Silver Strike Bride

An adult stories – Silver Strike Bride by ronde,ronde Kirsten Vinter was happy in her job as a cook for a wealthy man and his wife even though it was in the city. Every morning she thanked God for the help the pastor of her church had given her in finding the job. Kirsten’s parents were Swedish immigrants who lived on a farm outside of Chicago where her father was a sharecropper. When he and her mother both contracted cholera and died in January of 1866, the owner of the farm told Kirsten that she had to leave because he needed the house for another sharecropper.

Kirsten was just eighteen at the time, but thanks to the pastor at her local church she was able to find work as a cook for Mr. Robert Hines and his wife, Ester. Mr. Hines was a banker and he and his wife lived in a huge house in Irving Park. Kirsten’s job paid only fifty cents a day, but included a room of her own and three meals a day.

Kirsten’s job was to cook the meals Mr. and Mrs. Hines ate and to prepare food for any parties they might have. Another young woman, an Irish girl named Alice, did the cleaning and laundry. Kirsten found Alice to be not very mature in her thoughts and very spontaneous in her actions. That proved to be a valid assessment one night the third week in September after Kirsten had served Mr. and Mrs. Hines. She and Alice sat down in the kitchen to eat, and Alice asked Kirsten if she thought they should be paid so little when Mr. Hines had so much.

“I’ve talked to other girls who work in the houses on this street, and they are paid seventy-five cents a day and more if they have to cook for a party and clean up afterwards. I think we should both go to Mr. Hines and ask him to pay us more. What do you think?”

Alice was just happy to have a job. She’d never really thought about how much she was paid. Fifty cents a day was enough to buy what she needed and she had a little left over to buy materials for a new dress every other month.

“Alice, what if he decides to send us into the streets? You know where women in the streets end up, and I don’t want that.”

Alice shook her head.

“He won’t do that. He won’t be able to find any other girls who will work this hard without paying them the same as the girls in the other houses get paid. He might say he won’t pay us more, but if that happens, what will we have lost? If he says he will, we’ll be making more money. You just come along with me. I’ll do all the talking.”

That conversation took place at dinner the next night. After Mr. and Mrs. Hines had finished their dinner, Kirsten took them the cake she’d baked for dessert. Alice followed her into the dining room.

When Kirsten sat the plates in front of Mr. and Mrs. Hines, Alice spoke up.

“Mr. Hines, I have been talking to the other girls in the houses nearby and they are all paid seventy-five cents a day. We would ask you to raise our pay to the same. If you do, we’ll work even harder for you.”

Mr. Hines had put his napkin back in his lap and then smiled at Alice.

“So, you’re saying that if I don’t raise your pay, you won’t work as hard?”

Alice shook her head.

“No. I’m just saying if you do, we’ll work harder.”

Mr. Hines smiled again.

“I’m satisfied with your work and I believe Mrs. Hines is as well. She has never said anything to the contrary to me. What would you do differently that would make me want to pay you more?”

Alice didn’t say anything, and Mr. Hines laughed.

“I see by the look on Kirsten’s face and the fact that she has not said anything that she is not party to your request even though she is here. Her pastor told me she is a hard worker and a nice young lady and I believe him so I shall not hold this against her. You do not have anything more to say, but I expected as much. You’re not smart enough to have thought this out.”

Mr. Hines’ frowned and then raised his voice.

“You little Mick bitch, I pulled you out of a boarding house where you worked for your room and board, and this is how you thank me. I should send you into the streets. Men like girls with red hair, so maybe you can make a living on your back. How would you like that? Maybe you’ll make some real money then.

“On second thought, you probably couldn’t. You aren’t pretty enough to get more than two bits a time, and after a year of laying on your back for five or six men every night, you’ll look like you’re forty instead of twenty-one. An old colored whore could make more money than you will.

“Now, both of you, go back to the kitchen where you belong and do not bother me and Mrs. Hines any more about this.”

Alice was in tears of rage when she and Alice got back to the kitchen, and she turned to Kirsten.

“I’m not pretty enough? Did you hear him say that? I suppose I’m not pretty enough for what he does to me when Mrs. Hines goes to visit her mother or her friends. He never says that then.”

Kirsten gasped.

“You mean he…he makes you…with him?”

Alice nodded.

“It started after the first month. It was a Saturday afternoon and he came into their bedroom when I was changing the sheets. He smiled and said I was a good housekeeper, and then said he thought I’d be better at some other things. I didn’t know what he meant so I asked him.

“He didn’t say anything at first. He just put his hands on my breasts and smiled. I was so scared I couldn’t move. That’s when he said I could earn some extra money if I took off my dress.

“I wouldn’t have done it except I did need some extra money. My mother and father are still in Ireland and I need money to bring them to America. I asked him if that was all I had to do and he said we’d talk about it after I took off my dress.

“Well, I did, and when I was standing there in my chemise, he touched my breasts again and then my hips, and then said he’d always dreamed about having a woman like me.

“I asked him what that meant, and he just smiled and said I was old enough to know what he meant. Then he took a silver dollar out of his vest pocket and showed it to me and said it could be mine if I took off the rest of my clothes and then laid down on the bed.

“Kirsten, I want to bring my mother and father here, and I thought, well, maybe just this once. I did what he asked.”

Kirsten was standing there with her hand on her mouth.

“You let him…you let him put his…in you?”

Alice nodded.

“Yes. It didn’t take him long and it didn’t hurt because I had already done it with the stable boy from next door. He gave me the silver dollar after he pulled up his pants and said there was more where that came from. He’s been doing it to me almost every Saturday since then unless I couldn’t.

Kirsten shook her head.

“Alice, you can’t keep doing this. You’ll get with child.”

Alice frowned.

“I asked him once what he would do if this happened and he just laughed and said it would be my fault if that happened. I’ve been making sure that doesn’t happen because I know what he’d do if it did. I would end up like he said tonight.”

Alice then looked up at Kirsten, and her face was a mask of rage.

“I’m not going to let him do this to me. You’ll see. He’ll get what’s coming to a man like him.”

That Sunday afternoon, Kirsten was preparing Mr. Hines’ favorite Sunday supper of roast beef, potatoes, carrots and onions when Alice came into the kitchen. Kirsten didn’t give a thought to that. Alice didn’t have much to do on Sunday afternoons and often joined her in the kitchen while she prepared the evening meal.

Kirsten had also baked some fresh bread, and as she carried it out of the kitchen, Alice said she would dish up the main course. When Kirsten came back into the kitchen, Alice had a large piece of beef, several potatoes and carrots, and a small serving of onions on two plates. Kirsten picked up the plates and took them to the dining room, then came back into the kitchen. She and Alice ate their meal after which Kirsten went back to the dining room to pick up the dishes.

It was as she was walking back to the kitchen with the plates that she heard Mr. Hines say he was feeling rather tired and thought he’d go upstairs to read a bit before going to sleep. Kirsten smiled at that comment because that was Mr. Hines’ normal reaction to any heavy meal. She was a bit surprised that Mrs. Hines said she’d go with him. Mrs. Hines was not a big eater at all, and usually had a glass of wine before going to bed.

Alice said she was going to go for a walk before bedtime and left Kirsten to do up the dishes and put away the remaining food. Kirsten did so and then went to her room. After reading her Bible for half an hour, she blew out her lamp and went to bed.

The next morning, Kirsten was up, dressed, and in the kitchen at six because Mr. Hines always wanted his breakfast at seven. She fried potatoes and when they were nearly done, put sausage and eggs in with them, stirred the pan, and left them to cook while she made coffee.

When the coffee was done, Kirsten filled the silver pot, put it on a tray with two cups, cream, and sugar, and carried the tray into the dining room. She was surprised that Mr. Hines was not sitting there drumming his fingers on the table like he usually was. Mrs. Hines often came downstairs later than Mr. Hines, so Kirsten figured they had just slept a bit later than usual. She went back to the kitchen and moved the frying pan to the back of the stove to keep the food warm until Mr. and Mrs. Hines came down for breakfast.

After half an hour, they were still in their bedroom and Kirsten began to wonder if they were ill. It was not her place to wake them so she went to Alice’s room to ask her to do so.

Alice was in her nightgown and wiping her eyes when she opened the door. Kirsten explained that she thought Alice should wake Mr. and Mrs. Hines for breakfast. Alice smiled, an expression Kirsten thought odd, but said she would do that as soon as she dressed. About fifteen minutes later, Alice went up the stairs to Mr. and Mrs. Hines’ bedroom.

Kirsten went back to the kitchen to dish up the breakfast, and she’d only been there long enough to put the plates on the kitchen table when Alice came in to join her. The girl was grinning when she sat down.

“Mr. and Mrs. Hines will not be having breakfast today”, was all she said.

Kirsten didn’t understand.

“They always have breakfast at seven. Are they ill? If they are, we must fetch the doctor.”

Alice grinned.

“The doctor can’t help them now. They’re both dead.”

Kirsten fell back against the kitchen counter.

“Dead? How could that happen? They were both fine last night.”

The look on Alice’s face frightened Kirsten. Alice’s eyes were wide open and she had an evil grin on her face when she answered.

“Did you know that the same hemlock that grows in Ireland also grows in Chicago? I didn’t until I went down to the river with the stable boy next door last week. After we made love, he told me about them. Last night when I took a walk, I pulled up some of the plants and cut off the roots by wrapping them in an old newspaper so the juice wouldn’t get on me. They looked just like carrots only sort of pale.

“I said Mr. Hines would get what he deserved. What he deserved was the hemlock roots I sliced into slivers and put in their food. I put them in both plates because I couldn’t be sure you’d give Mr. Hines the right one.”

Kirsten put her hand on her breasts.

“Alice, you’ll be arrested for murder and hanged.”

Alice smiled that oddly wicked smile again.

“No I won’t. I’m not the cook. You are. The police won’t believe I could have put anything in their food. Only the cook could do that.

“Somebody will come looking for Mr. Hines when he doesn’t go to work and when they find them, they’ll send for the police. I’m going to be on my way to New York before that. If I were you, I would do the same thing. It will take a doctor to tell the police Mr. and Mrs. Hines were poisoned, so you probably have until tomorrow morning to leave Chicago.”

