Promise Me Texas (A Whispering Mountain Novel)

by Jodi Thomas

  Colby pulled on his shirt. “I do like looking at Mrs. McLaughlin. She’s real pretty.” He remembered his manners. “But so are you, Madie. You’re pretty, too, or you will be as soon as you’re grown into a woman.”

  “I’m grown. I don’t think I’m going to get any taller.” She fought to keep the indignation from her voice. “I’m a woman, though. I got a man who loves me and is waiting for me in Fort Worth. He would have come for me, but he’s working real hard. He says he’s going to marry me and build a little house for us to live in. I’ve been his girl for six months now. He takes the train down and spends the day with me every few weeks.”

  “That’s real nice, Madie. Real nice.” Colby sat on a log and pulled on his boots. “I’d like to meet him when we get to Fort Worth. If he’s your man, he’s bound to be fine. I’ve noticed you’re a hard worker and a good cook, better than Mrs. McLaughlin, at least around a campfire.”

  She beamed at the compliment.

  “My Micah is a good man. Sometimes when he comes he brings me something. Nothing big, he’s saving for our house, but something little like a handkerchief, or a bottle of perfume that came all the way from New York City.” She thought of adding that he was kind most of the time, but she didn’t. Her Micah had never hit her except once, so that made him far more good than bad. He also hadn’t written or visited in over a month, but that was because he was working hard.

  She offered Colby a hand as he stood and dusted off his dirty jeans.

  They walked back to the camp together, talking about how they’d get to Fort Worth soon. For Colby, it was a stopover before heading home, but for her it would be where she found her dream. A little house, a man to take care of her. Life didn’t get much better.

  Beth was up and making coffee when they reached the camp. Andrew waved to them as he started the horses down toward the creek for water. The little boys were still asleep. No one seemed to find it noteworthy that Colby and Madie had become friends.

  Madie started the biscuits while Colby rolled up the bedrolls.

  “You make great biscuits,” he said, watching her. “I never get much bread unless we buy it in town. My mom ran off when I was little, and my pa’s idea of cooking is catching the first thing he sees, killing it, and then scorching it in the skillet. If it ain’t fit to eat, he shakes salt on it and tries again.”

  She giggled. “I learned to cook at the café. Everyone is nice to me there. The owner even lets me sleep in the back.”

  “You like working there?” Beth asked as she handed Madie the coffeepot.

  “Most times. It’s hard work, getting up at five to have breakfast ready for the first rush of folks. We were usually busy until after one, then my boss had me pack up what food we had left over that would travel and take it down to the station. I’d sell sandwiches and fried pies to the people boarding the trains. He let me keep half the money.” She smiled. “I’ve been saving my nickels and dimes to go meet my man, Micah Summerset. He works in the turnaround yard at the station, so he shouldn’t be too hard to find when we get to Fort Worth. I can’t wait to see his face when I walk up.”

  Colby nodded. “I’ve been to the train yard once. I’ll show you where to go.” He hesitated and added, “Don’t you think you’re a little young to have a man, Madie?”

  She glared at him. “I’m fifteen and I’ve had my curse more than once. I guess I’m old enough.”

  Colby turned beet red, like he’d stopped breathing and all the blood had gone to his head.

  If Beth hadn’t patted him on the back and told him to go help with the horses, he might have died on the spot.

  Madie watched him almost run to the stream. “What’s wrong with him?” she asked.

  Beth shrugged. “Men are funny creatures. They kill game, butcher hogs, and fight until they’re bloody, but most can’t stand it when a lady talks about her monthly time. It’s something they don’t understand and can’t seem to deal with.”

  “Oh.” Now it was Madie’s time to redden. “I’m always saying things I shouldn’t. Now I won’t be able to look him in the face again. I might as well ride in the back of the wagon and stare at the dirt we’re kicking up.”

  “No, Madeline, you’ll do no such thing,” Beth said. “When he comes back, you’ll offer him a biscuit and act like nothing happened. It will only embarrass him more if he thinks you noticed how embarrassed he was. I’m guessing he doesn’t have any sisters or a mother who explained things to him.”

