“Not what you expected, sweetheart?”
“I’ve been here several times and remembered it as much larger and more modern.”
“It is modern for today. Remember, you’re in 1870.”
“I keep forgetting things are so different. Compared to the Helena we have, it is big. I don’t care what it looks like as long as I’m with you. Don’t be disappointed in my reactions. They are involuntary.”
“I don’t know what that means,” he said.
“I can’t control it, it just happens.”
“Let’s get to a hotel and then take a walk around the hotel. After sitting all day, I need to stretch my legs.”
She linked her arm in his, and said, “Let’s do it.”
“You keep saying that, but you don’t deliver,” he said.
“Are you unhappy with what you’ve been getting?” she asked.
“Are you kidding? Do I act as if I’m unhappy?”
“No, but I’m just making sure. I told you I was inexperienced.
“By the way, ‘let’s do it’ is just an expression. It means all right or okay.”
“I figured that out all by myself,” he told her. “I guess I’ve just got a smart mouth.”
“I can agree with that. It’s smart enough to turn me on.”
“Now who’s talking dirty?”
That evening…
“Tell me more about your time,” Bart asked after they returned to their supper in the Pinckney Hotel Restaurant.
“In what subject? There’s so much to tell, most of which you wouldn’t believe anyway.”
“Why wouldn’t I believe it? I was a witness that proved you were telling the truth.”
“All right, you asked for it. Most of the time, women don’t wear dresses, they wear slacks. What you would call pants. In the summer, most of the younger ones wear shorts, sort of like slacks only with the legs cut off. I wore shorts during the summer. They didn’t come any lower than about here.” She indicated a point eight to ten inches above the knee.
“You walked around with that much showing?” He was incredulous.
She laughed. “You should see the bikini. You’re going to have to use your imagination here.” She pulled her skirts up above her hips.
“I like this part so far,” he said.
“Down, boy,” she said, patting his head. “The bikini has two pieces.” She described the body parts each piece covered and how much.
“We should have gone back,” he said. “It would have been interesting.”
“You weren’t invited, remember?”
“I’m still having trouble understanding how you could turn down the chance to return to a life of comfort such as you had to stay in a time and place where everything is like it is here. I have this feeling by the end of your first winter, you are going to be regretting the decision.”
“You wouldn’t have been there. If you keep reminding me of it, it is going to be hard not to regret. Just accept that I chose you and this time over that time.”
“It’s just that I can’t help feeling it when I see the look on your face sometimes.”
The next morning…
After visiting several of the shops for ladies’ clothing the next morning, Anna said, “It looks like most of these dresses were cut from the same pattern and the same bolts of cloth. They look kind of drab… Sort of like men’s clothes,” she added laughing.
“That’s life in the dark ages, or should I say the drab ages?” Bart replied.
“I really haven’t seen anything I would like to have,” she said. “I’m sorry, Bart.”
At dinner…
“Isn’t she the most elegant looking woman you have ever seen?” Anna whispered to Bart.
“She is.” he replied, “and she didn’t get her clothes in Denver. I’d bet on that.”
“I’m going to ask her.”
“You can’t do that?” he said. “You’ll be intruding on her dinner.”
“She isn’t with anyone. Maybe she’d like a conversation.”
She went to the lady’s table. “Excuse me, ma’am. I apologize for intruding, but I have to ask a question. I’m Anna Williams, from Helena, Montana. I’m newly married to that handsome gentleman sitting at the table just over there. The one with the red face.”
In a cultured voice, the woman said, “Please sit down. I see the one you mean. Sometimes we do have a penchant for embarrassing them, don’t we?
“Yes ma’am. The question I have has to do with your clothes. You are the most elegantly dressed woman I’ve seen in Denver. May I ask where you shop? We’ve been in over half the dress shops in Denver and the stock in all of them is the same, dark blue or gray.”
“Thank you. I’m Emily Pinckney, and you’re correct. I live in San Francisco, and I either buy my clothes there or buy the fabric and make them. My husband is here on business, and I took the opportunity to gain a respite from our twins.”
“You have twins? My husband is an identical twin. He and his brother look so much alike, I know of only three people that can tell them apart. His sister-in-law, our pastor’s wife and me.”
Emily smiled. “Ben and I have two sets of twins.”
“Oh dear Lord, you do have your hands full. I hope the good Lord doesn’t bless me in that manner. I want to be a mother, but please, only one at a time.”
Emily withdrew an engraved card from her bag and said, “Here’s my card. If you are ever in San Francisco, feel free to contact me and I can refer you to anyone of several shops that can meet your needs. I must caution you, they are expensive.”
“It would be worth it to bring some color into my wardrobe.”
Emily said, “I have never understood why we should dress in a drab manner just because we are women.”
“You’re a woman after my own heart. And once again, I do apologize for interrupting your dinner.”
