Maryanne hunched her shoulder and Hannah bit her lip. “Do you two want to get settled in here for a little bit or should we go exploring?”
“I want to stay here.”
“Let’s go exploring.”
They spoke simultaneously and Hannah could have smacked herself in the forehead. This outcome should have been foreseeable. Of course, Brent would want to go exploring. And it was no surprise that the listless little girl wouldn’t want to go anywhere. Hannah bit her lip, debating what was best. Brent was twelve years old. She should be able to allow him out of her sight. She was well aware that he had been wandering their neighborhood before their parents’ death. But that was before he was in danger from their Uncle Jason. Since she was almost certain they had gotten away without his knowledge, she should be able to allow Brent to go exploring on his own.
“Swear to me you will not exit this train without my knowledge.”
“Hannah,” he began, whining.
“Promise me or you won’t leave this room without me.”
He huffed impatiently. “Fine, I promise.”
“Good. And swear to me you’ll be careful.”
“You’re worse than Mother,” he complained.
“That doesn’t sound like much of a promise,” Hannah replied, ignoring the pang of guilt that assailed her for a moment.
Brent huffed again. “I swear, Hannah, I will be as careful as if there was a nursemaid following me around. And I won’t leave the train without you.”
“Even if the train stops?”
“Even if the train stops. Now can I go?”
“Very well. But you ought to come back in about an hour, as we’ll probably be starting to get hungry and will need to find some luncheon.”
Brent didn’t bother replying, just ran out of the room without a backward glance, allowing the door to bang behind him. Hannah turned her attention to her sister, stifling her sigh.
Sitting down next to her, Hannah put her arm around the young girl. “Are you going to stare out the window much longer or would you like to help me tidy up our things?”
“I think I’ll look a little longer,” she answered before turning to Hannah with a small smile. “It actually is interesting, Han, I’m not just being sad.”
Hannah returned her sister’s smile. “I’ll take your word for it, Mare. It just looks like fields to me.”
“But how often have we really seen fields?” the little girl pointed out with a reasonable air.
Hannah’s smile turned into a grin. “I guess you’ve got me there. Very well, you watch the scenery and keep me apprised if it changes much while I try to make a little bit of order here. Then, we should go look around a little bit, too, so we know where things are.”
“All right, Hannah. Thank you for not minding me sitting for a bit. I just need to collect myself.”
Hannah bit her lip over her sister’s words, torn between amusement and dismay. It was funny that the little girl would word it that way, but Hannah didn’t want Maryanne feeling the need to collect herself. The child should be eager to explore and shouldn’t have cares to sort out. But there was nothing Hannah could do about it at the moment. She needed to do some self-collecting of her own.
After tidying up their bags and making sure the beds were made and ready for them later, Hannah was finally able to nudge Maryanne into movement. She couldn’t believe how fascinated her sister was with the passing scenery. Hannah asked her about it when they finally left the room.
Maryanne shrugged. “I’ve never seen so much space, Hannah. Don’t you realize that even though we have a bigger yard than most, no one in Boston actually has much space? Even when we go to the park, it’s not like here. All these fields. I can’t decide if I love it or hate it.”
Hannah laughed. “I didn’t realize you were being so introspective while we travelled. Let me know what you decide. I hope you will decide you don’t hate it because I’m rather certain there will be plenty of space at our destination.”
Maryanne didn’t actually grin back, but she looked a little less troubled than she had been for the past few weeks, much to Hannah’s relief. And she finally appeared somewhat interested in their current surroundings as they walked down the hallway of the swaying train car. Hannah’s stomach wasn’t sure about the swaying, but she chose to ignore the churning, grateful that neither of the children appeared troubled by the motion. Not that they had yet found Brent, but when she had last seen him he had been the picture of health.
“Do you think we’ll find Brent?” she asked in attempt to make conversation with her sister.
“Only if we’re going to see the engines, I would imagine,” was Maryanne’s reply.
“Oh dear. I should have made him promise he wouldn’t go there without me.”
“It’s probably better if he went alone, don’t you think?”
“Why is that?” Hanna was horrified by her sister’s observation.
“He won’t be viewed as a child if he’s on his own. I think the men would be more interested in talking to him if you aren’t there. If you’re there, they’ll be too busy making eyes at you to pay him any mind.”
Hannah felt heat climb into her cheeks. She tried to deny her sister’s words, but Maryanne’s gaze turned withering as only a sibling’s could.
“I’m now a married woman.” Hannah’s declaration only served to make the girl giggle.
“That doesn’t change how you look, Han.”
Hannah glanced down at her hands and realized she should be wearing a ring to indicate her married state. She didn’t think her sister was completely accurate in her thoughts about men’s attentions, but it was true that Hannah often attracted unwanted attention. She prompted her sister to return momentarily to their room where she scrambled in search of her parents’ rings. She didn’t have anything else that would serve the purpose. She felt some qualms about putting on her mother’s wedding ring but decided it was for the greater good. She ignored all other adornments, reminding her sister that they were hoping to draw little attention to themselves.
