Authors: Nonnie Frasier
Ada's Secret (2 page)
Patrick sounded refined and educated, not like the other rancher’s letters I had rejected. The picture he had enclosed in the last letter cinched the deal for me. The photo showed a handsome young man standing beside a wagon with a Winchester Rifle. One lock of unruly black hair fell across his high forehead and partially hid eyes that held both kindness and a hint of rebelliousness. I looked deep into those dark smoky, eyes as I whispered, “I hope you are more honest with me than I have been with you!” I swallowed hard. “I hope you will understand someday and the lies I have told you will never become an issue.” Tears stung as I realized that this decision could mean I would never again see the people who raised me and loved me through my life.
The next day, as I got ready to go buy my ticket, questions about my sanity dogged me.
Am I sane? Would anyone, except me, do something this desperate? What is really wrong with Chicago anyway?
Quietly I let myself out of my room, down through the kitchen, and into the same alley where I had been molested the night before.
As I passed the wall where my attacker held me helpless, my heart raced and I could almost feel his horrid breath on my neck again. A shudder rushed through me. Clutching my purse tightly, with the money Patrick had sent for my train ticket, I shook off my fear.
Fortunately, the train station was not too far from the Silver Dove and I was a familiar sight to the business owners, some of whom were our best customers. Men tipped their hats, and ladies conspicuously ignored me as I entered the train station and put down the money for the ticket.
“The train leaves at six-thirty sharp tomorrow morning,” the station manager stated as he peered over his half moon glasses. “Don’t be late; it won’t wait for anyone!”
“Thank you sir. Believe me, I won’t be late,” I called to him as I hurried back to the Dove before anyone had missed me.
Just before dawn the next morning, I hesitantly placed the short note with what little explanation I could muster on my pillow.
Dear Ma, Aunt Lettie, and Jeremiah,
I am sorry to disappoint you, but I can no longer put you all in jeopardy because of me, and I can’t face trying to become the proper lady you all seem to think I should be.
I have gone to join a rancher as his wife, and I am very afraid that I will never see you again as the falsehoods I have had to tell him to cover my real history would never hold up if he were to meet you.
I love you all so much, and someday, God willing, I will be able to return for a visit. Please don’t try to find me, as I know my new husband wouldn’t be able to understand my background yet.
I will always love you and respect what you have given me. I will write if I can.
Much Love,
Ada
As I slipped out the Dove’s heavy door the snores of my unusual family whistled a familiar tune of sleep. Tenderly I took one last moment in my childhood home, thanked God for all the blessings he had given me, and clicked the latch quietly back into place.
“Am I mad? Whatever possessed me to say yes to him?” I whispered to myself. “I don’t know anyone in Fort Collins, and now I have gone and promised to marry a complete stranger!”
I stopped and hesitated.
You must be very sure, girl. There is probably no coming back.
I allowed the alternatives to play through my brain. As soon as the words “lady”, and “Chicago” resurfaced in my memory dread of that future threatened me again. “I might be crazy now, but if I go to Chicago, I really will go stark-raving mad,” I mused out loud. “Anything will be better than Chicago. Come on girl, let’s get on with it!”
Adjusting my valise and handbag and holding my train ticket, I stepped out into the quiet, cool dawn and onto the boardwalk that led down to the train station. The leather valise contained what few belongings I knew I would need. There wasn’t going to be much social life, so a couple of work dresses, one Sunday dress, and my unmentionables were all that I had packed, but I knew that I could not leave without my dungarees, work boots, and Stetson hat. Therefore, out of necessity, due to lack of room in the valise, I wore my petticoats and even the loathed corset under my traveling dress.
Silently I went over things in my head.
Please, Lord, help me to remember everything exactly as I told him. Let’s see, I think I wrote about my upbringing in a ranch west of Denver that was loosely based on Lettie’s ranch. I also told him that my Aunt Lettie raised me after my parents died of the flu when I was a baby. Let’s see, that’s right, I told him that I was being forced from the ranch because my drunkard of a cousin had sold the ranch to pay for his gambling debts, and he left me homeless. I hope I don’t need to say any more than that!
