by Kari Trumbo
Maddie frowned and tilted her head thoughtfully. “I suppose that’ll have to be considered, but it gives me hope. If I want to find out if I’m as fragile as they say, I need to ask.”
***
Beau directed Rex along the worn trail to the small house about two miles out of town. Who could forget a house that small, where, a month back, a seemingly endless flow of girls had come out the door upon his arrival. Now, that he thought back on it, the older girls had been mighty frightened by his visit. He hadn’t taken the time to consider why before.
This time around, Mr. Arnsby sat on the front stoop smoking a pipe. It was far too cold for anyone to be out. If Beau wasn’t there on a personal mission, he’d be in his warm room at the inn.
“What can I do for ya? I ain’t got anything made up right now. I’ll have to get your name and you’ll have to wait. Bad crop this year.” Mr. Arnsby remained in his seat.
“Mr. Arnsby. I don’t know if you remember, but I came to call about a month ago. I was asking about a Ruby Gresham. You told me then that you hadn’t heard of her.”
Mr. Arnsby pulled his pipe from his mouth and leaned forward, his head hung low between his shoulders. “I don’t remember you.”
“I think you do. I think you know Ruby Gresham pretty well, or at least you did.”
Mr. Arnsby shoved the pipe in his mouth and shook his head. “How’s my girl?” he whispered.
Beau dismounted and fought the urge to yank the man out of his seat. He had to keep calm, give the man a chance to speak, or he might never learn about this Arnold Gresham and where he might be.
“Do you care? You didn’t when I was here before. If you had, she could’ve been back with you by now.”
The man’s head swung up. “You challenging me, boy?”
Beau planted his feet and gave the man a hard glare. “I guess I am. You lied to me, and Ruby told me she was kidnapped. If you cared, you would’ve asked about her when I was here before.”
“You don’t know anything. I got eight girls. Not one boy. Eight mouths to feed and no one to pass on my name. When Ruby’s time came, someone made an offer and I took it. It wasn’t like we could be too picky, and he promised to take care of her. He ain’t come back here in quite some time, though.”
“Ruby thinks he might be dead. Where are the marriage papers filed?” He couldn’t stay here much longer or he’d do something he’d regret. While his own Pa had steadily gone more forgetful in the last few years, Beau had always known his Pa cared.
“Arnold Gresham? Dead? Nothing could kill that coot ‘less she kilt him.”
A new, unwelcome sensation crept up his spine. Beau rested his hand on his hip. “Where’d he live and where are the papers filed?” Rex pawed the ground, he heard the tension in Beau’s voice.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, papers. Gresham lived down by the river, east of here in a shack by Snake Rock.”
“I was told that in order for a marriage to be legal, you had to file papers. If she was married, where are Ruby’s marriage papers filed?” He raised his voice and a blond head appeared in one of the front windows.
Mr. Arnsby frowned. “Ain’t no papers. Never was. I said the vows. Gresham wouldn’t have agreed if we’d a had the law out here to do it. It was just as legal as me ‘n the missus.”
Ruby wasn’t legally married…and she’d been shoved into a life with—from what he’d gathered on his last trip—an old, mean drunk. Disgusted by the man reclining on the stoop, Beau slipped his foot into the stirrup and pushed himself up. He glared back at Mr. Arnsby from his saddle.
“You want to see your daughter? Think she’d want to see you?” Why did he even ask? As far as he was concerned, the careless, heartless father didn’t deserve to see Ruby again.
“Why, you want to get rid of her, too?”
“No, I just thought since she was your daughter, you might want to see her and make sure she was well. I can see you don’t.”
Arnsby laughed. “I just want ‘em out of my hair. You lookin’ to marry? I got one that’s ready and no one to claim her yet; name’s Jennie. Bit feisty, though.” Mr. Arnsby wiped the spittle from his chin with the back of his hand.
