Forbidden

  Smiling, Rhine stepped down and tied the horse’s reins to the post. He knew they’d gotten into some kind of mischief because trouble was their middle names. They’d arrived at the orphanage a year ago following the death of their father, and they were both so solemn and filled with grief Mary worried about their well-­being. She asked some of the men in town like Rhine, Doc Randolph, carpenter Zeke Reynolds, and others to spend time with the boys in hopes it would help them adjust to their new life. Everyone pitched in. Doc helped with their lessons, Zeke Reynolds showed them the rudiments of carpentry, which they took to instantly, and Rhine concentrated on making them smile. He brought kites and drove them out to the desert to fly them. They hunted lizards, pitched horseshoes, played marbles, and had foot races. In many ways his times with them were reminiscent of the fun he and his half brother Andrew shared before assuming the roles forced upon them by slavery.

  “Still waiting on an answer,” Rhine prompted as the silent twins accompanied him up the steps to the front door. Much to Mary’s delight, the boys did adjust to life at the orphanage, and there’d been hell to pay ever since. They were rambunctious and so bursting with energy that someone without Mary’s patience and love might have taken them out to the desert, tied them to a cactus, and driven away. Which is exactly what Lady Ruby wanted to do the night they snuck over to her place in the middle of the night to play with the chickens in her coop and left the coop unlatched when they snuck back to the orphanage. “Were any snakes or lizards involved?”

  They shared another look, and Christian admitted, “Maybe?”

  Rhine knew that meant yes.

  The interior of the cavernous place was cool. Thankful to be inside and out of the sun, Rhine pulled out his handkerchief and mopped at his neck. Even though he’d been in Virginia City for years now, he still found the desert heat oppressive.

  “So where is Miss Mary?”

  “Out back. It’s wash day.”

  “And you’re not helping?”

  “She told us to stay inside so we wouldn’t get dirty.”

  Ten-­year-­old Susannah Bird walked up. “Hello, Mr. Fontaine.”

  “Hello, Susannah.” She was of Mexican and Paiute descent and smarter than some of the adults Rhine knew. He handed her the bag of penny candy he’d picked up on the way. “Will you put this in a safe place?”

  Micah cried, “How come you gave it to her?”

  Susannah answered, “Because I am the oldest and the most trustworthy.”

  When Christian silently mimicked her, Rhine struggled to keep a straight face. She was right though. In her hands the sweets wouldn’t be hidden under her bed and eaten secretly, as the boys had done the first and last time they’d been entrusted with the bag.

  She then added, “You two can’t have any anyway. You’re both on punishment.”

  Rhine swung his attention their way and they squirmed under his scrutiny. Before he could ask for an explanation, Susannah confessed for them. “They put a baby snake in Miss Willa’s bloomers drawer.”

  The spinster Willa Grace was the housekeeper, and like Mary, had a heart of gold. Rhine said to the twins, who now looked like they wanted to disappear, “Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t Miss Willa Grace make you two a birthday cake a few months back large enough to feed half the town?”

  Heads bowed, they nodded.

  “And when you came down with those terrible colds last winter, didn’t she stay up three nights straight nursing you back to health?”

  Shamefaced, they nodded again.

  “So, do you think someone who cares for you the way she does deserves to be scared half out of her wits by a snake?” he asked pointedly.

  They whispered in unison, “No sir.”

  “What’s your punishment this time?”

  They mumbled.

  Susannah translated. “No sweets, desserts, and early to bed for the next three nights.”

  As much as they loved desserts, he knew they were very unhappy with their sentence.

  “Mr. Fontaine. Do you want me to tell Miss Mary you’re here?” Susannah asked.

  “Please.”

  She departed, leaving Rhine with the guilty boys. “Have you apologized to Miss Willa?” he asked.

  They nodded. Before he could interrogate them further, Mary appeared holding the hand of her youngest charge, a three-­year-­old girl named Lin whose parents had returned to China and left her behind. Mary was short and stocky and had a face weathered from the desert sun. Her gray hair was cut short as a man’s. Having worn a nun’s habit most of her adult life, she said she preferred it that way. “Mr. Fontaine, how are you?”

  He met her kind blue eyes. “I’m well. I hear Trouble One and Two have been living up to their names.”

  The boys stared down at the toes of their brown brogans.

  “They have, and unless they’d care for a full week of no dessert they will be on their best behavior while with you today. Is that understood?” she asked them.

  Rhine was taking them into town for haircuts.

  “Yes, ma’am,” they said in unison.

  Still unhappy with their prank, Rhine said, “Susannah told me what happened.”

  “Poor Willa,” Mary said. “As always, she’s the model of grace and forgiveness, but she did add a writing component to their punishment.”

  Since Susannah hadn’t mentioned anything about writing, Rhine was confused. It must have shown on his face because Mary said to the boys. “Tell Mr. Fontaine what you are writing.”

  Micah replied, “ ‘Dear Miss Willa Grace. I will never play mean tricks on you again.’ ”

  “And how many times do you have to write it?” she asked, turning to Christian.

  He answered glumly, “One hundred times.”

  “That should keep you out of trouble for a while,” Rhine said.

