“But you haven’t asked your question yet.”
“May I take you to dinner tomorrow evening? I don’t think I can wait until Wednesday to see you.”
“That’s it? That is your question?”
“Yes. As simple as it sounds, that is my question.” He lifted her hand and kissed her gloved palm. Claudette felt the brand as if it was against her bare skin. The heat flew up her arm and she felt her temperature rising. She removed her hand and gently fanned herself hoping the temperature would drop.
“I would be honored to have dinner with you tomorrow night, Agent Wauneka.”
Bronco started walking backwards back down the street. He placed his hand over his heart and then signaled to Claudette like he was sending to her. Claudette skipped up the stairs and reached the door to the house. She looked at him and gave a little wave before entering the building. Running to the window in the dining room she saw him turn and head across the park. She took a deep breath
As soon as he disappeared from her view she ran upstairs to change for dinner and think of the brown-eyed man that stole her breath away.
Chapter 5
“I saw you with that Indian today.” Claudette looked at the woman who said that when she walked into the dining room. What was her name? That’s right, Sarah. She was already seated at the table sipping her coffee when Claudette arrived for dinner. The room was empty apart from the two of them.
She could smell something delicious coming from the kitchen and knew that dinner was almost ready. Instead of answering her dining companion, Claudette walked over to the sideboard and poured herself a cup of the hot brew. She splashed it with a bit of milk and then took a seat at the far end of the room.
“I don’t know why the agency hired that savage.”
“Who’s a savage?” Jacqueline asked, waltzing into the room. She sat at the same table as Claudette.
“That agent that walked Claudette home this evening. I saw them as I was coming through the park.” She said the word agent as if it left a bad taste in her mouth.
“Oooo,” Jacqueline pressed, “do tell. That dreamy man walked you home? How did I miss that?”
Claudette tried not to grin behind her cup. “You were already on your way here. There is nothing to tell. He was escorting Miss Pearl back to her brownstone, and this was on the way. End of story.”
“I saw how he looked at you. It was so romantic.”
Sarah snorted, “there was nothing romantic about it. He doesn’t belong with your kind.”
“My kind?” Claudette asked.
“You know – a lady. He is just an Indian.”
“Why would that make a difference? I’m not marrying him. I’m enjoying his company.”
“My father said that the only good Indian is a dead Indian.”
Claudette gasped, “Well I’m glad I’ve never met your father, then.”
“He must be a good agent, otherwise Mr. Gordon wouldn’t have hired him,” Jacqueline responded.
Sarah finished her coffee and went to refill her cup. Mrs. Hawthorne brought in their dinner plates and set them on the table. The smell of roasted chicken with potatoes and green beans made Claudette’s mouth water. It had been several hours since she had a sandwich at the agency.
“I don’t like gravy,” Sarah said, pushing her plate away. Mrs. Hawthorne looked at her as if she said she didn’t like pie. Everyone liked pie.
Mrs. Hawthorne removed the plate. “I apologize, let me get you a new one.”
“I’ll take that if she doesn’t want it.” It was another one of the women Claudette saw on the porch today. She didn’t catch her name. Mrs. Hawthorne nodded and placed the plate back down in front of the new arrival. Sarah sighed heavily as if the whole interaction bored her.
Mrs. Hawthorne scurried back to the kitchen, muttering under her breath about ungrateful girls and people that would be thankful for a meal. She returned with another plate, minus the gravy and placed it in front of her. “I hope this is to your liking.” Sarah sniffed and then nodded, shooing Mrs. Hawthorne away. “Is there anything else I can do for you ladies?”
“Mrs. Hawthorne,” Jacqueline asked between bites, “What do you know about Bronco, what was his name?” She pointed her fork at Claudette.
“Wauneka,” Claudette whispered.
“Yes, that is it! Bronco Wauneka.”
Mrs. Hawthorne wiped her hands on the towel she had stuffed in the waist of her apron. “I believe his given name is Bronson,” she started. “One of the most kind-hearted people you will ever meet. Wouldn’t hurt a fly. Very charming though. He would charm the pants off… oh excuse me. I shouldn’t talk that way in front of you.” Jacqueline and Claudette looked at each other and giggled.
“I still don’t know why the agency would hire such a savage,” Sarah piped up again.
“He isn’t a savage, and you would do better to mind your manners when it comes to speaking about Mr. Gordon’s agents. They are very upright and live by an honor code.” Mrs. Hawthorne admonished. Sarah just rolled her eyes and took another bite of chicken. “He is actually well educated. And very respected in this town. Archie hired him because of his tracking ability. If you are lost or missing, you want Bronco to find you. He has a one-hundred percent success rate.”
