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Chapter Seven
Just before it was time for the men to arrive for supper, Sydney started doubting herself. What if no one liked the peanut butter and jelly? It had been such a simple thing to make for the orphans, and they’d all seemed to love it, but none of the Daileys had ever eaten peanut butter! Hopefully she hadn’t steered Susan wrong, and everyone would enjoy the meal.
Sydney had packed the picnic into a picnic basket Susan had offered her for the evening. It made her feel as if it was a real picnic, and not as it was when she just let the orphans eat outside in their own yard. She couldn’t wait to eat in the gazebo. It just seemed to be made for picnics. Every time she looked at it, all she could think about was having a picnic there.
But she was sure Lewis had already had dozens of picnics there. What if he didn’t like her choice of locale? What if he hated peanut butter? She had no idea if she should follow through with her plans or figure something else out.
“Stop fretting,” Susan said, shaking her head. “He’s going to love the food. He’s going to enjoy anything the two of you do together. So just go and have fun.”
“I can do that,” Sydney said, straightening her spine. “I’m a calm, confident woman.”
When Lewis came in with his brothers and father, he had an odd look on his face, and he looked through the room until he saw Sydney standing apart from the others, looking as beautiful as she always did. He seemed relieved to see her, and Sydney wasn’t sure what was going on in his head.
“I have our picnic ready,” she said to him. “I thought we could eat it in the gazebo.”
He nodded, looking a tad bit worried. “That will be fine.”
“Is something happening that I don’t know about?” she asked.
“We’ll talk while we eat.” He opened the front door for her, and she followed, carrying the picnic basket.
She was surprised he seemed so distracted, and he hadn’t even offered to carry the basket. That was unlike Lewis, at least unlike what she knew of him so far. “Something is wrong,” Sydney said, looking around. What could have happened between their farewell kiss the night before and this afternoon?
Lewis nodded, only then reaching for the basket. “Do you know how to shoot?” he asked.
“Shoot?” What kind of a question was that? “Of course, I don’t know how to shoot. Should I?”
“It would be good if you did.” He frowned at her. “Someone was looking for you today. By name. They said they’d been hired to return you to Beckham.”
“What? How are they here so quickly?”
“I have no idea. Aunt Elizabeth wouldn’t have told anyone you were here if she knew you didn’t want people to know.”
She sighed. “They’ve found me already.” It felt as if her careful plans were crashing down around her in ruins.
“No, they were checking all the ranches in the area. They don’t know you’re here. But they will soon.” He shook his head. “As far as I know, they may be checking all the western towns. I just think decisions should be made quickly.”
She shook her head. “Well, I suppose we should marry…tonight if we can.”
“I thought you wanted more time?”
“I would like more time. I don’t always get what I want. I learned that at a young age.” Sydney couldn’t believe their picnic had already been ruined. “I just wanted to have one picnic.”
He shook his head. “Let’s have your picnic. We’ll talk to Susan and Pa after supper to see if we can make it happen tonight, or first thing tomorrow.” He put his hand over hers. “I’m delighted to marry you, but I didn’t want it to happen this way. I wanted you to be able to have your days of freedom and make your choice.”
“And now there’s no way for that to happen. I understand.”
As they ate, she explained all she and Susan had done that afternoon to get the food ready, amusing him with her trip into town to buy peanut butter. “You were going to ride your bicycle all the way to Fort Worth?” he asked.
“I rode it all the way out here on the day I arrived,” she said, grinning at him, even as her eyes scanned everything around them, waiting for someone to jump out of the bushes at her.
“Well, you weren’t being searched for then. Not around here at any rate.”
“I’m sure it was smart for Walter to drive me into town, but I do enjoy riding my bicycle, and I won’t ever stop.” Her words were a warning to him. He wasn’t going to get her bicycle away from her.
“How long have you been riding your bicycle?”
She smiled at that. “When I was twelve, I was pudgy, and my mother was looking for a way to get me to exercise more, so she bought me a bicycle. She told my father they’d let me ride it for a few months, and then they’d give it to the orphanage. Well, I loved it so much, my father refused to let her give it away. He told her it was my favorite thing, and no matter how she wanted me to live, I was keeping my bicycle.”
