A Cowboy for Christmas Page 6

  Deep in her heart, Dwylah realized this was a sad time for Penny, but she was determined to try to keep the young woman’s spirits up as best she could during the trip. She had even spoken to Matilda about the possibility that she would stay on with her for a while once they’d reached the ranch, just to make sure Penny didn’t feel alone and lost.

  “It’s about time you got here!” Dwylah threw open the front door just as he reached the top step.

  “Am I late?” Dan was surprised by the older woman’s welcome. He had no idea who the short, silver-haired woman was, and he immediately worried that something had gone wrong.

  “Heavens, no,” Dwylah said. “I’ve just been waiting to get to meet you, that’s all. Come on in.”

  She stepped back as Dan took off his hat and came into the front hall.

  “I saw you last night, but didn’t get the chance to talk to you,” she went on, giving him a big smile. “I’m Dwylah—the chaperone.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Miss Dwylah. I’m Dan Roland.”

  “I know who you are, young man,” she laughed. “Don’t just stand there. Come on in where it’s warm.” She grabbed him by the arm and drew him farther into the house before shutting the door behind him. She gazed up at him, happy to be getting her first real good, up-close look at him. She was pleased to find that her first impression had proven true. He was one handsome man with his dark hair and eyes and lean, hard jawline. She had no doubt he was a force to be reckoned with.

  “I want to hear all about you on this trip. You must have some great stories to tell us about living out West.”

  “There might be a few,” he answered good-naturedly.

  “Only a few?” There was a twinkle of mischief in her eyes.

  “Only a few that are suitable for ladies such as yourself,” he answered.

  “I’ll be looking forward to hearing them.” She was hoping she could get some of the wilder tales out of him, too, before their long trip was over. She always did like finding out the real truth about things.

  “Is Miss Anderson ready to go?”

  “Yes, she is. We’re all packed up.” She gestured toward their bags there in the hall near the bottom of the staircase. “Let me go see if I can find her, and I’ll let her know you’re here.”

  Dwylah had just started off down the hall when Penny and her aunt came out from the back of the house.

  “I’m here, Dwylah,” Penny told her.

  “Miss Anderson,” Dan greeted her, and nodded to her aunt. “Ma’am.”

  Matilda, taking charge of the moment. “Hello, Mr. Roland. I see you’ve met Dwylah already. Has she told you that she’ll be traveling with you as Penny’s chaperone?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “She’ll also be staying on with Penny for as long as necessary once you get to the ranch.”

  “That’ll be fine,” he said. “I’d better get these bags loaded up so we can get over to the station.”

  “I can get Andrew to do that—” Matilda began.

  “No need.” Dan put his hat back on and quickly picked up several of the bags to carry out to the waiting carriage and driver.

  Dwylah knew the moment of their departure had come, and she followed her cowboy outside to give Penny and Matilda time to say their good-byes in private. With all the tears that were about to be shed, she understood why Matilda didn’t want to go to the station with them to see them off.

  “Penny, darling, please be careful,” Matilda bid her when they were alone.

  “I will.”

  She embraced her niece warmly. She loved her and everything she’d ever done had been because she’d wanted her safe and happy. “I’m going to miss you.”

  “I’ll miss you, too.”

  “Tell your father . . .” She paused, not sure what would be appropriate after all this time. “Tell him I’ll be praying for you both.”

  “Thank you.” Penny didn’t say anything more as Dan came back in the house just then to get the last of their luggage.

  Matilda was openly weeping now, and Dwylah was definitely teary-eyed.

  “Good-bye, Penny.” She kissed her one last time on the cheek and walked with her out to the carriage. When Dan finished loading the last of the luggage, she said to him, “You make sure she’s safe.”

  “I will,” Dan promised, his expression serious.

  He helped Penny up into the carriage with the chaperone and then climbed up to sit beside the driver on the driver’s bench.

  “We’ll wire you as soon as we get there,” Dwylah told Matilda.

  “I’ll be waiting to hear from you.”

  “Good-bye, Aunt Matilda,” Penny called to her as the carriage started to move away.

  Penny was as prepared as she would ever be for the long journey to come. “It’s going to be a long trip.”

  “Yes, it is,” Dwylah agreed, “but as long as the weather stays clear, we should be able to make it without too much trouble.”

  A flash of pain was mirrored in Penny’s eyes for a moment as she looked at her friend. “I hope so. I really need to see my father again.”

  “You will, dear,” she reassured her. “You’ll be with him for Christmas. I can’t imagine that he’d like any present better than having you with him.”

  “Being with Papa is going to be my best present, too.”

  They sat back, and Penny realized how thankful she was that her father hadn’t given up and had sent Dan Roland to find her.

  Chapter Seven

  Dan was glad to be leaving St. Louis. Things had worked out just as he’d hoped and now it was just a matter of keeping Penny and Miss Dwylah safe and out of trouble on their cross-country trek. Safe, he hoped wouldn’t be a problem. But he had a feeling it would be a challenge to keep Dwylah out of trouble. The train depot was crowded, and he kept the ladies with him as he went to check in with the clerk.

