She’d heard of the game—had even seen the miners play it—but a young lady of refinement would certainly never stoop so low. “You can’t be serious.” Shoving the cards back to him, she stood, wondering how she could manage to get to the aisle without touching him.
“Where are you going?”
“To get my dinner. It’s nearly noon.”
He gathered the cards and slid the deck in his vest pocket. “I’ll go with you. The Durango-Silverton has a decent dining car.”
She had no intention of sharing a meal with him, in the dining car or otherwise. Nor would he be buying his dinner. He only had two dollars to his name—she’d checked his pockets while he lay unconscious. “Velma packed a meal for me. The conductor has it, since I had my hands full getting you on the train.”
A dapper, forty-ish gentleman with sparkling green eyes made his way down the aisle, not a bit bothered by the jerky rocking of the train. “Young man, did I see you with a deck of cards?”
Lexie couldn’t stop staring at the man’s eyes—she’d never seen that shade of green eyes on anyone except her father. Thinking about him brought a pang of homesickness. She missed her father sorely.
“Why, sir, you certainly did,” Burke said with a full-toothed grin. “Join us in the smoking car and we’ll have us a little fun.” He stood and put his arm around Lexie’s waist. “We were just headed there.”
She sucked in her breath at his intimate squeeze and struggled to maintain some semblance of aplomb. This man would not get the better of her. Neither did she wish to go to the smoking car. Or the dining car. She’d consume her meal right here. Away from him.
He nudged her into the aisle. “My Lexie will join us. She doesn’t play, though.”
His Lexie, indeed! But considering her skirts, the narrow aisle, and the two men behind her, she had little choice but to proceed. She gritted her teeth and carefully timed her steps with the sway of the train, all the while hoping they’d find Patrick soon, and she’d be rid of his older brother for good.
As they sat around the table in the smoking car, the gentleman lit a cigar, then studied her for a moment. “You say your name is Lexie?”
“Miss Campbell,” she corrected. “Miss Alexandra Campbell.” She cast a sidelong glance toward Mr. O’Shaughnessy. Entirely too many people had acted overly familiar lately. “And you, sir?”
“Gil, uh, Smith. Gil Smith.”
She didn’t believe him for a minute. Maybe he was a wanted man, or hiding for some other reason, but his name was not Gil Smith.
“Burke O’Shaughnessy here.” He shook hands with the older gentleman, then like magic, produced a deck of cards from thin air. “How about a little game of blackjack?”
“Only if you’re playing square, partner. I saw you shuffle those cards back in the passenger car.”
“Aw, shucks, I was just showing off for my lady friend, here.”
She cringed at the gambler’s lie. The truth was, she’d never be any man’s “lady friend.” As soon as a man discovered her knack for mathematics and calculations of any sort, he would vanish in a split second. Mr. O’Shaughnessy, however, would never, ever be considered as a suitor. Respectable women did not associate with sporting men.
Burke held up the deck. “These cards aren’t marked. That deck is in my trunk...” He jerked toward Lexie. “Where’s my trunk?”
“Velma checked it.”
He nodded and turned his attention back to Mr. Smith. “How about we play for drinks?”
“All right. Deal ‘em. Square.”
She noticed Burke’s slight smile, and wondered what he had up his sleeve. Even though she pretended not to be interested, she just couldn’t resist sneaking glances at Mr. O’Shaughnessy’s dexterous handling of the cards. He was even better than his younger brother. Within an hour, her stomach growled uneasily while he raked in another hundred dollars of Mr. Smith’s money.
Standing, Burke offered his hand. “Let’s dine, dear.” He patted his vest pocket. “I’ve had a prosperous afternoon—a couple hundred dollars to the good.”
She’d choke before she’d eat food purchased with ill-gotten gains. “No, thank you. I have a sandwich.” After taking a couple of steps, she turned back. “You have two hundred and forty-seven dollars, precisely.”
She escaped back to the passenger car, where the conductor had left the flour sack containing her meal, and flopped on her appointed seat. Patrick better turn up soon because she didn’t know how long she could tolerate the charming Burke O’Shaughnessy.
