“But how do we know if the names or birth dates in the original files are true?”
“We don’t.”
Tisha’s shoulders sank. “This isn’t right.”
“No, it’s not. That’s why it’s so important to do whatever we can and why we have to be so careful with the information we do have.”
“We have to find that twin. Can I work on this?”
Jillian’s chest was about to burst open. “Of course you can. You can even make your own photocopy of everything in the file so you can mark it up and write on it. Keep notes on the ideas you have, and we’ll talk about them.”
“What color should I use?”
“Color?”
“For my own folder.”
Jillian unleashed her smile. “I’ll get you a green folder from my office. How’s that? Then we’ll know it’s yours, and it won’t get mixed up.”
“Thank you.” Tisha stood up and began straightening papers. “I’ll clean this up and get back to labels. I’ll make sure everything is right.”
“You can read anything you want to, Tisha. I have a feeling that if you put your mind to it, you’ll have a good eye for what we need to look for in some of these cases. Two minds are better than one.”
“Not when one of them is mine.”
Jillian reached out, stilled Tisha’s hands, and looked in her face. “Especially when one of them is yours.”
“Don’t placate me.” Tisha wiggled her hands out from under Jillian’s. “I keep telling you.”
Jillian nodded. “I’ll be right back.” She ducked out to her office and returned three minutes later with a canvas bag. She pulled out its contents.
“That’s a laptop,” Tisha said.
“It’s a little old and sluggish, but it’ll do the job.” Jillian bent over to plug it in. “You have Wi-Fi at your house?”
Tisha nodded. “No cable, but Grandma Ora loves her Netflix, so she pays for the Wi-Fi out of her Social Security.”
“That’ll do it, then. I’m going to show you a few sites and how to use them. Spend as much time as you want looking for Maclovia’s family. Keep track of your hours. I’ll sign off on them.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Denver, Colorado
Tuesday, August 15, 1893
If Georgina had her druthers, the family carriage would be painted green with yellow tires. Once she had seen an illustration in a magazine of one like that, with a hard roof and sides and an elevated seat for a driver. Theirs had never been so fancy. When they agreed to purchase a carriage after they found themselves owning a home with a stable—rare enough for the neighborhood—that was also large enough to accommodate a carriage, Clifford gently impressed on Georgina the reality of their budget. The carriage would be efficient and one she could handle on her own. Certainly there would be no hired driver or livery colors. So the open carriage, in an ordinary black color, had sides that came only halfway up and a soft roof. Two benches were a tight fit for two parents and their three grown daughters in corseted garb.
But today it would have to do.
“Clifford, where in the world are you taking us?” Georgina wanted to know.
He urged the horses a little faster before the incline ahead steepened. “Seemed like a nice day for a family adventure.”
“Clifford Brandt, it’s an ordinary Tuesday, and you know it.”
“But we were all available today,” Cliff said, “and the summer has been stressful. We could use an adventure before Lity starts back to school in a few weeks.”
“I like adventure,” Lity said.
“That’s my girl.” Cliff glanced over his shoulder at his youngest, squeezed in between her sisters, and winked. Lity tried to return the wink but only twitched both eyes instead. At sixteen she was still thin and girlish. He would miss these days once the last of his children took on the appearance of an adult.
“I especially like the mountains,” Lity said. “We’re going to the mountains, aren’t we, Papa?”
There was no denying it. They were well to the west of Denver now, and the horses were beginning to strain with the weight of the entire family in the carriage as the road wound upward.
“Did one of our mines strike gold?” Corah asked. “I hope it was the Decorah Runner!”
“No, Corah, we’re not going to any of the mines,” Clifford said. “Not today.”
“It’s a lovely day,” Georgina said, “and the mountains are beautiful, of course. No doubt it will be cooler there. But if we were going to make a day of it, you should have let me pack a picnic basket.”
“No fear,” Clifford said. “I’ve made arrangements.”
“What sort of arrangements?”
“Let’s all go into an adventure with an open mind.”
He drove a few more miles.
“I know where we are,” Missouri said. “We just made the turn toward Canyon Mines.”
“You always did make good marks in geography,” Cliff said.
“Really?” Lity said. “Canyon Mines? I’ve never even seen the Fidelity Wink. Are you sure we can’t see the mines?”
“I’m sure. Not today. But we’ll have an opportunity soon, I promise.”
“Maybe the Fidelity Wink will be the one that has gold. Are you going to try to find gold, Papa?”
“We’ll see.”
“Clifford, why are we going to Canyon Mines?” Suspicion oozed through Georgina’s tone.
“I’ve always loved this town.” He chose his words with care. “I hope you will find it as delightful as I do.”
He turned into the main street that ran through the little town. A few of the businesses had shuttered since the mines in the area closed, but most persisted. Not all of the tiny mountain towns would survive the demise of silver, but Cliff was optimistic for Canyon Mines. Or perhaps he needed to believe it would offer him optimism he no longer found in Denver. What he was doing had its risks.
But it would be right in the end. Here the Brandts would find themselves again.
