“Mandy…?”
Her sister was already lighting a candle. “I don’t know what’s happening. I’ll go and find out, if you just stay here.”
“Are you sure?” Crystal rubbed at her eyes.
“Yes, of course. It won’t be a moment. I’ll find a porter.” She slipped her day dress on over her night clothes and slipped out before Crystal could say anything else. As Crystal lay there and waited in the dark, it crossed her mind that Colin York was just next door – perhaps he would know something.
Surely Mandy had thought to ask him, too…
But that certainty almost made things worse. When Mandy slipped back into the room, still carrying her candle, Crystal sat up in bed, nearly striking her head against the ceiling.
“What is it?”
“Apparently there’s been a slide a little way up the tracks. How they saw it in time in this darkness, I’ll never know, but thank goodness they did.” Mandy put her candle out and climbed back into her bed. “The porter says that we’ll have to wait until it’s cleared.”
“Wait? Wait for how long?”
“However long it takes, dear. There’s no telling.”
Crystal lay back down and stared, eyes wide, into the darkness. “More days on the train…”
“I’m sure they’ll pass quickly, dear. Think of it, at least we have acquaintances now to help pass the time.”
Crystal did not say that this was what worried her. It wasn’t that she felt any particular attachment to this Ernest Flinn, of course, as she didn’t even know the man. But the more time that Mandy spent with Colin York, she feared, the harder it would be for her to part from him; and the less likely it was that she would find happiness with Ernest Flinn.
She closed her eyes tightly and sent up a quick prayer that they would clear the tracks that very night.
Her prayer went unanswered, however – or, at the very least, the answer was a resounding, “No.” It was a full two days before the train began to puff back into motion again, putting them significantly behind schedule – and quite comfortable in the friendship that had developed between the Chambers and Colin York and his sister.
“Mandy,” Crystal ventured one evening, when they had finished playing cards with Colin and Natalie and returned to their chamber. “Are you sure that you want to do this?”
Mandy glanced at her sharply.
“Do what, exactly, dear?”
“Become a Mail Order Bride. I mean – we could have stayed a little longer in Charleston. Just to see what would happen. My sewing orders were picking up, I know they were – maybe we could have waited, and you could have found another job next month…”
Mandy reached out and placed a hand on her sister’s shoulder.
“There’s no use in looking back, Crystal. We’ve made a commitment, and we are going to honor it.”
“But – what if you’re not happy?”
“I will do what I said I would do,” said Mandy, with determination in her voice. Crystal could do nothing but nod, a bit unhappily herself. The worry for her sister’s feelings would not be assuaged, no matter how she tried to frame it to herself.
But the end of the line came at last, when they reached Wyoming and their paths diverged.
Colin helped them with their bags as they got off the train and faced the next stage of their journey, which was to happen by coach. He smiled ruefully.
“From the iron horse to the horse of flesh,” he said. “I do hope that you will not be too uncomfortable.”
“I’m sure that we will be fine,” said Mandy, nodding firmly. Crystal noted that she was avoiding meeting his gaze, though he looked at her quite keenly. Suddenly, he reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“You’re freezing,” he said. “Shivering – you’re not dressed for this cold, either of you.”
Mandy lifted her chin.
“We’ll be perfectly fine,” she said. “I’ve got a blanket in the bag – we can huddle together and I’m certain that we will be quite comfortable. It’s only a day’s journey, after all.”
Colin glanced swiftly at Crystal, and then back at Mandy.
“Right,” he said slowly. “My dear friends, I wish you all the best, and thank you for your kindness to my sister and me – and little Anne, of course.” He managed a smile, but it was a bit weak and forlorn. “I hope – I hope that we may meet again someday.”
Crystal caught the look between them as Mandy finally turned her head to face him. It was brief, but full of such unspoken emotion that Crystal had to turn her head away.
“Goodbye,” said Mandy softly, and led her sister toward the waiting coach.
They established themselves as comfortably as possible, but it certainly was a great deal colder than it had been on the train. Mandy extracted the woolen blanket that she had brought from the bag that she carried, and the two sisters huddled together with the blanket barely reaching around both of them. They had managed to seat themselves in the corner of the coach, so they at least had something to lean against, with Mandy at the edge and Crystal close beside her. Mandy put her arms around Crystal under the blanket and rubbed at her shoulders, trying to help her warm up.
“I’m sorry, my dear,” she whispered. “I should have thought to bring another blanket.”
“We didn’t have another blanket,” Crystal reminded her. “We were just as cold as this back in Charleston, remember, whenever we ran out of coal.”
Mandy huffed out a laugh, which was a cold white cloud in the air.
“You’re right, of course. I expect Ernest Flinn will have plenty of firewood, though, so once we arrive, we’ll never have to worry about being cold again.”
“And he’ll have plenty of good hot tea, too.”
“And soup and bread.”
“And a hot bath.”
They traded their hopes for the future, all centered on becoming warm, and then were startled to hear a voice from just outside the coach calling them.
“Miss Chambers? Miss Mandy Chambers?”
“Yes?”
