by Sky Winters
Danny Turnbull had told her that he was a gold miner. That appealed to her greatly, because gold was surely not something she had before. He promised her that if she paid for her train ticket, he would pay her back as soon as she arrived. He said that he did not trust the mail to handle his money, so he had not sent it to her directly. His letters always contained such kind words, that she agreed to pay for the train with her solace being that he would pay her back upon arrival.
However, when she arrived at the train station that night, he was nowhere to be found. At least, no one fitting his description could be seen.
A sudden snap of twigs on the ground behind her made her turn around. A man came up to her, dressed all in black with a handkerchief covering the bottom of his face. She was all set to holler when he cut her off by speaking gruffly. “You Eleanor Whitman?”
Too frightened to speak, she simply nodded. How did this bandit or highway robber or whatever he was know her name?
“I’m Danny,” he replied, lowering his mask so she could see his sly grin. He had a black mustache and beady eyes that also appeared black to her in the dusk light. He did not look like a trustworthy man at all.
She loosened her hold on her suitcase and it fell to the ground. “No,” she said. “You can’t be. The Danny who was writing to me is a wealthy gold miner!”
He laughed. “I never said I worked in no mines. Let’s see what gold you’ve got in your bag there.” As he moved toward her to grab her suitcase, she screamed loudly. The sound of it echoed through the mountain’s hills, but no one in this strange county of Tuolumne came to her rescue. Quickly, she had to make the choice between rescuing her belongings from this horrible bandit or fleeing.
Since he was a great, big man with a gun, and she was a young girl with no defenses of her own, the choice was clear. She ran away, leaving her last personal belongings in his hands. He would find no money there, however. Eleanor had spent the last of her wages from the textile factory on this trip to California.
Luckily, she ran away fast enough that she was out of his range by the time he could notice that there was no money in her bag. As she ran, tears fell from her eyes and she cursed him under her breath. She had risked everything to go there to be with him, and he had lied to her from day one.
Feeling a fool, she slowed down to a walk as she entered the peaceful little town of Grass Valley. She asked God what she should do. Up ahead, she spied a mail order bride advertisement office, the perfect place to find a willing groom to save her. She marched straight into the door of the office and waited. The clerks behind the counter eyed her, confused and suspicious, but they said nothing. They were in the business of selling advertising space in The Grass Valley Times, and if this newcomer wanted to advertise, they weren’t going to stop her.
She waited what felt like hours, but was probably more like a soul-crushing fifteen minutes, and was about to turn and head to try her luck at finding shelter somewhere else when a man walked into the office.
He was tall with dark brown, almost black curly hair, green eyes and a scruffy, close beard. He looked to be about twenty-seven years old. He would do.
Eleanor stood in front of him. “I will marry you!” she blurted, unable to mask her desperation behind more feminine modesty. She was stranded and did not know what else to do.
The young man looked at her like she was clearly insane. Not wanting to be rude, he simply did his best to ignore her and walked past her to speak to one of the clerks at the counter.
Feeling dejected and even more alone in this strange place away from home, Eleanor turned and walked out of the office building. She hugged herself, feeling the bitter chill of the nighttime beneath the mountains. She had longed for so long to live amongst mountains and forests on the west coast, but now she just wanted to go home.
There was no way she would be able to go home, though, because she was now penniless. She could not even sell any of her belongings, because she had lost all of them to that awful bandit Danny Turnbull, if that was even his name.
“Why was I so foolish?” she asked herself as she walked along the path outside. “I should have asked more questions. I could have requested a photograph, some type of verification. Surely this could have been prevented.”
Alexander Montoya came out of the advertisement office and saw Eleanor sitting on the edge of the road. She did not even have a coat on her shoulders. He came over to her and knelt down, looking her in the eyes. She had kind-looking blue eyes, and cinnamon-colored hair that was up in a bun but was starting to tumble out after a very trying day.
“You aren’t planning to spend all night out here, are you?” he asked her.
She looked up at him, frightened at the sound of a man’s voice, but then relieved to see that it was the man she had seen in the office about an hour ago. “I was supposed to be with someone, but he… He lied to me.” Eleanor sniffled and was soon crying again, covering her little face with her even littler hands.
Alexander’s heart went out to the girl. He could not possibly leave her stranded out there on the cold street. “There now,” he said gently, offering her his handkerchief. “Why don’t you come home with me? I can put you up in my barn for the night. If you help me out on my farm, I will let you stay as long as you need to in order to get back on your feet. What do you say?”
She gladly took his handkerchief, blowing her nose and wiping away her tears as best as she could. “That would be very kind of you,” she said. He offered his hand to her, which she also graciously accepted. Once she was standing, he walked with her to his waiting horse and helped her onto it.
