Two Brides Too Many (20 page)

Morgan adjusted the monocle that helped him spot the spines. “Where’d you find this nasty stuff, anyway? I thought cactus was Arizona Territory’s reputation.”

“You won’t find any up here in the higher elevations, but I was headed home from down in the flatlands. And as you can see, my
horse didn’t have any trouble finding plenty of them before bucking me off.” Judson scrubbed his face with his hands. “The first time I see Nell, and I yell at her. My first spoken words to her, and I told her to get away from me.”

“You heard what Sister Coleman said after she talked to Nell. Nell wanted you to know that she loved you.”

Judson groaned. “That was before she saw me like this. We were supposed to marry soon.”

“Don’t worry. Once you two recover from this, I’m sure you’ll marry.” And Morgan knew just the place for it. if they didn’t mind an outdoor wedding.

When Kat opened the boardinghouse door, Nell shrugged out of her mantle. Kat took it from her and hung their wraps and bonnets on brass hooks near Hattie’s front door. Her sister hadn’t uttered a sound since their outburst outside the hospital.

Kat couldn’t remember when a laugh felt so real, but it had been at Mr. Archer’s expense and Nell was probably feeling guilty for it, as well as smarting from her intrusion into his hospital room.

“Let’s go to the kitchen. Some chamomile tea will do us both some good.” Kat took Nell’s hand and led her down the hallway.

“Tea won’t fix this, Kat.”

Kat couldn’t argue. “No, but it can’t hurt.”

“Whatever possessed me to do that?”

“The man was robbed and you were worried about him. No one would tell you anything. I understand completely.”

Nell sank into a chair at the kitchen table. “Yes, but you’re not the one who rushed headlong into the room. Judson will never forgive me.”

“He will. I just know he will.” He had to. Kat crossed the room to the cupboard and pulled the teapot off the shelf. At the stove she twisted the spigot on the hot water tank and filled the pot. Then she measured tea into the steaming pot.

Hattie swept into the kitchen wearing her white nightdress and a purple and orange sweater. “I thought I heard you down here. I’ve been up in my room reading the Psalms for our Mr. Archer, practically beside myself waiting to hear about him.”

“He’s never going to speak to me again.” Nell buried her face in her hands.

Scooting a chair beside Nell, Hattie looked over at Kat with questions pinching her brow. “Things can’t be as bad as all that.”

Kat nodded, setting out teacups while the tea steeped.

Hattie rubbed Nell’s back. “How about you girls tell me what happened, and we’ll figure all this out.”

“I don’t see how we can.” Nell’s face was pressed in her hands so her words were muffled. “The first time I hear his voice and his only words to me were ‘Get out. I don’t want you!’”

“That’s men for you, dear. My George was a terrible patient.”

“But it’s not Judson’s fault. He didn’t want to see me, and I saw him. So much of him.” She began sobbing.

Kat knew she couldn’t giggle again. Not when Nell was so worked up. She focused on explaining what she knew to Hattie while she poured tea into their cups. “Mr. Archer’s horse bucked him off, and he…uh, we’re pretty sure he landed in cactus.” She sat down beside her sister and patted her arm.

Hattie fanned herself with her hand. “Oh, that’s dreadful.”

“Yes.” Kat nodded. “Backside first.”

“Oh my. You’re telling me Mr. Archer has cactus in his…” Hattie’s face turned all shades of red, and she fanned faster. Kat watched her lips twitch against a smile. “And, Nell, you said you saw him?”

“I didn’t know.”

“Of course you didn’t. How did you say you ended up…uh, seeing him?”

Nell blew her nose and sniffled. “Judson refused to see me. Boney Hughes was laughing, and I—”

“Mr. Hughes was there?” Hattie’s lips twitched again.

“Not in the room.” Kat lifted her cup to her lips. “He’s the one who found Judson.”

“I just couldn’t stand not to see him, so I opened the door.”

“I walked up behind her and pulled her out, my eyes closed,” Kat added.

“What a wild evening.” Hattie jumped up from the table, bumping it and rocking the teacups in their saucers. “I know just what we need to do to make things better.”

“You do?” Nell peered up at Hattie, her face blotchy.

“Absolutely.” Hattie dug in her pantry and pulled out a sack of flour. “We need to bake cookies. It always worked for me and George.”

Nodding, Nell stood and wiped her face.

Kat wasn’t sure she agreed that baking cookies could fix such a humiliating incident, but she pulled a mixing bowl off the shelf anyway. It was better than any idea she had.

T
WENTY
-S
EVEN

K
at sat on the bed with Rosita and plaited the little girl’s midnight black hair. They’d all gotten a slow start to their morning, so they hadn’t tended to her hair before breakfast. Now the two of them were alone in the bedroom. Nell was downstairs fussing in the kitchen, and Hattie was in town for her meeting of the Women for the Betterment of Cripple Creek. Certainly, Nell’s situation with Mr. Archer occupied Kat’s mind, but it was competing heavily with thoughts concerning the little girl’s future. Three days had passed since Boney wired the sheriff in Santa Fe about Rosita’s grandmother, and Kat couldn’t help but wonder if the woman was even alive.

Kat was ten when her own mother died of pneumonia. She’d been much older than Rosita, but still she couldn’t imagine what she’d have done if her father and her sisters hadn’t been there with her. If this poor child had any family of her own, Kat had to find them. Neither Kat nor Nell could offer her what blood family could, and neither could the Sisters of Mercy.

