Caterina (Pendleton Petticoats Book 2) Read online

  “This train will take you to Chicago. You can decide your future from there,” he said with a grin, then was gone.

  Caterina took a deep breath at the call for the last of the passengers to board. Although everything in her wanted to press her nose to the glass and wave goodbye to three people she dearly loved, she was careful not to sit close to the window.

  From the corner of her eye, she saw Tony carry the empty trunk and two leather bags through the crowd, followed by Mamma and Anna.

  One of Luigi’s men walked several paces behind them. He appeared unconcerned about remaining hidden. From his smashed hat, he must be the man Mamma beat with her bag.

  Tony would go to Aunt Teresa’s, get Mamma and Anna settled, then travel back to New York. The two women would return home in a few days, once Luigi had calmed down. By the time he realized Caterina was gone, it would be impossible for him to find her.

  Quickly praying for her family’s safekeeping, Caterina embraced the excitement sweeping through her at the adventure waiting ahead.

  Instead of sailing to London, she was heading west.

  Chapter Two

  “Admit I’m right.” Kade Rawlings playfully punched the shoulder of his best friend.

  “I’m not admitting anything.” Garrett Nash glared at Kade with silvery eyes that looked like cold gunmetal in his current irritated state.

  “Fine, have it your way.” Kade rose from his desk at the sheriff’s office where he worked as a deputy and walked Garrett to the door. A teasing light danced mischievously in his bright green eyes. “Whether you admit it or not, everyone knows you’re whipped. All she has to do is crook her little finger your direction and you run after her like a love-sick pup.”

  “I do not!” Garrett snapped, settling his hat on his head and looking down the street as they stepped out into the bright morning sunlight.

  “You do and you know it. The day you put a ring on her finger she ran one through your nose.” Kade slapped his friend on the back as he laughed.

  Garrett ignored his inclination to pop Kade in the nose. The deputy was lucky he’d mostly outgrown the habit. “The day will come, my friend, when you become so besotted with a woman you won’t know if you’re coming or going. And you can bet on me being front and center to watch the mighty Kade Rawlings fall.”

  “Unlike you, I’m smart enough to not get entangled with a pretty skirt like that one.” Kade flashed a white-toothed grin at Garrett’s new wife, Aundy, as she approached.

  “What are you boys discussing?” Aundy’s sky-blue eyes twinkled with humor. Whatever Kade said to Garrett made him look like he’d just sucked the juice from a lemon.

  “How utterly in love Garrett is with you.” Kade grinned then batted his eyelashes at her, making her laugh.

  “Deputy Rawlings, I can’t believe you’d stand right there and fib to me, as an officer of the law.” Aundy countered the disappointed look she gave Kade with a saucy smile.

  “I’m not fibbing.” Kade slapped a long-fingered hand to his chest, covering up the shiny star pinned to his vest. “Ol’ Garrett is at your beck and call and we all know it.”

  “Be that as it may, it’s not nice to tease him so.” Aundy looped her arm through Garrett’s, feeling his tense muscles relax at her touch.

  Married only a month, they were so deeply in love, anyone looking at them could see the devotion and passion floating between the two.

  “You still want to meet us for lunch later?” Garrett asked Kade as the threesome strolled down the boardwalk.

  “Sure.” Kade glanced up at the sun to gauge the time. “Let’s meet after the train comes in. I know you’re waiting for a shipment. Once I transfer our prisoner to the care of the U.S. Marshal on the train, I’ll be free for an hour or two.”

  “We’ll see you later, then.” Garrett placed a possessive hand at the small of his wife’s back. Aundy turned and waved as Garrett steered her toward the mercantile.

  Kade watched his friends walk together with Garrett’s dark head bent toward Aundy’s golden one. He smiled, genuinely pleased for the happiness they found with each other.

  Aundy arrived in Pendleton as a mail-order bride for Erik Erikson. Following a brief ceremony minutes after she arrived, she found herself a widow before she ever truly became a wife. A wagon accident on the way home from exchanging their vows cut Erik’s life tragically short.

