“Pappa?”
“Ellen?”
She looked up into his face, “Vhat are steel balls?”
~~~
Liam scanned the surroundings on the sun-bleached platform immediately after disembarking. Eva was by his side. Liisa was on her own feet with Eva’s firm hand around her baby’s.
“It sure looks different, here,” Ellen said, standing on the platform in Helena. The landscape in Helena was open, virtually void of trees, and it was not green. It was also extremely dry, not humid like in Minnesota. They walked into the train station. Liam went to the counter and arranged to have the trunks held until they had a place to have them delivered.
“The man at the counter said there’s a very nice hotel down the street called Last Chance Gulch.”
“Dat name of hotel?” Eva asked.
“No. Last Chance Gulch is the name of the street.”
“Vhat gulstts?” Eva asked.
“A gulch is a valley. The name of the street came from the gold strike originally found in the gulch. The name stuck. It’s the Hotel Helena. They’ll deliver our trunks there.”
~~~
The family headed to the hotel in a single-horse-drawn cab. The driver, who introduced himself as Jake, looked to be in his fifties, maybe sixties, with a broad rimmed cowboy hat. He wore a faded red and white checked shirt and dungarees, and well-worn cowboy boots. His face was permanently sun-browned and leathery; his life outside in the elements was evident. He donned a double leather gun belt with two ivory-handled pistols.
“I didn’t know the guns were allowed anymore,” Liam said to Jake.
“Oh, well, it’s not as common anymore, like fifty years ago, even twenty,” Jake said. “But I transport rich people, mine owners, racehorse owners, and their guests and family. They feel better knowin’ I’m armed.”
Jake looked around at Liam and smiled. A sun-bleached handle bar moustache hid his teeth.
“I get big tips from the big-wigs. There was just a huge crowd in town this past weekend for the annual horse races. Looks like you came at a time that you can get a decent room. There weren’t any to be had a few days ago. Same happens when the bare-knuckle fist fightin’s in town. That’s been banned for two years, though. A guy by the name of Sheridan McKay, a real hard ass—oh, sorry, children and a lady present. He’s a bad sort of … well, he can’t come back ’til next year.”
Liam’s stomach lurched and he felt lightheaded, but he managed to hold on to Liisa in his lap. “Has he been here before, say five or so years ago?” Liam asked because he suddenly sensed he himself had been here before. In those years with McKay, he never paid much attention to where he was at any given time. Places became nameless.
“Oh yeah, off and on fer years.”
“Have ye seen any of his employees lately? You know, with leather vests.”
“No,” Jake said. “I recollect ’em.”
Liam noticed Jake had a curious look on his face, but for whatever reason, Jake didn’t pursue clarification about Liam’s last question. Liam appreciated that.
Liam looked at Eva, whose face blanched ostensibly with anxiety. His eyes went to Ellen, but she seemed too enthralled with the cowboy cabbie to notice what Jake had said and whom he had mentioned.
Jake pulled his horse and cab into the shade of the port cochere of the hotel. While the Dadys climbed out, Liam paid the cabbie.
“Thanks, Jake. What’s yer last name in case I want an armed cabbie?” Liam asked.
“Russell. Jake Russell. Just ask the other cabbies.” Jake tipped the visor of his cowboy hat. “Ma’am, Little Miss.” He drove away with an affable smile.
Ellen stood under the port cochere, blue eyes wide, her mouth frozen in a toothy grin. She stared at Jake Russell as he drove away. “Did you see his moustache? It vas huge.” She laughed like a loon.
~~~
The suite of rooms had a full bathroom, with a giant cast iron tub.
“I know vat I do right now,” Eva announced after spying the tub. “I gonna take Liisa in vit me to vash her, too.” She went to the carpetbag and retrieved her last clean outfit, with undergarments she had washed on the train and dried in the wash room. She also had a clean nightgown left. She went into Liisa’s bag and got what was left to dress her in. Since it was nearly Liisa's bed time, Eva decided she would just let her run in a diaper and save her outfit for tomorrow. Ellen was running out of clothes, too. The hotel would have laundry service.
