by P. Creeden
“Yes,” Archie said with a frown. “There’s no time to lose. I need you in Ohio as soon as possible.”
Caleb closed his eyes a moment and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, he glared at Archie. “And if I refuse?”
Archie’s frown deepened. “Then she will be assigned to another agent for training, and you’ll be on suspension until further notice.”
Something pricked in Caleb’s heart. Why was he more upset about the thought that Opal Cahill would be marrying someone else than he was about his own suspension? He shook that thought from his head. “I’ve heard rumors about this, but I need to hear it direct from you Archie. What are the terms of this marriage?”
“Sensible.” Archie nodded, his face softening a bit. “You and Miss Cahill will be married. This is to protect Miss Cahill’s virtue, as two unmarried agents having to share close quarters is unseemly. Once you return from your assignment, Judge Hotchkiss is happy to sign your annulment papers, unless you both want otherwise.”
Mrs. Cahill huffed a laugh at the same time as Caleb did, drawing his gaze toward her. She narrowed her eyes at him. “I won’t want otherwise.”
Slowly, he nodded. “As long as we’re in agreement, then. A marriage, on paper, until we return from the case—then an annulment.”
“Agreed,” she said.
Caleb returned his gaze to Archie. “Then, it seems we are prepared to agree to the terms of this marriage.”
Archie lifted his eyebrow. “As long as it’s settled. Please step forward and we’ll begin.”
The black spots crowded Caleb’s vision once more as he came forward and stood beside Miss Cahill. They both kept distance from each other. Marianne came rushing in with a certificate of marriage and set it upon the desk in front of them. She smiled up at them both. “You do make a handsome couple, nonetheless.”
A frown tugged at Caleb’s lips. Archie had them recite simple, short vows and then sign the certificate. Marianne signed as witness. Afterward, Marianne smiled and took hold of both their hands. “Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Wade. Your train is departing in less than an hour.” Then she turned toward his new bride. “I’ll go with you to the boarding house to help get your stuff together.”
But the younger woman shook her head. “I already have all my belongings in this bag.”
Caleb blinked at her. How could she possibly have everything she owned in a hand-held carpet bag? He suddenly realized that he’d put his foot in his mouth earlier when he’d said that she didn’t look like she’d had much hardship in her life. He swallowed down another apology. It wasn’t the time or the place and would likely embarrass her more than endear him to her. He nodded toward the three of them. “I’ll have my bag packed momentarily. I’ll meet you in the parlor.”
Then without looking at them again, he darted out of the room. Married. He swallowed hard and started for the door when a thought struck him, and he turned back around. “Miss Cahill, have you eaten breakfast?”
She blinked at him and then shook her head. “Please, call me Opal. And I don’t usually eat breakfast.”
He nodded and frowned. “I suppose it’s more appropriate to go by our given names, please call me Caleb. Regardless. We have a long journey ahead. I think you should consider eating something before we depart, since it might be a while before we are able to get our next meal.”
Her brow furrowed. “I don’t want to impose.”
“Nonsense,” Marianne said, taking her by the shoulders. “Caleb is right. You should eat something before you go. I believe Pearl has baked a loaf and is preparing poached eggs for everyone this morning. I’ll show you to the kitchen.”
For once, Marianne’s meddling ways relieved Caleb. He had no idea how much money Opal had or what her situation was, but he’d already guessed she’d probably skipped breakfast. As skinny as she was, she’d probably skipped many meals. His jaw flexed as he’d tightened it, and regretted, once more, his own stupidity. He didn’t notice that she wore the same dress as yesterday and that one of the buttons on her pinafore mismatched the others. As a detective, he was supposed to notice the small details. He rushed across the yard to the bunkhouse and threw open the door. Ben Mercer shot up from his bed at the sound of the slamming of the door against the wall. “Whoa! What’s going on?”
Logan turned about at the small desk where he’d been writing and removed his reading spectacles. “Is everything all right?”
