Fancy The Growing Years: Volumes 3-5

By David N. Walker

After spending most of a year in a fruitless search for her kidnapped sister Danni, Fancy joins her friend and mentor Phyllis Compton in owning and operating a saloon in Civil War-era Louisville.

Later, Fancy establishes a mobile saloon, moving along with the 'Hell on Wheels' towns at the end of tracks during the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. Meanwhile, the father she thought was killed in the war is released from a union prison, works his way home, and finds her at long last.

Fancy: The Growing Years combines Fancy Vol 3: Louisville, Fancy Vol 4: Following the Rails, and Fancy Vol 5: Thomas P. Greene

Tag along with Fancy as she grows from a gawky teenager into a sophisticated young woman, finally reunited with her father.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David N. Walker
• Release date: Oct 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781370991846

David N. Walker

Born in Dallas, Texas, in 1943, I grew up in Fort Worth and graduated from the public school system there in 1961. I attended Duke University, graduating with a B.A. in political science and a minor in accounting.During my service in the Army, I was stationed at Fort Polk, LA, Fort Sam Houston, TX, and Fort Sill, OK.Most of my career was spent in the insurance business, with a few brief forays into accounting. Although I spent a year in life insurance and a couple of years in financial services, my primary emphasis was health insurance.I served as president of an Optimist club in Lawton, Oklahoma, and another in Fort Worth. I also served as lieutenant governor in each state and held several district committee chairs. As a member of Toastmasters International, I won a district Humorous Speech contest.I am a member of McKinney Memorial Bible Church, where I serve as the leader of my Sunday School class.Hobbies include travel, golf, skiing and flying. I have traveled the nation extensively and have been in or near all the places I use for settings in my books.I have served as vice-president of the Freelance Writers’ Network of Fort Worth and have been a member of the Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc. I also co-founded a novel writers' group called Warrior Writers Workshop.For the last year and a half I have led a small group of published writers in the Fort Worth-Dallas Metroplex.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Clara Faye Fancy Greene had caught up with the couple who kidnapped her baby sister Danni, only to find her search end in frustration. She, her friend and mentor Phyllis Compton and Phyllis's servant Hera had chased the kidnappers in Phyllis's carriage and spent several weeks following their trail. They caught up to Wally Roberts, one of the bank robber/kidnappers when they discovered his body in Richmond, Kentucky, in the hotel room of his partner, Prissy Mayfair.

Thinking it would only be a matter of days, Fancy sent Phyllis and Hera on to Louisville, where they intended to start a new life. She took off after Prissy and Danni, traveling through the nights and stopping only for brief rests until she reached the Ohio River at Covington, Kentucky.

The next morning, she followed Prissy on board a riverboat bound for Pittsburg, taking a stateroom as near Prissy's as she could. She caught her quarry cheating in a poker game and, with the help of several male players, started to take her to the boat's captain to have her arrested.

Prissy managed to escape but fell into the ship's paddle wheel. A couple of minutes later, Fancy saw her apparently inert body surface some distance behind the boat. She immediately went to Prissy's stateroom to get her sister and whatever money Prissy left behind, intending to send the money back to the bank she'd robbed.

Unfortunately, someone else had gotten there first and taken the money. There was no sign Danni had ever been there.

She had spent the winter retracing the most likely routes Roberts and Mayfair might of taken as she searched for Danni. She'd been to Florence and back twice with many detours to search in places off the beaten track, often with detours around either Union or Confederate troops.

The budding trees, the greening grass and the warming days of April did nothing to lift Fancy's heart. She'd covered every inch she could think of, most of it more than once, but she'd found no trace of her sister. A few people in towns in Alabama recalled seeing a couple meeting the kidnappers description with a little girl, but that trail went cold somewhere around Chattanooga. She'd been unable to find one person beyond there who remembered seeing them.

