Anywhere with You

by Gina Welborn

  “Why not?”

  “My job is to protect the girls, which is accomplished better by getting them to the academy faster.”

  “Mr. Jacobs, while your concern is exemplary, be reasonable. No one is tracking us. No one is waiting in the shadows to snatch the girls.”

  “Every time we get off this train, anyone could take them.”

  Colette stared wide-eyed at him, stunned silent by his remark. Fortunately, she quickly recovered her wits. “Any time any female gets off a train, exits a carriage, or leaves her home, someone could take her. Would you have every female wear a leash so her ‘protector’ keeps her safe? Is that how your father treats his wife? Or your brother his?”

  His jaw shifted. “This is different.”

  “How?” When he didn’t answer, she added, “The only risky part of this trip was getting them on the train in Billings in a territory where someone might recognize them. I appreciate the measures you took for their safety in Fargo. St. Paul isn’t Fargo or Billings or even Denver, where brothels can be found on almost every corner. Amid the half a million people living in Minneapolis–St. Paul, no one will be looking for three…orphans from Montana.”

  Colette allowed the silence to linger so Mr. Jacobs’s pride could recover from her logical reasoning. She meant no harm. She needed him to stop looking for danger.

  “You’re right,” he admitted.

  “I am?” She blinked. “I mean I know I am. I didn’t expect you to admit it so easily.”

  “My father taught me a thing or two.” Mr. Jacobs rubbed his bristled jaw. “The problem with your new idea is, we don’t have time to extend the trip. I have somewhere to be on the thirteenth.”

  “Where?”

  “An auction in Wichita. I need to buy a horse for a friend.”

  Oh, the horse. She forgot about the task the benefactor had given him as a cover story for why he left town. Of course he would have a life to return to after they delivered the girls. This trip was never intended to last forever. She, too, had a life to return to. Everything she wanted was in Denver. Her friends. Her family. She had no reason not to want to go home. She had no reason to stay on the train.

  This partnership was never intended to be long-lasting.

  In fact, after she and Mr. Jacobs accomplished their joint venture, they’d likely never see each other again. Next year Mother and Father would escort the next batch of rescued girls.

  Colette forced a smile to chase the strange melancholy away. “If my calculations are correct, discounting a deluge-caused flood or even a late summer blizzard—”

  “I hate summer blizzards.”

  “But when one hits, what can you do?”

  “Become a moose, learn to eat fire to stay warm, or move south are my top suggestions.”

  Colette noted the slight upturn of his lip. She liked that his good humor was back. “And I shall heed those suggestions.” She pushed off the wall and stepped to the door-less entrance. After glancing into the corridor and listening for five other voices at the other end of the train, she strolled back to the center of the luggage room.

  Mr. Jacobs watched her with overt interest in what she had to say.

  Colette moistened her lips. “Discounting bad weather and mechanical issues, we will reach Manhattan on the ninth. Say we delayed the journey for a two-day holiday in St. Paul. Again discounting weather or mechanical delays, we will arrive on the eleventh, allotting you plenty of time to make it to the horse auction on the thirteenth. There’s a direct line from Manhattan to Wichita. Mr. Gaines has a railroad map of the United States if you wish to check.”

  “It’s only two days to Manhattan?”

  “If I added correctly. Full disclosure: My arithmetic skills have never been praiseworthy. Four days, though, if you agree to a holiday in St. Paul.”

  “I trust your math…and you.”

  She stared at him. He didn’t look away or fidget self-consciously like she’d often seen people do when she was looking at them. He hadn’t visited a barber since he’d stepped on the train, and her fingers itched to touch the bristles of blond hair that shaded his cheeks and jaw. Not only would he age well, he would give his wife pretty babies. Happy yellow-haired, blue-eyed babies because he was a happy man.

  “Do you really trust me?” she asked softly. “We barely know each other.”

  “I don’t need weeks to figure out you’re one of the most levelheaded, most caring girls I’ve ever met.”

  “I bought a donkey farm on a whim. That’s not sensible.”

