The Escort

by Gina Robinson

  "All the more reason to defend your territory." May wasn't about to let him squirm away.

  He took another bite of cookie and sighed. "This would be best with a nice glass of wine to dunk it in."

  "Tell that to the bartender."

  He sighed. "All right, I give up. What do you want me to do?"

  "For starters, how about taking a look at that girl's property and timber?"

  "John is handling that."

  May nodded. "Yes, that may be so. But Angelina's been fretting on it. You may trust him, but he's a stranger to her and a lawyer, not a logger. What does he know about trees and the timber business? Your assessment wouldn't hurt."

  He paused mid bite, obviously considering her suggestion. "Okay, sounds reasonable. And?"

  "And what?"

  "You can't be finished with me yet."

  May laughed. "You treat her nicely, Tonio." With her piece said, May took her leave, hopeful that Tonio and Angelina would work things out.

  Angelina's arms ached from kneading bread dough in the Colonel's kitchen. She'd resorted to mumbling complaints in Italian. Hot. Tired. And the stupid bread dough would not cooperate.

  "Come on, Angelina. You spoke better English the last time we met. Have you forgotten everything I've taught you?"

  The deep resonant voice stopped her in her tracks. The plate froze in hand as she looked up.

  "Tonio," she said in a breathy whisper to herself before she'd recovered from the shock.

  He lounged in the doorway of the Fuller's kitchen in a pose only he could effect. He wore a blinding white shirt unbuttoned at the neck, his fringed black jacket held loosely over his shoulder on two fingers. The sight of him took her breath away.

  Unlike the handsome, compliant man that she had imagined in his absence, in the flesh he was a presence to be reckoned with. Her legs struggled to hold her up. She locked her knees and looked him straight in the eye. She couldn't believe he'd come back. Joy flooded over her.

  "Tonio? I didn't think I'd see you again for a while. Last I heard, you were working night and day in that hole."

  He left the doorway to lean across her worktable and speak intimately to her. "I came to thank you for the cookies."

  "You didn't need to make a trip to town for that. May told me you enjoyed them."

  "A personal thank you is always best."

  His presence filled the kitchen, the air she breathed, her very being. The kitchen and the problem bread dough faded into a nebulous background of nonexistence as she locked eyes with him for a period of time that was distinctly longer than appropriate for mere friends.

  "What really brings you to town, Tonio?" Angelina asked.

  "Why, you of course, my dear. I would have been remiss in my duties if I'd not checked up on you to make sure all is well. Nonna Gia is surely expecting some kind of report. You haven't written her yourself, have you?"

  Angelina blushed. No, she'd not written Nonna Gia, or her family or anyone else for that matter. She'd been too caught up in her own problems to feel up to writing. She wanted to reassure everyone that she was fine. But she wasn't convinced of that herself yet.

  Angelina's blush intensified as Tonio continued in a confidential tone. "I know you haven't written Nonna Gia. I would have caught hell by now. As it is, I got a letter from Nonna just the other day inquiring about you. Seems you left no forwarding address."

  Angelina was disappointed. Had he come merely because of Nonna Gia's bidding? She should have written Nonna long ago and saved Tonio the trip. Of course people would want word of her, if only to know she had arrived safely.

  "You are right to remind me of my responsibilities. I was waiting until I had good news to tell them. I have been afraid to confess that I am now a widow. My parents will worry and perhaps insist that I find a way to come home." She gave him an intimate smile, hoping to remind him that she was still in pursuit.

  "I will write Nonna Gia and my family today. I promise."

  "Good," Tonio replied. "There is one bit of news Nonna wanted me to pass along. Your late husband's family hasn't heard from his brother Paolo. He didn't return to Italy on the ship. Your cousin Mario has been checking with the police about him. A body washed up in the harbor. A young man of Paolo's age and general description. It was badly decomposed. There's no way to know for sure whether or not it was him. But it seems likely."

  Angelina gasped and crossed herself, overcome with guilt that she was partly relieved. Paolo wouldn't be a problem for her now. "Poor Paolo. May he rest in peace."

