Ruby (2 page)

“They’re not eating in the nursery tonight?”

“No. Mistress said since this was a family-only night, the three eldest would eat with them in the dining room.”

“So it’s you and me, young man.” Ruby kissed Bernie’s round cheek. “And Opal.”

“Nanny?”

“Her too.” She started toward the hall to retrieve her letter, remembered that she might be disturbing the discussion between Jason and his father, and climbed the back stairs to the second floor instead. She peeked in the schoolroom to find Opal still writing on the blackboard, then went on to the nursery to hand Bernie off to Nanny.

“He’d swing as high as the others if I could figure a way to keep him safe in my lap. He’s slippery as an eel at times.”

“Now, that I know for sure.” Nanny, who’d been with the family since Alicia was born, took her charge off to clean him up, nuzzling his cheeks to make him laugh. Everyone loved to make Bernie laugh.

Ruby unpinned her hat and set it on the dresser in the room she and Opal shared. After hanging her shawl in the chifforobe, she tucked a few stubborn strands of hair back in the golden coil at the base of her head. Only with braiding could she keep any kind of order to hair that owned far too much curl for a proper woman of her twenty years and station. Inhaling a modicum of courage, she returned to the schoolroom.

“We missed you.”

“I know.” Opal dropped the chalk in the tray at the base of the board. “She . . . Mrs. Brandon . . . said I make life more difficult for you.” Opal left off staring at the chalk on her fingers and gazed at her sister. “D-do you hate me?”

“Oh no.” Ruby flew across the room and gathered her sister into her arms. “I could never hate you. I get angry and impatient, but no matter what you do, I shall never hate you. I will always love you.”

“I don’t want to have to tell her something like that again.” Opal hid her face on Ruby’s shoulder.

“Good. Then you will be careful what you touch, right? Only your own things or with permission, right?” Ruby could feel her sister nodding.

“I finished my fifty times writing.”

“I saw that.”

“I’m hungry.”

“Ja, supper will be ready soon. You go wash now.” She kissed her sister’s cheek.

Hearing heavy footsteps on the stairs, Ruby peeked outside the schoolroom door. Jason lifted each foot as if it were granite.

“Are you all right?”

“I have to help Mr. Klaus clean out the fishpond, like he said, and buy my sister a new bear if she wants one.”

“I see.”

“And I have to eat supper in the dining room.”

Ruby kept a straight face with some difficulty. She knew he preferred eating in the nursery because then he could read while he ate.

“You better hurry and get cleaned up.” That was another thing. In the nursery one did not have to change clothes, and Jason did not like dressing for supper.

“Oh.” Jason pulled a letter out of his pocket. “I found this on the table for you.”

Ruby took the proffered envelope. “Thank you.” What could it be? She never received letters from anyone. She glanced at the return address.
P. Torvald
. Her father. A letter from her father. Her hand shook as she hastened back to her room to read in private.
Lord, he is still alive. All these years I’ve been praying to see him again. Perhaps he is coming back for us after all. Perhaps . . .

CHAPTER TWO

My dearest daughters,

I must beg your forgiveness for the long time between letters. I am sure you must have thought I passed on from this world, but life here in the West has been a myriad of experiences—and not all of them good. I attempted gold mining, with some small success, and finally parlayed that into a legacy that I can pass on to my two treasures. While I had hoped to be able to send for you before now, the sad news is that I am dying. We have train service here, so I have enclosed tickets for the two of you to come and claim your inheritance. God willing, if you come quickly, I will have a chance to see your sweet faces before I pass on into the next life, where I know your mother is waiting for me, I can only hope with open arms. I know I have no right to ask this, but please come soon to Dove House in Little Missouri, which is near the military cantonment on the west bank of the Little Missouri River in Dakota Territory.

Your far,
who has always loved you.
Per Torvald

Ruby read the letter again, fighting the tears that blurred the spidery script. Why did he wait so long?
God of all, what am I going to do?
She closed her eyes, waiting for an answer to scream down from the ceiling or burst through the panes of the mullioned windows. She strained to hear, willing sound to ring in her ears. Even a whisper would do.

Nothing.

She could hear Bernie jabbering to Nanny as she bathed him. Water was running in the girls’ bathroom. A giggle came from Alicia’s room. Most likely Opal was helping them dress. But she heard no sound that could in any way be construed as an answer to her plea.

She opened her eyes to see the two train tickets in her hand.
Lord, all I ask is that you get us there to see him before he dies
.

Now, how to tell Mrs. Brandon and the family?
But first I must tell Opal
. Which she did as soon as the others paraded down the stairs, Jason trailing ten steps behind.

“But I don’t want to leave here.” Opal stared at her older sister, her mouth an O that matched her eyes.

