Chapter 3

“I’m already in jail? Millie froze, looking at the cell bars just a few feet from the smelly cot where she lay. But the door wasn’t shut on the cell. And movement against her chest caused her to jerk with relief. Tate was still under the blanket that covered her shoulders, snuggled up against her, using her body heat. Millie realized not all the smell was coming from the cot’s covering. The poor child must be past exhausted because he’d be raising a fit about his dirty diaper if he felt up to it.

Millie closed her eyes, trying to determine what her options were. There are always options, Lassie, even if it’s down to fight or flight. How many times had she heard her father say that over the years? It was his mantra to keep pushing her and her sister, Darcie, through all the adversity and tragedy they had to face.

Her parents Ennis and Morna Donavon, along with her brothers Flynn and Galen, chose to flee Ireland during the Great Potato Famine, finally settling in the Irish area called Conley’s Patch in Chicago. After losing two infant sons at birth, Morna gave birth to her sister Darcie, and then Millie.

Ennis fought for jobs—literally with boxing matches—to take care of his family, finally obtaining the role of a policeman. It was a dangerous job, but the six of them had food and shelter, and life was better than what they left in Ireland—so her parents said. Then the Civil War hit when Millie was ten years old. By the time it was over, her brothers had died in eastern battles and their mother from consumption.

There are always options…until the Great Chicago fire burned their home leaving the three of them homeless. Her father disappeared into the job of helping others, Darcie married Curtis Robbins, and Millie moved into a room above the bakery where she found a job.

Millie’s middle growled, deepening the hunger pangs that had been gnawing in her stomach since leaving her sister’s home in St. Louis four days ago. Neither of them had a good full meal since then, only finding leftovers half-wrapped in trash cans along the way. So her option today was to fight—to find food, shelter and a job—while hiding from the law.

And here I sit in jail…

***

“Nonsense Adam, she can stay at your home for a few days until Millie decides what to do. You can bunk in the jail.”

“Ma, my house isn’t…uh…clean…”

Millie listened with hope as the marshal’s mother told her six-foot son what his solution to Millie’s predicament should be. And although he tried to give excuses, Millie was impressed that the man respected his mother and her decisive statement. Millie carefully sat up on the edge of the cot, not wanting to waken Tate. She looked out to see the marshal and two women standing by his desk. The trim woman with matching brown hair to her son’s must have been young when she married, because she looked like she could be an older sister to Adam instead of his mother. The younger woman, about her own age, must be a daughter, and the marshal’s sister, although she had darker hair.

Marshal Wilerson had brought them a heaping plate of biscuits and gravy, and a pint bottle of milk from the café the first thing this morning. It was the perfect soft meal for Tate to eat and fill her starving stomach too. After cleaning up the two of them the best she could in the basin of water the marshal had brought in to her, she laid Tate back on the cot, and apparently fell back to sleep herself until the conversation in the other room awakened her.

“Mother,” the younger woman touched her mother’s arm and nodded toward Millie. “She’s awake now.”

Millie rose and rubbed her hands down her skirt as she acknowledged the women coming toward the cell. Here came possible help, so Millie stepped out the door and extended her hand with, “Hello, nice to meet you, Mrs. Wilerson.”

“Millie, please call me Cate, and this is my daughter, Sarah.” Cate grasped Millie’s hand and pulled her into a full embrace. “We were so sorry to hear of your sister’s death, and then to find out about Sam too.” Cate glanced around Millie to chance a look at the little boy still asleep in the pile of blankets. “Looks like your son’s content for a bit, so let’s go into the office to talk.”

What? Her sister was dead? Millie’s mind searched for conversations she had with the marshal, trying to figure out how he got that idea. Or could it really be true? Had he gotten a wire from St. Louis this morning? No. Only Darcie knew where Millie was, so the marshal had assumed wrong. Maybe it would help her, and Darcie’s plan, for others to believe that until they could move on. Sam dying had ruined their plans.

The marshal pulled his chair around next to the one in front of the desk and motioned for the women to use them. The marshal and Sarah stood back while Cate sat down in one wooden chair and pulled Millie down in the other.

“Adam said you don’t plan to travel back home, so what do you want to do now?”

“Well, I have no choice but to find lodging and employment here. I’ll get my bearings and start looking for both after Tate catches up on his sleep. The…events and travel have been very hard on him.”