  “Is the train on time?” Dan asked.

  “It should be pulling out real soon. Once everything is loaded up, you’ll be on your way.”

  “Thanks.” Dan was looking forward to the day when the railroad made it all the way to Sagebrush, but it wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

  “So it’s really going to take more than two weeks?” Dwylah asked.

  “If we don’t have any trouble,” Dan assured her.

  “This is my first trip to Texas,” she said. “How far do we go on the train?”

  “Just to Tipton. From there on, we’ll be on a stagecoach the rest of the way,” Dan told her.

  “It is going to be a long trip,” Dwylah remarked. She’d heard stories of how harsh the conditions on stages could be.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Penny asked, knowing this was Dwylah’s last chance to back out.

  “Of course,” the chaperone said with a smile to reassure her. “I’m going with you, no matter what. You know I always like a challenge.”

  When the call came that it was time to board, they got ready to get on the train.

  Dan was the last one to board. He had started to get on when he saw a young boy dash across the street about half a block away. There looked to be a man and several other boys chasing him, so he figured the boy had gotten into some kind of trouble. He knew all about that from his own days of living on the streets after he’d run away from the orphanage. He thought about going after the boy to try to help, but there was no time. The train was about to pull out. Dan got onboard and went to sit on the seat facing the one where the women were sitting.

  Dwylah was quite delighted when their handsome escort sat down right across from her. She smiled to herself thinking she wouldn’t get bored being forced to watch him the whole way. She had noticed earlier when he’d come to the house to pick them up that he’d been wearing his gun belt, so she asked, “Since you’re wearing your gun today, are you expecting trouble?”

  “You never know when you’re traveling. It never hurts to be ready, just in case,” he told her.

  “S
hould Penny and I be carrying guns, too? I mean, we are heading into the Wild West.”

  “No, ma’am,” he said. Knowing she was teasing, he smiled at her. “That’s why I’m here. I’ll keep you safe.”

  “I believe you will,” she agreed. “But if you ever need any help, I do have my knitting needles with me.” She laughed. “You never know when they might just come in handy.”

  “I’ll remember that, Miss Dwylah,” Dan promised, knowing she would be dangerous with her needles.

  “I know you’re being respectful, but just call me Dwylah, because from now on I’m going to start calling you Dan. We’re going to be spending a lot of time together, and we might as well get used to each other. Right, Penny?”

  “You’re right, Dwylah,” she answered, looking to Dan. “And you can just call me Penny.”

  “All right, Penny—Dwylah, it looks like we’re on our way,” he said as the train jerked into motion and started to move out.

  They sat back, seeking what little comfort they could find on the hard seats.

  “So, we’ve only got about two weeks to go until you’re home,” Dwylah said to Penny.

  “Two weeks . . .” Penny repeated softly, and she turned to gaze out the train window for a last look at the city that had been her home for quite a while now.

  The Reverend Nick Miller was frowning as he stood on the corner of the street staring after the train as it pulled out of the station.

  “Reverend Miller!”

  Nick gave a shake of his head and returned his focus to the two boys who’d accompanied him.

  “What is it, Joey?” he asked.

  “We found Steve,” the boy said, pointing down the filthy dead-end alley.

  “You two wait here for me.”

  Nick strode through the alley to where Steve was trying to hide and knelt beside the frightened six-year-old. “There’s no need to be afraid.”

  He put a comforting hand on the boy’s shoulder and could feel him shaking and weeping in silence.

  “Joey and Marty are here with me,” he tried again. “We were worried about you when we couldn’t find you this morning.”

  Nick felt the tension and the fight drain out of the boy. With one last sob, Steve threw himself into Nick’s arms. Nick scooped him up and carried him out of the alley back to where the other boys were waiting.

  “Is he all right?” Marty and Joey asked.

  “He’s tired, but he’ll be fine,” Nick told them. “Let’s get him on back home.”

  “The orphanage isn’t my home!” Steve lifted his head defiantly, the look in his eyes tortured.

  “I know how you feel, Steve. Believe me, I know,” Nick said.

  Steve had been at the orphanage since the death of his parents several months before. Nick knew he was alone in the world now, and afraid—so very afraid. The coming holiday season would be his first without his family, and Nick understood how being at the home only magnified the pain and loneliness the orphaned boys experienced.

  As they started back to the orphanage, Nick glanced one last time in the direction of the train station and then shook his head. That couldn’t have been Danny getting on that train. It still pained Nick to think of his lost brother. He hadn’t seen or heard from Danny in all these years. He’d never known what had happened to him, and that was why he had followed his calling to become a pastor and to work at an orphanage. He cared deeply for the boys. He wanted to give them a place where they would know they were loved.

  Nick looked down at little Steve and offered up a silent prayer that he could find some way to win the boy’s trust and help heal his pain. His own adoptive parents had helped him through the hard times, and he wanted to be there for these boys to give them whatever support they needed to grow up to be good, upstanding, honorable young men.

