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Angels descending bring from above
Bradley waited patiently for Mr. Harris after drinking his first cup of coffee. The waitress had asked him multiple times already about ordering breakfast. Each time, he calmly explained that he was waiting for a friend. After the fifth time, he wondered if she was purposely trying to get his attention.
Mr. Harris came in before she had a chance to come a sixth time.
“Thank you for coming,” Bradley said after shaking his hand.
“I was about to say the same thing. Why are you saying it?”
“The waitress is trying to get my attention. Now that you’re here, maybe she will stop coming over every five minutes.”
Mr. Harris chuckled. “You are a fine-looking young man.”
“I know,” Bradley sighed. “I can’t tell you how many times a young woman has tried to trap me or flirt with me or any number of things. There are times I wish I had some hideous scars on my face instead of just other places on my body.”
“You have scars?”
Bradley nodded.
“From what?”
“Bullets mostly.”
“Mostly? What else then?”
Bradley cleared his throat, and for the first time that morning was glad when the waitress came over to take their order.
After she left, Bradley quickly changed the subject. “Are you still convinced courtship and marriage is Adelaide’s only hope?”
“God is ultimately, but yes, I believe so. What about you?”
“I keep hoping it isn’t, but I can’t think of anything else.”
Mr. Harris folded his hands on the table in front of him. “Did you pray about it last night?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
The waitress brought Mr. Harris his coffee cup and a refill for Bradley.
When she was gone, he answered, “And I think I am supposed to at least start courting Adelaide. I can’t promise I will court her a full six months and then marry her. I barely know her.”
“Agreed. Good, then it’s settled. I’ll head over there via Chicago and explain to William what is happening and see if he can get you a job around Cheyenne for a few months at least, and then head to visit with Mr. Raskins.”
“What will you tell him?”
“That you were detained and I volunteered to update him on the case. I will then tell him what I said last night about Mr. Reese’s permission and Adelaide’s insistence that they were never engaged.”
“I don’t think he’ll care. He may still take things into his own hands.”
“I know. That’s why I want you around here. After I get to Mr. Raskins’s home, I don’t want Adelaide leaving the house alone. And you, the sheriff, Adelaide, and Mr. Reese should be on the lookout for anyone who appears to take too much interest in either you or Adelaide.”
“And you are sure you can handle this trip on your own?”
“Who would I take with me? The only young men I would trust are either courting or married. Is the sheriff there afraid of Mr. Raskins?”
“I don’t know. Adelaide would have a better idea than I would.”
“I’ll ask her.”
The food came and they both dug in and finished over half the meal before speaking again.
Bradley chewed his lip. “What if Adelaide doesn’t agree?”
“Then we go to our second plan.”
“What’s that?”
“You go to Mr. Raskins and tell him no for Adelaide and then watch him carefully to see what he does, and we protect Adelaide as best we can for as long as we can and pray she isn’t kidnapped.”
“Why can’t you do that as the first plan?”
“Because the safest plan for Adelaide is marriage. The second plan leaves too many contingencies and leaves her vulnerable indefinitely to being kidnapped.”
Bradley slumped. “I suppose.”
They finished their meals and then headed back to the Reese home.
***
Adelaide was pulling the last weeds out of the flower garden when she heard the laughter of two men walking down the wooden boardwalk. She glanced up and saw Mr. Harris and Mr. Connor. She stood up and waved, meeting them at the gate. “Hello. Did you have a nice breakfast?”
Bradley smiled. “We did.”
“Good. I’d shake your hand, but mine are full of dirt. Shall we go inside?”
Mr. Harris nodded. “Yes. And if it isn’t a bother, could we get some of your coffee? The café’s coffee just isn’t the same as yours.”
Adelaide smiled. “I’ll go get the coffee. Did you eat too much for breakfast or should I bring out some of the pastries to go with the coffee?”
Bradley rubbed his stomach. “I think I have some room for some of those small, ballish things.”
Adelaide laughed. “Those would be doughnuts.”
Bradley quirked his eyebrows. “Whatever they are, they are delectable.”
