Bride's Flight from Virginia City, Montana (30 page)

The fields were dark with plowing. Horses and cattle walked back and forth on the green pastureland. Swallows swooped and darted in the blue sky. Amish children in a wagon bouncing along a country lane looked at the string of passenger cars solemnly. A man stood waiting for the train to pass with a long fishing pole in his hand and a wicker creel slung over his shoulder.

“Heaven,” murmured Lynndae. She felt empty inside.

Zeph nodded. “It’s fine country.”

She turned on him. “Is that all you can say? It’s a fine country?”

“And it’s full of good people.”

“If you think it’s fine country and full of good people then why are we leaving?”

“Well, where we’re heading is fine country and full of good people, too.”

“Things could have changed in our absence.”

“Not that much.”

“Yes, that much.”

“I need a nap. That farewell supper kept us up late, and before we knew it the sun was shining in the windows and the train was heading in from Philadelphia.” He settled back in his seat, pulled his hat down over his eyes, and folded his arms over his chest.

Another sentence was on the tip of Lynndae’s tongue, but she held it back.

Fine,
she thought,
sleep then. It must be awfully nice to just trim your wick like that and shut everything down.

The train carried them through western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana before they made a change in Chicago.

Then they rattled and swayed on tracks that ran through Illinois and Iowa to Nebraska. In Omaha they booked passage on the Union Pacific to Ogden and had a three-hour stopover. Zeph touched the brim of his piker hat and vanished up a nearby street. “Meet you back here in an hour.”

Lynndae protested. “Don’t you want me to go with you?”

“No.”

What was the matter with Z? In an unsettled mood, Lynndae wandered among the shops close to the station, but very little caught her fancy. She was in between two worlds and felt adrift. If only the train for Utah could have departed sooner. Restless, she paced back and forth on the station platform until she saw a man approaching with Zeph’s carpetbag in his hand.

“Hello,” the man greeted her.

Lynndae stared. “Zephaniah Truett Parker. What have you done with yourself?”

“Shave and a haircut, two bits. My Levi Strauss pants, my boots, my hat. We’ve crossed the Missouri, my lady. We’re back in the West.”

“I hardly recognized you.”

“Weather’s warm, so I don’t need a coat.”

“You haven’t looked like this since—”

Zeph interrupted. “Now, this is a chit for a dress shop just two blocks thataway—”

But she wasn’t listening. “—Eagle Rock or Ogden, I can’t remember which—”

Zeph carried on. “—you can’t miss it on account of how fancy the sign is. A Missus Willoughby will be happy to fit you into—”

So did Lynndae. “—but I would have to say it’s a very pleasant change to have you less plain.”

Zeph finished up. “—a brand new dress right off the rack, no waiting around for two or three weeks.”

Lynndae finally listened to him, startled. “A new dress? Two or three weeks? Oh, Z, the train will be leaving in less than two hours.”

“No, I said it
won’t
take two or three weeks. They have ready-to-wear dresses hanging up in the store. They just need to open some parts out and pin some others in, at least that’s what they told me.”

Lynndae repeated Zeph’s words. “You went into a dress shop—”

“I did.”

“—to buy a dress for me—”

“Well, I wasn’t planning on trying any on for myself.”

“—when you don’t even know my size or what colors I like or—”

“That’s why I’m giving you this chit. The dress is paid for. You just have to pick it out.”

Lynndae looked at him in astonishment. Zeph touched the brim of his brown Stetson and placed the slip of paper in her hand.

“Two blocks north, right up that street, and then a left. You can’t miss it. Missus Willoughby. Can’t miss her either. The kind of woman who fills a chair. Very sweet.”

“Why, Z—”

He grinned. “It’s your engagement present. I haven’t seen you in anything but blacks and grays for more than three months. Time to let you be the wildflower you are again.”

“What if they don’t have anything suitable?”

“Get going, palomino. You’re burning daylight.”

Suddenly realizing what Zeph had done, and that she might not have time to pick a dress out and have it fitted in time, Lynndae began walking rapidly up the street.

Zeph watched her slender dark figure until she paused and turned left, and then he went to buy himself an Omaha paper and relax with it.

