Pearl (46 page)

‘‘Why can’t someone at least remember to keep the coffeepot hot?’’

‘‘Because it gets too strong, and last night you were complaining about the strong coffee.’’ Pearl laid her book in her lap.

‘‘I was not complaining.’’ Ruby lifted the lid and clattered it onto the next one, leaving a residue of greasy soot on the clean stove. She knew it was clean. She had sanded and blacked it the day before.

‘‘Horsefeathers!’’ She glared at Pearl, expecting a remonstrance.

Pearl wisely kept her gaze on the pages in front of her, holding the book up high enough that her eyes were hidden.

Ruby shoved the wood in the stove, set the lid back in place, and pulled the coffeepot over the heating section.

‘‘Ruby, do you—?’’

‘‘No, I don’t.’’

Opal stopped in the doorway. ‘‘How do you know what I was going to ask?’’

Ruby’s sigh screamed of frustration and guilt. ‘‘I’m sorry. I— What is it you wanted?’’

‘‘I wanted to know if you know where . . .’’ She glanced at Pearl. ‘‘Oh, never mind,’’ she said and left the room.

Ruby huffed and threw her hands in the air. ‘‘What is this place coming to?’’

‘‘She wanted an answer for her homework.’’

‘‘Oh. And I almost got sucked into helping her out.’’ Ruby poured her now steaming coffee and returned to the books she disliked doing in the best of times.

Please, God . . .
She stopped in her prayer. How could she pray when she was so persistently angry at anything and everything?

She could hear Rand’s voice.
‘‘You’re letting them win if they
wreak havoc on you like this.’’
He was right. But he hadn’t seen the sign, and she had a feeling something else had happened that Charlie took care of without letting her know. Was there more at the heart of this than Belle’s insinuations and her attempts to cause dissension? After all, how were things any different here at the hotel, other than fewer people coming to church? Obviously those who needed it worst.

Sometime later, after going to bed early so nothing else could go wrong, she closed her Bible and set about her nightly prayers.
Father, forgive me please. I’m acting rather badly. All right, I’m being
mean and hateful, and I really don’t like me very well this way. But I
can’t seem to stop. I just get over it, and something else happens
.

Opal snuffled softly in her sleep.

I have so much to be grateful for, and here I am whining like a spoiled
child. Thank you for caring about this place, but why do I have to forgive
everyone, when they did the evil?

She heaved a big sigh and rolled on her side to feel more of Opal’s warmth.
‘‘Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the
morning.’’
The verse comforted her as she fell like a stone into the depths of sleep.

She woke in the wee hours to realize it was now 1884. A new year, a new beginning. What good would it bring?
It better bring
a new me, for the old one is managing to offend the people I least want to
offend, and those whom I would like to offend have no idea how I feel. Nor
do they care. I should have sent Belle packing a long time ago.

But I so wanted her to turn her life over to Jesus. The others have,
and look what a difference it has made.

If you’re the example she sees of Jesus, why would she want to?
The insinuating little voice made her cringe inside.

Why would she? Oh, Lord, why would she? You say to love, and I live
out hate. Forgive me, please forgive me
.

She finally fell asleep again, and daylight was peeking in the window when she woke.

‘‘Mercy, what have I done?’’ She threw her clothes on, bundled her hair in a snood, and tied an apron on as she hustled down the stairs.

The fragrances of frying bacon, fresh bread, and cinnamon met her halfway down. She might have slept in, but the others hadn’t.

‘‘Happy New Year!’’ Opal toasted her with a cup of cocoa.

‘‘Rand is here and wondered if we wanted to go riding. He brought Baldy and Bay. You could use my saddle if you like.’’

‘‘We’ll freeze.’’

‘‘Not if we bundle up.’’ The light in Opal’s eyes was dimming.

‘‘Of course we’ll go.’’

‘‘If we were in Chicago, we’d be riding in sleighs through the streets if there was enough snow.’’ Pearl brought her coffee back into the kitchen for a refill. ‘‘You’d think the men building over in Medora would be able to stay home in such weather.’’

‘‘But then they wouldn’t get paid. At least they are working in a warm building. The fireplaces are in, according to Mr. Heg-land.’’ Cimarron set her tray down. ‘‘Everyone says they had enough. Have you eaten yet, Ruby?’’

‘‘No, and if I’m going riding, I better eat quickly before Opal wears out the stairs.’’

‘‘Shame you don’t have any britches. With long johns that would be warmer than your divided skirt.’’

‘‘I thought Belle took that outfit with her.’’

Cimarron tried to look innocent, but laughter chinked out the edges. ‘‘Ah, she couldn’t find it.’’

‘‘You knew she was leaving on the sly like that?’’

‘‘You think I was going to stop her? I’d have helped her pack if I’d known.’’

Ruby wisely decided not to ask any more.

Getting mounted, bundled like they were, took some effort, but when they rode across the frozen river, the sky arched above them was such an aching blue that it took Ruby’s breath away. Snow and ice outlined each twig and branch on the cottonwood trees, and snow was plastered on the north sides of the trunk, hiding the deep crevices in the bark. A crow announced to the world that humans had invaded the territory, his raucous caw setting a flock of chickadees to flight. A covey of grouse whirred up at their approach.

‘‘You want to go up and see the progress on the Chateau?’’ Rand asked.

‘‘I’d love to. Thank you for giving us this treat.’’

‘‘Head up to the house,’’ Rand called to Opal, who was riding ahead of them. ‘‘You need to get out more,’’ he said, turning to Ruby.

‘‘I do, don’t I?’’ Ruby leaned forward, the restored army saddle creaking a protest. She patted Baldy’s shoulder. ‘‘You’re a good horse, aren’t you, old fella.’’ Baldy’s ears swiveled, one tilting forward, one back.

