An Agent for Savannah Read online

  The smile from Adelaide’s face fell. “I don’t have a reservation.”

  “I do,” Savannah said, squeezing her new friend’s hand against her forearm. “Is there a chance that she could room with me? I’m Savannah Lockwood.”

  The woman flipped through the book of papers she had sitting in front of her, then slowly, she shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’m afraid that you’ve already been assigned a roommate. There is a second ladies’ boarding house in town, and it may have vacancies.”

  Adelaide squeezed her hand back and then pulled it from Savannah’s elbow. “It’s fine. I should have made a reservation. I just didn’t know that I’d be coming until the last moment.”

  Savannah’s heart dropped toward her stomach. She felt that she needed to do something for her new friend. “Should I give up my reservation and come with you? I don’t want you to feel you need to go somewhere alone.”

  Though Adelaide’s eyes went wide, she shook her head. “Oh, no. Of course not. I’ll be fine on my own. I just traveled all the way from Oklahoma on my own. Continuing on this little bit more will be fine. Please. Don’t leave on my account.” She started backing away. “You ladies have a lovely day. I’ll find the other boarding house.”

  And with that, she headed back out the door. Savannah watched the young woman leave, feeling another loss. She’d met two people in her first hour in Denver, and then immediately had to say goodbye to both. Although she understood this was part of growing up and getting away from her family, she wasn’t quite sure she was completely ready to do all of this on her own.

  “Miss Lockwood. I’m happy to show you to your room now, if you’d like,” the lady behind the counter offered.

  Part of Savannah wished that she’d gone with Adelaide, but it was the same part of her that would have stayed in Connecticut instead of making her way all the way out to Denver. It was the same part of her that would never have answered the Pinkerton Agency’s ad. She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, turning around and letting that part of her go. “Yes, please. That would be lovely.”

  Lucas McKay raced through the downpour toward the house where the Denver Pinkerton offices were. The stagecoach driver had let him off on the corner, nearly a block away from the house itself. Though it was only drizzling when Lucas dismounted the carriage, it wasn’t long before the rain picked up. He raced through the gate and onto the covered front porch. Then he took a moment to catch his breath and shake off some of the water from his overcoat and hat before ringing the doorbell.

  “Coming!” a feminine voice called from within.

  The door opened to the round face of a woman in servant’s clothes. Lucas smiled down at her. “Hello, I’m here to see Mr. Gordon. I’m Lucas McKay, one of the agents transferring from the Chicago office.”

  “Oh! Goodness me. You’re going to catch your death of cold if you stay out there in all that weather. Allow me to take your hat and coat.” The flustered woman wrung her hands before offering them.

  Lucas shook his head. “That’s quite all right. If you’ll show me where to hang them inside, I’d rather not get both of us wet with my things if possible.”

  “Right,” she said with a shy smile and then showed him the coat rack in the foyer of what seemed to be more like a grand house than an office space.

  He hung his coat and hat on the hooks and then followed the young woman toward a small, secretary’s desk. The redhead behind the desk smiled up at him. “Lucas McKay?”

  He couldn’t help but let a smile tick up his lip. “How did you know that when I’d yet to introduce myself?”

  She lifted a brow. “It’s my job to know things, Mr. McKay. I’m Marianne, Mr. Gordon’s secretary. He’s expecting you. If you’ll go right in?”

  He followed her gesture toward the great, dark oakwood door that stood to her left. The brass handle slipped in Lucas’s cold wet palm, and he had to stop and dry it upon his trousers before attempting to turn the knob again. Once inside, he found a bearded man standing at the window, his pipe in hand and his jacket removed. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and only his vest covered his shoulders. Slowly, Mr. Gordon turned toward him and asked in his Scottish accent, “Lucas McKay?”

  Lucas nodded. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry I’m a bit late in arriving. I meant to come over the summer, when most of the other agents made their way to Denver, but had a bit of family business to take care of first. I hope you understand.”