Maryanne’s smile was mischievous. “I don’t think that will work too well.”
“Why not?” Hannah demanded.
“For one thing, I don’t think Brent will be able to help himself. For the other, you’re too pretty. Wearing ugly clothes and a wedding ring doesn’t change that.”
Hannah shushed her sister. “We have to at least try.”
“You never did explain why we’re so desperate to avoid Uncle Jason.”
Hannah blinked at Maryanne’s observation. “I didn’t?” Hannah realized that was probably true. Not that she really wanted to tell the children. She wished they could remain as innocent as possible for as long as possible. But it would be for their protection if she told them.
“We will discuss it when we all return to our room after we eat,” she promised. “Shall we see if this train has a library?”
“Oh, yes, please,” Maryanne was easily distracted by the thought of books.
Hannah wanted to take advantage of the luxury while they had the opportunity. If she had understood correctly, the train accommodations would become decidedly more primitive the further west they travelled. She was grateful that this first leg of the journey would be close to what they were all used to. There was time enough for them to become familiar with deprivation later when they changed trains.
Maryanne was delighted with the small library car. There were still a couple of windows where she could keep her eye on the passing scenery while also perusing the surprisingly good selection of books. Hannah couldn’t help the deep, appreciative breaths she was taking. The room, with its dark wood paneling wherever there weren’t shelves, reminded her of their father’s library at home. It even smelled the same, like wood smoke and old books. Hannah felt a frisson of déjà vu slither down her spine. Like if she turned her head fast enough she would be able to catch a glimpse of her father leaning over his desk or hiding behind his newspaper. While
her mind knew their parents were gone, it was taking a while for her heart to accept that knowledge. She stopped sniffing, hoping her sister didn’t notice the similarities.
After about fifteen minutes, maybe it was less, but it felt like three hours to Hannah, she finally couldn’t bear the room anymore and she prompted her sister to leave.
“Let’s walk all around first and figure out where everything is and see if we can find Brent. We can come back here and pick out some books to take to our room later.”
With reluctance, Maryanne agreed with one condition. “Could I take this book now? If I don’t, someone else will come along and take it for themselves.”
When Hannah glanced at the cover, she doubted her sister needed to be concerned that others would want to take it from her, but she would never want to discourage either of her siblings from learning or reading so she kept her face neutral and agreed. She thought it unlikely anyone else would be as fascinated with flora and fauna as her sister seemed to be suddenly. The large book appeared to be a scientific textbook. It was not at all what Hannah had expected the child to select.
“Let’s take it back to our room now, though. It’s too big to be carrying around with us.”
Maryanne happily agreed and Hannah was relieved. If the girl already had a book, maybe she could avoid the library for a day or two.
Within a few minutes, they were back to exploring. Not that there was all that much for them to see. Several cars were just a long corridor with doors on either side, exactly like the one they were staying in. They were not allowed into the luggage car, where things were being transported, which made sense to Hannah and was a relief. If they weren’t allowed in there, neither were others, so their things ought to be safe. She hadn’t told Maryanne and Brent, but there were a few more things travelling with them to their final destination. Hannah had realized they would need additional, warmer clothes as well as fabrics in order to be able to make whatever they didn’t yet realize they needed. And while there were probably towns nearby she could travel to in order to purchase what they would need, she wanted to feel supplied, at least to a certain extent. She had tried to keep the volume of their luggage to a reasonable level, but she had to find the balance between having enough and not too much to draw an excessive amount of attention to their little traveling family.
She and Maryanne passed through a car of seated passengers, which prompted some questions from the little girl.
“Why are they just sitting there?”
“I think it’s likely they didn’t want to pay for a room. When Wilbur was buying our tickets, he said there were different prices, one of the prices was for just a seat.”
“You mean they don’t have somewhere to sleep?”
“Well, you could see that some of them were sleeping in their seat.”
“But that will hurt their necks, won’t it?”
“Eventually, yes. Maybe they aren’t going so very far.”
Maryanne’s face was dubious. “It makes our room seem much more luxurious, doesn’t it?”
Hannah grinned. “Very much so.”
They kept walking and finally arrived in the dining car. Suddenly, both girls’ stomachs began to growl in response to the variety of smells wafting from the kitchen.
“I do hope we find Brent soon. I’m starving.”
Hannah smiled over her sister’s exclamation. Her smile widened as they saw the very boy they were looking for enter the room from the opposite direction.
“What perfect timing,” Hannah commented. “We were just wondering if we would need to send a search party.”
A look of guilt travelled swiftly across Brent’s face. “Did I lose track of the time? I’m sorry, I truly meant to keep my promise. I was on my way back to our room, I swear.”
