His heart raced as he headed Dancer down the steep sandy bank that was dotted with bunches of grass. He breathed in the smell of fish and water, new scents to which he had grown accustomed since arriving in this sometimes swampy country. He suspected that once he got into the city, the air would not smell so sweet. He scowled at the way smoke from the factories darkened the sky. White Buffalo and his people were right about one thing—the white man sure knew how to dirty up the land.
He wondered if it was possible cities could grow this big out west. Omaha was growing, as was Denver and Salt Lake City. None of them came close to Chicago, but neither did those cities have railroads feeding them. If Sunny’s railroad got built, a lot of things would change. Still, the money it would take for such a project was enough to send a man’s head spinning, certainly bigger numbers than he could imagine.
But Sunny can imagine that kind of money, he thought. He shook his head, his astonishment that she had answered his letters renewed. He slowed Dancer again as he reached the outlying homes. He decided he had better think about this. Perhaps he would just ride into the city first, get a damn good look at this place called Chicago, see what factories looked like, visit the rail yard, find out where to sign up for the army. He’d ask around, find out where Sunny lived for sure. That would give him time to decide if he should bother seeing her at all.
***
Tod looked up from his desk, a chill creeping down his spine at the sight of the tall, buckskin-clad, wild-looking young man who stood in front of him. He looked dangerous, obviously part Indian, a light scar running across his right eyebrow and down over his temple. Tod swallowed, glancing at the gun and knife the man wore on his wide, beaded leather belt. “Can I…help you?”
The man removed his hat, revealing neat, clean, dark hair that hung in waves about his neckline. A surprisingly friendly look came into his hazel eyes, and when he smiled, Tod thought he was outright handsome, or at least he could be if he were not dressed so crudely.
“I’m Colt Travis. I, uh, I don’t know if Miss Landers ever mentioned me, but I was her guide a few years ago when she and her father—”
“Travis! So, you’re Colt Travis!” Tod rose, hardly coming to Colt’s shoulders, glad there was a desk between them, since he still wasn’t sure he could trust the man. He looked him over, hardly able to believe this was the man Sunny had corresponded with and of whom she talked so fondly. “Yes, I know who you are. I’m Tod Russell, Miss Landers’s personal secretary.”
Colt frowned. “You work for her?”
Tod reddened slightly. “Yes. I worked for her father, and stayed on after he died. Miss Landers took over everything, you know. She needed my expertise to help her through the transition, and she is very pleasant to work for.”
Colt grinned. “I’ll bet she is.” He decided to keep his thoughts to himself. He supposed in this crazy city maybe nobody thought anything about a middle-aged man working for a young woman. He had already given up being surprised at much stranger things he had seen. “Is Sunny in?”
“No. She went home about three o’clock. She had some things to do to prepare for quite a large dinner party she is having tonight at the mansion. I, uh—” Tod hesitated. Was it safe to tell this man where Sunny lived? He could not see why he shouldn’t. She seemed to be very fond of him and to trust him, and, after all, there were plenty of men who guarded the mansion and the grounds. “I can explain to you how to find her if you like.”
Colt nodded. “Yes, I would.” He glanced at another door that read Sunny Landers. “Is that where she does her work when she’s in?”
Tod nodded. “Would you like to see her office?”
“Sure, if it’s all right.”
Tod looked him over again. “I don’t know why not.” He walked around the desk and opened the door to Sunny’s office, standing back and letting Colt inside.
Colt whistled softly as he looked around. “Damn,” he muttered. He walked farther into the huge room, admiring the beautiful plants and statues. He heard a bird-song and glanced over at the cage, walking closer. Tod took the opportunity to shake his head and smile disdainfully at how easily impressed this Mr. Travis seemed to be.