  “We can only hope,” Mary replied. “Now, go and wash your hands so Mr. Fontaine can take you to Mr. Carter’s for your haircuts.”

  Once they were gone, Mary sighed. “May the Good Lord give me the strength to survive those two. I’m sure they didn’t mean her any real harm, but they’re like wild colts sometimes. Don’t you want to do an old lady a favor and take them off my hands?”

  Rhine laughed. He was sure she was pulling his leg but he wondered what his fiancée’s response would be were he to suggest they add them to their family. He also wondered what the state of Nevada would say about a White man wanting to take two little Colored boys into his home. “How did the interview go with the couple who wanted Lin?” He reached down and gently chucked the girl’s small chin. She smiled shyly and leaned into Mary.

  “Not well. They wanted to raise her to be their housemaid, so of course I told them I wouldn’t allow it.”

  She’d driven up to Reno to meet the couple. He found the outcome disappointing.

  “So I guess my little family will stay intact for now,” she said. “Not that I mind.” She picked up Lin and nuzzled her neck. The child giggled.

  The twins returned.

  “Ready to go?” Rhine asked.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Mary reminded them, “Best behavior, remember.”

  “We will,” they promised in unison again.

  Rhine told her, “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

  “There is no need to rush. Believe me.”

  Chuckling, he led the boys outside to his carriage.

  They were indeed on their best behavior, but then again, Rhine rarely had to rein them in when the three of them were together. They seemed to enjoy his company as much as he did theirs. As always, they asked him a hundred questions or more about everything from how the gaslighting worked, had he ever seen Jesus, to how old they had to be to drive the carriage. They then speculated on what kind of dessert they wanted Willa Grace to make for them once they s
hook off the shackles of their punishment and she started speaking to them again. Listening to their happy and endless chatter, Rhine thought back on Mary’s request that he take them off her hands, but he doubted the state would approve even if Natalie did agree to the adoption.

  Inside the barbershop, Mr. Edgar Carter greeted them coolly. “What is this about snakes and Willa Grace’s bloomers?”

  As Jim noted, there were no secrets in Virginia City.

  The boys stopped. Christian, the slightly taller of the two, asked, “Who told you?”

  “Never mind who told me. Is it true?”

  Eyes downcast, they nodded like condemned men again.

  “I thought you’d learned your lesson the time you used lamp black to give her new eyebrows and a mustache.”

  Thinking back on that, Rhine’s shoulders shook with suppressed laughter. They’d altered her appearance one night while she’d been asleep. When she got up the next morning and glanced at herself in the mirror, she’d screamed at the sight of the heavy black brows and mustache. Mary had been none too happy and neither had Rhine, but once he reached home, he and Jim laughed until they cried.

  “No peppermints today,” Edgar said sternly. He always rewarded them with peppermints for good behavior. They looked crestfallen.

  Rhine said, “See what happens to pranksters? Let’s hope you’ve learned your lesson this time.”

  Edgar shook his head. “Be glad you don’t belong to me, because if you did, you’d have to get your haircuts standing up.” He held out the cloth bib that would be fastened around their necks. “Who’s first?”

  On the ride back to the orphanage they were uncharacteristically silent. Rhine wondered if they were thinking about the error of their ways. Micah, who had a small scar over his nose that allowed Rhine to tell them apart, asked, “Do you think if we stop playing pranks we could get a new pa?”

  For a few moments Rhine assessed him silently. Turning back to his driving, he said, “I don’t know, Micah.”

  “We really miss our old one,” Christian said.

  Rhine’s heart twisted. Their mother died giving them life, leaving their father to raise them alone. So far the only kin Mary had been able to find was an aunt in Reno who had five children of her own and couldn’t or wouldn’t take in her nephews. The aunt said there was a brother living somewhere near St. Louis, but he’d yet to be located. Rhine was reminded of his own futile search for his sister Sable. He also knew how it felt to want a new father because he’d desperately wanted someone other than Carson Fontaine his entire life. “I’m sure Mary will find someone. You just have to give it time.” He had no idea if his response would ease their worries but he didn’t know what else to say.

  Upon arriving at Mary’s, he watched as they climbed the steps to the porch. Before going inside they waved. He waved back, noting how quiet and empty the Rockaway seemed now that they were gone. Am I growing too attached to them? Once the door closed behind them, he thought maybe he was, but knowing there was no way for him to be anything other than a visitor in their lives, he headed to the saloon, and Eddy Carmichael immediately filled his mind. He wondered how she’d spent the afternoon but quickly pushed the question away. In a little over an hour he’d be meeting his fiancée Natalie and her parents at their home for dinner. Afterwards he’d drive them to Piper’s Opera House for an evening of entertainment. Natalie was the woman he was supposed to be thinking about, not the one draped in his dressing gown and lying in his bed.

