The paper snapped again. “Call me if you need me. I’ll be right there.”
Upstairs, she found a hallway with two doors. The first door opened into a room with a double bed, wardrobe, night table, and a large window to look out at the stars at night. She opened her mouth to call Connor but closed it. If he came up, there would be no stopping them. One kiss and the clothes would come off. At that point, the train could go non-stop to Chicago. The second room had a single bed, a night table, and a wardrobe. She closed the door. That room wouldn’t be used on this trip.
She returned to the lower level, and Connor’s head came up alertly, the newspaper crinkling in his hands. “What’d you find?”
“Oh, just two rooms…” Then she smiled. “But we’ll only need one.”
He tossed the paper aside, stood, and bracketed her hips with his strong hands before claiming her mouth in a kiss so deeply passionate, so uniquely him, that she wanted to stay in his arms for the rest of her life. “I have so much to make up for,” he said against her lips.
It felt so good, so right to be in his arms. “It’s all behind us now.”
They sat on the settee, close together, and she gazed out at the mountains, a majestic sight she never took for granted. “Beautiful.”
“Yes, you are.”
She turned and looked at him, and she could hardly breathe or hear his words, from having him so close. The one coherent thought that surfaced was making love with him.
“I hate to break the mood with business, but have you given any thought to what you’re going to tell General Palmer?”
The thought of work, or the purpose for this trip, ruined the mood. “Here we are alone, and you want to talk business. You’re more romantic than that.”
“I am, but other than quick kisses, I’m limited to what I can do right now. My mind, however, is upstairs in that big bed. Although the small bed will work for what I have in mind.”
“How’d you know what was upstairs?”
“Because I asked for a car with certain”—he winked—“accoutrements.”
She blushed. “Okay. You’re right. It’s safer to talk about General Palmer. In answer to your question, yes, I have notes. Some I’ll put away for a later conversation, if there is one. Some I’ll discard because it’ll be too complicated to explain my opinions. But he’s not interested in whether my legal advice has any merit. He only wants to report back to his board members that he met me.”
Connor seemed amused. “I heard you last night. Your legal advice and insights were timely and intuitively articulated. Why would he not want to hear from you?”
“Because he’s a general and doesn’t intend to accept business advice from a woman. In 1878, it’s rare for women to be educated, and opportunities for upper working-class women are limited to positions as a governess or a lady’s companion. A female lawyer is a rarity.”
“You’re selling yourself short. I was there, remember? Those men engaged with a lawyer who could answer their questions succinctly. They forgot you were a woman. And I forgot you were a real estate agent.”
She bristled, hearing echoes of her parents’ complaints when she decided to quit the firm. “What’s wrong with being a Realtor? It makes me happy.”
“Olivia, I’ve been hanging out with you for almost a year, I have never seen you as engaged as you were last night. I don’t know the real reason you left the law firm—”
“I was bored. Nothing challenged me. I wanted to be out traveling, making deals, so I left.”
Chester knocked, and Connor waved him in. “We’ll be connecting you to the train shortly, and we should be leaving on time.” He set the table with a white tablecloth, china, and silver, put the serving dishes on a sideboard. After hanging up Connor’s jacket, Chester quietly slipped away.
Olivia and Connor moved to the dining table and while enjoying brunch their carriage hooked up to the train, and they departed on time. While the eastern part of Colorado passed by in a blur of blue skies and mountain ranges, their conversation moved easily through their lives as teenagers, college years, and Connor’s military service.
Sipping his coffee, Connor asked, “Given that we’re close to our destination, give me some background. What kind of place is Pueblo? What can we expect?”
“I’ve only brought a couple of clients down here and my knowledge has several holes, but here’s my spiel: The city sprung up after coal and iron were found in the surrounding lands. Pueblo grew into the west’s largest steel-milling town, thanks in large part to Santa Fe Railroad’s completion of its line from Kansas. The Arkansas River cuts through the center of town, but due to flooding, the boundaries have changed over the last century and a half. It’s also one of the sunniest places in the United States. It has more sunshine than San Diego and Honolulu.”
“Are you trying to sell me a house here?”
“No, but it’s a nice place to live. Winters can be cold and snowy, but the snow typically melts the next day and you might be able to play golf in short sleeves within forty-eight hours.”
“I don’t play golf.”
“You can run, bike, or have a picnic.”
He finished his biscuit and wiped his hands on the cloth napkin. “Thanks for the sales pitch, but let’s get back to the standoff. Where’s the roundhouse located? Do citizens live nearby?”
“Pueblo was established in the early 1870s. General Palmer created a new town on the south side of the Arkansas River and named it South Pueblo. That’s where he built Rio Grande’s depot and roundhouse. The pictures I’ve seen show it set apart from the residential section.”
“Is it really a round building?”
“Really. The complex redirects trains onto connecting lines. Originally, steam engines only traveled forward, so they built roundhouses to service trains and turn them in the right direction for the return trip. I don’t know how big the original roundhouse is, but it held about sixty men at the time of the standoff.”
“Got it. Large round building. When we arrive in Pueblo, I want this car parked as far away as possible.”
