by Anna Schmidt
“Got it,” Bill said. “I’ll head back to town now and be back at first light tomorrow to get you to the station.”
“Thanks,” Nick and Jim said in unison.
Having heard the commotion, Mary Rogers was outside the bedroom door when Bill turned to leave. “What’s going on?”
Jim held out a hand to her. “Come here, darlin’ girl.”
She hurried to his side, clearly prepared for some worsening of his condition. “What?” she demanded.
“How about you and me take that honeymoon we never got around to?” He grinned at her, but his words came in huffs of breaths, each one a struggle.
“Stop being an old fool,” she groused, but he caught her hand and held on, and she sat on the side of the bed and stroked his whiskered cheek.
Nick felt his presence was an intrusion, so he stepped into the hall, softly clicked the door shut, and went to the kitchen. There was every chance Jim Rogers would not live through the trip, but there was even more certainty that his days would run out faster if he stayed. Nick wished he could talk it through with Grace. Like her father, she had a way of looking at things from both sides and understanding the true meaning of being caught between a rock and a hard place.
* * *
Emma, Lily, and Bonnie visited Grace between shifts. During those visits, the sheriff opened the cell door and left them to their conversations, noting he would be just outside.
The first time he’d made the announcement, Grace sighed heavily. “Well, that’s disappointing. I was definitely planning to make a run for it.”
He froze and slowly turned to face her while her friends hid smiles behind their hands. He scowled at each of them in turn. “This is no laughing matter, ladies,” he said sternly.
“No, it is not,” Grace replied, meeting his eyes steadily. “But you will forgive us for trying to lighten the mood a bit, Sheriff Daniels. When my friends come calling, I’m going to try to find ways to brighten their long and worried faces.”
Cody glanced at the other women, somber now, their hands at their sides or crossed over their chests as they studied him, daring him to do anything that might upset Grace. “Mrs. Hopkins, you are absolutely right.” He tipped his hat to the four of them. “Enjoy your visit, ladies. I’m just going to step across the street to the mercantile.”
Once he was gone, Lily turned to Grace. “That man…”
“…makes you glow,” Grace finished, and Emma and Bonnie nodded.
“With annoyance,” Lily protested. “He can be so darned…”
“Frustrating?” Bonnie offered.
“Arrogant?” Emma suggested but shook her head, then snapped her fingers. “Ah, got it. He can be so darned charming.”
“I was going to say sweet,” Grace added. “He’s got a job to do, but he’s taking risks to make sure I’m comfortable. He sent a telegram to Nick to let him know about…” She motioned to the cell as her eyes brimmed with tears.
Bonnie produced a handkerchief.
“Did Nick reply?” Lily asked.
Grace nodded. “They started out this morning—my parents and Nick. They should be in Kansas City later today. They’ll have a layover of several hours, travel overnight, and…”
“…be here tomorrow,” Bonnie finished. “Well, finally, some good news.”
“This calls for a celebration.” Emma reached into the large satchel she brought with her for every visit. It was always filled with goodies Jake had sent from the kitchen. Today’s treat was peaches au gratin.
“My favorite,” Grace said with a smile. “You must thank Jake for me. How is he?”
They all turned to Lily.
“He’s fine,” she said softly. “You know, in spite of the fact that my feelings for Jake don’t match his, he says he’s all right with that. He says if all we can be is friends, he’ll take that. I never knew a man like that.”
“You’re lucky to have him in your life,” Emma said.
Lily smiled at them, then bit her lip. “I am, aren’t I? But am I being fair to him?” Tears brimmed, but she kept them in check.
“Lily, if you have been honest about your feelings for him and he has accepted that, don’t question it,” Bonnie advised. “Jake is a good man—a man you will always know you can count on. That’s so very rare.”
Emma nodded. “Besides, the other day, he actually said to me that maybe you and our handsome sheriff would be a good match.”
Lily’s eyes widened with dismay. “Mr. Law and Order and me? I don’t think so.”
