The Escort

chapter 18

"You're going to the ball at the Fuller House, Tonio, and that's that." May left no room for argument as she and Tonio sat at the kitchen table having coffee.

"You know how hard we women have worked on this fundraising event. I'm not going to let one of my own ruin it by not attending. You'll be there charming the ladies, dancing and smiling as if there were no place else you'd rather be. I've already let it be known that you're going. You draw a crowd. Everyone's still wondering how you got pardoned and if you really could've done it."

"Of course I could have done it, but I didn't. And I wasn't pardoned. I was exonerated. There's a big difference—pardoned implies guilt."

"My, my! We've certainly gotten surly these last few weeks. One would think you have good reason to be happy. You're a free man. Or was the bullpen so much better? And fortunately for you, you don't need to go begging for one of those cussed mining work permits to get work."

"What's the difference? We own a worthless mine, May."

"Tonio, I'm surprised at you—doubting the Hole. I've never seen you this morose."

"I'm not in a social mood." He rose and strode toward the kitchen door.

"I'll see your sorry hide at the ball tonight decked out in your finest. You hear me, Tonio?"

He waved acknowledgment back at her behind his head, not turning back or breaking his stride. May turned back to the kitchen chuckling to herself. "Believe me, Tonio. This is an event you don't want to miss."



Brilliant white linens graced the tables in the Fuller's main banquet room, each one topped by a bouquet of homegrown flowers. Volunteers and kitchen staff dressed in white were bringing out the buffet. Guests would begin arriving within the hour. The Colonel inspected the food as it was brought out. Cold salads sat in buckets of ice to keep the lettuce and fresh dandelion greens crisp. Silver ladles lay next to crystal bowls filled with May's homemade salad dressings.

May had planned the menu herself. She included every favorite dish she had cooked for the Fuller House. The entrees were to be tasty and elegantly arranged but not fancy. Miners liked simple food. A commotion at the dessert table nearby caught the Colonel's attention as three women struggled to assemble a great, tiered cake.

May Hall saw the potential disaster looming and hustled through the swinging doors from the kitchen.

"Careful ladies! That's our crowning centerpiece. We don't want it dropped." May directed the women until the cake stood regally assembled in the center of the dessert table. A heavenly chocolate concoction with marzipan icing, someone had spent meticulous hours decorating it with intricate chocolate scroll. Candied roses and violets, and chocolate leaves cascaded over the top and along the sides, trailing into fresh flowers at the base.

"Good Heavens, May! What kind of cake have you created this time?" The Colonel's delight was evident in his tone.

"It's not a cake, it's a torte."

"Cake, torte, who can tell the difference? I thought only Angelina made such desserts. And here I was worried that we'd never be able to replace her with someone of equal talent. I see I was mistaken."

"Maybe you were and maybe you weren't," she said cryptically. "Now do me a favor. Go next door and help the band set up. I have my hands full in the kitchen."

She watched the Colonel disappear into the ballroom and then headed for the door to the street, tossing her apron on a nearby chair as she went. "Ladies, you can take it from here," she called over her shoulder. "I have to get home. I have some prettying up to do before the guests arrive."

May's fellow volunteers shrugged as she left. May wasn't usually so concerned with her appearance, and as she topped the scale at over two hundred pounds and had a large, plain face, there wasn't much the poor dear could do. But since she'd spent all day cooking, they were unanimous in their opinion that she deserved some time to fix up. Every woman wanted to look her best tonight. The ball was the poshest event that had ever been held in Wallace.



May hurried nervously up the walk to her house and disappeared in the side door without being noticed. She lifted her skirts and took the stairs two at a time.

"Angelina, it's May," she whispered loudly at the closed guestroom door.

"Come on in, May. We're alone." Angelina leaned over the dressing table, peering seriously into the oval mirror as she inserted a gold fobbed, tear shaped garnet earring into her left ear. She turned to smile at May as she entered the room.

"Oh, honey!" May exclaimed. "Aren't you the vision! I've never seen anyone look so beautiful in my entire life, and I'm not making that up. Darling, you'll pop the eyes right out of that boy's head, out of every boy's head!"

Angelina wore a velvet evening gown in a deep shade of garnet that matched her earrings to perfection and set off her dark looks and creamy skin as no other color could. The bodice was low cut and sleeveless. Angelina intended it to catch Tonio's eye.

At each shoulder, one narrow velvet strap ended in a small tassel and lapped over the sides of her bust. Another narrow, lace covered ruffled strap hung beneath the first, capping each softly contoured shoulder. An oversized velvet bow at the front of the dress underlined her cleavage spilling provocatively over the top of the bodice. Her waist was encircled by a narrow band of garnet satin ribbon, beneath which her skirt clung suggestively to her hips before flaring to slightly more fullness and ending in two elegant velvet ruffles that kissed the floor and whispered as she walked.

Angelina had pulled her hair into an elegant creation that she had copied with studied determination from the New York society pages. Softly waved, then pulled into a lustrous bun of curls that ran from the top of her head to the nape of her neck where a few soft wisps escaped to curl airily. A few similar wisps adorned her forehead. Gone was the painfully foreign peasant girl she had been and in her place was a beautiful American woman.

"I hope so, May."

"You'd better take a shawl tonight or you'll surely freeze in that dress."

"Now you sound like my mama." She pulled on a pair of garnet velvet gloves that reached well above her elbows.

"Would your mama let you out of the house in a dress like that?"

"Certainly not, May! Not in hundred years!"

"So then, I'm certainly not your mama, aiding and abetting you like I am. To tell the truth, what I am is envious. Oh, to be young and beautiful! I was young once, but I was never beautiful."