“I don’t think the standoff is going to happen today.”
“I’m not taking any chances. We’re going back to Denver tonight. We’ll see General Palmer, have lunch with Daniel if he’s available, and get back on this train.” Connor smiled. “And enjoy our ride home.”
The train whistle blasted, and the train slowed to a stop. “Sounds like we’ve arrived.” She stared out the opposite window. He came up behind her and kissed her neck. “Okay. You sold me. Let’s look for a house while we’re here.”
She looked up at him. “Why get a house when we could get a car like this and travel around the country?”
“God, I love a woman with a plan.”
She laid her hand on his chest and for the first time realized he was wearing a vest underneath his shirt. “Is that a bulletproof vest?”
“A requirement for traveling. We don’t have many rules or guidelines but wearing this is one of them.”
The whistle blew again, and they began to move backward. The car bucked and rattled as it decoupled from the rest of the train. “I guess we’ll be without service while we’re here,” she said. “No internet.”
Connor kissed her again. “I wouldn’t do that to you. Chester will get anything we want. As soon as you’re ready, we’ll go find your general.”
“Give me five minutes to freshen up.”
After using the small bathroom, she primped in front of a gilded mirror hanging on the wall and repinned her hat with its waves of feathers. Connor was holding her cloak when she came out of the bathroom and placed it around her shoulders. She collected her purse with its decorative pleats that echoed those of her skirt and collected her parasol.
“Do you have your notes?” Connor asked.
She thumped the side of her head. “It’s all up here.” She tugged on her gloves, tweaking them to line up the pearl buttons. “I’m ready.”
“You have alwa
ys been fascinating to watch, but dressed as you are, I’m enthralled. I can’t figure out where to start undressing you, or do I just flip up your skirts and take you on the sofa.”
“Ha. Don’t even think of it. I’m not interested in a quickie the first time around.”
He crossed his arms, cocked his head, smiling. “I wasn’t thinking about a quickie. I was thinking about an appetizer.”
“Thanks for that mental image. I’m going into an important meeting, and you’re leaving my mind rattled.” She raised an eyebrow. “I’d like that very much, by the way.”
He opened the door, smiling. “Let’s go find Daniel.”
44
1878 Pueblo, Colorado—Olivia
Connor and Olivia walked out onto the car’s platform and glanced around. She groaned. Their private car was parked at least twenty yards from the depot and even further from the roundhouse. They’d have to plod across the rutted yard and iron rails and dodge scattered clumps of dried and steaming manure.
Her dainty shoes would take a beating.
Connor drummed his fingers on her hand, obviously sensing her distress. “Do you want me to carry you?”
“No, I’ll just step lightly. I refuse to go into a meeting with General Palmer with crap on my shoes.”
With her head down against the wind, she hoisted her hem a couple of inches and stepped nimbly off the car’s platform. Connor, with a firm hold on her arm, guided her through the train yard to the depot, avoiding mud puddles and the rest of the yucky stuff she preferred not to identify.
“Look at all the men with rifles,” she said.
“The standoff must be sooner rather than later,” Connor said. “We’ll get this meeting over with and get the hell out of here.”
“Maybe we should warn Daniel. Two men are killed during the standoff. I don’t know how many were injured.”
“You don’t have to warn him.” Connor’s face telegraphed his concern. “It’s obvious something is about to go down.”
By the time they reached the depot, an anxious dread moved through her and the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stood on end. “Daniel told us to come here. He must not have thought the standoff was imminent.”
Connor touched a finger to her jaw, lifting her face to look into her eyes. “When I see dozens of men with Winchester rifles, I assume the worse. Promise me, if I tell you to do something, you’ll do it immediately without objecting or asking why. And if you can’t make that promise, we’re getting right back on that private car and hooking up to the next train out of here, regardless of where it’s headed. Got it?”
He was more than concerned, more than alarmed, and his body seemed to vibrate with tension that rolled off him and rippled over her. She gave him a simple two-finger salute. “Got it.”
“Let’s get inside.”
The Pueblo train station was constructed of adobe instead of stone, but otherwise looked identical to the depot in Denver. Benches edged the scarred floor, and men ringed the potbellied stove, warming their hands and backs, rifles strategically placed for easy access. The floorboards around the unpolished brass spittoons were damp. The air was bad, stale with the taint of coal, tobacco smoke, and unwashed bodies. If she got a listing for this building, she’d sell it, but it would immediately be razed. A new depot with shiny spittoons and big windows to enjoy the view of Pikes Peak, which was currently marred by a circular two-spouted water tank looming in the foreground, would be built in its place.
Connor pulled his pocket watch from his waistcoat, clicked it open. “It’s almost one o’clock. Let’s find someone, preferably without a rifle, to ask where we can find the general.”
They walked out the opposite side of the building. A fading blast of a locomotive’s exhaust echoed over the wind’s low grumbling rush. Nearby, a guard with heavy-lidded eyes belied his intimidating pose. A rifle rested across his arms, and two revolvers in a cross-draw configuration were strapped to his hips.
Olivia was curious about the guard. Did he have an allegiance to one railroad over the other, or was guard duty just a paid gig? Emboldened by her successful venture across the train yard without destroying her shoes, she marched over to him and asked politely, “Sir, who’s paying you this week?”
