Mail-Order Groom

by Lisa Plumley

  “That’s why I’m going to ask you again.” Mose leveled her with a serious expression. “Are you sure about this marriage scheme of yours? You’re not hitched yet, you know. It’s not too late to go on to San Francisco.”

  “I’m not going to San Francisco!”

  “All right, all right. You don’t have to get testy.”

  “I’m sorry, Mose. It’s just that I’m done with performing. Beyond done with it. It was never right for me. I just didn’t know any better. Being on stage was all I ever had.”

  “You were powerfully good at making a crowd happy.”

  At his loyal declaration, Savannah smiled. She had earned her share of applause over the years. “What I want now is to make a husband happy. That’s all. I’ve been dreaming of having a regular, ordinary life for so long. I tried to grab hold of it in Ledgerville, but that didn’t pan out. Now I have a new plan, and I’m certain it will work, as long as I’m patient.”

  Mose looked away, clearly longing to argue with her…but unwilling to do so. Savannah knew he was entertaining the same unhappy memories she was. They’d had this conversation before—before one enterprising gossip had tacked up that incriminating newspaper story for all to see. Before the rumors had flown around Ledgerville in a matter of days. Before the townspeople there had shunned her. Before the sheriff had confronted her.

  Before her fair-weather friends had suggested she leave Ledgerville on the first train out and never come back.

  Even Alistair Norwood, the young telegraphy operator who’d taught her all she knew about operating the equipment, had been unable to stick by her. Usually so willing to buck the system, Alistair had turned unexpectedly cold when faced with her past.

  Until the scandal had turned up in Ledgerville, Savannah had actually believed that her family’s story—and the notoriety it had engendered—would not follow her west. She’d truly thought that the newspaper coverage had been confined to the New York City tabloids. Those dirty papers had found the news of a husband-and-wife theatrical team who’d swindled the city’s theater owners out of thousands of dollars in extortion money too outrageous not to print. Especially given the shocking detail that Ruby Reed had willingly seduced those theater owners herself in order to set them up for her husband’s extortion demands. The fact that their daughter, dancing sensation Savannah Reed, hadn’t been involved in their schemes hadn’t mattered one whit. To everyone who read the papers’ breathless daily reportage, Savannah was as good as guilty, too. She was a “Ruthless Reed,” as the papers had deemed the family after her parents’ arrest. That was all that seemed to matter to anyone.

  That, and the fact that a glorified dance-hall girl couldn’t possibly be considered marriageable by any decent man.

  “I know you’ve put a pile of faith in your marriage plan,” Mose said. “But do you honestly believe changing your name will be enough? You could have done that much without a husband.”

  “Only by lying. And I refuse to do that any more than necessity demands.” Uncomfortably Savannah thought of the show of feminine frailty she’d carried out for Dr. Finney. If she were truly that delicate, she’d never have survived this long on her own. “Surely I’ll be forgiven the occasional fib, given the circumstances. Besides, it’s not as though I set out to find myself a mail-order groom on purpose, you know. The idea didn’t even occur to me until I met Mr. Corwin over the wires. When we struck up our friendship, I felt truly blessed to have found a kindred spirit.” She cast a wary glance at the other room, where Adam was sleeping. “The fact that our marriage will allow me to finally have a real home life is just an additional benefit. I promise I’ll make him happy, too. He won’t regret marrying me.”

  Already she could picture the scene—the two of them, hand in hand, leaving the church as husband and wife. The wives and mothers and women of Morrow Creek welcoming her, as a happily married woman, into their quilting circles and sewing bees. The men in town tipping their hats respectfully at her…instead of offering her that hungry, unsettling leer she’d grown used to back in the city. Dreamily gazing past her telegraphy equipment, Savannah imagined herself raising children, fussing over her husband, celebrating Christmases and birthdays as a family.

  That was all she truly wanted—all she’d ever wanted. But she couldn’t have any of that if she were still Savannah Reed, The Seductive Sensation of the New York theater circle. Yes, men had wanted The Seductive Sensation. But they hadn’t wanted to marry her. They hadn’t wanted to be seen with her in daylight.

  Like Warren Scarne, they’d only wanted to use her.

