by Bess McBride
Anna watched his lips move in fascination, a necessary action because she wasn’t sure she could follow his speech all the time. Reading the formal dialogue of an Edith Wharton novel in high school was one thing, but actually comprehending the rapidly spoken words was much more difficult.
“Miss St. John? Do not say that you have fulfilled the prophecy and actually become ill? You are staring at my chin.”
Annie blinked. Yes, she had! A charming and boyish cleft in his chin.
“No, I’m fine. I think Marie is feeling better, too. We’ve been studying the view of Seattle…in your time.”
Rory shook his head with a sigh but didn’t argue.
“The train should arrive at the station within a few minutes. Are you prepared?”
“I don’t think there’s any way to prepare for this, Mr. O’Rourke.” Just then, the train jerked and Annie caught the edge of the bench for balance. Rory reached for her, but he withdrew his hand when he saw her regain her footing
“Nope, no way to prepare,” Marie agreed. “Are you sure we’ll be all right between the train and your…ummm…carriage?”
“I think we will have to be. We have no other choice.”
Marie grabbed Annie’s hand, a gesture she’d left behind in childhood when she clung to her older sister. Annie squeezed her hand.
“We’re going to be fine, Marie—aren’t we, Mr. O’Rourke?” Annie willed him with her eyes to reassure Marie, and he rose to the challenge.
“Yes, of course. I do not foresee any complications. This is not the Dark Ages. We shall hold our heads up, make haste to the carriage, and all will be well.”
Annie felt Marie’s grip ease slightly, and she silently thanked Rory. He did not return her smile but nodded.
The train jerked again and slowed to a crawl. A shrill whistle announced their arrival at the station.
“We have arrived. Please wait here until I return,” Rory said. He left the compartment, and Annie dashed to the window.
“Horses and carriages,” Marie murmured, peering out the window. “Oh, wait! There are some cars over there…kind of.”
The train station yard was filled with horse-drawn carriages and wagons, which lined in a row at the end of the platform. As Marie had said, several old-fashioned automobiles like the classic Ford models were parked nearby as well.
Annie strained to see the passengers who disembarked from the train. Not a single woman showed bare legs or wore capris as she and Marie did. Even the little girls and boys wore stockings that extended below their short dresses and pants. Mesmerized by the scene, she found herself holding her breath, and she released it.
“I can’t believe this,” she murmured. “Look at everybody. I’d say it’s like we’ve dropped into a time warp, but I think we have. Look at those dresses…and those hats! Everyone is just so…beautiful!”
“I don’t know, Annie,” Marie muttered. “This really isn’t my thing. I like jeans and T-shirts, shorts and tank tops. Gosh, even the men are dressed to the nines. Everyone’s wearing a coat and vest and…what are those hats? The man in the observation lounge was wearing one. Like picnic hats? See?” Marie pointed. “Some of the women are wearing them too, but they’re a bit fancier.”
“I think they’re called straw boaters, but I’m not sure. We’ll ask Rory.”
“Oh, I meant to ask you about that, Annie. Why do you keep calling him Mr. O’Rourke to his face?”
Annie shrugged, her eyes glued to the mass of people moving about on the platform. The women walked effortlessly without lifting their skirts, not something she thought she could do.
“Oh, I don’t know. It seems to fit him somehow. Maybe because he keeps calling us Miss St. John.”
“He does seem kind of formal, doesn’t he?”
“I think it’s the era, Marie. I don’t think they used first names necessarily unless they were related or knew each other really well.”
“Well, I can see I’m going to stay in trouble the whole time I’m here because I’m not going to be able to keep up with all these rules.”
“We’ll manage, Sis. At least we’ve got each other. If they lock us up, at least—” Annie clamped her lips shut.
“Lock us up?” Marie said shrilly. Her wide eyes flew to Annie’s face.
“I’m just kidding, Marie. It was a stupid joke. I won’t make them anymore. We’re fine. As Rory said, this isn’t the Dark Ages.”
