Kevin laughed, placing a portion of food on his plate then hers before handing the platter on to the next guest. “My father’s the most charming man you’ll ever meet. All of his sons learned from him.” He waited until she picked up her fork before digging into his own dinner. “Although I believe you’ll find desperation makes a man resourceful as well as endearing.”
She sobered. “Not everyone.” She glanced unconsciously to her side and then focused again on Kevin. “There are those who are embittered by it.”
“Tell me, Miss O’Keefe. What brings a sweet lass like yourself to Fort Benton?” His smile broadened as her blush deepened under his appreciative stare.
“How do you know I’m sweet?” she blurted out. Her fidgeting gave her away and he laughed. “My aunt wanted to travel there and I go where she goes.”
He frowned at her answer. “Where are you from?”
“Albany, New York.”
“You do understand Fort Benton won’t be like the city you left?” He raised an eyebrow as he stared at her.
“I realize Fort Benton will be an uncivilized place, like Saint Louis. My aunt has assured me that although society is more limited, it is still refined.”
Kevin gaped at her. “Refined?” He murmured with a hint of amusement in his voice. “I fear your aunt has a very different definition of refined society than the folks of Fort Benton.” He waited until he saw interest in her gaze. “Backwoodsmen, bullwhackers, stagecoach drivers, and the occasional Indian aren’t who you imagined for your social calls.”
“Are you mocking me?” she asked, her cheeks flushed with indignation as her brown eyes filled with panic at his words.
“No,” he murmured, reaching forward to clasp her hand as she balled it into a fist. “No, miss. I’m trying to let you know that during our long journey to Fort Benton, you need to cease any romantic imaginings you have of the place. For it won’t be a thing like you expect. It’s wild, and loud, and uncivilized.”
She watched him with a wide-eyed gaze, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she fought her anxiety at the thought of what awaited her in Fort Benton. “What more would you tell me?”
“Never go out in the evening. The men are often sick with firewater and they might forget the deference owed you.”
“Firewater,” she breathed, raising a hand to her forehead. “Is it too late to turn around?”
He laughed and nodded. “Imagine the reason you had for traveling there, and I’m sure that will bring you comfort.” He frowned as his suggestion made her flinch. “Or not. Enjoy the next couple months as we travel north.”
She took a deep breath. When her deep brown eyes focused solely on him, his breath caught and he coughed so as to make it look as though he were unaffected by the intensity of her stare. “Tell me about your family,” she whispered.
“My family,” he said as he settled into his chair. “There are a lot of us.” He smiled and nodded to a man a few chairs down from her. “He’s my eldest brother, Ardan. Then I came along and then my sister, Niamh. Next is Declan. He might be twenty-five, but he’s intent on living his own life. Although he’s as Irish as the rest of us, he already looks like he’s lived in Fort Benton for ten years. He works with Ardan an’ me at the warehouse.”
“A wild man,” she breathed.
He laughed at the description of his brother. “Aye, but only in appearance. Otherwise, he helps run the business, as do all of us lads. Finn and Eamon run the store. Bryan, Oran and Niall help when they can, but Da wants them to study. Says with education they’ll get farther than the lot of us combined. An’ wee Niamh, my sister, has a babe.” His smile was one of dazed disbelief. “I’m an uncle.”
She laughed. “Another boy?”
“Nay,” he said as his hazel eyes shone with delight at the thought of his niece. “Wee Maura is a delight, but I know she’ll be a hellion like we were.”
“And your mother?” she asked.
Kevin played with his fork and shook his head. “Dead. Many years ago. Along with our baby sister, Maggie. It’s been Da and us. Well, and Colleen, but she died too. So, it’s just us again.”
Aileen looked at him. “I don’t have any brothers or sisters. You’re fortunate you have so many siblings.”
He shrugged and then gave her a teasing half-smile. “You can say that now when you don’t know them. Wait until the twins act up, and then you’ll yearn for your quiet life again.”
“The twins?” she asked, her brow furrowed.
