“Yep.” Frank checked his watch again. Not quite eleven o’clock. “Let’s get this over with. I never did like court.”
The inquest went smoothly, however. Frank was sworn in and testified as to what had happened, and several witnesses who had been on hand for the shoot-outs agreed with his story. The police had also taken statements from a number of witnesses who weren’t there to testify, and those were entered into the record, too. The coroner’s jury didn’t have to deliberate. They rendered a verdict of murder in the case of Trench’s death at the hands of one of the Haggarty brothers, and the other four deaths were ruled to be self-defense on the part of Frank and Trench. The coroner dismissed the proceedings, and Frank was free to go.
“Satisfied?” he asked Fiona as they left the courthouse.
“As a matter of fact, I am. There’s just one more hurdle you have to clear, Frank, before you officially become a member of our party.”
“And what’s that?” he asked.
She smiled at him. “You have to meet the brides.”
Chapter 6
Frank and Fiona went back to the Majestic Hotel. Along the way, Fiona explained, “These are fine, upstanding young ladies from respectable families in places like New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, you understand. Many of them are quite well educated. I’m sure you’re wondering why such women would want to travel thousands of miles to a wilderness such as Alaska to marry men that they’ve never met.”
“The thought crossed my mind,” Frank admitted. “I can understand why a man might send off for a wife when he’s in a place where there aren’t any women, but I can’t quite figure why a woman would be interested in a deal like that.”
“There are a number of reasons. Some of them simply have a thirst for adventure. Others have suffered tragedies of some sort—the loss of a loved one, a failed romance, things like that—and want to make a fresh start somewhere else.”
“I reckon Alaska’s about as much ‘somewhere else’ as you can get,” Frank commented with a smile.
“Indeed it is. To these young women, it’s as faraway and exotic as, say, China would be.” Fiona paused. “But to finish my thought, and to be totally honest with you, Frank, some of the women who enter into arrangements like this are rather unattractive and don’t believe they’ll ever have a man any other way. Also, some are looking for a degree of financial security. If a man can afford to engage my services and have a bride brought to him, generally he’s either already well-to-do or has excellent prospects for being so. The women know that.” She laughed. “So, if you want to look at it that way, I suppose what I do is sort of like being a madam. I shouldn’t have been so offended when you mentioned it earlier.”
Frank shook his head. “I wouldn’t say that at all. Seems completely different to me.”
“I am in the business of selling women for money.”
“Nope, not the same thing,” Frank insisted.
“Well, I’m glad you feel that way.” She looked up at the front of the hotel. “Here we are.”
They went inside the redbrick building and up the stairs to the second floor. Fiona said, “We’ll go to my suite, and I’ll have the ladies assemble there. I engaged six rooms for them, two to a room.”
The mail-order bride business must pay pretty well, Frank thought. The Majestic wasn’t the fanciest hotel in the world, but Fiona had to be doing all right if she could afford to rent a suite and six more rooms for her charges.
The sitting room of Fiona’s suite was comfortably furnished. She discreetly closed the door to the bedroom, then told Frank, “Wait here. I’ll be back in a moment.”
He felt a mite odd, standing there holding his hat in the sitting room of a lady’s suite, but luckily Fiona wasn’t gone very long. When she came back in, she had a dozen young women trooping along behind her.
They were all shapes and sizes, Frank saw right away, with hair that ranged from palest blond to black as dark as a raven’s wing. The only thing they had in common was their age. Frank estimated that all of them were around twenty-five, past the first blush of youth but hardly getting on in years. Although some people uncharitably figured that a woman past the age of twenty who had never been married was an old maid, Frank thought.
As Fiona had pointed out, some of the women were rather plain, but there wasn’t a single one of them Frank would have called downright ugly, and a few were pretty darned good-looking, in his opinion. One blonde in particular was really pretty, he thought. She had a nice quirky smile and cornflower blue eyes.
She was the one Fiona introduced to him first, as well. “Frank, this is Margaret Goodwin. Meg, as she’s called.”
Frank nodded. “Miss Goodwin.”
“Meg,” she said. She held out a hand to shake, just like a man would have. “I’m pleased to meet you, Mr. Morgan. Mrs. Devereaux tells us that you’re a famous gunfighter.”
“Well…some folks might say infamous,” Frank said as he shook hands with her. “Or even notorious.”
“Yes, but if you’re going to be protecting us on our voyage, I prefer to think of you as famous.”
Fiona motioned forward a little brunette with a lush figure. “This is Jessica Harpe.”
Frank said, “Pleased to meet you, Miss Harpe.”
For the next few minutes, Fiona continued the introductions. The names began to run together in Frank’s head: Elizabeth Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly, Marie Boulieu, Gertrude Nevins, Maureen Kincaid, Ginnie Miller, Constance Wilson, Wilma Keller, Elizabeth Tarrant, and Lucy Calvert. Elizabeth Jenkins went by Elizabeth, Elizabeth Tarrant by Lizzie, so Frank tried to make a note of that in his head. He knew it would take him a while to remember all their names, though. They were all unfailingly polite, and Frank instinctively liked them.
When the introductions were finished, Fiona said, “Well, ladies, you’ve met Mr. Morgan. What do you think of him?”
“He’s very handsome, in a rugged way,” Meg said with a smile.
“I don’t care much for that gun, though,” Gertrude added. “Would a gentleman wear a weapon out in the open like that?”
“Not in Philadelphia, where you’re from, my dear,” Fiona said. “I assure you, Seattle is not Philadelphia.”
Gertrude sniffed. “I know. I heard all sorts of shooting and yelling in the street last night. It frightened me.”
Frank said, “No offense, miss, but where you’re headed will be a lot more rugged and dangerous than Seattle is. You may have to ride horseback for miles up and down mountains, and there’ll be men who won’t hesitate to try to take what they want…which might include you.”
A pink flush spread over Gertrude’s face. “That’s not really a proper thing to say, Mr. Morgan.”
“I was raised to believe that it’s always proper to speak the truth. And the truth is, you ladies are in for a long, difficult journey. You may be faced with bad weather, bad food, and bad men. I promised a friend of mine that I’d do my best to see to it that you get where you’re going safe and sound. That’s what I intend to do if Mrs. Devereaux agrees, and the way I understand it, she’d like for you ladies to agree, too.”
“That’s right,” Fiona said with a nod. “I had originally engaged his friend Mr. Trench to accompany us, but unfortunately, Mr. Trench was killed last night.” She looked at Gertrude. “It may well have been some of the shots you heard that were responsible for his demise.”
Gertrude paled. “How terrible.”
“Yes, it is. But Mr. Morgan has offered to step in for Mr. Trench. I appreciate that gesture on his part and intend to allow him to travel with us. What do you say?”
“I’m all for it,” Meg said.
“So am I,” Lucy added. She was a tall, lanky young woman with long, light brown hair.