  Aundy grew up in Chicago and didn’t know the first thing about farming, but she was determined to learn and stubborn enough to succeed. She relied a lot on her closest neighbors, the Nash family, as she settled into rural life. Before anyone could blink, Garrett had fallen head over heels for the plucky widow.

  If Kade had been looking for a wife, he might have given Aundy a second glance. Tall, tenderhearted, and striking in appearance with enough pretty clothes for three women, she brought to mind tales of ancient Viking warrior queens.

  Kade knew Garrett was a goner the first time he saw the two together. Sparks practically danced between them and it was no surprise when Garrett asked Aundy to wed.

  Best friends with Garrett for as long as he could remember, they often did things together, but Kade didn’t plan to follow him down the path to matrimony.

  Surrendering his freedom to a wife was the last thing on Kade’s mind. He had a good job, a little acreage close to town, and enjoyed his life exactly as it was. A woman would only complicate things and tie him down.

  Kade intended to stay free and unfettered.

  A glance over her shoulder confirmed trouble was sitting five rows behind her at the back of the train car. Caterina didn’t know how one of Luigi’s men could have found her so quickly, but one of them had. Vittorio Martello frequented her uncle’s restaurant and she’d seen him around enough to know he not only worked for Luigi, but also was one of his favored men.

  She wondering how he could possibly have known she’d boarded the train. The ruffian Tony recognized was probably a decoy for the one following her. He most likely saw her brother pull her from the trunk and hustle her onto the train.

  She still didn’t know how he had followed her all the way across the country. In Chicago, she’d had to choose a destination, switch trains, and get her luggage transferred. Caterina made an effort to blend in with the throngs of people. She didn’t think she’d stood out or called attention to herself. If she’d known one of Luigi’s men followed her, she would have done a better job of hiding and disappearing.

  With a ticket for Portland, Oregon, in her hand, Caterina had no idea what she’d find in the city, but supposed she’d know soon enough. Her train was due to arrive there late the following day.

  The porter announced they would stop in a few minutes for a break somewhere in Wyoming.

  Cautiously looking behind her again, Caterina caught Vito staring at her with a sneer on his face.

  Her mind whirled with possibilities as she turned back toward the front of the train car. Given the opportunity, the man would force her to board a train heading east and right back to Luigi.

  The thing to do, then, would be to prevent giving him an opportunity.

  “Everything okay, miss?” the friendly porter asked, noticing her distress. Unlike her brothers, Caterina wore every emotion she felt on her face like a banner for all to see. If she was giddy with happiness, so angry she could scream, or sad enough to cry, one look at her face told it all.

  “No,” she whispered to the porter. He knelt next to her, pretending to adjust the bags beneath the seat in front of her. “That man back there in the brown suit, the one with beady eyes and a black mustache, he’s going to try to force me to do something I don’t want to do. I didn’t realize he’d followed me until a little while ago. If I get off at the next stop, do you think you could make sure my trunks are unloaded there?”

  “I think I have a better idea, ma’am.” The porter stood and glanced surreptitiously toward the back of the train car. A short, stocky man sat alone. An aura of danger and anger hung aroun
d him, daring anyone to make a wrong move. “Don’t you worry about a thing.”

  The wheels of the train slowed and then rocked to a stop at the next station. The porter announced there was time for a quick walk around the platform if anyone wanted to stretch their legs or purchase a snack to eat on the train. Several people disembarked, including Luigi’s thug.

  Out the window, Caterina saw him wander over to a vendor near the depot selling sandwiches and cookies. He pulled out money to pay for a sandwich when a young boy snatched his coin purse and leaped from the platform, running like the wind.

  Vito followed in hot pursuit.

  The porter quickly announced it was time to board the train and they were soon on their way.

  As the train chugged forward, Caterina smiled at the porter who nodded his head at her. Luigi’s man would be stuck in Wyoming until the next train came through and by then, Caterina planned to disappear. There was no way she was going to Portland now. She’d have to get off somewhere between here and there.

