Legend (Legend, Colorado 1)

She forgot her pride. “Could I have something to eat?” she asked, and she could see by the manager’s eyes that he was going to say yes. But the other man, his lieutenant, his evil wizard, as Kady saw him, firmly took her arm and told her that a mining camp was no place for a lady. Before Kady could think of an appropriately nasty reply, he half lifted her onto a hard board wagon seat and told the driver to go.

Within minutes she was back in town, and the driver let her out at the depot, where the silver ore would be weighed before being hauled down the mountain. Across from her was the laundry, so Kady went in and asked if they needed any help. She wasn’t in the least surprised when they told her no.

Across the street, behind the ice cream parlor, was a large park, with big cottonwood trees and grassy lawns. At one end was what looked like a sports field with bleachers set up.

By the time she reached the sports field, night had fallen, and she was shivering. In the moonlight she could see what looked to be a perfect little schoolhouse, with a bell tower on top of

the building and a little porch on the front. Half staggering, both from hunger and exhaustion, Kady made her way to the building, and when she found the front door unlocked, she offered a prayer of thanks, then went inside. By comparison with the outside, the schoolhouse was a haven of warmth. In the little cloakroom she found a couple of forgotten coats and what smelled like a horse blanket, put them on the floor, lay down on them, rolled them around her, and went to sleep.

When she awoke the next morning, the sun was up, and it took her moments to remember where she was. When she did, she refused to allow herself to feel any self-pity. Her mother had told her that self-pity was a bottomless well and once a person fell into it, you kept falling forever.

Since there were no children clamoring to be let in the next morning, Kady assumed it was Saturday, or maybe Sunday. She could barely keep up with the year, much less the day of the week.

She spent some time searching the schoolhouse for something she could wear. Maybe her dress, so unforgivably white in the brilliant mountain sun, was the reason she could not get a job. Or wasn’t even given a chance to prove that she could do the job, she thought with some bitterness.

As she was about to leave the schoolhouse, she saw a mirror on the far wall and went to look at herself, then nearly screamed in horror. This was the woman who the mine manager said would cause trouble among the men?

Her hair, once clean and neatly pinned, was now dirty and as tangled as a cold dish of angel hair pasta. Her face had a black streak across one cheek. “Wonder how long that’s been there?” she said aloud as she rubbed at the dirt.

As for her dress, it hardly resembled the beautiful creation she’d pulled out of the flour tin. One shoulder was torn at the seam, from when she’d caught it as she beat a hasty retreat from the sawmill. There was a black smudge covering one whole side of the skirt where she’d brushed it against a sooty stove in the newspaper office. A young man, with a pencil behind his ear, had aggressively asked her questions about her reasons for being in town and her relationship with Cole Jordan and where did she live and did she know anything about the recent robberies and why was she asking questions around town and was she one of the members of the gang and who had stood her up at her wedding and did her fiancé find out about her involvement with the robbers and where did they bury the loot and what—?

Kady had run from the office so fast she’d nearly knocked the stove over. Thank heaven it hadn’t been lit or she might have set herself on fire. “At least I would have been able to cook something,” she muttered, as she trudged down the street.

After the cold night in the schoolhouse, she’d had no more luck the morning of the second day. She’d started knocking on the doors of houses. Once she’d looked into the kind eyes of a gray-haired woman and asked her for something to eat. The woman’s face had dissolved into pity, and Kady felt the woman had been about to speak when her husband appeared by her side, glared at Kady, and said, “We don’t take kindly to beggars in this town,” then shut the door in Kady’s face.

So now Kady was walking toward the church to meet Cole. What attitude should she take? That everything was fine and she needed no help? Should she keep her pride at all costs?

Odd how pride fled when one’s belly was involved. When she got back to the twentieth century, maybe she’d write a book titled Time Travel: The New Weight-Loss Plan.

Dignity, she told herself as she walked along the road, she must keep her dignity. There was a long hill just behind the firehouse, crosswise of the road, with a short hedge running atop the ridge. As Kady walked up and over this hill, past the hedge, the town seemed to change. The part of Legend that she’d seen was pretty, but on the other side of the hedge, the town seemed to blossom into heaven. The road forked right and left and the church stood to the left. On the right was a perfect little building with a big porch and round-topped windows. A sign across the front said Legend Library. To the right of the library was a long dirt drive that led up a slight hill, and Kady had to blink twice at what she saw at the end of the drive. Unless she missed her guess, the beautiful white building, with the distinctive dome top, was a mosque.

She’d certainly never heard of a mosque in the Old West! she thought as the turned toward the church. Flowers grew beside the perfectly kept road, and the churchyard was a blanket of tiny blue blossoms amid the luxurious grass. Obviously, Legend’s mines were prospering if they could afford to keep public buildings in this state.

As she neared the church, she could hear singing, and it made her smile. Perhaps the church people would have more pity on her situation. Perhaps she could talk to the pastor and he could help her find employment. Why hadn’t she thought of that before?

Slowly, Kady climbed the steps of the church and sat down heavily in the shade of the porch overhang to wait for Cole. He would, of course, buy her a meal, she thought, then smiled at the prospect.

She didn’t have to wait long, for he rode up on his horse just minutes later, and the sight of him made Kady feel relief. He was her friend; he’d help her.

“Am I late?” he asked anxiously. “I thought I was to meet you at two.”

“No,” she said, smiling, wishing with all her heart that her hair were clean and she had on something other than a filthy, torn wedding dress. “I’m early.”

He took his time dismounting, slowly came up the stairs, then hesitated as though deciding what to do. “I’m to rehearse my solo for the service tomorrow. The pastor is leaving town for a couple of weeks, so we need music to fill up the time. After a couple of songs from me, they’ll be begging for his return.” He was grinning at her, not a care in the world, as though he didn’t see what a mess she was.

He took a step toward the door, then turned back and sat down on the step beside her. “Are you all right?”

Part of Kady wanted to say that yes, everything was grand, but her stomach growled, so she couldn’t lie. “No, nothing is all right.”

He took her dirty hand in his big, warm, clean one. “Want to tell me about it? How’s your new job?”

“I have no job!” she said passionately, but when he glanced at the half-open church door, she quietened. “No one would hire me. No one anywhere, not in a public kitchen or private. I even applied at the laundry, and they turned me down too.”

“Family owned,” he said, making her look at him in question. “The laundry is Mr. Simmons’s, and he has six daughters, so he’d not want to pay an outsider.”

Kady looked at him hard. Was he missing the point? “I couldn’t find any job anywhere,” she said evenly. “No one would hire me.”

“Did you try the mines?”