Journey to Yesterday (9 page)

Moments later, Shaye’s hair was pinned up and she was
wearing a dainty bonnet with green and white streamers. White gloves came next.
And then a parasol.

“
Magnifique
!” Sophie said, and turned Shaye around so
she could see herself in the full-length mirror.

A stranger stared back at her.

Sophie nodded, obviously pleased with her handiwork. “
Tres
belle
!” she declared. “You are beautiful, no?”

“I am beautiful, yes,” Shaye murmured, as she turned this
way and that. The full skirt made her waist seem incredibly small. The colors
in the blouse complemented her hair and eyes. Though she had never cared much
for hats, she had to admit that the bonnet added the perfect touch.

Sophie smiled. “I am pleased that you are pleased,” she
said. “Alejandro will also be pleased, I think.”

Shaye nodded. He probably wouldn’t recognize her. She hardly
recognized herself.

Sophie insisted she try on the other two dresses, declared
them a perfect fit, then suggested a couple of other dresses for everyday—a
blue gingham, a pink muslin, a dark-green calico, as well as a frilly white
blouse and a wine-red skirt. In addition, Sophie added a white cotton nightgown
with dainty pink roses embroidered across the bodice, a robe, a change of
undergarments and several pairs of stockings, both white and black, both cotton
and silk. She was amazed when Sophie included a pair of red stockings to match
one of her petticoats. Lastly, came the piece de resistance, a gown of
deep-green watered silk with a slim skirt and a modest bustle covered with tiny
pink silk roses. The green in the dress deepened the color of Shaye’s eyes to
dark emerald.

Three hours later, Shaye left the shop attired in the
striped taffeta, parasol in hand. Sophie had assured her she would send the
rest of her wardrobe to the hotel later in the day. The bill would be sent to
Alejandro.

Shaye felt like a different woman as she walked down the
street. Men smiled at her, bowed at her, bid her good day. Women nodded at her,
a few smiled.

She was perspiring when she reached the hotel. Whatever
possessed women to bury themselves under so many layers of clothing? She was
surprised they didn’t all faint from heat prostration!

She saw Alejandro the minute she entered the hotel. He was
sitting on one of the curved sofas, talking to another man. Alejandro looked up
as she drew near, smiled, and returned his attention to the other man. And
then, very slowly, he looked up at her again. Stunned was the only word to
describe his expression.

“Shaye.”

“Good afternoon, Mr. Valverde,” she replied in her most
ladylike voice.

The man siting beside Alejandro punched him on the arm.
“Valverde, introduce me to this lovely creature.”

“Philo, this is Miss Montgomery. Shaye, this is Philo
Richardson. He’s the editor of the Bodie Gazette.”

Philo stood up and removed his hat. She had noticed that all
the men wore hats. Philo Richardson wore a brown bowler; Alejandro wore a black
Stetson.

“My pleasure, Miss Montgomery,” Philo said.

Remembering her meeting with Lottie Johl, Shaye extended a
gloved hand. “I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Richardson.”

Philo bowed over her hand. “You must be new in town.”

“Yes, I’ve only been here a short while.”

He rocked back on his heels. He was a head shorter than
Alejandro, with dark brown hair just turning gray, and twinkling brown eyes. He
wore a brown suit with a garish red-and-orange-striped vest.

“Can I hope your visit will be an extended one?” he asked.

She smiled at him. “I’m not sure yet,” she replied.

“If there’s anything I can do,” Philo said gallantly, “you
have only to let me know.”

“Thank you. That’s very kind.”

Alejandro had been staring at her. Rising, he moved to stand
beside her. “That’s enough, Philo. If Miss Montgomery needs anything, I’ll take
care of it.”

“Ah,” Philo drawled, glancing at Shaye and then back at
Alejandro. “That’s the way it is.”

Shaye flushed.

Alejandro grinned.

Shaye’s hand tightened on the handle of her parasol as she
resisted the urge to strike Alejandro over the head with it. The nerve of the
man!

“It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Montgomery. I hope to
see you again, soon.”

“Thank you.”

She waited until he left the hotel, turned on Alejandro.
“How dare you!”

“How dare I what?”

“I saw the way he looked at you. He thinks I’m your…that
we’re…”

Alejandro grinned at her, obviously amused by her anger.
“What does he think?”

“You know very well what he thinks.”

“It’s for your own good. There aren’t many single women in
town, and most of those are saloon girls. It’s better if the men think you’re
spoken for.”

