“I think there is. Be reasonable, Katy. We can’t leave here by ourselves. It wouldn’t be wise for two women and a child to be on the trail alone.”

  “Who said we’d be alone? I’ve a little money left. We’ll hire a couple of men to go with us.”

  “Why are you so determined to leave here? Is it Rowe you’re running away from?”

  “Bullfoot! He’s a two-bit miner in a two-bit town! Don’t you want something better for Theresa than this?” Katy had demanded angrily and spread her arms to include the whole town.

  “Trinity is only a raw mining town now, Katy, but Rowe has plans—”

  “Rowe has plans! Good Lord! You are gullible if you believe everything that fly-by-night tells you!”

  “Thank you, sister, for your confidence in my judgment.”

  “How are we going to make a living, Mary? Tell me that. It’s too late to open the ‘girlie house.’ Lizzibeth and her girls have already moved in,” Katy had said caustically and then muttered, “I’m sure they had a very profitable night.”

  “I’m sure,” Mary had retorted, tight-lipped. After a lengthy silence Mary spoke again. “We could bake pies and bearclaws and sell them to the men.”

  “Do you know how many pies we’d have to sell to pay for this building we’re living in?”

  “We can stay here as long as we want. Rowe said so.”

  “Rowe said so!” Katy’s voice had raised until it filled every corner of the room and spilled out into the vacant street. “I’ll not be obligated to that man! The Burns family, of which you are one, has always paid their own way. I’ll not be the one to break the tradition by taking charity from a know-it-all, smooth-talking—”

  “All right!” Mary’s shout had taken Katy completely by surprise. “We’ll move back into that little shack we moved out of if you’re so dead-set against accepting a little help. I would like to remind you that Garrick Rowe saved our lives—at considerable risk to his own.” Angrily, Mary had snatched clothes from the wall and threw them into her trunk. Suddenly she stopped and broke into a storm of weeping.

  “Oh, gosh! I’m sorry, Mary.” Katy had put her arms about her sister. “Don’t cry. I shouldn’t have jumped on you about this when you’re all torn up over Roy. We’ve been here this long, so I guess there’s no harm staying a little longer. I’m so mean I don’t even know myself anymore.”

  A week had passed and Katy had not mentioned leaving Trinity again. In fact, Katy had not mentioned much at all. She had gone with Mary to call on Mrs. Hillard and her daughter, Julia, but had not gone out of her way to get to know any of the other women. Her time was spent in the garden or tending the cow or cutting kindling. The floor of the funerary was spotless, or it had been before the rain.

  Mary turned from the window. It was quiet in the funerary. The creak of the rockers on the uneven floor was the only sound to break the silence. Katy sat with her head resting against the back, her eyes closed. When Rowe had come to carry Theresa to Mrs. Hillard’s so that she could play with Julia, Katy had gone behind the curtain and sat down on her bed until he had gone.

  Her sister was hurting, and Mary didn’t know what to do about it. Katy, who had always been so full of life, had been moping about since that first night when Hank and Anton came to call. It was so unlike Katy to be silent.

  Wanting to do something to take her mind off the problems that bothered her, Mary lit a candle to dispel the gloom, sat down at the table with her journal, and began to write.

  Trinity, June 30, 1874.

  A week has passed since I learned of Roy’s death. I recorded it in the Bible along with the date given me by Hank Weston and Anton Hooker. There is no one but distant relatives to notify back home. I will send letters to them at the first opportunity.

  The people who came to Trinity from the Oregon-bound train all have interesting stories. Mr. Longstreet, the man who led the wagons to Trinity, reminds me so much of Roy. He claims to be from an aristocratic family and is related to General James Longstreet. He acts as if he considers himself superior to his wife. They have a daughter, who is about thirteen, and a boy slightly younger, who is lame. Mrs. Chandler said they were asked to leave the train because their wagon was in such poor condition. Rowe hired him to run the hotel. His wife and children are busy cleaning. I’ve not seen Mr. Longstreet doing any of the work. Katy and I don’t like him.