God, where are you? Fancy shook her fist in the air as she'd done so many times in recent months. First, you take my mama and then my daddy. Then you let Sly Fochs steal my land with the help of that horrible parson who was supposed to be my pastor. Then you let Danni disappear. Why do You hate me, God? Why do You keep punishing me? What have I done?

Her search had brought her back to Cincinnati, where she'd boarded the boat months ago and found Prissy. As was her custom, she checked the post office to see if there happened to be a letter for her there. This was one of several places she'd told Sheriff Parker back in Florence he could write her if he learned anything about Danni.

The result this time was the same as in every other post office where she had checked. No word from the sheriff. This time, however, the clerk did hand her a letter with a Louisville postmark, addressed in Phyllis's handwriting. She ripped the envelope open and read the letter, smiling to herself as she stuck it back into the envelope and put it in her purse.

The smile didn't last long, however. As she left the post office and walked to the hotel where she'd taken a room, her thoughts returned to her sister and to how she felt God had let her down and was punishing her. The funk remained through dinner and accompanied her up to her room.

She removed her clothes and laid them out with great care on the chair before donning her nightgown. Then she picked up the lantern from the table beside the chair and placed it on the little nightstand next to the bed, clutching the letter from Phyllis in her hand as she slid under the covers. Only then did she reopen the letter and read it for a second time.

Dear Fancy,

You remember the saloon I told you about. I went ahead and bought it. I named it Fancy's Place. It's half yours and half mine, but I thought your name made it sound more interesting than mine.

We've really been working on sprucing it up, and we've still got work to do, but I think it'll be ready for a grand opening by March 15th or so.

We should get a lot of business from the river. When people disembark from the riverboats, our saloon is about the first building they come to, which should help us get going quickly.

I hope you've finally found Danni and can come here soon. I miss you, and I could use your help running this place.

Hera misses you, too. We lived in a hotel for a while, but I bought a house near the saloon that's got plenty of room for you and me both. Hera was anxious to start cooking and taking care of a house again, and now she's in hog heaven

Your friend,

Phyllis

Tears filled her eyes as she thought about her friend and mentor. I miss you, too, Phyllis. And Hera, too. She crumpled the letter and tossed it across the room. But I miss my sweet Danni even more.

After another in a long series of nights spent tossing and turning and sleeping in only brief nods, Fancy arose with her mind made up. There was nothing more she could hope to accomplish by continuing her search. She didn't know anywhere else to look. It was time to head for Louisville and begin building her life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Prissy Mayfair stared at her image in the mirror. God, you're ugly, woman. The sound of her raspy voice startled her. She'd damaged her larynx somehow in her fall.

She thought back about the fall into the paddlewheel when she tried to jump ship that day. She remembered the pain from the pounding her face and body had taken from the paddle. Ouch.

It had required the last of her strength to pull herself up onto the riverbank near Augusta, Kentucky. She didn't know what would have happened if that kind elderly man hadn't helped her into his buggy and taken her to the doctor's office. She'd almost felt a human emotion—love or gratitude or some such thing—for him, but in the end her nature led her to take his money and his horse and buggy when she was ready to leave.

There's not as much money as I had before that damned Fancy drove me off the boat, but I'll build it back up. I can still do a lot with a deck of cards. I just hope I cross paths with that bitch someday. She'll pay for what she did to me. And thanks to this new face she gave me, she'll never see me coming.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Will Potter smiled at his wife Bess sitting across the room knitting a shawl for the little girl who had wandered into their lives a few months earlier. Seems strange to be knittin' her a shawl now that spring's around the corner.

Oh, pshaw, Will Potter. What you men don't know. Her winter clothes I made for her'll be too warm for her to wear 'fore long. She can wear this with the summer outfit I made the other day since it won't be hot yet.

Oh, I know, Bess. I just like to hear your voice.

He rocked for a few minutes, blowing his pipe smoke out into the room. She's really come around these last few months, ain't she.