Cliff brought the team to rest in front of a small mercantile and set the brake on the carriage.
“Clifford?” Georgina gave him a quizzical look. “What kind of picnic spot is this?”
“I said I’d made arrangements,” he said, “not a picnic.”
She tilted her head, unconvinced.
Loren Wade stepped out of the mercantile, wearing a shop apron.
“Loren!” Missouri pushed past her sisters to disembark and jumped down to the sidewalk. “How did you get here?”
The rest of the family exited the carriage as well.
“Yes, Clifford, how did that man get here?” Georgina asked.
“I took the train,” Loren said.
Georgina’s fingers on Cliff’s arm made a vise. “Did you give that man train fare?”
“He is not ‘that man,’ Georgina. He’s Loren. He was a trusted employee, and you can see our daughter is fond of him.”
“What have you done?”
“Let’s all go inside.”
Inside, Cliff waited for his family to take in their surroundings.
“This store isn’t open,” Georgina said. “It’s the middle of the day, and the shelves are reasonably stocked for a town this size. Why aren’t there any customers?”
“But that man is wearing an apron,” Lity said.
“His name is Loren,” Missouri said. “Get used to using it, please.”
“It’s all right, Missy,” Loren said.
“No, it’s not. But—what are you doing here? Did you get a job in Canyon Mines?”
“I guess you could say so.”
“Someone is trusting you to run the store?”
“I was just cleaning up. The store hasn’t been open the last few weeks while it has come under new ownership.”
“How fortunate for you to find this job,” Missy said. “I know you love the mountains more than city life.”
Georgina cleared her throat. “I have the sense that more
explanation is forthcoming.”
“As always, you are astute,” Clifford said. “I’m the one who hired Loren to work here.”
“Clifford?”
“Missouri,” Cliff said, “you’ll be glad to hear there are some small living quarters on the second floor where Loren can stay. He doesn’t seem to mind being next to a storage space. It’s quite an improvement over a stable full of hay and horses.”
“Papa, thank you! But I don’t think I understand.”
“Whatever happens to us, we are all in it together,” Clifford said. “So I’m going to be straightforward with all of you.”
The girls’ faces paled. Georgina’s hardened.
“No one can actually afford to buy and sell real estate right now,” Clifford explained. “That takes cash or enough credit to get a loan—which requires a bank with cash. You might as well all know that in another two weeks, I would have owed one of the few open banks in Denver a large payment on our home. I’ve already explained this to your mother. Given the events of the last few months, that was going to be beyond my means. However, I have been aware for some time that the owner of this store wished to move to Denver for family reasons. Wisely, he has been saving for this eventuality for quite some time while doing a thriving business among the silver miners.”
“Get to the point, Clifford,” Georgina said.
“We were going to lose the house, Georgie. We couldn’t make the payment, and there is no market to sell the house, either. When approached with the opportunity, I made a non-cash transaction that benefits both us and the former owner of this mercantile.”
“You traded our family home for … this collection of dust?” Georgina’s face, rather than turning white, as the girls’ had, was a deep red.
“And a house,” Clifford said. “It’s not as large as what we had in Denver—”
“Had? We just left our home a couple of hours ago. Surely you can’t mean this arrangement is final already.”
“It is.” Cliff was firm. “We’ll have a stable livelihood going forward. One day the mines may turn around as well. There is no hope for Mr. Tabor, but our mines are on a small enough scale and we’re not so overextended that we can’t try again someday. And yes, girls, we might find gold beneath the silver. Others have. We need to be in the mountains to do that. Canyon Mines has always been a town for miners—supplying them, educating their children more and more, growing with them as they are ready for permanent homes. We’ll be here for all of that again someday.”
“But our home, Clifford!” Georgina’s features crunched.
He plowed ahead. He’d thought this through, and it was better to just get it all out. “I made a cash contribution to the People’s Tabernacle yesterday so they can continue to offer some support to miners who are still looking for a way out of Denver. We will be fine here in Canyon Mines. We have the house, the shop, the stock, and enough liquidity to order more items once we decide what we need to carry. It may be a more modest life, but it’s all free and clear. We have each other, and we can make a go of it. Loren can help with the heavy work. The girls can learn to run the store. Georgina, with everything you know about dry goods, textiles, and fashions, the women of Canyon Mines will love you.”
“You want me to be a small-town shopkeeper.”
“We’re in it together, Georgie.”
“I like it.” Lity ran two fingers along the length of a shelf of knickknacks. “Will I go to school here?”
“Yes, you will. They have a small but fine high school. I made thorough inquiries. The principal used to teach in Denver. The art teacher is a painter of some local renown.”
“A painter!” Lity’s eyes glowed. “Can I have art lessons?”
“You want me to be a shop girl?” Corah grimaced, a mirror of her mother. Of the three girls, Decorah was the one Clifford could count on to parrot Georgina.
“You’ll catch on quickly,” he said. “In time I believe you’ll all see the wisdom.”
“You will undo this mess right this minute,” Georgina said.