  “You sure? Maybe he won’t want to ever talk to me again.”

  Beth straightened. “A lady never allows those around her to be uncomfortable. It’s not polite. If you’re going to start being a lady, you might as well learn the rules.”

  “All right.” Madie didn’t know if Beth knew what she was talking about, but when Colby came back she did exactly what the pretty lady told her to do. She offered Colby a biscuit and talked about how the day was warming up already.

  He didn’t meet her eyes, but he managed to compliment her on the meal. In return, she served him the rest of the eggs, which he promptly said were the best he’d ever tasted.

  “Thank you,” Madie said. “I’ll pack the extra biscuits up for you and the boys. After not eating for days you must still be starving. Mr. McLaughlin says we probably won’t stop again until we get to Fort Worth, so you’re bound to get hungry.”

  He finally met her gaze. “I’m so hungry I could eat that snake that bit me.”

  She giggled again. “If you catch it, I’ll cook it for you.”

  As easy as that, they were back talking. Madie spent the morning watching Beth and decided by the time she was in her twenties she’d be a lady too.

  She noticed something was going on between the lady and her husband. He didn’t act like most husbands; he was always offering to help her, and Beth didn’t act like a wife. She was always touching him for no good reason. It was almost like they were flirting with each other.

  A few hours after noon, when they drove into Fort Worth, everyone was silent. The plan to get away had seemed simple, but now the fear of what would happen next weighed heavily on them all.

  The boys would have to go into the worst part of town to look for their father. Madie had talked to them many nights after the café closed and they’d sneaked into the kitchen for the last of the soup. From what she’d heard, their father was a gambler who fancied himself an actor. They knew he’d be glad to see them, but Levi had whispered once to her that he didn’t know if their father could take care of them. Evidently he’d never shown any sign of it before.

  Madie told the boys they could stay with her in her little house. But deep down she feared her Micah might not be as glad to see her as she hoped. Though he’d never written, when he left he’d said he’d be thinking of her every minute until he came back. For several weeks, she dressed in her one good dress and waited every Sunday for him to show. She was starting to wonder if he was thinking of her at all.

  Madie looked at the others in the wagon. They were a ragged band full of dreams and fears. Mr. and Mrs. McLaughlin seemed to be running from something or someone, but problems have a way of following close behind.

  Colby was recovering, but he wasn’t rushing home. Surely his pa couldn’t be too mad over him wanting to see some of the state before he took the train home. He talked of his ranch, but maybe he wanted adventure more. The good kind, not the kind he’d had in his hotel room with the snake.

  They all seemed like migrating birds who had lost true north. Each stared wide-eyed at the dusty town built in shades of brown and gray. Fort Worth didn’t look like much of a place for dreams coming true, but then neither had Dallas.

  Andrew McLaughlin broke the silence as he turned the wagon down a quiet street. “I got a little place here. If you all would like to stop by, we could wash up and plan what to do first. I haven’t been home in a month, so the place will be a mess, but I’ve got water for baths and you’re welcome.”

  “You live here?�
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  Beth McLaughlin seemed the most surprised, which shocked Madie. Wouldn’t a wife know where her husband lived?

  Andrew winked at his bride. “Sometimes, when I’m not traveling, I like to have a base. It’s not much, but you all can stay until you move on or get settled here in town. When I moved here last summer it was the devil’s own brand of hot. I thought I’d stay the seasons through before traveling on.”

  Madie frowned. He seemed to include his wife in the “You all can stay until you move on” speech. She’d noticed the rings on their fingers and she’d heard the sheriff call Beth Andrew’s wife, but Madie was starting to wonder. If the lady wasn’t his wife, why was she here?

  Colby made up his mind about the invitation first. “I’d like to bunk at your place if there is room. I’ll need to telegraph my father in the morning. I’ve been gone longer than I planned. I wired most of the money from the drive to the bank last week, so he’ll be wondering where I am by now.”