Yep. Chilluns is so 'daptable. She ain't asked for that Fancy person for weeks now. I reckon she's really become our little girl.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fancy stopped a dozen times on her way to the riverboat. She knew there was no point in continuing to pursue cold trails searching for her sister, but she felt in a way that getting on that boat was abandoning Danni.

She stopped at the foot of the gangplank, still hesitant. I don't know any way to find you, baby, but I'll never forget you. Maybe I'll come back and look again one day.

After getting settled into her stateroom, Fancy found a seat at one of the poker tables in the riverboat's salon. She'd forgotten how much more comfortable these riverboats were than the small town and backwoods saloons she'd patronized for the last six months or so as she searched for her sister.

Ever since Phyllis had taken her under her wing last summer and helped her hone her poker skills, Fancy had seen every saloon as a workplace to make her living. She'd also found them to be invaluable centers of information. Although he search had ended in frustration, most of the leads she did manage to develop came from sitting at poker tables and engaging the other players in conversation.

This time, she could just relax and enjoy playing—and winning, if things went as usual—with no other cares in the world, if she could keep her mind off Danni and on the game. She had kept her purse well-staked throughout her months of searching, so she wasn't overly concerned about whether or not she won.

She was about to knock off for the night when she received a pair of deuces for hole cards and a third deuce up. Two of her opponents had kings showing and each bet his. A man with a ten showing raised the bet, and the player in front of her folded his hand.

Fancy drummed her fingers on the table, a tell she carefully cultivated to make opponents think she was nervous and perhaps bluffing. After a long pause, she tossed in enough to call and make a generous raise.

All three of the remaining players called.

On the next card, the first king got a three, but both cards were hearts. The second king got a nine for a possible straight, and the ten got a king for a possible straight. Fancy's eight appeared useless. All three men placed healthy bets, possibly hoping to drive her out.

Knowing no one could have trip kings, Fancy felt even better about her deuces. She drummed her fingers again before meeting the bets.

The third up card helped no one. All four players made medium-sized bets.

The last up cards were king, ten and jack for her respective opponents, while Fancy got an ace. The first man bet proudly with his pair of kings, while the second man folded. The third man, still holding three cards of a possible straight, raised. Fancy had a real decision to make. She wasn't worried about the first man, but, since she'd seen no queens and only the one jack, the third man could possibly have made his straight. She finally decided she'd invested too much not to call.

After the final down cards were dealt, the first man placed a heavy bet. Fancy figured he either had two pair or was trying to buy a pot. The other remaining player must have thought the same thing, because he didn't hesitate at all before raising the bet again. Fancy turned up a corner of her last card and glanced at it, her demeanor not changing an iota when she saw an eight. She wasn't concerned about being beat now.

After drumming her fingers for another long moment, she tossed out a huge raise, as if she were trying to bluff the men out of the pot. The first man thought long and hard but ended up folding.

The only remaining opponent, the man she figured possible for a straight, gave her a big smile. Sorry, missy. That's gonna cost you. He met her raise and raised her back.

Fancy met the man's gaze. You kinda like your straight, don't you? Not too many hands will beat a straight. She counted out yet another raise. Wanna see if I've got one of those hands?

Action had frozen at surrounding tables as other players sensed a big play going down. Fancy felt like no one in the place was breathing.

If he calls, I'll win more money on this one hand than I've won inthe last two months playing small-town games.

The man stared at her cards. No two of them fit together. The only way she could have him beat would be for two of her down cards to be paired with one of the up cards and the third one to match another of her up cards.

He apparently decided that was not a likely occurrence, because he called her, turning over the queen and jack to go with his king, ten and nine. You read me right, little lady. King-high straight.

Fancy turned over her down cards to show her deuces full of eights. Guess a full boat still beats a straight. She raked the money into her purse. Guys, I've had a long day. I'm gonna call it quits.

The man she'd beaten stood so quickly she wondered if he intended to try to take the money away from her, but he had a smile on his face. You won my money. How about letting me buy you a drink?

Fancy had never tasted liquor and didn't intend to start now, but she didn't want to be rude either. She thought he was a very handsome man and had the manners to go with his looks.