“Ah, Eamon and Finn act like twins, although they aren’t. They’re only a year apart, with Eamon twenty two. Look enough like twins too.” He smiled. “We’ll have a grand party for you when you arrive so you can meet everyone.” He winked at her. “We’ll be your version of high society.”
She burst out laughing at his impudence, but then her breath caught at the subtle manner he offered her friendship. And maybe something more. She continued to smile broadly at him, although she attempted to temper her attraction to and fascination for him as she knew she was promised to another. “I … I hope you will still want to hold such an event when we arrive.”
His eyes gleamed with joy and he soon had her giggling about nonsensical topics, her mind far away from any serious concerns.
Ardan followed Kevin into their cramped stateroom and tumbled onto his single, lower-bunk bed. Kevin had lost the coin toss and he had to sleep on the top bunk, his face inches from the ceiling. “What are you thinking, Kev?” Ardan asked as he folded his arm over his face as exhaustion struck. The soft breeze from the open window wafted in, and the sound of water lapping against the steamboat acted as a gentle lullaby.
“I’m thinking ’tis nice to finally be abed after a hard day’s work,” his brother muttered. A boot thunked to the floor as he kicked off one and then the other.
Ardan sat up and swore as he bumped his head on the mattress of the upper bunk. After grunting with displeasure, he peered up at his brother who looked down at him. “That woman isn’t for you, Kev.”
“Why would you think I’m interested in her?” Kevin challenged.
Ardan ran a hand through his black hair, seeming surprised to find it as short as it was. One of the last things he had done in Saint Louis was visit the barber. “You nearly leapt over the table and set yourself on fire with your eagerness to sit beside the lass. You do realize she’ll be dinin’ with us for the foreseeable future?” He raised an eyebrow and sighed as his brother merely stared at him. “And then you failed to speak with anyone but her during the entire meal!”
“Is it my fault the lass is a good conversationalist?” Kevin asked with a guileless expression on his face.
Ardan gripped the edges of his shorn hair, speaking in a low deliberate voice as though hoping his brother would deign to understand him. “While you were enjoying yourself being charmed by the lovely lass, I had the misfortune of finding myself seated next to her aunt.” When Kevin smirked at him, Ardan smiled and shrugged. “The woman was not shy in informin’ me about their predicament.”
Kevin frowned. “What predicament?”
“Why do you imagine a single woman and her destitute aunt are travelin’ to Fort Benton?” Ardan asked. “It’s no’ to join the fine society.” He saw his brother sober at his words. After a moment, he spoke in a gentle tone. “Her aunt Davies was only too eager to inform me that your Aileen is already betrothed to a man in Fort Benton.”
“To whom?” Kevin demanded.
Ardan shrugged as he continued to watch his brother. “On that one detail she remained discreet. On everything else her aunt Davies was an open book.”
After flopping onto his back, Kevin sighed. “Are you tellin’ me I have no hope?”
“Unless you can suddenly pay a man back for two exorbitantly priced tickets for a private stateroom to Fort Benton in the middle of a gold rush, you should look elsewhere, lad,” Ardan said somberly. The price for tickets had risen to unforeseen heights with men eager to travel to Montana to try
their luck in the towns of Virginia City, Bannack, Helena, and other towns in the newly formed territory. It had been a boon and meant tremendous growth for their family business in Fort Benton, although it had also meant that Ardan and Kevin had needed to spend the winter in Saint Louis to procure all of the necessary supplies for their burgeoning store and stockpile it in their warehouse there, as they sent loads with various ships that traveled north during the short spring and summer season the steamboats could travel up the Missouri River to Fort Benton.
“I wish …” Kevin whispered. He swore under his breath and then punched at the bedding. “I know you never want to marry. That you never want to meet a woman who fascinates you. But I never thought to meet a woman who intrigues me like Miss O’Keefe.”
“You’re daft,” Ardan said. “She’s betrothed to another. You can’t have her.”
“Maybe I’m more like Niamh than I realized,” he murmured.
