For a crazy second or two, Jamie was sure he heard Piper calling his name. But then Victoria Smothers was running between people and yelling at him to wait. It must have been wishful thinking to imagine Piper’s voice instead of Victoria’s. Piper wouldn’t have any reason to be at the train station. Unless she was going to the big city to shop for a wedding dress. He felt a little better when he remembered the train schedule he’d just read. That train pulling out of the station was headed southeast. Destination towns in the Appalachian Mountains.
Not that he wasn’t happy to see Victoria. She was one of his sister’s best friends, or had been before they moved to his uncle’s house. A cute girl that Marianne claimed had a crush on him. He certainly didn’t want to encourage that, but he could hardly ignore her either.
She grabbed his hands the way a schoolgirl might. She probably was still a schoolgirl, although he seemed to remember she was a year older than Marianne, who was seventeen.
“Jamie.” After her dash across the platform, Victoria had to get her breath before she could go on. “I was afraid I wasn’t going to catch you.”
“Hello, Victoria. Marianne will be excited when I tell her I ran into you. Catching a train somewhere?”
“No. Seeing my father off to Boston. Mother is talking to someone over there. So we have time to chat.” She gave his hands a squeeze. “What brings you to Louisville?”
“I came to see Simon.” He eased his hands away from hers.
“Oh, your brother.” She gave him a coy look. “I thought maybe you came to see that girl Marianne says you’re carrying a torch for.” A little frown wrinkled the skin between her eyes. “The one with the funny name.”
Jamie kept his smile bland. He and Marianne were going to have a talk when he got back to Danville.
“Piper. That’s it.” Victoria’s frown disappeared. “Piper Danson. She had her debut last weekend. I wasn’t invited. I suppose my family isn’t high enough on the social ladder.” She raised her eyebrows a bit. “I heard her escort was the one and only Braxton Crandall. Girls have been trying to catch him for years, but he’s a slippery fellow.”
He didn’t want to talk about Braxton Crandall. He looked over Victoria’s head, hoping to spot her mother looking for her, but she was nowhere in sight. “Would you like me to walk you back to your mother?”
She laughed. “That’s so sweet of you, but terribly old fashioned. A girl doesn’t have to be escorted everywhere anymore.” Then as if realizing she’d given him a chance to leave, she slipped her hand around his elbow. “But I like old-fashioned guys. Besides, Mother would never forgive me if I didn’t give her a chance to say hello and ask about your mother and Marianne. I do miss Marianne.”
“Why don’t you write her? She’d like that.” Where was the girl’s mother? They had walked halfway across the platform.
“I’m terrible at writing letters.” She hugged his arm close to her. “Maybe Mother will let me visit instead. I could take the train down. That would be so exciting. I’ve never ridden on a train, but we do plan to go to Boston to shop for my debutante dress next year.” She looked up at Jamie. “You will come to my debut, won’t you? Please.”
“If I can.” Who knew what another year would bring? He hoped it wouldn’t be as bad as last year. In fact, things could start getting better today. When he saw Piper. But he’d promised his mother he would do it the proper way and ask her father permission to call on her. They were no longer kids. Now was the time to be serious.
At least he could tell Piper’s father he had a job. Not anything that would impress Erwin Danson. A teaching position at the local high school. Jamie wasn’t that excited about it either. He’d never thought about teaching, but a man had to take what he could find. Perhaps he could pass on his passion for words and books to his students. And teaching didn’t mean he couldn’t still pen some stories. Writing was what he really wanted to do.
The Danville newspaper published one of his articles last week. Better than that, he’d sold a story to a Chicago magazine for enough to buy a new camera. He couldn’t wait to tell Piper.
Seeing his byline excited Jamie, but it wouldn’t impress Piper’s father or Simon either. That didn’t matter. Jamie couldn’t walk their paths. He had to find his own. While not having money could be inconvenient, at the same time not chasing after ways to line his pockets gave him a certain freedom.
They finally spotted Victoria’s mother. After a few pleasantries about his mother and Marianne, he escaped to find a bus downtown to Mr. Danson’s office. He wished he hadn’t made that promise to his mother so he could go straight to Piper’s house.
Just thinking about seeing Piper made his heart skip a beat. He loved Piper. He’d loved her since they were kids, but this last year of not seeing her made him realize just how much he needed her in his life.
She was going to ask why he had stopped writing to her while she was away at school. She would want to know why he hadn’t come to her debutante ball. He didn’t have good answers, but he hoped she’d forgive him anyway.
Of course, he could be too late. Piper might have decided on Braxton Crandall. With his family’s railroad money behind him, she would lack for nothing. Jamie mentally shook away the thought. While he didn’t have much to offer in the way of things, he had everything to offer in the way of love.
But would that be enough? He kept seeing Piper on the hotel balcony with Braxton Crandall’s arm around her. Jamie should have gone inside that night. Asked for a dance. Instead he’d slunk away into the night without even letting Piper know he loved her. Still, was it right to ask her to give up the kind of life she was accustomed to for him?
