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He knew now that he had plenty of time to do that, for he could tell that she was not planning to go anywhere. It was the way she had said, “It is too soon,” that told him there would be something more, later.
He had learned the art of waiting long ago. He smiled when he thought of how he felt when he had to wait for something special . . . waiting always enhanced the pleasure!
Chapter Eighteen
As the sun came through the dining-room window, casting light on the empty chair where Jessie normally sat, Reginald frowned and drummed his fingers against the tabletop.
When Jade came into the room carrying a platter piled high with bacon, flapjacks, and fried eggs, Reginald gave her a quick questioning frown.
He slammed a fist on the table just as she set the platter down, causing it to bounce. Some of the eggs slipped from the platter, their yolks breaking and running like orange tears across the white linen tablecloth.
“Where is she?” Reginald shouted, then suddenly began wheezing. “Jade, where is Jessie? She knows she’s supposed to take breakfast with me.”
Jade clasped her hands before her, wringing them as she glanced fearfully at Reginald. “I don’t know where she is, sir,” she said, her voice breaking.
“Are you telling me you haven’t seen her?” Reginald demanded, his eyes narrowing angrily. “You normally help her dress in the morning. You brush her hair. So, where is she?”
Jade lowered her eyes, swallowed hard, then dared to look into Reginald’s angry eyes again. Through the thick lenses of his spectacles his angry eyes seemed ten times larger than normal this morning.
“Nay I have not seen her,” she murmured, still clasping and unclasping her hands.
“Stop that nonsense with your hands!” Reginald shouted. He coughed into his palm. “Stand still. Answer my questions. Do you hear? Tell me where Jessie is.”
“As I said, sir, I have not seen her this morning,” Jade gulped out, her heart pounding like a sledgehammer. “When I went to her room to awaken her, she . . . she . . . was gone.”
“She was gone?” Reginald said, jumping from his chair so quickly it tumbled to the floor behind him. “Are you saying she’s gone from my house?”
“Seems so, sir,” Jade said, swallowing hard as she hid her hands inside her apron pockets.
Reginald threw his white linen napkin on the table, then swirled around and stamped from the room. Wheezing almost uncontrollably, he hurried to Jessie’s bedroom.
He stared at the bed.
Either Jessie had made it upon first arising, which he doubted, or she had not slept in it at all.
His eyes slid slowly over to a window that was open. As he stuck his head out of it, he shouted Jessie’s name at the top of his lungs.
Realizing now that she had run away, he paled. But then another possibility occured to him.
Yes!
No doubt she had risen at dawn and was even now out riding the lovely horse he had given her. He felt stupid for having gotten so alarmed just because Jessie wasn’t at the breakfast table. Yet . . . it did appear that she had not slept at the house. And why was the window open?
The nights were cool, so she wouldn’t have slept with it open.
His mind aswirl with questions, he hurried from the room and went out to the corral, where he found the horse he had given Jessie gone as well. Yes, she was horseback riding and would surely return soon to have breakfast with him.
It was foolish of him to think otherwise. She had no one to go to should she decide to leave his home. And she had no money to pay for her passage back to Kansas City.
Yes, she was horseback riding and he would wait for her on the porch. He would scold her and tell her never to do this again. He needed to know where she was at all times. She was not familiar with this land and she could get lost and be attacked again by outlaws, or . . . Indians.
His heart went cold to think that someone might do harm to his cousin. Although she had tried his patience recently, and he had not been all that kind to her at times, he did love her and wanted nothing to happen to her.
And . . . she was with child. She had to think about her baby. She would do nothing to endanger it.
He stood and stared into the distance, watching for any signs of someone approaching on horseback. Surely she would return soon.
But as the sun rose higher in the sky, and then began making its descent, and still there was no sign of Jessie, Reginald’s anger began to swell within him.
