The Sugar Queen

by Tess Thompson

  “What exactly are you going to do about it? I was sent out here by the governor. He’s a friend of mine, Barnes. We go way back. Unlike you, we belong in America.”

  “Let me put it to you this way. When I offer a large donation to the cause of his choice, I have a feeling he’ll do exactly what I want.” I straightened, unable to stomach his rank breath for another moment. “Start packing your bags.”

  “Get out,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “With pleasure.” I shoved a pile of newspapers across his desk. “Burn in hell, Lancaster.”

  Back home, I told Quinn and Jasper about my interaction with the sheriff.

  “I can’t believe a man of the law would behave this way,” Quinn said.

  “He’s not a man of the law,” Jasper said. “He’s nothing but a coward.”

  We had to stop talking when Josephine came into the library. “Papa, Miss Quinn, would it be all right if we all went to the barn? Lizzie’s had enough of us in the kitchen.”

  Alexander gave her permission.

  “I’ll go with you,” Quinn said. “And keep an eye on the little ones. Care to join us, Alexander?”

  “I have a few letters to write,” I said. “When I’m finished, I’ll have Harley take them in to the post office.”

  “Very well, then,” Quinn said. “We’ll see you later.”

  When I was alone, I went to my desk with the intent to write two letters. The first was to Quinn’s mother.

  Dear Mrs. Cooper,

  I’m writing to ask permission to marry your daughter. If you’re in agreement to our union, which I pray you will be, I’d like to have you and Annabelle come live with us. I’m including a check for travel expenses and anything else you might need. I can assure you this is a match made of love and mutual respect. I promise to always take care of her and her family. I await your response with hope and prayers. Also, if possible, I’d love for you to come before Christmas. I can’t imagine a better gift than your presence at our Christmas dinner. My daughter Josephine and I will pick you up at the station in Denver and ride with you the rest of the way to Emerson Pass. According to your daughter, that was a harrowing passage, and I wouldn’t want you to be scared.

  Yours truly,

  Alexander Barnes

  On the way home, I’d remembered the governor’s passion for higher education. My letter to him was short and to the point. Replace Lancaster and accept my donation to build a library at the college in Boulder.

  Chapter 29

  Quinn

  * * *

  Wednesday during morning recess, I added a few logs to the fire while the students played outside. The Cole children hadn’t come to school today. After everything with Louisa and the sheriff’s lack of interest in protecting the Coles, I worried about them. I’d sent Harley out to check on them. He returned with news that they all had colds. I’d sighed with relief and gone on happily with the rest of the morning.

  I’d just twisted the stove handle closed when a man stormed through the door. He wore dirty overalls over a stained gray flannel shirt, and a greasy-looking cap. Small, mean brown eyes peered at me from under thick, unruly eyebrows. From a feet away, I could smell the foul odor of cheap alcohol. I knew who he was without introduction. Kellam. Instinctively, I picked up the iron poker I kept next to the stove.

  “May I help you?” I spoke as stoutly as I could, pretending to be brave. My heart beat fast, and perspiration coated the palms of my hands.

  “I’m Louisa’s pa. I hear you’ve been sneaking around this town, poking your nose into things that don’t concern you. The boys at Carter’s shop told me you have her locked up at Barnes’s mansion. I come here to get her and bring her home.”

  “She’s not going back to your house ever again.”

  “Where is she?” He slurred slightly, his voice as unsteady as the rest of him, which swayed and lurched like a puppet. “Tell me where you’re hiding her.”

  Had he not seen her outside with the others? Maybe he hadn’t recognized her in the coat we’d found in Josephine’s old clothes or with her hair freshly washed and braided.

  “We know what you do to her,” I said.

  “Louisa belongs to me, and I’ll do with her what I please.” His teeth were stained brown, matching his cap. “My wife died, Miss Cooper.” He spit my name out as if the words were foul inside his mouth. “She died giving birth to Louisa. That girl’s all I have to take care of me.”

