“Daisy and I were both home three years ago. It was strange coming back as adults after being out on our own, but slipping back into practically acting like kids again. We expected Grandma to have made fudge and divinity like she did every Christmas when we were growing up.”
“And did she?” Holly could imagine Nolan as a young boy snitching fudge from a plate when his elders weren’t looking.
“Of course! She’d heard the train whistle blowing announcing the train’s arrival, and met us at the door with a plate of sweets,” Nolan chuckled and shook his head. “How I’ve missed her.”
“You’re lucky to have a family,” Holly probably sounded like she felt sorry for herself, but now she was jealous.
“Do you have any family in Pennsylvania or Kansas that you know of?” Nolan leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees, staring intently at her.
“I may have distant cousins in Pennsylvania, but Father never corresponded with anyone. My mother talked about her brothers and sister, but I’m not sure where they are now.”
“The Cheyennes moved down to the Oklahoma Territory, south of Kansas. Probably only a day’s train ride from my home.”
What would it be like to see her aunt after all these years? Would she look like her mother? If she were a full-bloodied Cheyenne staying with the tribe, she would be living on a reservation now.
“Would it be possible to track my Cheyenne relatives?”
“I don’t know, but I can find out when I’m home and write back to you if you’d like.”
“Next stop Billings!” The conductor called out as he walked down the aisle, causing Myrtle to awaken.
“Are we here? Already?”
“You slept most of the time, Myrtle. I think you were tired after all the packing and visiting you did the last few days.” Nolan smiled at the older woman. He treated all women with respect and a smile. Why couldn’t all men be like him?
“Nolan, I want to thank you for everything you’ve done for us this week. I realize you’ll continue on after this stop, but I hope you can step off to meet my family.”
“I’d like to meet them. The conductor said we’ll be here for an hour.” Everyone turned to look out the window as the train’s brakes slowed the cars to a stop. The engineer had already blown the whistle when it was approaching Billings, so people were starting to gather on the train platform.
“There they are! They got your telegram, Nolan! There are my grandchildren!” Myrtle’s ample bosom was pressed against Holly as she leaned toward the window to wave at her family.
Holly saw the moment Myrtle’s daughter saw her mother and waved back in excitement. What would it feel like to see family again? Tears filled her eyes again.
“Ladies, it’s time to get off. You go on down the aisle, and I’ll get the things from the overhead shelf.”
Holly fastened her cape, straightened her hat, and pulled on her gloves before following Myrtle to the stairs. She glanced back to be sure Nolan was behind them. Within the hour, he’d be back on this train and out of her life, and she’d be looking for a way to survive again.
“Delia! I’m here!” Myrtle was waving at the top of the car steps before the conductor helped her down to the ground. Holly watched the reunion before following. Her daughter, son-in-law, with a bundled baby in his arms, and two young children, a boy, and a girl, instantly surrounded Myrtle.
This time Myrtle’s tears were for joy. Why hadn’t she moved here sooner? Myrtle had the family she could have been living with instead of running a café practically by herself.
Holly felt when Nolan came to stand behind her, shielding her from the wind. She looked over her shoulder, surprised to see a sad, melancholy smile on his face.
“What’s wrong, Nolan?”
“I guess I hate to leave you here by yourself. I’ve gotten used to being with you.” Was it the cold or his embarrassing words that caused his cheeks to turn red? Either way, she liked his concern.
“Delia and George, I’d like you to meet Holly Brandt who worked for me, and Nolan Clancy who helped us in the café this last week and escorted us to Billings. He’s on his way to Kansas.”
“I’m George Cline. Nice to meet you,” George said as they shook hands.
“We need to get you out of the cold, Mama. Let’s go to the depot to wait while George loads your trunks into the wagon.”
“How many trunks do you have for me to pick up, Mother Randolph?” George asked as they walked toward the depot.
“I have four—I brought dishes and linens for you—and Holly has one trunk.”
