Seth cautiously poked the hay pile with his boot, knowing it could be a drunk hiding, or just a piece of fabric instead of Miss Lind. The hay shifted. Seth reached out to lightly brush hay off the form until he found a gray blanket. Half afraid, Seth slowly opened the blanket—to see two beautiful, sleepy, blue eyes blinking open.
“Miss Lind, it’s Mr. Reagan.” Thank God and Saint Michael. “Are you all right?”
She blinked at him, still half asleep, or in shock? Seth looked around, he had to get her out out of the pen and away before someone saw them.
“I’m…cold…but…”
“Listen, you need to get out of that dress because the police are looking for you.”
“What?” She blinked her eyes and looked around her. Did she remember getting into the pen of horses last night?
“I have a bag of clothing you need to change into, then I’ll put the dress in the bag so it isn’t seen. Hurry!”
Seth pulled out a pair of trousers, then pulled Miss Lind up to her feet. “Lean on me,” he grabbed her foot and worked it into a leg of the pants, then shifted her weight to slip her other leg in. He yanked the trousers over her bloomers and buttoned them at her waist before she had time to protest.
He looked around again, there were people slowly wandering this alley, stopping to look at the pens of horses, but still a distance away.
“I got a shirt and men’s coat for you to put on, so let’s get you out of the dress.” Seth popped off half the buttons as he opened the side seam and was yanking the dress over her head before Lilly got her arms up.
“Go easy…my ribs…”
“Hurry up! People are coming!” Seth grabbed a hunting cap out of the bag before stuffing the dress in his bag, causing the horses to move in agitation.
“Whoa, there, we’re not trying to startle you. Calm down,” Seth lowered his voice to settle the horses, keeping himself between them and Lilly.
“Miss Lind, you’re now my assistant, Arthur Johnson, at least until we get out of the stockyards. Ready? People are two pens from here,” he whispered as he looked over his shoulder.
She had the shirt on, but was timidly working to get the coat on.
“Here, put the coat on and wrap it around you,” Miss Lind hissed as Seth roughly pulled the coat on her shoulders and pushed the cap on her head. “Don’t worry about buttoning anything right now. The hat’s got a havelock cape to cover your neck and hair.”
Seth rubbed his hand over the back of the nearest mare as three men strolled by the pen he and Miss Lind were in. “Hello,” Seth said, nodding to the men, before continuing to run his hand up the horse’s neck.
“How’s this group look, sir?” one of the men said.
“I believe all right. It looked like one of the mares had a cracked hoof, so I came into the pen to check it. But luckily, it was frozen hay and mud instead.” He moved to check the next mare, ignoring the men as he waited for them to move on. None seemed to notice his companion’s dress or stature before they continued to stroll down the alley to the next pen of horses.
“Why am I wearing men’s clothing? Where’s your cowboy hat?” Miss Lind looked confused as she croaked out the words. He had to get her back to hotel as quick as he could.
“The police were at the hotel early this morning looking for Lilly Lind—in a blue gown—and a tall red–haired cowboy named George Milner. So I bought some cheap men’s clothes for you and a black crusher hat for me this morning to try to change our appearances a little.”
Lilly swayed and Seth grabbed her before she crumpled back into the hay. Besides wincing, she gasped this time when he pulled her close. She squeezed her eyes tight, but tears still rolled down her cheeks.
“Are you hurt? Did Hardesty hurt you?”
“One punch in my ribs,” she said after taking a shallow breath. “But then I slipped on the ice when I was running, and slammed down on my side, which made it worse.”
“Think you can walk until we can hire a carriage to take us back to the hotel?” Seth was ready to pick her up and carry her back, but thought that might hurt her ribs more.
“Yes, just give me time. I can walk along the pens and lean against the fence if I need to.”
***
Lilly was so glad when the carriage pulled up to the hotel. Besides shivering from the cold and numb from fatigue, she was faint from hunger and lack of sleep.