Kirsten had only a few dollars to her name, certainly not enough to buy a train ticket.

“Alice, I can’t go anywhere. I don’t have enough money.”

Alice smiled that evil smile again and fished a small leather sack from between her breasts.

“Mr. Hines has seen fit to give us an increase in pay. This is two hundred dollars in gold and silver coins, half the money he kept in his nightstand. I knew it was there because that’s how he always paid me for spreading my legs for him. It should get you a train ticket to somewhere. I’m taking the other half. Now, I’m going to go pack.”

Alice tossed the small sack to Kirsten and then left. A few minutes later she walked into the kitchen dressed and carrying her bag.

“Don’t wait too long, Kirsten. They’ll be after you as soon as they figure out what killed Mr. and Mrs. Hines.”

With that said, Alice walked out the back door.

Kirsten was dumbstruck. She had thought her life was on a smooth road, but now, she would be accused of murder if she was caught. Alice was right. Her only choice was to leave Chicago, but where could she go? It would have to be somewhere the police would not look for her. That meant it couldn’t be a city where there were police. Her description would be sent to the police department in any large city, and a slender Swedish girl with long, blonde hair would find it hard to hide in a small town. She would have to go to a place where people didn’t ask questions and where there were few, if any, police.

Kirsten knew she couldn’t go by train unless she left that very day. As soon as the police discovered the murders, they’d give her description to every train station in Illinois and probably the states that bordered Illinois. She’d read about a bank robber who was caught in Ohio because a train conductor recognized him from a poster from the Chicago police.

Kirsten didn’t know where she was going or how she’d get there, but she went to her room and packed her few belongings in a traveling bag and pinned the small sack of coins to her chemise and between her breasts. Then, she set out walking toward the church she attended every Sunday. The pastor had helped her once. Maybe he could help her again.

When she got to the church, Kirsten didn’t tell the pastor why she needed to leave Chicago. She just told him she was tired of being a cook and tired of the city and wanted to move to a place where there weren’t so many people. She also smiled and told him she wanted to find a husband.

The pastor stroked his chin for a while, and then frowned.

“Kirsten, if I were you, I’d stay in Chicago. There are places where there are men looking for a wife, but you would not be safe going there alone. I received a letter yesterday from a man who went from Chicago to Colorado to prospect for silver. Apparently he has established a mine and now wants a woman to travel there and become his wife. The other pastors in Chicago get the same type of letter at least once a month.

“Those places are still very wild and there are no policemen to keep things under control. There are saloons there where the men drink whiskey and gamble away their money and the few women there…well, I don’t have to tell you what those women do to make their money. There are often shootings and robberies. There will only be one store and that store will not have much in it other than mining supplies.

“This man does not have a house yet. He says he will build a house if he can find a wife, but until then, he is living in a tent. I’m told it gets very cold in Colorado, colder than it does in Chicago. You would catch your death in a tent.”

As Kirsten listened to the pastor, she was forming a plan. A place with no police was what she was looking for. Maybe the man who wrote the letter would be a good man who would take care of her. If he wasn’t, she had no doubt there would be more than one man there who wanted a wife.

“Pastor, would you give me the letter? I grew up on a farm and I can take care of myself. I can take the train to Colorado and I’ll be safe on the train. Once I get there, I’ll find a way to contact this man so he can come and get me.”

The pastor shook his head in frustration. These young women thought with their hearts instead of their heads. When Kirsten asked him again, he took a letter from his desk and handed it to Kirsten.

“Kirsten, I wish you would reconsider, but it sounds like you’ve already made up your mind. When you are ready to leave, I will have my carriage take you to the train station.”

Kirsten smiled the best fake smile she could manage.

“I resigned my position this morning. I am ready to leave now.”

At ten o’clock that morning, Kirsten walked into the train station. She bought a ticket on a Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific train that was going to Denver and then took a seat near one of the doors to the station. Her plan was to get up and walk out if she saw any police enter the station. She was relieved when none did before she boarded the train. At one o’clock that afternoon, Kirsten was sitting in a seat by a window and watching the city of Chicago pass by.

The trip took twelve days and was anything but enjoyable. Kirsten found it difficult to sleep for more than a few hours at a time because of the jostling and noise. It was hot in the train car during the day, but opening a window to let in some air usually meant at least some smoke coming in with that fresh air. Eating meant leaving the train when it stopped for coal and water. The food was usually of poor quality and cost more than Kirsten wanted to spend. She decided to settle for buying a loaf of bread and a small amount of ham and ate on the train.

Kirsten was overjoyed when the train stopped at the station in Denver. She was also apprehensive. She knew nothing of Denver other than it was a city in Colorado Territory. It wasn’t as big as Chicago, but it looked like it was trying to be. Everywhere Kirsten looked, there were buildings going up.

Kirsten had no intention of seeing more of Denver than she had to see in order to find a man to take her to meet William Baynes, the man who had written to her pastor in Chicago. When she asked the man at the ticket counter how she could get to the silver mines at Rabbit Creek, he smiled.

“Why would a pretty young girl like you want to go to one of those hellholes? There are plenty of places where a pretty girl can make a living right here in Denver. You might not make as much money, but life will be easier.”

Kirsten frowned at the implication that she was a prostitute.

“Sir, I assure you I am no fallen dove. I am here to get married.”

The man smiled again.

“Ah, so you are one of those catalogue wives we get from time to time. Well, your best bet would be one of the freight wagons down by the loading platforms. The drivers are a rough lot, but they’ll get you to the mines if you don’t mind having your innards shaken up during the trip.”

Kirsten walked out of the station and down the platform to where the freight wagons were being loaded. Most of the men looked dirty, had long, scraggly beards and wore ragged clothes.

Kirsten asked the first teamster she came to if he knew of a man who could take her to Rabbit Creek. The teamster pointed to a man with his back to them.

“Over there, with the team of blacks. His name is Hiram Wainwright and he’s the Rabbit Creek driver. Uh…Ma’am, Hiram looks a little scary, but he’ll get you there safe and sound.”

Kirsten walked up to the man and said, “Are you Mr. Wainwright?”

When he turned to face her, Kirsten caught her breath. The man’s mouth wasn’t straight across. It dipped down on his left side. That was shocking enough, but the leather band that covered his nose was something she’d never seen before. It had a portion shaped like a nose, but Kirsten couldn’t figure out why a man would wear such a thing.

The man looked her up and down, and then said, “Yes. What do you want?”

Kirsten took a deep breath. She couldn’t very well just walk away, and even though this man looked a little scary, he looked strong and cleaner than the others.

“I am Kirsten Vinter and I’m looking for a man who can take me to a silver mine near Rabbit Creek. Do you know where that is?”

Hiram Wainwright looked the young girl up and down and wondered why fate had steered her his way. He’d gone out of his way to stay by himself as much as possible, but here she was, standing there and smiling at him. No woman had smiled at him since that day at Shiloh, the day he’d become a monster instead of a man.

Hiram was eighteen when the 8th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment was forming in Springfield. He reasoned that since President Lincoln was from Springfield, it was his duty to answer the President’s call for men to join the Union Army. He left his two brothers, both too young to enlist, and enlisted and was sent to Cairo, Illinois for training and then duty until July 25, 1861.

On that date, Hiram and the rest of the 8th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment became the 8th Illinois Infantry Regiment and he’d served until he was wounded at Shiloh. After that, he spent months in a Union Army hospital. By the time he was released from the hospital, the war was over.

As Hiram rode the train from Tennessee to Springfield, he spent the days analyzing what he’d experienced over the past years.

The Battle of Fort Henry had been exciting at first, but then a disappointment because the commander of Fort Henry had surrendered before most of the Union troops arrived. The 8th then marched to Fort Donelson where Hiram got his first taste of a real battle. He watched men die as the Confederates tried to push through the Union Lines and felt the cold fear of death as minié balls flew over his head.

That battle was just a hint of what was to come at Shiloh. By the time the Confederates retreated from the field at Shiloh, Hiram had killed at least ten men and probably had wounded several more. He’d also been shot twice in the face and those wounds had changed his life forever.

Once the doctor at Shiloh had cleaned and bandaged Hiram’s wounds, he was put in a wagon and taken to the Army hospital in Nashville. The doctors there told him he would heal but that they couldn’t put back what the minié ball had shot away. Hiram didn’t see his injuries at first, but the nurses who changed his bandages didn’t seem to be shocked. Hiram assumed the doctors were just telling him the wounds were more serious than they were so he’d be prepared. It wasn’t until he was mostly healed that a nurse brought a mirror with her when she came to remove his bandages.

In spite of what the doctors had told him, Hiram wasn’t prepared for the monster he saw looking back at him in the mirror. His nose was gone, replaced by two black holes. His jaw, while it still worked, was angled down toward the left side of his face instead of being straight.

When he recoiled from the sight and slapped the mirror out of the nurse’s hand, she touched him on the shoulder.

“Corporal, they’ll give you a mask to cover your nose, so it won’t look so bad. You should consider yourself lucky. Many of the men in the hospital have lost an arm or a leg, and some have lost both. A lot more never made it to the hospital. You’ll at least be able to work and support a family.”

They did make him a mask. It was a wide strap of leather that was close to his skin color and had a nose-shaped section in the center that covered the holes where his nose had been. There wasn’t much they could do about his jaw. The doctor said it would work like it always did. It would just be crooked.

Since the first actual battle, Hiram had dreamed of going back home. He’d go back to the annual routine of plowing, planting, cultivating and harvesting. He was old enough to take a wife and begin a family, a family that would continue to operate the farm when he and his brothers had passed on.

Once he’d looked in that mirror, all those dreams vanished. His brothers probably would accept him as he was, though they’d always be ashamed of how he looked. The people of the farming community would all know what had happened to him. Some would have disgust or fear on their faces when they looked at him. Others would pity him. Hiram could have put up with the disgust. He couldn’t tolerate pity. As for a wife, Hiram couldn’t imagine any woman willing to marry a man with no nose and a crooked jaw.