“I’ll help you find their trunks since I know what they look like,” Nolan said as he started to walk with Myrtle’s son-in-law.
“Miss Brandt is stopping in Billings, too? Where do we drop off her trunk?” George stopped to ask Myrtle instead of herself.
Holly froze as Myrtle looked at her daughter and son-in-law. “She’ll be staying with us, of course. She doesn’t have anywhere else to go since I closed the café and left her homeless.”
The looks Delia and George exchanged told Holly she wouldn’t be staying with them as Myrtle planned.
“Mama, our house is too small to squeeze another person in,” Delia gently said to her mother.
“Nonsense, there’s always room. Holly can sleep on the floor in my room then until she finds employment and a place to stay,” Myrtle announced.
“No, she is not welcome. I’ll drop her trunk somewhere, but that’s it.” George’s stance made it clear Holly was not stepping a foot in their home, now or ever.
“George, Holly is standing right here.” The man didn’t move a muscle with Myrtle’s reminder.
Holly dropped her face in shame. Myrtle talked so highly of her daughter and son-in-law, but they were as bigoted as most people. What was she going to do now?
She raised her shoulders and faced Myrtle’s family. “It was nice to meet you. Goodbye Myrtle, Nolan,” then turned on her heel, blindingly pushing through the crowds to get away from the group that had spurned her.
“Holly?!” She heard Myrtle call but didn’t slow her pace until a hand gripped her elbow to stop her. Holly twisted to get away until she heard Nolan’s voice.
“Are you all right?”
“How can you ask that?! Myrtle assured me I’d be welcome to stay with her daughter until I could find work and a place to live. But instead of a ‘nice to meet you,’ the couple emphatically stated I’m never to set foot in their house!”
Holly shoved against Nolan’s chest to get away from him, but he tightened his hold instead. If she didn’t stay mad, she’d collapse on the frozen ground and weep hysterically.
She hadn’t felt this alone and adrift since her father died. Holly took a deep breath, trying to calm down.
She’d sleep in the depot tonight if allowed, or a church, livery, or whatever she could find to keep halfway warm. She had no choice but to depend on herself now. Myrtle’s family wasn’t an option for anything.
“Holly,” Nolan had pulled her against his chest, and she longed to sink into his warmth, but she remained stiff, not daring to seek his support either. Nolan was leaving within the hour.
“My offer still stands, Holly. Please travel with me to Kansas. You can work in the café and live in the apartment above it.”
She rounded on him, knowing he was just feeling sorry for her.
“So how does that work? Are you kicking out who is living in that apartment now? Are you firing another waitress so I can have her job?”
“Oh...well,” Nolan hesitated, apparently realizing he couldn’t offer her either after all.
“Your grandparents still own the café, Nolan, not you. They’ll be just like the Clines, not wanting me around because I’m a half-breed.”
“Stop it right now.” Nolan had a hold of both her shoulders now and leaning so close to her face, she could feel his breath on her cheeks.
“You are a beautiful woman, Holly. Never put yourself down like that aga
in.”
She tried to blink back the tears clouding her eyes. He thought she was beautiful? He’d said that another time, but she didn’t believe it then. Could he really mean it?
“I promise if you can’t work and live in the café, there will be something else in town you can do. It’s a growing town and my friend, Mack, wrote there were several new merchants on Main Street. There are elderly couples in town you could help, as you did Myrtle. Maybe a rancher needs a housekeeper.”
“But there’s no guarantee I can get a job there.”
“No, but I guarantee you will have a place to live, either with my grandparents or at the parsonage. There is room for you in Clear Creek, Kansas, Holly. Please come home with me.”
Please come home with me? But where is ‘home’ now?
“You’d be home where your mother’s people lived. We could visit your mother and sisters’ graves at Fort Harker. Maybe we can find your aunt and uncles.”
