Harvest Moon (Borrowed Brides 2)

“You proposed to my woman for my own good? I don’t believe it!” David drew back his own fist.

“When did you plan to propose to her?” Lee demanded, going for broke. He let fly a punch.

David blocked. “This evening. I had it all planned, dammit!” He drew his fist back a bit farther. “I’ve got a sapphire the size of a bird’s egg burning a hole in my pocket right now!” At that thought David froze. He unclenched his hands and used them to pat the pockets of his jacket. His left pocket flapped in the wind. “It’s gone! I’m gonna kill you!” He glared at Lee.

“Wait!” Lee held up a hand. “Don’t hit me! We’ve only got two good eyes between us.” He squinted at David’s battered face through the slit of his own rapidly swelling eye. “I’ll help you look for the ring.”

“You bloody well will!” David got down on his hands and knees, searching the street. “And if we don’t find it…”

Lee got down beside him, crawling around Main Street, combing the mud, looking for a sapphire ring the size of a bird’s egg.

“David!” someone screamed.

* * *

Tessa ignored the noise coming from the street as she crammed the last dress into the suitcase and snapped it shut. She grabbed her hatbox, then lugged the suitcase off the bed and into the office. Steam poured from the spout of the teakettle. Mary was nowhere in sight. Tessa set the suitcase down and lifted the kettle off the stove. Where was everybody?

“David!” Tessa heard the scream echoing from the street. She plunked the kettle down in the dry sink, crossed the room, and opened the front door. She made her way down the street, but she couldn’t see over the crowd of people standing in a large circle in the middle of the road.

“David!” Tessa heard the scream again. It sounded like Mary. Had something happened to him? Following the sound of Mary’s voice, Tessa looked up.

“Why are you stopping?” Mary demanded of the men crawling around in the street. “What are you doing, David? Get up. Hit him again!”

“Shut up, Mary!” Lee yelled back.

It was Mary. She and Coalie were hanging halfway out of an open second-story window in the hotel.

Her heart pounded at the sight. “Coalie!” Tessa shouted. “Get down from there!”

“Aw, Tessa!” Coalie wailed.

“Don’t ‘Aw, Tessa’ me, young man,” she shouted. “Get down and come over here. We’re leaving!”

“Where we goin’?” Coalie yelled back.

“Anywhere away from Peaceable, Wyoming,” Tessa answered. She went back down the street and inside the office to get her suitcase and hatbox.

“Christ!” Lee moved faster, scrambling to locate the missing ring.

“I found it!” David grabbed the ring, stood up, and held it out for Lee to see.

Upstairs in the window of the hotel, Coalie looked to Mary. “What do I do? I promised I’d come when she called.”

“Coalie!” Tessa shouted.

“Go on,” Mary told him. “But take your time. Slow her down before she gets to the depot.”

“I’m comin’!” Coalie yelled to Tessa.

“Hurry!” Tessa urged. “We don’t want to miss the train.”

Coalie ducked out of the window, left the room, and inched his way slowly down the stairs.

Tessa stepped off the sidewalk to cross the street. Her progress was hampered by townspeople. “Excuse me.” She bumped into someone’s back. “Excuse me.”

“We sure hate to lose you, Miss Roarke.”

“Congratulations, Miss Roarke.”