“How’d you get this way, anyway?” he asked, wanting nothing more than to keep her here next to him, holding his hand.
Something darkened behind her eyes and he wanted to take whatever pain that was away from her. Something in her past?
“When I was a young girl, I was very sick. Very sick, for a long time.” Emotion flickered across her face and he squeezed her hand, encouraging her to go on. “I wasn’t allowed to have any friends for fear they would make me sicker or that I would tire myself out and be unable to recover. It was a very lonely existence for me.”
“I can only imagine,” he teased her gently, chucking under her chin with his bent finger. “A young Erin O’Grady chattering endlessly to a bed full of dolls, all lined up.” He could identify with the loneliness she must have experienced; he’d felt desperate for someone to talk to immediately after Daniel’s death when he’d been alone on the streets. For someone like Erin, someone who enjoyed the company of others, it must have been unbearable not to have any friends.
“That’s when I first developed my love of birds,” she said smartly, knocking his hand away from her chin, her fire returning. “There was a large window right across from my bed and a family of sparrows nested there year after year. And sometimes there was a mockingbird that would roost in the tree outside...” She cut herself off with a shake of her head.
“That’s beside the point. I had a nurse who stayed with me nearly all of the time.”
“What of your parents?” he interrupted.
“My father’s businesses engage much of his time, and always have. And my mother, while graceful in social etiquette, didn’t quite know what to do with a sickly daughter. So my nurse, Miss Kettleblum, stayed with me.”
The affectionate note in her voice showed exactly what she thought of this woman. She looked straight at Jesse. “You might not like this part of the story, but it’s my story, so I’ll tell it anyway.
“Miss Kettleblum taught me about Jesus and how much he loved a lonely little girl like me. She taught me about God’s mercy and how He sacrificed the Son He loved so much for me. And she taught me how important it was to share that mercy, not hoard it. She showed it in her life, providing care for a lonely little girl.
“So that’s what I try to do. Pass it on,” she finished quietly, not quite meeting his eyes.
The words were simple but Jesse knew Erin’s actions weren’t.
“Good night.” She leaned up and bussed his cheek, slipping into her room before he could protest or embrace her.
Leaving him empty and aching for the mercy he expected wouldn’t come. Not for him.
Chapter Eleven
Jesse slipped out of the hotel and into a softly falling snow. He’d changed out of the rented suit and back into his cowboy clothes, and now he pulled the lapels of the leather coat up around his ears as best he could.
It was the middle of the night—no one else was around, and even the breeze whistling around the corner of the building sounded lonely.
He’d been too restless to sleep. Pete had been snoring softly—who knew boys could snore like that?—in the wide bed, and Jesse had left him there, sneaking out of the hotel room and now out into the night.
Erin’s description of her childhood played over and over in his mind.
She was such a wonderful person. He couldn’t understand how her parents could just lock a sick child away, with only a hired nurse to care for her. What if the nurse they’d hired hadn’t been the loving person she’d turned out to be? What if it had been someone more like Jesse’s stepfather, who didn’t care about anyone other than themselves?
And why wasn’t she bitter about it? He had trouble moving on from the pains in his past but she seemed to just accept what had happened to her and move on.
Jesse stomped through the snow, passing into the deserted park where he and Erin had walked earlier. Now it was shadowed and dark and the tree branches clacked together and creaked eerily, covered with ice as they were.
Beneath thoughts of Erin’s childhood and how her story affected him—much more than any of Jim’s sermons!—were worries about how he could repay Erin for the hotel and their extravagant meal. Even the train ticket and Pete’s clothing should be his responsibility, but Jesse didn’t have any idea how to get the funds.
He’d seen several hotel patrons still awake as he’d passed through the lobby on his way out. It wouldn’t take much to concoct a story and relieve someone of the contents of their purse. The people staying in that fancy hotel could surely afford it, and Jesse couldn’t even afford his breakfast.
But he didn’t want to.
He didn’t want to think he’d changed that much since just knowing Erin, but her generous spirit and gentleness with Pete, even the way she’d seemed to forgive them for their deception—at least the one she knew about—had made him want to be a better person.
The fact was, he couldn’t stomach taking someone else’s money. Not when Jim had given him the slightest hope that Jesse could change. Knowing Erin had rekindled the desire to live straight.
And he didn’t want to prove his stepfather right when the man had said, “You’ll never be more than a petty thief.”
Jesse didn’t want to be that anymore. But he didn’t know another way to get the money he needed.
He wanted Erin to see him as capable, someone who could take care of himself, not someone else who mooched off her. Even if she didn’t mind giving her money to him.
Apparently, he had some pride left after prison, small though it might be.
Even if he got a job tomorrow, it would be a long while until he could repay anything to Erin, because he’d have to find a place to stay, buy food, and he’d eventually need some new clothes.
He just couldn’t see a way to do it.
A small yipping broke into Jesse’s thoughts and he turned on his heel, looking for the source of the sound. Was some small animal out in this cold? He peered through the snowy drifts, looking for the source of the slight noise. A whine...there!