Beau’s stomach clenched and he couldn’t quite bring himself to call the man sir. “No, I’m not.” Beau turned his horse and headed toward Snake Rock. No way would he ever tell Ruby about his trip out to see her father. She didn’t need to relive what that man put her through…what he allowed to happen to his own flesh and blood. He couldn’t imagine the horror of being sold like cattle. Now, there was an even bigger problem.
How could he go about telling Ruby that he knew the truth? How could he convince her he still wanted to court her, and more than that, wanted to help her and her sisters out of their predicament? He’d have to tell her he’d visited her father. He wanted to swear, instead he cast his eyes to the sky, saying a prayer for peace. There had to be a way around the situation, otherwise he’d have to tell her.
Beau followed the trail to the east then veered along the river. He took the path and followed it, finally reaching an old hovel just as the sun set. Inside, he found a dusty and abandoned room. It hadn’t seen people in quite some time. He returned outside and led Rex into a small lean-to, giving him some grain he’d stored in the saddle bag before they’d left. Then he took his own rations into the house to start a fire.
The hut wasn’t air tight and the wind from the hills blew in under the door and banged at the windows. The fire in the hearth danced with the drafts, but if he sat close enough, he was almost warm. There was one bed along the wall and it was nothing more than a pallet of old pelts, and the smell was ferocious. A small table sat along another wall with two chairs, and alongside the hearth hung the cooking equipment.
Too wound up to sit still, he stood and took in the room. Something behind the stew pot caught his eye. He walked toward it. It was a small white corner of paper sticking out from the Dutch oven. He lifted the Dutch oven from its hanger and removed the lid. Inside was a hand drawn sketch of eight girls. On the bottom in small print was the name Ruby Arnsby, then she’d crossed out the last name and wrote in Gresham in stilted ugly letters. It couldn’t have been her handwriting.
He studied the picture and each solemn face. Ruby had missed her sisters enough to draw them, but why did she leave the picture behind? Had she run from this place, from Arnold? Beau saw no sign of Ruby ever living there. No dresses hung from the hooks, in fact, there was only one hook by the bed. The house wasn’t equipped for two occupants, with the exception of the table.
He glanced over at the pallet and shuddered. It wasn’t big enough for two, but there wasn’t anywhere else to sleep. Could he face Ruby knowing what she must’ve gone through in that tiny, filthy cabin? She’d be doubly crushed to know that she’d been forced to live with Gresham out of wedlock, that she’d never been married by law. He refused to let his gaze fall on the pallet again, instead curling up on the floor in front of the fire and praying his mind would quiet enough for him to sleep.
11
The next morning, Beau did a thorough search of the cabin, but apart from the pallet of pelts, came up with very little of use other than a growing sick pang somewhere deep inside him. The man Ruby had thought she’d been married to must have been a drunk, as glass bottles and ceramic jugs littered the area all around the small cabin. But for all his searching, he couldn’t find any sign that a man had been in that cabin in a long time. Every bottle outside the shack was weathered, the hay in the lean-to was gray with age. Either Gresham had moved on, or Ruby was right and he was dead. Either way, the man had no legal hold on her. That was the only piece of information he’d learned that he could take with him.
From the cabin, he was much closer to Cutter’s Creek than he’d be if he went back to Yellow Medicine, so he directed Rex toward home. Toward Ruby. He only had today and tomorrow before Christmas and he had to make things right with her by then. The trail was more out in the open,
so colder, but not as windy as it had been, so Rex ate the miles quickly. After a few hours, Cutter’s Creek came to view. Ruby would be at work at the Moore’s so he’d go home and check on his Pa and May first. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing, so he’d consider his words carefully before seeking Ruby out.
Rex was happy to see his warm stall and Beau had no trouble getting him bedded down. He draped a thick wool blanket over Rex then left the lean-to to go inside where he could rest a bit.
May met him at the door, concern worrying her brow.
Beau continued in, knowing his time of rest stopped at the threshold. “May, you’ve got something on your mind. Out with it.” He pulled his cup off the hook on the wall and poured himself some hot coffee.
“Mr. Caruso received a telegram from the Masters family.”
