Sarah Todd

by Chloe Garner

  “You can’t hold all the strings together anymore, Sarah,” he said. “I don’t know when you’re going to see it for yourself, but you will. Eventually.”

  “Don’t matter,” she said. “Ain’t no one else tryin’.”

  He shrugged, a simple, dismissive motion, and turned to a ledger.

  “If that’s how you choose to see it.”

  She watched him for an instant longer, then clamped her hat on her head and left.

  Kayla was sitting on the stairs.

  Sarah almost walked past her without so much as a word, but Kayla stood, coming to grab her elbow.

  “What are you going to do?” she asked.

  “About what?” Sarah asked.

  “About... them?” Kayla asked, indicating the closed door of Jimmy’s study.

  “Nothin’ to do,” Sarah said. “He’s found a woman what suits him.”

  “He had a woman that suited him,” Kayla said. “I don’t understand what’s going on.”

  “I don’t need you to, Kayla,” Sarah said. “Cause it don’t concern you and ‘cause there ain’t nothing to be done.”

  Kayla dropped her hands.

  “I think you ought to fight for him.”

  What a stupid thing to say, Sarah thought. A stupider thing to believe. Sarah shook her head.

  “There’s no fight needed here. ‘S’why I do so little good here.”

  “If you decide you want to fight for him, I’ll help you,” Kayla said. “I like her fine, but she isn’t the right one.”

  Sarah turned to look back at Kayla in her ephemeral nightgown, standing at the foot of the stairs. She meant well.

  “I’ll keep it in mind,” she said, going outside.

  Where Thomas was sitting on the stairs.

  “It’s a Lawson gauntlet tonight,” Sarah said, going to lean against the post opposite him. “What d’you want, Thomas?”

  “I want to know what you’re going to do next,” he said.

  “I’m fixin’ to head home and go to bed, is what I’m gonna do,” Sarah said. “Don’t know why everyone’s so preoccupied with it.”

  “You know that’s not what I mean,” he said. She softened.

  “Look, Thomas, if there were s’posed to be sides to this thing, you’re s’posed to be on hers. Ain’t right, you bein’ out here when your friend is inside, happy and gettin’ what she wants from life.”

  “I like Rhoda,” he said. “I want her to be happy. But not like this.”

  “Don’t know what anyone expected to happen dif’rent,” Sarah said. “I am what I am, he is what he is. She’s a fine woman. We make it work, like we always done, and we carry on.”

  “It isn’t good enough, Sarah,” he said. “You should expect more.”

  “Ain’t no sides in this thing, Thomas. Jimmy done what he thought was right, and I ain’t one to judge him for it.”

  “You’re exactly the one to judge him for it,” Thomas said. Sarah’s temper was already a bit raw, and she struggled to contain it, at this.

  “Shouldn’t be talkin’ to me like that,” she said. “You can ask him yourself. Jimmy just dismissed me. I’m gonna go back to bein’ Sarah Todd, like I always done, and we make it what we can.”

  “What do you mean he dismissed you?” Thomas asked.

  “I ain’t on his list of confidences anymore,” she said. “I’m just another soldier.”

  “That’s never going to be true,” Thomas said. Sarah clamped her hat down on her head a bit more firmly.

  “I’ll see you when I see you, Thomas.”

  She left him sitting on the stairs, going in search of the black horse and glad of the darkness.

  ––—

  The next day flew. She found the man from Clarence’s construction team on her porch at dawn.

  “You didn’t get him,” the man said. “At least, that’s what it sounds like. They’re saying that Jeen really was there, that night, in the hut with the rest of ‘em, and that they know he didn’t do it.”

  “They know who did?” Sarah asked.

  “No.”

  There was a pause.

  “What else?” she asked.

  “There aren’t many people who are going to come tell you that he shouldn’t go,” the man said. Sarah nodded, pulling out a set of small bills and handing them over.

  “Keep your ear to the ground. I still want to find the real killer, but I’m going to put Jeen on the train tomorrow, either way.”

