No Less Than the Journey (18 page)

CHAPTER 1

Anabelita, Lola and Aaron boarded a Kansas Pacific railroad train from St Louis a week before Wes and Old Charlie made their abortive journey along the same line.

It was a much less crowded train than the one boarded by the two men. A special immigrant train had been provided by the railroad company the day before. Lacking many of the amenities of a scheduled train, it had nevertheless attracted many miners and settlers heading west, aware they would be saving a great deal of money by travelling in such a spartan fashion.

Anabelita had become increasingly quiet since leaving the stranded
Missouri Belle
and, soon after the train set off, when Aaron had gone to spend an hour in the saloon car, Lola tackled her about her lack of conversation.

‘Are you all right, Anabelita? You’ve hardly said more than a few words since we left the river.’

Anabelita started, as though her mind had been far away when Lola spoke. Gathering her thoughts together, she replied, ‘Haven’t I? I’m sorry, Lola, I don’t mean to be rude, it’s just … oh, I don’t know! I suppose I believed that my life had
pretty well settled down while I was working on the
Missouri
Belle
. Now everything is up in the air again.’

‘Is it the fact that you are going to work for Aaron now…? Or does it have more to do with parting company with Wes?’ Lola asked the question casually, but she studied Anabelita’s face closely for a reaction.

She had forgotten she was speaking to a very accomplished poker player. Without changing her expression, Anabelita lied, ‘It’s the change in my way of life, I guess. I like to plan my life as much as I can. It’s just not possible right now.’

‘We can none of us tell exactly what’s going to happen in the future, but I think we can both rely on Aaron to look after us. He won’t let us down.’

‘I’m sure he won’t … at least, not intentionally. But he’s first and foremost a United States Marshal whose work is out in the Territories. It doesn’t exactly make him the most secure of employers.’

Shuddering involuntarily, Lola said, ‘I’d rather not think about that, Anabelita.’

Reaching out, Anabelita gripped her friend’s arm, sympathetically, ‘I’m sorry, Lola, that wasn’t very tactful of me.’ After a few moments, she added, ‘When I get really depressed I wish I had led a “normal” life and ended up with a safe home and a family, like most women. But had we both done that we would never have met men like Aaron or Wes, would we?’

‘In the long term that might have been for the best,’ Lola said enigmatically, ‘At least, it would have been for me. Aaron is an important man … a friend of the President, no less. I am nothing more than a bar girl … a whore! One day he’ll go back East to his own kind, leaving me to go back to mine. But I accepted that when I let myself fall for him and I’ll make the most of him while I can. It’s not every woman who is lucky
enough to have someone like Aaron come into her life.’

Lola was not in the habit of expressing her feelings quite so openly and, giving Anabelita an embarrassed, lop-sided smile, she added, ‘We haven’t done too well in our choice of men, have we? There’s me saying Aaron’s too good for me and Wes believing he’s not good enough for you!’

Startled by Lola’s words, Anabelita demanded, ‘What do you mean…? Whatever gives you the idea that Wes doesn’t believe he’s good enough for me?’

‘Aaron told me,’ Lola replied. ‘It seems Wes told him he could never see you settling down to life as the wife of a miner.’

‘Since the question of marriage has never come up, I don’t think Wes had any right to say who I would, or wouldn’t settle down with. For all he knows I might be ready to settle down with anyone who will have me.’

Anabelita’s reply puzzled Lola. She thought about it for a few moments before asking, ‘Are you pregnant?’ She put the question hesitantly, fully expecting her friend to be indignant at such an impertinent question.

Instead, Anabelita shrugged, ‘I don’t know.’

The reply astonished Lola. ‘You don’t know whether you’re expecting a baby? There can’t be any doubt, one way or the other, surely? You either are, or you’re not!’

‘I’ve never been particularly regular,’ Anabelita replied, ‘and I’m only a couple of weeks overdue.’

Showing very real concern, Lola said, ‘But … what if you are pregnant? You can’t take up work in a frontier town gaming house in that condition.’