“Mr. Reagan, I shouldn’t be going up to your room,” Lilly had whispered this more than once, but he refused to hear her arguments.
“My parents taught us boys to help others in need, so you’re my current case. My room has a private bathroom, complete with a bathtub and running water, which you need to soak in as soon as we get upstairs,” he reminded her again as they slowly walked side by side up the hotel entrance steps. But Lilly hardly heard him as she took in the lobby, tastefully decorated with expensive–looking overstuffed chairs scattered in groups for visiting. She had never been in a place this nice.
Mr. Reagan touched her shoulder to stop her once they were inside the foyer. “We’re in luck. There’s a different clerk at the desk now instead of the one the policeman talked to about us. Stay on the opposite side of me when we go up the stairs in case he looks our way.”
Lilly never thought it would be hard to go up a staircase, but right now each step was work. Mr. Reagan ushered her down the hall, looking both ways before inserting the key in his hotel room door and opening it for their entry.
“Before you wilt on the floor in a dead sleep, let me get the bathwater running so you can enjoy a nice, soaking bath,” Mr. Reagan remarked as he opened the door of the bathroom. Lilly sighed when she heard the sweet sound of hot water hitting the bottom of the bathtub.
The room was clean. No questionable stains on the bedspread, a thick area rug she couldn’t wait to sink her toes into, light streaming through polished glass…she had to be hallucinating.
“Are you going to be able to undress and get in the tub by yourself?” Sean asked while pulling off his hat and coat and tossing them onto the overstuffed chair by the window.
“Uh, yes…I’ll manage.” It may have taken effort to say those four words, but she’d get her icy cold clothes off because a hot bath was waiting for her. Thank you for electricity and modern plumbing in this hotel.
The dirty Emporium room had a kerosene lamp, a chamber pot, wash basin and a pitcher of water in it—and a bed with a repulsive odor. Lilly needed to rub the reminder of that room and the smoky saloon off her skin and hair as much as she needed to warm up.
“All right. Umm …while you’re bathing, I’ll go down to the dining room for coffee and food for us.” He lifted the door key. “I’ll let myself back in, so don’t be surprised when you hear me.” When Lilly heard the soft click of this door locking, she felt safe instead of scared, as she had at the Emporium.
Lilly stood in the bathroom doorway a minute and watched the steam coming off the tub water. How did I get so lucky to have a decent man help me after this terrible week?
Piece by piece she shed the men’s clothing, and her wet undergarments, cringing at the pain it caused her left side. She gasped as she turned and looked in the mirror above the sink. Her hair was a tangled mess, and her face was as pale as the snow outside the hotel.
She moved farther from the mirror to see more of her body and gingerly raised her arm to view the bruise on her side. It was an ugly combination of shades of purples and reds, but it would heal, thanks to her escaping and Mr. Reagan finding her.
Lilly turned the knobs to shut off the water. She’d add more when the water cooled, because she planned to soak for a long time. Her feet stung when she stepped into the tub. After a minute, she eased down to her knees, getting acclimated to the water, before sitting to stretch her legs out and lean against the back of the full–length tub. Oh this feels so good!
Time had passed when she heard the key in the room door, but she continued to enjoy the hot soak.
“Miss Li
nd, it’s me. I brought…”
Lilly opened her eyes when he spoke and realized he could see her! Apparently the bathroom door latch didn’t catch and it had slowly opened on its own to reveal her in the bathtub.
He stared at her as she sank down in the bathtub, then quickly turned his back to her. “I brought food and I’ll sit this tray on the table. Can I close my eyes and shut the door for you? I promise I won’t look again.”
Her face might be red because she was in hot water, but she was sure her cheeks turned redder, if that was possible. “Yes, please.”
True to his word, Seth walked backwards, feeling for the doorknob without taking another peek at her in the tub. She had almost fallen asleep in the hot comfort of the tub, but she was wide awake now to finish her bath. She rubbed the washcloth against the bar of castle soap to make a nice foam then scrubbed every inch of her body, hoping to get the smell of cigar smoke, cheap perfume, and horse manure off her skin.