  Mrs. Chandler and her daughters, Flossie and Myrtle, have set up business in the eatery. She was frank about their reason for leaving the train. One of her daughters was caught under the blanket with a married man. He was given ten lashes for adultery by the leaders. Mrs. Chandler switched her daughter, even though she thought they had made a lot of to-do about nothing. The women on the train had forced them to leave.

  Lizzibeth and her girls were run out of a mining town southeast of here. They trailed behind the wagon train for protection. They have settled into the “girlie house.” They seem a happy lot, but it’s beyond me how a woman can do what they do.

  Mrs. Hillard seems to be well off. Her husband drowned when they crossed the Bighorn River. Without a man to drive her wagon, keep it in repair, and care for the stock, she was slowing the others down. The leader asked her to leave or take one of the single men for a husband. How mean and coldhearted some men are. She is a well-educated but timid person. I saw her cross the street so she wouldn’t have to pass Mr. Longstreet who was sitting on the hotel porch. Rowe didn’t want her in one of the houses on the hill, so for now she lives in the newspaper building.

  Mr. Glossberg is a scholarly Jew. He had planned to open a store in Oregon with his wagon load of goods. He left the train when the people had become increasingly hostile to him because he didn’t attend their church services. He moved his goods into the mercantile building after he and Rowe came to an agreement on the rent he would pay. I bought a spool of sewing thread the first day he was open for business.

  Trinity is on its way to becoming a real town again. If Katy were happy here, I would be content to stay so long as we could find a means of making a living. The Chandlers are baking, so that possibility is out. The measles outbreak is over, and I’m not needed to nurse the sick. Hank keeps telling me that something will turn up. I sure hope so.

  A brisk wind came up in the late afternoon and blew the rain clouds away. The sun came out and with it the people of the town. Katy stepped out into the cool, fresh air at the same time Rowe stepped up onto the porch with Theresa in his arms. It was too late for Katy to turn back. Her pride made it impossible for her to be so obvious that she was avoiding him. Her eyes passed over him as she spoke to Theresa.

  “Hello, ladybug. Did you decide to come home?”

  “Uncle Rowe said I had to.”

  “Uncle Rowe?” Katy repeated before she could stop herself.

  Rowe took an overlong time setting the child on her feet. He gave her a gentle push toward the door.

  “Run tell your mama you’re back. I want to talk to your Aunt Katy.”

  “Why?” Theresa inquired from the doorway. “I don’t think Aunt Katy likes you. But me and Mamma do.”

  “I’m glad of that.”

  Theresa grinned an impish grin that showed the gap in her front teeth. “Can you stay for supper, Uncle Rowe?”

  “Not tonight, honey.” After Theresa skipped into the house, he turned to Katy and lifted a questioning brow. “You’re not going to second the invitation?” Her eyes met his with a small tightening of her mouth which prompted him to ask, “Have you still got the sulks?”

  “Yes, I’ve got the sulks and the mulligrubs.” Her voice was thick with exasperation. “I’m damn sick of this place!”

  “That’s what I want to talk to you about. You need a change.”

  “I sure do! A permanent one.”

  He watched her struggle to maintain her bored expression and her indifference to him. She was far more vulnerable than she imagined. It had been so sweet that day at the lake to see her off guard.

  “Katy, my sweet one, pull in your claws for just a minute. Anton and I are going to Virginia City tomorrow. I want you to go with us.”

  Utterly taken back, Katy looked at him with eyes round with surprise. “You’ll take me and Mary to Virginia City to catch the stage?”

  “No. Just you, and not to catch the stage. We’ll have to go on horseback through the mountains. I’ve already explained it to Mary. She thinks it would do you good to get away for a while.”

  “You and Mary are making plans for me behind my back. Well, well, that’s nice.”

  “Cut the sarcasm, Katy. Mary is worried about you. It’ll take two days to get to Virginia City if we cut through the mountains. I plan to stay three or four days. We’ll be gone a week at the most. If we take a wagon and go by road it will take a lot longer.”

  “Two days and one night. Don’t forget the night.”