Holly relaxed into Nolan’s embrace as the words sank in. In her mind, she could see the prairie where she had played with her older sister, feel the unique wind, which blew over the grass. She’d lived in the Montana Territory more years than Kansas, but she felt like Kansas was home.
Holly opened her eyes as Nolan let go of her and stepped away. Myrtle took his place to embrace her in a hug as she whispered, “I think you should go with Nolan. He’s a good man and true to his word. You’ll always be safe with him.”
Myrtle pulled back and wiped away Holly’s tears with her thumbs. “You know Nolan has Fred’s recipe book. That’s a good reason right there to chase after him.”
Holly couldn’t help blushing, as Myrtle lifted her shoulders in a shrug and smiled.
“Thank you for all your help this past year, Holly. I couldn’t have kept going without you, but it’s time my daughter takes care of me.”
“Thank you for taking me in when no one else would.”
“That was my gain, their loss. Please write to me when you are settled in your new prairie town. I want to hear all about it.”
“And you can write to Holly in care of the Clancy Café. If she’s not there, I’ll be sure she gets your letters,” Nolan promised Myrtle.
Well, what choice did she have really? Apparently, she wasn’t welcome in Billings, but Nolan promised he’d help her in Kansas. Holly wiped her cheeks and took a deep breath.
“All right. I need to buy a train ticket to Kansas then and get back on board.”
Nolan extended his elbows to both women. “May I escort you both, one more time, to the depot?”
Chapter 8
Nolan took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves as he helped Holly back on the train. He’d promise to find Holly a place to live, work, and find her relatives. Most of the time he was a self-confident man, but this vow to Holly felt bigger and more important than anything he’d accomplished in his army career. It had been his duty to keep travelers safe as they crossed the Territory. Now a promise to keep one person safe was causing him to sweat in this frigid cold.
Why did it give him self-doubt? And why did the vows he’d heard Pastor Reagan say at weddings keep repeating in his mind? Probably because it had turned personal. He’s spent time with Holly, getting to know her personally rather than a person on a wagon seat you waved at as you patrolled along a wagon train.
Nolan followed Holly down the aisle until they came to an available bench. More people had boarded the train than had left it at Billings, so there weren’t many seats available.
“Let’s sit here, Holly. Do you want the window or aisle seat this time?”
He tossed their bags overhead on the shelves and turned back to Holly since he hadn’t heard her answer.
“Holly?”
She shook her head rather than answer, and sat down by the window, immediately looking at the people moving around the depot platform. Nolan took off his coat and hat and laid them above their bags before sitting down beside Holly.
He traced her gaze to Myrtle who was looking toward the train car, searching the windows for a glimpse of Holly. Nolan reached over and laid his hand on her tightly clasped hands in her lap.
“She’ll be fine, and so will you. I promise.” He wasn’t surprised when Holly turned tear-filled eyes up to meet his gaze.
“Thank you, Nolan. Not just for your promise to help me in Kansas, but for helping us at the café and moving. Myrtle was getting frail, and I knew she’d soon fall and break a hip or something worse. You delivered her safely to her family and took a worry off my mind. I was glad to help her but...”
“She’d only let you do so much?”
“The train delay in Miller Springs was a blessing and a curse. It showed Myrtle she couldn’t handle the café cooking anymore, but...”
“It left you without a home and job. That will change once we get to Clear Creek.”
The train engine started puffing, working up its steam to leave Billings.
They silently watched out the window as the train pulled through town, then out into the open landscape of white.
After a few minutes, Nolan noticed Holly had shut her eyes, but there were still wet streaks down her cheeks she hadn’t bothered wiping. Maybe she would finally get some rest so he wouldn’t bother her for a while. The rocking of the rail car as they crossed the prairie would help her sleep.
They had several days of travel to get to know each other if Holly would open up to him. He sensed she’d had a hard life, but knew no different way of living. Growing up on forts was different from what most children experience. Then moving into Silver Crossing, an isolated mining town, would have been an experience in itself. There would have been very few women living among the miners. Did the men bother her or protect her? Since she moved to Miller Springs, he guessed the former.
