Jess rounded the corner, walking slowly past him as she spoke. “Za only element that sours me toward za Westin Bank is working vith you, for you, or in any manner zat would profit you. But for those little niggles, I would quite happily grasp such an opportunity. As it is…” she reached the door and pulled it open. “I’ll thank you to leave my shop and consider za door closed to you forever. Good night.”
He left with a smirk on his lips, and she slammed the portal shut. Her hands were shaking and the flush of anger snaked through her veins to turn her ears red. She spewed a hot breath through her nose and turned to find Marlena and Val leaning against the counter, the latter watching her with a poorly-suppressed smile.
“My guess is you don’t like the man,” Val said, and Jess shook her head as she made her way to them.
“You wouldn’t either if you knew what I know. He is evil and presumptuous, and ought to be stuffed with his own pretentions and roasted on a spit.”
“All because he wanted to marry you?” Val asked with a quirked brow and a teasing grin.
“That’s not what he proposed at all,” she said, shooting him a knowing look. “He was after a far more…intimate…arrangement.”
Val’s smile dropped, replaced with indignant and righteous anger. “That pompous ass wanted to make you his…”
“Yes, well, he is certainly aware of my feelings on the matter,” she said, cutting him off. Marlena didn’t need to be privy to the perils of being an unmarried woman in a town like Virginia City.
She shuddered thinking of lying with a man like Boon. Apart from his physical grossness was his violent manner. Jess had learned a thing or two about the men who frequented Juliet’s, having sewn many dresses for the working women of the brothel. Emmanuel Boon was a man of sadistic tastes, exerting physical power and pain over his bedfellows to the point where he’d been banned from Juliet’s forever after scarring one of the girls. Too many memories flooded Jess around a man like that, and she had to talk herself out of killing him whenever in his presence. If it was true he had found a bride, she pitied the woman.
Aware Val and Marlena still watched her, she forced a thin smile and turned to her sister. “Marlena, I’m sure Emily will be along any second now. Can you please light the stove fires and wash the potatoes?”
“Certainly,” she said brusquely and left the room without a smile. Jess sighed again.
“She doesn’t usually sulk this long,” she told Val. “I think it’s her age. She’s on the cusp of womanhood and adulthood, but still young enough to need protection.”
“And she has the independent spirit of her older sister,” Val added. “It’s almost impossible to suppress a person like that.”
Jess felt the weight of a hundred memories pull at the back of her eyes. “Oh, it’s possible. Believe me.”
Before the conversation could go on, the door opened to admit Emily. After a quick introduction, Val replaced Marlena in the kitchen and the sisters escorted the woman into the dressing room.
Emily squealed when Jessica carried in the newly finished gown. Made of soft lavender silk, Marlena had spent two long days and nights embroidering delicate white flowers along the neckline and side seams. The effect would produce a flattering narrow waist and draw the eye of every onlooker to the woman’s greatest features.
“Za stitching is za handiwork of Helene,” Jess told her, smiling at Marlena.
Emily stared with respect and reverence. “You have a talent I hope you will nurture, Helene. I know several ladies in Boston who would pay a year’s allowance for work as fine as yours.”
Marlena beamed and nodded. Emily looked at Jess.
“Not much of a talker, is she?”
“I’m afraid she is not very good vith za English language yet.”
Emily’s eyes brightened. “Oh, I had no idea! We can speak in French. I wouldn’t want her to feel uncomfortable all the time.”
The woman turned to Marlena and repaid her compliments in French. Marlena responded with a curtsy and a practiced merci before Emily turned to chatter away at Jessica. She rattled so vociferously Jess could hardly grasp the woman’s words.
“Emily, please,” Jess said with a laugh. “I would prefer we speak English in front of Helene. How else is she to learn za language?”
“Oh,” Emily’s face sobered. “Too right. I’m sorry. I should have asked your permission first.”
Jess felt a stab of guilt at the shame in the woman’s face. She reached out to grab Emily’s hands before they could palm her flushed cheeks. “No, no. It’s nothing zat serious. A simple request is all.” She patted her cheek. “You did nothing wrong. Do not worry. You are among friends here. Now, let me see zat pretty smile again.”
Emily nodded and her lips trembled into a grin but the unease lingered in her posture and in the sudden quiet of her normally rapturous voice. Jess had her put the dress on.
“Ah! There is zat smile!” Jess exclaimed, watching Emily bask in the glow that overcame women when they wore something beautiful. “Za color is so flattering vith your hair and eyes. You are absolutely breathtaking.”
“Thank you,” Emily replied with crimson cheeks. “I’m sure my father will consider it money well-spent.”
Jess frowned. “You are awfully concerned about your effect on your father, aren’t you?”
Emily’s smile faded. “He is so rarely pleased that I try to do it as often as possible.” She turned away, as if to hide the depth of her unhappiness.
“Does he ever praise you?” Jess prodded softly.
“He did last night,” Emily said with a forlorn smile as she faced Jess again.
“Oh?” Jess forced excitement into her voice. “What did he say?”
“He said I was…dutiful.” Her eyes cast to the floor when she said the word. “I agreed to marry the man he wants me to.”
