His own concerns dwindled, and all he wanted was to comfort her. “Are you nervous? Have you met this man before?”
“I am,” she finally said, drawing her eyes up to meet his. “And I have met him.”
He smiled at her. “Then you have nothing to fear. He must care an awful lot for you to come all this way.”
“Oh, he isn’t traveling from very far,” she said. “He lives here.”
The man must be some associate of her brother’s, traveling in and out of town for business purposes. Jeremiah immediately pictured a sniveling weasel of a man, quick to throw money at any problem that needed fixing yet unable to do the simplest of tasks on his own.
No, that wasn’t fair. He should be happy for Deirdre . . . shouldn’t he? After all, he’d soon be married himself. It would be good to see her well taken care of.
But even as he told himself that, he felt vaguely ill at the idea.
He distracted himself by looking again at the train cars. No more passengers seemed to be emerging. He cast his gaze around the platform, searching even as his fear grew.
She hadn’t come.
“Jeremiah?” Deirdre said quietly from his side.
“Yes?” Maybe he should walk around. He could have missed her when he was talking with Deirdre. She might be inside the depot, or waiting on one of the benches nearby.
“Your intended is . . .” Deirdre trailed off as Jeremiah turned his attention to her.
“What do you know of Dee?”
“She . . .” Deirdre closed her eyes a moment. When she opened them again, she said, “I’m Dee.”
Jeremiah stared at her. She didn’t make sense.
“I answered your advertisement. I wrote the letters. I’m . . . I’m the one you’re waiting for.”
Chapter Five
SHE WISHED HE’D SAYsomething.
But Jeremiah simply stared at her, as if the words she’d said were impossible.
