by Barbara Goss
“Eddie, I think I should escort you home and wait outside while you run in to get your money.”
“If you give me your address, I’ll deliver the money to you tomorrow,” Eden said.
“That won’t do. You see, I don’t live in Kinsey. In about twenty minutes, I need to get on another train heading north to Hays, where I live,” Andrew explained.
Eden thought fast. “I could send you the money if you give me your address.”
“Normally that would work, but unfortunately, the money for your fare has left me without enough to buy my ticket to Hays,” Andrew said. “I don’t usually travel with such a small amount of money, but while visiting my mother in Hunter’s Grove, I had to buy her a new stove since hers was broken, and I was left with just enough cash to see myself home.”
Would the kind of man who'd buy his mother a stove hurt her for lying? She looked down at her boots and knew she had no choice but confess she had no money.
“I don’t live here, and I’m penniless,” Eden confessed.
“What?” he asked loudly. “Have you any idea what this means?”
Eden shook her head, still looking at her boots.
“This is what I get for trying to help a fellow out—I get hoodwinked!” he exclaimed.
“Hey, don’t you dare yell at me. You’re the one who offered to pay my fare and assumed I’d pay you back; I never said I would.”
“I also assumed you were a gentleman.
“How am I supposed to get to Hays now? I can’t rent a horse from the livery since I won’t be bringing it back. It’s a long walk, Edward, and you’re coming with me. You will endure the hardships of walking seventy miles, and you’ll do all the hard work involved with traveling on foot.”
Eden simply glared at Andrew in response to his pronouncement.
Andrew dug into his pocket and removed a few coins. “I might have enough for two bedrolls when the general store opens if I haggle for a good price. Then we’ll need some food supplies, but we can hunt for most of our food.” Andrew looked Eddie over. “You don’t even have a gun!”
“I’m not going with you.” Eden folded her arms over her chest, stubbornly.
“Yes, you are!” Andrew said firmly.
Again, Eden shook her head. How was she to travel with a man for seventy miles without him detecting her gender? She was surprised that as angry as he was, he hadn’t cussed at all while most men would have been swearing up a storm.
Andrew pulled out his pocket watch. “We have a few hours before the general store opens, so you might as well sit here with me and wait.
Andrew noticed her looking about for an escape route and added, “And, you won’t be running off.”
“I have to relieve myself,” she lied.
“Fine. Let’s go. We can go over to the woods yonder.”
Woods? How could she relieve herself in front of him? She sighed. She’d jumped from the pot straight into the fire.
Andrew couldn’t recall ever being so angry. He stared at the young man, studying him closely. Something wasn’t right about him. He wasn’t wearing a gun, for one thing, and he looked weak and pale for a lad for another. Not many young men in the west stayed indoors. For him to be so pale and frail, it could indicate he’d been ill or something.
He’d always tried to help his fellow man out. As a preacher’s son, he'd followed the Bible and tried to live a Godly life, and look where that had gotten him. He bowed his head and prayed for God to help him calm his anger and to forgive the young man who’d conned him out of his money.
Forgetting—that was the hard part.
“Are you unwell?” Andrew asked.
“I’m fine,” Edward answered with a resigned attitude.
“Well, if you have to relieve yourself, let’s go.” Andrew stood and waited for Eddie to stand.
“It was a false alarm,” Edward said. “I don’t have to relieve myself after all.”
“Ha!” Andrew said. “You thought you’d be able to slip away from me. Well, I have news for you: I’ll be your shadow for seventy miles, and never let you out of my sight.”
He saw the lad swallow hard and look frightened, and he thought perhaps he’d been too hard on him, so he softened his voice and said, “So, what are you running from?”
“A man who meant to ruin me,” Edward said.
“Ruin you?” Andrew asked. “How?”
The lad shrugged. “It’s a long story.”
“We have about two hours, and you've already caused me to go broke—I think you owe me some explanation.”
The lad seemed to be thinking. Andrew grew impatient. “How bad can it be?”
“He tried to…to…become…you know…intimate with me,” Edward said.
“What?” Andrew was getting angry again. Some older man thought he might take advantage of this young, innocent fellow. He should be shot or hung at sunrise.
“How disgusting," Andrew said, his hands balled into fists. "If I knew who it was I’d call him out. It's disgraceful. I don’t blame you for lying to save yourself from that. Why don’t you carry a gun to protect yourself?”
“I don’t like guns,” Edward said.
“It looks like I’m going to have to toughen you up, Edward. It’ll take seventy miles to do it, but I’ll make a man out of you.”
“So, you’re still going to make me walk seventy miles with you?”
“I am.”
“Why?”
“How do I know you aren’t just telling me the story to get out of your predicament?”
“You don’t, I guess,” Edward said, “but his attack was brutal, and now I’m embarrassed to even relieve myself in front of another man. Would you please let me go into the woods alone?”
“Not on your life,” Andrew said. “You can trust me. If it'll will make you feel better, I’ll situate you behind a clump of bushes, and I’ll turn my back and relieve myself, too.”
“Can we do it like that for seventy miles?” Edward asked in a voice that told Andrew the lad truly was upset over having to relieve himself in front of another man.