Anna returned to her table. “she is one of the most gracious women I have ever met. She’s from San Francisco, and is here with her husband on business. Her clothes come from there.
Emily had finished and started for the exit. She stopped and said something to the man behind the greeting stand. A few minutes later, one of the formally dressed staff came to Bart and Anna’s table with a bucket containing champagne on ice. “Compliments of Mrs. Pinckney with her congratulations on your recent marriage. Would you like for me to pour?”
“Please,” Anna said.
“I told you she was gracious,” Anna said. “Have you ever had champagne?”
He shook his head.
“Watch when he pulls the cork.”
He covered the top of the bottle with a towel he had on his arm. There was a pop when he pulled the cork from the bottle and the champagne bubbled over the top. He poured a small amount into each of the funny looking glasses he had with him.
“Thank you very much,” Anna told him.
“That was interesting,” Bart said.
“She told me she and her husband have two sets of twins.”
Their waiter came to the table and asked if everything was satisfactory. Bart assured him it was and asked for their check.
“May I ask a question, please?” Anna asked.
“Certainly, madam.
“The lady I was speaking to at the other table gave me her card; is she associated with the hotel?”
“That was Mrs. Emily Pinckney.” He looked around and lowered his voice. “Her husband’s family owns the Pinckney Hotels.”
“Thank you. You have been very kind.”
“I guess we’re going to have to go to San Francisco aren’t we.”
“It would be nice,” she answered. “Or it will be.”
“You’ve been there?”
“Yes. I went with Mom and Dad.”
“I should have known it was something like that.”
She frowned, unsure how to take the observation.
Chapter thirty
The Flying W
“It’s going to be good to get ho
me again,” Bart said, as they boarded the train.
Anna had not said much for the past day and a half. She sat looking at the passing countryside, and the majestic mountains reaching to the sky.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.
“Talk about what?”
“Whatever it is that has taken your speech away?”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” she said.
“I know you’re disappointed with everything here.”
“I didn’t say that. I chose to be here.”
“And now you wish you hadn’t.”
“You’re saying things you know aren’t true.”
“I can see it in your face, every time something reminds you of the past.”
“You’re seeing things that just aren’t there. So these things you think you see, they are all my fault?” she asked.
“Well, they damn sure aren’t my fault.”
“Of course not. You’re the rich cowboy who runs off and hides when confronted with something he doesn’t want to face.”
“I’m not the one that won’t let go of the past or the future or whatever the hell it is.”
“If you remember, I’m the one that turned down the chance to return to where I came from. You simply can’t believe that I cared enough to do that.
“I don’t care for your language or your tone of voice.”
“I’m beginning to find out there are a lot of things you don’t care for.”
“Well, you won’t have to trouble yourself about them or me anymore.”
She left the compartment and went to the day car. A few minutes later he came out and sat in the seat opposite her. “Anna, I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
She turned to look out the window. “Anna, please.”
He persisted.
“Miss, is this man bothering you?” the tall man sitting across the aisle asked, and stood in the aisle.
“Mind your own business,” Bart said sourly.
“Miss, is he bothering you?” the man asked again.
Bart shoved him aside. “I said mind your own business.”
“No man pushes me like that and lives to tell about it,” the man said, pushing his coat away from his low-slung holster and the Colt Peacemaker it contained.
“Please, he didn’t mean to make trouble,” Anna said. “He’s my husband.”
“You need to thank the little lady, Mister,” the man said. “She just saved your miserable life.” He shot the cuffs of his black coat and moved to the front of the car.
The man sitting behind Anna said, “Mister, I’d be careful who I pick a fight with if I was you. That was John Wesley Hardin. They say he’s killed over twenty men.”
Bart blanched. Anna’s hand flew to her mouth as she learned how close she had just come to being a widow.
When they arrived in Helena, Brett met them at the station. “Brett, I’m not going back to the ranch,” Anna said. “Would you please take me to Letty and Jack’s?”
“What’s the matter? What happened.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said. “Never mind, I’ll walk.” She picked up her bag and began to walk toward the parsonage.
“Bart, what in the world happened?”
“We had an argument. I lost my temper and was cussing, and she didn’t like it.”
“You didn’t hit her did you?”
“No, of course I didn’t hit her, but I could have been killed because of it.”
“Killed? How? By whom?”
“I was trying to get her to return to the compartment and a man asked her if I was bothering her. I shoved him out of the way. It was John Wesley Hardin.”
“Oh dear God. You’re lucky to be alive. What did he do?”
“Anna asked him not to do anything and told him I was her husband. He told me I should thank her because she had just saved my life. Then he turned his back and went to the other end of the car. If I’d had my gun, I could have shot him.”
“He was probably watching for something like that. Are you sure he couldn’t see you?”
“Not unless he had eyes in the back of his head. Or… maybe he could see my reflection in the glass in the door.”
“What was the argument about?”
