Rimfire Bride (36 page)

“Her name is Jana Hartmann, and she
is
a good woman. The boys love her, even Sam. He hasn’t changed. He’s still the little cynic, but she won him over with her patience and kindness. And she won me over, too. I love her, Addie, and I’m going to find her wherever she is. I can’t lose the second woman I love, too.”

Drew looked around to make certain no one had been around to hear his talk with Addie. He walked slowly back to Joy, Frank’s mare, who had stood so patiently, waiting for him. When he climbed into the buggy, he sat there for a moment looking at the spot on the path.

“Good-bye,” he said softly, before he snapped the reins.

Now came the hard part. How would he tell the boys?

New Salem

Jana pulled a shawl tightly around her as she sat on her pile of belongings. She had been there for most of the day, and not one person had come from the Bluegrass Siding to check on her whereabouts.
For the first time in her life, she really didn’t know what she was going to do.

The logical thing would be to go back to Bismarck, but what about Drew? He might well not be able to get Sam and Benji away from their grandparents. Even for an attorney, a court order could not easily be dismissed. It might be necessary for him to stay in Evanston for a long time and maybe never come back to Bismarck.

If he came back without the boys, he would always blame her for his loss, and he would grow to hate her if he didn’t already. And if he came back with the boys, he would never trust her to be with them again.

But what about her? Did she even want to be in Bismarck? Over and over she heard Drew’s last words:

There’s no need for you to be here when we get back.

No, she could not go back to Bismarck. And more than likely she would not be allowed to stay here.

But what was farther west?

She closed her eyes to blot out what she knew was farther west. Rimfire.

That thought triggered an avalanche of tears and she let them flow freely, not even trying to control them. But after she had no idea how long, she sensed a presence, and when she opened her eyes, she saw a shadow in this treeless landscape.

Then she saw the man who had won the lottery, the man who was to be her husband. A man whose name she couldn’t remember.

“Do you mind if I sit a spell?” he asked.

Jana didn’t answer, but she moved to the side, making room for him to sit beside her.

“Which is it, a man or the law?” he asked.

“I don’t—”

He cut her off. “Yes, you do. You’re either runnin’ from the law or you’re runnin’ from a man. Now, which is it?”

Jana looked at this stout, blond-haired man who was about her own height. He could have been Dewey Gehrig or Gus Kosmeyer or Hiram Helgen or any of a dozen other German or Swiss immigrants whom she’d grown up with in Highland, Illinois. In that instant, she decided to trust him.

“A man.”

“Is he your husband?”

“No.”

“Are you with child?”

Jana was silent.

“You heard the decree that was handed down by the ruling body. You and I are to be married, or you will be forced to leave the colony.”

“I cannot marry you.”

“Am I that displeasing to you?”

“You have been most gracious, but, sir, I don’t even know your name.”

“I spoke it to you. I am called Johan Seethoff.”

“That should have been easy for me to remember.” Jana laughed nervously. “My father’s name was Johann and my mother’s maiden name was Saathoff.”

“They are German?”

“Yes, I was born in Geldersheim.”

Johan smiled. “I know it well. I was born in Niederwerrn.”

“Really? My mother’s cousin lived there before she came to America.”

“And what was her name?”

“Marie Gunter, and now she lives in—”

“Chicago. Back of the Yards,” Johan finished.

“Yes, but how did you know that?”

“I call her Tante Marie.”

“Mama’s cousin is your aunt? But your name?” Jana asked.

“It was misspelled at Castle Garden when I was processed. What’s the difference in America if one is a
Saathoff
or a
Seethoff
?”

“Well, Cousin, you’ve just solved my problem. The reverends will never let us have a consanguineous marriage.” Jana laughed for the first time since Sam and Benji had been abducted.

“I don’t know what that word means, but it must be good. I like to hear you laugh.”

“It means that the church frowns if you marry a relative, and you, Johan, must be my cousin, somewhere along the line.”

“Oh.” Johan was crestfallen.

Bismarck

For the rest of April and most of the month of May, Drew tried to keep busy both at work and doing things with the boys. Sam was enrolled at St. Mary’s Academy, and Elfrieda took up where she had left off when she went to Missouri.