“Don’t trouble yourself. We’ve been exploring, too. We just both realized how hungry we are when we arrived here. So, it’s perfect timing.” Hannah realized she was repeating herself, but she was determined to keep a façade of good spirits for the children’s sake, especially while they both seemed to be less melancholy than they had been.
A waiter was trying to beckon them to a table, so Hannah quickly shepherded her siblings in his direction. Within moments they had placed their orders and were left on their own with glasses of juice in front of the children and a warm cup of tea for Hannah, which she sincerely hoped would settle her nervous stomach.
“Now tell us, did you see everything you wanted to see?”
Brent launched into an enthusiastic description of all that he had seen and done in the hour or so they had been apart. It was the most animated Hannah had seen him since their parents had died. For that alone, she realized she had made the right decision leaving when they had. A change of scenery would do them all good.
Of course, she still doubted that completely changing their lives so drastically was for their very best when it came to their mental well-being. She had actually discussed the matter with their family physician, as she had been concerned that she might do them harm by making them face such a significant life change when their entire lives had already been thrown into disarray by their parents’ sudden death. He had assured her that children were resilient and would be able to manage just fine. She hoped he was right. It wouldn’t speed up their mourning period, she was sure. But maybe the fresh start would be better than the constant reminders that their parents were never coming back when they kept expecting to bump into them whenever they turned a corner.
Hannah stifled her sigh. She had so many things to concern herself. She thought with a momentary pang how uncomplicated her life had been a month ago. The only concern she had then was which seamstress to frequent and which gown to purchase for the next ball she was to attend. It was a simple, if shallow, life. Now she was solely responsible for Brent and Maryanne and needed to manage all three of their well-being.
Besides whatever added responsibilities her new husband would expect her to take on, she reminded herself with a bit of a start. She had been preoccupied with her concerns about keeping the children safe, but now that they were well on their way, her mind started to assail her with concerns about all that she still did not know.
Chapter Four
As Maryanne took over questioning Brent about what he’d learned about the train, Hannah allowed her mind to drift to the letter of introduction Fred had given her from her new husband. Apparently, the man had realized he would be wedding a stranger and had the foresight to tell her a little bit about himself. She had read the message so many times she had it memorized.
My dear good woman,
I address you this way since I trust that Fred will have chosen wisely for me, so I know he is sending me a kind, gentle woman to partner with.
Hannah had to smile over that. It was nice that he had such confidence in Fred. But she rather thought he was going to be sadly mistaken. She didn’t think she was gentle. Maybe kind, if her mood was right. She sighed. She would have to try to be both kind and gentle, if that was what he was expecting. Her mother had been a kind, gentle, loving woman. She would try to imitate her. That would make it easier. Whenever she faced a situation, she would just have to figure out what her mother would do in the given situation. She continued pondering the letter.
My name is Ransom Delaney. I have lived in Nebraska for the past eight years. I have known Fred since we were boys. We were classmates at school. We went together to university, but I couldn’t bear the classroom for the full four years required to complete it. After two, I left to find my own way in life out West. Fred and I have remained loosely in touch through letters and my sporadic trips home to visit my brother.
I now find myself in possession of my young niece. Her parents died when the flu swept through Boston last year. This is why I am in such desperate need of a wife. And I thought one from Boston would be best, since you would understand where the girl is coming from and should be able to help her grow up, as my brother and sister-in-law would have wished.
I have a large house with plenty of land, so if you have children, there will be space for them to grow up. There is also a school nearby. It might not be quite the standard you would be able to find in Boston, but I am sufficiently satisfied with it to send my niece there.
If you have need of financial assistance to finalize your arrangements to travel to me, be sure to apply to Fred for the needed funds, and I will ensure he is reimbursed. Godspeed in your travels. I look forward to meeting you.
Yours sincerely,
Ransom Delaney
On the surface, the letter had told her very little. But when she made an effort to read between the lines, it had filled her with confidence that Fred had found her the perfect solution. The man had no idea or expectation of her funds; he was offering to pay for her expenses. That was a relief. He must not be completely broke. Not that she would begrudge him some of her finances. It was the least she could do for him, considering what he was doing for her and her family. But since it was not his motivation, it made him more appealing to her.
There were also no spelling or grammar errors in his letter. He mentioned that he didn’t complete his education, but he was educated; she appreciated that. Not that she was so highly educated herself. Even though the university was now willing to accept female applicants, her father hadn’t been willing to allow her to apply. That had been a huge disappointment to Hannah, but at least she was well read and her father had allowed her to attend some of the lectures that the university opened to the public. If her new husband were educated, he would be able to help Brent prepare for further education, as well. Surely, with the responsibilities Brent would have to take on when he was a bit older, he would need as much education as Hannah could arrange for him.
A Bride for Ransom Page 3