“I’d think so. I’ll write a letter and send a telegram also. The sooner he hears about our marriage the sooner it can happen.
“You’d think he’d be home before the weather turned bad, but the wagon is equipped with a little camp stove so he might stay out longer to take some snow pictures in Nebraska.”
“Shall we plan to wed in the second week of November then?” Daisy asked. “Surely he’d be back by then. We should have our reception at the hotel, and the Paulson’s would need to reserve the date.”
“I think that’s an excellent idea. I’m sure you and your friends will have everything planned by next week anyway.” Angus leaned sideways in his chair and gave her a kiss.
“You’re probably right. I’ll ask Holly and Linnea for advice too since they are newlyweds.”
“And we need to add furniture to the apartment. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to sleep in your little cot you’re using for a bed right now,” Angus teased her with a frown, then turned in a smile the next second.
“And I’m using a stack of crates for my clothing. It would be nice to have a bed and a chest of drawers in our bedroom. Maybe a chest at the foot of our bed for quilts.”
“And nursery furniture for the other bedroom.” Angus whispered in her ear before kissing it.
Daisy pulled back to look him in the eyes. “But before furnishing a nursery, I want a couple of rockers and a settee in the parlor.”
Angus laughed at her changing the subject. “Boy I’ll agree with that. After living on trains and hotels for so long, I’m ready to come home and put up my feet after a day’s work.”
“Today was a big day for us, Angus. The train robbery solved, you got a job, we became engaged...”
Angus wrapped his arms around Daisy’s shoulders. “This is only one of the amazing days that will happen in our next fifty years together.”
Daisy put her hands on Angus’ cheeks. “We’ll have both amazing and horrible days, but I know we’ll have a good marriage.”
Soon we’ll be saying our vows. I’ve heard Da say it so many times I could officiate at weddings myself.”
“To have and to hold, from this day forward,” Daisy started the vows.
“For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer.
“In sickness and in health, until death do us part.”
“And I hope the Lord gives us many decades together.” Angus prayed before hugging Daisy tightly in his arms.
Daisy could see the blackboard with Angus’ question while encircled in Angus’ embrace. Finally, after meeting twenty years ago in this very room, they were going to marry. Daisy squeezed her eyes tight to keep the tears from falling. She’d been wishing for this day for so long.
Chapter 14
“Everything ready for this evening?” Mack leaned on the door frame of Angus’ office. It had taken almost two weeks for Angus to feel like it was his office, instead of Harvey Daniels’. The retired man was in the office every day checking on him though, so the transition had gone well.
Painting the interior of the depot this last week finally gave him a feeling of possession. He didn’t realize how dingy and dirty the interior was until they painted one wall and noticed the difference.
The outside would have to wait until warm weather next spring, but it was on his list to do. Angus worried if he’d keep busy after he finished building maintenance, but there was a steady stream of people coming in to send and receive telegrams or check on the train schedule. His muscles got a work out moving freight and baggage so he was more active than when he was sitting on a train watching people. Overall, it had been a good job change.
“Yep. I think the word has gotten around that we’re hosting a surprise retirement party for the Daniels tonight. Daisy and I invited them to eat supper with us at the Paulson Hotel this evening. After eating we’ll take them into the community room for cake and refreshments, with hopefully most of the townspeople in attendance.”
“When are they traveling to their daughter’s home?”
“Day after next, so I hope everything stays calm around here while he’s gone.”
“I don’t think he’d leave if the depot wasn’t in good hands, Angus. He seems relieved to turn the depot over to you.”
“I’m glad he feels confidence in me taking it over.”
The tapping of the telegraph drew Angus over to the desk. Mack stood silently by him, listening to the code.
“Did you get that?” Angus grinned at Mack.
“Yep. I learned the code from Daniels too.”
“It said ‘home twelve Fergus’.”
“Great! He’ll be home by November twelfth. Now we can get married on Sunday, the fourteenth as planned.”
“I assume Daisy, her friends and Ma have the wedding planned already,” Mack assumed.
Her, Mary and Iva Mae probably planned their weddings back when they were still in school and eying us boys. Simple to put in place now, with Ma’s help of course.”
“Ma’s over the moon with excitement that she’s getting a daughter and hopefully grandchildren in the very near future.” Mack teased Angus as he sat down in the extra office chair and rolled it over so he could be eye level with Angus in his chair.
“All in good time, but yes, our kids will have fantastic grandparents.” Angus shook his head thinking of his mother’s comments about children already.
“You know, we’re very lucky to have Da and Ma as parents,” Mack shook his head. “I always wonder what would have happened to me and Fergus if Ma hadn’t of claimed us as her own children when our ship landed. Would we have been shipped back to Ireland? Stuck in an orphanage in New Orleans?”
“Hey, Angus, you got a letter from the Colorado railroad office!” Cullen burst into the office cutting off their conversation.
Angus rolled his chair forward, grabbing the letter from Cullen’s outreached hand.
“Shall we guess whether this is good or bad news?” Angus asked as he reached for his letter opener in his desk drawer. “I haven’t heard anything from Murfitt since he left. Hope he hasn’t already fired me…again.”