They rode together to his farmhouse, with her holding on tightly to his back. She kept her eyes closed for the ride, because she was tired and embarrassed about everything that had happened. She had thrown herself at this man in a very undignified way, and now he was answering her prayers. He was going to keep her safe, at least for the rest of this horrific disaster of a night.
When they arrived at his house, he dismounted carefully and helped her down. She was cold and tired and half starved. The journey had offered her meager meals because she had not been able to pay for much of anything. “Are you hungry?” he asked her. “I can fix you up some soup and then get to work making my barn livable for someone who’s not a sheep or a cow.”
He smiled at her and she softened a little towards him. He clearly was not angry with her, so she should not continue to feel so worried about what he thought of her now. “Thank you,” she said.
The house was warm and had a nice, homey, cottage-like feel to it. As she closed her eyes and took in the wonderful smells that came from the kitchen as he cooked up some soup, she could pretend that she was back home and that nothing bad had happened to her.
“What is your name?” she asked him. “I am Eleanor Whitman, from Massachusetts. I am sorry about before… It’s just that I came all this way at the request of someone from the mail order bride service. Only he turned out to not be who he said he was. He stole my purse and I had to run away.”
Alexander gazed at her in shock. That was awful! The women and men who used the service were usually kind, well-meaning souls who, for one reason or another, were in earnest to find a good match for themselves with someone across the country. He could not believe that someone would have taken advantage of this poor, innocent girl!
“Don’t worry about that now, Eleanor,” he said sweetly to her. He placed a hot bowl of potato soup in front of her at the table. “Be careful – don’t burn your mouth. My name is Alexander Montoya.”
She looked at him, batting her lashes. “And you were hoping to find a bride from across the country?” she asked. “Golly, I wish that I had found a respondent like you, and not that horrible man.”
He smiled a little, blushing cutely. She noticed that he had one dimple that showed on his left cheek when he smiled. She hoped to keep seeing that while she lived with him.
“I don’t know how good of a guy I am, but I will s
ay that I’ve gotta be better than a bandit.” He ate a spoonful of the soup. “Mm, it’s not too hot now. Try it. It’ll warm you up and make you feel better.”
Eleanor ate with him, relieved and happy to have at least found a friend to be with while she was in Grass Valley. She supposed that any money she was able to make would go towards sending herself back home. She did not intend to be a burden on Mr. Montoya for longer than was absolutely necessary.
Once they were done with their meal, Alexander gathered up some warm blankets and took them out to his barn. She watched him from the back doorway of the house. He placed the blankets on top of a big, square bale of hay as the cows and sheep looked on, wondering what was going on.
He came back inside when he had determined that the bed he made would be good enough for her to sleep on. “I’m sorry that it’s not warmer, but it’s better than out on the street,” he said.
“Oh, you are very kind even to be housing me,” Eleanor said, smiling a little. “I will get to work right away tomorrow morning; with whatever you need me to help with. I can milk your cows, collect any eggs, I am great at sewing…”
Alexander chuckled, waving his hands at her a little to cut her off. “That’s okay, don’t trouble yourself with that right now. You just go in there and try to get some sleep.”
She took his hand and shook it gently. He brought her hand up to his lips and gave it a quick, polite kiss. “Sweet dreams,” he said.
“And to you, Mr. Montoya,” she replied.
“Please, call me Alexander,” he said. “I’m your friend now.”
That was true. He was currently the only friend she had in the world.
As soon as she went into the barn, he tutted a little and went to his own bedroom, wondering what kind of ruthless individual would trick a girl like Eleanor into coming all this way just to steal her luggage. He did not know what the world was coming to, and he wondered if all of the girls who responded to men via the mail order bride service could be trusted.
CHAPTER TWO
A Feminine Touch
Eleanor rose early with the sun the following day and went to work checking on the chickens in Alexander’s henhouse to see if any of them had laid eggs. She collected them in a carefully folded sheet and carried them back to the house. Alexander was awake, too, standing in the kitchen and drinking a mug of coffee. He smiled at the sight of her, almost as if he had been wondering if he had dreamed their meeting from the night before.
“Good morning,” she said to him brightly. “I took the liberty of checking in on your chickens. I collected their eggs here.” She gestured to the sheet. “I hope that’s all right.”
He nodded to her over his mug, smiling back at her. She was a welcome sight. “That is wonderful. Thank you. Now I know what we can have for breakfast.”
As he cooked some of the eggs for them, she marveled at how skilled he was at taking care of himself. The men she had known were all interested in trades that took them away from the house, and yet here was a man who did not mind and, in fact, seemed to enjoy the homestead life. Eleanor wondered if this pioneer spirit had something to do with the location. People on the northeast coast were so industrialized now. To them, it was all about business and having the little man do all of the work. By contrast, California had men who worked out in nature and could appreciate the things that Mother Earth had to offer.
