sit down. You will stay for lunch, wonât you?â
âIâd be honored, if itâs no trouble.â
âOf course not. Bert is off chasing around the golf course, and I appreciate the company.â
Seagram looked up. âBert?â
âMy husband.â
âBut I was under the impressionââ
âI was still Jake Hobartâs widow,â she finished his sentence, smiling innocently. âThe truth of the matter is, I became Mrs. Bertram Austin sixty-two years ago.â
âDoes the Army know?â
âOh heavens, yes. I wrote letters to the War Department notifying them of my marital status a long time ago, but they simply sent polite, noncommittal replies and kept mailing the checks.â
âEven though youâd remarried?â
Adeline shrugged. âIâm only human, Mr. Seagram. Why argue with the government? If they insist on sending money, whoâs to tell them theyâre crazy?â
âA lucrative little arrangement.â
She nodded. âI wonât deny it, particularly when you include the ten thousand dollars I received at Jakeâs death.â
Seagram leaned forward, his eyes narrowed. âThe Army paid you a ten-thousand-dollar indemnity? Wasnât that a bit steep for 1912?â
âYou couldnât be half as surprised as I was then,â she said. âYes, that amount of money was a small fortune in those days.â
âWas there any explanation?â
âNone,â she replied. âI can still see the check after all these years. All it said was âWidowâs Paymentâ and it was made out to me. Thatâs all there was to it.â
âPerhaps we can start at the beginning.â
âWhen I met Jake?â
Seagram nodded.
Her eyes looked beyond him for a few moments. âI met Jake during the terrible winter of 1910. It was in Leadville, Colorado, and I had just turned sixteen. My father was on a business trip to the mining fields to investigate possible investment in several claims, and since it was close to Christmas, and I had a few days vacation from school, he relented and took Mother and me along. The train barely made it into Leadville station when the worst blizzard in forty years struck the high country of Colorado. It lasted for two weeks, and believe me, it was no picnic, especially when you consider that the altitude of Leadville is over ten thousand feet.â
âIt must have been quite an adventure for a sixteen-year-old girl.â
âIt was. Dad paced the hotel lobby like a trapped bull while Mother just sat and worried, but I thought it was marvelous.â
âAnd Jake?â
âOne day, Mother and I were struggling across the street to the general storeâan ordeal when you are lashed by fifty-mile-an-hour winds at twenty degrees below zeroâwhen out of nowhere this giant brute of a man picks each of us up under one arm and carries us through the snowdrifts and deposits us on the doorstep of the store, just as sassy as you please.â
âIt was Jake?â
âYes,â she said distantly, âit was Jake.â
âWhat did he look like?â
âHe was a large man, over six feet, barrel-chested. Heâd worked in the mines in Wales when he was a boy. Anytime you saw a crowd of men a mile away, you could easily pick Jake out. He was the one with the bright red hair and beard who was always laughing.â
âRed hair and beard?â
âYes, he was quite proud of the fact that he stood out from the rest.â
âAll the world loves a man who laughs.â
She smiled broadly. âIt certainly wasnât love at first sight on my part, I can tell you. To me, Jake looked like a big uncouth bear. He was hardly the type to tickle a young girlâs fancy.â
âBut you married him.â
She nodded. âHe courted me all during the blizzard, and when the sun finally broke through the clouds on the
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