by Carol Arens
He turned the corner and peered into the room with concern on his face, dashed with a hint of "not again."
"Oh, for pity's sake! How did you get there?"
"Edwin?" Missy gasped.
Wheels rolled across the carpet and came to a stop beside Edwin.
"She came through the front door," Suzie explained.
From down the hallway came another gasp, and then a decided thump.
"Mother?" Missy asked.
All heads, with the exception of Hortense's, turned toward the empty doorway.
"She's likely missed the new fainting couch by a good ten feet," Maybelle noted.
* * *
Mother had, in fact, missed the fainting couch by only a few steps. Missy sat on the floor and pillowed her mother's head in her lap.
"It's me, Mother, Missy." She stroked one pale cheek and touched hair that had, over the years, managed a pretty blush of silver in with the brown. "Wake up."
Edwin stepped over Missy and their unconscious mother in one long stride, carrying Hortense in his arms. He laid her on the fainting couch and patted her hand.
"Ummm..." Hortense murmured.
"I think she's coming around," Edwin said. "Who is she?"
"Hortense Gilroy... Oh, Mother! Are you all right? Anything broken or bruised?" Looking up at Edwin she added, "Hortense is the reverend's sister. I've been staying with them."
"Oh, praise be!" Mother expelled a deep breath and sat up. "The things we've been imagining...and hearing! And no, I'm not hurt, I've missed that couch so many times this last week the floor feels as familiar as my own bed."
Suddenly Missy found herself wrapped in a hug, enclosed by the comfort that only Mama's arms could give. Just as suddenly, her mother held her at arm's length, studying her from head to toe. "What on earth are you wearing? For pity sakes, it looks like dirt and feels like...sand! And please, dear, take off the hat before someone comes in and sees it."
"Mama," Missy whispered and felt her throat tighten with unshed tears. "I'm sorry that you worried."
"This young lady needs some air." Edwin reached for the plain wood button defending the neckline of Hortense's dress.
Hortense's eyes blinked open in confusion at the very instant that Missy exclaimed, "Edwin, no!"
For a full three seconds Hortense's bleary eyes considered the face of the man bent over her. For one second a smile transformed her. From shrew to princess in a heartbeat.
In the next second, Raymond blew in the front door on a wave of wind and rain. Four doves, Emily among them, descended the stairs, all in time to witness Hortense slap Edwin's hand away and bolt upright with a screech.
What a string of events. Missy's fingers pulsed, itching to write everything down. Zane would want to know each delectable detail when he returned.
A muffled giggle filled the silence that followed the slap and screech.
"Susan Lenore Devlin! Where are your manners?" Edwin admonished. No doubt he was recalling his long-held belief that their parents had made a grave mistake in naming both twins after their mischievous Auntie Lenore.
Raymond rushed to his sister's side, trying to look full of serious concern, but really, even he couldn't quite cover his amusement.
"But she...and then...and Missy's hat and..." Suzie covered her mouth but her giggles only came harder, infecting Missy like a virus.
"And this dress! And Mother and Miss Gilroy both on the floor, then that...screech...and Edwin's face." Missy gulped and struggled for control. "It's just too--"
"Horrible!" Hortense cried and scooted away from Edwin to cower on the far end of the couch.
"It's all right, sis, he's not a customer." Raymond sat on the couch and put his arm around his sister's shoulder in time to keep her from bolting when thunder pounded across the roof. "This gentleman has got to be Edwin Devlin, from Boston."
Missy stood up, fluffed a skirt that defied fluffing and walked over to Suzie. She settled on the arm of the wheelchair, hugging her sister tight and whispering that there were about a million and a half things they needed to get caught up on.
Once again, the room became silent with the pummel of rain on windows the only noise to fill it.
"Reverend Gilroy," Missy said, with her composure mostly restored. "This is my family--Edwin, Mother and Suzie. And you already know the ladies."
The ladies twittered and winked. Mother, being helped up off the floor by Edwin, gasped. Edwin spun about.
Raymond, with a grin that looked like mischief incarnate, hesitated five full seconds before informing Edwin that he knew the ladies in a purely pastoral way.
With the excitement settled and the introductions met, Edwin pivoted toward Missy, his expression set, severe.
"You, my dear little sister, have some explaining to do."
And so she did.
"Well, you wouldn't let me come west on my own. And it was my dream, after all. I meant to send you a wire all along, for gracious sakes. Then so much happened. When you hear it, well, you'll agree that it was all for the best."
"I'll agree to no such thing." As far as disapproving frowns went, Edwin presented his best. "You can't imagine the worry you caused Mother, not to mention the things we made up to tell the neighb--"
"Where's Muff?" Suzie asked, craning her neck this way and that, searching every dim corner of the parlor.
"I'm certain that he's fine," Missy said with a nod.
Hortense, who hadn't shifted her gaze from Edwin, said, "I doubt that. Your sister has encountered some trouble that you'll likely have to deal with."
Edwin pivoted back to stare down at Hortense. "I've all too much experience in that area. Maybe you would care to fill me in on the problem?"
