“A suffer-gette girl,” Violet proclaimed as she lifted her chin proudly.

The other boys started chanting. “Violet whipped Jim. Violet whipped Jim. Beat the fire out of him, he-um, he-um.”

Violet giggled, setting off another scuffle. Fists went flying and legs kicking. Violet lunged forward. Briar spread his arms, blocking his daughter’s fist from joining in again. “You kids get out of here or I’m going to talk to each of your parents. Take this battle elsewhere, unless you want some explaining to do.”

They scattered like rabbits chased by a wolf.

“Come inside,” he insisted. “It’ll be suppertime soon, and you look like you could use some cleaning. We’ll go home early-”

“I didn’t do nothing.” She stood her ground. “He laughed at my dress and called you a name. I told you I shouldn’ta worn it, but you made me. So it’s your fault.”

Briar bent so she didn’t have to crane her neck to look up at him. He knuckled her chin gently and lifted it. “Honey, his words didn’t hurt Daddy, and he’s too young to know the value of a pretty dress.” Ripped at the empire waist, the garment would never be fit to wear again. Not that he would let her wear another one like it. It played too prominent a part in tangling her feet and, consequently, blacking her eye.

The ticking of the telegraph persisted. Briar glanced toward the machine as if willing it to answer itself. “Come inside for a minute, pumpkin. I’ll answer the machine, then we’ll get you cleaned up and talk about this at-”

“I gotta go get my kite. I left it,” she said, stepping away and pointing past him. “You said proper ladies take care of their things.”

“Don’t be long, then.” Briar gave in, knowing she had used his own sense of propriety to take her leave. A momentary wave of parental ethics engulfed him. “But don’t think this has ended,” he warned and gave the top of her head a quick pat. “We’ll talk about this at supper.”

Violet took off abruptly and turned around to wave, babbling that indecipherable chatter she and the other children used when they wanted to keep adults at bay. It irritated him to no end that he couldn’t understand a single word of the child-speak, but she refused to include him in its meanings. He wouldn’t put it past the little firebrand if it was some sort of secret code used to mount an insurrection against parents. Briar laughed despite the seriousness of the possibility. He dearly loved everything about her, including her obstinate attitude.

Tickety, tick, tick. “All right, all right,” Briar complained to the impatient instrument. “I’m coming.” His long-legged gate closed the distance in a few steps.

No rest for the totally outmaneuvered, he told himself, silently warming to his daughter’s sweet manipulations. She was personality to the hilt and headstrong as her mother. The only thing she’d inherited from him was his dark hair and twilight-shaded eyes. Everything else was Katie Rose. How could he find fault in that?

Briar listened intently to the incoming message. Relief flooded him. Nathaniel. Lord, but he was glad to hear from him.

Have answer. Stop. Arriving Amarillo by morning of Feb 20. Nathaniel.

Briar’s smile wavered. Though his friend would be home tomorrow, the partial message was unclear. Have what answer? The only problem they’d discussed before leaving was whom they could get to look after Violet while they worked. Surely, Nathaniel hadn’t gone and hired a governess in St. Louis. He wouldn’t do that without consulting him, would he?

“You’re supposed to be bringing dresses,” Briar told the machine as if it were Nathaniel. “I can find somebody here to help us.”

Heaven knew there were enough new people in town lately to choose among. Trouble was, he preferred hiring someone he and Nathaniel knew well. Someone they could trust to teach Violet about silk and sashes and show her the delicacies of becoming a well-bred young lady. Someone not easily daunted by a feisty seven-year-old. Briar knew that Violet needed a special magic, a social polish that he had never found within himself. Maybe the telegram meant just what it said. Interviewing a governess would certainly explain the telegrapher’s long absence.

Briar watched the engine’s steam billow and swirl away with the gusts of air. “Blow some magic in with you, wind, will you?” Briar whispered. “If Nathaniel’s bringing someone back with him, make her an angel. One who has a will strong enough to do battle with a devilish, little imp.”

One with a heart not as easy to win as mine, he added for good measure.

Chapter 2

“Are you an angel?”

Mina grabbed the branch above to stabilize her perch atop the limbs of the large Chinese elm tree that held her, then peered down to catch a view of the voice’s owner. A little girl.

