Elusive Hope by MaryLu Tyndall

forward and glanced at James, who sat on a chair beside Blake’s desk. Rays from the setting sun floated in through the window and hallowed his body in gold, making him look like the preacher he claimed to be.
    Angling his shoulders, Hayden stretched his back and gazed at his two friends. Though their skin was tanned a golden brown from hours in the sun, and dirt smudged their tattered clothes, both looked more robust and healthy than when he’d first met them on board the ship over four months ago. He wondered if the same were true for himself, for he’d never felt better, except for the sorrow welling in his gut at the thought of leaving them. His friends. He’d never really had friends before.
    James stood. “You can’t be serious. We are going to plant within the week. You’ve put so much work into this town.”
    Hayden stared at the ground. “It cannot be helped. I belong in a city, not a jungle,” he lied. Truthfully, he had loved his time here in Brazil, away from the filth and crime that always encroached where large groups of humans inhabited, here out in the fresh air, perfumed with the sweet smells of the jungle,where fruit was plentiful and life was simple. Where everyone worked together—well, almost everyone—to build a new world. Where, for the first time in his life, he had put in a hard day’s work and been rewarded for it. With muscle aches, yes. But aches he was proud of. Aches that came from honest work. Aches that caused a twinge of something foreign inside him, something he’d never expected to feel—self-respect. Not only that, but he had earned the respect of the two men who stood before him—men who wouldn’t have given him a moment of their time back in the States. And that had been worth all the money he’d ever swindled.
    But he couldn’t stay. He had a man to find. A debt to pay. He’d promised his mother on her death bed.
    Blake hobbled around the desk. His uneven gait from an old war wound did nothing to detract from his commanding presence, nor from the frustration masking his face. “I realize you were a stowaway on this journey, but you have fit in with the colony so nicely. You’re a hard worker and an honorable man.”
    Hayden stifled the chuckle in his throat.
    “And I’ve come to depend on you,” Blake continued. “We all have.”
    “Indeed.”The doctor’s brow wrinkled.“You’ve taken on a leadership role among us. The town needs men like you.”
    Hayden crossed his arms over his chest and gazed out the window. He had expected opposition. He had expected frustration, even anger. He hadn’t expected to be cloaked in praise. Especially from the two men he admired most in the world. He cleared his throat. “I appreciate that. I truly do. But there is something I must do.”
    “Here in Brazil?” Blake asked.
    “Perhaps. Perhaps not. But I must go to Rio to find out.” Hayden silently chastised himself for saying far too much already, but the look of sorrow and concern in his friends’ eyes was chipping away at his wall of resolve. “I cannot tell you any more than that.”
    Blake nodded and leaned back on his desk with a sigh. “It will be difficult without you.”
    James rubbed the scar angling down the side of his mouth. “Then there’s a chance you will return?”
    “A slight chance.” Hayden shrugged. “Time will tell.”
    “When are you leaving?” Blake asked.
    “Tomorrow.”
    “On foot?” James asked.
    “Yes, Thiago gave me directions. It shouldn’t take more than five days if I travel quickly.”
    “All alone in the jungle?” Blake asked.
    “I can take care of myself.”
    Blake nodded. “Since you’ll be in Rio, would you inform Mr. Santos that we’ve moved our location a mile west and that once we have planted our crops and started building the town, we will send Thiago back with the exact acreage we intend to purchase as stated on our provisional title?”
    “Of course,” Hayden said. He needed to speak to the immigration