by P. Creeden
Ruby sat up quickly and swiped her cheeks with her free hand. She’d been careful to keep her hand in Hazel’s because there was comfort there, tremendous comfort, and her sister had never shown her so much affection. Ruby shook her head. “I cry sometimes. I just try to keep those moments to myself.”
Hazel tilted her head. “Why do you cry? You’re so perfect—pretty. Everyone likes you and prefers you over others. Even father has been giddy that you’ve had a suitor these past few months.”
The inside of Ruby’s cheek stung and then the metallic taste of blood trickled upon her tongue. A moment’s pain gave her clarity and helped her to focus again, even though she wished she’d never bitten her cheek accidentally. She huffed a laugh.
“Why do I cry?” Her voice sounded bitter, even to her own ears as he shook her head. “Hazel, I am not perfect and I wish I weren’t pretty. No one prefers me in the way that you think they might. If you consider for a moment how you and Savannah prefer each other’s company over mine, you might realize that others often feel the same way.”
Hazel’s brow furrowed. “I... You... You always act as though you’re not interested in doing the things that Savannah and I do together. You always act too busy and like you have other, better things to do.”
Swallowing hard, Ruby’s voice became little more than a whisper. “Have you ever been genuine when you asked me to join you? Or was it just out of politeness that you asked? Didn’t you truly wish that I’d not want to join you so that the two of you could be alone and plot together.”
Eyes widening, Hazel blinked several times. “Is that why you always made those excuses? You really felt that we didn’t want you with us?” She shook her head. “Ruby, we’ve always wanted you with us. We’ve always hoped that you’d join us sometime. I’m sorry if we ever made you feel as though we didn’t want you there. We love you. You are our sister, too. I... I’ve been remiss in letting you know just how much I love you.” Her voice cracked at the end and she squeezed Ruby’s hand gently.
Unshed tears blocked Ruby’s vision and made her sister blurry for half a moment before she blinked and allowed them to spill over her cheeks. Had she really judged her sisters all wrong? Was it really her fault that she’d been alone all this time, and not because they hated her? She squeezed her sister’s hand back and saw the tears that slipped down Hazel’s cheeks too. Slowly, Ruby shook her head. “I’m the one who is sorry. I wish that I could take back all those times and spend them with you both. Especially now that Savannah is so far away... and married.”
“I have good news then,” their mother said from the doorway where she’d stood. “You’ll have a moment to make it up to Savannah when she arrives by train with her new husband tomorrow.”
With John Mark’s cover blown, he didn’t think he’d get the railway workers to talk to him any more, but quite the opposite happened. Because he’d saved so many people from headache in the bar and even showed that he was truly about justice and not just about pleasing the company, as people feared the Pinkerton Agency was there to do, He had several people step forward and come clean about the situation that was happening between the workers and the boss of this section of building the railroad. He found that the one who’d been arranging the theft of the payroll was no one other than the very man who was supposed to be distributing it. Due to the vigilance of the parties involved, John Mark was able to wrap up the case in half a day.
At noon the following day, he found himself with enough evidence to take to the sheriff to have the man arrested. John Mark would need to stick around in that area of Wyoming until the circuit judge could make his way around to the town for the trial. And as more evidence came out, he also decided that he needed to protect the guilty party from a lynching. He sent a telegram to the Denver Pinkerton Office and watched the rolling clouds come in from over the mountain top.
“Looks like the weather’s turning,” the man who fulfilled the post at the telegraph office said. “I’ll get your message in and then probably be closing up shop for the rest of the evening.”
John Mark nodded, but didn’t say a word. His mind was on other things. He got bored too easily and wasn’t sure how he’d spend the next few days while waiting for the judge to arrive. Gambling and drinking were out of the question. Not only was gambling outside of the code that he’d sworn to as a Pinkerton, he just never felt that taking money from others in a game was the way that men should behave. Earning a living was supposed to be about working hard and getting what was owed. The men who worked the railroad believed that as well and worked with sweat and tears to gain a little bit of a living. All that, only to have a man like their boss steal their hard earned dollars.
As he looked at the sky, John Mark wondered just how much rich men were the same. It seemed to him that they all were. Too many people in society were looking for a shortcut to get to their goals. And too often they didn’t care how many people were hurt or stepped on in the process. His mother and father had been betrayed by the bankers like that. They’d called on a debt that wasn’t due just so they could take possession of the farm that his parents had worked to keep their whole lives. John Mark had seen his father cry for the first time when they all had to pack their bags and leave that home when Johnny was just ten. Then he watched his father work his fingers to the bones in the mines and his mother scrub the floors of rich men until he was finally able to leave all of that behind when he went to serve the Union in the war. Unfortunately... or fortunately, the war only lasted four months after he’d joined. It was long enough for John Mark to make a few connections, though, and he joined the Pinkerton Detective Agency straight away after. He sent more than half his paycheck every month to his parents, knowing that it was helping his mother not to have sores on her hands and knees from working so hard, and maybe his father could quit working the mines before he got black lung. Because they were both illiterate, they didn’t write him. Occasionally his younger brother wrote, but that was rare and only when a big event occurred.
