“I’ll be back tomorrow night to give you all the details. Get ready to leave by Sunday, Edwin.”
William went out and slammed the door.
All was quiet in the room. Eddy stood up, walked over to the bureau, and pulled a bottle of brandy from the cupboard, pouring himself another drink. He carried it across the room and dropped back into his chair. As he took his first gulp, only one thing filled his mind.
How was he going to do this terrible thing?
Chapter One
T.C.
DIDN’T KNOW MUCH
about style, but he knew the woman in the small depot was fashionably dressed. She was obviously from the city and as out of place as a rose in a cactus patch. She wore a small blue felt hat over light blond hair, which fell to her shoulders. Her princess coat came down over slim hips. The flared blue skirt that floated around her calves was edged with a blue satin ribbon. Her matching shoes, with slender heels, were planted firmly beside an expensive leather valise.
What a silly hat,
T.C. thought, chuckling to himself.
It’d offer no shade at all. Within ten minutes, her face would be cooked in the West Texas sun.
T.C. had glanced at her when he left the ticket counter and had wondered what she was doing in this rugged Texas town.
Worried about her trunk, Kate had gotten off the train to make sure it was in the baggage car. When the rail agent told her it had been left at the last stop and was being picked up by the train from Marietta, she had decided to wait and go on to California on the same train as her belongings. She wondered now at the wisdom of her decision. Shortly after she’d spoken with him, the agent had locked up and left. Now, all that remained on the platform with her were a lone cowboy and the button salesman who had been on the train ever since New Orleans.
The sun was setting in the western sky. Purple shadows were coming down from the hills. It would be dark soon. A slight chill had entered the air with the disappearance of the hot summer sun. The depot was far from town; all she could see of it was a handful of lights from the houses. The train from Marietta wasn’t due for another hour. It would be pitch dark by then.
She was glad for the presence of the cowboy at the end of the platform. She’d first glanced at him when he’d left the ticket counter; her gaze had met his even though she’d known that she shouldn’t make eye contact with strangers, particularly one as rough as the cowboy. Dusty boots and well-worn jeans made him look like he’d just come in off the range. He was wearing a battered hat that covered black hair. His mouth was set in a thin line as if he somehow disapproved of her. What was he doing here at this time of night? Regardless of his appearance, she didn’t want to be alone with the other man.
The salesman, dressed in a stripped suit with a derby hat, paced back and forth near his sample case. She’d had the misfortune of taking the same route to California with him. When they’d first gotten on the train in New Orleans, he’d prattled on and on about buttons and snaps for hours. His twitchy, talkative nature had given her the creeps.
As the three stood waiting for the train, it seemed to her that they were the only people in all this vast and desolate land.
A door in the side of the depot opened on squeaky hinges. An old man pushed a trolley down to the end of the platform, leaving it so its bundles could be loaded into the baggage car when the train arrived. He then disappeared around the corner of the depot.
The button salesman coughed and took a step toward her. She turned to see the cowboy was looking in their direction. She pushed herself away from the rough board wall and quickly walked over to him.
“Is this train usually on time?”
“Sometimes,” he said. “This isn’t Grand Central Station, you know.”
“Well, what do you know? I thought it was.” She smiled up at him. But he didn’t smile back.
What did she expect? He clearly couldn’t take a joke. He’d probably just heard of Grand Central Station and had never been there.
“Thanks for that valuable information.” She turned and walked back to take her place against the wall. At least the salesman had taken the hint and had moved back to his case. She looked at her watch but couldn’t see the time in the dim light. She nudged the leather valise at her feet and thought that if her trunk never arrived, at least she had clean underwear and her cosmetics.
Then, in the distance, she heard the familiar sounds of a train approaching. Could the thing be earlier than the agent predicted or had an hour passed already? She looked at the cowboy and saw that he was peering down the track toward the east. Her eyes followed his, and soon she saw the billows of smoke rising up above the huge engine. The piercing whistle was loud enough to wake everybody for miles. The engineer was making a grand entrance into the station. Too bad there was only her, the cowboy, and the button salesman to appreciate the effort.