“You have always said you wanted to meet our father, and now you will have your chance.”

“But I wanted him to come here.”

“Remember your dream that we were going to live with our very own far? You said it made you so happy.” Ruby handed her the plates to set on the table. “Now is our opportunity.” The longer word sounded more important than chance and one that couldn’t be argued against.

“Why did he leave us with Bestemor after Mor died?”

Opal, I’ve told you this enough times to . . .

“I know you told me that Far was so sad and wanted to make lots of money.”

“He thought he could do better out West in the gold fields. Many men went west.”

“He could have taken us with him.”

Ruby shook her head. “We were much better off at Bestemor’s. She loved us very much. There weren’t houses or milk or good food out West, especially for a young girl and a baby.” She’d read, too, of terrible blizzards and such heat in the summer that it shriveled and dried out folks, since in some places water was scarce. Silence fell as they both disappeared into their own thoughts.

“Far could have stayed.”

“Perhaps.” Ruby had often thought that too. At least at first, when she had sobbed into her pillow at night with missing both her dear mor and far. He could have come back or written more often and kept them apprised as to where he was.

“But what about the Brandons?”

“I will talk with them after supper. Let’s eat quickly. I’ll tuck you into bed so that I . . .” The thought of leaving this place that had been their home for more than five years and these people who treated them more like relatives than employees made Ruby want to double over and weep into her apron. They were the only real family Opal had known since Bestemor died when she was too small to remember, and Mrs. Brandon was the only mother since theirs had died bringing Opal into this world.

“We’ll be going on the train, as we did last summer when we went to the seashore.”

Opal took her chair and propped her elbows on the table. “Do you think I will have a horse?”

“What made you think of something like that?”

“Well, everyone in the West rides on horses, and we have to be brave and not be afraid of the Indians.”

Ruby just shook her head, and they ate in silence for several minutes. Ruby’s thoughts wandered around cowboys and cavalry and Indians and covered wagons. She’d read newspaper accounts of the building of the transcontinental railroad, of the Indian wars, and the gold rush. The more she thought, the more she wondered whatever in the world possessed their father to request their travel to such a Godforsaken place.

“I’m finished.” Opal pushed her plate toward the center of the table.

“What do you say?”

“May I please be excused?”

Ruby looked from Opal to the napkin ring beside her place and back to meet her sister’s gaze. Opal followed where her sister’s glance had gone and rolled her eyes. She folded her napkin in precise fourths, smoothing the creases with her thumb and inserted the center point into the silver ring. Laying it exactly two inches from her plate, she looked up. “Now may I be excused?”

“You may.”

The sigh and the eyes that rolled so far up as to appear to be painful conveyed her extreme impatience with such trying and unnecessary strictures.

Ruby felt like doing the same. If only there was someone else to be in charge. Someone who could take over the responsibility for their welfare, a responsibility she felt so keenly.

With Opal in bed and the three Brandons, who had come upstairs when their parents dismissed them, now getting ready for bed, Ruby followed their usual routine. She reminded them to be about their business, granted permission for books to be read in bed, promised Penelope she would come back and read to her, and checked one last time on Bernie, who was fast asleep, before finally slipping down the stairs, letter in her pocket.

Following the sound of adult conversation coming from the library, she tapped on the door before entering.

“Yes, Ruby, what is it?” Mrs. Brandon looked up from the needlepoint canvas she was stitching in the light of the gas lamp.

“Do you have a minute?”

“Of course, dear.” She glanced at her husband, and he looked up from the account book at his desk and nodded.

Ruby crossed the room. “I received a letter today from my father, and I believe I should read it to you.”

“All right. Would you like to sit down?”

“Er, yes . . . no . . . ah . . .” Ruby shook her head and removed the letter from the envelope. She unfolded the page, began, then cleared her throat and began again. When she finished, she looked up to see the husband and wife exchanging glances.

“I’ve always feared something like this might happen one day.” The sorrow in Mrs. Brandon’s voice made Ruby want to weep. “I don’t suppose there is an alternative.” Mrs. Brandon gave Ruby a hopeful glance, but at Mr. Brandon’s clearing his throat, she shook her head again. “Oh, I know you must go, but what shall we do without you?”

Since Ruby had no answer to that question, she kept silent, all the while wishing she had not been the bearer of bad tidings to people who had been so good to her.

“You will leave in the morning, then?” Mr. Brandon stated more than asked.

“If that is convenient.” No sooner were the words out of her mouth than she wanted to haul them back. Of course this was not convenient for them. It wasn’t convenient for her either, but if she wanted to see her father before he died, if he hadn’t already, they must be off as soon as possible.

