The night before the service, she was outside in the barn, talking to Mildred. The animal had given Tom half a bucket of milk after Caroline’s little lecture, and had been producing nearly her full yield ever since. Caroline thought that deserved a word of praise.
“I’m not saying we’re going to be good friends, mind you,” she told the cow, “but I am pleased that you’ve made this choice. I think you’ll feel better, and it’s very good of you to keep up your end of the bargain.”
A chuckle from behind made her spin around. “Wallace! What are you doing here?”
He leaned against the barn doorjamb. “I asked another conductor to take some shifts. I’m here for two days, to help however you need me.”
She took three running steps and threw herself into his arms. “That’s the kindest thing I’ve ever heard. Thank you.”
“I couldn’t let you go through this alone. The look on your face when I left before—you’re a strong woman, Caroline, but even strong women need soft places to land.”
“I agree. I completely agree.” His clothes were free of dust, his neck was freshly shaved, and he smelled like soap. “Are you staying at the boardinghouse?”
“I am. Mrs. Dempsey sends her condolences.”
Caroline nodded and snuggled in a little closer. “Thank you for being my soft place.”
“You’re more than welcome.”
Chapter Fifteen
The day of the funeral went exactly as planned. Pastor Osbourne conducted a beautiful service, and the two waitresses back at the hotel sold sandwiches. They reported that the passengers were a little disappointed not to get hot meals, but when it was explained that there was a funeral, they understood.
Through it all, Wallace was right there, helping Caroline with whatever she needed. She couldn’t help but wonder if this is what it would be like to have a husband, someone always there to lean on. Of course, with Wallace’s schedule, he’d be gone much of the time, but when he was home, she would have a real friend in him.
Then she scolded herself for thinking that way. She’d known him such a short time—how could she be thinking about marrying him? But then she scolded herself again. She was sure kissing him a lot for someone she’d just met. Her mother would have been scandalized to know that she was kissing a man she wasn’t engaged to yet, and she really needed to make up her mind. If she knew him well enough to kiss him, she knew him well enough to make this decision.
Didn’t she?
After the funeral guests had departed and the dining room was cleared, the dishes done and the extra food put away, Wallace led Caroline away from the hotel, down the street. It was fully dark, and the moon had just begun to rise. “I know you like sunrise and sunset, but there’s something magical about moonrise,” Wallace said. “‘O, swear not by the moon, the fickle moon, the inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circle orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.’”
“What? I’m sorry—my mind was wandering.”
“I was just quoting Shakespeare. About the moon.”
“Oh, yes. The moon.” Caroline slipped her hand into his. “Forgive me. These last few days have been so exhausting. And I hate funerals—I hate them with a passion I didn’t even know I had until . . . until my sister died.”
“Adam’s mother?”
“Yes. I haven’t quite moved past her death yet, and now, here we are, having another funeral, trying again to say good-bye. Two good women, two wonderful examples to the world and to me personally, and now they’re both gone.” Caroline shivered, even though the night was by no means cold. She hadn’t meant to reveal so much. There was just something about Wallace that made her feel comfortable with sharing her thoughts. “I know life can’t go on forever, and I do believe there’s more for us on the other side. It’s just difficult when you miss the ones who passed so very much.”
Wallace’s arm came around her shoulders. “I understand.”
“I know you do, and I’ve probably made you think of Regina. I’m sorry.”
“Actually, I was thinking of my parents. I don’t miss Regina in the same way—she’s like the morning dew or something else that is always there, constant, gentle in my thoughts, unobtrusive and pleasant. Thinking of her is like remembering a good dream after waking up, but knowing that she’s no longer my reality. With my parents . . .”
“What is it?” Caroline asked.
“With my parents, there’s regret. My father and I weren’t close, but my mother and I were even more distant. I wish we’d had the chance to mend those fences.”
Caroline leaned into his side. Neither one spoke again until they reached the hotel, not needing words to know how the other felt.
“I’ll be taking the afternoon train to Wichita tomorrow,” Wallace said as they walked up the front porch steps. “I’m at your disposal until then.”
“All right. Thank you, Wallace. It means a lot to me that you arranged this time off.”
He picked up her hand and kissed her knuckles. “There was nowhere else I’d rather be.”
With that, he turned and headed off toward Mrs. Dempsey’s boardinghouse. Caroline watched him go until he disappeared in the darkness. Then she went inside the hotel and stood in the dim lobby, the lights having been turned down because it was nearly bedtime.
Adam had badly needed her when he first opened the hotel. It had been a few months now, and the systems and procedures she had implemented were well in place. Every girl knew her job, from serving the food, to making up the rooms, to laundry, to dishes. The cooks knew the recipes. There were new girls to train, but with these systems in place, it would be a simple task, and the girls who had been there longer were actually teaching the newer ones quite a bit, which took the burden off Caroline. She really wasn’t needed as much as she had been at first.