“Why not?” Andrew said. “I doubt you'll run off once we’re out in the wilderness since there are wild animals and snakes. Without a gun, you’d have no way to protect yourself or find your way to anywhere. Once we’re away from this town, you can take care of your personal duties all by yourself.”
Edward shivered.
“Are you cold?” Andrew asked.
“No, I just really need to go into the woods…now.”
Andrew stood. “Come on, then.”
Andrew found a large bush for Eddie and then he turned his back and relieved himself. When he was finished, he waited for the lad to come out from behind the bush. After several minutes, Andrew poked his head around the bush to see that Eddie had vanished.
He felt his blood pressure rise—the lad was nothing but trouble. He ran in the only direction Eddie could possibly have gone: toward town. He doubted an unarmed man would dare run deeper into the dark woods.
Sure enough, Andrew spotted him sprinting along the railroad tracks, and he took off after him.
They came to a narrow railroad bridge and Eddie started across the bridge. Andrew called out to him, “Stop, you crazy fool! If a train comes along, there’s no place for you to move out of its way!” but the lad kept running.
Andrew tried to grab the back of Eddie’s jacket, but he was still a good three feet ahead of him. When the crazy lad started across the bridge, Andrew stopped—no sense in them both dying.
Eden ran like the devil was chasing her. She had a hard time running in the oversized boots, and he was gaining on her. She heard him yell out a warning, but she had to take a chance and try to get across the bridge before she met a train. She was about halfway across when she heard a train whistle. She stopped and looked frantically around, unsure if she'd have the time to run back to Andrew or forward across the bridge before the train had reached her. Andrew had been right: there was no room
to get out of its way. It was probably the train Andrew had planned to take to Hays.
She tried to press her body flat against the bridge rail where she thought she’d be safe, but when she turned to look behind her, she knew she wasn’t out of the way—the train was wider than the tracks.
Eden looked over the rail of the bridge. The sun had begun to crest the horizon and she saw it shining on the water beneath the bridge. Her only chance was to jump, even though she didn’t know how to swim. Her head was spinning as she boosted herself up on the rail and prepared to jump.
The train was speeding toward her on the right, and Andrew was at the base of the bridge on the left, yelling for her to run back. Why hadn’t she listened to him? She was afraid it was too late, now. She prepared to jump as the train got closer, knowing she’d never make it to shore. She gazed at Andrew quickly before jumping, but he was no longer there. Great. Well, she’d rather drown than die by getting run over by a train, she thought as she closed her eyes and jumped.
She hit the water and kept moving downward. Everything was black. She wondered if she’d have time to surface from this far down before she ran out of breath. Finally, her feet hit the bottom of the river, stream, or lake—she had no clue what body of water it was—and she kicked off the bottom as hard as she could with the hope of getting to the top before she ran out of air.
The ascent seemed slow. Would she never get to the top? Her lungs felt as if they might burst. Finally, she had to let out her air, making bubbles while doing so. At last she saw light and knew she was near the top. She kicked her feet which seemed to propel her upward faster. Finally, her head surfaced and she took several deep breaths before splashing around in a panic because she didn’t know how to swim.
A male voice called to her, “Be still and relax. You’ll float if you just lay back and relax.”
“Easy for you to say,” she said as she bobbed in the water.
She saw Andrew swimming toward her. She didn’t know which was worse: him catching her or her drowning.
Chapter 5
Her hat had fallen off and was floating past her as Andrew grabbed her. He gave her a shocked look before flipping her onto her back and pulling her to shore with his arm under her chin.
Once they'd landed on the shore, he asked, “Are you crazy?” sounding both scared and angry.
Eden was shivering, from fear as well as from the cool morning breeze.
“So, Edward,” Andrew said, “what’s your real name?”
“Eden.”
He took her long, golden hair and wrung it out, waded into the water, retrieved her hat, and set it on a nearby rock to dry.
“I have to get you into some dry clothes, except if I spend my money on clothes, we won’t be able to buy supplies,” he said, rubbing his temples.
“You should have let me drown,” she said, and he noticed tears streaming down her face.
Andrew sighed and knelt next to where she was sitting on a log. “It’s all right. Don’t cry, for heaven's sake. I’ll figure something out but don’t cry.”
He left her sitting there and walked around looking for firewood. They were near a copse of trees, so he was able to find a few large branches. The area was in a draught, so the wood was nice and dry. He stacked the wood, started a fire, and dragged Eden’s log closer to the flame. What was he going to do with a woman all the way to Hays? He knew, for sure, she’d have to stay dressed as a lad, no matter what.
“Can I hang your jacket up on the other side of the fire?” he asked.
She shrugged out of the jacket, shed the vest as well, and handed them to him. He couldn’t help but notice, with the flannel shirt clinging to her like second skin, that she wasn’t just a female, but a shapely one.
He spread the clothes out on some nearby bushes and sat beside her on the log. He’d do his best to do the Christian thing and be charitable toward her, but it wouldn’t be easy.
“So, why are you traveling dressed as a young lad?” he asked.
“It’s a long story,” she said.
