Brides of Iowa (31 page)

Pearl flipped back the pages of her memory to the last time she’d seen Silas Cain, recalling the less than pleasant circumstances. She couldn’t help wondering what he was doing here. Alone.

“How is your wife, Silas? Rebecca, wasn’t that her name?”

A ripple of stiffness squirmed through him, and the smile on his face turned wooden. “Now Pearl, I tried to tell you seven years ago that was all a misunderstanding. Rebecca and I were never married. She—how shall I put this charitably? She was anxious to find a man to marry, due to her…um, delicate condition.”

Heat flushed into Pearl’s face at his words and her eyebrows rose. “That’s not what she told me.”

Silas uncrossed and recrossed his legs. “Of course she wouldn’t admit something like that to a respectable lady like you.” He shook his head, an expression of pity filling his face. “I actually felt sorry for her despite her fabrications. That’s why I had given her some money when I first met her in Dubuque. She was in trouble and I wanted to help her. After all, I’m old enough to be her father. I never dreamed she would follow me, claiming to be my wife.” He shook his head again. “Quite sad, really.”

Since there was no way to confirm or deny Silas’s explanation, Pearl couldn’t very well argue, and she quite honestly didn’t care. Even though Silas had tried to court her seven years ago, going so far as asking her to marry him, Pearl had no inclination to entertain him as a suitor then or now.

As if reading her thoughts, Silas’s expression turned solemn. “You know you broke my heart, don’t you, Pearl? After you turned down my marriage proposal, I wasn’t certain what to do. I just knew I couldn’t stay on here and see you every day, knowing you didn’t return my love. So I tried to move ahead with my life.” He sighed. “For the past seven years, I’ve been working with an investment firm out of St. Louis. I’ve done rather well, if I do say so myself.”

Pearl had no desire to discuss the past with him. His dramatic explanation of the reason he’d left town almost made her roll her eyes.

Another question posed itself. “So what are you doing here, Silas? Surely cities like St. Louis and Chicago have much more to offer than our little town.”

Silas cleared his throat. “Yes, well, it so happens I was glancing through the
Chicago Daily Tribune
last week and came across this.” He pulled a scrap of paper from his suit pocket and held it out to her.

She took it and the words on the torn-out newspaper ad sent another slice of pain through her. “
For sale—well-established business in Willow Creek, Iowa. Seven-room, fully furnished boardinghouse. Contact P. Dunnigan in care of Willow Creek post office.”
She swallowed hard and handed it back to him.

“When I read it, I knew it was your place. After all, how many boardinghouses are there in Willow Creek?” He chuckled like his reference to the town was a joke. “This is just the type of investment that interests my business associates.” Silas tucked the scrap into his pocket and took another sweeping assessment of the room. “Could use a bit of fixing up, but if the price is right, I’m sure we can do business.”

Pearl ordered the lump in her throat back down where it belonged. “I’m sorry you came all this way for nothing, Silas. The place is no longer for sale.”

Disappointment flickered across his face. “You’ve already sold it?”

The muscles in her neck tightened with her effort to show no emotion. “No, I’ve decided not to sell.” She fixed her eyes on the newly laundered curtains.

Silas harrumphed. “Well, I can be pretty convincing. Perhaps I can change your mind.”

“No, I don’t believe you can, Silas.” She raised her chin and straightened her shoulders.

He sat forward. “You do still run this place as a boardinghouse, don’t you?”

Her aching hands and sore knees affirmed his inquiry. “Yes.”

He grinned. “Well, I hope you have a vacancy because I’d like to rent a room.”

The truth was she had three rooms available and renting one of them would certainly help with her finances. There were a number of things that needed to be fixed or replaced, and having one more boarder might enable her to pay for those repairs. But a warning sounded in her head. She wasn’t sure having Silas Cain under her roof again was a good idea. What would the town gossipers say when they found out Silas Cain was back in town? She shook off the thought. She was in the business of renting rooms and Silas was offering to rent one.

Something didn’t make sense. “If you are doing so well with this investment company, why aren’t you staying in the hotel? The rooms there are much nicer than mine.”

