Mail Order Meals - Kirsten Osbourne Page 0,3
which made it so Mel would have to work in the kitchen again. He was rather ornery when he had to cook, and Trudie was happy to be leaving. No one wanted to work when Mel had to cook.
On Saturday morning, Bernard and Elizabeth drove Trudie to the train station, leaving the baby with his nanny. Trudie’s trunk was in the back, and she couldn’t lift it herself, so Bernard helped her with it. Just before she hurried to get on her train, Elizabeth reminded her that if she got to Colorado and Douglas was hurtful in any way, she had to remember she had somewhere to go.
Trudie smiled. “I know I do. I have many places I could go.” She hugged her sister tightly. “I hope to see you again one day.”
“Make sure you write often.” Elizabeth said, wiping away a tear. “I do this often, but not with my own sisters. With you, it’s so much harder.”
Trudie sniffled back a tear. “All right. I’ll write a lot.” And with those words, she hurried away to board the train. Finding a seat, she smiled at an older woman beside her.
“Where are you headed, dear?” the woman asked, seemingly eager to start a conversation to help pass the time.
“I’m going to build a new life. One that will be all mine, where no one will remember the misdeeds of my youth.” Trudie was unaware of how very solemn she sounded as she spoke.
The older woman laughed softly. “Oh, dear. I’m sure there are so many misdeeds left in your youth. Don’t pack them all away now!”
Thankfully, the woman sat beside her all the way to Chicago, where Trudie had to change trains. There were long days of talking and laughing together. Trudie would always be thankful that the older woman had helped her pass the time and keep her mind off what she was about to do. “I promise I’ll write to you, Mrs. Madison!”
Mrs. Madison smiled and nodded. “I’ll look forward to those letters, dear!”
There was no one to chat with on her next train, but Trudie took advantage of a two hour stop in a small town in Kansas where she found a place that sold baths. She wouldn’t be perfectly clean when she reached Colorado, but hopefully she wouldn’t smell like she’d been on a train for far too long!
She boarded the train again, feeling clean. It was a good feeling after so long aboard a train, but unfortunately, the others on the train hadn’t taken advantage of the opportunity to bathe.
There was a new young woman across from her, and Trudie was pleased. “Where are you headed?” she asked. Someone to while away the time with was all Trudie wanted in life at that moment.
The young woman smiled softly. “I’m going to San Francisco. My parents are there. I just finished school.”
“That’s wonderful. I can talk to you until we reach my stop in Colorado.” Trudie pulled out the new dress she was working on. “What’s your name?”
“Leah Townsend. You?”
“I’m Gertrude Miller, but please, call me Trudie.”
The two chatted and slept all the way into Colorado. When the conductor called out that the next stop was Coyote, Colorado, Trudie began gathering her things. Her trunk was in a storage car at the back of the train, but that was just fine. Someone would unload it for her, and then she would find a way to go and see her future husband.
She hugged Leah goodbye, promising to write. She’d collected new friends to write to everywhere she’d gone. Once she was off the train, she had the man in charge of luggage put her trunk on the platform, and she looked around to see if she could spot a church. The town was small and mostly quiet, but she saw a steeple.
She hurried over to the ticket window and asked the man she found there to watch her trunk. He was doing little else other than reading something, so he nodded. “Sure. But if I get too busy, you’re on your own.”
Trudie said nothing as she walked away from the man. Too busy, indeed! He was obviously occupied with what he wanted to do instead of what he should do. Men like that always irked her.
She walked toward the church, as Elizabeth had instructed, and when she arrived there, she saw a parsonage attached to the church. She went there instead of to the church, expecting to find the preacher and his wife at their home.
She knocked