by Lynn Donovan
Bruno smiled. “Deal.”
He climbed onto the carriage. It swayed under his weight and rocked back into place as he sat beside the disgruntled driver. He slipped the man a coin for his passage and an extra for his trouble. This seemed to appease the hired transport because immediately upon accepting Bruno’s coins, he flipped the reins and set the carriage in motion.
Before long, they crossed the chain bridge and the Pinkerton Mansion came into view. Bruno wished he could see the young lady’s reaction to the majestic home. He knew it took his breath a bit when he first saw it.
By her plain clothes and worn carpet bag, she appeared to be from a humble life. So seeing her take in the home that Mr. Gordon had converted into the Pinkerton National Detective Agency Headquarters would have been a real treat.
The carriage rocked to a halt, and Bruno jumped down. He pulled the door open and paused. As anticipated, Miss Hinkley sat dumbfounded in awe, staring at the three-story home.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Bruno put words to her wonderment, in order to move her out of the spell she was frozen in.
She blinked, then swallowed. “Oh my gosh! This is the Pinkerton office?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Where-where I’m gonna live?”
“Well, that I can’t say.” He crinkled his brow in confusion. Why would she think she was going to live here? Was she seeking protection from someone who would harm her if she didn’t hide at the Pinkerton Mansion? “Depends on… a lot of factors.” Bruno no longer wanted to stoke that fire in her eyes. Teasing her lost its appeal. An intense need to protect her festered in his gut.
On the other hand, Archie had started accepting applications from women last May. Most of the ones he had hired had worked out really well. Was she here to apply? She said she was not a potential client…but this Miss Annie Kate Hinkley looked too young—
Bruno caught the words in his mind before he completed the thought. He had been too young when Archie brought him to the headquarters office. This girl deserved the same opportunities he had been given… if it meant enough to her to be a Pinkerton. “Come on. I’ll introduce you to Marianne and Mr. Gordon. Deal?”
She looked at his extended hand, gathered herself, and accepted his assistance out of the carriage. “Uh, deal.”
He stood a head and a half taller than her and his shadow completely engulfed her slight frame. He took her carpet bag and put her hand at his elbow, like gentlemen should when escorting a lady. Bruno pulled off his hat, tucked it under his arm, then opened the front door. He gestured for her to enter first. “After you, Miss Hinkley.”
She gaped at the entryway and slowly floated across the threshold. A whistle echoed in the foyer. Bruno’s eyes darted to his escort. She looked up at him in surprise and covered her mouth. A rosy red hue filled her cheeks. “Sorry. I couldn’t help myself.”
“I understand. I whistled the first time I walked in here, myself.”
They laughed.
Marianne rushed from her office to them. “Well, Bruno. You’re back. And who do you have here?”
Annie Kate curtsied clumsily and stammered about answering the advert in the Nebraska paper. Marianne, in her gracious finesse, took Bruno’s hat and Annie Kate by the arm, and led her into the dining room.
Bruno touched his arm where her hand had been— her warmth lingered there. He missed her depending on him. He missed her touch. But he’d fulfilled his part as a Pinkerton, he had delivered her to the headquarters unscathed. It was time to back away, let her do what she came here to do.
It was only he who had been wounded. His heart longed to have her beside him again. How could this be? He had just met her. She certainly had not expressed such attractions for him. Then again, why would she?

Mr. Gordon stepped out of his office as if he were looking for Marianne. He spotted Bruno instead, and tipped his head back, beckoning him to come into his meeting. “Ah… Bruno! Can I speak with you?”
Bruno nodded and pulled his attention from Annie Kate and Marianne in the dining room. “Sure boss.”
A sad-faced fellow sat in one of the chairs in front of Mr. Gordon’s desk. He was an average sized man who, by his muscular upper body, looked as though he’d done a lot of heavy lifting in his profession. His beard and mustache were cut close and well groomed. His mouse-brown hair was drawn back at the nape of his neck with a black ribbon. He nearly looked like a sea captain out of uniform.
“Mr. Bruno Thomas, this is Captain Ronald Oppenheimer. He’s retired from the navy and has settled on a stretch of land north of Pueblo.”
