by Merry Farmer
Holly and George rushed out of the jail first, crossing over Station Street and hopping up onto the train platform. The train looked just about ready to leave. No further passengers were climbing aboard, and the porters appeared to be doing one final check. As Holly and George reached the stationhouse door and were about to rush inside, Holly caught a blur of black out of the corner of her eye.
“George.” She grabbed his sleeve to stop him, turning to point.
Sure enough, they caught the back of Robbins as he practically leapt into the last car of the train.
“We have to go after him,” Holly gasped.
George stepped out into the open, pivoting back to Main Street. Trey was already at the far end, marching on toward the hotel. “Trey,” he called out, but it was useless. There was no way Trey would hear him.
“All aboard!” one of the porters called out. The train hissed as steam was released.
“What do we do?” Holly panicked. “He’ll get away.”
“We have to go after him.”
Without waiting, George rushed inside of the station office. Athos was busy behind the desk, but glanced up with a smile as George and Holly dashed up to the desk. “Morning, Rev. Pickering, Mrs.—”
“We need to get on that train.” George interrupted him.
Athos looked baffled for all of two seconds before scrambling for something on the desk. “What’s going on?” he asked as he scribbled out two tickets. “What’s the problem.”
“Robbins stole from several people, and he’s about to get away,” George explained.
“All aboard,” the porter called again.
“You’ve got no time,” Athos hurried on. “That train is leaving for Salt Lake City. I don’t suppose you have bags?”
“We have nothing,” Holly said. “We just need to go after him, stop him.”
Athos handed them their tickets, but when George turned to run, he called, “Wait!”
George whipped back around. “There’s no time.”
“Do you have any money with you?”
Holly blinked. “No.”
Athos thrust a handful of bills at them. “Here. Take this. You can count it later and let me know how much you owe me.”
“Are you sure?” George asked.
“No, but I’ve read enough dime novels to know that you need cash if you’re chasing after bank robbers.”
Holly had to resist the urge to laugh. Outside the stationhouse window, the train was beginning to move. “There’s no time,” she shouted, bolting for the door.
George followed, and in seconds they were outside. They dashed for the closest train car. George leapt onto the platform, reaching back to grab Holly and haul her up with him. They were lucky that the train was only inching along, but with each second that passed, it moved faster and faster.
They managed to stumble into the car before it had picked up any real speed.
“That was a lucky catch,” the porter on duty chuckled. “Tickets?”
Holly panted as George gave the man their tickets, and as they walked down the aisle to find a pair of empty seats. She looked frantically around for Robbins, but she didn’t see him anywhere. Assuming he hadn’t moved up from the end car, he was somewhere behind them.
“We can’t let him know we’re here,” she said as she and George slipped into a seat near the back.
“But we have to keep an eye out to see where he gets off,” George added.
“Do you think he’ll take the train all the way to Salt Lake City?”
George let out a breath and rubbed his free hand through his hair. The other hand still held Athos’s wad of bills. “If he’s smart, he will. He’ll stay on the train until we reach the biggest city possible.”
Holly nodded, agreeing with his logic, and slumped back in her seat to catch her breath. George counted the money as she did. His low whistle popped her back to attention just as she’d begun to relax.
“There’s almost a hundred dollars here,” he whispered.
Holly’s brow flew up. “So much?”
“He can’t have known how much he was handing me.” He folded the bills and tucked them into his coat pocket. “We’ll try not to spend the money, but if we have to, we’ll pay him back as soon as we can.”
“Agreed.” Holly nodded.
“In the meantime, we have to stay alert.”
She nodded again, and glanced past George and out the window. “What’s the next stop on the line?”
George looked out the window with her, his brow knit in a frown. Haskell had quickly disappeared behind them, and now all they saw was ranchland and wilderness. “The Culpepper spread is out this way, but I don’t know if it’s a big enough place to have a train stop.”
As it turned out, it wasn’t, although the train zipped past a small corral and stationhouse less than half an hour later. The next stop was fifteen minutes further still. As soon as the train slowed and squealed to a halt, George and Holly pressed their faces up against the window, straining to see everyone who exited the train from the last car. Only a few people did, and none of them were Robbins. They repeated their desperate searching at the next two stops, but Robbins didn’t get off.
“Do you think he’s still on the train?” Holly asked after they had been rolling along for an hour. “He could have hopped off the other side and only made it look like he got aboard.”
“We’ll have to check.”
The rest of the passengers in their car were preoccupied with their own business or looking out the windows or nodding off to sleep. George and Holly slipped out of their seat and made their way a few rows back to the end of the car, where one of the two powerful stoves that kept the car warm stood. The porter was busy stoking the fire in the stove at the other end, so they opened the door as quietly as they could and crept out onto the platform at the back of the car.
Freezing wind whipped past them, and the noise of the wheels rattling blocked out any other sound. The next and final train car was attached to theirs by a powerful clamp well below the platform where they stood. The forward platform of that car was within reach, but the thought of stepping across empty, rattling space filled Holly’s gut with snakes.
