Page 32 of The Pursuit of Elena Bradford

32

Kirby watched for Elena after the funeral. He was disappointed when her mother and Ivy came in the hotel without her to head up the stairs, but that might be better. The mother had yet to smile his way. She could definitely spoil his chances with Elena.

He waited close to the door as people streamed inside and toward the dining room. She didn’t come in. A couple of older ladies tried to get him to join them. Normally, he would have smiled and gone along, but this evening he was determined to talk to Elena.

With the promise that he would find them later, he stepped away to peer out a window. Elena was next to the veranda railing with General Dawson. What was it with that old man and Elena? Did he think his money could buy him a young wife the way he’d wanted to buy Elena’s portrait? Kirby probably would have a pocketful of cash if he’d let the general have it, but sometimes it rankled when a man with money thought he could get whatever he wanted.

Besides, he liked the portrait. He shouldn’t have freed her hair from those tightly braided buns, but it seemed somehow necessary. Elena had liked it. He knew she did, even though she had never seen herself that way in a mirror. Today he had been her mirror.

The old man hadn’t wanted to buy it because he liked it. Instead, something about the portrait, something about Kirby, bothered him. Another reason not to let him buy the painting. He might have destroyed it somehow. Still, money was money. He couldn’t remember ever refusing to sell one of his paintings. He once even sold a portrait he’d done from memory of his little sister. He could always do another. That was true with Elena too. Especially if she agreed to marry him.

Marry him. He had come to the Springs to find a wife to finance his dream of going west. He needed the money, but what would he do with a wife? Ever since he left the farm, he’d been on his own and able to do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.

Having a wife could change that. Most women wanted children, and want them or not, they generally came along pretty fast after a couple married. The idea of being a husband was shocking enough, but thinking about being a father was terrifying. How could a man roam the west if he had children?

He shrugged off those worries. He had always been able to figure out how to do what he wanted. Being married wouldn’t change that. The only thing it would change was having the money to do those things. Besides, Elena seemed the adventurous sort. She might like roaming the west, and didn’t women who went west figure out how to raise their children the same as they did here in Kentucky? Things would work out.

He actually felt a flame of excitement at the thought of marrying Elena. She had a unique beauty that he had captured in the portrait. To make it all even better, she was an artist. She would understand about the pull to capture images with paint. She would support him.

All he had to do was ask her as soon as he got that old general out of the way. She couldn’t be considering anything romantic with him. Just as he thought that, the old man laughed and put his hand over Elena’s on the railing. She was smiling. An easy smile. That didn’t mean anything. Probably the old codger had told her some story he thought was funny and she was being polite. She wouldn’t politely promise her life to him. Not if she could choose Kirby instead.

Her mother and sister called to her to go in for dinner. The general went first, but Elena hesitated a few moments as she stared out at the view from the veranda before she followed him.

Kirby headed toward the kitchen, where he would get one of the servants to fix him a plate. Dr. Graham could entertain his old ladies without Kirby’s help tonight. He would eat fast and be back here to watch for Elena. It looked a perfect evening for a walk. A romantic walk. He wasn’t waiting any longer.

After dinner, Elena’s mother and Ivy were both ready to return to their room. Ivy was exhausted after the funeral, and Mother felt a headache coming on. Elena promised to be along shortly, after she went out on the veranda to enjoy the evening air. The nearly full moon was just coming up to spread silvery light over the grounds.

The general followed her out to tell her good night and ask her to promise not to wander alone on the grounds.

“Don’t you think I would be safe?” Elena asked.

“I’m sure you would, but it’s never a good idea for a beautiful young lady to step out into the dark alone.”

“The moon is full. That will make it almost as bright as day.”

“But there are shadows. Deep shadows.” He studied her. “If you must walk, I will go with you.”

“No.” She could tell the general was tired. “I promise to stay on the veranda. You go rest, and tomorrow you can teach Ivy how to lawn bowl.”

“Perhaps we can talk Juanita into giving it a try as well. She claims that when she was a girl, she was the best of all her friends at keeping her hoop rolling.”

“She never told me that.”

“I’m sure there are many things about your mother you don’t know. That is how parents and children can be. Divided by years and expectations. But now that you are a young lady, the two of you can be friends as well as mother and daughter.”

“I hope so.”

“Sometimes we need to do more than hope. We need to add actions to that hope of friendship.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

He smiled and patted her arm. “Good night, Elena. Tomorrow will be another day. Just give thought to what I said earlier about Andrew. And you.”

She watched him go inside. Even though he was tired, he still had a spring in his step that hadn’t been there when she shared that first dance with him a few weeks ago.

