The plump lady took the child. “You’re simply wonderful with children. It’s a shame you don’t have any of your own.” She walked away.
The slender woman’s smile faded as she brushed the dust off her skirt, almost as if she were brushing off the woman’s comment. Three children whizzed between them.
“I’m Anna.” She smiled, hoping to relieve the tension that rose from the plump woman’s words.
“I’m Beth.” The young woman’s brown eyes and rosy cheeks lit up, and she would have been quite pretty had it not been for the bruise.
The woman’s name turned over in Anna’s mind. It ended with a dreadful “th,” but she ought to be able to pronounce it just fine. She’d finally mastered the language over the last six years, but anytime she became nervous, her tongue fumbled a bit.
“I’m on my way to Denver City, and I was wondering if I may travel with your wagon train, if that’s where you all are headed?”
“Yes, that’s where we’re going.” Beth smiled, but immediately sobered. “I’ll have to ask my husband.”
“I have a job waiting for me there.” Anna hoped Beth’s husband would see that she was responsible, a hard worker, and not someone looking for handouts.
“How nice.” Beth walked over to a covered wagon and arranged some linen inside, focusing on her work. “So, you’re not married then?”
Anna followed and set her carpetbag down to help. “No.” Her uncle never wanted her to marry. He never allowed her to be seen by anyone, much less courted, and kept her shut up inside to wait on his every need.
“Are you traveling alone?”
“Yes,” Anna said.
Beth took the newly folded linen from Anna and placed it inside the wagon.
“I’ve come all the way from New York by myself.” Anna lifted her chin, hoping to show Beth that she’d done just fine on her own thus far.
“I would never have had the courage to travel so far by myself. You’re a brave woman.” The loose strands of Beth’s raven hair brushed against her flushed cheeks in a slight breeze. She quickly tucked the curls back into her bonnet.
“What are your plans?” Anna asked.
Beth looked down at her feet then back up at Anna and smiled. “We’re going to be cattle ranchers. As soon as we’re settled, of course.”
“Are you settling near Denver City?” If they settled nearby, perhaps they could become neighbors, friends.
“My husband hopes to—”
“Hopes to?” A man’s voice growled from behind Anna. “I’m going to, woman.” The man stepped in front of them. He glared at Anna. “Where’s my pipe?”
Was he talking to her? She couldn’t imagine why he’d think she knew where to find his pipe. She looked to Beth for help.
“You left it next to your rifle when you fell asleep.” Beth pointed a trembling finger at the wagon. “I put it on the buckboard.”
The man eyed Beth through narrowed slits beneath bushy eyebrows. “Next time, put it where I can find it.” He looked at Anna and motioned with his chin toward her. “Who’s this?”
The man’s behavior was all too familiar. To think, poor Beth had married such a person. Likely, he was the one who gave her that black eye.
“This is Miss . . . Anna.” Beth looked at her feet. “She would like to travel with us to Denver City.”
“I’ve come all the way from New York, sir.” Anna tried to sound as polite as possible even though sparks of anger ignited.
Looping his thumbs in his suspenders, he looked her up and down.
She shifted her stance, hoping he would take his filthy eyes off her.
“You got money?”
“Oh, Al—”
Al raised a backhand to his wife.
Beth cowered, and Anna winced.
He stopped his swing in midair. “Go fetch my pipe.”
Beth backed away, and with downcast eyes, hurried around the wagon.
Towering over her, Al glowered at Anna.
She stepped back.
“Food costs money, lady, and if you’re not willing to pay then you can wait here for your iron horse.”
“The tracks aren’t finished yet, so no train goes from here to Denver City.”
“I knew that.” He shifted his stance and shoved a fist deep in his pocket.
By the dumb look on his face, Anna doubted he knew much of anything. Still, she ought to explain why she was so desperate to travel with them. She dreaded being a burden, though she dreaded even more having to pay for two weeks stay in a hotel.
“I would have to take the stagecoach, and it won’t be here for another fourteen days. I have a teaching job waiting for me.”
He eyed her up and down as she explained herself.
“I have money,” she said, thinking how relieved she was that she had put most of it in a small pouch and tied it around her waist where it could be hidden under her dress. “How much do you need?” She had already planned on paying for the stagecoach, which would have been around thirty dollars. She could afford to pay Al that amount.
His gaze raked over her. “One hundred dollars.”
“Why, that’s outrageous! That’d buy a horse!”
He grumbled. “The price is one hundred dollars or nothing.’”
Her face went hot with anger. She may as well stay over night in the hotel for that price, but how much would all those costs come to? She’d have to pay for the coach, the hotel, and food. She needed all the money she could spare in order to find lodging in Denver when she arrived. Not to mention extra funds for new dresses. And if she stayed, it would mean waiting another two weeks before she reached Denver City, whereas if she traveled with the wagon train, she could get there in just a few days. That alone might make the cost worth it.
That’s when an idea struck. “Would you be willing to accept jewelry, sir?”
“What kind?”
“I have a small, valuable stone that might suit your interests, definitely worth your price.” Really the stone was worth slightly less than one hundred dollars because it had a flaw in it that only a professional would notice. At least that’s what she recalled her papa saying.
She considered giving him a piece of her fake jewelry, and those paste stones probably would have fooled the brainless brute, but she wouldn’t have felt right about doing that. In all fairness, she ought to pay these people something for allowing her to travel with them.
“Let me see it,” he said.
“If you’ll excuse me, I will fetch it.” She curtsied to the man, and went to the front of the wagon where Beth was preparing Al’s pipe. “Is there a place a woman can have a bit of privacy?”
Beth pointed to a small privy not far from the train depot.
Anna turned in that direction, and at once, stopped in her tracks. Had she taken leave of her senses?
She made an about-face. Two other men were preparing their wagons and could escort her on this journey. Surely their rates wouldn’t be as high.
~*~
“I’ve never met such cowardly men,” Anna mumbled to herself as she trudged behind the wagons.