THE IMPERIAL ENGINEER (40 page)

When he got to the office he called the switchboard.

"Abe Quisling didn't show up this morning," Jack told him, when Tony asked
about the line riders they'd hired.

Tony wasn't surprised. Abe was a good man when he was sober, but he never
stayed sober for long. "I'll do it-- No, there's someone I can send out. Everything else's is
all right, I take it."

"I haven't checked everything yet, but so far nothing seems wrong."

"Good. I'll be there in about an hour." He attacked the correspondence he'd let
slide last week.

"Ride out toward Bullion," he told Ru Nan when the boy came to the office a little
later. "Check every telephone pole, make sure they're standing and have wires attached. If
you see any loose wires, or poles down, remember where they are and come and tell me
when you've checked them all." He spoke Chinese, stumbling a bit over words he hadn't
used for years.

"Your wife said she wanted me to drive her this morning."

"My wife will stay at home today, as I have directed."
I hope she will, anyhow.
Maybe I should have told her about the note.

At nine he set aside the remaining few letters he had to answer and headed for the
switchboard.
Damn it, I wish Eagleton would get back. There's too much for one
person to do, especially with this crazy man running around loose.

Jack was just finishing with the battery test when he arrived. Tony was surprised,
because usually the early morning checks took less than an hour. "Something wrong?"

"It's been real busy, this morning," Jack said. "Seems like everybody wants to talk
to somebody." He frowned. Unclipping the wires, he reattached them to the first battery in
the series. "That's odd. The charge is down on all of them."

"How much?" Tony knelt beside him and looked at the electrometer. Yes, the
charge was low, but not much. "You said we'd been busy this morning. Maybe that's
why."

He was only mildly concerned. The battery charge varied according to how many
calls were made. The low-voltage dynamo that fed them often fell behind demand during
the busiest time of the day, but caught up at night. Lew O'Bannion checked the waterwheel
and dynamo twice a day, going and coming on his inspection of the lines to Gimlet. If
there were something wrong there, Lew would have reported it.

"Keep an eye on the voltage. If it drops off too much more, I'll go out and check
the line myself." He sat at the small desk and looked through the list of requests for
telephone service. He'd have to make excuses, because the parts for the batteries that
powered individual telephones hadn't been shipped yet. The small manufacturer of the
ceramic cups was having trouble keeping up with the demand.

Perhaps it was just as well. Until they got the vandalism stopped, he really didn't
need more subscribers to deal with. Explaining the service problems they'd already had to
present subscribers had been difficult enough.

I sure hope there's not anything wrong with the dynamo. Maybe I should ride
out there and make sure.

No. Lew was a good man. If he hadn't seen anything wrong this morning, Tony
shouldn't be worried.

* * * *

That man! He was so certain he knew what was best for her. Always had been.
That was why she'd refused him ten years ago. He wanted to run her life.

She'd show him she was capable of running her own life, thank you very much.
She had errands to do this morning, and she was darn well going to do them, even if she
had to walk.

Xi Xin tapped on the back door. Lulu let her in and asked if she'd had
breakfast.

"Oh, yes. Graham lady feed me well. She say I too skinny." The child giggled and
tugged at the too-tight britches she wore.

"We need to get you new clothes. You seem to have outgrown those," Lulu told
her. "Can you sew?"

"I sew very good. Can cook, too. Graham lady tell me I will cook her dinner, show
her how good I do."

"How well you do," Lulu corrected absently. A thought occurred to her, one she
would have to give serious consideration to. Sooner or later she and Tony would move on,
but Xi Xin had family here. She would want to stay in Hailey.

If any Chinese at all stayed here.

"I am going to town in a while, so you can tidy up in here and go back to see if
Mrs. Graham needs help. I'll bring you fabric to make new britches and a shirt."

The girl looked down at her feet. "I have other shirt, good enough," she said. "No
need to make more."

"Nonsense. If your other shirt is as shabby as that one, you certainly do need a
new one." She made up her mind to see that the child was well clothed while she could.
But she'd caution Xi Xin to make them loose-fitting and styled like men's clothing. She
was entirely too pretty a girl.

