Marry Me by Sundown Read online

  They really had sold everything, even the kitchen table, which was why she suggested, “I could take us to dinner at a restaurant.”

  “You can’t, not if we’re keeping your arrival a secret,” Daniel pointed out. “What if we ran into Mr. Perry?”

  That wasn’t likely, but if it did happen, then her plan would be over before it started. So she just nodded and said, “My maid’s defection doesn’t alter my plan—well, it does, it just means one of you will have to accompany me to find Father, while the other stays here to stall Mr. Perry for another month’s extension. D’you need to draw straws?”

  They’d already discussed this part. Perry was to be told that she’d sent them a letter explaining that she needed time to think about marriage to him. She was even going to write that letter tonight, in case he demanded to see it. But she was confident she would be back from Montana in less than a month, either with enough money from their father to save the house, or with their father himself, who would talk the banker into modifying the loan.

  Daniel spoke up first. “Evan has to stay. He’s courting a rich heiress and can’t lose momentum on that. His marrying her would solve our dilemma—but he has to hurry it up.”

  “There are three others courting her as well, so it’s not a sure solution, though I am hopeful. But these things can’t be hurried.”

  “You love her?” Violet asked Evan.

  “No, not yet, but at least she’s pretty, so I’m willing to make the sacrifice, even if you aren’t. And she likes me,” he added with a rakish grin.

  She rolled her eyes at him. Of course the young woman would like him. He and Daniel were both so handsome. But they were never supposed to have to sacrifice when choosing a wife. Then again, they were never supposed to end up poor either. She was going to give her father a blistering tongue-lashing for thoughtlessly squandering his inheritance and putting them in this dilemma.

  She turned to Daniel who, by default, had become her traveling partner, but he winced and admitted, “I hate to say it, but I’m also committed. I would have gone to look for Father myself if I weren’t. Although I’m sure he’s fine. You know how charismatic he is. He makes friends and charms people into helping him wherever he goes.”

  “Committed how?” she asked, daunted by the thought of traveling to Montana without at least one of her brothers.

  “It’s a debt to a friend,” Daniel said, then blushed. “We gambled. I really thought I could win, but I didn’t, and I didn’t have the money to pay him. If he weren’t a friend, he probably would have had me tossed in jail. He was willing to wait for payment, but then his sister came to town and he offered to cancel the debt if I would agree to escort her during her visit. It was worth it to him to get out of the task himself. And I was delighted that I wouldn’t have to admit that I couldn’t afford to pay him back. It was only supposed to be for a few weeks, but she decided to extend her stay.”

  “How much do you owe him?” Violet asked.

  Evan glanced up from chopping carrots. “Don’t be annoyed with him, Vi. Had he gotten lucky, he could have turned that first bet into our next loan payment. Besides, Father told us to go on as if nothing had changed. It hasn’t been easy, keeping our reduced circumstances from our friends.”

  She repeated more sternly, “How much?”

  Daniel sighed. “Only fifty dollars, but that’s a damn lot now that our pockets are empty.”

  She hated to see her brothers pinching pennies like this, but was relieved by the amount. “I can pay that off, so you can come with me to Montana.” When he started to grin, she added, “Don’t look so pleased. You may end up having to help work Father’s mine.”

  He groaned. Evan laughed as he put the slab of beef in the oven to roast with the carrots. But Violet continued giving orders. “Evan, while you stay here to continue your courtship and deal with Mr. Perry, you might want to discreetly find out if anyone you know is interested in buying this house, just in case we have to lose it. Selling it will allow you to pay off the bank loan as well as any other debts you have and still end up with a profit.”

  “You know you actually sound British now?” Daniel suddenly said.

  She raised a brow. “What did you expect? I’ve lived in London for as many years as I lived here, so of course I picked up an accent and a few expressions you aren’t familiar with.”

  “You sound exactly like Aunt Elizabeth did when she came for you, furious that Father had let you turn into a tomboy,” Evan added.

