Lacy: (Sweet Historical Western Romance) (Pendleton Petticoats Book 5) Read online

  “Doc wanted to send a telegram to him in Portland, but I asked him to leave Bobby alone. There’s nothing he can do to help me and I don’t want to spoil this trip for him. He’s been trying to build up his plumbing business and the class he’s taking is important. He’ll know what happened to me soon enough.” Bertie bit back a pain-filled moan as she shifted.

  Lacy was quick to take the cup of tea from her hand and adjust the pillows.

  “I’m sure he would want to know what happened, though. I certainly would if it was one of my sisters.” Grant understood Bertie’s reasoning, but was sure Bobby would rush home straightaway if he knew about the incident.

  “Doc said he wants to keep me here a few days, so by the time he releases me, Bobby will be home anyway.” Bertie closed her eyes as her voice trailed off.

  “I think that’s our signal to leave.” Lacy set Bertie’s teacup on a side table and stood. “I’ll be back after work to check on you, Bertie.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” the girl whispered as she drifted back to sleep.

  Lacy and Grant stepped into the hall and returned to the waiting area. When he wrapped his arms around her, she stiffened against him and pulled away. “Grant, you need to stay away from me. I’m only bringing trouble to your door.”

  “I can’t stay away from you, Lacy. Don’t ask me to.” Grant buried his face in the hair piled on top of her head. “Do you have any idea how terrified I was when I realized you weren’t in the house? How did you sneak past the deputy?”

  “It wasn’t hard. He could only keep an eye on one entry at a time.” Lacy sighed and pulled away from Grant, away from her dreams and everything she’d ever longed for. She took Grant’s hand in hers and led him to the waiting room chairs. After she sat down, he took a seat beside her.

  Finding the right words to break Grant’s heart as well as her own required more effort and energy than Lacy could muster after the events of the past twenty-four hours. The best way to end things was to get right to the point.

  “Grant, I love you, but it isn’t going to be enough.” Lacy forced herself to look into his familiar hazel eyes and registered the pain and uncertainty she saw there. “No matter how much I love you, no matter how much we want to be together, it’s never going to work. You know it and I know it. We can’t keep pretending otherwise.”

  “If this is about what Mother said, she’s sorry. She planned to tell you herself this morning.” Desperation made him want to grab Lacy’s hand, jump on the train and disappear from their responsibilities, duties, and fears.

  “What your mother said is only a small part of this. My father is against our relationship every bit as much as your mother. We’re from two different worlds, Grant. I can’t see how they will ever blend together. Your peers and customers will always see me as an Indian who somehow schemed her way off the reservation. My father, and the people like him, will always be suspicious of why you want to be involved with me.” Lacy took a shuddering breath, forcing herself to continue.

  Although the words she spoke were true, to a point, the opinions of others had nothing to do with why she forced herself to tell Grant goodbye. It was her overwhelming fear of some harm befalling him because of her. If it weren’t Richard Kent, it would be someone else who took exception to him courting an Indian girl. She wouldn’t allow anything to happen to Grant, not when she loved him so deeply and completely.

  “Grant, the past few months have been some of the most wonderful moments of my life, but I can’t see you anymore. I just can’t. Thank you for all you’ve done for me, for your friendship and care, and most especially for your love.” Lacy lifted his hand and pressed her lips to the back of it then set it on his thigh. “Goodbye, Grant.”

  Before he could say a word or stop her, she opened the door and raced down the street.

  Stunned and bewildered, Grant let her go, unable to move, barely able to breathe. Every dream he’d ever had for a happy future ran right out the door.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Lacy sighed as she glanced outside the telephone office and watched the rain pour down in sheets. Her cousins asked her after church Sunday if they could take her to lunch today. She looked forward to seeing them, eager for any distraction from her thoughts of Grant.

  With the steady downpour outside, she doubted they’d be able to make it into town. Rain had fallen in a relentless force the past two days. The dreary skies overhead did little to improve Lacy’s sullen outlook.