So the arguments had spun around in his head ever since last weekend. Actually for weeks before that. He was the one who had abandoned their friendship. Not her. But he had his reasons. Or maybe insecurities was a better word.
At the offices of Danson and Harbridge, Mr. Danson’s secretary asked if he had an appointment.
“I’m a friend of the family,” Jamie said.
When she gave him a doubting look, he turned on his best smile. Piper used to say he could charm a bird out of a tree with his smile. It worked on the secretary too.
“Jamie Russell, right?” She picked up the phone. “Let me see if Mr. Danson can squeeze out a few minutes for you.”
Mr. Danson came out of his office right away, smiling, with his hand outstretched to shake Jamie’s. “Jamie, my boy, good to see you. Come on in.” He put his arm around Jamie’s shoulders to usher him into his office.
Jamie didn’t remember the man ever being that friendly. But then, since his father died, several of his old business acquaintances made an extra show of chumminess when they saw Jamie. As if they needed to exaggerate the goodwill to avoid mention of the bad times.
“What brings you to Louisville?” Mr. Danson motioned him toward a chair while he sat down behind the polished oak desk. A ledger was open in front of him. Mr. Danson pulled an envelope out of a drawer to stick in the book before he closed it. Then he leaned forward on his elbows and didn’t wait for Jamie’s answer. “If you’re looking for a position, I’m afraid we don’t have any openings right now.”
“I’m not here for a job, sir. I’ve found a teaching position in Danville.”
“Teaching. Ahh.” Mr. Danson sat back. “A noble profession, but I hear there’s not much money in it.”
“Teachers get by.” This was starting out on a wrong note.
“Yes, yes. Of course they do. Get by.”
An uncomfortable silence fell between them as Mr. Danson waited for him to say why he was there. The words Jamie had practiced on the way to Louisville flew clear out of his head now.
He pulled in a breath. “I’m here about Piper.”
“Oh?” Mr. Danson picked up a pencil and rolled it between his fingers. “What about Piper?” His smile was gone.
No need putting it off. Just be out with it. Keep his word to his mother and then deal with whatever happened next. “I came to ask your permission to call upon her.”
Mr. Danson’s face didn’t change as he drummed the pencil on his desk a moment before speaking. “You do know Piper had her debut last week.”
“I was sorry to miss it.” Jamie looked straight at Mr. Danson, the fact that he wasn’t invited hanging in the air between them.
“Yes, well.” The man hesitated and stared at the pencil in his hands. He blew out a breath and looked back up at Jamie. “The two of us have no reason to play games, Jamie. I realize you and Piper have been friends for years. But things change. Opportunities change. It’s not that I don’t like you. I think you are a wonderful young man in control of your destiny. But I have to look out for my daughter. I’m not sure what kind of future she might have with you.”
“A very loving one, sir.”
“Hmm.” Mr. Danson dropped the pencil and laid his hands flat on his desk to lean forward and pin Jamie with his stare. “I can see you are very sincere, Jamie, and I do understand your feelings. Honestly, I do. But love is not the only consideration when I think of what’s best for my daughter. I want her to have love. Of course. But I would not want her to ever have to worry about where her next meal is coming from or if she could afford a new dress or be able to obtain proper care for the grandchildren I hope she will give her mother and me.”
Jamie started to speak, but Mr. Danson held up his hand to stop him. “Wait. I’m not through. How old are you? Twenty?”
“I’m twenty-two, sir. I just graduated from Centre College. With honors.” He didn’t know why he bothered to mention that last. The man in front of him wasn’t going to be impressed by anything except money in the bank.
“That’s good to know.” Mr. Danson smiled. “And because I know you care about my daughter, I’m sure you won’t want to stand in the way of her happiness. She has the opportunity to make an advantageous match with a man who can give Piper the life she deserves. A life you haven’t the resources to provide her.” He almost looked sorry. “You know that and I know that.”
“Don’t you think Piper should be the one to make that decision? Not you.”
“Young people can be foolish. They think they can overcome even the harshest difficulties, but it’s up to those of us with more experience to guide them away from the pitfalls of life. Were he here, your father would tell you the same thing.”
“My father fell into some of those pitfalls. Of his own making.” Jamie couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice. But he wasn’t angry at his father. The poor man had simply been trying to keep up with men like this one in front of him. He had never felt good enough or rich enough.
Mr. Danson looked embarrassed by Jamie’s words as he stared down at his desk. “Black Tuesday destroyed many good men.”
“It did my father and our family’s fortunes, but it didn’t destroy me.” Jamie stood up. “Thank you very much for your time, sir.” He managed a smile before he turned toward the door.
Mr. Danson’s words stopped him. “I won’t forbid you to see Piper, but I hope you will weigh what is truly best for her. If you do love her as you say, you will want her to have a good life.”
