“Possibly. We will ken for certain if he ever starts trying to contact clansmen from back home and bring them over.”
“God help us. Some of those people arenae missed by me.”
“Nor me.” He pulled out a deck of cards. “Want a game?”
“Why not,” Geordie answered and sat up straight. “Cannae sleep right now and it will pass the time.”
“Ye could watch the country go by out the window.”
“Trees, fields, messy towns swollen by people from the trains or people searching for a new place to live. Nay. Seen enough of them. Thought getting the train stopping in one’s town was a great thing. After having seen some, dinnae think it is.”
“Nay,” agreed Robbie as he dealt the cards. “Train service takes over a town and changes it.”
“And no’ really for the better. What game are we playing?”
“Poker. Need to practice for all those wild nights in the saloons I plan to indulge in.”
Geordie laughed and then concentrated on his cards. It would at least pass the time and might help him get in the mood for another nap.
Chapter Five
As Geordie stepped down from the train he tried not to breathe too deeply, a little afraid he would fall into a coughing fit. The smell of the train was starting to cause a deep-set itch in his throat. He also missed the lady and little Morgan. Their talk had made the time pass faster. Morgan’s mother, Jane, a quiet, troubled woman had, at times, seemed eager to share conversation with an adult. He was still amazed that her husband, sick and dying as he had been, had managed to hold off the forces chasing him for as long as he had.
She had told him a wild story about how her husband had given her a chest to hold and keep secret. The man had only told her what was in it when he was close to death. The chest was filled with gold coins from a Confederate supply payment, and he told her some long tale of catching the thieves and finding the small chest where one of them had stashed some for himself. Her husband kept it, thinking he might find a chance to return it to the men who were with him, or put it back in the hands of the men who had been with him when they found the gold. He warned her that someone had heard a tale about it from one of the thieves and several incidents had convinced her such men still were hunting it down.
It amazed him that Jane’s husband had obviously fought off or eluded several attempts even though he knew he was dying. It was why she and Morgan had got off the train at the last stop to travel on to her mother, where she hoped to burrow in until she was no longer hunted. She was convinced the ones hunting her knew something about the chest. He prayed she would be proved wrong. If greed had driven her pursuers to hunt for it so hard, they would certainly not hesitate to hurt her and a child to get the chest of gold.
Sometimes tales about such things led to people being killed, but he had not heard of anyone who had actually found gold or some other treasure. Geordie had wished Jane luck and a secure, safe place to live with her mother. It did bother him that she was so pale and often rubbed at her middle as if she had some pain there. He had wanted to ask her about it but had never figured out how to do it delicately. Geordie could only hope it was something her mother could fix. The war had already collected enough dead.
James had allowed him to share his address with the woman. Geordie had also given her his home address, although he doubted she would contact him there, since it was so far away. Things she had said made him suspect the very last place she wished to go was anywhere in the west. Still, it eased his mind to know she could find them if she ever needed help. He hoped she could burrow safely at her mother’s, but two women and a child would have little defense against men who wished to get rich without working for it.
As he counted out the money to have the horses stabled for the night, he tried to dodge the man’s attempts to introduce him to his daughter. He had to laugh as he thought about all the single men who would be going through these towns for a while yet. The men drifting back home, the ones who had families they ached to reunite with, who thought they were safe now that the war was over. They were in for a big surprise.
Jane had gotten off the train in what had looked like a mill city, and he hoped she was not pushed to work in one. He had seen how it aged and wearied women workers.
They quickly went in search of a hotel. When Geordie had mentioned getting a room, both James and Robbie had readily agreed. It took several tries to find one that had a room at a price they thought reasonable, but soon they were settled. As Robbie sprawled out on the bed, he and James went on a search for some food.
Since they were still close to the train station, the crowds on the street ebbed and flowed, but Geordie just wanted them gone. By the time they got to a place that sold sandwiches and coffee, Geordie breathed a hearty sigh of relief. James went up to get their food, bringing mugs of coffee over as he waited for the rest. Geordie sipped the strong coffee and looked around at the people.
It was a working man’s eatery, he decided. There were a lot of people who had just arrived on the train as well. That confirmed his feeling that it was the cheapest choice they could find. It was much like the kind of places they had gone to on occasion back home when they had briefly stayed in the city.
“Coffee is good,” said James. “Hope that means the food will be as well.”
“Look at the customers. Mostly working men. Often means a place that is reasonably priced, plain but good.”
James nodded. “Same where I live. Go down near where the fishing boats dock and you’ll find such places.”
“My da used to tell us about the fancy restaurants. He went to them with clients who wanted to buy a portrait of someone in their family, and wanted to discuss it over a meal. He said he thought they took him to such places as a bribe, hoping he would lower his price. He didnae. Also said what ye paid for was fancy napkins and fancy plates and foreign food ye couldnae often ken what it was exactly.”
“Rich people often prefer foreign food. Never figured out why.”
“Maybe just to show people they ken more than the common mon.”
“Possible.”
The man behind the counter stepped up and bellowed James’s name. Grinning, James went to get their sandwiches. Geordie hurried to finish his coffee. He frowned when James returned with a tray holding what looked like a small kettle of soup and three more mugs of coffee, as well as six sandwiches.
“The man asked where we were staying and I told him. Seems we can take this with us and leave it at the hotel. He will send a boy to pick it up late tonight. Guess it is a regular service between this place and the hotel.”