“It looks like it’s been hard on you too, dear.” Millie sensed Cate looking her over with concern, taking in her dirty clothing and pale face. “Sam was a great neighbor to us, and he would have made a fine husband and father. The Wilerson family will help you anyway we can.”

Millie breathed a sigh of relief that she might have found a kind soul in this woman, and her family, seeing Sarah nodding a smile in encouragement.

“Adam and I were just discussing…” Cate paused and looked at her son, “that you will stay in his house while you get your bearings.” Millie saw the marshal take a deep breath before agreeing with a reluctant nod.

“Millie, you’ve spent days on the train grieving, plus trying to keep your little boy occupied. You must be exhausted and tired. Then to be given the news that Adam gave you? And I’m sure in a very blunt way.” Cate looked up at her son again. “I think you would have collapsed at the news.” Millie didn’t want to tell Cate that was what had happened right here in her son’s office yesterday.

Millie looked at Adam, who just put his hands up in the air in surrender to his mother. “Are you sure there isn’t any other place for us to stay? I hate to put the marshal out of his own house.”

“If you can’t travel back home, you need to find a job, or another husband.” Cate paused and tilted her head as if in thought. “Adam eats all his meals at the café—or the saloon—and has someone wash his clothes too. And his house is always a dusty mess as you’ll soon see.” Now Cate’s smile turned downright mischievous. “I think he’d be ahead to have a live-in housekeeper who could fix meals and in general, take care of him. How would you like the job—at least for a while—in exchange for room and board?”

***

Adam pounded down the boardwalk, making the boards rattle with every measured boot step. He was supposed to be keeping the peace in town instead of picking up a woman’s bags and bringing them to his house. What the heck was his mother up to? He was almost scared to leave the three women alone while he went home to hastily clean the worst off the floor in his bedroom, and living room, and... Oh heck, Adam shuddered with a thought. Maybe his mother was playing matchmaker for him.

He knew that his mother had given advice to his brother Jacob about Rania Hamner, one of the daughters of the Swedish immigrants who had bought Sam Larson’s place. Jacob went over to the Hamner place every day at his mother’s insistence, to check on Rania—and her dog and two sheep—while her parents traveled back on their last trail drive from Texas to Ellsworth before permanently settling in Kansas. He wasn’t surprised when Jacob proposed to Rania.

Then there was his mother’s urging to let Rania’s twin, Hilda, buy his brother Noah’s homestead. Noah had traveled to Illinois to bring back Victoria, his intended bride—but when he arrived, he found she had already married someone else. Noah had yet to come home months later, and a claim jumper almost took over his place before his mother and Jacob decided to sell it to someone they knew. Adam knew his ma was hoping for a second match between the two families—whenever Noah decided to come home.

His mother had even helped Dagmar Hamner, Rania and Hilda’s brother, adjust to his new home on the Bar E Ranch. It was a good thing, because the owner’s daughter from Boston recently arrived, throwing Dagmar into a panicking tailspin. If his mother hadn’t had to deal with Rania’s kidnapping, and then her and Jacob’s wedding to plan this last week, she would have run to help Dagmar greet Cora Elison as soon as she learned that the young woman had set her dainty foot inside the front door of the house on the Bar E.

Ma was leaving his sister Sarah alone though. Although everyone liked Ethan and his parents, all of the Wilersons secretly thought Ethan wasn’t the perfect match for Sarah. They acted like brother and sister instead of future bride and groom, but Cate insisted her three sons were not to interfere with their sister’s choice of husband.

Adam’s parents had a wonderful partnership until his father, Moses, died four years ago of cancer. Adam didn’t think he could ever find a woman to match his parents’ love, so he had decided to stay a confirmed bachelor, especially with his dangerous career. Adam didn’t want his mother interfering with his choice of life, but he had a feeling she was already meddling.

***

Thanks be to Saint Catherine! Millie’s Roman Catholic upbringing came to mind when she stood in front of Adam’s home. She didn’t get a good look at this particular house last night when they sneaked into the abandoned chicken house. Now the sight of the small, two-story home was like a beacon of light to Millie’s weary soul.

The clapboard house was painted white, and the porch floor a light gray. Compared to some of the unpainted shacks in town she’d seen from their “alley walk” last night, this was a nice home. The porch had a porch swing and two other chairs on it, and Millie could imagine complementing the space with a big pot of red geraniums.

Not that she’d ever owned a pot of flowers in her life, or lived in this nice of house, but she’d seen both in Chicago—in better neighborhoods than where she lived. Her family had resided in tenant housing until the fire wiped out those blocks of shoddily-built living quarters.

