by Zina Abbott
Dahlia turned to Kate, whose body had crumpled into a heap on the floor. Fortunately, she had also been thrown forward, not sideways toward the coal heater. “Kate, are you all right?” When Kate did not respond, she involuntarily shuddered. Her heart began to palpitate. In horror, she stared at the woman next to her.
A series of high-pitched shrieks of “Oh, my, oh, my” behind her told Dahlia that Lizett was conscious, although she had no idea whether or not the crash injured the woman.
Sensing no sharp pains on her own body, other than the dull ache in her wrist from grabbing the bench back the first time she was thrust from her seat, and sharp pain in her head from the second slam forward when she again hit the bench, Dahlia slowly stood to investigate the reason the passenger car tilted at an unnatural angle. She looked out the window. As the floor wobbled beneath feet, she fought the paralysis of fear that threatened to overtake her. She realized the passenger car had jumped the tracks. The back end, its wheels no longer supported by track or even the rail bed, hung precariously over the river.
Once more aware of Lizett bouncing around in the seat behind her while muttering almost incoherent statements, Dahlia realized the woman, although she owned her own business and efficiently navigated her charges around town and through the process of rail travel, was completely out of her comfort zone with this crisis. As for her, if she ever had been inclined to panic, between her father’s medical emergencies, the need to tend to farm accidents, and dealing with her younger brother, Cy’s, shenanigans, that tendency had been driven out of her.
Dahlia sensed she needed to take charge in this situation. “Lizett, stop moving around. Please follow the conductor’s directions. Slowly and carefully exit the train through the front of the coach. Once everyone else is off, tell the conductor I need his help getting Kate off the train.”
“Kate? What’s wrong with Kate? Oh, I can’t let anything happen to her.”
“She’s unconscious.” Annoyed that the woman exploded into a new series of fluttering and stammering, Dahlia barked her order. “Now, Lizett! Carefully walk on the other side of the coal heater and get off the train. Tell the conductor I need his help.”
Grateful when Lizett listened and actually did what she had been told, Dahlia next crouched by her new friend. “Kate? Kate Flanagan? Can you hear me?”
“Unnhh.”
Dahlia watched Kate stir as she rubbed her shoulder and back. “There’s been a train wreck, Kate. You’ve hit your head.” When Kate shifted her torso to an upright position, Dahlia helped her sit on the floor of the train, but would not let her attempt to stand. “Help is coming, Kate. As soon as the conductor finishes with the other passengers off the train, he’ll come for us, too. Until then, I think we’re safer on the floor.”
“I’m feeling shook, certain.”
Dahlia leaned forward and inspected Kate’s face. She gently lifted the hand that covered the side of her forehead. “You’ve a bump on your head the size of a hen’s egg, Kate. I’ll stay with you, but you need to sit quietly until help arrives.”
Soon, the underlying fearful chatter of the passenger car fled to the outdoors. In the relative quiet, the conductor, stepping with caution, made his way to Dahlia and Kate. He reached his hand out to help Kate, who sat closer to him than Dahlia.
Dahlia carefully stood, pulling the blanket free from where it had tangled around her and Kate’s legs. “The accident knocked her out for a short time. I’ll help you get her to her feet.” Once both women stood, the conductor started leading Kate toward the front exit. Dahlia gathered up her valise and blanket in her left hand and arm, and used her free hand to steady Kate as the trio crept along the aisle. The last one off that particular passenger car, Dahlia breathed a sigh of relief once both her feet settled in the tamped-down snow on the rail bed outside.
Dahlia’s gaze turned in the direction of the conductor’s pointing finger as he nudged Kate’s arm. “You ladies need to walk over and stand with the others. We need you far away from these cars that have derailed. Who knows which way they may bounce or slide, balanced like they are on the tracks?”