  Since she told Grant goodbye, she’d done her best to avoid him. It had taken every ounce of fortitude she possessed to ignore his pleas to talk, to work things out, and accept the love he so freely offered. Steadfastly, she refused until he gave up and left her alone.

  One evening, a lengthy letter from his mother awaited her at Ilsa’s shop. Imogene begged for her forgiveness and asked her to reconsider a relationship with Grant. Lacy spent all evening alone in her apartment, crying.

  Somehow, Phillip caught wind of her severed relationship with Grant and appeared at the telephone office door as she left work one evening. She allowed him to walk her to Ilsa’s shop, but made it clear she would never, ever marry him.

  Finally, he appeared to accept her refusal and left with a promise he would no longer pursue her as a wife.

  Grateful for that, she settled into a routine devoid of the hope, laughter, light, and joy Grant had infused into her life and heart.

  Without his engaging smile, encouraging presence, and unconditional love, Lacy felt as if her days all blurred together.

  Many times, she considered running across the street to the bank and begging Grant to take her back, but she couldn’t.

  Not when the distance she put between them kept him safe.

  Resolved to doing what was right, no matter how much her heart ached with grief and longing, she turned her attention back to her work. It was Bertie’s second day back on the job. The girl glanced nervously over her shoulder every time the door opened and a customer stepped inside. Millie finally had Susan switch places with Bertie, placing her on the end of the switchboard farthest away from the door.

  The bruises had faded on Bertie’s face, but the damage done to her trust and confidence convicted Lacy every time she looked at her friend. If it weren’t for their friendship, Bertie wouldn’t have received a beating Richard Kent no doubt meant for her. The fact that the man remained free made Lacy want to hunt him down herself, but she refrained.

  Walker found out about his attempt to attack her at the ball and the threat Kent had made when he’d left a beaten and broken Bertie on her doorstep. Her brother had stormed into the telephone office and demanded she return home where they would keep her safe.

  Lacy refused, but hugged him tightly and thanked him for his care. In her efforts to avoid Grant, she’d taken to riding out to the reservation after she cleaned Tony and Ilsa’s barn on Saturday and returning Sunday evening. Walker, Tom, or her father accompanied her, refusing to leave her unprotected.

  Although her father hadn’t apologized for being so harsh, he hadn’t said any more about her moving home or marrying Phillip. Slowly, he seemed to be accepting the fact she would forge a path completely unknown and foreign to him.

  The switchboard lit up with a flurry of calls and tugged her from her dark thoughts. Lacy kept busy until a few minutes before noon when things generally quieted down while everyone ate lunch.

  She glanced out the window in shock as Rose parked Uncle Charlie’s mud-splattered auto in front of the telephone office. While Daisy opened the office door and dashed inside, four of her sisters swarmed out of the car, holding up umbrellas.

  “Are you ready for lunch?” Daisy asked as Lacy hurried to remove her headset and picked up her reticule.

  “I’m famished.” Lacy hugged her cousin then glanced over at Millie. “Do you want me to bring back anything?”

  “Can you bring my usual?” Millie asked then glanced over to Bertie and Susan. “What about you two?”


  Susan shook her head as she answered a call. Bertie looked over her shoulder with a smile. “I brought my lunch, but thanks.”

  “Let’s go, then.” Daisy looped her arm around Lacy’s and stepped outside. Lily handed Daisy her umbrella and ducked under the one Rose held as the girls laughed and giggled their way down the sidewalk to the restaurant.

  The six of them settled around a corner table and enjoyed a lively conversation.

  Rose relayed the exciting news that she was expecting her first child to arrive in early autumn. Lily mentioned a boy who’d caught her eye and Aster bemoaned the summer months ahead that she’d have to spend helping on the family ranch.

  After the server carried away their dirty dishes and left Millie’s sandwich for Lacy to take back with her, Daisy broached the topic of Grant.

  “Why don’t you let him court you? It’s as plain as the nose on your face that he loves you.” Daisy bumped her shoulder against Lacy’s.