The thought sent a pang through her chest. She liked being needed. She liked taking things that were in utter chaos and bringing sense and order to them. She liked it when people turned to her in times of distress and she was able to help them. If she wasn’t needed, what was she?
She walked down the hall and into the dining room. The tables had been stripped and then reset for the next morning. In the kitchen, she found some fresh pies and bread waiting under clean dishcloths. She nodded with satisfaction, but that hole in her chest grew larger. She’d wanted the girls to become more self-sufficient, seeing the tasks that needed to be done and doing them without having to be told. Now that the moment was here, it felt odd, as though she was being shut out or replaced in some way.
If she wanted to stay, she could. She had a home here, and she was well respected in Topeka. Adam and Elizabeth would welcome her help as long as she cared to offer it. But if she was no longer needed . . .
Her mind turned to Wallace. If it was a question of need, did he need her? He’d been single for a long time, and he’d managed to get along just fine. He’d worked his way up until he held one of the most prestigious positions on the railroad. But there were other kinds of need, the needs of the heart, and when she looked into his eyes, she could see that longing. And it was longing for her, Caroline Hampton, not just a woman or a wife.
It would seem that her decision was made, then. And it should have been very easy. But it kept her up all night, and it pestered her all the next day, and when time came for the afternoon train to carry Wallace back to Wichita, she didn’t know what to tell him.
“I need time,” she said, giving his hand a little squeeze. “I don’t mean to put you off forever—just for a few more days.”
“And I promised to be patient, so I will be.” He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Caroline, whatever you decide, whatever’s going through your mind right now, just know one thing. I love you, and that’s not likely to change anytime soon.”
She looked into his soft, kind eyes. “Thank you, Wallace. That means the world to me.”
He gave her one more kiss, then waved as he walked off toward the train.
Or . . .
Would she still see him once a day, sometimes in the morning and sometimes at night, and make his meals and wash his clothes, and take long walks with him and sleep in the circle of his arms?
Was she willing to give up everything she’d thought she wanted for the new thing she’d never known existed until now?
Chapter Sixteen
Caroline had only managed to sleep the night before because of sheer exhaustion. Her dreams were just as chaotic as her thoughts had been, so she didn’t feel as though she’d gotten any rest at all. She got up early and tried making a new flavor of pie—peach with cinnamon and ginger. She liked it, but she wanted to see what Wallace thought.
All the girls were lined up in the lobby waiting for the first train, but she hadn’t heard the whistle. The train always whistled when it came around the curve just before reaching the station. She glanced at the clock. It was three minutes late. Then five minutes.
Then she heard boots running across the porch, and Adam flung open the door of the hotel.
“There’s something wrong with the train,” he said. “Come see.”
Caroline dashed after him, her heart in her throat. When she looked out at the horizon, she saw a plume of smoke curling up into the sky, but she couldn’t tell what was causing it.
“Are you sure that’s the train?” she asked around a knot in her throat. “Couldn’t it be something else?”
Adam put his hand on her shoulder. “It’s possible, but Mr. Hoover said he’s pretty sure it’s coming from the train. Some men and I are going to ride out and see what’s going on.”
Caroline clutched his arm. “Take me with you.”
He met her gaze. “Are you sure? We have no idea what we’ll find.”
“I need to go, Adam. Take me with you.”
“All right. You can ride with me—Tom’s saddling the horses right now.”
Ten minutes later, possibly the longest minutes in all her life, Caroline was riding behind Adam beside the tracks. She’d done a fair amount of gentle cantering in New York, but this was a full-out run, something she’d never experienced before, and she clung to Adam’s waist. It seemed they’d never get there, but finally, up ahead, she saw smoke billowing into the sky, and she took a deep breath. She had no idea what she was about to see, but she had to be prepared for anything.
A freight train was stopped on the tracks, steam rising from its stack, but that wasn’t the source of the plumes heading up into the sky. Several men sat on the ground, but some lay, and one or two looked dead. Her stomach clenched. No. No.
Two of the men in their group, including Tom, stopped to help those on the ground, but she and Adam rode down the length of the freight train, looking for the cause of the billowing clouds of smoke. Up ahead, she could make out the front of the passenger train. It looked like it had run into the back of the freight train.
Her stomach churned. If Wallace had been killed . . . if he’d died before she told him how she felt . . . He’d said “I love you,” and she’d been too prideful or stubborn or whatever it might be to say it back. Why hadn’t she just said it? She felt it—she felt it so intensely, it frightened her. How was she capable of loving someone so much, so fast?
Then she saw him. He was staggering out of the smoke cloud, carrying another man in his arms. Then he fell to one knee, laying the man on the ground.
Adam reined his horse to a stop, then grabbed Caroline’s arm and helped her down. She ran the remaining distance to Wallace’s side and dropped to her knees next to him. She took his face in her hands, turning it from side to side, looking for injuries. “Are you all right? Wallace?”
He looked at her as though from a very far-off place. “Caroline? What are you doing here?”
“I had to come see if you were all right. How bad is it?”
