“That’s right. I didn’t but not because I didn’t want to.” He leaned over the bed and yanked the bundling blanket toward him. “It’s going to happen sometime, Lily. You. Me. We will make this our marital bed. I’m giving you time to get used to the idea that the terms you set and the ones I agreed to were mostly nonsense. It doesn’t seem that way to you now, but it will, and you’ll know it and then I’ll know you’re ready.” Roen punctuated this last by snapping the bundling blanket open. He laid it over the others. “Nothing?” he asked Lily when she remained quiet.

  “Not yet,” she whispered, falling onto her back. “Maybe never.”

  “I doubt that. Good night, Lily.” Roen did not miss the forlorn note in her voice as she murmured the same to him.

  * * *

  • • •

  Lily didn’t have a lot to say on the ride to Thunder Point. Roen supposed that her silence was a combination of the concentration she needed to stay in the saddle and thoughts from last night that she was still mulling over. The progress they made together was slower than what he’d made alone, but that suited him. He was in no hurry, and it was more important to him that Lily had this opportunity to see past the boundary that defined Frost Falls.

  He pointed out the cabin that had been Old Man McCauley’s home. “Ben said it was in a sad state before Remington bought this land and made repairs. He also said Remington and his wife still use the place from time to time. Apparently there is some sentiment attached to it.”

  Lily nodded but didn’t comment.

  Roen said, “We only have a couple of miles to go. Are you still all right?”

  “Yes.”

  “The animal Mr. Ketchum and Clay chose for you is sure-footed.”

  “She’s dainty.”

  “I suppose that’s one way of describing how she picks her way around and between the rocks.”

  “She also respects her rider’s lack of experience. I have to do very little to guide her.”

  “Did Clay tell you her name?”

  “Dancer. It’s perfect.”

  It was, Roen thought. He smiled to himself and gradually picked up the pace. Dancer had no difficulty keeping up, and Lily managed herself competently. When they reached the site he had marked with a stake and a strip of red fabric, he dismounted and then went around to help Lily. Her legs were wobbly when she touched down and she fell against him.

  “Sorry,” she said, placing her palms on his chest and pushing away.

  “Don’t try walking until you feel steady.”

  It was good advice, and Lily took it while Roen unloaded the packhorse. She had regained her balance and confidence by the time he’d finished, and she led the horses away to tether them. She joined him as he was setting up the tripod.

  Looking around at the rocky incline ahead of her and the shallow stream they had crossed to reach this site, she asked, “What makes this place of interest to you?”

  “If you’d like to look at a map, you can. You’ll see that it’s one point on a fairly straight line connecting Frost Falls to Stonechurch. The tracks would have to deviate from their current route in several locations, so it’s not ideal, but without clearly establishing who owns the panhandle that I really want, this is a good second choice.”

  Lily unrolled the map that Roen presented to her and studied it. She saw Lizzie’s grape jelly smudge in the corner and recognized this was the map Roen had been poring over at the kitchen table. “I can’t tell where we are.”

  Roen pointed to the place that identified their location. “This map shows the elevation of those rocks and ridges in front of us. I’ve made some notes and drawings to show topographical features that hadn’t been described before. Today, we’re going to review the work and my calculations.”

  “You want this to work,” she said.

  “I want this to be right. That panhandle is ideal, but I have no desire to invoke eminent domain. Northeast Rail would lobby for it and they’d get it. They’re about eighteen hundred miles to the east. I’m here. I’ve had to supervise laying track on land seized by the government before. It’s dangerous for everyone. I’d have to create my own security force or hire Pinkertons. There’d be hazard pay for the crew. The supply route would have to be guarded. No town welcomes that kind of conflict, and there’d be folks on both sides of it. So yes, I’d like this to work, but it’s more important that I get it right.”

  Lily rolled up the map and tapped it lightly against her leg. “How can I help?”

  Roen held out his hand for the map. “First things first.” He slid the map into its leather case and laid it on the ground a few feet from the tripod. “I’ll show you how to use the chains.” He repeated the chain demonstration he’d done for Clay. Lily had no difficulty following directions and she was better at following his calculations than Clay had been. Except for comments by teacher and questions by student, they worked in relative silence. Roen acknowledged to himself that they were more efficient as a pair than he ever was alone, and in spite of the fact that he had to teach her as they went along, she was a better assistant than the one he had fired and left behind in New York and infinitely less talkative than her son.

  It was well into the afternoon when they stopped to unpack the lunch Ellie Madison had provided. Roen’s rumbling stomach provided the prompt. Lily hadn’t said a word about being hungry, but she bit into the ham sandwich with such relish that Roen knew she had been.

  “You should have told me you were hungry,” he said.

  She shrugged, took another bite almost before she’d swallowed the first. “We’re working on your schedule. Not mine.”

  “Say something the next time.” He gave her a pointed look. “And don’t choke.”

  She smiled guiltily, swallowed, and addressed what was most important. “There will be a next time?”

  “Certainly, unless you don’t want there to be.”

  “No, I’d like that.” She stared down at her sandwich, not at him. “I like this.”