“Who did you agree to marry?”
Emily straightened her shoulders in an effort to appear resolute. “Emmanuel Boon.”
Jess’s body sagged as she blew out a deep breath. “The Westin Bank agent?”
“Yes, the Westin Bank agent.”
Cold dread spilled into her chest. Emily was pure and unblemished, and deserved to stay that way. Though the girl was lonely, she still had hope for a future. A man like Boon would break her of that, and Jess couldn’t fathom seeing those sky blue eyes dull and lifeless. She knew firsthand how a person could be alive, yet not living. Despite her best efforts, her tongue loosened.
“How could you marry a bumbling oaf like zat? Have you not noticed the unwholesome glint of greed and cruelty in his eyes?”
“That’s not fair. You barely know him.”
“And you do?”
“No, but he and my father have done business together for years, even back east before we moved here. They are in the middle of some serious business dealings so he is at the house most nights, and my father has allowed me to dine with them on a few occasions. They are cut from the same cloth, those two.”
“And zat is what you vant? To marry a man like your father? Cold, cruel, and so painfully unaware of your existence?”
“Collette, stop!” Emily said before fanning her flushed face with her hand. “He may not be young and desirable, but which of us women is guaranteed a man like that? I’d rather marry the devil I know than believe in fairy tales that won’t ever come true.”
Jess shook her head in disbelief. “I have never heard such rubbish in all my life. Do you really believe marrying za devil is better zan remaining alone? Because it’s not. Believe me.”
“I’ve been alone since my mother died. I don’t want to be so for the remainder of my days.”
“How do you know Boon vill not ignore you like your father?”
“I hope he does,” Emily said with a shrug. When Jess stared at her, unblinking, Emily explained. “I don’t want to marry Boon for his companionship. I want to marry him so he’ll give me children, a whole herd of them. I want a large and loud home full
of children’s laughter. As for the head of that home? He can stay away as often as he likes once I have a family to tend to.”
Such defeat, such cold resignation and naiveté cut through Jess like a knife branded with a thousand memories, and though it made her voice hoarse, it still spurred her tongue into action. “You are being foolish, Emily, if you think a man like that will ever give you what you want. Don’t waste yourself on someone like that just to please your father.” She grasped Emily’s shoulders and squeezed. ”
Emily sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “What you would have me do, Collette? I’m not as free as you.”
Jess faced the woman and held her gaze with a pointed stare. “If freedom is vut you vant, zer is no better place, no better time, for you to grab hold of it than here and now. Look at me. I am not married and I am a successful business woman.”
Emily’s eyes brimmed with tears and her lower lip quivered until she sucked it in between her teeth. “I wish I had your courage, Collette. But even you wouldn’t stand up to my father, would you?”
Her heart screamed yes! But she knew the reality. She hadn’t stood up for herself against a man far less powerful than Stacy, and even now, under the man’s surveillance, she went about her daily business in a willing oblivion, relying on her tucked pistol for any happenstance. Standing before her, Emily looked meek and mild, delicate enough the slightest tremor might break her, and Jess was daring her to fight one of the most powerful men in the country? The problem was she knew the alternative, had lived it.
A deep stain of sympathy descended on her for the woman. She swallowed past the emptiness of her voice and reached out to hold Emily to her. At the tight grip of the girl’s arms around her waist, Jess softly shook her head.
“I’m sorry,” she admitted. “I shouldn’t advise you either way. You are a grown woman capable of cutting your own path. But please tell me you’ll think long and hard before you go through with it.”
“All right,” Emily murmured against her hair. “I appreciate you care enough to argue.”
“You and your mother were close, yes?” Emily nodded against her. “Before you marry Emmanuel, ask yourself if he is a man your mother would be proud to call son-in-law.”
Jess felt a sharp intake of breath and a slight shudder run through the body in her arms. Marlena rose to go help Val finish dinner preparations.
Chapter 13
Val was seated at the table between Marlena and Emily while Jess set a full bowl in front of each of them, afterwards settling into a wooden chair across from him.
“It smells divine,” Emily said over the steaming bowl of stew.
“It’s ham and beans and potatoes,” Jess explained as she passed a basket full of warm bread rolls around the table. “We try not to embellish our meals if we can help it. Every little bit we can save makes us zat much more prepared for tomorrow.”
“Oh, I’m sure it’s perfect.” Emily smiled as she slid a spoonful into her mouth. Her appreciative moans filled the air and Jess shared a grin with her sister and Val.
The women chatted amiably for most of the meal, but as the last few rolls were passed around the table, Jess began questioning Emily.
“Forgive me if I am speaking out of turn again, but I find it very strange zat your father is so heavily involved in business dealings with za Westin Bank.”
Emily swallowed her bite and shook her head. “Not so strange. He often uses the bank to finance the startup of a railroad endeavor and repays them with interest once a venture becomes profitable. It’s all very common in business.”
Jess pursed her lips and nodded. “Is he planning on bringing the railroad into Virginia City then? That’s why he met with Kant, Mason and Brandenburg the night I was there?”
Val studied a shadow of hesitation passing over the young woman’s features.