  “You’ve hurt her long enough,” I said. Inside, I was screaming silent instructions to Louisa. Run away. Run to Alexander’s office. Anywhere he can’t find you.

  “You stay out of my family affairs. I don’t need no uppity schoolteacher telling me what to do.” He drew close, his breath rank with chewing tobacco and whiskey. “If you don’t, I’ll make sure you’re sorry. You want to end up dead, Miss Cooper? You think anyone in this town’s going to care if something happens to you?”

  I stared him down, holding my breath against his foul odor. I’d survived the streets of Boston. I’d be damned if I’d let this cowardly man intimidate me. “Like you killed Cole?”

  “Cole should’ve minded his own business.”

  “You killed him because he saw the sick game you played with your little daughter. Everyone knows it. You’re going to prison.” Anger drove away any fear. Over my dead body was he taking Louisa anywhere.

  “You one of them suffragettes?” He sneered at me as he stepped closer. “All about how women going to rise up?”

  I gripped the poker tightly. I’d swing if I had to.

  “She’s mine.” He snarled at me with his teeth bared like a rabid dog. “A child earns their keep. What did you tell her? That she didn’t have to listen to me? That she could sneak out of my house and lie to my face every night? And then to keep her at Barnes’s house like a prisoner? Like I wasn’t good enough to be her father?”

  “You’re not good enough to be her father. You’ve treated her like an animal. I’d love to see you running through the forest with a man pointing a gun at your back. Or how about a cigarette burning your skin? What’s wrong with you?” I was spitting mad by this time and wanted to ram the poker straight through his chest.

  “Shut up, bitch.” He knocked my arm, and I dropped the poker. It made a horrible clattering noise on the wood floor.

  He lunged toward me. I backed into the wall.

  “Don’t feel so brave now, do you?” His thick fingers grasped the collar of my necktie and pulled it tighter, making a noose around my neck. “All that’ll be left of you is this man’s tie you wear around your skinny neck.” He pulled tighter, choking me. I could feel myself going purple as I strained against his grip. I’m going to die without saying goodbye to my family or the children or Alexander. Just when I’d found love, this was how it would end. After all the struggle, I would die in the hands of this drunken idiot.

  Just as I was about to lose consciousness, the door flew open and the children ran inside, with Josephine in the lead. “Get your hands off her,” she screamed, her voice high-pitched. “Get away from her.” Those light green eyes flashed with rage as she led the rest of the children in a wave toward my captor and me.

  The Johnson sisters were right behind her. “Stop it—stop hurting Miss Cooper.” Martha’s shrill words pierced through my fear. They’d seen what was happening through the windows and organized themselves into an army.

  Like a swarm of wasps, they rushed toward Kellam, carrying kindling pieces in front of them like swords. Their expressions were crazed and furious as they shouted various cries of war. For a moment I feared one of them might try to stab our villain in the chest. Right before I passed out, Kellam loosened his grip and tossed me against the wall.

  I fell to my hands and knees, gasping for breath and coughing. It felt as though he’d broken my neck, but I knew that somehow, through the grace of God and a pack of very fearless children, he had not.

  “Get him,” Flynn shouted.

  “
Knock him down,” Isak said.

  The sound of stomping feet as they ran en masse toward Kellam only just penetrated my brain. For a second or two, I remained crouched on the floor, gulping for air. Black spots danced before my eyes. Afraid I might faint, I concentrated on taking deep, steadying breaths until I could make out the grains in the pine floor.

  I rose to my knees and swallowed against the ache in my throat.

  They trapped him in the corner of the room. When he tried to push through the wall of small bodies, Isak jumped on his back at the same time Flynn kicked him in the shins. The bulky man tumbled to the floor. Viktor shoved his boot into Kellam’s side. Shannon and Nora leapt on top of his legs and sat on him as though he was a park bench. Theo sprawled over his chest. The Johnson sisters each stood on one beefy forearm. Flynn pressed into his throat with his small hands.

