Lord, help.I don’t know what to do. Why is thisso hard?
In that moment, silence filled every crevice of the room and his mind. Then...
Tell her the truth.
Where did that crazy thought come from?
But then it reverberated in his heart. All these years, he’d kept it all bottled up inside. Well, maybe it was time. So he could truly let her go. He could tell her and leave. That way she’d understand why he couldn’t be at her beck and call anymore. It hurt too much. And he knew Eliza—she’d neverintentionallyhurt him.
He’d get it all out in the open and she’d finally understand. Then they could put all this behind them.
Once and for all.
THURSDAY, JULY13, 1916•ADAMSFARM
As her horse made its way back home, Eliza tried to sort through her thoughts and feelings. But everything was such a jumble. Between her grief, shame, aggravation, and fluttering heart, she was certain the world must be upside-down.
Tomorrow, she needed to tell the truth. Somehow mend fences with Devin. Then get back to digging. Deborah would be waiting for her first thing in the morning.
As she rode up to the house, she tugged a bit on the reins. “Whoa.” Mr. Adams always told her to leave her horse tied to the post, and he would take care of it. So she dismounted and went about unbuckling the straps that held the picnic basket and her bag of tools.
But a corner of something white was sticking out of the basket. That was odd.
She opened it up and found a piece of paper.
As she unfolded it, she gasped at the scrawled note:
Stop digging on the Meyer ranch and at the quarry or I’ll bury you with all the other bones.
eleven
“My plan is to spend the summers in the fields collecting fossils ... and the winters in describing the new finds.”
~Earl Douglass
FRIDAY, JULY14, 1916•ADAMSFARM
Eliza was tired. Her heart. Her mind. Her body. Everything was just plain old tired. Thank heaven the quarry was still closed. And she wasn’t meeting with Deborah until later. Right now, sipping coffee on the front porch with the Adams women laughing and chatting around her was as much as she could manage.
Especially after finding that note. She should probably show it to Devin. As if he needed one more thing to plague him in addition to what she’d done to him the other day. Still, she longed for his presence—mad at her or not. He would know what to do.
She took another sip of her coffee and worked to still her swirling emotions. Right now, she should be ecstatic that she’dmet Dr. Masterson. That he wanted to discuss one of her papers! And she should be even more ecstatic about the fossils out at the Meyer ranch.
Instead, all she could think about was her best friend.
With a shake of her head, she released a huff. She’d made a mess of things.
Horse hooves pounding the packed dirt silenced all conversation. Eliza narrowed her eyes. Was that ... Devin? It was. Her shoulders tightened as he slowed his horse to a trot, then stopped at the small barn on the edge of the Adamses’ property. A minute later he emerged and made his way toward the porch.
She put her mug on the small table next to her and stood. Her palms slicked with sweat as he made his way up the stairs and toward their group.
“Good morning, ladies.” He nodded at each one, connecting with Eliza last.
Her breath hitched. All traces of the anger seemed to be gone. Hope sparked a tiny flame in her heart. Perhaps they were all right after all.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but would you mind if I borrowed Miss Mills?”
Mrs. Adams stood and gestured for her daughters to follow her lead. “Not at all. Let’s go in, girls, we can start our lunch preparations.”