  “So do I.”

  She simply nodded and took another bite. “Why didn’t you ask me to make our lunch? You didn’t yesterday either.”

  “Northeast provides me with an allowance. It’s part of my contract. I made arrangements with Abe and Ellie Butterworth early on. I suppose I need to write a draft to you now that I’m taking most of my meals at your table. I should have thought of that on my own.”

  “It seems to me that preparing meals for you is one of my responsibilities.”

  He sighed. “You know, we might have rushed to come to terms. I’m concluding there are things we didn’t think through.”

  Lily chuckled. “You’re only now concluding that?”

  “Mm.”

  “Bit of a slow top, aren’t you?”

  “You’re not the first to say so.”

  “Miss Headley, eh?”

  Roen shook his head, grinning. “How did you know?”

  “I’m not sure. Maybe intuition. You realize I wasn’t being serious. You’re not a slow top. Just the opposite.”

  “Well, Victorine meant it, and she wasn’t wrong. Not where she was concerned. I was slow to realize certain things.” He searched the canvas bag for the hard-boiled eggs Ellie usually packed and passed one to Lily. “Let’s not talk about her.” He cracked his egg against his knee and began to peel it, flicking the shell away from the blanket they were sitting on. “I’m going to write you that draft when we get back, but it will be for household expenses as well as meals. How did it work when you were married before? Should we do it the same way?”

  Lily’s response was immediate and emphatic. “No!”

  Roen blinked. “All right,” he said slowly. “How did you do it so we don’t do it that way?”

  “I’ve managed well enough without your money. I don’t want to come to depend on it. Having one extra at the table is no hardship, and you just paid for everything I’m wearing except my coat and scarf, so there’s that. I’ve already cost you considerably more than you’ve cost me.”

  Roen blew out a long breath. “Another condition we should have worked out.”

  Lily finished peeling her egg. “We will work it out, just not right now. It’ll be fine. Pass me the canteen.” When he did, she tipped it and drank deeply before she passed it back. “Do you have experience with a gun?”

  “What brought that on?”

  “Thinking about Old Man McCauley taking aim from among the rocks.”

  “Then we’re goners because I don’t have a weapon with me.”

  “But you have one?”

  “Two. A rifle and a piece that fits a shoulder harness.”‘

  “You didn’t bring them with you to the house.”

  “With four children around, it seemed like a good idea to leave them. Actually, they’re with Ben at his office.”

  “Are you a good shot?”

  “Better than adequate. No sharpshooter, that’s for certain. Eminent domain, remember? I had to learn to shoot back.” He frowned slightly as he turned to examine her profile. “Do you not feel safe?”

  “Oh, no, it isn’t that. You have permission to be here. No, I was wondering if you’d teach me to shoot. I don’t expect that I’ll ever own a gun or even have cause to use one, but I’d like to learn. Ben said his mother is a crack shot, or she was when she worked at Twin Star. I had no idea. And Fedora Chen’s father taught her to hunt. Hitch escorted them south of town yesterday to target shoot. I thought about it and decided it’s something I’d like to do.”

  “Did you mention that to Ben?”

  “No. Why would I? I figured I should tell you first.”

  “Thank you for that, but I’m wondering if Ben really wants a vigilante band of women taking to the boardwalk. From what I can tell, he has his hands full with Mrs. Springer’s temperance league.”

  “Vigilante? It’s nothing like that.”

  “If Ellie Butterworth is honing her shooting skills, it’s because Fedora has been threatened. Tell me I’m wrong.” When she didn’t, he said, “I’m thinking this interest of yours has something to do with that.”

  “Did you hear me say I don’t expect to own a gun or ever use one? Really, Roen, I don’t know Fedora Chen except to see her in passing. That certainly hasn’t happened often. I have sympathies for her, but I don’t intend to take up cudgels on her behalf. Why would I when you’re one of the people she feels threatened by?”

  “What? Where did you hear that?”

  “Ridley told me. And perhaps ‘threatened’ is too harsh a word. It would be better said that she mistrusts you.”

  “I haven’t done anything to earn her mistrust.”

  “Of course you haven’t. I know it’s not personal. Ridley says it’s who you represent. As to what Ellie is thinking, I don’t know because I’m not party to it. All I want to do is learn to handle a gun like women used to do when this was unsettled territory.”

  Roen fell quiet, thinking it over. “I’m not opposed to it, Lily. You need to keep in mind that I have experience with a woman and a gun and it wasn’t a good one.”

  “Oh. I hadn’t forgotten. I just hadn’t thought of it. Maybe I should ask Ben to teach me.”

  “No. I’ll do it.”

  “You don’t think I’d shoot you, do you?”

  “I’m not sure I’m a good judge. I didn’t think Victorine would do it either.” He felt Lily’s eyes on him. When he turned, she was studying him narrowly, trying to evaluate how serious he was. He kept a straight face and let her wonder for all of a ten count before he allowed his grin to give him away.

  “Beast,” she said, not unkindly.

