Angus' Trust (Grooms With Honor Book 1)

by Linda K. Hubalek

  Angus’ Trust

  Grooms with Honor Series, Book 1

  Copyright © 2017 by Linda K. Hubalek

  Published by Butterfield Books Inc.

  Printed Book ISBN-978-1545215111

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2017905560

  Kindle Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the etailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Except for the history of Kansas that has been mentioned in the book, the names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Angus and Daisy

  I always picture my characters, either imaginative or from real images, when I write my books. For the Grooms with Honor series I’m using couples I found in my great-grandparent’s photo album, dating back to the early 1880s to early 1900s time period. My great-grandparents were born in Sweden, moved to Kansas, and married in 1892.

  There are no names written on the back of these photographs, and I don’t recognize them as any of my relatives. So this photo, plus others I will be using for other books in the series, features the wedding portrait of some of their friends. (There was no need to write their names on the photos since my great-grandparents knew them, and I’m sure they didn’t think their great-granddaughter would be trying to identify them more than a hundred years later.)

  These couples don’t look like our modern-day cover models (men with rippling muscles and women with flawless makeup) but they show real couples starting their new life together as husband and wife during the same time frame as the couples in my Grooms with Honor series.

  So while you’re reading Angus’ Trust, you can pretend this wedding portrait is of Angus Reagan and Daisy Clancy in 1886. Hopefully I’ve given them a good start in their married life of love and trust.

  Here’s a little information to help you start the story.

  Angus was raised by his father and step-mother, Pastor Patrick and Kaitlyn Reagan. His brothers are Seth, Fergus, Mack, Cullen, and Tully. His good friends mentioned are Gabe Shepard (father’s story was Darcie Desires a Drover) and Kiowa Jones.

  Daisy was raised by her grandparents, Dan and Edna Clancy and her brother is Nolan (already featured with Holly in Nolan’s Vow). Her good friends mentioned are Iva Mae Paulson (mother’s story was Helen Heals a Hotelier) and Mary Shepard Jenkins.

  Chapter 1

  Fall 1886

  Colorado Mountains

  “Angus? Angus, is that you?” Angus didn’t look up at the woman who was standing beside his seat in the moving train car. He’d been watching the men seated five rows up from him, not paying attention to the woman walking down the aisle, probably to the washroom at the end of the car. It was his job as the train’s detective to keep an eye out for trouble, and apparently, this woman slipped past his watch, because she could mean trouble for him and others on this train, if she revealed his identity.

  “No, ma’am, you’re mistaken. Now please be on your way,” he lowered his voice as he lowered his head, hoping his hat kept the woman from getting a better look at him.

  “Angus Reagan, your ma would thump your head for being rude to me!” she hissed as she stiffened her spine and walked on.

  An imaginary thump to his head made Angus spin around in his seat, trying to figure out who in heck had just spoken to him. It had to be someone from his hometown of Clear Creek, Kansas, and who knew his family. His ma, even though she was a preacher’s wife, was known for thumping heads to keep her six boys in line. Angus didn’t know how she did it, but a single thump from her right forefinger could sting like the dickens.

  He couldn’t help reaching under the back of his hat to rub the imaginary sore spot. It had been a while since he’d gotten a thump from his ma, but then he’d been employed by the railroad companies for years, so he wasn’t home very often. Most times a quick visit to the parsonage while the train stopped in town was the only chance he had to visit his family, if he happened to be riding between Denver and Kansas City. It had been a month of Sundays since he’d spent a week with his parents and brothers.

  For the past year he’d been riding the short rails between Denver and the Colorado mining towns, protecting products from the mine going to Denver and payroll going back to the mountain towns. This short train he was on today was making the loop from Denver, down to Fairplay, through the mountains west to Kokomo, down to Vista and back to Denver. The train was made up of two passenger cars beside the engine, the express car and the caboose. Only about three dozen passengers were on today’s train so there were not too many people to watch.

  He’d gotten a quick view of her shapely figure trouncing down the aisle. A perky feathered navy blue hat sat on the upsweep of her light brown hair. The two-tone indigo blue jacket and skirt were trimmed with black lace. He knew the ensemble was in style because he spent so much time studying people as he rode the train daily.

  It’s a wonder he hadn’t heard her talking during their trip, so she must have been reading or dozing. The woman had to be in her late twenties or thirties by her figure and voice. Which meant she could have been a school mate of his or one of his brothers.

  Light brown hair…Daisy? Daisy Clancy?! Even though she wasn’t there, Angus turned around to stare at the space she’d just been in. My, my… she’d changed from the tomboy who’d given him a black eye back in second grade. Now he couldn’t wait to see what the front of Miss Daisy Clancy looked like when she went back to her seat.

  What the heck was Daisy doing in Colorado?

  Angus quickly turned around, scanning the area where she must have been sitting. Daisy could be married and have a passel of kids by now. Shoot. His heart sank thinking about that. And why, he thought, trying to analyze his thinking as he did trying to solve problems on the train. Why did it matter to him if Daisy was married?