She spoke a quiet prayer and then sat down on the bed beside Rosita. “Did you like the carriage ride last night?”

Rosita nodded. She wasn’t one to spend many words. In fact, the only times Kat had seen any real emotion from the girl were when she’d first spotted the child near the fire looking for her mama, and when Rosita heard Boney Hughes’s voice in the livery.

“What color ribbon do you want in your hair today?”

The little girl peered into the box on the bed beside her and pulled out an orange striped ribbon and a yellow gingham one. Not the colors Kat would’ve chosen to go with the red muslin dress Hattie had made for the child, but she was working on letting others make their own choices—big ones and small ones.

After Kat tied off the first braid, she picked up the hand mirror her mother had given her and gave it to Rosita. While Rosita angled it left and right and up and down, Kat tied the yellow ribbon onto the tip of the second braid. As she did, she saw the little girl’s eyes in the hand mirror. Rosita had angled it and was studying Kat.

“You don’t look like Mama.”

“No, I’m sure I don’t. What did your mama look like?”

“Like a angel. That’s what one called her.”

One?
Was Rosita referring to one of her mother’s…patrons? Kat felt her cheeks flush. This little girl had seen and heard too much. Kat’s heart ached for her, and for the child’s mama. She thought about the pain and need that must have driven her to that life. The lengths she had gone to provide for her girl. With Rosita sitting beside her, it wasn’t hard for Kat to imagine what the woman looked like. “Did your mama have shiny black hair?”

Another nod. “With flowers.”

“I’m sure you miss her. I miss my mother too.”

“She’s with the angels.”

“Yes. So is my mother.” But at least she had a father who loved her, and within a year or so, she and Nell would be reunited with Ida and Vivian. Kat took the mirror from Rosita, and the little girl headed straight for the chest of drawers and pointed to the bottle of lilac perfume.

“Please.”

“A little bit.” While she rubbed a scant drop on Rosita’s neck, Kat heard the front door slam.

“Yoo-hoo. Girls, are you here?” Hattie was home from her meeting and business in town. “I’m home.” The announcement came from the foot of the stairs.

“In here, Hattie.” The monotone statement came from Nell in the kitchen.

Kat hurried to the landing at the top of the stairs. “Rosita and I are up here.” She looked down at Hattie, who balanced boxes and sacks in her arms.

The woman glanced up at her, setting her hat askew. “Well, dear, I dare say you’ll want to fuss yourself right down these stairs. I have a letter.”

That news brought Nell from the kitchen. “From Portland? Or Paris?” Nell was wiping her hands on her skirt when Kat followed Rosita down the stairs.

“It’s from Maine.” Hattie handed the letter to Nell.

“It’s Ida’s handwriting.” Nell led them all into the parlor. Hattie
settled on one end of the sofa while Nell perched on a wing-backed chair. Kat sat in the Queen Anne chair, opposite her, and pulled Rosita onto her lap. She breathed in the slight scent of lilac before giving Nell her full attention.

Dearest sisters,

At the time of this writing, we have not yet heard from you.

We are trusting God that you arrived safely, but please write at your first opportunity.

Nell glanced at Kat and shrugged.

“She’d probably just mailed it when we wired Aunt Alma.”

No doubt you are wed by now.

I pray that you are happy in your marriages.

Nell’s eyes narrowed in a frown. “We have to tell them about Judson and Patrick, and about our move to the cabin tomorrow.”

“Soon we’ll have good news to share. We’ll tell them then.”

Nell nodded.

My courses are going well and keeping me busy.

Still, I miss you both.

Kat, I long to hear one of your poems.

Last week brought six inches of fresh snow, and I tried to imagine what you might write about it.

Viv begged me to go back to my numbers.

Kat giggled imagining what clumsy rhyme Ida might have dreamed up, and she made a mental note to write her older sister a poem about six inches of snow.

Nell, I’ve been practicing my checkers moves with Aunt Alma, and I’m just about ready to take my title of Checkers Champion back from you.

Pausing, Nell looked over at Kat, her chin quivering and a tear spilling from her blue eyes. “I wish they were here.”

“I do too, but it’s probably best that we have a few months before Ida arrives. We’ll be more settled by then.” Kat motioned for Nell to resume the reading.

Viv is well, and plans to pen a letter tomorrow after church.

She sends her love, and so does Aunt Alma.

I’m sure she’d say her cat does too, although it would be in the form of yellow fur all over your clothes.

We haven’t heard from Father yet.

Aunt Alma says letters take at least a month coming from Europe.

We long to hear your news. Please write soon and often.

Sunday afternoons aren’t the same without you.

I miss you terribly!

All my love,

Ida Mae

Kat blinked back her tears. “Thank you for picking up the letter, Hattie.”

Nell slipped the paper into the envelope and then swiped at the dampness on her cheeks.

Hattie reached across the gap between them and patted Nell’s knee. “Happy to do it. Besides, the post office is where I heard the other news.”

“About Judson?”

“No, dear, I’m afraid not. It was news from our friend, Mr. Boney Hughes.”

“Oh.” Her posture as terse as her response, Nell crossed her arms. “Was he laughing while he spoke with you?”

Hattie giggled. “No, and he said he felt mighty bad about that.” Hattie glanced at the child on Kat’s lap. “He heard from the sheriff in Santa Fe.”

“He did?” Kat tried not to shout.

“They found Rosita’s grandmother.”