If only she knew which choice would lead to less heartache in the end.
“It was arson.”
Thomas could barely make out Isaac’s words above the wind whipping over the lake. “I was thinking the same thing.”
“There’s no other explanation for why the back door is burnt to a crisp, especially not when the stove is mostly intact.” Isaac shook his head, which was already bent low to ward off the wind as they headed down North Street toward the sheriff’s office. “If the fire would have started where she says she left her lamp, then her sewing machine would be in worse shape, but that’s still mostly standing, just covered in soot.”
Thomas glanced over his shoulder at the charred remains of his Jessalyn’s building. “Why would someone want to burn my wife’s shop down?”
“You tell me.” Isaac’s jaw was rigid as he spoke.
Thomas lifted his shoulders, then let them fall. “Uh, she overheard something she shouldn’t have when some ruffians dropped mending off?”
“If that’s the case, then your wife was the target, not her building, which means she might still be in danger.”
A chill slithered up his spine, and he glanced over his shoulder a second time. Was that Jess’s form watching them from the window above the telegraph office? “Don’t suppose you have any other theories about why someone would burn down her place. Preferably one that doesn’t want my wife dead.”
“Only the same theory I had about why those shanty boys tried to bloody me.”
“A distraction from something bigger going on?”
“Got any other thoughts?” Isaac climbed the steps to the porch.
“No, but the fire was the only trouble last night, right?”
“So it seems.”
Which left someone attacking Jessalyn the bigger possibility. “We’ll need to watch the town carefully tonight.”
“Already planning on it.” Isaac’s gaze traveled down the road to the telegraph office. “Is she going to be all right? She seems pretty shaken up. But I reckon I’d be the same way if my home and shop burned.”
Thomas rubbed the back of his neck, stretching his shoulder at the same time. His wife hadn’t seemed all right since he’d returned. She might say she was well and claim she could do everything on her own, but she was always so overworked and frazzled.
“I suppose we’re both a bit of a mess, and not just because of the fire.” Thomas glanced at Isaac, still standing in front of the door to his office, his gaze riveted on the apartment.
Thomas let the next words drop from his mouth straight and direct. “Is there anything between you and Jessalyn that I should know about?”
There hadn’t been an affair, surely that would have come out by now, but maybe a kiss or two? Intimate talks shared over coffee in the morning or while watching the girls play? They seemed too close, Jessalyn too willing to share things with Isaac that she struggled to share with him.
“Not in the way you mean.” Isaac unlocked the door to his office. “She’s always been married in my mind, even when half the town thought you were dead. She never spoke of having you declared dead, nor did she speak of getting a divorce forabandonment—so she left no hope for anyone that might have interest.”
“The divorce would have been null the second I returned and proved I hadn’t, in fact, abandoned her.” He followed Isaac into the warmth of his office. Jessalyn pursuing a divorce had never crossed his mind in South Dakota, not when he assumed she was getting his letters and cashing his banknotes.
“The two of you seem to be doing better than that first night.” Isaac hung his coat on one of the pegs by the door.
“Better?” Thomas blinked. “Us? Didn’t you just see us fight?”
“Maybe, but she cares about what happens to you, even if she doesn’t want to admit it. And I saw you two at Thanksgiving last night.”
“Where we fought.”
Isaac plopped into the chair behind his desk and reached for a stack of papers. “Where she couldn’t keep her eyes off you before your argument. I also happened to notice you went after her when she stormed off.”
Imagine Henry were still alive and he asked to manage your hotel while you were gone. Would you let him? …And that’s precisely why I can’t go to South Dakota with you.
Yeah, following Jess last night hadn’t ended so well for him.
Thomas sighed and hung his coat on the peg beside Isaac’s. “Any chance I can take over the lease on your apartment for the next three months?”