  “I think she’s lost her mind,” Lily observed from across the table. “Mr. Hill is handsome, kind, charming, funny, and rich. Who wouldn’t want to marry him?”

  Lacy frowned at her cousin. “Even if he was penniless and homely, it wouldn’t alter my feelings for him. Besides he never asked me to marry him.”

  “But he did tell you he loved you, didn’t he?” Daisy pried. “And you love him, too.”

  Irritated, Lacy huffed and started to slide off her chair. Daisy grabbed her arm and pulled her back down. “Don’t run off. We’ll behave, but we are worried about you. Since Bertie’s incident, you haven’t been yourself. We just want you to be happy and a big part of what makes you happy seems to be Grant.”

  “He did make me happy, but that awful man is still out there somewhere. I can’t and won’t endanger Grant any more than I already have. I just won’t. Unless you want me to leave this instant, let’s talk about something else.” Lacy gave Daisy a look that said she meant what she said. Aster brought up the fact she’d seen Phillip Redhawk out riding with a girl they all knew from their childhood.

  “That is a huge relief. I hope he’ll be very happy with her.” Lacy glanced at Daisy and grinned. “Maybe she’ll be the first of his many wives.”

  The girls all laughed then gathered their things to leave. Rose declared it was her turn to buy lunch and paid the bill.

  The cousins huddled together under the umbrellas on their way back to the telephone office. Lacy hugged each of them, thanked them for the lunch and the visit, and told them to be careful driving home in the rain.

  As the rain poured down harder, the air dropped in temperature. Lacy hurried inside, wishing she had her shawl or a wrap of some sort to ward off the chill.

  She gave Millie her sandwich then returned to the switchboard. Susan and Bertie visited as they ate their lunches, taking turns answering the few calls that came in.

  Throughout the afternoon, the phone lines remained busy. Mostly, people called to ask about the governor’s planned arrival on Saturday for a campaign meeting, since it was an election year. A few telephone subscribers checked in to see if the girls had heard anything about the possibility of a flood. The river continued to swell with each passing hour and concerns about it overflowing went from far-fetched to a distinct possibility.

  It had been more than twenty years since Pendleton’s last flood. After that disastrous occurrence, levees were installed in hopes of keeping the river from flooding again.

  However, as the rain continued to fall and the river to rise, it seemed likely that the streets of Pendleton might flood before the rain ceased.

  Millie and Susan took umbrellas and ran up Main Street to the bridge where many people gathered to assess the situation. When they returned, both of them appeared unsettled.

  “As sure as I’m standing here, it’s going to flood. Let’s see if we can get the switchboard up off the floor, just in case,” Millie directed as she and Susan shook off their umbrellas.

  “Aren’t there some bricks piled up out back? Could we use those?” Lacy asked. She’d noticed a stack of bricks in the alley behind the telephone office one day when she’d taken a shortcut across the back lot.

  “We can if we get to them first.” Millie motioned them out the back door they kept locked. Lacy, Millie and Susan packed in bricks while Bertie answered incoming calls. When they had them piled in an orderly fashion, they contemplated the best way to get the switchboard up onto their makeshift riser.

  They let out a sigh of relief when Bertie’s brother arrived to see her home.

  “Bobby, we need some muscle back here.” Bertie motioned for him to step behind the counter.

  “What are you girls doing?” Bobby took in their stack of bricks and positions around the switchboard. “If you ladies think you can lift that thing, you better think again. I’ll go round up some help. I assume you’re trying to avoid ruining the switchboard if it floods.”

  “That would be a correct assumption.” Bertie grinned at her brother as he turned and hurried out the door.

  While they waited for Bobby to return, the women picked up anything that might receive damage on the floor and set it on the long counter or Millie’s desk.

  The door swung open and Kade strode in with Lars.

  “Miss Matlock, can you please send out a general call that the west end of town needs to evacuate immediately. If anyone on higher ground is willing to open their homes for the evening that would be helpful. And if anyone is available to help, we could sure use some extra hands.”

