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When I invited her in, she held a hand over her stomach and burst
into tears. “I don’t know what to do,” she said through her tears.
I pulled her to a chair and made her sit quietly by the fire, rubbing her shoulders. “Cry for a bit longer. It will pull the sadness out of you.”
She did as she was told, and when she came out of her sobbing, she
said, “I need your advice, Brigid.”
“I can give that, and freely too.”
She rubbed her face with a handkerchief and gave me a small smile.
“My husband has still not returned and it’s over a month now he has been gone. I can ignore his absence no longer. The first week I thought I would see him any day. The second week I enjoyed being on my own because of
the attention I was receiving, the third week I tried to put it out of my mind, but now I’m past the fourth week, and I’m afraid this child grows bigger in me with every day. What if my husband never comes home? I can’t have
this child all by myself. What am I to do?”
“Do you have money?”
“Yes, enough for another month or so. He left me with enough for a
few weeks, but I had held some by for myself that he did not know about.”
“What do you want to do?”
Without hesitation, she said, “I want to go home. This is not the life I want out here in the frontier and certainly not the life I want for my child.
I want to go back to Philadelphia.”
“What about your soldier friend?”
“He is a nice man, but he’s not my husband. I can’t be here by myself
anymore. If my husband loves me, he can come back to Philadelphia to be
with me.”
“Sounds to me like you are fair finished with this life.”
“Might I do that? Desert my husband?”
“Is it possible that he has deserted you? Or maybe is even dead?” I
only said to her what I knew she must be thinking.
“Yes, you are right. He might be dead, and if he is, I will be sorry and I will miss him, but no matter what, I want to go back to the States.”
“Then you shall,” I told her.
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“Really? You think I can manage the trip on my own?”
“I do.”
“Oh, but Brigid, you are nearly as brave as a man. You can shoot a gun
and ride a horse. I know nothing of such things.”
“There is a good man who drives the coach who helped me from
Cheyenne. I’ll give you his name and you find out when he’s driving. He
will watch over you and help you get to the train.”
She lifted her face up to me and smiled at the thought of the train. “I
know I could manage the train. I will only pack what I really need. I will leave you my books, Brigid. I know you will take care of them.”
For a moment, I thought again of my idea for a bookstore. Maybe
Elizabeth’s small cache of books might be the start of my own store. Then I thought of Charlie Hunt and all that he might be promising me. If his
promise led to marriage, I would have it all: wealth, honor, respect, and hopefully my own family safe around me. I would never want for anything
again.
But there were other towns farther west that Paddy had talked of—
Cheyenne, Portland, and the famed San Francisco, which was called the
Paris of the West. What might life be like out there— for a woman of some means and some ambition?
Elizabeth, sheltered woman that she might be, was making a good de-
cision for her life and the child she carried. I wondered what decision I might make.
When I stepped out the door, the cold of the air shocked me. Each breath felt like it was filled with shards of ice. I had to think that Paddy was right about the weather— there did feel to be a difference in the air, an ominous feeling that something would break over our heads soon.
The only place I knew to look for Nel ie was the Gem. The theater was
quiet so early in the morning, but there were still women promenading
themselves in scanty clothing past the few available men. I went up to one of them, a tall woman with a wart on her nose, bright red lips, and eyes nearly as red, and asked her if she could direct me to Nel ie.
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“She’s not working today,” she said and stared at me, taking in my new
scarf with jealous eyes.
“Does she have a room here?”
“Nah, them rooms above they’re only working rooms, you know what
I mean?” She gave a sharp little laugh and cocked her hip. She was so accustomed to flirting that she even did it with me. Or perhaps she was simply trying to make me uncomfortable.
“Do you know where I might find her?”
“Did ya try Billy’s place? She’s often over there when she’s not work-
ing. He’s her fancy man.”
“I am aware of that, but she’s not there this morning.”
“Wel , then she camps down to the Grand Central on her days off
sometimes. You might try that.”
I left the Gem and walked two streets down to the hotel. When I asked
for her at the desk, I realized I did not know her last name. I tried anyway,
“Please, sir. I’m looking for Nel ie.”
The older gentleman behind the desk looked over his eyeglasses at
me, cleared his throat, and then said, “She’s up in the top floor toward the back. Room number 333.”
I nodded and followed his hand wave to the stairs, climbing till I got to Nel ie’s floor. When I stood in front of her door, I hesitated. I was sure she would be found sleeping. After all, it was her day off and she usually stayed up all hours of the night. She might not be in the best of moods when I
talked to her, but I must do it. Stepping forward, I faced the wooden door.
I knocked. At first there was no sound. I knocked again. A rustle of
bedclothes. I knocked with more force. A hard object, I guessed a shoe, hit the inside of the door. Then I said her name, “Nel ie, it’s Brigid.”
