The rumble of the train wheels awoke a new feeling inside Piper. She had escaped the debutante expectations. Instead, she was doing something worthwhile with her life, at least for this one summer. A swell of excitement rose within her as if she’d never been on a train although she had many times. But those trains to Boston where she went to school were different. Sleeker. Smoother. The wheels on this old train as it headed southeast played a song in her ears. New. Freedom. Adventure.
Outside the window the landscape changed. She’d never traveled out into the state. Louisville had everything she needed. At least until Jamie moved to Danville.
She wondered if the train would pass through Danville. She should have traced the route on a map. Not that it mattered. She was going to Hazard, not Danville. Besides, by some quirk of fortune, Jamie was in Louisville. She’d just seen him there. Meeting that pretty blonde.
She pushed that thought away and stared out at wide-open fields with herds of cows. Then on down the track, trees pushed in on the train from both sides. Now and again the train stopped in small towns to let passengers disembark and others climb on.
At one of the stops, an older woman came aboard and settled in the seat beside Piper. She gave Piper’s riding pants a curious look as she adjusted her skirt and stowed her bundle under the seat. Piper smiled and turned back to the window, but the woman didn’t take the hint. She was ready to talk and Piper was a captive audience.
“I always get nervous catching these trains. Afraid the thing will go off without me.” She wiped her face with a large white handkerchief. Her printed cotton dress made Piper wonder if it was made of flour sacks. She’d heard farm wives used the material to make ends meet. “Where you headed, honey?”
“Hazard and then from there to Hyden.”
“Oh really? Have they got tracks to Hyden now?”
“I don’t think so. Someone is meeting me in Hazard. Maybe with a car. Maybe with a horse.”
“Well, what about that? Guess that explains the britches,” the woman said. “You must be headed down there to work with those frontier nurses.”
“Are you from there?”
“My ma grew up in the mountains, but she married a flatlander and moved to a farm outside of Elizabethtown. That’s where I still live to this day. My husband took over the farm after Pa died. We’ve spent some happy years there. Before Ma passed on, we did go back to the mountains now and again. Not Hazard or Hyden. Pineville. I’ve run all over those mountains with my kinfolk.” She chuckled at the memory. “Couldn’t do that now.” She peered over at Piper. “But you won’t have any trouble going up and down those hills. Look at the size of you. Slim as a reed in a pond. And pretty too.”
“Thank you,” Piper mumbled, a little discomfited by the woman’s scrutiny.
“Aww, don’t mind me, honey. I wasn’t aiming to get you bothered. Slim is good. Me, I could carve off some inches, but seems like when you add on the years, a body has a way of packing on the pounds in places you’d rather wasn’t packed so heavy. And goodness gracious, I haven’t even given you my name. Chattering away like a magpie. I’m Maxine Crutcher. Was Maxine Parker before I married, but that’s been so long ago, I can’t hardly remember it.” She paused, obviously waiting for a name in return.
“Piper. Piper Danson.”
“Well, isn’t that an interesting name? Piper. But names generally end up suiting a person once you get used to them. My daughter, she just had a baby. Her first. A girl. That’s where I’ve been. Seeing to her, but I’m headed home now. My Harold don’t like me being gone overlong. Misses my cooking.”
“What did your daughter name her baby?” Piper asked to be polite.
“Harriet. After her grandmother. Harriet Sue. The Sue is after her mother-in-law. I thought that was extra nice of my girl since the woman is a pill to be around. Could be the baby will soften her up.” Maxine paused for breath and looked Piper up and down again. “So was I right that you’re a nurse headed down to help that Mary Breckinridge out? She’s turned a trick down there in Leslie County.”
“Not a nurse. I’m going to be one of the couriers.”
“Couriers. That’s Mrs. Breckinridge for you. She likes those fancy-sounding words. She come to the mountains from the city, you know. But they say she does right by the mountain folk.”
“That’s good to know,” Piper murmured.
“I suspect you’re fixing to have some eye-opening times down there with those nurse midwives. They go right to the houses to help those mamas have babies, you know. Best way, if you ask me. My daughter, she went to a hospital. Waste of money. I had her right in the same bed where my man and me did what has to be done to make her. Worked fine.” The woman reached over and touched Piper’s arm. “Now I’ve done gone and made your cheeks bloom again. You’ll see plenty down there in Leslie County to make you blush, but it’ll all be good. As long as you step where the Lord wants you to step.”
“How can you know that? Where he wants you to go. What he wants you to do.” Piper was curious about what the woman would say. She seemed free and easy with advice.
“That can be a puzzler sometimes, but you can figure it out if you listen and watch. The mountains are a good place for doing that. You get up high in those hills and the Lord just seems nearer. That was where he first spoke to my heart. Out on a mountainside. Been right here with me ever since.” She put her hand over her heart.