And she certainly would never let him know that the logistics of vingt-et-un fascinated her. Ever. But she knew she’d be a better player than Mr. Smith, or whatever his name was.
The food Velma had packed tasted like mining tailings but Lexie was so hungry that she didn’t care. She brushed away the crumbs, folded the bag, and settled back for a nap. Just as she was drifting off, she heard children giggling.
Mr. O’Shaughnessy stood in the aisle, down a few rows, and removed a coin from a boy’s ear. “Why, I bet you didn’t even know you had a dollar back there!” He handed the boy the coin.
“I didn’t, I thwear!” The freckle-faced boy stared at the coin in his hand. “Honest, mithter, I don’t know how it got there.”
“I bet your little sister has one behind her ear, too,” Burke said. “Why don’t you check?”
The boy looked behind a wide-eyed little girl’s ears. “Nope, she ain’t got any.”
“Let me look.” Burke snatched a fifty-cent piece from the back of her head. “You forgot to look in her hair.” He handed the coin to the girl and patted her on the head.
Lexie couldn’t help smiling at the other children who wanted him to check their ears, or Burke’s laughter at the young ones’ antics. They seemed to follow him everywhere he went. Mr. Burke O’Shaughnessy was apparently the pied piper of the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.
He flopped in the seat beside her and grinned. “So how did an Easterner like you end up owning a mine?”
“How do you know I’m from the East?
“Accent. Looks. What city?”
“Manhattan, then Washington, DC. But my sister and I have been in Silverton for a year.”
“Parents?”
She closed her eyes and fought the tightness in her throat. “They still live in Georgetown.”
“So what brought you to Colorado?”
Her sister’s foolish escapade. Banished from society for playing the piano in a house of ill-fame. Helen had ruined Lexie’s chances of procuring a professorship because of her selfish lark. Lexie pursed her lips and stared at the seat in front of her, determined to keep her secrets her own.
“Ah, don’t dwell on bad things. It makes for ill humor.” He patted her gloved hand. She pulled away, not wanting to absorb the heat of him, even through a glove, nor wanting his brand of sympathy.
After a few moments he asked, “So how’d you come to own a mine?”
She dabbed her eyes and sniffed. “Half a mine. Our Uncle Gillespie gave it to us. A silent partnership owns the other half.”
“I have a hard time picturing a pretty lady like you working a silver mine.”
“I manage it. We have several employees.” The planning, assaying, and accounting were the most fun she’d had in years. He’d think she was strange, indeed, if he knew that.
“A woman of many talents.”
Shrugging, she mumbled, “It’s not worth much—we only scrape up enough silver ore to pay wages and buy a few groceries. We need that money your brother took—five thousand dollars. I’d planned to use the money to operate my own accounting firm until I can attain a professorship, then sell the mine to Dayton Wardell and give the proceeds to Helen. Now, thanks to Patrick, we’re both stuck on that infernal mountain.”
“Dayton Wardell?” A frown crossed his face.
“Do you know him? He’s our housekeeper’s friend. He wants our half of the mine and I want to sell it to him.”
Burke—it was all right to think of him by his first name, even if she’d never call him by it—leaned back in his seat. “I’ve heard of him.”
That didn’t surprise Lexie. Wardell seemed to be well known. She took out her ledger and recorded the money Burke had won, the cost of the cigars and the meal he bought, and value of the coins he’d given away.
He craned his neck to see what she was recording. “What are you writing in that book?”
“Tracking expenditures. Any successful enterprise requires meticulous accounting.” She snapped the ledger shut and put it back in her reticule. “Why did you give that money to the children?”
“Ah, Lexie,” he said as he winked at her, which flustered her all over again, “everyone needs a smile now and again, even little people.”
* * *
Dayton Wardell? Burke hoped this little venture to find his brother wouldn’t involve Wardell. He hadn’t been too happy when Burke had helped the Pinkertons nail him for fraud a few years back.