He raised one finger in the air to make his point. “Ah, but the hotel is lacking in one very special area.” His eyes took on a mischievous look. “They don’t have Pearl Dunnigan. So—” He rubbed his hands together. “Do you have a room available?”

She still hesitated, wishing she could tell him no. But the need to rent the room was greater than her desire to send him away. “Yes, I do have a room.” No sense in admitting to him she had three empty rooms. If he thought she was desperate, he might use that to his advantage. “It’s not my best room, and it’s rather small. There’s only one window and it has a northern exposure, and the bed is—”

Silas’s booming laugh interrupted her litany. “Pearl, my dear, you are the world’s worst businesswoman. You’re supposed to tell me how nice the room is so I’ll have to pay a higher rent, not tell me everything that’s wrong with it.”

“My dear.”
She wished he had used any other term but that one. The only man she wished to call her
dear
was Hubert. Another painful dart stabbed her, but she stood and pulled in a breath. “The room is upstairs, the last door on the left. May I assume you will be taking breakfast and supper here as well?”

Silas stood and picked up his bag. “You may. If your cooking is still as good as I remember, that’s another reason for staying here instead of the hotel.” He pulled out his wallet, extracted several bills, and handed them to her. “Will that cover the first week, plus meals?”

Pearl’s eyes widened as she looked at the money in her hand. “This will cover three weeks, Silas. You know my rates aren’t this high.”

He grinned and started toward the stairs. “Consider me paid up for three weeks.”

She watched as her newest boarder climbed the stairs and turned the corner. Silas Cain—she’d all but forgotten he ever existed. Had she just made a mistake?

Hubert glanced out the storefront window, looking for a wagon or some other conveyance that might belong to his customer. The rather sizable pile of goods and clothing stacked on the counter would make an unwieldy load were the gentleman to carry it.

Before Hubert could ask, the man set a pair of boots on the counter beside the other items. “Add these as well.”

“Yes sir.” Hubert jotted down the price of the boots. “Are you going to be settling into our community?”

The gentleman glanced up. “Why do you ask?”

Hubert studied his customer with quiet perception. “You’re obviously a chap from the city. Looks like you’re outfitting yourself to accommodate our more rural way of life.”

The man gave a curt nod. “I didn’t have time to pack much before I left Chicago. Do you deliver?”

“Yes sir. I can deliver these things this afternoon as long as it’s in town.” He added up the grand total. “That all comes to fourteen dollars and twenty cents, Mr.…”

“Cain. Silas Cain.” Mr. Cain counted out the money and laid it on the counter. “Can you deliver it to Pearl Dunnigan’s boardinghouse?”

Hubert almost choked on his own breath. “Uh, yes. I can…have it delivered there.”

“You know where the boardinghouse is?” Mr. Cain pointed down the street.

“Yes sir, I know where it is.” Hearing Pearl’s name caused his stomach to roll and pitch like waves on the ocean. “I’ll see to it right away.”

Mr. Cain bid him good day and left just as Hubert’s friend Gideon Maxwell came in.

“Good morning, Gideon.”

Gideon glanced over his shoulder at the departing customer. “That guy looks familiar.… Cain, isn’t it?”

Hubert came out from behind the counter and nodded. “Yes. He said his name is Silas Cain. Do you know him?”

Gideon nudged his hat back and scratched the top of his head before tugging the hat back into place. “I sorta know him. He lived here for a short while some years back. I was only in my teens, but I remember…” He paused, his finger tapping his chin, and then turned back to Hubert. “It was back when my father still owned the mercantile. I remember Cain coming in the store from time to time. He stayed at Miss Pearl’s place, and as I recall, he was pretty sweet on Miss Pearl.”

Hubert’s insides jerked into a knot. He shot a glance in the direction Cain had taken, but the man was out of sight. Had Pearl taken up with an old beau?

“Look, Hubert…” Gideon shuffled a booted foot. “Tessa told me what happened between you and Miss Pearl. I’m really sorry. I wish there was something we could do to change her mind.”

