by Regina Scott
Turning up his collar against the chill, Michael looked to Patrick. “I need you to help me solve a mystery, Pat. Was there another Irishman on the ship out besides us?”
Patrick rubbed a hand along the plaid of his trousers. “No. You’d think he’d have made himself known to us.”
“Unless he refused to be seen with the likes of us,” Michael said, “because he was a member of the Dead Rabbits.”
Patrick stiffened. Then he ducked his head and lowered his voice as if suspecting the gang members to be hiding among the stumps surrounding them. “You saw a Dead Rabbit here?”
“Not saw,” Michael assured him. “Maddie found a pair of red-striped trousers in someone’s laundry. She thought they were mine.”
“And a royal donnybrook that started, I imagine,” Patrick said, straightening.
“We argued,” Michael admitted, “but not about the trousers. It seems I may have appeared a bit too high-handed.”
Patrick clutched his chest. “Ah, say it isn’t so!”
Michael cuffed his shoulder. “Enough of that, now. We reached an agreement, though I’ve no liking for it. I’m to find work and keep myself out of her hair.”
Patrick sighed. “And such lovely hair it is too.”
Michael shook his head. “I’ll not deny that. But the important thing right now is to figure out what the Dead Rabbits want with Seattle.”
“Maybe it’s nothing they’re wanting,” Patrick mused, scuffing his boots against each other and rubbing off the wet grass. “Those pants could be years old, used only for rough work now, their original purpose long forgotten.”
“They didn’t look old or all that worn,” Michael told him, gaze rising to the trees on the ridge as he remembered. “And when we talked to the man whose sack we thought they came from, he denied all knowledge.”
Patrick threw up his hands. “Well, there you are! He’s lying.”
“He wouldn’t fit one leg in those pants,” Michael said, gaze returning to his friend. “They weren’t his, Pat. I fear someone’s starting trouble. That’s why no one will hire us.”
Patrick’s face darkened. “It won’t just be us hurt, then, but every Irishman in Seattle.”
Not just Irishmen but Irishwomen. It could easily affect the success of Maddie’s bakery.
She’d told him not to help her anymore. Even his minor assistance the other day with the supplies had put him on shaky ground. But surely finding and stopping the danger benefited him and Pat as much as it did Maddie. He wasn’t really helping her for her sake.
“Is there a way to find out if others have been affected?” he asked his friend.
“I can ask the fellows I’ve become acquainted with on me rounds,” Patrick offered. “But if trouble’s starting here, we can’t sit idly by. I’d call everyone to a meeting one evening, but I have no place to offer.”
Neither did he. Then he realized he knew a spot that was unfrequented and easily accessed.
“There’s the alley behind the bakery,” Michael said. “No one but Maddie uses it, with no businesses beyond hers yet. It has no place to sit, but the meeting shouldn’t take long. I’ll invite Hennessy.”
“Is he the big fellow at the main boardinghouse?” Patrick asked. When Michael nodded, he waved a hand. “Save yourself the trouble. I’ll ask him myself. He’s only two doors down from me.”
“Fine. Tell them to come by Sunday afternoon at two. Most of them should have time off then. In the meantime, keep your eyes open. If there’s a gang member in Seattle, I want to know who it is and why he’s here.”
Before danger came anywhere near Maddie and the children.
* * *
Maddie knew she should be pleased. Ciara and Aiden had returned from school with stories of new friends and new things they were learning. She’d figured out how to send them lunches in pails like the other children carried. The bakery and her laundry business were doing well enough that she could afford to have the lock fixed on the rear door. And Michael had been diligently seeking work for the past few days.
She saw little of him during the day, and he spent the evenings at the Kellogg store working off the cost of the supplies he’d accepted without her approval. The only time their paths crossed was when they rose in the morning and when they all ate dinner together.
But she had to admit those were her two favorite times of the day. For one thing, he made her tea every morning.
