“I know you don’t wish to believe ill of your husband, but you also didn’t see the way he looked at me when we were in the studio. Considering you were in the darkroom, right?”
Ruthann nodded. She’d been so thankful that she’d never had to tell that lie, but Sissy was forcing her into it now.
“Well.” Sissy balanced the hatpin between her fingers as she gave Ruthann a troubled smile. “It was concerning, to say the least. But I thought he’d put it behind him when he married you, so I didn’t worry about it any further—until now. I just thought you’d like to know. I’d hate to see Paul needing to confront him, after all. And I’d especially hate for the entire town to find out what sort of man he really is.”
Sissy set the hatpin back on the shelf. “You should buy that if you like it.”
But Ruthann’s mind certainly wasn’t on hatpins.What sort of man he really is. Those were the words the man who had grabbed her on the street had said. Could it be a coincidence? Or was Sissy spreading lies about Nate to strangers?
Dangerous strangers.
“I may. I haven’t yet decided.” Ruthann forced herself to keep a neutral expression. She needed a moment to think, to put the pieces together and see what made sense and what didn’t. “Excuse me, Sissy, I need to be getting home.”
Setting her unpurchased items on the nearest shelf, Ruthann retrieved her package from the counter and walked straight to the door, not daring to look back. She didn’t want Sissy to know that she’d unsettled her at all.
“Oh, Ruthann?” Sissy called in the most unladylike manner across the store. “Do say hello to your husband for me.”
Ruthann bit the inside of her cheek. Those words were to let everyone in the store present know that Sissy still believed she had some sort of hold over Nate. She didn’t want him—that much was clear from her mooning over her new beau—but she seemed to wish he wanted her.
It’s nothing, Ruthann told herself as she exited the store. Sissy wanted to believe that every man was madly in love with her, and when it became clear they weren’t, she said such things to make herself feel better.
That was all it was. She’d likely hinted at misdeeds in Nate’s past to make herself look like the better person, and if she’d told her beau, he’d likely mentioned the same to friends, such as the man who’d grabbed her by the gunsmith’s.
Although why that man was so angry about it was baffling.
None of it made sense, but so long as he was gone from town, did it matter? She ought to think of good things, like Nate’s more frequent smile, how he might react to the dinner she’d prepared especially for his birthday, his kiss . . .
That thought made her blush as she made her way down the street. She hurried home, thoughts of Sissy and the stranger from the street melting away like the snow in spring.
Chapter Eighteen
AKNOCK CAME AT THEstudio door, and Nate hurried to answer it. It should be his last appointment of the day—his birthday. Word of his photographs had gotten around town, and he was starting to find himself busy for most of the day. It was exactly what he wanted. During the day, he could bury himself in the art of the camera and developing photographs, and in the evenings, he spent comfortable hours with Ruthann.
He’d kissed her since that first time, more than once, and each time it was as if a piece of him came back to life. As if he was slowly reclaiming the person he used to be.
And it was all because of Ruthann.
