Imperial Engineer

B Glad Judith

Description

Tony Dewitt, his reputation in tatters, is hired to install a newfangled telephone system in Hailey, Idaho. Racial prejudice is rampant, so Tony, who is Chinese, passing as white, conceals his ancestry.Lulu King is of mixed race and proud of it. Having seen firsthand what misery bigotry can cause, she has devoted her life to the campaigns for women's suffrage and equal rights for all. They were childhood friends, but conflicting goals drove them apart. Now fate has brought them to the same small town and the old attraction is difficult to deny.Sabotage to the telephone system and a wave of Anti-Chinese hysteria threaten Tony's career and Lulu's convictions. The consequences of their one night of love shadow their future. How long before their very lives are endangered?

Sujets

• Westerns
• Historical romance
• Western (genre)
• Western

Informations

• Publié par: Uncial Press
• Date de parution: 13 octobre 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781601740151
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Imperial Engineer
Behind the Ranges, Book II
 
By
Judith B. Glad
Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind theranges-- Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you.Go.
Rudyard Kipling: The Explorer
 
Uncial Press       Aloha, Oregon 2006
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events described herein areproducts of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed asreal. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead,is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2004, 2006 by Judith B. Glad
Previously published by Awe-Struck E-Books
ISBN 13: 978-1-60174-015-1 ISBN 10: 1-60174-015-8
Cover design by Judith B. Glad Cover lithograph courtesy Library ofCongress, Geography and Map Division
All rights reserved. Except for use in review, the reproduction or utilization of thiswork in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means nowknown or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the author orpublisher.
Published by Uncial Press, an imprint of GCT, Inc.
Visit us at http://www.uncialpress.com
Among my Heroes:
Abigail Adams, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, AbigailScott Duniway, and countless others who worked to gain women the right to vote. Thisbook is dedicated to them, known and unknown. May we all remember what a preciousgift they left us.
And to Neil, ever and always.
~~~
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Sincere thanks to everyone who helped me with this book, but most especially to:
Telephone experts Jim Taylor, P.E., and Tom Farley, Telecom historian; TeddieDaley, Blaine/Alturas County historian; Diana Steiner, for words inChinese; Mary Taffs, Nancy Schumacher, Kat Thompson, Star Conrad, RubyLeeSchneider, and Norma Williams, for their thoughtful comments; The staff at the IdahoHistorical Library, who were incredibly helpful; The folks on 19th Century Womanand OverlandTrails listserves, who are always willing to answer myquestions; Countless unknown webpage owners who share their knowledge of justabout everything. And an extra special thanks to Kathryn D. Struck, for believing inme.
Prologue
If all the world and love were young, And truth inevery shepherd's tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move Tolive with thee and be thy love.
Sir Walter Raleigh
~~~
Cherry Vale, Idaho Territory, 1872
They had known each other for half their lives. They had fought and played anddreamed together, had slept in a heap of children while winter winds howled around theeaves, had splashed naked in the river on hot summer afternoons. They were friends,comrades, family.
"It's not going to be the same, is it, Micah?" Lulu King said, as they watched theiralmost-cousins ride across the pasture one afternoon in June. "What with Gabe all grownup, and now Merlin staying Back East for the summer."
"Wisht I was with Gabe," Micah said, "goin' around the world 'stead of stayin'here and milkin' cows."
"If you don't learn to speak proper English, you'll never even graduate college, letalone go off adventuring." Lulu tweaked his wooly hair. "You know what Mama saysabout first impressions."
"I speak impeccable English, sister mine. I simply do not choose to at thismoment." The sly grin her younger brother gave her showed that he had, as usual, beendoing his best to get her goat. Papa was forever telling her she took life too seriously.
Well, and why not? She was all but grown up now, and would go away to schoolin another year. One final summer of childish irresponsibility, and then she wouldwillingly accept the burdens and privileges of adulthood.
"Just this one last summer," she whispered, not quite sure why being a child a littlelonger seemed so important.
The small party on horseback came through the last gate. Tao Ni led them, sittingtall and sober and responsible on his wiry dun gelding. The three Lachlan childrenstraggled along behind him.
Lulu ran to meet them.
Dust sparkled like gold in the sunlight and the river's song had changed fromspring's flood-roar to summer's lazy chuckle. Still, everything looked different, now heknew he was seeing it for the last time. Tony Dewitt had almost not come this summer. Hehad cramming to do so he'd be free to travel with his parents one last time before heentered college. Somehow he couldn't imagine that his education, gleaned from booksinstead of absorbed in a classroom, would be sufficient preparation for matriculation at oneof the nation's most prestigious universities.