Ah, a captain. Bruno had figured right. He put out his hand. Captain Oppenheimer’s grip was hesitant but firm. Bruno got that a lot. His size, and perhaps rough looks, gave even a Navy captain pause. Bruno focused on not squeezing the man’s hand too tight as they shook, an important thing Mr. Gordon had taught him, and eased into the other chair. He had also learned not to sit too abruptly. Many pieces of furniture had suffered from his excessive weight and size.
He shifted with an uncertain thought. Should he get out his leather-bound journal to take notes? A dossier lay open on Mr. Gordon’s desk, where he had been writing. Perhaps it would be better to wait to see if this was a case and if it would be assigned to him. Gordon rounded his desk and leaned back in his chair. Although Gordon wasn’t a heavy-set man, the worn-out springs protested under his weight.
“Captain Oppenheimer suspects his sister is trying to poison him.” Gordon cut right to the meat of the matter. The captain lowered his chin as if he were ashamed. “She’s made at least three attempts on his life, so far as we know. And now, she’s run away. We have her last known address.”
Gordon tapped his notes and looked up at Captain Oppenheimer. “Now, I don’t mean to be insensitive, but his sister, Liza, is estranged from her husband, Christopher Toffler, also a captain, but with the Army, and has taken up with a—” Gordon cleared a disapproving throat. “A less-than-reputable politician out of Las Vegas, Nevada. This Mr. Dominic Brautigan is suspected of poisoning his wife and is likely influencing the captain’s sister to clear the way for them to— ahem, well, to commit bigamy. You see, she has never divorced her husband. It’s all here in the dossier, Thomas. Now—”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Gordon.” Marianne erupted through the door. She sounded out of breath. How odd for the woman who always seemed composed and level headed. “May I speak with you a moment?” She panted, as her hand pushed unruly strands of hair into place, giving her back an air of control.
Gordon’s complexion darkened to a ruddy hue. He closed his eyes with impatience and pursed his lips.
“Miss Chapman, as you can see, I am with a client. Can it wait?” His Scottish brogue heavier than normal.
Her eyes darted from Captain Oppenheimer, to Bruno, back to Mr. Gordon. “No. I’m afraid it can’t.”
He leaned back with a heavy sigh. “Fine. If you gentlemen will excuse me, apparently I have some urgent business to attend to that takes precedence over attempted murder!” His words dripped with sarcasm and his eyes burned with anger as he shoved his chair away from his backside and stormed out of his office, leaving Bruno and the client alone.
Bruno picked at a non-existent speck of dirt on his trousers, cleared his throat twice, lifted his eyes to Captain Oppenheimer and nodded a gesture not dissimilar to so here we are.
The man fidgeted with a loose hangnail on his right index finger, resorting to biting it. With a heavy sigh, he dropped his hand to his lap and looked at the framed accolades on Gordon’s walls. Engrossed in a particular certificate, he stood and walked over for a closer look. He pointed at the certificate. “Huh, an award from the Governor of the Colorado Territory.”
Bruno nodded and darted his brow upward as an acknowledgment. No words came to Bruno. His mind drifted to the spitfire gal he had escorted to the office from the train depot. He had failed to ask her where she came from. But then again, he recalled she had told Ma
rianne she was answering the advert in a Nebraska newspaper. She didn’t look too travel weary, so Nebraska made sense. It was Bruno’s good fortune that her train had arrived about the same time as his. Otherwise he’d have never met her.
Gordon swung the door open and stomped to his chair. If possible, his complexion was a deeper red. He slapped a clipboard down on his desk, still muttering to himself about Marianne and how she tried to run his business. ”Now, if we can continue, Gentlemen.”
Bruno and Oppenheimer nodded their heads, affirmative.
“Now, Bruno, what you need to know is that Captain Oppenheimer loves his sister and doesn’t want to press charges, he’s just wanting to return her to his home and hopefully set her right with her husband. Now, you need to know she’s very superstitious. She collapsed after learning that Ronald’s opal ring changed color after her first attempt to slip poison into his evening brandy. I tell you this because my gut says it’s something you can use to wring, no pun intended, a confession out of her.” Gordon chuckled.