"I've fallen in love!" Missy declared before Hortense had a chance to make things ugly. "Mother, do you need room on the couch?"
"No, just this once, I seem to have my legs under me."
A tug on her hair brought Missy's ear close to Suzie's mouth. "Tell them what they need to hear and later I'll have every delicious detail."
Edwin plunked down on the couch with his head bent, staring at the floor, his fingers tangled together in a vicious knot.
Her brother took five--she counted--deep breaths before looking up. When he did, he appeared weary, a few years older than when she had run away from home. Poor Edwin didn't deserve the worry she caused him. She would try to be gentle in the delivery of her news.
"Is there anything your mother and I need to worry about? And where is the dog?"
Hortense arched her eyebrows but, mercifully, kept her mouth pinched tight.
"The instant that Zane gets back with Muff we are going to get married and be deliriously happy." There, it was said, everyone could relax.
Somehow, though, Edwin didn't seem reassured. For some reason he had begun to look a little green around the mouth where his lips clamped together. Mother very subtly shook her head at him. How odd.
"Who--" Edwin asked and, really, he didn't appear well "--is this Zane?"
"Our Zane?" Maybelle exclaimed. With a hop and a clap, she rushed for the bar. "Come on, ladies, help me pour champagne for a toast."
"There couldn't be a better man," Emily tossed back as she trailed after Maybelle. "Truly!"
"High praise if I ever heard it." Edwin scrubbed his face with his hands.
"You don't know the half," muttered Hortense.
"Tell us all about your young man, dear." Mother stood behind Suzie's chair placing one hand on each of her daughter's heads. "What does he do for a living?"
Certainly Mother and Edwin were eagerly hoping to hear banker, lawyer or, at least, honest, hard-working farmer.
"I saw him rescue a baby from a raging river. He saved me from a flood and the clutches of--" Oh, better leave that story for Suzie alone. Already, her sister's mouth had opened in a perfect circle of anticipation.
"Pete!" Three doves exclaimed at the same time.
"Yes, there was Pete, but I meant--"
&n
bsp; "Little sister," Edwin said on a defeated sigh. "What does the man do for a living? How does he intend to support you?"
"Not to worry. He is an exceptional man," Maybelle squeaked. "I nearly raised him myself."
"He's quite a delight," a dove with ink-black hair and a sultry voice added, but Edwin didn't look reassured.
Rain flew against the windows. Vicious in its intensity, it ate up a long moment of silence.
Missy felt the pressure of her mother's hand move to her shoulder and squeeze, giving encouragement.
Some news had to be delivered standing, so she stood and folded her hands across her waist.
"Zane Coldridge is--" All at once Edwin pressed into the back of the couch and covered his face with both hands. Missy carried on, knowing that what she had to say would not put an end to his misery.
"A bounty hunter?" he groaned. "Well, hell, Missy, just kill me now."
"How did you guess that?"
Edwin stared blankly, silently, at the rain streaking down the window.
"But only until he finds a job as marshal." She hoped that bit of news would help her brother breathe again.
Mother touched her wrist to her forehead and took three steps toward the couch before she noticed that it was full. She took a deep, steadying breath, pinched her cheeks and turned to Missy with a great, suspiciously false smile.
"Our Missy is in love with Zane Coldridge." She shot a strange look at Edwin, then Suzie. "Isn't it wonderful?"
"I am in love, Mother!" Maternal arms embraced her. "I so want what you and father had."
"Oh, my baby." Her mother whispered. "I will pray for that very thing."
After a long moment, her mother released her.
"With all the excitement," Missy said, "I just now wondered. What are you doing here?"
She glanced from Suzie's grinning face to her mother's tearful one to Edwin's unreadable one.
Her gaze slid to Hortense. The silent message was clear. Zane had responded to the broadsheet and claimed his reward. That is how they knew to come. Zane was not coming back, Muff was not coming back.
"Mother? Edwin? How did you know where to find me?"
Edwin stood. He wrapped her in a hug. "Are you well and truly happy? You do look it."
She nodded against his shirt.
"We posted a reward for your safe return and--" He held her at arm's length, looking deeply into her eyes. "We got an answer...from Emily, here. We took the first train west."
Maybelle and the girls pressed flutes of champagne into everyone's hands.
"A toast to Zane's return and the coming wedding." Maybelle lifted her glass. Bubbles fizzed, catching the lamp glow.
Suzie lifted her glass. Mother sipped and dabbed at a tear. Edwin swallowed his libation in one gulp. Even Hortense took a taste and shrugged her shoulders.
Chapter Seventeen
"Something is going on." Missy settled into a stuffed chair and peered out the window. She watched a lantern swinging in the wind across the street. "Something very odd."
"We're so full of pie, I think we were hallucinating." Suzie leaned back in her chair and groaned, rubbing her belly.
"Pie is a clue, make no mistake." Missy leaned forward, catching her sister's full attention. "You saw them kiss as well as I did."
"It could be a passing fancy." Suzie tapped her finger on her chin. "Or not. Our brother has never been the passing-fancy type."
