Cowboy, Take Me Away

{1. Planning Her Escape}

The week had been a long one for Brianna.

The incident at the Mr. Alderman's forge had changed her.

She no longer found found Wyatt's smile charming, now it was sinister. When his hand brushed hers she no longer felt desirous and flirtatious, she felt small and threatened as her arm would remember his grip.

Everyday he brought her daisies, and everyday she accepted them with a smile that he father was constantly reminder to to fix into place.

Something deep inside her had also been crushed when her father refused to support her, something akin to innocent trust.

Carefully, Brianna looked to her left where her sat on the church pew next to her.

His eyes are focused on Reverend Barker , as he softly nods in agreement with the Sunday morning message.

Carefully, Brianna's eyes shift to Wyatt on her right. A frown cover's her face as a he smirks down at the Bible in his lap.

It starts to make sense though when Wyatt lifts his face and looks over to the other side of the church. There, Brianna notices, sits Annie with a soft smile on her face.

Immediately, Brianna tenses, and again she's feels smacked with reality.

Her fiancée is a dirty, unfaithful scoundrel. And she had no way to avoid marrying him.

Her mother was dead, her father wanted this marriage more than anything.

Brianna's eyes close momentarily as she tries to turn her attention back to the sermon.

Unfortunately, her mind is too distracted she she bounces between duty and respect.

On one hand, her father has raised her without asking for anything, but for this one thing, in return. It's her duty to fulfill his one request.

On the other, she always believed she would marry for love. Why marry for anything else? She had always wondered and now she realized the answer: duty. But you should at least have your partner's respect, right?

Again, she looks up at Wyatt. His eyes are still focused on the redhead across the room.

It's obvious Wyatt doesn't respect her and she no longer has any for him. She didn't know where that left her, but she was sure it was no place good.

-
A gasp leaves Brianna's throat when a daisy appears just under her nose, in her rush to get away from Wyatt she hadn't heard her name being called.

"Beau." She laughs, taking the flower from the young man holding it out for her. "How was your brother?" She takes his hand allowing him to help her down the church stairs.

Beau Locksley had grown up with Brianna. Throughout their childhood, if he wasn't helping on his parents farm, he was helping her mother in the mercantile. Of the years, he had become the closest thing to a brother she had. It had been two months since she had seen him as had been in South Dakota, helping his brother seed his wheat farm.

"Nervous." Beau releases her hand and drags his fingers through his dark waves of hair that were falling down his forehead and curling around his ears. "The locusts tore through his crops last year and he can't afford to have another ruined harvest, not with a baby coming this winter." His voice drops an octave and he smiles down at Brianna's joy filled face.

"You're going to be an uncle?" Images of Beau's older brother holding a baby fill her mind and she starts to laugh. "Owen is going to be a father?"

Beau nods in response. "For Christmas Abigail thinks." Brianna has never met the bride of Beau' brother but had heard about her. The image conjured in her mind was of a beautiful young woman with dark chestnut hair and eyes the color of honey, as Beau had once described them.

"Will you go to see your family for Christmas, then?" Brianna asks, watching as Beau's hand on his bible freezes.

It had been three years since his family left Minnesota so settle in the plains of South Dakota. Brianna had always wondered why Beau never followed his family but she would forever be grateful he didn't.

Her mother, Ellen had passed from consumption at the same time and Brianna's father locked himself away for months. She had no-one but Beau. He helped her run the mercantile when her father couldn't leave his room, he sit at her mother's grave with her in silence when she needed it. He was apart of her family.

"Yes." Beau responds softly. "Something like that." There was something in his tone that made Brianna stop their walk around the church and look up into his mossy green eyes.

"Beau?"

"My brother's neighbor, he lived about a mile up the road, he passed away last month and his son who's a blacksmith, had no idea what to do with the farm."

He pauses, and Brianna gasps when she realizes what he's struggling to say.

"Beau," Her voice a breathy and it makes the young man look down, directly at her. "Did you buy that farm?"

Brianna knew he had been saving to buy his own farm while working as a farm hand in the town, she just always assumed he'd stay in their town of Benson.

"I did." He gives her a sad smile and Brianna can see relief and in his eyes. "The house is small and needs a new roof, but it's mine. Owen had left over corn seen from last year's crop and we seeded my farm too."

The way he called the farm his made Brianna's stomach roll with different emotions. She was excited for him as he'd been working for the past three years to have his own farm.She was sad he was leaving and she was jealous he was getting out of this town.

She suddenly jerks as if she were struck by lightning. Beau frowns at Brianna's shocked, pale face but is unable to ask her as Wyatt approaches, surprising her.

"There's my beautiful fiancée." Wyatt murmured, inserting himself into the group. "Are you read?" He asks Brianna, not acknowledging Beau. "Your father invited me for lunch so I was going to walk you home."

"Sure." Brianna responds distractedly as a plan forms in her mind. "Beau," She turns to her friend, frowning as the way his fists subtly clench and unclench. "Will you come for lunch tomorrow? So I can hear more about your farm?"

"Sure." He softly agrees, throwing one last glance at Wyatt before walking away.

Brianna's plan was completely selfish, but she knew if she didn't get away from Wyatt she would never forgive herself.

'Oh, Beau,' She thought as she walked along-side Wyatt. 'Please be willing.'

***