by Jodi Thomas
Mina glanced back at the kite then up at the handsome man. Stop it, she told herself. He’s married and ye’ve no right to think him the devil’s own temptation. “The kite? How could you know—”
“Violet?” The station master gently reached for his daughter. “What are you up to? You know this lady can’t stay with you.”
Violet went willingly into her father’s arms. “Uh-huh, Daddy. She said she would.”
“I said I would take her home, and that I’ve now done, sir. Kite or no, my promised deed is finished.” Mina retrieved her bag and the toy, offering the latter to Violet. “I canna stay, lass, but I will come to see you now and again while I visit Amarillo…if yer father and mother are of a willing mind.”
“But you’re my angel. You’re supposed to stay with me.” Tears welled in Violet’s eyes as she refused to take the kite. “You’re supposed to stay here.”
“Don’t cry, honey.” Briar patted his daughter softly while she hid her face in his neck and began to weep.
When Mina gave him a puzzled expression, he sighed deeply. A sound filled with regret and something else. “Turn the kite over, Miss McCoy, and I’ll explain.”
Mina set down her valise and turned the kite as instructed. On the back of it, scrawled in childish letters were the words, “Come Home.”
“She lost her mother almost four years ago, and she’s flown that kite every day since. I told her that her mama went to be an angel in heaven.”
Mina’s heart clenched, feeling as if a hundred-pound weight had dropped upon it. Violet had known a mother who loved her once. The wee one had suffered a terrible loss. Mina could search the world over for her own mother and never experience the same hurt. Her mother had never wanted her. Mina’s voice became whisper-soft with compassion. “So she thinks she’s caught her angel?”
“I’m afraid so.”
Maybe refusing the job her friend had offered was no longer an option. It seemed everyone else on earth was trying to reform the injustices of the world at the moment. Maybe she could start on a smaller scale by reforming one father. Maybe being the little girl’s angel for a while was just the good deed she needed to do to set all their lives on a better course. “Well, I may not be the angel she bargained for, but I can stay. That is, if ye’ll give me the job Nathaniel promised.”
“Nathaniel?” Surprise registered across the man’s face. “You know Nathaniel?”
“Ye received his telegram, telling ye I was on me way?” She saw that he had even before he admitted it.
His gaze swept over her from head to hem, making him frown. “You don’t look like a governess.”
“A governess? ’Tis a telegrapher I am. Nathaniel said that I would be a replacement telegrapher until he returns. The man did me a favor once, and I came here to pay it back. I just arrived a day earlier than planned.”
“A telegrapher? You can’t—”
“I certainly can,” she argued, her fists balancing defiantly against her hips. “And quite good at it, I am.”
“I meant, the usual in-office housing accommodations won’t do. There’s only a cot separated by a silk screen and that affords little privacy if we have to keep the office open overnight. And we’ve done that more often than not lately.”
“There are worse places than a cot to rest, sir.”
Violet sniffled. “She could sleep in Nathaniel’s bed since he won’t be there, Daddy.”
“No, honey, she can’t.” Briar Duncan looked suddenly uncomfortable as he explained. “Nathaniel and I share a place close to the station since we work so much. Two bachelors, you know. Violet has her own room, of course, but Nat and I share the other. One of us is usually working when the other isn’t so that someone is able to watch over my daughter. He’s been gone for a while, and I’ve had my hands full with…That’s neither here nor there. I can’t see any logic in hiring you as a telegrapher, miss. There’d be too many complications.”
She should insist for Violet’s sake. It would be a way to spend some time with the lass, maybe even make sure her da did the same. But the truth was, she really needed the work. “Then I have no way to pay him back the favor.”
“Can’t you get employment somewhere else and do the same?”
“Most likely, but Nathaniel insisted that I help ye. By helping ye, he said it would be helping him.” ’Tis a clever man ye are, Nathaniel Rhodes. Always lending a hand to a friend in need. Looks to me like ye had three friends in mind, this time.
