A question slipped into Tori’s mind and spilled out before she could tether it. “What’s your given name, Mr. Reid?” She tilted her head and affected a casual look, which would hopefully make the question seem less intrusive. He’d used the initial E in his letters, but he didn’t seem like an Edward or Elijah.
He raised his brows. “Ezra. What’s yours?”
Cheeky thing, he was. She bit back a smile. “Victoria.” His brows rose even higher at the stuffy name she despised. “But I allow friends to call me Tori.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “And what shall I call you?”
Why had she started this ridiculous line of conversation? One of these days she’d learn to filter her words. Should she let him call her by her given name? It was a liberty, and she wasn’t in the habit of allowing favors to men. Not at all. That gender tended to take their own freedoms whether she handed them over or not.
Yet she’d come all this way because she was fairly sure she could trust Ezra Reid, and maybe it was time to test him. “You may call me Tori.” And in an effort to keep some semblance of control of the conversation, she turned and strode back to take her place at the table. “Shall we finish discussing our plan to find suitable work?”
Several beats of her pulse pounded in her neck before Ezra’s boots thumped across the room to join them. He sank into his chair and leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table, clasping his hands in front of him. They were strong hands that seemed capable of anything asked of them. Yet quick and sensitive enough to tap out a message almost faster than her brain could process it.
She leaned forward and met Ezra’s gaze. “Could you teach me how to send messages on the telegraph?”
He pulled back, his chin lowering as his brows rose again. Then his face relaxed as a warm chuckle slipped out. “I can’t seem to predict what’s going to pop out of your mouth.”
“That’s the case for all of us.” Opal’s soft voice held a mirth that matched his.
Tori fought the burn rising into her cheeks. She wasn’t always this impulsive. It must be nerves from their unsettled future. She shot Opal a glare, to which her cousin responded with a cheeky grin, the little minx.
Perhaps it was best they got back to their earlier topic. She turned to Ezra. “I’ll agree to board with your sister until we can make other arrangements. But my other questions still remain. Do you have horses we can rent until we procure jobs? I imagine we’ll need sturdy transportation to travel the area.”
His gaze narrowed on her as if he were trying to read something in her expression. “Is there anyone we need to worry about? Someone who might not be pleased you left Boiling Springs?”
An image of Jackson flitted through her mind, his bushy black brows lowered in a way that he seemed to think made him desirable. Her gut roiled, but she pushed the picture out of her mind. Her uncle’s steward wouldn’t travel thousands of miles to find her or Opal. Now that they were gone, the lazy man would simply turn his attentions to another female on the Riverdale estate. She swallowed past a lump. She couldn’t worry about any of the others. Opal was safe—at least for now—and it might take all her focus to make sure she stayed that way.
She raised her chin a notch and met Ezra’s gaze. “No one.” The thought of her uncle—Opal’s father—sent a twinge through her. Uncle Max could very well be searching for them. Maybe. He hadn’t seemed concerned about their peace of mind or safety while she and Opal had lived under his roof, but he was just selfish enough to chase them when they disappeared. They hadn’t left any clues about where they’d gone, so there was no way he would find them. Of that, she was certain. Fairly certain.
Ezra studied her for a long moment, and something about the intensity in his gaze—or maybe it was the earnestness—made her want to give in and pour their whole sordid story out before him.
But she couldn’t do that. Not only did she have to stay strong for Opal’s sake, but she couldn’t ever tell the things that had transpired. It was all too…staining.
So she tightened her jaw against his look.
Another moment passed, and his expression softened. He shifted his gaze to Opal. “Can you think of anyone who might be searching for you, Miss Opal?”
Tori’s stomach tightened again, and she held her breath, willing her cousin to be strong. Opal blanched a little, but maybe the loss of color wouldn’t be noticeable to someone not well acquainted with her. She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
Poor Opal. The thought that her father would allow what Jackson had planned must be devastating, and a fresh spurt of anger flared through Tori’s veins.
“All right, then.”
Tori turned back to Ezra as he pushed up from the table.
“I’ll go hitch the wagon, and we’ll head to Mara’s.”
Ezra’s thoughts jumbled as he buckled the harnesses around Jim and Jack, the more laid-back pair of stage horses he liked to use with the farm wagon. Something wasn’t right with his two guests. His first instinct had been to assume they’d lost their good sense on a hair-brained scheme, but as he’d watched and listened to what they said and the answers they hedged around, deeper suspicions began to clog his throat.
