do it. Not that he didn’t often do the laundry, but every task he did for himself seemed to take him farther away from her.
He wasn’t taking any furniture. Not that they had arrived with much—a bed and dresser, a round kitchen table and two chairs, a bookcase. The pots and pans and box of mismatched dishes they’d used since arriving in Prairie Gold had been purchased at the used-goods store. The loveseat, rocking chair, coffee table, and lamps in the living room had been purchased at house and yard sales in Bennett and carted back to Prairie Gold in Tobias Walker’s pickup truck.
They hadn’t bought anything new except a few books and clothing they had needed to replace when things wore out or they needed to purchase to suit the weather. Sweet Abigail wouldn’t have cared about possessions. Besides, despite the marriage license and the plain gold band she’d tolerated because he was a goldsmith and she’d had to wear something, she’d known this was temporary. That it had lasted three years was the big surprise. She’d been on the run for a week when she’d found Kelley, not the two years she’d told him, so she’d been seventeen when they’d married—under the age to marry without parental consent. So they might not be legally married anyway.
Not something she intended to admit unless it worked in her favor.
She finished the dishes and went into the living room. Kelley sat in the rocking chair, reading. Was it significant that he had chosen the rocker instead of the loveseat, where she could have cuddled up against him?
Perching on the edge of the loveseat, she said, “I’d like to come with you, if you’re still agreeable with me doing that.”
Kelley closed the book but kept his finger between the pages, a sign that this would be a temporary interruption.
Taking care of her was still a habit, but if she didn’t convince him soon that she was still the girl he had rescued, whatever he’d felt for her would break altogether.
“All right,” he finally said. “Tobias is picking me up in the morning, so you’ll need to be ready then if you’re coming with me.”
“So soon?” He’d packed all his possessions and was clearly ready to leave. She just hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly. She hadn’t expected him to want to leave her so quickly.
He nodded. “If you’re not ready then, you can come along the next time someone makes a trip up to Bennett and has the room.”
He wasn’t offering to wait an extra day, wasn’t offering any kind of help. Not good.
“Did you tell them you wanted a house?” she asked. He had mentioned that housing came with the job, either an actual house where they would have to pay for utilities and taxes, or an apartment that included utilities where they would pay rent and telephone.
“Didn’t give them a decision yet. I’ll be staying at the hotel for a few days. I’m told everyone does. The people working to clear out the places have an apartment building clear of goods—or have the goods shoved into a couple of the apartments in order to let residents move in to the rest of the units. And houses are being cleared, but it’s a lot of work. Everyone coming in is expected to help some with the clearing. An hour or two each day, along with whatever job you take.” He paused. “Anyone with a house might have to take in a boarder.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t want a stranger in my house,” Abigail said quickly.
“That’s part of the deal.”
Strangers at every turn. Danger at every turn. And Kelley sounding so distant instead of protective.
“I’d better get my packing done.” She went into the bedroom and closed the door as quietly as she could. Then she pulled out the box that held two decks of tarot cards. She’d told Jesse that one deck had belonged to her grandmother. She’d had a grandmother. Everyone did. She’d never met her old granny, but the kindly woman who had taught her a bit about reading the cards had been old enough to be someone’s grandmother.
She’d stolen the cards because the woman had refused to read the cards for Abigail the night before the Blackstone Clan was leaving town, had claimed she’d done a reading about Abigail earlier in the day and the cards had revealed that Abigail wasn’t interested in giving an honest reading, only in knowing enough to make people believe what she was telling