Ana Seymour (15 page)

“See if you can get her to say it,” Sean suggested. “Sky,” he said loudly, pointing up.

Kate turned the baby slightly to get her attention and repeated, “Sky.”

“Kee,” Caroline gurgled.

Sean whooped with pleasure. “She said it!”

Kate looked at her daughter with amazement. “She did, didn’t she?” She repeated the experiment, and once again Caroline obliged with a “kee.”

“Soon she’ll be reciting the Declaration of Independence,” Sean said proudly.

“It’s wonderful to see the changes, isn’t it?” Sharing the moment made Kate feel a warmth entirely different from the uncomfortable physical sensations she’d felt around Sean all week.

“My daughter’s going to be president of the United States,” Sean declared.

Kate giggled. “A woman president?”

Sean nodded firmly. “If women can vote, they can be president.”

“Women can’t vote. Not most places anyway.”

“They will, one of these days. Maybe Caroline will grow up to be one of those suffragist ladies and help make it happen.”

“I just want her to grow up happy,” Kate said.

Sean stroked Caroline’s bonnet, then let his hand slide down to capture Kate’s hand, which was resting on the baby’s knee. “That’s all I want for her, too, Katie.”

She let her hand stay in his. It felt right, somehow, to be holding their daughter together this way, hands clasped, sharing their hopes for her future.

But as they turned the carriage around and headed back toward town, her mood began to change. It was happening again, she thought with a momentary surge of panic. The drive had proved what she’d been trying to deny to herself all week long. The ice crystals that had formed around her heart weeks ago in San Francisco were beginning to melt.

“You must have had a nice ride,” Jennie said, looking up from kneading the bread as they came in the back kitchen door. “It’s almost supper time.”

Kate looked guilty. “I’m sorry, Jen. Did you need help?”

“No. I’m doing fine. You can go get changed.”

Kate looked down at her dress, which had not been much soiled by the drive. “I hadn’t really planned on changing.”

“Oh. All right. But you do remember that Lyle’s coming to eat with us, don’t you?”

“Lordy. I forgot.” She looked over at Sean, who still held Caroline in his arms. “Can you watch her while I get dressed?”

“Of course,” he agreed without smiling. After she picked up her skirts and ran from the kitchen, his expression turned to a downright frown. The drive hadn’t been as intimate as he’d hoped, but he’d felt they’d been closer than they had in a long while. And he fancied that some of the soft glow in her cheeks when they’d returned home had come from more than the fresh air. So why had she raced off to primp for Lyle’s visit like a girl before her first social?

“She’s not serious about Wentworth, is she?” he asked Jennie.

She dusted the flour off her hands. “Serious? I don’t know. He’s certainly been loyal through the years. Sometimes persistence is enough to wear women down.”

He had a feeling that Jennie was trying to give him a message about his own course of action, but all he could think of was the look on Kate’s face when she’d remembered Lyle’s visit and said, “Lordy!”

“He’s a bag of wind,” he observed.

Jennie smiled quietly and began covering the pans of dough with towels. “Perhaps. But he’s good to Kate.”

Caroline started to squirm, demanding attention. There was a knock on the front door and sounds of Barnaby admitting someone. Sean bounced Caroline in his arms and said, “C’mon pumpkin, let’s go for a walk in the garden before supper.” He turned to leave. “Holler for us when it’s ready, Jennie, will you?”

She nodded and as the voices from the front hall grew louder, he strode quickly out the back door.

The silverheels’ last supper at Sheridan House was not a happy occasion. Though everyone tried to put a bright face on things, there was no way to avoid the reality that the close knit household was breaking up. The three miners had stood with the sisters when the town had wanted to shut their boardinghouse down. They’d helped Jennie keep the place running after Kate had had to go to the special hospital in Virginia City. They’d even learned to garden and helped to harvest
their own food. When Caroline had arrived, they’d been like three favorite uncles living in the same house. Now they were leaving.

Jennie’s face had traces of tears when she came from the kitchen bringing a special farewell cake she’d made them. When each one of the miners had got up from his place to plant hearty kisses on first her cheek, then Kate’s, Kate’s eyes had misted also.