  His shoulders slumped, knowing why. Daisy had been the first girl he kissed—hence the black eye. And the last girl he kissed in Clear Creek when he left for his first railroad job, laying tracks in Colorado eight years ago.

  They had kept in touch by letters for a few years, until Daisy wrote she was moving to Chicago to experience life in a big city. He didn’t write again after that last letter, and neither did Daisy. It was like they were finally letting go of their childhood past and moving on.

  It hadn’t been fair to Daisy to wait until Angus was ready to settle down. His dream of traveling took precedence over living in his hometown with a wife, at least it had for several years. But now lately…Angus was getting tired of seeing the same depots up and down the rail lines crossing the western states and territories. Maybe he was ready to step off the train at Clear Creek’s depot and stay home.

  The two men he’d been watching caught his eye. They said something to each other, while looking straight at him, then both pulled their hats down and slumped in their seats like they were going to nap.

  Angus heard the washroom door behind him unlock, knowing that the woman was going to open the door and step out. If the men he’d been watching weren’t paying attention to him…Angus quickly stood and walked to the washroom, stepping in the woman’s path to block her walking back down the aisle
. He had to see if she was Daisy.

  She looked up at his face, surprised he was standing there, as Angus was knowing his childhood friend had grown into a beautiful woman.

  “Daisy, I—”

  A big body hit Angus hard in the middle of his back, pushing him sideways against Daisy as she screamed in surprise. There was no stopping their combined fall onto the cramped space of the washroom floor. Someone kicked his legs, causing him to draw up to kick back. Only his reaction allowed the man the second he needed to shut the washroom door and lock it from the outside. Angus kicked at the door, but the man kept his shoulder against it.

  Angus kicked the door in frustration again! He’d let distraction drop his focus on the men in question and now they were about to do the very thing he was supposed to prevent!

  “Daisy! Get out of the way! I need to get to the window!”

  He pushed up on one knee, trying to get past her and realized she wasn’t answering—or moving.

  “Oh no, no. NO! Daisy?!” Daisy laid limp as a rag doll in the cramped space beneath him. She hit her head going down, knocking her out cold. Angus touched her forehead, seeing a bloody lump was starting to form. Dang it! Her nose was bleeding too. Was it broken?

  He gently pushed her over so he could stand up. There was nothing he could do for her right now except slide her out of harm’s way.

  Just as Angus reached for the window sill to pull himself up, the train brakes screeched in vain, trying to avoid something on the tracks. The motion caused him to jerk back and lose his balance as he tried not to step on Daisy’s prone body. This time his temple met the edge of the cast iron sink, and that was the last he thought of the robbery in process.

  ***

  Daisy swatted at whatever was bothering her face. It felt like a bug was running down her forehead. She rubbed her face and felt something sticky on it. Her head was pounding in pain and for some reason she knew opening her eyes was going to hurt.

  She realized she was sprawled on her back and she felt grass when she moved her hand alongside her body. Birds were singing overhead and it sounded like wind was blowing through leaves. Why was she outside laying on the ground?

  Daisy slowly opened her eyes but her eyesight seemed blurry. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths, trying to keep from panicking.

  Where am I? Where was she before she found herself laying on the ground?

  She had been riding the Denver, South Park, and Pacific train to see the mountains. Had they stopped somewhere so she got off and laid down to take a nap?

  Daisy cautiously opened her eyes again; glad the yellow aspen leaves overhead were bright and clear. She wiped her forehead and then looked at her hand, not surprised to see her fingers tinted with blood.

  Had the train wrecked? She couldn’t hear it, or the voices of other passengers. Oh dear God! Am I the lone survivor of an accident?

  Daisy carefully rolled on her right side taking in the view of an aspen grove. Nothing else. Where was the train, the tracks?

  She rolled back flat, and took a few deep breaths before rolling on her left side. It was the same view, but Daisy could see she was at the bottom of a hill now. She felt her chest realizing there was grass and bits of debris stuck in the now torn lace of her jacket. Shoot. She must have rolled down the hill.

  Well—testing the willingness of her arms and legs—she couldn’t figure out what was going on by staring at the sky. She slowly sat up, glad she was no longer dizzy.

  Her heart nearly stopped, seeing several bodies scattered further up the hill. Were they all dead, or knocked out like she had been?

  Keep calm. What did Pastor Reagan always say to recite during troubled times? The 23th Psalm.

  “The Lord is my Shepherd—”

  “And he better be here…”

  Daisy gasped and twisted toward the voice. Ow! That move hurt her neck!

  “What the….Deuteronomy…were you doing on that train, Daisy Clancy?!”

  Fifteen feet away Angus Reagan slowly lifted his head and narrowed his eyes at her. Maybe he did that because he was trying to focus, or because he was mad. She guessed the latter since he’d used Pastor Patrick Reagan’s, his father’s, favorite swear line. His face was covered with dirt and blood, but at least he was alive and talking.