“And shouldn’t you be focusing on your own needs, Mr. Haggerty?” she’d asked as she’d accepted the cup from him in the dim light.
He’d shrugged. “I have to make it for myself. Adding a bit more isn’t any bother.”
He’d assisted at dinner with a similar excuse. “Everyone is pitching in. Why not me?” He’d winked at Maddie. “I have to keep my right to complain, don’t I?”
Really, the man could be exasperating. Adorable, but exasperating.
“Don’t you like help?” Aiden asked as he stirred the batter for the cake she was trying that day. True to his word, her little brother rose with her every morning and supported her where he could after school while Ciara kept busy with chores, reading and visiting her new friends. Aiden swept the floor, brought Maddie ingredients from the larder and scrubbed the pans. Some of the customers had even taken to giving him pennies when he held the door open for them. Maddie knew he was squirreling away the money under his bed for something special.
“I like your help,” Maddie told him, pulling out the pan she’d need for baking. “You’ve a quick mind and a willing heart.”
“So does Michael,” Aiden pointed out, stirring so hard he splattered creamy batter on his cheek. “And he’s a lot bigger, so he can do more.”
“But Michael has his own life to be living,” Maddie protested, setting the pan beside the bowl and wiping butter along the bottom and sides. “We can’t be holding him back. It isn’t fair to him.”
Aiden stopped stirring with a frown. “Will he leave us, then?”
He sounded so worried Maddie had to give him a hug. “He’ll find himself a job and move into a house all his own. You want such good for him, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Aiden said, spoon slowly starting to move again. “I guess so. But I like having him around.”
So did she. Too much. And that would never do.
Still, she was congratulating herself on her success and preparing to take her first month’s payment up the hill to Clay Howard when Michael put his foot down.
They’d been eating an early dinner so she’d have time to deliver the money and return before dark, but when she told Ciara to watch Aiden in the meantime, Michael straightened over his split-pea-and-ham soup.
“You can’t go alone.”
Maddie chuckled, dipping her spoon to catch a fat piece of ham. “I most certainly can. This is a free country, so it is.”
Ciara and Aiden glanced between the two of them.
“Have you forgotten the robbery?” Michael countered. “You shouldn’t wander around Seattle carrying large sums of money. That’s asking for trouble.”
“As if anyone would suspect me of having large sums of money,” Maddie scoffed. “Besides, this isn’t Five Points, you know.”
A shadow crossed his face, and she wished she hadn’t brought up home. She knew he was trying to forget that time.
“That doesn’t mean there’s no crime,” he insisted. He set down his spoon. “If you’re going, I’m coming with you.”
“And what about your work for Mr. Kellogg?” Maddie argued. “I won’t be putting another burden on you.”
“It’s not a burden,” he said, that gritty tone creeping back into his voice. As if he heard it too, he took a deep breath and forced a smile. “I can work at Kelloggs’ after we’re done. It doesn’t matter when the shelves are stock
ed so long as they’re ready for customers in the morning.”
“I think you take too much on yourself, Mr. Haggerty,” Maddie said with a shake of her head.
“Perhaps I do,” he replied, smile growing. “But, as a wise woman said, it’s a free country. If I decide to stretch my legs and happen to be going the same direction you are, that’s no one’s business but my own.”
Maddie laughed.
Ciara giggled. “Maybe it would do you both good to take a walk together. In the moonlight.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
“Ew,” Aiden said, but he returned to his soup nonetheless.
In the end, Maddie decided to accept Michael’s escort up the hill. He might be worried about creatures of the two-footed variety; she was more concerned about the four-footed. It wasn’t unknown for bears and cougars to be spotted along the edges of the city, and deer often still wandered down the streets in the evening and early-morning hours. Michael looked a great deal more intimidating than she ever would.
It was a nice evening, as if Seattle clung to a few warm memories of summer before winter’s chill breezed across the Sound. As they reached the top of the hill, the mountain rose in the distance, white snow turning pink in the setting sun.
Michael stopped and gaped at it. “What is that?”
