Evasive Eddie Joe (Sweethearts of Jubilee Springs Book 16) Read online

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  EVASIVE EDDIE JOE

  SWEETHEARTS OF JUBILEE SPRINGS

  BOOK 15

  ZINA ABBOTT

  Copyright © 2017 Robyn Echols writing as Zina Abbott

  All rights reserved.

  DEDICATION

  This book is dedicated to

  The hard-working authors of the Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog who provide the world with sweet/clean historical romances about North Americans between 1820 and 1929.

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  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgments

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  Dedication

  Disclaimer

  Story Chapters

  Sweethearts of Jubilee Springs books

  Other books by

  Sweet Americana Sweethearts

  Books by Zina Abbott

  About the Author

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  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  This book is part of a multi-author series sponsored by the authors who write for the Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog. My appreciation and thanks go to those other authors who helped develop the fictional mining town of

  Jubilee Springs along the Arkansas River in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

  I also wish to thank Linda Carroll-Bradd of Lustre Editing for doing the final copy edits on this book.

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  DEDICATION

  This book is dedicated to authors Sandra E Sinclair and Kay P Dawson, both of whom along with others responded privately as true friends to a situation where several people publically offered extremely negative comment over an aspect of my work. Thank you both for offering your aid at your own expense. Thank you, Sandra, for redoing my cover for this book. And, yes, the cowboy you found has that “cheeky” look I found so appealing in my first cover character. I greatly appreciate your gift.

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  DISCLAIMER

  The town of Jubilee Springs, and all the characters described in this story are fictional. They are not based on any real persons, past or present. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and unintended.

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  JUBILEE SPRINGS – INDEPENDENCE DAY WEEKEND, 1881

  CHAPTER 1

  ~o0o~

  Edmund Joseph Hampton, better known as Eddie Joe, arrived in Jubilee Springs on the Sunday before the Fourth of July.

  As foreman, the previous day he had taken care of doling out the daily chores at the Jacobson Ranch for Sunday. Most of the hands were reliable, so he didn’t worry much. He knew if someone failed to do the job right, his boss, Zeb Jacobson, would be the one to call them on any shortfalls and bring them back in line. That was enough of a threat for most of the men to do what was expected of them rather than figure while Eddie Joe was gone, they could slack off. While some of the ranch hands had their opportunity for a Saturday night off to go to Monarch Bend to enjoy a few hours at the one and only saloon the town boasted, he had enjoyed taking his turn in the ranch’s bath house.

  Eddie Joe had shaved last thing before falling into his bunk. He could get away with shaving the night before, in spite of his brown hair, due to his beard not being real heavy. At twenty-five, he looked younger than his age, especially with his thin, wiry frame. Men who thought because of his size he was an easy knockdown in a fight learned the hard way they had to catch hold of him first. He could land three punches to one from the average man, and they were not love taps, either.

  However, as much as Eddie Joe would have loved to join some of the men for a night on the town playing cards and billiards in Monarch Bend, he had been tasked by his boss with being available at first light to go to Jubilee Springs, a town about ten miles from the ranch. It wasn’t that bad of a ride on the back of a horse. This being the first Sunday of the month, and the one day in the month the Catholic priest came up to Jubilee Springs from Pueblo to offer Mass and other services to the area’s Catholic residents, Eddie Joe would be taking the buckboard so he could transport Juanita, the housekeeper and cook for the main house, to church.

  Eddie Joe guessed Juanita Sanchez to be somewhere in her mid-fifties, definitely older than his boss or anyone else on the ranch except maybe the bunk house cook, Cooksie. Sometimes Zeb took Juanita to town himself, at which times he had Rusty, who usually kept up the barn work, drive while he rode his horse. Not this Sunday, though. Since Eddie Joe was one of the few men Zeb claimed he could trust to be in town for the day without getting in trouble, or lose track of time at the saloon, or get too drunk to safely drive the wagon back once church was over, the task often fell to Eddie Joe.

  Early that morning, Eddie Joe rousted Rusty out of bed to hitch the horses to the buckboard while he finished dressing and helped Juanita load the quilts and picnic baskets for the trip. In good weather like this, Juanita packed a picnic lunch for herself, plus she prepared food for Eddie Joe in case he didn’t choose to eat at the River Valley Inn restaurant or the Corner Saloon that also served a limited fare.

  Once they were on their way as the last of the morning stars disappeared and the eastern sky began to turn pink, the two traveled in silence. That was fine with Eddie Joe. He didn’t have much to say to the older woman, even though she spoke good English in addition to her native Spanish. He didn’t know much about her other than before he started working for Zeb Jacobson, she had come to the ranch with her husband. After her husband had died about ten years earlier, she stayed on to keep house for the boss.

  As soon as they arrived in Jubilee Springs, Eddie Joe turned the horses down Church Street in the direction of the Catholic church. He dropped Juanita off with the promise he would collect her mid-afternoon.