  Tonio nodded sympathetically. "You look hot and tired. Is there any chance the Colonel will let you take the afternoon off? Since I've come to town, I may as well help you get a few matters settled.

  "May tells me that you are concerned about your timber, that you would like a second opinion about it. For what it's worth, I would be happy to offer mine.

  "And then there's the matter of banking that money when it arrives. I was hoping to help you open a bank account."

  She could have collapsed into his arms with relief. He kept a good face, a great lover's poker face, but in the end he had come to town to help her. He might fight it, but she felt certain that he loved her.

  "Let me turn this dough out to rise. May can put it in the oven for me later. Just let me tell the Colonel that I'm leaving."

  "Excellent. We'll go by the bank first and then catch a train to Harrison so that I can see the infamous timber for myself."

  "You're sure my money is safe?" Angelina said as she and Tonio emerged from the formal atmosphere of the bank into the bright sunshine.

  "Safer than in your cookie jar or under a rock," Tonio said. It was the first opportunity he had to see her in full daylight since arriving. He enjoyed the sight of her too much for his own good.

  "Your few dollars are perfectly safe. Bankers wouldn't stay in business if they didn't protect their clients' money."

  He didn't tell her that just six years ago, during the depression of '93, many banks did indeed go bankrupt and close their doors. He doubted Angelina even knew of such things as bank failures. She was probably more worried about a hold up.

  "You know their big vault is secure."

  "It's not the safety of their vault that concerns me," Angelina said. "No one in my family has ever had a bank account. Papa never trusted them, not that he ever had any money to save."

  There wasn't any self-pity in her voice. It was merely a statement of fact.

  "Banks fail," she continued. "At least with an honest robbery there is some chance of recovery."

  He looked back at her and smiled, pleasantly surprised by her knowledge. At times it was almost possible to forget that she was a peasant. "How would your Papa know about such things?"

  "Don't put on your patrician airs with me, Antonio Domani." Her words would have been sharp if she hadn't been smiling and had a teasing lilt to her voice. Her voice—he could have listened to her speak all day. He was a besotted fool.

  "My Papa may not have money to invest," she said, "but he is intelligent, and well-versed in a wide variety of subjects."

  "And yet, he doesn't trust banks? My family has done quite well by them for hundreds of years."

  "And look where that's gotten you. Here you are breaking your back on a mine claim. I don't see much difference between you and Papa at the moment. Your high born ancestors would be horrified."

  "My brother in Italy is quite a wealthy man. My only crime is being the second born son." He tried to remain unruffled, though it still galled him that his worthless brother should have all the amenities in life while Tonio had to struggle.

  "Don't worry about your money, Angel. It's nice and safe now." He took her arm. "Let's catch our train before it gets too late for the trip."

  The dirt road up Bell Canyon to Angelina's property was already dry and dusty in early May. Angelina imagined it would be a mud hole in early spring. Tiny baby tobacco spitting grasshoppers sang as they flew out of the road in front of Tonio a
nd Angelina.

  Tonio led the way to a cool, shady spot off the top of the bluff at the upper end of her property. Tonio carried a lunch box that Angelina had packed back at the Fuller, and Angelina a jug of cool water she had dipped from the spring near the house.

  "These nasty hills. They radiate the heat."

  "Basalt rock is your culprit. These hills abound with it."

  "There, just ahead is our shade," Angelina said.

  Minutes later they settled in the cool shadow of a large white pine and dined on the quick lunch Angelina had put together. She couldn't keep her eyes off him.

  She wondered if he felt her scrutiny, or her joy at being out with him. She had missed him. She was surely a foolish woman to harbor such feelings, but they were too strong to ignore.

  She felt as if she could never get enough of staring at his dark, handsome features, the lock of hair that curled over his left eye. Her body reacted to his nearness. She remembered the mountain meadow, and although it was inappropriate, longed for more lovemaking with him. But he kept his distance. And she knew he was right. She could not be with him again until they married. If only she could convince him to marry her.