“Ah, more on the elusive Ivy?” He raised a brow, lifted the cup to his lips and let the steam warm his face. He had enough to worry about. May’s moneymaking scheme to find Ivy Masters was the last thing on his mind.
“The elusive Ivy is free, and quite well-to-do by Mr. Caruso’s account. Problem is, no one’s been able to find her. We’re almost certain she doesn’t live with her aunt, though her housekeeper is tight-lipped, so it’s possible... There’s no place a socialite could hide in Cutter’s Creek. It’s quite baffling. She should stick out like green leaves in February.”
“What do you mean, she’s free, and where does that leave you and Caruso and your scheme to get rich?” He inspected her over the rim of his cup.
May huffed. “It wasn’t a scheme. They were offering money and I intended to provide what they were asking…in a manner of speaking. But, it doesn’t matter now. Mr. Masters put an advertisement in the paper searching for his wife, offering a sizable reward. The authorities are not sure if it was the ad for a bounty on her that led to his death or if it was just some of the shady men he commonly associated with.”
Beau frowned and sighed. He’d had about enough of shady men. “Sounds like just the kind of husband you should send a woman back to,” he said, sarcasm dripping from his words. “I sure hope you make a good, Godly match May. I hope you never feel like you have no way out but to run off and hide.”
May rolled her eyes and sat across from him. “Heaven knows, no man could keep up with me. I’ll just stay here and help Mr. Caruso. I have a good job. I don’t need a husband.”
“Speaking of Caruso, why aren’t you working?”
May took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “He’s deciding whether Cutter’s Creek is a good place for him. It’s a little small for his taste and now that there’s no reward for information on Ivy… In fact, the family wishes she’d just stay gone. Mr. Caruso isn’t sure if he’d ever do enough business here for a permanent move to be worth it.”
“So if he goes back, what will you do?” Beau set his cup down. He’d planned on her being here. He couldn’t consider moving to Deadwood if she was going to leave. There’d be no one to look after Pa.
“I have nowhere to go back east, Beau. As much as I love it there, a woman alone can’t rent an apartment or buy a house, at least not easily. I can’t stay with Aunt Cici anymore…”
“And if Caruso would offer you marriage, would you go with him?”
May narrowed her eyes at him. “Why do you keep insisting there’s something between us? I have to admit, I’ll be sad if he leaves, especially because I’ll have no income, but I won’t be heartsick.”
“If you change your mind, you need to let me know. A place in Dakota is calling my name.”
“Dakota? What in the world can you find there that isn’t here? There’s even less people there.”
“That’s exactly the draw. Less people to expect anything out of you.”
He held tight to his cup and kept his voice steady. The less May knew how angry he was over Ruby’s cabin, the better. “I found out Ruby’s marriage wasn’t legal. They didn’t say vows in front of a preacher or sign anything.”
May drummed her fingers against her chin. “I don’t know the law here in Montana, but in some states, if a couple remains together for a while, they are common law married. But I don’t think Ruby’s old enough to have been with anyone that long.”
“I also found out she has seven sisters, and her Pa is trying to get rid of them however he can. But most likely the same way he got rid of Ruby.”
“Marry them off? That’s barbaric, but what could you do? There aren’t enough jobs or places for them in Cutter’s Creek…and not many husbands either, truth be told.”
“I thought about trying to find seven men who’d marry them, but I’m not even sure all of them are marrying age yet.”
May shook her head. “That’s quite the problem. There are plenty of men in need of wives, just not here. In the East, they have agencies that match up marriageable women with men in search of wives. But it doesn’t make much sense to send them east to an agency, just so they can come back west.” She resumed her tapping against her lips, the gears turning in her head.
“I can’t tell Ruby that I know. If she finds out I confronted her father and he didn’t care about her… Well, I just don’t know how she’d take it. Maybe she already knows he’s a scoundrel, maybe not.”
May frowned. “I know how I’d take it. But how are you going to help those girls without telling her? Especially if they aren’t marrying age? Ruby might be about twenty, though if she’s lived a hard life, she may look older than she really is. If she’s the oldest, her siblings could be quite young yet. Do you want the responsibility of taking care of a gaggle of young girls?” Her eyes widened.