“A good life.” Jamie echoed the man’s words as he looked back at him. “But what is life without love?”
“Braxton Crandall is prepared to love Piper.”
“Prepared to? How do you prepare to love someone?”
“You give love a chance.”
“Is Piper prepared to love him?” The words almost choked him, but they had to be spoken.
“She is.”
His answer was a knife in Jamie’s heart. Perhaps he had waited too long to gather his courage to state his case to Piper. She used to love him. He was sure of that. When they were kids, but they weren’t kids now.
“Good day, sir.” They had nothing more to say, but he wouldn’t give up. Not yet. Not until Piper told him there was no hope. Her father might not realize it, but they had entered a different era, one where girls didn’t always have to do what their fathers said. At least he could hope Piper had entered that era.
He caught the bus to Piper’s house. The day was nice, so he started to go to the stables where she liked to ride. Where he had once ridden with her. He remembered the last time. They’d stopped at a creek and sat in the shade while their horses munched on the grass. When a breeze blew a strand of hair into Piper’s face, he’d reached over to loop it behind her ear. He loved her so much, but just as he worked up the nerve to tell her that, she’d yanked off her riding boots and waded out in the creek. He waded in after her. They’d both ended up soaking wet and laughing, but the moment had vanished for declaring his love.
Then she’d gone away to school. His family situation became direr. The factory had failed. They had no money for the bills that came to the house in piles. The bank foreclosed on the house. His father died. Not by suicide as rumor had it, but shame had played a part.
Shame played a part in Jamie not answering Piper’s letters. In not going to see her. The very things her father had just said to him had been in his mind for months. She did deserve better. More than he could give. Even now.
His mother was the one who had convinced him to lay his heart on the line. She was tired of the way he kept moping around after he came back from Piper’s debut. He had admitted not going inside that night, but he hadn’t told her about seeing Piper with Braxton Crandall. On the balcony. When he should have been the one on the balcony with her.
“Go see her.” His mother had used her sternest voice, the one that meant he was in trouble.
“She might not want to see me. She hasn’t written in months.”
“How long since you wrote to her?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “More than months, I’ll wager. You’re the one at fault there. Not Piper. If I know Piper, she still claims you as a friend.”
“I want to be more than friends.”
His mother’s voice softened then as she put her hand on his cheek. “I know that, son. But does she know it?”
Jamie always assumed Piper did, but the words had never been out there between them. Those words were going to be spoken today.
He knocked on Piper’s front door, then knocked again. Just as he was about to knock yet again, Della came to the door with a dish towel draped over her shoulder.
Her face lit up. “Mr. Jamie, if it’s not the nicest thing to see you standing there. How have you been? I’ve missed you being in and out around here.”
“I’ve missed you too and those delicious cinnamon cookies you make.” That made the housekeeper smile. “Is Miss Piper here?”
Della frowned a little. “I’m sorry as I can be, but you just missed her.”
“Do you know when she’ll be back?”
Della shook her head. “She’s gone for the summer. Won’t be back till August. Maybe September.”
“September?” Surely he heard wrong. That was months from now.
“That’s what she told me. She’s up and gone to the mountains to help some nurses down there. Charity work, Mrs. Danson says. I wish the missus was here to tell you exactly what, but she was so upset by Miss Piper leaving this morning that she had to get out of the house. Meeting a friend for lunch would be my guess. That’s fine with me. I’ve got plenty to do keeping all the petals and leaves cleaned up from all these flowers.” She waved at a vase of red roses in the hallway behind her. “Miss Piper got that one the other day from that Crandall man, but I guess he couldn’t talk her out of going to the mountains either.”
Jamie stared at the roses and didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t considered Piper not being home. Gone out of town. He’d been ready to fight Crandall for her attentions, but the mountains?
“You want to come in and wait for Mrs. Danson? She can tell you where Miss Piper went. They said some town, but I didn’t keep it in my head. And then Miss Piper kept talking about frontier nurses. But we don’t have frontiers in Kentucky these days, do we?” Della frowned again.
“Maybe frontiers in the world of medicine. I don’t know.”
“That could be.” Della’s smile came back. “I do know there are mountains to the east. Never been there, but I wouldn’t mind seeing them. I told Miss Piper to be sure to send us some pictures.”
“Did she leave an address?”
“No, sir. She aims to send that once she gets there. Wish I knew more to tell you.” A sympathetic look settled on her face. “Why don’t you come on inside and wait for Miss Wanda? I don’t have any of those cinnamon cookies, but I’ve got a chocolate cake back there in the kitchen.”
“That sounds good, Della, but I better head on over to my brother’s house.” He turned to leave.
“I’m sorry you didn’t get here yesterday,” she called after him. “Miss Piper would have been happy to see you. I’m sure of that.”
Jamie forced himself to smile and wave. His feet felt like they each weighed a hundred pounds as he walked away. But once he was back out on the sidewalk, his step lightened a little. At least, Piper wasn’t out of town shopping for a wedding dress.