“Now, I never tell an agent how to solve his case. But I thought this was important for you to know.” He tapped the folder. “It’s all here in the dossier. Contact information, dates, and the like. Now, we don’t yet know the whereabouts of Captain Oppenheimer’s brother-in-law. But! I’m putting another agent on finding him. His last known assignment was among the Indians on the Oklahoma Range. Surely it won’t be that hard to find the man. If we can bring him back to Colorado, and we can talk some sense into his sister, perhaps we can solve two cases and save God some trouble sorting out the sinners from the saints.”
Bruno smiled with a confident nod. “Deal.”
Gordon nodded with satisfaction. “So. There you go.” He handed Bruno the dossier. Captain Oppenheimer stood and shook Gordon’s hand, then Bruno’s. “Thank you. God bless you both.”
“Well, now. A Pinkerton will do his best to see justice is served. That or die trying.” Gordon laughed from his belly.
Bruno chuckled. He had certainly vowed to die to protect a client, but he wasn’t sure he would die for a murdering sister gone rogue. He’d certainly do his best to get her to own up to poisoning her brother.
Oppenheimer stepped out from behind Bruno to leave the office. Bruno turned to open the door for his client. Gordon stopped him with the clearing of his throat. “Uh, Thomas. A word with ye.”
“Of course, Boss.” Bruno saw his client out the door and turned to Gordon.
“Uh, Thomas… we, that is, I feel this case will best be handled if you have a partner.”
“Deal, uh, well, sure. If you think that’s what’s best.”
Gordon wiped his hand down his face and grinder mustache. “Yeah. And… you are aware, I’m sure, by now, that we are hiring new recruits… uh… women recruits.”
Bruno hesitated. “Yes sir, I know.”
“Yes, well. Your new partner is just such a recruit. And I s’pose you heard that in order to preserve a new female recruit’s reputation in indelicate situations you are required to marry.”
Bruno opened his mouth to protest, Gordon beat him to the punch. “Now, it’s just to protect the reputation of the woman and it’s only for the duration of the case. Soon as yew hand in your report, case solved, yew can go right over to Judge Hotchkiss’s office and receive an annulment… that is as long as the two of yew don’t … do nothing that disqualifies yew from an annulment.” Gordon glared at Bruno with just one eye open and a raised eyebrow.
Bruno staggered back. “Mr. Gordon. I’m a Pinkerton now. A man of honor. I wouldn’t do nothing to jeopardize a lady’s…reputation.”
Gordon approached him and slapped a hand on his broad shoulder. “I know yew wouldn’t, son. I’m just explaining to yew how it all works. Now, come on out here and meet your bride-to-be.”
The words hit Bruno’s stomach like a granite fist. “Right now?”
“No time like the present.” Gordon reached back to his desk and lifted a worn leather-bound book. “Besides, I need you to get on this case right away. The two of you can spend the night in the Brown Palace Hotel, on the Pinkerton Agency, of course, and tomorrow morning, you’ll board a train for Las Vegas, Nevada.”
Bruno’s words vanished from his mouth. He couldn’t bring anything to mind. Gordon kept his hand on Bruno’s shoulder as he escorted him through Marianne’s office and into the dining room. Marianne and Pearl stood in the entryway at the front door. Pearl had a basket with a blue satin ribbon tied to the handle on her arm. Marianne stood with her hands folded in front of her skirt. A smug smile creased her mouth. Gordon guided Bruno toward the ladies.
“Bruno Thomas, let me introduce you to your new partner.” Marianne and Pearl took one step away from each other, like parting a curtain.
Gordon’s voice faded behind Bruno. “Miss Annie Kate Hinkley, from Walnut Grove, Nebraska.”
Bruno stared at Annie Kate. Her mouth quivered and grimaced into something like a forced smile. The fire in her golden eyes that earlier today was lit up with a blaze, had gone out. She looked… apprehensive. Bruno stammered. “Yeah. We’ve met.”
Gordon broke through the haze in Bruno’s mind. “If you two will stand together in front of the door, I’ll take care of the ceremony and you can be on your way.”
