by Kari Trumbo
Everything he did seemed to tie to that one woman, and he’d reached the point of realizing that he’d rather never go anywhere again if it wasn’t with her. He’d jested with Geoff, telling him he’d planned to steal his sister off into the night if she didn’t agree to return with him to England, but he’d rather die than make Lenora unhappy.
If only there was a way to convince her that his heart was true. If he’d never shared the stories of his past with her, she wouldn’t have known. But, if he’d been dishonest with her and she had followed him back to England, she would’ve realized his duplicity. Better that he be honest with her and have to overcome what he was, than to have to best a lie.
Cort rolled over and groaned. “What are you doing up before the sun? Don’t I work you hard enough?”
Victor could almost laugh. Cort had broken him like a horse the last few days, pushing him farther than he’d ever thought he was capable of. He hadn’t realized he could be quite so useful. Now that he’d had a few days to adjust, he was getting used to the rigorous pace of construction, and soon, he’d be used to the dirty job of the stable.
“My wakefulness has nothing to do with how much you expect out of me, friend, though I was beginning to wonder why I insisted you come along on this journey. You’ve certainly forgotten your place.”
It was all in jest. Cort’s place was by his side. No man was better, nor could any man be trusted like Cort.
Cort’s laugh was more like another groan. “We’re brother’s, perhaps not in the way of most, but brothers none-the-less.”
He couldn’t disagree, and he would miss Cort if he did convince the lovely Lenora to travel with him back to England.
“What will you do when I return home? I’d always assumed you would join me, but you plan to stay here, in California. Though, it will work you into the ground.”
Cort sat up and rubbed his temples then scrubbed his hands down his face. “California is perfect. No one stays anywhere long enough to notice me. There aren’t many people in Blessings, and I can just be who I am.”
He’d convince Cort to join him if it was possible, but once Cort had made up his mind, he wouldn’t be dragged away from a decision, even by mules.
“Except, you can’t. You’re not Cort Nelson. In England, you wouldn’t have to go by another name, you could use your own.”
“This is as close as I’ll ever come to living free. I’m not going across an ocean and I wish you wouldn’t, either. What if Lenora says no? What if she’s an American, through and through?”
He hadn’t wanted to consider that. Would he choose; his mother, who was relying on him to come home and mend the family, or, Lenora, the lovely bird who’d stolen his heart?
“I don’t know. I pray she doesn’t force me to make that decision.”
“She was born and raised in Boston, where American patriotism came into being. You’d better consider everything before you get too attached to the woman. You think you love her enough to take her home, but does she love you enough to go along?”
Cort’s question hit him in the gut. Lenora had only recently begun to warm to him, she’d been quite cool to his advances before they’d made landfall. Now, he saw the joy in her eyes when he came upon her. But was that enough? Could he count on her? He was willing to give up every other woman, every dalliance, for Lenora, but would she give up America for him?
“You leave me with a lot to think about.”
Until now, his thoughts had been centered around her beauty, but he had to think of her mind and heart, as well. She’d never stay with him if she was unhappy, and he wanted her with him. His desire had grown beyond just that of his body. Her kiss, her touch, her gaze, would be wonderful, but they wouldn’t be enough. He’d waited too long for her. Now, he wanted all of her.
“Well, think on it what you will, but while you’re at it, it’s your turn to make breakfast.” Cort rolled back over on his cot and his snores filled the small tent within moments.
After the argument with Geoff the night before, Victor hadn’t been able to get Geoff’s warning off his mind. Could Geoff turn Mr. Farnsworth against him, destroy all the work he’d done to build trust? It seemed unfathomable. Farnsworth had practically shoved his daughter in Victor’s arms, but that hadn’t made her want to be there. The road would be much harder if Geoff was successful in changing Mr. Farnsworth’s mind. Lenora was a good and respectful daughter and wouldn’t want to go against her father’s wishes.
Yes, the day held much to think about, but even more work to be done. Victor levered his sore body out of his bed and yanked on his trousers. He’d assumed the gold would flow freely in California, but now that he’d been there for a few weeks, he’d found that the gold—like everything else he’d tried—would be work. However, it would be worth it, and maybe Lenora was just the same. If he worked hard to draw her closer to him, she could be his precious jewel.
Chapter 10
Victor put in a day of clearing stumps and working on building the stalls within the livery until his back ached and his hands were bloody. But, they could open their doors soon. After so much help, the men of Blessings were excited about the prospect of having a secure place for their animals. Most of them wanted to have some means to travel, but they hadn’t wanted to keep horses or mules outside their small dwellings. Nor had anyone wanted to travel for feed and straw. With the mud all around Blessings, the animals couldn’t simply be pastured. He and Cort would have to drive and buy feed for the animals, and the livery would be the perfect place to keep them.
He followed the path he and Cort had worn in the underbrush to their tent and ducked inside to wash his hands and rinse the sweat off his face before he’d go and have his daily visit with Lenora. He’d made her wait until the late afternoon the day before, so now he’d come a little early, just to see the surprise on her lovely face. Not to mention, the more hours he went without seeing her, the surlier he got.
