While he walked down the hall to where Alice and the children waited for him, his nose stung again. Damn it all, he silently cursed. He’d counted on dinner tonight with his new family and planning a life around Alice’s work and his farm. Jack knew going home alone had always been a possibility. He hadn’t expected doing so would be his reality.
He paused in the foyer for a moment, not wanting to go out to them angry. They’d worry, and right now they were all distressed enough without him piling more on them. He stepped aside so another man could leave. Jack watched their faces, hopeful when seeing a male figure at the door, then falling when it wasn’t him.
Jack swallowed the lump in his throat. Later tonight, in the hotel parlor after the children were in bed, he and Alice would have to come up with a plan. She was the Home’s representative and had to know about some loophole to help him.
He left the building with a smile, grinning bigger when the children looked happy to see him. “Sorry for the delay. Just a little bit of farm business.” He climbed up onto his seat, ignoring Alice’s searching look at his face. “I hope there’s not a train east until next year.” He clicked at Shep and snapped the reins. “Who agrees?”
“We do!” the boys shouted and jumped up and down in the wagon bed. “We want to stay forever.”
Alice turned and smiled at them, leaning a little against Jack as she said, “No playing while the wagon is moving. Remember?”
“Yes, ma’am.” They sat next to Charlotte under the blankets.
Carter hollered, “What’s after the train station?”
She turned to talk to them. “The hotel. There might be an east-bound train this evening, so be prepared for disappointment. We might have to go back to New York after all.”
The three of them nodded as the wagon creaked to a stop in front of the depot. Jack put a hand on Alice’s back. He wanted to pull her into a hug and never let her go. Instead, he said, “Go on inside and get warm while I tie off the horse. If there’s a train leaving late tonight, we might be here a while.”
She nodded and eased to the ground before helping each child down as well. Jack grinned when noticing how everyone brought his or her bag without needing a reminder. Alice looked up at him and asked, “You’ll wait with us?”
Jack didn’t understand how Alice could miss his feelings for her. The love he had for her seemed like a part of his soul. “Yes,” he said. “I’ll stay until you leave.”
***
His expression appeared as grim as she felt inside. Alice led the children to the depot as the wagon rumbled on to the hitching posts. Their footsteps echoed on the wooden floor. The empty station was a good sign. No bustle meant no train to take them away so soon. Addressing the children she said, “Have a seat while I check the schedule.”
Alice went to the ticket window and examined the chalkboard with train numbers and times scribbled on it. At least three trains were scheduled today. She checked the departure and her heart sank. One would go west this afternoon and two left for the east tomorrow morning. Eight in the morning to be exact, and so the five of them had less than twenty-four hours together.
She glanced at the children. All three sat close to each other. Plenty of families between here and New York City would adopt them as a unit. Plus, she’d never been to Oregon and had always wanted to go. Maybe leaving here wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
The door opened, and she glanced up from the children to the movement. Jack. Her heart did a little flip at the sight of him. Alice gripped her bag tighter. She couldn’t buy tickets because getting on the train to leave him was impossible. Oregon had to wait until all of them could travel as a family.
She walked over to Jack before he could reach them. “I want us to speak privately before I settle for going home.”
“Of course.” He walked past her to the Hayses. “We’re going to discuss travel plans and such. Play here if you’d like, but no roughhousing.” He looked to Alice for confirmation and she nodded. Grinning, he added, “No hopping on a boxcar to live like hobos until I get back, all right?”
Charlotte gave him a slight smile while the boys laughed. Alice muttered to him as they walked to the other side of the depot, “You’re a terrific father already.”
“Thank you,” he replied before grabbing her upper arm and pulling her around the corner and up close to him. “You can’t leave. They can’t leave.”
She put a hand on his chest, in part to stop him kissing her and mainly to resist the need to give in to temptation, too. “We may have to go back for a while, Jack. I can’t make the rules or break them when things don’t go my way.”
He scratched under his chin, his movements short and frustrated. “Don’t you have the final say-so? Can’t you override Donovan’s refusal?”
“I can’t,” she replied before another idea took root in her mind. “But he isn’t the only agent we have out here.”
“Who else?” He held her by the shoulders. “Why didn’t you say so before now?”
“A couple more are in Kansas City proper with several in St. Louis, but I don’t know any of them as well as I do Donovan.”