Sean understood that the goodbye was an emotional one, but he was bitterly disappointed that the close mood he and Kate had managed to achieve on the drive that afternoon had totally disappeared. And he was even more disappointed to see that Kate was leaning more on Lyle than on Sean for comfort.

Lyle seemed to be aware of the fact as well, and ready to take advantage of it. “How would it be if I send a carriage for you fellows one month from today?” he asked the miners halfway through the supper. “Then you’d all know a definite time that you’d see each other again.”

Both Jennie and Kate had brightened at his offer, and Kate had sent him an affectionately grateful glance that was not lost on Sean.

By the end of the meal, Sean was feeling more hopeless and surly than he had since the day after he’d hurt his knee back home. When Dennis Kelly asked if he wanted to join the silverheels for a farewell drink in town, he agreed readily. He’d sworn off the stuff for weeks, but tonight a drink or two sounded like exactly what he needed.

Kate had taken Caroline up to bed, and Lyle was waiting for her in the parlor. She probably wouldn’t
even notice that he had gone, he decided as he shrugged into his coat and followed the miners out into the cold night.

He had a sudden vision of Lyle sliding closer to her on the velvety settee, putting his arm around her. It made his gorge rise.

Dennis waited for him to catch up, then clapped a hand on his shoulder. “I have to admit, Flaherty, I didn’t think a pantywaist rich lad like you would ever become a real miner, but you’ve proved me wrong. You’re all right, man. The boys and I will miss working with you.”

“It won’t be the same at Wesley without you three,” he replied, trying to set aside the picture of Lyle and Kate.

Smitty came up alongside them. “Yeah, Flaherty, we like you so much, we’ll let you buy the first round tonight.”

Sean grinned. “As long as you buy the second.”

Dennis put an arm around the neck of each man. “Don’t fight over it, boys. There’ll be rounds enough for everyone. I, for one, intend to get stinking drunk.”

Sean closed his eyes briefly. Kate was probably descending the stairs this minute and joining Lyle in the parlor. Jennie, Carter and Barnaby had gone up to bed before Sean left. Kate and Lyle would be alone.

“Stinking drunk sounds good to me,” he agreed.

“I’ve heard this from you before, Kate,” Lyle said. He was standing with his back to her in front of the parlor fireplace.

“I know. I feel dreadful that I haven’t been more
firm in my purpose when it comes to you, Lyle. I think I’ve treated you shabbily, and it makes me feel guilty.”

He turned around angrily. “I don’t want you to feel guilty, damn it. You know what it is I want you to feel.”

Kate clasped and unclasped her hands as they lay m her lap. “I know. Believe me, my life would be a lot easier if I could feel for you what you say you feel for me. But I can’t, Lyle.”

“It’s Flaherty again, isn’t it? Somehow he’s managed once more to make you forget all the misery he’s put you through.”

Kate drew in a deep breath. “I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve forgotten it, but there is definitely an attraction between Sean and me that won’t go away. And he is, after all, the father of my daughter. If we can have a life together, I think I owe it to her to try to give that a chance.”

Lyle’s face was red with frustration. “I’ve given you every chance to see what a fool you’re being, Kate. But I’m not going to keep begging forever. There are plenty of women in this town who’d throw themselves at my feet if I looked their way.”

“Oh, Lyle. I’m sure there are. And I’m telling you that you have my blessing to go out and find them.”

When she was twelve years old, Kate would have given anything to see the pretentious Lyle Wentworth so deflated, but now it only made her heart ache. She’d tried to be as gentle as possible, but her ride today with Sean had made her realize that what she was saying was the truth. There still
was
a definite pull between
her and Sean, and sharing the ever-expanding world of their daughter made that pull a hundred times stronger.

As Lyle sputtered for more argument, she stood and said once more that she was sorry, then told him that she was too tired for more talk this evening.

When he’d left, she turned toward the stairway, her heart picking up its beat. She paused, her hand on the newel post. Sean was just steps away from her, lying all alone in his bed. She’d been fighting it all week, and for what? Sean was her husband. He was Caroline’s father. There was absolutely nothing to prevent her from going to his room and telling him this very minute that she would like to give their love one more final chance.