Caleb laughed dryly. “You, boys, are looking at a married man.”
They blinked at him, Ben rubbing the sleep from his eyes before blinking at him again. “Are you joking?”
Caleb shook his head as he headed toward his steamer trunk and began packing a carpet bag. “I am not.”
Logan chuckled. “And you didn’t believe me.”
“So, you’re the first of us to get hitched?” Ben laughed from his bed. “I never would have guessed that one.”
Caleb had grown used to packing in a hurry and knew exactly how much and what to pack for a few days’ journey. The only thing he brought extra of was his savings. If Opal didn’t have any money, then he’d provide for the both of them. He wouldn’t make her embarrass herself by asking Archie for an advance. “Laugh it up, now, boys, but mark my words. You’re both next.”
That put a stop to their guffaws before he stepped out of the bunkhouse and made his way across the yard, back to the main house and his wife. His heart flipped at that thought. For now, it was true. Opal Cahill was now Opal Wade. Perhaps it was not his duty to love her and cherish her, but it was his duty to protect her and take care of her. He felt it in his bones. He’d respect her as a fellow agent but had every intention of protecting her and her honor while she was his wife.
Chapter Six
Opal’s heart fluttered as the train pulled out of the station. She hadn’t expected to be accepted as a female Pinkerton agent, much less leave for her first case right away. And then there was the extra surprise of marriage. She swallowed and kept her eyes watching outside of the window as the station passed by. She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Caleb sat across from her on the other seat as the train didn’t have enough passengers that they had to sit side-by-side. For now, she was happy he had to keep a comfortable distance. She’d always been comfortable around men because of her cousins, but Caleb was different than them. They treated her like a boy. Caleb had been treating her as a lady. She enjoyed the distinction, but it put a certain amount of distance between them, one that she could feel.
He’d been right about her eating breakfast. It had been a blessing from God that he’d offered it. She’d not only skipped breakfast that morning but had forgone dinner the night before, as well. She had limited funds and needed to conserve wherever she was able. After the death of her grandmother, she often went without breakfast or lunch and had to rely upon only dinner as her one meal of the day, with her father. Her father tried to provide better for her, but he was often forgetful, and as he worked at the docks all day, he didn’t always know how often his daughter went hungry.
The scenery outside the window changed, as they were out of the city and moved along the countryside. She peeked over toward Caleb and found him purposefully looking out the window as well. She decided that it was her duty to break the ice between them. She cleared her throat. “Have you ever been to Ohio?”
He lifted a brow toward her and shook his head. “Usually the Chicago office would take care of cases in that state. Most of the cases we get are in the west, unless they are special to Archie. Archie has made a lot of contacts all over the country, so sometimes they contact him specifically, just like this one.”
“Mr. Gordon is friends with the head of the theater.”
Caleb nodded. “He had received a threat the week before an arsonist attempted to burn the building down. Most of the building was saved, so they were able to rebuild, but it took over a year to do so. Now he is receiving threats again.”
She shivered. “It’s one th
ing to deal with someone who makes threats but never follows through with them. It’s quite another to be dealing with someone who not only follows through but does so in a premeditated manner.”
As she was watching, Caleb’s face softened. “We should probably know a little about each other’s past since we’re married and may need to play the part.”
Her spine stiffened. “How do you propose we do that?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “You may ask me any question, and I will answer it honestly, provided that you too answer the same question. Then I shall ask a question of my own, same rules for answering.”
She drew a deep breath and let it out slowly, her spine relaxing once more. Mostly, Opal considered herself a private person. Even in school, she stuck with family and spent most of her time with her cousins rather than making new friends. Most of the female friends she made were a few years younger than her. It helped her to feel comfortable around them. They didn’t pry into her private life or expect too much from their friendship the way girls her own age had a tendency to. But this was different than those situations. Caleb was her husband, at least for now, and if they were going to present themselves as married, he was right. They needed to know at least a little bit about each other. She started them off with an easy one. “Where are you from?”