Colt studied the canary for a moment, and for some reason it made him think of White Buffalo. “Doesn’t seem right, keeping a bird in a cage like that.” He thought how the bird seemed kind of a symbol of how the wealthy and powerful could stick people right where they wanted them to be, servants, slaves, cages for animals, reservations for Indians. It wasn’t that he blamed someone like Sunny, but she was, after all, a part of the same system. Again it struck him that he must be an idiot for being here at all. He turned and gazed around the office, glancing then at the grandfather clock when it began to chime. He walked closer to it, studying the fine oak cabinet, enjoying the rich sound it made as it sounded out five o’clock.
What beautiful things Sunny had surrounding her. This room reeked of power and money. He turned to study the gilt-framed painting that hung on the wall behind her desk, stepping closer to admire it. “Well, well,” he muttered, smiling at the background for the magnificent locomotive. The train was set against wide-open prairie land. It was a beautiful painting, so real that it made him homesick for the West.
He sighed, turning to face Tod. “Can you draw me a map or something, show me how to get to Sunny’s home?”
Tod looked him over again. “Of course. The way Miss Landers talks about you, she would probably fire me if I didn’t.”
Colt followed him to the outer office. “She talks about me that much?”
“Oh, she did for a while there, when you wrote her those letters. But lately she hasn’t said so much. She’s been so involved with her plans for offices and such in Omaha, what with the railroad act being passed and all. She’s a very, very busy lady now.”
“They passed a bill for a transcontinental railroad?”
“Yes.” Tod sat down and took out a piece of paper and a pen.
“Sunny is going to have offices in Omaha?”
“That’s what she says. She might even build a home there. She’s in the process right now of finding someone to take over for her here. She wants to take her brother Stuart with her, and of course she would never allow Vince to step into her shoes here. There is no love lost between those two. At any rate—” Tod hesitated, taking a moment to draw some lines and name some streets. “At any rate, between the railroad act and Omaha and a certain Mr. Blaine O’Brien, Miss Landers has her hands full.”
“Who is Blaine O’Brien?”
Tod looked up at him. What was this man’s interest in Sunny Landers? Was he really just a friend, or was he someone out to get Sunny’s money, as Vince yelled at Sunny once? He decided that whatever this Colt Travis wanted, someone like Sunny would never even remotely consider such a primitive, unrefined man as a lover or a husband, discounting the fact that he was half Indian. It gave Tod the shivers to think of how vicious this man could be when necessary, from the stories he had heard. At any rate, he supposed Colt ought to know where things stand before he saw Sunny.
“Mr. O’Brien is Miss Landers’s, uh, love interest, you might say.” He watched Colt’s eyes, caught the little flash of jealousy. So, there was a little more here than friendship. He decided that if there was, it was certainly one-sided. This Colt Travis nowhere near compared to Blaine O’Brien. “Mr. O’Brien is one of the richest men in the country,” he added, deciding to do his part in discouraging any romantic thoughts this foolish young man might have about Sunny. “His father was owner of O’Brien Shipping, one of the biggest freighting and passenger lines between the United States and Europe. Mr. O’Brien inherited the business. He is also one of the primary investors in the Union Pacific Railroad—that’s what the new railroad will be called. He is interested in investing in land in the Northwest. Once the railroad is completed, he believes there will
be a huge new market for lumber, and he wants to get in on the ground floor.”
Tod enjoyed the idea that he must be greatly impressing Colt with his description of Blaine O’Brien, whom he greatly respected. He looked down and finished his drawing. “Mr. O’Brien has been courting Miss Landers for about a year and half now,” he added casually. “Everyone believes they’ll end up getting married in the not-too-distant future, but right now Miss Landers says the railroad has to come first. She isn’t quite ready for a full commitment, although no one doubts that she loves the man. I suppose her first loyalty is still to her father’s memory and his dream of a railroad. Bo Landers was quite a man. I miss him very much.” Tod sighed and stood up. “Here you are.”
