thirty

Abe slowed his steps in front of the livery. “Saddle up two horses,” he instructed Will. “And meet me down at Hemming’s Pub just as soon as you can.”

Will nodded and bounded off inside to take care of their mounts. The darkness of night had fully descended. Without street lanterns, the light from the taverns and hotels provided the only guidance to the busy thoroughfare.

Nightlife was just beginning with the sounds of piano music, laughter, and shouts wafting into the street as Abe lengthened his stride and made his way to the far side of town close to the riverfront and Shantytown.

He didn’t halt until he reached the front door of Hemming’s Pub. As he stepped inside the dimly lit eating house, the scent of baked sturgeon overpowered him. Many of the tables were still full, while the rest were littered with plates and mugs from those who’d had their fill and gone their way.

Abe glanced around for Mr. Hemming only to find a dozen pairs of eyes upon him. Everyone had stopped eating and talking to stare. The clatter of a fork and knife against a plate echoed in the silence.

He removed his hat, smoothed back his hair, and then took another step into the room. “I’m looking for Mr. Hemming.”

At the ensuing silence and intense scrutiny, Abe squirmed with the need to retreat into the coolness of the night. What was going on? Where were the warm greetings that usually met him everywhere he went?

“Pastor Abe. I thought I heard your voice.” Mr. Hemming limped out of the kitchen, one towel draped over his shoulder and another between his hands.

At the sight of the stoop-shouldered older man, Abe released a tense breath.

“What can I do for you?” Mr. Hemming asked.

Abe lowered his voice. “May I speak with you in private?”

“You may as well speak your piece in front of everyone.” Mr. Hemming’s usual smile was gone, replaced by a deep groove between his brows.

“My piece?”

“Everyone knows you’ve been carrying on with another woman and that Mrs. Merivale up and left you today because of it.”

“What?” Abe bristled, straightening to his full height. “That’s not true.”

Mr. Hemming crossed his arms and scowled. Abe glanced around the dining room to find that almost everyone else was scowling at him too.

“It’s true I received a letter today from the woman I once intended to marry. But I haven’t been ‘carrying on’ with her. Not in the least. I haven’t written to her or received mail from her since I got married.”

“Then can you tell us why Mrs. Merivale was so upset and determined to leave town?”

Again, every gaze fixed upon him. The wariness and mistrust in their eyes was more confirmation that he hadn’t been the kind of husband Zoe deserved.

“Unfortunately, this friend from Yorkshire is on her way to the colony to marry me. She doesn’t realize I already have a wife.”

Murmurs erupted around the room.

“Rest assured, I have no intention of abandoning Mrs. Merivale.” After today’s letter incident, he apparently needed to have a talk with Mr. Allard about the danger of spreading rumors.

“Then you’re not divorcing your wife?” came a call from across the room.

“Of course not,” he said adamantly. Although he’d briefly considered annulling their marriage the morning after the wedding, he hadn’t contemplated the idea again, not even once. And he still had no intention of it.

“I confess when I brought Mrs. Merivale here to Yale as my bride, I didn’t realize the treasure I’d been given. But over these past weeks, the Lord has shown me just what a precious gift she is. I couldn’t ask for a better wife—” His voice surprised him by filling with emotion and breaking off. He quickly cleared his throat. “I love her more than my own life. And I don’t want to lose her—” Again his voice cut out.

Thankfully, his confession seemed to soothe away the hostility, and the eyes peering at him filled with compassion instead.

“Glad to hear it, Pastor Abe.” Mr. Hemming approached, the usual friendly smile in place. “I was telling everyone I didn’t see how anyone could kiss his wife the way you did and not love her.”

Abe fidgeted again, this time with embarrassment. “I’m actually heading out right now to go after Mrs. Merivale to explain the misunderstanding, and I hope to bring her home.”

The nods around the room bolstered Abe’s determination. Everyone seemed to approve of his efforts except a lone stranger at a corner table who shook his head curtly. With the brim of his hat pulled low over his face, his features were too shadowed for Abe to distinguish. Nevertheless, the man’s censure radiated like a beacon in the dead of night.

“That’s why I stopped by.” Abe focused on the rest of the patrons. “While I have my suspicions she may have headed up into the canyon, it’s possible she might have gone downriver toward Victoria. I was hoping someone saw her earlier and can give me more information on her whereabouts.”

He didn’t want to start on the canyon route only to later discover she’d gone somewhere else entirely. If anyone could help him, Mr. Hemming was the man. Since his pub was near the waterfront as well as the trailhead, surely someone had come in with news not only of Zoe’s leaving but of where she’d gone.

Sure enough, one of the patrons called out, “Heard someone say she was talking with McLean.”

Hope flickered inside Abe. McLean was a rough-looking fellow, but he was decent and would look out for Zoe.

“Nah,” said another man from a table close by. “She took off with Dexter Dawson. Saw her riding out with him.”

Abe’s hope quickly snuffed out. “You saw her with your own eyes?”

The man hesitated. “Couldn’t be sure, since I just arrived and never saw Mrs. Merivale before. But she were a real purty lady with a babe on her back.”

“That’s her.” Mr. Hemming nodded his head vigorously. “With Violet.”

Abe replaced his hat. “Then I guess I’ll be heading out tonight to chase her down.”

“You won’t be getting her back,” said the stranger in the corner. “At least not tonight. And not by yourself.”

The certainty in the man’s voice stopped Abe.