The shimmer of fear on Miss Opal’s face had been nothing compared to the deep-seated pain he’d glimpsed in the depths of Tori’s wide brown eyes. She’d concealed the emotion quickly enough, masking it with that stubborn jut of her chin. But if her fear ran that deep, it helped make sense of why two young women would abandon their home and everything they knew to come west on what seemed like a whim.
And they’d come to him.
He still couldn’t wrap his mind around what he’d written in his letters that had made him and this wild territory seem like the safest place to be, but they’d come for help. And he’d do every last thing in his power to see them settled, safe and comfortable.
Tori studied the familiar scenery from the wagon bench as they rode. For about a quarter of an hour now, the view had seemed to be the same road she and Opal had just traversed on the stage. Maybe she should ask Ezra if he planned to take them back east himself.
Not that she really thought he’d do that, but at least he would see that she recognized the terrain. She’d learned long ago not to let men think she was a helpless creature. The more competent they considered a woman, the less they thought of her an easy target. Of course, any fourteen-year-old girl would be naïve. Experience could be a swift teacher, though, as swift as innocence could fade. At least that had been the case for her.
She pulled herself out of the bitter memories as Ezra turned off the main road—if you could call it a road. It was really a set of tracks grooved into the frozen ground. He reined the horses around a stand of barren tree trunks that would likely leaf into a vibrant forest in the spring.
“How far to your sister’s place?” She pulled her cloak tighter around herself as a gust of wind flipped up the edges. On her right, Opal snuggled in closer. Tori had taken the center position on the seat—sort of a buffer between Opal and the man—but that left her cousin more exposed to the weather. She wrapped an arm around her to share their body warmth.
“Not much farther. We have to drive up here to the low water crossing for the wagon. It’s a little quicker ride on horseback because of the shortcut, but still not too far this way.”
“We could have ridden the horses.” As the words slipped from her mouth, she heard the defensiveness in her tone. “I mean, you don’t have to make special concessions for us. Opal and I are both capable in the saddle.”
“I’m sure you’ll have use for those skills out here.” Ezra’s tone stayed even and genial. “I thought it’d be easier to transport your trunk and bags with the wagon, though.”
Right. She sank back against the seat. She would have realized that too if she’d thought before speaking.
The river soon came into view through the tree skeletons. And as they neared the water, the last of the obstructions cleared and a pretty farmhouse came into view across the way. Although the wooden siding wasn’t painted, the porch spanning the front and the rock chimney climbing the left side gave the place a pleasant, homey air.
The horses splashed into the water, and the wagon groaned as it teetered down the gradual slope to the river. Thankfully, the tributary seemed only a couple feet deep in this section. Low water crossing, indeed.
As they lurched up the opposite bank, Tori clutched Opal’s arm with one hand, and the edge of the seat with her other, but soon the ground leveled and the wagon returned to its steady rocking rhythm.
A noise sounded from the house ahead, although they were still over a hundred feet away.
“Uncle Ezra!” A child’s voice called before Tori made sense of the movement on the porch, then a figure clad in brown ran through the winter grass.
Ezra slapped the reins on the horses’ backs to urge them on, then pulled the leathers tight a minute later as the child reached the wagon. The girl clambered up, all arms and legs and blond hair barely restrained by her braid.
“Uncle Ezra. What are you doing here?” She climbed right into his lap, and Tori slid closer to Opal to give space for the squirming child. The girl gripped the reins in front of Ezra’s hands and jiggled the leathers. “G’dup, Jim. G’dup, Jack.”
Ezra chuckled, letting her take over as if she knew her place exactly. He removed one of his hands from the reins to grip his niece around the waist. “How are you, Katie? You keeping your momma out of trouble today?”
The girl turned to look at him and wrinkled her lightly-freckled nose. “Momma never gets into trouble.”
Ezra tapped that nose. “She’s got the wool pulled over your eyes, I see.”
Katie rolled her blue gaze as she turned back to the horses, and Tori couldn’t help but chuckle at the look that reminded her so much of herself at that age. Give the girl red hair and brown eyes, and they could be twins.
Of course, that was back in the happy times. Before her parents went to prison, abandoning her to the care of her uncle’s household. Before everything else.