Cort strode in just as Victor was tying his string tie using the small mirror hanging in the corner of their tent as a means to tie it straight. Cort’s mouth turned down in disapproval as he stared at Victor’s suit.
“Tomorrow we can move into the livery and move this tent out by the other for our evening exploits.” Cort sat heavily on his cot. “We were able to spend less than we planned because of so much help from the miners.”
Victor nodded and kept his eye on his knot. Cort could stay and repay all the kindness he wanted. As soon as he’d earned enough to return to England, he would. The money wasn’t coming in near fast enough for him. California was nice, but it wasn’t England, where he could play all day.
“A couple of the men said that Farnsworth had some new help today.”
Victor stopped fighting with his tie and turned, now unable to ignore his friend. “New?” Lenora had said there wasn’t so much work that her father really needed her, so why would he add one more?
“His son is now working for him, instead of his daughter.” Cort stared at him, Victor could see the need for an argument brewing in Cort’s eyes, the tension bunching in his shoulders. Was Cort jealous of his time with Lenora?
“What was wrong with the job Lenora was doing? Why would Farnsworth hire Geoff when he’s done nothing but drink and gamble since we arrived?”
And how would he visit Lenora if she wasn’t working? He’d have to call on her like any other boring suitor. Lenora deserved more, she deserved excitement and intrigue. He liked that she had to wonder all day when he’d appear, and seeing the surprise on her face daily was something he looked forward to and didn’t want to miss.
Cort didn’t answer, just shrugged and sat on his cot.
“She isn’t in the office at all?” He needed to walk down there and glance in the window, just to be certain.
“No. Like I said, I heard it from two of the men. Men whom I trust.” Cort folded his hands but kept his steady gaze on Victor. “So, what are you going to do now?”
Victor sat on his own c
ot. If he were back home and Lenora were any other woman, he’d just meet her in secret and convince her to come out in the dead of night, so they could still see each other. But Lenora was too special for such deception, just thinking of anyone doing that to her made his blood boil in a most unpleasant way. Even if that someone was himself.
“I really don’t know. Any ideas?”
What Cort lacked in social grace was more than made up for with his intelligence. If Victor couldn’t think his way through a problem, Cort might have the answer.
“I think she’ll be difficult for her father to peg down. Give her a day, maybe less, and she’ll be working somewhere else. It won’t take long before word spreads about where she’s at. She can’t exactly hide.”
The man had a point. Lenora was beautiful and almost the only woman available. The men would notice her, and he wouldn’t have to look like a fool searching around town. But what about now, this very instant, when his need to see her was enough to fill the sky two times over? For almost a year, he’d hardly gone a day without being in her presence. He’d envisioned what the long-hidden sun would do with her pretty hair, and her glorious blue eyes. Now he’d have to be patient. If he’d learned anything, ten years before, when he’d turned twenty, it was that his patience only lasted until the next hand was dealt. Though he wasn’t generally a praying man, he prayed that Cort was right and he wouldn’t have to wait long.
“I’m heading over to the law office to take a peek and see if she’s in there. It may have just been idle talk, perhaps she had to go upstairs to help her mother during the day. Those men might have caught her when she was with her mother.”
As weak as the excuse was, it was all he had. He’d told himself for a long time that he went to see her daily to make her think of him, but somewhere along the way, his own need had grown, and he couldn’t stand the thought of laying his head down for the night without setting eyes on her, at least from a distance.
“Do you think that’s wise? You and Geoff fought last night. If he is working with his father today, where do you think he went when he parted company with us last evening? And just what do you think he told his father? His lip was bloody when he stormed off. He either went to the saloon or straight back to daddy’s.”
Geoff had been friendly until the night before, but now he had more men who would listen to his whining. Men who might agree with Geoff and fire his angst against his family. He didn’t need Victor and Cort for his gambling urges anymore, he could ask any one of the miners. But would Geoff learn, as Victor had, that there was more to life than a hand of cards? Would working for his father force him to make the change, or just hide it better?
“I can’t just sit here and wonder where she is.” He gripped his knees for a moment, unable to sit still; the need to get out of the tent and be with Lenora more alluring than anything he’d ever experienced before.
“So, head down to the tent a little early. I’m sure someone will be down there soon to share a hand or two. That should take your mind off of her. And who knows, a few days away and you might find you don’t miss her as much as you think you do.”
Victor had to laugh. “Unlikely. A day without Lenora is like a morning without the sun breaking over the horizon.”
“The day still happens, Victor. She’s just a woman, and bound to tie you in knots before she works her wiles, then wanders away.”
“Emitt, you’ve been in love, eh?” Testing Cort was too much fun to let the chink in his armor slip.
“Don’t ever use that name again,” he growled.
“You speak with authority on the fairer sex. Yet, you never seem to look, to sample. That tells me you’ve been entangled in the past.”
“It isn’t worth talking about. I’m here and I am who I am. I don’t have to ever look another woman in the eye again.”