And John Mark rarely had time to visit... no, that was a lie. He’d never had time to visit. In the last eight years, he’d not visited home once. He took solace in the fact that both his parents were still alive and had apparently moved into a better home, and that his younger brother had been able to go to college. But he’d never had a chance to head all the way back east to Virginia. He was too busy, and the more time that passed, the easier it had been to stay away. He released a sigh he didn’t know he’d been holding back.
“Is there anything else I can help you with?” the telegraph man asked.
John Mark blinked, not realizing he’d been standing at the doorway for the last few minutes while memories captured his thoughts. “Oh no. Thank you very much for all that you do. I appreciate it.”
“No problem,” the man said with a smile. “It’s my job.”
With a smile and a nod, John Mark headed out into the blustery wind as it picked up for the storm. Because it was only April, it was possible that this storm could contain some sleet or even snow. Wyoming was known for such things, especially in the first half of spring. Pulling his jacket tighter around his throat, John Mark headed back toward the hotel. He’d be staying here a few more days, doing his job, too. But maybe one of the ways he could pass the time was by writing to his brother. He’d not done that in quite a while. And for some reason, John Mark felt it was time to do so. The thought of it lightened his step as he made his way across the street toward the hotel.
Chapter 3
The moment Savannah entered the house, Ruby’s heart soared in her chest. She hadn’t realized just how much she’d missed her sister until then. Although Hazel beat her to it by jumping into her sisters arms, Ruby didn’t hold back and wait this time. Instead, she dove in and wrapped her arms around her sister, too. After a moment, she felt her mothers arms around all three of them. When they pulled back, Savannah’s lip pulled back into a half smile. “If I’d known I’d get this much affection when I returne
d, I’d have left sooner.”
“Absolutely not!” their mother scoffed. “It’s bad enough that I’ve had to live without you for longer than a school term without a visit.”
Ruby nodded. Their sister had never been separated from them like this. Even though Savannah had started at Vassar a year before Ruby had, she’d still made it home for all of the breaks that the school allowed. Four months was the longest they’d ever been without Savannah visiting for at least a weekend.
“Well,” Savannah said with a soft sigh and a bit of color showing in her cheeks. “I’m a married woman, now, and live in Denver. It’s harder for me to come out this way.”
“Yes, well,” Father said from behind the crowd. He stepped forward as all the ladies parted, leaving Savannah’s poor husband standing in the doorway to face the elder Mr. Lockwood, their father, alone. For a breathless moment, no one spoke while Father assessed the cowboy who stood across from him in a duster and boots. If the man weren’t clean shaven, he would have looked as though he’d stepped straight out of one of those dime store novels that Savannah used to read all the time. Ruby quirked a smile at that. Savannah had gotten exactly the sort of husband she would have wished for. Then Father cleared his throat and stepped forward, extending a hand toward Savannah’s husband. “Clarence Lockwood. And you must be this Lucas McKay that Savannah has been writing her mother about all these months.”
Lucas moved his hat from his right to left hand before accepting Father’s extended one. A blush tinted his cheeks as well. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry that I didn’t do things properly and come before we were wed so that I could ask for Savannah’s hand in marriage from you as a gentleman.”
Father’s lips thinned, but he shook his head. “Out in the ‘wild’ west, I understand that they do things a bit differently. And it is a new age. We are nearly a decade past the war that would have made many a maiden fatherless, so the need of such a small thing as that has gone for quite a while. However, it does please me that you at least apologized.”
Savannah smiled up at her husband in such a way that made Ruby feel the love between them. Ruby swallowed hard with a greed she didn’t know was there before. She wanted that kind of love. If she ever married, it was exactly the kind of love that she wanted. But would she ever get it? Certainly not with Mr. Brown. He wanted to trade her and own her like a commodity rather than treat her as a human being. The way that Lucas squeezed Savannah’s shoulder while he helped remover her jacket let Ruby know that he cared for her just as deeply.
At dinner that evening, they had a lively conversation about the adventures that Lucas had been on as a Pinkerton Agent. And on the last few cases, he’d had Savannah along. Father frowned at that. “Shouldn’t a married woman be readying herself for a family, not off galavanting as a Pinkerton Agent of all things. Isn’t that too dangerous?”
Savannah smiled at her father and reached over to squeeze Lucas’s hand. “Lucas is always there with me, to protect me, and I never feel as though I’m in danger with him there. And besides, we keep watch over each other this way. I don’t want to be a widow anymore than he wants to be a widower. Together we are safer than we are apart.”
Ruby’s heart fluttered in her chest at her sister’s declaration. And the slightest bit of jealousy rose up from deep inside Ruby’s stomach, twisting her gut. How did Savannah find such a husband as this when she’d never had any suitors here in Connecticut? Ruby swallowed hard. It wasn’t as if the suitor Ruby had was one that she’d ever have those kinds of feelings for. As they finished dinner, Ruby became determined that she needed to tell her mother flatly that she didn’t want to encourage Mr. Brown’s advances. Maybe her mother could help her break the news to her father. If there was anything her father didn’t do very well, it was listen to his daughters when they disagreed with him.