"Go, and enjoy being carefree one last time," his father had advised him. "You'llspend the rest of your life being sensible and grown-up."
And so he had come, for the temptation to capture a few last precious moments ofchildhood had been too great to resist.
Instead of dismounting the moment they rode into the yard, Tony sat on horsebackand watched the others, laughing, hugging, rejoicing. For one small moment he gavethanks for the great good fortune he'd had in being adopted into this big, loving family. Athickness grew in his throat as he thought of what might have been--a life of near slavery,without hope, without love. Without family.
"You look so sad. Aren't you happy to be here?"
Tony looked down into a familiar, smiling face, into eyes the color of winter rain."I was just thinking about how this is the last summer I'll come here like this," he said. Hedismounted and pulled her into his arms for a hug, as he had so many times before. "Hello,Lulu. Saved any worlds lately?"
"Hello, Tao Ni," she responded in their ritual greeting, "built any bridges lately?"But there was a catch in her voice, and she pulled away quickly.
Tony felt heat rise in his face, ashamed of the betrayal of his body, its involuntaryreaction to the feel of a girl, the smell of a girl, the thought of a girl. Uncle Emmet said allmen went through this, that his body's extreme sensitivity to anything even hinting offemale would lessen as he grew older, but he wasn't sure he'd survive that long. "I surewish you'd learn to call me Tony, like everybody else does," he complained, to cover hisembarrassment.
"Why?" she said, as she lifted his saddlebags across her slender shoulder. "There'snothing wrong with your real name. I like it. Tony is so...I don't know. Mundane."
"Mundane is good," he told her. "There's nothing exotic about me. Rememberthat." He looked into her eyes for a moment, saw a flash of something that lookedlike...disappointment?
* * * *
They finished stacking timothy hay late on a hot August afternoon. Dried sweatand dust and tiny fragments of grass had them all scratching, driving them to the hot springdown by the river. Clean, cool and tired, they started for home, riding single file along thenarrow trail through the woods. As last in line, Tony was responsible for making sure allthe gates were left as they'd found them. When he closed the gate in the fence between theLachlan pastures and her parents' land, Lulu waited for him, letting the others pull ahead."Look at that moon," she said when he rode up beside her. "It looks so close."
The moon, full and round, was just above the crest of the hills to the southeast.Even though the western sky was still lit with the fading glow of daylight, the moon wassurrounded with velvety black. Only a few of the brightest stars were visible. "Look!There's a shooting star."
"Make a wish."
"I wish... I wish everything would stay just the way it is now. Perfect." Keepingher face turned away from him, she clucked at her horse.
"Wait. Don't go."
Lulu pulled her horse to a halt after only two steps. "What?"
"It's not late. Let's go up to the Aerie. We can count the stars."
"But the others...?"
"They'll be fine. Reggie has the rifle, and they're almost home. I'll go tell them."He urged his horse into a trot.
Lulu waited until he returned. "Mama will probably give me the dickenstomorrow."
"We're through with the haying. Your pa said we could have tomorrow off. So ifwe don't get in until late, we can sleep in."
From the high, rocky outcrop, they could see all of Cherry Vale. Moonlight gavethe valley below an unearthly appearance, as if it were somewhere far removed from theirfamiliar world.
Tony reached for her hand, clasped it tightly. "Lulu, I'm going to miss you thiscoming winter." He felt her tense, then relax.
After a long silence, she said, "Maybe this is why I hate the thought of growingup. Our lives will go in different directions. Oh, we'll see each other sometimes, when wecome home for Christmas, but that's all." Her voice broke, and he heard a sound almostlike a sniffle.
He pulled her into his arms, as he'd been wanting to do since the day he'darrived.
She melted against him, warm and soft, and smelling of something flowery.Honeysuckle? He didn't think so.
Afterward he was never sure who had moved first, but the next instant he waskissing her. Clumsily at first, because he'd never kissed a girl he cared about before. Theirnoses got in the way, and their teeth scraped. Then, after some initial fumbling, everythingworked. Her lips parted under his, her tongue met and parried with his, her sigh mingledwith his.
Under her ugly dress, she was naked. Her breasts, small and firm, flattened againsthis chest, and her nipples poked at him. His cock strained against his britches, until he hadto wriggle to ease the pressure.
They pulled apart, gasping for breath. Then their lips met again, this timeperfectly. Her hands pulled his shirttails free and found the sensitive skin along his spine.Her fingernails scraped lightly across his shoulder blades. He thought he'd explode withthe pleasure of it.
He pushed her away, even though she clung. "Let me--" he growled, and laid hishands on her thighs, inched the heavy, soft linen upwards until her exposed knees gleamedin the moonlight.
Lulu caught his hands. "Wait!" she said, her voice so breathless and weak shemight as well have been beggi