  Daisy melted back onto the bed of leaves and grass. She wasn’t alone in this disaster after all. If you didn’t count that being with a mad Angus wasn’t a good place to be. But at least there was another train wreck survivor.

  “Enjoying the fall scenery. You?”

  “Protecting the gold and silver in the express car...until I got distracted,” Angus growled.

  “Wasn’t my fault I needed to use the washroom.” Daisy sniped back.

  They could go back and forth like this all day from their prone positions. It had always been this way with the two of them.

  “Daisy, get over here!” Angus yelled at her after a long moment.

  “Don’t yell at me, or I just might turn hysterical! We’ve been in a train wreck, everyone else seems to be dead and I don’t know where we are!”

  “I’m sorry, Daisy. Calm down.”

  Daisy rolled up to her knees and tentatively stood up. So far so good. She’d be sore and bruised for a while, but nothing seemed broken, except maybe her nose. Better than the men she now saw sprawled or crumpled up the hill. She leaned over thinking she was going to lose her last meal, but the feeling passed.

  Now she saw why Angus wasn’t moving. He was tied up with so much rope he looked like a sausage ready for a bear’s breakfast.

  “Looks like someone used a thirty foot lariat to tie you up with.” Daisy surveyed the rope tightly wound around Angus’ stiff body. Why had someone taken time to do this?

  “When I find the end, I’ll hang on it and then push you down the hill to unroll you.”

  “Daisy...” Angus’ ice blue eyes stared hard at her face.

  She knelt down, running her hands down his legs to find the end of the rope. They grew up together so she wasn’t embarrassed—much—by searching his body. But she was aware that his body was now broader and taller than when they’d parted ways.

  She found the end and started working on the knot.

  “The last I knew you were standing in the aisle as I opened the washroom door. What happened after that?”

  “Somebody pushed me into the washroom and I fell against you, and you hit something hard enough to knock you out cold. As I was trying to get to the window, the train crashed into a man-made barricade and apparently that knocked me unconscious too.”

  “Why do you say someone made the barricade?”

  “It was intentionally set up to stop the train. Some of your fellow passengers were robbers.” He jerked his head toward the bodies up the hill. “I’m guessing that’s part of the train crew lying up there with bullet holes in their bodies.”

  “Why didn’t they kill you too?”

  “My guess is they didn’t want to add killing a railroad detective to their list of sins, or thought I was almost dead.”

  “But they threw away a perfectly good rope!”

  “Gee, thanks, Daisy. Please keep working on that knot while you argue.”

  “My fingers are sore and this rope is tight.”

  “I’m sorry, but my right leg is cramping something fierce.”

  “Oh dear, I hope it isn’t broken.”

  Angus was gritting his teeth, either in pain or from trying to keep from saying anything else.

  “There! I got it!” Daisy lifted his legs high enough to unwrap the rope, stopping when they were free. “Now I’m going to pull you upright so I can unwrap the rest of you.”

  “Ow, Ow...Oh Romans, that hurts the back of my leg!”

  Daisy shook her head. After all this time away from home, Angus still swore like his father, going through the books of the Bible when he didn’t want to say the words he was really thinking.

  “Hang on, I’m almost done,” Daisy tried to hurry w
ithout hurting his arms. The rope started clear up around his neck, but maybe the stiffness of the hemp kept his neck from snapping as he was thrown off the train. The roll definitely rumpled and dirtied his white shirt, vest and jacket. Angus was one who liked to look neat and clean when he dressed up for church and events.

  “Now what?” Daisy hated to ask, but she was anxious to hear his answer.

  “I’ll catch my breath while you roll up that rope. We may be needing it before we find our way out of here.”

  Daisy hoped Angus was alright because she didn’t relish finding her own way to a nearby town for help.

  She eased back down to the ground and looked around the area. “At least it’s not raining or snowing…yet.”

  “So far this September has been warm in the mountains but that can quickly change.”

  Angus rubbed the back of his leg, while still watching her.

  “Were you traveling with someone on this train?”

  “No. I was just on an outing to see the mountains.”

  “Last I knew you were in Chicago.”

  “I’ve been in Denver since February.”

  “Really? Why?”

  “Working.”

  “Why didn’t I know this? I pass through Denver at least twice, almost every week!”

  Daisy sighed. His parents gave her an address where to write, but she didn’t want Angus to meet her out of obligation.

  “Why didn’t my folks write to tell me you were here? Did you tell them not to say anything?”

  Being a railroad detective had only sharpened Angus’ always inquisitive mind.

  “You’re always on the job, traveling some tracks between here and there so how was I to know where you were?”

  Angus struggled to stand and Daisy stood up beside him, ready to catch him if he fell. But he’d grown in height and weight since she’d last seen him, so she really couldn’t help if he tumbled back to the ground. He arched and twisted his back and rolled his shoulders trying to get the kinks out of his body.

  “Anything broken, sprained?” Daisy asked, worried since he hadn’t taken a step yet.