Page 62 of The Harvey Girls

Forty-Eight

Mae Parnell dropped a plateful of toast when Billie came in early that morning. She stepped over the mess and pulled Billie into a tight hug against her soft form. “I’ve been so worried about you!”

“I’m sorry I didn’t come back to the dorm last night.”

Mae released her and said, “Oh, I didn’t care about that. I knew you were probably with Charlotte. But with all you’ve been through, goodness, you must be ready to faint!”

Billie collapsed onto a chair. “Actually I wasn’t with Charlotte the whole time.”

Mae bent down to pick up the broken plate and scattered pieces of toast. “You were with that kitchen boy.” She heaved the detritus deftly into the trash bin.

“Leif. He’s a good man.”

“And you love him?”

Billie almost started to explain that while, yes, she did love him, it was a wider kind of love than all that sheik business, and they hadn’t really defined what it was or what it could lead to. But none of that was going to get her Mae’s help, which was what she needed at the moment.

“I do,” she said. “I love him eternally.”

Mae put her hand to her chest and heaved a great sigh.

“But I can’t stay here.” Billie felt herself tear up. “I can’t stop seeing it.”

Mae sat down in the chair next to Billie and patted her knee. “Of course you can’t.”

“Charlotte almost died. She was truly just inches away…” Billie put her hands to her face and began to cry, and while the tears were real, she also knew they would aid her cause. Mae stroked her hair, and it felt like her own mother doing it, which made her cry even harder.

“There, now,” soothed Mae. “We’ll get you out of here.”

Billie inhaled a sniffle and wiped her nose on the shoulder of her wrinkled dress. “I need to keep working, though. My family needs the money, and Fred Harvey pays better than anything I could get at home.”

“If that’s what you want, it’s easy enough to get yourself transferred to another Harvey House. Do you have one in mind?”

“I thought maybe the Escalante at Ash Fork.” It was near Will’s farm; Billie and Leif had decided he would need their company. “But what about Leif? I can’t just leave him here.”

Mae pursed her lips in thought. “Mr. Patrillo doesn’t like complications, so he’ll be happy to have this whole episode behind him. He won’t mind seeing the backs of you two.”

“But how can we get him to send us both to the same place?”

“You leave that to me.”

Charlotte barely slept, and when she did, she was right back on that ledge, cornered by Simeon. Or watching him fall.

She woke with a start to find the room lit by pale light, a breeze fluttering the thin white curtains. Will’s arm was across her waist, and she was clutching it like a life raft.

“You’re safe,” he whispered. It was a phrase he’d repeated often during the night.

She turned toward him, into him, and he corralled her against him, their bodies molding to accommodate each other as if they’d been formed that way.

“You’re the kindest man I’ve ever met,” she murmured.

“And you’re the most surprising woman I’ve ever met.”

“Yes, well, I’m a bit less exciting now that I’m no longer on the lam and using an alias.”

“I didn’t say exciting , although you are that, too. I said surprising .”

“That such a smart woman could be so stupid?” she said ruefully.

He sighed. “You really do need that time to learn to trust yourself, don’t you?”

“Clearly. But I’m interested to know what you think is so surprising about me.”

“How much you care about people who are so different from you, even though you weren’t raised with any notion of the plight of others. John and Ruth, Billie, even me. That first trip to Cameron, the talk we had on the way home—I could feel you absorbing me.”

“I could feel you absorbing me, too. But gently, without intruding. Just listening so carefully.”

“You fascinated me.”

She pulled away and leaned up to face him, gazing into those dark eyes for a long moment. “Are you going to be all right without me?”

He ran a finger along a lock of her hair and tucked it behind her ear. “Yes,” he said. “Are you?”

“I aspire to be. Also to not hate myself or live with bitterness.” She smiled sadly. “?‘Without you’ will be the hardest part.”

It didn’t take Charlotte long to pack the battered suitcase with the gold monogram.

The only things she put in it were her Navajo blanket and a couple of changes of clothes for the three-day trip to Boston.

Her family would be horrified to see what was now her best dress.

A day with her mother’s favorite seamstress would surely be scheduled within minutes of her arrival.

