Lauraine Snelling - Ruby

Ruby

Books by Lauraine Snelling

A SECRET REFUGE

Daughter of Twin Oaks Sisters of the Confederacy
The Long Way Home

DAKOTAH TREASURES

Ruby Pearl
Opal Amethyst

DAUGHTERS OF BLESSING

A Promise for Ellie
Sophies Dilemma
A Touch of Grace
Rebeccas Reward

RED RIVER OF THE NORTH

An Untamed Land The Reapers Song
A New Day Rising Tender Mercies
A Land to Call Home Blessing in Disguise

RETURN TO RED RIVER

A Dream to Follow Believing the Dream
More Than a Dream

Ruby

LAURAINE SNELLING

Ruby
Copyright 2003
Lauraine Snelling

Cover design by Dan Thornberg
Cover building photo: Nebraska State Historical Society Photograph Collections

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438

Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 9780764222221

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Snelling, Lauraine.
Ruby / by Lauraine Snelling.
p. cm. (Dakotah treasures ; 1)
ISBN 0-7642-2222-8
1. Inheritance and successionFiction. 2. Fathers and daughtersFiction.
3. Women pioneersFiction. 4. Medora (N.D.)Fiction. 5. SistersFiction.
I. Title. II. Series: Snelling, Lauraine. Dakotah treasures ; v 1.

PS3569.N39R83 2003
813'.54dc21

2003002571

Dedication

Friends can make a life richer, push one to higher accomplishments, keep one from making mistakes, and pick up the pieces when one does make errors in judgment. Friends can also trigger books. Ruby is dedicated to my writer-friends, the Round Robins, Chelley, Kathleen and Kitty.

Thanks in bunches.

LAURAINE SNELLING is an award-winning author of over forty books, fiction and nonfiction, for adults and young adults. Besides writing books and articles, she teaches at writers conferences across the country. She and her husband, Wayne, have two grown sons and four granddogs, and make their home in California.

Contents

Historical societies are great research places for historical writers, and for this new series I thank the North Dakota Historical Society at Bismarck and Diane Rogness, the curator at the Chateau de Mores in Medora, for information and early pictures, of which there are few, of Little Missouri. Doug and Mary at the Western Edge Bookstore in Medora added bits and pieces to this series and directed me to the most helpful books and maps.

I am blessed with the most able and helpful assistant in Cecile, who has learned she is part brainstormer, part editor, part encourager, and part researcher. When she came to work for me, she didnt realize she would lose sleep over the characters in these books.

Thanks to husband Wayne for becoming more expert in the care and feeding of a writer under deadline and for all the research, reading, and remembering he contributed. It sure helps to be married to a man who can pull historical dates out of his mind without looking them up and who enjoys being a partner of this writing life of ours.

My editor, Sharon Asmus, and all the staff at Bethany House Publishers did their usual fine work, for which I am extremely grateful. I waited a long time for an agent, and Deidre Knight has helped make my writing life both simpler and more diverse. Thanks all of you.

New York , April 1882

Scolding never did any good.

Ruby Torvald, hands on her hips, glared at her nine-year-old sister. No, of course Opal had not meant to break the Dresden shepherdess. Of course she had only been looking at it.

But how often had she been told to look, not touch?

Opal, you knew better.

Strawberry curls flying rampant about her freckled cheeks in spite of the French braids Ruby had plaited so carefully that morning, Opal refused to meet her sisters frowning gaze.

Uff da! What am I going to do with you? What am I going to tell Mrs. Brandon, and more importantly, how am I going to pay for that? Ruby picked up the pieces, halfheartedly fitting the full skirt onto the upper body, along with the head. As if any shepherdess would really wear a flouncy skirt like that and full petticoats too. Only the lamb at her side and the shepherds crook gave an inkling of the purpose of the figurine.

I... Im sorry.

Ruby tried but failed to trap the sigh that seemed a continuation of many others.

I really am. With the toe of her shoe, Opal traced the rose blossom woven into the Aubusson rug on which she stood.

I know you are. But you need to think of how sorry you might be before... Ruby laid the broken pieces in the trash basket at her feet. Perhaps if she rearranged the bric-a-brac on the whatnot table, Mrs. Brandon would never notice the shepherdess was missing. Go back to the schoolroom and write fifty times on the board, I will not touch other peoples things.

But, Ruby, I already did all my lessons, and you said we would go to the park after Bernies nap.

Ruby closed her eyes to steel herself against the beseeching looks from the young girl in front of her. Shed had to be more mother than sister in the five years since Bestemor died. How much easier life had been when they had lived with their grandmother.

You mustnt go around feeling sorry for yourself, she scolded. No one wants to attend a pity party, even though youd be the guest of honor. She pointed in the direction of the stairs, ignoring the last pleading look thrown over Opals sturdy shoulder.

Ruby took the basket back to the kitchen and dropped the pieces in the garbage.

Not another one. Mrs. Fleish, the head housekeeper of the Brandon mansion, gave Ruby a pitying glance.

Ja, and now I have to tell the missus.

That shepherdess was one of her favorites.

I know. Ruby exchanged a look with the woman who had taken her under her wing those five years ago when Ruby and her small sister, Opal, had joined the staff at the Brandon house. Ruby had started out as a maid but, because of her love for children, had moved up to nannys helper and had often filled in when one of the many governesses parading through had leftor been dismissed.

She was the only one who could handle twelve-year-old Miss Alicia, the eldest of the Brandon children, who was far too bright for her age. Penelope, at ten, was a willing pupil, until she and Opal got their heads together, a sure sign that mischief would soon show a face. Jason had spent much of his eight years with his nose in a book but had little regard for the demands of a teacher, unless she was presenting a topic of interest to him. Ruby knew how to charm him into being interested in anything he needed to learn, so Mr. and Mrs. Brandon had finally given up looking for a new governess.

Dont worry, miss, she wont fire you, not even for that bit of fancy clay. Mrs. Klaus, the cook, looked up from peeling potatoes, the skins curling into the bucket kept for compost in the garden. She knows you are the only one who can manage her children.

She wont think Im managing very well today. She caught Jason sliding down the banister. He said he was studying the properties of friction between wood and cloth at high rates of speed.

Cook coughed to cover a chuckle. Her favoritism of the eldest son was a well-documented fact. Ask any of the children who it was that always got the biggest cookie or the choice of puddings.