  She laughed. “No, I wasn’t a tomboy. And if I were to stay here for a few months, I might start sounding American again.”

  “You won’t stay? Even if we drag Father home and all is as it should be again?”

  Daniel looked so hopeful she almost told him what he wanted to hear. But if all could be as it should be, her life wouldn’t change and she could go back to London and enjoy the Season, so she gently said, “No, but I will start visiting every few years now that my schooling is done. I won’t ask Father and Evan to make that trip again, but you could, you know. In either case, I won’t let another five years pass without us seeing each other, I promise you that.”

  “But why go back?” Daniel protested.

  “Right before I sailed, I met the man I’m going to marry, Elliott Palmer, an English lord. And I intend to be back in England sooner rather than later so I don’t lose him to some other debutante. So let’s focus on our plan. Evan, you convince Mr. Perry to hold off on foreclosing on the house. The letter I write tonight should help with that. And Daniel and I will return from Montana with good news—or bring Father with us.”

  “Send word to me immediately,” Evan said. “I want to know that he’s well.”

  He was worried, Violet realized, and Daniel probably was, too; they just didn’t want her to know it and start worrying as well. She said staunchly, “Someone would have notified you if anything bad happened to Father, particularly since he owns property in Montana, if a mining claim can be called that. So it’s a good thing that you’ve heard nothing. He’s probably too busy mining so he can get us out of this pickle, and too far from a town to post a letter. Now, is there a bed left in this house for me to sleep in tonight?”

  Chapter Four

  VIOLET WAS A LITTLE excited when she and Daniel left for the train station the next morning. She’d had him buy her a valise yesterday when he’d gone to pay off his friendly wager, because it would be a nuisance to take one of her trunks on this journey when she didn’t expect to be in Montana more than a few days. And he’d come back with good news. His friend had refused to take the money, assuring him that putting up with his sister for as long as Daniel had sufficed as payment in full.

  She was more worried about the other creditors her brothers had mentioned, but both assured her their credit was still good because none of those merchants were aware of their financial straits. Still, she left Evan with a little money, wishing it could be more, but she needed to make sure there would be enough left for the whole family to live on if their father hadn’t been successful out west. But she was hopeful and so looking forward to seeing her father again.

  They just managed to buy tickets for a train that was about to depart. She boarded ahead of her brother and found them a seat, setting down her valise. She thought he was right behind her until she glanced out and saw him on the platform being led away by a policeman! He was shouting, trying to tell her something, but she couldn’t hear him clearly through the closed windows. She rushed to the boarding stairs and would have stepped off onto the platform, but the train started to move.

  She heard Daniel yelling, “It’s my tailor. He thinks I’m skipping town without paying him. I’ll straighten this out and follow you tomorrow. Don’t waste your ticket to stay and wait for me!”

  She couldn’t get off the train now even if she wanted to. She did want to and considered jumping off, but was afraid she’d break one of her limbs, and then she wouldn’t be going anywhere. But she really didn’t want t
o travel alone even for just one day. At least she would have had a maid with her if Jane hadn’t been so afraid of going on this trip—good God, now she was just as afraid as Jane. Daniel might follow her tomorrow, if he could get a refund for his ticket to buy another, but he would still be a day behind her for the entire trip, unless she went no farther than the first layover. But time was of the essence, time during which a loan payment was rapidly coming due again.

  She finally pushed her fears aside when she looked around the train car and noticed that the other passengers were all well-dressed, respectable-looking people like her. She took her seat and stared numbly out the window. At the first stop, she sent Evan a telegram telling him she would wait for Daniel in Butte. But she nearly changed her mind later in the week when the train crossed into what was considered the West.

