Charlotte quickly introduced herself, and then asked if Mrs. Hill had seen either Ruby or her fiancé.
Mrs. Hill thought for a moment. “I’m sorry, dear. I can’t say that I’m familiar with either of them. Of course, we get a lot of new folks in here, and I don’t always catch their names. Is it terribly important? I can ask my son when he returns.”
Charlotte drew in a disappointed breath. “That would be wonderful. Thank you for all of your help. I’ll stop by again later.” She paused. “You don’t happen to carry lavender soap, do you? It’s my favorite, and I fear I didn’t leave room in my bag for it when I left home.”
“We do, indeed. I’ll set some aside for you, if you like.”
“Thank you. I’ll return this evening.” Charlotte bade Mrs. Hill goodbye, and left through the front door.
Outside, the sun shone brightly above, warming the day. Charlotte hadn’t expected it to be so chilly in June, particularly in the mornings and evenings. She’d brought a wrap, but not a coat, and the warmth of the sun made her tilt her face up to better feel its warmth on her face.
She began walking slowly down the road, with no particular destination in mind. Perhaps she would run across another of the town’s general stores. She hadn’t expected Ruby to be this difficult to find. It didn’t matter, really, whether Charlotte found her. She’d simply hoped to find a familiar face so far from home. It wasn’t as if Ruby were expecting her.
But now that the former maid had become so hard to locate, Charlotte couldn’t ignore the worry that curled up from her stomach. What if something terrible had befallen Ruby and her Mr. McNab?
She shook her head. It was unlikely. If anything, they’d simply decided that the opportunity in Cañon City wasn’t as they’d expected, and they’d gone elsewhere.
She’d continue asking around for Ruby, at least to the other boarding houses and general stores. And if that didn’t work, she’d resign herself to her own company. As nice as it would be to have a friend here, ultimately it wasn’t necessary for Charlotte to accomplish what she came here to do. And that was simply to wait out her father’s insistence on her marriage to a man of his choosing.
Charlotte shuddered, drawing the wrap even tighter around her despite the sun, as she thought of the odious Mr. Lindstrom. He was more than twice her age, with a bulbous nose and a leering gaze. All Papa saw was wealth and position, and he’d refused to hear her objections over the match. Mama heard them but refused to go against Papa’s wishes.
And so Charlotte had left.
Ruby had told Charlotte of Mr. McNab’s prospects here before she’d left with him, just a couple of months before Charlotte herself had boarded a train west. She could have gone anywhere, and she would have, if necessary. But why not choose a town that housed at least one person she knew? She’d never imagined it would be this difficult to find Ruby, though.
She happened upon another general store, this one on the far side of town, and stepped inside just as another gust of wind rustled her skirts. This store wasn’t as comforting or as prettily laid out as Hill’s General Store, but it still displayed a good array of items for purchase. Charlotte surmised it was Mrs. Hill’s touch that had made the other store so much more inviting.
She made her way to the counter and asked the proprietor the question she’d posed at the lodging establishments and Hill’s General Store.
“Smaller woman?” the man asked, holding his hand out to indicate a lady of a height much shorter than Charlotte’s own stature. “Light colored hair?”
Hope blossomed in Charlotte’s heart. “Yes! You’ve seen her?”
The store owner shrugged. “It may be. This lady was in here just last week. I only remember her because she signed her name McNab, and my sister married a McNab up in Colorado City.” He reached for an open ledger that sat on the counter and flipped back a couple of pages. “Here.”
Charlotte looked to the line where he pointed. There, in neat script, it read,Mrs. Bertram McNab, Riverside Boarding House, with an amount due.
It was Ruby. Ithadto be. “Thank you so very much,” she said, looking up at the proprietor. “I believe this is the woman for whom I’m searching. Now, I don’t suppose you have any lengths of ribbon in stock?”
She ought to have asked for something else, Charlotte realized as the man fetched and proudly held out two very old, very sad-looking spools of dun and gray ribbon. Oh well, it was money well-spent if it meant she could find Ruby.
As the proprietor cut and wrapped the ribbon for her, she inquired after the whereabouts of the Riverside Boarding House.
“I don’t know why they named it such, but it’s nowhere near the river,” he said. He told her where to find it, pressed the wrapped package across the counter toward her, and leveled a serious gaze. “If I were you, I wouldn’t visit there alone. It isn’t the most reputable of places.”
Charlotte swallowed as concern for Ruby flared yet again deep down inside. “Thank you, sir. I do appreciate it. I’ll be cautious.”
He nodded, and she tucked the package between her arm and her side as she left the shop.
Outside, she paused, considering her options. It was broad daylight, hardly the time in which menacing folk were about. But who knew what she could find inside a boarding house?
She adjusted her gloves as she thought, her eyes traveling the street toward the location of the boarding house. A quick movement near the doorway of a nearby store caught her eye.
If she wasn’t mistaken, that was a man who had slipped quickly inside. A man with scuffed boots and a brown hat.
Mr. Becker.
Itwasawfully curious that she’d run into him so frequently. After all, the town was sizable enough that it hadn’t happened with anyone else she’d met since arriving. Not even with the man in the long coat her father had clearly hired to follow her on her journey west.