Jesse squatted and spotted a shivering, small dog beneath a bush just off the footpath. Muddy and gray over a white coat, it almost faded into the landscape.
“Here, boy,” he called, but the dog barely moved. How long had it been out in these elements?
Jesse approached slowly, thinking the animal might be hurt and lash out at him. But a friendly, though slow wag of the animal’s tail expressed things might be looking up.
“You all right, boy?” Jesse crept closer, watching the animal for any sign it might attack. It didn’t look big enough to do him damage but a person couldn’t be sure. Then he spotted the fine quality ribbon attached both to the animal and wrapped tightly about the base of the bush and realized it might’ve been stuck here for quite a while.
And after he’d untangled the shivering, sluggish creature, he lifted it into his arms, wrinkling his nose at the wet dog smell. The animal looked familiar. Was this the same dog that had been running and yapping around the hotel lobby, the one Pete had noticed when they’d gone down to dinner?
He didn’t feel ready to end his walk, hadn’t solved any of the problems plaguing him, not even his whirling thoughts, but the animal burrowed close, seeking Jesse’s warmth. Its owner was probably worried about it.
He trudged back to the hotel, the small white ball of fluff shivering against his chest as he cradled it close, hoping to share some of his warmth with it.
Maybe Erin had turned him into a do-gooder if he was going out of his way to take a mutt like this back to its owner.
The clerk at the hotel desk looked at him askance when he first walked up to the desk but when a manager came over as Jesse was explaining where he’d found the dog, the man’s face lit up.
“Oh, you’ve found Mrs. Smith’s little Georgie. Bless you, sir. Her son
lost the animal earlier and we’ve had several of our employees out scouring the streets for it. If you knew her, she’s been quite upset, thinking the little dog might’ve been crushed beneath a carriage wheel on our busy streets or stolen... I’m going to send someone up to her room to fetch her—”
Jesse tried to turn over the dog to the man behind the desk, but the fellow would have none of it and insisted Jesse stay to return the dog to its owner.
Moments later, a woman in an obviously hastily donned dress with hair in a gray braid down her back dragged a small pajama-clad boy cross the lobby from the elevators.
“Oh, Georgie!” she cried. “Oh, is this the man who rescued you?”
The dog tried to jump out of his arms, and Jesse thought to himself he’d like to run the other way if that was his keeper, as well. Jesse managed to keep hold of the dog and turned it over to the woman, who snatched it to her ample bosom.
“Where did you find him?”
Jesse explained how he’d found the dog shivering in the park, and by the time he was done, the woman was sniffling and had tears in her eyes. Save him from crying females.
“I just don’t know how I can thank you for saving my baby. He was the last gift from my late husband. I don’t know what I would have done if he’d been lost forever—I know! I’d like to give you a reward.”
“That’s not necessary,” he protested. “It was a complete accident that I stumbled on him in the park.”
“Things like this are never accidents, young man,” she said in all seriousness. “God put you in that park to find my Georgie, and I’ll reward you as I see fit.”
She shoved a bill into his hand. He glanced at it and then looked again. It was a crisp hundred-dollar bill. Something he’d only held once in his entire life and certainly more than the dog itself was worth.
“Ma’am, I can’t take this.” He tried to push it back into her hand, but she was holding the poor dog up to her face and allowing it to lick her chin. He wrinkled his nose. “I didn’t really do anything. I was just in the right place at the right time—”
“Young man, don’t argue with me. I thank you for finding my Georgie and now I’ve got to return to bed. Come along, Franklin.”
The boy obediently followed her, drooping from tiredness.
Leaving Jesse staring after her, more money than he’d seen in quite a while in his palm.
Just before he’d found the little animal, he’d been desperate to find a way to make money—any way. And now he held more than enough cash to cover the hotel, supper and pay Erin back for the ticket to Chicago.
It couldn’t be a blessing for him—could it?
And suddenly he knew what he wanted to do with his life...or at least the next forty-eight hours of it.
* * *
Jesse shook Pete awake early the next morning.
“Wha—” Pete thrashed beneath Jesse’s hand, finally throwing back the covers.
Jesse threw open the curtains, flooding the room with early-morning sunshine. “Get dressed. We’re taking Erin to the train station.”
He hadn’t slept much the night before, but his sleeplessness had been from excitement. He was still thrilled about the cash he’d received last night for what he’d thought was a silly task, returning a dog to its owner.
Erin might’ve said God orchestrated the event, knowing Jesse was in need of cash. He didn’t know if he believed that, but he sure wasn’t going to give back the money.
“What’s yer rush?” Pete moved sluggishly to the edge of the bed.
Jesse tossed several bills on the cover, half of what had been left after paying the hotel rooms and for their supper. And he’d sent an amount for an engagement gift to Jared Kenner at his workplace.
Pete’s eyes went wide.
“That’s half.” Jesse snatched it back when the kid reached for it. “You’ll get it when we get to Wyoming.”
Pete pulled on his new pants, shirt and shoes, with new urgency. “I want my half now.”