A young man poked his head in at the door. “I’ve been asked to deliver a package to you,” he said. “It’s from a gentleman on the train. He said you forgot and left it behind.” He handed over a large paper-wrapped package, tipped his hat to them, and left again. The other passengers on the stage began to trickle in and arrange themselves around the Chambers sisters; Mandy, clearly mystified, opened the package and let out a cry of astonishment.
Crystal glanced inside and laughed.
“Goodness! I can’t believe it.”
“What on earth…”
“Tippets,” said Crystal, pulling the fur-lined garments from the bag. “And gloves, look. And a blanket. How did he get these so quickly?”
“He must have rushed out and bought them as soon as we walked away from him,” said Mandy. Her eyes were very soft and faraway. Crystal wrapped one of the tippets around Mandy’s shoulders, and then did the same to her own. She pulled the second blanket over them and put on the gloves beneath its shelter. Already she was feeling much warmer. Judging by the flush on Mandy’s cheeks, she was feeling quite warm as well.
“He’s a very kind man, Colin York,” she said.
“Yes,” said Mandy, vaguely. “Yes, he is.”
“But Ernest Flinn will likely be just the same,” said Crystal softly.
“Yes, of course,” said Mandy.
But she didn’t sound as though she believed it.
Chapter 5
Ernest shrugged into his coat, stifling a sigh. Lina looked up at him with pleading in her eyes, clearly begging him not to go. She reached out a hand and slipped it into his coat pocket, gripping the lining to prevent him from leaving the house. He put his hand in after hers and held her fingers for a moment, warming them up.
“I won’t be gone long,” he told her softly.
“Three days now you’ve been going to meet the coach,” his mother said from her rocking chair in front of the fire. “Do you reckon she
’ll be there this time?”
“I hope so. Yesterday I checked in at the ticket office, and they said that there had been several slides on the railroad tracks, probably slowed travel down quite a bit. Maybe that’s what’s kept her.”
“Surely,” said his mother, doing her best to give him an encouraging smile. But he knew that she was thinking the same thing that he was. It was just as likely that Amanda Chambers had changed her mind halfway to Pepper Gulch.
Still, he had to keep trying. The day that he didn’t go to see the coach arrive would be the day that she would disembark from it. It was afternoon, only a few hours from sundown, hence Lina’s reluctance to let him leave them. But it would be worse for a stranger, newly arrived after an exhausting trip, to find that no one was even waiting for her.
He put his arms around Lina and hugged her briefly to him, then released her and headed for the door before she could offer any more wordless objections.
“I won’t be long. I’ll be back well before dark, I promise.”
Once again, on the off chance that Amanda Chambers might arrive on the coach, he hitched up the horse to the little farm cart and drove it into town. He’d never had much call to use the cart, apart from taking his family into church on Christmas and Easter Sunday. It had seen more use in the last three days than it had in the last three months. But you never knew, he reminded himself. This could be the day.
With a few others, he sat at the station near the inn and waited.
A few moments behind schedule, the stagecoach rolled up to its stop, the driver leaping down with alacrity, no doubt driven by his need for supper and an ale at the inn before heading off to the next stop along the way. A porter ran out to unload the baggage that was strapped onto the roof, and the double doors of the coach opened, spilling the passengers out to stretch and yawn after their long ride.
A young man, and a little girl with him; a pretty blonde woman who looked worried; the fourth person out of the coach, however, caught his attention. A very pretty girl, also with blonde curls, fresh-faced and sweet and wholesome like no one he had ever seen before. She looked up and outward as she got down from the coach, eyes sweeping her surroundings. Their eyes met, and Ernest caught his breath. Was this her?
His heart certainly hoped that it was.
He had no words for the tug on his heart that he felt when he looked at this stranger. Though she was completely unknown to him, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew her – somehow, he knew her very well, better than he had ever known anyone. The power of a simple exchange of glances was astonishing to him.
He hadn’t felt like this since…
No. He had never felt quite like this.
In a fog, he got down from the driver’s box of the little cart and approached the stagecoach. The young woman was engaged in conversation with the other, worried-looking blonde woman.
As he drew closer, he paused and couldn’t help but hear her say, “I know it isn’t going to be easy, but I still hope for the best.”
“Now that we’re here, it makes me wonder. I wish I could have written to him beforehand and told him about you, but we were in such a hurry…”
“But you were certain that it wouldn’t be a problem. You trusted in him, remember? Don’t lose that trust just yet.”
“I know,” said the worried blonde woman, putting a hand on the other’s shoulder. “Don’t give up hope, especially when there’s no reason to. I just want everything to turn out for the best…”
“As do I,” said the younger one, warmly, and then they noticed that Ernest was standing there waiting to speak to them. The younger one stepped back beside the worried woman, and her eyes drifted up to meet his once more. Again, just like the first time, Ernest felt a flare of feeling in the pit of his stomach, a pull on his heart. The girl’s eyes fell from his quickly, and a blush stole over her fair cheeks; he had the sneaking suspicion that she felt something very similar. His mouth was dry, and it was difficult at first to make words come out.
Eventually he managed.
“Miss Amanda Chambers?”