  “I haven’t. We’ll spend it with some friends of mine who have a homestead a little more than halfway. In Virginia City we’ll stay in the hotel—separate rooms, of course.”

  “No.”

  “No separate rooms?”

  “No. I’m not going. Take Ruby, Pearl, or Goldie, then you’ll not have to pay for separate rooms.”

  “Christamighty! Anton will be with us. Are you afraid the trip will be too rough for you?” He quirked an eyebrow with his question, a grin dancing around his mouth.

  She resolutely kept her eyes on his face and something in the way she looked at him killed his grin.

  “I’m not stupid enough to bite on a challenge to my stamina, Mr. Rowe. What has prompted this generous offer?” she asked softly, then added, “Not that I’m going.”

  “I do have an ulterior motive,” he confessed.

  “I thought you would.”

  “I’m trying to make arrangements for the stage that goes to Bannack to swing down here before it returns to Virginia City. I want you to go to see how the stage office is run so that we can set up one here.”

  “I’m not a permanent resident of Trinity. I’ve told you that.”

  “You will be for a while. Until then you can manage the office. There’s more—”

  “I’m not surprised,” Katy said drily and eyed him with heavy suspicion.

  Rowe continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “I bank in Virginia City. Eventually I hope to have a bank here, but, in the meanwhile, I need a bookkeeper here in Trinity to pay the men and keep records.”

  “No.”

  A perplexed look crossed Rowe’s face. “I thought you could cipher.”

  “I can cipher as good as any man or woman in the Territory.”

  “What’s eight times nine?”

  “I’ll not spar with you or be tested for the job.”

  “You’re the only one here qualified for the job of running a stage office. If you don’t do it, I’ll have to give up on having the stage come to Trinity until I can find someone else.”

  “Mr. Glossberg could do it.” Her voice was prickly.

  “I asked him,” Rowe turned his eyes away, lest she see the lie in them. “He wants to run his store and perhaps get some women to sew clothes for him. He’s a very good business man.”

  “How about the dandy running the hotel?”

  “Longstreet? I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw a mule by the tail. I don’t look for him to last long out here. He’ll smart off to the wrong man and get a bullet in the head. Besides that, I’ve got no use for a man who is unkind to his family.”

  “There’s Mrs. Hillard.”

  “She’s been so sheltered that if anyone said ‘boo’ to her, she’d swoon. It’ll take a woman with guts to handle this job.”

  Katy’s mind had already grasped what it would mean to her if the stage came to town on a regular basis. She and Mary would be free to pay their fare and leave whenever they wanted to. Mary would realize, once she got over the shock of Roy’s death, that there was no future here for her and Theresa.

  It came into Katy’s mind with the force of a thunderbolt that she couldn’t afford not to go to Virginia City with Rowe and Anton.

  Rowe watched the expressions flit across her face as she mulled over the situation. First came a puzzled scowl that gradually faded. After a long moment of silence, her eyes brightened, and she caught her upper lip firmly between her teeth as she tried to hide a smile of satisfaction.

  She was the most exciting woman he’d ever known. He was still mystified by his attraction to her and his driving need to have her for his own. He was like a moth and she a flame. She was like a cool, clear stream and he a man dying of thirst. Since the day at the lake he had been peculiarly reluctant to rush things, and somehow, he had managed to stay away from her. His mouth went completely dry when he thought of her bending over him, kissing him. She had been indescribably lovely as she was now.

  Katy had made up her mind what she was going to do, but her problem was how to tell him without letting him think he had talked her into it.

  “Do they have a telegraph in Virginia City?”

  “Of course. Virginia City is the Territorial Capital.”

  “How often does the mail go out?”

  “Twice a day. The Overland Mail carries it to Bozeman, another stage takes it south to Salt Lake.”

  “Humm . . .” She looked off into the distance.

  “Make up your mind,” Rowe said irritably.

  “I’ll go with you. When are you leaving?”

  “At dawn.”

  “I’ll be ready.”

  Rowe walked back down the muddy street with thoughts that were unsettling. It irked him that she was going with him merely to send a wire or a letter. The message was evidently too personal to give to him to send. Pangs of jealousy gnawed at him. He pushed them aside and began to plan. He had a week to bind her to him for a lifetime.

