He stood up and retrieved his hat. “I really must be on my way.” David bowed and made his way to the front door.
* * *
“Well, what did you find out about her?” Reese demanded as soon as David stepped inside the door of the Presidential Suite at the Madison Hotel.
“I had a miserable journey, Reese. I’m dying to deliver my report to you, but do you think I could grab a cup of coffee first?” David joked.
“Anything. Just give me the verdict.” Reese stalked to the silver coffee pot sitting on a tray beside his desk.
“You’re in a generous mood, today. How about a pay raise and your share of the Union Pacific stock along with the coffee?”
“How about a twisted arm and unemployment?” Reese shot back as he handed David a cup of coffee and took the damp overcoat David offered in return. “What did you learn?”
“I learned Faith Collins is a very proud woman.”
“Tell me something I haven’t learned on my own.”
“Well, she lives on Clary Street in Richmond in a house that’s falling down around her head. She shares it with her daughter and four other women—two aunts and two relatives by marriage.”
“Her side or his?” Reese wanted to know.
“Hers. They’re sisters-in-law of one of her aunts. Her daughter, Joy, is an adorable little girl of five or six, judging from her missing front teeth.”
“Five,” Reese remarked absently, remembering Faith’s description of her
family. “Any men?”
David couldn’t control his grin at the innocent-sounding question. “While I was there, I saw an army lieutenant.”
“I was afraid of that. She made everything sound too good to be true. I knew there had to be men in the picture. How else are five women going to earn enough money to live on?” Reese began to pace the length of the room.
“They take in sewing.”
“What?” Reese stopped in his tracks and stared at his cousin.
“I said they take in sewing. The lieutenant was there because he’d ripped his jacket.” David finished his cup of coffee and sat down on the sofa to watch Reese resume his nervous pacing. “Give me a hand with these. My feet are frozen.” He lifted one booted foot in Reese’s direction.
Reese yanked the wet boot from David’s foot and dropped it beside the sofa. “Sewing? Making dresses, that sort of thing?” Reese searched his memory. She had been dressed in rags. “Can she earn a living like that?” With the exception of his maternal grandmother and a few other women at the ranch, all the women of Reese’s acquaintance were outfitted in the latest fashions from London or Paris. “Is there a dress shop? A business of some sort?”
“No,” David told him, “They call themselves the Richmond Ladies Sewing Circle. They don’t make ladies’ fashions. They make quilts, embroider, and take in mending, mostly from the soldiers stationed in Richmond.”
“Union soldiers?”
“Apparently.”
“Like the army lieutenant.” Reese resumed his pacing.
David nodded. “I was about to climb into my hired hack when he walked up to the front door bearing a basket of fruit. A Christmas present for the ladies for treating him decent, he said. They refused to take it. Said they it wouldn’t be proper for a household of unmarried women to accept a gift from a gentleman. The lieutenant turned right around, walked to his buggy and proceeded to mutilate his jacket.”
“What?”
“He ripped off every button, every bit of insignia, and slit the sleeves. Then he went back to the front porch and asked them to mend it. He told them he’d spent his pay on Christmas, but he could trade them the basket in exchange for repairs. Faith graciously accepted the jacket and the fruit basket.”
“Just like that?” Reese stopped, then turned to look at David.
“Just like that.”
He shook his head in disbelief, then raked his fingers through his hair in an attempt to restore some order to the thick, black strands. “She wouldn’t take a basket of fruit from a soldier she’s met before, but she’ll consider having my baby for money?”