“Yeah, I’ll just bet it would.” Briar looked genuinely sorry. “I’ve got to say no to this scheme of his, Miss McCoy. I’m afraid you’ve traveled all this way for bad news.”
Mina picked up her valise. She couldn’t go back. She was nearly out of money and certainly out of ideas to go about getting more anytime soon. “I’ll be seeing what Amarillo has to offer, then. Maybe when he returns, I can finish the deed in some other way.” She patted Violet on the back. “I’ll see ye a time or two before I go, lassie.”
Violet’s sobs began in earnest.
Though the man attempted to calm his child, the lass refused to be appeased. Finally, he conceded to her anguish. “Maybe we should at least ask her to take supper with us, don’t you think?”
The sobs stopped as abruptly as they started.
Briar’s gaze met Mina’s. “It’s the least I can do to thank you for rescuing my daughter.”
Violet lifted her head from her father’s shoulder and pleaded, “Will you, angel? Even angels gotta eat, don’t they?”
Everything inside Mina warned that she should listen to the man’s wisdom and run as fast and as far away as she could, but the hunger of existing on very little suddenly voiced itself as a rumble in her stomach. The need to reform a parent and the beguiling voice that had been the first to ask her home joined forces, convincing her to accept the devil’s own temptation.
Chapter 3
Briar had never seen a woman eat so slowly in his entire life. It was as if she had never tasted roast beef and potatoes before. Not that he really minded. She was a sight worth studying. Just as he suspected in that short glimpse he’d had of her when she first exited the train, she was not a traditional beauty but rather a strange mixture of imperfections that made her striking in her own way. The sun-bronzed tone of her skin hinted that she seldom used a parasol. Still, she looked healthier than some of the women in the restaurant who appeared lily-white in the gaslights’s amber glow. Her nose was not the pert little stub and her mouth not the Cupid’s bow that he usually found appealing, but rather a length he could only describe as royal and a spanse of plentiful lips. Wisps of blond curls lacing her turban hinted that she probably could boast some Nordic heritage, despite her Irish brogue.
But it was her eyes that intrigued him most. Eyes that slanted slightly at the corners and looked the color of dew-moistened wheat. Eyes that stared at him directly now.
“Is something wrong?”
“Excuse me.” He grabbed his napkin and wiped his mouth. “I’m afraid I was staring. I’m sorry.”
She dabbed at her own lips. “Did I drop something on me?”
“He thinks you’re pretty,” Violet interrupted. “Me, too.”
The little imp. Just wait until he got her home. “I was wondering how an Irish woman happened to be blond and…What exactly do you call that color of eyes?” Briar refused to deny his attraction to her. She was beautiful.
“Me da said they be the color of honey, the first of the season fresh from the comb. Full of sting and sticker, they are.” She laughed until she snorted, then laughed even louder at the unladylike sound. When several heads turned to see what had caused the merriment, she did not seem to mind their attention. Instead she looked at them all squarely and added, “Ye’ll find that out soon enough about me, ’tis true.”
She didn’t have a shy bone in her entire body, it seemed. Certainly not the ideal woman to hire as governess, as he’d been mulling since he’d turned her down as possible telegrapher. Certainly not the kin
d of woman who would be a good example for Violet. “I’ve been thinking about your predicament, Miss McCoy.” He cleared his throat. “And I’ve decided that we should refund the money you spent coming to Amarillo. I’ll drop by the bank in the morning, then I can meet you at your hotel.” When she paled at the suggestion, Briar reminded himself that she might think them too newly acquainted to allow him to call upon her in a less public atmosphere. “Or if you prefer, I’ll have the money or a ticket waiting for you at the station.”
She shook her head. “That willna be necessary, Mr. Duncan. I plan on staying in Amarillo, just as I said, until Nathaniel returns.”
“If that’s your choice.” He nodded toward a table filled with rough-looking men. “It might be hard to find employment, though. There are adventurers of every kind in town lately, trying to earn their keep until war either breaks out with Pancho Villa or President Wilson goes ahead and gets us into the Great War. It’s lucky that you found a hotel room.”