A bed creaked. What if she were not alone? But it was too late for me
to leave. I heard footsteps on the floor. Then the door opened and Nel ie stood before me in a silk kimono- style wrapper. Her hair was down and
her face had the remnants of makeup smeared on it. She stepped out into
the hallway with me, pulling the door shut behind her, and this confirmed my notion that someone was in her bed.
She shook her head as if to clear it and asked, “Brigid, what brings you out so early in the morning?”
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“Nel ie, I am sorry to wake you. And when you hear what I have to
ask, you might think me a fool.”
“Out with it. I’ve got a better place to be than standing here in the
blasted cold hallway.” She lifted one foot up and then the other as I spoke to her, the floor must have been that cold.
“Charlie told me that he paid Lily, but that he didn’t sleep with her.” I spoke as fast as I could, hoping to get the words out before I froze up. “Is that true? Would you know if that’s true?”
Nel ie’s eyes opened wider and a smile played on her face. “He told
you that, did he?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to know what kind of man he was.”
“Why?”
“Because he has declared his intentions toward me.”
“Good for you, lovey. He’s not a bad man. Truth be told, Lily did men-
tion something of the likes of that to me. Said he was an odd bird. Don’t get me wrong, though, she liked him fine. Paid her money and asked her
questions and left her same as
he found her.”
“Asked her questions about the claim?”
“I guess that was it. You know, what Seamus might have planned or
some such matter.” She shook her head and then talked close to my face.
“You listen to me, Brigid, you marry that man before you do anything with him. This is your chance, girl. Don’t waste it.”
She looked toward the closed door, then whispered, “How’s my Billy
boy?”
“Fine. He’s gone off to work at the claim today.”
“Good for him. A little work won’t hurt him none.”
Knowing how close Nel ie and Billy were, I asked her, “Did you ever
tell Billy about Lily and Charlie? I mean, the fact that she talked to him about the claim?”
She thought for a moment and then nodded her head. “I did, in fact. I
think I mentioned Charlie’s questions to Billy.”
“When was this?”
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“Christmas Eve. That’s why I didn’t stay the night. Got him all upset.
He didn’t like the idea one bit of Charlie asking around about them. Sent him off the deep end, it did indeed. I left shortly thereafter.”
“How mad was he?” I asked.
“You know Billy, he has a dark cloud inside him.”
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The air had turned sharper and bits of ice were flying in the strong
wind that rushed through the streets of Deadwood. The bitterness
of it swept against me, biting at my face. The sky was coming on darker, and yet it was only near to midday. Even to me, unused to this weather, it felt like a fearsome storm might be coming our way.
I thought to go home, but I wanted to tell Charlie what I had just
heard. Truth be told, I wanted to see him again and reassure myself that he had not turned against me after last night. I wrapped my scarf over my head and walked down to his hotel.
At the desk I asked the tall gentleman if Mr. Hunt was in his room. He
looked up from his ledger and scanned me from head to toe, then scooped
back his dark hair and pushed it behind his ears. I was coming to know the demeanor of hotel clerks.
“I beg your pardon,” he said in a snooty voice that meant in fact he
did not.
I repeated my question. He glanced back at the row of keys that hung
from hooks under boxes behind him. “I don’t believe so.”
“Are you sure?”
“As sure as I may be.”
“May I go up and look?”
“Be my guest.”
I walked up the stairs and then down the corridor to Charlie’s room.
I knocked on the door and waited to hear footsteps, then knocked again.
Nothing. I leaned back against the door. I was buzzing with this new information and wanted to do something, to tell someone.
A door opened down the hallway and Professor Underwood came
out without seeing me. He turned his back to me and locked his door,
singing a small tuneless song under his breath.
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I called to him, “Professor. You have arrived.”
He spun around and then smiled when he saw me— or showed what
passed for a smile on his thin face.
“Oh, Miss Reardon, I must show you,” he exclaimed, rubbing his
hands together. “I must show you what I have brought back with me from
St. Paul. Come and see, come and see.” He turned back to his door and
quickly opened it again. Then he motioned me into his room.
I walked in and saw that he was in a smaller suite than Charlie, a single bed with a window that overlooked the back alleyway. On his bureau was an object wrapped in brown paper, and he lifted that up carefully. He removed the paper gently and handed the object to me. There was a kind of reverence in the way he handled the thing that made me wonder what it was.
A small bar of gold lay in my hand, so shiny as to appear painted, and
much heavier than I would have thought it, to look at it.
“What is this lovely thing worth?” I asked the professor.
“You are holding a bar that weighs nearly a pound. It is worth three
hundred and twenty dol ars.”
