She mentally measured the distance to where the girls played. Could she grab them and dash out the back door before the rider opened the street door?
She took a step on faltering legs, then heard the horse walk by. Clara edged toward the windows on the other side, careful to stay out of sight.
Her lungs emptied with a whoosh when she saw horse and rider leaving town.
Her faltering legs turned to pudding, and she crumpled to the floor.
Blue squatted at her side. “Clara, what’s wrong?”
She grabbed one of his hands and hung on, finding strength. “That man.”
He nodded. “The one that rode through town just now? Do you know him?”
She rocked her head back and forth. “I don’t think so, but he might be looking for me.”
He sat beside her, his back pressed to the wall, his shoulder against hers a source of encouragement, his hand still gripped in hers. She had no intention of letting go until her insides stopped quaking.
“Why would he be looking for you?”
She checked on the girls. They played contentedly with the doll and were out of earshot. “My father might have hired him.” She forced herself to take three slow breaths.
Blue waited silently, not moving, not rushing her, making no demands.
His patience steadied her. “I told you my father is controlling. That’s not the worst. He thinks I am incapable of taking care of myself, let alone the girls.” She told him how she’d been raised. How she’d gone home after her husband’s death. How she had discovered the girls were learning the same helplessness she’d learned.
Blue chuckled at little at that. “You’re about as helpless as a grizzly bear. In fact, you make me think of something Alice used to say. ‘Sooner come between a mother bear and her cubs than a mother and her children.’ You are as fierce as any bear.”
“Thanks. I think. But Father doesn’t see it that way. When I said I wanted to be in my own home, he bluntly refused and said if I tried to make my own way, he’d take the girls from me.”
“So you ran?”
She nodded, misery flooding her eyes. “But I know he won’t leave it at that. He’ll find me.” She closed her eyes and thought of all the places they’d been and how obvious they were. “A woman traveling with two girls isn’t hard to notice. He might have hired someone to find me for him.”
“It appears that rider had something else on his mind. He rode right through without even stopping.”
Clara nodded. “I wish it made me feel better, but it doesn’t. I know it’s only a matter of time until Father or a hireling finds me.” She bolted to her feet and crossed the room from one side to the other, checking the windows.
Blue waited until she stopped flying about, then came to her side.
“So what do you plan to do?”
She faced him. “I trust you’ll not repeat a word of this to anyone.”
He held her gaze without his expression changing.
She nodded, satisfied, though she’d known he wouldn’t even without asking. She shifted her attention, saw Eleanor watching her and smiled as reassuringly as she could.
Eleanor seemed satisfied and turned back to playing with the doll.
“Let’s go to the entryway.” She went to the little room separated from the sanctuary part of the church by a half-constructed wall. The girls wouldn’t be able to see them or hear what she had to say.
Blue followed, leaned against the wall and waited.
She paced in the tiny space, twisting her hands as her mind went round and round with what-ifs and if-onlys.
He caught her hands and pulled her to a halt facing him. His gentle smile calmed her.
“My plan is to go to Fort Calgary, where I hope there is a job waiting for me on a farm out of town.” She told him of writing in answer to a notice about a man needing someone to care for his children. She omitted the worry that her letter might still be en route. “I thought I’d be there by now, but Petey said he had to go to Fort Macleod. As soon as he comes back, he said he’d make the trip.”
Blue rubbed the backs of her hands with his thumbs. “What makes you think you’ll be safe there?”
She lowered her head, unwilling to admit she had no assurances.