  It was a long walk back to the orphanage, but they made it. Miss Lawson, one of the teachers, saw them coming and hurried to open the door and let them in.

  “You found him!” she exclaimed in delight.

  “Thanks to Marty and Joey,” Nick told her as he set Steve on his feet before her.

  Miss Lawson hugged both Marty and Joey. “Good job.” Then she turned to speak with Steve. “Thank heaven you’re back. I was so worried about you.”

  Steve lifted his head to look at the tall, thin, gray-haired teacher. She was one of the strictest teachers there at the home, and to find out she’d been worried about him, surprised him. “You were?”

  “Why, yes. You’re my best speller. What would I do without you in class, young man? You set the example for all the other younger boys.”

  Steve had never had any open praise in his life for his studies. He was taken aback by her words. “I do?”

  “Yes, you do, and don’t forget it. Come see me when you’ve finished talking with Reverend Miller and I’ll go over the assignments you missed today so you won’t fall behind in your studies. All right?”

  Steve nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Nick was impressed with her handling of the situation. “Joey, Marty, I’ll see you two at dinner. Steve, come with me.”

  Steve followed the reverend into his small office off the main hall. He stood before Reverend Miller’s desk, his head hanging in shame, his shoulders stooped with weariness.

  Nick sat down at his desk and looked at the boy. “You can sit down, Steve.”

  Steve looked up, shocked. Usually when anyone got in trouble at the home, their punishment was strict. He’d been expecting to be spanked. “I can?”

  “Yes.”

  He quickly sat in one of the two chairs positioned in front of the reverend’s desk and waited to see what Reverend Miller was going to say.

  Nick saw the puzzlement in his expression. “I know you’re going through a hard time right now, Steve. This time of year with the holidays coming . . . Well, it’s hard to be without your family. I know, because I’ve been there myself.”

  “You have?”

  “I was orphaned at a young age, just like you,” Nick explained, and he went on to tell him of his time at the orphanage. “It was traumatic for me to be taken from my older brother, Danny, and I ran away from my adopted home to go back to find my brother. When I got there, though, Danny was gone. It turned out my brother had run off to try to find me, and I was returned to my adopted family. I stayed with them after that.”

  “You’re lucky to have a brother,” Steve said.

  “I know, but I haven’t seen him since then.”

  “He never came back? He never found you?”

  “No.”

  “What do you think happened to him?”

  “I don’t know, and that’s why I was so worried about you. It’s dangerous being on the streets alone.” Nick met his gaze. “Where did you think you were going?”

  The boy looked shamed. “I don’t know. I just didn’t want to be here. I wanted to go home.” His eyes widened as if the truth just came to him. “But I don’t have a home anymore.”

  Nick saw the change in him and knew the boy had taken a big and painful step toward manhood right then. “Yes, you do, Steve. Your home is right here with us now.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “If you need help with anything, you come find me.”

  Steve didn’t say anything for a moment. Then he asked, “Do you think you’ll ever find your brother?”

  “It’s interesting you should ask that.”

  “Why?”

  “When I was following you, I saw a man who looked a little like what Danny probably would have looked like as a grown-up, getting on the train down at the train station.”

  “You did?” The boy’s eyes widened in amazement at his words. “What did you do? Did you go talk to him?”

  “No, no. There was no time. I had to find you, and, besides, he was about a block away from me and the train was getting ready to pull out. I was probably just thinking about Danny because I was worrying about finding you.”

  “Reverend Miller—”


  Nick looked at him questioningly.

  “I’m sorry I ran off today. It won’t happen again—I promise.”

  “Good, and thank you, Steve. You can go on and get ready for dinner.”

  Steve got up and started to leave the office, but he paused at the door to look back at him. “Reverend Miller?”

  “Yes, Steve?”

  “You ought to go see if you can find out who was riding on that train today. What if it really was your brother? What if he was there and you didn’t try to find him again? It’s not too late. You could go bring him back. He’s probably still worrying about you, too.”

  Nick didn’t want to even think about the possibility. It had been so long, and there had been so much pain involved in losing Danny the way he had. He’d always feared that something terrible had happened to him, and that was why he’d become so serious about helping the homeless, abandoned children he found on the city streets. “I’ll have to see.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  With that, Steve left the office and closed the door behind him.

  Alone, Nick turned to stare out the window, wondering if there was any hope at all that the cowboy could have been his brother.

  Chapter Eight

  Nick finished the work in his office for the evening and decided to stop by the small chapel to pray for a while before retiring for the night. He was lost in deep meditation when he heard the chapel door open and someone else come into the room. He didn’t look up, but continued to offer up his prayers until the person slipped into the pew right beside him. Only then did he glance over, and he was surprised to see that it was Miss Lawson.

  “Is something wrong?” he asked, knowing it was unusual for her to come to the chapel at this time of night.

  “That’s why I’m here,” she replied. “You tell me.”