  The man looked at his feet as he tucked the money away.

  “It’s been hard for us,” he said. “Everyone had big dreams when they got here, and this isn’t really the place for those, is it?”

  “Not really,” she said, waiting. She still had places she needed to be, a whole street to build in a day, but he deserved to be heard.

  “Is there hope, ma’am?” he asked. “Or should we all be begging you to put us on that train with Jeen?”

  “I believe it’s going to get better,” she said. “I really do.”

  He scuffed at the porch with his toe for a minute, then nodded, tucking his hands in his pockets and starting away. She waited until she wouldn’t pass him on the way out, then went to go put out feed for the black horse and find the animal itself.

  Clarence was making good progress. She didn’t know if it would be enough, or not, but there was nothing else she could do to help him. The electrician and the plumber were getting close, and Second Street would start before lunch.

  It was too much, but there weren’t any alternatives.

  On the way past it at one point, Sarah noticed that it looked like Kayla had actually finished renovating her shop. The front glass was clear, but it was hung with drapery and had a pair of dress mannequins in the window displaying an elaborate pair of dresses. Sarah had a hard time imagining anyone in Lawrence wearing them, but she had to admit that it made the street cheerier.

  She stopped in to see Willie and Paulie to tell them that their time in limbo was suspended, and reluctantly left the two of them getting the tavern set to open for that evening. Town had been quieter, with it closed, and she was going to miss that.

  And then she went to the shantytown.

  She stayed horseback, holding up a stack of cash.

  “I need men willin’ to work,” she said. A crowd gathered around her, drawn more by the money than the work, and she waited for the next reasonably quiet gap in the noise of conversation. “The homesteads have lost barns, have structural damage to homes, and need to get fields plowed and seeded before the season leaves them behind. I’m gonna send them here to pick out men to help raise the barns and do whatever else needs doin’. I’m gonna pay for three days’ work for each of ‘ya, assumin’ that you turn up and do the work needs done. Got it?”

  There was jostling.

  “What if they don’t need all of us?” someone asked.

  “That’s why you show up early and be the best,” Sarah said. “If they find men ain’t doin’ enough, they can always come back and try again.”

  More conversation. She didn’t stay for it. She spent the afternoon doing the rounds to the homesteads that needed help. There wasn’t enough lumber right now for all of the barns to go up, so they would have to stagger the work, but by the time the sun was beginning to set, she had an agreement from the homesteads for the order they’d build and plow. If they stuck to it, they’d all get seed in the ground before growing season got too far underway, and they’d have a place to put cattle before they brought them back down from the high country.

  She went back to check on Clarence’s progress, impressed with the finishing details going on inside the houses and even more impressed by the line of structures going down what had previously been hobflower-infested desert. They’d even managed to trample down the hobflowers in the process.

  “How is it looking?” Sarah asked when she found Clarence.

  “You tell me,” he said. “We’re going to be working all night to get the interiors done
, but...” he drew a breath, holding it for a moment for luck. “I think we might just make it.”

  “You’ve got a future here as long as you want it,” Sarah said. “Know that.”

  He nodded to her and Sarah went to tour the buildings, commenting on layouts and details that were yet to finish. Down the street, she could hear the noise as men, both the vagrants and the homesteaders, shouted to each other in celebration of the reopening of the tavern. She tried not to let it get to her, but she went home early, reviewing her maps and drinking gremlin tea until an appropriate hour to go to bed. Tomorrow was a big day.

  ––—

  She went into town first thing, checking the details. There were empty shopfronts everywhere, but the ones that needed to be done were done. Clarence was asleep on the floor in Granger’s office when she finally tracked him down.

  “You want me to wake him?” Granger asked. She shook her head.

  “He finished his job,” she said. “Let him sleep. Tell him I was here and that I was pleased, then let him take anything he needs from the shop. I’ll cover it.”

  Granger nodded.

  “Miracle, what that boy did in those few days.”

  Sarah nodded.

  “You’re tellin’ me.”

  It was unbelievable.

  Lawrence was a two-street town.

