The Rocky Mountain Heiress Collection (79 page)
Read The Rocky Mountain Heiress Collection Online
Authors: Kathleen Y' Barbo
A journalist’s facts are the mainstay of any article. Consider the following:
• John Henry “Doc” Holliday graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in 1872. He opened a dental practice in Dallas shortly thereafter. He later took up the practice of dentistry in Tombstone, Arizona, though in both cases ill health caused him to give it up.
• The legendary gunfight at the OK Corral was over in just under thirty seconds, and more than thirty shots were fired.
• The last known meeting of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday took place at the Windsor Hotel on May 1, 1885 (other sources claim 1886) and was documented by Earp’s wife, who was also in attendance at this historic meeting.
• Wyatt Earp lived well into the twentieth century, moving to California, where he befriended many in the movie business. Two cowboy stars of the time, William S. Hart and Tom Mix, were pallbearers at his 1929 funeral.
• The Pinkerton Detective Agency’s logo was a large eye, and their motto was “We never sleep.” Alan Pinkerton earned fame as the man who foiled an early assassination attempt on Abraham Lincoln.
• The first book in Beadle & Adams’ Beadle’s Dime Novel series,
Maleaska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter
by Ann S. Stephens, dated June 9, 1860, is widely considered to be the first dime novel.
•
The
Denver Times
was an actual newspaper published from 1872 through 1926. Winston Mitchell, however, is completely fictional and never wrote a column for the paper.
• Nineteenth-century journalist Nelly Bly, born Elizabeth Cochran but who wrote under a pseudonym taken from a Stephen Foster song, blazed for female reporters a trail that included a stint in an insane asylum playing the part of an actual inmate. She had only one year of formal education, and that was at home under her father’s tutelage.
I’ve been a fan of all things western for as long as I can recall. However, my fascination with John Henry “Doc” Holliday began in 2007 when longtime friend and fellow WaterBrook author Tracey Bateman convinced me to slip away from the International Christian Retail Show and visit the Margaret Mitchell House Museum.
There I first heard the details of the story behind
Gone With the Wind
. The tale of Ashley and Melanie becomes more poignant in light of the real-life family members Mitchell used as models. According to docents at the museum, Ashley Wilkes was inspired by Doc Holliday, Mitchell’s cousin by marriage, while Melanie was based on Margaret’s third cousin (and Doc’s first cousin) Mattie “Sister Melanie” Holliday.
Because the church refused marriage to first cousins, Doc and Mattie’s love was denied them. Doc went west, some say as much to heal his heart as to heal lungs scarred by tuberculosis, known as consumption. Word reached Doc that Mattie had joined a convent. Throughout his life, Doc wrote letters to Mattie. Upon her death, those letters were burned, so no record of what Doc and Mattie shared remains.
It is in this void of information that I set Anna’s story. While I made every attempt to check details against the known history of the outlaw dentist, there are also gaps in time where Doc is unaccounted for. In addition, there are instances where only a second (or possibly third) man could have committed the crimes for which Doc Holliday was accused.
Like Anna Finch, I hope you find Doc Holliday unforgettable.
Research is the backbone of any historical novel, and in my search to make Anna’s story as authentic as possible, I found several exceptional sources. While I relied on multiple books on the topic,
Doc Holliday, The Life and Legend
(John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-0-470-12822-0) by Gary L. Roberts gave me incredible insight into the person and history of the Georgia dentist. I urge any reader who wishes to know more about the real Doc to pick up this wonderful resource.
In addition, microfiche and online editions of newspapers such as the
Rocky Mountain News
, the
New York Times
, and other historical newspapers, provided excellent first hand information on the time, location, and subject matter of this book.
In some cases liberties were taken with details such as train schedules and weather. Wherever possible, however, I have endeavored to give the reader an enjoyable story set against a background based in fact. Any mistakes made in the telling of this tale are mine alone.
I would like to acknowledge Jessica Barnes for bringing out the story that wanted to be told and Amy Partain for asking the tough questions and catching my mistakes during the copy editing stage.
Many thanks to Wendy Lawton of Books & Such Literary Agency, friend, cheerleader and agent extraordinaire, for her wisdom and encouragement during the course of completing this novel.
Finally, my deepest gratitude goes out to the dear friends who were an integral part of praying this book into existence. You are my village!
To Senior Master Sergeant Robert Turner, USAF ANG
,
My hero in combat boots
.
Thank you for finding me!
Wherever possible, I have remained true to actual historical events. In a few cases, however, the dates of certain events or the locations of certain landmarks or buildings have been altered slightly to fit the story. And though there never has been an observatory in Leadville, I still think the idea is a fine one.
In England, the American woman was looked upon as a strange and abnormal creature with habits and manner something between a red Indian and a Gaiety Girl. Anything of an outlandish nature might be expected of her. If she talked, dressed, and conducted herself as any well-bred woman would … she was usually saluted with the tactful remark, ‘I should never have thought you were an American,’ which was intended as a compliment … Her dollars were her only recommendation.
—Jennie Jerome Churchill, Lady Randolph Churchill
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
—P
ROVERBS
22:6
A lady carries herself with great poise and the sense that an egg sits atop her head.
—M
ISS
P
ENCE
June 9, 1887
London
What Charlotte Beck wanted, Charlotte Beck generally got.
Thus Charlotte stood on the doorstep of Fensworth House, poised to make her unofficial debut into proper society despite the fact that she’d not yet reached the age of introduction nor been presented to the queen.
Won’t Gussie be surprised when I write her about the evening?
The thought of her best friend, Augusta “Gussie” Miller, bolstered Charlotte’s courage and reminded her why she’d insisted on being included tonight. After much pleading, Charlotte had convinced Gennie, her stepmother, that she needed to practice her social graces before her first official events of the New York and London seasons.
As the door opened, Charlotte swallowed a flutter of nerves. A uniformed servant nodded at her, and she worried she would forget the litany of instructions on proper decorum that Gennie had again gone over with her on the carriage ride here.
Charlotte slid a glance that she hoped conveyed thanks to the man whose duty it had been to escort the Beck ladies tonight. The same man
who’d successfully lobbied on her behalf. Colonel William F. Cody, who was not only her father’s business partner but also practically family, responded with a wink, then adjusted his lapels.
Her gaze swept past the colonel to the room a level below them, which glittered as much from the chandeliers above as from the jewels the nobility wore. The light was perfect for painting. She closed her eyes to memorize the scene then opened them quickly when Gennie touched her arm.
Had she any breath left, Charlotte might have sighed at the loveliness of it all. But under Gennie’s instructions, the maid had pulled her corset strings so tight that even mild exertion would likely send Charlotte plummeting to the floor.
Perhaps rushing her debut was not such a wise move after all. The combined effect of nibbling at almost nothing all day and then squeezing into the lace-covered instrument of torture was not Charlotte’s idea of a grand time.
Colonel Cody shifted positions to move beside her, and she glanced up to see him giving one last swipe to his well-tended mustache. A fellow clad in the livery of the Fensworth household stepped in front of them and cleared his throat. “The distinguished Colonel William F. Cody, Lady Eugenia Cooper Beck, and Miss Charlotte Beck.”