The River Widow(33)

“If it’s not important, then why are you looking for help from a perfect stranger?”

Adah blinked hard. “I don’t know very many people around here. Almost everyone is a perfect stranger to me.”

“Why do you need to see an attorney?”

Adah couldn’t pull words out of her brain.

Then Jack Darby waited for a few more moments and finally said, “This makes no sense, Mrs. Branch. Sorry if I offend, but this makes no sense.”

The day had been long, and the lengthy walk back loomed like a sudden heavy burden. She was tired and had no need to be drilled with questions. His gaze was beginning to annoy, and she was getting nowhere.

She said softly, “Maybe it only has to make sense to me.”

He continued to study her.

She tried to appear confident, not like her entire plan was about to fall apart. “I’ll pay you for your time. I’ll pay you for every bit of information you pass along.”

“I think I know what’s going on here.”

At first, she couldn’t believe her ears. Did he know of her plight? There was a surreal, almost dreamlike quality about the way he’d made this simple statement. Was he the kind of person who simply knew things? Was he someone like Florence Wainwright, who might understand her predicament? Relief fell over her like a net, but there was a barb of fear in that net, too.

Her gaze met his: open, candid, dauntless.

She had but one moment to gain his confidence. The only card she could play now was honesty. “I need help,” she said.

He gave one nod of his head.

Adah found herself breathing deeply. “Will you help me? Will you, please? I’d be so grateful, you have no idea.”

“Why? What’s been happening to you?”

A horrible urge to tell him everything struck her through the heart. The need for release was overwhelming, but not enough to break down her barriers. She could confide in no one, trust no one, not ever. Not completely. The Branches might still have friends, despite it all. She said, “Nothing. I simply need some legal information.”

He looked away, as if searching for the right words in the air. Adah could almost feel the machinations going on in his head. She had a strong sense that he knew more than he was telling her. She could feel the intensity of what he held inside, and she could see it in his stillness. And he knew there was more to her story, too. It was as if they both sat perched on the edge of a cliff, waiting for the other to jump first.

Finally he leaned closer, and his tone was respectful, although there was a hint of challenge in his searching gaze. “It’s going to be rough passing messages between two people and making sure no one else knows about it.”

She tried smiling. “It’s what I want to do, what I need to do. Or if it’s easier for you, I could probably mail a letter from home in secret and ask for replies to be sent back here to you. Have you ever in your life needed legal advice?”

His gaze was unwavering, unflinching. Ignoring her question, he said, “Messing with the Branches, it’s not a job for a woman.”

A tiny flare of anger burst inside her. She remembered living on the streets, camping out with Henry and Chester, thriving without anyone’s help, even though she had been told that doing so would be the death of her. This was no different. “I’m not a typical woman.”

He leaned back a notch and appraised her anew. “Why would you trust me? Out of all the complete strangers ’round here, why did you pick me?”

She grasped her hands together in her lap. “I just did. No reason. Call me crazy; it might be true.”

He smiled. Then his smile faded, and he waited for a few moments and said slowly but surely, “I need to know what’s going on.”

Gulping, Adah let a few moments of silence expand the space between them. “As I already said, I don’t believe in airing dirty laundry—”

“So you came here acting like you want to be my friend, but you won’t tell me what the problem is.”

More long, heavy moments ensued, and Adah didn’t know if she was being dismissed or was welcome to stay and sit awhile longer. She hoped that the more time she spent, the more he would warm to her and help her.

“Could I ask you something?” he said.

Not more questions, she thought, but she nodded.

“When you first came out here, what were you looking for?”

His question took her by surprise, and her heart stuttered. “When I first came?” Adah shrugged in as casual a way as she could manage. “I came to get married.”

“Beyond that. Everyone is looking for something.”

“At the moment, I’m looking for an attorney.”

He glanced down and then back up to study her more. “Should you have come here?”

Adah wasn’t sure why he was interrogating her, what he wanted from her. It was clear she was going to have to bare some of her soul in order to obtain Jack Darby’s assistance. Ignoring warning stabs in her stomach, she said, “Living here has changed me.”

“That so?” he said.

“I used to look for meaning in everything. Now I see that little of that matters. Things come about or they don’t.”

His face softened, and he appeared to be sorry for her, sorry he’d asked her anything. “Mrs. Branch, I think you’re wrong about that. We’re here to make things come about.”