“That’s pretty impressive,” Claudette responded.
“It is. I don’t know why he never married. I guess he hasn’t found the right one. And it isn’t for the ladies not trying.”
Claudette felt jealousy rise, stealing her appetite away. She had no claim to him, but the thought of him being with someone else made her blood boil.
“Eat,” Jacqueline said, pointing at Claudette’s plate with her fork. “You need to eat.”
Claudette nodded and finished the few bites on her plate. When she was done she rose and headed out of the room. “You aren’t staying for dessert?” Jacqueline asked.
“No. I think I might make arrangements with Mrs. Hawthorne for a hot bath. That will be dessert enough for me.”
By this time tomorrow he would be married.
The thought bothered Bronco more than he would admit. The agents had a meeting in the dormitory earlier and one of them asked if Bronco would be leaving the agency. He guessed that his womanizing ways wouldn’t make him a prime catch. It smarted a little that his brother-in-arms would think he couldn’t settle down.
The words “I’m thinking about retiring,” stunned everyone into silence. He didn’t entertain questions, he simply retired to his room. The agents had mixed feelings about the women coming into the agency. Some, like Reese, were very vocal about his dislike of even entertaining the idea of having to marry his new partner.
Bronco understood where Archie was coming from though, but that didn’t mean he had to agree with it. It made sense for them to be married so that the woman’s reputation wasn’t compromised. They would be working, eating and possibly even sleeping in the same room with the women as they went through their training.
It didn’t help that feeling in the pit of his belly though. What he didn’t like was not having the choice to choose who he would be married too. Call it intuition, a gut feeling or something else, Bronco had a feeling things were not going to go as planned when the women found out their role in this hairbrained idea.
As he laid in bed he couldn’t keep the dark-haired beauty out of his mind. Was it possible to fall in love at first sight? Victoria thought so. Tick tock. He wasn’t getting any younger.
Not able to sleep again, he pulled out the worn bible from the drawer next to the bed. He flipped until he found the book of Psalms. Scanning through his eyes caught on one verse: “Be still and know that I am God.”
He knew what he needed to do. He needed to stop fighting.
“Going somewhere?”
Bronco turned and looked at Marianne. He wouldn’t have come into the main house, but he had to leave his report on her desk. It was still early on Saturday morning. Today Claudette would learn if she would
be an agent or not and what those requirements would be in order for her to take the job. On one hand he was seriously hoping that she would. She was smart, beautiful and had kept him on his toes this week.
On the other hand, the thought of one of the other agents being paired with her made his blood boil. Where he was in favor of Archie marrying off the agents and their trainees, now that he met Claudette he didn’t think he could go through with it. He didn’t want to be with anyone else. He thought she was the one.
They had spent every free moment together. He walked her to the boarding house every evening, dropping Pearl off on the way there. He would take the longer way around, so they’d have a few more precious moments together, but still letting her arrive in time for supper at the boarding house.
He was thrilled when she found out she had made it into the final selection. They spent Friday afternoon strolling in the garden and he showed off his knife throwing skills, much to her delight.
“I’m going to pick up Mrs. LeBas and bring her back for the final selection this afternoon. I thought we could grab lunch in the park before we come back. It is going to be a long evening.”
“Hmmm. You’ve been spending a lot of time with her this week.”
Bronco paused. “I enjoy her company. But I’ve been interacting with most of the women that have been here this week.” Marianne looked at him but didn’t say anything. “You can’t say that I’ve been improper in any way.”
“I’m not. I know you, Bronco. You wear your heart on your sleeve. You may not realize it, because you put on a tough exterior sometimes, but I think you have fallen for Claudette LeBas and I don’t want you to risk getting your heart broken if she is assigned another partner.”
“Then make sure it doesn’t happen, Marianne.”
“I can’t do that. Archie makes the final decisions.”
“You have more power than you realize. And don’t go giving me advice about getting my heart broken when you should be watching out for your own.”
A flash of hurt spread across Marianne’s features, and Bronco immediately felt regret. “I’m sorry, Marianne. I didn’t mean it.”
“I know,” she said softly. “It hurts because it is true. Go meet Claudette and I’ll see what I can do.”
Bronco slammed his hat on his head and headed towards the park, Marianne’s words ringing in his ears.
“Is everything alright?” Claudette asked. They had taken a quick stroll through the park after he picked her up, stopping for hot meat pies at a vendor on the corner. Claudette was seated next to Bronco on a park bench. She noticed he hadn’t even touched his lunch. “Is the pie too hot?”
Bronco looked down at his fork in the middle of the pie, dark gravy oozing out of the flaky crust. “Er, no. It is fine.” He took a bite of the pie, but it didn’t taste like anything. Normally they were one of his favorite dishes to enjoy while walking through the park, but he was still going over Marianne’s words from this morning.
