“I’m afraid not. And besides, I’ll be leaving that city almost immediately after we arrive tomorrow. Maybe after dinner, we could come back to my compartment and …”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. Not with the chance that Irma might come to say her goodbyes.”
“Very unlikely. She’s really hooked a good fish this time. Sam Allen looks like he’d make a good husband.”
“I hope so, for her sake. Irma told me that she didn’t like men and trusted them even less, until she met you.”
“Really?” Longarm was quite surprised to hear this bit of news.
“Oh, yes. She said that you had restored her faith in men.”
“But she jilted me and found another.”
“That’s only,” Caroline assured him, “because you are not ready for marriage.”
“That’s certainly true.”
“Goodbye,” Caroline said sweetly.
Longarm watched her walk up the aisle, liking the round of her bottom and the graceful way she moved. He was sorry that they would not have this night together, but he fully understood her thinking. It would be very awkward if Irma did show up at compartment number three and found them making love.
No, Longarm thought, it might be better to wait until they arrived in Reno and found separate but mutually accessible hotel rooms.
As their train pulled into Reno, Longarm remembered that the town had originally been a crossing for the overland wagon trains going over Donner or one of the other passes into California. When the Central Pacific Railroad had finally blasted over the Sierras with nitroglycerine and legions of hearty Chinese laborers, Reno had blossomed into a central distribution and shipping point for the western Nevada mines, and most especially for the fabulously wealthy Comstock Lode, which had been discovered in 1869. This was the same historic year that the transcontinental railroad had been completed and its rails joined at Promontory Point, Utah.
With the decline ten years later of the Comstock Lode, Reno’s economy had shifted from its dependence upon mining and railroading to becoming a major shipping point not only for the nearby cattle ranches, but also for the huge timber companies that industriously logged the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
When the train jolted to a halt, Longarm helped Lady Caroline and her sour-faced aunt down from the train, and called for a carriage to take them to the Comstock House, one of Reno’s finest lodgings.
“When will I see you again?” Caroline asked anxiously as Longarm helped her into the carriage.
“I’ll stop by later,” he promised.
“All right.”
The carriage moved away and when Longarm turned, he saw Irma and Sam also preparing to depart in a carriage. Irma, catching Longarm’s eye, said something to her new beau and hurried over. “I’m sorry about the way this worked out, Custis.
“I’m not,” he said. “I like Sam and I hope you and him get hitched.”
“We will,” she vowed. “He’s crazy about me. I’m going right to work for him, and I’ll bet anything that we’ll be man and wife within a month.”
“I wouldn’t take that bet,” Longarm said with a laugh. “You are one determined woman when you get something in your mind. Besides, you’ll make Sam a wonderful wife and mother to his children.”
Irma hugged him so tightly that Longarm could feel her body trembling. “Custis, I can’t believe how my life has changed so much for the better in just one week. That business in Cheyenne with Big J and the others, it all seems unreal and like a nightmare.”
“It’s done and you should forget it,” Longarm told her. “You’re starting all over fresh. New place, new time, new people.”
“Thanks to you.”
Longarm felt his own throat begin to ache, so he pushed her away and said, “Good luck.”
“Will you come by Sam’s store to visit after you’re finished doing whatever it is you must do?”
“Of course.”
“And swear to me that you won’t get yourself killed?”
“I swear it,” he said with a grin. “I won’t let myself get killed.”
“Good! Then I’ll let you go.”
Longarm stepped back, but no sooner had he done that than Irma reached out and anxiously grabbed his hand. “Custis, what happens if some of the men I knew in Cheyenne come here and see me? What if they tell Sam about my awful past?”
“Warn them that if they do, I’ll return and shoot ‘em dead,” Longarm advised her with a straight face.
Her eyes widened. “You would?”
“Yes, just as dead as that pair in Elko.”
Irma gulped, straightened, and said, “I believe you would do that for me, and if ever I should be threatened by my past, I will use your honorable name.”
“Fair enough,” Longarm said with a wink as he turned and headed into town.
Chapter 8
