Sliding the note into his pocket, Mark turned toward the sheriff’s office.
It was time to find out what was going on with Mrs. McNab and her husband, once and for all.
Chapter Fourteen
HOURS PASSED, TIMEdragging as slowly as it did when Charlotte was a child and waited for their cook to finish baking a batch of cookies.
She ate dinner with the other ladies, barely tasting any of the food, and then retreated to her room instead of the parlor. But that turned out to be a mistake, as she found her thoughts focused solely on Mark and Ruby, with no distraction at all to keep her mind from stumbling upon every terrible possibility.
What if someone had threatened Ruby and followed her to the church?
What if Mr. McNab had turned into a terrible husband and took his rage out on Mark?
What if the men Mr. McNab hadn’t paid had finally had enough and were using Ruby to exact some sort of revenge?
What if Ruby and her husband were innocent but had fallen in with some bad people?
What if those people came to the church and began to shoot?
She shook her head, trying to clear it as she opened the window. Great gulps of fresh air helped clear away the dime novel scenes playing through her mind, one after the other.
Charlotte rested her hands on the window sill and examined the dark outlines of buildings and gray shadows of clouds in the moonless night. Mark was smart and capable, and he would have the sheriff with him. All would be well. And perhaps they’d even be able to help Ruby.
She would find all of her worry was for naught.
A breeze lifted the ends of the hair she’d so carefully prepared for her outing with Mark. Perhaps she should return downstairs. Surely some of the girls were still whiling away the evening in the parlor. Sometimes they retreated back to the dining room for card games. That would be a good distraction, much better than trying to still her runaway mind by looking out the window at the oppressive black of the night.
Mind made up, Charlotte closed the window and moved to her door. As she crossed the landing and made her way down the stairs, she forced her thoughts back to the dinner that didn’t happen. She’d so looked forward to trying to discern more of Mark’s feelings toward her. Were they fleeting, or were they of the serious sort?
Shesohoped it was the latter. He didn’t seem the sort of man to toy with a lady’s feelings, anyhow. And he’d come running all the way over here last night, risking his reputation and his welcome at this boarding house by insisting on coming up to her room to find out if she was all right.
A man who didn’t care deeply for a woman wouldn’t do such a thing, would he?
Charlotte decided that indeed, he would not, and although she still exercised caution over losing her heart to him, she thought it wouldn’t hurt to let a little hope brighten her thoughts for the future.
Provided he returned safely.