With a deep, determined breath, she started up the stairs.

T
he silverheels left at midmorning. None of them had awakened in time for breakfast, and when Jennie had offered to cook something for them before they set out, they’d all held their stomachs, rolled their eyes and explained that after their binge the previous evening, the last thing they needed on the bumpy road to Virginia City was food.

Kate had slept poorly after the all-too-familiar experience of finding Sean’s bed empty the previous evening. Her ill humor mitigated some of her sadness, but she still had tears in her eyes when the men climbed into the freight wagon that had been sent by the Comstock people to fetch them and their belongings.

The sisters linked arms as they walked back up the path to the house. “The place’ll seem empty as a barn,” Jennie said with a sigh.

“Yes, but m some ways it will be easier. I’ve been waiting to talk with you, Jen. I’m worried that you’re wearing yourself out.”

Jennie shook her head. “You and Carter worry too much.”

“No, you’ve been working too hard. And I’ve been thinking. We’ve paid off most of the debts. With Carter’s help, maybe we won’t even need to take boarders anymore. We could just be family—you two, Barnaby, Caroline and me.”

Jennie glanced sharply at her sister as they mounted the stairs to the front porch. “What about Sean?”

“There are lots of empty places in town now. He could find somewhere else.”

“Funny, I thought you were becoming reconciled to having him here. Maybe even liking it?”

Kate knew that it was irrational of her to feel so angry at Sean for having gone out to celebrate with the silverheels the previous evening. They’d worked together. It was a perfectly natural thing for him to do. But when she’d finally gotten her courage up to go to his room and found him gone, it had brought flooding back all the hurt from those unhappy days in San Francisco.

“No,” she said quietly. “It would be easier for me not to have him around.”

Jennie frowned. “Well, now we have a dilemma.”

They stopped on the porch, neither one opening the front door. “What do you mean?”

Jennie reached for her sister’s hands and said, “Come sit on the swing with me for a minute.” Her voice was grave.

Kate felt a wave of sick fear. She was right. Things weren’t just fine with Jennie as she’d been pretending. The two sisters had taken care of each other their entire lives. After their parents’ deaths, when Kate had been so ill with her pregnancy, Jennie had filled the roles
of sister, parent, friend and provider. Things were a little different between them now that Jennie was married to Carter, but even so, Jennie served as Kate’s touchstone in facing the ups and downs of life.

She felt a chill as she sat on the cold wood of the swing. “Tell me, Jennie. What’s going on? How are you feeling?”

“I’ve talked to Dr. Millard. He thinks it might be a good idea for me to see that female specialist who took care of you.”

“Then you should,” Kate said firmly.

“But we haven’t paid off the bills from yours yet.”

Kate reached for her sister’s hand. “We’ll manage. Your health’s the important thing.”

Jennie gave Kate’s hand a squeeze. “I remember the way you held on to my hand as we sat here a year ago last spring.”

Kate knew at once that she was referring to the day when Kate had had to tell Jennie that she was going to have a baby—without a husband to give it his name. The sisters had been newly orphaned, without money, and now were about to confront the greatest disgrace a woman can endure. “Those were bleak days, Jennie. But with your help, I made it through. Now it’s my turn to take care of you. Along with Carter, of course. He’s going to make such a proud papa,” she concluded with a smile.

Jennie smiled back. “I hope he’ll be as attentive as Sean is to Caroline. I’ve been amazed to see him changing her clothes, putting on her diapers—”

Kate interrupted. “He’s attentive when he’s in the mood to be around, I guess.”

Jennie looked puzzled. “He’s been around constantly since he came back to Vermillion this time.”

“He wasn’t around last night.” Kate gave the swing a little push, then stopped it again almost immediately. “This isn’t making you sick, is it?”

Jennie laughed. “Not right now, though this morning it might have been a problem.” She returned to the topic of Kate’s husband. “Kate, Sean was out with the silverheels for their last night m town. Surely you can’t fault him for that. Especially when you were with Lyle, remember?”

