Emily glared at him. She gave Rose a strengthening squeeze before standing and following Stanton back to the seats.
“You’ve broken her poor heart,” Emily said accusingly.
“Oh, please!” Stanton rolled his eyes. “You really don’t know anything about being a man, do you?” Stanton gestured curtly to the seats, indicating Emily should sit; Emily shook her head furiously.
“I can’t leave her like that. I’m going back.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Stanton growled. “You can’t go putting your arm around a girl like that … you’ll be facing her father down a shotgun. I have no doubt that her broken heart will heal before lunchtime. Now sit.”
“Why are you being so horrible?” Emily hissed at him, sitting.
“Why are you being so naïve?” Stanton returned. “Of all the difficulties I thought we’d encounter on this trip, I must say a farm girl falling in love with you was one that never even crossed my mind.”
“She’s not in love with me,” Emily snapped. “She knows I’m not a man.”
Stanton’s face hardened.
“You told her?” he said, in a low voice, leaning forward. “Damn it, Emily—”
“She figured it out herself,” Emily said. “You said yourself that I’m unconvincing as a man.”
“I had hoped you could at least convince someone like Rose,” Stanton said. “The fact that she knows not only puts us in danger, but it puts her in danger right along with us.”
That thought made Emily pause. Stanton saw the realization on her face, nodded soberly.
“Another one of the joys of being a fugitive.” Stanton sighed. “It’s high time we distanced ourselves from her. When we come into Omaha, I want you to get new clothes. We’re going to get out of these damn Zulu cars and into a Pullman, where she can’t follow us.”
“Switch to a Pullman? Can we afford it?”
“We’ll be in Chicago tomorrow night, and in New York a day after that. We’re close enough that we can take the chance.”
Emily sighed, chewing her lip. She thought of the tears on Rose’s face, thought of how she was going to be sacrificed to the despised Aunt Kindy with little more than her good nature and her carpetbag full of half-baked heroes to keep her company. But then she thought of Rose at the hands of Captain Caul. Any loneliness the girl would suffer without them would be negligible compared to that.
“All right,” Emily said finally, nodding her head in resigned agreement. “But it does seem a shame, she is so—”
Emily stopped speaking as Rose returned. Her eyes were red, and she did not meet Emily’s gaze as she sat down, staring quietly out the window.
No more words were exchanged between the members of the sad little party. Rose looked out of the window dejectedly, sniffling at odd intervals. Stanton sat, arms crossed, staring at some invisible object in the middle distance that seemed, from his scrutiny, to be of incomparable interest. When they pulled into Omaha, Stanton rose stiffly.
“I’ll go see to the arrangements we discussed,” he said to Emily. “I believe you were going to find a general store?”
Emily murmured assent, made to follow him as he moved quickly toward the exit. But before she could go, Rose seized Emily’s hand. She held it fast, looked up at Emily with red-rimmed eyes.
“Don’t go,” she said. “Please don’t go.”
“I’m sorry, Rose. I have to.”
“Something terrible is going to happen. I just know it,” Rose whispered. Her eyes were big with fear, and her hand, clutching Emily’s, was trembling. “Something terrible.”
“Once we’re gone, you’ll be safe,” Emily said, under her breath. She prayed it was true.
Rose said nothing.
“Good-bye, Rose.”
Emily had to pull hard to remove her hand from Rose’s grasp. When she finally succeeded, Rose brought her hands up to her face, covering her eyes.
“I hope we never see each other again,” Rose said, her voice husky. Then she turned her back on Emily, slumping over the hard seat, her shoulders shuddering with a fresh flood of tears.
Emily turned, climbed off the train. She did not look back.
The train had only an hour’s layover in Omaha, so Emily put the sobbing girl out of her mind as best she could. She had a specific errand, and a limited amount of time to accomplish it. She couldn’t be worrying about Rose.
She hurried through the crowds and ducked out of the station, spying a general store just across the street from the depot. Navigating the press of carriages and wagons that were lined up to pick up or drop