The guard’s eyes opened wide and his overgrown eyebrows—black and tangled—like his scrawny mustache reared at the sight of her. “Santa Fe, ma’am.”
Connor gripped her arm, but she wasn’t moving until she got answers. “Who paid you last week?”
When the guard adjusted the rifle in his arms, Connor pulled her back and angled his body, putting himself between the guard and Olivia. “Rio Grande. Santa Fe hired me away.”
“Who’s got more men here, you think?” she asked, looking around Connor.
“I’m guessing Santa Fe. But I ain’t been out asking men who they work for either.”
Connor escorted her in the opposite direction of the guard and shot her a look that probably made most people take cover. “What the hell was that for? That’s not a toy in his hands.” His razor-sharp tone of voice matched the anger glinting in his eyes.
She blurted out, “He was trying to be polite to a pretty lady. He wasn’t looking for trouble.”
“Every man in this yard is looking and waiting for trouble.”
“That man was half asleep on his feet.”
Connor let go of the vise grip he had on her arm. “You have I am crazy plainly stamped across your features. I have a mind to take you back to the car while I go look for the general.”
“Don’t be a bully. I had a reason for asking. I wanted to know where his loyalties were. It’s not to either railroad. It’s a job to him, and he’s working for the company that pays more. All these men work for Santa Fe. If the Rio Grande offered more, they’d turn their jerseys inside out and play defense.”
Connor scanned the platform and the tracks beyond, his forehead furrowed. “Let’s get out of here. I don’t like being in enemy territory.”
She glanced back at the depot entrance. “I want to ask that guard if he knows where the general is.”
“No.” Connor’s tone was low and forceful. “Let’s go to town, look for Daniel. These men work for Santa Fe. I don’t have a horse in this race, but you do. My job is to protect you, and you’re making it difficult.”
She lifted her chin. “If you won’t let me ask, you do it. He worked for the general three days ago. He’ll know where he is.”
In a steely voice she barely recognized, he said, “Don’t move one damn inch.” He approached the guard. “Do you know where General Palmer is? We’ve got an appointment in five minutes.”
The guard nodded with his chin. “That’s his private car down there on the siding. Pulled up about an hour ago.”
Connor turned to look where the guard was pointing. “We want to go over there. Is that a problem?”
“Might be. Reckon I’ll need to take ya so nobody uses ya for target practice.”
Connor signaled to Olivia, and when she approached, he tucked her hand more firmly into the crook of his arm. There would be no breaking away from him to chat up another guard. Connor pointed. “This man has volunteered to escort us to the general’s train over there.”
She glanced in the direction he indicated, and quickly scanned the yard. Crossing this side of the depot would be as difficult as the other. Her shoes had survived one crossing. If she was careful, they could survive another. Her persnickety attention to her wardrobe was just part of who she was, regardless of the century.
She opened her parasol, hoisted her hem, and stepped carefully off the platform. The distance to the train was doubled by her constant backtracking to avoid the mud, but surprisingly their escort didn’t grow impatient. Connor, on the other hand, huffed. Every part of him seemed to fume. She realized too late that her demand to backtrack left them out in the open, a perfect target for an anxious guard.
They reached their destination, and their escort mounted the steps to the
rear of the train. “Stay put.” He rapped loudly on the coach’s door.
The knock was answered immediately. The door swung open on a burly, dark-haired, dark-eyed figure dressed in black trousers and vest. “A man here wants to see the general, Mr. DeRemer.”
“A man? Supposed to be a woman.”
“There’s a woman, too.”
DeRemer came out onto the platform and stared down at Connor and Olivia. “Are you Miss Kelly?”
Olivia looked up at him, mentally rifling through her Royal Gorge file, trying to place his name. “Yes, I am. And this is my…” What? Boyfriend? Bodyguard? Future lover? She settled on a nondescript term, saying, “My companion, Connor O’Grady.”
DeRemer held open the door. “Come in. The general’s expecting you.”
Connor lay a detaining hand on her sleeve. “Wait.” He entered the train, glanced around, and then stepped aside so she could come in.
She folded her parasol, thanked their escort, and mounted the steps. The warmth of the train’s interior matched the warmth of DeRemer’s smile, but the sentiment didn’t seem to reach his eyes.
Glancing around, she found the richness and quiet taste of the interior impressive. She would have been more impressed, though, if she’d seen the general’s coach first instead of the one Connor rented for her. That was the nuanced world of the real estate business. Once you find the perfect property, settling for anything less is almost impossible.
“Your name is familiar to me,” she said to DeRemer. “But I can’t place it. What do you do for the railroad?”
“I’m an engineer. If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to the general.”
She moved swiftly through the narrow passageway, or as swiftly as her skirts allowed, holding tightly to the brass rail. “Now I remember who you are. You’re an engineer but you’re also a man who’s never courted notoriety. You deserve recognition for the hundreds of miles of railroad you’ve built in Colorado.”
The Amber Brooch: Time Travel Romance (The Celtic Brooch Book 8) Page 52