  “Some people may see it that way.” His gaze shifted away from her, and she could tell he was thinking. His piercing blue eyes met hers. “I know you had a good reason for buying a donkey farm.”

  His words made her feel rather warm inside. “How do you know?”

  “My parents used to have a donkey when I was Hazel’s age. He was the most—” Mr. Jacobs looked heavenward, shaking his head. “I named him Blight on Humanity. I didn’t cry when my parents sold him. But if I ever saw Blight being mistreated, I’d find a way to buy him back. You’d do the same. You and I—we have a lot in common.”

  She could hug him. He barely knew her, yet he understood her heart. He wasn’t a man who “focused” his compassion. Like her, he gave as he saw a need.

  “An entire donkey farm?” he said with a teasing grin.

  At that Colette laughed. “I may own a llama farm, too.”

  “Remind me to keep you away from all animals.” He shifted his weight against the trunk. “Are you sure you want us to delay the trip for two days in St. Paul?”

  She nodded.

  He rested his palms on the trunk. “What’s your plan?”

  “I’d like to take the girls shopping tomorrow morning for things to donate to a local orphanage. I’ll pay all expenses.” He didn’t say anything, so she continued. “Maybe doing something together will help the girls, especially Ada and Hazel, draw closer to one another. I want them to view each other as sisters.” As she viewed her dear friends Beatrix and Millie. And Susan. And Deborah, Nanette, Iris, Mary, and—

  “You like to do whatever fun idea that strikes you,” he said in the manner of someone impressed with his own insight.

  Colette nodded. “Yes, but usually my ideas are for the benefit of others, not for my own amusement. After everything the girls have endured, wouldn’t you like to give them two days of fun?”

  His gaze shifted to the entrance to the corridor. Between his brows, a V deepened as he thought, as he clearly weighed the risks. “All right.” Mr. Jacobs stood. “But we should allow the girls to decide if they want to do this or not.”

  “What a prudent—” Before she could say “idea,” the train jerked to a stop, sending Colette reeling forward. She slammed into Mr. Jacobs’s chest and knocked him back against the trunk. He looked as shocked as she felt. But then his dazed look faded. His grip around her waist tightened, his gaze lowered, and he leaned down as if he intended to kiss her.

  “Matthew?” she whispered because she had to stop him.

  * * * *

  Hearing his middle name jolted sense into Jakob. In one fell swoop, he was standing and Letty was sitting on the steamer trunk. Heaven help him, he almost kissed her!

  “I’m sorry,” he blurted out. “I—” Wasn’t thinking? Not true. He’d been thinking, all right. About how much he wanted to kiss her. Still did. Which was not appropriate.

  His face had to be beet red. It certainly felt hot.

  Jakob ran a hand through his hair. “I, um…” What had they been talking about? “We should go talk to the girls.”

  “Good thinking.” She smiled as she strolled out of the luggage room as if she had not a concern in the world.

  That she was so unaffected by what almost happened only made his face flame more. He wasn’t the type of man who kissed women when
ever he felt like it.

  What had gotten into him?

  The five months he’d spent building The Import Company taught him be prepared for anything. Or so he thought. He wasn’t prepared for Letty Pool. She owned two animal farms. She clearly had more wealth than he ever imagined having. His heart needed this trip to end before the attraction he felt for her deepened into something more.

  Jakob strolled into the corridor and to the parlor where Mrs. Gaines was holding a silver tea tray. Her knowing gaze settled on him like that of a preacher during a sermon.

  “Miss Pool and Victoria went to the observation room,” she said with a smile.

  “Thank you.” Jakob cleared his throat. “Would you inform the conductor that we will be staying two nights in St. Paul and then will take the first train direct to our final destination?”

  A glimmer of something—maybe an I saw you almost kiss Miss Pool—flashed in her dark eyes. “Certainly, sir. May I recommend the Windsor Hotel? It has the finest accommodations in all of St. Paul.”