  “How do you like it?” Flynn asked.

  Kellam struggled, but he was no match for my wild band of students.

  Alma, in the meantime, ran to my desk and came back with the rope we’d used in the blizzard. She dropped to her knees and hog-tied Kellam’s hands over his head. When she was done there, she did the same with his feet. I’d never seen a child move as fluidly and quickly. Despite her little body, the girl was as strong as a horse. The days on her father’s farm had taught her a skill I couldn’t.

  “Elsa, go to Father,” Martha said. “Tell him to bring the sheriff.”

  “And my dad,” Theo said. “He’ll know what to do.”

  Elsa, without a word, took off running.

  “Miss Quinn,” Josephine said as she knelt next to me. “Are you hurt?”

  The tears in her voice broke the spell. I looked up, then sat against the wall and scanned the faces of my students, as if the answers to my dilemma could be found in their frightened eyes. Martha and Josephine knelt next to me. The rest of the students gathered around, flushed from their efforts.

  All but Louisa.

  She stood in the middle of the room, small and thin in her new coat. Tears spilled from her eyes and made a pattern like a river down her cheeks. “Pa?” she whispered. “What have you done?”

  “You. You’ll pay for this, you little brat.” He struggled to raise himself, but the hog-ties were too strong. “You belong to me, not these people.”

  The twins each offered a hand and helped me to my feet as Louisa drew closer to her father. “Why were you trying to hurt Miss Cooper?”

  “It’s your fault,” he said. “You went against my word.”

  Just then, Alexander and the sheriff burst through the front door. For a second, they halted at the sight, clearly shocked to see Kellam on the floor trapped by my small band of students.

  Alexander looked at me first, and I nodded to let him know I was fine.

  Lancaster took his gun from the holster around his waist. “Looks to me we’ve got ourselves a prisoner.” He and Alexander yanked Kellam to his feet. “Let’s go have a talk down at the jail.”

  “Untie his legs,” Lancaster said to Alexander. “He’s going to have to walk.”

  Alexander knelt and untied Alma’s knot. The rope hung from his wrists and trailed down his backside like a tail. How appropriate, I thought, for an animal.

  As Lancaster dragged him out the door, Kellam growled and glared at his daughter. “You did this to me.”

  Louisa sobbed but didn’t say anything. The girls had all gathered around her. Josephine slipped her hand into Louisa’s. “It’s all right,” Josephine said. “We’re all here.”

  The other girls held hands and created a protective circle around Louisa. “Don’t watch,” Martha said. “Just look at us. Do you see us?”

  “Yes,” Louisa said. “I see you.”

  “Always protect one another,” Cymbeline said.

  The boys huddled together in the corner of the room, cowed for once. They sank to the floor in a heap of exhaustion after our ordeal.

  “Children, you did well,” I said, faintly. “Teamwork was never better demonstrated than this afternoon.”

  “What do we do now?” Flynn asked.

  “Stay here with Miss Cooper for a few minutes,” Alexander said. “Just until the sheriff can do his work.

  “I think going home early might be a good idea,” I said. “Just this once.”

  I went into Alexander’s outstretched arms, shaking from the adrenaline. “My brave girl,” he whispered. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. You should have seen this pack of wolves we’re raising. They were fierce.”

  “Like their teacher,” he said.

  I smiled up at him. “I wasn’t sure I’d have another chance to tell you I love you,” I said as I lifted the tie from my neck.

  His cheeks reddened, which told me the bruising had already started. “He could’ve killed you.”

  “But he didn’t. It’s over now,” I said.

  “Not for Louisa,” he said. “It’ll never be fully over for her.”

  It was then we heard a gunshot. For the second time that day, my blood froze.

  Chapter 30

  Alexander

  * * *

  “Stay here with the children,” I said to Quinn. “I’ll go see what’s happened.”

  “Yes, yes. Go. We’ll be here.”

  “Lock the door,” I said.