“No, I surely don’t. I don’t even know that I want to have responsibility for the one yet, much less the other seven. I just know it ain’t right.”
Beau pulled the picture he’d found in the Dutch oven from his vest and laid it out on the table. “I can tell her I found this in her old shack and her husband was nowhere to be found. The place hadn’t been used for a long time. I’ll ask her to tell me about them. With any kind of luck, she’ll ask for my help. She might even have an idea how to help her sisters, since she knows how her father thinks. I don’t know where they’ll stay, though…there ain’t room at Ruby’s apartment and they can’t stay here…”
“It’s a good start of a plan. And Beau…?” May looked at him, her bright eyes sparkling.
“Hmm?” he asked, uncertain he wanted to know what else she had to say.
“It’s good to hear you speak up now and again.” She squeezed his shoulder and left him at the table.
The clock on the mantle struck four. Ruby would be on her way home soon.
***
Ruby wrapped her coat tightly about her. Maddie wanted her to join the family for Christmas, but only because Ruby had nowhere else to go. The idea of spending time with the extended Moore family had her more nervous than a trapped rabbit. She didn’t like the idea of being stuck in a house with a bunch of family she didn’t know. They’d expect her to talk and be friendly, and every time she opened her mouth, she felt plum silly. But turning her boss down without a good excuse would be difficult. Maddie had been more than a little emotional lately as Malcom crawled for the first time, babbling and smiling. Fighting the invite had seemed rude, but now Ruby wanted to hide at home.
She trudged toward the party. In the swirling snow ahead, she saw a tall man walking toward her. She recognized the coat and hat right away. Beau was home much sooner than he said he’d be. She quickened her pace to reach him.
He moved in front of her to block the wind, and she was grateful for the warmth. “Ruby. Fine afternoon for a walk.” Beau smiled anchoring his hat to his head as the wind tried to steal it.
“Fine if you want to get blown away.” His presence calmed her nerves. But why was he back so soon? What did he find out? “Let’s find somewhere warmer.” Her skirts swirled around her feet, sending cold chills through her wool stockings.
He nodded, indicating the Sweet Shoppe. “
I know it isn’t your favorite place, but the coffee’s hot.”
She followed, glancing up the street toward the Moore home. She probably wouldn’t be missed, anyway. As soon as Beau closed the door behind them, the heat of the potbellied stove in front and all the baking ovens in the back warmed Ruby. Beau chose a table near the stove and held out a chair for her.
“Thank you.” She sat and waited for him to do the same. “You’re back early. Did you find anything?”
Beau motioned for Martha. “Yes, I did. Let’s get something hot and I’ll tell you about it.”
Martha came over and laid her hand on Beau’s shoulder. “Why, I haven’t seen you in here in a month if it’s been a day. What can I get you?” She didn’t spare a glance for Ruby.
“We’ll each have a cup of coffee, Martha. Thank you, and thank you for being open on Christmas Eve, there wasn’t anywhere else to go.”
“You should be at home, celebrating with family.” Martha narrowed her eyes and folded her arms over her chest.
He turned to face Ruby and Martha scuttled off, returning with a steaming enamel pot before he could say anything else. She flipped two ceramic cups over and filled them.
“Let me know if I can get you anything else.” She glanced over her shoulder at them as she walked away.
“I told you I was going to Yellow Medicine, and I did. I met someone who told me that your place was out by the river. It took me a while to find it, but I did. It had been abandoned for some time, but I found this.” He pulled a folded sheet of paper from his vest and spread it out in front of her.
Ruby covered her mouth as a deep burning rose within her. The picture, drawn so long ago, reminded her of each face, voice, and manner. She hadn’t allowed herself to think about them for so long that seeing their figures drawn onto paper felt like a physical cut to her heart. “Those are my sisters,” she pushed the words past the tightness in her throat. “You found the shack.” She touched each precious face and wiped at the tears gathering at the corner of her eye.