The words did not immediately make sense.
She stared at him.
“But your name—”
“Someone forged it.”
The surrounding laughter became louder.
Lara's face drained.
The journey.
The hopeful letters.
The promises of a home.
The man who supposedly wanted her.
Every piece collapsed at once.
She looked toward the crowd.
Then toward Caleb Ryland.
He lifted his hat in a mocking salute.
And suddenly she understood.
She wasn't a bride.
She was a practical joke.
An enormous, expensive joke designed to humiliate two people at once.
Her eyes filled.
She looked back at Elias.
“I'm terribly sorry.”
He said nothing.
“I didn't know.”
“I can see that.”
She swallowed.
“I can return east.”
Elias looked toward the darkening sky.
“When?”
She had no answer.
The depot master, who had been listening, spoke from behind her.
“Next train might come through in six or seven days. Longer if the pass closes.”
Snow was already thickening.
Lara looked down at her worn shoes.
She had less than four dollars.
No family nearby.
No place to stay.
And no reason to believe anyone in Deadwood would offer her a room without first making another joke.
“I see,” she whispered.
Elias studied her.
He noticed the way she kept her shoulders straight even while trembling.
The way she refused to look toward the laughing crowd again.
The way she folded the forged letters carefully instead of tearing them apart.
He knew humiliation.
He knew what it felt like to have an entire town decide who you were before hearing your side.
And he knew who had arranged this.
He bent down and picked up her trunk.
Lara looked up.
“Mr. Montgomery?”
He carried it toward his wagon.
“Come along.”
“Where?”
“My ranch.”
She stared.
“But you didn't ask for me.”
“No.”
“Then why would you take me home?”
He lifted the trunk into the wagon bed and turned toward her.
“Because there's a storm coming, and I'm not leaving a woman standing in the snow just because somebody else thinks cruelty is entertainment.”
Lara felt her throat tighten.
“I don't wish to become a burden.”
Elias glanced toward Caleb Ryland.
“You aren't the burden I'm worried about.”
He offered her his hand.
“Get in.”
For the first time since arriving in Deadwood, somebody had spoken to her without laughing.
That alone was nearly enough to make her cry.
Chapter 2: The Ranch at the End of the Road
Whispering Pines Ranch lay almost two hours beyond Deadwood.