And what about her own steps? She had changed too. Happy to have partners for the dance instead of dreading it as she had on those first nights. She was no longer afraid of the thought of romance. She had met men who might make her consider marriage. Of course, she had yet to hear even the hint of a proposal.

The general saying Kirby had painted her portrait with love had to be his matchmaking imagination. Not that he wanted her to make any kind of match with Kirby. He was pushing her toward Andrew. A place she would be more than ready to go, but even though General Dawson said Gloria wasn’t the match Andrew needed, that didn’t make it true.

She had sneaked looks across the dining room at Andrew and Gloria. She was beautiful with her honey-brown hair, her perfect nose, and bow-shaped lips. The way Ivy was. The way Vanessa had been. No matter how Kirby had flattered Elena in the portrait he’d done, she did not have their beauty.

Andrew was very attentive to the woman. After all, she was his intended whether the general thought she was his best choice or not. The general wasn’t the one making that choice. Nor was Elena.

Besides, she hadn’t known Andrew nearly long enough to consider herself in love. So what if her heart had felt lighter when they were talking and she had matched his dance steps with ease? She had simply allowed herself to be carried away by his kind offer of friendship.

There would be someone else for her. Someone she might yet find before they left the Springs. If not, then after she returned home. She could stop hiding out in her father’s rose garden. She was ready to begin life on her own. If not with a husband, then as a teacher or clerk or something. She needed to be something other than a spinster daughter with no future.

“Lovely night, isn’t it, Elena?”

Elena jerked around to see Kirby. She had been so deep in thought that she hadn’t noticed him coming up behind her.

“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“No, that’s fine. I was simply woolgathering.” She smiled at him and tried not to think about what General Dawson had said. No way could Kirby Frazier be attracted to her. “I was enjoying the moonlight.”

“Would you like to take a walk?” He offered her his arm.

She thought of her promise to the general, but she wouldn’t be alone. Not that he would approve of her escort or the fact that the two of them would be alone with no chaperone.

“It would be lovely to see the lake in the moonlight.” She slipped her hand under his elbow.

“Then that is where we will go.” He smiled down at her as he led her toward the steps off the veranda.

The trees and flowers along the walkway took on a different beauty in the evening light. “Have you ever painted a moonlit scene?” Elena asked.

“I have, but never one with a lady wearing black. That would be an interesting study of moonlight and shadows.” He looked at her as they moved past a pine tree’s shade. “If you were to duck your head to hide your face under your bonnet, you might look like a shadow.”

She stopped and looked down. “Have I disappeared into the gray of night?”

He laughed. “Not completely. The moon may be too bright this evening, but you do make a lovely shadow in the night.”

“A shadow in the night.” Elena echoed his words. “That could almost describe Vanessa. A shadow, but a bright one, that fell across our paths for just a moment and then was gone. Ivy and I wanted to honor her by wearing a symbol of mourning, although I do think Vanessa might have preferred we wear our brightest dresses instead.”

“Will you continue to wear black?”

“Oh no. Black is a trial in the summertime. Summer needs light, bright colors.”

“Men wear black or dark colors all year round.” He seemed to be teasing her with that.

“True, but men can remove their jackets during the heat of the day.”

“And roll up their shirtsleeves. Especially an artist wielding a paintbrush.” He waved his free arm around in the air to demonstrate. “Part of doing ladies’ portraits is the performance.”

“I didn’t notice you performing while painting mine today.”

“You are right. I hoped to impress you with the actual art.”

“I’ve never worn my hair like you painted it.”

“That was a bit of artistic license that I perhaps should not have taken. I could paint it out and do your hairstyle more as it is now.”

“No, no. That isn’t necessary. I can’t take the portrait, so it really doesn’t matter if it resembles me that much.” Better that it didn’t, she thought. “Since I couldn’t pay you for your work, you should have let General Dawson buy it.”

“I could have, but I didn’t. Men like him think everything can be bought, and that’s not always true.”

“Do you think General Dawson wealthy?”

“I would guess nearly all of the guests here are well off.”

“I suppose so.” Elena looked ahead down the path as she wondered if there were others here like her pretending to be something they weren’t. Maybe it would be best to slide away from talking about money. “Do you have family, Kirby?”

“None to speak of. I’ve been on my own since I was sixteen.”

“Always as an artist?”

“Yes, but I’ve done plenty of other things to get by.”

“Such as ladies’ portraits instead of painting something more creative?”

“You’re very intuitive, Miss Bradford. Not that it doesn’t take plenty of creativity to please those ladies you speak of.” He smiled. “I don’t think I even pleased you with yours.”

“It was lovely and very creative. I have looked in plenty of mirrors.”