  Chapter Five

  To help Eddy pass the time, Jim added a few newspapers to the tray of light fare he brought up for her lunch, and she was grateful. But once she finished both the food and the papers, boredom returned and she spent the rest of the afternoon willing the clock to move faster. She was tired of being alone, tired of the stifling heat, and ready to move to Sylvia Stewart’s boardinghouse. Also vexing her was wondering where Rhine Fontaine might be, what he was doing, and who Natalie might be. None of the questions had answers of course, nor were the questions any of her business, so she turned her mind to other unanswerable questions, such as: What would it be like living in Virginia City, how long would it take for her to save enough money to continue her journey to California, and would she see Rhine Fontaine again after she moved to Mrs. Stewart’s? Groaning over such futile musings, she fell back against the feather mattress and willed herself to sleep away the rest of the afternoon.

  But sleep refused to come. Frustrated, she picked up The Elevator, a widely read Colored newspaper published in San Francisco, and was poring over it for the third time when a knock on the door sounded. “Come in.”

  It was Fontaine and he asked, “How are you?”

  “Doing well. You?”

  “I’m fine. I need to get my clothing for this evening.”

  She told herself the reason she was so pleased to see him had to do with how bored she’d been, but it was a lie. “Do you want me to sit in the hallway so you can get dressed?”

  “Of course not. I can use one of the spare rooms.”

  “You have spare rooms?”

  He reached into the wardrobe and took out a black formal suit and a shirt. “Yes, two, in fact.”

  She was puzzled by that. She’d seen the closed doors in the hallway but had no idea what lay behind them. “Then why didn’t you put me in one instead of letting me take over your bedroom?”

  “When Jim and I found you, you were so near death someone needed to be close by.”

  “And after?”

  He shrugged. “Purely selfish really. I enjoyed being with you.”

  Her heart stopped.

  With that, he reached back into the armoire and added a few more things to what he was carrying, like his shoes and what appeared to be a shaving kit. “Do you need anything?” he asked.

  “No.”

  And he was gone. Eddy fell back against the pillows. Lord! Yes, she needed to leave the premises as soon as possible. That he’d openly admitted to being equally drawn to her was as startling as accidentally touching a hot stove. Even though he impressed her as an honorable man, were she to stay even a day longer there was no telling where this might lead.

  He returned a short while later, dressed and ready for his outing. The tailored black suit, the snow white shirt, jet black hair, and vivid eyes all added up to a man as alluring as a god. “Presentable?” he asked.

  “Your tie’s a mite crooked.”

  He walked to the large standing mirror. Upon seeing nothing wrong with the tie, he glanced back at her in confusion.

  “Just pulling your leg. You look fine.”

  He chuckled softly. “You are not right, miss.”

  She smiled in reply. In truth, she’d miss the few moments of light banter they’d shared. “So what is Piper’s?”

  “An opera house.”

  “Fancy clothes for a fancy place.”

  “Exactly.”

  She wanted to ask the question foremost in her mind but didn’t.

  As if aware of her thinking, he volunteered, “And Natalie Greer is my fiancée. We’re to be married in October.”

  “Congratulations.”

  “Thank you.”

  She told herself she wasn’t saddened by that news because it was exactly what she needed to hear to put herself back on an even keel, but inside, she knew it was a lie. Taking him in all his fancy glory, she imagined what it might be like to be the one he was escorting to the opera house, even though she knew how foolish the thought was. “You don’t want to be late.”

  “I’ll see you when I return.”

  “Have a good time.”

  “What is this about you finding a Colored woman out in the desert?” Beatrice Greer asked Rhine as they sat at the table in the grand dining room of the Greer mansion.

  He waited for the Chinese maid to set down his plate and leave the room be
fore replying. “She’d succumbed to the heat, so Jim and I brought her to town and left her in Sylvie Stewart’s care.”

  “Has she recovered?” her husband Lyman asked. Like Rhine, Lyman Greer was on the town council and an influential member of the city’s Republican party.

  “Not yet, but I’m pretty sure Sylvie will get her back on her feet.” And knowing what he did of Eddy, he was certain it wouldn’t take long. Rhine had plans to travel to San Francisco the next day and he thought the trip would give him the distance he needed to get the determined little lady off his mind.

  The next question came from Natalie. “Why on earth was she out there?”

  “Apparently she was on her way to California, and the cad she was riding with robbed her, forced her out of the wagon, and drove away.”

  “She’s not a whore, is she?”

  Rhine stiffened. Natalie’s disapproving tone was mirrored on her face. When he proposed to her six weeks ago, he’d told himself marrying the twenty-­year-­old, blue-­eyed brunette beauty would give him the legitimacy he wanted for the life he’d planned, but the more he was around her, the more her true self came to the fore, and the more he questioned their compatibility. “She said she’s a cook.”

  “I hope she’s not lying. More whores is the last thing Virginia City needs.”

  Her mother glanced up from her plate and said pointedly, “Natalie, let’s change the subject, shall we?”

  “I’m only stating the truth, Mother.”

  “But it isn’t something good women discuss, dear.”

  The 1859 discovery of the Comstock Lode with its rich veins of gold and silver brought miners to Virginia City from all over the world, and where there were miners there were whores. Eddy was a lot of things: fiery, stubborn, and hardheaded to a fault, but whore? No.

  Rhine was glad when Lyman changed the subject by asking his wife, “Now, who are we going to see this evening again?”

  “A singer named Herbert Gould.”