Madison McKivitz jumped at the sound of the train whistle. The train was about to leave the station. She put a hand on the back of the nearest seat and braced herself.

Daniel Beaumont was an exasperating man. Mattie, the office manager who had hired her, had raved about him. She had insisted that everyone loved Daniel. He gets along with everyone. You’ll love him.

Granted, he was physically attractive – tall, dark, and handsome. And not at all what she thought of when she pictured a train conductor. Weren’t they all overweight, bearded men? Not Daniel. He was much too cranky though. It was as though the train belonged to him the way he seemed to care who his brakeman was. Mattie had believed in her - at least after a little persuading. So, why should he care?

The train whistle blew again and she knew that the train would be moving soon. It had only taken her one evening to learn the whistles, hand motions, and other signals used by the train staff.

Apparently, the other employees had a whole month of classes to learn everything. She hadn’t needed that long and she somehow had known that she wouldn’t when she applied for the job.

“Excuse me, Miss?” an older gentleman said, requesting her attention from behind her.

“What can I do for you?” Madison asked, with a smile on her face.

“Is there a concession car on the train?”

Amy’s quick orientation that morning had been enough to prepare her to answer most of the passengers’ questions. She put away her confusion and disappointment about Daniel and pointed the man toward the next car.

Then she stationed herself at the back of the train car to begin her job of monitoring the passengers and looking out for hot boxes - smoke, sparks, or fire coming from the rails as the train passed over.

The train had a familiar feel to it, even though this was her first day on the job. As the train left the depot and traveled through town, across intersections, she, along with the passengers, waved to those watching them pass by.

Doubtless, it was quite a sight, seeing the authentic narrow-gauge train traveling through the modern town of Durango, Colorado - sort of like a blast from the past. Though, now, most people probably saw it as little more than an amusement park ride. Madison knew it was more. It was an honor to be here on such an historic site. It was special that it was still operational after all this time.

Two hours later, the train was winding its way up the mountain cliffs on the way to Silverton. She was just as awed as the tourists as they gazed over the edge of the cliff to the river below. The train eased along the edge, the jagged rocky slopes the only thing between them and the rushing water of the river below. The train inched along, moving at barely a crawl. The engine worked overtime to pull its cars up the steep cliff. Cameras clicked as people snapped pictures of the river below and the train winding behind and in front of them.

Madison alternated between watching for hot boxes and watching the tourists leaning out the edge of the open gondola car.

“How is everything going?” a now familiar voice asked in her ear.

She turned her head and looked up into Daniel’s clear green eyes. “It’s spectacular,” she said.

“Is this your first trip up?” he asked.

“Yes, actually it is. I didn’t have time for this part of the training.”

“I see.”

“I can do this,” she said.

He nodded silently.

“What is your concern about me?” she asked when he didn’t respond.

He seemed to consider that. “I have several,” he said, finally. “First of all, a brakeman works closely with the conductor.”

“And?”

“And, well, it seems to me that I should have had some say in who was hired.”

“You don’t like me,” she said.

“I like you fine,” he said with a crooked smile. “That isn’t the issue. It’s just there are only six of us on this train out here in the middle of the wilderness and if something goes wrong, we need to know each other. We need to know each other’s limitations and strengths. I just don’t know anything about you.”

“I don’t know anything about you either and I’m not panicking.”

He pressed his hand against the side of his head. “But you’ve never even been on this train - ever. I’ve ridden this train hundreds - no thousands - of times.”

“I have to start somewhere.”

“You could have started as a concession worker.”

“I don’t think so,” she said. “I don’t belong behind a counter.”

“Madison McKivitz - you are a mystery.”

“Indeed, I am,” she readily agreed. “And you are a worry-wart.”

“I think my cause for concern is legitimate.”

“Well. We can agree to disagree for the moment. In the meantime, we can work on getting to know each other. Unless, you expect us to go through some kind of encounter group for it to be official.”

He laughed reluctantly. “No, I don’t think it has to be official.” Then he shrugged in resignation. “I suppose we’ll just have to see how it goes. There is something else you should know though.”

“Tell me,” she said, crossing her arms. This man was impossible. She couldn’t see why he was so adamant about her not being here. There had been a need and she had filled it. She saw no reason why he would think she wouldn’t follow through with her responsibilities and expectations.