  “Of course. Family must always come first, even to Pinkerton agents.” The gentleman set his pipe on the corner of his desk and then gestured for Lucas to come closer to the window. “You are one of only two agents stying here at present. You’ll find Logan there, in the bunkhouse.” He pointed to the building just across the small back yard. “And if you haven’t eaten, I’m sure Pearl would be happy to fix something up for you.”

  Lucas slowly nodded, thinking he might find a bit of soup fetching to stave off the chill in his bones from the September rain.

  “There’s one other thing.” Mr. Gordon cleared his throat and then turned toward Logan to face him head on for the first time. “Our office has been opening up to the use of female agents in our missions. It may be that we need you to take on a female agent and train her. Do you have a an issue with doing that?”

  Lucas frowned. “Why would I have a problem with that? It’s my understanding that Allan had worked with several female agents already. Of course that wouldn’t be an issue.”

  Mr. Gordon continued to study Lucas for a moment. Then finally he said, “There’s another thing. We require that our training agents wed our female agents before their first mission. This is to ensure that the lady’s honor is kept while she is out on a mission in close contact with a male agent. The union can be easily annulled by Judge Hotchkiss upon returning from the mission.”

  In shock, Lucas blinked at the head of the Denver agency. After coughing once past the sudden dryness in his throat, Lucas asked, “Did I hear you right? We have to marry our female agent-in-training? I don’t believe that Allan Pinkerton ever had us do such a thing. Is it truly necessary?”

  After letting out a long sigh, Mr. Gordon nodded. “Yes, that’s well and good in the highly industrialized area of Chicago, where you rarely had to travel for more than a few hours to reach your mission, and often could be home by supper with your case solved. Here in the west, Mr. McKay, things are a bit different. We are not asking you to make an oath to love, honor, and cherish your agent-in-training. Instead, we ask that you are faithful in keeping them protected and training them according to a moral code. So far, by wedding the agents before their departure, we’ve kept the ladies safe and everything has worked out for the benefit of both agents as well as the agency. I’m not inclined to change my policy when it’s been successful for dozens of agents over the course of the past year.”

  Slowly, Lucas nodded. His heart still raced in his chest. But he could see the advantage that a short nuptial period could help keep a woman’s honor in tact and allow the woman greater protection in what has been known as a wild and savage area out west. He swallowed, and then said. “I understand your terms, and for now I’ll agree to them, if it ends up that you pair me with a lady agent-in-training.”

  But, in his heart, Lucas hoped that he wouldn’t need to even make good on those words.

  Chapter 3

  The next morning, Savannah had woken not long after the sun had begun streaking the sky in the throes of sunrise. Butterflies crowded her stomach. The last she remembered she felt so excited about a morning was Christmas, back when she and her sisters were still young and waiting on Father Christmas and plum pudding. To keep from waking her roommate, she dressed slowly and quietly in the darkness, using only the scant light that came in from their south-facing window.

  Once she fully dressed, she rebraided her hair and then snuck out of the door as quietly as she could. Downstairs, in the dining room, only the cook moved about. She blinked up at Savannah, wide-eyed, wh
en she spotted her in the doorway. “Oh my. I’m sorry, dear, but nothing is ready just yet. I’ll have porridge momentarily though, if you don’t mind waiting?”

  Savannah offered the woman a reassuring smile. “It’s no trouble, ma’am. I’m from the east—Connecticut. And I’m not quite used to the time difference yet. It feels much later than it actually is to me.”

  The woman chuckled and then nodded, accepting Savannah’s little white lie at face value. The truth was that if Savannah could have slept another two or three hours, she would have, but the excitement of answering the advertisement she’d kept between her bed cushions for nearly a year excited her. She’d given up on the chance to answer as time had passed, thinking that she was so far beyond the date when the agency would accept female agents, that she could only dream about it now, but her mother had already sent letters to the secretary in charge of the office, and the woman, Marianne, had encouraged Savannah to come anyway.

  “Is there anything I can help you with?” Savannah asked.

  The woman gestured toward the silverware. “If you’ll set places for ten? We have more boarders than that right now, but usually not more than that come down at once.”