As the pair walked toward the front of the train, Dahlia noticed the manner in which the coal car connected to the passenger coach—the one on which they had been traveling—had jack-knifed in an uphill direction, which sent the rear wheels of the coach hovering over the water. Dahlia suspected that, if the engine had hit the snowbank she could now see before her with greater force, it would have pushed both passenger cars—perhaps the entire train—off the rails and down into the racing Arkansas River below. She shivered at the thought of how close they had come to cheating death.
Soon, Dahlia found Lizett. She and Kate stood next to her while they waited for instructions regarding what to do next. As the sun prepared to set, the already-cold air grew more frigid. Dahlia again shared her blanket with Kate, each of them pulling an edge over their shoulders to hold in front as tight as possible.
Several times, as Dahlia glanced over, she noticed Kate’s eyes drift shut. “You need to stay awake, Kate, especially after getting that bump on your head.”
“I know. It’s knackered, I am. I should have been sleeping like you were instead of reading your book of poems.” Kate’s eyes widened, and she turned to Dahlia. “Sorry I am, but I’ve lost your book, Dahlia.”
“It’s on the train somewhere, Kate. Don’t worry about it. I’m sure, once they get everything stabilized, they’ll gather the items left by passengers and bring them to the depot.”
In spite of the uncertainty and speculation spoken by her fellow passengers, Dahlia felt confident they would be rescued once the railroad crew arrived and began clearing the track well enough so they could walk to the next town which, if she understood correctly, was her destination—Jubilee Springs.
Word filtered back to Dahlia that there was a road which ended shortly beyond the other side of the bend past the avalanche. The townspeople planned to bring sleighs to meet the passengers and take them into town. Dahlia certainly hoped that rumor was true. Not only were her feet cold, but she worried about Kate, who obviously still felt the effects of having hit her head.
“I’m coming right back, Dahlia, but I’m needing to leave for a minute.”
Surprised, Dahlia turned as Kate stepped from beneath the blanket and handed the edge to her.
Dahlia assumed Kate wished to relieve herself. “I’ll come with you, Kate.”
“No, you need to be staying with Lizett. I’ll be back before you’re even knowing I’ve been gone.”
When she asked where Kate was going, Dahlia turned to Lizett and explained. Even though she understood the necessity of answering nature’s call, especially when cold weather aggravated the urge, a bad feeling about Kate leaving the group intensified the longer the she stayed away.
Men finished shoveling through the wall of snow and reached the group huddling together next to the half-buried engine for warmth. Orders filtered through the crowd. “We have sleighs on the other side a short distance away to take you the rest of the way to town. Women and children first.”
Dahlia felt Lizett tug on her arm. “Come on, Dahlia. We need to go. My feet feel like blocks of ice as it is.”
Dahlia pulled free of Lizett’s grasp. “No. I won’t go without Kate. She hasn’t returned yet.”
A man turned at her words and walked toward her. Dahlia noticed he dressed more in town attire than the work clothes she had seen on the rail workers. “Is s-someone missing? One of the p-passengers?”
“Yes. My friend, Kate, left to…ah…she needed a few moments of privacy. She hasn’t returned.” Dahlia offered a quick description. “She’s not dressed very warmly, and I’m worried about her.”
“You t-two go ahead. I need to check to make sure all the p-passengers are s-safe and make it to the s-sleighs. I’ll look for her.”
Dahlia shook her head, reluctant to leave Kate’s fate in the hands of this unknown man. As the woman jerked on her arm, she snapp
ed her head back to face Lizett.
“He’s the local ticket agent for the railroad, Dahlia. He’s trustworthy. It will be easier for him to focus on finding her if he doesn’t have to worry about us, too.”
Reluctantly, Dahlia followed Lizett and their guide across the path. She willed the snow still clinging to the upward slope not to choose that moment to crash down on them. They trudged along a path beaten into slush for a short distance until the level ground bordering the mountain widened enough to allow a wagon road with a tight, turn-around space. A tall, well-formed man, calling Lizett by name, leaped out of the front seat of a sleigh and strode toward them. As welcome as she found the sight of the waiting conveyance to be, her frantic mind stayed focused on her new friend she left behind.