He met Colt’s eyes again, but he did not see the disappointment there that he thought he would see. Instead, he saw only a look of contempt. Colt took the paper. “You didn’t have to go to so much trouble to make your point, Mr. Russell,” he told Tod. He smiled, but it was more of a sneer. “I assure you, I am here only to pay a respectful visit to an old friend, whose life I happened to save more than once, I might add. Believe it or not, people who run in different circles can be friends sometimes. Thanks for the map.”
“Mr. Travis,” Tod said as Colt turned to leave. Colt looked at him, impatience in his eyes. “I was just, well, I wanted you to be aware, that’s all. As I told you earlier, Miss Landers is having a dinner party tonight. You might like to know that Mr. O’Brien will be there, as well as several prominent people from Chicago and New York. It’s a kind of celebration dinner for the passing of the railroad act. Miss Landers is leaving day after tomorrow for Omaha.”
Colt stared at him a moment, furious at the fact that the man was suggesting he shouldn’t go to see Sunny tonight. Was he afraid that he would embarrass her? He turned and left without another word, avoiding the elevator someone downstairs had tried to show to him. He didn’t like contraptions that made him feel caged. He took the stairs, his mind racing with indecision. Would he embarrass Sunny? One thing was certain—going over there tonight was a damn good way to find out if she had changed. The old Sunny would not be embarrassed at all, and the old Sunny was the one who had come through in the letters.
He stepped into the street, where a few passersby gawked at him as though he were from another world. Hell, I guess I am, he thought. He looked at the map, seeing a square marked “office” and another marked “Sunny’s home,” several blocks to the northeast on the lake. He untied Dancer and mounted up, thinking how painfully ironic it was that he was headed farther east to join the war, while Sunny was heading for his home country. If he had stayed in Omaha a little longer, he might have seen her there, in his world, where he would have felt so much more relaxed meeting her again.
He looked up at the tall Landers Enterprises building and shook his head. He was tempted to find a room for the night and say the hell with it, but the fact remained that he was here, and after the letters they had exchanged, no amount of reasoning was going to keep him from seeing her. After all, it would probably be years before he would have this chance again, and he was going off to war while Sunny Landers had a railroad to build—and a man to marry. What was the harm in saying hello?
“Well, boy, let’s see if we can find a bathhouse,” he told Dancer, turning the horse away from the hitching post. “Apparently, I’d better spruce up a little before experiencing the honor of stepping into the grand household of Miss Sunny Landers.”
***
“Well, what do you think?” Sunny stood back and opened her arms, turning in a circle. Both Mae and Vi smiled with envy but happiness for Sunny’s victory.
“I don’t believe a more beautiful young woman exists in the whole country,” Vi said, shaking her head.
“I have to agree, ma’am,” Mae added, thrilled that Sunny had already told her she wanted her to go to Omaha with her.
“I wasn’t referring to whether or not I look beautiful,” Sunny said with light laughter. “It’s just that I have to look just right—I don’t know, like a woman of authority. Everyone coming tonight is so important to the railroad.”
“Sunny, if you haven’t proven your abilities by now, then anyone who still doubts you is a fool,” Vi told her. “Stop worrying about how you will be accepted just because you are female.” She sighed, looking Sunny over admiringly again. “You have it all, you know—looks, brains, power, wealth—”
“And a man some women would die for,” Mae added.
Sunny shrugged and turned to look in the full-length mirror again. “Blaine is the least of my concerns tonight,” she told them. “Everyone is so eager to get us together, but I don’t know if I love him enough; and right now the Union Pacific is all that matters.” She laughed. “I’m in love with a railroad. How do you like that?”
“You’re Bo Landers’s daughter, all right,” Vi told her.