  As he guided the horses up River Road, Eddie Joe broke out into a smile. While the older woman would enjoy her Mass and a picnic lunch with a few of her fellow Catholic friends, he would look around town and catch up on the latest news. The best place for that was the city park between the community church and the schoolhouse where the Protestants had their own Sunday picnic after church. He preferred to wait there, because it was mostly townspeople, and they tended to be hospitable. The few miners who came to church were usually well-behaved enough they refrained from giving a lone cowboy in their midst a ration of hassle. It was the saloons, the bowling lanes and Helsa Bath House where he had to watch out for miners looking to pick a fight. He’d have to wait until church let out, but that would give him enough time to take the horses over to Johnny B. at the livery for some well-deserved rest, water and feed.

  Halfway down Main Street, just before he reached the front of the Brinks Mercantile, Eddie Joe pulled back on the leads to stop the horses. He leaned forward, unable to believe what he saw. Exiting the Howard Boarding House on the other side of the mercantile was a crowd of women. Eddie Joe squinted. Respectable ladies, by the looks of them, not to mention Daniel and Clara Howard would not allow the other kind into their boarding house. The Jubilee Springs prostitutes may come to town to shop during the week, but they lived and worked across the river at the Silver Dollar Saloon. But, no, what Eddie Joe witnessed in this town he knew was extremely short of women were at least a handful of ladies, mostly his age or younger. Two were dressed like high-society women—or what Eddie Joe guessed high-society women dressed like. The rest he supposed were in their Sunday best, whether that amounted
to calico or linsey-woolsey. A couple of the ladies that left the boarding house walked with men Eddie Joe did not recognize. Hats and gloves completed the outfits. At least two ladies held books clutched in their hands.

  Since when did Jubilee Springs get a wagonload of women?

  Keeping hold of the leads, Eddie Joe folded his arms and leaned back as his characteristic wide, toothy grin split his face. This particular Sunday was starting to get real interesting.

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  CHAPTER 2

  ~o0o~

  After DeMitri’s Bakery blocked the view of the women as they walked south down Schoolhouse Road towards the church, Eddie Joe pulled the wagon towards the corner. As he glanced at the small white clapboard building where the women headed, he noticed there appeared to be quite a crowd turning out for church services this particular Sunday.

  Probably miners. Yep, something is going on.

  Eddie Joe chose a spot for the buckboard and settling his horses in with Johnny B., Eddie Joe grabbed his tow sack with his food and walked to the side of the park nearest the church to wait. He wasn’t much on attending church, but he sure had no intention of missing out on seeing the women when they came out.

  As the crowd began to exit the building, Eddie Joe fought back disappointment. The women he had seen earlier were each walking at the sides of at least one man. It sure had not taken the men in town long to stake their claim once a wagonload of ladies had arrived. That was the disadvantage of living on the ranch. Isolated as it was, the few wives of ranchers and farmers were spread out throughout the valley. Most ranchers were like his boss—single. The only women in Monarch Bend itself were “Sulky Sally,” who worked both the downstairs and upstairs at Parker’s Saloon, and the blacksmith’s wife. There were not a lot of opportunities to see women at all, let alone young, single women a man might consider courting.

  Eddie Joe raised his eyebrows with curiosity as a picnic area was set up where food was served to the new women and the men with them—miners, from the look of them. One of the miners he recognized as the son of the mercantile owners kept his eye on the group, but he walked over to a shade tree. He stood with his arms folded while he studied the group.

  Eddie finally recalled his name. Aaron Brinks. His folks had called on him to make a delivery out to the ranch the previous year, and they had briefly met then. Eddie Joe’s smile widened.

  Here’s my chance to find out what’s going on.

  Eddie Joe sauntered over to Aaron Brinks and nodded a greeting. “Mr. Brinks. Good to see you again.”

  Aaron offered a puzzled look until he finally recognized Eddie Joe. He held out his hand. “Good to see you, too. You’re the foreman at Jacobson’s Ranch there in Monarch Bend, aren’t you?”

  “Yep. Name’s Eddie Joe, in case you don’t recollect from last year.” Eddie Joe finished the handshake and decided there had been enough small talk. “Hey, you know anything about all these women in town? I don’t recall ever seeing this many out this way.”

  Eddie Joe listened in awe, his lips parted, as Aaron Brinks explained how the new ladies had come to Jubilee Springs to become brides to some of the miners. It was part of an effort on the Prosperity Mine owners to encourage some of their men to provide a more stable workforce for the mine by helping them find brides so they could start families. The mine had even built ten company houses for the men to move into once they married. Aaron also explained how he was one of the men who had paid the fee for the Colorado Bridal Agency to find potential wives for him to choose from. After initially being narrowed down to the best choices, the couples wrote to each other. Unfortunately, one of the women to whom he had written chose another miner, and the other one didn’t arrive. He had an eye on a third who was a latecomer, but didn’t know yet if anything would come of it.

  Brinks turned to Eddie Joe. “You just curious, or are you looking for a wife?”

  Eddie Joe grinned and shrugged. “I could stand to get married. No one young and unmarried out our way, though.”