He smiled. “Kansas City. My father was a miner and my mother raised me and my two brothers to read and write and be quick on our feet so that we never had to work in a mine. She loved my father but knew that the mine would kill him. He died when I was thirteen.”
“Are you the oldest or the youngest of your brothers?”
He smiled wider. “I’m the middle child. And you?”
She let out a slow breath. “I’m from Richmond, Virginia. I was an only child. My father worked at the docks for a cannery off the James River, and always smelled like fish. My mother passed on in childbirth, leaving me to be raised by him and my grandmother. I had several aunts and uncles around who also helped, and with them, five cousins, all boys. I was raised to hunt and fish and climb trees and was never really taught how to be a proper lady, but often pretended to be one when a friend in school would teach me a few manners.”
His brows shot up toward his hairline. “So, looks really can be deceiving.”
Heat rushed to her cheeks as he studied her under this new information. She shrugged.
“Then you know how to use a weapon?” he asked.
Laughter bubbled up. She pulled her carpet bag into her lap and took out her billy club and derringer and set them on the bench seat beside her. “My cousins also taught me to handle myself in a fist fight and how to avoid one if I can.”
His eyes grew wide. He blinked a few times as she put her things back into her bag. “You are full of surprises, aren’t you?”
She shrugged again. “I am what I am. It doesn’t matter what I look like to others.”
He nodded. “One of the other Pinkerton Agents in Denver used to work in Vaudeville, throwing knives. He taught me a thing or two about it. I carry a dagger on each ankle and a pistol on my side.”
This time, it was her turn for her eyes to widen. “Will you teach me how to do that? Throw knives?”
He huffed a laugh. “Absolutely. Though I never thought any girl would ask me to do that.”
Her skin flushed again. “I guess that wasn’t very lady-like.”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “But I still find it appealing.”
She lifted a brow at him. Appealing? Opal knew that most men found her pretty. In school, boys were constantly trying to get her attention, but they wanted to treat her as less than a lady because she didn’t act like one, and her cousins built a formidable wall around her. As she grew older, she had two marriage proposals, but she didn’t want to be tied down to either of the men who’d asked her to marry. She’d have been stuck in Richmond all her life with a husband who worked at the cannery, like her father had. And the last thing she wanted was to be married to a man who stunk of fish. “When did you decide to join the Agency?”
“Well, that question isn’t one you can use to establish our cover, but it’s important for you to know anyway,” he said with a soft smile. “My uncle was a Pinkerton agent. When I was young, I only met my uncle twice, and both times, he regaled us of tales of bravery and adventure. He occasionally sent us novels about the west and the Pinkertons, including Kate Warne. Both I and my younger brother wanted to become agents. He joined the Chicago office, while I traveled out to Denver, where I hoped that being in the west would offer me even more adventure.”
She smiled wide. “So, being an agent is a family tradition for you?”
He nodded.
“Like you, I read about the Pinkertons and Kate Warne, and whenever I could make it to the general store, I would buy dime novels. My cousins thought me curious in that I would read them voraciously and wait for the next one to arrive with bated breath. Becoming a Pinkerton was a dream for a long while, but a distant one, one that I thought completely unattainable. It became more solid when one of my cousins who’d moved out west sent me a copy of the advertisement asking for lady agents to apply. But Dudley, my closest cousin, said that it would be ridiculous to travel all the way across the country just to get there and be rejected, since I had no special talents. Things changed, and I found myself going out west anyway, so that’s when I decided to stop in at the Agency and at least ask about the advertisement.”
“And that’s when I met you pacing on the sidewalk outside the building.” He offered her an encouraging smile.
She nodded. “Yes.”
For a long moment, he sat there, studying her a moment, with a finger tapping his chin. “What is your favorite color?”
She blinked at him. All the questions he could have asked her in the world, and he chose something as mundane as color? Regardless, she answered. “Blue, and you?”