He decided he’d have to leave the farm and find work where he could stay away from other people. He couldn’t imagine any storekeeper hiring him in any job where he’d be seen by the public. As soon as a customer saw him, they’d run out of the store and never come back. Any job like that was out of the question.

It was when he rode the train from Nashville back to Springfield that he saw a possible answer. At each train station there were several wagons backed up to the dock and men were loading bags and boxes from the rail cars onto the wagons. The drivers of the wagons looked like a scruffy lot, but that was what he was now, wasn’t it, a man too ugly to attract a woman so he didn’t care how he looked.

Hiram did stop in Springfield to tell his brothers what he was going to do, and as soon as they saw him, Hiram knew he’d made the right decision. His brother James gasped when he saw Hiram but didn’t say anything. His brother, Amos, took one look and then asked Hiram what he looked like without the mask. When Hiram took off the mask, both Amos and James turned a deathly shade of white.

Hiram gathered up what he’d left on the farm, just some clothes and his Bible, and then boarded a train for Chicago. He thought as big as Chicago was, he’d be able to find a job driving a freight wagon like the ones he’d seen at the other rail stations.

Hiram talked to the freight drivers at the rail station in Chicago, and did find a few who said their company was looking for men. When he applied at those companies, he was thanked for his service to the Union, but told there were no openings. At the last company, the secretary stopped him as he was leaving. She wasn’t smiling. The look on her face told Hiram she pitied him, but he stopped and listened to her.

“Sir, I lost my brother to the war and I know he’d want me to help you. I’m so sorry that after what you’ve done for the Union they won’t hire you. I do know of a place that might. It’s not very civilized like it is here, but a former soldier like you should be able to get along. It’s at a rail station in Denver that’s run by my uncle. They have drivers there who take supplies from Denver to the gold and silver mines and bring back the gold and silver. If you’re interested, I’ll give you the name of my uncle.”

When Hiram said he was interested, the secretary motioned for him to come closer. When he did, she wrote short note and put it in an envelope with a name and an address, and then opened her desk drawer and took out a small card.

“You want to see Mr. Joel Marks at Miner’s Freight Company in Denver. This card will let you ride on the train to Denver without paying. Just show it to the conductor when he asks to see your ticket. When you see Mr. Marks, give him this envelope.”

Two weeks later, Hiram walked into the office of Joel Marks and introduced himself. When Hiram handed him the envelope the secretary had given him, the man tore it open, read the note inside, and then smiled.

“I see you met Eleanor. Nice woman, Eleanor.”

He looked up at Hiram then.

“Shame about her brother. Blown to bits by a cannon ball was what she wrote me, but I suppose you saw a lot of that sort of thing during the war. Well, Eleanor says you need a job and she thinks I might have one for you. Can you drive a team?”

When Hiram said he’d been driving a team since he was ten years old, Mr. Marks smiled.

“We make a trip to the mines once a week, but it takes six days to go down and back. My Rabbit Creek driver quit yesterday. Damn fool thinks he’ll strike it rich mining silver. What he’s going to do is maybe find enough silver to keep him going, but not enough to let him get out of the mines and live a normal life. It’s the people who sell to the miners and haul their supplies who’ll make out in the end.

“I’ll send you out tomorrow with another driver so you can learn the route. When you get back, we’ll set you up with a team and a wagon, and you’ll make the trip by yourself. I’ll send Eleanor a letter telling her I hired you.”

After a month of making the trip, Hiram decided he’d found where he belonged. He didn’t mind being alone for a week at a time. It gave him time to think and it kept him away from other people. Now, this woman wanted to ride with him down to the mines. They’d be together for three days and he knew that during those three days, she ask what happened to him and he’d have to explain.

He shook his head.

“Ma’am, I don’t take riders along with me, especially women. It’s a dangerous trip and we’d have to sleep in the open at least two nights.’

Kirsten frowned.

“The man at the ticket counter told me to come down here so it must be allowed, and one of the other men said you’d get me to Rabbit Creek safe and sound.”

She smiled then.

“Mr. Wainwright, I grew up on a farm and I don’t scare easily. I can also pay you for taking me along, and I can bring my own supplies if you tell me what I need.”

For the first time in his life, Hiram was taken by a woman’s smile. He’d seen women smile at him before the war, but it never affected him like this woman’s smile. It made him reconsider but with some conditions that he hoped would make her decide not to go.

“If I let you ride with me and you complain about how rough the ride is I’ll make you walk. When we stop for the night, I’ll build a fire and cook my own meals. You’ll have to cook yours so you’ll need food and a frying pan. You’ll need a couple blankets too. It gets cold at night this time of year.”

Hiram felt that same feeling when the woman smiled at him again.

“Can we go by a store so I can get what I need?”

The first day of the trip Kirsten didn’t say much, and for this Hiram was thankful. He kept the team at a walk, partly because he wanted to stretch the distance before he had to stop and rest them and partly because the trail was just that, just two ruts in the ground that constantly jostled the wagon.

He was a little surprised when Kirsten didn’t hold on tight to the wagon seat or to the bow that supported the canvas top. Instead, she sat on the seat and moved to counter the movements of the wagon in order to keep herself upright. Maybe she’d been telling the truth when she said she’d been brought up on a farm.

Because of the time it took to load the wagon and then the half hour they’d spent at the general store so Kirsten could buy what she needed, it was almost four o’clock when the horses needed to be rested. Hiram started looking for a good camping place, and found one beside a small stream. When he stopped the team, he turned to Kirsten.

“Not much sense in going any farther. It’ll be dark a little more than an hour. We’ll stop here for the night.”

That said, Hiram unharnessed the horses and then tied them to a picket line and brushed each horse. He then went to build a fire. Once the fire was started, he went back to the horses with a feed bag of oats for each from the box on the side of the wagon.

Kirsten watched him do all this and was impressed. Hiram did the same things her father had always done at the end of the workday. He’d taken care of his horses before he took care of himself. When she thought about it some more, she realized Hiram was much like her father. He didn’t talk much, or at least, hadn’t so far. He just spoke to the horses once in a while. There was something about him though.

She’d been dying to ask him what had happened to him, but she thought he’d have already told her if he wanted her to know. Her father had been like that too. She remembered the time he’d cut his leg chopping firewood. He hadn’t said anything to her or to her mother. He’d just come into the house, asked her mother for a rag, and then washed the deep cut with soap and water and tied the rag around his leg. The next morning, he was up before the sun and back at work in the field. He was limping, but he never said anything about being in pain.

Her mother had told her that’s just how men were, but Kirsten knew that wasn’t true of all men. She remembered the time Mr. Hines had sprained his ankle when he missed the step while getting out of his carriage. He’d had Mrs. Hines summon the doctor, and for three days after that, he’d stayed in bed.

As Kirsten watched Hiram she was thinking that only true men would act like the man with a crooked mouth and a strip of leather over his nose. Mr. Hines had been a man, but he was a man who wasn’t equal to the father she’d grown up with. Hiram was.

Hiram was also watching Kirsten while he worked, and was a little confused. The woman wasn’t afraid of him like most women were. Occasionally, one of the driver’s wives would come to the loading platform, and one look at him was all they wanted. After that, they’d go out of their way to avoid looking at him or even being close to him. Several times during the afternoon, he’d glanced at Kirsten and had seen her looking at him. She always smiled if she caught him doing that, and the smile didn’t look as if she was just doing it.

When Hiram had built the fire and it had burned down to coals, he told Kirsten the fire was ready and she should cook her meal because it would soon be dark. Hiram fried his bacon and then ate it and soaked up the bacon grease with his hardtack while Kirsten fried a potato with a small onion and a slice of cured ham. When she finished and scooped half the potatoes onto her plate and cut the ham into two pieces, she asked Hiram if he wanted some.

Hiram politely said he was full, but in reality, he wished he hadn’t had to settle for bacon and hardtack. Kirsten just smiled.

“You’ve been working so hard all day. You need more than just bacon and a cracker.”

She handed him the skillet.

“Here. I can’t eat all of this by myself and there’s no sense in wasting it. I only bought one plate, so the skillet will have to do.”

As Hiram lay in his blankets beside the fire that night, me mused that any woman who could make ham and potatoes that tasted that good with just a skillet and an open fire was going to make some man a fine wife. He felt a pang of jealousy for a few seconds, but then shook that out of his mind. He couldn’t be jealous of a whole man when he himself had no nose and a crooked jaw.

Kirsten had spread her blankets on top of the wood cases of supplies inside the wagon because Hiram had said she’d be safer there. She did feel safe, but it was hard going to sleep on the hard wood cases. She finally found a mostly comfortable position and then tried to fall asleep. That was also hard. She kept thinking about Hiram, wondering what had happened to him, and wondering that he’d let her come along. He hadn’t spoken more then a dozen words to her all day, but she’d seen him looking at her.

The next morning, Hiram was stirring the coals into a fire when Kirsten climbed out of the wagon. When she walked up to Hiram, he looked up and said, “Coffee’ll be ready in a few minutes”.

Without thinking, Kirsten asked Hiram what he was having for breakfast. When he replied he’d be having the same thing he’d had for supper the night before, Kirsten shook her head.

“No you aren’t. That won’t last you until noon. I bought some oatmeal at the general store. I’ll make enough for both of us. I bought two cans of condensed milk and some sugar too.”

After that meal, it wasn’t hard for Hiram to let Kirsten do the cooking. He’d tried, halfheartedly, to refuse her, but he didn’t protest a second time. When they stopped, he’d build a fire while Kirsten got her skillet and what she needed to fix the meal. After they ate, he’d tell Kirsten how good her cooking was. Hiram could tell that Kirsten liked his compliment because she always smiled.

They reached the center of the mining community at Rabbit Creek on the third day on the trail. While Hiram saw to the unloading of the supplies, Kirsten went to the only actual building in what passed for a town — the assay office. She got many stares and whispered comments as she walked along the dirt street, comments that were not what a lady would expect in the city. Kirsten was embarrassed, but also a little proud. She’d never had so many men telling her how pretty she was in her whole life.