Jack muttered a curse, giving her a slightly ornery grin when she gasped. “Sorry. Do I have time to drive down and ask another agent before the next train going east leaves?” He let go of her and walked around the corner to the schedule. “Have you bought the tickets yet?”
She followed, responding, “No, and I need to, but…”
He looked at her and swallowed. “Kansas City’s a ways south. Would you be willing to ride to the city with me and ask?”
Alice would do anything for him and the children but hurt them. She had to be honest. “Yes, but Jack, there’s a strong chance he’ll have the same opinion as your friend and refuse the request.”
His eyebrows met in the middle of his forehead and he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Are you saying you don’t want me to try? I won’t drive down there if you don’t want to stay. You all can go home, and I’ll keep trying to adopt Charlotte and the boys until I can’t anymore.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m being a coward, afraid of hearing him refuse you, too. I don’t want to hear anyone else tell you we can’t be a family.” She looked from him to the children. The trio sat silent, listening. Alice reached for a handkerchief from her bag but ended up wiping her eyes with her sleeve. “Fine. We have to present your case before tomorrow morning’s deadline, so let’s get started.”
He picked her up in a hug and swung her around with a whoop. “You sure do now how to make a bad day better, little lady.” Jack went to the children. “You heard her. We’re going to Kansas City. Think you can find Shep for me?”
Conner hollered, “Watch us, Pa! We’ll bring him up for you.”
Both boys ran out of the depot and Charlotte grabbed their carpetbags with hers. She walked up to the couple. “Now that they’re gone, you can tell me the truth and I won’t cry or tell the boys. Are we going to Kansas City to take the next train east because tomorrow morning isn’t soon enough?”
Jack took the bags from her. “Let me get those, and no. We’re truly going there to talk to another agent. I’m not giving up on you three. Not until I’m forced to do so.”
Charlotte tilted her head, as if not quite believing him. “What about Miss Wedgwood? Will you let her leave us, too?”
“I can’t speak for her.” He looked over at Alice. “She’s her own woman and all I can do is hope she moves to one of the Missouri orphanages to continue her work.”
Charlotte gave him a sly grin and Alice braced herself. That expression always landed the girl in trouble. Wanting to head off any faux pas at the pass, she spoke up first. “There they are, in the wagon already.” She turned to the younger girl. “You first and I’ll follow.”
She did as instructed, climbing up and over to where her brothers were. Jack handed them their bags and they rushed to grab their toy animals. Carter said, “We can make bigger fie
lds and have races on the way there.”
“Yeah!” Conner responded, and both shuffled around in the back, wobbling the wagon as Alice settled in on the wooden seat. Jack followed and clicked at Shep.
Charlotte knelt, moving to squeeze in between the two adults. “You know, if you and Miss Wedgwood were married today, all our problems would be solved.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Charlotte Simpson Hays! Whatever possessed you to say such a thing?”
Jack laughed at the young girl’s cheeky grin and winked at her. “It’s a fair statement. We’re both good- looking and have our health.”
Alice frowned at him. His making light of such impertinence only encouraged their unruliness. She needed to get all four of them under control. “You’re not helping, Mr. Dryden. Not at all.”
By now, the boys had discarded their toys and flanked their sister. Conner said, “Char is right. You two should get married so we can be adopted.”
Conner nodded. “Then, you’d already have all the children you’d need.”
“No babies necessary,” his brother added.
Jack glanced at Alice with a grin before staring straight ahead. “Now, no more of this. It takes time for a couple to meet, court, and decide to marry. Even if we were meant to be together, two or three days isn’t long enough for such a decision.”
“He’s right.” She faced the front as well. The three of them might as well know all the facts so they didn’t spend the hours to Kansas City pestering them. “Besides, he’s still married; a remarriage isn’t possible at the moment.”
The children sat back on their heels, each giving a disgusted groan. Alice tried to hide her smile over their reaction. Jack leaned over, touching her shoulder with his and whispered, “I signed the paper and tried to file it at the courthouse.”
“Just now?” she whispered back. He’d wanted to be single so soon? Alice had to learn more and asked, “What happened?”
He shrugged. “The clerk needed witnesses. Since I’d already written my name, he wouldn’t take the signature as mine.”
Alice frowned. She’d witnessed several adoption signings and knew most of the tricks needed for remote farm families. “You didn’t sign your name again on a blank piece of paper with witnesses for them to compare the two?”
Jack looked over at her in amazement. “No, and I didn’t think to ask. The clerk didn’t offer.”