  “I’ve got room.”

  No one else voiced a plan as he pulled up to a building that had four front doors, all ten feet apart. “My town house,” Andrew said, as the others looked like they’d never seen anything like it in their lives.

  He climbed down and unlocked the second front door. “It’s four houses stuck together. I’ve got a first floor with a big kitchen and my study, a second floor with two bedrooms, and an attic that I’ve never bothered to climb the stairs to see. You’re welcome to look around and decide where you’d be most comfortable. I usually sleep on the couch in my study.”

  Madie climbed out next. She’d never seen houses built stuck together. “You live here all alone? You don’t have to share with nobody?”

  “That’s right.” He motioned her over the threshold. “It was all I could find that seemed near the center of town, yet on a quiet street.” He glanced at Beth and added, “Of course, now I’ll live here with my wife.”

  Beth followed Madie in and shouted back at her husband. “You don’t have a parlor, dear, or sitting room?”

  Madie glared at them both. Either they were acting or they’d spent no time talking before they said I do. Maybe Beth was one of those mail-order brides. She’d seen a few of them come through Dallas. One waited all day for her new husband in the café. When he finally came, he didn’t even say he was sorry for making her wait, he just took her bag and said, “Let’s go home.”

  No, Madie guessed, Beth wasn’t a mail-order bride. They liked each other too much for that.

  When Madie heard Beth asking questions about where he ate and where company sat when they came to visit, she couldn’t wait to hear the husband’s answer.

  “I’ve never needed more chairs or even a table. I rented the place for a year and I’ve never had company. In truth, I’m gone more than I’m in Fort Worth. I thought this town, being in the middle of Texas, might be the place to set up a headquarters and have a business address for my mail. I didn’t realize how wide and deep this state was. I ride out a different direction every few weeks, but it’s going to take me a while to see it all.”

  “How do you stand living here so close to other people?” Colby asked as he slowly climbed out of the wagon, then collected his share of the supplies to carry inside. The boys followed his lead and did the same.

  “The brick wall between me and the other families helps.” Andrew finally looked nervous. He obviously wasn’t used to defending his choices. “Why don’t you settle in and I’ll go find something for dinner.” He reached in the wagon and handed the boys another armful of blankets, then set the box of supplies on the doorstep. “I’ll stable the horses and be back in an hour.”

  He was gone before anyone could say a word.

  Madie stared at the place, hoping Micah didn’t expect her to live in one of these funny houses. She took a deep breath and wondered if her man Micah would have a house for her at all.

  CHAPTER 10

  BETH WALKED THROUGH ANDREW’S HOUSE AND REALIZED she didn’t know the man at all. Books and papers were piled around his study. From the looks of it he lived, slept, and worked in this one room with its bay window that faced the street. The only curtain in the entire house looked like a sheet he’d strung with wire over the study window, and it was pulled back to let the sun in.

  The kitchen had one pan and a coffeepot that had never been cleaned. No food, not even a can of peaches, stocked the shelves. A hip tub sat by the stove with clean towels folded inside it. The man didn’t eat, but obviously he bathed. The smell of boiled coffee seemed baked into the very walls. He had water and gaslights, but nothing but the bare essentials. Back home they stocked enough food for the winter to feed a dozen. Here, a mouse would starve.

  Upstairs she found the same. A bed. A few blankets. Two suit jackets on hooks and one drawer where trousers and shirts were folded neatly. The only real sign that someone lived in the room was an open book on the nightstand. The Gilded Age by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner. The cover was so dusty, Twain’s book obviously hadn’t held Andrew’s attention.

  The other bedroom was empty. She thought it strange that a man who used only one, maybe two rooms would have such a big house. He would have been more comfortable in a hotel or boardinghouse with a bedroom and a sitting area. It was like he wanted a home but didn’t know how to make one.

  The boys called down and said they’d found the attic warm and bare, but it was floored. They were already hauling their bedrolls upstairs, claiming the attic as their room tonight.