At the assay office, she asked for directions to the mine where Robert Milburn worked. The agent behind the desk looked at her with a frown on his face.

“Why do you want to know where Robert Milburn works.”

Kirsten replied that he’d written to her pastor in Chicago that he wanted a wife and that she was going to be that wife.

The agent sighed.

“I’m sorry, Ma’am. Robert Milburn was killed a week ago when the roof of the mine collapsed on him. It took the other miners two days to dig him out. He’s buried out in the miner’s cemetery if you want to go see his grave.”

Kirsten said she didn’t need to see his grave and then walked out of the assay office and looked up and down the dirt path that passed as a street.

There were men on the street, some riding horses, and some going in and out of a large tent with a sign hung over the flap that said, “Rabbit Creek Saloon”. The men going inside were dirty and judging by their beards, hadn’t shaved in a very long time. The men coming out were just as dirty and had beards just as long and bristly, but they were having some trouble walking.

There were smaller tents pitched along the street. Those tents had no signs, but the women standing in front of some of them left no question in her mind as to what those tents were for. Though it was cold enough Kirsten had worn a coat, those women were standing there in just their dresses, and those dresses showed a lot of their breasts. When one of the men walked by a tent, the woman would raise her skirts to show her bare legs.

Kirsten was at a loss for what she should do now. What she had hoped was that she’d find the man who wrote the letter was not like the men she saw now. She’d marry him even though they would not ever be true man and wife. She would be just the woman who cleaned and cooked for him and who shared his bed at night. At least that would give her a home and protection from men who might hurt her. Her consolation would be the children she’d bear and then raise.

If the man had at least been clean and didn’t go to the saloon, she could have lived with that. She’d known many women who married just to have a man to provide for them. They hadn’t seemed to be unhappy. Kirsten had grown up assuming that was how marriage worked. Men and women got married to share work and to start a family so there would be sons and daughters to help when the mother and father got older.

As she looked up and down the street, Kirsten realized that there was nothing for her here. True, there were no police so she probably didn’t need to be concerned about being arrested for murder, but she didn’t see even one man she’d consent to share her bed with. Her only option seemed to be to go back to Denver and find a job as a cook. Maybe some day, some man would come into wherever she was working and she’d end up finding a husband.

Kirsten walked back to where Hiram had stopped the wagon, and found him unloading the last of the supplies. He looked up, and then asked her if she knew where the mine was.

“The silver was all shipped out on a mule train yesterday, so all I’ll be carrying is a few deer and bear hides. I need to get started back to Denver as soon as I take you to the mine.”

Kirsten sighed.

“We can leave for Denver as soon as you’re ready. The man I came here to marry is dead. The only thing I can do now is go back to Denver and try to find work.”

The first two days of their trip back to Denver was like the trip down. Hiram drove the horses and didn’t talk. Kirsten watched the landscape go by and wondered if Hiram would ever talk to her.

That changed when they stopped for the second night. Hiram began the process of unhitching the horses. He was walking up to the near horse to remove the trace chains from the wagon when Kirsten walked by on her way to the privacy of the trees.

Any other time, Hiram would have slapped the horse on the rump to let him know he was there. This time, he forgot because he was watching Kirsten. When he bent down and grabbed the trace chain, it startled the horse and the horse lashed out with his back foot. Hiram stepped quickly aside and avoided being kicked in the face. Instead, the huge, iron-shod hoof caught him on the leg.

Hiram cried out and fell to the ground because that leg wouldn’t support him. He was trying to stand again when Kirsten ran up to him.

“Hiram, I heard you yell. What happened?”

Hiram shook his head.

“Old Blackie here kicked me in the leg. Help me up so I can get him unhooked and get his harness off.”

Kirsten took his hand and pulled while Hiram used the wheel to pull himself up on one leg. He was starting to take a step when Kirsten stopped him.

“Hiram, don’t try to walk. Your leg isn’t right. It’s sticking out wrong. I think you broke it.”

Hiram waved his hand.

“I been kicked before and it didn’t break my leg. My leg ain’t broke this time either.”

He tried taking a step, but the pain made him grab the wheel of the wagon to keep from falling back down. Kirsten grabbed his arm.

“See, it is broken like I said. We have to get you into the wagon. Put your arm over my shoulder so you won’t fall down again. I can help you into the wagon, but I can’t pick you up and put you in if you fall down.”

Hiram shook his head.

“I have to get the horses unhitched and their harness off. You can’t do that.”

Kirsten pulled his Hiram’s arm over her shoulder and then pulled him away from the wagon.

“You can’t do it with a broken leg either. Now help me get you into the wagon.”

Hiram groaned a few times, but by Kirsten helping, he managed to get into the wagon. Kirsten climbed up inside with him and spread his bedroll out, then rolled him onto it and covered him up. She was shocked when she saw how white his face was.

“Hiram, the way you look, your leg must hurt something awful. I don’t know what to do except get you back to the doctor in Denver. I drove my fathers farm wagon, so I can drive the horses, I think, and I’ll just follow the wagon ruts. I can’t do anything about the pain though.”

Hiram pointed to a box at the front of the wagon.

“There is some light rope in the box. Get two sticks and tie them to my leg with the rope to keep it straight. That’s what the surgeons did during the war. Then bring me the bottle of whiskey that’s in the box. Sometimes my jaw hurts and I keep a bottle of whiskey with me because it helps.”

Kirsten used lengths of the rope and two thick sticks to splint Hiram’s leg and then took out the bottle of whiskey, pulled the cork, poured some into a cup and then handed the cup to Hiram. He tipped up the cup and took a swallow, then coughed.

“I’m not a drinking man, but this’ll dull the pain enough I can drive.”

Kirsten knew he was being like her father, trying to convince her he would be all right once the pain was a little less. She also knew he was wrong, but she didn’t tell Hiram that. She just filled up his cup after he finished it.

“Well, we’ll see. You drink some more.”

Hiram drank that cupful. He didn’t realize it when Kirsten took the empty cup from him, pulled the blanket up to his neck, and then climbed over him and into the wagon seat. He’d passed out.

When he woke up again, it was daylight and the wagon was moving. He tried to raise up, but Kirsten heard him and stopped the wagon. When she climbed over the wagon seat and into the wagon beside him, she picked up the half-empty whiskey bottle and poured another cup almost full.

Hiram asked where they were and Kristen said she didn’t know but that she was still following the wagon ruts so they were still on the right trail. Then she lifted his head and held the cup of whiskey to his lips.

“Hiram, stay still and drink this so you’ll go back to sleep again. I can’t drive this wagon and take care of you at the same time.”

After Hiram finished that cup of whiskey, Kirsten eased Hiram’s head back down on the blanket, climbed back over the wagon seat and spoke to the team again. Hiram felt the wagon moving and then everything went black again.

Hiram woke on a table and someone was pulling on his leg. As soon as he groaned in pain, a hand pushed his head back down and then put something over his face. When he breathed in he smelled ether, the same smell he’d experienced when he was wounded at Shiloh. After a few breaths he blacked out again.

He woke up again lying in a bed, and when he tried to get up, a man said, “Don’t think you want to try that Hiram. That cast needs time to harden up. It was hard enough getting that leg straightened out and that plaster cast put on it. If you break that cast and I have to do it a second time, I won’t use ether to keep you asleep.”

Hiram looked toward the sound of the voice and saw the man he knew as Doctor Williams, the doctor in Denver. Hiram tried to remember what had happened, but it was just bits and pieces — getting kicked in the leg, then Kirsten helping him into the wagon. After that, he couldn’t really remember anything in any detail. He raised his head a little more.

“How did I get here?”

Doctor Williams smiled.

“Some woman who said she was your wife brought you in about two this afternoon. I thought you were just drunk but she said she kept you drunk because you had a broken leg. You owe that little lady a lot, Hiram. She put a splint on that leg and then drove your wagon all night and most of today to get you here. She wouldn’t leave until I got your leg straightened out and a plaster cast on it to hold it still.”

Hiram let his head fall back on the bed. He couldn’t figure out why Kirsten had said she was his wife, but that wasn’t his main concern.

“So my leg was broke like she said? How long before I can walk on it again?”

Doctor Williams moved Hiram’s cast from side to side, and smiled when Hiram groaned.

“That hurt any?”

Hiram nodded.

“Yes, it hurt a lot.”

The doctor grinned.

“Well, that’s good. It means all you did was break the bone and didn’t tear up anything else. It’s going to hurt anytime you move it for about a week, but I’ll give you some feverfew. It’ll help with the pain a little, and it’ll relax your muscles enough you won’t be tempted to try walking. You can get some more down at the pharmacy if you need it. Just don’t let George sell you any laudanum. Laudanum will kill the pain, but it’ll also kill you in the end.

“As for when you can walk again, if you do what I tell you I’d say I can take the cast off in a month or so. It’ll take another month before you get enough strength in that leg to walk much.”

Hiram tried to sit up, groaned at the pain that caused, and then eased back down.

“I can’t be laid up for two months. If I can’t drive a wagon, the freight company will find somebody else who can.

The doctor smiled.

“That woman told me you’d say something like that. She also said I should tell you she’d be back as soon as she did something she had to do. Now, you just lay there until she gets here and we’ll both find out what she meant.”

Kirsten had been nearly exhausted when she stopped the wagon in front of the doctor’s office in Denver. Though the full moon had lit her way until the sun came up, for the most part she trusted the horses to stay on the trail. Thankfully, they had, and by morning, she could see Denver in the distance.

She’d run inside and told the doctor that Hiram had broken his leg and that he needed help fast. She was relieved when the doctor waved at two other men to help him carry Hiram inside.

The doctor took one look at Hiram and then looked up at her.

“You’re right, young lady. His leg is broken, not bad and it’ll heal, but he won’t be walking on it for a while. He your husband?”

Kirsten’s mind was tired, but she was still thinking. If she said no, the doctor would wonder why she’d been concerned and might think she had something to do with it. If she said yes, it would at least buy her some time to think of a better answer.

“Yes. He’s a driver for the freight company and I rode with him to deliver supplies to the miners at Rabbit Creek. I guess it’s a good thing I did.”

