Mail-Order Groom

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“Baltimore’s not that far from New York. What if he finds out the truth about you—or knows the truth already?” Mose jabbed his chin toward the other end of the station, where Adam slept in peaceful unawareness. “What will you do then?”

“If Adam were going to recognize my name, he would have done so right away. He would have mentioned it in our correspondence. People hardly react with indifference to me, you know. The fact that Adam hasn’t so much as hinted about the scandal means I’m safe for now, I’d say. And he’s been nothing but respectful toward me. That bodes well, don’t you think so?”

Her friend gave a noncommittal sound.

“Besides,” Savannah went on, “by the time Adam gets well, gets settled in and finds out about what my parents did back in New York City, we’ll be long married. He’ll love me. He won’t care a whit about what happened. I’m counting on it.”

Even more skeptically, Mose raised his other eyebrow, too.

Uncomfortable under his scrutiny, Savannah shifted. “All right. If Adam finds out, it will break my heart. Is that what you’re so keen to hear? That I’m afraid he’ll leave me?”

At that, Mose’s expression softened. “I’m not keen to hear anything of the kind. All I want is for you to be happy. You know that. Trouble is, I’m not sure this is the best way to go about it.”

“It’s not as though I plan to keep my past a secret forever!” Defensively she lifted her chin. “I’m going to tell Adam the whole story … someday. When I’m sure he loves me enough not to be scared off by knowing I have two thieves for parents.”

Her friend gave a soft sound of commiseration. “It’s not your fault what they did. It was their decision to take that money from those theater owners. You didn’t even know about it.”

“Even so … I’m still The Seductive Sensation.” Savannah raised her worried gaze to Mose. “It doesn’t show anymore, does it?” She turned in a circle. “I’ve been trying to erase it.”

She’d traded all her spangled, satiny costume dresses for modest calico and wool. She’d restyled her hair and ditched her bosom-augmenting horsehair pads. She’d scrubbed her whole face clean and given away every ounce of powder and paint she’d ever owned. But on the inside, Savannah still felt imprinted by her life on the stage … and everything that had gone along with it.

“Well?” she pressed. “Does my stage background show?”

Wearing a smile, Mose shook his head. “All I see is a lovable lady. A lady who’s trying her best to love someone.”

“Good.” Relieved, Savannah sighed. “Because that’s exactly who I am these days—exactly who I’m going to be from now on.”

A clatter arose at the telegraph, alerting them to a new message coming in. Knowing it would need to be relayed down the wire, Savannah hastily reached for her notepad.

This was the part that she already loved about her new life here in the Arizona Territory—using her expertise with the telegraphy equipment to transmit messages. Not many women were telegraph operators; most of those with an interest in working the equipment were men. Deciphering messages required a keen ear and intense concentration, especially in a crowded station like the one she’d shared with her mentor, Alistair.

He’d taught her how to decode the signals and transmit them with rapid movements on the equipment’s keys. Ready to do just that, Savannah listened hard.

but not quite hard enough to block out Mose’s parting words as he headed outside.

“I’m just saying my prayers,” he said, “that you done picked the right someone to love this time, that’s all.”

Bothered by his doleful tone, Savannah shook her head. Then she turned to her telegraphic apparatus and got down to work.

As the station door banged open, Linus Bedell jerked in surprise. Still lurking in the shadows of the building’s narrow side, he flattened himself against the wall. He couldn’t risk being seen here—especially not now. Alert with one hand on his gun belt, he listened as the door swung shut. Its hinges whined.

Footsteps crunched across the gravelly ground.

But they weren’t coming in his direction. That meant he hadn’t been spotted. Feeling immeasurably relieved, Linus sank against the rough split-log wall behind him. From the other side of that wall, the familiar sounds of the telegraph machine could be heard. But Linus didn’t care about that. All he cared about was that big colored fella—the one who was always hanging around the station, keepin’ company with Roy’s new “fiancée.”

Releasing a pent-up breath, Linus shifted. He felt hot, tired and bored to tears with snooping on his brother’s latest mark. He felt a mite sorry for the ladies his brother romanced and stole from. But, as Roy had explained, those women were just dumb. They went for his scams willingly. He never forced them. That’s what made all the difference. At least that’s what Roy said, and Roy usually knew best. That’s why Linus stuck by him.

Well, that and the fact that they were brothers, of course. Brothers watched out for one another. Especially the Bedell brothers. If they’d had a motto, that surely would have been it.

Well, that, Linus considered, or else “shoot first, steal second, skedaddle third.” Feeling clever for having thought up that witticism, he chuckled. But he sobered quickly. Roy was laid up. He’d been hurt bad in his tussle with that do-gooder detective who’d been trailing them. They’d all been forced to hole up in a Morrow Creek boardinghouse until he got better.

Because of that, Roy had appointed Linus as his second-in-command on this operation. That meant Linus had to buckle down. He knew his brother was depending on him. He couldn’t let Roy down. Now, thanks to what he’d just overheard, he wouldn’t.

That big man’s footsteps grew fainter. That was a good sign. Shuffling sideways as silently as he could in his oversize stolen boots, Linus sneaked a glance around the corner of the station. The big man was all the way across the yard now, headed for the fenced corral and makeshift barn. Linus had already searched that whole area. He’d found no sign of the station lady’s nest egg. Now he smelled like cow patties, to boot. That just went to show—it wasn’t all wanted posters and high livin’, being part of the Bedell gang, no matter what anybody thought.

Linus wished folks would recognize that. He and his brothers were just tryin’ to get by as best they could. They didn’t want to hurt nobody. But so long as chowderheaded ladies kept on fallin’ for Roy’s sweet-talkin’ ways and signing up for his marriage schemes, those swindles were going to continue.