A knock on the door signaled Rory’s arrival. “Come, ladies—my luggage is loaded and my driver awaits us.” He stepped back to allow them to exit the compartment. “We will leave by the observation deck.” He led the way to the door at the rear of the car. Annie, wishing she could at least pull her leggings down to her ankles, followed with Marie in tow.
Rory pulled open the door, and a myriad of smells hit Annie in the face—burning coal, smoke, manure and seawater. Marie hesitated at the door, peering outside as if she were stepping off the edge of the earth, and Annie gave her hand a tug.
“Come on, we can’t stand here.”
“My carriage is just over there. My driver, Joseph, stands by it.” Rory climbed down the stairs and reached to help Annie down and then Marie. He strode across the densely packed dirt lot to the carriage, where a short man in a dark livery tipped his cap to them and held open the door of the carriage.
Annie couldn’t resist patting the horses’ noses before she followed Marie to the carriage.
“A lover of animals, Miss St. John?” Rory asked as he helped her into the enclosed carriage.
“Always,” she said with a smile. “You hustled us over here so quickly, I don’t think anyone saw anything but a flash.”
A twinkle in his eyes gave him away, but he kept his lips firm.
“Just so,” he said. He climbed in after her and settled himself on the opposite bench. “What do you think of our fair city thus far?” he asked them.
“It has a lot of strange smells,” Marie said, her hand hovering near her nose.
At that, Rory laughed. Annie reddened and nudged her sister, but short of whispering “Be polite!” which Rory would surely hear, she could do nothing else.
The carriage moved forward with a jerk and Marie grabbed Annie’s hand with a nervous laugh.
“Whoa!” Marie said. “I’ve never been in a carriage before.”
“Never?” Rory tilted his head and regarded them with an incredulous expression.
Annie and Marie shook their heads.
“Why don’t you have a car?” Marie asked. She nodded in the direction of the train station.
Annie had wondered the same thing when she’d seen the old-fashioned automobiles, but she didn’t dare ask. What if he couldn’t afford a car? That hardly seemed likely given his offer to set them up in a hotel…and clothe them. She averted her eyes from his face as she wondered again about the extraordinary offer. They’d be lucky if he didn’t bundle them off on one of the steam ships she’d seen in the bay, bound for who knew where.
“I do have an automobile, Miss St. John—a Model N Ford, a delightfully small and nimble bit of nonsense, but it would not have been able to accommodate the four of us and my luggage.” He eyed Annie. “And like your sister, I enjoy the horses.”
“Oh…” Marie replied. She threw a sideways glance at Annie, who gave her a crooked smile.
“Are the streets all dirt?” Annie asked. Dust swirled from the horses’ hooves and wheels of the carriage as they moved away from the train station.
“No, not all,” Rory replied. “Many streets are cobblestoned and some are paved now. Soon, I think, most of the roads will be paved. That will help keep the dirt and mud to a minimum. Is the dust bothering you? We can close the windows if you like.”
“Oh, no!” Annie said quickly. “I want to look out. I don’t want to miss anything.”
“As you can tell by the clattering of the horses’ hooves and the rumbling of the carriage wheels, we have reached the paved streets of the downtown area.”
“Look, Marie! Streetcars!”
Marie leaned over to look past Annie’s shoulder. “Oh, just like San Francisco!”
Annie threw Rory a quick look, wondering if he might complain about the indecorum of sticking her head out the window, but he only watched them with a slight smile on his face. His eyes were unreadable.
“Look at all those power lines!” Marie continued with rounded eyes.
“Surely they have power lines in Chicago, ladies, do they not?” Rory quirked an eyebrow.
“I know you don’t want to hear it, Mr. O’Rourke, but not like this, and not downtown,” Annie said. “Most of the power lines are buried now. You might find some on poles in the older neighborhoods.”
Rory pressed his lips together with a slight shake of his head, but said nothing.
“Where exactly are we going, by the way?” Annie asked.
