WANTED

     Rancher seeks a wife in Texas territory. Nickolas Tate age 29, looking for honest hard working woman to maintain home and rear children. Will pay for travel.

    Jumping as the cabin door slammed open Eliza quickly hid the advert in her hand-me-down boot. The pathetic things were beyond thread bare and she'd had to stuff the toes with her only other pair of socks.
    Her Pa would likely kill her if he saw the advertisement she had carefully cut out of his paper in the outhouse.                       Sending a letter to Mr. Tate was the easily the riskiest thing she'd ever done. She'd been careful to burn his letters as soon as she'd read them.
      When her father stumbled in and collapsed in his chair Eliza held her breath, listening to the choking snores and garbled curses coming from the other end of the one room dwelling. After what felt like a lifetime, she stood from her mat in the corner, slowly moving across the dirt floor she slipped through the door.

       Once outside, Eliza struck out running as fast as her feet could take her. Twelve years since mama died, twelve years alone at the mercy of a violent drunkard tonight she would finally be free.

      

        Eliza made it to town as the sun came up. Checking her pocket for the hundredth time since last night she sighed in releaf, finding her coach ticket was still there.
      The smell of fresh bread and frying bacon filled her senses as she hurried past the Cafe, it wouldn't be the first time she'd skipped a meal and she'd learned to ignore the hunger pains. While she was accustomed to being hungry her body was weary from walking through the night and the thought of a hot meal nearly brought her to tears.
       Without any money for food Eliza chose a spot out of sight and hunkered down to wait for her coach.