What would Holly have done if Myrtle hadn’t taken her under her wing? Kept traveling on to another town he supposed, if she found a way to do it without much money. Holly mentioned someone who took mail and supplies between Silver Crossing to Miller Springs, had given her a ride for the two-day journey.
Holly might have stayed in Miller Springs if the Campbells asked her to stay with them, but she didn’t get an invitation. They probably thought she had a better chance to find a job in Billings.
Holly’s breathing had evened out, so she was finally getting some sleep. Nolan wanted to wipe away the dark smudges under her eyes as well as the last of the glistening tears on her long black lashes. She looked so peaceful except for the telltale remnants of her sorrow.
Her head had slowly drifted against the cold window, and she now shivered, pulled her cloak closer around her. The position didn’t look comfortable, let alone warm.
After letting her settle down again, he moved his left arm around the back of the seat and gently pulled her shoulders towards him, so that her head rested on the top of his chest. After a heartbeat or two, she snuggled into his warmth and let out a sigh in her sleep.
He had to admit it felt good to have his arm around Holly, even if the silly feather in her hat did tickle his chin until she moved her head down an inch. He’d love to see the hat off and her hair unbraided. Seeing her braid down that one day meant her hair would land below her waist.
It made Nolan think of his grandmother brushing and braiding his sister’s hair when they were young. Who took care of Holly’s hair after her mother died? Her father probably did his best, or maybe there was another woman at the fort who helped with the things little girls needed.
He and Daisy were so lucky to have grandparents who had been able to step up to take care of them.
He rarely thought of it, but the Reagan boys had been lucky, too.
Angus and Seth’s mother died, but then Patrick Reagan married Kaitlyn O’Brien, an Irish immigrant mail-order bride who sailed into the port at New Orleans. She had befriended a young mother of two boys on the ship. When their mother died, Kaitlyn claimed Fergus and Mack as her sons and brought them with her when she met and married
Patrick. The couple loved and protected the four boys as if they had always been theirs.
Cullen, the son of a soiled dove, came to live with them after his mother died. He was pulled into their tight family, but there had been some tough times. Nolan remembered a few fights when Cullen was bullied or ran away. Mack was his protector and always brought him back into the family fold, even though Mack wasn’t a blood relative to anyone in the family except Fergus.
The Reagan’s son, Tully, was their only child together. The happy-go-lucky boy had five older brothers to watch his back. He was the most mischievous one in the pack, and always bordering on the edge of right and wrong, trying Marshal Wilerson’s patience more than once, in addition to their father’s.
One of the reasons Nolan wanted to move home, was to start his own family. He was ready for a partner in life, and hopefully children.
Nolan looked down at Holly comfortably sleeping against his chest. He hoped for several children to complete his marriage. Could he adopt children like the Reagan’s had? If given the opportunity, he wouldn’t hesitate. Children needed families, simple as that.
What if the children were like Holly, mixed blood or full Indian? Would that bother him?
He thought of the Indian children he’d seen in camps and the fort over the years. They were the innocent leftovers of the adults fighting. In many places, the Indian children were being sent to schools to become “white,” in other words, dress like white people, learn the English language, and forget their native way of life. In some ways that were good so they would fit into the changing world, but in other ways it was sad they were losing their culture.
Other families around Clear Creek had taken children in need into their families, too. Marcus and Sarah Brenner adopted eight children when Nolan was a teenager. Sarah had tended a widow who gave birth to triplets and then died afterward. Besides becoming instant parents to three baby boys, they became responsible for the widow’s three other children.
Marcus, a soldier, released from the army because of injuries he received in a wagon train ambush, was called back to Fort Hays right before the couple was married, to identify two children found after the raid. Marcus brought them back to the Cross C Ranch to add to their family.
Grooms with Honor Series, Books 7-9 Page 18