  “I’ll sweep up the place. It will look better then,” Madie volunteered. “Get any more dirt in here and we’ll have to put in a spring crop.”

  “I noticed wood out back. I’ll chop some for a fire,” Colby offered. “Come sundown it’ll be cold.”

  Beth simply walked around thinking. They’d all been in such a hurry to leave Dallas, each with his or her own goals, but now that they were here in Fort Worth, they were in no hurry to part. She wasn’t sure if they were hiding, or healing, or resting between battles. It didn’t seem to matter as long as they were together.

  Including herself. She knew she had at least a week before anyone in her family would worry about her. The note she’d left had been vague. Her older sister and her husband often visited Fort Worth, but Beth wasn’t ready to go see if they were here. She wanted this half life for a little longer.

  If she did go to stay with them, she’d have to explain what a fool she’d made of herself. They all loved her and protected her. Now they’d smother her and pamper her, and offer to fight her battles for her. For once in her life she didn’t need protecting. She felt safe with Andrew, her almost-husband.

  When Andrew found her an hour later in his study, she was sitting on the windowsill looking out at the street. “What’s wrong?” he asked, walking up behind her.

  “This make-believe marriage of ours . . .” she started. “I was wondering if we could play it awhile longer.”

  “You looking for a place to hide out from the world?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Then stay, wife, for as long as you want to avoid reality.”

  She almost loved him in that moment. Just for a day, or maybe two, she wanted to hide away and pretend. She wanted to be safe from the people trying to hurt her as well as all the ones she loved who were trying to protect her. She wanted time to discover her true self.

  Andrew sat down at his desk. “So, dear, what time is supper?”

  Smiling at him, she figured maybe he needed the make-believe as much as she did. He didn’t seem to be running away from life, but ignoring it completely.

  The night in his funny little house became magic.

  She and Madie cooked supper while the boys took baths, then chased each other around.

  Andrew disappeared for a while, then returned smiling. He’d bought the boys new clothes with long sleeves and no patches. He’d also bought them thick socks so they could run down the hallway and slide across the freshly cleaned floors.<
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  Colby helped Andrew carry in the wagonload of supplies. Food, plates, and forks went to the kitchen. Towels, sheets, and pillows went upstairs, and a checkers game disappeared to the attic.

  “You bought so much,” Beth whispered, knowing the others were watching.

  “I set up a credit at the mercantile around the corner. If you need anything, send the boys down to pick it up. The owner said he’d be open until eight.”

  Beth nodded and moved to kiss him on the cheek, but he was already heading out to collect another load.

  For the next hour Beth sent the boys to the store four times. By the last trip they were too tired to run up and down the stairs.

  At dusk they all sat on a blanket on the floor and ate. Beth felt at home amid the chatter and laughter, but she noticed Andrew had grown quiet. Had words ever been spoken in this house of brick and dust?

  After the boys went up to bed in the attic and Colby spread his bedroll in the empty bedroom, Madie curtained off the kitchen with a blanket and took her bath.

  Andrew walked out of his study with a box and handed it to Beth. “I wanted to buy Madie something but feared she might be offended if I bought her clothes. After all, she thinks she’s a woman and it wouldn’t be proper. So”—he opened the box—“I got her an apron. The mercantile owner’s wife said every young lady looks proper in a nice apron.”

  Beth smiled, remembering how the women in Anderson Glen near her ranch often wore aprons to church. “It’s beautiful. That was very thoughtful of you.”

  “Just trying to help.”

  She took the box and slipped behind the curtain to show the apron to Madie. She squealed so loud Beth was sure the boys in the attic heard her. Tomorrow was Madie’s day to go to her man, and now she had a new apron to wear.

  Later, when Beth went to say good night to Andrew, she found him staring out the window into the night. “Are you all right?” she asked.

  “I’m fine, just getting used to the noises in the house. I can hear the boys laughing in the attic and Colby teasing Madie as they talk across the hallway from room to room, and you walking around checking windows and doors as if you fear an invasion.”