  “Certainly. I’ll make the call right away.” Millie turned to place the call as Bobby rushed in with one of his friends. “Before you leave, Deputy Rawlings and Deputy Thorsen, might you help us set the switchboard on the bricks? I’m concerned about it staying dry.”

  “Sure. We can do that.” Kade nodded his head.

  With the four men hefting and the women helping, they managed to get the switchboard up off the floor. Millie had to stand to place the call, but it went out while Kade and Lars headed toward the west end of town and Bobby took Bertie home.

  Lacy and Susan stayed to help Millie answer calls for a while then Lacy rushed to Ilsa’s shop. Aundy and Marnie were there, helping Ilsa move everything off the floor.

  “You can store whatever you need to upstairs,” Lacy offered as she grabbed an armful of ready-made clothes and carried them up to her sitting room.

  The women worked at a fevered pace. Laila and Sophie started to cry about being hungry. Lacy brought them leftover biscuits spread with jam that kept the girls satisfied for a few moments. Finally, Marnie decided to take both girls home with her, so Ilsa would be free to do what she needed to without worrying about Laila.

  “Where are the men?” Lacy asked as they set her sewing machine on cement blocks Ilsa used to prop up some of the mannequins.

  “Tony and Garrett are both deputized, so the sheriff asked them to help keep an eye on things. I think it’s going to be a very long night for everyone.”

  When they finished moving anything that might sustain damage in the dress shop, Lacy accompanied Aundy and Ilsa to Tony’s studio. Most of his equipment sat on shelves, but he had many props that water would destroy. Ilsa also thought it important to move the chemicals he used to make ice off the floor in the basement. If the studio did flood, the basement would surely receive the worst of it.

  After they moved what they could in the studio, they hurried back to Ilsa’s home that was beyond the area that might flood. Ilsa began preparing sandwiches while Aundy quickly mixed up a batch of cookies and Lacy made a big pot of soup. She had plenty of experience in making food stretch.

  Millie and Susan sent out calls, issuing updates. The levee had been breached. Water trickled toward some of the businesses downtown and into the residential area on the west end of town.

  Suddenly, the power went out and the three women stumbled around in Ilsa’s dark kitchen until they located a supply of candles. With a candle in hand, Ilsa searched in a storage cupboard until
she found oil lamps. Lacy and Aundy helped her light them.

  After setting them around the kitchen, they returned to their work. For hours, they made food and hot coffee, then delivered it to workers around town keeping watch and helping those evacuating.

  In the middle of the night, the phone jangled. Ilsa picked it up and cast a frightened glance at Lacy before she hung up.

  “The reservation is flooding along the river, Lacy. Rebecca’s house is on a ridge, but what about your father’s place? Will Tom, Ruth, and the children be okay?”

  “I don’t know.” Lacy glanced down at the dress she wore and decided there was no help for riding in it because she wouldn’t waste time changing. “I need to go find out. They might not even realize the river is flooding until it’s too late.”

  “Then go,” Aundy said. She gave her a hug before Ilsa walked her to the door. “Be safe!”

  Lacy ran across the darkened yard to the barn and whistled for Star. The horse bumped her stall door. Accustomed to where everything was located in the barn from so many Saturdays spent cleaning it, Lacy didn’t need a light to find Star’s bridle. She slipped it over the horse’s head and quickly saddled her, leading Star outside the barn.

  The clouds from the rain blocked the moon from fully shining. The night seemed eerie with an odd silvery light overhead.

  Lacy swung onto Star’s back and urged her down the street. The fastest way to head out to the reservation took her through the midst of downtown.

  She rode as fast as she dared past the bank and the telephone office. Water hadn’t reached that far yet, and hopefully it wouldn’t.

  Racing out of town, she gave Star her head, determined to reach her family. When she arrived, she found Ruth in the wagon with three crying children while Tom and Walker hurried to load it with the belongings they could carry. Water edged closer and closer to the house from the nearby river.

  Lacy jumped off her horse and raced into the house, grabbing bedding and a box of things that belonged to her mother. Trip after trip, she worked beside Walker and Tom to empty the house of their belongings.