“Also, blue.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. This was her opportunity to learn more about a Pinkerton Agent. She wouldn’t let it slip by asking such a superficial question. “How many states and territories have you traveled to?”
“I’ve gone as far north as the Montana Territory, as far west as San Francisco, as far south as Fort Worth, Texas, and as far east as Atlanta, Georgia.”
At the mention of Atlanta, her heart fluttered. She hoped Dudley was doing well in Georgia and keeping out of trouble. “I lived in Richmond almost my whole life, though when my father passed away last November, my cousin Dudley took care of me, and moved me to Atlantic City, for what I thought was work, but was actually gambling.”
He blinked at her, his brow furrowing. “Gambling?’
She nodded, but only offered a tight-lipped smile. She’d told the story to Mr. Gordon because she felt she had to, but she didn’t feel the need to besmirch her cousin further with Caleb. If he’d let her, she’d leave the story there. And she hoped he’d allow it.
Chapter Seven
Caleb eyed Opal, knowing that she’d only touched on the surface of the trouble her cousin’s gambling had caused her. He could read the defensiveness in her posture and the way she crossed her arms over her chest. He wouldn’t pry further. He needed them both to get along well. And she seemed like the type to build up very strong walls if he pressed her too hard. It was the reason he’d decided to ask her much simpler questions. “When is your birthday?” he asked.
She blinked at him again. Somehow, his easy line of questioning seemed to surprise her. But as he watched her unfold her arms, he knew he’d gone the right direction in order to get her to open up to him on her own. She leaned forward. “December the second,” she said.
He nodded. “My birthday is July the second.”
She huffed a laugh. “Then we are six months apart to the day... at least in birth months.” After a moment’s hesitation, she asked, “How old are you?”
He smiled at her. “Twenty-five.”
Her gaze shot toward the window as she swallowe
d. He could tell she was considering whether to lie or to be honest with him. That was the thing about Opal, something in her always wanted to keep up appearances. It seemed she wasn’t sure which side of herself she wanted to show Caleb, but when her gaze returned to him, he could see the honesty there as she answered firmly. “I’m nineteen.”
Warmth radiated from his core. She was so young. He swallowed. “When I was your age, all that I wanted in life was to have freedom of my own and travel, too. My uncle had a strong influence on that dream.”
She nodded. “That’s about all I want in life, too. I didn’t want to be a dock worker’s wife in Richmond. So, going to live with my cousin Dudley in Atlantic City seemed like an escape from that. But now I have even bigger dreams that are falling into place. This is just my first case as a Pinkerton Agent. I want there to be many more. I want to travel the whole country, like you have, proving myself a brave... and exceptional woman.”
He laughed. “I believe you might just prove yourself in both areas.”
And he did. What kind of woman kept a billy club and derringer in her carpet bag?
The sunlight played in her soft brown curls and her hazel eyes sparkled as she smiled and looked out the window. A blush still tinted her cheeks from when he’d complimented her. Although she was a surprising woman, she had the air of innocence about her. Raised as a tomboy by cousins who taught her to defend herself? She was brave, and her sense of adventure was endearing. He was growing to like and respect this girl... no, lady... no, his wife. He swallowed, his stomach flipping again. He was glad that he was chosen to be with her instead of Ben or worse, Logan. He was getting the chance to know her better, and she proved herself unexpected at every turn. This was going to be a case he’d never forget.
Opal
In the two day’s travel on the train, Opal had learned a great deal about the man who had been sitting across from her. She looked at the empty seat, as he’d gone to stretch his legs. Her husband. Even though she kept trying to get that bit of reality into her brain, she had a hard time with it. Caleb was a gentleman. He seemed kind and honest. He was quick to notice things and seemed smart and strong. He’d been a Pinkerton for six years and traveled across the whole country. As they grew to know each other, he earned her respect and some measure of affection. He was her training agent, and as such, she needed to impress him and prove to him that she was suitable to become an agent. These factors made it so that she had a strong desire to gain his approval.