  Dressed in a tight-waisted, dark gray riding skirt and a striped shirt, Katy paced the porch of the funerary as night wore away toward dawn. Mary had prepared a food packet and had filled a canteen with fresh water while Katy ate breakfast.

  “Are you sure that is all you’ll need?” Mary asked, pointing to the small canvas valise that Katy had packed to tie behind her saddle.

  “An extra shirt, dress, underwear, toilet articles and a nightdress. What else do I need? Thanks for packing the food.”

  “I’m sure Rowe will have packed provisions.”

  “I’d rather have my own.” Katy settled the flat-crowned, brimmed hat on her head and tied the strings beneath her chin. She pulled soft leather gloves from her belt and slid them onto not quite steady hands, evidence of the nervousness she was trying to hide from her sister.

  “Make the most of the trip, Katy, and enjoy yourself. You’ve had to work so hard—”

  “I don’t like going off and leaving you and Theresa here alone.”

  “Heavens! We’re not alone. Theresa and I will spend some time with Laura Hillard and Julia. Did I tell you that Laura and I are thinking of making some shirts for Mr. Glossberg to sell in his store?”

  “You told me. If anything happens and you need any help, go to Mrs. Chandler. She strikes me as a woman who can handle most any situation.”

  “Don’t worry, nothing will happen. Hank will be here if it does.”

  “Ah, yes. Hank. He shows up here pretty often. Is he courting you?”

  “Katherine Louise Burns! What a thing to say!”

  The conversation was cut short when Rowe, riding his big black Arabian horse and leading a slender blazed-face mare, came suddenly out of the mist-shrouded morning.

  “I take it you ride astride,” he said when he reached the funerary and dismounted.

  “I learned to ride astride when it was considered vulgar to do so,” Katy replied and handed him the valise when he reached for it. He tied it behind a small high-backed saddle, amazingly like the one she had used back home in Alabama.

  “I got the saddle from Mr. Glossberg,” he said as if reading her thoughts. “He said he had taken it in trade.”

  “I hope he’ll take it back when I’m through with it,” Katy said. She kissed Mary good-bye and whispered to her that she was teasing about Hank courting her. Then she hung her food packet and canteen over the saddlehorn. “Give Theresa a kiss for me when she wakes up.”

  “I will. Take care and come back safely,” Mary said with a note of worry in her voice.

  Katy swung into the saddle before Rowe could come around to assist her. While he adjusted the stirrups, she asked, “What’s the mare’s name?”

  “I don’t know. You’ll have to name her. The man that you . . . the man at the well was leading her when he rode into town with those other two brainless fools. I suspect she belonged to the man they killed out on the trail. There’s no brand on her so I guess she’s yours.” Rowe turned to Mary. “Don’t worry about Katy, Mary. I’ll take care of her.”

  “I know you will. Take care of yourself, too.” Mary looked eastward to where the sun was lighting the horizon. “It’s going to be a hot, humid day.”

  “It’ll be cooler in the mountains. We’ll be back in about a week. Meanwhile, Hank is in charge. Go to him if you need anything or if anyone bothers you.”

  The big brown dog stood patiently beside the porch, his eyes on Rowe. Rowe squatted down and fondled the dog’s ears.

  “This trip would be too hard on you, old man. A few years ago you could have made it easily, but not now. You’ll have to stay here with Mary and Theresa. Get up there on the porch and stay there until I come back.” Rowe got to his feet and the dog obediently climbed up onto the porch, settling himself beside the door. “Don’t feed Modo, Mary. He finds his own food. I told the cook not to feed him or he’d get lazy. Now I suspect he leaves food for him to find.”

  “Theresa and I will be glad for Modo’s company. Bye, Rowe. Bye, Katy. You two be careful and have a good time.”

  Mary’s words echoed in Katy’s mind as she reined the roan around and followed the big black horse up the muddy street. Have a good time, my foot! She’d have to be on her guard every minute or this international, smooth-talking Casanova would have her eating out of his hand.

 

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