Adelaide hurried to the kitchen, washed her hands, and gathered the coffee items. Had Bradley been flirting with her or just showing his appreciation for the doughnuts? She shook her head. He wouldn’t be flirting with her already even if he had decided to court her. Would he? She hoped not.
Shoving the thoughts away, she grabbed the tray and headed for the parlor.
“...pancakes were drier than I’ve had in some time, but I drenched them in syrup,” Mr. Harris was saying when she entered. “Mrs. Corland and Adelaide have spoiled me. Not that my daughter didn’t, but it just isn’t quite the same.”
“How can coffee taste so different depending on who makes it?” Bradley asked.
Adelaide started to pour three cups of coffee. “It could be what is used to grind the beans, how long the coffee steeps, or how many beans are used for the batch of coffee.” Adelaide put two teaspoons of sugar in each cup, grabbed a doughnut, and gently dropped it into Bradley’s cup.
“Why did you do that?” Bradley asked.
Adelaide smiled as she brought him his cup. “It could also taste different because of what gets put into the coffee.”
Bradley took the cup, fished the doughnut out of his coffee, and ate it in one bite. “Mmm. That doughnut is even better when dipped in coffee.” He took a sip of his coffee. “It does taste better with the slight doughnut flavor.”
Adelaide turned to her two protectors. “Would you like to try it with the doughnuts?”
Mr. Reese shook his head. “Not this time, thank you.”
“Yes, I believe I would,” Mr. Harris answered.
After everyone had their coffee and pastries, Adelaide waited for someone to bring up the courtship topic. The men kept talking about coffee and the different people they knew who could somehow make really good coffee. Adelaide listened with amusement, but didn’t participate in the conversation.
Mr. Harris looked into his cup. “I think coffee is a lot like courtship.”
“What?” Bradley asked.
“Every person you meet is different. Just like every cup of coffee is different. You may like one person’s coffee better than another’s, but that’s fine because each person is different.”
Mr. Reese caressed his cup. “I don’t think that’s a perfect analogy, but it works. What has been decided? Anything?”
Bradley cleared his throat. “If Miss Brown is agreeable, I would like to court her.”
Adelaide took a deep breath. “As long as you are sure.”
“I am,” Bradley said. “God and I had a good talk last night and straightened out a few things in my life that I had been allowing to influence my decision to not marry. I’m more open to it now.”
Adelaide nodded. “So, how do we do this? And what about Mr. Raskins?”
Mr. Harris set his cup down on the tray. “I will go talk with Mr. Raskins and try to convince him you aren’t worth all this money and trouble. Meanwhile, you three will have to figure out what to do about the courtship side of things.”
Bradley scooted to the edge of his seat. “I need to find something to do here in Cheyenne, but other than that, I would assume I should only come once a week, correct?”
“Yes,” Adelaide said.
“The usual day is Wednesdays. Does that work for you?”
Adelaide bit her cheeks to keep from smiling. “I thought you weren’t interested in courtship at all. How did you know that?”
Bradley’s face reddened. “I have a sister who I saw being courted. So I do know some things, including some things that I won’t be doing that others do.”
“Such as?” Mr. Reese asked.
“Kissing and pressuring her to do something she doesn’t want to do.”
Mr. Harris nodded. “What if she wants to kiss you?”
“I’ll explain why I don’t want to and if she isn’t willing to wait, I’ll have to call it off.”
“Why?” Adelaide asked.
Bradley shifted in his chair. “Because I want to save my first kiss for my wedding. If she isn’t willing to respect that, she won’t be able to respect me in more important decisions.”
Mr. Reese leaned back. “I’m impressed.”
“Excuse me?” Bradley asked.
Mr. Reese chuckled. “For someone who didn’t want to marry, you have some pretty strong opinions.”
Bradley chewed his lip. “It isn’t that I didn’t want to marry, it’s more that I had planned out my future and marriage wasn’t in that plan for another ten years or more.”
“Why ten years or more?” Adelaide asked.
“I’ll still be young enough to marry and I’ll have had a chance to be a detective longer.”
Adelaide cocked her head. “You really like being a detective, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Why?”
Bradley leaned back. “How long do you want me to take to answer the question?”