‘Why not? It won’t even show for about six months – and what else should I do? Retire on what little money I’ve got put by, only to discover it’s a false alarm? No, Lola, I’ll carry on with whatever Aaron has planned for us and decide what to
do when I know one way or the other.’

When Lola remained silent, Anabelita said, ‘You won’t say anything to Aaron about it?’

‘Of course not, but in all fairness to him I think you should tell him as soon as you know for certain – for his sake and for yours. He’ll no doubt be able to get in touch with Wes….’

‘No!’ Anabelita spoke fiercely, ‘I don’t want Wes to know anything about this … even if there is something to know. I hope he will come back to me sometime soon, Lola. I think I want it more than anything I have ever wanted in the whole of my life, but it needs to be because he loves me, not because he believes it is what he should do. If he returns to me because someone tells him I am expecting his baby I will never know for certain. If he comes back to me of his own accord then I will tell him. I will also tell him how I feel about becoming a miner’s wife … but all that is in the future. I am glad I have told you, Lola, you are a good friend and I wasn’t happy not saying anything to you but let’s not talk about it again until I am certain whether or not I am having Wes’s baby.’

CHAPTER 2

The next day was a Saturday and, late in the afternoon, as the train slowed on the approach to the Abilene depot, Lola and Anabelita made a final check to ensure they would leave nothing behind when they disembarked.

Both women were excited to be arriving at their destination – but their enthusiasm was not shared by Aaron. The US Marshal had been led to believe that Abilene was a thriving and exciting railhead town, where cowboys, cattlemen, buyers and their many hangers-on made it a rowdy and free-spending town. What he was seeing through the train window did not justify such a claim.

There were extensive stockyards, it was true, but they were standing empty with a neglected air and what could be seen of Abilene itself gave the newcomer an impression of a sleepy and rather tired town.

It was not at all what Aaron had been expecting. At this time of day a railhead town should have been bracing itself for a night of riotous entertainment. Abilene did not look like a town where a man could make his fortune by opening a
gambling house.

At that moment the conductor came through the car and Aaron commented to him on the lack of activity to be seen through the car window.

‘Things in Abilene certainly aren’t what they used to be,’ the conductor agreed ruefully, ‘There was a time when there’d be nigh as many folk waiting to meet the train as there were steers in the pens we’ve just passed. Trouble is, too many newcomers brought fancy ideas in from the East and they didn’t care for the smell of the cattle – nor the cowboys. Thing got so bad that the Texan cattlemen persuaded the Sante Fe railroad to lay track into Dodge. When they did, the cattlemen moved the stockyards there too. I tell you, if it wasn’t for all that’s going on out in Colorado the Kansas Pacific would be in deep trouble and it’d be hardly worthwhile stopping in Abilene at all. There’s only six of you getting off the train today and I doubt if there’ll be that many getting on.’

Lola and Anabelita had been listening to the conversation with increasing concern. When the conductor moved on Lola asked, ‘If all he says is true, what are we going to do, Aaron? If there are no cattle coming in there’s going to be very little money around to spend on gambling.’

Aaron could only agree, but he said, ‘Let’s not get too depressed about it right now. We’ll find a hotel, book ourselves in and I’ll check out how much truth there is in what the conductor had to say. Things might not be quite as bad as he makes out although I must admit there doesn’t seem to be very much going on in Abilene right now.’

Booking in to a hotel posed the trio no problem. Aaron had already inquired about which of the town’s establishments was most suitable for the two women and had learned that the best of them was right opposite the railroad depot. Here he
booked a room for Lola and Anabelita to share and another for himself.

When he had seen the two women settled in, Aaron set off to find the town sheriff. He had no trouble locating his office on the town’s dusty and tired-looking main street, but the sheriff was not here.

A one-armed man sitting in the office cleaning a shotgun informed him that the town’s premier lawman was out of town with his wife, attending a relative’s wedding in Kansas City.

‘Then I guess things must be pretty quiet around here right now,’ Aaron commented.

Shaking his head, the one-armed man said dejectedly, ‘Mister, things are so quiet in Abilene that if anyone so much as sneezed, it’d likely make headlines in the next day’s newspaper.’