Angus slit the envelope and pulled out the folded pages. The letter was on official railroad stationary. He skimmed the three-page letter, stopping at the paragraph talking about the reward money.
“Whoa! Oh man, I need to start at the beginning,” Angus flipped back to the first page.
“What’s it say?” Mack leaned forward to ask, but Angus put up his hand so he could concentrate on reading.
“It’s a letter from the railroad’s attorney, informing me that the remaining robbers were found and brought in to jail, due to the fact that Johnson gave them their names.”
“Hopefully Johnson will be sentenced to a lesser crime than the rest of the robbers. If he hadn’t of had the bad luck of getting involved with the group...” Mack shook his head, sorry to see the young man’s life ruined.
“It goes on to say the majority of the mine’s payroll money was found, except what had been already spent by the robbers. The mining company will split the reward money they offered among the deceased railroad workers families. Daisy will be happy to hear that.”
“What about the reward for the capture of the robbers?” Cullen leaned forward, trying to read over Angus’ shoulder.
Angus read the next part of the letter aloud. “Mr. Murfitt told me you knew about the five hundred dollar reward for the identification and capture of the train robbers. Because of one of the robbers identifying others in the group, the reward for those men will not be paid out. However, because both you and Miss Clancy’s recognition and help to capture three of the robbers, the railroad company will be splitting the fifteen hundred dollar reward between the two of you. Your reward check will be mailed within the next ten days.”
Mack and Cullen stared at Angus for a second, and then whooped with excitement!
“Wow! Plus Daisy’s share! Congratulations, Angus.” Mack slapped him on the back.
Angus la
id the letter on the desk and rubbed his hand over his face. Although the reward money would be wonderful to receive, he still felt badly about the lives lost during the robbery. If he could have stopped the robbery...
He felt Mack’s big hand grasp his left shoulder, then Cullen’s smaller hand squeeze his right shoulder.
“We know it bothers you, but there was no way you could have saved everyone that day. It was only you, not knowing what was about to happen, against several prepared men who had it planned out. Luckily both you and Daisy met again and survived the event. Be grateful, accept it, and help someone else in the future who needs it.”
“What about the reward money?” Angus still had problems accepting it, although his future family could use it.
“Talk to Daisy about it.” Cullen patted his shoulder twice and moved away. “She also received a letter, but her grandfather picked up her mail today, so I don’t know if she’s read it yet.”
Angus saw Daisy, Holly and Linnea sitting at a back table when he walked into the cafe. He needed to talk to Daisy alone, but it looked like it might take some effort to pull her away from her excited friends, and the furniture catalog usually sitting on the counter at Taylor’s Mercantile.
“Daisy, could I—”
Angus instinctively cringed his shoulders up to his ears when all three women squealed—yes squealed—together.
Daisy was up jumping in front of him the next second, both fists in the air and a huge grin. “Did you get your letter from the railroad?! I can’t believe it! We’re both getting seven hundred and fifty dollars!” Angus caught her fists in his hands to keep her in one place to look at her.
“Yes, and we need to talk about it,” Angus quietly said not wanting the others to hear his words.
“Yes we do. We can’t decide which bedroom suite to order, so you can break the tie. Well, if you vote with me; if not we’ll get Nolan to vote too.”
“What are you—?”
“Look,” Daisy pointed to an illustration in the catalog open on the middle of the table. Angus also noticed the paper tablet with a long list of furniture already written down, with the price beside each item. Oh Deuteronomy...
“I know we could get an oak three-piece set, including the bedstead, dresser with mirror, and wash stand for as low as ten dollars and seventy-five cents—but,” Daisy flipped two pages and pointed to another set.
“We could order this lovely set, which has a dresser with mirror, a chest of drawers and a washstand in genuine mahogany for twenty-five dollars and thirty-five cents, and then order the matching bed to go with it.”
And how much is the bed?” Angus tried not to burst her bubble, even though the tension in his temple was about to burst.
“The bed is another four dollars and thirty-five cents...plus freight costs of course. And all the furniture is shipped direct from the manufacturer in Pennsylvania.”
“Don’t forget to order the bed springs and the mattress,” Linnea added.
Holly reached over for the catalog and turned to another page. “For your mattress you have your choice of hair, husks, cotton, sea moss, excelsior or the new elastic felt mattress. The excelsior with the cotton top is one dollar and seventy cents. But the price goes up to nine dollars and ninety-five cents for the Grade AA felt mattress.”
Angus was starting to feel faint with too many dollar signs floating in front of his eyes.
“You know, ladies,” Angus reached out, slapped the catalog shut, slid it and the paper pad off the table and under his left arm without taking his eyes off Daisy, “I think I’ll steal my future bride and her furniture list so we can go up to our future home to discuss this further.”
Daisy’s puckered lips didn’t quite match his fake smile.
“Fine,” she told Angus before turning to Holly and Linnea. “Thank you so much for your help.” She hugged each one before pulling her coat off a nearby chair and slipping into it. “I’ll let you know what else we added to the list.”
This time, Daisy’s devious smile was genuine when she looked back at him.
“You had a very long list of furniture on that piece of paper,” Angus started the conversation as they walked out the café door and headed down the boardwalk to Daisy’s apartment stairway.