The doctor had frowned then.

“When did this happen?”

Kirsten explained that Hiram had been kicked by a horse the afternoon before and that she’d driven the wagon from then up until she stopped in front of his office. The doctor whistled.

“All night and most of today? No wonder you look like you’re about to drop. Go sit down while I set his leg. By the way, why is it he seems to be drunk as a skunk?”

Kirsten looked at the floor.

“I could tell it hurt but I didn’t know what to do. He said whiskey helped when his face hurt so I gave him a lot. I didn’t make him worse did I?”

The doctor had laughed.

“No, you didn’t make him worse. You just made him relax and not try to move around. If he’d been awake and floppin’ around in that wagon, he might have torn up a bunch of stuff inside his broken leg.”

Kirsten had felt better then, and she felt a lot better when the doctor had finished putting the plaster cast on Hiram’s leg. He had turned to her then.

“Well, that’s as good a job as I can do. He won’t be walking for a while, at least not without crutches, but he’ll be all right. When he comes to, just take him home and put him in bed. Keep him there for the next couple days. He can use crutches to get around, but he probably won’t feel much like going anywhere.”

Kirsten wasn’t quite sure why that worried her. She’d done all she could for Hiram, and yet, she felt like she should do more. She couldn’t tell the doctor that Hiram had no place to go. If she did, he’d know she’d lied about being Hiram’s wife.

“I have to take the wagon back to the freight company. You just tell him I’ll take care of him as soon as I get back.”

With that, Kirsten left the doctor’s office and walked the two blocks down to the building with the sign that said, “Denver Hotel”. She had about half of her money left and was going to rent a hotel room so she’d have a place to take Hiram. She couldn’t rent a hotel room for two months though. She’d have to find work and a cheaper place to stay.

The desk clerk eyed her when she walked in and then asked how he could help her. Kirsten explained that her husband had broken his leg and they needed a room on the first floor.

“My husband is a driver for the freight company and he lived above the stable, but since he’s broken his leg, he can’t work and he can’t live there. I just came in on the train so I don’t have a place to stay either. I would like a small room on the first floor because he can’t go up and down stairs. I would also like that room to be close to the rear door and the privy for the same reason.”

The desk clerk smiled.

“I have a room that should fill your needs. The cost will be two dollars a day. If you and your husband eat in the dining room, the cost for meals will be four dollars a day for both of you. That’s three meals each day and our cook is a very good cook. We require payment in advance. How long will you be staying?”

Kirsten said she wasn’t sure, but she’d pay for three days and reached into the front of her dress for the bag of coins. She counted out three half-eagles and three silver dollars, and placed them on the clerk’s counter.

“Three days would be eighteen dollars. Can you show me the room now?”

Kirsten was smiling when she drove the wagon behind the hotel and put her traveling case and Hiram’s box inside the room she’d rented. She wasn’t sure how she was going to explain to Hiram that they would be living together as man and wife, but it had been the only way she saw to take care of him.

She also didn’t know why she had such a desire to do that. She hardly knew Hiram and he hadn’t talked much since they met. It was just a feeling she had, almost the same feeling she’d had when the doctor said her father and mother had cholera and that they would almost certainly die. Kirsten had tried to nurse them back to health but had failed. That was probably why she felt this way. Hiram reminded her of her father. Kirsten knew Hiram wasn’t in danger of dying, but she had to take care of him to make sure he didn’t get worse for some reason.

Kirsten drove the wagon back to the freight company and explained what had happened. The manager said he was sorry and hoped Hiram would be able to drive again soon because he’d had another driver quit. Kirsten thanked him and then started walking back to the doctor’s office.

When she went into the doctor’s office, Hiram was awake and trying to learn how to use the pair of crutches the doctor had given him. Kirsten smiled at the small steps he was taking. As she paid the doctor ten dollars for what he’d done, she chuckled.

“It’s a good thing we don’t have far to walk or it would take us all day.”

Hiram looked up and frowned.

“Where are we going?”

Kirsten picked up Hiram’s coat and helped him put it on.

“I rented a room at the hotel. Now, hurry every chance you get. I need to get you into bed and then bring our dinner from the dining room to our room. I’m starved and you probably are too.”

Hiram didn’t say anything as they slowly walked to the rear of the hotel, but he had a thousand thoughts running through his head. The way people looked at them didn’t help. He knew they were wondering why such a beautiful woman was walking down the street with a monster on crutches.

He also had to find out why Kirsten had told the doctor she was his wife. She had nothing to gain from doing that as far as he could see and in his experience, people didn’t do things for no reason. Now that she had, what was she going to do? Would she keep telling people that they were married even though they were not?

Hiram was thankful that Kirsten had brought him to the doctor in Denver, but he didn’t feel anything else for her. Even if he had, he wasn’t in any position to marry her. To ask any woman to marry him, Hiram would have needed to be able to support her and eventually, a family. He couldn’t do that, and living with Kirsten without being married to her would be a sin. He’d have to figure out something and soon.

Kirsten held open the door to the room until Hiram had made his way inside. She closed it and then smiled.

“We can live here until I can find work and another place to live. There is a privy out by the alley, but tell me when you need to go there so I can help you. Now, you lay down on the bed while I get our dinner from the dining room. I don’t know what you like to eat though. The menu I read said they have beef, ham, and chicken. Which would you like?”

Hiram said beef, and watched Kirsten go out the door. She’d given him another question he needed answered. Hotels were expensive and so was eating in a hotel. Where had Kirsten gotten the money for even one night? She’d never said anything about what she did before she came to Denver. Hiram thought the worst and then shook his head. No, he’d seen enough whores in the war and in Denver to know Kirsten wasn’t that type of woman.

Kirsten had brought their meals a few minutes later. Hiram ate his on the bed. Kirsten sat in the only chair and ate with her plate in her lap. Hiram wanted to ask Kirsten all the questions that had been running through his mind, but couldn’t find a good way to start.

Kirsten sat in her chair and waited for Hiram to say something about what had happened. When he’d finished eating and still hadn’t said anything, she stood up and took his empty plate and fork.

“They said if I leave our empty plates outside the door, they’ll come and get them.”

She opened the door, sat their plates and forks on the floor, and then closed and locked the door. Then, she took the blankets she’d used on the wagon and spread them out on the floor.

“I’m really tired, so I’m going to bed now and you should too. The doctor cut your trouser leg so he could put on the cast, but you probably can’t get your trousers off so I’ll have to help you. Just slip your suspenders off your shoulders while I take off this boot. I’ll do the rest.”

Hiram let her take off his boot, but he stopped her when she reached for his pantleg.

“Kirsten, you can’t do that. I don’t have anything on under my trousers.”

Kirsten put her hand on her breasts.

“Oh my…I didn’t know. That’s why you always slept in your clothes isn’t it? Well, I can’t sleep in a dress. Could you turn your head until I get under my blankets?”

Hiram woke up the next morning, winced when he tried to move his leg, and then raised his head and looked at Kirsten. She was still asleep and Hiram had to smile. She was lying on her back with her long blonde hair splayed out on the blankets. He’d noticed that she was a pretty woman before. In fact, he thought she was beautiful, but watching her sleep, he realized she was more than that.

She hardly knew him, but when the horse had kicked him, she’d done more for him than most men he knew would have done. It wasn’t the fact that she’d tied his leg so it wouldn’t move and then drove the wagon all night and part of the next day to get him to the doctor. Most men would have done that although a man would probably have waited for daylight before starting. What most men would not have done is pay to rent a hotel room and pay for his meals. He still couldn’t figure out why she would do that.

The other thing he hadn’t figured out is why she’d never asked him about his face. She just seemed to accept him like he was and that was something Hiram had never encountered before. He was used to the stares of men and used to a woman putting a hand over her mouth when she saw him and then whispering to the man or woman she was with. He wasn’t used to any woman smiling at him like Kirsten did.

Kirsten stirred then, rubbed her nose, and then opened her eyes. Hiram was staring at her, so she looked down to make sure her body was still covered. When she saw that it was, she smiled at Hiram.

“Did you sleep well? I did.”

Hiram nodded.

“Yes, I did, probably better than you. That floor must have been hard to sleep on.”

Kirsten shook her head.

“I don’t think it’s any harder than those boxes I slept on in the wagon. I was so tired I didn’t care. Now, I need to get our breakfast, so you turn your head while I get dressed.”

After they finished eating and Kirsten had set their plates outside the door, she walked back to the bed.

“I have some things I have to do this morning but I’ll be back by noon. Will you be all right by yourself?”

After Hiram had said he would, Kirsten walked through the hotel to the front desk and asked to see the hotel manager. The man who walked out of the office behind the desk was a small man with a pinched up face, wire-framed glasses and a balding head. Kirsten asked him if the hotel needed a cook, and the manager shook his head.

“No, Ma’am. We have a cook who does just fine. Been with this hotel since it was built. Don’t see any reason to change now.”

Kirsten was disappointed, but not ready to give up. She thanked the hotel manager and walked out to the street. Her plan was to ask for work at every store and shop on the street until she found a job. Once she’d done that, she’d ask about a place to live that was cheaper than the hotel and a place where she could cook their meals.

The first shop Kirsten came to was the pharmacist’s shop, but Kirsten passed it by. She knew some knowledge of medicines would be required and other than common household remedies for colds and sore throats, she had none. She didn’t like the smell of the place either. It smelled of alcohol and sulfur.

The second store was Deeley’s Dry Goods, and in the window was a sign that said “Help Wanted”. Kirsten went inside, and once inside, she could see that the store needed a woman. Women’s dresses were displayed on hangers on racks just as they were in Chicago. It was the display of women’s underwear that caught her eye.

It was not proper for a man to see a woman’s underwear unless they were married, yet the store had men’s and women’s underwear displayed on the same shelves. It was the same with women’s and men’s stockings. Both were on the same shelves with just a simple sign over each section denoting it as for men or for women.

Kirsten approached the only other person she saw in the store and asked to see the store manager. The man smiled.

“I’m Horace Deeley, owner, manager, and clerk. What can I do for you today, Ma’am? Perhaps you’re in the market for a new dress? I have all the latest styles from New York City.”