  She hadn’t expected it would take her six days to reach her destination, especially after her brothers had bragged that she’d be riding most of the way on the fastest train in the world. They were misinformed. The transcontinental railroad used the same trains as the other railroads; it was touted as being the fastest way to cross the entire country simply because it didn’t stop in every town for passengers. But she’d had to change trains twice before getting on the express train. Then she’d had to change again in Utah for the branch train that continued north to Montana—and each of those stops had required a sleepover while waiting for the new train, which amounted to a day wasted at each stop and funds wasted at hotels. She would have to start counting every penny.

  Violet felt as if she’d entered a different world after the last change of trains. The easterners who had traveled with her this far and had kept her nervousness at bay were continuing on to California, while she was traveling north. When she looked out the window, she saw wide-open spaces, untouched forests, lakes so big she couldn’t see the opposite shores. Fascinated by the landscape, she might have enjoyed this trip if she weren’t making it alone and hadn’t become such a curiosity to the new passengers, who appeared to be cowboys, farmers, and ragtag men who talked excitedly about getting rich in Butte. Had her father felt as excited and optimistic as these men when he’d come west? He would have been confident of success, so maybe he had.

  Arriving at last, Violet could never have imagined a town like Butte, Montana. Her schooling hadn’t prepared her for the American frontier. She’d studied European history and the wars that Britain had fought against America, but the English weren’t interested in the western half of America, which they considered primitive and uncivilized. She’d learned from one of her fellow passengers that Montana wasn’t even a state, merely a U.S. territory.

  But for a frontier town, Butte was larger than she’d expected, filled with all manner of businesses and numerous hotels, even entertainment halls, though most of those appeared to be saloons. It was nothing like the two cities in which she’d grown up. The buildings were mostly made of wood and no higher than two stories. Late on a Saturday afternoon, it was incredibly crowded and, even worse, incredibly dusty, with so many people walking and riding through the streets. Most of the men were in work clothes. She saw only a few sporting derby hats, but the men weren’t wearing suit coats. The women were plainly dressed, except for a few she was shocked to see in gaudy, low-cut gowns. There was too much to take in, so she didn’t try. She just made her way to the nearest respectable-looking hotel, paid for a room, and, bone-weary, went right to sleep.

  The next morning she was anxious to start searching for her father. After finishing a small breakfast in the hotel restaurant, she asked the attendant in the lobby whom she should talk to about finding a missing person. He gave her directions to the sheriff’s office. She stopped at the telegraph office first to see if there was word from her brothers. There wasn’t, so she sent a telegram to let them know she had arrived in Butte, and told the clerk where she was staying so any replies could be delivered to her.

  The streets weren’t as crowded this early in the morning. There were only a few wagons delivering goods. The miners who had filled the streets yesterday must have left town or were sleeping off their revelries. Twice last night she’d been woken by gunshots.

  How on earth had her father managed in this town? Charles Mitchell was a gentleman born and bred, always meticulously dressed. She hadn’t seen a single man in a suit yesterday and not one today either. The only men she saw were in work clothes or in pants, shirts, wide-brimmed hats, and gun belts. It was the gun belts that made this place so foreign to her, and made her so eager to leave it. She hoped she’d find her father today and could be on a train back to Philadelphia tomorrow with good news for her brothers.

  A man was sitting in a chair on the porch of the sheriff’s office. He appeared to be sleeping with his head resting back against the wall and his hat pulled down low over his face. She tried not to disturb him as she stepped past him and went inside.

  “Sheriff?” she said to the man seated behind the desk. He was middle-aged and clean-shaven, neatly dressed in a leather vest worn over a shirt with rolled-up sleeves.

  The man glanced up from the newspaper he’d been reading and set it aside. “No, ma’am. The sheriff’s gone fishing with his brother, does every weekend. I’m Deputy Barnes. What can I help you with?”

  “My father, Charles Mitchell, is missing. He came here a few months ago. The information I have is that he staked a claim in this area. Is that how you say it?”

  “Good enough.” The deputy grinned. “And what makes you think he’s missing?”