  I ran out the door and down the steps in the direction of the gunshot. It had come from the main section of town. Near the jail, if I had my guess. I was right. There, in the middle of the street, was Kellam’s body, facedown in red snow. Lancaster hovered over him. The air smelled of gunpowder. Dr. Moore stumbled out of the saloon with his doctor’s bag in his arms and ran toward them.

  “What in bloody hell happened?” I asked Sven Johnson, who stood in front of his shop holding a broom.

  “Kellam made a run for it, and the sheriff shot him in the back,” Sven said.

  Anna Johnson, wearing her shop apron, came to stand beside me. “Are the children at school?”

  “Yes. I left them with Miss Cooper. Go to them, please. Keep them inside until I come back.”

  “I’ll just get my coat,” she said.

  I turned back to the gruesome scene in front of me. All the shop owners had come out to the street to watch. But I couldn’t. I wanted no more to do with either the sheriff or the man who’d hurt his child and my Quinn.

  I walked back toward school, thinking about Louisa. What would happen to her now? Who would take her in? Not me. God knows we had our hands full already. My feet seemed to have an idea of their own, because they led me to the rectory instead of the school. I knocked on the front door, and soon Pamela appeared.

  “I heard gunshots,” she said. “I was too afraid to come out. Simon’s gone to visit a sick man.”

  “It’s safe now. But let me tell you all about it.”

  She ushered me inside and poured me a cup of coffee and put a slice of fruitcake in front of me while I told her everything.

  “That poor child,” she said. “Where will she go?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You aren’t thinking of taking her in?” she asked.

  “I’ve got so many of my own. And Quinn and I are getting married.”

  “Oh Alexander? Really?”

  “Yes. She’ll want more children. By the end of this, God only knows how many I’ll have.”

  Pamela beamed at me. “I’m happy for you.” She stirred milk into her cup of coffee. “Have I ever told you how much I wanted a child? But God never blessed us, so I focused on being the best pastor’s wife I could be.”

  Was it my imagination or was this leading somewhere?

  “I could talk to Simon. If he were willing, maybe we could take her in.”

  “She’s a sweet little thing, but she’s been through a lot,” I said.

  “Her own father hunting her. I’d say so,” she said.

  “Talk to Simon. For now, we’ll keep her with us.”

  We said our goodbyes and I walked ove
r to the school. I looked through the window, gathering myself. Anna was applying salve to Quinn’s bruised neck. The children were all at their desks licking candy canes Anna must have brought from her store.

  Surges of powerful anger and also fear overwhelmed me. I’d almost lost her. What the children and I would do without her seemed impossible to muster. I shook off the feelings. She was fine. The children were fine. Christmas was coming, and I had a surprise for my bride.

  Chapter 31

  Quinn

  * * *

  At home, I sat with Louisa on the window seat of the spare bedroom as she sobbed into my lap. I smoothed her hair from her damp cheeks and let her cry. When she stopped, she sat up and looked me straight in the eye. “What’s going to happen to me now?”

  “You’ll stay with us until we can find a new home for you.”

  “Who will want me?”

  “Don’t worry. All will be well.” I said it but was unsure myself. The only people who would want her would take her in only in exchange for working on their farm or business. I wanted more for her. A warm, loving home with parents who cared for her.

  “Did they shoot him dead?” she asked. “Tell me exactly.”

  “He tried to run away, and the sheriff shot him.”

  “Did he really kill Noah’s dad?”

  “Do you remember that night he was chasing you and you heard the bullets?” I asked.

  “Yes.” Tears rolled down her cheeks.

  “He killed him. We’re not sure why.”

  “Because he saw Pa chasing me, wasn’t it? Pa didn’t want anyone to know what he did to me.”

  “I believe that’s right.”

  “Does it mean I’m a bad person?” she asked. “Because Pa was bad?”

  “No, you’re not a bad person. You’re a little girl who has had to overcome a lot just to survive. You’ll never have to be chased or go hungry again.”