  She felt privately envious of Tonio as he lounged insouciantly in the sparse grass. His carefree, arrogant attitude was almost insolent in the face of fate. Without realizing it directly, she'd come to admire the Northern arrogance that she'd chided him for before. If she could effect that same confidence...

  Tonio stared at her as she sat straight-backed against a tree and fought off her desires. Her hair spilled out of its once tidy bun. A tiny droplet of perspiration trickled down her neck and between her breasts. Her face was moist with the heat, her clothes sticky from the walk up the hot hill.

  She tried to unobtrusively pull the damp sleeve of her blouse from her skin so that the small breeze could cool her. "What are you staring at?" She spoke in lilting Italian hoping to draw a compliment from him; though goodness knew why he should with the way she looked.

  "You. I've walked you too hard this morning. Are you feeling all right?"

  Perspiration dripped down her neck. She unbuttoned her blouse a few buttons, parted the fabric, and fanned herself, inhaling deeply, at the same time throwing her shoulders back to emphasize her bust. It was a girlish trick but effective. Tonio's eyes raked over her, resting a moment too long on the curves she meant to show him. And despite the fact that he remained solemn, she was pleased.

  At first, she didn't understand his sudden sober mood, then the implication hit her. He worried that she might be with child, his child.

  "You have no reason to worry," she said.

  He seemed relieved. He looked away guiltily. "Good."

  Embarrassed, she changed the subject. "Look at this land. You don't have to be a farmer's daughter to see that it is worth nothing once the timber is logged. Who would buy such a hot old rock hillside?

  "You can't farm it; even the meadows that are already cleared are no good. I fear that my late husband was the only fool big enough to purchase such land! I may be stuck with it for good."

  "I wouldn't say worth nothing. Land is always worth something." He rose suddenly and began examining the trees around them.

  She watched him, feeling sad that the forest must be logged. Italy's forests had been destroyed long ago, replaced in the south of her homeland with malarial swamps.

  Tonio snapped a twig off a tree. "You don't have to rape the wilderness like the old time Italians did to the land of our birth. There are ways to log responsibly, to replace the trees."

  He gestured up toward the trees overhead. "Problem is, most of your timber's small. Must have been a forest fire through here less than thirty, thirty-five years ago that burned the forest nearly to the ground.

  "If you had the time to give these trees a few more years then you would have yourself a very valuable harvest. But you don't have time because you need the money, and because of that." He pointed to a small stand of trees off to their right.

  "What?"

  "See those trees? The tops of some are already brown, others are brown to the ground, dead—pine blister rust. If you walk up close and examine the bark, you'll see it looks blistered and off color. It'll kill your trees, every last one.

  "You're going to have to log those out whether you want to or not or the disease will spread to the rest of the stand. The wood's still good for lumber. A reputable mill will give you a decent price.

  "I'll talk to John about hiring a logger to take out the diseased and some of the surrounding trees right away. The sooner, the better. While he's at it, I'll ask him to have them clear the underbrush. It's a breeding ground for the disease. Blister rust only thrives where wild gooseberries grow in conjunction with the pines."

  Angelina felt a sudden rush of fear. She believed Mr. Lawlor would get the matter of her ownership straightened out, but now she had the new worry of this tree disease. "And if I don't?"

  "The disease spreads and the entire stand becomes infected and dies. The first spark, bolt of lightning, what have you, that touches those and they act like kindling to start one hell of a forest fire, in which case you'll have more to worry about than losing your lumber. Your late husband should have taken care of it long ago, when he noticed the first tree. As it is, you're going to lose most of that stand now."

  She looked around at the beautiful forest surrounding them. "Mr. Allessandro must have been very busy at the mine to let his forest get in such bad shape."

  "Or his heart was in bad shape and that slowed him down," Tonio observed.

  A bad heart could do that, Angelina thought to herself. Or a broken heart. When would Tonio see that he could fix both their hearts with a few simple words? Will you marry me would do it.