.
.
.
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Chapter 9
~o0o~
Jubilee Springs, Colorado – December 16, 1881
R oyce Bainbridge stacked the papers he had been reviewing and closed his ledger book as he prepared to leave his office. The whistle signaling the end of the first shift’s work day had already sounded, and he knew he soon would hear the booms of the day’s dynamite blasts. His brother, Clive, had left but minute before to check with the foremen regarding progress in the mine.
Royce glanced at his clock. It had been fifteen minutes since the men would have started making their way out of the mine toward the warm shack. There, he knew, they would be greeted by a hot fire in the heater situated in the center of the building to warm them up after the coolness of the mine. They would shed their work clothes and change into their street clothes before heading to wherever they lived. He had yet to see any of the men who now lived in the married housing pass his window. He knew they would be walking by soon as they returned to their new wives and, what he hoped, for them, was marital bliss.
With his lantern lit and his desk lamp extinguished, Royce placed his palms on the arms of his chair, ready to stand and start his evening rounds. As the door to his office swung open, he froze in place. One of his least favorite people, Herbert Price, stepped inside and slammed the door shut. Without an invitation, he rushed to stand next to the wood stove situated between his and Clive’s desks.
As he watched the man shiver in place and stamp his feet, dislodging snow and mud on the otherwise clean wood floor of the mine office, Royce felt his own temperature rise.
“Colder than a witch’s kiss out there.”
Royce, his hands tightening into fists, forced his voice to remain calm. “Then perhaps you should have followed proper procedure and gone straight to the warm shack and changed into your clothes that have been hanging there all day, soaking in the heat. You know you’re not to wear your mining clothes anywhere but in the mine. What are you doing here, instead?” Royce clamped his back teeth tight. He watched the man before him, wearing an expression of disbelief, turn to face him.
“What’s the big deal? I wanted to catch you before you took off. With the light in your office going, I figured you already got those brides coming in today settled. Besides, I didn’t take nothing from the mine. Go ahead, you can search me.” A fine shower of dust sprinkled the top of the mushy mess already on the floor as Herbert turned his pockets inside out. “See? I’ll go back and change in a minute. Need to talk with you about Nathan.”
Royce heaved a sigh of resignation and settled back in his chair. He had been over at the infirmary a few hours earlier and spoken to Dr. Sprague about all three of the miners injured in the collapse earlier that week. Gus Braun, the one with two broken legs, he planned to put on the train to return to his family’s home in Laramie over the winter until he healed. Since he could not put any weight on either leg yet, the man’s father and brother were to be on this afternoon’s train to pick him up. For Spencer, the one with one broken leg and several gashes, Royce had agreed he could stay in the miners’ boarding house. In a week or so, when he could get around better, and until his leg healed well enough to return to mining, Royce had offered him work for half wages, caring for the donkeys they used in the mines to help haul the ore carts plus the other livestock.
Nathan Price, the one miner of the three he least wished to lose, remained in a coma. Royce had talked to the mine infirmary doctor about him already, but did not know what to do with the man. To his knowledge, Herbert Price, the man now littering his office, was Nathan’s only relative. He decided to listen to what Herbert had to say. “What about Nathan?”
Royce watched with interest as Herbert screwed his face into a worried expression and shifted from one foot to the other.
“Doc Sprague called me in last night—you know, because he knows I’m Nathan’s brother—well, stepbrother, although most people don’t know that. Ma made me take on his pa’s name when they married. Anyway, Doc says I need to figure something out for Nathan. He’s still in that coma, plus with his busted shoulder, he’s not going to be able to work none too soon, even if he comes to in the next day or so.”
“Yes. I spoke with Dr. Sprague. He said about the same to me.”