“The luck I have today, sir, is enjoying this fine meal and the even finer companions to share it with.” She smiled down at Violet, then hastily took another bite.
Without thinking, he reached out to halt her hand. “You mean, you don’t have a room yet?”
Her gaze met his and locked, her mouth stopping in mid-chew. He thought he felt her tremble just before she slowly set the fork down and grabbed her goblet. She took a long drink, as if she had been banished for days in the drought-driven plains and could only now quench her thirst.
Those glorious lips of hers shifted into a grin. “’Tis confused I am how to answer ye, Mr. Duncan. Do I say, ‘Aye, ’tis what I mean, or nay, I have no room.’”
“Briar,” he insisted, wanting to watch her lips form his given name, wondering how the Irish lilt would sound in a feverish whisper of passion. Blazes, now he felt parched.
“Well, then, Briar…’Tis a strange name, that. Did ye mum and da suspect ye’d be a troublesome lad?”
She was avoiding an answer. “Long story I’ll tell you when we have more time.” He set down his own goblet. “Right now, I need to hunt you up a place to stay. That won’t be easy this time of evening. I don’t suppose you noticed that sign when we passed the billiard hall, did you?”
She forked the last piece of beef and sopped it in the gravy. “Ye mean the one that said they were renting beds in eight-hour shifts? I appreciate the thought, but ’twould be mighty hard on a body’s back I’m thinking.” She winked at Violet. “I’ll not be needing a cue to make me look elsewhere.” She chewed the beef with a flourish, staring at him as if waiting for him to object.
Briar reviewed what she said then began to chuckle. She was waiting to see if his wit was as sharp as her own.
Puzzlement etched Violet’s brow. “I don’t get it. What’s so funny?”
Their guest nearly spit her food out as she struggled not to laugh, but the effort elicited a bigger snort. Now all three joined in the merriment. Everyone around them looked on as if she’d lost her mind as well as her taste in clothing.
“I don’t know when I’ve had such a good meal,” Briar admitted, finally yielding to some semblance of control. “Or laughed so hard.”
“Since Mama went to heaven,” Violet announced, abruptly causing them all to sober. “It’s true.” She attempted to soften the blow of her words. “You ain’t laughed since I can ’member.”
Briar thought back over the past few years and realized the truth of his daughter’s words. Though Violet was exaggerating the length of time, he didn’t laugh much anymore. He missed it and, more important, how it made him feel when Violet laughed with him. “I’m sorry, pumpkin. I’ll try to do that more often.”
“Maybe I can help.” Their guest scooted her plate away, its empty surface a testament to the restaurant’s fine reputation. “I’ve been thinking about what ye said earlier, Mr. Duncan. If ’tis a governess ye need, then ’tis a governess I’ll be till Nathaniel returns. If ’tis transcribing messages ye want, then I’ll be for doing that as well. Ye’ll find me a good hand on the wire, and I would love to spend some time with Violet.”
She yawned, a sound too indelicate to be anything but a combination of a full belly and sheer exhaustion. “I’ve no mind where I sleep, long as it offers a place to lay me head and a warm cover should the weather turn cold. Which I understand is doubtful, considering Nathaniel said the plains have seen their worst drought in years.” She yawned again. “That cot is surely calling to me now.”
He’d prayed for an answer to his problem. Now one had presented itself. Damn Nathaniel for not coming home. But what could he do? If the billiard hall was using its tables to sleep people, then there obviously were no rooms to be found anywhere. He couldn’t leave the woman out on the streets, and he couldn’t leave her alone unattended at the office. Rail crews were rough men. An unchaperoned woman in their midst would only stir up trouble. Still, he needed help. Maybe if she could relieve him for part of the day.
“I’ll tell you what…I’ll leave you and Violet here to have dessert and get to know one another a little better while I run over to the filling station and use the phone. I’ll call around and see if I can find you more comfortable accommodations than the cot.”
“I have the job then?”
“Most likely. But I’d like to reserve final agreement until you answer a few questions about your qualifications. Those questions can wait until I secure you a room somewhere.”