“Kev,” Ardan said in a warning tone. “Let the lass go. Ignore her for the rest of the journey.”
After a long silence fraught with tension, Kevin murmured, “I’ll try, but I know I’ll fail.”
Chapter 2
Two weeks later, Kevin stood on the deck in the evening, battling impatience and his own common sense at his desire to see Aileen again. He fought to think of her as Miss O’Keefe, but when he thought of her, he did not think of the formal woman in ugly dresses who stood stiffly beside her aunt with no hint of the interesting woman who was fascinated about the world around her. Instead, he saw Aileen. The woman whose breath caught at the sight of a shooting star. The woman who gripped his arm unconsciously when a pelican swooped by the boat deck. The woman who listened with attentive interest and always spoke wisely as she considered what he said and refrained from saying. The woman who encouraged his dreams.
He took a deep breath as he fought the fear he was beginning to feel more for her than he should. Terrified of loss after the death of his mother, he worried he would suffer as his father did should Kevin allow himself to care for Aileen, only to lose her.
Relaxing at hearing her quiet footsteps and smelling her subtle scent of roses and soap, he smiled a welcome as she slipped into the shadows beside him. “Miss O’Keefe,” he murmured. “I was keeping a watch out for another shooting star, hoping I wouldn’t see one without you.”
In the faint light he saw her smile. “I fear I acted a ninny when I saw it.”
“No,” he said, turning to fully face her. “Never. You’ve not had the chance to experience nature and the wonder of it having lived your life in a city. Why shouldn’t it enthrall you?”
She returned his smile, her gaze caught by his, and a meteor display could have occurred without either of them noticing. “How was your day?”
He shrugged. “Like every other day since we boarded. Filling time until we docked to load wood, and then a few minutes where Ardan and I could stretch our legs.” His inquisitive gaze continued to meet hers. “Why didn’t you disembark today?”
She flushed and dropped her head, breaking their glance. “My aunt thought it imprudent for me to continue to mingle with the ruffians---” She gasped as though belatedly realizing she had just insulted him. At his chuckle, she bit her lip, fighting a smile. “I wish I could have walked a little ways today. I never realized how small a ship could be.”
“How confining,” he murmured. Unconsciously, he had moved to stand closer to her.
“You never seem to run out of things to discuss with your brother.”
“He’s my best friend and we talk over everything.” He frowned. “Although you wouldn’t know what that is like seeing as you have no siblings.” He leaned closer, his smile teasing. “Some days I think you’re fortunate as having eight can be a challenge.”
She sighed as though that sounded like a blessing. “No, Mr. O’Rourke, you have no idea how fortunate you are. To know you will never go through life alone.”
“Aye,” he said. “We are fortunate. An’ our Da is dedicated to us. Always ensures we are well tended to. Listens to our ideas about the business. Sees us as partners, rather than workers.”
“He sounds like an exemplary man,” Aileen murmured.
“He is.”
She frowned as she heard an undercurrent of discontent in his voice. “What’s the matter, Mr. O’Rourke?”
He shrugged, hitching a hip out so it rested against the railing. “I know I am fortunate. I have family always around me. But lately, I’ve felt a dissatisfaction. I want more.” He paused, looking to the distant riverbank barely visible in the weak moon’s rays. “And I know I have no right to feel as I do.”
Without thought, she grabbed his hand. “No, Mr. O’Rourke. Why discount what you feel?” She blushed at his frank, assessing gaze. “I’m certain that if you want more, you will find a way to obtain it.”
“Before I met you, I thought it was my work I needed to change. That I chafed at always bein’ around family.” He cupped her cheek and brushed his lips over hers in a chaste kiss. “Now I know how wrong I’ve been.”
Before she could respond, the loud, imperious voice of her aunt ricocheted through the quiet night, and she jumped back a step. She scurried away, entering a side door, unseen by her aunt who was rounding the deck.
Kevin watched Aileen’s hasty departure, slipping into the shadows, as he watched her aunt search for her niece. When he was alone again on the deck, he let out a deep breath, knowing that the memory of her soft lips on his would haunt his dreams.