“I can assure you I’m quite capable of taking care of
myself.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes. I don’t know about the women in Bodie, but I’m not
some helpless female, and I won’t be treated like one.”

Alejandro raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. “All
right, all right, I’m sorry.” His gaze moved over her in blatant male approval
as he offered her his arm.

“I don’t have to be at work for another couple of hours,
Miss Montgomery. Would you care to go into the dining room and have some pie
and coffee?”

Shaye smiled at him. Clad in nineteenth-century clothing
made her feel like she was someone else, as if she were play-acting. To her
amazement, she found herself batting her lashes a little as she said, “Why,
thank you, Mr. Valverde, I’d love to.”

He looked at her a minute, clearly astonished by her abrupt
change of mood, and then he threw back his head and laughed. It was the most
masculine, sexy laugh she had ever heard and it filled her with a sudden burst
of happiness that quickly turned to sadness when she remembered that he had
only a few months to live.

Shaye pushed the thought of Alejandro’s demise to the back
of her mind as they entered the restaurant. His fate had been decided over a
century ago and there was nothing she could do about it, though she couldn’t
help wondering if it was possible to change his destiny. If she warned
Alejandro of what was to happen, would he be able to avoid it? Or was his fate
already sealed? And if it was possible to change his fate, what would the
repercussions be? Could changing one man’s fate alter the future course of
history?

“Penny for your thoughts?”

“What? Oh, I was just wondering…wondering what kind of pie
to have.”

“Well, there’s usually only two choices,” Alejandro replied
with a grin. “Apple, or apple.”

She pushed her fears for his future to the back of her mind
as she grinned back at him. “Then I think I’ll have apple.”

As usual, they got immediate service, large slices of pie,
and lots of coffee. She was surprised he wasn’t as fat as a pig, the way the
waitresses fawned over him, giving him generous servings of whatever he
ordered.

She heard a clock chime the hour. “What time do you have to
be at work?”

“Rojas is expecting me around eight, I think. Why?”

“I’d like to see the Velvet Rose.”

Alejandro lifted one brow. “Is that so?”

Shaye nodded, though it wasn’t the saloon she really wanted
to see, but Daisy Sullivan. “Would it be all right?”

“Sure, darlin’.”

He paid the check and they left the restaurant.

The Bodie Belle was decorated in red and black. The colors
were striking, if a little loud, but then, Shaye thought, maybe that was the
idea. Between the colors and the noise, she was pretty sure no one ever fell
asleep over their cards.

The place was crowded, but Shaye was getting used to that
wherever they went. As luck would have it, several miners vacated a table as
they passed by, and Alejandro grabbed it for the two of them.

A short time later, a pretty girl with waist-length blond
hair and gray eyes and approached their table. Keeping with the room’s color
scheme, she wore a short red dress, black stockings, and red high-heeled shoes.

“Rio, honey!” she exclaimed. “It’s been ages.”

“Hi, Maddy. How’s life treating you?”

“A lot better than Daisy is,” she replied with a grimace.

“She’s not still giving you a bad time?”

“Oh, isn’t she?”

“I’m sorry, Maddy darlin’.”

She shrugged. “So, what’ll you have?”

“The usual for me. Shaye?”

“Beer.” Shaye stared at the girl. Maddy. It had to be the
same girl mentioned in Daisy’s diary, the one she had been so jealous of.

“Something wrong?” Alejandro asked.

“No, why?”

“You were giving Maddy the once-over like maybe you thought
you knew her.”

“Oh, no. I was just…just admiring her hair. It’s lovely.”

Alejandro nodded, but she wasn’t sure he was convinced.

Maddy returned a short time later with a shot of whiskey and
a glass of beer.

She placed the drinks on the table, then leaned toward
Alejandro, giving him a clear view of her cleavage, which was quite
spectacular. “You don’t work here anymore,” she said in a sultry voice.

Alejandro caught Shaye’s amused expression and gave a slight
shrug, as if to say, what can I do?

She might have told him if another woman hadn’t come
storming up to the table, eyes narrowed, mouth drawn in a tight angry line.
Shaye knew immediately that it had to be Daisy Sullivan. She was short and
slender, with a wealth of black hair, an olive complexion, and blue eyes. She
wore an expensive looking low-cut wine-red dress and matching slippers. A gold
locket nestled in the hollow of her throat. Shaye wondered if it was the one
mentioned in Daisy’s diary, the one Alejandro had given her for her birthday.

“I’m not paying you to throw yourself in the customers’
arms, Maddy Brown,” the woman said.