“I’m not sure why he met with Kant and the others, but I do know he and Emmanuel are deep into the railroad deal. I wouldn’t have volunteered it, but I know it’s public record that a charter for the first railroad to enter this territory has been granted, and yes, my father is at the helm of it all. The Territorial Enterprise reported yesterday there are more than two thousand people living in Virginia City. Can you imagine what a rail link between here and California would do to that number?”
Jess frowned. “He is linking Virginia City to San Francisco?”
Emily fidgeted with her napkin as her face became wild with enthusiasm. “Yes. Isn’t it exciting? Can you imagine chugging off to San Francisco for a week whenever we fancy?”
Val shifted in his seat and leaned an elbow on the table. “He’s not building a passenger rail. He’s constructing a railway from here to Reno that will transport ore, not people.”
Emily’s forehead scrunched. “I am sure you’re wrong, Mr. Kelly. I’ve listened to my father and Emmanuel speak of the endeavor quite often. The first transcontinental railroad. They already have all of the charters necessary to begin the enterprise, linking San Francisco to the Midwest, and shooting right through Virginia City. Their biggest hurdle was financing, but from what I understand they have that sorted now, too.”
The inside of his cheek slid in between his teeth, and he felt his brow furrow. “That doesn’t make any sense. I know he’s building a railroad between Reno and Virginia City.”
Emily regarded him with suspicion. “How do you know?”
“Yes, how do you know?” Jess echoed.
“Because he offered me a job overseeing the construction.”
Emily smiled and relaxed while Jess continued to study him.
“Oh! How wonderful,” Emily exclaimed. “I didn’t know you worked for my father.”
“I don’t,” Val said, spooning a bite into his mouth. He savored the mix of spices and textures as a small smile tugged at the corner of Jess’s lips.
“You turned him down?” she asked, and he nodded.
Emily’s face went ashen. “You turned my father down?”
Val swallowed. “That’s right.”
“Mr. Kelly, I don’t think that was a wise decision. My father doesn’t make offers. He makes politely-veiled demands. And no one ever tells him no.”
“I did,” he said with a shrug.
The pale face of Emily Stacy sank with fear and worry, her blue eyes dimming as they locked onto his. “Then, I advise you to watch your back, sir.”
Jess stood abruptly from the table and retrieved a decanter of whisky. “Anyone fancy a drink?”
Val accepted the offer and shared a glass with her. Emily and Marlena abstained, the former nearly knocking her chair over as she came to a stand. She held a silver pocket watch in her hands.
“Oh, my goodness! I didn’t realize the time. I am late. Father will be displeased. I must be going.”
“But I haven’t wrapped your dress yet,” Jess protested.
“I’ll send the driver around for it tomorrow. I mustn’t tarry any longer. Thank you for the dinner and the company. It was most pleasant.”
Before they could speak another word, she ran from the living quarters and out into the waiting coach. Val stood with Jess and Marlena, all with scrunched brows, watching her rattle away down the street. Jess shut the door and locked it.
“I think you frightened her,” she told Val.
“No. Her father frightens her.”
“I told you she was innocent,” Jess said.
“She’s a victim,” he returned.
“More like a casualty.”
The sympathy on her face was deep, and they all felt it. After a long moment, they returned to the light of the dining area, where Jess picked up her glass and shot back the rest of her whisky. Val began to gather the bowls.
“How come you didn’t tell me Stacy met with Mason, Kant and Brandenburg?” he asked Jess, and she peered sideways at him.
“Val, you and I haven’t exactly been having real conversations very long, have we?”
He shrugged. “I guess not, but don’
t you find it odd those four would be in cahoots together?”
“Yes, I do. Very strange bedfellows.”
“And what’s with Emily thinking Stacy’s onto a transcontinental railroad? There’s no way that will ever happen. Not even Leonard Stacy has enough money to bring that to life, and he’ll not be getting any help from the government, what with that war in full swing.”
Jess sucked on her bottom lip while she thought. “Maybe that’s what the four of them are in on together? Perhaps they are in a joint venture to bring the railroad out here?”
Val nodded. “That would make sense. The four of them pooling their money could make it happen for sure. And that explains why he wants my mine so bad. It’s outperforming all of his other claims combined.”
“Do you think Stacy was lying to you about the Virginia City/Reno line?”
“Not necessarily. It’s possible he could have multiple ventures going at once.”
“I suppose, but I would not trust anything involving Emmanuel Boon. That much I know.”
“I’ll wash the dishes,” he offered, changing the subject. He needed to think things through before drawing any conclusions, but something didn’t set right with him. There was just no telling exactly what.
He grabbed the basin and went to the pump in the back of the building for filling. A new moon was on the way, leaving the night pitch black but for the lamps lining the streets. He squinted in every direction, assessing movements and shadows in the normal throng of city life. Crowds of people stumbled along the road, passing the narrow space between buildings. Laughter rang from Juliet’s and he watched the men and women carouse on the balcony of the second floor.
“You can go there, you know,” Jess said, startling him, and he swiveled quickly at the sound of her voice. She rolled her eyes. “Some protector you are.”
Desert Sunrise (Love in the Sierras Book 2) Page 9