  Glancing out the window as the train picked up speed, she watched Vito running, trying to catch it, but he was too late.

  A chuckle near her head made her look up into the porter’s kind face. “That’s the most fun I’ve had in a while.”

  “I can’t thank you enough for your assistance. A very bad man intends to marry me and sent that man to bring me back.” Caterina felt willing to share a little of her story with the person who had gone out of his way to help her.

  “He’ll have a hard time catching up to you now. Next train won’t come through until tomorrow and by then, you’ll be long gone.”

  “How’d you get that boy to steal his money?” Caterina asked, humor softening the worry that lined her face for the last several hours, since she noticed Luigi’s man on the train.

  “He hangs around the depot, looking for ways to make a few coins. He didn’t really steal it, I told him to run to the far end of town and then drop the money in the dirt. Didn’t want the boy caught or hurt, but I’ve seen him run before and knew he’d have no problem outrunning that man.”

  Laughing, Caterina thought about how much she wished she could have seen the look on Vito’s face when he realized he was going to miss the train.

  “Thank you, so much.” Caterina looked gratefully at the porter.

  “Anything else you need, you just let me know,” the porter said, with a conspiratorial wink. “I’ve got two daughters of my own and if someone tried to force them into marriage, they’d have to get through me first.”

  “I think you and my papa could be friends.” Caterina offered the man a cheeky smile. “I do have one question, though. If you were trying to go somewhere new and start over and didn’t want to be found, where would you get off this train? I can’t travel to Portland because he knows that’s where I was planning to go.”

  “If it was me, I’d get off in Pendleton, Oregon. It’s a small western town, can be a little on the rough side, but there are many nice folks that live there, too. It would be the last place they’d look for a city girl.”

  “Thank you. Would it be possible to have my trunks unloaded at Pendleton, then?”

  “I’ll make sure of it.” The porter tipped his cap her direction. “Now, you sit back and enjoy the rest of your trip.”

  The following day, the train rolled out of the majestic Blue Mountains into a valley where wheat and cattle grazing on green pastures filled the landscape. Caterina tried to look forward to this adventure with excitement instead of fear.

  For the thousandth time, she wished she’d not angered Luigi. She missed her family with such ferocity it made her chest ache. She prayed Mamma and Anna made it to Aunt Teresa’s and were maybe even now safely home. While she was at it, she prayed for the safety of all her family and especially for Tony, her favored brother.

  Quickly straightening her hat, brushing off her skirt, and tugging the fingers of her gloves smoothly into place, Caterina gathered her belongings and watched out the window as they rolled into the station.

  Fascinated to see such an interesting blend of people, she smiled at the porter and thanked him again as she stepped down to the platform.

  “You take care, Miss Campanelli. Be happy here.” The porter smiled warmly. “Thank you. I believe I shall,” Caterina said, squaring her shoulders and walking across the platform into the depot.

  Once the milling crowd thinned and the train boarded, Caterina spoke to the ticket agent, charming him into keeping her trunks and bags in the depot until she secured lodging. He took a long glance at her as he suggested a few boarding houses that might have an available room.

  Annoyed by his obvious interest, Caterina wanted to stamp her foot and call him insulting names in Italian. Instead, she muttered a word of thanks and breezed out the door. She didn’t want to stay in a boarding house. People there asked too many questions, would want to be friendly. Her plan was to remain as anonymous as possible. If Luigi’s men ever did come to Pendleton, no one would know anything that might lead them to her.

  As she strolled the few blocks to the downtown area, Caterina realized she was in a real western town.

  Chinese men, cowboys, Indians, and miners passed each other on the busy street. The variety of people and shops surprised her.

  A sign in a window with the word hotel in the title caught her attention. Caterina inquired inside about a room. She was appalled to find it was, in fact, a bordello and rushed out the door.