Maddy looked over her shoulder. “Funny, I thought you were.
Or maybe it’s just this customer you don’t want me throwing myself at.”

An angry flush swept into the woman’s cheeks. “Get out.”

Alejandro stood up. “Now wait a minute, Daisy…”

“You’re no longer the boss here, Rio,” Daisy said, eyes
flashing. “Get out, Maddy. I should have fired you long ago. Go on, get!”

Alejandro laid a hand on Maddy’s arm. “Pete’s looking for
girls over at the Number Six. Tell him I sent you.”

“Thanks, Rio.” Maddy gave Daisy a smug look, then smiled up
at Rio. “See you soon, Rio, honey.”

Alejandro nodded. He waited until Maddy was out of sight,
then turned to Daisy. “That was uncalled for.”

“It’s none of your business what I do.”

“That’s right, it isn’t. Good night.”

“Rio! Rio, wait. I’m sorry.”

She reached for him, but he shook off her hand. “Let’s go,
Shaye.”

“Rio!”

Alejandro took Shaye’s arm and they left the saloon.

Outside, Alejandro took a deep breath. “I’m sorry about
that.”

“It’s okay.”

“I should have known better than to go in there, but I
thought… Oh, hell, it doesn’t matter. Come on, I’ll walk you back to the
hotel.”

Alejandro left her at the door. Shaye watched him walk away,
then went inside and shut the door. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, she took
off her boots and stockings. The half-boots were kind of cute, but you just
couldn’t beat a good pair of tennis shoes for comfort. She sat there a minute,
wiggling her toes. Ah, but that felt good. She shook her head, amused and
amazed that she was actually living in the past. With a sigh, she fell back on
the mattress and closed her eyes.

Alejandro’s image immediately sprang to mind. He could be a
poster boy for tall, dark, and handsome, she mused. He had the most beautiful
eyes. They were a deep dark brown, fringed with short stubby black lashes. When
he looked at her, she felt it clear down to her toes. She liked everything
about him, she mused, from the coppery color of his skin to the sometimes
sardonic look in his eyes that told her he was no stranger to the darker side
of life. Like it or not, she was attracted to him. When she was with him,
everything else seemed to fly right out of her mind. He was far and away too
handsome and much too charming for his own good, she thought, and for hers,
too.

With a sigh, she rolled onto her side, her head pillowed on
her hand. He was just a man, she told herself, no different than any other, but
she didn’t believe it for a minute. She had never felt like this before, all
shivery and excited inside, as if she were on the brink of some marvelous
discovery. And even as the thought crossed her mind, she wondered just what it
was she was feeling. Why, of all the people who had come through Bodie in the
last hundred years, was she the one who had seen the ghost of Alejandro
Valverde in the jail, felt his thoughts, his anguish? Why…?

She woke to the sound of a clock chiming the hour. For a
moment, she thought she was at home, but the bed felt unfamiliar and when she
opened her eyes, the ceiling was the wrong color.

Sitting up, she glanced around the room—his room. From
outside came the sound of wagon wheels and men’s voices, a muffled explosion
from one of the mines, the reverberation of a gunshot, the constant sound of
the stamp mill. How did people ever get used to the noise? Maybe it was like
living close to the railroad tracks, she mused. After awhile, you didn’t hear
the trains anymore.

A knock at the door brought her to her feet. “Who is it?”
she called.

“Delivery for Miss Montgomery from Madame Sophie’s.”

“Oh.” Crossing the room, she opened the door.

Two teenage boys, their arms laden with packages, stood in
the hallway. “Evening, ma’am,” said the taller of the two.

“Hi. Come on in.” She stepped back so they could enter the
room. “Just put all that stuff on the bed, I guess.”

They did as she asked, then stood there, shuffling their
feet.

“Oh, a tip!” Shaye exclaimed. “I’m sorry, I don’t have any
money. But I’ll see that you’re taken care of.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Shaye smiled as she walked them to the door. “Thanks,
fellas.”

When they were gone, she turned around and regarded the pile
of packages on the bed, wondering where she was going to put everything. She
really needed to get her own room, she thought. She couldn’t stay here, with
him. She had to find her way back to her own time…but how? And what was she
going to do until then?

Sitting on the edge of the bed, she pulled on her Nikes. Her
skirt brushed the floor, so she figured no one would see her shoes anyway. She
reached for her gloves, decided against wearing them, and then, with a sigh,
she put them on. It was appalling, the hundred and one little things expected
of a nineteenth-century lady, like wearing gloves and a hat and a dozen
petticoats when it was eighty degrees outside.