“Can you see inside of that car from here,” she shouted as loud as she dared so that George could hear her. Already, her face and hands were beginning to go numb with cold.
George leaned into the bar at the back of the platform, peering into the next car. “I think so. I— Yes! There he is.”
As soon as George called out, he backed up. Fast as lightning, he grabbed Holly by the hand and pulled her back into their train car. Instantly the noise level went down and warmth surrounded them. The porter glanced up from his work with a frown. George smiled and made an apologetic gesture as he and Holly shuffled back to their seat.
“You saw him,” Holly panted, heart racing all over again from the short adventure. “Are you certain it was him?”
“Yes,” George said.
“Did he see you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. He was looking down. Either reading something or sleeping.”
She let out a breath of relief. A moment later, she started giggling. George’s brow pinched in confusion for a moment, then he too started to chuckle. That only set Holly off more. The whole escapade had her feeling wild and free. George wrapped his arm around her and held her close, and the two of them laughed together.
“Why is it that things are perfectly fine between us when we’re working on the pageant or cleaning the church or chasing criminals masquerading as preachers, but when we try to talk about ourselves, we can’t?”
The moment the words were out of her mouth, she regretted it. She covered her mouth with one hand and dropped her gaze away from his.
George was tense for a long moment before letting out a breath. “I don’t know,” he sighed. His arm was already around her, but he hugged her tighter. She leaned her head against his shoulder. “It’s not that I don’t h
ave anything to say about us,” he went on in a soft voice. “I just don’t know how to say it. The words just won’t form themselves.”
“I know,” she murmured. “Half of the time, I don’t even know what to say. It’s all feelings without solid thoughts.”
He hummed in agreement.
“Maybe,” she began, battling to overcome whatever inside her didn’t want her to speak. “Maybe we should just accept that we can’t talk about it and only think of the way things are now, the way they will be in the future.”
George nodded slowly. “Maybe that would be best.”
It felt like an agreement, but it also felt as though they’d closed up all the things they needed to say in a box instead of sorting them out. It wasn’t right. But at the moment, she couldn’t think of what else they could do.
She heaved a sigh and turned her head, still leaning on George’s shoulder, to look out the window. They had a long way still until Salt Lake City.
Chapter 14
George awoke with a start as the train jolted to a stop, brakes squealing. He shook himself to full attention as fast as he could, mentally scolding himself for nodding off in the first place. But the afternoon was grey and dreary, the train car where they sat—close to the stove at the back—was warm, and Holly felt so good snuggled against his side that he couldn’t resist the siren song of sleep. But there was no time for that now.
Holly awoke when he did. “Are we there?” she asked, groggy, but twisting to look out the window as he did.
The station where they’d stopped was no tiny wilderness waystation. Instead of open landscape and mountains, they were met with the sight of tall buildings, a colonnaded station with multiple tracks, and swarms of people rushing this way and that. Night had fallen, and the light of dozens of gas lamps lent an artificial glow to the scene. Considering their mission, that only made George feel as though he was living an adventure worthy of one of Athos’s dime novels.
“Do you see Robbins?” he asked Holly as most of the passengers in their car got up and gathered their baggage from the overhead racks and seats.
She shook her head, craning her neck and pressing a hand against the window. “What if he got off at a station while we were asleep?”
It was a distinct possibility. One George didn’t want to think about. He couldn’t let Robbins get away. He owed it to his congregation to pursue the swindler until he was caught. And he owed it to Holly. He couldn’t let her down again, not after letting her down in so many ways over so many years.
“Salt Lake City,” the porter called from the other end of the car. “This is the end of the line, folks. Gather your belongings and exit to the right.”
“The end of the line,” Holly repeated in a whisper. She dragged her gaze away from the window, turning to face George. “If he didn’t get off at another station, he’ll have to get off here.”
“And so will we,” George agreed.
He scooted to the aisle and stood, offering his hand to help Holly up. Her pale face was flushed with an exhausted sort of excitement. It made her hazel eyes luminous, but George wasn’t sure he liked it otherwise. Holly deserved a more peaceful life than this. She deserved a husband who could take care of her and fill her days with happiness, not high-stakes pursuits of thieves. The guilt that he hadn’t been able to shake since she stepped down from the train in Haskell flared in his gut.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he stepped down onto the Salt Lake City platform, then turned to give her a hand.
“Sorry?” She blinked in surprise as her feet hit the platform. “For what?”
He let out a breath, leading her a few yards away from the disembarking passengers. “I’m sorry for dragging you through all this.”
Her reaction wasn’t what he expected. She stared at him incredulously. “There’s nothing here to be sorry for. We’re on a mission. I’m…I’m happy to be by your side in this.”
“That’s not what I meant.” He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling as though something was about to burst inside of him. “You deserve more than this. You deserve a joyful life, not tension and turmoil. You deserve so much better than me.”
