sorry to be tardy, my sleeping is a bit all over the place
10 Delivering the Females part 3
Luke reflected, with some grim humour, that many drifters like himself would have taken the job as bodyguard to mail order brides for the pay, which was not high, but was probably fairly safe. He was spending more to keep them safe than they were paying him, especially since he intended to hire two cabins in a Pullman car for the four day journey west. On reflection, Luke decided to board Blackwind at a livery stable in Cheyenne, rather than take the poor beast on a long, unnecessary journey, mewed up in the caboose.
“You haven’t checked your guns, sir,” said the hotelier of the Union Pacific Depot and Hotel, when Luke approached the desk.
“Here’s my exception,” said Luke. Sam Stubbins had registered him as a bodyguard, countersigned by Miss Compton. “I showed all my documentation to the Rail Marshal on the way in.”
“Very good, sir,” said the hotelier. “A room?”
“Two rooms, one to accommodate three women,” said Luke. “I’ll take your two dollar room with breakfast for myself.”
“A double room and a single....”
“A room for three; you can surely set up a trundle bed of some kind for the ladies’ duenna?” said Luke.
“I... I suppose so,” said the hotelier.
“Good, make it adjacent to mine. I’ll pay you three dollars, same as for a double and a single, with breakfast. And you’ll have the single to hire out.”
“We could take the seventy-five cent rooms,” ventured Miss Compton. “And find somewhere doing cheap breakfasts...”
“You could, but you won’t, because I need to be near you and I’ll be damned if I sleep in a seventy-five cent room,” said Luke.
“Three dollars fifty,” said the hotelier, rapidly.
“Done,” said Luke. “I have been, but I’m not about to quibble too much.”
The cheap rooms were at the back, overlooking the shunting yard, and were noisy. There were several tracks laid on the cleared dirt grade, and Luke also made sure to work out which one would carry the train they would need.
Luke was thankful that the Union Pacific had signed a contract with Pullman that very year. The sleeping accommodation he had seen before was basic, each cabin had three bunk beds, provided with mattresses but not always other bed linen. There was a wash-basin, and a wood-fired stove for warmth, but the difference in comfort in being able to sleep lying flat was well worth it. He was glad that there would be separate sleeping carriages and a restaurant car, rather than a hotel carriage, which was a closed carriage in which those whose beds opened up above the seating would also be accommodated to dine; the separation of sleeping and dining gave more privacy.
Luke made a foray to the booking office.
“There are three ladies booked by telegraph, I believe,” he said. “I want to upgrade them to Pullman sleeping accommodation, and hire another whole cabin for the four days to the furthest stop.
“That’s an extra two dollars per bunk per day on top,” said the clerk. “One lady for one day, another two dollars, two ladies for four days, sixteen dollars. And sixteen dollars for yourself plus the sixteen dollars train fare.”
Luke frowned.
“Shouldn’t a three-berth cabin be more?” he asked.
“Our cabins are two-berth,” said the clerk.
“Then one lady need not top up because they will want to stay together,” said Luke.
“Suit yourself,” shrugged the clerk. “A total of forty-two dollars.”
Luke extracted four ten-dollar bills and two single bills. It was worth it to make sure they were safe at night, and that he was well rested; and if there were no sheets, they had their bedrolls. He planned to eat in the Pullman restaurant car at a dollar a meal, plus whatever drink he bespoke; if the women wanted to dash out to eating houses for a nickel meal of indifferent stew with bread rather than eat in comfort, that was up to them. In their shoes, he would have bought one full restaurant meal between three, smuggling out the greater part of it to the sleeping cabin for the other two, but it was up to them to work that one out. They were only destitute from the point of view of the middle classes, not by the lights of those to whom two dollars represented a day’s wage.
The ladies huddled together to dine, but were glad to be sharing a room. Luke slept well and deeply and was up early to chivy them to breakfast, ready to catch their train at 8-30.
It was a long train, and Luke noted the number of their Pullman car to hustle the ladies aboard. An easterner was complaining about how his trunk was handled.
“That trunk cost more than you earn in a month,” he brayed, nasally at the black porter.
That was believable; it was a leather-covered thing of beauty.
“Big enough to store a body in it,” said Luke, cheerfully. The braying Easterner looked at him reproachfully.
“That, sirrah, is not funny,” he said.
“It is from where I’m standing,” said Luke. “And nice claret-coloured leather so it doesn’t show if it leaks.”
The Easterner, a tall and gangling fellow, went puce.
“You have a damned nasty sense of humour,” he said.
“Why, yes; but I have my faults as well,” said Luke.
“Mr. Sokolov, please don’t play with your prey,” said Miss Compton.
Luke bowed to her, flashing her his most engaging smile. She did have a sense of humour in there.
“Pray, ladies, allow me,” he said, handing each of them up, and slipping some coins to the white-coated porter who helped with their meagre luggage.
“I’m your steward, sah,” said the man, a grizzled negro in his fifties.
“Well, that’s splendid,” said Luke. “What do we call you?”
“Mos’ folks call us porters ‘George’ after Mr. Pullman. But mah name’s Albert,” said the porter.
“An excellent name; one my brother has as a middle name,” said Luke. “Albert! I have three ladies in one two-person apartment, what can be done about it? It’s only for one night.”
“Well, sah, the lounge converts to a bedroom, one sofa and a fold-down bed, but I can find another chair and footstool to go with those in there. It’ll be a little cramped, but... why, thank you, sah!” Luke slipped him three dollars. A grateful porter was worth his weight in gold. And Luke was willing to pay more than the railroad charged for sleeping, in order to keep the ladies together and purchase good will.
