by Regina Scott
“For the rest of my life,” Maddie murmured. “Which may not be too long.”
“Courage,” Michael said. “We’ll talk about the rest of our lives when we’re outside.” He opened the door, and heat rushed upward, nearly stealing his breath even through the sheet. “Ready?”
Maddie’s look narrowed in determination. “Ready.”
Together, they started down the stairs. Michael moved as fast as he could, mindful of her shorter stride and full skirts. Amelia Batterby dug her claws into his chest as if fearing he’d release her. He wasn’t about to lose either of his ladies.
A man stood in the shop, throwing buckets of water at the fire, handed to him from a line of helpers that stretched out the door, into the street and to the pump. Maddie and Michael passed him to be met by willing hands outside.
Sucking in a breath of the cool air, Michael pulled the sheet off their heads.
“Maddie!” Aiden cried, running over to hug her, and Ciara squeezed in as well, sobbing. Michael handed the girl the cat to wrap his arms about them all.
Thank you, Lord, for saving Maddie, for saving our family.
A crash inside told them the stairs had fallen. The man who had been inside ran out the door as the flames brightened the windows.
Maddie pulled back. “We have to stop it. If it reaches the other buildings, we could lose the whole town!”
Michael felt cold despite the heat pulsing from the building. “Where’s the engine company?”
Maddie shook her head. “There isn’t one. There’s no steam engine, no hand pump. Seattle hasn’t even organized the volunteers yet.”
Michael stared at her, then at the building, where the glass on the window was starting to buckle with the heat. With the roof and walls still whole, they might have a chance of beating back the flames, if they only had more men.
And then, from down the street, came the sound of singing. Michael turned with Maddie to behold the men of the Irish watch, marching up the street toward them, armed with buckets and axes. Men ventured out of homes and shops to join them, swelling their ranks. Like a tide, they surged toward the bakery.
“The newly organized Irish volunteers, at your service, Mr. Haggerty,” Patrick said with a salute. Voices rose in chorus behind him as the men brandished their tools.
Something hotter and fiercer than the fire rose inside Michael. He lifted his fist in tribute to them all.
“Quick now, lads,” he called. “You and you, use your axes to break out the window so we can go in three deep. The rest of you, form three lines and fill those buckets from the pump by the livery stable.”
The men sprang into action, and Michael moved to join them.
Maddie caught his arm.
“No you don’t, Michael Haggerty,” she said, face still pale from her fears. “I thought I was lost to you. Don’t you be going and leaving me now.”
Michael enfolded her in his arms. “I’ll never leave you, my darling girl. But this is your dream going up in smoke. I’ll not let you lose it without a fight.”
Maddie pulled back. “Then we’ll all help, you and me and Ciara and Aiden. Let’s show Seattle what it means to be Irish.”
* * *
A few hours later, Maddie stared at the bakery from the other side of the street. Darkness had fallen, and the charred remains of the building stood like an ancient ruin, silver under the rising moon. The last of the Irish volunteers were making their way home after she and Michael had thanked them for their bravery and generosity. Once again, she had no home to call her own.
But she still had her family. She gathered Ciara and Aiden close as Michael crossed the street to join them.
“You’ll stay with us,” Allegra said next to Maddie. The Howards had seen the trouble from their house on the hill and had come to help. They’d already rescued the chickens and sent them to safety in the Howard coop.
“We’ll rebuild,” Clay promised as he stood next to his wife. “Whatever you need.”
Maddie smiled her thanks. It was all she could do at the moment. She didn’t want to think about what it would cost to rebuild the bakery. She leaned against Michael, and he put an arm about her and rested his head against hers.
Aiden hugged the cat. “At least Amelia Batterby is safe.”
“We have a lot to be thankful for,” Michael said.
She felt the same way. She and Aiden and Amelia Batterby might have died in the inferno. As it was, though she wouldn’t be able to go into the remains of the bakery until tomorrow at the earliest, she was fairly certain she’d lost her clothes, her equipment and her supplies. Ciara and Aiden now wore the only clothes they owned as well.