He blinked several times. “We were coming around a curve and didn’t have visibility. Then there it was, this other train, just stopped on the tracks. The brakemen did everything they could, but we still collided.” He passed a hand across his face. “The engineer and the fireman are both dead. This is the fireman.” He nodded to the figure he’d just placed on the ground. “The brakemen were thrown off, and I don’t know if they made it. We also have six injured passengers and one who hit her head on the window so severely, she died.”
Caroline put her hand on her chest, trying in some vain way to control its rapid beating. “Help is right behind us. I’m sure they’ll be here soon.”
“But you’re here now.” He seemed a little confused about that still. He must have been dazed by the accident.
“I had to come. I had to tell you.” She looked into his eyes, wondering if this was the perfect moment or the worst possible one that could have existed. “I love you, Wallace Dupree. I love you, and I want to marry you.”
He reached out and touched her face. “Really?”
“Really. Really and truly.”
He smiled widely, his teeth white against the soot all over his face. She remembered once telling him that she didn’t care if he was as dirty as a coal miner, and she laughed. She’d had no idea how accurate that statement would be.
“Now that our romantic dilemma is settled,” she said after giving him a quick kiss, “show me your injured passengers, and let’s see what we can do for them until help arrives.”
***
The uninjured passengers had done what they could for the wounded, pulling strips of fabric off their petticoats and making bandages and slings. Wallace and Caroline took some of the extra fabric to the other train and tended those men as well, and just as they finished, help arrived from town. Dr. Wayment rode at the head, with one of the other town doctors at his side. They’d taken the time to round up two wagons, water, and bags of medical supplies.
The men they’d brought with them loaded the dead onto one wagon, and the other passengers climbed into the second wagon after they were examined. Everyone was checked, even those who said they felt fine. Once they were all loaded up, Dr. Wayment turned to Wallace.
“Now it’s your turn.”
“Oh, I’m all right.” Wallace tried to wave the doctor away, but it was pointless. While they were both stubborn, Dr. Wayment was stubborn and ornery, so he won, and Wallace submitted himself to the examination. Caroline stayed close enough to hear what was being said, but not so close that she was treading on Wallace’s privacy.
“You’ve got some pretty serious burns on your arms and hands,” Dr. Wayment said.
“Yes, I had to run through some flames to get out,” Wallace replied. “I was toward the front of the train when it happened.”
“You’re a very lucky man.” Dr. Wayment began wrapping some gauze around Wallace’s left hand.
“I know I am,” Wallace replied. “Today, I’m the luckiest man in the world. Caroline agreed to marry me.”
Chapter Seventeen
Wallace stayed at Mrs. Dempsey’s for two days while he rested up and the railroad company got everything squared away with the trains. They had to repair the freight train before they could move it—an axle had broken, which had caused the stall. Then they had to pull the passenger train away. This was done as quickly as they could, but there weren’t any exchanges for miles along that section of track, so it made the whole process even more complicated. Train travel going eastbound was clogged up for everyone, and it frustrated Wallace that he couldn’t do anything to help.
“You’ve got to let yourself get better,” Mrs. Dempsey chided him over breakfast his second morning there. “All this fretting is just going to make it worse.”
“I can’t help it. I’m a doer, not a rester.”
She laughed. “Well, it seems that fate would have you change your mind about that, at least for a few days. Now, why don’t yo
u read to me while I wash up? If you’re all that anxious to be doing something good, you can keep me from slipping off to take a morning doze when I should be scrubbing the pots.”
“I do believe I can do that. Then I’m off to the hotel to visit my bride-to-be.”
Mrs. Dempsey raised an eyebrow at him. “Does the doctor want you strolling up and down the street like that?”
Wallace held up his hands. “I was burned up here—not on my feet.”
She shrugged. “Suit yourself. It just seems to me that a man so anxious to get married would also be anxious to heal up faster so he could get on with his life.”
“Thank you for caring. I do promise that I’m taking care of myself. Now, where’s the book you wanted me to read?”
***
Caroline entered Adam’s office with a little bit of apprehension. Wallace had announced their engagement a little sooner than she had meant him to, and word had trickled back to the hotel, as word always does. Now she saw both Adam and Elizabeth waiting for her, and she wondered what this was all about.
“Have a seat,” Adam invited, and she did.
“I suppose you’d like to talk about my engagement,” she began.
“Actually, no. We knew a while ago that was in the offing, and it was just a matter of time. What we’d really like to discuss is the hotel.”
Caroline blinked. “What? That’s all you have to say? Adam, your spinster aunt is finally getting married. Where’s your enthusiasm? Your excitement?”
He remained stoic for another moment, then broke into a huge smile. “Of course I’m happy for you. Can’t I tease my favorite aunt once in a while?”
“No. No, you can’t.” She turned to Elizabeth, who was also smiling. “He’s impossible. You realize this.”
“I realize it more every day.”
“We do need to discuss the hotel, though,” Adam said.
The Whisper of Morning (Kansas Crossroads Book 6) Page 10
