Trace arrived at the lumberyard, spoke with the owner for a moment, then got to work. It didn’t take him long to install the phone, then he rang the office to make sure it worked.
“Hardman Telephone Exchange. How may I help you?” a soft, feminine voice answered.
“I can think of several ways you can help me, but for now, I just want to make sure this telephone is working. It appears to be in good order.”
He heard what sounded like a sigh before Victoria’s voice came back on the line. “Yes, Mr. Travers. It does appear to be in good working order, as do the various other telephones connected to this line.”
Trace heard the sound of a few clicks and grinned. Most nosy people hated getting caught. He supposed the novelty of the telephone was too much for some of the folks in town not to want to listen to every conversation. Such was the joy of having a party line.
He thought of the telephones connected to this particular line and could come up with a fair guess of the guilty parties listening in.
“I’ll call you from my next stop. Bye,” he said, then glanced at the clock on the wall. He had enough time to install one more telephone this afternoon and checked his work orders. The next on the list was Leroy Jenkins. He and his wife had a farm not too far out of town. Their daughter, Anna, worked at the bakery with Elsa when she wasn’t at school or being wooed by Percy Bruner.
Trace grinned as he considered the red-haired rascal. Percy’s folks owned the mercantile. Although the boy worked there after school and on Saturdays, he also did odd jobs around town, took photographs and sold them, and seemed determined to marry Anna Jenkins.
From what he’d observed, Anna didn’t object to Percy’s plans. He’d heard from various sources that the two young lovebirds had been best friends since they started attending school together. Percy appeared thoroughly besotted with Anna. Trace had noticed the girl blushed prettily each time Percy walked into the bakery. It looked to him like the couple were just waiting to grow up to get married and begin a life together.
If he was the romantic, sappy sort, he would have applauded Percy and Anna for their commitment to one another, and at such a young age. However, life had left him a bit jaded and he doubted he’d ever have the happy ending he was sure Percy and Anna would find together.
Trace bid goodbye to Mr. Dillon at the lumberyard after showing him how to use the telephone then headed to the Jenkins’ farm.
Leroy Jenkins came out of the barn, wiping his hands on a rag, when Trace stopped the wagon in front of the house.
“Howdy, Trace. Figured you’d be by sooner or later,” Leroy said in greeting.
Trace hopped off the seat and shook the man’s hand then lifted his toolbox from the bed of the wagon. “Do you prefer a wall phone or a desk model?”
“Wall phone. In the kitchen. Seems to me to be the best place for it.” Leroy led the way into the house through the back door. In the kitchen, Trace offered a friendly smile to Mrs. Jenkins as she bustled around with supper preparations.
“We thought right here would be a good spot,” Leroy said, pointing to an empty wall space near the doorway that led to the back door.
“That should work as good as any,” Trace said, setting down the box of tools. “I’ll go fetch the telephone and get started.”
An hour later, he finished his work and the cup of rich, dark coffee Mrs. Jenkins offered to him, along with a moist, decadent serving of cake filled with three layers of berry jam.
“That was wonderful, Mrs. Jenkins. Thank you.” He wiped his mouth on the napkin she’d set by his plate and carried his cup and plate to the sink.
“You’re welcome, Mr. Travers. If you like, we’d be pleased to have you join us for supper.”
The scent of roasting chicken and baking bread tempted him to accept her offer, but he had matters to attend to in Hardman.
“I certainly appreciate the offer, Mrs. Jenkins, but I need to head back to town. I’ll place a call to the office just to make sure your telephone is working properly, then be on my way.”
He showed her how the telephone worked, how to place a call, and then waited as the phone rang four times before Victoria picked up. She sounded a bit harried as she answered.
“Everything okay there?” he asked instead of offering a greeting. After speaking on the telephone with her several times throughout the day, he assumed she’d know who was calling.
“Yes, just busy. This job is not nearly as simple as it sounds in theory.”
He smiled, knowing he wouldn’t want to be the telephone operator. A few hours of managing all those lines and he’d yank them out, run off, and never return.
“I just finished installing a telephone at the Jenkins farm and am testing it to make sure it works.”
“I can hear you loud and clear,” Victoria said. Trace heard a jangle in the background and knew she had more incoming calls. “I have to go. Goodbye.”
She disconnected the call, so Trace hung up the phone and turned to look at Mrs. Jenkins. “Your telephone is ready to use, ma’am. If you have any problems, let us know.”
He gathered his tools and equipment, loaded the wagon, waved to Leroy, then headed back to town.
Victoria was just locking the office when he arrived. He jumped down from the wagon and hustled over to her. The snow was falling in earnest now. No possibility existed that he’d allow her to walk home in it.
“Let me give you a ride, Tori. It’ll be dark soon. I hate to think of you slogging your way home in this storm.”
She gave him a long look then slowly nodded. “Thank you.” She accepted the arm he held out to her. Together, they walked over to the wagon. Rather than give her a hand, he set his hands on her waist and swung her up to the seat.
Her startled look, eyes wide and mouth slightly open, made him hold back a chuckle as he jogged around the team and climbed up on the other side. He lifted the reins, released the brake, and soon had them heading out of town toward the Carter place.
“Is Maddie excited for Christmas?” Trace asked, hoping to break the silence that stretched between them.
“She is. It’s all she wants to talk about, not that I can blame her. It was always a wonderful time in our home when I was a child. I miss those days.” She cast a glance in his direction. “What about you? Do you and your sister have fond holiday memories?”
Trace thought back to all the strange places they’d celebrated the Lord’s birth. “We do have many Christmas memories. One year, my parents took us on a safari. I think I was only five or six at the time and convinced we were going to be eaten by lions. Another year, we were in Egypt. I just remember a lot of sand. My favorite, though, was probably the year we spent Christmas in Bethlehem. It was such a wonderful feeling being there, and it made me think a lot about Jesus’s birth.”
Victoria gaped at him, clearly shocked by his travel experiences. “What on earth did your parents do that took you all around the world?”
“They were explorers. They took Teresa and I along with them most of the time. My father died in a boating accident in South America. After that, my mother seemed to lose interest in exploring. We had a house in Portland, as a home base, but after we lost Dad, my mother never again went on one of the adventures she used to love so well.”