He stopped walking and cocked his head to the side to peer at her. “But obviously with eyes too critical.”

His eyes seemed to be seeing more about her than she wanted to reveal, just as he’d seen more about her while painting her portrait. It could be she should have told him good night and returned to the safety of her hotel room instead of agreeing to walk out in the moonlight with him.

Safety? Why did that thought come to mind? She was safe walking this pathway with him.

She let his remark go unchallenged. “What are some of those things you’ve done other than art? If you can tell me.”

He laughed then and began walking again. “I have yet to rob a bank or anything like that, although some husbands have thought my prices for their wives’ portraits were highway robbery.”

“But the wives were pleased?”

“I learned early who needed to be pleased.” He was quiet for a moment before he went on. “Have you ever had a dream? Wanted to do something so much that you would do almost anything to find a way to make it happen?”

Everyone seemed to be challenging her view of her future. Did she have any dreams? Any hopes? The memory of Andrew sitting among the hollyhocks with her flashed through her mind. If that was a hope, it had vanished like mist at sunrise.

Could Kirby Frazier be a hope? She had thought so when she walked with him in front of the stagecoach horses. He was so good-looking. So manly and yet an artist. She liked him. She truly did, but something was missing. Then again, she had considered a life with the general. While she had never been able to imagine loving General Dawson, she could imagine loving Kirby. She didn’t now, but surely she could.

He watched her as he waited for her answer.

“A dream,” she said. “I suppose most women dream of marriage and family.”

“Most women? Does that not include you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe if I met the right man. My mother says I never tried to find whomever that might be.”

“Could it be you were wishing for something better?” he asked.

“Wishes don’t always come true.”

“I believe they can if we wish the right things.”

They had reached the lake. She freed her hand from his elbow as they stopped to admire the still water kissed with silvery sparkles by the moon. Frogs added bass notes to the trill of katydids and crickets. In the distance, an owl hooted.

After a moment, she said, “But I hear in your words you do have such a dream. That something you would do almost anything to make happen.”

“I can draw maps.”

Elena glanced over at him, not sure why he mentioned maps. Perhaps he wanted to change the subject to keep from talking about his dream.

But then he went on. “So, I talked a surveying party into taking me west with them. They were desperate since the man they had lined up to record their journey and make those maps did something to get arrested. They figured taking a chance on me was better than trying to break him out of jail.”

“I’m sure you had no problem drawing their maps.”

“I learned as we went along. By the time we got to new territory, I could make the maps they wanted, but I saw so much more to record. The country out there is incredible. That was ten years ago, and I’ve been working for a way to go back ever since.”

“Ten years is a long time.”

“I know.” He kept his gaze on the lake. “I had a room full of paintings I planned to sell earlier this year, but the hotel where I was staying had a fire. Everything was destroyed.”

“That’s terrible.” Elena touched his arm.

When he captured her hand, she didn’t try to pull away, but she didn’t feel the lightning flash she’d felt that morning when Andrew took her hand.

“You would like the west.”

He put a finger under her chin to turn her face toward his. She had the feeling that if she took a step toward him, he would draw her into an embrace. She didn’t take that step or speak. She had no idea what to say.

He traced her cheek with the tips of his fingers. “You could sketch the flowers you see.”

“Are there flowers?”

He looked a little puzzled by her question. “Aren’t flowers everywhere?”

“I suppose so, and I’ve read that cacti have blooms, and sometimes after a rain, the desert explodes in flowers.”

“It’s not all desert. There are amazing things to see out there.”

“Amazing things for you to paint and perhaps flowers for me.”

She didn’t know why she felt let down. She did sketch flowers. She wasn’t the artist he was, but had he even noticed a flower while he was in the west? Of course, he would have been only a little older than Ivy then. A boy didn’t always appreciate the beauty of flowers. He was seeing mountains and rock formations and canyons, perhaps even the boiling pools and geysers she’d heard about.

“It will be perfect for both of us. All I need is a stake.”

“A stake?”

“Enough money to get me there and keep me going until I start selling some of my work.”

“I see.” And she did see.

She almost laughed as she realized he thought she could supply that stake. That her family was one of the well-to-do guests here at the Springs. That she had money.

She stepped back, away from the touch of his hands. She started to tell him how wrong he was but decided to wait. Too much had already happened on this day. Tomorrow she would find words to let him know he would have to look elsewhere for that stake.

“I better go back to the hotel. Mother might be worried.” She wouldn’t be. She’d be in bed asleep by now, but he wouldn’t know that. She turned to start away from the lake.

He caught her arm to hold her there for another moment. “You will think about it, won’t you, Elena?”

“Of course.” She doubted if she’d think of anything else. Unless it was Andrew.