Chapter 7

'There are times when I miss home-'

Abigail and Joanna chuckled as they washed the laundry with Elizabeth a couple weeks later, both of them smiling at her expense as she complained.

'Doing laundry is definitely one of them.' She exclaimed as she hung a dress on the line.

'Let me guess-' Abigail panted, taking a break from scrubbing one of the girls' dresses against the washboard. 'Fresh, clean wardrobe in your closet everyday of the week. Clean, starched, pressed with a big steam iron?'

She chuckled. 'Yes.'

'Well, you think life is hard now-' She handed the dress to the girl to wring out then motioned towards the outhouse. 'Wait till winter when you have to sit in there when the mercury is below zero. Then you're really going to miss home.'

'That's not even the worst of it.' Joanna chuckled as she wrung the dress out. 'One year it was snowing so hard where I lived near Lethbridge that you couldn't even get to the outhouse until you'd shoveled a path from the back door to it. By the time you went to go back inside you had to shovel the snow away again.'

Elizabeth scrunched her face up at the thought. 'Sounds like fun.'

'It was, especially when you really had to go something bad.'

Abigail was going to reply when the sound of hammering around the front of the house reached her ears and she frowned as she placed the dress back in the wash tub, wiping her hands on her apron as she hurried around to the front. Spurlock was walking towards the next house when they came to the front. 'Can I help you, Mr. Spurlock?'

He didn't even stop walking to reply. 'Everything you need to know is on the notice ma'am.'

She glanced around, seeing the piece of paper nailed to the side of the door and hurried up the stairs, ripping it off the wall. She read the notice, sighing heavily. Oh no.

'What is it Mrs. Stanton?' Joanna asked as she joined Abigail on the porch, the woman not replying as Elizabeth took the notice and began to read.

'By order of Henry Gowen, executive director of the Pacific Northwest mining company, you are hereby given fourteen days advance notice to vacate your company owned house.'

'It's just the widows who are getting these Abigail.' Cat exclaimed as she walked up to them, a notice of her own in her hands.

'They're making room for the miners.' She replied, watching Spurlock and one of the other Pinkertons as they continued up the row of houses. She felt the girl place her arm around her and she placed her hand on the girls shoulder.

'It's immoral.' Elizabeth exclaimed with disdain.

'And one hundred percent legal.' She sighed. 'Oh I didn't see this coming but I should have.'

Joanna bit her lip, rubbing Abigail's back. 'We'll get through this.'

Abigail smiled sadly, looking down at the girl. Joanna had started coming out of her shell, the young girl blossoming back into a young, mature lady she'd first met all those months ago. She thought for a moment then glanced back at Cat. 'Tell all the widows to meet at the saloon tonight at eight, the children will be in bed by then and we'll have a meeting to discuss what we can do.'

'Right.'

'What are we going to do Abigail?' Elizabeth asked softly as Cat headed back towards her house. 'What can we do?'

'I don't know.' She replied after a moment, turning to head indoors. 'But we have to think of something.'

Joanna stood on the porch alone as Abigail and Elizabeth walked inside, leaning against the post to watch the Pinkertons nailing up more notices. It wasn't right, it wasn't fair and it wasn't just. What did Mr. Gowen care though? She remembered well the conversations her father and brother had had about the man. They didn't trust him, they despised him. For the record, she wasn't a girl who disliked anyone personally, she was just wary of everyone until she got to know them but that man held a special spot as being one of the few people she didn't like at all. Especially not after he tried to buy Aztec.

Aztec. A shudder ran through her body. Gowen had offered to buy the stallion way back when they had first arrived. She'd heard her father tell her brother about the offer he'd made. It had been quite a handsome figure too but he'd turned him down, saying he was keeping the stallion for one day when they had gotten back on their feet to be able to start breeding horses once again. She glanced towards the closed door. This was Abigail's home, it wasn't right what he was doing. Maybe there was a way she could buy the house, exchange the horse for it. She couldn't part with Aztec though, could she?


'You've been unusually quiet today-' Elizabeth exclaimed, looking at the girl as they sat around the dinner table for supper that night. 'Something on your mind?'

Joanna nodded then looked up at Abigail. 'I spoke to Mr. Gowan today, seeing if there was a way you could keep your house.'

'Oh Joanna, you didn't have to.' She replied gently. 'You shouldn't be worrying about it.'

'I know but after all you've done for me, I wanted to do something for you.'

Elizabeth glanced at the girl as she took another potato from the serving dish. 'What did he say?'

The girl sighed heavily, resting back against her chair. 'When my father moved here Mr. Gowen offered to buy Aztec. He owns a couple race horses in Lethbridge and he saw something in Aztec I guess. Anyway, my father turned him down at the time.' She looked at Abigail. 'He'd be willing to let us stay in the house in exchange for Aztec.'

'Oh Joanna-' Abigail gasped. 'He's your horse. No honey, I won't allow you to do that.'

'He said he would give me time to think about it-' She bit at her fingernails nervously. 'Besides, if we can't stay here I can't keep him anyway. It's a lose-lose situation either way.'

'Honey, I'm not going to let you sell your stallion to that man just so I can keep my house.' She touched the girls chin gently. 'Now, I am touched that you would even think of that but I can't allow you to sell your horse. He's the only thing you have left of your father, I can't let you give him away. We'll figure out something to do about this, I promise.'