Liam turned the tub faucets to run.
“Don’t make it too hot, Liam,” Eva said. “Nice and cool, please.” She came into the bathroom and peeled off her wet, sticky clothes and dropped them where she stood. “Ugh, dat vas terdible ride. Too hot.” She stepped into the tepid water.
“Huhh.” She sighed with relief as she sat and stretched her legs, and then immersed the rest of her hot body in the cool water. She opened her eyes to see Liam gazing lustily at her full breasts.
“Wish I could join ye instead of Liisa. It’s been five days.” He smiled, looking at her longingly.
She smiled back. “Ve do somptink lader, at night.” She, too, missed Liam. They were unable to make love on the train in such close quarters. “Can you brink Liisa in ’bout fifteen minutes. I luff some time ’lone.”
“I’ll do anythin’ for ye, just don’t kick me out o’ bed tonight,” he said quietly. He rubbed himself in a lewd manner, albeit good-heartedly.
“Liam Dady,” Eva tried to scold him. “I am glad door is see-yut.” She laughed and splashed him. “Mene pois!”
“Ye’re tellin’ me to go away?” he said with a pouty lower lip.
“Yes,” she said with feigned indignation.
He stuck his tongue out at her and last second, kneeled to give her a passionate kiss. As he was closing the door, she looked over her shoulder and almost changed her mind, but he was gone.
Eva immersed her whole body in the tub, letting her sore joints and muscles float. She felt a bone in her lower back fit back into place with a slight pop. Her attention went beyond the closed door. She heard chatting, but not playing. She thought she heard Liam say the word nappie. He must be getting Liisa ready to come into the bath, she thought. But after several quiet minutes, Liam came into the bathroom and began to undress as soon as he closed the door.
“Both girls are out cold on the Turkish carpet. I thought …” He had his hands on his trouser buttons and a big grin on his face. Soon he was naked, with his intention apparent. He stepped in the tub opposite Eva, who was delighted at the turn of events. He had the same reaction Eva did when she entered the cool water. “Huhh,” he sighed. “How are we goin’ to do this?”
Eva said nothing. She climbed on top. Her knees straddled Liam’s lap. He slid right in. He was slightly buoyant, making it easy to move his hips up and down while she stayed still. With their lips touching in a prolonged kiss, he thrust in and out, moving the water in his rhythm. Eva held the back of his head so she could be lip-locked with him. Soon he was jerking uncontrollably underneath her, trying to be as silent as possible. Eva soon followed. She, too, struggled to be silent. She heard him laugh breathlessly.
“Was it good for ye, sweetheart?” he asked.
“Oh, aye, it vas.” She licked the water from his neck.
“So much for waitin’ for later. I can’t stand ye so near and not bein’ able to have ye when I want, especially when yer breasts are bare.” He kissed them. “Thank God for children, but, thank God for separate bedrooms and door locks.”
“And bik tub in hotel,” Eva said. She went back to sitting. “Velcome to MON-tana, Liam.” She said it as a Finn would say it, accent on the first syllable.
~~~
Liam ordered a supper of sirloin steak and potatoes, with cherry pie and coffee for dessert, served in the suite. The girls enjoyed a cold glass of fresh milk.
Afterwards, Liam lounged on one end of the couch with his belly full and his clean bare feet up on a leather hassock. He made an itinerary f
or the next day on a piece of hotel stationery. Eva, in a plush, dark blue, velvet club chair, sipped on a cup of coffee with copious amounts of cream and sugar that Liam had prepared for her.
“I vant lotta cream and SOO-gar.”
“Ye shouldn’t have all that—”
“I vant lotta cream and SOO-gar,” she’d said it again exactly like the first time.
“Fine,” he’d muttered and eyeballed her. He’d gotten a bratty smile when he’d delivered the cup of coffee as per dictated.
“First thing I’ll do tomorrow,” Liam announced now, sitting back on the sofa and reading from his itinerary, “is go to St. John’s and see the administrator. Dr. Andersen has already wired him. Then I’ll go to the bank with my fund transfer instructions and get that taken care of. Then we’ll look for a house.”