Put that way, it made Kate’s pique seem irrational, but she couldn’t help the way she’d felt the previous evening when she was greeted once again by his empty bed. She tried to push the thought out of her head. Jennie’s condition was the important thing at the moment. “This morning? So you have been sick?”

Jennie nodded. “A little. Not any more than most women in the family way.”

“You’re going to see that baby doctor, Jen.”

“Carter’s insisting on the same thing. The problem is, Carter and I would have to stay in Virginia City a night or two. Barnaby could stay home from school to take care of Caroline when you go up to the mine, but at night—” Jennie swallowed and looked away. “I’d feel better if you and the children had a man around.” Suddenly Kate understood the dilemma Jennie had been talking about. Now that the silverheels were gone, if Carter and Jennie left, she and Sean would be alone in the house with only Barnaby and Caroline for chaperons. Lordy.

She leaned over and gave Jenme a kiss on the cheek.
“I’ll be fine, sis. The important thing right now is your health. You and Carter go and stay as long as you need to have them give you a good checkup.”

“It’s silly, you know, I could just continue to see Dr. Millard in town.”

“That’s what I said, too, remember? As a result I almost lost Caroline. No, you let Carter take you down to that hospital and don’t worry about things back here. I’ll go up and cook the noon meal at the mine while you’re gone. In fact, I’m going to start doing that anyway.” At her sister’s shake of the head she continued, “At least on any day when you’re feeling tired. We’ll switch jobs. You can stay home and watch Caroline and I’ll go take care of the miners.”

Jennie gave her a grateful smile. “I don’t know how to thank you, sis.”

Kate pulled her sister into another embrace “Jen, I can never repay all the things you’ve done for me. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have Caroline. No, we’re going to do whatever it takes to make sure that five months from now she has a beautiful little cousin to play with. Starting with. I’m going to get you out of this cold air, Mama.” She pulled her sister up from the swing.

They went into the house arm in arm, laughing, but after Jennie went back to the kitchen, Kate climbed the stairs, her expression growing sober.

She would do whatever she had to in the next few months to help her sister, even if that meant spending one or more nights in the same house virtually alone with Sean. But she wasn’t about to make the mistake she’d almost made last night. Sean could spend his
nights at the bar or down in the red-light district, for all she would know, because she never intended to be anywhere near his bedroom ever again.

Kate looked at the meager larder and few utensils in dismay. The cookhouse at the Wesley mine was nothing more than a rough lean-to with two sides, a makeshift stove fueled by wood, a long table for food preparation and two bins with a motley assortment of cooking equipment. The food, what there was of it, was stacked on shelves running along one of the walls. Kate had visited the mine before, but until today she’d never stopped to consider how Jennie had managed to prepare the magnificent meals the silverheels had raved about under such primitive conditions.

She sighed and began to unpack the two burlap bags of meat she’d brought with her that morning. Sean had volunteered to ask permission to drive down to fetch her midmorning, but Jennie had been accustomed to walking up the mountain to the mine each day, so Kate had politely refused his offer.

She’d known she would see him, however, and wasn’t too surprised when he popped his head into the shelter shortly after she arrived. “You made it here all right, I see,” he said.

“Yes.” She had spoken little to him all week, particularly since Jennie and Carter had left the previous day for Virginia City. She wasn’t about to risk a resumption of the feelings that had begun to surface on their drive the past Saturday.

He sauntered into the kitchen and began helping her to empty the bags. “You carried all this up the mountain?
Sweetheart, you should have let me come for you.”

“I’ve asked you not to call me ‘sweetheart,’“ she said.

Sean grinned. “Sorry, it just slipped out.”

“Well, slip it back in again,” she said curtly.

The food bags were empty, so he turned and boosted himself to take a seat on top of the table and watch her while she began peeling the potatoes. “Aw, Katie,” he said. “When are you going to stop being mad at me?”

She looked at him in surprise. “I’m not mad at you.”

“Yes, you are. You’ve hardly talked to me since Saturday. It’s because I went out with Dennis and the boys, isn’t it?”

Kate shifted her potato pile toward the far end of the table to avoid flipping a peeling right in his lap. “It’s immaterial to me what you do with your Saturday nights, Sean.”