With his own heart so fixed on Lenora, Victor couldn’t imagine living a life without desire, passion, adoration, love…
“Maybe you just fell in love with the wrong woman.”
Cort slammed his fist down on his knee. “I’m done with this, Victor.”
The string tie he’d been so careful with, was now unnecessary if he was only going to the gambling tent.
“What is stopping me from moving into the livery tonight?”
Cort narrowed his eyes with a skeptical glance. “Nothing, except that it’s almost evening, we haven’t made our meal yet, and there’s nothing over there.”
Except the new stove, which would make cooking the evening’s supper easier.
“Why don’t we bring what we can over there, and make do for tonight. I’m ready to sleep under a roof.” Which was true, but he’d hoped to have Lenora with him. She’d all but escaped his wager. Perhaps she wasn’t as warm to him as he’d thought. It had never taken so long for a woman to succumb, but she would be all the sweeter once she did.
Pati smiled with three pins stuck in her mouth. She took a moment to grab them out then nodded. “Have a seat so I don’t have to look up at you.” Her lilting English accent took Lenora aback for a moment. It was rare to hear in Boston. Even almost one hundred years after the war for America’s independence, Boston was largely colonial.
Lenora came further into the small shack with its plank floor running the whole length of the one room. There were only a handful of women in Blessings, so there would be no need for her to work with Pati, but where else could she go? If Pati didn’t hire her, that left the saloon, and her father would never approve of such a job.
Pati turned to face her and gave her a frank once-over. “I don’t like doing the laundry. It takes my time away from sewing. You can set your own price, use my basins, but that’s all I really have for you to do. Oh, and the occasional embroidery. Some men like their initials on their handkerchiefs so that when they go through the wash they don’t get lost. Sometimes I don’t have time for that, either.”
Lenora had only learned how to do wash on the voyage, and it was much different now that they were on land; probably the least enjoyable chore. After doing the wash, her hands were always red and raw, but if that was the job Pati needed her to do, then she’d do it. The only person in all of Blessings who didn’t work was her mother, and she refused to be like her. The reasons for her mother’s lack of ambition had changed over the past few weeks.
Mother had gone from distant and angry, to addled. She’d taken to talking to herself. Her eyes would roll back in her head and she’d sway, sometimes sing. Mostly she talked about the Indians, and how terrified she was of them. As far as anyone knew, Mother had never even laid eyes on an Indian, but something had convinced her they were a threat and she wouldn’t calm herself, nor could anyone give her words of comfort once she started swaying and groaning in fear. Lenora hadn’t told anyone, but her father knew. He’d warned her not to say anything to anyone; not only would they talk about Mother, they might accuse the witch of plying her craft.
Lenora steeled her resolve. “I can do the wash. How often do the miners come in?”
“Whenever they have a spare minute. They’ll bring it all in a neat bundle, tied together. You’ll need to wash, dry, starch, and iron everything. When you’re done, fold it and tie it back together, all nice and tidy. They don’t mind paying a pretty penny for it, either. I charged eight dollars a set when I was asked to do it, and don’t you charge a cent less.”
Eight dollars, that was more than her father had even thought about giving her for a week of work. Lenora took a good long look at her hands, they weren’t as smooth and soft as they’d been in Boston, and they never would be again. Soon, they would be red, swollen, working women’s hands, but she could say she’d helped the little town in the only way she could. What did soft skin matter, anyway? It wasn’t like anyone would take notice of her once Victor left.
“I’ll go gather some water and wood to get it heating.”
Pati didn’t talk much while she worked, and Lenora pressed ahead all day, washing all three sets of clothes that
had been waiting, then hung them to dry. While they dried, she’d hoped to do some embroidery, but her hands were burning from the soap, and she couldn’t hold a needle.
Pati smiled at her a moment and took a jar of green salve down off the shelf.
“Here, put a bit of this on your hands. The witch none of us are supposed to talk to, gave it to me when she saw my hands after doing the wash. I think it’s melted bee’s wax, animal fat, and some plants. All I know is it works, so, I don’t usually tell anyone where I got it.”
Lenora opened the lid and swiped her finger over the oily green lotion. It had no smell, but soothed the burn the moment it covered her hands.
“Good,” Pati said, “now, go home and fix your family luncheon. It will give the salve some time to work.”
She did as she was told, especially since it would keep her family from wondering too much about where she was.
When she returned to the seamstress shack—for it did not have a name yet—she rushed through all the other steps until the day was finally spent. She’d managed her first day of work. It wasn’t what she wanted to do, a lawyer wouldn’t need to do her own wash, but the three neat stacks waiting on the table for their owners made her heart swell with accomplishment. She could see, without a doubt, what her hands had done all that day.
Pati stood and stretched slightly. “I think it’s about time we call it a day. The good light is gone, and I can’t sit here a moment more. Pete will have done his rounds and will be waiting for me to fill his belly. That man can eat. Will I see you again tomorrow, or did the first day wear you out?”