Tracie Peterson - [New Mexico Sunset 03] (4 page)

Chapter 5

A
ngeline was filled with anticipation as she rode away from
Bandelero. The adventure of what she was doing made her giddy, and she couldn’t help but succumb to her own joy.

“I’m really doing it!” she whispered, staring out into the pitch blackness of the night.

In spite of her excitement, the gentle rocking of the train against the rails made Angeline sleepy, and without meaning to, she slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep.

“Miss, this is your stop,” a gentle voice was calling to her.

Angeline sat up with a start and immediately winced at the stiffness in her neck. She looked up into the face of the conductor and nodded rigidly. “Thank you,” she offered and glanced out the window into the predawn.

“Do you have folks to meet you?” the man asked her.

“No,” Angeline responded as if it was unimportant. “I’m catching the southbound train to Santa Fe later this morning.”

“Well, you’ll have a bit of a wait,” the man offered.

Somehow, Angeline hadn’t considered this possibility. “I’ll be fine,” she said with a false sense of courage. Taking her case in hand, Angeline followed the man down the aisle and allowed him to assist her from the train.

“You can wait in the depot,” he suggested. “At least the ticket agent will be nearby, if anyone tries to bother you.”

“Thank you,” Angeline replied and made her way into the dimly lit building.

The room was seemingly deserted, and Angeline swallowed hard to keep her nerve. She made her way slowly to a long empty bench and took a seat with a wary glance into the shadowy corners. She clutched her suitcase close and thought to whisper a prayer.

She stopped, however, before uttering the words. Would God listen to her? She was, after all, disobeying her parents, but wasn’t that a verse for children? Didn’t God intend that to be a guidance for when you were young and didn’t know how to care for yourself? Deciding that she was completely within her rights, Angeline offered a simple prayer and waited impatiently for time to pass.

❧

When the Santa Fe train finally pulled alongside the depot, Angeline was exhausted and hungry. She made her way slowly to the train, wondering how in the world she would find Willa, but to her surprise, Willa found her instead.

“Angeline!” the older woman cried from the platform.

“Am I ever glad to see you!” Angeline replied.

Willa Neal was a rather severe looking woman. Nearing her forty-fifth birthday, she was the very image of cartoon depictions of suffragists. Although, as Willa had already shown Angeline, the newspaper cartoons were much kinder to the suffragists these days than they had been twenty or so years earlier.

Dressed in her plain brown skirt and jacket, Willa had pulled her mousy brown hair back into a tight bun, without so much as a single wisp to escape the dourness. In actuality, she might have been a pleasant enough looking woman had she styled her hair differently and worn more flattering clothes. But, looking nice was not a concern of Willa Neal. Suffrage was! Suffrage was all she would give her precious efforts to.

“I’m glad you decided to join us, Angeline,” Willa said, leading Angeline down the aisle of the train car. “Did you have any difficulty in winning your parents to our cause?”

“Yes,” Angeline replied rather curtly. “I had a great deal of trouble. In fact, they didn’t want me to accompany you.”

“Typical!” Willa expressed with a nod. “Well, I’m glad you used the brains the good Lord gave you and came along anyway. Look here, there’s someone I want you to meet.” Angeline lifted her face to meet the gaze of a very handsome man. “Angeline Monroe, this is Douglas Baker. He is a great help to our cause and politically aligned to do us much good. He is very ambitious and very well may one day be president of the United States.”

Angeline couldn’t hide her surprise as she extended her hand to the gentleman before her. Bending over and lifting Angeline’s hand to his lips, Douglas Baker kissed the back very gently, then lifted his head to reveal a broad smile. “I am charmed.”

Angeline stared long and hard into the most beautiful green eyes she’d ever seen. Douglas Baker was very nearly perfect, she concluded. She pulled back her hand reluctantly and offered a weak version of her own smile. “How do you do?”

