my experience cooking and doing dishes. The business prospered and I hired someone to manage it, and then immersed myself in civic works which brings you up to my present.”
“And your fiance?”
“He’s a banker. Handles all my money and investments. He’s older than I am by fifteen years, but we are compatible. Bernard is very stable and practical. He would never be corrupted by sudden wealth.”
“It sounds like you’ve come a long way from Nebraska.”
“I have,” Victoria agreed. “I send money back to my mother. Father died and my oldest brother is running the farm. The rest of my family all moved away—some to California, one to Oregon, but none to Arizona.”
“Even so, you’re still a relatively young woman. What about children?”
“I don’t think that I can have them.” Victoria blushed a little. “I mean, it’s not as if Art didn’t try. Bernard … well, he doesn’t care for children.”
“Do you?”
A deep wistfulness crept into Victoria’s eyes. “I’d give anything for children. Especially a daughter that I could raise and love.”
“Maybe,” Longarm suggested, “you ought to think hard about that and consider breaking your engagement.”
Victoria gazed out their train window at the passing country. “Believe me,” she said, “I’ve given it some thought.”
“I’m sure that there are any number of men who would fall to their knees and beg you to marry them.”
“Oh, yes, but probably for my house and money.”
“Not so!” Longarm was shocked. Didn’t this woman realize how desirable she was in and of herself?
While he was trying to collect the right words to tell her this, Victoria leaned close and said, “What about you? I don’t know about such things, but I’m sure that federal marshals, like all other public officials, are underpaid. Lawmen risk their lives for very little monetary compensation.”
“That’s true enough,” Longarm admitted. “We’re definitely not in this line of work for the money. On the other hand, we do have a small pension coming—those of us who live to a retirement age.”
“Aren’t you concerned about being old and poor?”
“No,” Longarm said. “I’ll never be poor.”
“But you don’t know that. I mean, I don’t wish to raise alarm, but a lot of men and women who always thought that something would come around to keep them in their old age do wind up practically on charity.”
“I’ve saved some money and I’ve invested in some mining stocks that have done just fine. I have a good many friends that owe me a good many favors. Besides all that, I am a pretty simple man and don’t require much in the way of material goods or comforts. I have my eye on a piece of mountain property with a cabin in the trees that I could pick up for a song, and I may just do that one of these days.”
Victoria smiled. “Does it have a stream or river nearby?”
“A river runs right alongside the property. Right now, cottonwood trees are blooming and, in the fall, they will turn gold and red. There are meadows with deer and the fishing is as good as it comes. A rancher friend of mine owns the little homestead and he says that he’ll only sell it to me for a dollar, because he owes me his life.”
“How wonderful!” Victoria’s green eyes had misted. “I’m so happy that you’ll always be taken care of, Custis. We’ve known each other only a few days, but …”
He leaned closer. “But what?”
Victoria almost kissed him. He could see, even feel her desire, but she was strong and engaged to Bernard, the banker. So she excused herself quite suddenly and went off to powder her face. Longarm took a deep breath. Steady, he told himself. This is no time to fall in love again. Not with Jimmy Cox in big trouble, an outlaw named Bass to arrest and bring to trial, and a promise to Dolly to take her on a vacation in New Orleans. Jezus, Custis, haven’t you got enough fires in the iron without getting all worked up over a woman who is engaged to a wealthy banker and has her life completely planned?
After that, Longarm spent a little more time by himself in the smoking car talking to other men. He and Victoria still had all their meals together, but their relationship had changed and both were aware that their attraction could only end in sadness and disappointment.
And so it was that Longarm and the auburn-haired woman traveled all the way to Ash Fork, each highly aware of the other and each trying to guard their heart.
“Have you ever been to Prescott?” Victoria asked as their train neared Ash Fork.
“Yes,” Longarm replied. “Any number of times. But I really can’t recall Wickenburg.”
“It was once a mining boom-town,” Victoria told him. “The reason I know quite a lot about it is that I’ve gone there often to visit some of my mining investments.”
“I see.”
“Wickenburg is named after Henry Wickenburg, who founded the town during the Civil War. He was a prospector just poking about in the hills. He had a nasty mule, and one day, in a fit of anger, he picked up a rock and hurled it at the fleeing beast. Turned out that very rock was mostly gold. Wickenburg and some others started up the Vulture Gold Mine, and some brag that it produced more than twenty million dollars before its decline. At one time, Wickenburg was Arizona’s third largest city, and it almost became our territorial capital.”
“Is that a fact?”
“Only missed it by two votes!”
“Fascinating,” Longarm murmured, infinitely more interested in Victoria than the history of Wickenburg.
