Orphan Train Trials

by Rachel Wesson

  It was easy for Bridget to say that, but she had no idea how hard it was to pretend to be something she wasn’t. Like an innocent young woman who had something decent to bring to a community. Bella took out her sewing. Working with her hands relaxed her and gave her time to think. She wondered how Kathleen was getting on with her quest.

  Bella tried to keep her fears under control. She was seventeen years old, not a vulnerable child. Nobody was going to adopt her or force her to live with them. She didn’t have to worry about being beaten, yet her nightmares of her early years had come back with a vengeance. It was difficult to sleep on the hard seats on the train but, even when she did close her eyes, she could only see the whip. She must have nodded off as she woke with a start. Someone was standing over her. She shrunk back.

  “Bella, it’s Bridget. You were crying out in your sleep. Are you okay?” Kathleen’s sister said, leaning in from the aisle.

  Mortified she had been caught crying, Bella wiped at her cheeks and nodded. “It was just a bad dream.”

  Instead of walking away, Bridget took a seat beside her forcing Bella to move over.

  “I know you had a horrible time when you were little, but this will be different. If you don’t like Riverside Springs, you can save up your wages and go somewhere else. Back to New York if you want. Lily would never see you homeless.”

  Bella knew Bridget was trying to be kind, but it wasn’t that simple.

  “I seem to bring trouble to Lily.” She seemed to bring trouble to everyone, but Bella left those words unspoken.

  “Bella, you are not to blame for the money being stolen. You tried to stop Maura and Patricia and look what happened,” Bridget said. “You’re too hard on yourself.”

  A child crying caught Bridget’s attention. She glanced up the car before looking back into Bella’s eyes. She patted Bella’s hand. “I have to go, but please remember we are here for you. Kathleen made me promise to look after you.”

  Bella smiled at the reference to Kathleen. She wondered how her friend was faring. She closed her eyes to try to sleep but it was no use. She opened them to find the Doyle twins, Megan and Eileen, staring at her. Both were sucking their thumbs.

  “Sorry, girls, did I wake you as well? I had a bad dream,” she explained quickly, not wanting to upset the girls. If they started crying, the whole car could start.

  “Did your mama leave you, too?” Megan asked her.

  “Not recently. Are you having trouble sleeping?” she asked, trying to change the subject.

  The six-year-olds nodded their heads although Eileen yawned.

  “Would you like me to tell you a story?” she offered.

  “Yes, please, Pa used to do that. He couldn’t read as his eyes didn’t work, but he knew lots of stories,” Megan told her.

  Bella knew a little of the girls’ stories. Their mother and youngest brother had disappeared. She told the girls stories about princes and princesses. She made up the details, but they didn’t seem to care. Soon they were fast asleep. She hadn’t noticed Bridget was listening in too.

  “You’re a natural mother, Bella. Someday, when you find someone special, you will have a lovely family.”

  Bella didn’t know how to react. It was a nice thing for Bridget to say if she meant it, but was she teasing her? Bridget had to know the chances of anyone decent wanting to marry a girl like her were low. She closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep.

  Chapter 22

  Bella

  Bella knew the last train stop would be Green River, after which they would take the stagecoach to Riverside Springs. But first, they had to stop at a town called Mud Butte. Bella hoped the town would be prettier than its name. She held Megan and Eileen’s hands tightly as the little group walked to the town hall. Bridget was still hopeful the twins would find a home together, but it wasn’t looking good. Nobody at any of the previous stops had offered both girls a home.

  Bella had overheard Bridget and Carl talking about the financial depression, and while she didn’t understand all of what they said, she knew unemployment rates were increasing around America.

  “Do you think we will find a nice place to live, Bella?” Megan asked, looking up at her.

  “Yes, of course you will,” Bella lied through her teeth. She could only hope these young girls didn’t endure the terrors she had. She glanced around the room at the small group of people waiting to meet the orphans. Even now, her skin was crawling as the sweat fell from her shoulder blades. Her breathing was too rapid, and she felt she would faint. But she had to push her own feelings aside for the sake of these girls.