  Savannah nodded and did as the lady had asked.

  Before long, the woman offered her a bowl of porridge. “Here you are, Miss Lockwood. Have a seat at the table and tuck in if you’d like. Or would you rather wait for the others?”

  Taking the bowl from the lady’s hands, Savannah smiled. “I’ll take it now, if that’s all right?”

  “More than all right,” the lady answered and patted Savannah on the shoulder.

  Once she’d sat down at the table, Savannah said her grace and then finished the bowl of porridge in record time. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until she’d started eating. By the time she’d finished the bowl, three more lady boarders had made their way downstairs and began their own bowls of porridge. The clock on the mantle struck eight a.m. It was still too early to stop in the Pinkerton office by Savannah’s estimation, so she decided to go for a walk about town and through the park she’d seen before arriving at the office at about nine a.m, which she felt was a reasonable hour.

  Yawns attacked her at about the time the clock tower at the bank showed her it was five ’til nine. Savannah tried to cover each yawn with the back of her hand. The night before, she’d tossed and turned in anticipation for the morning, and then she’d been unable to get more than a shallow night’s sleep. Now that she’d been awake for nearly three hours, it was all catching up to her. She’d already spotted the house where the Denver Pinkerton office made its home, and passed it at a distance during her walk a few times. Maybe four. Nothing much had yet gone on at the building over the past hour, but perhaps watching the outside had been no indication of what went on within. Promptly at nine, she passed the open gate and headed to the front door of the offices and rang the bell.

  An woman only a few years older than Savannah answered, wearing a servant’s apron. “Yes. How can I help you?”

  “Are you Marianne?” Savannah asked.

  The woman gave her a knowing smile and shook her head. “No, Miss. I’m Pearl.”

  “Oh!” Savannah felt a bit of hear rush to her cheeks. “I’m Savannah Lockwood. I’m here to see Miss Marianne.”

  With a nod, Pearl stepped to the side and swung an arm out to allow Savannah entrance to the building. The stately home had dark wood everywhere along with an ornate banister and furniture that wasn’t quite as gaudy as her father’s own baroque period acquisitions. Once Pearl had closed the door behind Savannah, the older woman nodded and gestured for Savannah to follow her. Once they’d made it down the hallway, Pearl guided her to a cove where a secretary’s desk stood and a redheaded woman sat behind the desk, writing vigorously in a ledger.

  “Marianne, a Miss Lockwood is here to see you,” Pearl said quietly.

  Without glancing up, Marianne put up one finger to ask them both to hold on and be still while she continued to write with her other hand. Once she’d dotted the end of the sentence, she looked up with a warm smile. “Miss Lockwood, it’s lovely to finally meet you. Your mother has given you quite the introduction. It’s been rare that our newest lady agents have the approval of her parents before making the venture into this career.”

  Savannah’s blush deepened. Had her mother inferred that her father approved, too? Perhaps she, too, had told a little white lie. Savannah swallowed and nodded. “Thank you, Miss Marianne.”

  “I’ve already shared your mother’s letters of introduction with the head of our agency, Mr. Archie Gordon. If you’ll have a seat momentarily, I’ll let him know that you’ve arrived and are here to speak with him.” Marianne’s kind smile reassured Savannah, and she took a seat in one of the two chairs that sat in front of the secretary’s desk while Marianne stepped toward the large wooden door and went in without knocking. Pearl nodded toward Savannah one last time and then excused herself. Alone, Savannah drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. This was it. This was finally the moment she’d been dreaming about for over a year, and her mother had helped it become a reality. She owed her mother so much. How could she ever thank her for her support?

  Savannah yawned again, covering with the back of her hand. Then she slapped her cheeks lightly. It wouldn’t do to appear sleepy in front of the head of the agency. What if he thought her slow-witted? She couldn’t have that. Because of her tiredness, she thought it best to go ahead and stand. Then after Marianne continued to stay away, Savannah stretched her legs by walking a bit down the hallway and back again. She made quiet steps to keep her heels from clicking against the hardwood floor. On her third time away from Marianne’s desk, the secretary appeared in the door of the office. “Oh, Miss Lockwood. Forgive me that it took so long. Do you have other plans? Did you need to leave?”