“Alva, would you like these?” she said, holding up her few remaining dresses and her winter coat in the girl’s doorway. “I think we’re about the same size.”

Alva didn’t say anything for a moment, and Charlotte was certain an unpleasant comment was about to come her way.

But Alva reached for the clothes and said, “Thank you. That’s very kind of you.”

“Oh. Well, good. I’m glad they’ll get some use.”

“I’ll be proud to wear them, Charlotte. After all you’ve been through, you’re a bit of a hero to me and the girls.”

“Oh dear, I’m not… Do people know about… all that?”

“Of course we do. Word spreads, and a Harvey House is the smallest small town there is. We all know someone—an aunt or a neighbor or a friend.” Alva gave her a meaningful look. “He got what he deserved.”

Questioning by the police that afternoon took surprisingly little time. They weren’t interested in any of the history—that Simeon had physically assaulted Charlotte for years, or that he’d gotten into a fistfight with Leif over it back in Topeka. They didn’t care about the why, only the how.

Charlotte repeated what she’d told the park superintendent, that she had wrenched her arm away when he’d grabbed her. With Billie, Henny, and Nora all separately corroborating that Simeon had cornered her, and she had been trying only to escape, the death was quickly ruled accidental.

At the Hopi House, Charlotte went to the register holding a squash blossom necklace that was smaller than most, almost dainty with its tiny silver beading and lovely turquoise pendant.

“Hello, Ruth,” she said.

“Charlotte!” The surprise on the young woman’s face made it clear that she, too, had heard the news. “I’m so glad that you are… that you…”

“Lived,” said Charlotte.

“Yes!”

“Thank you.” Charlotte laid a hand on the young woman’s arm.

“And thank you for your friendship these last few months. Being with you and learning all that you taught me was a bright spot in the midst of my worries.” Charlotte showed her the necklace.

“I’ve had my eye on this. It will be the perfect memento of our time together. ”

Once it was rung up, Ruth came around to help with the clasp. Then she gave Charlotte a brief hug and whispered, “I will remember you.”

“And I you, my friend.”

Later, Charlotte dropped a postcard into the mailbox addressed to John Honanie at the Cameron Trading Post. It said, “I apologize. You were right.” She signed it “Small Boston Lady.”

The train sat on the tracks huffing to itself like a hibernating dragon.

Passengers arriving thrilled and wide-eyed had finished their descent to the platform; those starting to board were happy, filled with the wonder of the place, and a little tired.

Some would be dozing even before the train rounded the great wide bend and headed south to Williams.

Billie and Leif stood with Charlotte and Will as they waited to board. Once they got to Williams, Will would take a train west one stop to Ash Fork. Charlotte would take the first of several trains east toward Boston.

“You’ll write to me?” Billie said to Charlotte.

“Of course. And you’ll write back. I know you’re a good letter writer.”

“I’ll tell you everything.”

Charlotte smiled. “And I’ll tell you everything, though I’m sure my letters will be much less interesting than yours will be.”

Billie’s eyes went shiny. “Whatever you have to say, I want to hear it. Even if it’s bossy.”

Charlotte felt her own eyes fill, too. “Dear girl,” she murmured, and gave Billie one last hug.

Then Billie hugged Will. “We’ll be out to see you soon,” she whispered. “We’re working on a plan.”

“I have every faith in it.”

Leif shook the older man’s hand. He went to shake Charlotte’s, but she used it to pull him in. “You saved my life,” she told him. “A handshake doesn’t feel quite right.”

Billie laughed through her tears. “Didn’t you hear? She’s a hugger now.”

As Charlotte and Will turned to climb aboard, someone called out, “Wait!”

It was Henny. Followed closely by Nora and a small stream of women in white cotton dresses with little black bow ties, interspersed with men wearing Harvey Car caps.

Charlotte gave Henny a hug, and she and Will ascended the steps. At the top, they turned to wave, and the small crowd waved back and called out good wishes.

Billie and Charlotte exchanged one last glance before Charlotte followed Will into the car. As the train began to chug back down the track, slowly picking up speed, each woman wondered if she’d ever see the other again.