She was rewarded by a wide smile. "I make house clean now, before I go cook
dinner." Suddenly Xi Xin's eyes grew very round and her hand went to hide her mouth.
"Will you want me cook your dinner too?"

Lulu laughed. "No, not if you're cooking for Mrs. Graham. I will have dinner in
town, probably with my husband." She would show Tony that while she was obeying his
order not to drive out, she wasn't going to stay immured in this small apartment, just
because he'd told her to. After all, what danger could there possibly be to her in broad
daylight on a busy street?

Promptly at nine o'clock, she set out for town. The weather had cleared and the
sky was richly blue. Although the surrounding hills still wore their mantles of deep snow,
small patches of brown earth were showing along the paths and on the streets. The ground
was terribly muddy, for the meltwater from all the snow had thoroughly saturated it. If this
mild weather continued, the river would soon escape its banks. Perhaps it was a good thing
they'd moved to town. Their house was entirely too close to the main channel.

"Good morning, Mrs. Dewitt."

Lulu turned to see Patrick Newell just emerging from Coffin Brothers' store. "How
do you do, Mr. Newell? I trust you are well?"

"I am, thank you. I must congratulate you on your marriage. You said nothing
about it when we last met."

She caught his quick glance at her waist. There was no hiding her condition any
more, not even with her heavy coat. "I believe I told you we had been childhood friends.
Marriage seemed an obvious next step."

"Yes, well, what surprised me was that Mr. Dewitt said nothing to anyone, so for
all the town knew, he was a bachelor until recently." His voice was soft, with the slow
cadence of the South, but it still held a certain sly insinuation.

Or was she imagining it? Tony had more than once expressed his dislike of Patrick
Newell, and she certainly hadn't been taken with him. His disparaging remarks about
woman's suffrage had raised her hackles on more than one occasion. "Surely there was no
requirement that he make such an announcement, when I was unable to be here with him,
due to other responsibilities."

His smile was a bit too knowing to please her. "No, no, of course not," he said,
raising his hands as if to reject such an outrageous idea. "I just wondered..." Again his gaze
fell on her rounded abdomen.

"If you'll excuse me, Mr. Newell, I have several errands to do." She turned and
walked away. A patch along her spine between her shoulder blades itched. If she were to
turn around, she'd see him watching her, she was certain.

The warm weather had brought out a flock of shoppers, and the sidewalks were
crowded. Main Street was, as usual, congested, with freight wagons, buckboards, buggies,
and riding horses. Lulu got the impression that half the residents of Wood River had
flocked to Hailey this fine morning. When she crossed Bullion Street, wading through
ankle-deep mud, she had to dodge between an ore wagon and one carrying barrels of
beer.

Several of the women she passed on the sidewalk looked familiar, but she could
put a name to no face.
I should have stayed in town long enough to become
acquainted
, she thought,
instead of gallivanting around the country.
She felt
more a stranger here than in Washington DC.

All the burned buildings had been rebuilt in the block between Bullion and Croy. As
she walked along in front of them, she remembered reading that Tony's landlady, Mrs.
Slossen, had been charged with arson in the fire that had destroyed the entire half block.
I wonder what ever came of that. I'll have to ask him
.

She was approaching the corner, diagonally across from Eagleton's office, when
she heard someone call, "Watch out, Mrs. Dewitt!" As she turned to see who had spoken,
someone careened into her and she was knocked off the sidewalk. The force of the blow
carried her into the path of a mule team, and before she could catch her balance, she ran
into the lead mule's shoulder.

Someone behind her screamed. The animal shied, sending her reeling. She fell
sideways into the mud. Despite her entangling skirts, she rolled away from the oncoming
freight wagon. One of the great wheels splashed through the mud not six inches from her
head.

Face down now, she tried to lift herself on her arms, but her hands sank into the
quagmire up to the elbow. Icy water soaked into her wool skirt and petticoat and the fabric
clung to her legs. She kicked out, trying to free her feet, which were caught in the folds of
sodden wool.
Damn these skirts!

