Counterfeit Cowboy by Lacy Williams

Author:Lacy Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-09-24T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

As the noon meal neared, Erin reflected that this leg of the journey had been particularly uneventful. It hadn’t been quite as pleasant as traveling on the sleeper car. With no sleeping berths available out of Chicago going westbound, they’d been crowded onto a passenger car with a lot of other people. Erin imagined the volume of passengers was due to people traveling for Christmas to see their families.

The seats in this car were narrower than they had been in the sleeper car, and whomever was seated closest to the window couldn’t completely stretch their legs. So far, Erin had remained on the inside, and Jesse and Pete had traded turns next to her, where they could stick their legs out into the aisle and get a little relief.

She was thankful she’d repacked her trunk at the Chicago hotel and put the parcels she’d brought for gifts for Chas and his family inside. Even keeping up with her valise was more difficult in this tightly packed railcar.

The conversations were closer, louder, and the smell of unwashed bodies at times threatened to overpower Erin.

And they had to endure another day and a half of it. Including somehow catching some sleep on the train tonight.

Thankfully, she had no complaints about the company. Jesse and Pete had kept her entertained all morning, making up stories for the various passengers in their car. The man two rows up with the funny hat was traveling to see his estranged daughter in Arizona. The woman with the loud, yapping voice near the front of the car was going all the way to California to meet her grandson for the very first time.

At last they were nearing the next stop—a place where they could get off and stretch their legs while they ate the noon meal. They’d have an allotted time to eat and then get back on the train. Erin hadn’t paid much attention to the disembarking and reloading of passengers on the trip from Boston to Chicago, but now that her stomach was rumbling for some sustenance, she was ready to pull into the station.

When the call finally came from the conductor, who passed quickly through the car, she already had her coat and scarf on.

“Take your satchel,” Jesse cautioned her, half turned toward the aisle and glancing over his shoulder at her. “And keep a good hold on it. You don’t want it to fall—or someone to grab it—in the hurry to get off.”

The train pulled up to the platform with a hiss of brakes, and Jesse grabbed her arm and hauled her into the aisle in time for the other passengers to get out of their seats as well, pressing in on her from all sides. The crowd surged forward and Erin received an elbow in her back as she tried to maintain her balance.

“Jesse!” she cried out when she lost her footing.

“I’ve got you.” He kept her upright with his hand beneath her arm, and when he could manage it, passed her beneath his arm, so she was in front of him.

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