“Katie, I’d like you to meet some friends of mine.” Ezra’s steady voice broke through the memories. “This is Miss Tori and Miss Opal.”
“How’do, ma’am. Ma’am.” She dipped her chin to each of them in turn, shyness seeming to overcome her boldness from a second before.
Tori glanced at Ezra and was captured by the glimmer of pride on his face as he watched his niece. So much caring shone there. Could it possibly be real? Not in her experience with men, but maybe Ezra was different.
“Ezra?” A woman’s voice pulled their attention, and Tori turned to see a pretty lady approach with a hand raised to shade her eyes. As she neared and lowered her hand, her features came clear. Large brown eyes seemed to illuminate her face, and her brown hair hung in a braid as Katie’s did. Her complexion was darker than her daughter’s, so Katie’s father must be fair-haired and blue-eyed.
Ezra positioned his hands over the girl’s on the reins and pulled the horses to a stop with a “whoa.” Then he slipped out from under his niece and climbed down the side of the wagon. The girl scrambled behind him, and he fit his hands around her willowy waist to swing her to the ground.
His gaze swung up to Tori’s, but he raised a finger. “I’ll be right back.” The twinkle in his eyes softened them in a way that called to her.
Then he turned away and met the woman—apparently, his sister, Mara. He gripped her elbows and leaned down to plant a kiss on her cheek. Then he straightened and held her at arms’ length.
She couldn’t hear the words he murmured in his deep tenor, but the affection in his actions—and the way his sister reached up to pat his cheek—brought a sting to Tori’s eyes. She forced herself to look away before the burn broke through her barriers.
Instead, she turned and focused on Opal, giving her a hopeful smile. “We’re here.”
Opal returned a knowing look and reached for her gloved hand, offering a little squeeze. “We’re here.”
Ezra turned back to them, leaving his sister’s side to approach the wagon. Tori didn’t usually allow men to help her from carriages and wagons, but she accepted the hand he offered, keeping her gaze on the wagon instead of meeting his.
“Ladies, I’d like you to meet my sister, Mara English. Mara, this is Miss Tori Boyd…” he paused as Tori reached the ground and released his hand. “…and Miss Opal Boyd.”
Tori brushed her gloves together, then stepped forward to greet Mrs. English.
She hadn’t offered more than a smile, though, before Ezra spoke again. “Mara, these ladies will be your houseguests for a few days. Shall I put their things in the spare room?”
A burn swept into Tori’s face at his bold declaration, not even asking if their presence would be acceptable.
“If that’s all right with you and Mr. English.” Opal, always the thoughtful one, jumped in to soften feelings.
“We’ll pay you for the lodging, of course,” Tori added. She didn’t plan to be the object of the family’s charity. She and Opal had a little bit of savings left after the train and stage fares. But they would need to find jobs soon.
“I’m so happy to have you.” Mrs. English sent them a smile, but it seemed a little wobbly. Was she just being polite? But her complexion had gone pale, too, and her lips a vibrant red. She looked almost ill.
Tori had the urge to step forward and take her arm in case the woman collapsed, but before she could act, Mrs. English whirled and started toward the house.
“Please come in and make yourselves at home. I need to check something.” She broke into a jog, one hand raising her skirts and the other pressed to her bodice.
Tori glanced at Opal, whose worried look showed the same concerns that tightened Tori’s middle. But Ezra hadn’t seemed to notice anything unusual. He was handing their bags down to Katie, who clutched a carpet bag in each hand and was trying to fit a third under her arm. The waif was practically buried under the things.
Tori strode to her and took two of the satchels, handing Opal’s to her.
“Just set those on the porch and I’ll carry them in with this trunk.” Ezra lowered the chest to the ground as though it were made of willows. “As soon as I settle the horses.”
“I’ll come help with Jim and Jack,” Katie called.
Tori took the bag from her, then Ezra’s niece scampered to the horses’ heads.
He jumped to the ground and sent Tori a wry look before he strode off to join the girl, who was now prodding the horses forward.
Tori couldn’t help but watch them go, taking in the sight of the tall man and the child in the waning light of dusk. From all appearances, Ezra was a better man than she’d even allowed herself to hope.
Yet that might prove to be a challenge of its own. Despite how easy it would be to trust him, she couldn’t give over the responsibility for Opal’s safety to any man.
Not even Ezra Reid.