CHAPTER3
All morning, Daisy felt as nervous as a newborn filly. Any moment, she feared the sheriff would be pounding on the door to arrest her. Finally, they were at the train station and she couldn’t wait to start the journey to her new life.
With a sigh, she stepped out of the carriage that had taken her and the other ladies to the train station. She glanced around at the people boarding and knew these were her final moments in Charleston, the city of her birth. The place her family resided. The family that had disowned her and kicked her out of the house with no means of support. The family she still loved with all her heart.
“Does everyone have their tickets,” Mrs. Newton asked the ladies.
Daisy held up hers.
“Now, girls, remember, you can come back to Charleston if this is not what you want. They will pay your way home.”
Doubtfully, that would happen. She could be betrothed to an ogre and she would not return home to Charleston, ever.
Just then she saw the police walking down the platform. Oh no, no.
He stopped in front of Mrs. Newton, and she pointed to Daisy, and then she walked beside them.
Her heart was pounding in her chest, but she held her head high and refused to be intimidated by them.
“Daisy, these men want to talk to you.”
“Make it quick, I’m about to get on this train and start my life over.”
“Did you hang a sign on Mr. Jones’s house last night?”
Daisy jerked back and stared at the lawman. “I was busy packing and preparing for my trip this morning. I didn’t have time for that scalawag Thomas Jones. What kind of sign are you talking about?”
The man studied her. “He’s the man who ruined you?”
“Yes, but what does that have to do with a sign?”
With a sigh, he gazed at her, staring into her eyes and she returned his stare, not willing to back down. She was not going to jail.
“Someone hung a sign on his gate that said beware defiler rapist.”
She started laughing. “Good for them. If you find out who did it, please tell them I said thank you.”
The man recoiled.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to Treasure Falls, Montana, as a mail-order bride. My new life awaits me away from men like Mr. Jones who society thinks is a good man.”
The officer held out his arm and laid it on hers. “And you’re certain of your innocence?”
She laughed. “Completely. I have been innocent all this time. Now I’m going to a place where society will not judge a woman so unfairly.”
With a sigh, he stepped back and shook his head at her. “Against my better judgment, I’m going to let you go. Good luck, Miss Miller.”
“Thank you,” she said and then turned to Mrs. Newton. “Thank you for helping me. I fear where I would have wound up if not for you.”
“You’re welcome, dear, now get on that train. Your new life awaits you.”
Daisy picked up her carpetbag that held the few things she’d managed to obtain. She walked across the wooden deck and stepped onto the train.
The conductor took her ticket and showed her to her seat. When she passed by Blanche, she winked at her.
And the two women giggled, sharing a secret.
She sank down across from Mary and glanced out the windows of the train. Her chest filled with unshed tears and she tried not to let them reach her eyes. She was on her way to a new beginning. A new life.
But there were so many things that she loved that she was leaving behind. Including her sisters. Her parents…well, her heart had hardened against them when they threw her out of the house, but still she loved them.
“To new beginnings,” she said under her breath.
“To new beginnings,” Mary replied.
The train whistle blew and the engine began to chug toward her destiny.