“You can use the furniture from my cabin next door,” suggested Luke. Albert grinned a very white grin at this, which would make his life easier than hoping one compartment was unoccupied.
The Pullman carriage had a corridor along it, and was divided into several compartments, each with their own toilet, with walnut wood fittings, red velvet, and gilded baroque decoration. There was a deep pile carpet on the floor, and the toilet was decorated with marble.
“Heating?” Luke asked Albert.
“Underfloor hot air, sah,” said Albert.
“Admirable,” said Luke. “How nice to have the joins between carriages covered!” he indicated the concertina joins between carriages.
“Yes, sah, Mr. Pullman invented the vestibule carriage as well,” said Albert.
“A clever man,” said Luke.
“Yes, sah; and he hires us and the carriages out, rather than sell them,” said Albert.
“Oh, a man of sagacity,” said Luke.
“This is such an adventure,” said Florence, when Luke came to visit the ladies in their parlour. “But how are we going to sleep, all of us?”
“Albert has it in hand,” said Luke. “Now enjoy fancy trimmings and feeling like royalty.” He left them to decide which would sleep on a makeshift bed, and settled out to prowl the corridor and find out where the dining carriage was.
The dining carriage was right in front of their own sleeper; and breakfast was being served. Luke decided that a second breakfast would not come amiss, and settled down to order a meal. The hotel breakfast had consisted of waffles, toast and jelly, and Luke was still hungry. He was delighted to have a proper breakfast of eggs, bacon, fried potato cubes, mushrooms and baked beans followed by pancakes dripping with maple syrup, and as much toast with jelly as he wished, with hot coffee in a pot, and a small creamer and sugar bowl to add as much or as little as he wished.
Luke had barely finished growing, and he wished for both.
He returned to find the ladies chatting, sewing, and looking out of the window, all in turns.
“There’s a dining car if anyone wishes to partake,” he said. “It’s a dollar a meal.”
“I think,” said Florence, “I should like to try it at least once, to be able to boast about it if need be.”
“Yes, you only live once,” said Ella.
“Well...” said Miss Compton.
“I’ll stand you a meal, Miss Compton,” said Luke. “I suspect if you tip Albert, he’ll manage to make sandwiches from leftovers for other meals, rather than have to charge off the train and come back with cheeks stuffed like squirrels to be back on time.”
Miss Compton shuddered.
“And such rough company in such places too,” she said, wistfully.
“We’ll find a young lady going East to school for you to hire on as chaperone to, and have her parents pay for Pullman accommodation on the way back,” said Luke, cheerfully.
Miss Compton brightened.
“Do you think we can?” she asked.
“I’m sure I can find you a client,” said Luke, confidently.
Albert was delighted to put together a picnic basket for lunch; the leftovers were the perquisites of the porters, and what they dined on and what they sold was up to them. Luke joined the ladies in paying a nickel each for what Albert had put together.
The scenery continued endless prairie; but the sun was setting ahead of the train filling the window as they veered at times with glorious colours of a prairie early winter sunset. Luke enjoyed the view.
“Dinner time, ladies,” he said, as Albert came in to alert them, with a menu to peruse. “Thank you, Albert. I’ll have the celery consomme, rather than the chicken on rice, the whitefish with Saratoga potatoes looks nice, and the chicken croquette aperitif with mushrooms, I prefer the roast beef to the roast turkey, how is the cauliflower cooked?”
“Boiled, sah,” said Albert. Luke pulled a face. “Ma cooks them deep fried in batter,” he said. “Go easy on the cauliflower, then, string beans and mashed potato, fine. I’m not touching lobster salad, thank you, not on a journey, I’ll have wild dreams all night. I’ll stick with ice-cream, fruit of the season, and a cheese board. We’ll have a bottle of California Reisling with the soup and fish, German Hock is no better, these days. Ladies, will you be having beef or turkey?”
“It’s almost Thanksgiving; we’ll soon be sick of turkey,” said Ella. “We’ll have what you recommend, and that makes it easier for Albert, too,” she added.
Albert flashed her a grateful smile.
“Then a nice Chambertin with the beef,” said Luke. “I’ll finish with the ’42 cognac, do you ladies want crème de menthe, or anisette or anything of that kind?”
“I’d as soon finish with a nice cup of tea,” said Miss Compton.
“A big pot of tea, then, as well to finish,” said Luke.
Albert opened his mouth to mention that tea was not usually served with dinner, and shut it again. He’d been well tipped; he’d make tea himself if he had to.
The dinner was delicious, and Luke considered it well worth the cost. It made a change to be waited on, and to have someone else do the cooking! He took himself to the back of the train to enjoy a quiet pipe under the big and starry prairie sky, and then, contented, went back to his cabin, where Albert was sorting out his bed.
“I used the bedlinen from the other bed here, sah, for Miss, as you’ve paid for it,” he said.
“Good thinking,” said Luke. “It certainly will beat sleeping through a sleety squall under a pine branch roof.”
“Goodness, sah, yes,” agreed Albert. “Not what I’d like to do.”
“It would have been worse if I didn’t know what to do,” said Luke. “This is a holiday, and I mean to enjoy it; but I like the outdoor life.”
“Not for me, sah,” said Albert.
“It’s not for everyone,” said Luke, tipping him again.
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