“I could see her disappointment when she saw Denver, and called her on it. She had been there… before. I guess it looked shabby to her compared to when she had seen it last. She was really sad on the train, but wouldn’t talk about it. One thing led to another and I told her we were in trouble. She said I acted like it was her fault and I said it damn sure wasn’t mine.
“I told her she couldn’t let go of the past or whatever, and she said she was the one that turned down a chance to return. I don’t remember all of the rest, but it wasn’t good.”
“You two love each other more than either of you know, and one or the other of you keeps messing it up. I’m not sure you’ll ever make it together, but I’ll ask Emma to talk to her. Maybe she can smooth it over.”
“Brett, I don’t think so. We said some bad things to each other.”
“We’ll give it a try anyway.”
The Owens home…
“Anna, what in the world?” Letty asked.
“Bart and I had a big argument on the way home. He started a fight with a man on the train. The man was John Wesley Hardin. He was ready to shoot Bart right there. When I asked him not to, he told Bart I had just saved his life.”
“What precipitated all of this?”
“He’s reading things in my face that aren’t in my heart. He thinks I’m disappointed in the way things are here. I do miss the comforts of my former life, just as I miss my family, but I did turn my back on them. He was there and he knows it happened. He just can’t accept it.”
“Do you want us to talk to him?”
“It won’t do any good. Some bad things were said. I love him, but I don’t like him very much.”
“You’re welcome to stay here until it’s resolved.”
* * *
Emma came the next day. “Anna, he’s really sorry. He knows he was wrong. What can he do to make it up?”
“Right now, there’s nothing he can do, not after the things he said. I know what you’re trying to do, Emma, and appreciate your concern. There are so many differences between us, we probably should never have married. Sometimes love just isn’t enough.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to pray for another chance.”
“You don’t even need to do that. He wants you to come back.”
“I meant pray for another chance to go back to my time.”
“Anna, don’t say that. You’re loved. You belong here.”
“I’m sorry, Emma.”
Chapter thirty-one
A Job
Helena Public School Office…
“Miss Williams…”
Mrs. Williams,” Anna corrected.
“Mrs. Williams, what can I do for you?” Henry Fogarty asked.
“I would like to apply for a teaching position.”
“Are you qualified to teach?”
“I have a college education, with a major in business and a minor in mathematics.”
“Do you have your records?”
“I don’t, but I can give you references.”
“Local?”
“Yes sir. Reverend and Mrs. Owens, Doctor and Mrs. Palmer.”
“How is it you know them?”
“I go to their church, and have lived in their home almost all of the time I’ve been here. I’ve helped the doctor care for a patient.”
“They will vouch for you?”
“Yes sir.”
“Will you continue to live with them?”
“No sir. As soon as I begin to work, I intend to take a room in Mrs. Crowder’s Boarding House.”
“I see. How can you be reached?”
“Through Mrs. Owens.”
“I’ll take it to the School Bo
ard and let you know of our decision within the next few days.”
“Mr. Fogarty, I am willing to take any test you wish to administer.”
“The territory doesn’t require certification for teachers, Mrs. Williams.”
Friday…
“Mrs. Owens, Mr. Fogarty has asked Mrs. Williams to meet with him on Monday.”
“I will tell her. At what time?”
“Nine in the morning.”
Monday…
“Mrs. Williams, the School Board has authorized me to offer you a position as a teacher. Your salary will be $31 a month during the time school is in session. We would like for you to begin preparing immediately to teach mathematics in the elementary school at the beginning of school one week from today. You may draw your books from the repository.”
With Letty…
“I was hired,” Anna told Letty. I will be teaching elementary mathematics.
“I’ve also spoken with Mrs. Crowder and have taken a room at her place.”
“Anna, are you sure this is what you want to do?”
“It’s not what I want to do; it’s what I have to do. I won’t live off the charity of others, and with no husband, I have to work.
“You have a husband.” Letty pointed out.
“Not one that wants me.”
“Are you sure of that?”
“I haven’t seen him around here, have you? People speak for him, but he doesn’t speak for himself. That says volumes to me.”
Sunday…
“Anna, it’s so good to see you,” Emma said. “How are you doing?”
“As well as can be expected. I start teaching at the school tomorrow.”
“Will you be staying here?” Brett asked.
“No, I’ve taken a room at Mrs. Crowder’s Boarding House and will move as soon as I’m paid.”
Brett was shocked. “Anna, that is no place for a lady. There’s nothing there but miners and railroad workers. You’ll probably be the only woman there.”
“I don’t have a choice.”
“You do have a choice,” Emma said. “You belong at the Flying W.”
“That doesn’t seem to be the universal feeling.”
“It is. Bart deeply regrets what he said, and wants you to come home.” Emma told her.
“Where is he then? Off working his gold mine?”
Belle of the Ball: A Historic Western Time Travel Romance (An Oregon Trail Time Travel Romance Book 2) Page 12