“Yes?” said the worried-looking blonde.
It took Ernest aback so much that he literally took a step back. A jolt in his heart denoted his disappointment, though he refused to put words to it; instead, he pulled himself together and rallied quickly. He took his hat off respectfully.
“I’m so pleased that you’re here at last, ma’am. I’m Ernest Flinn.”
There was a silent moment while both of the young women took him in. Ernest had the distinct feeling that he was being sized up and had to fight a smile. He couldn’t really blame them – whoever the intriguing second woman was, Amanda Chambers had every right to be cautious as she met the man she had agreed to marry. He would have been concerned for her safety if she simply greeted him, a total stranger, with open arms.
“Well, I am pleased to meet you, too, Mr. Flinn. I’m so sorry about the delay.”
“I admit, ma’am, I was pretty worried.”
“There was a slide on the tracks,” put in the other woman. Ernest glanced up at her and, just as quickly, back down again.
“Yes, I heard. I figured that’s what happened, but I’m grateful to God that you’ve made it here safe and sound at last.”
Amanda Chambers took a deep breath.
“Mr. Flinn, this is my sister, Crystal. I did not have the chance to write to you, but – well, my decision to accept your application for a Mail Order Bride was rather sudden, to say the least. And Crystal – we’ve been together, just the two of us, since our parents died. I couldn’t simply up and leave her behind.” The two sisters glanced at each other, each seeming to draw strength from the presence of the other. Ernest couldn’t help but find it touching. “I know we have no right to ask you, given the circumstances, but – can she come and stay with you, too, at least for a while?”
“Just until I get on my feet,” put in Crystal Chambers. “I would hate to impose on your kindness any longer than I had to.”
Ernest looked at Amanda Chambers, who was clearly holding her breath and hoping for a positive answer; then he looked to Crystal. The pretty young woman – and now he clearly saw the resemblance between the two, though he found Crystal to be almost infinitely more appealing with her open countenance and youthfulness – was looking at him with wide, trusting eyes. She was determined that she would be all right no matter what happened, he suspected, but she also trusted him to do the right thing.
He cleared his throat.
“Of course,” he said. “She can stay as long as she likes. I know it would be hard on you both to be without one another.”
Amanda Chambers clasped her hands together in gratitude, but it was Crystal that Ernest kept staring at. The smile that spread across her delicate face was like the rays of the sun on the first fair day of spring. He could feel it warm him from his toes upwards.
The sensation was dizzying – and worrying. He had never applied for a Mail Order Bride before, but he was quite certain that a prospective groom shouldn’t feel like this about his new bride’s younger sister.
But he couldn’t help himself. Crystal was pulling him toward her with every look, motion, word, act. He felt helpless, more helpless than he’d ever felt before.
He ordered himself sternly to look away from her, and managed to do so, directing his attention instead to the coach.
“We’d better be on our way if we want to get home before dark,” he said. “Lina and my mother are eager to meet you – and I’m sure they’ll be delighted to find that Crystal is here, too. Miss Amanda, would you point me to your bags, and I’ll collect them for you?”
“Oh, please, call me Mandy, everyone does. They’re the box and the carpetbag just there at the corner.”
“Is that all?”
“We hadn’t many possessions to bring with us,” said Crystal, hesitantly.
He nodded and went to collect their things. It took just a moment to haul them to the cart and load t
hem into the back. There he paused, as there was really only room for two in the driver’s box. But Crystal Chambers was already climbing agilely into the back of the cart and taking a seat atop the trunk they’d brought, leaving the other seat in the driver’s box to her older sister. Fighting off another stab of disappointment that things hadn’t turned out a little differently, Ernest offered a hand to Mandy, who took it and climbed swiftly into the box.
“Well, ladies, I hope the journey wasn’t too arduous for you. It’s cold on those coaches, I know.”
He glanced over at Mandy, who had a slight, almost sad smile on her face.
“We were kept warm by a kind gesture from a friend,” she said.
It was on the tip of Ernest’s tongue to ask more about this friend, especially considering that the thought of the unknown person brought such an interesting expression to Mandy’s otherwise quite disinterested face. But Crystal remained silent, and he withdrew, deciding that it was too early in their acquaintance to push for more details.
“Well, I’m glad about that,” was what he settled on. “It won’t take long to get back to the ranch. Hold on, ladies.”
He flicked the reins and the mare moved readily forward, just as eager as he was to get back home. The Chambers sisters were quiet on the path back, though he couldn’t really blame them. It had been a long trip for them, longer than they had even expected. And of course, they were surrounded by an entirely new environment; as the sun dipped closer to the horizon, they must be doing their best to take everything in.
Before long they were pulling up into the yard of the ranch. There was already a candle burning in the window, though it was not yet full twilight. Lina must be worrying about him.
He handed Mandy down from the box and then turned to hand down Crystal, but she had already jumped down without assistance and was cheerfully pulling her carpetbag from the back.
“It’s a lovely place,” she said. “Very different from Charleston. You have so much space around you.”
He couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm. An enthusiasm which, he noted, was not present in her older sister.
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