  “I have a lot of love to give!” she assured Mose. More than anything, she hungered to love and be loved. Her heart fairly pounded with the necessity to give to someone special. “I know I can be a good wife to Adam. And he can be a good husband to me.”

  “Humph.” Her friend frowned. “He’d better be good to you, or I’ll know the reason why. That’s for certain.”

  Smiling, Savannah patted his arm. “There you go protecting me again. I promise, Mose. I’m much stronger than I look.”

  Dubiously he raised his eyebrow.

  “I am! I’m very strong. Since we came out west, I’ve gotten quite good at swinging an ax to split firewood. I’ve learned to haul heavy buckets of water, drive a wagon, fix the shutters—”

  “Baltimore’s not that far from New York. What if he finds out the truth about you—or knows the truth already?” Mose jabbed his chin toward the other end of the station, where Adam slept in peaceful unawareness. “What will you do then?”

  “If Adam were going to recognize my name, he would have done so right away. He would have mentioned it in our correspondence. People hardly react with indifference to me, you know. The fact that Adam hasn’t so much as hinted about the scandal means I’m safe for now, I’d say. And he’s been nothing but respectful toward me. That bodes well, don’t you think so?”

  Her friend gave a noncommittal sound.

  “Besides,” Savannah went on, “by the time Adam gets well, gets settled in and finds out about what my parents did back in New York City, we’ll be long married. He’ll love me. He won’t care a whit about what happened. I’m counting on it.”

  Even more skeptically, Mose raised his other eyebrow, too.

  Uncomfortable under his scrutiny, Savannah shifted. “All right. If Adam finds out, it will break my heart. Is that what you’re so keen to hear? That I’m afraid he’ll leave me?”

  At that, Mose’s expression softened. “I’m not keen to hear anything of the kind. All I want is for you to be happy. You know that. Trouble is, I’m not sure this is the best way to go about it.”

  “It’s not as though I plan to keep my past a secret forever!” Defensively she lifted her chin. “I’m going to tell Adam the whole story…someday. When I’m sure he loves me enough not to be scared off by knowing I have two thieves for parents.”

  Her friend gave a soft sound of commiseration. “It’s not your fault what they did. It was their decision to take that money from those theater owners. You didn’t even know about it.”

  “Even so… I’m still The Seductive Sensation.” Savannah raised her worried gaze to Mose. “It doesn’t show anymore, does it?” She turned in a circle. “I’ve been trying to erase it.”

  She’d traded all her spangled, satiny costume dresses for modest calico and wool. She’d restyled her hair and ditched her bosom-augmenting horsehair pads. She’d scrubbed her whole face clean and given away every ounce of powder and paint she’d ever owned. But on the inside, Savannah still felt imprinted by her life on the stage…and everything that had gone along with it.

  “Well?” she pressed. “Does my stage background show?”

  Wearing a smile, Mose shook his head. “All I see is a lovable lady. A lady who’s trying her best to love someone.”

  “Good.” Relieved, Savannah sighed. “Because that’s exactly who I am these days—exactly who I’m going to be from now on.”

  A clatter a
rose at the telegraph, alerting them to a new message coming in. Knowing it would need to be relayed down the wire, Savannah hastily reached for her notepad.

  This was the part that she already loved about her new life here in the Arizona Territory—using her expertise with the telegraphy equipment to transmit messages. Not many women were telegraph operators; most of those with an interest in working the equipment were men. Deciphering messages required a keen ear and intense concentration, especially in a crowded station like the one she’d shared with her mentor, Alistair.

  He’d taught her how to decode the signals and transmit them with rapid movements on the equipment’s keys. Ready to do just that, Savannah listened hard…but not quite hard enough to block out Mose’s parting words as he headed outside.

  “I’m just saying my prayers,” he said, “that you done picked the right someone to love this time, that’s all.”

  Bothered by his doleful tone, Savannah shook her head. Then she turned to her telegraphic apparatus and got down to work.

  As the station door banged open, Linus Bedell jerked in surprise. Still lurking in the shadows of the building’s narrow side, he flattened himself against the wall. He couldn’t risk being seen here—especially not now. Alert with one hand on his gun belt, he listened as the door swung shut. Its hinges whined.

