The men answered back and Tony thanked them for their assistance.
He picked up her trunk and she tried not to slide around as he nearly dropped one end.
“Tony?”
“Hush, Rina. Just hang on a few more minutes,” Tony whispered, barely loud enough for her to hear. “I’m doing the best I can.”
Tony carried her trunk a short distance then set it somewhere cool. She wasn’t sure if she was inside the depot or just in the shade. Peeping out the hole gave her a view of Tony’s legs, her mother’s skirt, and little else.
However, she could hear their conversation.
“Is he still watching?” Anna asked, fear making her voice tight.
“Yes. We’re going to have to get Rina out of this trunk then load it in a buggy and go to Aunt Teresa’s,” Tony said, matter-of-factly.
Caterina could hear the tension in his voice along with frustration. He’d warned her many times her temper was going to get her into trouble. Almost as many times as he’d warned her to stay away from Luigi. It wasn’t as if she sought out the horrid man. She couldn’t help it if she made the best ravioli and gnocchi in the city. Even Luigi knew enough to appreciate good food when he tasted it.
“Anna, pretend you’re going to the washroom and run in to buy a ticket for this train. Just one,” Tony said, nudging Anna toward the ticket counter.
“Mamma, do you think you could help make a distraction so we can get Rina on board as a passenger?”
“Of course, Tony. You say the word, and I’ll make it happen,” Angelina said, pulling the gloves on her fingers down firmly and brushing at her skirt.
“Good. Here’s what we’re going to do,” Tony said lowering his voice. Caterina lost the ability to hear the conversation in the dull roar of the people passing by and wondered what her brother and mother were plotting.
The latches on her trunk slowly opened, although the lid remained closed. Moving her legs as quietly as she could to stir some life back in them, she reached up to pin her hat back in place, pulled gloves on her hands and slipped the handle of her leather bag over her fingers. Grabbing her reticule tightly in her hand, she had an idea she was going to have to come out of the trunk ready to move.
She waited, tense and ready to spring into action, when she heard a woman scream, followed by a string of Italian that could only be Mamma. Smiling at the woman’s comments about the sly trickster trying to steal her traveling bag, she heard the thumps of her mother pummeling someone with it.
The lid of her trunk popped open and Tony hauled her out in one quick motion. He quietly closed the lid and fastened a latch before hooking a strong arm around her waist and hustling her to the train. Anna stepped from the shadows nearby and thrust a ticket into her hand.
Afraid to draw any attention their direction, Anna squeezed her hand and disappeared back toward the building while Tony helped her onboard and settled her in a seat. Kissing her cheek, he looked at the other passengers. Deciding no one on the train was going to give his sister any trouble, he bent down and patted her shoulder.
“I wish it didn’t have to be this way, Rina, but we’ll see each other again someday. If you ever need me, just write home and I’ll come to you,” Tony said, holding his sister’s hand and gazing one more time in her lively brown eyes flecked with gold, so like their mother’s eyes. “Be safe and be strong. We all love you.”
“I love you, too,” Caterina said, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from crying. “Be careful at home, Tony. Luigi will not take this lightly.”
“I know, but at least he can’t force you to marry him if he can’t find you.”
“Tell Mamma I love her. I think she missed her calling as an actress,” Caterina said, trying to lighten the moment. Before her brother left, she clutched his hand in hers one more time. “Where am I going, Tony?”
“This train will take you to Chicago. You can decide your future from there,” he said with a grin, then was gone.
Taking a deep breath as she heard the call for the last of the passengers to board, Caterina was careful not to sit close to the window although everything in her wanted to press her nose to the glass and wave goodbye to three people she dearly loved.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Tony carrying the empty trunk and two leather bags through the crowd, followed by Mamma and Anna.
One of Luigi’s men walked several paces behind them, not even trying to stay hidden. From his smashed hat, he must be the man Mamma beat with her bag.
Tony would go to Aunt Teresa’s, get Mamma and Anna settled, then travel back to New York. The two women would return home in a few days, once Luigi had calmed down. By the time he realized Caterina was gone, it would be impossible for him to find her.