He took it back from me and returned it to its wrappings. “This means
that the claim is very much worth Mr. Hunt’s time and energy. We had
hoped and assumed that the claim would prove valuable, but the ore is
much richer than expected.”
“Wonderful news indeed!” I told him because I knew he wanted to
hear my excitement. Then I asked him, “Do you know where Mr. Hunt is?”
“I thought he was on his way over to your house. He wanted to talk to
Billy. Did you not see him?”
This surprised me. I would have thought that he would talk to Padraic
or myself. “Why Billy?”
“I’m really not sure, and he wouldn’t tell me what business it was. I assured him that everything had been on the up and up with the ore sample.
He simply nodded his head. He can be close- mouthed when he chooses.
Yes, Mr. Hunt is quite pleased with the prospect of the claim, I can tell you.”
I needed to get to the two of them. I had my own questions to ask
Billy, and I certainly wanted someone there with me when I did.
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I had hoped Charlie would be waiting for me at the house, but no one was there when I arrived. The door had been left standing open, and the sight of a small drift of snow in the house scared me.
Where had Paddy gone? And Charlie? Had they ridden out to the
claim? I could at least check at the livery stable. They might be able to tell me if Charlie had taken out his horse.
If need be, I decided I would ride out to the claim myself.
I pulled on a pair of dungarees under my dress and a woolen sweater
of Paddy’s. The buffalo hat was nowhere to be found so I wrapped my scarf around my head. I put on my heavy boots, then pulled Billy’s vest over
everything.
I left the house, closing the door tightly behind me and stood on the
front step for a moment. Then I went back in. After retrieving the derringer, I checked that it carried bullets in its belly and tucked it into the pocket of my jacket.
As I walked toward the livery stable, the snow sifted down on me. So
light and gentle, yet I noticed it was piling up on the sides of the road. I avoided the fresh manure steaming on top of the snow as I turned into the door of the stables.
A heavily whiskered man was feeding hay to the horses.
I asked him if Charlie Hunt had taken out his horse.
“Yup. Not so awful long ago. ’Bout half an hour or so. I told him not
good weather to be travelin’ in.”
“I’d like to take out Gertie.”
“I’d not advise it. This snow’s goin’ pile up something fierce.”
“I won’t be gone long,” I assured him. “And our claim is not so very far.”
“See that you’re not. There’s no guarantee this sky won’t fall right
down on top of you.”
He brought out Gertie, and she shook herself all over when the saddle
was placed on her back.
“If anything happens to this horse, it’s your money that pays for it,” he said as he gave me a hand up on the horse.
“Yes, sir.”
As I rode out of town, I stuck my hand into the pocket of Billy’s vest
and felt a wad of cloth. I pulled it out carefully, expecting to see a nugget of
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gold. It would be just like Billy to have tucked some gold into his pocket. I did see a
flash of gold, but not in the form I had expected.
Instead, a ring.
A gold ring.
I looked on the inside of the ring and saw two initials engraved there:
Seamus and Lily’s.
My heart froze in my chest. How had the ring come to be in Billy’s vest?
As I realized what must have happened, I drove the horse onward into the woods.
The forest was dark and deep. The branches of the trees bowed under the
weight of the snow blankets they carried. The silence followed us down
the trail. The slight depression of recent hoof prints could be seen, the snow fil ing them up quickly.
On the trail alone, my thoughts worried over what I had learned. Billy
knew about Lily’s relationship with Charlie; he had been drinking and angry; and most incriminating of all, he had the ring in his pocket.
As my thoughts raced, I prodded the horse along, and sweet creature
that she was, she caught my mood and picked up her speed.
I was sore anxious about what I might find at the claim. I resolved to
say nothing to Billy, but simply get Charlie away and then tell him all that I had learned. Charlie would surely know what to do.
I ran into no other rider on the trail, on account of the weather I was
sure. Finally I rode past the turnoff to the Walker claim and knew I was within earshot of ours. Slowing my horse down, I came to the turnoff from the trail down into the valley.
Pulling up my horse, I listened. All I heard was a thudding noise. Billy working at the claim, I thought.
When I clucked my tongue, the horse stepped out. The poor thing
was probably as cold as I was.
Slowly, through the snow, we moved forward.
I stopped when I heard two voices rising up through the snow and
trees, shouting.
30
“I mean to have her,” a man roared from deep in the valley. I was
sure the voice was that of Charlie.
I shivered from cold and from fear. My father had taught me if you
were afraid in your heart, pray to God to be with you.
Quietly, I let the horse move forward at its own slow pace. The snow
muffled the sound of its hooves hitting the dirt path. The wind whistled through the trees. Above it all, I could hear the voices of two men.