“Quite well,” he replied, straightening up again. “In fact, much better now that you are a part of our entourage.”

Willa laughed. “Douglas is quite the flatterer. He specializes in making women swoon and babies laugh.”

“What about the men?” Angeline questioned without giving it any thought.

“I outsmart the men,” Douglas answered with a mischievous smile. “Those I can’t outsmart, well,” he paused and laughed, “I guess I haven’t run across that man yet.”

Angeline enjoyed his banter and took the window seat that Willa directed her to. Douglas quickly possessed the seat directly across from Angeline, while Willa sat beside her.

Angeline couldn’t help but stare at Douglas. He was the kind of man who demanded attention and drew it to himself when it was otherwise unoffered. He was of average height and not nearly as muscular as Gavin, Angeline decided. But, he was more stately in his appearance, and his neatly manicured hands indicated he spent most of his time behind a desk instead of outdoors.

Willa began speaking before the train even pulled out of the station, and Douglas was happy to engage the older woman in debates regarding the suffrage movement. Angeline simply sat back and took it all in. Mostly, she watched Douglas, fascinated with the way he conducted himself. She was so engrossed in her study of his neatly parted blond hair, that she missed hearing the question that Willa posed.

“I’m sorry,” Angeline said, blushing slightly. “What did you say?”

Willa seemed oblivious to the reason Angeline had missed her question, but Douglas wasn’t. He gave Angeline a sly wink, nearly causing her to miss Willa’s repeated words.

“I was curious as to whether you were acquainted with anyone in the Santa Fe area?”

Angeline nodded. “Yes, I know several families there.” She hadn’t real
ly considered it before, but she quickly added up at least a dozen or more names who were not only acquainted with her family but actively involved in the government.

“It always helps to get local cooperation,” Willa stated.

“I haven’t seen some of them for a very long time, but many of the families that come to mind are close friends of my parents or at very least, associates of my father, who is a physician.”

“Good, good,” Willa said and nodded toward Douglas. “Perhaps you will have the opportunity to introduce Douglas as well. He speaks the language of bureaucrats and often can sway them to listen to our cause.”

“Do you outsmart them?” Angeline asked with a shy smile.

“Of course,” Douglas replied candidly. “In politics it is required to stay two steps ahead of your opponent.”

“But what of your allies?” Angeline questioned.

“Ahh,” Douglas grinned, “for allies, it’s best to stay five steps ahead and
two steps behind.”

Angeline giggled, while Willa nodded as though Douglas had spoken a profound truth.

❧

Angeline soon found it necessary to excuse herself, and once she was gone from the room Willa Neal leaned forward. “What do you think?” she asked in a whisper.

“I think she’s incredibly young,” Douglas replied gravely. “She’s not even old enough to vote, even if she had that right. Are you sure we won’t have her parents chasing after us and putting out warning bells to prevent her from accompanying us?”

“I’ve thought of that, but from all indications, Angeline seems quite capable of getting her own way. My sources tell me she’s the only child at home, and the only girl in the family. I’ll encourage her to call home and smooth matters over or at least to telegram.”

“You’d better hope she has the connections you’re looking for,” Douglas said, easing back into his seat. “It won’t do much good to have her tagging along if she can’t get us the audience we need.”

“She will,” Willa replied confidently. “She’s putty in my hands. I’ll have no difficulty in controlling her.”

“Has she any clue that you’re using her?”

“Why, Mr. Baker, whatever do you mean?”

Douglas chuckled to himself and very nearly sneered at the older woman. “You know perfectly well what I mean, but since I’m using you as much as you’re using her, I guess I won’t protest too much.”

Willa’s normally stern expression broke into a smug look of satisfaction. “That’s good of you, Douglas. Very good of you, indeed.”

❧

Angeline returned to find Douglas and Willa pleasantly chatting about the barren New Mexico scenery. “I’m positively famished,” she said, taking her seat. “Might I dare to hope that there’s a dining car on this train?”

