Page 30 of A Forgotten Heart (Wind River Mail-Order Brides #5)

They passed a shadowy back alley, and Elsie’s nape prickled with goosebumps.

Danna still hadn’t found Quade. Speculated that he’d left town for good. She’d said she believed Elsie to be safe.

So how long would it be before Elsie stopped jumping at every shadow?

The train whistle pierced the evening air, and its trill jerked her back to her mission.

Merritt slanted a glance toward Elsie. “Would it be so bad if your answer to Arnold were yes?”

Whose side was Merritt on? Nick was her cousin.

The ring Arnold had proposed with hung on a string around Elsie’s neck, hidden beneath her dress.

She couldn’t wear it.

“Merry Christmas, Miss Atchison.” Rory, one of her students, waved furiously from the back of a wagon parked across the street.

She waved back, her heart aching.

She couldn’t walk away from her students. Could she? Even if it meant seeing Nick in town.

She just didn’t know what to do.

Merritt sighed. “Elsie, what do you want?”

It was just like Merritt to cut to the heart of the matter. “Is it so wrong to want a family of my own? Someone who’ll care about me? Arnold is offering me that.”

“Of course not.” Compassion warmed Merritt’s voice. “I wanted it, and God brought me Jack.”

Merritt strolled a few more steps, quiet. “Do you still want those things with a man who isn’t Nick?”

Elsie’s muddled feelings were all Nick’s fault. Being on the ranch had let her see how the McGraws loved each other. With all their faults and failures, no family could be more loyal. Elsie wanted to belong to a family like that.

Merritt tugged Elsie to a stop on the street in front of the train station. “Will you really be happy if you say yes because it’s what your mother wants?”

Elsie squeezed her eyes closed. “She’ll be so angry if I reject Arnold. Stay in bed for weeks.” She ducked her head as her deepest fear blurted from her lips. “What if she says I’m not her daughter any longer?”

Her father had abandoned her. Never given a reason. Just stopped loving her.

What had Elsie done so wrong to make him give her away to a distant cousin who didn’t want her either?

The question always churned inside, never finding an answer.

Merritt’s hand closed around Elsie’s, a gesture of comfort that let Elsie draw air into a tight chest.

“She didn’t stop loving you when you cut your hair off at fourteen. Or when you moved to Calvin, even though she wanted you close.” Merritt’s eyes became earnest. “Elsie, even if your mother stops, I love you. Darcy loves you. Nick loves you.”

A sob hiccupped out as Elsie started to shake her head. Nick didn’t love her. But Merritt squeezed her hand.

“God loves you. Enough to adopt you as His daughter. You are a child of the King. Isn’t it time you started loving yourself?”

Something about Merritt’s words shattered a wall around Elsie’s heart.

Adopted by a heavenly Father. The idea seemed too grand to be true, yet warmth wrapped around her, so tender, so comforting that it couldn’t be anything but true.

Elsie drew in a cleansing breath and pinched her eyes closed, releasing tears to stream down her face.

To simply be who she was created to be, to stop trying to earn her way—it tore away the burden weighing on her heart.

Merritt pushed a kerchief into her hand. “Do you really think that marrying Arnold is the right thing?” Merritt whispered.

No.

The word echoed within her heart like a church bell heard for miles around. She couldn’t marry Arnold.

Elsie reached for the string around her neck and pulled the ring loose. Merritt watched, tense. Waiting for Elsie’s decision.

Elsie sighed. “I think I need to go give Arnold his ring back.”

Merritt smiled. “I think maybe you do.”

Elsie bit her lip and glanced toward the train’s steam, expanding into the frigid air above the building. “This is going to be hard.”

Merritt wrapped her in a tight hug. “But you can do it.”

The train whistle blew its last warning.

Merritt pushed her toward the platform. “Go! I’ll wait right here.”

Elsie picked up her skirts and rushed up the steps to the platform.

“Elsie!”

Glancing up, Elsie found Arnold leaning out the window of the second to last car. He waved, then motioned toward the door.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Elsie hurried to meet him.

Arnold met her at the door to the car, leaning down. “I didn’t think you were going to make it.”

The conductor shouted from behind her. “All aboard!”

Elsie opened her sweaty palm and held out the ring. “I’m sorry, Arnold. I can’t marry you.”

Arnold looked resigned. “So, that’s it, then?”

Elsie hoped Arnold could read the apology in her eyes. “It is.”

He closed his hand around the ring. The peace she’d been waiting for, hoping for, flooded her core.

Bending down, he kissed her cheek. “I wish you the best. You’ll make that rancher very happy.”

If Nick forgave her. If she wasn’t too late.

Her mouth tipped into a smile. “He’s not a rancher. He’s a teacher.”

The train jolted, the engine steam hissing in the air. Elsie stepped away as Arnold backed into the car.

He waved. “Good luck.”

A final blast of the whistle rang in Elsie’s ears as the train chugged forward.

She turned, determined to meet Merritt, then find Rebekah and a way back to the ranch. She’d only taken one step when an arm snaked around her torso from behind and a hand clamped over her mouth.

Elsie struggled, but the big, strong man held fast, looming over her.

The platform had already begun to clear, and no one seemed to notice as he dragged her into the shadows on the far end.

Where was he taking her? The platform ended?—

He threw himself back, dragging her along with him off the edge of the platform. Elsie plummeted into darkness.