  Footsteps crunched across the gravelly ground.

  But they weren’t coming in his direction. That meant he hadn’t been spotted. Feeling immeasurably relieved, Linus sank against the rough split-log wall behind him. From the other side of that wall, the familiar sounds of the telegraph machine could be heard. But Linus didn’t care about that. All he cared about was that big colored fella—the one who was always hanging around the station, keepin’ company with Roy’s new “fiancée.”

  Releasing a pent-up breath, Linus shifted. He felt hot, tired and bored to tears with snooping on his brother’s latest mark. He felt a mite sorry for the ladies his brother romanced and stole from. But, as Roy had explained, those women were just dumb. They went for his scams willingly. He never forced them. That’s what made all the difference. At least that’s what Roy said, and Roy usually knew best. That’s why Linus stuck by him.

  Well, that and the fact that they were brothers, of course. Brothers watched out for one another. Especially the Bedell brothers. If they’d had a motto, that surely would have been it.

  Well, that, Linus considered, or else “shoot first, steal second, skedaddle third.” Feeling clever for having thought up that witticism, he chuckled. But he sobered quickly. Roy was laid up. He’d been hurt bad in his tussle with that do-gooder detective who’d been trailing them. They’d all been forced to hole up in a Morrow Creek boardinghouse until he got better.

  Because of that, Roy had appointed Linus as his second-in-command on this operation. That meant Linus had to buckle down. He knew his brother was depending on him. He couldn’t let Roy down. Now, thanks to what he’d just overheard, he wouldn’t.

  That big man’s footsteps grew fainter. That was a good sign. Shuffling sideways as silently as he could in his oversize stolen boots, Linus sneaked a glance around the corner of the station. The big man was all the way across the yard now, headed for the fenced corral and makeshift barn. Linus had already searched that whole area. He’d found no sign of the station lady’s nest egg. Now he smelled like cow patties, to boot. That just went to show—it wasn’t all wanted posters and high livin’, being part of the Bedell gang, no matter what anybody thought.

  Linus wished folks would recognize that. He and his brothers were just tryin’ to get by as best they could. They didn’t want to hurt nobody. But so long as chowderheaded ladies kept on fallin’ for Roy’s sweet-talkin’ ways and signing up for his marriage schemes, those swindles were going to continue.

  It was just like Roy had explained to him and the rest of his brothers: if they didn’t fleece those ladies, someone else would come along and do it for them. Sure as shootin’. So why shouldn’t the Bedell brothers reap the benefits themselves? Free enterprise was the American way, after all. Roy always said so.

  Newly reminded of his reason for being at the station, Linus cocked his ear toward the window. He held his breath. But all he heard was the telegraph machine. That meant the woman was still busy. And with that big man of hers off at the barn, this might be Linus’s best chance to get inside and look for the nest-egg money he was supposed to be getting.

  Don’t come back without the money, Roy had ordered in that stern, scare-the-pants-off-a-man voice of his. That woman’s sitting on a tidy sum, and I ain’t leaving without it.

  Ordinarily Linus didn’t like to disobey his brother’s orders. The whole reason they’d done so well in their business endeavors was because of Roy’s brainpower and good leadership skills. Until Roy had taken over, the Bedells had been truly down and out, with scarcely a sparerib to share between them.

  Now each of them was doing right fine, with enough coin to spare for all five of the brothers. They had no need to work, ’cept for a bit of thievin’ here and there—usually whenever something caught their fancy, like the horses and tents and bits and pieces they’d lifted off them soldiers a while back.

  Roy had been plenty generous with his windfalls. It was because of him that the Bedell brothers had prospered and made a name for themselves—even if it was an infamous one. So Linus owed Roy plenty. His brothers did, too. But this time, Linus thought he might have to make a decision all on his own—because of what he’d overheard the lady and her man talking about.

  I’m still The Seductive Sensation, she’d said.