"May, you've always been beautiful. On the inside where most people are ugly. Only a beautiful person would've gone to all this trouble for me. Tonio doesn't suspect, does he?"

"Angelina, that man is out of his head thinking you've gone back to Italy."

"Good. You'll send word when he arrives at the ball? I can't arrive before he does, it would ruin everything."

"I'll send word the moment he shows up. You're really going to go through with this?"

Angelina smiled. "You mean proposing to him? Yes."

"It's not traditional."

"I suppose not, but what did traditional get me? An arranged marriage to a man twice my age who died before I could meet him. I want Tonio. I won't lose him again."

May gave Angelina a little hug of support and turned to leave the room. "I'll send word when he arrives."

"Excellent!" Angelina sprayed herself with a heady perfume as May left the room and walked down the hall. This perfume should send his senses reeling, Angelina thought.

# # #

Tonio leaned on the bar, eyeing the crowd dispassionately. Several women gave him flirtatious looks, willing him to leave his post and ask them to the adjoining ballroom for a dance. He was fully aware of their appeals and just as fully disinterested. He dressed in a starched white shirt, white satin vest and bow tie, and tails which May had forced him into. He'd just as soon be in his black fringed jacket and jeans. A plate of appetizers sat on the counter in front of him. Harry Scott lounged to his left.

"You seem immune to the ladies' charms tonight, Tonio. Several attractive ones have been eyeing you for some time. Perhaps it's the monkey suit. You seem to be the only man in the place so attired."

"More than half of them are whores from the Lux. What's wrong with May, planning an event like this in a town where the men outnumber the women in such quantity? The Lux ladies will end up with more money by morning than the benefit collected, mark my words. Miners who can't find enough to feed themselves can always scrounge up enough for a good time with one of the willing women. They're probably charging two bits just for a dance. And what's wrong with the rest of you? I was told this was a formal occasion."

"Where does the ordinary man get a tuxedo, Tonio? Not being wealthy Italians, we must settle for ordinary suits."

Tonio laughed. "Why don't you go ask one of the ladies to dance, Harry?"

"Helen hasn't arrived yet and she'd be furious if she caught me dancing with someone else. I prefer to stay here in your uplifting company."

"There's no accounting for taste," Tonio said. "You sure picked a helluva a time to come home from Boise, Harry. How did the Senate session go? In what little space they're not devoting to the bombing, the papers are saying it was frivolous and an utter waste of time."

"We did better than the House. We at least ended the session with gentlemanly handshakes. The House ended by throwing paper wads dipped in ink and stealing every wastebasket, inkstand, and jar of paste in sight."

"The Senate's behavior can be credited to your able leadership. You evidently succeeded where their mothers had failed; you taught them manners. Not bad for a bunch of grown men."

"I wasn't entirely successful. Did I tell you about the man who stabbed his fellow legislator? I can't remember what their disagreement was. Stabbed him in the arm. It was only a superficial wound. Claimed he'd opened his pocket knife to sharpen his pencil and the guy fell into it—bad timing."

Tonio laughed. "Bad timing, like our little insurrection here. Sounds like our politicians in Boise are living up to their unsavory reputation. I can see how you'd be glad to be back working with us civilized Hole folk. To think that both suspected bombers, Orchard and myself, have at times owned the same mining shares. Ironic, isn't it?"

"Can't say I'm not happy that Orchard sold out to you and Cardoner. I never doubted your innocence, Tonio. I was happy to go to bat for you in Boise. As for Orchard, they'll catch him, sooner or later."

"Can't tell you how much I appreciate what you did for me, Harry."

"Anything for a partner." Harry nodded toward the banquet tables. "Looks like they're stocking the buffet. Shall we give it a try?"

A volunteer in a white apron busily set out trays of small sweets meant to serve as appetizers until the grand cake was served. Tonio grabbed a small plate. If he was going to drink heavily tonight he might as well fill his stomach. He didn't want to get drunk too fast. May had made it clear he was required to make more than a cursory appearance.

As he reached to fill his plate with mints and cookies, he stopped. In front of him was an elegant tray of Piemontese paste, tiny cream puffs filled with buttercream and custards and delicate individual profiterole. Angelina was the only one who knew how to make such things.

He looked up and scanned the room as if he expected to find her. If she wanted her necklace back, she'd have to come back and face him. He had no intention of mailing it back to her. She wouldn't leave the country without it, he was certain of that. May breezed by. He caught her by the arm. "May, where is she?"

May looked confused.

"Who made these?" He pointed to the paste.

"Oh, those? An old Italian woman in Kellogg. Why do you ask?" May's puzzlement seemed genuine. He let her arm go.



Angelina made her grand entrance. She walked in with head held high, drawing the attention of the male crowd, fully aware of the impact she made. Take a deep breath, she reminded herself. Enhance the presentation of the bustline and calm the nerves. Tonio, where are you?



Tonio heard the heightened buzz of the crowd and turned to see who'd come in. Their eyes locked immediately. She was a lovely vision, a dark beautiful Angel. He'd been done over by May and Angelina, but he didn't care.

He was in a tunnel and Angelina was at the other end with the entire crowd separating them. He pushed his way through the throng, determined to take her in his arms. He wasn't going to lose her this time.



She saw him making his way toward her and smiled in encouragement. The look on his face told her that she was not wrong in coming. He didn't mince words when he reached her.

"Angelina, we need to talk." There was a plea to the hard edge of his voice.

"Yes, Tonio. Someplace private. We have unfinished business."

"The Colonel's office?"

"Wherever you like."