“Hmm, he must be new or inept.” Alice sat up a little straighter, determined to give the official a piece of her mind when they returned to Liberty. “Either way, I’ve had to compare signatures several times. People get anxious, not willing to wait, and sign before anyone thinks to call in the witnesses to verify.”
He glanced back at the children for a few moments. Staring at her, he said, “Alice, if I turn around, get the witnesses, and file the divorce, will you marry me? Today?”
She looked into his eyes for a few seconds, stunned. Marriage? “Today?” she squeaked before clearing her throat. “I mean, we can’t possibly be married today.” The hopeful expression faded from his face and she hastened to add, “Later, maybe, when I have my employment moved to Missouri or even stopped altogether. I do hate to give up my good works.” Alice glanced back at the children who all sat still and silent, waiting for her final answer. She didn’t want to refuse Jack and cause them to lose their chance at a forever home. But she looked back at his profile. Unable to stop them, her feelings tumbled out of her. “Yes. If you love me, I’ll marry you.”
The war whoops from the others startled Shep and Alice alike. Jack pulled the horse to a halt and hugged her with the children following his example. He said, “Crazy woman. Of course, I love you. Just promise me you’ll work through any problem we have before planning to leave me. That’s all I ask.”
She leaned back to look at him, giving a comforting smile to his worried face. Caressing his cheek, Alice responded, “I promise. Will you always allow me to help others whenever I can?” She put a finger over his lips to keep him from answering too quickly. “Even if I have to go back east a time or two?”
He kissed her fingertips and she chuckled at the tickle when he said, “You can travel the world as long as you always come home to me.”
“Us,” Charlotte added. “Come home to all of us.”
Alice looked down at her and caught the boys nodding in agreement. She laughed and said, “Then maybe we should turn around and catch up on some paperwork to make us a family.”
“You heard the lady, Shep.” Jack tugged on one of the reins. “Time to go home.” He took one of her hands in his. “Our home.”
The complete Oregon Trail Series
Undeniable
Beth Ann Roberts made her father a deathbed promise to be a wife to her deceased sister’s husband, Daggart Bartlett. When Daggart sells the farm to join the Gold Rush, Beth must go with him, never expecting how much her life will change.
Nicholas Granville is forced by his brother to help a group as they travel the Oregon Trail from Missouri to Oregon. Mourning his late wife, Nick's heart began healing the moment he saw Beth.
Now, the couple must find a way to fight a love that is undeniable.
Undesirable
Marie Warren worked to make the best of a journey west with her husband and his sister. Going from living on a plantation to walking along their wagon, she enjoyed making friends and planning her life in the Oregon Territory. Her life begins to change when the wrong man steps into her room at the right time.
Samuel Granville is guiding a group to Oregon Territory in an effort to forget a broken heart. When he's asked by Marie's husband to retrieve her, Sam sees Marie in a saloon dress and can't shake his desire for her. Leading them west, Sam learns Charles Warren's shameful secret and why the man finds his wife so undesirable.
Uncivilized
Adelard Du Boise disregarded most people’s snap judgments of him. He knew that as a French-Indian, he’d fit in nowhere and everywhere at the same time. When Ellen Winslow captured his mind and heart, Del knew he’d do whatever it took to win her love.
Ellen’s father, stepmother, and two little brothers kept her mind and body busy while headed west. So much so that she didn’t have time or attention to give to a lovesick pest of a savage, no matter how handsome or well-mannered he seemed. To her, Del would always be uncivilized.
The Oregon Trail Short Stories
Now for the first time in one volume, the entire short story collection from The Oregon Trail Series.
Unavoidable - Nick Granville lives as a hermit in Missouri until he learns a trip west becomes unavoidable.
Unexpected - Sam Granville counted on marrying his childhood sweetheart. A change of heart isn't what he expected.
Unfortunate - Daggart Bartlett counted on digging gold during the day, staying drunk all night. When some gal sets her sights on him, he wonders why he's so unfortunate.
Lucky's Christmas Wish - Lucky Martin arrived in Oregon Territory with a good life and steady employment. Yet, there's one wish that tugs at his heart.
About the Author
With an overactive imagination and a love for writing, Laura Stapleton decided to type out her daydreams and what if's. She currently lives in Kansas City with her husband, and a few cats. When not at the computer, you'll find her in the park for a jog or at the yarn store's clearance section.
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Last Train Home Page 11