“There is indeed, and one of the best,” Douglas said with formal brava
do. “Perhaps you would allow me to escort you lovely ladies to breakfast?”

Angeline glanced at Willa who shook her head. “I’m not hungry, but you two go on ahead.”

“Are you certain?” Angeline questioned her mentor.

“Absolutely. Besides, why would you want an old woman like me along?
This handsome young pup hasn’t taken his eyes off you since you’ve board
ed the train. It will do you good to get to know an educated man of Douglas’s background.” Willa’s words caused Angeline to blush.

“Don’t mind her,” Douglas said, tucking Angeline’s arm around his own. “Willa’s a very smart woman,” he added with a smile over Angeline’s head at the older woman. “Very smart.”

❧

Breakfast was a pleasant affair and Angeline was almost sorry to see it end. She followed Douglas down the narrow train aisle on the way back to their car and found herself righted by his strong arm when the train suddenly lurched.

“You must always be prepared,” Douglas said with a smile.

His hand firmly held her at the elbow, and Angeline couldn’t help but gaze deep into his green eyes.

“Prepared?” she whispered, completely captivated by the man’s charismatic appeal.

“Yes.” He was already much too close, but if possible he leaned in even closer. “All battles are won with concentrated effort going into preparation.”

“Oh,” Angeline managed to say, before Douglas pulled away with a dashing grin and another quick wink.

“I think I shall enjoy teaching you the game,” Douglas remarked before once again moving down the aisle.

“No more than I shall playing it,” Angeline muttered to herself with a smile.

❧

“Here you are,” Willa said, waiting for Angeline to take her seat. “I was beginning to wonder if I’d lost you to Douglas’s wily ways.”

Angeline looked from Douglas to Willa and shook her head. “No, I just like to eat a lot.” At this Willa joined Douglas’s laugh with her own.

“It doesn’t seem to have hurt you any,” Willa finally said. She shifted in her seat to face Angeline. “I have something very exciting to talk to you about. Something I’ve been considering while you were gone.”

“What is it?” Angeline questioned cautiously. She was still uncertain of what Willa Neal expected of her as a traveling companion.

“When we are finished in Santa Fe and the other towns on the lecture circuit, I thought you might accompany me to Washington D.C.” Angeline’s eyes widened but she said nothing. “We have a meeting with President Wilson, and we plan to stage a rally and march to the Capitol.”

“How exciting!” Angeline gasped, envisioning the possibility of being a part of the event.

“Then you would consider going with me?”

“Of course,” Angeline replied, deeply touched that Willa would ask. “I would be honored.” Then realizing it might be difficult to arrange, should her parents decide to interfere, Angeline added, “I will, of course, have to think about it and know more about the preparations.” She dared a glance at Douglas knowing she’d find his smile at her choice of words.

Willa nodded completely unconcerned. “Of course. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Chapter 6

I
can’t believe that she defied us and went anyway!” Daniel bellowed after reading Angeline’s letter. “It’s the new way people look at things these days. Corruption of values and such.” He was storming through the house following Lillie, whose red-rimmed eyes told the rest of the story.

“I’m going after her and that’s that,” Daniel said, considerably less noisy than before. He reached out and touched Lillie’s quaking form and pulled her into his arms. “Ah, Sweetheart,” he sighed against her carefully pinned hair, “it’ll be all right. I’ll find her.”

Lillie composed herself for a moment and turned to face her husband. “You’re needed here,” she whispered. “You know half the town doesn’t yet trust young Dr. MacGreggor. You can’t just break their confidence and leave them to fend for themselves.”

“I can’t let Angeline just gallivant around the country like she owns the place either.” The irritation in Daniel’s voice was clear. “What in the world ever got into her anyway? We raised her to know better than to run off with strangers.”

“It’s her love of causes,” Lillie offered. “Her desperate need to right wrongs. In some ways, I admire her gumption, and in other ways, she terrifies me.”