The stranger pushed away from the table and rose. When he tipped up his hat, the shadows fell away to reveal dark hair and a handsome face with features that seemed vaguely familiar. He wasn’t a particularly large man, but something about his presence was overpowering, and the other patrons fell silent again.

He wound through the maze of tables and outstretched legs until he stood in front of Abe. He hooked his thumbs in his belt and studied Abe like a sheriff would a criminal. When he finally looked Abe in the eyes, the green was bright and keen and curious.

Abe pressed a hand against his pocket and the wedding band waiting for Zoe’s finger. The man’s eyes were the color of jade. The same as Zoe’s.

Abe’s pulse sped up. “Zeke?”

The man had long, dark lashes that were the same as Zoe’s. “The name’s Jeremiah. Jeremiah Hart.”

He had to be Zoe’s brother. Determined to find out, Abe leaned in and lowered his voice. “Your real name is Zeke, isn’t it?”

The man hesitated, wariness creasing his features.

“You’re Zoe’s twin brother.”

“Aye.”

Abe nodded, relieved that Jeremiah and Zeke were the same person. Zoe would be glad to know it. “She’s talked about you. And you share similar features.”

“So you’re the minister she married?”

“Yes, I’m Abe.” He reached out for a handshake, trying to comprehend the fact that Zeke was here in Yale.

Zeke gripped Abe’s hand solidly.

“Then you received Zoe’s letter?” Abe asked. “She got word that you might be in Williamsville, and she’s been waiting anxiously to find you.”

“Aye. I got her letter. That’s why I’m here.” Zeke spoke quietly, somberly. Was that regret in his green eyes? Maybe Zeke was as anxious to see Zoe as she was him. “Arrived in town early this afternoon. By the time I asked around and found out where she was living, no one was home. I went back several times, but she was never there.”

“She’ll be happy to see you and is hoping to make things right with you.”

Zeke stared at his boots a moment before meeting Abe’s gaze again, despair clouding his eyes. “With the way I left, I’m the one who needs to make things right with her.”

“Zoe came to tell you that you’re a free man. The real culprits were caught, and you’ve been exonerated.”

“Really?” Zeke’s head lifted and eyes widened. The expression reminded Abe so much of Zoe that his chest hurt.

“Yes. Really. I’ll let Zoe tell you all the details once we find her.” Abe clamped Zeke on the shoulder. “You’ll come along and help me bring her back, won’t you?”

“’Course. Wouldn’t consider doing anything else.” Zeke finally let his sights trail over the others in the pub, who’d mostly gone back to eating. “But I have to warn you that if Zoe’s with Dex, then she’s in a lot of danger.”

Fear pricked the back of Abe’s neck. “He’s a dangerous man. But I don’t think he’ll harm Zoe. He wanted to marry her and planned on it until I stepped in and married her first.”

“So he’s angry at you too?”

“Too?”

Zeke rubbed a hand across the back of his neck as if he had the same fear pricking him. “Dex blames me for stealing a claim from him. Says he got to the land first and that it’s his. But he knows as well as I do that it’s mine.”

“So you’re doing well for yourself?”

“Aye.” Zeke nodded. “I struck pay dirt nigh to the surface last spring and am still pulling out two to three thousand dollars’ worth a day.”

“Then you’re doing more than well.” At that amount, Zeke was a very wealthy man, maybe one of the richest in British Columbia.

From the way Zeke dressed and carried himself, he clearly hadn’t let his riches turn him into a proud man as Abe had seen the rapid rise to wealth do to other miners who landed upon profitable claims.

“Unfortunately, Dex wants my gold,” Zeke said. “He’s been trying to figure out a way to steal it away from me. And he may have just succeeded.”

“We won’t let him get away with it.”

Zeke leveled a look at Abe that sent a chill up his backbone. “No doubt the minute Dex figured out Zoe was my sister, he started plotting how he could use her to get my gold.”

Was that why Dex had offered to marry Zoe in the first place and why he’d been so angry when Abe had beaten him to it? So he could use her in his battle to take possession of Zeke’s gold?

“He won’t hurt her,” Abe said more to assure himself than Zeke. Even so, his insides twisted hard. If only he’d been a better husband, Zoe wouldn’t have run away. She would have wanted to stay with him.

Even as the guilt assaulted Abe, he realized he needed to find Zoe and get her away from Dex as soon as possible. “Can you be ready to go soon? We need to leave right away.”

Zeke hooked his thumbs back into his belt. “Dex always has at least four to five men with him wherever he goes. We’ll have a better chance of rescuing Zoe if we form a posse so we have the same number or more.”

“Will we have to fight them for Zoe?”

“I have no doubt we will.”

The gravity in Zeke’s tone only stirred the urgency in Abe, and he silently lifted a prayer for Zoe’s safety. He couldn’t bear the thought that Dex might hurt or use her in any way. The prospect nearly made him ill. “I can’t let anything happen to her,” he whispered, his voice suddenly hoarse. “I love her.”

“I can see that.” Zeke cracked a faint smile. “But you should know that once we free Zoe, if she doesn’t want to be with you, I’m taking her with me back to Williamsville.”

“I understand.” Abe swallowed the fear that kept pushing up. “But you’ll give me the chance to win her first, won’t you? I can’t let her go without trying.”

Finally Zeke’s smile spread, showing dimples identical to Zoe’s. “Good answer. I think I might like you after all.”