“I would have situated you at the Washington Hotel, but that fine edifice has sadly closed to be demolished and will be reborn again when regrading of the city’s iconic hills has been concluded.” Rory gave her an ironic smile, and she thought she heard unhappiness in his words. “But I think that I must seek rooms for you at the Hotel Seattle for now. I have eaten dinner there, but I have never stayed at the hotel. Of course, if you wish to stay in Seattle indefinitely, it would be prudent to find a boarding house for ladies. But if you intend to return to Chicago then that might not be necessary. I will not press you for your plans at this time but encourage you both to rest and orient yourselves to the city.”
Marie looked at Annie, and Annie patted her sister’s hand. “Thank you, Mr. O’Rourke. That sounds like a good plan. I don’t think Marie and I would want to spend too much time…or money…in a hotel. I know I’ve said it before, but we do appreciate all you’re doing for us. I’m not sure why you’re helping us, but we are grateful.”
“Annie!” Marie remonstrated. She turned to Rory. “Annie doesn’t mean to sound suspicious, Rory.” She chuckled nervously. “Well, maybe she does—but she’s right, we are grateful.”
“It is only natural that you are wary of strangers, especially those bearing gifts,” Rory said with a twitch of his lips. “If I had a sister, I would wish her to be as guarded as you are.”
“So you don’t have a sister,” Annie said. “Do you have other family? A wife?” Her cheeks burned. “Children?”
“I am not married, Miss St. John. If I were, I would most likely enlist my wife’s aid in seeing you and your sister situated. My parents are alive and reside on Capitol Hill with my younger brother. He is just twenty and attends the university.”
“What do you do for a living, Rory?” Marie asked the question on the tip of Annie’s tongue.
“I am a photographer. I photograph essays for magazines. As a matter of fact, I just returned from photographing a lovely place in Montana called Lake McDonald near a glaciated wilderness. It was a memorable assignment.”
Annie blinked. A photographer! She looked at Marie, but Marie was probably oblivious to the fact that photographers didn’t make much money unless they were very famous or were independently wealthy. The hairs on her arm rose, and she promised herself that she and Marie would find their own “lodgings” as soon as possible. Mr. O’Rourke wasn’t getting anything from either one of them other than a verbal thanks and maybe money when they managed to figure out how to get some.
“Miss St. John, you have narrowed your eyes as you regarded me, and not for the first time. I feel I have offended you in some way. Please tell me how.”
Annie startled and her cheeks burned. “Really? Did I?” She rubbed her eyes. “I’m sorry. No, you haven’t offended me. I’m just tired, I think.” She had to watch her face carefully around him. He seemed very intuitive, as if he could read her mind. She turned to look out the window, resting her elbow on the edge of the window and nonchalantly covering her lower face with her hand.
The carriage slowed considerably as they negotiated their way through the downtown area, and came to a halt at an interesting intersection fed by three avenues which was as busy as any street she’d ever seen in downtown Chicago. Tall stone buildings peered down on the pedestrians, carriages, cars, wagons and streetcars from every corner of the intersection. The sight was busy, noisy, dusty and overwhelming, as was the smell of coal, smoke, horse manure and, oddly enough, a whiff of tantalizing food no doubt coming from one of the nearby awning-covered doorways at ground level.
“We have arrived, ladies. Please wait in the carriage while I check in at the front desk and obtain your key. When I return, Joseph will take us around to the back of the hotel, where we may enter with some degree of privacy.” Rory rose and stepped down from the carriage to climb a small set of brick steps to the narrowed entrance of the Hotel Seattle—a five-story sandstone flatiron building which sat on a triangular-shaped island block.
Marie leaned over to follow his progress from the window.
“So, why the dirty looks, Annie? Do you think he’s up to something? I’m so confused right now, I don’t think I care.”
“I don’t mean to give him dirty looks, Marie. I’m just still worried about his motives for helping us out like this. No one would do something like this in our time.”
“No, probably not, but I’m not sure he has any ulterior motives other than…” Marie stopped, and Annie turned from her study of the street to look at her.
“What?”
“Well, I think he might have a bit of a crush on you,” Marie answered with a half-smile.
“What?” Annie narrowed her eyes and gave her head a quick shake. “Oh, I don’t think so, Marie!”