Clifford crossed the aisle to take his wife’s trembling hands. It wasn’t easy for him to put her in this state, but she would never have agreed. When the house was put up for auction—and it would have been—where would they be?
“There is no going back, Georgie,” he said. “Only forward. Let me take you to the new house. It has a spectacular view, right along the little waterway that runs through town. It has basic furnishings, so we don’t have to worry about whether all our furniture will fit the rooms.”
“You’re asking me to live with someone else’s furniture?” She drew back.
“Loren and I will go back and arrange for some of our things to be shipped by train, but we won’t need everything. The new owners likely will want most of it, or the charities can surely use it. I think I can find a buyer for the carriage. We all know how to ride a horse, though Canyon Mines is small enough that we probably won’t need to. In any event, a wagon will be more practical for the store. We can offer deliveries—Loren’s idea.”
“Will you teach me to drive the wagon?” Lity asked.
Clifford winked and smiled. “Of course.”
They rode to the new house in silence because Georgina could not abide any chatter. The girls and Loren, who had trotted the few blocks on foot to meet them there, explored the rooms, leaving Clifford and Georgina alone in the parlor. He approached her and leaned his forehead against hers to wait for the calming and softening that always came when they stood this way.
But it did not come.
“Georgie.”
“Don’t Georgie me,” she whispered. “Not this time.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Nolan dropped his briefcase onto a stool at the breakfast bar.
“I tried to keep supper warm.” Jillian pulled a glass dish from the oven. “But twenty past seven is later than I expected. I’m afraid I no longer recommend this pasta.”
“I hoped to be here an hour ago,” Nolan said. “It’s been one thing after another all day, starting with that seven o’clock breakfast meeting.”
“You look beat.”
“I am.”
“And your briefcase looks especially fat.”
“It is.” Nolan stuck a fork into the pasta for one bite. “I don’t have time to eat anyway. One more meeting to go.”
“What’s going on?”
“Crowder mediation in ten minutes.”
“What? You’re trying that again after Tuesday’s smashing success?”
“Choice of words, please, Jillian.” Nolan loosened his tie. “I have to try. I’m glad you and Tisha seem to be on better footing, but what good will the alternative sentencing hours do her if nothing changes at home?”
“It’s impressive you’d get Brittany and Tisha to agree to another meeting.”
“Peggy and Ora too.”
“Ora? Really?”
“Tisha wouldn’t come without her. Somebody she can count on to be on her side, I think. It has taken some persuading all around. I even had my assistant fielding calls when I was tied up.”
“Clark is letting you use the Cage again?”
Nolan laughed softly and shook his head. “After he overheard the commotion the last time? Hardly.” Also, since Nolan had been unsuccessful at getting Joanna to be truthful with her uncle, at the moment Clark had a dubious opinion of Nolan’s mediation skills.
“Where, then?” Jillian asked.
“Nia has agreed to let us use the library at the Inn.”
“What about the guests?”
“No guests tonight. Full slate for the weekend but nobody tonight. And she and Leo will be on hand in the parlor if things get out of hand.”
“Like ready to dial 911?”
“I hope it won’t come to that.”
“Shall I make you another dinner that’s less dried-up crusty in nature?”
“I’ll pick something up when everything’s over.”
The Inn was
only half a mile away, but Nolan took his truck so he’d be on time. The library at the front of the Inn was arranged just as he’d asked. Two champagne-colored tufted Victorian chairs were in their customary spots on either side of a round table, and Nia had situated three padded chairs from the dining room in a manner that made the room feel like a cozy circle.
No sides. That was the point.
In fact, Nolan made sure to drape his suit jacket over one of the Victorian chairs to break up the temptation for any two people to come in together and automatically drift to the “power” chairs in a sort of alliance.
Tisha came in first with the great-grandmother Nolan hadn’t met before.
“You must be Ora.” He extended a handshake.
“Nice to meet you.”
He didn’t know Ora’s precise age, but she seemed to be a young great-grandmother. She must have been a young mother herself when she had Peggy.
Ora. Peggy. Brittany. All teenagers or barely out of their teens when they gave birth. Was Tisha headed down the same road? The boyfriend definitely had seemed older to Nolan. He might even have already graduated high school.
As Peggy came in next, Tisha scooted two of the dining room chairs closer together and sat beside Ora. Peggy chose the other tufted chair, leaving the third dining room chair for Brittany, who arrived late with the excuse that she had trouble closing Candles & Cards on time.
That could well be true.
Or she could just not be in any hurry for what the evening would bring.
Tisha scooted an inch closer to Ora.
“Thank you all for coming,” Nolan said as he took his own seat. “You all care about Tisha, and my daughter and I certainly have come to appreciate that she’s a remarkable young woman, so I hope we can work together for Tisha’s best interests.”
He scanned the four faces around the circle. Having them all together like this certainly made it easy to see the family resemblance.
“The other day,” he said, “Brittany was talking about how important it was that you are all part of the historic Brandt family of Canyon Mines. I thought it might be useful to return to that topic and help Tisha better understand this part of her family tree.”
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