  Blushing again, Savannah shook her head and hurried back toward the secretary. “I don’t have anywhere else to be, I just tend to be a bit restless in the mornings. Nothing to worry about.”

  Marianne lifted a brow at her, but nodded. “All right then. Mr. Gordon will see you now.”

  Suddenly, Savannah’s heart squeezed in her chest and her stomach twisted. This was the moment of truth. Steeling herself, she fisted her hands and marched into the office as Marianne opened the door for her.

  Lucas spied Miss Lockwood walking back and forth through the hallway the moment he stepped into the main house for breakfast in the kitchen. But before he could say one word to her, Marianne called her into Archie’s office. Was it possible that Savannah Lockwood would be one of the lady agents-in-training? His heart stuttered in his chest. Could that mean that either Logan or he, himself, would have to wed the young woman and take her on her first mission?

  Logan, the mangle-faced boxer stepped up behind him. “What are you doing just standing there, Lucas?”

  After blinking and shaking his head, Lucas pulled his gaze away from where the plucky young woman he’d had a brief encounter with before had been pacing. “Nothing... I mean, no reason.”

  Logan tsked at him and then went around and through the kitchen door. Unbidden, Lucas’s gaze went back toward where the woman had paced, his heart still not acting right in his chest. Swallowing hard, he followed Logan and pushed open the door to the kitchen. Immediately his senses were assaulted by the fresh and pleasant smells of coffee, eggs, and bacon. His mouth immediately began to water.

  “Pearl, I’m hungry enough to eat a horse,” Logan exclaimed as he sat at the butchers’ block table. “Hope you made enough to feed an army.”

  “Well, maybe not an army,” Pearl said as she huffed a laugh and set a plate of food in front of each of them. “But definitely enough for two hungry agents.”

  With a chuckle, Lucas bowed his head and said a quick, private grace over his meal and then picked up his fork. “It looks delicious, Pearl. Thanks for this.”

  “It’s what I do.” Even though her words were modest, a bit of color rose
to her cheeks.

  The meal was filling and enjoyable. As Lucas bit down into his last piece of toast with strawberry preserves, Marianne and Mr. Gordon stepped into the room. A shy Savannah Lockwood followed behind them. Lucas suddenly choked on his last bite of toast as he quickly stood. Coughs racked his body and his chest burned. Tears blurred his vision as the fit continued for several seconds. The heel of Logan’s palm smacked against Lucas’s back a few times. After a a moment, Lucas was able to breathe again, though pain seared his throat, and he grabbed his cup of milk in an attempt to wash down the bite of toast that had caused him the trouble. He swiped at his eyes and realized that everyone in the room watched him with raised brows. He squeezed words past his injured throat. “Pardon me.”

  Archie nodded and cleared his own throat. “We have a new recruit who has agreed to all the terms of working with us as an agent-in-training. Both you gentlemen know the stipulations that come with training our agent, and we ask now, which of you will be working with the lovely Savannah Lockwood?”

  Miss Lockwood’s face was flushed, and she had a smile plastered to her face as she avoided meeting eyes with either Lucas or Logan. Lucas frowned. She looked as though she might be sick. He couldn’t imagine how the news of a marriage—even on paper—must have affected the young woman. It wasn’t every day that a marriage was arranged or forced on someone just to do a job. Lucas’s heart went out to the young woman as he peered over toward Logan.

  Logan’s crooked nose scrunched up. Even though he seemed keen on the marriage stipulation of the lady agent contract, he’d been with the agency for over the full year since the original ad came out, yet he’d never been assigned an agent to train. Perhaps Marianne and Archie knew something about him that made them continue to choose other agents instead. Lucas peered over toward Savannah. She was so young and naive looking. But Lucas had already learned that she was much more shrewd than she appeared. Would she be shrewd enough to handle Logan as a partner? Lucas frowned.