“Never say never,” Grace advised and got up to get a glass of water. “May I pour?” she asked, holding up the dented tin pitcher and giving them her best Harvey Girl smile.
“Put that down,” Lily instructed. “We brought milk for our farmer’s daughter and her baby.” Lily produced a pint packed in ice.
Grace felt the twinge of nerves she always felt whenever the baby was mentioned. She couldn’t help wondering if her child would be born in jail or perhaps, if Dolly Perkins got her way and Grace was sentenced to hang, not at all. Surely the authorities would not kill an innocent child for the mother’s crime. No, they would hold her in jail until her time, deliver the baby, and then hang her. She shuddered.
Bonnie immediately removed her shawl and placed it around Grace’s shoulders. “We really must speak to Sheriff Daniels about the draft in this place,” she muttered, then turned to Emma. “Well, have you a spoon in that bag? Grace can hardly eat her peaches with her fingers.”
They all understood Bonnie’s tone. Everyone was on edge, trying to pretend they weren’t as worried as Grace was. Emma handed Grace a spoon, and because she didn’t want to disappoint them, she took a bite of the luscious dessert. The cool sweetness soothed her throat, still raw from the smoke she’d inhaled.
“If Nick is coming tomorrow, you need a change of clothes,” Lily announced. “And we really must do something about your hair. We’ll wash it and put it up. Where are those combs he gave you?”
Leave it to Lily to turn somber to cheerful. And as everyone offered ideas for how best to manage the washing of Grace’s hair and considered what dress they might bring for her to wear, she consumed all the peaches and milk.
When Cody Daniels returned, they all turned to him with demands. “We will be here early tomorrow morning,” Emma stated.
“Well, not that early,” Lily cautioned.
“Grace needs to wash her hair and attend to other assorted matters of personal care that a man simply would not understand,” Bonnie said. “So please arrange for there to be some sort of screen behind which Grace can change. Oh, and a wash basin and pitcher—”
“Two pitchers of water,” Lily interjected. “One for washing and the other for rinsing. Are you going to remember this?” she asked, stepping closer to the sheriff and peering up at him doubtfully.
“Privacy screen, two large pitchers presumably filled with warm water, a basin.” He ticked the items off on his fingers. “Anything else?”
“We’ll bring the towels,” Emma said, then glanced at Grace’s cot, “and clean linens for this so-called bed.”
“Plus a proper blanket,” Bonnie added. “Do you appreciate how drafty this jail is?”
“It’s not meant to be the hotel,” Cody muttered defensively. “Most who stay here don’t notice.”
“Well, our Grace is not most prisoners, Sheriff,” Lily said. “She is special.”
“Stop badgering the man,” Grace said. “He’s done a good deal for me already.”
“Well, that may be but—”
“Bring your things, ladies,” Cody interrupted. “I’ll have what you need.” He opened the door, signaling that visiting hours were over.
“We’ll be back later today,” Bonnie said as she followed Lily and Emma out the door.
“No doubt,” Cody said wea
rily, closing the door.
“They mean well,” Grace said as she pushed one of the three chairs into her cell and then sat on her cot. To her surprise, he sat on the chair.
“The judge will hear your case tomorrow,” he said.
“Oh. I see.” So it was finally here—the hour of reckoning.
“Juniper has no courthouse as such. The judge usually holds court at the hotel.”
Grace nodded. “What will happen?”
“Since you have no attorney, Aidan Campbell and Jake Collier collected letters of support from several people. On the other hand, Oscar Brooks will have the right to call witnesses and lay out the case against you. This is just a first hearing, so there will be no jury, just the judge. Should things go…should you…”
“I’ll be bound over for trial?”
He nodded.
“Will I need to testify? Will Nick?”
“Oscar Brooks may call you to the stand. If he doesn’t, you don’t need to worry.”
Grace gave him a sardonic smile. “Sheriff Daniels, we both understand that whatever happens tomorrow, for now, I need to worry.”
He looked down at his folded hands and then back at her. “Are you up to this? I mean if perhaps you were to experience problems with—” He nodded toward her stomach.
