14

Once inside, Cassie noted with a shudder that the restaurant looked nothing like Mr. West’s tidy establishment. One long table ran down the center of the room. Flies zoomed between the open kitchen and the tabletop. Stale, greasy odors clogged the air.

A man wearing an apron crossed the room toward them. Rolls of fat jiggled around his waist. “Afternoon, Reverend. You’re early for supper. Won’t be ready for another hour.” He eyed Cassie and her mother. “This your wife and daughter?”

Reverend Greeley’s face reddened. “No, Gus. They won’t arrive for another month. Mrs. Bingham here”—he inclined his head in her direction—“is seeking her brother.”

Mother stepped forward. “His name’s Randall Carter. He’s one of the railroad workers here.”

Cassie twisted her hands together and held her breath, waiting for Gus’s answer. What if Mother had been misled again?

“Rand? Sure, I know him. Drives a grading team.”

She shot Cassie a triumphant glance. “Could you tell me where he lives, please?”

“One of them railroad houses across from the tracks. Second one from the west end.” He rubbed his palms over his prominent belly. “Not there today, though. Went out with a crew this morning. Won’t be back ’til tomorrow sometime.”

“You’re sure?”

“’Course I’m sure. Cooked their rations, didn’t I?”

“We’ll take our trunk to his dwelling and wait for him there.”

A knot of alarm filled Cassie’s throat. They couldn’t plant themselves in her uncle’s home without his approval. She shook her head, but Mother didn’t notice.

Gus held up his hand. “Probably not the best idea, but you do what you want. None of my business.” His heavy footsteps thudded back to the kitchen.

Reverend Greely left his post at the window and approached them. “The Travelers’ Rest Hotel is a short distance away. If you’ll forgive my intrusion, I suggest you spend the night there. It’s clean and secure. I’m going there myself. We can send someone back for your trunk.”

Cassie studied him. He seemed trustworthy, but in Noble Springs the preacher lived in a parsonage, not a hotel. Reverend Greely’s statement didn’t make sense.

“Why are you staying at the Travelers’ Rest if you’re the preacher here?”

He held the door open for them. “I’ll explain on the way.”

She eyed him sideways as she stepped out into the blowing dust. To the east, beyond the workers’ housing, she spotted a two-story building with a TRAVELERS’ REST HOTEL sign beneath the roofline. If he guided them in any other direction, she’d grab Mother and run back to the restaurant. With a firm grip on her mother’s arm, she followed the reverend.

By the time they reached the hotel, he’d given them a brief account of his stay in Calusa. Once his wife arrived, they’d buy land and build a house. In the meantime, he traveled back and forth between Calusa and their home in Coopers Glen, spending a week in each place.

He paused before opening the door to the hotel, and pointed to a whitewashed building on the next street.

“That’s the Calusa school. On Sundays it’s the church.”

Relieved, Cassie nodded. Evidently he was as honest as he appeared.

When they entered the lobby, she made a quick assessment of the furnishings. Keys hung on a rack behind a simple desk at the back of the room. A parlor stove stood in one corner, with unoccupied rocking chairs and a worn-looking sofa filling the rest of the small space.

She gulped and stepped up to the clerk. “How much for one night?”

The following afternoon, Cassie perched on the edge of the bed while Mother stood at the lace-curtained window in their room and looked out at the street.

“Rand’s got to be here soon. The man in the restaurant said he was expected today.” She pivoted from the window and paced across the bare wooden floor. “If he doesn’t come, we’ll just have our things moved to his house. That way you won’t have to pay for one more night in this miserable hotel.”

“We can’t do that. We’d be trespassers.” Cassie rubbed her fingers over the coarse weave of the bedcovering.

She didn’t want to spend another night in Calusa, no matter where they slept. Mr. West’s deep voice rumbled in her memory. Have a safe journey, Miss Haddon. His tone held a ring of finality. He didn’t believe she’d come back.

In an hour or so, the train would arrive from the east and make its turnaround to Noble Springs. She fidgeted and checked through her packed carpetbag for the dozenth time, wondering what she’d do if her uncle didn’t arrive. Whether she wanted to or not, she knew she’d stay.

