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In fourteen days, her life had changed.
She was wealthy now, and the Lazy S was safe.
In her last days, her aunt had told her of her first love—a man who was out of her reach because of Eliza’s mother’s unwed pregnancy, and the family’s scandalous fall from society. She had been betrothed to Uncle Frederick after Mother’s pregnancy was discovered, and had grown a bitterness as the love of her life had married in an extravagant ceremony. The woman the love of her life had married was a red-haired beauty. And then Eliza, the scapegoat of all of that, had been born with bright-red hair.
Eliza had understood Aunt Elizabeth a little better in those final days.
How dreadful a time it had to be for her, being invited to the wedding that was supposed to be hers, seeing the love of her life wed a beauty, and watching as they climbed the ladder of society together while she was married quietly to a man she barely knew. All while the young child that had caused it all was raised in her house.
She also understood why Mother fled Boston for the wilds of Texas, and how difficult that must’ve been for her.
She was able to gain closure with her aunt, and with her mother in some ways too.
So much had changed over the last year.
“Thinking of your aunt?” Garret guessed, as he slid his hand over her thigh and squeezed comfortingly.
Eliza dragged her stare away from the train window and smiled at her once-unwilling husband. “Processing, I suppose.”
“Want to talk about it?”
“I feel you know my heart, and what I’m going through. You are a watcher. I am glad you were there for me at the end of that. It was a more thorough closure, because you can understand now how it was like.”
“Not to speak ill of the dead, but your aunt was a rattlesnake.”
She laughed, and nodded. “She’s probably giving the angels up in heaven absolute hell.”
“You sweet woman. She ain’t up in the clouds. She’s down sitting on a patch of fire, probably complaining about the cheapness of the champagne.”
She cackled a laugh and rested her head against him. “You were a godsend.”
Indeed, he had been in the room with her many times with Aunt Elizabeth, and had on three separate occasions threatened the old bat if she didn’t stop speaking down to Eliza. And Aunt Elizabeth had seemed to respect him. She’d even asked that he be there at the end, sitting in the chair in the corner while Eliza had held her hand.
He’d been there for Eliza when she’d fallen apart in the hallway outside the door, unable to comprehend the conflicting emotions that raged through her. She’d lost so many family members in such a short time.
He had picked her up and carried her to a private room, and hadn’t said a word as she fell apart in his arms.
He had taken over the bulk of funeral planning in such a respectful way.
He had garnered the love of the servants and maids she had grown up with, and made sure they were all well taken care of on their last day at the manor, the day it sold.
He had loved her body when she felt shattered into a million pieces.
He had put her pieces back together.
He took care of so much, but never stepped on her. He stood quietly back as she spoke the way she needed to speak to every loose end she needed to tie up, and only stepped in when she looked to him for help.
She fell in love with how steady and capable he was as a leader, and she understood why his destiny was to be an Alpha. Garret Shaw wasn’t like other men.
He scanned the train again. She was learning him. He could probably tell her a description of everyone in here, and everything possible to observe about them.
She was safe.
She was truly safe.
Her aunt and uncle’s love story hadn’t worked.
Her mother hadn’t been able to figure her love story out.