  “Thank you,” he mumbled and hurried past before he confessed everything. She couldn’t have seen what almost happened. She’d been putting away dishes with Victoria.

  Jakob paused at the entrance to the observation room to allow Mr. Gaines, and his packed violin, to stroll by. Letty stood under the chandelier while the girls were on the sofa, Ada sitting as far away from Hazel and Victoria as she could.

  Letty motioned for Jakob to come stand by her.

  Like a besotted schoolboy, he obeyed.

  “Girls,” she said in that unflappable voice of hers, “how do you feel about a short holiday in St. Paul?”

  Victoria perked up. “What would we do?”

  Letty’s cheerful gaze shifted to Hazel. “Remember how you asked me what I did where I live?”

  Hazel nodded.

  “What if tonight we have a lovely evening in a hotel and then tomorrow morning, Mr. Jacobs and I took you three shopping to buy items to donate to a local charity? Wouldn’t that be fun?”

  Jakob looked from girl to girl, gauging their reactions. Not a word was spoken as the three exchanged glances, grimaces, head nods, and shrugs.

  Then Victoria smiled. “We would like a holiday.”

  “Be ready to leave in five minutes,” Letty said, and dashed from the room with the girls laughing and chasing after her.

  Jakob looked heavenward. “Lord, help me.”

  * * * *

  Jakob checked the observation room’s wall clock. Eighteen minutes had passed since the girls agreed to Letty’s plan. He had his bag packed and hat in hand, ready to de-board in the same amount of time it had taken the girls. Five minutes.

  Letty, though…

  Considering she had barely made it to the train in Fargo for this morning’s 8:15 morning departure—even though the hotel was also the depot and all she had to do was walk downstairs and eat breakfast before boarding—he should’ve expected she’d be the last person ready. Whenever he was late for things, which admittedly was often, it was because people stopped him on the street, or he saw someone he knew and hadn’t talked to in a spell. Most things didn’t matter if you weren’t there before they started. Stage performances, churches, and trains didn’t wait for people.

  They needed to be off this car before the railroad workers arrived to unhitch it.

  He glanced through the observation room windows to the train platform. Too many people. Too easy to lose someone.

  “Hazel, hold my hand,” he ordered. “Ada, Victoria, hold on to Letty.”

  “How are they to do that, good sir,” Letty said, “when I have my suitcase to carry?”

  Jakob turned away from the window. Letty stood behind the girls, wearing a smart blue hat that matched her silk dress, wonder and delight filling her eyes like that of a child about to view her first circus. Some part of him knew he was staring and that he should stop, but he just wanted to memorize this moment because for the first time in his life, someone was looking at him as if he was giving her the world.

  “Humph.” Ada grabbed Letty’s suitcase and shoved it into Jakob’s chest. “You take this so we can hold on to her.”

  His cheeks warming, Jakob clenched his hand around the handles of his bag and her suitcase, then took hold of Hazel’s hand. He led them down the observation platform’s iron stairs, onto the boarding platform, and past the train cars covered in mountain dust, then weaved through the congestion of people. His height provided a clear view of the entrance to the stately brick depot. With continual utterances of “Excuse me” and “Pardon me,” he escorted his girls inside to the main concourse, which was as crowded as outside. The overhead electric lights illuminated the marble walls with decorative tiles and signs for the main waiting room, women’s waiting room, restaurants, shops, and the ticket office.

  Jakob stopped. Where was the exit?

  “This way,” came Letty’s sweet yet confident voice.

  As Letty ushered them through the station, Jakob contentedly followed. He had a feeling Letty Pool was worth chasing after.

  Chapter Eight

  Money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it.

  —JANE AUSTEN, Sense and Sensibility

  West St. Paul

  The next day, mid-afternoon

  Jakob watched through the window as the glass-closed carriage turned onto a graveled drive. A five-story-tall, red-brick building loomed enchantingly over a landscaped field. With its high-gabled front and decorated dormers, the orphanage that the hotel concierge had recommended reminded Jakob of an illustration in one of the book of fairy tales Ma used to read him as a child.