“Well,” Daniel said, setting Lillie from him, “I’m going to terrify her when I manage to locate her.”

Lillie reached a hand out to stop Daniel from leaving. “There is another way,” she said softly.

Daniel turned and eyed her suspiciously. “You’re not going to suggest we let her have her way, are you?”

“No, never that,” Lillie replied. She thought back to the night of Angeline’s going away party and smiled. “I don’t suppose Gavin Lucas has had a chance to speak with you, has he?”

“Gavin? No, I haven’t talked to him since the party.” Daniel looked even more perplexed. “Why would Gavin need to speak with me?”

“Gavin Lucas intends to make Angeline his wife.” Lillie stated the words so matter-of-factly that Daniel could only stare back in surprise. “And, I do believe the boy, or should I say young man, is quite determined to do just that. He did, of course, intend to discuss the matter with you first.”

Daniel’s face erupted in a broad smile. “Gavin and Angeline?”

Lillie smiled and nodded. “He said she just needed time to get used to the idea.”

“So he has asked her?”

“That was rather what I gathered,” Lillie said and drew Daniel with her to the sofa. “I say we send for Gavin, and if his father can spare him from the ranch, we send him for Angeline.”

Daniel’s smile broadened. “That would serve her right.”

“Better still, I have no doubt that Gavin could get the job done. He has a vested interest, and I must say, I haven’t seen such determination in a young man since,” Lillie paused for a moment and reached up to run her hand through her husband’s gray-gold hair, “you decided to pursue me.”

“Me?” Daniel pretended to be surprised. “I seem to recall it was you who chased after me. With a frying pan, if I remember correctly.”

Lillie remembered the scene in her mind. She had gone to
New Mexico to visit Garrett and Maggie. It had been her hope to find some quiet place to think through her life, but that was not to be the case. One Dr. Daniel Monroe was already a houseguest at the Lucas ranch, and Lillie had endured a rather ugly meeting with him, before even arriving at the ranch.

Throughout their weakly established acquaintance, Daniel had teased her unmercifully about her eating habits. Habits that had led her to a frightful weight gain and deep depression. On the evening in question, Lillie had simply had enough. She picked up a frying pan and ran after Daniel with the serious intention of putting it to the side of his head.

Of course, matters had been made worse when Garrett and Maggie arrived home and found her chasing after Daniel, who was nearly hysterical from her antics.

Lillie snuggled up close, the memory fading in the intensity of her husband’s questioning look. “You deserved that frying pan.”

Daniel laughed. “Just like Angeline deserves a good spanking.”

“I believe she’s a little old for that, but,” Lillie said with an impish grin, “she’s just the right age for a husband.”

“Gavin Lucas, eh?” Daniel settled back as if considering the matter. “I’d like to have Gavin for a son. He’s a good man and a hard worker, and I can’t imagine anyone I’d rather have for in-laws than Maggie and Garrett.”

“Me, either.”

“Angeline will be hard to convince,” Daniel said as if this would be news to his wife.

“I’m sure Gavin will have his own way of convincing her.”

“You still have that frying pan?”

Lillie laughed and edged her elbow into Daniel’s ribs. “Of course. I have to keep it handy just in case.”

❧

Gavin Lucas was a little bit surprised when he received a note urging him to come at once to Daniel and Lillie’s. He immediately feared that something was wrong with Angeline. She’d only been home a few short days, and he’d purposefully made himself wait until Sunday to see her.

Leaving word with his brother Jordy, Gavin saddled his horse and rode off for Bandelero. On the way, he reconsidered the situation and a more pleasant thought crossed his mind. Maybe Angeline had realized that she loved him and she wanted to tell him that she would marry him. With that thought in mind, Gavin picked up speed, mindless of the hot summer sun blazing down on him.

❧

“Gavin,” Lillie said in greeting, “please come in, and thank you for being
so quick.”