I really am tired tonight, but I'd love to meet you for breakfast in the morning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fancy saw Mac Miller sitting at a window table drinking coffee. He stood as she approached the table and pulled a chair out for her.

He waved at a waiter before turning his attention and charm to her. You look lovely this morning.

Thank you. Fancy blushed at the compliment.

As the waiter left the table with their orders, a man stopped and gazed at her. You're Fancy, aren't you?

Do I know you, sir?

Not exactly. I was with you when you caught that young lady cheating and chased her off the boat. Did you ever find your sister?

The memory of that day brought mixed emotions to Fancy. She enjoyed the fact Prissy's crimes caught up with her and that she met her punishment with the deadly leap into the paddlewheel, but she rued not having a chance to pry Danni's location out of her.

No, sir. I've spent months looking everywhere I could think of along the back trail of the lady and her accomplice, but I never even found a hint of a trace of her. She picked up her napkin to dab a tear from her eye.

I'm so sorry, ma'am. I really hoped you be able to find her. The man moved on along.

Mac smiled as she turned her attention away from the stranger and back to him. So you're that Fancy. That story has made its rounds up and down the river. I've heard it told several times. I'm so sorry about your sister.

Fancy gave him a thin smile as she tried to hold back her tears. The waiter set plates of ham and eggs and grits and biscuits before both of them. She waited until he refilled their cups and left before responding to Mac.

Thank you. It has really broken my heart. As I told the man, I've looked everywhere I can think of.

She could no longer hold the tears back. She pulled a hankie from her purse and rose from the table. I'll be back in a minute. She rushed out of the dining room and found a deserted section of the rail where she cried until she felt she could return.

Realizing her eyes would likely be puffy, she wanted to skip breakfast and go back to her stateroom, but she didn't feel she could do that to this nice young man. She went back in and resumed her seat.

Are you okay? Mac's voice was filled with concern.

I don't know if I'll ever really be okay, but after all this time, I've finally concluded there's nothing else I can do. I have to move ahead with my life.

Very wise. He put a large bite of egg in his mouth.

Fancy swallowed a much smaller bite. You know a good bit about me, but I know nothing about you. Tell me about yourself.

I grew up in the Mississippi delta country. My family owns a large plantation there which my father expected me to join him in operating. I never was that interested, so I left home and started playing poker.

If your family had such a nice operation, I'm surprised you didn't want to step in and help.

Miller stabbed a piece of ham, holding it on his fork while he spoke. I never was comfortable with the idea of one man owning another one. Just doesn't seem right to me, but I can't see any way to run a cotton plantation without slaves to do the work, so I just left.

I see. Fancy busied herself with her food for a few minutes. At length, she asked him how he'd learned to play poker well enough to make a living at it.

Well, I had a fairly good idea how to play before I left home. He washed a bit of food down with a swallow of coffee. But I almost lost all my money learning how to do it well enough to get along. I'm not a great player, but I manage to win more than I lose. How about you?

She told him about her background and how Phyllis had taken her under her wing after she lost the farm, honing her skills at the game her father had taught her to play and love. I think I may have a slight advantage, because a lot of men figure a girl couldn't know much about the game. It helps that they don't take me too seriously.

Mac grinned at her. I imagine the ones you take money from remember to take you seriously the next time they see you.

Yeah, I've run into that a time or two, but they're always decent about it. I haven't run into any serious resentment over beating anyone.

Mac pushed his empty plate away. That's what I would expect. Most men I know respect women and treat them politely—even rabble-rousers who might start a fight with you if you were a man.

Fancy finished chewing her last bite and pushed her plate away also. Anyway, I doubt I'll be playing much poker anymore. I told you about my friend Phyllis. We're opening a saloon together in Louisville. Actually, she probably has it open already. She bought it with funds we had pooled together, although I suspect I owe her a good bit of money for my half interest. Her last letter said she expected to have it open by March 15th, so I expect I'll be busy helping to run it and probably won't have much time for poker.