A month after their journey began, now at the end of April, Kevin walked around the deck in an attempt to do some form of physical exertion. He feared he would go stark raving mad soon as the only entertainment on board was a never ending game of poker and seeing how much whiskey he could guzzle in a day. He never joined in on poker matches as he had so many tells that he had lost his shirt on too many occasions. Ardan forbade him from ever playing poker again, even for chores with his brothers. And he only liked to sip at a glass of whiskey when he talked over problems with his Da. Thus, Kevin had already read the novels he had stuffed into his travel bag and feared he would read them three times over by the time he arrived.
After the fifth circuit around the deck, he paused and crouched so that his arms leaned over the railing. Men lingered nearby, many napping or telling tall tales as they rested on pallets on the deck. Some spun stories about the riches they would earn and the palaces they would own when they returned from the wilds of Montana. Kevin fought a smile as he knew the true riches were earned by those who sold supplies to the miners. Few of these men would return with anything more than a pocket full of dust.
He watched the distant riverbank, marveling as a piece of it crumbled into the river as though it had been churned and eaten away by the Mighty Missouri. On his second journey on this river, he fully understood why it was called that. He hoped and prayed they would arrive with no mishaps, healthy and with their merchandise ready to sell.
As invariably occurred, his thoughts returned to Aileen O’Keefe. She was a paradox to him. Prim and proper without an ounce of personality when standing beside her aunt, she was full of vitality and life with him. He rubbed at his temple as he thought through her interaction with other people traveling on the steamboat. Her cool civility was often remarked upon by the other men, men who yearned for female companionship, and they resented her ease with Kevin. He smiled to realize he was able to draw her out of her shell. “I wonder if I see the real woman,” he whispered to himself as he stared out at the distant riverbank.
He jerked as he was poked in his side. Glaring at the finely dressed woman beside him in a mauve colored dress that highlighted her gray hair with streaks of brown, he stared at her with veiled animosity. “Mrs. Davies,” he said with a deferential nod of his head. He wondered how she had the money for fine clothes where her niece looked as though she were a near pauper.
“Mr. O’Rourke,” she said with a sniff as though she found his presence distasteful. �
�I knew it was too much to hope you’d taken ill and would need to remain in your cabin for the remainder of our journey.”
He chuckled and leaned against the railing, his hazel eyes flashing with enjoyment at thwarting any of her wishes. “As I told you yesterday and the day before that, I’m well. I rarely am ill.” He looked at her. “I like traveling by ship.”
“Then it’s too bad you don’t take one and return to the godforsaken country you came from,” she snapped. Her brown eyes flashed with distaste as she glared at him.
He stood tall, a good half foot taller than her and his expression hardened as he looked at her. “You’re the type of woman who likes to imagine her life has been full of hardship, aren’t you? But you don’t truly know what misfortune is, do you, Mrs. Davies? You believe helping your niece was a sacrifice.” He paused, his hazel eyes glinting with disgust. “But that’s never a sacrifice. That’s what one does for family. Not out of charity, but out of love.”
“What would you know of suffering?” she asked as she trembled with rage. “You have no idea what I’ve endured.”
“Aye, I’ve no idea, just as you don’t know what I’ve suffered. You have no right to judge me, Mrs. Davies. Nor should you ever wish me to have to return to a land that didn’t want me. That threw my family and me off our lands as we fought starvation.”
She scoffed. “A likely story,” she sneered as she looked him up and down in his fine suit. “You’re a successful man. If you were one of those poor, wretched Irish who arrived during the famine, you’d still be begging in the streets.”
Kevin shook his head. “No, not begging. And not desperate enough to have to barter away one of our family members to an unknown stranger, prayin’ he’s a good man who won’t harm her.” He leaned forward, his coffee tinged voice wafting over her. “Do you ever worry about the type of man you’ve bound your niece to? Can you not see how terrified she is of the prospect of marryin’ a stranger?”
Pioneer Dream: The O’Rourke Family Montana Saga Page 2