“This job can be dangerous. You never know what’s going to happen up here. It’s not that I don’t think you can do it. For one, I doubt you have the physical strength to handle it if something does happen and second, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

She felt her defenses going up. She was being discriminated upon for her gender. This felt familiar. When she was a senior in high school, her math teacher had sent Johnny Matthews to state rally in math, knowing that Madison had been better qualified. Madison had told him so, too. She’d been quietly vindicated when Johnny hadn’t even placed.

More at hand, though, just because she was a girl didn’t mean she couldn’t do whatever it was that needed to be done. “First of all,” she said, in a voice that was sure to set him in his place. “I can do anything a man can do outside of father a baby. And second, you have no place to be concerned about my safety. I work with you. You aren’t my father and you aren’t my brother and you’re not my boss. And even if you were one of those, you would have no right to judge my abilities.” Her face flushed, she turned on her heel and walked across the platform to the next train car.

She stood at the window, staring at the river passing by below, taking slow, deep breathes to calm her racing pulse. That man didn’t know her and he had no right to make assumptions. She would do her job and she would do it well.

She had other options for jobs in Durango. But, somehow, the train had called to her. She had felt an inexplicable connection with it when she had heard the whistle while taking a walk along the main street of the little town.

And apparently her timing had been perfect. The former brakeman - also a female, by the way, - had just eloped and left them short one staff member. It had taken some convincing, but once she had learned all the whistle codes and hand signals overnight, Mattie had been convinced. In fact, Madison thought in retrospect, she had seemed a little too excited about making sure she started right away.

She would have to give that some further thought. In fact, when the train got back to the station, she just might have a word with Mattie about the conductor’s attitude. There was such a thing as harassment and there were laws to protect people like her. No one had to put up with a hostile workplace.

“Excuse me,” an older woman said, getting her attention. “Can you tell me how much longer we have before we get to Silverton?”

Madison checked her watch and did a quick mental calculation. “About forty minutes,” she said.

“Thank you so much,” the woman said. “Say, can I tell you something?”

“Sure. What is it?”

“I have to apologize for overhearing your conversation back there.”

“There’s no need to apologize. It’s our fault for having the discussion in a public place.”

“It’s none of my business, but I think you were right about what you said back there.”

“Thank you.”

“But I do think, just from what was said, that your boyfriend genuinely cares about you and I don’t think he meant any disrespect. I’m sure this is a dangerous job.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I just assumed he was because you aren’t wearing a ring. If he were my husband, I would listen to what he’s saying. Because not all of our husbands care enough about us to speak up.”

“He’s not my husband,” Madison said, feeling her face flush.

“No? Well, not yet anyway.”

Madison’s jaw dropped.

“Anyway, it’s none of my business. But whatever your relationship is, I can tell he really cares about you.”

“Thank you,” Madison said, mostly to herself, because the woman was already walking away. Why would anyone think she was married to that man? She didn’t even know him.

Good grief. Who would want to be married to Daniel Beaumont? Anyway, for all she knew, he was already unhappily married.

Either way, she was definitely not interested. And she had hot boxes to watch for.

She walked straight to a different car - one where the passengers hadn’t overheard her conversation with Daniel - her “boyfriend.”

What was the world coming to?

The very idea got her blood boiling again.

As she passed through one of the enclosed coaches, she almost didn’t see Daniel kneeling next to a little girl, about eight years old.

“It’s nothing to be worried about,” he was saying. “A lot of people get elevation sickness when they go up in the mountains.”

The girl’s eyes widened. “Elevation sickness? Will I die from it?”

“No,” Daniel assured her. “It’s temporary. I promise. When you get back down out of the mountains, you’ll feel just fine.”

“What about in the meantime?”

“In the meantime, you just have to make sure you don’t move around too much.”

“What if I do?”

“You’ll just feel a little faint.”

“I’ll faint?”

“Probably not, but you’ll feel like you’re going to. Your mom and dad can buy you some medicine in Silverton and then you won’t feel so sick to your stomach,” he said, glancing at the worried parents sitting behind her. They nodded.

“Ok,” she said, nodding, and sitting back, closed her eyes.

“If you need anything, you just have one of your parents find me and let me know, okay?”

She nodded.

Madison looked away and kept walking. All right, maybe he wasn’t all bad. He seemed truly concerned about the child. It still didn’t mean she wanted people thinking they were a couple.

As she pushed open the train car door, she paused and looked back over her shoulder to see Daniel watching her leave. He was looking at her with an intense expression that she couldn’t quite fathom. Her heart gave a little skip and her hands trembled on the doorknob. There was only one thought that shot through her mind.

Daniel was indeed a handsome man.

Want to keep reading? Grab your copy here .