Praying for her family’s safekeeping, Caterina embraced the excitement sweeping through her at the adventure waiting ahead.
Instead of sailing to London, she was heading west…
Coming Spring 2014!
Ilsa (Pendleton Petticoats Book 3) - One of the most talented seamstresses of her time, Ilsa Thorsen could sell her creations anywhere in the world, but she ends up on her sister’s ranch in the western town of Pendleton, Oregon. Disgusted with the dust, smells, and nearly every aspect of rural life, Ilsa wonders how she’ll survive, particularly with the arrogant Tony Campanelli constantly underfoot.
Enterprising and hardworking, Tony Campanelli embraces life in the small community of Pendleton with his sister and their friends, especially since Ilsa Thorsen moves to town. The uptight seamstress just needs to learn to have some fun and Tony’s convinced he’s the man for the job.
The Christmas Bargain (Hardman Holidays, Book 1) - As owner and manager of the Hardman bank, Luke Granger is a man of responsibility and integrity in the small 1890s Eastern Oregon town. Calling in a long overdue loan, Luke finds himself reluctantly accepting a bargain in lieu of payment from the shiftless farmer who barters his daughter to settle his debt.
Philamena Booth is both mortified and relieved when her father sends her off with the banker as payment of his debt. Held captive on the farm by her father since the death of her mother more than a decade earlier, Philamena is grateful to leave. If only it had been someone other than the handsome and charismatic Luke Granger riding in to rescue her. Ready to hold up her end of the bargain as Luke’s cook and housekeeper, Philamena is prepared for the hard work ahead.
What she isn’t prepared for is being forced to marry Luke as part of this crazy Christmas bargain.
Coming for the 2013 Holiday Season!
The Christmas Token (Hardman Holidays, Book 2) - Desperate to escape an unwelcome suitor, Ginny Granger flees to her brother’s home in Eastern Oregon for the holiday season. Returning to the community where she spent her childhood years, she plans to relax and enjoy a peaceful visit. Not expecting to encounter the boy she once loved, her exile is proving to be anything but restful.
A talented carpenter, Blake Stratton enjoys a simple existence in the small western town of Hardman. With honest work and good friends, his life is nearly perfect, at least until the day Ginny Granger arrives, setting him on his ear and turning his world upside down. Infuriated by her meddling presence, he’s further exasperated to discover she kept a Christmas token he gave her along with his heart the day she left town many years ago.
Coming October 2013!
The Christmas Cowboy - Flying from city to city in her job as a busy corporate trainer for a successful direct sales company, Kenzie Beckett doesn’t have time for a man. And most certainly not for the handsome cowboy she keeps running into at the airport. Burned twice, she doesn’t trust anyone wearing boots and Wranglers, especially someone as charming and handsome as Tate Morgan.
Among the top saddle bronc riders in the rodeo circuit, easy-going Tate Morgan can handle the toughest horse out there, but trying to handle the beautiful Kenzie Beckett is a completely different story. As the holiday season approaches, this Christmas Cowboy is going to need more than a little m
istletoe to win her heart.
Grass Valley Cowboys Series
Meet the Thompson family of the Triple T Ranch in Grass Valley, Oregon.
Three handsome brothers, their rowdy friends, and the women who fall for them are at the heart of this contemporary western romance series.
Book 1 – The Cowboy’s Christmas Plan
Book 2 – The Cowboy’s Spring Romance
Book 3 – The Cowboy’s Summer Love
Book 4 – The Cowboy’s Autumn Fall
Book 5 – The Cowboy’s New Heart
The QR Code Killer - Murder. Mayhem. Suspense. Romance.
Zeus is a crazed killer who uses QR Codes to taunt the cop hot on his trail.
Mad Dog Weber, a tough-as-nails member of the Seattle police force, is willing to do whatever it takes to bring Zeus down. Despite her best intentions, Maddie (Mad Dog) falls in love with her dad's hired hand, putting them both in danger.
Erik Moore is running from his past and trying to avoid the future when he finds himself falling in love with his boss' daughter. Unknowingly, he puts himself right in the path of the QR Code Killer as he struggles to keep Maddie safe.