“Well, I do,” Marie said firmly. “I wouldn’t mind if he had a crush on me, frankly, but I don’t think he can see me when you’re around.”
“Marie! You must be more tired than I am. I get the distinct impression that Mr. O’Rourke can’t wait to see the last of us.”
“Well, if that’s true, then he doesn’t have any evil plans for us. Which is it?” Marie crossed her arms and eyed her sister with a raised brow.
Annie couldn’t help but grin. “You’re right. I’m making no sense at all. But I can’t help it. I do think he wants to wash his hands of us, and I don’t trust his motives.” Marie opened her mouth but Annie forestalled her. “No, no crush. Not on me, anyway.” She shrugged. “I know! He can’t wait to hand us off to the slave traders.” She chuckled and turned to look at Marie, whose face paled. “Marie! I’m just kidding! Don’t take that seriously. I’m sure everything is going to be fine…at least regarding our knight in shining armor.”
“You know the slave trade for women is alive and well in our time, and I’m sure it is in 1906,” Marie said. “Especially for vulnerable women. That’s us. I watched a TV program on it a couple of months ago.”
“I know,” Annie sighed. “I probably saw the same program and that’s why I have it on my mind. I’m sorry, Marie. I shouldn’t have said anything. Honestly, nothing seems to be very funny right now anyway.”
“Any ideas how we’re going to get home?” Marie asked.
“Not a clue, Sis. Not a clue.”
Rory came out of the hotel and stopped to speak to Joseph before climbing into the carriage.
“I apologize for the delay, ladies. The hotel is very busy today, and the wait at the desk was long. I know you must be wishing for a cup of tea now.”
Joseph maneuvered the carriage around the front end of the triangular building and down the street past a streetcar, where he pulled up to the sidewalk at the back of the hotel. Rory climbed down and paused at the carriage door.
“There is nothing for it, Misses St. John. We must simply stride forward as swiftly as possible to reach your rooms, which are on the third floor. I obtained two rooms for you, a bedroom and an adjoining sitting room.
I hope that will be satisfactory.”
Annie bit her lip. “Thank you, Mr. O’Rourke. We will pay you back. I promise.”
Rory held his hand out, and she took it and climbed out of the carriage. “I understand the wish not to be beholden to someone. Do not concern yourselves at this time.”
Annie cast a furtive glance at passersby on the street while Marie descended. The shocked looks on the faces of both women and men made her want to pull and stretch her capris down to her ankles, but that wasn’t possible.
“They’re staring at us,” she murmured, keeping her head low.
“Yes, I know, Miss St. John. I am so sorry. Let us make haste.” Rory led the way into the large wooden door at the back of the hotel. Marie and Annie hurried after him. They emerged into a long red-carpeted hallway.
“Now, where are those stairs?” he muttered. A well-dressed silver-haired couple came around the corner of the far end of the hallway, and Annie grabbed Marie and huddled behind Rory, who greeted them cordially while blithely ignoring their disapproving stares.
“Come, this way.” He moved down the hallway and found the stairs at the end, looking over his shoulder to see that Annie and Marie followed.
“No elevator?” Marie mumbled breathlessly at the top of three flights of stairs.
“Not invented yet?” Annie guessed. She wasn’t sure.
Luckily, they met no other people on the stairs, and Rory opened the door to the third-floor hallway. Annie peeked out and stepped into the hallway. Marie followed, and Rory came last.
“Which way?” Annie asked hurriedly, longing to be on the safe end of a locked door.
“This way, I think.” Rory checked the number on the key and scanned the doors. “Aha! Here we are!”
He unlocked the door and ushered the sisters in, closing the door behind him. They paused to survey the sitting room. An elegant rose and beige-striped damask sofa with rolled arms faced a mahogany-trimmed fireplace with a marble mantle. Several occasional chairs in the same material flanked the sofa. Rose-patterned paper covered the walls, mirroring the flower-filled vases on the mantle and the cherry wood coffee table. Dark hardwood floors sported Oriental carpets in the same soft shades as the wallpaper.