“Well, we have a lot of time. If you want my protection, you'll need to tell me everything.”
“I was a mail order bride and my intended wasn’t exactly a gentleman, so I locked him out of the bedroom and took his clothes. I hid in a tree until he stopped searching for me, ran into town, and met you,” she said in almost a single breath. “And here we are.”
“He wanted to celebrate the wedding night before the marriage?”
“Yes. I didn’t care much for him anyway, but that was the turning point.”
Andrew almost laughed, but he was able to stifle it. He studied her. She was a pretty little thing, her straggly wet hair and all, but what was he to do with her?” He was expecting a mail order bride himself, due in Hays in a few days. Not only would he miss meeting her at the depot, but it might be weeks before he ever got home—all because of her. He felt like lashing out at her, but her teary eyes stopped him.
“What are you wearing under those trousers?” he asked in a softer voice than he’d been using.
“Max’s underwear.”
“Max was the intended, I presume?”
She nodded.
“We might have to start on our trip before the clothes dry completely.” Andrew poked at the fire with a thin stick. “You’re lucky it was me you ran into at the train station. Who knows what could have happened to you.”
Eden gave him a startled look. “I still don’t know that I’m safe. I don’t know you at all.”
“You’re safe,” he assured her with a grin. “I’m a church-going man, and I’d never harm a woman.”
After a few moments of silence between them, she asked, “Are you still taking me to Hays?”
“What else can I do? I can’t leave you here alone.” He removed his own shirt and laid it out on a large bush. He saw Eden turn away from his bare chest with a blush.
“It’s only a chest,” he said.
He removed her boots and his own and placed them on their sides by the fire. “Want to remove your stockings?”
Still refusing to look at him, she nodded and removed the stockings she’d taken from Max Weaver’s drawer. She handed them to Andrew, and he placed both pairs near the fire.
“Do you think they’ll dry before the general store opens?”
Andrew shrugged. “If not, we may have to walk in a bit of dampness. No worse than getting caught in the rain, I guess.” He looked at her, but she still wouldn’t look at him. He got up and turned all the clothes over.
“What will you do with me when we reach Hays?” Eden asked.
“That’ll be a problem since I live alone, but I have church friends who’ll take you in. We'll have to go from there, I suppose.”
Eden nodded, staring into the fire. “Will you still make me work during our trip to Hays like you said when you thought I was Eddie?”
Andrew thought his answer out carefully. “I may be a bit easier on you, but you still owe me money, and you continue to cause me a lot of trouble, including having to take an unplanned morning swim.”
“But now that you know I’m a woman, how can we travel together?” Eden asked. “My reputation will be ruined.”
“I suppose it might be.” Andrew prodded the fire with his stick. “Of course, if someone other than me had found you, it would have been ruined a lot sooner.”
Eden turned her head to look at him, despite his bare chest. “What do you mean?”
“Are you that naïve?”
Eden shrugged.
“I had suspicions about you from the beginning. You didn’t wear a gun, and you were squeamish, as well as frightened. I didn’t know for sure you were a female, but it was either that or a sickly, sissy boy.”
“You had no idea. I could tell by the shocked look on your face when you rescued me from drowning,” she said.
“Okay, I was shocked. I thought you were a sickly, sissy boy.”
“So why do you think I’m lucky it was you who I
ran into at the train depot?” she asked.
“You most likely would have found someone like your intended.”
“Oh,” Eden said with a blush.
“You’re also the cause of me losing more than my money and time. I have a mail order bride ordered myself, and I was to meet her at the depot in Hays in a day or two. Now, she’ll think I stood her up,” Andrew said.
“Oh, no! I’m so sorry,” Eden said. “What will she do?”
“My best friend, Ross, knows about my trip to see my mother, and he knows I’m supposed to meet my intended, so he’ll take care of her until I get back. If I had money, I’d send him a wire.” He gave her a smirk.
“I’m sorry I’ve messed up your present and your future,” Eden said. “I’ll work hard on the trail to Hays, and I’ll get a job there and pay you back every penny.”
“The tricky part will be getting you into town. You don’t want to be seen with me, and I don’t want to be seen with you. Your reputation will be ruined and my intended wouldn’t be so forgiving of my tardiness if I arrive with a lovely woman.”
Eden looked up at him with a smile. “You think I’m lovely?”
“No,” he said gruffly, “but she might.”
“Where is she from?”
“New York, in the Syracuse area. She’s a schoolteacher there, and we’ve been corresponding for almost a year,” he said.
“She must be very smart,” Eden said. “What do you do for a living?”
“Ross Parker and I run a livery.”
“Really?”
“Yes. We opened it just last year.”
“This friend, Ross, must be a good friend if he’s also your partner,” Eden said.
“He is. I’ve known him for years. He’s from Hunter’s Grove and was a close friend of our family. We talked about opening a livery together, but there were already two in Hunter’s Grove. A friend of my mother’s wrote that Hays only had one livery since one had recently closed. We bought the building, and that’s how we came to live in Hays.”
Andrew looked up at the sun, and then took the watch from his pocket, opened it, and watched as the water dripped from the case. “Dagnabbit! My watch has died.”