When Piper didn’t say anything, Maxine peered over at her. “You have him in your heart, honey?”
“I go to church.”
Maxine smiled a little. “Going to church is mighty fine, but it don’t mean you know the Lord here.” She tapped her chest again before she gave Piper a look. “I’m guessing things has always been easy for you. That can make it harder to recognize what the Lord does for you. You can think maybe you’ve done it all yourself and don’t need him none. But you walk down some rocky trails with troubles on every side, and you’ll be wanting the Lord right there with you.”
“I believe in God.”
“’Course you do. Folks have to be half blind not to see the hand of God in this world.” She patted Piper’s arm again. “And don’t you worry. You’ll have plenty of chances to step closer to the Lord whilst you are in the hills. While I don’t know much, I do know that.”
Piper wasn’t sure what to say. She’d never had anybody actually question her faith. At the appropriate age and with the urging of her mother, she’d joined church. She attended every Sunday with her parents. She said her prayers at night. For Leona and her baby on the way. For Jamie. For the poor men out of work. Of course she believed. She had no reason for this woman’s words to make her feel as though somebody were scratching around inside her to find something wrong.
“I’m looking forward to being in the mountains,” she finally said.
“I sure wish I could go down there with you. It’s been years since my feet touched those hills. But I’d best head on home to see to Harold.” She fished under the seat for her bundle. “My stop is coming up.” She leaned over to give Piper a hug. “It’s been fine passing the time with you. If you ever need anything, you hunt me up. Maxine Crutcher in Waynesburg. For sure I’ll remember your name. Piper Danson. Sounds like a movie star. You look like you could be one too.”
Out the window, Piper watched Maxine’s husband take her bundle. Maxine gave him a hug. He didn’t hug her back, but he did smile before they headed off. Piper wondered how many years they’d been together. But however many years they’d shared, some of them might have been along those rocky trails Maxine talked about where they had to depend on the Lord.
Piper looked around at the people in the other seats. Some were talking. Others were sleeping. A few were staring straight ahead as though only interested in their destinations and nothing about the road on the way.
Could that be how she was? Only worried about her own journey without being concerned with those she met on the way? She gave her head a mental shake. She had no reason to let Maxine Crutcher’s words settle uncomfortably in her mind. Living a comfortable life wasn’t a sin. Her father would say it was a blessing. A blessing he wanted to continue for her with Braxton Crandall.
But she wasn’t going to think about the future. At least not past today and the idea of going to Wendover. Tomorrow she would find out what was next.
Wendover. The very name suggested something out of the ordinary. Piper’s fingers itched to pull a pencil out of her case and write a letter about what might lie ahead of her. But who would she write to? Jamie immediately popped into her mind. Then the sight of the pretty blonde running toward him and the way he had smiled at her was there too.
Piper pulled in a deep breath and let it out. She was going to block all thoughts of men from her mind. No need to think about who might or might not love her. Not for months. The summer was hers.
The farther east the train went, the more the landscape changed outside the window. More trees. Lots more trees. Fewer towns. Hills. At last they pulled into the station at Hazard. Two-story brick-façade buildings lined the street where cars and trucks shared the road with some horses and wagons. A train sat on a side track with boxcar after boxcar filled with coal.
Piper picked up her case and stepped off the train. Nobody came forward to meet her. The train took on new passengers and chugged out of the station, belching smoke. Piper walked from one end of the platform to the other and then retraced her steps. Just as she was about to find someone to ask about a bus to Hyden, a girl about her age came around the depot. No horses in tow, but she wore riding pants and boots.
“Oh good. You’re still here. I saw the train was gone and was afraid you might have given up on me and gone into town. I’m sorry I’m late. Don’t tell Mrs. Breckinridge. She hates people being late. For anything!” The girl’s light-blue eyes widened. “But that horse I brought for you is a slowpoke. Took me forever to get him across the river.” She stuck out her bottom lip to puff a breath that ruffled her light brown bangs.
When Piper didn’t speak up right away, the girl rushed on. “You are the new courier, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Piper Danson.”
“Right.” The girl wiped her hand off on her pants and held it out to shake Piper’s. “Marlene Preston here, but everybody calls me Marlie. We all have nicknames. It’s a thing with the frontier nurses.” She gave Piper a questioning look. “Anybody ever call you Pip?”
“Pip.” Piper frowned. “Not sure I’d like that.”
Marlie shrugged. “Won’t matter. Nicknames just happen. Pip might be better than Thumper, and that’s what we call Mrs. Breckinridge’s secretary. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard her first name. Oh well, like I said, everybody has a nickname. That is, except for Mrs. Breckinridge. No Miss Mary or Mrs. B for her. They say she recruited you in Louisville. I’m from Chicago myself.”
The girl talked so fast Piper could barely keep up. She was very petite and almost delicate looking. Piper could imagine her on a dance floor. Not on a horse.