“Yes I do, because I have a very empty home,” Daisy shot back.
Not another word was said as they walked to her stair door, climbed the steps and opened the front door of her apartment.
“I want to hang my coat and hat on a mirrored coat rack, instead of a couple of simple hooks Mack pounded into the wall for me to use, temporarily.” Daisy took off her coat and hat and Angus noticed the row of long bent nails when she hung them up. Why hadn’t he noticed that before? Probably because he was a simple man.
Daisy stopped and waved to the room on the right, which was entirely empty.
“This parlor needs upholstered furniture...to sit on. The five-piece parlor suite I like is twenty-six dollars and forty-five cents, which includes a sofa, rocker, one easy chair and two side chairs.”
Daisy pointedly looked at the paper tablet under his arm, so he reluctantly pulled it into view and read through the list. Yep, it was there along with two parlor tables, and a combination bookcase and writing desk.
The three women had gone room by room of the apartment, picking out and writing down furniture to furnish the place. Apparently he’d interrupted them on the first bedroom selections.
“Shall we move into the kitchen, which has the only chairs in the house, to sit and to talk?”
Were they about to have their first major fight? Hard to say, but there were some important words that needed to be said.
Angus pulled a chair out for Daisy while trying to figure out how to say what he felt about the money.
Daisy reached across the table and took his hands. “I can guess how you feel about the reward money.”
“I can’t take money which came about because I wasn’t doing my job. I keep seeing the crew lying along the tracks.”
“And I’ll never forget leaving the young man, walking away wearing his trousers, socks and boots.”
Daisy squeezed his hands and he glanced up to see tears in her eyes. If only that day had ended differently...
“Gramps had picked up my letter, so I read it at their home, reading it out loud to my grandparents. Their reaction was the same as yours, sad that a tragedy had to happen to receive our windfall.”
“So what did they say to do with the reward money?” The elder couple could give some good advice.
“Gramps suggested we use the money how we saw fit and felt comfortable using it. Grandma’s immediate answer was to buy furniture to invest in our home and family.”
“And you felt comfortable with your grandma’s advice?” Obviously, by the list lying on the table beside him.
“I was torn at first, then I talked to Holly and Linnea. Holly grew up on military forts, with only her father, since her mother and sisters had all died. Then her father retired and they moved off the fort to their own home. When her father died unexpectedly in Montana, she used their furniture to pay off their debts, keeping only the family violin.
“Linnea, a mail-order bride of eight days when she became a widow, had to leave her home’s furniture behind when she and her step-son were kicked off their rented farm. What would have happened to them if Elof hadn’t stepped up to help them?”
“So, to these women, furniture was a protection and investment against future catastrophes.”
“And to Grandma. They sold their furniture to start over after the Civil War. That money was used to equip their cooking wagon and follow the railroad crews building west.”
Angus wiped his face, realizing his Ma would possibly consider furniture in their house as available money if she needed it too.
“I was thinking about turning down the reward,” Angus confessed.
“Angus, the railroad would just keep it if you did.”
He sighed and leaned bac
k in the chair. “I’m sure you’re right. And I can’t change what happened. Da and Ma have been trying to drill that in my head every chance they get.”
“Probably because they are right but you haven’t accepted it yet?”
“Yeah, something like that. So we accept the money. Then what?”
“I vote at least half of the money should start a savings account at the bank for our family. But we, and our future children, could be sitting—and sleeping—comfortably in our home if some of the money is invested in furniture. It would be stupid to sit on the floor so the money could sit comfortably in the bank vault.”
After a second Angus burst out laughing thinking of him and Daisy, his parents, and her grandparents sitting on the dining room floor eating Sunday dinner while a stack of bills sat on a red velvet cushion on a vault shelf.
“You’re right! And I’ll even vote for the mahogany bedroom suite.”
Daisy squealed like an excited little girl and moved over to his lap, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. “Thank you, Angus!” She gave him a loud smacking kiss. “I can’t wait to order furniture tomorrow!”
“You’re very welcome. I love my bride-to-be and want her happy.”
“And I’d be happier if we set our wedding date. Have you heard anything from Fergus yet?”
“Oh! I knew there was something else I was coming over to tell you about. He telegraphed he’ll be home by the twelfth. So how about we forever have the wedding date of November 14, 1886?”
Daisy answered with a long string of kisses.
Chapter 15
“Now it’s starting to sleet!” Daisy proclaimed to Kaitlyn as she looked out the kitchen window of the parsonage.
So many things had gone wrong leading up to their wedding in the last two days. They were just going to have to postpone the wedding, no matter what Angus said. He was bound and determined they were going to marry today, just because he’d promised her, and he didn’t want to go back on his promise.
Well, Mother Nature had other plans for this weekend. A light snow turned into a heavy fall on Friday night. Then the wind picked up Saturday morning, whipping the foot of snow into drifts in town and some low areas in the country, or clearing patches bare across the top of the hills. Passage into town by wagon or buggy would be near impossible, trying to find a way through the drifts. Trying to get to town riding a horse was cold and dangerous for both rider and animal.
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