  “Good morning, everyone. Thank you for coming today and for your interest in our children,” Carl said as he took center stage, Bridget standing to his right.

  “Any of them got experience in farm work? I need some good workers,” a man wearing dirty overalls said, stepping closer to the stage.

  “The children have all had a little training at the industrial school before joining the train. But coming from the city areas of New York, none have any actual farming experience,” Bridget answered, her tone calm but her expression showing irritation at the man’s attitude. Bella admired the other woman. She wanted to scream at the man to open his eyes and see the group as individual children not a workforce to be exploited.

  “I’d like a young girl, please. We don’t have much, and she would have to help around the house, but we will send her to school and give her a good home,” a rather worn-out-looking woman said as she came forward. Bella watched Bridget’s reaction as the woman reached out to Megan who took a step back, her hand tightly holding that of her sister.

  “We don’t have any other girls. Only the twins. Megan is a lovely girl and a hard worker. She is bright and intelligent too but has fallen behind at school due to her family circumstances. We would prefer one family took both girls. Being twins they do not want to be separated,” Bridget said to the woman, her tone soft and gentle.

  Bella looked at the woman closely. She seemed torn between her desire for Megan and the reality of taking both children.

  “Gracie, you know we can’t take both. We haven’t got the money,” a man, she guessed the woman’s husband, stepped forward. He swiped the hat from his head as he addressed himself to Bridget.

  “Giles MacDonagh is the name, and this here is my wife Gracie. We lost our own little girl to the fever last year. I got a smallholding outside town. We get by, but we just can’t afford two extra mouths. I’m sorry.”

  “We won’t eat a lot, will we, Eileen? Please, mister, we will be good and work hard for you. We have to stay together. We just have to,” Megan begged the man.

  Bella looked away, not because of Megan’s begging but the look on the couple’s face. They were almost as heartbroken as the girls.

  “I am sorry, but we can’t. Come on, Gracie, let’s be going home.”

  The woman tore her gaze from Megan and walked out of the room with slumped shoulders, her husband wrapping his arm around her waist in support. Megan stared after them, her expression telling Bella the girl now knew the chances of her and Eileen going to the same home were next to zero.

  Chapter 23

  Kathleen

  Kathleen’s nose itched as the smell of burning wood woke her. She opened her eyes to find black smoke pouring into the car.

  “Fire, fire.” The conductor’s voice echoed through the terror of children screaming.

  Leaping to her feet, she thanked God the train had stopped. Opening the door carefully, she lowered each child out onto the ground, directing the older children to take the younger ones to a point of safety where other passengers had gathered.

  “Careful now, take the little ones by the hand. Make sure you stay together. Leave your bags behind. Don’t let anyone wander off,” she repeated over and over. She kept going through the car until she was sure the fifteen remaining orphans were safely off.

  Many of the men from the car had run to help put out the fire, while some had st
ayed to help the rest of the passengers disembark. Miss Screed was one of the last to leave the car, having insisted on gathering up her belongings. She was just stepping down from the open door when a gust of wind sent a flash of orange toward her. Her costume went up in flames faster than a candle wick. Kathleen stood rooted to the spot as the fire threatened to engulf the older woman. From the corner of her eye, she saw someone come running. He tackled Miss Screed, sending her tumbling to the ground, and rolled her over and over. The flames were extinguished by the time another man came running with some water.

  “Miss Screed, are you all right?” the conductor asked the older woman. She appeared to be fine, if a little shaken after her ordeal. Kathleen was more interested in Patrick, the boy who had saved her. She caught him staring at his blackened hands. Pushing the passengers out of the way, she grabbed him and thrust his hands in the bucket of cold water. “Keep them in there, it will help dull the pain. You were so brave. I’m very proud of you,” Kathleen told him. The crowd gathered around them with people pushing to see what had happened. She spotted Miss Screed coming forward, fully expecting her to thank Patrick for saving her life.

