Give Me A Texan

Much to Mina’s surprise she also rode for free. Violet seemed an apt manipulator of boosterism for Amarillo. The conductor agreed with the child’s reasoning that it made good sense to give a stranger a lift now and then just so the stranger could tell others about the pleasure of the ride.

“Whew! I thought we’d never get here.” Violet started running for the depot. “Daddy’s already turned up the gaslights.”

The child was not looking where she was going. Mina noticed a touring car coming at an incredible speed. Violet would not reach the platform in time. “Watch out, lass!” she yelled, dropping the valise and kite. She dashed after the child, grabbing Violet’s hand and jerking her backward to safety just as an obnoxious honk emanated from the passing motorized Flivver.

“Violet!” a masculine voice shouted. “Are you all right?”

The tiny heart beat fast against Mina’s hip, nearly drumming through the child’s back. Mina turned her around and surveyed her face. “Ye okay, lassie?”

“I’m a-all right, angel,” Violet finally managed and hugged Mina tightly.

“How can I thank you, ma’am?” asked the man who came running up to check on them. Mina looked up and stared into a familiar face. His eyes were a shade deeper than his daughter’s but the Duncans had the same lock of hair that curled just over the peak of their brow. The same full upper lip. The resemblance was unmistakable. Briar Duncan was the man in the window. Mina’s breath did not slow despite her effort to ease it.

The station master’s chest swelled as he tried to catch his own breath, making him seem even broader than earlier sight of him suggested. Anger and disappointment rose to battle with the attraction kindling inside Mina. How could such a fine-looking man be such a cur of a father? “Ye can thank me by not letting yer child walk the streets on her own. She could have been hurt.”

“You’re right, of course,” he said, though the friendliness in his gaze narrowed into purple slits that glinted like stone. “It’s almost dark and I should have had closer watch on her. Violet, thank Miss-?”

“McCoy. Mina McCoy.”

“Tell Miss McCoy how much you appreciate her help, and we’ll be on our way.”

“She’s coming home with us, Daddy.” Violet’s hold on Mina tightened. “She’s my angel and I found her. I’m gonna keep her.”

“I suppose I should be explaining.” Mina’s anger began to ease because of his obvious concern for his daughter.

“No need, Miss McCoy. I’m sure it has everything to do with the kite.”

Mina glanced back at the kite then up at the handsome man. Stop it, she told herself. He’s married and ye’ve no right to think him the devil’s own temptation. “The kite? How could you know-”

“Violet?” The station master gently reached for his daughter. “What are you up to? You know this lady can’t stay with you.”

Violet went willingly into her father’s arms. “Uh-huh, Daddy. She said she would.”

“I said I would take her home, and that I’ve now done, sir. Kite or no, my promised deed is finished.” Mina retrieved her bag and the toy, offering the latter to Violet. “I canna stay, lass, but I will come to see you now and again while I visit Amarillo…if yer father and mother are of a willing mind.”

“But you’re my angel. You’re supposed to stay with me.” Tears welled in Violet’s eyes as she refused to take the kite. “You’re supposed to stay here.”

“Don’t cry, honey.” Briar patted his daughter softly while she hid her face in his neck and began to weep.

When Mina gave him a puzzled expression, he sighed deeply. A sound filled with regret and something else. “Turn the kite over, Miss McCoy, and I’ll explain.”

Mina set down her valise and turned the kite as instructed. On the back of it, scrawled in childish letters were the words, “Come Home.”

“She lost her mother almost four years ago, and she’s flown that kite every day since. I told her that her mama went to be an angel in heaven.”

Mina’s heart clenched, feeling as if a hundred-pound weight had dropped upon it. Violet had known a mother who loved her once. The wee one had suffered a terrible loss. Mina could search the world over for her own mother and never experience the same hurt. Her mother had never wanted her. Mina’s voice became whisper-soft with compassion. “So she thinks she’s caught her angel?”

“I’m afraid so.”

Maybe refusing the job her friend had offered was no longer an option. It seemed everyone else on earth was trying to reform the injustices of the world at the moment. Maybe she could start on a smaller scale by reforming one father. Maybe being the little girl’s angel for a while was just the good deed she needed to do to set all their lives on a better course. “Well, I may not be the angel she bargained for, but I can stay. That is, if ye’ll give me the job Nathaniel promised.”

“Nathaniel?” Surprise registered across the man’s face. “You know Nathaniel?”

“Ye received his telegram, telling ye I was on me way?” She saw that he had even before he admitted it.

His gaze swept over her from head to hem, making him frown. “You don’t look like a governess.”

“A governess? ’Tis a telegrapher I am. Nathaniel said that I would be a replacement telegrapher until he returns. The man did me a favor once, and I came here to pay it back. I just arrived a day earlier than planned.”

“A telegrapher? You can’t-”

“I certainly can,” she argued, her fists balancing defiantly against her hips. “And quite good at it, I am.”

“I meant, the usual in-office housing accommodations won’t do. There’s only a cot separated by a silk screen and that affords little privacy if we have to keep the office open overnight. And we’ve done that more often than not lately.”

“There are worse places than a cot to rest, sir.”

Violet sniffled. “She could sleep in Nathaniel’s bed since he won’t be there, Daddy.”

“No, honey, she can’t.” Briar Duncan looked suddenly uncomfortable as he explained. “Nathaniel and I share a place close to the station since we work so much. Two bachelors, you know. Violet has her own room, of course, but Nat and I share the other. One of us is usually working when the other isn’t so that someone is able to watch over my daughter. He’s been gone for a while, and I’ve had my hands full with…That’s neither here nor there. I can’t see any logic in hiring you as a telegrapher, miss. There’d be too many complications.”

She should insist for Violet’s sake. It would be a way to spend some time with the lass, maybe even make sure her da did the same. But the truth was, she really needed the work. “Then I have no way to pay him back the favor.”

“Can’t you get employment somewhere else and do the same?”

“Most likely, but Nathaniel insisted that I help ye. By helping ye, he said it would be helping him.” ’Tis a clever man ye are, Nathaniel Rhodes. Always lending a hand to a friend in need. Looks to me like ye had three friends in mind, this time.

“Yeah, I’ll just bet it would.” Briar looked genuinely sorry. “I’ve got to say no to this scheme of his, Miss McCoy. I’m afraid you’ve traveled all this way for bad news.”

Mina picked up her valise. She couldn’t go back. She was nearly out of money and certainly out of ideas to go about getting more anytime soon. “I’ll be seeing what Amarillo has to offer, then. Maybe when he returns, I can finish the deed in some other way.” She patted Violet on the back. “I’ll see ye a time or two before I go, lassie.”

Violet’s sobs began in earnest.

Though the man attempted to calm his child, the lass refused to be appeased. Finally, he conceded to her anguish. “Maybe we should at least ask her to take supper with us, don’t you think?”

The sobs stopped as abruptly as they started.

Briar’s gaze met Mina’s. “It’s the least I can do to thank you for rescuing my daughter.”

Violet lifted her head from her father’s shoulder and pleaded, “Will you, angel? Even angels gotta eat, don’t they?”

Everything inside Mina warned that she should listen to the man’s wisdom and run as fast and as far away as she could, but the hunger of existing on very little suddenly voiced itself as a rumble in her stomach. The need to