She sniffed and gave a small nod. “It feels a little bit like a betrayal that time marched on without me. But then I came here, and time hasn’t touched this place and I think that makes me even sadder. Like it got left behind and forgotten.”
“No one’s forgotten, Mere.” The shortened form of her name slipped off his tongue like a gentle caress. How long had it been since he’d spoken it, whispered it in her ear. He wanted to do that now, to haul her over onto his lap and hold her close, rock the sadness out of her and make her whole again. Make them both whole again.
“Don’t be nice to me,” she whispered. “You’ll make me start crying again if you do. And we both know you don’t mean it.”
Her simple statement took him aback. He’d meant every bit of it. She deserved nothing less from him, and God help him, he wanted to give her so much more. “Why wouldn’t I mean it?”
She ran a hand over the red-checkered board resting in her lap. “It’s just a game you play, I think. You’re sweet to me, make me think you mean it, and then it changes like the wind. Isn’t that what happened?”
Her question sliced into his heart driving deep and the guilt he lived with every day bled through him like a poison. How he wanted to tell her the truth. But what good would it do now? It wouldn’t take away the hurt. Instead, it would tear open an old wound with no hope of healing it.
“I never meant to hurt you.”
Her mouth twisted to one side. “Well, you did all the same.” She took a deep breath and let it out in a huff. “Anyway, that’s over and done with. And so is the crying. I’ve shed more than enough tears.”
“Seems to me you haven’t shed enough. The whole time your ma was sick, when your pa was on trial, even after he was sentenced, I kept waiting for you to break down but you never did.”
“I couldn’t.” Her chin trembled but she quickly regained control. “I was afraid if I started I wouldn’t be able to stop.”
He knew the feeling.
He decided to change the topic. It did neither of them any good to sit here and bemoan all the things Fate and stupidity had cost them. “What was on the piece of paper you showed Yucton yesterday? You said it was a ledger?”
She looked at him, sizing him up. He could see it in the narrowing of her eyes, the set of her enticing mouth. “You know, it’s very rude to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations.”
“They teach you that in Boston?”
She shot him a hard look. “There’s nothing wrong with manners.”
“There’s nothing wrong with asking questions either. What was the ledger from?”
She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Bill didn’t recognize it, so it’s a moot point.”
Hunter had questioned enough people in his day to recognize when someone was skirting his question. He switched tactics.
“Just how is it that you plan on proving your father’s innocence?”
She hung her head. “I’m not sure.”
“No plan?”
She sighed. “I thought if I came home, it would come to me. I’d see something, or think of something I had missed. I had hoped time and distance would offer a better perspective, but...” She looked at him and desperation turned her eyes a darker blue, as if storm clouds had scuttled in and leeched their brightness. She shook her head and defeat slumped her shoulders. “I know he’s innocent, I just don’t know how to prove it.”
Abbott’s guilt or innocence had been something Hunter wrestled with since the accusation was first made. The man he knew would never have committed such a crime. But the woman Abbott loved was dying. She needed medicines he couldn’t afford and more care than he could give her. Before Meredith, Hunter wouldn’t have thought that reason enough to break the law. But afterward he understood just how far a man in love would go. If it meant saving the woman he loved, there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do. No pain or consequence he wouldn’t suffer. Had love driven Abbott to take part in the rustling?
If it had, Hunter couldn’t blame him. In the end, hadn’t he done the one thing he swore he would never do to save the woman he loved?
“Help me up,” Meredith said, interrupting his thoughts. He pushed himself to his feet and took the chessboard from her before taking her proffered hand. It looked small clasped in his and once on her feet, he didn’t immediately let go. They stood close, the musty air of the cabin surrounding them. He waited for her to pull away, surprised when she didn’t. He could see the pain in her eyes, the loss. The need to comfort her proved too strong to resist. He stepped closer. His free arm slipped around her back and pulled her to him until she rested lightly against him.