“Oh what a tangled, wicked web we weave when first we practice to deceive,” I uttered as my traveling shoes clicked along the tiles in Union Station. Soon my train would be arriving.
I settled into a wooden bench close to the platform. It was still early, and I had tucked a biscuit and some cold bacon in a napkin for my breakfast. I let the salty, smoky flavor linger on my tongue as I retrieved Patrick’s last letter. It read:
Dear Ada,
Your beautiful letters show, without a doubt, you have been educated in art and music. You are obviously a virtuous lady of excellent upbringing.
I am delighted that such a fine lady would consider me here in a lonely ranch. From your letters I already know that you will fall in love with my ranch, but I hope you won’t be disappointed by the lack of the arts and culture available.
There is very little music here in Fort Collins and even less art, but I do have a small collection of books and the new university being built here promises to have an opera house as good as the one in Central City. We are not too far from the town, and we can order almost anything you would need to read or sew.
I am sorry to hear how your aunt’s passing created such hardship that you, an obvious woman of culture, would need to become a mail-order-bride. It saddens me that you have fallen on such hard times, but I hope you will give serious consideration to my proposal. I have always prayed to find a woman of grace and virtue and can’t tell you what an answer to my prayers you would be.
As you know, life on a ranch is never easy, but thirty head of Hereford cattle, all heifers, have arrived and are doing well in my pastures. I will have the services of a bull in June with high hopes for the calving season next spring.
Your letters described how much you loved ranch life so your ranching skills will be very valuable here. It is a good life and I feel certain that we will get along well together. My confidence in this is so sure that I am asking you to be my wife. I pray that you feel the same about me and accept my proposal of marriage.
I have enclosed money for your passage on the train, and if you decide not to accept my proposal, you may use it as a start to keep you safe until you do find the appropriate man. I anxiously await your answer.
If you do say yes, please write soon and tell me what date you will be here. I will have a Justice of the Peace ready to marry us before I take you home. Your virtue should be protected and honored, as it is very important to us both. I look forward to your arrival.
Yours truly,
Patrick
I studied his picture again. There was something restless and wild, yet honorable and honest about him as he stood in a leather jacket with his Winchester beside him. “I hope I can be a good wife to you, Patrick,” I whispered. “Someday I hope you will understand my secrets, but for now I am Ada Moore, niece of an obscure aunt that raised me on a ranch somewhere west of Denver.” I was thankful that I had enough experience on Lettie’s real ranch west of Denver that my story would hold up.
“All aboard! All aboard for Longmont, Loveland, Fort Collins and final stop, Cheyenne!” The loud call coming from the conductor startled me back to awareness. “OK, Patrick,” I whispered, “I’m on my way!”
I
remember feeling the gentle slip of the metal wheels against the steel rails as the powerful engines started pulling the long line of cars. The cars seemed to resist the massive strength of the fire-belching locomotive, but one by one they succumbed to the raw power of the engine. With a decisive thunk, each car subserviently surrendered, gliding away from the platform. Friends and family members waved and called to travelers, wishing them safe passage to the new frontier.
“Next stop, Longmont. Longmont!” the conductor chanted. As I settled into the thick velvet brocade of the passenger car seat, the panorama of the Denver stockyards slipped away and was replaced by windswept prairies on my right and soaring snow-capped mountains on my left. The sounds of the passenger car blended into a peaceful hum as the train began its journey to the northern frontier. The rhythmic clacking of the wheels combined with the gentle rocking created a hypnotic sensation, which lulled me into a peaceful spell. Relaxed, my mind freed, I drifted back to the Silver Dove the only home I had ever known.
***
T
he Silver Dove was the best saloon and dance hall in Colorado. Mr. Jesse Byers, and his two unlikely partners, Lettie Stiles and Jeremiah Freeman, owned the business. Jesse grew up in Denver. In addition to being exceptionally handsome, Jesse’s family was rich. The Byers’ first fortune was made from a gold strike at the mouth of the Little Dry Creek when Denver was just a supply stop for prospectors and mountain men. Jesse’s father Daniel had the foresight to see that the money made from a gold claim would be fleeting, but acquiring land could make huge fortunes. Purchasing thousands of acres of homestead land along the Front Range, he built a lucrative business selling grazing rights for cattle on open range.