Jesse paced toward the door, anxious to get moving. He couldn’t wait to see Erin’s reaction this morning. “No. Then I’d have no guarantee you’d keep your mouth shut until we get there.”
The boy wrinkled his nose at Jesse but Jesse wouldn’t back down. Pete stuffed the extra pairs of socks Erin had bought him into the center of the shirt and rolled it all up into a bundle that he tucked beneath his arm.
“Can we get breakfast?” Pete asked on the way down the elevator. “I’m hungry.”
“You’re always hungry,” Jesse murmured.
Stepping off the elevator, they saw Erin at the desk. She appeared to be arguing with a flustered clerk.
“How can the rooms be paid when I’ve just got down here?”
“Because I paid for them,” Jesse said.
Erin whirled to face him. “You? What— How?”
“I had a busy night,” he explained.
Pete looked sideways at him, a skeptical smirk on his lips.
“It was all on the up-and-up.” Jesse held up his palms outward to show he was being honest. “It involved a walk in the park, a lost dog and a reward. C’mon, we’ve got to get to the station.”
Erin allowed him to take her valise and the porter wheeled a trunk out to the street for her and hailed a hackney cab. “You’re seeing me off?”
Jesse squinted against the morning sunlight, his hat not providing adequate shade for his eyes due to the angle of the sun. “Something like that.”
He assisted her into the carriage and gave Pete a boost, too.
“No breakfast?” the kid whined, looking longingly over his shoulder at the hotel.
“No time,” said Jesse. “We’ll see about getting you something later.”
“So what happened?” asked Erin, and Jesse explained the events of the evening after he’d left his room last night.
“Amazing,” she murmured, her face shining with real joy for him.
Pete continued to consider him skeptically but Jesse didn’t have anything to hide. Not this time.
“So, I started thinking about you traveling to Wyoming all on your own, and remembering that man who approached you just before we got to Chicago—Pete, do you remember that guy?”
“Pete was pretty nauseous by then,” Erin protested.
“Nope, I remember him. He was sleazy.” Pete leaned back in his seat, still clutching the rolled-up shirt, and grinning.
“I’m a little concerned about Miss Erin traveling the rest of the way by herself,” Jesse went on. “And...it’s only four days until Christmas. Her family might be upset if she didn’t make it out to see them by the holiday.”
She nudged his booted foot with the tip of her prim little shoe, huffing, but he knew she was aware he was teasing.
“She does get in an awful lot of trouble,” Pete put in.
“Huh!” she exclaimed. “Only with you two around!”
“So I was thinking maybe Pete and I better go with you the rest of the way.”
She leaned her head to one side, assessing him for so long that Jesse wondered if she didn’t want him to accompany her.
“It’s two more days of travel. It’s really not necessary,” she said. “I thought you were going to make your new start here, in Chicago. Now you’ve got the funds to do it.”
She had the right of it. But lately he had been thinking he could find a fresh start in Wyoming as well as anywhere. With the amount remaining of his hundred-dollar reward, he could come back to Chicago if that was what he decided. He still didn’t know what he wanted to do, what he could do.
But he knew he wanted to stay close to Erin for as long as possible. If it was only two more days, then he’d take those two days.
“You’ve been plenty kind to Pete and me,” he said, low and seri
ous. “I’d like to make sure you get where you’re going without any trouble. And I thought it might give us a chance to solve the dilemma of what to do with...” He let his voice trail off and cut his eyes to Pete.
Okay, so he wasn’t above using a little manipulation. He knew she was worried about what would happen to the kid.
“But if you don’t want us to go with you...”
“No, no,” she was quick to interject. “I’d love to have the both of you travel to Wyoming with me. At least to Cheyenne, where I’ll have to change trains to travel up to Calvin, the town where they live.”
“All right, then we’re riding along with you.”
Chapter Twelve
As the noon meal neared, Erin reflected that this leg of the journey had been particularly uneventful. It hadn’t been quite as pleasant as traveling on the sleeper car. With no sleeping berths available out of Chicago going westbound, they’d been crowded onto a passenger car with a lot of other people. Erin imagined the volume of passengers was due to people traveling for Christmas to see their families.
The seats in this car were narrower than they had been in the sleeper car, and whomever was seated closest to the window couldn’t completely stretch their legs. So far, Erin had remained on the inside, and Jesse and Pete had traded turns next to her, where they could stick their legs out into the aisle and get a little relief.
She was thankful she’d repacked her trunk at the Chicago hotel and put the parcels she’d brought for gifts for Chas and his family inside. Even keeping up with her valise was more difficult in this tightly packed railcar.
The conversations were closer, louder, and the smell of unwashed bodies at times threatened to overpower Erin.
And they had to endure another day and a half of it. Including somehow catching some sleep on the train tonight.
Thankfully, she had no complaints about the company. Jesse and Pete had kept her entertained all morning, making up stories for the various passengers in their car. The man two rows up with the funny hat was traveling to see his estranged daughter in Arizona. The woman with the loud, yapping voice near the front of the car was going all the way to California to meet her grandson for the very first time.
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