  She went from there to the train station, finding a line of buckboards there, waiting to take dignitaries on their tour of town. The hobflowers were annoyingly cheerful in the bright morning sun, thicker with color here around the station than they were other places.

  She found Jimmy and Lise up on the platform, Lise in the chair and Jimmy leaning against a wall. Sarah frowned at Lise then went to stand next to Jimmy.

  “What’s this?” she asked quietly. He pulled a piece of straw out of his mouth to answer.

  “Freddie from Intec?” he asked, referring to one of the men they’d met with. Sarah shrugged and Jimmy nodded. “Lise’s father. William is Kayla’s uncle.”

  She gave him a disbelieving glance and he smirked at the tracks as the sound of the train drifted toward them.

  “You thought I let the boys choose their own wives?” he asked, quietly enough that Lise wasn’t intended to hear.

  “Bastard,” she answered in the same tone. His expression didn’t change.

  The train was another ten minutes out, and it was short this week, just the investors and a large load of wood.

  “You order that?” Jimmy asked.

  “Told Granger to,” Sarah said. He nodded.

  “Good thinking. We will get your sawmill up and going, just as soon as the dust settles from this. Glad you came in costume. They’ll appreciate that,” he said and, before she could process what he meant by that, exactly, the conductor opened the doors and the investors began to spill out onto the platform. Lise and Jimmy melded into them quickly, leaving Sarah on her own at the edge, just watching.

  Several of the men recognized her and came to shake her hand, but more of them didn’t, looking past her as they scanned the scenery. There was a sense of being in the midst of a pack of predators, predators who would be quite happy to take each other out to reduce the competition, if that’s what it took, though on the surface they were all friendly and interested in what was going on. Jimmy brought a woman over to meet Sarah.

  “Coriander, this is Sarah Todd. Sarah, this is Coriander, our last investor.”

  “I didn’t know there were any others, beyond the ones we went to see,” she said. He smiled, a formal setting of his mouth.

  “She’s a late addition with deep pockets,” he said.

  “Ah,” Sarah said. “Well, that explains it. Welcome to Lawrence.”

  The woman gave Sarah a slight bow, then followed Jimmy back to speak with Lise and a tall, thin man she was standing with, Freddie from Intec. A few minutes later, Jimmy went to stand at the end of the platform.

  “Gentlemen and ladies,” he said. “You’ll find we have transport arranged for you, as well as lodgings. We are going to give you a very brief tour of the town here, so be sure not to blink.”

  There was good-natured chuckling that Sarah did her best not to roll her eyes at, and then Jimmy went on.

  “Your general luggage can stay here. I’ve arranged for it to go directly to your lodgings. Anything valuable, obviously, you are welcome to carry with you. I am the law here, so you can imagine that you aren’t in danger of having any of your belongings disappear to inhabitants of the town, but I’ll leave it to you to decide how much you trust each other.”

  Another good-natured chuckle as the men looked around themselves. Jimmy put on another formal smile and held out his arm.

  “And, as an added treat, I’d like to re-introduce you to my business partner, Sarah Todd, to lead the tour.”

  Sarah stayed where she was, leaning against the wall. She’d played her part in the charade to get them here, but damn if she was going to dance for them now. There were several soft exclamations as men who hadn’t before now recognized her, and she ignored these. She stood after another moment.

  “Load ‘em up,” she said. “Welcome to Lawrence.”

  ––—

  The town sparkled with new construction. The vagrant men were nowhere to be seen, but the homesteaders were around, likely many of them on the way to the shantytown to pick out laborers for farmwork, and Granger’s store was active. The investors weren’t impressed with Lawrence - she hadn’t expected they would be - but they were mesmerized by the hobflowers.

  “Thought this was supposed to be desert,” someone called up to Sarah from a way back in the line.

  “Hobflowers,” she said. “They come after the rainy season every year, and y’all have just managed to miss the rain.”

  “Too bad,” someone else called up. “It’s hot.”

  It took Sarah a moment to register that, yes, it was hot. She forgot to notice the heat, when the humidity finally calmed down.