  A few establishments later, she’d received offensive propositions that made her want to get on the next train and head home to her mother.

  Determined to make the best of the situation, she opened the door and stepped inside another supposed hotel where men loitered in the lobby. A man reached out and grabbed her around the waist, his ripe breath blowing over her face while she struggled to free herself. She slammed her foot down on his instep then blindly ran out the door yelling threats in Italian. Racing around the corner of the building, she collided with a solid wall of man.

  Arms, thick and muscled, fastened around her back, keeping her from falling to the ground. Caterina looked up and then up some more into a pair of eyes that made her think of the rich green lawns found in front of the stately homes of New York City’s most elite socialites.

  The attractive features of the tall, brawny man holding her drew her interest. She noted his freckled nose, square jaw, and strong chin. White teeth gleamed against a tan face and she felt lightheaded as she glanced at his broad shoulders. Her mouth went dry and she found it impossible to speak.

  Weakened knees were the least of her worries as she stared at the most handsome man she’d ever seen.

  “Are you well, ma’am?” he asked, his deep voice made her want to fan her face as it grew exceedingly warm. Gently releasing her from his hold, he kept a steadying hand on her elbow as he took a step back.

  “I’m…um…” Caterina said, trying to chase her thoughts together, ensnared as they were by the strapping cowboy holding her arm. At least she assumed he was a cowboy from the hat on his head, gun at his hip, denim-clad legs, and dusty boots on his feet.

  “Maybe you should sit down,” he suggested, leading her to a nearby bench and waiting until she sat before taking the seat beside her. Politely tipping his head, he grinned. “I’m Kade. Kade Rawlings. Are you new around here?”

  Kade kept an eye on the residents of Pendleton and he was certain he would have noticed the raven-haired beauty with the ripe lips and brown eyes flecked with gold if he’d seen her before. Her fragrance, exotic and feminine, filled his head with thoughts he tried to squelch before they gained any steam.

  “Ma’am? Are you hurt?” Kade asked, wondering what had upset the woman. On his way to meet Garrett and Aundy for lunch, he was surprised when the girl turned the corner and ran right into him. He wondered if she smacked into him harder than he thought and injured herself.

  “No, I’m fine.” Caterina attempted, without a smidgen of success, to drag her gaze a
way from Kade Rawlings’ enticing smile and full lips. “I appreciate your concern.”

  “Is there somewhere I can escort you? Anything I can do to help?” he asked, looking around, half-expecting a mad husband to show up. Surely, someone as breathtaking as this woman would be married.

  “No, thank you.” Caterina pulled back her shoulders and held out her hand. “I’m Caterina Abrielle Campanelli and I just arrived in town.” As she said the words, Caterina realized she probably should have kept her name to herself. If some of Luigi’s men came asking around, her name would be one that stood out.

  “Welcome to Pendleton.” Kade admired the way her small, fine-boned hand fit inside his much larger one. He could feel heat and something else, something foreign and exhilarating, tingle against his palm as their hands touched. Her voice was soft and husky and he quickly decided he could sit and listen to her speak all afternoon and not tire of the sound. “Do you have a place to stay, Caterina Abrielle Campanelli?”

  “No, I…” Caterina couldn’t stop the tears that filled her eyes or the few that rolled down her cheeks. Frantically digging a handkerchief from her pocket, she dabbed at her eyes. “I thought to stay at a hotel, but I went in…they tried to…”

  “Don’t worry, darlin’.” Kade had no idea a woman’s tears could cause his heart to hurt so intensely. He’d never experienced that sensation before and he’d witnessed buckets of tears over the years, especially in his line of work. “Don’t you worry about a thing, we’ll just…”

  “Kade Rawlings! What in the world have you done to this poor girl?” Aundy asked as she and Garrett hurried toward him.

  “Nothing yet.” Kade rose to his feet as Aundy took his place and put her arm around the crying woman’s shoulders. “She’s new to town, thinking she might be fresh off the train. Sounds like she had a bad experience trying to find a place to stay.”