‘‘He’s listening to you. I swear, Buck understands everything I say.’’ Rand wore his sheepskin jacket, leather gloves that had a gauntlet over the ends of his sleeves, his hat pulled low to shade his eyes from the brilliance of the snow.

Rand Harrison is one handsome cowboy
. The thought heated Ruby’s cheeks even more than the biting breeze.

They stopped the horses on the south side of the Chateau, where the main entrance would be looking out over the southern river valley.

‘‘He has quite the view from up here, doesn’t he?’’

‘‘Magnificent.’’

Red and ochre lines showed on the rock formations crowned with white. Drifts, so pure they shadowed blue, crowned every hillock or filled in the hollows. Chimney smoke rose slightly east of south, a thin finger that announced a homestead.

‘‘Robertsons,’’ Rand said, then pointed to another one slightly more south. ‘‘Mine.’’ His looked more like a puff of gray, mostly hidden by the hills between town and his ranch. ‘‘You watch, this time next year you’ll see smoke rising from houses and businesses all over that flat down there.’’ They looked back over Little Missouri. Both chimneys of Dove House were puffing gray, as were others. Blanketed in white, Little Missouri looked almost hospitable, like a peaceful little village welcoming strangers and those who lived there as well. The United States flag added the perfect color at the west end of the street.

‘‘Army’s back, I see.’’

‘‘Two days ago. They had to bivouac due to the blizzard.

Their new cook has a lot to learn, so several have been over to eat.’’

‘‘You heard if Adam Stone is getting out?’’

‘‘No, haven’t seen him. But what do you mean—getting out?’’

‘‘Well, last time I saw him, he mentioned the army might not be the place for him.’’

‘‘Can we ride up the river a ways?’’ Opal trotted back from circling the house. ‘‘Sure is a big place.’’

‘‘They’ll be able to see that red roof for miles.’’ Rand reined Buck around. ‘‘Anyone have ice skates? We could clear a patch of snow off the river and go skating.’’

‘‘That, at least, is something I know how to do.’’

By the time they returned to the hotel, Ruby could no longer feel her feet. When she stepped down from the stirrup, her feet refused to work.

Rand caught her as she crumpled. ‘‘Sorry, I forgot to warn you. Opal, how about taking the saddles off Baldy and Bay and tying these critters in the shed?’’

He still had his arm around her. Ruby knew she should stand on her own now, but with the knives and needles slashing her feet, she knew she’d end up headfirst in a snowbank if she tried to walk. And besides, leaning on someone stronger felt mighty wonderful.

‘‘Your feet all right now?’’ he whispered in her ear.

‘‘I think so.’’ She took a tentative step, and now her foot only burned.

He tucked her gloved hand through his crooked arm and half supported her up the shoveled path.

Charlie was just finishing sweeping off the porch, so he swept the snow off their boots also. ‘‘There’s a young man inside wants to see you.’’

‘‘Who?’’

Charlie nodded to the door being held open by Adam Stone.

‘‘Happy New Year, Private Stone.’’

‘‘No longer. I am now civilian Adam Stone.’’

‘‘Well, I’ll be. You did go and do it then?’’ Rand shook his hand. ‘‘I thought you were planning on a career in the army.’’

‘‘I was, until . . .’’

‘‘Until?’’ Ruby unwound the long scarf from around her neck.

‘‘That’s what I want to talk to you about.’’

‘‘I see.’’ She smiled at the nervous young man. ‘‘Care to join me in the schoolroom? Bring some coffee.’’ This was getting interesting. First Jed Black had wanted to talk with her and now Adam Stone. If it was about the same kind of thing, there was getting to be a regular pattern here.

She took the cup he offered her, sat down on one of the school benches, and waited.

He paced one way and then the other, obviously trying to decide how to say something.

‘‘Mr. Stone, if this has to do with Milly, well, I heartily approve.’’

‘‘Do you really?’’

‘‘How could you doubt?’’

‘‘Well, now, I don’t have a job, but I will have as soon as I get home. So I want to take Milly with me, but . . .’’

Ruby held up a hand. Never had she heard this many words at one time from this particular young man.

‘‘You want to take Milly home with you to where?’’

‘‘Indiana. I thought we could be married in Dickinson. That way some of you could be there.’’

‘‘Have you discussed this with Milly yet?’’

‘‘No. I wanted your permission first.’’

‘‘Well, you have my permission and my blessing. I don’t know what I am going to do without her around here, but that is my problem, not yours. When are you going to ask her?’’

‘‘Right now. Can I use this room?’’

‘‘It’s not very romantic, but it’s fine with me. Do you know where she is?’’

‘‘Up cleaning rooms.’’

‘‘Does she know you’re here?’’

‘‘I don’t think so.’’

‘‘Good. I’ll send her in.’’ Feeling like a matchmaker at work, she went to find Milly.

She heard the girl singing in one of the rooms and stepped in, making her face sober, a real act of will. ‘‘Milly, there’s been a spill in the schoolroom. Would you go clean it up, please?’’

‘‘Of course. I’m done here anyway.’’ Milly took her mop and bucket and cleaning rags and headed out the door.

Ruby followed behind, wishing she could be a mouse in a corner of the schoolroom.

Hearing Milly squeal Adam’s name made it all worthwhile.

‘‘What’s going on?’’ Daisy started through the swinging door.

‘‘No!’’ Ruby spoke louder than she’d planned but put a finger to her lips when Daisy halted. ‘‘Adam Stone was waiting for Milly in the schoolroom. I told her to go in there and clean up a spill.’’

Cimarron laughed out loud, the others giggled, some hiding behind their hands. Rand’s eyebrows tickled his hairline, but his grin joined all of theirs.