Then Lilly slid forward in the tub to lean back and dunk her hair into the water, then sat back up. It felt luxurious to rub the bar of castle soap into her scalp and hair. She slid her head back into the hot water so she could swish and rinse her hair. Once back on her feet, Lilly carefully rubbed her body with a clean towel, then used it to wrap around her wet head. Then she reached for…nothing. She didn’t have any clothes to put on after her bath.
Mr. Reagan’s cup of coffee stayed half way to his lips when Lilly opened the door and peeked around it. “Do you have any dry clothes I could borrow?”
***
Miss Lind devoured the toast, eggs and bacon like she hadn’t eaten in…well days, which Seth guessed was accurate. She’d been savoring the hot, strong coffee a slow sip at a time, which looked like it had finally taken the chill out of her bones—along with his wool socks, his night shirt, and the blanket from his bed, which was wrapped around her.
The woman was covered head to toe, but he was still embarrassed that she was in his room. They ate in silence, but now they needed to talk.
“I need to go back to the Stock Show today, so you can sleep here while I’m gone. I brought up extra food you can eat later. Will you be all right while I’m gone?” He had promised to visit with cattle buyers about the Cross C cattle herd for his bosses.
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Reagan. I feel safe now and appreciate the use of your room to recover from my ordeal.”
“Since you don’t have the bare necessities you need, how about you make me a list of items I could get while out today?”
“I don’t know how I’m going to repay you for all of this. I was so unprepared coming to Chicago. I assumed I’d be settling into a nice house this week, and getting to know my husband…having money…”
Miss Lind was doing her best not to cry in front of him. It had to be so hard, dreaming of what her future as Mrs. Hardesty was going to be, compared to the situation in which she found herself.
“Don’t worry, buying what you need is no problem for me. My employer is a generous man, with my salary, and expense money for my trip to Chicago. And Mr. Connely is the type of man who would be disappointed to hear if I didn’t help a woman in dire need.” Seth tried to assure her.
“Thank you. If you have a pencil and a note pad, I can start the list, but I’m keeping it to the bare minimum.”
Seth reached into his vest pocket to pull out and hand her the items while asking, “Do you have family or friends you can go to?”
“No family in America that I know of. My friends from Lawrence answered ads from the Grooms’ Gazette, too.” Miss Lind wiped her hands down her face, then shook her head. “I hope no one else ended up in a situation like mine.”
“Do your friends have each other’s addresses?”
“Yes, they all left Lawrence weeks before I did, so I’ve gotten a letter from each of them saying they had arrived at their destinations. We promised to go to another’s home if we found ourselves in a bad situation.
“Tabitha left in September, right after the fire, and is staying with her cousin in Missouri.
“Trinity wrote she was in Clarksburg, West Virginia, set to marry widower, John Witherspoon.
“Hope is living on an estate outside of Newark, New Jersey. She wrote saying she was getting to know her eight-year-old charge, Addie, but hadn’t met Roscoe Edwards, the guardian of the girl yet. He was away on a business trip, but Hope and Mr. Edwards would marry on his return.
“Isabella arrived in Yellow Springs, Ohio after a delay because of an incident at a train station. She was getting married right away so I need to address her letters to Mrs. Donald Jenks.”
Now Seth was worried about the other women writing to Miss Lind at Mr. Hardesty’s address, or traveling here expecting refuge if they found themselves in bad situation…because they could be arriving to a worse situation than what they left.
“I think you should send your friends telegrams so they don’t travel here by chance and end up at the Emporium, too. And to your matchmaker so she’s aware of the situation.”
“I didn’t think of that! But…I don’t have the money to notify them,” Miss Lind quietly stated.
“I can send the telegrams for you tomorrow. How about you make your list and I’ll get ready to go?” Miss Lind had a lot of decisions to make about her future, but she needed sleep, and a clear head first. And he needed to get away because being close to Miss Lind was clouding his brain. Even though she was tired and forlorn, he still enjoyed visiting with her.