After he bought the paper and had read a few stories, Zeph remembered that he had gone past the telegraph station earlier. He was debating whether or not to send word to Matt that they were on their way back. If the accomplice was still around, he would be sure to read it. Zeph wasn’t interested in being ambushed on the stage between Virginia City and Iron Springs.

Mulling it over, Zeph wandered into the office. After waiting behind two other men dressed in fancy suits and then asking for a pad, out of the blue the idea popped into his head to ask for telegrams for Parker. The clerk looked and said there hadn’t been any.

“But I do remember the name Parker,” he said. “I sent a real odd telegram out to a Parker in Pennsylvania a couple of months back.”

Zeph was hunched over the pad with a yellow pencil. His ears pricked up at the clerk’s words. “Pennsylvania?” The older man chuckled. “Sure, hard to forget. It was a passage from the Bible, from Revelation. I never get anything like that.”

Zeph stared at the clerk. “Do you happen to recall who sent the telegram?”

“That’s just it, how could you forget someone that went by the handle Angel?” The clerk busied himself with some papers. “Not that it was his real name, anyhow.”

Zeph put down the pencil. “What was his real name?”

“Oh, he never told me. Just laughed about it. But then he went and left his business card in that basket there. All sorts of travelers leave one behind. People go through them now and then. You never know. Someone might get in touch about a business deal. Let me see.”

The man came out from behind the counter and went to the large wicker basket that sat on a table by the door. There were hundreds of cards, but he was not deterred. Zeph came and stood beside him. After several minutes of riffling through the pile, the clerk exclaimed, “Here we go!” and held a card up to the sunlight from the window.

“W
ILLIAM
S. K
ING
, A
TTORNEY AT
L
AW
,” he read out loud, “I
RON
S
PRINGS, THE
M
ONTANA
T
ERRITORY
, W
ILLS
, E
STATES
, P
ROPERTY.
That’s the one. You see, he puts a crown on the top of the card, his business logo, I guess, and that makes the card easy to pick out. Good head on his shoulders. Nice man. Gave me a tip, too.”

“And you’re sure this is the man who sent the Bible passage to Pennsylvania? And signed the telegram ‘Angel’?” “T’weren’t no other.” “And he sent it to Parker?” “He did. That Parker kin to you?” “Yes. He is.”

Zeph walked in a daze back to the counter and the telegram pad. He kept thinking of how many times Lynndae and the kids had almost been killed because the Raber Gang always knew where they were going and what they were doing. He saw King grinning and laughing through his thick beard, and the heat rose in him and the blood pounded through his head. Raber’s gunmen had been deadly, but they had been strangers to him. King was a friend, someone he’d dined with and sat next to in church. The sense of betrayal was strong. Zeph felt he could knock down an Omaha brick wall with his bare hands.

He wrote out two telegrams. The one to Matt had Zeph and Lynndae coming into Iron Springs at least a week later than he knew the train and stage would get them there. The other he sent to Colonel Austen at Cheyenne.

He was seated with his paper at the depot when he spied a tall, slender beauty in a dress of white, yellow, and blue silks almost floating down the street toward him. Men were stopping to turn and look at her, even men who were escorting other women. Zeph folded the newspaper and got to his feet. Not for the first time he marveled that this lady should be excited about marrying him.

Thanks for the train ride, Lord,
he prayed.
It wasn’t an easy trip, but I’m grateful for how things turned out, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

The sunlight danced all over Lynndae’s hair and dress as if it were delighted to have a woman of her caliber back in Nebraska again. Zeph could not take his eyes off her. As she drew up to him, her face reddened.

“Must you stare so?”

He whipped off his Stetson. “I’m afraid I must, ma’am.” “Oh, don’t act so foolish. You’d think it was the first time we’ve met.”

“I’ve never seen you wear a dress like this in Iron Springs.”

“Well, I never had the time to make one. And, I was never engaged before.”

“I was looking forward to seeing the Rocky Mountains shining in the distance, and now I don’t care. I got more of God’s beauty in my eyes right now than any man has a right to see”—he put his arms around her—“and more of God’s beauty in my arms than I’ll ever know what to do with. I’ll need time, a lot of time. Why, I expect I’ll need a lifetime, and even then I won’t get around to doing all the things a man would enjoy doing with a woman of such fine features and well-bred disposition.”