  “I want this boy arrested. He tried to kill me,” the old lady demanded.

  “Miss Screed, he saved your life,” Kathleen protested just as loudly. “You could have burnt to death if he hadn’t acted so quickly.”

  “Nonsense, it was only a tiny flame which I was about to put out myself. Until I was thrown to the ground and manhandled in such an undignified manner. I want him arrested. Goodness knows why the New York prison authorities released him in the first place.” Miss Screed sounded hysterical. “I want him put in irons until we reach the next town where he is to be handed over to the sheriff.”

  The crowd’s mutterings grew louder. Kathleen looked from the group of orphans standing at the sidelines, their eyes wide open, taking everything in, to Patrick, his red-raw hands suspended in cold water. The poor boy was shivering, possibly from shock.

  “The boy needs a doctor. He’s a hero. Please, is anyone a doctor?” Kathleen addressed the crowd.

  “You called for a doctor?” a well-dressed gentleman said. He didn’t seem aware of what had happened.

  Kathleen nodded. She put her arm around Patrick’s shoulders, fearing he would fall over. He was shaking violently at this point.

  “My friend, Patrick, just saved this woman’s life but at great cost to himself. He used his bare hands to put out the flames. They seem badly burned.”

  The doctor took charge, telling the conductor he needed some space on the train to examine the boy. His cultured accent and fine clothes made the conductor respond quickly, Kathleen noticed.

  Josie Smith, a fourteen-year-old orphan, took charge of the rest of the orphans. The fire had been put out and the conductor deemed it safe to return to the cars. Kathleen went with Patrick. She didn’t care where Miss Screed went so long as it was far away from her. She didn’t trust herself to deal with the woman just now.

  The doctor first washed his own hands before gently examining Patrick’s.

  “Can you pass me my bag please, miss?” the doctor asked her, raising his eyebrows.

  “Collins, Kathleen Collins,” she replied, handing him his bag which the conductor had left on the chair beside her. The car was obviously first class, the seats luxurious compared to the plain wooden ones she and Patrick were used to.

  “Richard Green is my name. I will give you something to help with the pain, young man. Then I will apply this salve to the skin. You will need to keep your hands covered with clean bandages. Infection is our enemy. We must do everything we can to avoid it.”

  “Yes, doctor,” Kathleen answered as Patrick seemed to have lost his voice.

  “You are an extremely brave young man. Your mother must be very proud of you both.”

  Kathleen blushed at the misunderstanding, but Patrick quickly jumped in to explain.

  “I ain’t got a ma or a pa. I’m an orphan and Miss Collins works for the group that is taking us out west to find families.”

  “Ah, I see,” the doctor replied, giving Kathleen an appraising look.

  “Who was the lady you saved?” the doctor asked. “She should be very grateful.”

  Kathleen couldn’t control her reaction.

  “She wants him arrested,” she said crossly. “She insists he tried to kill her. Patrick and Miss Screed haven’t seen eye to eye this whole journey, but he meant no harm. He was genuinely trying to help her.”

  “Of course, he was. Only a fool would think different. Perhaps I should speak to this Miss Screed.” For all his nice clothes and accent, he didn’t seem to judge them and find them wanting.

  “Would you?” Kathleen asked, feeling hopeful. “That would be kind of you as she pays no attention to me.”

  “I shall speak to the lady. Perhaps you could accompany me?” He directed the question to Kathleen before turning his attention to Patrick. “This is my car, so make yourself comfortable. You may feel a little sleepy after the laudanum I gave you. I will be back soon, but you are safe here, young man. I won’t let anyone hurt you, let alone arrest you. You have my word for it.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Patrick mumbled, his voice already sounding groggy. Kathleen helped the boy lie across the seat, removing his shoes so they wouldn’t mark the fine fabric.