“Doc wants Nathan out of his place—says he’s not running no long-term hospital care. Said I need to come up with someplace for him to go.” By this point, Herbert’s entire body twitched. “I’ll tell you right now, Ma don’t want him. Nathan sends money back to her each month—makes me send some back, too—but, since Nathan’s pa died and the local banker swindled us out of the farm, she’s been living in some shack on the edge of town so she can take in laundry and mending. She don’t got room to take care of no invalid.”
As he continued to watch Herbert Price, Royce did not move a muscle or say a word. The man had been a thorn in his side, almost from the week he hired him. He would have let Herbert go several times if it had not been for Nathan’s efforts to rein him in. He took an almost perverse pleasure in watching the man squirm.
“See, I know that woman Nathan’s going to marry came in on the train today. Now, she’s one who could take care of Nathan. I know she probably won’t go for staying alone with him with them not being married, but I was talking with some of the men today. They were saying she could marry someone else, and still have the house. So, I was thinking, I could stand in for Nathan and…”
Royce gritted his teeth. He had heard enough. He jumped to his feet and, palms flat on his desktop, he leaned forward. “You are not marrying that bride and moving into a mine company house, Herbert, not even to take care of your brother.”
Royce almost laughed as he watched the man, an expression of horror on his face, stare at him. Herbert shook his head as he cursed, his face now filled with disgust.
“I don’t want to take care of my brother, and I sure don’t want to get hitched to that old maid he’s got lined up. At her age, she’s probably not married because she’s uglier than a tree stump. Knowing Nathan, I’ll bet he picked one of them prissy do-gooders who’s all proper and colder than a block of ice in bed. And, the last thing I want to come home to in a few years is a house full of little brats running around.”
“Then, what are you talking about?” Royce watched as the indignant expression on the man’s face once again morphed into one of distress.
“You see, the guys were saying, there’s a way for people to marry with someone to stand in for one of them, but the one being stood in for is the one who’s actually married. I’d stand in for Nathan, but he’d be the one married to her.”
As he thought over the suggestion, Royce studied Herbert. “You mean, a proxy marriage?”
Herbert shrugged. “I guess, if that’s what they call it. Once I get Nathan married to this woman, my part’s done as far as that goes. Then we can get my brother over to the house, and she can take care of him.”
His gaze never leaving Herbert, Royce eased back into his chair. He realized, assuming the woman was willing to marry under those circumstances and agree to take on the care of an unconscious invalid, the man’s suggestion presented a short-term solution. Would it be
fair to her? Probably not. However, if she was willing, it would give her a place to stay while they all waited to see if Nathan would get well, or if his present condition was permanent. Later on, if things worsened and she decided she no longer wished to take care of Nathan, she could always ask for an annulment.
However, Royce refused to allow Herbert Price off the hook. “If I agreed to this, and I am able to convince Miss Greenleaf to agree, your part would not be done after the proxy wedding, Mr. Price. I’m still holding Nathan’s pay from when he did work. However, that would not be enough for Mrs. Price to live on for very long. She could live in the house and use the furniture already in it, but someone who is still working would be required to see she has enough to cover the food and fuel she needs until we see how things turn out for your brother. Since you are his only relative in the region, that someone would be you. Are you prepared to do that if he stays here rather than return to his childhood home?” Royce’s gaze stayed locked on Herbert as he watched the man’s breathing deepen and his chin jut out.
“I got uses for my money that don’t include supporting some woman taking care of Nathan. Besides, he’s my stepbrother, not my real brother.”
Royce could feel the skin around his eyes tighten, and his facial muscles grow taut. He knew most of the “uses” for Herbert’s wages involved the women, booze, and gambling available at the Silver Dollar Saloon. “That’s not how he regards you. He has gone out on a limb many times for you. I think you should be willing to cut back a little on your activities to help out. If not, you’ll end up with the full responsibility for his care.” Royce took some comfort in the way Herbert shifted his gaze off to the side, the guilt he felt poking through to the surface of his face.