“George.” Her expression melted to something so tender it nearly broke his heart. “I—”
A moment later, she gasped and leapt into his arms, tugging his head down slightly. Instinctually, he closed his arms around her. His heart leapt to his throat when she whispered, “I see him.”
“Where?” He tried to pull back from their embrace.
“No, don’t,” she cautioned him in a hiss. “He’s looking this way.”
Senses bristling, George did his best not to poke his head up and give them away while still searching around them. The moment he saw Robbins walk past them—only a few yards to his right—he turned his head enough to hide his face. If Robbins did see him, he would think they were just another couple greeting each other on the platform.
As soon as it was safe, he loosened his hold on Holly and straightened. Robbins was moving swiftly away from them. He turned his head from side to side as if looking for something, but he didn’t turn back.
“He’s heading for the ticket window,” George said.
Holly turned to look, taking his hand as she did. “What do we do?”
“We go after him.”
They swayed into motion, following Robbins as closely as they could without putting themselves in danger of being seen. George thanked God that the station was noisy and crowded, even after dark. There were enough people milling around that he and Holly were able to duck behind a group of chattering old women when Robbins glanced behind him. He didn’t see them and continued on to the window, getting in line.
“He must be planning to go on somewhere else,” George said.
“Then we have to find out where.” Holly squeezed his hand and started off again.
It was harder to keep out of sight once Robbins joined the line for tickets. Standing there waiting, he twisted and turned, restlessly checking his surroundings. George and Holly were lucky to find a thick pillar where they could stand, if not entirely concealed, then at least with their faces blocked from Robbins’s view. George continued to check on Robbins as he inched forward in line, and as soon as he reached the window and purchased a ticket, George nudged Holly to move.
They waited until Robbins walked on, then joined the line he’d been in. It was their luck that the line wasn’t terribly long, and within minutes, they were at the window.
“Destination?” the ticket seller asked.
“I was hoping you could help me with that,” George replied. When the young man eyed him suspiciously, George went on with, “That man. The one who was five customers in front of us. Tall, bearded, wearing a black coat?”
“Yes?” The ticket seller’s eyes narrowed even further.
“He’s one of my parishioners,” George went on. “I…” Suddenly he was at a loss. The ticket seller looked slightly more sympathetic now that he knew George was a reverend, but his expression was still closed.
“We’ve been trying to catch up with him since Haskell,” Holly burst in. She put on her prettiest smile. “You see, he’s been searching for his long-lost sister for years now. He received a telegram and left abruptly to go after her. But as soon as he left, we received word that his sister has been found, alive and well, and is on her way home. We’ve been trying to catch up with him to give him the good news since, but he keeps giving us the slip.”
“Yes.” George picked up her story, hoping he didn’t sound too overeager, and asking God’s forgiveness for the little, necessary lie. “Could you tell us where he’s headed?”
The ticket seller looked the two of them over long and hard. The longer it took for him to reply, the less hopeful George was that they would get a positive answer out of him.
“Move it along,” the gentleman standing in line behind them groused.
At last, the ticket seller sighed and said, “He bought a one-way ticket to San Fran
cisco on the seven-forty-five.”
“Thank you,” Holly sighed in relief, continuing to smile winningly at the man.
“We’ll take two tickets for that same train,” George said.
The ticket seller narrowed his eyes. “You’ve got half an hour until it leaves. Don’t you think that’s enough time to catch up to him and tell him the good news?”
George prayed that his face didn’t flush too much.
“It would be,” Holly jumped in once again, “but I’m afraid I need to use the lavatory as soon as possible.” She looked beautifully embarrassed by her admission. “We might be cutting it close.”
“Better safe than sorry,” George added apologetically.
The ticket seller still didn’t look convinced. “That train is almost full. The only tickets I have left are for private sleeping compartments. They’re fifty dollars apiece.”
“Fifty dollars?” Holly gasped.
It was an outrageous price for a train ticket, but there was nothing they could do. “We’ll take one sleeping compartment.” George reached into his jacket and took out Athos’s wad of bills. He counted out fifty, then added another five for good measure.
The ticket seller suddenly smiled. “Right away, sir.” He took the money and put it into his till, pocketing one five-dollar bill. After that, he was quick to fill out their ticket for the sleeping compartment on the San Francisco train.
As soon as he slid it through the ticket window, George and Holly took off. The Salt Lake City station was large, but it was well-organized. They were able to find the correct platform with time to spare. The closer they came to it, however, the more cautiously they proceeded. But Robbins wasn’t anywhere on the platform.
“He must have already boarded,” Holly said as they stood a slight distance away from the train.
“We should too, then,” George said. “But we have to be careful in case he’s looking out a window.”
She nodded in agreement, and the two of them made their way quickly across the platform to the nearest porter. He took a look at their ticket, then directed them to the correct car. George helped Holly aboard, then followed her down the narrow aisle of the sleeping car. He’d never been on a train car so fancy in his life. They hadn’t made them like that when he was a wealthy young man traveling west. Each sleeping compartment was comprised of two seats facing each other that folded down into a bed, and each could be closed off with a sliding door.