Kirsten smiled back.

“No, thank you. I’m here because of the sign in your window. I want to apply for work as your clerk.”

Horace frowned.

“Yes, I need a clerk. I can’t do the ordering and accounting and sell things at the same time anymore, but I do not think I really need a woman as a clerk. I was thinking of hiring a man.”

Kirsten could see that she would have to convince him that she could improve his business, and from what she’d seen, that was very possible.

“Mr. Deeley, how many pairs of women’s stockings and women’s underwear do you sell every month?”

Horace thought for moment.

“Not many, but then I don’t have many women shoppers. Most of the women who come into my store are the girls who work in the saloon.”

Kirsten frowned.

“That’s because saloon girls aren’t proper women. I have seen many more women buying things at the general store than there are women in the tents. Does it not concern you that they do not buy their stockings and underwear from you? I can tell you why they do not. They are embarrassed to look at stockings and underwear while you look over their shoulder.

“Women would discuss their garments with another woman if they know no man is watching and listening. I can be that woman and it will improve your business.”

Horace thought about that for a while. He’d built his dry goods business selling overalls, shirts, and boots to miners heading to the mines. The women had come later and though he’d ordered some women’s clothes and shoes, he hadn’t thought about women making up a significant part of his business. Even his own wife ordered her clothes and underwear from a company in Chicago and had them shipped to Denver. Maybe this woman was right.

“If I should hire you, and I’m not saying I will, what would you do that a man can’t do?”

Kirsten smiled then.

“I once lived in a city like Denver, and all the stores there had separate sections for men and women. There were women clerks to help women with sizes and to show them the latest styles. They also have a small room with a mirror where a woman can take a dress and try it on to see how well it fits and at least one seamstress to make any alterations the woman desires.

“Denver appears to be growing very fast, and I have seen many women riding down the street in carriages, yet in the time I have been here, I have seen no woman come into this store. If you announce that you have a woman clerk to assist women, I’m sure your business will increase.

“If you hire me, I would mark off a section of your store and put all the women’s clothing in that section. I would also have you build a small fitting room where a woman can try on clothing and where she can instruct me in privacy about what changes she would like made. Since I have been sewing my own clothes since I was twelve, I can make any adjustments to a dress a woman would desire. You would only have to agree to not venture into the women’s section of the store.”

Horace stroked his chin. What this woman said did make sense. If he hired her and it didn’t work out it would only cost him the same wages he’d have paid a man. If it did work, he’d make more money.

“I would be willing to hire you on a trial basis for, shall we say, a dollar a day. That is as much as most mine helpers are paid.”

Kirsten smiled. She had convinced him to hire her. Now she needed to convince him of the rest of her needs.

“A dollar a day seems to be a good wage for a single woman with a place to live that isn’t very expensive, like a boarding house. I am a married woman, and do not have a place to live as I recently moved here to join my husband. He was a driver for a freight company and lived above the stable. We were going to rent a room with a cookstove until we could save enough money to build our own house, but he broke his leg yesterday and the doctor says he will not be able to work again for about two months.

“If my husband and I were to rent a room at the hotel and take our meals there, it would cost us six dollars a day. As I am sure you can understand, I could not work for less than we would have to pay out just to live. I also understand that you can not pay me seven dollars a day since you do not yet know if I am worth more.

“There is another way though. Would you have a small room in back of the store, just a room large enough for a bed and a small stove? If you would agree to let my husband and I live in that room until we can afford a place of our own, it would please me to accept your offer of a dollar a day.”

Horace smiled to himself. If this woman could sell clothing as well as she had tried to sell him on her plight, she might make him some money.

“I do have such a room. My wife and I lived in the store until we could build our own house and I haven’t used it for anything since we moved. My wife wanted new furniture for our new house, so the room still has a bed, a table with two chairs, and a small stove. It has a separate entrance in back of the store that you will have to use because I closed off the door from that room to the rest of the store. I assume you could begin work on Monday morning at eight o’clock?

When Kirsten walked into the hotel room, Hiram was sitting up on the bed. She hurried over and scolded him.

“Hiram, the doctor said you should lay down for two days and it’s only been one. Now, lay back down. I have something to tell you.”

When Hiram was again lying on the bed, Kirsten smiled.

“I found work and a place for us to live. I’m going to be a clerk at the dry goods store and we can live in a room at the back as part of my pay. I saw it and it’s as nice as this room. It has a stove to keep it warm and for me to cook on and a table and two chairs and a bed for you. I’ll be making a dollar a day so we won’t have to worry about food.

“After tomorrow, I’ll carry our things there and then we’ll move in. It’s only three blocks from here, but if we go slow and I help you, we should be in our new home by tomorrow night. What would you like for dinner? I’ll have to go to the general store after we get moved in. We need another plate and a pot so I can make stews and soup. We’re about out of coffee too so I’ll –”

Hiram cut her off.

“Kirsten, I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but why are you doing this?”

Kirsten stood there with her mouth open for a while, and then looked down at the floor.

“I don’t know. It just feels like something I should do.”

“Is that why you told the doctor you were my wife, you thought you should do that? Did you really think he’d believe a woman as pretty as you are would be married to a man who looks like I look?”

Kirsten sat down in their only chair.

“I thought he might ask a lot of questions unless I told him we were married. I wasn’t thinking about how you look. You don’t look bad anyway except for that mask you wear and that doesn’t look bad. It just looks odd.”

Hiram thought for a second about what Kirsten had just said. Was it possible she was telling him the truth, telling him she didn’t think he looked like a monster? She’d change her mind if she saw what was under that mask. Maybe it was time to show her. If he did, maybe she’d leave and he could go back to living by himself again.

“Kirsten, you don’t know what’s under this mask. In the war, at Shiloh, I got shot in the face. That’s why my jaw isn’t straight. One bullet broke my jaw and it healed this way. The second bullet took away my nose and there was nothing the doctors could do to fix it. It’s horrible. That’s why I wear this mask.”

Kirsten stood up, walked over to the bed, and sat on the edge.

“Can I see for myself?”

Hiram slowly pulled up the mask and exposed what was left of his nose, but he pulled it back down again when Kirsten gasped.

A second later, she said, “No, Hiram, leave it up so I can look at everything.”

Hiram pulled the mask back up again, and was surprised when Kirsten touched his face.

“Does it ever hurt”, she asked as she touched his cheek.

“No, not any more.”

Kirsten stroked down his crooked jaw.

“But your jaw does hurt?”

“Sometimes, not as much as it used to, but sometimes it does.”

Hiram saw a tear stream down Kirsten’s cheek and pulled his mask back down.

“Kirsten, I don’t want your pity. I am how I am, and there’s nothing that can be done about that. Go pity that miner you were going to marry. He might appreciate it.”

Kirsten pulled Hiram’s hand away from his face.

“I don’t pity you, Hiram. I just wish there was something I could do. You’ve done so much for me when you don’t know who I am. If you did, you probably wouldn’t have taken me with you.”

Hiram was confused.

“I know who you are. You told me who you are. You said you came to Denver to marry a miner. There have been other women who did the same thing. Why wouldn’t I have taken you to the mines?”

Kirsten wiped her eyes with the back of her hands.

“Because you don’t know that I’m probably accused of murdering two people in Chicago.”

Hiram’s brow wrinkled.

“What do you mean, probably accused? Either you killed two people or you didn’t. Why else would you be accused unless you did it?”

Kirsten went on to explain what had happened in Chicago. Hiram listened until she finished.

“I see what you mean but I don’t think you have anything to fear here in Denver. They won’t be looking for you here.”

Kirsten sobbed.

“Yes, they will. They’ll find out I took the train to Denver and they’ll come here looking for me. That’s why I was going to marry a miner. I thought if I lived with him at the mine, they wouldn’t look there. Even if they did, my name would be different too.”

Hiram chuckled then.

“You were going to marry a man you’d never met just so you could change your last name to his? I’ve known people to get married for a lot of different reasons, but never so the woman could change her last name. What did you tell the doctor your name was?”

Kirsten sniffed.

“I just told him my name was Kirsten and he didn’t ask me for my last name.”

Hiram frowned then.

“So you’re going to go on telling people you’re my wife? I can’t live like that, Kirsten. It isn’t right and you know it. Besides, other people will think something is wrong with us. Most married people have children, and if we’re not married, we can’t do that. They’ll either think we’re just living in sin or that something is wrong with one of us.”

Kirsten sniffed again.

“I guess I didn’t think about that. All I wanted to do was take care of you.”

Hiram didn’t know what to say. He didn’t believe Kirsten was lying about what happened in Chicago because he couldn’t imagine her ever poisoning two people. It was probably just as she said, the housekeeper had done it. Still, once the authorities learned the couple had been poisoned, the cook would be the first person they suspected.

Had he not had a broken leg, he might have been able to take her somewhere, somewhere even further away from people. As it was, all he could do was nurse his broken leg until it was strong enough to walk on again. The doctor had said two months and a lot could happen in two months. If the police in Chicago were able to find out Kirsten had taken the train to Denver, they’d probably telegraph the Sheriff in Denver and ask if he’d seen her. If he had, he’d arrest Kirsten and she’d be taken back to Chicago.

Hiram was letting that thought run through his head, the thought that Kirsten would be taken away, when he was struck with the thought that he didn’t want that to happen. He didn’t know if it was because he felt sorry for her or if it was the way she acted like his mother had acted when he fell ill or if it was the touch of her soft hand on his face, but he suddenly realized he couldn’t let that happen.

“Kirsten, did you tell the owner of the dry goods store your last name?”

Kirsten thought for a while and then shook her head.

“No, not that I remember.”

“Well, when you go to work, you tell him your last name is Wainwright and that we got married in Springfield, Illinois before I left for the war.”

Kirsten’s mouth fell open.

“But we’re not really married.”

Hiram smiled.

“Who’s to say we aren’t? I’ve never told anybody I was or I wasn’t. Have you ever told anybody you weren’t married?”

Kirsten frowned.