With a huff of resignation, she smoothed her skirt, then
slipped her camera into the cute little drawstring bag she had picked out at
the dress shop. A reticule, Madame Sophie had called it.

Feeling as though she were wearing enough clothes for at
least three women, she left the hotel, certain that a twenty-first century
female had no place in nineteenth-century Bodie. Maybe if she went back to the
Queen of Bodie Saloon, she would be transported back to her own time where she
belonged.

She paused at the corner to take a couple of pictures,
ignoring the strange looks she received from passersby.

The Queen was filled almost to overflowing. Someone was
pounding out
I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen
on the piano.

Taking a deep breath, she put her hands on the swinging
doors and entered the room. Too late, she remembered that decent women didn’t
frequent saloons.

She stood there, just inside the doors. Tense. Waiting. But
nothing happened.

And then, as had happened before, the crowd parted and she
was staring at Alejandro Valverde. He looked just as he had in her dream; just
as he had the first time she had seen him in here.

As though feeling her gaze, he turned his head, recognition
flickering in his eyes, a faint smile touching his lips as he picked up his
cards and walked toward her.

Her heart was racing like a runaway freight train as he
closed the distance between them.

“Shaye, what are you doing here?”

She shook her head, unable to speak as the truth speared
through her. She hadn’t come here hoping to go back to her own time. She had
come here to see him, to be with him. Incredible as it seemed, she was falling
in love with a ghost.

“Shaye?”

“I…I was lonely and…” She shrugged.

“You don’t belong in here.”

“I know.”

His smile caressed her. “But as long as you’re here, come and
keep me company.”

She followed him back to the table. There were three men
sitting there, and they all stood up as she approached.

“Henry, Spooner, Digger, this is Miss Shaye Montgomery.
She’s a friend of mine, and she’s a lady, so watch your language while she’s
here.”

The men all bobbed their heads in agreement and remained
standing until she had taken the empty chair next to Alejandro’s.

“Pot’s light,” Henry said. “You in or out, Rio?”

Alejandro tossed a double eagle into the center of the
table. “In.” He put his hand aside and picked up the deck. “Cards, gents?”

“One for me,” Henry said.

Spooner took two.

“I’ll play these,” Digger said.

“Dealer takes one.”

Shaye looked at Alejandro, wondering what kind of hand he
had. Catching her gaze, he picked up his cards and showed them to her. A full
house. Queens over tens.

She started to smile, but caught herself just in time.

“Spooner?”

“Raise five dollars. Say, where’s Shep tonight?”

“I’ll see that raise,” ‘Digger said, “and raise you five
more.”

“Henry?”

“Too rich for my blood.” Henry threw his cards face down on
the table. “Shep’s over at the Opera House.”

Spooner spread his cards on the table, revealing three
Jacks, a nine and a deuce.

Digger blew out a sigh of exasperation. “Beats me,” he
muttered sourly.

Spooner looked at Alejandro. “Well?”

“Full house,” he declared, and spread his cards on the
table.

“Damn!” Spooner exclaimed. “I swan, if I didn’t know you was
honest as the day is long…” He shook his head ruefully.

Alejandro looked over at Shaye and grinned as he raked in
the pot. “Would you like to sit in?”

“Me?” She couldn’t have been more surprised if he had asked
her to stand up on the table and strip.

“Sure. I’ll stake you.” Alejandro glanced at the other men
at the table. “You gents don’t mind if the lady joins us, do you?”

“Hell…uh, heck, no,” Digger said.

“All right by me,” Spooner said. “Nice to have something
pretty to look at while I’m losin’.”

Henry laughed. “Be glad to take your money, Miss
Montgomery.”

Alejandro divided the cash stacked in front of him and
pushed half of it in front of Shaye. He tossed a double eagle into the pot for
himself, and another for her.

Shaye stared at the money he had given her. Silver dollars.
Gold coins. Greenbacks. A rough count put it at close to five hundred dollars.
She picked up a ten dollar bill. “This note is legal tender for ten dollars”
was written across the top. “Will pay the bearer ten dollars” was printed
across the middle. There was the picture of a man in the lower left corner, and
what looked like some sort of historical scene in the lower right.

She felt a surge of excitement as she watched Alejandro deal
the cards. She had never been much of a gambler. She enjoyed playing the slot
machines in Vegas, but quickly grew bored with it. Blackjack was her favorite
game, but it was too expensive for her taste now that it was almost impossible
to find a dollar table. Craps looked like fun, but she had never been able to
figure it out.