The train rolled slowly past her before finally coming to a stop. Two cars were brightly lit and filled with passengers, most of whom already appeared to be sleeping. Katherine picked up her valise, walked to the edge of the platform, and waited for the conductor to step down from the train. The older man smiled, took her elbow, and helped her up the steps into the car.
The cowboy was right behind her and edged past the conductor, who tipped his hat politely. Katherine turned to the right and entered the car. Halfway down she saw what she thought was an empty seat. Carrying her valise, she made her way along the aisle, but then realized a man sleeping in the seat. Frowning, she continued on until she finally found a vacant seat. She set the heavy valise down on the floor.
When she turned, the cowboy was still right behind her. With a grunt, she attempted to lift the heavy bag up and put it in the rack above the seat. Quick as a whistle, the cowboy snatched it out of her hand, and, as he slung it upward, the latch opened and her personal belongings spilled out over the seat and onto the floor. She looked down in horror to see a pair of her lace panties covering a pair of dusty cowboy boots.
“Sorry,” he said.
Katherine was more embarrassed than she’d ever been in her entire life. All she could think to say was, “I bet you are.”
The cowboy pulled her valise from the rack and set it down in the seat beside her. He gathered a handful of lavender lace panties, silk slips, and lacy bras, stuffing all of them back into the valise. When he did, a jar of face cream fell onto his foot and opened. White cream ran down over the cowboy’s boot. The smell of gardenias filled the air in the passenger car. All around the car, people were stretching their necks to look.
She thought the cowboy said something under his breath. It sounded like “Oh, hell!” but she wasn’t sure.
Fearing that he would wipe the face cream off his boot with her lavender panties, she pulled a big handkerchief out of her pocket and handed it to him. He jerked it out of her hand with a disgusted look on his face and proceeded to wipe the cream off his boot. After glancing up and down the aisle to make sure he had picked up everything that had fallen from her bag, he tipped his hat toward Katherine and moved on to the front of the train in search of an empty seat of his own.
Fuming as the man walked away, Katherine sat down and moved over next to the window. He’d made her look stupid in front of everyone! She was certain that her face was beet red with embarrassment.
What a grouch,
she thought. It wasn’t her fault he was so clumsy. Were all the men in the west clods like him?
A cough that came from the aisle caused her to turn. The button salesman stood with his hand stretched out toward her. There, clutched between his fingers, was one of her bras. She snatched it from his hand, pushed it into the pocket of her coat, and looked back out the window. The salesman chuckled before walking on.
Until now, the first part of the trip had been a pleasure. What more could possibly happen before she reached California?
Tate Castle, better known as T.C., moved on to the next car in the train in search of an empty seat. Finding one, he threw himself into it.
He never wanted to see that city woman again! All he was trying to do was help her lift that damned bag. How was he supposed to know that it was going to fly apart?
Did women actually wear those kinds of undergarments? Holding a handful of them was like holding a handful of air!
Regardless, he was glad to be finally heading home. It seemed like forever had passed since he’d seen his ranch, his friends, and, most important, his daughter. He’d missed her something terrible and knew that she’d missed him too.
It was still a couple of hours to Muddy Creek where he would get off the train. He was bone tired. Tipping his hat down over his eyes, T.C. tried to sleep. The smell of flowers drifted up from his boot.
The train began to slow, the sound of the steel wheels screeching against the tracks waking Katherine. The train came to a stop at the next depot in a little town called Los Rios. A new group of passengers came on board. A very heavy-set woman, carrying bundles of clothing under her arms, came down the aisle and plunked herself in the seat beside Katherine. She looked over at her and grinned, showing snuff-stained teeth. Katherine smiled, then quickly turned away; it was obvious the woman had not bathed in quite a while.
“Hello, dearie, where are you goin’?”
