Before he left, his little girl in his arms, sitting up and looking at the adults as if she thought they were all insane, Joe gave Catherine a direct glare. “You’re telling me you would rather have my baby girl see an argument first thing from her new guardian and mother, between her and me?”
Catherine just shook her head and closed the door behind them. “Sleep tight, Joey. We’ll see you tomorrow maybe.”
The door clicked and Joe turned to walk to his wagon. The temperature was dropping, but Joe had brought along an extra blanket for his daughter’s legs and to wrap around herself to keep warm. With her in one hand and the blanket in the other, Joe managed to get up in his saddle and fit his feet in the stirrups very well.
“Let’s go see your new…mama.” It was going to take a bit to get used to that, he decided.
The train pulled up into the station, and Minnie’s heart leaped into her throat. “Oh Lord, protect us from any evil and wrongdoing.” Minnie murmured quickly as she stepped down from the train onto the wooden platform outside. There were only a few people there, many less than she had seen when leaving South Carolina. She gathered her bag and her child in her arms and stepped carefully.
Once she was off the train, her luggage bags brought to her by the valet, she was beginning to feel a headache that nearly leveled her. It was one of the bad ones that she just wanted to sleep with. She saw a man approaching her, a beautiful little blond girl. She wondered if he knew why she was here. He looked like he was coming straight toward her. He looked down at the baby as soon as he was within just a few feet of her. He stared at Billy.
She stared at the tiny blond girl in his arms. Ruthie looked older than her Billy. She propped Billy up in her hands and whispered in his ear. “Look at that, Billy. You see those boys in the proper hats? They work here. They are here so you are protected and safe.”
She distracted him with looking elsewhere, though her eyes were still on the handsome man carrying the baby.
“I’m sorry for staring.” Joe said softly. “Are you in need of assistance? Is there someone there to get you?” He cleared his throat. “Are you Minnie?”
She hesitated only for a second. “I…I am. And are you Joseph?”
He nodded, still switching his eyes to Billy. Then he looked up at his three year old and smiled.
“I think Minnie and I have some explaining to do.” He laughed softly. “Do you think we can do that? You want to go play inside with your ball?”
“I can go play ball…” The little girl pulled the ball from her daddy’s hands and jumped up and down until he set her on the floor. She ran to the door and a taller man pulled it open, stepping back for her.
“Here you go, tiny miss,” the man said, smiling.
“Thank you!” Ruthie darted into the building.
Minnie and Joe looked at each other.
“You can say anything you want to,” Minnie murmured. “I won’t tell if you don’t want to marry be because of Billy…”
“In case you didn’t notice,” Joe shook his head. “I’m not going to back out of marrying you because you…weren’t honest about your situation. I…did the same thing with Ruthie, didn’t I?”
Joe hung his head in shame.
“I wasn’t exactly spelling out Billy’s name in our letters.”
“I only received one. Did you send others?”
Thinking back, she could only think of one. She shook her head. “I must be wrong.”
“Do you want me to re-introduce myself? Shall we both start getting to know each other better without having these little precious hearts be our bait for a mate?”
“You are a charming poet.” Minnie giggled. “But if we’d been using them as bait, we would have advertised about them, we never would have hid them from each other.”
“Are we on a level playing field, then?”
“I think we both know what’s right and what should and must be done.”
Joe took one of her hands, placing the other hand on the little boy’s tousled hair. “Hello, Billy, do you want to meet my little girl and come to my house?”
The boy nodded so violently, Joe couldn’t tell whether he really did or not. He laughed and noticed that Minnie’s mood had lightened. She was a beautiful woman and he could tell that physical attraction was mutual on both sides. From her letter and the fact that she’d also had a baby of her own, he decided he’d made the right decision after all.
He leaned over and dared brush his lips against the top of the little boy’s head.
He whispered to Minnie. “Are we going to be all right?”