“Mount Rainier, they call it,” Maddie told him, smiling at his obvious surprise. “Though Clay told us the natives named it Tahoma, meaning mother of waters. Sure-n but every major river in these parts has the mountain to thank for its birth.”
Michael shook his head. “Why haven’t I seen it before?”
“She likes to hide behind the rain and clouds,” Maddie explained. “You never know when she’ll pop out.”
He chuckled as they started forward again. “Who’d think a little rain could hide that?”
“Or that,” Maddie said. She nodded toward the house at the top of the hill and had the satisfaction of seeing Michael stop once more in his tracks.
Clay and Allegra had both been raised in Boston society, so it had come as no surprise to anyone who knew them that they’d built one of the finest homes in Seattle. Unlike the Terry house that Maddie admired, the Howard house was less ornate, with a single story capped by a low roof and a massive porch that wrapped around three sides of the house. The glass windows spilled light out onto the stone-paved walk as Maddie and Michael approached, and she could hear the tinkling sound of a spinet piano from inside.
The housekeeper let them in.
“Miss Maddie,” the older woman said with a benevolent smile. Her brown-eyed gaze drifted over Michael and widened. “Mrs. Howard will be so pleased that you called.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Adams,” Maddie said as the woman turned with a swish of her black skirts to lead them deeper into the house. Maddie had considered applying for the position of housekeeper before her friend Rina had encouraged her to pursue her dream of baking. She found herself thankful that the tasks of polishing the fine wood floors and dusting all the furniture Clay had had brought up from San Francisco were not hers.
The housekeeper led them into the parlor, where a crimson rug and roaring fire added warmth to the whitewashed walls.
“Maddie!” Allegra’s daughter, Gillian, slid off the bench of the spinet. The five-year-old ran up to Maddie in a flurry of petticoats and hugged her fiercely. “I missed you!”
Maddie hugged her back. “And I missed you, me darling girl. Ask your Mama to bring you down to the bakery one day soon. I have a surprise for you.”
Gillian released her to gaze up with wide dark blue eyes. “A cake?” she guessed.
“A new friend,” Maddie answered with a smile.
Gillian glanced over at Michael with a frown. “He’s kind of big.”
Michael laughed and crouched beside her, putting his head still a good foot above her golden hair. “Better now?”
She smiled at him. “You’re funny.”
“And you are incorrigible,” her mother said, coming into the room. As always, Allegra Banks Howard moved with grace and dignity, black hair swept back from her oval face. Maddie was surprised to see her press a hand to her back and grimace as she joined them. “Forgive me. I’m not moving very fast right now and probably won’t for a good five months more. That’s why I missed services this week.”
“Mama’s making me a sister,” Gillian announced.
As Maddie beamed at her friend, Allegra blushed. “Or a brother,” she reminded the girl.
Gillian shook her golden curls. “A sister. There are too many boys here.”
Allegra put a hand to her daughter’s shoulder as Michael rose. “And speaking of boys, why don’t you go help Mrs. Adams tell your father we have company?”
Gillian beamed, obviously pleased to have been given such an important task, and hurried out of the room.
“Allegra Howard, allow me to present Mr. Michael Haggerty, late of New York,” Maddie said with a smile to her friend. “He brought me my sister and brother.”
Allegra held out her hand before her amethyst-colored fine silk skirts as if greeting royalty. “Mr. Haggerty, a pleasure. Did your wife not come with you?”
Michael shook her hand and his head at the same time. “I’m a bachelor, Mrs. Howard.”
Allegra glanced around him, midnight brows raised at Maddie. “Oh, really. How interesting.”
Oh, no! She’d been afraid of just such a reaction. The last thing she needed was for her friend to start matchmaking.
“Mr. Haggerty came west for a fresh start,” Maddie told Allegra. “He’s been helping at the bakery only until he can find other work.”
Michael glanced at her, brows down, as if he wondered why she had phrased things so carefully. She wasn’t about to admit her fears for her friend’s intentions.