Mac waved for more coffee. I'll be sure to stop by when I go through Louisville. I expect to keep playing on riverboats for the foreseeable future. More money here than in most saloons on land.

Fancy nodded. I've been surprised. This is my second trip on a riverboat, and I've made more money on each trip than in a month in small-town saloons.

CHAPTER TWO

Phyllis Compton stood on the boardwalk in front of her saloon, watching the riverboat dock. She always loved watching them dock and watching the passengers disembark.

As the crowd began to descend the gangplank, she saw a furtive figure dart to the rail near the rear of the boat and jump over the side. Intrigued, she watched for him to surface. When he climbed ashore a little way back from the boat, she realized he'd have to walk behind the saloon and neighboring businesses to keep from being seen by any boat personnel.

Curious, she hurried through the saloon and stood at the back door waiting for the man to appear. When he did, she stepped out into his path.

'Scuse me ma'am. He turned to go away.

She put up her hand. Hold it.

Fearful of all authority, he did as she ordered, stopping before her with his head bowed.

You seem to have gotten your clothes wet. Phyllis couldn't keep the flicker of a smile off her face. Like you've been swimming.

The man shuffled his feet. Yes'm.

I saw you jump off the boat.

You gonna turn me in?

Phyllis looked the young man over. He appeared to be in his late teens—a tall good-looking man with slightly curly hair. His good looks made her wish she were twenty years younger. She shook her head. Now why would I do that?

I dunno.

I don't have any interest in that boat. They can look out for their own stowaways. When did you last eat?

I snuck off the boat in Evansville and found some food behind a cafe.

That must have been days ago. Phyllis couldn't keep concern out of her voice. You must be starved.

Yes, ma'am. He finally raised his head enough to look her in the eye. I reckon I am, at that.

She opened the saloon door. Come on in. I'll see that you get something to eat. You can stay back here in this storeroom until your clothes get dry. I'll have some food brought to you.

Half an hour later, Phyllis returned to the storeroom to find the man had finished his food. I wasn't sure if you'd still be here or not, but I'm glad you are.

Got nowhere to go, ma'am. Need to find a job, I guess.

His manner of speaking intrigued her. He had a thick Southern accent and talked as if he was intentionally dumbing down his speech, but then he'd forget and speak with excellent grammar. This, along with his plain clothes and having to stowaway on the boat confused her. She seriously wondered about the man, but she decided not to quiz him. It would just make him uncomfortable.

You know, it's funny you should mention needing a job. I need someone to help out around here. Sweeping the floors, helping keep the place clean. General handyman who's big enough to serve as a bouncer if any customers get out of hand.

Bouncer?

Yeah. If they won't leave when I tell them to, you bounce them out the door.

Oh. I see. I think I can do all that.

You're hired, then. What's your name?

Jake Thompson.

Well, Jake Thompson, I'll pay you a dollar a day, and you can eat here and sleep in the storeroom here until you find a place of your own.

Thank you, ma'am.

She extended her right hand. I'm Phyllis Compton.

He shook her hand.

My partner, Fancy Greene, is out of town right now. Hopefully, you'll meet her before too long.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You gonna bet or fold?

Mac jumped as the man next to him touched his arm. What?

Are you gonna bet or fold? Your mind doesn't seem to be on the game.

Mac glanced down at the table. He had an ace showing and hadn't even looked at his hole cards. I'm sorry. You're right. My mind does seem to be elsewhere. He rose and picked up his money. The betting had already proceeded around the table when he reached down and peeked at the pair of aces turned down in front of him. Wow. Trip aces on my first three cards, and I didn't even bet them. I'd better get out of here before I lose my shirt.

He walked out to the deck and leaned on the rail, watching the Indiana scenery slip by. He barely noticed it. He could think of nothing except Fancy. What a beautiful lady. Don't know that I've ever met someone so lovely.

He thought she had the face