Bruno forced himself to move over beside Annie Kate. He shrugged in response to her fixed gaze and turned around to face Gordon. How should he stand? Awkwardly, he put his hand on her back, but immediately felt her tense. So he dropped it to his side. Gordon read from a slip of paper in the book he had carried out. Bruno realized for the first time it was a Bible. “Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today to marry this man and this woman…”
A buzz filled Bruno’s ears. Gordon’s words faded. He could see his boss’s mouth move and when he looked up at Bruno like he needed an answer, Bruno jerked a nod, hoping it was the right response. Gordon turned his attention to Annie Kate and she muttered something while her head bobbed. Time seemed suspended and their movements were slowed down as if they were under water. The buzzing grew louder, and Bruno’s peripheral vision darkened. He could just barely hear Mr. Gordon say, “I now pronounce you man and wife. You may ki—”
CHAPTER FIVE
“Mr. Thomas?” Annie Kate knelt beside him, patting his cheek. Her concerned face hovered above him. “Mr. Thomas? It’s Annie, are you alright?”
“Wh-what happened?”
“Well, I guess in non-medical terms, you fainted.”
“Fainted?”
“Yeah. Right after we were pronounced.”
“Pronounced?”
“Man and wife. We’re married.”
“Married?”
“Stop repeating what I say!” Ah, the fire was alive again in her eyes. The events slammed back in his head. Gordon had assigned him a partner, Annie Kate Hinkley, the girl from the train depot. They were married to preserve her reputation. He looked past her shoulder. Marianne and Pearl stood behind Annie Kate, worry etched on their deep-grooved brows. Gordon stood to their left. Amusement filled his Scottish-green eyes.
Bruno was still in the entry, on the floor. Mr. Oppenheimer’s case… the dossier. He sat up. “I fainted?”
“Yes.” They all answered with a chuckle. Gordon put out a hand to help him stand. Knowing he could never truly pull him from the ground, he clasped his boss’s wrist, but stood on his own accord. “Did I kiss the bride?”
Gordon chuckled. “No, son. You went down instead.”
He turned to Annie Kate. “My apologies ma’am.”
She shrugged a shoulder. Her eyes rolled with what Bruno thought might be relief.
Bruno hesitated, then leaned over, drawing close to her cheek. He hesitated again. She didn’t slap him or jerk away. He pecked a quick kiss on her cheek. Crimson flooded her face and a slight smile danced across her lips. She had sweet lips. Why hadn’t he kissed her lips instead?
Humiliation filled his gut. He’d never fainted in his life. He’d passed out from
a blow to his jaw, but never had he just fainted. What an embarrassing thing to do. His eyes met Annie Kate’s. “I don’t know what —”
“Don’t worry about it. I was feeling a little woozy during the ceremony, too.”
“That’s never hap—“
“I’m telling ya. Don’t worry about it.” She grinned. “I’m here to take care of you, now.”
Oh, now she’d gone and done it. He rubbed his hand down his face. “I don’t need you to take care of me. I’m s’pose to take care of you. You’re my wife… and partner.” The word wife rattled him more than the idea of a fainting.
“Trust me.” She cocked her hip and planted her hand on it. “I don’t need you taking care of me.”
“Alright!” Marianne interrupted. “I see we are off to a solid start. Let’s get you two on your way to the Brown Palace. Go over your dossier.” She glared directly into Bruno’s eyes, then turned to Annie Kate with a kind smile. “Get to know each other, within reason, and we’ll see you two when you come back with Mrs. Toffler, safe and sound.”
Bruno grimaced. “D-deal.”
Pearl stepped up and put the basket in Annie’s hands. Kissed her cheek and then lifted on tiptoe to pull Bruno down to kiss his cheek as well.
“You take good care of each other.” Pearl choked past her tears.
Gordon shook their hands and shoved them out the door. A taxi carriage waited at the street. Her trunk and Bruno’s suitcase were already loaded on the back. When they stumbled onto the porch, the driver, dressed in a fancy suit, stood beside the carriage, lifted his top hat, and waited. A second well-dressed man held the door to the carriage open and removed his hat also. Bruno placed his hand on Annie’s back and guided her to the carriage. He glanced back at Marianne and Mr. Gordon. They nodded reassurance. He turned back and helped Annie Kate climb into the taxi. He climbed in beside her and let the man close the door.
He was married.
Annie Kate Hinkley, a complete stranger just an hour ago, now was his wife and partner. “So,” he stammered. “You want to be a Pinkerton Agent?”