  “Because his habit was to write home often, but he hasn’t sent another letter since he informed us he arrived here and began mining. Too much time has passed since then. We fear he may be hurt—or worse.”

  He looked solemn now as he said, “That I can find out immediately.”

  He opened a drawer in the desk and pulled out a ledger. He turned a few pages in it before he glanced up at her again. His new expression made her heart sink.

  “The sheriff usually deals with bad news, but obviously this won’t wait till he’s back,” he said in extreme discomfort. “I’m sorry, ma’am. Your pa died two weeks ago. He was known in these parts as Charley, not that anyone knew him all that well. I recall now that Dr. Wilson let us know about it. He fills in when Dr. Cantry goes away. Your father had been Doc Cantry’s patient for more’n a month and never regained consciousness after an accident that happened at his mine. Another mine owner brought him to the doctor. He’s the one who found him. I think their mines are in the same area.”

  Violet started to feel faint, and the deputy helped her to a chair. She heard his words; they just weren’t sinking in yet. Dead? Her brothers were going to be as crushed as she felt. She’d been so sure she would see her father today. She couldn’t believe she’d never see him again! He was really dead?

  A handkerchief was being waved in front of her face. She realized she was crying. It had been so long since she’d seen her father, yet she still had so many memories of him, walks and picnics in the parks, him teaching her and her brothers to swim in Springton Lake, boat rides on the Delaware River, and the four of them gathered in the parlor where he would read stories to them with her leaning against his shoulder and the boys sitting at his feet. The memories overwhelmed her. This news overwhelmed her. What was she to do now?

  “Callahan, the man who brought your father to town, was checking on his condition whenever he came down from the hills,” the deputy was saying. “Even left money for a funeral if it was needed. He got back to town a few days after your father died and was buried in the graveyard on the edge of town.”

  She was so numb! He couldn’t really be dead. It could be a mistake, some other man with the same name. . . .

  “Dr. Cantry might be able to tell you more. And Morgan Callahan—well, never mind him.”

  “Why?”

  “Callahan is something of a hermit, abides up in the hills where no one else lives and doesn’t come to town often. Most folks figured he was just
a mountain man when he showed up in a bear coat last winter, complete with the fur and looking as shaggy as one. Acts like a bear, too, if you ask me. Turns out he’s been mining all this time and just tried to keep it a secret, which is not surprising, with the big mine owners around here buying up the little mines pretty fast. But the news got out that Morgan had found a pretty rich silver vein, and only your father managed to figure out where. Anyways, Morgan’s just too gruff and surly for a lady such as yourself to speak to.”

  She nodded her agreement. “My father’s belongings? Where might they be?”

  “Probably still at his mine. And you might want to close out your father’s bank account here, too, if he had one, but that will have to wait until tomorrow when the bank’s open.”

  “Where is the doctor?”

  He helped her to her feet to escort her out, saying, “I can take you to him now. He might have something to recommend for your shock, too.”

  “And my father’s mine, where it is?”

  “You would need to check with the claims office tomorrow, though that won’t be helpful other than to confirm he staked a claim. They might give you the general direction in which it lies, but not much more. You’ll need a guide to take you to it in any case, if it is indeed near Callahan’s, though I doubt anyone knows where that is. Morgan seems a mite obsessive about keeping the location of his mine a secret, always leaving town in a different direction.”

  Despite the warnings, she had to ask, “But Mr. Callahan could show me?”

  The deputy sighed. “He might be the only one who knows exactly where it is, but honestly, ma’am, you won’t want to deal with him.”

  “Is he in town?”

  He appeared glad to say, “No, least, I haven’t heard that he is, and I would’ve heard. He stirs up gossip when he does show up, but that’s not often. And when he does, he only spends one night in a hotel, then is gone the next day. But I can point you to the hotel he usually stays at. You could leave a message there for him if you’ve a mind to. Maybe he’ll draw you a map and you can hire someone not as ornery to show you the way.”