  “No one here in Jubilee Springs to speak of except the Hackett girl, and she’s still pretty young. Her folks won’t let any of the miners even get close to her. If you want the details on how to go about it, you need to talk to Mrs. Lizett Millard.” Aaron pointed out a short, stylishly dressed woman. “She’s over there talking to Royce Bainbridge, the tall man with reddish hair. He’s one of the mine owners. The Colorado Bridal Agency is her business.”

  After Eddie Joe followed Aaron’s pointing finger and figured out which woman was responsible for getting all these women to Jubilee Springs, he folded his arms and rocked heel to toe on his cowboy boots. “Maybe I’ll go see what she has to say.” He looked past Aaron to see the older Brinks who owned the mercantile walking towards them, him carrying a picnic basket and her carrying a quilt. “Hey, if you don’t mind, the less said the better. Mostly I’m just curious.”

  Eddie Joe ignored the knowing look Aaron Brinks shot his way.

  Remembering Mrs. Brinks also worked as the postmistress of Jubilee Springs, Eddie Joe quickly figured out how to explain his presence. As Desi Brinks arrived within a few feet from where he stood, he tipped his hat to her and offered her one of his dazzling grins. “Howdy, Mrs. Brinks. Don’t know if you recollect who I am, but I’m Eddie Joe Hampton, foreman for Zeb Jacobson. I know it’s Sunday and all, but by chance do you know if there’s mail for the Jacobson Ranch you’re holding? If so, I’ll tell the boss so he can send someone in to fetch it.”

  “As a matter of fact, I do have mail for the ranch. We’re getting ready to eat our picnic, Mr. Hampton, but if you want to stop by the back door off the alley later, either my husband or I will get the mail for you. If you don’t mind taking two other letters, one for Theo Parker and the other for John Murphy at the feed store, it will save them a trip.”

  “Be happy to, ma’am. I’ll see you later. Enjoy your picnic.”

  “Would you care to join us, Mr. Hampton?”

  “Much obliged, but no thank you. I already ate.” Eddie Joe once again tipped his hat before he left. No, he wasn’t going to stick around and eat a picnic lunch with the postmistress and her family. He was going to hunt up that bridal agency lady and find out what it was going to take for him to send off for a wife.

  Eddie Joe made a wide sweep of the park, at one point dodging some of the few children in town who had hurried through their meal in order to play. All the while he kept his eyes on the group of new women and the men hovering around them. He could understand those men not wanting to let the new women out of their sights. In the mountainous mining towns of Colorado, pretty young women like some of them were didn’t grow on trees.

  It took over an hour, but finally people finished eating and most of the women seemed to go their own way with one man or another. Even Aaron Brinks showed up with a buggy and claimed one of the women from the group.

  Eddie Joe caught up to the woman from the bridal agency just as the mine owner dropped her off at the Howard Boarding House. He called out to her right before she opened the door to go inside. “Ma’am, are you Mrs. Millard who brought in all these women to marry the miners?” As the surprised woman turned to look at him, Eddie Joe snatched his hat off his head and offered her what he had been told on more than one occasion was a charming smile. He now wished he had taken the time to shave that morning instead of the night before, because he suspected he was starting to show a bit of a shadow.

  “Yes, I’m Lizett Millard who owns the Colorado Bridal Agency. How may I help you?”

  “My name’s Eddie Joe Hampton, ma’am. If you have a few moments, maybe you can tell me a little about how this whole bridal thing works. Unless you only find brides for the miners. If that’s the case, I’ll wish you good day.”

  Lizett Millard, sensing a potential customer, turned to Eddie Joe with a smile to rival his. “No, Mr. Hampton, I have clients all over Colorado and surrounding states. Right now, finding wives f
or the ten miners in Jubilee Springs is one of my bigger projects, but I will be happy to discuss my business with you. Do you have time tomorrow when we may meet?”

  Eddie Joe grimaced with disappointment. “No, Mrs. Millard. I live and work at the Jacobson Ranch about ten miles from here. I’m only here for the day to bring the boss’s housekeeper in to the Catholic church and I have to get her back home before dark. Reckon I’ll try to catch you another time.”

  Lizett bit the side of her lip as she considered. “Come inside, Mr. Hampton. Please wait for me in the guest parlor, I’ll be right with you so we can talk. If you decide this is what you want to do, maybe you can write your letter and give it to me before you leave.”

  Eddie Joe raised an eyebrow. “Write a letter?”

  “Yes. You do know how to write, don’t you?” At Eddie Joe’s nod, she continued. “Come inside. I’ll explain everything, and how I use the science of graphology to study the letters from my clients to help match up couples to bring about the greatest opportunities for successful marriages.”

  Once inside, Eddie Joe perched nervously on the edge of the sofa in the Howards’ parlor. He wasn’t used to such fancy furniture. Even the chair he used in the boss’s office as they went over the work plan for the ranch most days had a wood seat, not upholstered.

  The more Eddie Joe listened to Mrs. Millard talk about matching him up with at least two women with whom he would correspond until they decided they wished to marry, the more the notion of getting married appealed to him. He ran his tongue along the inside of the cheek when she discussed the fees, cost of train tickets and other expenses. As he calculated it out in his head, he knew he easily had the money set aside to cover it, and more.