  For some reason, he didn’t mind that at all.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Roen left some of his calculations for later so they could leave while there was still a chance of arriving home before school was done for the day. Lily knew what he was doing by setting a quicker pace, and she appreciated the effort, but her thighs and bottom ached from holding her own and she finally had to ask him to slow down.

  “Unless you want to go ahead,” she told him. “I think Dancer can find her way back without my help.”

  “Not leaving you,” he said. He tugged on the reins and waited for her to come abreast.

  Lily used the remainder of their ride to tell Roen about the dinner party she almost hosted and the dinner party they were going to be attending. “I don’t know when it will be, but Ridley is anxious for it to happen so I suspect it will be sooner rather than later.”

  “And this is for Fedora’s benefit?”

  “Well, it was when I thought we would invite her to dinner, and Ben’s intention was the same when he took over my idea, but Ridley has a slightly different motive. She wants to impress her mother-in-law.”

  “I don’t know how Ridley could be any more impressive. Ellie has a high regard for her. She speaks of her often and in terms that can blind with their glow.”

  “That’s what I thought, but Ridley thinks differently. Hazarding a guess, I would say it’s because she hasn’t yet had a child.”

  “No dinner party is going to fix that.”

  “She knows, but it’s something she can do and she believes she needs to do something.”

  “So Fedora is the catalyst for a much larger experiment.”

  Lily laughed. “I reckon that’s true.”

  “And you said Hitch will be there?”

  “He’ll be invited. I think it would take a town brawl to keep him away.”

  “It seems the doctor is also matchmaking.”

  “She’s rounding out the number of guests.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Well, she is.” Lily paused and then reluctantly admitted, “And also playing Cupid.”

  “Playing with fire is more like it. Hitch’s mother will get wind of this, and I don’t imagine she will approve.”

  “Maybe not, but she doesn’t have a say.”

  Roen had not known Amanda Springer long, but he couldn’t think of a situation where she didn’t have something to say. He let it go. “What prompted your interest in Fedora Chen? You said yourself you’ve only exchanged a few words in passing.”

  “I suppose Hitch got me thinking about her when he was at the house. I knew from Clay that he liked her, and when he came in carrying your things, I don’t think his feet touched the ground. And I thought, her being Chinese and Amanda being, well, being Amanda, that courting her was going to be difficult for Hitch. That was probably the seed. Then Ben watered it some when he told me about the way Fedora is treated, or maybe I should say mistreated. My mind wandered back to the reception at the Songbird and how encouraging and kind everyone was to us, and I was reminded that folks in Frost Falls have been good to me—very good—and I decided right then that I should return that goodwill. Fedora Chen seemed the best place to start.”

  Roen said nothing for a time, taking all of it in. “You know, Lily, some of the people at the reception are among those who have no use for Fedora.”

  “I know.”

  “They might not be so encouraging and kind when they learn you’ve taken up with her. They might even see it as some sort of betrayal of their goodwill.”

  “No one thinks worse of Ellie for standing by Fedora.”

  “You don’t know that. There are subtle ways people make their disapproval known. Maybe they don’t visit the hotel dining room as frequently. Maybe they don’t visit at all. They might make themselves more of an annoyance to Ben just because he’s her son. He usually has a busy Saturday night pulling people apart. It wouldn’t surprise me if Ellie receives the occasional cold shoulder when she’s with Fedora. She’d notice and she’d pretend she hadn’t, but Ellie Butterworth impresses me as someone who keeps score. That’s what she would do.”

  Lily sighed. “You’re thinking about her shooting targets again, aren’t you?”

  “I kind of came around to that.”

  “You’re like the railroad,” she said. “One track.”

  Roen grinned. It wasn’t a compliment, but from Lily’s perspective, he thought it was probably true.

  * * *

  • • •

  Mrs. Rushton had dinner started by the time Lily and Roen returned home. Roen tried to pay her, but she would only accept his thanks. Once she was gone, Lily washed up and took over. Roen said hello to the children before he secluded himself in the workroom to finish his drawings and calculations. Lily stirred the stewpot while imagining Roen hunched over the table with one pencil in his hand and a spare tucked behind his ear.

  “I would have rather been with you,” Lily told him much later. She was lying on the side of the bed closest to where Roen’s blankets were spread. After he once again refused her invitation to join her in the bed, she shifted her position so that she occupied the usually vacant space. She dipped her head over the side. The room was only dimly lit, but she could make out Roen’s rather stoic features. She supposed that stoicism went hand in hand with that noble profile. “After spending the day with you doing important work, stirring a stewpot was not particularly satisfying.”

  “I submit it was more important in the moment than what I was doing, and I know four hungry mouths who would agree with me.”

  “I suppose,” she said, unconvinced.

  “You could have joined me, Lily. I would have welcomed it.”

  “And you would have had no dinner. I need another me. That’s a thought I’ve never had before. It used to be that I was up to every task.”

  “You have expanding interests. If you’re going to accompany me into the field, we should have a housekeeper. Someone like Mrs. Rushton who can cook as well.”

  The idea appalled Lily. “I would never. I couldn’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Keeping the house in order and preparing meals are my responsibilities.”