Grace shook her head. “The waiting is its own sentence,” she said. “Let’s get this over with one way or another.”
Cody stood, stepped outside the cell, and closed the door. “Nick Hopkins is one lucky man,” he said as he tipped two fingers to his hat.
“Will you let Mr. Campbell know my parents will be arriving with Nick on tomorrow’s noon train? My father is quite frail, and Nick will need help getting them settled.”
“I’ll see to it. You should rest. Big day tomorrow.”
Grace lay down on the cot and pulled the thin blanket over her. “Thank you, Sheriff.”
“My pleasure, Grace,” he replied.
It was the first time he’d called her by her given name.
Chapter 18
By the time they reached Kansas City, Mary Rogers was a bundle of nerves, and Nick really couldn’t blame her. It was pretty clear that her husband was barely holding on. Their salvation turned out to be Ollie, the conductor Nick knew from his previous trips for the Lombards.
“Leave everything to me,” Ollie told him, then turned to Mary. “Ma’am, I’m going to personally see that you and your husband travel in comfort.”
“Thank you,” she mumbled, looking around at all the activity surrounding the station. “This is all very…unsettling.”
“It can be, but you just wait right here while I get everything in order. I won’t be long.”
True to his word, Ollie returned moments later, leading a group of red caps and porters, one of them pushing a wheelchair. Two of the men lifted Jim into the chair and covered him with blankets around his shoulders and over his knees. Two more men took charge of the luggage, and Ollie held Mary’s elbow as he led them all down the platform. On board, there were two more porters waiting to transfer Jim to the bed they had made up for him and bring Mary hot tea. Ollie even told them there was a doctor traveling on board, and he’d already alerted him to the possibility of a need for his services. The color that had drained from Mary’s face after the nightmare of the trip from Galax to Kansas City returned.
“I recall your daughter, sir,” he said to Jim. “Pretty little thing. I knew this cowboy here had his eye on her from that first day.” He chuckled. “Looks like it all turned out for the best.”
Jim offered Ollie a weak handshake and thanked him.
Mary Rogers gave him a hug.
Once Nick was sure Grace’s parents were settled in their compartment, he found his seat in second class and breathed a long sigh of relief as the train pulled away from the station. They were on their way. By this time tomorrow, Grace and her parents would be reunited. More to the point, he would be able to find out what exactly had made Cody Daniels lock his pregnant wife up in a cold, cramped cell.
* * *
The following day, Grace was as ready as she was going to be. Accompanied by Sheriff Daniels, she crossed the plaza and entered the hotel. Emma and Lily had helped her get ready and assured her she looked fine.
“Innocent,” Lily added. “Like a woman who is about to walk free in time to meet her husband and parents getting off the afternoon train.”
She glanced at the station on her way to the hotel. Nick and her parents were scheduled to arrive in an hour, and she wondered if Lily’s prediction would come true. She imagined waiting on the platform, scanning the windows of the cars as they rolled by until she saw Nick’s face—and then her mother’s. She would know with one look at her mother how her father had fared on the strenuous journey.
“This way,” Cody said softly as they entered the hotel lobby. He looked neither left nor right but walked toward the small room usually designated for letter writing or reading.
As she hurried to keep pace with the sheriff, Grace glanced toward the lunch counter, where every seat was taken. Polly peered at her for a moment before pointedly turning away. Bonnie stood in the doorway leading to the dining room, not yet open for lunch. She forced a smile that was more of a grimace, one that reminded Grace of that first day she’d come to work at the hotel.
Her life had changed in so many ways since that day, and yet this place and the people she had gotten to know felt more like home than the farm did.
Cody led her to a single chair at one of two small tables. Both tables faced a larger, longer table where she assumed the judge would sit. Chairs arranged theater-style, presumably for witnesses and other interested parties, filled the rest of the room. Mrs. Perkins sat in the front row of chairs just behind the other small table. Next to her was her sister, Rita, along with John Lombard. Mrs. Perkins was speaking to a man of about forty who seemed to be trying to reassure her.