“Is something wrong?” Gavin lost his sense of hopeful expectation and replaced it with a nagging dread.

“Nothing we hope you can’t help to right,” Lillie said. She untied and laid aside her apron and motioned Gavin to follow her. “Come have some coffee with us, and we’ll explain.”

Gavin went with Lillie to the family’s favorite gathering room and began to feel rather nervous when Lillie told him to wait there. She left the room, leaving Gavin to battle the butterflies in his stomach. What was going on? Where was Angeline?

“Gavin!” Daniel came into the room with Lillie and a tray of goodies right behind him. “Thanks for coming.”

“Sure thing Dr. Dan,” Gavin replied.

“Come on and sit down,” Daniel motioned. “We have a great deal to discuss.”

Gavin nodded and took the seat Angeline’s father offered him. Lillie placed the tray on the coffee table in front of him and took the seat directly opposite, while Daniel chose to stand.

“I’m going to come right to the point, Son.” Gavin nodded and waited for Daniel to continue. “Lillie tells me that you hope to marry our daughter.”

Gavin swallowed hard. “I intended to talk to you first.”

“I know you did,” Daniel nodded, trying to put Gavin at ease. “Now before you go getting all worried, I want you to know I like the idea. Not only do I like it, I couldn’t have chosen better for Angeline, if I’d been given that right.”

Gavin physically let out a sigh of relief, causing Lillie to smile sympathetically. “Did you think we were going to roast you over hot coals?”

Gavin smiled. “I was ready for just about anything.”

“Good,” Daniel said before Lillie could reply, “because we have a problem.”

“I suppose Angeline’s in the middle of it,” Gavin surmised.

“No,” Daniel replied. “She is the whole problem.”

Gavin grinned at his father’s best friend. In all the world, Garrett Lucas had told his son, there was no better man than Daniel Monroe. “Go on,” Gavin urged.

“Angeline has run away,” Daniel began. “She got it in her mind to join the Women’s Suffrage Movement and travel the country whistlestopping and stumping for equal rights and the vote.”

Gavin shook his head. “Angel does enjoy her causes.”

“That’s not the half of it,” Lillie joined in. “We forbade her to go. We
tried to reason with her and thought we’d made her see our side of it, but last night, she sneaked out of the house and caught the train for Springer. From there she plans to travel south to Santa Fe with a suffragist named Willa Neal.”

“What do you want me to do?” Gavin asked, coming to the edge of his seat. He hoped Daniel’s and Lillie’s words would affirm what he already had in mind.

“We’d like for you to go after her,” Daniel said solemnly. “We’d of course pay your expenses.”

“No need for that,” Gavin said, getting to his feet. “I was serious about marrying Angel. I know she cares for me the same way I care for her. But, she’s also young and stubborn. This time, though, she may well have gotten herself into more trouble than she can handle.”

“Our thoughts exactly,” Daniel concurred. “I don’t care what it takes, I just want her back here safe and sound. From that point we’ll just have to take it day by day.”

Lillie reached out and poured a cup of coffee. “Why don’t you have some,” she said, extending the cup to Gavin.

“No thank you, Aunt Lillie,” he said, knowing that one day he would call her by another name. That was, if he could find Angeline before she caused herself harm. Then, he’d have to somehow convince her to marry him, but that was all immaterial at this point.

“I’ll need to go home first,” he said, already heading for the door. “My folks will need to know what I’m up to.”

Lillie and Daniel followed him. “Of course,” they said in unison.

Gavin turned at the door. “Try not to worry. Angeline’s stubborn, but she’s got a good head on her shoulders.”

“Thank you, Gavin,” Lillie said, reaching out to hug the stern-faced young man.

“I’ll get her back,” he whispered for her ears only, and Lillie hugged him even tighter.

“I know you will.”

❧

Gavin found a captive audience when he returned to the ranch. Maggie and Garrett immediately sensed the urgency in their son and shooed his brothers from the room in order to privately speak with their eldest.