  “Hazel?” She didn’t waken, so he nudged her boot with his own. Once she opened her eyes, he pointed to the glass window behind her. “Turn around.”

  She swiveled on the bench, eliciting a groan from Victoria, who sat in the middle of the backward-facing bench trying to read. Hazel looked over her shoulder, her eyes wide. “That’s an orphanage?”

  “It is,” Letty answered cheerfully. “And you have gifts to give to those children in need.”

  Jakob nodded in agreement.

  Hazel jerked her gaze back to the window. “It looks like a castle!”

  Victoria slapped her book closed. Book in hand, she turned around, her knee on the bench and hands on the window. “Ugh,” she groaned. She then leaned past Hazel, trying to see around the carriage driver. She gasped. “The kids that live here have to be the luckiest orphans in the world. Ada, you’ve got to see this.” She pulled on the shoulder of Ada’s homespun dress until Ada closed her book, set it on the bench, and then crawled on her knees to the door between Hazel and Jakob. She looked out the window. Her face scrunched in disapproval.

  Jakob eyed the grounds. What didn’t Ada like?

  Orchards. Stone barns. Lush field to play in. A nun drove a pony cart with two children, their legs dangling over the back, while a score or more children flew kites. Yet as grand as the orphanage looked, he’d wager everything he owned that the children living in the orphanage would say the kids on the outside were the lucky ones because they had real homes to live in with their mothers and fathers.

  He hoped the female academy they were to deliver the girls to would be as grand as this orphanage.

  A silky hand touched his. Jakob looked down to see Letty’s black-gloved hand resting on his bare one. He met her gaze.

  She mouthed, “Thank you.”

  He tilted his head toward her. “For what?”

  She just smiled. Her hand returned to her lap, and Jakob resisted the urge to reach over and claim it. Unlike previous days when she wore silk day dresses, all a variant of blue, today she wore a silvery-white suit with black lace trim, burgundy bows at the waist, and matching burgundy cuffs. Her pert black hat only heightened the bright copper of her hair. Her clothes, thos
e fancy shoes he occasionally glimpsed, her matching suitcase and trunks, and her ease with the Gaineses attending to her wishes all testified to one simple fact: She was exorbitantly wealthy.

  Even if he wanted to court Letty—or whatever her real name was—he had nothing to offer a woman like her. He lived in a two-room apartment above a dentist’s office. He delivered furniture and other household goods. Occasionally, he ran errands for one of Helena’s most notorious madams.

  The carriage drew to a stop next to a stone staircase leading up to a set of double doors.

  Jakob opened the door. “Shall we?”

  The girls exchanged glances. Instead of climbing out, Ada returned to the bench. Victoria flopped back down next to her. Hazel, while slower and clearly dejected, followed suit.

  “What’s wrong?” Letty asked them. “Why aren’t you getting out?”

  Hazel drew her legs up to her chest. Her arms wrapped around her shins as she hid her face in her knees. Victoria and Ada opened their books and acted like they were reading. After all the joy they’d had this morning buying gifts for the orphans, their refusal to leave the carriage broke his heart anew. He should have considered this reaction. He would have if he hadn’t been so preoccupied with his growing feelings for Letty.

  She turned to face him. “I don’t understand. There’s such a blessing in giving to others. Why don’t they want to do it?”

  “Girls, you can stay in the carriage while Letty and I take your gifts inside.” Jakob then grabbed her hand and, pleased that she trusted him to come willingly, led her out of the carriage. He closed the door. To be doubly sure the girls couldn’t hear them, he walked Letty to the back of the carriage.

  A little crease deepened between her brows. “Why did their moods change?”

  “Since the moment we left Billings, you’ve made Hazel, Ada, and Victoria feel accepted.” Jakob gave Letty a tender look. “That’s because you don’t devalue them by treating them like they are charity work. You treat each like she’s your dearest friend. You make people feel special and loved.” As you make me. Which only made it more difficult for him to dampen his feelings for her.