormed out of the room. There was still time to find him. "I'll be right back." Jarrod turned and practically ran out of the boarding house. Soon he was combing Hayden and asking questions.

As for Heath, he walked past Victoria and slowly out the front door. The sooner he left the building, the better. After all, he couldn't tell anyone what he knew if he wasn't around them-not that Nick had sworn him to silence; he hadn't. He was staying out of this one. He wasn't surprised when he heard Victoria open the door and exit as well. He hadn't expected his stepmother to simply sit and wait at the boarding house while Jarrod did all the hunting. Though, he did not turn around and talk to her. He simply walked away.

While Heath headed for the café and Jarrod-along with Victoria- asked questions, the wind was blowing through the stagecoach that was traveling away from Hayden. While it wasn't blowing very hard, Nick, Elizabeth and Tabitha, who had exited the boarding house using the building's back door-which led to a flight of steps, still buttoned their coats all the way up. They-and their last-minute chaperone- had surprised the stagecoach driver outside town, but he'd taken them on as passengers without asking a bunch of questions.

Elizabeth, who was still reeling from the unexpected change of plans, sat across from the hot-tempered rancher and next to Tabitha. An elderly, gray haired woman who owned Hayden's Dress Shop and was pushing seventy-five sat next to Nick. The rancher's head rested against the window while he slept. For her part, Elizabeth was going over the past half hour in her mind.

"What…" Elizabeth, who had been sitting in the chair that stood in the southwest corner of the room she was using, jumped to her feet when Nick came flying into the room and grabbed his coat. However, she had no time to finish her sentence as he picked up her and Tabitha's coats and handed them to Elizabeth.

"It's Mother." He quickly told her what had taken place. "Only we need to leave now, using the back entrance. Tabitha needs to get to that school, and I don't feel like traveling to Fremont feeling like I'm walking on ice. Do you?"

Her eyes flew wide open even as she felt a wave of disappointment roll over her. Elizabeth had so hoped the Barkley matriarch would give her a chance. However, the urgency of the situation prodded Elizabeth into action. She handed Tabitha her coat and signed, 'Come'. It was a request Tabitha did not fight.

Once out in the hallway, Elizabeth and Tabitha followed Nick down the hall and made a turn to the left. The 'hallway' was barely four feet long and a door stood at the end of it. When Nick started to open the door, Elizabeth ventured to ask if leaving the backway was really necessary. However, before Nick could answer Heath was coming around the corner.

"Stay here." Nick spoke in a no-nonsense tone and hurried towards Heath. Because the two were actually keeping their voices low, Elizabeth couldn't make out everything that was said. However, she did catch 'Mother' 'Jarrod' 'Grown man' and 'Credit or blame is mine'. Again, all she could do was sigh.

When Heath disappeared back around the corner, and the famous Stockton rancher was once again leading her and Tabitha out the door, Elizabeth ventured to ask, "Can't we just catch the stagecoach while it's in town?"

Nick didn't answer her until they were off the steps and hurrying down the back alley. "I wish we could only, ten to one, Jarrod and Mother are looking for us right now. I just don't want to fight them, not with needing to get Tabitha to Fremont and that school. We need to get to the dress shop without any interruptions. I have a friend there. She may be willing to go with us."

Elizabeth shook herself out of her thoughts when the Widow Tinsdale, who had been watching her, spoke up. "I'm sorry you don't have the chaperone you thought you would."

Nick's explanation to the woman, when it came to Tabitha and her schooling, had been kept as short as possible. He'd finished the conversation with 'My mother isn't going with us after all. You said awhile back that you'd love to be able to travel. Could you come with us in Mother's place?'

"It's fine." Elizabeth smiled for the sake of the elderly woman. "I'm just glad you were available; though, I'm sorry we couldn't catch the stagecoach before it left town." That part, that they'd managed to catch the coach just outside of town was, in her eyes, a miracle. "It would have made the walk through the back alley unnecessary." Even as she said the words, Elizabeth wondered if that last part was entirely true. Could they have caught the stagecoach before it left town? Could they have done so without Jarrod or Victoria seeing them? She didn't really know only, for the sake of getting Tabitha to the deaf school in a timely manner, she hadn't argued with Nick when he insisted that they continue down the back alley.

"For the sake of that child." The good widow smiled at Tabitha, who had also fallen asleep. "And for the sake of a good friend," she said glancing at Nick-he'd helped her out on numerous occasions when he'd been through Hayden, "I don't mind. I just hope whatever is bothering the two of you will be resolved in the near future." She then turned her face towards the window.

Elizabeth stiffened as she remembered Nick asking her to say nothing to this woman 'as she has a way of seeing through a body, and I don't want to stand around in her shop answering a bunch of questions'. 'Looks like one doesn't have to say anything for the good widow to know something's amiss' Elizabeth thought as she too started gazing at the passing scenery.