“Is something wrong?” Maggie asked, the worry clearly written in her eyes.

“Yeah,” Gavin said with a nod, “it seems Angel has run off to join the Suffrage Movement.” Maggie and Garrett both looked rather surprised before Gavin continued. “Lillie and Dan want me to go after her, and I told them I would.”

Garrett grinned at his wife, who’d already told him that their son intended to marry their best friends’ daughter. “Bet that was a hard decision to make.”

Gavin couldn’t help but flush a bit. “Who told you?”

Maggie laughed out loud at the look of surprise on her son’s face. She reached out and rumpled his hair as she’d done when he was a small child. “Does it matter? Do you mind us knowing that you’re in love with Angeline?”

Gavin shook his head, then rolled his eyes heavenward. “Please tell me they don’t know,” he moaned, motioning in the direction Maggie had sent his brothers.

Garrett fairly howled at his son’s grim expression. “Gavin, my son, you are the oldest boy, and therefore the first to experience the ribbing and teasing
that your brothers will good-naturedly dish out. But, just remind them,”
Garrett added with a wink, “their time will come and the shoe will be ever so neatly on the other foot.”

Gavin smiled, just a bit. It really didn’t help matters now. “I hope it’s all right with you, my going after Angel, that is.”

“Certainly,” Garrett said, and Maggie nodded her assurance.

“She’s in Santa Fe,” Gavin offered. “I’m leaving this afternoon.”

“I don’t envy you going after a willful young woman,” Garrett said with
a sly glance cast at his wife. “Retrieving spiteful, head-strong girls, especial
ly ones you fancy yourself in love with and plan to marry, is no easy task.”

Gavin looked quizzically from his father’s amused expression to his mother’s reddening face. “You look as if you have a story to tell,” Gavin said with a grin.

“You might say,” Garrett began, “that I started a family tradition.”

“You might say,” Maggie interrupted, “that unless you want to sleep with that horse of yours, that you’ll choose your words carefully.”

Garrett grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close. “You know that your Grandfather Intissar, Maggie’s pa, and I were good friends long before your mother came here to live.”

Gavin nodded. “Mom lived in Kansas with her grandmother because Grandfather Intissar had some problems to work through.”

“That’s right, and when those problems were worked out, he sent for Maggie. Only problem was, she didn’t want to come. That’s when I came into the picture. Jason Intissar sent for me and knowing that I was half love-sick for his daughter, he put me on a train to Topeka and paid me to fetch his only child home.”

“I guess I knew that,” Gavin said as if suddenly remembering the story.

Maggie interrupted his thoughts. “What your father might be hesitant to say is that I nearly outfoxed him several times, in escaping to return to my grandmother.”

Garrett laughed. “She thinks she nearly outfoxed me. First, I caught her coming down a trellis outside her second story bedroom window. Then she nearly got herself killed when she slipped off the train in the middle of the night and wandered around on the rain-drenched prairie for several days.” His voice grew quite sober. “When you find her, Gavin,” he stated quite seriously, “don’t let her out of your sight. Women get peculiar notions when they feel caged in, and I wouldn’t want Angeline to get hurt.”

Maggie had thought to make a snide remark, but the truth was, Garrett’s words were an accurate portrayal of why she’d run away from him. Now Gavin would perhaps face the same thing with Angeline. Maggie put a hand on her son’s arm. “Unfortunately,” she said softly, “your father is right.
Angeline won’t be easy to bring home, and it might risk the both of you
before the matter is settled.”

“Don’t worry,” Gavin said, patting his mother’s hand, “God’s my partner on this one, as with everything else. I prayed long and hard about Angeline and this time won’t be any exception. You keep me in your prayers too. That way, when I’m having to concentrate on what she’s doing and where I’ll still be covered.”

“You’ll have our prayers, Son,” Garrett replied proudly.