  “It gets quite cold here at night, so don’t get locked outside on accident,” she said. “It’s a bad way to go, freezing in the desert.”

  She got the same polite chuckle Jimmy had, and she resented it. It wasn’t funny, and she hadn’t meant it to be funny. Not like that.

  She pointed out the spa and the tavern.

  “Bring on the dancing girls,” someone called. Sarah looked down at Jimmy.

  “That’s why you made me let them open, isn’t it?” she asked. “So they’d have access to the whores.”

  “Why shouldn’t they be able to make some money, as long as it’s there to be made?” Jimmy answered without looking up at her. “It’s just a transaction.”

  Sarah shook her head, then motioned for the driver to head toward the houses.

  “Here we are. Jimmy has your keys.”

  “Get settled in and freshened up,” Jimmy said, standing. “But don’t take too long. We’re going on a long ride after this to see the active mine that we have running up in the mountains, where the absenta in the lab report came from. You’ll get to see what a live mine looks like, as well as the proof that we really did hit ore that quality. It’s going to be a late night, tonight, as it is, so we’ll be leaving in less than an hour.”

  He hopped down and started handing keys to drivers, indicating houses, then he came back. The two men from Intec were in the the cart with Sarah.

  “You will be staying with us, of course,” Jimmy said. “Sarah, would you stay and make sure everyone has what they need?”

  “Sure,” she said, hopping down and trying not to let the disdain show on her face for anyone but Jimmy. He ignored her.

  This was exactly how she’d hoped to spend the day. Babysitting rich folk who needed to freshen up before they took to horseback through the mountains. She was just glad she didn’t have to try to get the buckboards up and over those rocks - Jimmy had asked if there weren’t any way, and she’d managed to keep him from taking that too seriously. The mountains were treacherous, and the fac
t that she took the Lawsons up and through them as often as she did without incident was because of her skill as a trail-seeker more than the lack of danger up there. She hadn’t been thrilled to hear that Thomas had come back down on his own. To take the worst greenhorns Lawrence had ever seen up and through those rocks was just asking for trouble, and while she’d done her best to pick a path that was going to be easy and fast, she had no guarantees to offer for how it would go.

  Jimmy wasn’t worried.

  Jimmy never worried. He let her do that.

  He just left her in the middle of the thrown-up townlet full of rich men and told her to take care of it.

  And she would.

  But she didn’t have to like it.

  ––—

  It was most of two hours before she had everyone back outside and mounted up. Twice, grown men had gone back inside to use the restroom. It was like traveling with a classroom of five year olds. She finally got them moving, dreading the rest of the day, riding up and down a line of rich men who’d never been horseback in their lives and giving them direction on how to hold reins and that their feet shouldn’t go all the way through the stirrups.

  Someone was gonna get killed this trip, and if she managed to get everyone home alive, it was going to be Jimmy. They had a pack horse with food and water and Thomas had joined her about an hour earlier to help get everyone rounded up, but at this point, Sarah was feeling like it would have been easier to just make them all walk.

  They stopped at the Lawson house, where Jimmy, Wade, and two of the investors were waiting, and Sarah led off up into the mountains.

  From the beginning, it was chaos. Men fell. One got dragged. They were hungry. They were thirsty. They wanted to know how far it was and when they were stopping.

  Sarah just rode on, letting Jimmy deal with the bellyaching.

  “Everyone? Everyone, just shut up,” Jimmy yelled at one point early into the ride. “If there is anyone here who is ready to go to auction tomorrow without seeing the mine we have in operation now, let us know. Wade or Thomas will take you back to the houses and you can relax for the rest of today. If what I expect is true is actually true, though, and you aren’t ready to part ways with your money until you’ve seen proof that there is absenta up here, we have a very long, very hard ride head of us, and complaining isn’t going to change that. We need to be home before dark, or we stand to start losing some of you. Yes, that can happen. So we have to move, and we have to move quickly. Keep up or fall behind. Those are your choices after right now. Clear?”