Pearl (51 page)
Ruby collapsed in her chair. Over. Two years of the hardest work she’d ever done, and it was over. Or would be soon. Now to tell the others.
She broke the news to Opal as they were getting ready for bed.
‘‘What! How come you didn’t tell me first?’’
‘‘Because I felt I needed to make this deal without anyone else knowing.’’
‘‘Why? Where will we go? I love it here.’’ She turned her back to Ruby. ‘‘I’m not going back to New York. You can’t make me.’’
‘‘Rand has asked me to marry him.’’
‘‘What!’’ Opal flew into Ruby’s arms. ‘‘And you didn’t tell me?’’
‘‘I haven’t said yes yet, and he hasn’t been to town for weeks.’’
Perhaps he’s changed his mind
. ‘‘Please, Opal, it has been a long day. Just go to sleep. We will talk more tomorrow.’’
Ruby went to sleep with that thought and woke with the same.
People do change their minds. Please, God, don’t let him change
his mind. Not now when I can be free
.
‘‘So we’d live on the ranch?’’ Opal asked the next morning.
Ruby nodded.
‘‘And I’d have Bay all the time.’’ Opal was thinking out loud. ‘‘What about Charlie and all the rest?’’
‘‘I’ve been thinking of something. But you must let me announce this first. No sharing secrets, do you understand?’’
‘‘Yes. But you better do it soon.’’
‘‘Tonight.’’
‘‘Sure wondered why Belle was in town,’’ Charlie said after she told them all.
‘‘Do we have to work for her?’’ Fear lurked in Daisy’s eyes.
‘‘No, you can work wherever you want. You won’t be going back. There’ll be plenty of work in Medora. Besides, I’ve got an idea going, but I have to ponder it some more.’’
Daisy breathed a sigh of relief. ‘‘Good.’’
‘‘Far as I know, Belle will keep things as they are, other than I’m sure the saloon will reopen, and the gambling be on a larger scale than ever.’’
‘‘Most likely.’’
‘‘She won’t have any of her former girls.’’ Cimarron smiled up at Jed.
‘‘Not a chance. Even if we have to live in a tent before I get us a house built,’’ Jed promised. ‘‘I’ve lived in a lot worse places ’n that.’’
‘‘Most everything stays with the hotel unless you have personal things you want to keep.’’
‘‘I surely don’t want those flatirons.’’ Daisy grinned when everyone laughed with her.
‘‘What about you, Miss Hossfuss?’’ Daisy asked.
‘‘I’m not sure. I think they will renew my contract for the fall, but that depends on finding a place for the school. I imagine I will find somewhere else to room.’’
‘‘What about this summer?’’ Opal spoke up for the first time.
‘‘I don’t know.’’
Opal glanced at Ruby, but Ruby shook her head just the slightest. ‘‘I’m thinking that part of our money could be used to build a school. What do you think, Opal?’’
Opal appeared to ponder, then shrugged. ‘‘Why not?’’
Ruby’s smile held extra love for her sister. ‘‘We have two weeks, and in the meantime, we’ll give all our guests the same care we always have. If anyone asks, just say we are sure no one will be put out in the street.’’
Except Opal and me. And we can be on
the train east that afternoon . . . if Rand changed his mind
.
‘‘Can I see the money?’’ Opal asked that night.
‘‘Of course, but you must not show anyone where I’ve hid it.’’
‘‘I won’t.’’
Ruby dug down to the bottom of her trunk and pulled out the bag of bills, setting the three packs on the bed between them.
‘‘That’s a lot of money. What will we buy?’’
‘‘We’ll save some, and perhaps we can buy more cows for Rand.’’
‘‘Yes, he’ll like that.’’
I sure hope so.
‘‘A new month.’’ Ruby turned over the page on the calendar on the kitchen wall. April 1, 1884. She got the haunch of smoked venison from the cellar and began slicing pieces off to mix with the eggs for breakfast. The hens were starting to lay again now that the warmer weather had come. And Mr. Johnson’s cow had a new calf.
If I were staying here, I’d buy a cow or two of my own
.
‘‘Good mornin’.’’ Cimarron came down the stairs, Jed right behind her. ‘‘What do you want me to do first?’’
‘‘Slice those cold potatoes. Then make the biscuits. Daisy can start the bread. Think we’ll fire up the wash outside again.’’
‘‘That’ll sure make a difference in here. If Belle were smart, she’ll build a washroom out back.’’
‘‘I have a feeling Belle isn’t going to keep things quite as clean as we have.’’
‘‘Or have as good of food.’’ Cimarron smirked.
‘‘If she serves food at all. I keep thinking that someone is going to have to feed all these men.’’
‘‘I have been too. Maybe Jed and me ought to buy two tents—set up one in town to cook in and the other out to our place.’’
Ruby noted the pride in her voice. Ever since the wedding, Cimarron seemed softer, so happy even her hair glowed.
With the early rush out the door by seven, they kept things hot for the latecomers. Charlie lit the fire, and Daisy threw the tablecloths and napkins into the wash water.
