Simply breathing and placing one foot in front of the other were all she could handle right now.
She turned around the back of the depot and pressed ahead along the River Road. She drew up near a group of cottonwoods by the river, grabbing onto the trunk to steady herself as her breath came quickly.
Faith stared out at the muddy North Platte as it meandered past Last Chance and tried to untangle her thoughts.
He washere.
She squeezed her eyes shut. She shouldn’t have written him. That awful guilt she felt each time she added her letter to the bag she passed onto the stage driver came rolling over her in waves now. It had been cruel to let him believe she was interested in . . . what, exactly? Matrimony?
Faith’s stomach flipped at the very thought. She pried her eyes open again and tried to focus on the gentle flow of the river. She hadn’t agreed to any such thing. Why, neither she nor Beau had even mentioned it in their correspondence.
So why had he come?
“Faith?” That languid, smooth voice interrupted her thoughts, and when she turned, he was there. Standing just a few feet away was the man she never expected nor intended to meet in person.
“I’m sorry, should I call you Mrs. Thornton? I don’t know the conventions for a situation such as this.” He chuckled lightly, and Faith’s stomach flipped yet again.
She shook her head. She ought to insist he call her Mrs. Thornton, and yet it felt odd to think of him as Mr. Landry, not when she already knew the names of his parents, his sisters and their husbands, and even the name of the road where he’d grown up in New Orleans.
He took a step closer, his fine shoes sinking in the soft ground. He must have left his hat behind in his haste to come after her, as it was nowhere to be seen now.
“I apologize for arriving unannounced,” he said, his voice like velvet. How could a man have a voice so rich? And that accent made him sound as if he were from a foreign country, somewhere exotic and far, far away from Nebraska.
When she said nothing, he pressed on. “I thought it might be a nice surprise, given how long we’ve corresponded.” He paused. “I must confess, I didn’t expect to find you so beautiful.”
A short laugh escaped Faith’s throat. “You decided on a whim to travel hundreds of miles to meet a woman you imagined might resemble an ogre?”
She’d caught him off guard, that much was evident in the way his eyes widened and his mouth opened. Something about that pleased Faith mightily.
“No! No, of course not. It’s only that I didn’t expect, well . . .” He trailed off, and Faith allowed herself a slight grin as she looked toward the river.
But she didn’t stop him for long. Taking another step around her, he said, “I thought I might stay at the hotel and we could get to know one another better. That’s far easier done in person than in letters, don’t you think? I can treat you to dinners and walks along the river. I believe I saw a theater—”
“What makes you think I enjoy such amusements?”
His forehead wrinkled. She could tell she was shattering all of his preconceived notions he’d likely dreamed up on the train north, and she was glad.
Mostly.
She shook that last thought away and kept her eyes locked with his, waiting for an answer.
“Well, I mean, of course you must enjoy something. One cannot work all the time. You name the activity, and I’d be happy to escort you.” He gave her a smile that matched the slow, easy timbre of his voice, and Faith nearly shivered.
He was far too intriguing.
She needed to keep her guard up, else she turn into her sister and go all dreamy-eyed over a good-looking man with a talent for words. She knew better than that. Faith had dealt with her share of men who’d wandered into town upon hearing of the husband-searching widows, presumed she was one of them, and then tried to impress her and flirt with her. She was well-practiced at leveling them with a cold stare and clipped words.
She ought to do the same with Beau.
And yet instead she found herself saying, “I enjoy meeting up with the other ladies to sew together. And sometimes I look forward to helping at the livery.”
The latter wasn’t true, but it was worth it to see this man taken aback. He blinked at her, and Faith chewed a corner of her lip to keep from laughing.
“Well . . . I’m happy to escort you to any of those occasions. I can’t say I’m much for sewing, but I have objections to horses.” He pulled at the hem of his vest as if it weren’t particularly comfortable.
“Hmm,” was all she said. The man had a sunny disposition that matched his eyes. Faith was almost certain that if she told him that a plague of locusts was scheduled to arrive tomorrow, he’d smile and ask if she’d like to stroll along the river before they arrived.
“Why don’t we have supper together tonight?” he said. “I’ve taken a room at the hotel. We could eat there or—”