Shouts and screams filled her ears as she flopped forward. Then someone's hands
were on her and she was pulled from the mud and set upon the edge of the sidewalk.

"Are you all right?"

The voice seemed to come from a great distance. Lulu opened her mouth to reply,
but found she had no voice. She swallowed, took a deep breath, and managed to rasp out a
harsh, "Yes-s-s." The cold from her wet clothing penetrated to her very core and she
shivered. "Yes. I believe I'm unhurt." Her hands went to her belly.
Are you all right in
there? Move, please, so I'll know you're not injured.

Nothing. She forced herself to look at her rescuer. Jacob Teller sat beside her on
the sidewalk, one arm around her, the other holding a handkerchief with which he was
attempting to wipe the mud from her face.

"Sit still, Mrs. Dewitt, until we can ascertain whether you're injured."

Unable to do anything else, she obeyed. Around and above her she could hear
excited voices raised in an unintelligible cacophony of babble. A few words and phrases
penetrated the shock which held her in thrall.

"Just stepped off..."

"...no doubt been drinking..."

"At this hour?"

"...was pushed..."

"...better than she should..."

"Someone bumped against me. Pushed me," she said to Mr. Teller.

Her words may have been lost in the handkerchief, for he was still dabbing at her
cheek and nose. "Will someone summon her husband?" he said loudly.

"No! Please, I'm fine." Lulu clutched at his arm, tried to stand. Her knees would
not support her. They felt as if they were about to melt.

"Here, now, you folks stand back and leave the lady be," a new voice said.

Lulu tried to turn around, to identify the speaker. Mr. Teller held her so tightly she
could only glance over her shoulder. "Sit still," he said again. "Let the deputy clear the
crowd away."

Again she obeyed. "I
was
pushed," she insisted, keeping her tone low
enough that only Mr. Teller heard. "Someone called my name. I turned to see who, and the
next thing I knew, I was shoved sideways. Right off the edge." Again she felt that awful
sensation, as she stepped onto empty air. If she hadn't careened against the mule, she
would have tumble under its feet.

"Lulu!" Tony appeared in front of her, kneeling in the mud. "Is she hurt? What
happened? Damn it, I told you to stay..."

"She's probably more shaken than hurt," Mr. Teller said before she could reply. "I
think she needs to lie down."

"There's a cot in the office." Tony scooped her up. "Can you clear the way?"

Ordinarily Lulu would have objected strenuously to being carried along a public
sidewalk. This time, however, she was grateful, for she doubted her legs would have
supported her the block to Eagleton's office. She lay in Tony's arms, both hands resting on
her still quiescent belly.
Please, wake up and tell me you're all right.

Nothing.

Tony couldn't make up his mind whether he should beat her or just hold her close
and thank God she was uninjured. Once he had her on the cot, he asked Jacob Teller to
fetch Dr. Lewis.

"I'll do that. Anything else?"

"No, but thanks. Will you have time to come back and tell me what you
saw?"

"I'll be along later. I was on my way to an appointment, so look for me in an hour
or so."

Lulu's eyes were closed and her face pale. Both hands were spread across her
abdomen, as if to protect the babe she carried. "What is it?" he said, a stab of raw fear
piercing his gut. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't know," she whispered. "I can't feel her."

"The doctor will be here soon." Much as he tried to make his tone reassuring, he
couldn't.
What if...?

Tenderly he removed her muddy outer clothing. She lay as if boneless, letting him
turn her and lift her like he might a rag doll. When he had her stripped to her camisole and
drawers, he tucked a scratchy wool blanket around her, laid his overcoat over it. "Are you
warm enough now?"

She nodded. "I'm sorry." Her voice was small, soft, barely audible.

Tony turned to stare. "What did you say?"

"I was angry. You ordered me to stay home, and I hate being told what to do. I
was going to show you I could decide for myself what I'd do."

Kneeling, he slid one arm under her head, the other across her covered body. "I'm
sorry too. I should have told you why I didn't want you going out. There was a note--"

A pounding at the front door interrupted him. "That'll be the doctor. I'll be right
back."