  Those words had made Linus’s ears perk right up and have a listen. Because he knew all about The Seductive Sensation. He’d seen posters for her shows. In those posters, she’d looked all sparkly and pretty—just like she’d been wearing diamonds all over. She didn’t look like that right now. But that didn’t change anything. Linus wasn’t as smart as Roy, but he knew what he’d heard. He wasn’t fooled by The Seductive Sensation’s new clothes and dowdy hair. Back when he’d seen those posters, Linus had wanted to go to her show (and maybe snatch some of those diamonds of hers, too) but Roy had put the kibosh on that.

  He hadn’t even listened when Linus had started in telling him about the special way The Seductive Sensation danced. Roy fundamentally hadn’t wanted to hear it. He’d smacked Linus pretty hard to make sure he realized it. A few days later, they’d headed to Kansas City for their next marriage scam.

  Things had really gone to blazes then. Roy’s “fiancée” for that scheme had kicked up a big fuss, and Roy had had to put her down. But Linus had known better than to needle him about it. Roy was always in a sour mood whenever he had to kill someone. Linus guessed that showed his brother was still a good person on the inside, no matter what circumstances forced him to do.

  This time, though, Linus figured they could get through this particular scheme and clear out of Morrow Creek afore things got bad again. That was what he wanted most. Leavin’ behind dead bodies always made him worried. It made him worried for his eternal soul and for the eternal souls of his brothers…just in case the Almighty didn’t understand how tough things were, now that it wasn’t biblical times with milk and honey anymore.

  That’s why Linus had volunteered to go look at the telegraph station himself for the nest-egg money they were after. His other brothers weren’t nearly so squeamish about what happened to the ladies in Roy’s schemes. They’d as soon shoot up the place, tear it up to get the money, then bolt for the Mexican border. They were within a few days’ ride—close enough to Mexico to get off scot-free with whatever they did.

  That nearness made the other Bedell brothers antsy. And hostile. And twice as hotheaded as usual.

  But Linus considered himself a sight subtler than that. He knew if he just watched awhile, he’d learn where that money was hidden—and he wouldn’t have to kill nobody for it, neither.

  So far, he had learned a few things. The lady who ran the place—
The Seductive Sensation, he remembered with a thrill—was pretty, with golden hair. She liked to sing while she milked the cow. She’d named the cow Penelope. The chickens all had names, too.

  The colored man who helped her kept funny hours, too unpredictable to count on. When he was around, he scared Linus something fierce. That big man might be old, but he moved with authority. Even though he was armed—and a decent shot—Linus knew better than to tangle with a man like that. Not if he could help it. That was the kind of man who formed posses and went after people. Linus didn’t want to wind up getting gunned down by somebody’s crotchety grandpa. That would be plumb embarrassing.

  He’d also learned that Adam Corwin was alive. He’d been surprised by that. That surly, relentless damned detective was shot up something fierce, and he was bandaged up tighter than a schoolmarm’s corset, too. He’d done a lot of groaning those first couple days. But he was alive and kicking. Under the station lady’s tender, lovin’ care, he appeared to be healin’ fast, too.

  Knowing those facts wouldn’t exactly thrill Roy, Linus had kept them strictly to himself so far. He hadn’t yet gone back to Morrow Creek to report in. He didn’t want to get smacked again. Or hear Roy’s mean-as-a-cuss voice. But this news—the news about The Seductive Sensation—well, this news just might be vital.

  If Roy’s mark was really The Seductive Sensation, that meant she was rich. Richer than they’d imagined! Likely she’d be worth as much as four or five other marks all put together.

  And he could collect her gargantuan nest egg. He could bring it to Roy himself. He could be the hero, for once.

  The idea had powerful appeal. Still lurking in the station building’s shadows, Linus pictured himself showing up at the Morrow Creek boardinghouse with huge moneybags in both hands. The image made him smile like a cowboy in a whorehouse. His brothers would be damned impressed; that was for certain.

  He’d have to make his move pretty quick though, afore the detective got all the way recovered. Linus definitely didn’t want to cross Adam Corwin. That detective was one tough cuss. He was impossible to bribe (that was the first thing Roy had tried) and impossible to shake off (they’d learned that through three states and two territories so far). If Corwin got better afore Linus found The Seductive Sensation’s bonanza nest-egg money…