Uncertain: Day 13

Word Count: 78,016

Summary of Events:

At the meeting the night before it'd been decided that Hazel wouldn't help with searching for the children, and so was sitting in her hotel room thinking; she decided that she was going to go search out Joseph after lunch. Joseph, however, arrived at the hotel and found Hazel was staying there under Mr. Andrews' name — which upset him — he took her to the sheriff's office and updated her on what he'd learned before they and the deputy of Santa Fe, Mr. Averill, headed for where Joseph had been told the children were. As they rode Mr. Averill asked Hazel a fair bit about Ruby, Teddy, and Felicity, seeing as he hadn't been too long in Santa Fe, and they got to speculating how the children wouldn't have caught tuberculosis from their mother . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

“Was your sister a charitable woman?” Mr. Averill asked Hazel. “As in, did she do a lot to help other people?”

“Oh yes,” Hazel replied. “That’s why she wanted to teach.”

“So is it possible your sister knew of someone with tuberculosis and was helping them, but knew she was at risk to catch the disease and had her children in the care of this other woman before she even came down with it?” Mr. Averill asked.

“It sounds perfectly logical to me,” Hazel replied. “Although I don’t see why she would have put herself in such risk, considering that she had children who were at risk of becoming orphans if she did. I don’t see it being worth the sacrifice.”

Mr. Averill nodded.

Hazel struggled to keep herself from falling apart. To think that Felicity would’ve knowingly exposed herself to a deadly disease when her children had no other family that they knew. It didn’t seem fair to the children.

“Especially so close,” Hazel said. “To so much more death.”

“I don’t follow Mrs. Chalmers,” Mr. Averill said quietly.

Hazel pulled out her handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes furiously, but the more she dried up tears the more they came, the more they flowed and blurred her vision.

“I’m sorry Mrs. Chalmers,” Mr. Averill said. “I shouldn’t have kept talking about it.”

Hazel shook her head. “It’s not your fault,” she mouthed more than spoke.

“If you say so,” Mr. Averill said.

“Would you like us to stop?” Mr. Sheldon asked.

Again Hazel shook her head. Rocky would follow them even if she wasn’t steering him. He’d be fine.

“Whoa,” Hazel heard Mr. Sheldon say softly, but it sounded to be on the other side of her than he’d been before. She felt Rocky stop underneath her.

There were sounds of dismounting, then hands lightly at her waist.

“Come here Mrs. Chalmers,” Mr. Sheldon said quietly.

His hands grasped her waist securely and he actually lifted her out of the saddle before embracing her gently against himself.

Hazel admittedly felt a measure of relief to not have to try and hold herself in the saddle and try to cry. She leaned against Mr. Sheldon and sobbed, inhaling breaths scented of horses, wood and tobacco smoke, sweat, and woods.

There was nothing said for a long time. Although Hazel sobbed, she put a concentrated effort into stopping that didn’t initially have much effect, but eventually she was able to stop crying and recover herself.

She pushed away from Mr. Sheldon and dabbed at her eyes to dry them.

Even though she could do it herself, she let Mr. Sheldon help her into the saddle before getting back into his own and going back to the other side of Mr. Averill.

“I’m terribly sorry,” Hazel said.

“Think nothing of it,” Mr. Averill said. “You’re grieving a profound loss. And I can’t speak for Mr. Sheldon, but I personally know it’s very hard to lose a sibling, especially one you’re close to. Cry all you want. I think crying does eventually actually help it feel better.”