“Then we must get to your packing.” Mrs. Brandon set her needlework aside and stood. “I’ll tell Mr. Klaus to bring a trunk down from the attic.”

“But, I have no trunk there.” Ruby thought of the two carpetbags and three boxes she had brought from Bestemor’s house.

“You will need one, and I have several garments that I’ve been meaning to give to you. One, especially, will do as a traveling suit. Mr. Brandon, dear, will you see to paying Ruby what we owe her?”

“Of course, my dear.” He looked toward Ruby. “Your wages will be in an envelope for you by morning. I will have Klaus ride down to the station tonight to see what time the first train leaves tomorrow.”

Feeling a bit like a brittle leaf tossed before a brisk wind, Ruby nodded, thanked them both, and took herself back upstairs to begin her packing.

A short time later, Mr. Klaus, man of all chores for the Brandon household, lugged a steamer trunk into her room. “I am so sorry to hear you are leaving, miss. We shall miss you both dreadfully.”

“Thank you. And I all of you.”

“How they will find someone to replace you, I’ll never know. Will take two, maybe three.”

Ruby bit her lip. Her heart felt as though a gigantic hand was squeezing the blood from it. “Perhaps we will be back. Who knows what will happen?”

“If your father is dying, why did he not just send your inheritance on?”

“I don’t know. But I do want to see him again if at all possible, so the trip is inevitable.”

“You could leave the little one here. Mrs. Klaus and I would take good care of her.”

“Again, thank you.”
Oh, please don’t make this so difficult
. “But someday down the road, she would hate me for not letting her meet the father she has dreamed of for so many years.”

“Ach, I know, but there was no harm in offering.” He glanced toward the closed door to the sleeping quarters. “She is asleep?”

“Ja, she had a hard day.”

A smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. “Finding a hard day for her is not hard.” He touched his forehead with one finger. “I’m off to the station. I’ll take care of your baggage in the morning. You just leave it right there.”

“Thank you, Mr. Klaus.” Never, since the day they moved in, had she heard him speak so many words at a time.

A few minutes later Mrs. Fleish followed Mrs. Brandon into the room, their arms buried beneath both girls’ and ladies’ garments.

“What is this?”

“Just some things for your new life. I thought this one would be good for traveling.” Mrs. Brandon held up a brick-red traveling dress with sheer long sleeves and high neck. The fitted bodice and multigored skirt of heavy silk were finer than anything Ruby had ever owned.

“There are gloves and this hat to match.” She held up a brimmed felt with a low veil that swooped slightly down in the front, all in the same color as the dress. “I know my shoes are too small for you. Had we time, I should have ordered you some.”

“Mine will be fine. How can I ever thank you?”

“No need. These were destined for someone’s closet other than mine. I just had not done anything about that yet.”

Mrs. Fleish laid dresses, petticoats, a navy coat, and a hat on one of the chairs. “Here are some things for Opal. You might have to take them up a bit, but they should be serviceable. Let me pack for you. I am an expert at getting a lot into a small space.”

Ruby stepped back from the maw of a trunk that looked big enough to hold a horse, a small one perhaps, but a horse nonetheless. “As you wish.”

“Do you think there will be school books in Dakota Territory?” Mrs. Brandon pulled several books off the schoolroom shelves. “If you need more, all you need do is write and ask.” She handed them to Ruby. “And remember, dear, if things aren’t what they seem in that rough land, you are always welcome back here.”

“Thank you.”

In the morning the family gathered in the parlor to say goodbye. The girls were crying, and that set Bernie to howling. Jason maintained the sober mien of his father, his eyes shimmering with tears he refused to shed.

Mr. Klaus hauled the girls’ trunk and boxes out to the carriage while everyone hugged Ruby or shook her hand. Mrs. Fleish handed her a sealed envelope, along with a wrapped box.

“One is your pay, and the other something to remember us by.” She dabbed at her nose with her handkerchief, at the same time patting Ruby’s shoulder with her other hand. Cook handed her a basket and gave Opal a small box.

“For on the train. I hear food is terribly costly.”

“Ah, we better be going, Miss Ruby.” Mr. Klaus, hat in hand, stood in the doorway.

“Thank you, all.We’ll write and send you our address.” Ruby put a hand on Opal’s shoulder and nudged her toward the door before the tears she was fighting could burst forth.

Mrs. Brandon, her hands on her daughters’ shoulders, called one last time. “God bless.”

“Ja, God bless,” Mr. Brandon echoed.

Ruby let Mr. Klaus help her into the carriage to settle next to her sobbing sister. “Hush now, all will be well.” She said the words as much for herself as for Opal.
Please, God, all will be well
.

Ruby fought the tears once more. How could they, who were so blessed to be with this family, possibly leave for such an uncertain future? But then again, how could they not?