For a while, Drew had stopped by the Custer Hotel almost every day, varying the times, so that
if Jana was still in Bismarck and she came to call on her friends, he would run into her.

At first, Greta was openly hostile to him, but over the weeks she softened and began to talk with him a little. No matter how much he cajoled her though, she never once mentioned her sister’s name in his presence. And Hank Thompson was even worse. Drew finally had to concede that Jana was not in Bismarck, and that as far as he could tell, only Hank and Greta had any inkling where she was.

He went to see Foster Suett, the postmaster, and convinced him to keep an eye open for any mail to or from Greta Kaiser. Charley Draper was also on the alert for anything that came across his desk, and the station agent would tell him if any freight was shipped to Jana Hartmann. As a last resort, Drew visited Elizabeth McClellan to see if she knew of a new girl working anywhere in town, or anywhere in the Dakota Territory that some of her clients might know of. Every avenue proved a dead end. There was not a trace of Jana Hartmann.

Drew thought perhaps she’d contacted Walter Watson, so he called at the Ladies’ Emporium.

“I’ve not seen hide nor hair of her since the day she came in to look at wedding dresses,” Walter said.

“Wedding dresses? Did she buy one?” Drew asked.

“Oh, I don’t have them here. Most women sew their own or else have one of Dan Eisenberg’s seamstresses make one. I just don’t have much call for a ready-made wedding dress.”

“Do you know which one she picked out?”

“It was in my
Godey’s
catalog. I expect I could find it. Not that it’s any of my business, but are you planning a wedding?”

“Yes, I am.” Drew took out his money clip and peeled off several bills. “You know her size. Find the dress Jana wanted and have it here for her when she needs it. Oh, and have Fern pick out something she thinks Jana’s sister would like for a bridesmaid’s dress. Will this cover it?”

Walter smiled when he looked at the pile of bills. “Yes, sir. That would cover the finest wedding Bismarck has ever seen, and that includes the cake and the flowers.”

“Would you handle that, too?”

“Well, I don’t know. We don’t normally do anything but clothes. But now if there was a commission . . . ?”

“When the time comes, you can count on it. In the meantime, get the dress here.”

“You’ve got it.”

New Salem

Thanks to Hank’s help in equipping her before she left, Jana had the biggest tent in New Salem, and Johan had chosen the best place to raise it. The spot was far enough away from the two boxcars that sat on the new siding track, yet close enough to the water car that was brought in, to make it convenient for her. Like most of the men, Johan was sleeping in the open country because the men’s boxcar was so crowded. He did sleep just outside the tent though, and for that Jana was
grateful because his presence provided her with a sense of security.

The construction of New Salem went slowly. The railroad had provided enough lumber for an adequate immigrant house, but the leaders had decided to divert it to the building of a church. Jana was appalled at this lack of foresight, but no one asked her opinion.

The supplies, too, were running short because the people who had brought food with them were reluctant to share with those who had not.

Again the reverends had a solution. The next time the water tank was delivered, they arranged with the conductor for bread to be bought in Bismarck and delivered to them. But this posed a problem. New Salem was on one of the few inclines in Morton County, and the train from the east would not stop unless it was an emergency. Consequently, the bread was thrown from the train as it passed on its way west, and there was never enough to go around.

So amid much grumbling among the colony, Jana proposed a solution to Johan: “Why don’t we bake the bread here?”

“Because nobody has any flour,” Johan said.

“If they can throw bread off the train, they can throw flour. I have a Dutch oven and I’m sure the other women have one as well, and John Christiansen has a horse to go hunt for a vein of coal for fuel. That means we could bake twelve loaves of bread at one time.”

“How are we going to pay for flour?”

“I’ll take care of that. The next time the water
is delivered, I’ll send a message to my friend in Bismarck, and he’ll see to it that we get all the supplies we need to make bread. But, Johan, I can’t use my real name.”

“All right. What name will you use?”

“Hester Prynne. Hank will know it’s me.” Jana laughed at her own joke.