“Maybe doctors at hospital vill haff idea of house,” Eva said.
“I’ll ask. Good idea. Oh, and I already wired Ed and Annie from the front desk.”
Eva was glad to hear that. “Ve can stay here. I still feel tired, even if ve did have nap after bat.” She was referring to their little love bath and snooze afterwards, while Ellen and Liisa slept like rocks on the red Turkish rug until supper had arrived.
“It was a long haul on the train for all of us. I can see it in your eyes, Eva. Look how the girls are sleepy even when they’ve had a nap.”
“I’m not tired,” Ellen declared. “As a matter of fact, I’ve decided to stay up half the night to finish The Prince and the Pauper. I love Mark Twain. Do you know his real name is Samuel Clemens?”
Liam and Eva glanced at each other.
“I wish ye well in your evening endeavor,” Liam said.
“Thank you,” she answered with her nose buried in the book.
Ellen, washed and in her night gown, was stretched out with a pillow behind her head, book in hand. She was “sharing” the sofa with Liam, who had one third. Her growing legs took up most of the space. Liisa was nearly asleep, curled up on Eva’s lap with her thumb in her mouth. The baby’s belly was full of mashed potatoes, tiny bites of juicy steak, and a big cup of fresh milk on ice. She had her double diaper and wool panty on for bedtime.
Just after sundown, Liam took Liisa from Eva’s lap and put her to bed in the wooden crib that had been provided and placed in Ellen’s room.
“Should I wake Ellen just to walk her to bed? She may clock me with a right hook for wakin’ her up,” Liam speculated, pointing to Ellen, laughing silently at the open Mark Twain book leaning on her face nearly covering it.
“I don’t know,” Eva said. “If you can lift her, dat may be bedder.” She smiled at the scene.
Liam picked Ellen up off the couch and placed her in her bed, tucking her in. He put her book next to her.
Eva and Liam quickly followed suit and soon were comfortable in their own bed, drowsy and near sleep. They were too tired to do anything. They spooned up, with Liam behind Eva. He put one hand on her lower belly and kissed her on the back of her neck. Eva understood that he never forgot someone else was on the way.
~~~
At seven in the morning, Liam woke to a light tap on the suite door. It was the porter bringing Liam’s freshly pressed gray summer suit and white dress shirt. His shoes came back freshly polished. Liam shaved and dressed quietly as Eva snored adorably, sprawled out on the double bed now that he wasn’t in it. He smiled at the beauty of it all. He wanted to make love, but he could do that later. They had the rest of their lives to do that. Rather than risk waking her with a kiss, he penned a quick note and put it on his pillow. For quite a while, Eva had been asking Ellen and Liam what different written English words were, so her reading and spelling repertoire had been growing. She would be able to read it.
Eva, my sweet—I’ll be back by mid-day. Order anything for breakfast and lunch. I love you. Liam.
He checked on the girls. They were still asleep, the precocious strawberry blond and the dark curly-top. He left both bedroom doors open, then left for his errands with the essential paperwork for job, banking, and house finding.
~~~
Liam exited the cab at the front entrance of St. John’s Hospital. It was located in the section of town known as Catholic Hill. Looking around, he thought Ellen was right. It was starkly different than Minnesota North Country.
He felt the heat of the day coming on.
“Later in the day it may reach one hundred,” the front desk clerk had said at the hotel before Liam left. But the clerk said it was a “dry heat,” whatever that meant. Hot was hot. He’d find out soon enough.
As Liam walked through the double front doors, the hospital smell of cleaning agents and the polished floors made him feel at home. A receptionist greeted him at a desk in the front lobby, a young, dark-haired woman with it pinned back in a tight bun. Her face was severe, but in an odd way she was attractive.
“How may I help you,” she asked. She thrust her breasts forward. Her pupils dilated as she gazed at Liam from her reception table.
Liam felt uncomfortable. She seemed to be intensely attracted to him.
