Im sorry, but what are you talking about? Emma asked.
The Chisholm curse. Youve been warned. As the woman slammed down the phone, Emma jerked the receiver away from her ear.
Something wrong? Celeste asked.
Wrong number. She hung up hoping the cook didnt see the way her hand was shaking. Emma wasnt ready to confide in either Celeste or the housekeeper, Mae. Shed seen how shocked theyd been that Hoyt had remarried. While neither of them had said anything, shed noticed that they stayed to themselves, rebuffing any attempts she made to gain their trustlet alone their friendship.
How long have you worked for Mr. Chisholm? Emma asked Celeste now. She hadnt want to ask too many questions, hoping to gain the employees trust by being helpful and pleasant and find out more about each of the womenand more about Whitehorse and how Chisholm Cattle Company fit into the scheme of thingsas time went on.
That, shed come to realize, wasnt going to happen.
Just over a year, Celeste said.
And Mae?
About six months.
Emma felt her brow shoot up in surprise.
Not a lot of people want to work out here, Celeste said.
Why is that? She knew the wages were good and Hoyt was congenial and easy to work for, from what shed seen.
The cook seemed to search her gaze, as if she wondered if Emma was joking. Or
testing her. Its a long drive.
She could tell there was more, but that the woman wasnt going to tell her for some reason. Surely someone lasted longer.
Celeste shook her head. Not that I know of.
Emma wondered if it had anything to do with the Chisholm Curse. She hated to admit that the phone calls had shaken her a little.
Those women who have been calling you, theyre just jealous, her friend Debra had said when she called Denver later that afternoon. Celeste had left for the day and it was Maes day off. Emma had the house to herself until supper when Celeste would return to help her cook for her large new family.
Hoyt Chisholm must have been the most eligible bachelor in all of Montana, her friend said. Dont let some old biddies get to you. He picked you. He loves you.
Yes, Emma thought. And she loved Hoyt. Still, it seems odd. The last elderly neighboring ranchwomans call hadnt sounded malicious. Shed sounded scared for her.
COLTON WAS WAITING BY THE ROAD when he finally saw the Sheriffs Department patrol car approaching. His mind was reeling from the letterand what hed found under the cottonwood tree.
Inside Jessicas purse hed discovered her wallet with her drivers license, $200 in cash and a bus ticket out of Whitehorse.
One one-way bus ticket? Shed said she wanted them to run away together. While she didnt have a car of her own, she knew he had his own pickup. Did she have so little faith that he would show up that shed gotten the ticket just in case? He felt confused. The ticket had been for the 4:00 a.m. bus that would have left just hours after they were to meet at their secret spot.
Why had she thought shed be leaving Whitehorse alone?
But if her purse was buried under the tree root, then how could she have left town? And why would she bury her purse? It made no sense. It made his blood run cold because he knew she wouldnt have buried itjust as he couldnt see how she could have left without it.
A terrible dread had settled into his bones by the time the sheriffs deputy pulled up next to his pickup and a female deputy stepped out.
She wore jeans, cowboy boots and a tan uniform shirt with a Whitehorse County Sheriffs Department patch on the sleeve. Colton felt his heart drop like a stone off a cliff as he recognized her. He swore under his breath. Just when he thought things couldnt get any worse. Halley?
DEPUTY HALLEY ROBINSON had told herself after moving back to Whitehorse that sooner or later she was going to cross paths with Colton Chisholm. When shed left Whitehorse after junior high school, hadnt she sworn that one day she would return and make Colton sorry?
But that had been a young girls dream of revenge. Halley was no longer that young, impressionable girl.
Lucky for Colton, she thought, since here they both were again, and oh, how the tables had turned.
Colton, she said, secretly enjoying the fact that hed remembered her.
Youre the new deputy?
She smiled in answer. When the call came in, shed been the only one on duty in the area. The county was a large one, stretching from the Missouri River to the south and all the way to Canada on the north.
So, why dont you tell me what the problem is, she said, all business again. You told the dispatcher youd found Jessica Grangers purse and you believe something might have happened to her?
He nodded, looking as if he now regretted making that call to the sheriffs office. Reaching into the cab of his pickup, he lifted out a weathered leather purse and handed it to her.
Its Jessicas. I found it at a spot we used to meet.
She raised her gaze to his. A secret spot, the dispatcher said.
He chewed at the inside of his cheek for a moment. Thats right.
And there was something about a lost letter?