Adelaide looked at Mr. Reese and Mr. Harris. “As far as I know, we don’t have any plans for today.”
Bradley took a deep breath. “I do have to go back a bit before I directly answer your question. But I think you should know what made me decide to become a detective.”
He closed his eyes and rested his head on the back of the chair. “My father wasn’t the most ethical of people. I didn’t find out about any of his crimes until he got shot during a shootout with the sheriff and his deputies when I was fourteen. He lived, but he never fully recovered. Because of his injuries, the judge decided he wouldn’t go to jail. All he’d really done—that time—was try to rob a store.
“After that, I worked hard in school and then did whatever I could to earn money. Both to regain the lost reputation of our family and also to earn money to get to Chicago. I had heard about the Pinkertons and wondered why the sheriff hadn’t investigated more of the crimes done in the area. I was fairly certain my father had done most of them, including killing a man. I did some amateur sleuthing and I am quite convinced that he did most of them.
“Once I had the money to get to Chicago, I went straight to the Pinkertons’ office and asked if I could become a detective. I told Robert and William what I had done to investigate the crimes in our town. They were impressed. When I told them I had a good idea who had done the crimes, they asked if I had talked to the man. Then I revealed that it was my father.
“They hired me and sent a detective down to investigate the cases for themselves. No one back home knows I was the one who got my father hung. But after finding out what he had done, I couldn’t let it slide. Justice had to be served, especially since the detective who talked to him said he had no regret for what he had done except being caught.
“The reason I became a Pinkerton detective was because I couldn’t let other hardened criminals wander free if at all possible. Father’s betrayal of right and wrong nearly destroyed our family. No one would speak with my mother or sister until I came into town for the hanging. When I found out what was happening to them, I let it slip that I had gotten a job with the Pinkertons. It took a little while, but the people finally forgave my family for being as clueless as they were about Father’s way of supporting his family. As it was, my sister didn’t have any suitors until she was almost an old maid. She only got married two years ago, five years after Father was hung.”
Adelaide had cupped her hands over her mouth partway through his story. “I’m so sorry.”
Bradley shrugged. “It’s all right. I’m used to it by now.”
“You shouldn’t have to be,” Adelaide said.
“I know, but after a while, the memories start to fade as new and better ones take their places. The proudest day of my life was when I walked my sister down the aisle to marry the mayor’s son.”
“The mayor’s son?” Adelaide questioned. “How did she go from being shunned to marrying the mayor’s son?”
Bradley chuckled. “I’m not sure, but it happened.”
Adelaide smiled. “That is something only God could have orchestrated.”
“Yes, it is.” Bradley sighed. “Well, if it’s all right, I should go send a telegram to Mr. Raskins to let him know the slight change in plans. Do you think it’d be all right if I just kind of omitted telling him that Adelaide won’t be going with you? That way he can assume you went because it would have been improper for the two of us to travel alone together.”
“That would be a lie of omission, wouldn’t it?” Mr. Reese asked.
Bradley grimaced. “Kind of. Well, I suppose it would. But telegrams are expensive and I don’t want to get into a lengthy explanation.”
“What if you said something like this?” Adelaide asked. She looked up at the ceiling. “‘Sending retired detective Harris to update you on case STOP Detective Connor.’”
Bradley watched Mr. Reese’s face while she spoke, but he gave nothing away. “I like it.”
“Me, too,” Mr. Harris agreed.
“As do I,” Mr. Reese said. “Do you want to write it down or can you remember it?”
“I can remember it. When will you be leaving, Mr. Harris?”
Mr. Harris sighed. “I’m not sure. I need to check the train schedules and let my daughter know I am leaving. In the next couple of days for sure.”
Adelaide stood up when Bradley rose. “Will you be coming tomorrow evening, Mr. Connor?”
“If that is all right.”
“It is,” Mr. Reese said.
When Bradley reached the front door, he turned. “Miss Brown, since we are courting, would it be all right to call each other by our first names?”
Adelaide chewed her lip. “That would be fine with me...Bradley.”
Bradley smiled. “Thank you, Adelaide. I will see you tomorrow evening.”
“Goodbye.”