From the waterfront of Seattle to the rolling hills of wheat and vineyards of the Walla Walla Valley, suspense and romance fly around every twist and turn.
The Coffee Girl - Almost thirty, Brenna Smith isn’t sure how much more off-track her life could be. She certainly never pictured herself living at home with her parents, working in a job she dislikes for a loathsome boss. The only bright spot in her mundane existence is the cute guy she runs into every morning as she stops for coffee.
Brock McCrae has worked hard to be able to manage his own construction company. Handsome, successful and full of life, he finds his world turned upside down as he falls for a woman he knows only as The Coffee Girl.
Learnin The Ropes - Out of work mechanic Ty Lewis is out of options. Homeless and desperate to find work he accepts a job in the tiny community of Riley, Oregon. Leaving behind everything he’s ever known in Portland, he resolves himself to this new adventure with an elusive boss, Lex Ryan, someone he has yet to speak with or meet.
Lexi Ryan, known to her ranch hands and neighbors as Lex Jr., leaves a successful corporate career to keep the Rockin’ R Ranch running smoothly after the untimely death of her father. It doesn’t take long to discover her father did a lot of crazy things during the last few months before he died, like hiding half a million dollars that Lexi can’t find.
Ty and Lexi are both in for a few surprises as he arrives at the ranch and begins learnin’ the ropes.
The Women of Tenacity Series
Welcome to Tenacity!
Tenacious, sassy women tangle with the wild, rugged men who love them in this contemporary romance series.
The short story introduction, A Prelude, is followed by three full-length novels set in the fictional town of Tenacity, Oregon.
Prelude – The Women of Tenacity
Book 1 – Heart of Clay
Book 2 – Country Boy vs. City Girl
Book 3 – Not His Type
Savvy Entertaining Series
Discover seasonal ideas for decorating, entertaining, party themes, home décor, recipes and more from Savvy Entertaining’s blogger!
Author’s Note
Writing historical fiction is such fun for me because I get to learn so much about places, people, and experiences of the past.
I chose Pendleton, Oregon, for the setting of this series because my parents lived there in their early years of marriage and my dad always had such great stories to tell about their time spent in Umatilla County.
After visiting the town myself, I knew it had a rich and intriguing past that would be exciting to capture in a historic romance.
Many people know Pendleton as the home of the world-famous Pendleton Round-Up and the beginning of the Pendleton Woolen Mills. There is so much more to the city’s story.
In fact, Pendleton was a happening place to be in the early 1900s. In the year 1900, it was the fourth largest city in Oregon. By 1902, the population had grown to 6,000 and there were 32 saloons and 18 bordellos in the downtown area.
If you’re wondering why the town needed quite so much “entertainment,” it was in part because of the sheer number of cowboys, wheat harvesters, sheep herders, railroad workers, and other crews of men who descended on the town to work. In 1900 alone, an estimated 440,000 sheep produced more than two million pounds of wool.
The Pendleton Underground really did exist and you can visit it today through Pendleton Underground Tours. The tour provides a glimpse at everything from the card rooms and life of the Chinese below the city to the “working girls” who occupied many of the second story floors of business throughout that section of town.
For more details about Pendleton’s past, I recommend Keith F. May’s book Pendleton: A Short History of a Real Western Town.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SHANNA HATFIELD spent ten years as a newspaper journalist before moving into the field of marketing and public relations, where she currently spends her days. With a lifelong love of writing, reading and creativity, self-publishing the romantic stories she dreams up in her head and manages to capture in words is a perfect fit for her. She and her husband, lovingly referred to as Captain Cavedweller, reside in the Pacific Northwest with their neurotic cat and a menagerie of wandering wildlife.
Shanna loves to hear from readers.
Connect with her online:
Blog: shannahatfield.com
Facebook: Shanna Hatfield’s Page
Pinterest: Shanna Hatfield
Email: [email protected]
If you’d like to know more about the characters in any of her books,
visit the Book Characters page on her website
or check out her Book Boards on Pinterest.
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