‘‘Storm coming up,’’ Daisy said when she came in for more.
‘‘Guess I’ll have to hang these on the porch.’’
‘‘I better go get ready for my children.’’ Pearl set her coffee cup in the dishpan. She pushed on through the swinging door to the dining room. ‘‘Looks like we’ll need lamps today, it’s so dark.’’
‘‘I’ll light them for you.’’ Opal returned to the kitchen for a spill. ‘‘Hope they all get here before the rain does.’’
They could hear thunder grumbling in the distance.
‘‘I’ll go help Daisy wring out those tablecloths.’’ Ruby dashed outside. The wind whipped around the corner of Dove House and wrapped her skirt right to her legs. ‘‘You want some help wringing those?’’ She had to shout to be heard.
‘‘Yes, just got a couple more.’’
‘‘Mornin’ Miss Torvald.’’ The Robertson girls bailed off the horses and let them loose in the pasture before running for the building.
The three Gradys trotted up, and while the two younger went to the porch, Atticus let the horse loose.
‘‘Mornin’, Miss Torvald, Daisy.’’
‘‘Now that is one changed young man from that first day he came here.’’
‘‘Sure is.’’ They twisted the last cloth and tossed it in the basket. ‘‘You think I should start another batch?’’
‘‘No. Looks like it’s going to rain so hard it’ll put the fire out. Come on in. We’ll start again later.’’ Ruby left Daisy to hang the clothes on the lines Charlie had stretched on the back and side porches.
‘‘April the first and our first rainstorm of the season. You think that’s a sign?’’ Ruby asked.
‘‘Of what?’’ Cimarron gave the cake batter another couple of licks.
‘‘Of a rainy season?’’
‘‘Doubt it. But right now that river is high enough. We don’t need more water.’’
The thunder crashed closer this time.
A tree limb thumped on the porch roof and blew on by.
Ruby took her dust rag into the dining room and started cleaning the counter and the storage shelves behind it, wiping the dust away and sorting through the things she wanted to keep. She had several boxes packed in the storeroom. There wouldn’t be much to take. About the only things here were the buks-bom— her father’s carved box—and the ledgers. She fingered the necklace Beans had made for her.
Lightning cracked so close she flinched, and the thunder crashed within seconds.
Frissons of fear ran up and down her back.
You know better
than to be afraid of thunder and lightning after all these years
.
‘‘That was a close one,’’ Daisy said.
Another crack shook the entire building, so close it sounded like an explosion. Ears ringing, Ruby ran into the kitchen. Was that smoke? Before she got three feet another crash resounded. The building shook as more crashing rocked the air.
‘‘Smoke! Cimarron, get the children out. Fire!’’
‘‘Oh, God, rain. Please send rain. Open your heavens and pour.’’
Smoke and flames tore at the roof. Ruby leaped onto the porch and ran back in to grab her ledgers and buksbom.
‘‘Get out of here!’’ Charlie yelled at her. ‘‘Anyone still in bed?’’
‘‘No.’’ Smoke poured down the staircase. She could hear the flames now, roaring like fury released. She and Charlie both ran back outside, coughing from the smoke.
‘‘Pearl has the children up the street. I’m going to help her with them. You can’t save anything in there.’’ Cimarron ran around the east side of the house. The huge cottonwood tree that used to shade Dove House now lay crashed over and against it. People came running with buckets, then stood shaking their heads.
Ruby, with buksbom and ledgers clutched to her chest, glanced down to see all three cats dash past her and head for the pasture.
‘‘Let’s get those horses out of the shed in case it goes too,’’ Charlie yelled to some bystanders. ‘‘Daisy, let the chickens out!’’
Ruby wandered on around the flaming building, now burning on the front too. The men from the Chateau ran across the railroad bridge, but like the others stood watching.
Carl ran up to Ruby. ‘‘Pearl, where’s Pearl?’’
‘‘Over there with the children.’’
Since the wind was blowing from the west, no one started watering down the other houses, not even Nelson’s store.
When the rain came, it sizzled and steamed in the heat, but the fire raged on. With a mighty roar and shudder, Dove House crashed into a pile of blazing rubble.
‘‘I’m sorry, Miss Torvald,’’ Joseph Wainwright, the superintendent on the Chateau, said when he came to stand beside her. ‘‘Lightning sure can be destructive when it hits just right.’’
‘‘I know.’’ Ruby wiped at the tears she realized were not raindrops pouring down her face. Her hair hung on her shoulders, and her teeth chattered, she was so cold.
‘‘We need to get the children out of the rain.’’
‘‘Mrs. McGeeney has taken them into her house.’’
‘‘The Chateau is dry if you want to come over there, all of you who work here . . . er . . . worked here.’’
‘‘Thank you.’’
Charlie and Daisy joined her, then Jed and Cimarron.
‘‘Well, Belle got herself a pile of rubble.’’ Charlie slicked his hair back and set his bowler in place.