Sunny adjusted the position of the bodice of the dress, moving it down just a little more off her shoulders. The dress had been specially made by her personal tailor, fashioned after the latest designs in England, with dropped sleeves that exposed her milky-white shoulders and a tempting portion of her breasts. A fall of exquisite hand-made lace graced the upper edge of the bodice, hanging down six inches to her elbows. The dress was a deep lavender-blue, with a tight-fitting pointed waist, below which billowed an upper skirt of white tulle and more delicate lace, draped diagonally over an underskirt of lavender-blue silk gathered in hundreds of puffings, each tied with white satin ribbon. She wore the glittering diamond necklace given to her by her father when she turned sixteen, and on her wrist she wore a bracelet of more diamonds, given to her by Blaine as a celebration gift before she left Washington. Tiny diamond earrings graced her earlobes, exposed by an upswept hairdo that came together at her crown in a tumble of waves and curls that fell down her back. Diamond-studded combs decorated her golden hair.
“I have to look just right, especially with Vince coming,” she told Vi and Mae. “I can’t believe he actually accepted the invitation. I hope he isn’t going to do something to ruin the evening.”
“I don’t think he will,” Vi assured her. “Let him eat crow tonight, Sunny.”
Sunny turned to face her, smiling lovingly. “What would I have done these last few months without you to talk to?” She sighed deeply. “I hope I’m not the one eating crow a few months from now. All we’ve done is get government approval and a little help. Actually building the railroad will be another matter.”
“You’ll do it, ma’am,” Mae told her. “I’ve got no doubt you can do anything you make up your mind to do.”
“Thank you, Mae.” Sunny walked up and hugged Vi. “I haven’t even told you how lovely you look tonight. How rude of me to be fussing over myself like this. Here you are such a busy woman yourself.” She stepped back, studying Vi’s much plainer dark blue dress. It was elegant and obviously of the best material and design. After all, what Landers woman would wear anything less? But it was a simpler style, fitting for someone like Vi. Sunny thought how the woman’s personality made her so beautiful from the inside that a person hardly noticed her plump build and plain features. “You have given me too much of your time, Vi,” she told her. “With three children at home and now working at that hospital, I want you to quit worrying about me. I’m going to be fine now.” She glanced at Mae. “Would you mind leaving us alone for a few minutes, Mae?”
“Oh, no, ma’am.” Mae hurriedly picked up the clothes Sunny had discarded and left the room.
Sunny walked closer and took Vi’s hand. “Are you sure you don’t mind my taking Stuart to Omaha with me?”
“Of course not,” Vi answered, squeezing her hand. “I’m just happy Stuart is willing to go. I hated the way he treated you when I first met him. Besides, he’s kind of looking forward to going back out. Actually, it might be good for Stuart to get away from Vince. Vince is always after
him about something, deliberately upsetting him. While he’s gone I have my work at the hospital.”
Sunny studied her kind eyes. “What’s it like, Violet? The war seems so far away and unreal, until I see all those soldiers at the railroad station, see the ones coming in wounded and crying with pain.”
Vi’s eyes misted. “It’s terrible. This war is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.” She let go of Sunny’s hand and turned away. “When I volunteered to help out at the hospital, I thought I was doing my good deed for the day. But it has become something more than that. There is nothing worse than telling a boy of only nineteen or twenty that his leg has to come off, or his arm, or that he’ll never live long enough to go home again. I never thought I could bear up under so much pain and tears and blood, but something keeps me going, something helps me ignore the smell and the horror of it.” She faced Sunny again. “I guess it’s the terror I see in the eyes of those young men. I hold their hand, and I become their wife, their mother, their sweetheart, their comfort.”
Sunny sighed, fingering the bracelet at her wrist. “I feel like I should be doing something, too, to help.”
“Right now you’re doing what you have to do, Sunny. We all have our duties in life. Someday soon, I hope, this ugly war will be over, and when it is, that railroad will be needed more than ever. In the meantime life has to go on, and you have a big job ahead of you. Tonight is your night, Sunny. It’s the culmination of years of work on your part and your father’s before you. Enjoy your victory, and don’t let Vince or anyone else do anything to spoil it for you.”
Sunny searched her eyes, thinking how Vi had become the closest thing to a mother she would ever have in spite of the fact that the woman was only eight years older than she. “What do you think of Blaine? Am I crazy not to marry him right now? Be a wife? Have children?”
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