[following this:]
Once the details are ironed out and their aliases are firmly in place, Reverend and Mrs. Evans ride for Cuero looking as much the part as they could manage. Ben even has himself outfitted with a makeshift clerical collar.
(Kate can't look at him without laughing. 'Perhaps,' she suggested, 'you can use it as a Bible bookmark when we're through, Ben.')
It's a half a day's ride from their campsite to the outskirts of town, so it's already late afternoon, pushing for evening, when they finally arrive. Cuero is right off the river, good dirt roads and two free iron bridges crossing the river a coup for the community. The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway, connecting Cuero to Houston, is visible from the ride in, and once they make it onto the main drag it's obvious that the trade town is, indeed, prospering (with more than two and a half thousand residents). Otto Buchel's bank is a prominent storefront, near J. R. Nagel's hardware, and H. Runge and Company (a branch of Henry Runge's Indianola-based store and bank). There's an opera house, two large schools, a fire department, and a hotel, as well as at least six different churches (which has Kate smirking, and teasing Ben about him better knowing his stuff before starting any conversations he can't finish). And, farther from the main street, are the factories Kate had heard about: a railroad machine shop, and a $50,000 steam-powered cotton textile factory with sixteen looms.
Suddenly, all of Kate's worries about being recognized while in town fade to background noise. If she can't blend in, in a place like this, then she deserves to be caught.
.
Once the details are ironed out and their aliases are firmly in place, Reverend and Mrs. Evans ride for Cuero looking as much the part as they could manage. Ben even has himself outfitted with a makeshift clerical collar.
(Kate can't look at him without laughing. 'Perhaps,' she suggested, 'you can use it as a Bible bookmark when we're through, Ben.')
It's a half a day's ride from their campsite to the outskirts of town, so it's already late afternoon, pushing for evening, when they finally arrive. Cuero is right off the river, good dirt roads and two free iron bridges crossing the river a coup for the community. The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway, connecting Cuero to Houston, is visible from the ride in, and once they make it onto the main drag it's obvious that the trade town is, indeed, prospering (with more than two and a half thousand residents). Otto Buchel's bank is a prominent storefront, near J. R. Nagel's hardware, and H. Runge and Company (a branch of Henry Runge's Indianola-based store and bank). There's an opera house, two large schools, a fire department, and a hotel, as well as at least six different churches (which has Kate smirking, and teasing Ben about him better knowing his stuff before starting any conversations he can't finish). And, farther from the main street, are the factories Kate had heard about: a railroad machine shop, and a $50,000 steam-powered cotton textile factory with sixteen looms.
Suddenly, all of Kate's worries about being recognized while in town fade to background noise. If she can't blend in, in a place like this, then she deserves to be caught.
.