“So I was thinking about it, and I think the most helpful way that I would be able to pay you back is by getting a job somewhere in town. I’m not quite sure what yet, but I am skilled at making things.”
“Nonsense,” Alexander said. “You should just work here on my farm. There’s plenty of work here. You don’t need to give me money. A farm needs workers… Are you able to make clothing? That would be something new that you can do for me. I’ve only been able to buy my clothes.”
Eleanor bit her lip. “If you’re sure, I would be happy to make clothing for you. I used to work in a factory making clothing… It was shirts, mostly.” Part of the reason why she felt a little bit uncomfortable at not earning her keep was because she had felt a certain sort of pride and accomplishment at having a job, though she had only earned a small amount of money for her labors.
“Shirts are good,” Alexander said, chuckling. He placed a plate of eggs in front of her. “Now dig in. We’ve got a lot of work to do today. Have you ever milked a cow before?”
She hungrily began eating her eggs, shaking her head a bit. “I’ve never done it, but I’m sure I could. How hard could it be?”
Alexander laughed harder at that, sitting down beside her at the table with his own plate of eggs. “Oh, you have never met Eustice.”
Eleanor raised an eyebrow at him. “Who’s Eustice?”
“My cow,” he replied.
Lighting the lantern in the barn, Alexander showed Eleanor around the stalls where his three sheep and one cow lived. His was a modest barn, but he had all of the animals necessary for making at least some small profit. “Stella, Shirley and Sally shouldn’t give you any trouble when it comes to sheering them, or trying to sleep. They’re docile and easily herded. But Eustice…” He stopped walking when he came to the large, brown and white cow’s paddock.
The cow looked at Eleanor with her big, black eyes. She did not seem at all threatening, except for her size. Eleanor could imagine that one kick from this bovine would send a person directly to the hospital, if not to the mortician.
“I bought her for cheap, and it’s has become evident to me why. She is fine when she is out grazing, but if you try and milk her, she gets rather hostile. She doesn’t know it’s for her own good. Of course she doesn’t. But all the time, it’s like we’re trying to kill her whenever we set a bucket under her. You’ll see.”
Eleanor looked from the cow to him, gaping. “Has she ever hurt you?”
Alexander tutted a little. “Oh, all the time. Mostly my ego, though.” He smiled at her. “Anyway, I will show you how it’s done and, if you’re afraid of her or you think you can’t handle it, just let me know. You are a lady and my guest. I’ll not risk your life any more than it already was.”
She blushed and he got himself a stool, sitting down in the paddock beside Eustice. The cow looked over at him, giving him a look that suggested, ‘Stay back, don’t you touch me!’
Eleanor watched in awe and fascination as Alexander reached out and touched the cow’s udders, slowly at first and then finding his way down them so that he could begin squeezing and getting the milk into the bucket. He made it look like something she could handle, but she was not sure. She was rarely quite as sure of herself as perhaps she should let herself be.
“I don’t know if I could do this,” she said softly. “Her size intimidates me a little.”
Alexander smiled down at the bucket, concentrating on what he was doing and the mood of the cow, but amused at Eleanor’s concern. He was not going to let her get hurt, and he wanted her to be comfortable at his place if she was going to be staying there, so he would not press this chore on her. There were plenty of other things she could do around the barn and around the house.
“That’s okay,” he said, keeping his voice calm and quiet so Eustice would not get startled. “Why don’t you carefully go back to the sheep and get to know them. They’re friendly and a great deal smaller.”
Eleanor was relieved to be given a different task and went to the sheep stall. She held her hand out so that the three sheep could sniff her through the gate, if they wanted to. They happily let out some soft ‘baa’s, so she felt like she could work with them. “If I sheer them, might I turn their fur into wool for making things?”
He nodded. “That’s the idea. I’ve usually just sold their wool in town, but maybe you could use it to make us each a sweater or something. It does get awfully cold down in these mountains at night.”
She petted Stella’s head as Sally took an interest in chewing at the hem of her dress.
Eleanor was disappointed in the state of her a
ttire. Now that she was left with none of the other clothing that she had packed along with her, she only had the one dress and it was starting to be dirty and a bit tattered. She had no money to buy anything else, though, so she figured that she would have to make do with the wool from the sheep and any other scraps of cloth that she might find around the farm.
She certainly was not planning to ask Mr. Montoya for money. She was earning her keep at his farm; she was not earning any pay. She did not want to burden him anymore than she already had. Imagining the clothing that she could make for them made her smile. That would be one easy way for her to prove her worth to him.
After several hours in the barn, him milking the cow and her cutting the wool from Stella the sheep, Alexander wiped his forehead and held up the full bucket of milk. “I would call that a success,” he said. “Well, it’s part of a success. There’s still a lot to do. I will make a list for you of the things I shall need help with, okay? Right now, I need to go into town and see to a few things. I’ll be back in about an hour.”
