ur cousin come sundown.”
Mouth stretched in a most unsettling smile, Stockton started for the door.
Pitman motioned to Higley, who came to take charge of Willis. Standing, the man limped past, and Joseph stilled, clutched by his powerful stare. In the dark centers of Willis’s eyes, past the bruises and the sheen of the unknown, was courage—an unearthly fearlessness that flashed and exploded, hitting Joseph square in the chest, and his muscles seized.
No matter what happened, their fight was not over. Nay, ’twas only just beginning.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Arm in arm, Hannah tugged Caroline out of the warm lavender-scented shop, spirit bright, shoulders stripped of the burdens that weighted her, at least for the moment.
“I must be on my way.” She spoke the words but didn’t feel them.
“Are you sure you cannot stay a half hour longer?” Caroline’s pleadings had taken Hannah’s short stay far beyond her allotted time.
She glanced at the sky and squinted. Indeed it must be nearing supper. Good heavens. She should go before darkness sifted its gray over the road. Caroline pleaded with wide eyes as Hannah attempted to navigate the turmoil that raged like a foaming sea. She didn’t want to go back, and yet she did. There her heart nested, and not only because ’twas Eaton Hill.
Hannah groaned aloud, the weight of her quandary halting her feet. “Oh, Caroline, I must go. I have stayed too long already.”
Her cousin swirled to face her, holding Hannah at the elbows. “Did you not say you were to attend a ball? Have you what you shall wear? You cannot go in just any gown—”
Hannah shook her head, a wry grin tugging at her lips. She sidestepped her cousin, pulling her to follow. “Even if I wished a new gown, I haven’t coin enough to purchase one or time enough to make one.” A feathery memory of the gown she’d seen in Duxbury tickled her mind, but with a shake of her head, it blew away. “Nay, I am content with this bit of ribbon for my hair—your graciousness in purchasing it for me shall not be forgotten.”
Caroline tried to protest, but Hannah spoke over her playful pleadings with a light chuckle. “In truth, I must be on my way.”
Lips scrunched and twisted, Caroline’s pert expression made a smile form on Hannah’s face.
Sighing, Caroline shrugged and continued walking in the direction they’d been heading. “This way is home then, so we shall continue—but do not look ill upon me if I cannot resist pulling you aside for another glance in the shoemaker’s shop. I hear they’ve a lovely new pair of red shoes. Have you not always wanted a red pair?”
Grinning, Hannah hugged her cousin closer, wishing with all her soul she would not have to say farewell to such a friend.
They reached the corner where the shoemaker’s shingle reached out, iced in place by winter’s bony fingers. They hurried across the street, and Hannah gasped at the figure walking opposite them on the other side of the road.
Caroline followed her vision and sighed, her shoulders visibly drooping as much as Hannah’s. “That man looks so much like your father.”
Hannah swallowed and kept on, stopping in front of the window. “I fear seeing him again. Though I know I will…” She allowed both her words and thoughts to fall away.
Taking her hand, Caroline offered comfort in the softening of her eyes. “I know you wish things to be mended.”
Would they ever? “I must place my heart only upon things I can control, I suppose. And leave the rest to Providence.”
“You can control what you wear to the ball.”
The sudden change of subject made Hannah smile once more. “You are more eager for that night than I am.”
“I cannot understand why.” Caroline’s eyes went wide and playful. “You will look so utterly breathtaking—you shall steal every attention in the room.” She looked forward, chin slanting up. “As I cannot go myself, I shall require you to inform me of every detail to exactness.”
Hannah laughed through closed lips, forcing her reluctant feet to begin walking again. “That I will be most happy to relate, though I doubt I shall steal every attention in the room. I am hardly beautiful, and certainly not as young as I used to be.”
With a gasp, Caroline stopped midstep. “If you believe that, you are hysterically mistaken.” She must have sensed the demand in Hannah’s stare not to argue the point any longer, so she continued walking again, not speaking until a mother and child darted into the cooper shop beside them. “It matters not what you think, for I know it to be true, and without question Joseph will think you the loveliest woman in the world. This I know.”
Swept away by the thought, Hannah allowed her girlish imagination to tug her to the future. Would he think her lovely? Would he stare overlong and offer that bewitching half smile she loved so well?
“Caroline, there you are!” A woman approached them in the street, her arms laden with a full basket of fabric. “I have been in search of you.”
Chirping with delight, Caroline turned toward the voice. “Anna, how good to see you.”
The two shared a quick embrace before Caroline swung aside. “Anna, allow me to introduce to you my dear cousin Hannah Young. Hannah, this is Mrs. Anna Donaldson.”