  Chapter 13

  Wallace in late spring of 1899 was a hotbed of emotion and tension. The Silver Valley was embroiled in a labor dispute waiting to explode. Minor skirmishes had broken out between scabs and union miners, but so far only fists had been involved and no one had been killed. The Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mine still refused to pay union scale wages and the leaders of the Western Federation of Miners were furious. They waged a class war of ever increasing violence fueled by their militant leader, Ed Baker. Baker, who'd been imprisoned for his role in the violence of '92, was cynical about the miners' chances of ever obtaining justice.

  Since '92 the Bunker had refused to hire any union labor. Anyone suspected of being a union sympathizer was promptly fired. So a Bunker employee was caught between fear of losing his job and fear of violence at the hands of union members from other mines.

  The union was equally leery. New members were carefully scrutinized and only members of longstanding were allowed into meetings.

  Angelina grew tired of the talk of violence around town. She had her own concerns, her own worries and plans, and she didn't intend to make the miners' problems her own.

  "I had a brilliant idea the other day, May." Angelina sat in the sunny warmth of May's kitchen drinking coffee. "Have I not been a pastry chef in a fine household in Italy? Can I not bake exquisitely? Are the miners not lonely, hungry men? I have decided to sell baked goods to the miners as they come off shift from the mine. The Colonel has agreed to let me use the ovens during the idle times at the hotel.

  "Just think—hundreds of hungry men filing out past us in our strategically located stand. They'll buy more cookies than we'll be able to supply. I'm going to go to Jim Burte at the Bunker and see if he can help me get permission from the Bunker management to set up right on the outskirts of their grounds. Or maybe I'll ask Tonio to get permission for me. He's a friend of his. Tonio introduced us on the train."

  Angelina continued with her train of thought. "I'll put on my Italian accent and smile just so. I'll flirt but only in an innocent, friendly way. The men love that. We'll sell all the more cookies.

  "The Colonel has offered to let us buy supplies through him at wholesale. All he wants for his help is a small percent of the profits.
We can't lose."

  "We?" May asked distractedly. She focused on something outside the window.

  "I thought you'd want to be involved. It's a wonderful way to earn extra money to put into the Hole. I've figured it out. With only a few hours extra work each day we should easily be able to clear three to four dollars profit. The Colonel says we can begin tomorrow—"

  "It appears we have company," May said. Someone came up the front walk. She smiled and rose from her chair to greet him at the door. Angelina was staring into her coffee cup, making mental calculations so intently that she didn't notice May get up.

  "Hello, May!" Tonio's voice boomed, interrupting her thoughts.

  Tonio stood just inside the doorway wearing his typical attire—jeans, white shirt, and his black fringed jacket. Her heart stopped. What was he doing back in town? She had the feeling that this wasn't a chance visit.

  "Come on in and have some coffee, Tonio." May poured him a cup before he could answer. She set a box of candy in front of him. "Have a sweet, Tonio. Angelina's secret admirer sent this over just yesterday. Seems he's made it his goal in life to keep us in sugar."

  Angelina blushed. All the gifts this secret admirer sent made her uncomfortable. She never touched the candy, giving it away to neighborhood children when she could. The attention from an unknown man seemed almost sinister, like she was being watched from afar. It had her looking over her shoulder when she should have felt safe. She mentioned none of this to Tonio.

  Tonio cast her a quick look and took a seat at the table, his expression unreadable. "If that's his only intent, it seems honorable enough."

  Angelina changed the subject. "What interrupts your work and brings you to town?" Angelina took a sip of her tepid coffee, trying to sound casual while her heart tripped over the fact that Tonio sat across from her.

  "I get time off for good behavior now and again. And it's in my best interests to come to town from time to time and catch up on the news."

  "Speaking of news, Angelina and I are thinking of starting a new business," May said. "We're going into the baking business." May winked at Angelina. "We're trying to put up as much money as possible before war breaks out here in the valley and work will be hard to come by."