Allegra tapped her chin with one long finger. “Clay might know of places with positions open. He’s acquainted with every business owner in Seattle.” Her smile broadened as she looked to the door. “Clay, come meet Mr. Haggerty. He’s a friend of Maddie’s, and he’s looking for work.”
Clay Howard came into the room, Gillian up in his arms. Maddie had always found Clay a presentable fellow, but now she couldn’t help comparing him with Michael. Both men were tall and well built, with broad shoulders and strong legs. But the blond-haired Clay stood relaxed, confident in his character and accomplishments. Michael’s shoulders came up as the man joined them, his stance widening as if he was determined to prove himself. The two men shook hands.
“Pleased to meet you, Haggerty,” Clay said. “There’s always room in Seattle for a fellow looking to make good.”
Maddie leaned forward, hoping to hear of a likely position for Michael, but Allegra put her hand on Maddie’s arm and tilted her head.
“A word with you?” she whispered.
Maddie nodded and turned aside, leaving the men to discuss various opportunities in the area while Gillian toyed with the silver button on Clay’s waistcoat.
“Is this fellow from your past?” Allegra continued in a whisper, dark blue eyes so like her daughter’s shining with possibilities. “Is he why you don’t talk about New York?”
She had to put a stop to any such thoughts. “I never met him before he arrived on the pier,” Maddie assured her. “And there is no gentleman in my past. I don’t like talking about New York because my father and stepmother died there.”
“And you had to leave your sister and brother behind to come west,” Allegra remembered. “I’m so glad Clay was able to help you bring them out. I just didn’t realize you were paying for a fellow to join them.”
Maddie grimaced. “I didn’t pay for a fellow. I paid for a woman to help me with the bakery and laundry. He had a spot of trouble in New York, so his aunt sent him instead.”
By the way Allegra twisted her head to l
ook at Maddie from the corners of her eyes, her friend was certain there was more to the story.
“That’s the truth!” Maddie protested. “He’s merely paying off his passage while he looks for other work. I don’t like to encourage the gentlemen, and you know it.”
“You never do more than flirt,” Allegra agreed, relaxing. “But I find this fellow intriguing. He’s handsome, eager to work and, by the sound of it, good with children.”
“He’s also bossy, determined and likely to put his nose into other people’s business with the excuse that he’s being helpful,” Maddie countered.
“Sounds like someone else I know,” Allegra said with a smile. “You!”
Maddie humphed. The sound was so much like Ciara’s that she felt a smile forming. “Oh, very well. So I like to help my friends. And I’ll not deny it’s handy having him around from time to time. He insisted on coming with me this evening.”
Allegra sobered. “I’m glad he did. More and more people arrive every week, Maddie. Not all of them are as brave and hardworking as the first settlers. Several of the businesses Clay supports have seen troubles recently—supplies stolen, property defaced. He’s trying to determine who’s behind it.”
“We’ve had a spot of trouble at the bakery as well,” Maddie admitted. When Allegra stiffened, she hurried on. “Nothing we cannot handle, so you don’t go worrying for me.”
Allegra frowned. “And how can I not worry? You’re my friend, Maddie. I want the best for you.”
Maddie couldn’t help glancing to where Michael was laughing over something Clay had said. He wanted the best for her and Ciara and Aiden, that much was clear. And, as she’d told Aiden, she wanted the best for Michael—a fine job, a home. Surely as good as he was with the children, he’d want a family of his own one day. That thought left a lump in her throat.
Worse, though, was the next thought. If trouble was coming to Seattle, did she want him anywhere else but at her side?
Chapter Fifteen
Michael made way for Maddie and Allegra to rejoin him and Clay by the stone hearth, as Gillian wiggled to be set down. He hadn’t been sure of the tall steely-eyed businessman, for all the fellow was married to a dear friend of Maddie’s. He’d half expected Clay to offer him a loan, at exorbitant interest.