So it was
that Johan and Jana became the most popular residents in New Salem, as they probably prevented the colony from disintegrating before it ever got started. Every day the westbound train threw off the supplies, and Jana supervised the bread-making, while Johan was made the keeper of the sourdough starter. Across the prairie, sod houses began to form, and one by one, people began to move out of the boxcar. That is, all except Johan and Jana, who were too busy with the bread.

Bismarck

“I’m not going to Medora,” Drew said emphatically. “I don’t care what kind of mess the marquis has gotten himself into. If you can’t take care of it, then it’s his problem.”

“Drew, you know you’re being ridiculous. You can’t just live for the rest of your life hoping to hear from a woman who has apparently fallen off the face of the earth. You’ve been watching Greta Kaiser like a hawk, and you’ve struck out there, too,” Frank said. “The woman doesn’t want you to find her, or she would have done something to let you know where she is.”

Drew sighed. “I’m not going. The last time I went, when I got back, my whole world was turned topsy-turvy. The boys were gone—I lost Jana. I won’t risk it again.”

“If you don’t go, you’re going to lose me as your partner. The Marquis de Morès is our client, and he’s gotten off on the wrong foot with Gregor Lang. Now I have a telegram from his . . . valet saying three hunters are threatening to string up foreigners if they don’t get out of town, and you know the marquis. He’s not budging. He thinks he’s back in Algiers or some other godforsaken place.”

“And what do you expect me to do about it? That man listens to nobody.”

“Well, you know those people out there a whole lot better than I do, and if you can’t soothe the waters, maybe you can get Devlin or Toby to calm things down. Are you going or not?”

“I’ll go, but if anything happens while I’m gone, I’m holding you personally responsible. Send a telegram telling Devlin to meet the train tomorrow.”

Frank smiled broadly. “I already did.”

Drew picked up a book and threw it at Frank.

Drew had been
at the depot all night. The westbound train was late and didn’t pull into Bismarck until almost five o’clock in the morning. He was tired and irritable and found a seat near the window away from everyone. He leaned back, pulled his hat over his face to keep out the morning sun, but was unable to fall asleep. At best he wouldn’t get to Medora until after lunch and what would he
find? The marquis in an uproar, and Devlin either drunk on Forty-Mile Red Eye or madly in love with some whore in Little Misery. Oh, no, he was not looking forward to this trip. A far cry from the trip at Christmas, when he had his boys across from him and Jana’s sweet head on his shoulder.

Unable to sleep, Drew sat there watching the barren landscape, then noticed some construction and some soddies going up that he hadn’t noticed before. What was this place?

Then he saw her. A woman standing beside the tracks. Her hair blowing in the wind, her face brown from the sun. She bent to roll some sacks of freight away from the track.

Was that Jana? He couldn’t be sure, but his heart began to race. He wanted off this train, but what if he was hallucinating? He wanted it to be her, but what if it wasn’t? He would be stuck in the middle of nowhere, and what would the boys think if it took him a week or more to get home?

The freight that was thrown off the train! What was the name on the freight? He rose from his seat and made his way to the express car.

“What was the name of the settlement we just passed, and whose name was on that freight that you just kicked out?” Drew asked.

“It’s a new one—not likely to survive. Lots of squabbling goin’ on there.”

“The name? What’s it called?”

“They’re calling it New Salem.”

“Damn, why didn’t I think of that? Of course she went there.” Drew pumped his fist in jubilation. He turned and almost ran back to his car.

“Don’t you want to know the name on the freight?” the express messenger called out.

“Yeah, do you know it?”

“Do I? Every trip west there’s three bags of flour for Hester Prynne.”

Drew laughed uproariously. “Does she ever ask for a scarlet letter?”

He threw himself back into his seat, a grin stretched wide across his face and his heart practically singing.

For the rest
of the trip, Drew could barely contain himself. He was more excited than Sam or Benji could ever be, and he began planning his next move.

The wedding would be at Rimfire as soon as he could get everybody there, and that included Jana’s mother. He figured Jana’s mother could get to Medora in a good week. By the time they reached Dickinson, he had a lengthy telegram ready to be sent to Walter Watson with exact details. Whom he was to invite and what he was to bring and when he was to be there.