Banking on Temperance (27 page)

“Of course I’ll still want to.”

Ginger gulped as a tear slid down her cheek. She turned her face away, hoping her father wouldn’t notice her moist eyes. He had never been this unreasonable before. For one of only a few times in her life, she could not cajole him into doing her bidding. She brushed the tear away, smoothed her skirt, and then turned back to him, meeting his tough yet tender gaze.

“All right then. I will do what you ask, Papa, to appease Mother and for the sake of my sisters. But I want you to know I will hate every moment of it. I will be marking off the days between now and the end of August when I can escape the bonds of conventional society and move to the frontier. I will never become any man’s chattel.”

Her father smiled. “That’s all I ask for, Ginger. Peace and harmony on the home front. Thank you for being so agreeable.” His voice held more than a touch of irony.

She closed her father’s door and walked slowly back to her office. Ginger stood in the middle of the small room and placed her hands on her hips. Under her breath she muttered, “Bless my bloomers, I’ve been outfoxed.”

• • •

New York City, April 1855

Sitting astride his most stubborn horse and leading another, Joseph Lafontaine attempted to navigate both horses through the wide and bustling cobblestone streets. He had successfully managed to move four of his six horses from the railroad car to the livery already; these were the last — and most troublesome — of the group. Broadway was the main boulevard in this part of town, and Joseph kept an eye out not only for buggies and carts, but also for pedestrians crossing from one side of the street to the other — a perilous act.

His hometown of St. Louis might be raucous, especially down by the docks on the Mississippi River, but New York, and particularly this street, was beyond his wildest imagination. Now, if he could just get these last horses to the livery — only one more block — and then find his way to his hotel, he would breathe a whole lot easier.

Loud noises up ahead caught his attention. Several policemen were attempting to break up a group of people in the street. Joseph scanned the area, searching for a clear route around the chaos. Despite what his good friend Basil Fitzpatrick said about how affluent New Yorkers would accept him as a French-Canadian, the Indian half of his background was barely tolerated in St. Louis — and would be much less so in New York City. He wanted to avoid confrontation while he was here in this strange town. Staying away from the authorities was probably a wise decision, and he was not eager to test the waters on his first day here. He should have remembered to tie his shoulder-length dark straight hair back into a queue, to lessen the look of his ancestry.
Too late now,
he thought as he focused on handling the horses under his command.

“You there! Stop!” Police shouted as women scattered in different directions in front of him, some of them screaming as they rushed by.

Joseph halted his horses in the middle of the clogged street and watched. A number of ladies ran directly in front of him, but he noticed only one. Her brown hair was shot through with dark red, reminiscent of a chestnut roan. Rather than being tied up in a chignon, her hair floated around her face in glorious disarray. The waist-length locks billowed out behind her as she ran. Joseph watched as she skittered just out of reach of the approaching policemen, glancing about for a means of escape. If this was what New York women were like, Joseph was glad he had agreed to come east.

She skirted around his horses to the opposite side of the fray.
Very clever
, Joseph noted,
using my horses as a shield from the authorities
. He began walking his charges, which now included the woman, slowly forward through the chaos.

Joseph nodded to her, acknowledging her presence. “Is this street always so crowded?” he asked the woman.

“It’s always busy with the open-air vendors on the sidewalks and all the street traffic, but not usually like this. My friend and I just staged a rally, which is why the police are here.”

“You are safe now, with me. Just follow my lead.”

The woman nodded her head in agreement, shielding her eyes from the sun as she walked beside the horses and stared up at him. Her other hand reached out to touch the withers of the horse nearest her.

“How handsome,” she said, not moving her eyes from Joseph’s face.

“The black?”

The woman seemed a bit startled, but continued to look at him. Joseph pointed with his chin to the dark horse nearest to her. “The black horse beside you. He is my favorite, too. I may have to keep that one. Take care, though. These horses are barely broken, and they are skittish in all this noise.”

At that very moment, a dog ran into the street, startling the black horse, and he lunged. Joseph held the reins tightly in his hands, but the horse reared. Joseph concentrated on controlling his horse and lost sight of the attractive woman. When the horse finally quieted, Joseph scanned the street for her again. She had backed off from the horse’s side, and was rubbing her forearm.

“Did he hurt you?”

“He only bumped me slightly. It was my fault for getting too close. I’ll be fine.”

Together, they made their way up the street. When they reached the livery, Joseph dropped from the horse’s bare back in a fluid motion and stood in front of the woman he had shielded from the police. He noticed she had a light dusting of freckles sprinkled across the bridge of her nose. And even though she was not as small as she appeared to be when he was astride the horse, his large frame still towered over her.

“This is as far as I am going, miss. We have come a fair distance. You should be safe now.”

“Thank you for helping me evade the police.” The woman did not move from the livery doors as she craned her neck to look him squarely in the eyes.

“I think you would have managed quite well on your own, but I am glad I was able to help.” They stood in the door of the livery, their eyes locked for another long moment until one of the horses nickered.

Joseph gathered the horses’ reins again tightly in his hands. “I must take care of my horses. They will settle down once they are comfortable.”

Joseph spent the next few minutes getting the two horses safely into their stalls. When he finished, he was mildly disappointed to see that the bewitching woman had vanished. In a town the size of this New York City, he doubted if their paths would ever cross again.

But a man could hope.

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