Joanna nodded, looking away from her again. 'Would you at least let me come with me to the meeting? I want to do something.'

Abigail smiled. There was no point calling her a child as a means of trying to make her stay home. The girl had as much spirit and courage as the rest of them. 'You can come. But-' The girl glanced back at her. 'You need to finish off the rest of your dinner. Deal?'

She sighed. Abigail had an annoying way of getting her over a barrel. 'Fine, I'll finish off my dinner.'

'Good girl.'

Joanna ate the rest of her dinner in silence, half-listening to the conversation Abigail and Elizabeth carried on while they ate. Forcing herself to finish off her meal she was surprised to be the one finished first and got up to carry her plate to the sink. 'I'll start cleaning.'

She chuckled to herself as she started washing up the dishes, listening to Abigail and Elizabeth. If she tried hard she could imagine herself clearing up after dinner, her brother and father merrily talking about the current hay prices or the latest horse auction. They might have been working in a coal mine but it was ranching and horse breeding that was in their blood. Johnny had been adopted a few years before she, his parents had been ranchers near Calgary that had died in a influenza epidemic. Ranching was in his blood. She didn't know where she came from, somewhere in a box out in the shed with her other belongings was her adoption certificate with her birth town and her birth mother's name. Tess Stewart. That was it, that was all she knew about her history. Her birth father wasn't even listed, there was no record of him at all. Part of her wished to know about her family, the other part said it was just stupid. What point was there of knowing anyway? It wasn't like the woman wanted her in the first place. She'd given her up to an orphanage at birth. She wasn't worth the time of day.

Her eyes started to water with tears, thinking of her father and brother as she started to wipe up the plates. She could hear them now in her mind, her brother exclaiming that one day he was going to breed the best horses this side of the Rockies and her fathers teasing, telling him he'd achieve that, after him of course. She'd join in, telling both of them that they were wrong, that it was going to be her that would have the best horses and that Skylark would be her breeder. They'd humor her, all in jolliest teasing. Johnny would come over, steal a biscuit from the cookie jar that she'd made for their lunches and she'd chase him around the house. Allianna. That was his nickname for her, she couldn't even remember how he came up with it. Oh, if only she could hear him call her that one last time.

The plate she was holding fell from her hands, shattering into little tiny pieces all over the floor. She stared at it in dumb amazement for a moment, Abigail coming over to join her in the kitchen. 'I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to drop it.'

'It's okay, it doesn't matter.' She smiled kindly, picking up the bigger pieces. 'Go grab the broom and the dustpan and we'll clean this up.'

The girl nodded, grabbing the items from beside the door as Elizabeth helped Abigail clean up the mess. 'I'm just so clumsy-'

'Don't worry about it honey.' Abigail took the broom and began to sweep up the little shards. 'One broken plate won't matter.'

'How about we finish clearing the table?' Elizabeth interrupted. 'We'll have to leave soon.'

'Alright.' The girl agreed, silently helping to clear up the rest of the mess from their meal. Finally the kitchen was cleaned and she glanced over at the clock. A quarter to eight.

'Here-' Abigail grabbed her extra shawl. 'You'll need this, it's cold outside.'

'Thanks.' She smiled as she placed it around her, Elizabeth grabbing her jacket to join them. 'I wonder if anyone has come up with any ideas yet.'


'Both my children were born in this town-' Florence spoke as the women were gathered in the saloon later that night. 'It's the only home they know. Now I don't want to break their hearts but the company's leaving me no choice. I wrote my mama in Lethbridge, asking if we could move in with her.'

Joanna sat silently with Abigail, trying to figure out some way of doing something so the widows didn't have to leave. Abigail could keep her house, in exchange for Aztec but what could she do to help the rest of them? There wasn't anything she could think of at all.

'You did the right thing.' Molly added as a couple more ladies came in to join them. 'No one can blame you.'

'May I make a suggestion?' Elizabeth asked, the ladies turning to look at her. 'I've been thinking this over and perhaps if you pooled your money you could hire a lawyer to fight this for you.'

'Little Miss Princess, you can think about it till the cows come home-' Florence replied abruptly. 'But if I gave up what's left of my husband's measly death pension, I'd have nothing left to start over with. I've got no money.'

'Me neither.' Another lady called out.

'I've got no money for fancy lawyers.'

Abigail pondered quietly as the ladies agreed with Florence, trying to think of some way they could fight the company and keep their homes. The company was moving them out to make way for the new miners- That's it!

'I don't know about the rest of you-' Cat exclaimed. 'But I'm not ready to give up.'

'Mr. Gowen is right.' She stood up, looking at the women around her. 'If the company is recruiting new miners to replace our husbands then I think it's time for us widows to fade into the background and the new miners to show up.' A ripple of surprised gasps replied to her exclamation but she continued. 'Mr. Gowen is a businessman, he needs the houses for the new miners to get the mine up and running. There are still shafts that are blocked-'

'Are you suggesting that we work in the mind Abigail?' Florence interrupted.'

'That's exactly what I'm suggesting.' She looked around the group of women. 'Whose with me?'

Joanna was the first to stand without a second though, smiling up at her. If there was something she could do to help, she was going to. Abigail had helped her more than she could repay, it was time to help her. 'I am.'

Abigail smiled, placing her arm around the girl then looked back at the rest of them. 'Who else?' Slowly, one after the other, the widows rose in argument. She nodded in satisfaction. 'We meet at the mine at seven tomorrow.'