During this time Oliver Grant owned most of the land next to the Denver rail yards. Daniel understood that that the railroad was the lifeblood of Denver’s future, so he sent Jesse to propose a business deal to Mr. Grant. Daniel wanted to build stockyards at the rail yard and Jesse loved nothing better than to find weakness in a negotiation and turn it into a Byers profit.
Grant didn’t want to sell his land, but as he worked with Jesse he formulated a devious idea. If he could marry off his shrew of a daughter, Emily, into the Byers family he could gain access to assets that could serve his own selfish interests.
Jesse had never met the sour tempered Emily and being good-looking, charming, and wealthy, he naïvely believed that he could change any woman to his will. When Grant proposed a family union, Jesse saw potential in the plan and agreed to take Emily as his wife.
Jesse had honorable intentions at first, wanting his marriage with Miss Grant to be a loving and fulfilling relationship. Emily, though, was a vile, spoiled bitch, and soon Jesse understood that Emily’s social standing was far more important to her than fulfilling her wifely duties. Emily continued to snub Jesse socially and physically until he realized he could not, nor did he want to, change her mind. His barren, loveless marriage provided only essential social contacts and access to financial resources. Nothing more.
Legally he was still married and as long as he was discrete he could have the company of any young lady he chose. Now delighted that his bed did not include the frigid Emily, he was free to pursue his female interests. He had an eye for beauty, but he tired easily of the shallow flirtations with society women.
Jesse was conducting business in San Francisco when he decided that he wanted professional entertainment, and the Crystal Rose came highly recommended. Although he could find willing young women easily, he wanted someone who would challenge and entertain him. Little did Jesse know he would meet the challenge of his life when he asked Jeremiah, the black barkeep at the Crystal Rose, for a suitable professional companion for the evening.
Jeremiah never talked about what had caused him to come to the Rose after working at a New Orleans bordello, but looking at him you knew you didn’t want to ask. His imposing stature was offset by his cultured manner and reflected in the entertainment he brought to the Rose. The Rose’s patrons were privileged to the best gentlemen’s entertainment in San Francisco.
Jeremiah made it his business to know each lady’s strengths and appetites so he could pair a gentleman with the talents of a specific lady. He could tell immediately that Jesse was looking for something very special and even though there were younger, and prettier girls, Jeremiah knew Lettie would be the only one for Jesse.
Lettie had brought herself up from an abused mail-order-bride to the most respected and sought-after professional girl at the Crystal Rose. She was fun-loving, flirtatious, and had acquired the necessary expertise to command over two hundred dollars for an evening. “I didn’t know what I was asking for,” Jesse would tell Jeremiah years later. “I thought I was the master, but when I met Lettie, I realized I was only the prey. She could have asked for anything she wanted, and I’d have climbed over cactus, naked, just to provide it for her!”
From that night on, Jesse became her best and finally only customer. His fortunes allowed him to afford her exclusively for himself. One evening as she entertained him at the bar, his blue-green eyes gleamed with diabolical excitement.
“Lettie, my love, we have the perfect relationship. You would never be happy as any man’s wife, but I am used to getting what I want, and I want you to come to Denver. I have a proposal for you!”
“Jesse, honey, you know I can never marry you. Everything I have ever worked for would slip quietly into your fortunes, and besides, your father and your father-in-law would never accept me,” Lettie uttered as she held up his ring finger and laughingly kissed it.
Jesse got down on one knee in a mock-proposal. “You know me too well, marriage wouldn’t work for either one of us.” Jesse’s blue eyes sparkled. “I bought an old, rundown saloon in Denver, and I can think of no one better to build my saloon and dance hall. I’ll never ask you to marry me, but I will go one better. Will you be my business partner?”
Lettie’s relationship with Jesse Byers was complicated and born out of lust, love, and a business relationship. In addition, Jeremiah would become a full partner. His knowledge of the entertainment industry and his security experience would be necessary to safeguard profitability of the new venture.