“How long have you been here?” Piper asked. “I mean as a courier.”
“A month. And don’t worry. I felt as green as you when I got here. I was lucky. They did come for me in the car. But something’s wrong with the brakes right now. So it’s horses for us.” She gave Piper another look. “You do ride, don’t you?”
“Yes, but I’ve never ridden a horse across a river.”
“That’s a piece of cake compared to some things you’ll have to do. It’s a challenge a minute around here, but you’ll love it. I promise.”
When Piper must have still looked unsure, Marlie laughed. “No backing out now. Well, some do, but not many. Besides, you don’t look like the kind to give up on something without at least giving it a try. Where’s the old college spirit?”
“This isn’t college.”
“Not officially, but there’s plenty to learn. Just call it the College of Life.”
Marlie led the way back to the horses, where she gave Piper’s case a look. “Glad you didn’t bring a trunk of stuff, but that case might be a problem.”
With dismay, Piper looked at her case. Why hadn’t she thought about bringing something easier to carry on a horse? “I guess I should have found a soft-sided one.”
“Or saddlebags, but a girl can’t think of everything.” Marlie shrugged. “You’ll just have to hold it in front of you. Think you can manage that?”
“I’ll give it a try.” What other choice did she have? Because Marlie was right. She wasn’t a quitter.
“That’s the spirit.” She untied one of the horses and pulled him forward. “This is Puddin. We use him for first timers. I’m not saying you did, but some of the girls have been known to exaggerate their horsemanship. Riding on park trails is a little different from riding up here in the hills.” Marlie stroked the big horse’s neck before she handed Piper the reins. “But if you had never ridden a day in your life, you’d be okay on Puddin. It would take a direct hit from a lightning bolt to get him to run off with anybody. So you’ll be fine.”
Marlie held the case while Piper mounted Puddin. Then she handed it up. “We could try tying it on the back, but it might unbalance the load or rub a sore on Puddin’s rump. Should that happen, we’d never hear the end of it. Wouldn’t be good at all.” She shook her head.
“I can hang on to it.” Piper tried to sound surer than she felt. She propped the case in front of her and clutched the reins on either side of it. “You’ve got a nice-looking mare.” Piper nodded toward the other horse.
“Fancy is top-notch. A sweet little mare with enough spirit to make riding interesting.” Marlie swung up into the saddle. “We better get going. It’s a good ways. About eleven miles.”
Plodding along behind Marlie, Piper might have dozed off if not for the need to hang on to her case. Marlie had to hold Fancy back to stay with Piper. Sometimes when the road was wide enough, they rode two abreast and Marlie pointed out landmarks.
“Try to keep them in mind,” she said. “You might have to fetch the next person home to Wendover.”
Piper didn’t say anything, but she’d be lost in a minute out here alone.
Marlie chattered on about Chicago and her boyfriend. “Ray wasn’t happy about me coming down here. Not at all. He threatened to go looking for a new girl.” She laughed. “But he won’t. He’s got it bad for me.”
“Do you have it bad for him?” Piper asked.
“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Marlie sighed. “I do like him. I figure we’ll get married next year. A girl can’t wait forever. If you get too long in the tooth, nobody will want to marry you.”
She grinned and let her mare prance ahead as thick bushes covered with buds pushed in on the road.
When Marlie rode back to her, Piper asked what they were.
“Rhododendron. The mountains are ready to explode in beauty, or so Nurse Robbins tells me. She’s been here working with Mrs. Breckinridge for a while now. Long enough to know the mountains.” Marlie looked around. “I can’t wait.”
They turned off the road into a creek bed.
“A shortcut,” Marlie said. “Besides, the creeks make better riding than the roads around here. They have neat names too. Like Cut Shin Creek or Greasy Creek. And then there’s Hell-for-Sartin Creek. You have to wonder about that name.”
When they got to the Middle Fork River, Puddin stepped into the water behind Fancy like a man condemned to hard labor, but the water wasn’t deep at the ford. Piper had no problem keeping her boots dry.
Once across, Marlie pointed up the hill to a log house. “Wendover. That’s where Mrs. Breckinridge lives and where we eat our meals. That is, if we’re not at the hospital or out at one of the centers.” The two-story log house seemed to belong there on the hillside.
“Where do we sleep?”
“The Garden House.” This time Marlie pointed to a two-story building down a narrow roadway. “It’s not bad. No electricity, but we do have a shower. And that’s a rarity around here.”
The hillside was dotted with structures. One that might be a henhouse. A smaller cabin up above Mrs. Breckinridge’s house. A log barn next to the road.
“I’ll show you around after we see to the horses.” She slid off Fancy and headed toward the barn. “Puddin and Fancy have earned their supper.”
As Piper followed Marlie, she had no doubt the adventure had begun. She had come to a different world.