CHAPTER23
It was finally time to go home and Ellis couldn’t wait. He’d been on edge all day after reading the letter Daisy’s father had sent her. The man had admitted he’d been wrong and now he was begging his daughter to return home.
Would she?
“We need to talk,” Ellis said to Lee as they walked home. Normally this was the time they unwound and often spoke about what was going on in the store and the bank.
“What’s wrong?” Lee asked, turning and glancing at him.
“Remember that letter that Daisy received?”
“Yes,” Lee said.
“She left it out and I read it,” he said. “Our wife was innocent in the scandal that scalawag created and caused her to leave Charleston. Her father asked for her forgiveness and begged her to come home.”
Lee sighed and shook his head as they passed along the backside of a few buildings. “No. She’s not going to leave us. I think she’s happy. I know she makes me happy.”
Their boots made crunching noises on the gravel in the alleyway. It wasn’t far with this shortcut and it gave them some time to relax before they walked in the door.
“Agreed,” Ellis said. “I’m happier than I have a right to be.”
With his boot, Lee kicked a pebble out onto the street. “Someday I hope you realize that it wasn’t your fault Arianna died. It was the will of God and no one else.”
But Ellis should have been there for her. He should have been by her side. He should have been her husband. Instead, he’d let her father push him away.
“So our wife was innocent and now her papa wants her to come home,” Lee said. “She could be expecting. No, she’s not going to leave us. Why would a woman want to return to a place that treated her so badly? You’re worrying about nothing.”
“I hope like hell you’re right,” Ellis said, thinking he couldn’t take another woman breaking his heart. Not again. And right now, Daisy had his heart all tied up. He hadn’t planned on falling in love with her, but he would die protecting her and he couldn’t watch her walk away from them.
Not after the joy they had found in each other’s arms.
They walked along in silence, each man deep in his thoughts.
“Do you see that?” Lee asked.
“What?”
“There is a tin of flour lying back there. It looked like one that came from my mercantile. A brand new one.”
“So,” Ellis replied, “Maybe someone dropped it and will come back looking for it.”
“There’s a container of oats. Daisy bought oats earlier today.”
Ellis jerked toward the container. They walked a little farther and there was another container and then some yarn.
“These are the items she purchased at the mercantile,” Lee said. “Something is wrong.”
They were almost to the house and they both began to run. Ellis was the first one through the door.
“Daisy,” he yelled.
Silence.
“Daisy,” he said, running up the stairs.
No one.
“She’s left,” he said, thinking he’d been right. “She’s decided to return to Charleston.”
Lee stood, shaking his head. “No. Somethings wrong. Check her closet. Are her clothes there?”
Ellis ran to the closet and the new dresses they had bought her hung in the closet.
“Then why is she not here? And why do I get the feeling those groceries have something to do with her disappearance?”
The two men stood staring at each other.
Suddenly it hit Ellis and almost knocked him to his knees.
“Henry Cox,” he said. “Today is Arianna’s birthday.”
It must be the reason she was on his mind so much today.
“Those groceries are her letting us know where to find her,” Lee said, running out of the room and down the stairs. “I’m going to kill that old man.”
Ellis was right behind him. This time Henry had gone too far. In the past, Ellis had sympathy for him and he even felt some remorse, but not this time. This time Lee was right; he was going to kill him.
They ran out the door and began to follow the trail of their groceries, so glad that someone had not picked them up. The last one was twenty feet from Henry’s door.
“Wait,” Ellis said, grabbing Lee’s arm. “Henry set this up. It’s a trap for him to kill us.”
“I don’t give a damn,” Lee said. “He’s got Daisy.”
They were both breathing hard from running the blocks to Henry’s home.