She let out a sigh as she moved around the last couple of bites of bread pudding in her bowl. Savannah pushed an elbow into her side, making Ruby flinch away from her, but look up at her older sister and lift a brow. Savannah tilted her head in unspoken question.
Ruby shook her head and whispered, “Later.”
Their father pushed away from the table and tilted forward as though getting ready to stand. “Well, Mr. McKay, do you fancy a cigar after dinner? H. Upmann imports them from Cuba, all the way here to Connecticut. I’d like for you to join me in the parlor while we let the ladies catch up on their own. What do you say?”
Lucas nodded and pushed his chair back as well. “I don’t smoke often, but you tempt me with that cigar.”
“Excellent,” Father said as he stood. “Then you must join me.”
And with that, the two of them started for the parlor, leaving the sisters and mother sitting at the table. Savannah immediately turned toward Ruby and shook her head. “Now is later.”
Ruby nodded and let out a slow breath before she began to let her sister in on all that had happened and all that she’d felt since Savannah had left.
John Mark couldn’t have been more relieved when he got off the train in Denver than he was in that moment. Wyoming had been a slow moving case, and he’d had to stay undercover through the whole winter, which was nothing short of torturous cold. To think that railroad workers lived in tents all through the cold season with bonfires and body heat to keep them warm. He couldn’t do much more than shake his head. He’d been happy to start staying at the hotel once his cover had been blown, but by then the nights had been much warmer, anyway.
Spring had come earlier in Denver than it had in Wyoming, too. He pulled his duster from his shoulders and removed it, tempted to roll up his sleeves as well, but decided against it. Then he started his way down the street toward the manor that housed the Pinkerton Detective Agency. It was a bit over two miles that he’d need to trek, but he didn’t mind since his legs could use a good stretch after sitting on a train for more than half a day. The sun setting in the distance kept him from being able to raise his eyes much higher than half-way up the street before the shine would become too much to bare. As he headed toward the west end of town, he passed by the park where there were some children playing with bits of rope in a hop-scotch pattern they’d laid out in the grass. Although the days were getting a bit longer, it still wasn’t much past five p.m. when the sun began to set, and the children seemed to be playing with extra vigor because the time was short.
For a long moment, John Mark stood and watched the children play the game. He’d done it himself when he was young, and often with his younger brother, Geoffrey. A sigh escaped John Mark’s lips. His younger brother had to have gotten his letter by then, since it had been about a week since he’d posted it. It would still be yet another week before John Mark could expect a reply. Still, he felt anticipation for it. He wasn’t sure why. It had been eight years since he’d seen his younger brother. And at the time, his brother had been only fourteen. John Mark remembered him as the wiry, lanky boy who was still a couple inches shorter than him, at sixteen. Geoffrey had wanted to follow John Mark and join the Union, too, but John Mark had forbade it. He’d wanted Geoffrey to get an education and maybe become something great, like become a doctor or lawyer. And he’d told Geoffrey as much.
With the money John Mark sent home, he could feel pride in getting his wish for his brother. Though John Mark hadn’t finished high school, at least his brother had gone on to college. With a soft sigh, he continued toward the Pinkerton Office. When he reached the gate, exhaustion fell over him like he hadn’t expected. It had been a long couple months, and nothing felt as much like home for him than the agency’s bunk house. He couldn’t wait to get back to the normal routine of eating Pearl’s cooking and hearing the gentle snores of his bunk mates in the warmth of the bunkhouse. The hotel was nice, but a bit lonely for him since he’d never lived alone. That was one thing he’d preferred about living in the tents, even if they were cold. He still had company and he’d never felt lonely.
When he entered the house, he filled his lungs with the happ
y smell of freshly baked bread. No one cooked quite like Pearl. Although it might make his mother a bit jealous to know, John Mark preferred Pearl’s cooking. Marianne stood at her desk beside Archie. The two of them stood close, smiling and laughing like only newlyweds could. A bit of jealousy reached John Mark’s heart at the sight of them, but he also felt happy that they’d finally been honest with themselves and each other. No one could deny that they made a handsome and perfect couple. John Mark could only hope that one day he might find a match like that.
So far, he’d been on three long-term assignments back to back. Although he’d heard about how the agency had taken on new female trainees and marrying them to their partners, he’d avoided any such situation simply by the nature of the cases he’d taken. He chewed his lip. Marianne and Archie’s love was one that had developed over years of time. They’d been friends and workers together first. Certainly love couldn’t be found like that in a marriage of convenience between two partner-agents, could it?
Inwardly, he hoped that he’d get another long-term assignment and avoid the whole thing again.
Then Marianne met eyes with him as he tried to sneak past the hallway and head toward the kitchen. “John Mark Lee,” she trilled with a happiness to her voice that he wasn’t quite accustomed to hearing yet. More of that newlywed giddiness spilling over, he assumed. “We weren’t expecting you for another day or two!”
Archie cleared his throat and lifted a brow as he stepped away from his wife. “But it’s better that you’re here now. You can meet your new agent-in-training and get to your first case together even sooner. This way the new agent isn’t just waiting around for you. Most opportune, since they arrived just two days ago.”