“No, it’s not. Otherwise you wouldn’t be mad. I take it as a good sign.”

She shook her head. “Please don’t.”

“You were with Wentworth, you know. Did you expect me to be happy about that?”

“I didn’t think about it one way or another.”

“Well, I sure as hell did,” he muttered, swinging his legs back and forth until the table began to wobble.

“You’re going to have all my food on the ground in a minute,” she said irritably. “Aren’t you supposed to be working?”

“I am working. I’m seeing if the new cook needs any help.”

“She doesn’t.”

“I got the assignment because the new cook happens to be my wife,” he added with a grin.

Kate stopped her peeling for a moment to look at him. “You’ve told people that?”

He nodded. “Darn right I’ve told them.”

She paused a moment, then went back to her peeling. “I would have thought you mught be reluctant to say anything.”

“Why’s that?”

“I’m sure your mother would be mortified for the folks on Nob Hill to know that her daughter-in-law was peeling potatoes in a scruffy mining camp.”

Sean laughed. “It would almost be worth a trip back to San Francisco to tell her.”

“But it doesn’t bother you?”

“Katie, I think it’s remarkable what you and Jennie have done to survive and keep your family thriving after your mother and father left you with nothing but debts.”

“We had the house,” she argued, feeling that his words somehow implied criticism of her beloved parents.

“A big, run-down house that sucked up money and energy.”

“A house that we were able to turn into a moneymaking enterprise,” she corrected.

“That’s what I was saying…you survived because of initiative and hard work. The two of you are worth all of last season’s Nob Hill debs put together.”

Kate didn’t return his smile, but she was pleased nonetheless. “Well, I’m glad you’re not ashamed to have me working here,” she concluded.

Sean boosted himself off the table and spoke seriously. “Katie, I’m more proud of you than I’ve ever been able to express. It’s myself that I’ve been ashamed of.”

She met his eyes, not sure what to say. His expression was as humble as the dirty mining clothes he wore. It was hard to see any traces of the cocky, spoiled charmer he’d been when he first came to Vermillion. “You’d better get back to work,” she said finally. “Or the foreman will cause trouble for us both.”

He nodded and turned to leave the kitchen, but just before he left, he turned back to her and asked, “Will Jennie and Carter be back tonight?”

“I don’t think so. They’ll likely be staying a couple more days.” Carter had asked Kate if she would mind if he kept Jennie in Virginia City for a short vacation.

“She needs the rest, and, besides, the International Hotel there has special memories for us,” Carter had explained. Then he’d added with a grin, “I figure I’d better take advantage now before I have to share her attention with my son.”

“I think it would be a great idea if you two stayed a couple of days for her to get some
sleep,”
Kate had agreed, smiling. “I’ll expect to see you both well rested when you return.”

At her answer, Sean’s expression appeared to brighten, but all he said was, “Ah. Well, I hope she finds out that everything’s all right with the baby.”

“So do I.”

“See you at lunch, Katie.” She noticed that as he turned down the path toward the nearest mine tunnel, he was whistling.

As usual, Sean was exhausted by the end of his day of hauling carload after carload of ore up the long tracks from the back of the mine. It was “mule” duty, one of the worst, but he liked it better than working the pickaxes. At least this way he got to emerge regularly into the bright sunlight. The pickers, though they earned a dollar more a day, descended into the bowels of the mine in the morning and came out at dusk, covered in soot and blinking their eyes at the fading light like some kind of night creatures.

But tired as he was, Sean detoured into town on his way home to make a stop at the general store. The young clerk looked at him in his grimy miner’s outfit as if he were out of his mind, but when Sean produced a twenty-dollar bill from the depths of his blackened coveralls, the boy snapped to attention and took care of Sean’s purchases with total courtesy.

By the time he reached the Sheridan house, it was almost supper time. Omitting his usual after-work visit with Caroline, he raced upstairs to wash off the dust, change clothes and get his purchases ready.

He came into the dining room just as Barnaby was entering from the kitchen with a basket of freshly baked rolls. Sean could smell them all the way across the room.

He took an approving whiff. “Mmm. Fresh bread.”

“And pot roast,” Barnaby added. “With gravy.”