Yet they were all alive, all safe. They would face the future together.
No more running, Father, from fears, from love, from You. Today You gave me back my life. I won’t be squandering the gift.
Deputy McCormick, who had been part of the bucket brigade earlier, came to join them now as well.
“I know you have a lot of work ahead of you, Miss O’Rourke,” he said, pausing to wipe soot from his cheek. “But when you have a moment, come down to the sheriff’s office and make your statement.”
Maddie glanced up at Michael, who straightened as if he understood the deputy’s meaning. She didn’t. “My statement?” she asked, looking back at the lawman.
“About the fire,” he explained. “How it started. Who might have wished you harm.”
Michael’s arm fell away from her shoulder, leaving her cold. “You think someone started it intentionally?” he asked.
“I thought it must have been the oven overheating and catching fire to the laundry,” Maddie protested, glancing between the two men. “I saw the shirts burning. I thought it was my fault.”
Beside her, Ciara wrapped her arms about herself as if she was ready to believe it of her. But for once she didn’t scold Maddie.
“With all the other incidents around town,” Deputy McCormick said, “I wouldn’t be so sure the fire was an accident. This could have been arson.”
Maddie’s throat was tight. “So you’re thinking this is more of the trouble we’ve been facing?” she murmured.
McCormick nodded.
Allegra pressed a hand to her chest. “Oh, Maddie! How horrid!”
“We’ll find out who did this,” Clay vowed.
“The sheriff and I will find the culprit,” Deputy McCormick told him, head coming up to meet Clay’s gaze. “That’s our job. You can rest assured the fellow will be brought to justice. The last thing we need is a bunch of vigilantes going around hanging people without due process.”
“Hanging people?” Ciara clutched Maddie’s skirt, face pale in the moonlight. “They don’t really hang people here, do they, Maddie?”
She found it hard to believe herself. There hadn’t been a hanging in New York for years, and then only for murder. “Deputy?” she asked.
McCormick tipped his hat to her sister. “Yes, we do, Miss Ciara, but only when they’ve been tried and found guilty by a jury of their peers.” He turned his gaze on Michael and Clay. “Not when they look or act differently from us, or we think we need to take matters into our own hands.”
“You’ve made your point, Deputy,” Michael said, voice hard. “If we have any suspicions, we’ll talk to you first.”
Clay nodded as well.
“Good,” Deputy McCormick said. “I take it you all have somewhere to stay until you rebuild.”
“The O’Rourkes and Mr. Haggerty will be staying with us,” Allegra told him. The chilliness in her voice said she didn’t like the way he’d spoken to her husband and friends. “You can bring any news about your investigation to them there.”
“And thank you, Mr. McCormick,” Maddie added. “For everything.”
The harsh planes of his face softe
ned, and he tipped his hat to her. “Always at your service, Miss O’Rourke. Good night.” He strode off down the street.
“Let’s get you settled,” Allegra said.
Maddie took Amelia Batterby from Aiden and followed her friends up the hill, moonlight bathing their path. Michael walked beside her with Ciara and Aiden in front behind Clay and Allegra. Maddie hadn’t realized she’d sighed aloud until Michael put an arm about her shoulders again.
“It will all come out right, Maddie,” he murmured. “I promise.”
“Sure-n I believe that, Michael,” she said, gaze on the uneven ground. “But I’m not sure what to do in the meantime. I don’t see how I can bake for James Wallin’s wedding. That was to pay off most of my bills and bring customers to my door. I suppose I’ll have to offer the work to Mr. Terry after all.”
“There will be other weddings,” Michael said. “Perhaps not as grand but good enough to make a name for yourself among the ladies.”
“Or maybe I could just invite them over for tea,” Maddie said with a chuckle, “like the grand society hostess I am.”
