Chapter Seven

 

Katie heard a familiar voice. “Kathryn? Are you awake?”

“It’s Saturday and we don’t have to work.”

She sat up in bed. “Come in, Anna.”

Anna opened the door and smiled at Katie. “We don’t have to work but Lucinda volunteered to go in today. So I thought it was a perfect day for us to be together. I asked Mr. Johansson to saddle up two horses for us.”

“Horses?” Katie was still waking up and a little confused.

“Yes, silly, Mr. Johansson has a barn with two horses in it. He lets us use them whenever we want.”

“Give me some time to get ready and I’ll meet you outside,” Katie said while she got out of bed.

“Fifteen minutes, Kathryn. That’s all I am giving you. I packed some bread and cheese so don’t worry about eating.”

“Okay.” Katie wondered what she would wear for horseback riding. She looked in a little closet in the hallway outside her room and found some clothes. She did the morning ritual in less than fifteen, and then headed out the door.

Anna was already on a beautiful dapple-gray horse, holding the reins to the second one. That horse was a silky brown with a black mane and tail. Luckily Katie took riding lessons when she was younger, her father made sure of it.

“This is Flicka. Flicka meet Kathryn.” Anna handed the reins to her.

“Nice to meet you, Flicka,” Katie bowed. “And who is this other lovely horse if I may ask?”

“Thunder!” Anna shouted out as she galloped away.

Katie mounted Flicka, then followed Anna and Thunder. After they rode for about a mile, Anna came to a stop. “This is the perfect place to talk.” She slid gracefully from Thunder, looped the reins over a low branch and sat down in the shade of the tree. Katie did the same.

“Alright, Miss Anna. Now that we are alone, you’re going to tell me everything!” Katie felt the excitement growing inside. She couldn’t wait to hear the gossip.

“I will tell you everything. But first you have to tell me how you met Mr. Andrew Martin.” Anna’s eyes grew wide.

“You know...you know him?”

“Why, yes. Everyone does. He works at the park, you know. And, yes. I do know...about you and him. You don’t think I pay attention?”

Katie decided to fill her in on everything that happened, except for the boardinghouse visit and the kiss.

Anna rolled in the grass laughing after Katie told her how she fell over the fence on that fateful day she met Drew. “So ladylike! I wonder if Andrew saw your britches. You think he’s the bee’s knees, don’t you?”

“The what?” Katie thought that was the strangest saying she’d ever heard.

“The bee’s knees. You know...you think he is great.”

Katie rolled her eyes. “Enough of that. Now on to you. Tell me how and why you came to the Grand Canyon.”

“Actually, Lucinda and I came together. We met at the Lake Forest Academy—a private high school for boys and girls. Lucinda was one of my roommates freshmen year and we became inseparable. Ferry Hall was the girls’ school and the boys attended Lake Forest Academy. We would have outings together. The school took us to the beach and organized hikes. In the winter, we ice skated and went on sleigh rides. What fun we had. Lucinda and I were the best of friends.”

“I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of that school.”

“It’s a private school outside of Chicago. Both Lucinda and I lived at the school because it was pretty far from home.”

Katie was taken aback by that information. Lucinda and Anna knew each other. If they went to a private school, their families obviously had money. So what were they doing at the canyon?

“Tell me how you ended up here,” Katie asked again.

“Lucinda read an article in the paper about the Harvey girls. They were young, single and liked adventure. Fred Harvey hired pretty, smart girls with good moral character and backgrounds to work at his restaurants out West. It said the girls were provided with room and board. There are also managers, like Mr. and Mrs. Johansson, to watch over the girls. Plus the girls were also given free railway passes. We figured we’d see the country together, maybe meet a rich rancher and settle down with our husbands in a new part of the country.” Anna laughed. “I’m probably boring you.”

“No, I find it quite interesting. Go on.”

“We knew we had the qualifications so we wrote letters to the company. It would be hard to convince our families while we were still in high school so we didn’t tell them until after graduation. They didn’t like it at all. My family really wanted me to go to college and I tried a semester. I had to prove to them that I really wanted to do this.”

“And what about Lucinda?”

“Lucinda’s family finally just gave in. When she came home from Ferry, she did nothing. She went on strike. That’s Lucinda for you. She got her way.”

“And you did too,” Katie finished for her.

“Yes, I did. We arrived here by train in April. No regrets. The money is good, plus we get time off whenever we want. Lucinda and I never did get to travel together...” Anna’s voice trailed off.

“What happened? If you two were best friends for years, what could have happened?” Katie looked at Anna and saw sadness in her eyes.

“A boy. A rancher’s son, named Daniel.” Anna looked away.

“Go on,” Katie prodded.

“Lucinda met Daniel first. He liked to come for lunch at El Tovar. We, of course, were just learning how to be waitresses and were working in the back kitchen. She caught a glimpse of Daniel out in the dining room and was determined to meet him. She charmed her way out there and then went over to their table asking if everything was alright. She started up a conversation with Daniel. The next thing you know they had a date to go riding.”

“I can picture Lucinda doing something like that.” Katie giggled.

“Of course, Daniel said he would come to the boardinghouse first. Mr. Carl had to meet him and approve the date. When he showed up the next day, I was grooming one of the horses. He came into the barn looking for Mr. Carl. I never meant for this to happen, I swear I didn’t!” Anna threw herself onto the ground, crying.

“It’s okay, Anna. It’s okay,” Katie assured her. “How bad can it be?”

“It was love at first sight!” Anna wailed even louder.

“For you?”

“For both of us!”

Katie saw that it was quite a problem. You can’t help who you fall in love with, and you can’t make someone fall in love with you. Haven’t all the fairy tales in the world proven that? Look at Cinderella. She fell in love with the prince and it was love at first sight. Her stepsisters tried and tried to gain his attention but he didn’t notice them. In the end, the right girl ended up with the right guy. Katie guessed that Anna’s story didn’t have the same happy ending.

She waited for Anna to calm down.

Anna sat up and continued. “Lucinda was head over heels for Daniel. I couldn’t react. I couldn’t hurt her like that. Daniel went on the ride with Lucinda. He did like her. How could anyone not like her? She was fun, smart, pretty and charismatic. He liked her as a friend. Daniel decided to stop seeing her when he realized she thought it was more than that.”

Anna was quiet for a moment. Katie reached for her hand to give her support.

“Daniel wanted to be truthful. He told her how he met me in the barn and that he would like to start seeing me, if it was alright with her. It wasn’t, of course. There was a big blow up between them outside the boardinghouse. I never heard such screaming come out of Lucinda’s mouth. Then she began to cry. I looked out of my window and saw Daniel holding her. He walked her to the door, got on his horse and rode away. The next thing I knew, my door flew open and there stood Lucinda. ‘Don’t ever talk to me again, you traitor,’ she screamed. ‘How could you?’”

“What did you do?”

“I tried to explain that I didn’t do anything. I told her we talked in the barn one time and then I only saw Daniel was when he came to get Lucinda. She didn’t seem to believe me.”

“Wow,” was all Katie could say.

They sat and stared up at the blue sky that seemed to go on forever. Finally Katie had to ask, “Did you ever start seeing Daniel?”

“Yes,” Anna’s voice was barely a whisper. “It was wonderful.”

“So then, what happened? Where is he?” Katie couldn’t stand the suspense.

“Gone,” Anna said. “He’s gone.”