“I’m Dr. William Dady. Dr. Johnson is expecting me. My wife and daughters and I just arrived from Minnesota.”
The spark completely faded from her green eyes as soon as Liam said “wife.” Liam found this amusing. He tried to remain polite and business-like.
Behind the receptionist was a small operator apparatus for the hospital. She pulled a plug from the base and plugged it in where a label said “Johnson.” After she pushed a ringer button, she put the telephone's ear piece to her ear and held the base to speak into the mouth piece.
“A Dr. Dady from Minnesota is here to see you.” She paused a moment, then hung up the ear piece. “He said come right in. It’s the third door on the right, down that way,” she instructed.
“Thank you,” Liam said, still business-like. I hope she realizes I’m not one to trifle with. Eva would have a field day with her, he thought.
He walked down the immaculate hospital’s gray-tiled hall to the third door on the right. ‘Dr. Wayne Johnson, Hospital Administrator’ was painted in blocky, black lacquer on the window of the thick, wooden door. Liam knocked and heard a jovial, medium-pitched voice bidding him entry.
~~~
Wayne Johnson was a short, white-haired man in his sixties. His skin was much paler than the sunbaked residents Liam had seen so far in Helena. Johnson’s paleness must have been from decades of spending so much time in the shade of a hospital. He reminded Liam of one of Snow White’s dwarfs from illustrations in Ellen’s fairytale books. They shook hands.
“Have a seat, Dr. Dady. William, is it?”
“That’s my proper name. I go by Liam.”
“How was your trip out here?” Johnson asked as they both took chairs. A giant, file-strewn desk separated them.
“It was long and hot, with two girls, one eleven and one seventeen months, and my wife with child.”
“These high plains can get quite warm this time of year. The trick is to stay indoors until sundown in the summer,” Dr. Johnson said humorously.
The conversation and interview went exceeding well, with Liam to start in one week.
“Would you know of any available housing nearby?” Liam asked.
“An elderly gentleman living in a very nice house at the end of the street passed away just recently. He was a long-time mine administrator with a lot of money. He left it with furniture and everything. If you go to Old Union Bank, they should know about it.”
“Brilliant,” Liam said. He felt relieved.
“It’s the big house to your right as you leave through the front door, facing the street’s end. I do believe it was built in the early eighties. I hear it’s quite the place.”
“Thanks, I’ll have a look at it,” Liam answered. He stood with Dr. Johnson and shook his hand.
Just as Liam was about to leave, another doctor, a very Irish looking man, came in the office. “It’s all over the hospital that ye�
�re here,” he said with a strong Northern Irish lilt. “So, I came to meet ye. My name is Sean O’Neill.” He put out a friendly hand to Liam. He was Liam’s age, or thereabouts, tall and lean with a mish-mosh of curly, chestnut hair and a smattering of freckles. His smile was charming. “I hale from Derry, then New York City,” he said.
Liam knew he meant Londonderry. Only the Protestants and Brits called the city that.
“I’m Liam Dady. Pleased to meet ye.” Liam extended his hand. “Belfast, then Minnesota.”
Sean asked, “Protestant or Catholic?”
“Both,” Liam answered. He got a puzzled, amused look from Sean O’Neill. “I’ll explain later.”
~~~
Liam arrived returned to the hotel in the late morning. Not surprisingly, everyone was still asleep. He shut the girls’ door and went into the other bedroom where Eva was. He closed the door and turned the key in the lock. She, too, was still asleep, only in a very provocative pose. She was on her belly with one knee up, hugging her pillow, her buttocks completely bare and her nightgown bunched up at her waist. Her hair was completely down, with wavy, light red-gold trusses lying along her back and half-covering her rosy cheeks. The room was gaining in heat from the Montana morning sun.
“Holy God, Eva, yer arse is so white and …” He spoke under his breath. He didn’t know what word to use.
He took off his suit and good shirt and hung them in the open trunk. He sat on the edge of the bed. Eva stirred. And he was glad, because she came right to him, smiling.
“I vanna be on bottom,” she whispered.
Eva and the Irishman Page 61