Michael gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Maybe you should. There has to be more than one way to make their acquaintance and impress them. We’ll think of something.”
How easy it would have been for him to walk away, leave the future to her. Yet there he was, taking her burdens onto his own broad shoulders once again. How could she fail to love a man like that?
As they reached the top of the hill, the Terry house gleamed like a pearl in the moonlight. She wanted to hold it close. The dream was farther away than it had been this morning, but not out of reach. Not yet.
“Clay spoke of rebuilding,” she told Michael. “It will put in me deeper debt to him, but I can’t give up.”
“I know a way,” he said, and the hesitancy in his voice told her he doubted she’d like it. “I’ll take the loan to rebuild. You work to pay off the first loan. I’ll work to pay off the second.”
“But your future,” Maddie protested. “You won’t be able to have your own place for years.”
He pressed a kiss against her hair. “You are my future, Maddie. I’m only investing in us.”
Tears pressed against her eyes, clogging her throat. “’Tis a fine, fine man you are, Michael Haggerty,” she murmured, content to walk in the shelter of his arm.
Gillian and Mrs. Adams were waiting for them when they reached the Howards’ home. The housekeeper exclaimed over Maddie and the children, but Gillian only had eyes for Amelia Batterby.
“Oh, what a pretty kitty!” she cried, her blue eyes meeting the cat’s golden ones. She put out a hand, then drew back.
Amelia Batterby inclined her head as if finally meeting someone worthy of her glory.
“You can pet her,” Aiden told Gillian. “Her name is Amelia Batterby.”
Gillian curtsied. “A pleasure to meet you, Miss Batterby.”
Amelia Batterby began to purr.
Allegra, however, could not be satisfied until everyone was settled. She and the housekeeper heated water, and Maddie and Michael took turns in the brass bathing tub to clean off the soot and smoke. The scent of the lavender soap somehow made Maddie’s tense muscles relax a little.
Afterward, Clay offered Michael clean clothes. The shirt fit, but the waist of the trousers bagged a bit against the suspenders that hugged Michael’s chest. Allegra brought in a lovely purple gown for Maddie to wear, but they had to pin up the hem for Maddie’s shorter height and put an extra chemise under it because the tapered bodice wouldn’t close properly over her curves. Maddie was glad Ciara’s and Aiden’s clothes needed only a brushing to serve another day.
They had finished a dinner for which no one had much appetite except Gillian and Aiden, and Maddie and Allegra were seated in the parlor discussing sleeping arrangements when Ciara approached Maddie.
The girl had been quiet since they’d arrived. Maddie had put her hesitation down to shock over the events of the day, and the grandness of Allegra’s home, but she could not help noticing her sister’s continued pallor now.
Maddie scooted closer to Allegra on the sofa and patted the space beside her. “Come sit with us, Ciara.”
Ciara shook her head. “I can’t. I don’t deserve to sit. I don’t deserve any of this.” She waved a trembling hand that took in the whole house. “It’s my fault the bakery burned down. I didn’t know what he was going to do, but I could have stopped him. Can you ever forgive me?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Michael had taken Clay aside after dinner. Knowing Maddie agreed with his plan to help rebuild the bakery, he couldn’t wait to put their proposal to the entrepreneur.
“How much will it cost to rebuild the bakery?” Michael asked him.
Clay rubbed his chin. “A little less than it cost to build it in the first place, assuming we can salvage the bricks for that oven. But I wonder whether Maddie will agree to rebuild. She doesn’t like going into debt, even when it’s a friend offering. I had to convince her to take as much as she needed the first time.”
That sounded like Maddie. And here Michael had thought her too interested in money. How wrong he’d been.
“She and I have a plan,” Michael said. “I want the debt under my name, if you’re willing. I’ve found work at the smithy, and I can see about taking a second job in the evenings if needed. She has a dream, and I won’t see her lose it because of all this.”
