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“Just a few days. I’ll be visiting my brother.” Andrew was now one of San Francisco’s most prominent bankers.
“Will you be discussing putting the saloon up for sale?” she asked, sounding hopeful.
“No, because it isn’t for sale.”
“I thought we agreed—”
“We haven’t agreed to anything,” he countered mildly.
“A member of the city council shouldn’t own a place no decent person will enter?”
“My clientele are as decent as you and I. The only difference is the color of their skin.”
“You’re making me a laughingstock.”
“You can always call off the engagement.” And truthfully, one part of him wished she would.
“And let another woman in town have a shot at the most handsome man in Nevada?” Her smile caught the moonlight. “I won’t be crying off. I’m determined to change your mind.”
“And if you can’t?” he asked, hoping he sounded nonchalant. For the past few weeks she’d been after him to sell the saloon, and she was as persistent as she was beautiful.
“I’m not worried. I always get my way. Now, give me a kiss before Mother comes out and starts fussing about me ruining my reputation by being out here with you in the dark.”
He complied, and when he broke the seal of their lips, she whispered, “I’m not letting another woman have your kisses either.”
He chuckled. “Come. I’ll walk you to the door.” Once there, he said to her, “I’ll see you when I return from San Francisco.”
She stroked his cheek with a gloved hand. “Good night, Rhine.”
He inclined his head and walked back to his rig. As he drove home through the lamplit streets his thoughts involuntarily swung to Eddy. He wondered what she would’ve thought of Herbert Gould. According to the few things she’d shared about her past, she’d been working since the age of twelve, which meant she’d probably never put on a costly gown, fastened a jeweled necklace around her throat, and been escorted to a place like Piper’s. Unlike Natalie, who had parasols to match every gown in her armoire, inside Eddy’s old carpetbag he’d seen a few well-worn blouses, two skirts with fraying hems, and three threadbare shifts. She’d also been wearing an old pair of boys’ brogans when they found her in the desert. Although Natalie had more materially, there was an underlying strength in Eddy’s character that Natalie would probably never have. He also sensed that Eddy knew the value of what it meant to own one’s own business and wouldn’t badger him to sell simply because of personal prejudice. He was on his way to take her over to Sylvia’s. Even though that saddened him, he knew her leaving him was for the best.
He drove on, and as always the night air was filled with the constant drone of the mines’ machinery housed along the base of nearby Mount Davidson. The noisy pumps that kept the tunnels free of scalding water that flowed below the surface joined the cacophony set off by air compressors and the enormous hoisters that ferried caged miners underground and brought the newly found ore to the surface, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Every now and then explosions echoed across the landscape from the black powder used to open up new veins that ran for miles around and below the city. Visitors and newcomers found the constant noise troublesome, but to men like Rhine whose wealth from the mines increased with each passing day, it was as soothing as a lullaby.
Dressed in her worn white blouse and faded dark skirt, Eddy sat in one of the chairs in Fontaine’s bedroom and waited for his return. Her carpetbag and brazier were at her feet. She was anxious to get to Mrs.Stewart’s home so she could recover fully and begin this new phase of her life even as she wondered how his evening had fared and what the fiancée looked like. For the hundredth time she told herself neither question mattered and that she should be more concerned with what her future held. It seemed like only yesterday that she’d left Denver, but in reality more than a month had passed and here she sat in his bedroom. The difference in their races notwithstanding, he’d gone out of his way to show her nothing but concern and kindness. Once she got on her feet and saved up her money so she could resume her journey to California, she’d remember him fondly.
“Are you ready?” he asked when he entered the room a few minutes later.
“I am. How was the performance?”
“Awful.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No sorrier than I.”
She slowly pushed herself upright. Like this morning, she was moving easier but still not at a normal pace.
“Shall I carry you?”
“No.” As she picked her way to where he stood by the door, he watched and waited.
“I can get you a cane,” he said in a teasing tone.
“Ha, ha,” she tossed back, and yes, she’d miss bantering with him.
He crossed his arms. “You know the sun will rise in about eight hours.”
Finding it difficult to keep a straight face in the wake of his playful teasing, she countered, “Make yourself useful. Get my carpetbag and the brazier.”