“Not exactly, at least nobody who’s still alive except for Alice and the pastor at the church in Chicago. Alice is probably in New York City now and nobody else knew where I went to church.”

Hiram smiled.

“Then, we’re married just like if we’d really gotten married in Springfield.”

Kirsten shook her head.

“What if the police come to Denver looking for me?”

Hiram smiled.

“We’ll tell them you can’t be the Kirsten Vinter they’re looking for because your last name used to be Hayward. That was my mother’s maiden name. You lived in Springfield until I got out of the war. I went to Chicago to find work, and when I couldn’t find work there I came to Denver. You followed me as soon as I did.

“The fact that a woman with blonde hair bought a train ticket in Chicago doesn’t mean anything except you took the train from Springfield to Chicago first because there aren’t any trains from Springfield to Denver. There must be thousands of women with blonde hair in Chicago.”

Kirsten’s face brightened then.

“Do you think they’d believe us?”

Hiram nodded.

“Yes, I think they would. Why else would a pretty woman like you be married to a man who looks like I do unless we were married before I got shot? We just have to act like we’re married to everybody. Of course, since we’re not, I won’t expect you to…to act like a wife when we’re alone. I wouldn’t ask you to do something like that.”

A day later, Kirsten carried their few belongings from the hotel room to the room behind the dry goods store and then came back for Hiram. Hiram said they should walk down the alley and Kirsten knew it was because he didn’t want anyone to see him. She could understand why now that she’d seen under the mask, but after a closer look, she decided it could have been much worse. He didn’t have scars all over his face and he still had both arms and both legs.

The walk had been rough on them both. It had snowed over the last week and while the storeowners had cleared the snow in front of their businesses, the alley was just snow beaten into ice by the hooves of horses making deliveries. Hiram’s crutches had slipped twice and Kirsten had to catch him so he didn’t fall down.

Kirsten was a little taken aback by the way she felt when she caught Hiram’s weight. Even through the heavy coat he wore she could feel the strength in his arms and chest. That feeling caused a little tingling wave to run from her shoulders and down her back. She’d not had that feeling before.

Once they were in their new home, Kirsten went to the general store and came back with coffee, bacon, ham, a cut of beef, some canned vegetables, and potatoes in a sack under her arm. In the other hand she held a pot and a plate. She smiled at Hiram as she set her packages on the table.

“I think we have enough food to last a while now. I can always go back if we start to run out.”

Kirsten was peeling potatoes when Hiram asked her a question that had troubled him since she’d paid the doctor.

“Kirsten, did you have another job in Chicago besides being a cook?”

When Kirsten said no, he asked how she had saved enough money to buy everything she’d bought so far.

Kirsten put down the potato and the knife.

“If I tell you, you won’t want to stay with me.”

Hiram smiled.

“What could you tell me that’s worse then being accused of murdering two people? I don’t believe you did that so tell me the rest.”

Kirsten took a deep breath.

“Before Alice left, she took the money Mr. Hines kept in their bedroom. She gave me half of it and it was two hundred dollars. Hiram, I wouldn’t have taken it except she told me the police would arrest me for murder if I didn’t leave Chicago that very day. I didn’t have any money except for two dollars and two dollars wouldn’t buy a train ticket to anywhere so…”

She shrugged.

“I guess I’m a thief too.”

Hiram was sitting on the bed and waved his hand for Kirsten to come there. He asked her to sit down, and when she did, he took her hand in his.

“Kirsten, I think what you did was the only thing you could do given the circumstances. I think Alice was right when she said the police would arrest you, and if you hadn’t left Chicago, that’s what would have happened. Taking that money from Alice was something you did to save yourself, but you ended up spending some of it to save me. Besides, you didn’t really steal the money. You just took money that Alice gave you.

“I’ve heard of men killing other men at the mines for less money than that so I can’t fault you for doing what you did. If you hadn’t you’d have never come to Denver and I’d still be laying out there on that trail with a broke leg. I’d probably be dead by now.

“The only thing I want you to do is to not spend any more than you have to until I can work again. It’s a man’s job to support his wife.”

Kirsten pulled her hand from Hiram’s, put her arms around his neck and sobbed into his shoulder.

“Thank you for believing in me. I didn’t think I’d ever find anyone who would. I’ll be the best wife to you I can be, and I won’t spend money on things we don’t need.”

Hiram hesitated before putting his arms around Kirsten. It felt strange to have a woman crying on his shoulder, but it also felt …Hiram didn’t understand the feeling, but it was there. He held Kirsten close and whispered, “I know you’ll be a good wife.”

After a week Hiram’s leg didn’t hurt anymore but the cast itched him nearly to death. After two weeks he felt like ripping it off, but Kirsten scolded him.

“The doctor said it would be a month before he could take the cast off. Don’t you go doing something that will make it worse.”

When a month had finally gone by, he and Kirsten walked back to the doctor’s office. The doctor tapped on the cast, then twisted Hiram’s foot.

“That hurt any?”

When Hiram said it didn’t the doctor smiled.

“I’ll take off the cast, but don’t you go tryin’ to run any foot races. You keep using those crutches until that leg will take all your weight without hurting you.”

Two weeks later, Hiram was standing up without his crutches when Kirsten came back to their room.

He grinned.

“I can stand up by myself, see. I think I’ll walk down to the stable and see if they still need a wagon driver.”

Kirsten frowned.

“You will not. What if you get kicked again or if you slip and fall? You’ll break that leg again and it’ll be worse than the first time. You just stay here for another two weeks like the doctor said. Now, I’m fixing beef stew for supper and I need to get started.”

Hiram smiled to himself. Kirsten was acting like his mother had acted with his father. His father had been lord and master over the farm, but his mother ruled the house and what her family did when they weren’t working in the fields. Kirsten was making him feel almost like he did before the war.

By the last Saturday of the month, Hiram’s leg was a lot better. He still walked with a bit of a limp, but the crutches had lain under the bed for better than a week and he’d been practicing walking from their room to the alley and back. As soon as Kirsten left to work in the dry goods store, he walked down to the freight company and asked about working there again.

When Kirsten came to their room after work that night, Hiram was sitting in a chair at the table. He grinned.

“I walked down to the freight company while you were gone. I start driving again on Monday, so you won’t have to put up with me except for Sundays.”

Kirsten had known this was coming, and now that it had, she felt tears forming in her eyes.

“I wasn’t putting up with you. It was nice having someone here when I left work, and it was nice cooking for us.”

Hiram tried to cheer her up.

“Well, you can sleep on the bed instead of the floor. I thought you’d be happy about that.”

Kirsten wiped her eyes.

“I won’t know what to do with myself while you’re gone. I won’t have anybody to talk to and I’ll worry that you’ll get hurt again and there won’t be anybody to help you.”

She sniffed then.

“…and you might decide not to come back to me.”

Until that moment, Hiram hadn’t really realized how much Kirsten cared for him. He’d thought she was just taking care of him because of something for which she somehow thought she was responsible. Now, seeing her standing there with tears streaming down her cheeks, he understood that she truly liked having him with her. He couldn’t figure out why, but she did.

He also couldn’t figure out why that bothered him so much. He told himself he should be grateful for Kirsten and everything she’d done for him. Then, he realized he already was grateful to her and had told her that several times, so something else was bothering him. Could it be that he liked being with her as much as she liked being with him?

When he first met her, he’d thought she was a woman out to marry a man she’d never met and he thought that was pretty dumb. When she’d started cooking for them both on the trail, he thought she was just trying to make up for asking him to take her along.

When Kirsten had brought him to the doctor, he’d thought she was just as interested in getting herself back to Denver as she was in getting him to a doctor. She had to bring him along or she’d have to explain why she’d left him to die.

After that, he’d started to see a little deeper, though he’d forced himself not to imagine the unimaginable. She felt sorry for him, that was all, and that’s why she’d found a place for them to live. He was also some protection from any police from Chicago that might come looking for her.

When he thought about the last month or so, he realized that although he didn’t like being fussed over, it was still comforting to know someone cared about him. Hiram had given up on that ever happening. Maybe it had happened and he’d been too wary of any relationship to see it, too wary to even let himself see that he was growing fond of Kirsten too.

Without thinking, Hiram stood up and put his arms around Kirsten.

“Kirsten, I’ll keep coming back to you as long as you want me here.”

Kirsten looked up a Hiram, at his crooked jaw and at the mask that served as his nose. He wasn’t the man she’d dreamed of marrying some day, but then, she’d never known a man like Hiram before except for her father. In spite of his missing nose and crooked jaw, Hiram was a kind man and a strong man, a man she felt safe with and a man she realized she wanted to keep at her side.

“Hiram, if you really feel that way, give me something to show me.”

“What could I possibly give you? I won’t have enough money to give you anything until I’ve worked for a while.”

Kirsten put her arms around Hiram’s neck, stood up on her tiptoes, and kissed him, then looked into his eyes.

“You can give me something more than money could ever buy. You can give me you.”

That night, Kirsten blew out the lamp, took off all her clothes, and then felt her way to where Hiram stood. She touched his cheek, and then whispered, “Hiram, make me your wife.”

Neither was experienced so there was some fumbling about as they learned each other’s bodies. Kirsten marveled at Hiram’s muscular back and waist as she stroked him with her fingertips. She gasped when Hiram did the same to her. It was like every touch sent waves of sensation to her inner core. Her mother had not told her that would happen, but it was happening and she began to feel a need she’d never had before.

That need became more intense when Hiram laid her on the bed and then fondled her breasts. It was like something inside her was tightening, then tightening more. Kirsten opened her thighs and pulled Hiram between them.

“This is how my mother said to do it. She said it would hurt, but only the first time.”

Hiram was also feeling that tension building. Never in his whole life had he felt skin so soft, and never in his whole life had any woman ever sighed when he touched her.

He was amazed that just stroking Kirsten’s full breasts caused her to catch her breath. The men in his army unit had said if the woman was a whore, you could just stick it in when you got ready, but if she wasn’t, you had to go slow and get her in the mood. Hiram was trying to go slow, but when he touched Kirsten’s nipples, he found them to already be stiff and sticking up from her breasts.