Clay nodded. “I have every faith her bakery will succeed. I’ll make you a partner investor. Consider the money yours.” He stuck out his hand, and Michael shook it. He’d just put himself under a burden, yet he felt lighter than he had in months.
A movement caught his eye. Ciara was waving her hand as she stood before Maddie and Allegra. Her voice pierced the air.
“It’s my fault the bakery burned down. I didn’t know what he was going to do, but I could have stopped him. Can you ever forgive me?”
Michael was moving toward her even as Maddie blanched. Aiden and Gillian, who had been taking turns dangling a ribbon for Amelia Batterby, looked up from near the hearth as well.
“What are you talking about?” Maddie demanded.
Ciara was worrying her hands in front of her blue dress. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I didn’t think you’d understand.” She flashed a glance at Michael as he came to a stop beside her. “We wouldn’t have had to sneak around if you had any idea about romance.”
Michael frowned at her. “Who are you talking about? If some boy at school wanted to play with fire...”
“Not a boy,” Maddie said, voice tight. “Oh, Ciara, what have you done?”
The girl’s usual defiance flared, and her head came up. “He said I was the only one who believed in him since we left New York. He said he was going to make the Irish great in Seattle.”
A sick feeling crept over Michael. “You’re not talking about Patrick Flannery.”
Ciara threw up her hands. “Of course I’m talking about Patrick! He’ll marry me one day, I know he will. When I’m old enough. He understands how I feel.”
“If he’s laid one hand on you,” Maddie started.
“It’s not like that!” Ciara protested. “He won’t even kiss my fingers, that’s how highly he holds me in his esteem. And don’t you tell me otherwise. I just wish I’d known why he wanted in the bakery yesterday. He said he had a surprise for us. All I had to do was make sure everyone went to dinner and leave the door open for him. I thought you’d follow me.” She stomped her foot. “You were supposed to follow me! Now everything’s ruined!”
“Nothing’s ruined,” Maddie said, rising. “We will rebuild the bakery. What I don’t understand is why Patrick Flannery would want to harm it.”
“Neither do I,” Michael said, his voice coming out as grim as hers. “But I
intend to find out.”
His frustrations must have been written on his face, for Ciara grabbed his arm. “Don’t hurt him!”
Allegra rose as well. “Surely Mr. Flannery didn’t intend to burn down the bakery. It must have been an accident.”
“Don’t be defending him,” Maddie scolded her. “He used a schoolgirl’s infatuation to further his own cause. He’ll get no sympathy from me.” She looked to Michael in challenge.
“Or from me,” he assured her. “But I won’t believe it of him until I hear it from his own lips.”
Clay started for the door. “I’ll find him and bring him to the house.”
Michael followed. “I’m coming with you.”
Ciara ran after them. “No, you mustn’t! Leave him alone!”
“Ciara.” Maddie’s call stopped them all in their tracks. She swept across the room and stopped beside her sister. Michael had never seen her so sure of herself.
“You did not cause the fire, Ciara,” she said, voice kind yet firm. “But whether you like it or not, you are an eleven-year-old girl and under my guardianship. Michael and I will deal with Patrick Flannery. I need you to sit with your brother and help Mrs. Howard. And there will be no more outbursts, or I will know that you aren’t ready to learn from Nora.”
Michael wasn’t sure what Maddie meant by that, and he thought the girl might fight, but Ciara nodded as if she believed her sister. She went to sit near Aiden and Gillian, who were watching wide-eyed. Gillian handed her the ribbon as if in consolation.
Maddie turned her gaze on Michael next, and he stood taller, ready to face her temper. If Patrick was the cause of their troubles, he’d been the one to bring the man to her door. She had every reason to order him out of her sight.
She reached up for his face and pulled him down, lips brushing his, filling him with hope.
“You daft man,” she said as she released him. “I love you. If you want to find Patrick Flannery and have it out, I’m coming with you.”
Still reeling from her kiss, he couldn’t muster an argument to stop her.
“I’ll watch the children,” Allegra said. “Go.”