  The doctor draped a blanket over him. “His body needs to adjust to the shock.”

  Kathleen led the way down through the cars to where Miss Screed should be sitting. Before they reached her, she stopped.

  “Doctor Green, there is something you should know. It would appear Patrick had a run-in with the police before he joined this train. Miss Screed seems to believe him capable of murder. I do not share those beliefs.” Kathleen took a deep breath. She wasn’t sure if what she was about to say was the truth as she had no proof but her own instinct. “I think Patrick stole some food because he was starving. I know stealing is a crime, but I do not believe he is capable of any serious wrongdoing.”

  “I am sure you are right, Miss Collins. A boy who shows bravery like he did is hardly the type to commit murder.” The doctor looked pensive. “It’s amazing how uncharitable some people are when it comes to dealing with the poor. Thank you for warning me.”

  Chapter 24

  Bella

  Bella wondered how Kathleen was faring. She wasn’t sure how much more of these interviews with prospective parents she could take. She wanted to keep the twins with her, not give them to a stranger.

  “Bridget, couldn’t we take the girls to Riverside Springs with us? I’m a hard worker, I can take in enough sewing to provide for us all,” Bella whispered to Bridget, not wanting the girls to hear her.

  “No, you can’t, Bella. I appreciate your offer and the thinking behind it, but the girls need a stable home. They need parents, a roof over their heads, and the chance to go to school.”

  Bella was about to protest but Bridget hadn’t finished. “Bella, you need to be free to pursue your own dreams. Believe me, I understand. I couldn’t bear to give up Annie and Liam either. But we have to do what is best for the children.”

  Bella nodded. It had been a silly idea anyway. She didn’t know if she would earn enough to support herself, let alone two children. She moved back to where the remaining orphans stood waiting.

  Two men came forward. Bella looked at them suspiciously as they addressed Bridget.

  “Morning, ma’am. My name is Joe Maitland, and this here is my brother Jack. We own adjoining places just outside of town and are looking to take in some orphans.”

  They smiled and acted all mannerly, but there was something about them that made Bella feel uneasy. But she couldn’t put her finger on exactly why that was.

  “Thank you for your interest, Mr. Maitland, but we don’t allow single men to adopt children. We are looking for families,” Bridget said politely but firmly.

  “Sorry, ma’am. I understand that. We are both married. Rebecca and Al
ice couldn’t bear to come here in case we didn’t find anyone. My missus, she has a big heart and would want to take them all in. But we can only afford one each. I know the girls are twins, but I was wondering if you, or they, would consider coming to us. They would live near to one another and could see each other every week.”

  “Every week?” Bridget echoed, which told Bella she was considering it.

  “We know it’s not ideal, ma’am, but it’s the best we can do. We came on the orphan trains too about ten years after the war ended. There were eight of us. We all got separated but me and Jack, well we got to stay in the same town. We kept close. We never got to meet any of the rest of our family again.”

  Judging by the expression on his face, Carl was considering their offer. Bridget looked less convinced. Bella held her breath.

  “That’s the truth, ma’am,” Jack chimed in. “We both have young’uns at home. Joe, he got a boy and a girl. I got two boys and I had a girl, but she died in the influenza epidemic. Alice, my missus, got real sick. She’s better now but we won’t have any more children.” Jack’s fingers tugged at his collar as his cheeks flushed. “We will make sure the girls go to school and church. They will have chores to do, but nothing more than our own children. What do you think?”

  Bella heard the intake of breath and her attention shifted to Megan and Eileen who had been listening closely to the men. She saw the girls huddle together, Megan talking rapidly, Eileen just shaking her head. Perhaps if the girls were separated, Eileen might talk for herself. The random thought surprised Bella.

  “Thank you for your offer, gentlemen. I must admit it seems like a good solution given the lack of alternatives. Perhaps we could bring the girls out to meet your families. Then we could make a final decision?” Carl asked, but his tone suggested they had to agree if they wanted to take the children.