Katherine acted as if she hadn’t heard, and kept her face turned toward the window.
“I’m going to Saint Elena to see my brother and sister. I’ve not seen them in two years.”
Katherine turned briefly and said, “How nice for you.” The woman’s odor was sickening.
“My brother’s been sick,” the woman continued, “and my sister lost her husband not long ago, no great loss as far as I can see. He wasn’t worth diddly squat! Too lazy to come in out of the rain, you know?”
“Too bad.”
The train lurched, and then rode smoothly down the track. The smelly woman kept talking, not seeming to care that her audience wasn’t listening.
Katherine leaned her head against the window, her thoughts wandering.
A year ago, she had received her nursing degree, fulfilling a life-long dream. After working in a clinic in New York City, her uncle had made an offer that she couldn’t refuse. He was a doctor in a large hospital in San Francisco and wanted for her to assist him. Practically jumping at the chance, Katherine had packed up her belongings and headed west. She was looking forward to seeing new things and meeting new people.
The leave-taking from her father had been painful. They had always been close and he had supported his daughter’s dreams. She was sure there had been tears in his eyes when he told her good-bye on the platform.
In contrast, her stepmother, who had married her father when Katherine was very young, had merely waved good-bye and said that she wouldn’t be surprised to see Katherine back at home within a matter of weeks.
Susie, her half-sister, had thought Katherine had lost her mind to even want to go out to an uncivilized place like California when there was so much to do right there in New York City. All that was out there were filthy miners and bawdy houses. Kate knew that Susie was glad to get her out of the way so she would have a better chance with Edwin, the handsome nephew of her father’s partner, William Jacobs. Susie needn’t have worried; while Edwin was a handsome man, Kate had never had any interest in him as a beau.
The woman’s voice broke into her thoughts. “My nephew done fell down a well and drowned. Wasn’t too bright, that boy.”
Katherine’s thoughts traveled back over the past year. Her stepmother, Lila, had become more distant from the family. She was so involved in all her social activities that she was seldom at home. And when she was, she harassed Katherine for her devotion to nursing and her lack of interest in finding a suitable husband: a man who could support her in style.
Susie was like her mother. She loved the social life. The only things that seemed to matter to her were the latest fashions, dinner parties, and who was seeing whom. Katherine was her father’s daughter. Both of them enjoyed reading, talking business, and playing an occasional game of bridge. Since she had been a small child, they had been devoted to each other. While he also cared deeply for Susie, Katherine knew that she was his favorite.
She looked out into the lightening morning. The sun had begun to poke up over the hilltops. Telegraph poles whizzed by and occasionally the train passed a cluster of houses.
Katherine had hoped that the woman would take the hint, but she kept right on talking. She talked about her dog, her assorted aches and pains, and her lazy husband, who was mad that she was making the trip. Katherine wanted to jump up and move, but there was no place to move to. To top it all off, someone behind her had lit a cheap cigar, filling the cramped car with smoke. At least it helped mask the stink of the woman!
The conductor came through. “We will be stopping in a few minutes to take on water. Everyone, please stay on the train.”
Katherine thought about how wonderful it would be to get a few breaths of fresh air. She hated the cramped feeling of the railway cars. When the train finally came to a stop, she excused herself and managed to squeeze out in front of the fat lady and into the aisle.
As she moved toward the front of the car, Katherine noticed that the button salesman had slouched down in his seat, his derby hat pulled down over his face. Light snores came from his open mouth. Katherine moved on past him.
I hope he sleeps all the way to San Francisco.
The conductor had opened the door and was standing out on the platform. After checking the watch that hung from a chain on his vest, he moved into the next car. As soon as he walked away, Katherine quickly stepped down and moved to the side of the steps, out of the light that came from the car. Crushed rock sounded beneath her feet.
Oh, it was great to breathe the fresh air.
She looked out into the darkness and saw the long trough swing down from the water tank. Then came the rush of water pouring into the engine’s tank.