“I couldna say that I’ve ever been called that, sweeting.” Mina laughed, shifting her position so she could finish what she’d set out to do. Perhaps the kite that had tangled in the elm belonged to the lass. “But if I do enough good deeds while I’m on this earth,” Mina continued, freeing the obstinate tail at last, “then ye might call me that one day.”

The little girl’s eyes rounded and flashed like two amethysts dazzled by the sun. “I know a really good deed you can do.”

Was that a bruise beneath one of her eyes? Mina made her way down, moving one branch then another to see better. Why, the poor little thing sported a bruise as dark as coal pitch. “Do me a favor first,” Mina insisted, wanting to investigate the child’s injury further, “then I’ll be for granting any deed ye wish. Catch this kite so I can jump down, will ye now? No, come a wee bit closer. There now, lassie, that would be the spot. Ready. Set. Ahh, ’tis a good hand at catching ye have!”

Mina swung from the lowest branch and landed with only the slightest breach of poise. She quickly dusted off her clothes and thanked the lass for helping her.

The girl giggled. “Do all angels talk like you?”

Mina joined in her merriment. “Theirs would be a wee more refined than me own, but I’d like to think I could give the Lord a good laugh now and again, doncha know.”

The ebony curls that graced the sweet child’s head bobbed, making Mina even more aware of how the eye injury would soon match the shade of its owner’s hair. She gently reached out to touch the lass’s cheek and was warmed by the fact that the little girl did not move away and trusted her to add no further harm. “How did ye come by this?”

“Got into a fight.” The child’s lips lifted into a grin as she rocked back on her laced boots. “But I won.”

I just bet ye did. Mina admired the winner’s pluck as she quickly surveyed for further damage. Only a torn dress that was definitely not anyone’s hand-me-down. The garment showed no signs of long wear, so the assumption that the girl might be a street urchin instantly evaporated. “Are ye father and mother aware of these fisticuffs?”

“Daddy is.”

Mina’s attention averted to their surroundings and the people walking in and out of the shops along the roadway. None of them seemed concerned that this child was talking to an absolute stranger. “Is he nearby?”

“Huh-uh.” The girl looked away for a moment, then faced Mina again, her brow wrinkling. “Will you do that good deed you promised me now?”

Whatever concerned the child seemed terribly important. “Of course, lassie. Ye caught the kite for me ye did.”

“Will you come home with me?”

A twinge of longing swept through Mina so sharply that it nearly took her breath away. How long she had waited to hear those words? How often had she dreamed they would be offered in such kindness? Just as many times as there had been nights spent huddling behind tarps or hiding in secret nooks along the wharfs of St. Louis. The lass had no clue how deeply her request touched Mina. “What is yer name, sweeting?”

“Violet. Violet Duncan.”

Duncan? “Are you related to Briar Duncan, the station master?”

Violet nodded. “He’s my papa, but then you probably already knew that, being an angel and all.”

“Angel-in-training,” Mina corrected, not seeing any harm in going along with the child’s insistence for a moment. “Is yer father still at work or is he somewhere about?”

“He’s always working.”

The way the lass said “always” told Mina everything she needed to know. Her mother obviously did not care where the child played, not providing adequate supervision and allowing her to run the streets. Saints and begorra, what if someone with less moral decency had found her? She knew what it was like to be a child without the security of a parent or guardian. At least she knew where to take Violet, and once she did she would give the man a good tongue lashing. Employment be hanged. She would just have to find another way to pay back Nathaniel.

“Is that yer kite?”

Violet nodded. “You want it?”

Mina shook her head. “I will fix it for ye, then ’twill fly again, it will.”

The child handed the toy to Mina. “No, you keep it. I don’t need it no more.”

She accepted the offering, deciding Violet would change her mind once it was repaired. “Did ye walk here?”

Violet pointed to the approaching streetcar. “I rode that. Come on, it won’t cost no money. I get to ride free.”

But I canna, Mina worried silently as she grabbed her valise from the base of the tree where she’d set it. She would need to preserve the few coins she possessed until she found other employment, now that it was sure and certain Violet’s father would not be hiring her.

Much to Mina’s surprise she also rode for free. Violet seemed an apt manipulator of boosterism for Amarillo. The conductor agreed with the child’s reasoning that it made good sense to give a stranger a lift now and then just so the stranger could tell others about the pleasure of the ride.