Aaron smiled, ‘I’ll remember to tiptoe around town and make sure not to blow my nose … but am I right in thinking you’re Pat Rafferty?’

‘That’s me, Mister, but you have an advantage over me …’

‘I’m sorry, I should have introduced myself when I came in …’ Extending a hand, he said, ‘I’m Aaron Berryman, a friend of Heck McKinnon.’

The one-armed man’s lackadaisical air disappeared immediately. Scrambling to his feet still clutching the shotgun, he seemed momentarily at a loss what to do with the weapon. Eventually laying it upon the table, he grasped Aaron’s right hand in an awkward grip with his own left and said, ‘It’s an honour to meet you, Marshal. Heck telegraphed that you’d be coming this way, but he didn’t say when, or why.’

‘I’m on my way to the Territories,’ Aaron explained, ‘but thought I’d like to set up a little personal business venture
right here in Abilene first. At least, that was my intention. I came to look at a gambling saloon called the Golden Globe. Heck said you might be able to help me out.’

Rafferty grimaced, ‘I could have helped you, Marshal, but not any more. You’ve arrived in Abilene a little too late. The Golden Globe burned down a couple of weeks ago.’

Startled by the news, Aaron asked, ‘Burned down…? How did it happen?’

‘The only person with the answer to that question is Kate Scobell, who owned the place … but she ain’t around any more. She was arrested on suspicion of burning the place down so she could claim insurance on it, but a slick lawyer got her released and no one’s seen hide nor hair of her since then. Rumour has it she’s taken off and gone East.’

Looking sympathetically at Aaron, Rafferty added, ‘All this might have come as a nasty shock to you, Marshal, but take it from me, you’ve had a lucky escape.’

When Aaron asked him to explain what he meant, Rafferty said, ‘The days when money was easy come, easy go in Abilene, are over. There’s not one gaming-house in town that’s making money any more. Most have already closed. You’ll have seen the empty stockyards as you came in. Cattlemen have taken their money to Dodge City and until something comes in to take their place folk are going to need to tighten their belts – and I know what I’m talking about, Marshal. Time was when six deputies were hard put to keep order in this one street alone. Now they’ve all been paid off and the sheriff is able to go out of town to a family wedding, leaving a one-armed man without a badge to look after the town while he’s away.’

‘Well, according to Heck McKinnon you’re more than capable of doing just that, but finding Abilene so quiet has come as a big disappointment to me …’

Aaron told Rafferty the story of the wrecking of the
Missouri
Belle
, explaining, ‘I brought two of the women croupiers along to Abilene with me.’ Making no mention of Lola’s past, he added, ‘They’re both straight players and I was looking forward to buying the Golden Globe, setting it up as an honest house and asking you to keep order in it while I was away. Now I suppose I’ll need to take a look at Dodge.’

‘Dodge City is no place for women, Marshal – leastways, not unless they’re whores. My brother came through here from Dodge only last week, heading home to Missouri. He says it’s already wilder than Abilene ever was and reckons there’s no more than a couple of decent women there right now. As for gaming-houses … big men from the East have moved in and put the opposition out of business – some of ’em permanently. If you were likely to be around all the time you might be able to do something about it, but it’s no place to leave two women while you go about your government duties. No, Marshal, if I was thinking of starting up some such business I’d turn my back on cattle towns. I’d go way out West – to where you’re heading anyway. To Colorado. It’s still a Territory, although I’ve heard it said it won’t be too long before it’s given Statehood … but you’ll know that already. Miners are striking it rich around Denver and flocking into town looking for ways to spend their earnings. Yes, sir, if I was intending setting up a gambling saloon – one with an honest game and two women who weren’t whores working the tables, I’d head for Denver. A miner who struck it rich passed through here only last week and said men from the diggings will pay good money just for the chance to look at a decent woman. That’s where there’s money to be made, Marshal – and you’d always be somewhere near at hand to see that things were going just the way you wanted. I’m so sure that’s the place to be that if you decided to take
your chances there and wanted someone to be around to keep order for you, I’d up sticks here and come along with you.’