He knew he should stroke the hair-covered lips between her legs and had started to do that when Kirsten pulled him between her upraised thighs and whispered, “I think I’m ready Hiram. Mother said if you do it fast it won’t hurt as much.”

Hiram hadn’t intended to do it fast because his father had told him that would hurt the woman. He poised his manhood at the portal and when Kirsten spread her thighs wider, he pushed in.

The sensation of her wet warmth enveloping him made him gasp, and before he could stop himself, he pushed forward until he felt the resistance give way. Kirsten made a little yelp and he felt her fingernails dig into his back. He started to pull back out, but Kirsten whispered, “No. It didn’t hurt much. Keep going.”

Hiram thrust into Kirsten as far as he could and then eased back out. On his second stroke, Kirsten shuddered and lifted her hips. Hiram groaned when he slipped all the way inside her, then gasped as he felt the surge of seed building in his belly. He made a few more strokes and then groaned at the feeling of seed racing up his shaft. While Kirsten stroked his back, Hiram made four quick thrusts and then sagged into his arms. Kirsten pulled him down on top of her, stroked his back, and then whispered, “Now, we’re really married.”

On Monday morning, Kirsten kissed Hiram goodbye with tears in her eyes. He was leaving her for the first time since they’d met. She watched him limp as he walked toward the freight company stables and then smiled. Yes he was leaving, but he’d be back on Saturday night and they’d have all of Sunday together. It wasn’t what she’d dreamed of as a girl, but it was more than she’d expected as a woman who’d been through what she’d experienced.

Three months later, Kirsten thought she might be pregnant. She didn’t tell Hiram until it was impossible to hide. When she did tell him, he stroked her rounded belly and grinned.

“I didn’t think this would ever happen to me. You’ve made me very happy, Kirsten.”

Hiram was even happier when he came back from his trip six months later. When he walked into their room, Kirsten was bent over the stove cooking something. He walked up behind her and put his arms around her waist and then gasped, “Kirsten, you…it happened…what is it?”

Kirsten turned around, pressed a finger to Hiram’s lips, and grinned.

“Shhh. You’ll wake him up. On Tuesday I felt funny so I walked down to see Doctor Williams. He put me in bed and about ten hours later, your son was born. I think we should name him after your father. I like how Aaron Wainwright sounds. Come see him.”

As Hiram looked at the tiny face that wrinkled up from time to time, he grinned, but then started to worry.

“Kirsten, we’ll have to have a bigger place now and you’ll have to stay home with the baby.”

Kirsten smiled.

“We won’t need a bigger place for a while yet. We’ll keep living here and saving our money. In another week, I’m going back to work. It won’t be like I’ve abandoned him. One of the owner’s daughters is old enough to watch a baby, so I’m going to pay her ten cents a day to stay with him while I’m working. I still have to feed him several times a day too. We’ll be fine.”

They had lived in the room at the dry good store for a little over a year and Kirsten was pregnant again when the town sheriff walked into the store and up to Kirsten. He tipped his hat and then asked if she was Kirsten Vinter.

Kirsten was sure she blanched enough he would know she was lying, but she still tried.

“No, my name is Kirsten, but it’s Kirsten Wainwright.”

The sheriff smiled.

“Kirsten, I know it’s you because your pastor in Chicago told the Chicago police you had gone to Denver and the ticket agent here remembered you asking how you could get to Rabbit Creek. You can relax. I’m not here to arrest you. I need you to come to my office and write a statement about what happened in Chicago. I’ll explain when we get there.”

Once in his office, the sheriff offered Kirsten a seat and then began.

“The information I got from the Chicago police is that Mrs. Hines did die from being poisoned, but Mr. Hines didn’t. When the housekeeper checked on them, Mr. Hines was paralyzed but not yet dead. According to the doctor who treated him, Mr. Hines ate enough of the poison to make him very ill, but not enough to kill him. He recovered enough to tell the police that when the housekeeper looked in on him and his wife, she laughed and said she hoped he was happy being dead and that she was the one who poisoned them both. He also told them the housekeeper said she was taking his money because he’d told her she wasn’t pretty. He’s the one who gave the pastor’s name to the police too.

“The “Chicago police were able to track down this housekeeper to a bordello in New York City and from there to the grave where she was buried about six months ago. It seems she was killed by a man who she was entertaining at the time. The man was found, convicted and executed, but he had no knowledge about what happened in Chicago. That leaves you as the only person alive other than Mr. Hines who knows what happened that day, and unfortunately, Mr. Hines did pass away shortly after he recovered from the poison. The doctor said the poison weakened his heart enough it just stopped working one night.

“In order to close the case, the Chicago police just need someone to verify the story that Mr. Hines told them. All I need you to do is write down everything you can remember about that day. After you’ll write it out and sign it, I’ll send it to Chicago.”

Kirsten’s hand was trembling when she wrote down what she remembered about that day except for the money Alice had given her. When she got to that part, she looked up at the sheriff.

“Did they find Mr. Hines’ money?”

He looked at her for a minute, and then answered her.

“Kirsten, if I hadn’t heard from my wife that you’ve earned the trust of most of the women on this side of Denver, and if I didn’t know you were married to a man I also trust, I might think you were asking me that question for a reason.”

He smiled then.

“No, the police in New York didn’t find any money. They don’t know what happened to it and neither do I. I think it’s best we just let the Chicago police close their case, don’t you? Now, if you’re done, just sign and date it at the bottom and go back to work. My wife said something this morning about needing new stockings, and if you’re not there to sell them to her, she’ll be really disappointed.”

They lived in the room at the dry goods store for another year and the birth of one more son. They’d saved enough money to buy a house, but Hiram had learned of an opportunity he thought he couldn’t pass up.

The gold and silver mines were already winding down when Kirsten arrived in Denver. Two years later, the miners had extracted about all the ore they could by hand and most left Colorado for the new gold fields in Alaska. As the mines shut down, so did the businesses that supplied them. One of these was Miner’s Freight Company. The office in Chicago had decided to close the freight office in Denver and drive the horses and wagons to the Union Pacific station in Cheyenne, Wyoming. From there, they’d go by rail to California and then by boat to Alaska.

When Hiram learned of the move, he asked the manager how much it would cost to purchase the team he drove with their harness and the wagon. Joel wrote some numbers down on a paper and handed it to Hiram.

“As it happens, I was going to have to hire an extra rail car for just one team and one wagon. That would have cost me more than the team and wagon are worth. This is a lot less than the usual price Hiram, but it’ll still save me money.”

Hiram looked at the paper, then asked what the number for the stable was. Joel smiled.

“The company was going to abandon the stable, but I convinced them that I could sell it. Hiram, you’re the only one of my teamsters who isn’t going to Alaska and you’re the only one of my teamsters I think has a chance at making the hauling business successful. That deserves some special consideration. If you want the stable, all you have to do is pay me what it says on that paper.”

That night, Hiram talked with Kirsten about what he wanted to do.

“I think there will still be a need for freight hauling even if it’s just between the railroad station and businesses in town. It will take everything we’ve saved and we’ll have to keep living here, but if things go like I think they will, we’ll make enough money to get a whole house.”

Kirsten smiled.

“If you think it will work then we should do it. I’ve waited this long. I can wait some more for a house.”

Though the mines had mostly shut down, Denver was still growing by leaps and bounds. Hiram’s business started slowly until people realized he was dependable, affordable, and most importantly, could be trusted to deliver everything that had been shipped to them. That had happened with other freight haulers. When delivered, the order would be short a sack of flour or a box of rifle cartridges and the driver would just shrug and say he had delivered everything that was put on his wagon. That never happened when Hiram hauled the freight.

When construction began on the Denver Pacific Railroad, he hired Jasper Roydes, a boy of sixteen, taught him to drive a team, and then bought another team and wagon. Jasper did the Denver hauling and Hiram hauled supplies to the rail workers.

When the Denver Pacific Railroad was connected to the Union Pacific, the resulting rail traffic brought real wealth to Denver in the form of a thriving business district with luxurious hotels to house people coming to visit those businesses. Hiram bought a pair of light horses and a carriage and set Jasper to ferrying people from the railroad to the hotels and businesses. He also picked up enough business that he needed more help.

When the mines shut down, a few men discovered the soil around Denver was good for growing carnations, and began shipping them by rail to all parts of the country. Hiram hired another young man to make a daily trip from the carnation grower’s fields to the rail station.

By that time, Kirsten had born him another son. Hiram told her it was time they bought a house and that they had enough money to do so. Kirsten was ready because the owner of the dry goods store was in the process of building a new store closer to the homes of the new, wealthy residents. She could have continued to work at the new store, but she didn’t relish the idea of walking so far or paying for a carriage to take her back and forth. She was pregnant again and looked forward to being the wife and mother she’d always wanted to be. They moved into a large house within walking distance of the stable.

If you look in the Denver phonebook today, there are a lot of Wainwrights listed and one of the trucking companies listed is Wainwright Logistics. That trucking company is owned by Lucas Wainwright, the great-great-great-great grandson of Hiram Wainwright.

On the wall in Lucas’ office is a copy of a photograph and under that photograph is a little plaque that says, “The Beginning”. The photograph is of Hiram and Kirsten standing in front of a freight wagon pulled by four horses. On the side of the wagon is a sign that reads “Wainwright Freight, Will Haul Anything That Will Fit In A Wagon”.

They were in their forties when the picture was taken. Hiram still had a mask to cover his missing nose and his jaw was still crooked. Kirsten was still a beautiful woman, but the fresh beauty of youth was now the softer beauty of maturity. Neither are smiling, but if you look closely, you can see that they are holding hands. According to the family legend, Hiram didn’t think anybody would want a picture of him and Kirsten had to hold his hand so he’d stand still long enough for the picture to be taken.

Fate sometimes brings two people together, two people who each need someone but don’t realize it at the time. Such was the case with Hiram and Kirsten. Kirsten found a man who believed in her and tried to protect her from her past, and Hiram found a woman who could accept him as he was. Such is the magic that can happen between two people, a magic that most people hope for but many people today are unable to find. Perhaps that magic only happens when people are willing look below the surface and into the person inside.