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“You just transferred that worry to us,” Eddy said with a sad smile.
“I’m sorry.”
“No apology needed. As I said, you are old enough to direct your own life. I just have to accept that. I don’t love you any less.”
The two embraced and Regan whispered, “Thank you.”
A few days later, tickets in hand, Eddy, her lady friends, and Portia and Kent boarded the train bound for San Francisco and the women’s conference. Regan stayed home to continue seeing to her move to Wyoming. Portia and Kent were set to stay a few days longer and she planned to be extra sweet to him for agreeing to come along.
Upon arrival, they took cabs to their hotel and rested up for their dinner that evening with Rhine’s half brother Andrew, his wife Freda and their son Little Drew.
The conference the next day turned out to be an exciting affair. Women from all over the West converged on the grove behind the local Baptist church to hear speeches, plot strategies for advancing suffrage, and reaffirm their commitments to uplifting the race. Portia had never seen such a gathering of determined, forceful, and articulate women, and it filled her with pride. She saw Ada Jakes at a table selling pamphlets. The woman looked her off. Portia didn’t care. She saw Winston, too, with a dark-skinned woman on his arm. His eyes widened at the sight of Portia but he didn’t approach her and she didn’t approach him either.
The highlight of the day was hearing the words of famed speaker Frances Watkins Harper, a force of nature for both the race and women since the days of abolition. She was in her winter years, her hair graying but her voice was still strong, her message fiery, and when she finished, an inspired Portia and everyone else leapt to their feet to applaud.
Portia and Kent had dinner that evening at a small restaurant and she filled him in on the day.
“Sounds like you had a good time.”
“Oh, I did. Mrs.Harper’s talk was so moving it made me want to grab a placard and start marching.”
“But you want to stay married?” he teased.
“Of course.”
They finished their meal, and after paying the check, they left the eatery and took a slow stroll back to the hotel. The route took them past many shops and businesses and even at that time of the evening, the walks were crowded with people. Her excitement for the day notwithstanding, Portia glanced up at her handsome husband and decided she loved being married. Waking up in the morning with him by her side filled her with more happiness than she ever thought imaginable. She knew no marriage was perfect, and that there would be times they’d disagree, argue profusely, or be so annoyed they’d want to be alone for a period of time, but for now she was content.
“Penny for your thoughts, Mrs.Randolph.”
“Just happy.”
“Good. No new bride should be unhappy.”
She was about to say more when she noticed a woman about her aunt’s age walking towards them dressed in the height of fashion. Her ensemble was the color of emeralds and was as beautiful as it was costly. She was next to a distinguished-looking older gentleman attired in a nice brown suit. From the way her gloved hand rested so lovingly in the crook of his arm, they gave the impression of being married, too. As the couple neared, the woman’s brown eyes locked with Portia’s and they both stared at each other in shock. The woman quickly looked away and she and the man passed by without a further glance, but Portia’s heart was pounding so riotously, she stopped.
Kent asked with concern, “Are you all right? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I have. My mother just walked by us.”
He swiftly turned around. Portia eventually turned, too, but the couple was no longer in sight. She didn’t know if they’d been swallowed by the crowd or stepped into one of the shops. What she did know was that Corinne Carmichael, the woman who’d mailed her daughters to Eddy and disappeared from their lives was alive and well.
Later as she talked to Eddy about it at the hotel, Eddy asked, “Are you sure it was Corinne?”
“Positive. And from the shock on her face, she recognized me as well.”
Eddy sighed. “I’d like to find her but I can’t imagine how we’d go about that.”
“Frankly, the way she averted her eyes, I don’t think she’ll want us to find her.”
“You’re probably right, but I wonder what she’s been doing all this time and why she never sent us so much as a word in the fifteen years since she gave you girls to me. Women don’t normally get up one morning and decide to abandon their children. You and your sister deserve at least an explanation.”
Portia agreed. Watching Corinne look away when they passed each other felt like being stabbed in the heart with a red-hot poker, bringing back the painful memories of all the nights she’d cried in the dark after arriving in Virginia City and how unloved she’d been made to feel.
Eddy was pacing and looking genuinely upset. “I want to find her and shake her until her teeth rattle.”
Portia understood her aunt’s anger and the desire for answers. Corinne’s short two-line letter to Eddy simply stated that the new man in her life didn’t want to provide for two children that weren’t his own. That her mother had agreed to such an outrageous directive only added to the hurt. Was the gentleman with Corinne the same unfeeling man, or someone different who had no inkling of her past? It was yet another question needing an answer.
Eddy stopped pacing and from the tense set of her lips, Portia knew she’d come to a decision. “Whether Corinne wants to be found or not, she owes you girls an explanation, and if I have to hire an army of Pinkertons to bring that about, that’s what I’ll do.”