She rested her head on his shoulder. “I’m sure it’s the dress.”

“No, ma’am.”

“Or the heat.”

“I put you in sackcloth, your beauty’d still shine. For the past three months it sparkled, even in your Amish wardrobe. It’s just that this dress and these silks bring out all the different colors in your soul, and they show who you truly are: a woman of vast splendor, of awe-inspiring magnificence, and of exquisite loveliness. I really don’t know what to do with you.”

“Why don’t you just kiss me then and stop talking? It’s embarrassing.”

So he did, while trains shunted in and out of the station and whistles blew and people streamed past and locomotives hissed steam and covered them in white mist. Finally she pulled back.

“Was that a Western kiss?” She smiled.

“You only get those on this side of the Missouri.”

“Well, then, I think I’d like to stay on this side of the Missouri for a little while.”

“I am glad to hear it.”

The train pulled them through Nebraska all that day and into the night. At sunset on the following evening, it began to slow as it came into Cheyenne. Lynndae was patting her cheeks with a napkin dipped in cool water and passing it over her throat when she noticed a man in black standing alone on the platform. People rushed back and forth all about him, but he was like a rock in the middle of turbulent waters, fixed and immovable. It so happened their car came to a stop right in front of him. Lynndae leaned forward out of her seat.

“Why, Z,” she exclaimed in astonishment, “that’s Colonel Austen.”

“So it is.”

“Well, come, come, we must get off the train and greet him before we miss this opportunity. There’s so many things he will want to know.”

“You’ll have plenty of time for that.”

“What are you talking about? We don’t have plenty of time at all. The train may only be here twenty or thirty minutes.” She rose out of her seat and gathered her skirts about her, but Zeph placed a hand gently on her arm.

“Lynndae.”

“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming out with me?” “There’s no reason to do so.” “What do you mean?”

“He’ll be coming on board presently, and he will be with us, by rail and stage, all the way to Virginia City and Iron Springs.”

“What?”

Lynndae stared at Zeph and then out the window at Colonel Austen. He had noticed her once she stood up, and he met her gaze with a smile. Then he gently touched the brim of his black Stetson. Coming aboard, he greeted her with a kiss on the cheek and shook Zeph’s hand.

“Thank you for the watch, Colonel,” Zeph said.

“Thank you for the memory,” Austen replied. “A strong one and an important one.”

He settled in his seat and turned to Lynndae. “I have exciting news I think you would like to hear. My family is alive.”

“What? Oh, Colonel Austen, is it true?” She threw her arms around him and gave him a hug. “Where are they?”

“The Territory of Arizona and the Territory of New Mexico. I received the report from the US Army, which received the information from a trader by the name of Wilkes. They are indeed attached to an Apache tribe. I intend to go down there and get them back.”

“Colonel, I thank God. You must feel like setting out this very day to bring them back.”

“I do. But there is unfinished business in Iron Springs. And I intend to help Zephaniah and Matt set that to rights before I make my way into the American southwest.”

“Oh.” Lynndae glanced at Zeph. “Will that take long?”

Austen shook his head. “I believe, Miss Raber, that it will be short and sweet.”

Chapter 34

W
illiam King used a key to open the door of his law office. A passerby on horseback called his name, and he waved and went inside. It was early, only seven, and his secretary would not arrive for another hour. He checked her desk to make sure everything was in order. Then he went back to his own room and opened that door with another key.

Everything seemed to be as it should. His filing cabinet was in place and all the drawers intact. He moved around, going through his usual Monday morning ritual. His desk was neat and tidy, just the way he had left it on Saturday. He opened a drawer and brought out a short-barreled Colt 45 revolver that was deep blue in color. Turning it over in his hand, he admired the workmanship of the pistol then glanced at the cylinder to make sure it was loaded with six cartridges. He almost looked away before his eyes told him the gun was empty.

King frowned. The Colt was always loaded. All sorts of riffraff went in and out of his office on a daily basis. He had to be sure he could protect himself as well as defend his female secretary from assault. He reached back in the drawer for the box of 45 cartridges he stored with the pistol. It was gone.