Page 3 of May I Kiss the Bride
Rey again tugged his brim down and closed his eyes. After a hushed debate, the men left. The sound of their retreating footsteps was a welcome sound—almost like a lullaby melody.
Now, back to his pie dream. But his mind wouldn’t settle. He could truly smell food somewhere—likely in the adjacent dining car—so mealtime must be close. He wasn’t exactly interested in mingling with any other passengers and engaging in small talk over a meal, so he’d wait until the last possible moment before entering the dining car. Sure enough, a bell jangled and the passengers in the first-class car began to file into the dining car.
If Rey’s stomach would just be quiet, he could get a decent nap in, but it wasn’t to be.
Because it seemed that everyone in the first-class car, except for the woman with the hatbox, had left. Rey’s eyes might have been closed, but it wasn’t hard to sense these things. First of all, she’d have to move past his legs and possibly step over them. She did neither.
In fact, she cleared her throat and spoke.
“Mr. Christensen?”
He opened his eyes. He might try to ignore a conductor and an attendant, but he’d never ignore a woman. “Rey.”
“Rey?”
“Short for Reynold. I don’t stand on ceremony, ma’am, and I don’t expect others to.”
She blinked. Slow. Her gray eyes reminded him of the stormy Pacific. Bits of her blonde hair had escaped the confines of the hat she wore atop her head, and he wondered what she’d look like with those locks unpinned.
“My name is Viola Delany.” She extended her gloved hand across the space between them.
Rey could have been knocked over by a gust of wind. This was no wilting flower of a woman. He shook her hand. Her fingers were delicate, but her grip was firm—something the hatbox was a witness to.
When they released hands, Viola continued, “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but it was quite impossible not to overhear your conversation with the conductor.” She drew in a breath that fluttered the ruffles of her blouse about her neck. “I couldn’t help overhearing you mention that something is going to happen when our train crosses into Wyoming territory?”
Her accent was prim. Her voice soft yet forceful as if she were a woman who was used to giving orders and having them carried out. She had to be in her mid-twenties, he guessed, yet she had the directness of a matron much older.
“You heard right, ma’am.”
Viola folded her gloved hands atop her hatbox, her gray eyes not leaving his. “What is going to happen?”
Well, her question was direct, he’d give her that. But the questionhehad was whether he’d answer it as directly. He didn’t take this woman for someone who’d get hysterical—but no one really knew until one was put into a dire situation. Was her backbone as strong as she acted it was?
“I can’t predict the future, ma’am, I’m only here at the request of someone, just in case there is an incident.”
Viola’s dark brow raised. It was a bit of juxtaposition with her face—to have such light-colored hair along with dark eyebrows. He found it quite pleasing, he decided. She was pretty, yes, but not in the conventional sense.
“I’m not asking you to predict the future,” she said in her prim voice. “If that someone is the governor of Wyoming,like you indicated to the conductor, then I’d like to know the contents of your telegram.”
Something stuck in Rey’s throat, and he coughed. “It’s confidential.”
Viola’s eyes widened slightly, but she said in a completely calm voice, “It wasn’t confidential when you handed it to the conductor.”
“He’s …” Rey paused.
“A man?”
“A man in authority,” Rey corrected quickly.
Viola’s brow raised a titch higher. Then, with precise movements, she set her beloved hatbox onto the bench at her side and gathered her skirts about her. She rose and walked two steps, turned, and sat right next to him.
So close that he caught her scent of something fancy. Perfume, likely. It wasn’t displeasing.
Her hand appeared in front of him, palm upturned, fingers extended. “May I read the telegram, Rey?”
Perhaps it was the way his name sounded in her prim tone, but he found himself drawing out the telegram once again and unfolding it.
She took the paper and read through the few short lines. When she raised her gaze to meet his, he saw the expected wariness mixed with surprise in her eyes.