And Burke definitely needed to take a look at that book Lexie had written in. Maybe she had a clue to his brother’s whereabouts and he could send her back to Silverton while he tracked Patrick down. Not that Burke didn’t enjoy sitting beside her. A man could get used to having a beautiful woman around. But not for keeps, and Miss Alexandra Campbell played for a full house, no doubt about it.
He had to get away somehow. “We’ll be pulling into Durango in a few minutes. I’ll get the baggage and meet you—”
“I have the claim tickets for our trunks. I’m keeping the claim tickets for our trunks. You’re not going anywhere without me.”
“Lexie, you don’t give a man an inch, do you?”
“I give each person his due, Mr. O’Shaughnessy.”
Her formality was starting to gall him. “Burke. I asked you to call me Burke.”
“So you did.”
“What else do you have written in that little book of yours?”
“None of your business, Mr. O’Shaughnessy.”
Dratted woman! Who would have thought he’d ever get himself stuck with the iciest woman south of the North Pole. But he’d melt her. He swore to have her laughing inside of a day. “You’re my business, Lexie Campbell.”
Just as she huffed, the engine puffed. The whistle tooted and steam whooshed out as the train slowly inched its way to the Durango depot. He loved trains almost as much as Mississippi riverboats. Almost. Never had he failed to find a good time on either, but since he’d grown up on the riverboats, he supposed he’d have to choose them.
The train rolled to a stop and the engine let out its final gasp. “I’ll get us rooms while you claim the trunks, then I’ll hire someone to bring you and the baggage to the hotel.”
“No, thank you.” She clutched her reticule to her breast. “I’ll use my own money, honestly earned, to rent my room.”
He rolled his eyes, disgusted that she wouldn’t let him pay. Hell, wasn’t the gentleman supposed to pay? Or maybe Eastern women thought differently than riverboat women. One thing for sure, no woman thought like Lexie Campbell.
“So, darlin’, you’ll shoot a man, but you won’t use money won from a poker game?”
She shrugged as she brushed ashes and soot from her dress with her handkerchief. “I’ve never shot a man.”
“You dang well tried.” He helped her to her feet, then flicked a small bit of cinder from her cheek. The surprise in her eyes and the bow of her lips made her that much more kissable. When she didn’t step back, Burke O’Shaughnessy knew he was in serious trouble.
“But I didn’t,” she snapped, pivoting away and rushing out of the car. He wished all trouble had her hip action.
As they stood on the platform waiting for their trunks, he spied a couple of small boys with dirty cheeks and ragged clothes who studied each passenger who got off the train. Pickpockets, for sure. He palmed a silver dollar and ambled to them. “Good afternoon, boys.”
“Howdy, mister.”
“Got a good game going there?”
“We ain’t playin’. We’s watchin’. That ain’t agin the law.”
He took the smaller boy’s hat. “Lookee here, I never saw anyone carry his money in his hat.” He handed it back.
The boy’s eyes grew wide. “A dollar! How’d that git in there!”
“Do a job for me, and I’ll tell you.”
The older boy frowned. “You mean... work?”
Burke liked this boy—reminded him of himself. “Not exactly. See that proper lady in the dark blue dress with white silk flowers in her hat?”
The boys nodded.
“Pick a leather wallet out of her reticule. You can have the money, but put the wallet back. Understand?”
They ran a stride before Burke caught them by their collars. “One more thing. I want the little brown book in her reticule, too.”
“That’ll cost you.”
“I’ll pay you another dollar once that book is in my hand. Meet me in back of the hotel at seven o’clock sharp. Got it?”
They nodded and scampered off. Burke took his time walking back to Lexie, talking to a few other passengers and making himself sociable. He saw the little boy gently remove the book. Lexie didn’t notice a thing. And then the older boy pocketed her wallet, strayed away, came back to her, and put the wallet back in her reticule, just like he was supposed to do.
Burke didn’t know how much money she had, but it was high time she learned that his money was as good as hers.