“That’s Oscar Brooks,” Cody muttered. He pulled out a chair for Grace. “Sit until the judge comes in, then stand until he tells you to sit again. I’ll be right over there.” He took up his position near the windows.
Grace nodded. Aidan entered the room and then exited again through a side door she’d never really noticed before. Grace folded her hands and rested them on the table, the smooth surface inlaid with a game board for checkers or chess. Behind her, she heard people whispering as they filled the empty seats, but she did not turn around.
Aidan opened the side door and stepped aside as the judge entered the room, followed by a man carrying a stack of folders. Immediately, Grace was on her feet, her hands at her sides, her clenched fists hidden in the folds of her skirt.
“Be seated,” the judge said without looking at anyone in the room. Instead, he studied a file his aide handed him. After what seemed a long time, he leaned back and focused his attention on the lawyer. “Mr. Brooks, have you witnesses to call?”
“I do, Your Honor.” Brooks was a wiry man with a good deal of nervous energy. To Grace’s ears, he spoke far too loudly. As the man passed her on his way to stand closer to the chair for witnesses, he smirked at her.
“Then let’s get on with it.” By contrast, the judge seemed weary, as if he had seen far too much and most of it unpleasant.
“I call Frank Tucker,” Brooks bellowed.
The judge flinched. “We are all of good hearing, Mr. Brooks, and it’s a small room. No need to shout.”
Frank Tucker approached the witness chair. The judge’s aide had him swear to tell the truth and then indicated he should sit. The lawyer asked him questions related to the fire—when he had first become aware of it, when had he arrived on the scene, what had he observed. Then Brooks started questioning the shopkeeper about Grace—had he ever observed her with Mr. Perkins or any other man in town? What was her demeanor like on those occasions?
He repea
ted this process with several other witnesses, all men she had served either at the counter or in the dining room. Some of them were good friends of the banker, and as they testified, they kept glancing over at Perkins’s wife. Grace they dismissed as another girl who no doubt had come to work at the hotel hoping to marry a wealthy man. Several of them mentioned they had heard that her family farm was failing and that she was desperate to send money back to them. Most of them did not know the first thing about her except that she was a Harvey Girl and they’d heard she needed money.
As witness after witness testified and Brooks twisted the words of those who she knew had come to speak in her support, she understood how foolish she had been not to engage a lawyer of her own. Of course, how would she ever have paid the man? Her hopes for anything approaching a positive outcome plummeted.
Then Brooks called Dolly Perkins to the stand.
* * *
The train pulled into the station right on time. Jake was on the platform, having been sent by Aidan to meet them. “I got this,” he said, motioning toward the porters transferring Grace’s father to a wheelchair. “You need to get to the hotel. It’s not going well, Nick. Grace needs you. That lawyer is making it look like Grace—”
The man had not finished the sentence when Nick took off at a run. “Get Doc Waters to check on Grace’s pa,” he shouted over his shoulder.
Inside the lobby, he paused for a minute, looking around and trying to figure out where Grace might be.
“In there,” Polly said.
“Did the lawyer call any of you girls to testify?”
“Not yet, and I think he’s about finished. I heard somebody say he’d saved Mrs. Perkins as a cincher for last.”
Nick hesitated. “Look, Polly, if you know anything—”
“I’ve got customers, Nick.” She turned away.
Every stool at the counter was empty.
Nick strode across the lobby to the reading room. He heard Dolly Perkins sobbing as she told her version of the night Grace and the other girls had come for supper. He entered the room and would have marched straight to the front had Aidan not caught his arm and held him back. As he leaned against the back wall near the door, he spotted the Lombards sitting in the front row. Of course, Mrs. Lombard would be there for her sister, but their presence on that side of the room did not bode well for Grace. John Lombard was one of the most highly respected men in the area, and if he was sitting with the accuser, folks were bound to think there might be some validity to what Mrs. Perkins was saying.