Mother settled on the edge of the bed. “I do wish you’d change your mind and live here with me. I don’t like the idea of you being unchaperoned around that Mr. West.”

“We’re never alone. Mrs. Fielder and Timothy Dawson, the boy who helps in the grocery, are always—”

At the sound of a knock on the door, they both jumped to their feet.

Before Cassie could stop her, Mother grabbed the knob and flung open the door without asking who waited in the hall.

“Rand! I knew you’d come!” She threw her arms around a red-bearded man in workman’s clothing.

He took a step backward and disengaged her grip. “Settle down, Lizzie, and tell me what you’re doing here. First thing when I got to town, Gus at the restaurant said my sister’s looking for me.” Yellow-stained teeth showed when he gave her a crooked grin. “You come all this way to forgive me for fighting in the Federal Army?”

Mother’s face turned scarlet. “No need to bring up the past. Everything’s different now. Our property’s gone. Philip’s dead.” She held her hand out to Cassie. “You remember my daughter, Cassiopeia.”

“Been a long time.” He gave Cassie a brief nod, then raised an eyebrow at her mother. “What do you want from me?”

Cassie gaped at him. To hear Mother tell the story, she and Uncle Rand had a warm relationship, but this reception was decidedly frosty. She stepped closer, noticing the odor of sweat that clung to his clothing. “You’ll be more comfortable if you come in and sit . . . Uncle Rand. There’s a chair beneath the window.”

“I’m fine right here, thanks.” He shifted his feet. “I don’t have all afternoon, Lizzie. My job keeps me going—the railroad’s always sending me one place or the next. I’m home for a couple days, then off again. So, why are you here?”

Mother jutted her chin in the air. “I’ve come to live under your protection. We’re family. Father taught us to look after each other, remember? You may be an important man with the railroad, but I’m still your sister.”

Cassie cringed. This meeting wasn’t unfolding the way she’d imagined. Her mother acted defiant, but her voice trembled. At her statement, Uncle Rand had taken a step backward, as if preparing to flee.

A train whistle shrieked in the distance.

As the sound died away, an anxious silence enveloped the room. Cassie held her breath, waiting for her uncle’s response.

He fixed his gaze on her mother. “Don’t know how much protection you’ll get from me. Just told you I’m gone half the time. But our pa would be sore disappointed in me if I turned you away.”

Mother reached for his hand. “I’d be grateful,” she whispered.

He glanced at Cassie. “You needing protection too, missy?”

“No, sir. My home is in Noble Springs. I can take care of myself.” She said the words with pride. For the first time in her life, they were true.

The train whistle sounded again.

Cassie slipped an arm around her mother and kissed her tearstained cheek. “Are you sure you’ll be all right? I’ll stay if you need me.” Sudden pain drove deep in her heart at the reality of parting. Despite all her brave words, she felt tethered to her mother’s side.

“She’ll be fine.” Uncle Rand spoke in a gruff voice. “Don’t you worry about your ma.”

“Being with my brother again is answered prayer. If only you were staying . . .” Mother’s lower lip trembled. “This is the first time we’ve ever been apart. I don’t know how to say good-bye to you.”

“I don’t know how, either.”

The floorboards vibrated as the train rumbled to a stop across the wide street. Cassie glanced out the window, then burrowed into her mother’s embrace. “This isn’t good-bye. We’re only going to be separated by a few miles of track. I’ll write to you every week.”

“I promise to answer every one.” Mother’s lips curved in a wobbly smile. “After all, I’ve had lots of practice writing letters.” She kissed Cassie. “Now you’d better go before the train leaves. I . . . I’ll stay here.”

Her chest aching with unshed tears, Cassie grabbed her carpetbag and dashed from the room. When she reached the platform, she waved her ticket at the conductor to prevent him from closing the entrance to the passenger car.

With one foot on the step, she heard boots pounding on the platform and a male voice calling, “Miss Haddon! Cassie! Wait!”

She whirled and stared into the face of Garrett Fitzhugh.

Her dead fiancé.