Hubert shook his head and walked back behind the counter. “She won’t talk to me. I’ve tried to see her, but she told me not to come back. All she said was she thought the marriage wasn’t a good idea and we weren’t right for each other.” He pounded a fist on the counter in a rare display of frustration. “Did you ever hear such nonsense? Not right for each other. There isn’t a woman on the face of the earth who is more right for me than Pearl Dunnigan.” He took a slow, steadying breath. “She won’t give me a real explanation.”

Gideon stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Tessa told me that Miss Pearl wouldn’t talk about it—just kept saying it was something she had to do. Is there any way I can help?”

Hubert gave a huff and tipped his head at the stack of goods still sitting on the counter. “There is. Can you deliver these things to Mr. Cain at the boardinghouse when I get them wrapped up?”

Gideon frowned at the items and then glanced out the door again. “This is Cain’s stuff? He’s staying at the boardinghouse?”

Hubert pulled out a length of store paper and began wrapping the pants and shirts. “That’s what he said.”

Gideon gave a low whistle. “Yeah, I’ll take them by there. I have to stop at the Feed and Seed, but I’ll come back here in about a half hour.” He started toward the door. “Oh!” He stopped and pulled a piece of paper from his vest pocket. “Here’s Tessa’s list. She’d be mighty put out if I came home without these things.” He handed the list to Hubert. “Don’t bother wrapping any of it. I have a couple of empty crates in the back of the wagon.”

Just as he reached the door, Gideon stopped again. “You know, I seem to remember…”

Hubert looked up from pulling a length of string around the package. “Yes?”

Gideon put his hands on his hips. “Now I remember why Silas Cain left town all those years ago.” He walked back to the counter. “Cain had asked Miss Pearl to marry him. It was all over town.”

The string slipped from Hubert’s fingers and fell to the floor. “Are you sure?”

Gideon frowned as if pulling the recollection from the back of his brain. “Yeah, I think I was sixteen or seventeen at the time. My dad was running the mercantile, and I helped out in here. Cain had run up a bill.” Gideon rubbed his forehead as though the motion might free up the long-buried memory. He yanked his head up. “I remember now. Cain had charged a lot of stuff, and every time he came in, he told my father he was expecting a bank draft any day. His bill was almost forty dollars, as I recall. He asked Miss Pearl to marry him, and then he left town without ever paying his bill. If you look through the old record books, you’ll find it. It was at least six or seven years ago.”

Hubert’s hands hung motionless at his sides. “He asked Pearl to marry him?” He stared at the string lying on the floor. “Why didn’t he marry her?” He pulled his gaze up to meet Gideon’s wry, sympathetic smile.

“She turned him down.”

As he left, Gideon called back over his shoulder that he’d be back after a while to pick up his own supplies as well as Cain’s, but Hubert barely heard him. Was Cain the reason Pearl broke their engagement? Hubert couldn’t remember seeing Cain in town until today, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been corresponding with Pearl. She could have known Cain was coming back to town.

Hubert shook his head. For that scenario to have any validity, Pearl would have to be deceptive, and the very word didn’t even fit her pinkie finger. Nevertheless, her former suitor was residing under her roof again. An unfamiliar tightness growled in his chest when he wondered if Pearl’s head had been turned. An acid taste filled his mouth.

Gideon’s recollection of Cain running up an unpaid bill set Hubert’s detective instincts in motion. The man had paid for the merchandise he purchased today, but if he had a history of not paying his bills, it was possible he might try to swindle Pearl out of the rent money. Despite the broken engagement, Hubert couldn’t stand by and watch anyone take advantage of Pearl. He’d have to devise a way to find out if he’d paid Pearl for his room. Easier said than done since she wouldn’t talk to him. Perhaps Tessa could ask some discreet questions.

By the time he finished wrapping Cain’s purchases, Hubert’s resentment of the man nearly strangled him. Every part of him wanted to confront Cain and run him out of town. But prior experience taught him to remain calm, even friendly, around the man, if he wanted to discover Cain’s intentions. And if those intentions harmed Pearl in any way, Hubert meant to see the man stopped.