Chapter 5
Lilly slowly awoke, needing to get up to relieve herself. Why does my side hurt? She rolled over in bed and pushed back the covers to swing out of bed, but stopped when hearing a light snore. It was a deeper sound than Isabella’s breathing. The room was dark, but there were light shadows coming from the widow and beneath a door. Where am I? Lilly put her hand up to her throat. This isn’t lace at the neck of my night gown…and these sleeves are so long.
The Emporium! No, the room layout wasn’t right. The extra door…was the bathroom in Mr. Reagan’s hotel room. And the poor man was sleeping in the chair near the window. He was going to have a kink in his neck in the morning.
Had she slept all day and into the night, not hearing Mr. Reagan come back to the room? Apparently. Lilly slowly slid out of bed and tiptoed to the bathroom, trying not to wake the man.
Lilly knew Mr. Reagan was awake before she opened the door. His chair scraped the floor, then light showed on the other side of the bathroom door. She had no choice but to walk out in his night shirt, which didn’t cover her ankles.
“Good evening, Miss Lind. Did you have a good rest?”
“Yes, it helped.” But I’d like to crawl back into bed to sleep some more. “Sorry I slept so long. What time is it?”
Mr. Reagan pulled his watch out of his vest pocket. “Eleven fifteen,” he said before snapping the watch cover closed and slipping it back into his pocket.
“Eleven fifteen…at night? How could I sleep that long?”
“Apparently you needed it. Want a bite to eat now? I ate earlier, but saved you a sandwich for when you awoke.”
Lilly pulled the chair out from the table and slid into it. She was hungry and thirsty again, and she appreciated that he had saved food for her.
“My day was productive,” Mr. Reagan hinted as he watched her take her first bite of sandwich, “besides finding you.” Lilly looked up, glad to see a smile on his face when mentioning the rescue instead of a frown.
“I talked to two bull breeders whose stock I’d recommend to Mr. Brenner for the Cross C cattle herd. One was from St. Louis, Missouri and the other from Topeka, Kansas, so closer to central Kansas than most of the breeders at this show. I’ve met people from Canada to Maine on this trip. It’s amazing how far people travel to bring livestock to this show, but it’s a great way to advertise your pedigreed stock.”
A thick slab of ham, plus a slice of a cheddar cheese between two buttered pieces of fresh-baked bread made a filling sandwic
h. Lilly enjoyed every bite while watching Mr. Reagan talk. He didn’t do gestures as some people, but sat telling her about his day in a calm, gentle manner.
“I also spent time looking at the horses this afternoon. I actually liked the mare group you spent last night with, and I picked several stallions I’d be interested in, too.”
“When’s the sale?”
“Day after tomorrow, so maybe you’ll be rested enough to join me at the auction, give me your advice,” he slowly grinned.
“Besides seeing horse teams pulling wagons and carriages in Lawrence, it’s been a few years since I rode a horse.”
“Ah, but you’ve ridden, so you grew up on a farm? We haven’t talked about your family or life in Sweden. What did your father do, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Sharecropper for a rich man,” was all she said before taking another bite of sandwich.
“So you’ve been around livestock then.”
Lilly chewed and swallowed her bite before answering him. “My parents were too poor to have more than a milk cow and a plow horse, but when I moved to the manor farm, I did livestock chores besides taking care of their young children.”
“That’s kind of a strange job combination for a housemaid, isn’t it?”
How did she answer his question, and how much did she want to tell him about her childhood? “I wasn’t a housemaid. I moved there when I was ten years old, doing chores early, before the master’s children woke up. After they went to bed, I did my evening chores.”
“That’s young to start working outside the home, but I guess no different than child labor in America—be it on the farm or in a factory.”
“Yes, in Lawrence, Boston, and wherever factories are, children work in them as well as their parents. And the families still have a hard time surviving on the low wages,” she sighed, thinking of some families she’d known in their neighborhood.
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