The room she lived in above the bakery was small, hot in the summer and freezing in the winter, with slanted ceilings so there was only the middle area to stand up straight. The marshal’s house looked like a mansion at the moment.

Cate waltzed up the porch steps and opened the door to her son’s home. “Please come in, Millie. I know my son isn’t the best housekeeper but you’ll find it a good place to rest and get your bearings.”

Millie took a step into the home, and then stopped in awe. Sunshine filtered in through the large windows—along with dust motes—but the space was inviting and homey, even if a few newspapers and a pair of socks were on the dining room table. She could write her name in the dust that covered the surfaces of the nice furniture, but a simple dusting would take care of that.

They entered into a combination of living and dining room, with the parlor to the right. Comfortable furniture filled both rooms. A mantel clock resting on a wall shelf in the living room gave a soothing tick-tock to the otherwise quiet room. Millie could just imagine Adam sitting in the rocker at the end of the day with his stocking feet on the upholstered ottoman.

Millie followed Cate through the first room to the kitchen behind, and then right into a small bedroom off of it. Millie was as wide-eyed as Tate was while they followed Cate and Sarah around the house.

“Adam uses one of the bedrooms upstairs, so this room will be perfect for you and Tate.”

Cate pulled open the shade on the only window in the room, unlatched the lock and tugged open the window. “Let’s get some fresh air in here while I show you around.”

The room had a single bed, wash stand with a pitcher and basin sitting on its top, a wooden rocker and a small chest of drawers. And the colorful quilt on the bed made the room delightful.

Millie couldn’t believe the luck of the Irish was with her in Kansas!

“Adam, please bring their bags in here, then walk over to Pastor Reagan’s house and see if you can borrow their high chair. I think their last boy is large enough to sit in a regular chair by now.”

Next, Cate looked around the kitchen. “Now about food… Adam, do you have anything in your pantry besides cobwebs?”

Sarah looked in kitchen drawers until she found a pencil and paper and sat down at the kitchen table, ready to right down what her mother said they’d need.

“Ma, there’s no need to buy groceries since I’m never home for meals,” Jacob warned.

Cate stuck her head back out of the walk-in pantry and stared at her son like he had no sense at all. “Adam. You have guests in your home and the hospitable thing to do is feed them while they are here.” Sarah snickered in her hand while the two faced off.

“Fine, buy a few groceries, but I’m not cooking the meals.” He turned to Millie. “Can you cook a decent meal?” Cate huffed at Adam’s question but Millie was prepared to answer.

“Actually, I cooked and baked in an upscale restaurant in Chicago, so I think you will find my meals better than any café in this one-horse town.” She stared at Adam, daring him to cut her down. She might have stretched the truth a bit about how fancy the restaurant was where she worked, but if he kept up with his attitude, his face would be wearing the first flaky-crust pie she’d bake.

“Fine. I’ll look forward to first-class uppity meals then,” he muttered as he sauntered out the back door.

“Sarah, I think we’ll buy the basics and whatever Millie wants to make, because there is nothing worth eating in the pantry.”

Millie was thinking about the other things she needed for Tate too. “How about milk for Tate?” She hated to bring it up, but she had no funds of her own for Tate’s needs.

“There’s a farmer on the edge of town who brings in milk to the mercantile each day. I’ll be sure to order milk for you to pick up each morning.”

Cate looked again at Tate. “How about diapers? Does he have a good supply? And we need laundry soap…I doubt Adam has any in the house.”

“I’m afraid I brought along a limited supply of diapers, because I had to carry our bags plus him.” It wasn’t the total truth, but it was hard to keep track of Tate and two bags. “I couldn’t wash on the train so I need to wash all his diapers and clothing today if possible.”

“We’ll buy diapers so you’ll have extra.”

Sarah looked out the kitchen window into the backyard then turned and asked, “Does Adam have a clothes line or clothes pins?” Millie was mentally tallying up the cost of everything they mentioned and getting dizzy thinking about it. She expected to move in with Sam, and all those things would have been in place in his home. How was she going to repay Cate or Adam for their supplies and hospitality?

“Cate, this is too generous of you. I can’t pay you back…”

“Millie, I’m going to charge it to Adam’s account, not mine,” she smiled broadly. “Because you can cook, and I assume wash clothes, he’s going to be money ahead to have you take care of him in exchange for room and board.”