* * *
Charity hid herself between two passenger cars and kept an eye on Burke, who stood on the passenger platform. She knew he was studying the others. She knew every move he’d make. In time, she’d let him know she was in Durango. Or maybe not.
He didn’t know the charity that would get his family money was Charity Ann Templeton. Smirking, she peered around the corner of the car, and wondered if he’d be smiling when he discovered his money in her bank account. All she had to do to get fifty thousand dollars was to keep Burke from finding Patrick—an easy-enough task.
She chuckled when he hired some street urchins to lift a lady’s wallet. But when he held his arm to escort that same woman to the baggage area, Charity didn’t know quite what to think. Anyone could see that the lady, dressed in a flattering but modest blue silk, didn’t have the slightest idea what had just transpired.
Burke had always been extremely clever and no one could reel in a fish better. Charity frowned, trying to make sense of it all—wondering why he’d picked a woman for his next fish. He’d never been known to relieve a woman of her money—and Charity had known Burke all her life.
Just then, a small woman poked her head out the train car window, then ducked back in as soon as she made eye contact with her. A few seconds later, she slowly raised her head again. Charity wondered who she was hiding from. She waved the girl to the back of the car and helped her down, over the coupling, before her awkward stealth called Burke’s attention to Charity.
“Oh, excuse me, ma’am,” the girl whispered as she brushed the wrinkles from her skirts. Curly blond hair and young, the poor thing shook like a harness feather.
A runaway. Charity had seen a hundred girls like her over the years on the road, and even had she not, she could hardly miss the girl’s reticence to be seen. “Are you hiding from someone?”
“Yes, uh, no.” She clasped her valise to her breast. “I’m looking for someone.”
“Aren’t we all.”
“No, really. But I don’t know where he is.”
A he. Charity should have known as much. “And I suppose there are others you don’t want to see you?”
“Yes, my sister.” The girl pointed to the platform. “She’s the one in the blue dress, standing by that man with the maroon-striped vest.”
“Oh?” Charity’s mind sped up. “Maybe I can help. Who are they?”
“My sister is Lexie Campbell and the man she’s with is Burke O’Shaughnessy. I plan to marry his bro
ther, Patrick,” she said, hanging her head, “if I can find him.”
Charity maintained a poker face, although she could barely suppress her glee. “And your name?”
“Helen, but please don’t tell anyone I’m here,” she begged breathlessly.
“Well, Helen, you’ll need a room for the night and a good supper. I’ll get both for you, then I’ll help you find your soon-to-be-husband.” She guided the girl through the crowd, avoiding Burke and the girl’s sister, to the nearest hotel.
In the room, Helen reiterated her request. “If either Mr. O’Shaughnessy or Lexie see me, they’ll send me home. But I must find Patrick!”
Charity smiled reassuringly as she tossed her carpetbag on the bed. “Just how sure are you that Patrick will marry you?”
“Oh, very sure. We... uh, we talked. That’s all. My sister thinks he stole our money but he didn’t. I gave it to him. He plans to turn it into ten times that amount so we can buy new equipment for the mine.”
Whether Patrick’s intentions were such or not, Charity couldn’t guess. But no doubt about it, Helen would be Patrick’s ticket to Mexico. Burke would never find him there.
The O’Shaughnessy family money would, indeed, be donated to “Charity.”
Chapter 2
Mr. O’Shaughnessy had gone straight to the hotel saloon, presumably to gamble, leaving Lexie to check in on her own, which was fine with her.
“That’ll be fifty cents, ma’am.” The hotel clerk turned the giant registry around for Lexie to sign. She dipped the pen in the inkwell and signed her name, then dug her wallet out of her reticule.
She smiled at the clerk, knowing full well he thought her a loose woman. No self-respecting single lady would travel alone. When she opened her wallet, she was shocked to discover it was devoid of even a single penny.
She’d been robbed!
“Ma’am, is something wrong?”
With a hollow stomach but forcing a smile, she glanced to either side of her, then back at the clerk. “Could you please hold my room? I seem to have come upon a difficulty.”
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