A half hour and a handful of phone calls later, Briar returned to find Mina sitting alone. “Where’s Violet?” He searched the room for sign of her and glanced at the batwing doors that divided the dining room from the restaurant’s kitchen. “She’s not in the back bothering the cook again, is she?”
If the woman couldn’t control the imp long enough to keep her seated at the table, perhaps taking her on for hire was not such a good idea.
Mina pressed a finger to her lips, then pointed downward.
Briar stepped closer and leaned to see his child stretched across her chair, her head leaning in the woman’s lap. “Asleep?”
“Right after ye left. The lass can sleep through a stampede, it seems.”
“I’ll take her.”
“No, I ordered ye a pie,” she whispered, “and asked them to keep it hot till ye returned. No use wasting good food or hard-earned money.”
No sooner than Mina informed him, the waitress bought Briar the pie. He thanked her and decided that tonight he would give a slightly bigger tip than usual for the extra service.
Mina looked at him expectantly and he realized she was waiting for him to take a bite. He had been the commander of his own eating habits for almost four years now and he found her insistence both warming and irritating. Warming, because it felt good again to have someone care that he ate. Irritating, because that same care reminded him of the loneliness of his life.
He pushed the plate away. Better to get down to business and put their relationship into its proper prospective. “I need to open the station in the morning, Miss McCoy, sell tickets and do my daily rounds with the rest of the crew. I’ve decided to hire a man to watch the ’graph on the nights we need one, if you’ll listen in the afternoons. That would give you the morning with Violet, and she can take an afternoon nap on the cot while you work. Lord knows she’s slept through it a hundred times. The afternoon will let me finish the daily books and whatever else I didn’t get done earlier. Just decide which one or two afternoons you’d like off and that will be fine. Is that satisfactory to you?”
“When will you spend time with her?” The honey-colored eyes took on their sting.
Briar would have told her the matter was not open for discussion, but he supposed he was now making it the woman’s concern. He thought about his schedule then decided he might as well give himself a little added incentive. After all, he had thoroughly enjoyed supper. “I’ll share the noon meal with you both, then after her nap, I’ll make sure she and I do something together.” He looked at h
is daughter and realized just how many months it had been since he could remember doing anything special other than share a meal or go to church with her. Months must seem like years to a child so young.
“Like we used to, Daddy? You didn’t forget how?” Violet sat up, her uninjured eye suddenly wide awake with expectation.
Had she just been pretending? “I haven’t forgotten, pumpkin,” Briar reassured her. Shame for his own actions of late made him stand and quickly pull the funds for their dinner from his pocket and place them on the table. The need to hold his daughter compelled him to take her up in his arms. The woman was right. He should be more attentive to Violet. He should have hired a temporary man when Nathaniel first left so that he could spend time with her. He should have been a better father in a hundred different ways. And he would be, beginning now. Tonight. “You ready to go home and rest those pretty eyes so they’ll be ready for church in the morning?”
“Can my angel go with us?” She nodded, sighing softly against his shoulder.
He looked at Mina. “Most likeliest place to let a new angel in town get to know people, don’t you think?”
She giggled and her head nestled into the crook of his neck. “I’ll show her to the Corbetts and the McCords and, oh yeah, to Mr. and Mrs. Harris. Daddy says Mrs. Harris used to own the gun shop, but she ain’t no devil. She’s a real nice lady. Her boys run the shop now. I don’t see them much ’cept at church. They’re old like Daddy.”
Mina took coins from her pocket and placed them by her plate. She laughed. “Just how old is yer da?”
Before the tattler could answer, Briar reached over and scooted the coins back to Mina. “Older than Exodus. Now keep your money. Supper’s my treat, remember.”
“Twenty-seven.” Violet giggled, then squealed when her father poked her gently in the ribs and began to tickle her.
“Cowboy counsel, gabby-girl, remember?” It felt good to hear her sweet giggles against his throat as she tucked her head and moored herself against him. “Especially with family secrets.”