“Then what is it? You’ve been quiet all morning.”
He turned and looked at Claudette, “Do you believe in love at first sight?”
Claudette choked on the bite going down her throat. “I wasn’t expecting that question.”
“It has been bugging me all week. Something that Victoria said.”
“Mr. Gordon’s sister?” She had only met the younger Miss Gordon once this week.
“Yeah, that’s her. She is like a sister to me. And being that younger sister, she doesn’t hold anything back.”
“What did she say to you?”
“She asked me about love at first sight. I ignored her. Mostly because she was making ogling eyes at Mav.”
“The other agent?”
“Yeah. Archie would flip a gasket if he thought she was smitten with him.”
“Well, a woman knows where she is supposed to be.”
“Was it that way with your first husband?” Claudette paused. “Forgive me, I asked something inappropriate.”
Claudette reached over and put her hand on his arm. “You can ask me anything. I was just thinking how to respond.” Bronco nodded. “We had a unique arrangement. We were married because our fathers arranged it. It was mutually beneficial to both sides. But no, it wasn’t love at first sight. He was a good man and I grew to care for him greatly. We had a good life until the war started. It gave us three good years together.”
“Mind me asking how old you are?”
“I just turned 30.”
“How long has he been dead?”
“Just over five years. Isn’t it ironic, he died after the surrender at Appomattox. There were still some outlying battles that hadn’t received word. I decided it was time for me to strike out on my own.”
“Is that what brought you here?”
“I thought we were doing one question at a time, and it seems you’ve had more than one question.”
“Will you answer my first one, though?”
“Do I believe in love at first sight? Yes, I do, Agent Wauneka.”
Bronco stood and offered his hand to Claudette, taking her rubbish. He went to the bin to dump it before returning to assist her from the bench. “We should head over to the agency. I guess this is it.”
“It?”
“If you make it through, you’ll be assigned to your agent partner. I don’t know who that will be, but all the agents are top-notch. Don’t judge anyone before you get to know them.”
“What an odd thing to say. I won’t. I trust the agency to match me with the best partner.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Claudette hadn’t seen Bronco since they arrived back at the house. He was called with the rest of the men to a meeting with Mr. Gordon at the dormitory. Several of the women had arrived earlier and were milling around the garden, or sipping tea in the library. The entrance to the dining room was blocked off with screens. Claudette decided to go sit in the library and see if she could pick up where she left off with her book earlier in the week. She had just settled in, curling her legs underneath her when she saw Marianne come in the room and look around. Claudette smiled and the young woman approached her.
“Are you ready to have the house back?” Claudette asked, signaling to Marianne to have a seat in the overstuffed chair next to her.
Marianne sat down and blew a curl that was falling in her eyes back. “It has been a week. I don’t think the house has ever seen so many people.” She crossed her feet at the ankles and leaned her head back. “I’ve quite enjoyed the company this week, but I am ready for the quiet of the house again. Well, as quiet as it can be with a bunch of boys thundering through it.”
“You really enjoy your job, don’t you?”
Marianne opened one eye and looked at her. “I really do. Even though I say it is like running an orphanage for high-strung boys, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. These are my boys, even though most of them are older than me.”
“I know they think the same about you.”
Marianne nodded. “It is nice to hear that every once in a while.” She closed her eyes again. Claudette went back to her reading.
It had been less than five minutes when Marianne heard Pearl call her from the kitchen. “Marianne? I need your help.”
Marianne sighed. “No rest for the weary. It shouldn’t be long now.”
“Do you need me to help you?”
Marianne got up from her seat. “Not right now, but we may in a bit.” She headed towards the dining room, slipping behind the curtain.
Claudette looked out the window and saw Archie coming out of the dormitory. Their meeting must be over. It had been a few hours at least. She saw him stop under the tree to speak to Arielle and Charity before making his way towards the house. The two women scrambled up from where they were sitting underneath a tree and went to each woman, saying something. Soon Claudette saw the group of ladies venturing towards the house.
“I think they are ready to do something,” Claudette mentioned to the
other women in the library. “We should probably go to the main hall.”
The ladies filed out of the library and started to mingle with the ones that had come in from the yard. They stood waiting for a few minutes and then Mr. Gordon appeared, with a step stool. He placed it on the ground before climbing on it, so he could see the crowd of women gathering around him. Marianne came and stood beside him, appearing even shorter now that he was standing on the step.
Claudette tried to appear calm although her hands were shaking, and her heart was about to beat from her chest.
An Agent for Claudette (The Pinkerton Matchmaker Book 4) Page 5