"So true, and Hortense laughed." Missy burrowed into the soft back of the chair, studying a drop of rain racing down the window. "Raymond says she used to, but I've never even heard a pleasant word come out of her mouth. And if she bakes one more pie..."
The dress she had borrowed from Suzie was lacy and soft, a garment that was nearly her own. Another bite of pastry might split it open.
"I'll bet Edwin hopes this rain goes on all week so that Hortense won't go home, is what I think," Suzie said.
"Edwin might go broke by then." Missy sighed. "It can't be cheap renting the whole brothel and paying the girls as much as they would have made with the gentlemen."
"It's been nearly two weeks. He can't keep it up much longer."
"You all should go home." They knew, now, that she was safe, that she wasn't going anywhere without Zane. "Desmond has got to be heartsick without you. You know that mother is convinced that the moment you turn your back some eyelash-fluttering fortune seeker will grab him up."
"Luckily for me, Desmond can spot a fortune seeker from across a room."
"He's always been insane over you."
"He hasn't changed a whit for me since I landed in this chair," Suzie said.
"He wouldn't, though. He saw the butterfly moon when you were all of, what? Thirteen?"
"When did Zane see it?" Suzie asked.
How did she admit that he hadn't? The family, even Suzie, would never believe that he was coming back if she did.
Rain and only rain is what kept him from coming to her.
She would dump her pens and copybook into a horse trough before she would believe anything different.
"Don't cry, sis." Suzie's hand touched her chin, turning her gaze away from the swaying blur of lamp below. "Zane will come walking through the front door anytime now. I feel it in my bones."
* * *
A tall man, dark-haired and handsome, did step through Maybelle's front door the very next day. With his tailored coat and stylish derby thoroughly drenched, Desmond Thornton swept Suzie out of her chair and danced her about the crimson parlor.
Clearly, nothing could prevent a man who had seen the butterfly moon from being with the woman he loved.
Missy loved Desmond, too. He had been like family forever and soon might truly be, but his presence pricked her, a tiny reminder that another day had passed and Zane seemed to have vanished into the great unknown.
Love, it seemed, flourished within the walls of the whorehouse on furlough.
Each coo and cuddle between Suzie and Desmond seemed like an accusation against the missing Zane. Every not-so-secret glance between Edwin and Hortense reminded Missy that she was alone.
Earlier in the day she had tried to find solace by writing in her journal but the pen felt as though it was dragging across her heart rather than the paper.
All that was left to her was music. With a sigh, she rose from where she sat beside Mother on the couch, watching Cupid do his best in the parlor.
She crossed the purple rug to the piano and plunked down on the bench. She needed to play something rousing, maybe even scandalous.
She had tapped out the first four notes of the devilish "Can-Can" when someone settled beside her on the bench.
Hortense, wearing her customary wool but with the top button loose, looked at her without a smile but also without bitterness.
"I think that I would enjoy that shopping trip to Dewton," she announced.
Missy's fingers skittered across the keys, because really, from Hortense, this equaled being on her knees begging forgiveness.
"I can't think of anything I'd enjoy more, Hortense." Suzie and Mother could come and they'd make a grand time of it. She could use a grand time.
Hortense smiled. She ducked her head, gazing at her hands folded tightly in her lap. "With any luck, we'll both need wedding gowns."
Now, that cramped Missy's throat with tears. She leaned sideways and gave Hortense a hug. To her surprise, Hortense melted into it as if they had been longtime friends.
"You and Edwin! We knew it!"
"It's fast, I know, but Edwin says when you see the butterflies, well, that's just it."
"Who saw them?"
"Your brother saw them, but I feel them, right here." Hortense splayed her fingers over her belly. "And just so you know, I saw the way Mr. Coldridge looked at you when you were sick. I was so jealous of that. I was a shrew. That man would give up the world for you."
For the next three hours, Missy sat by the window, gazing up and down Ballico Street, watching for the man who would give up th
e world for her.
"The only one ever to have seen this much rain had to be Noah," Suzie remarked, rolling to a stop beside Missy's chair. "Edwin wants to see us in the kitchen."
"He probably wants to take us all home."
"He didn't say."
"I'm not going, Suz."
"After what you let me read about your Zane, I don't blame you." Suzie clearly tried to smile but couldn't. "Don't worry. That man is coming even if he has to follow you all the way to Boston."
She wouldn't be in Boston, though, she would be right here. Nothing Edwin could say would change that. Even without Zane, she could never return to the stifling life of a pampered lady.
Everyone was gathered about the kitchen table. Raymond sat beside his sister.
Maybelle, dressed as sweetly as a doting grandmother, set a plate of cookies on the table.
"Sit down, Missy. We have some matters to discuss," Edwin said. He looked nervous, which could not be good. Her brother never looked nervous.
"I won't discuss going home." Missy sat down with her back as straight as she could make it. "Nothing you can say will change my mind."
"Later, then." Edwin looked at everyone in the kitchen with utter joy shining out of his eyes. Well, he had seen the butterflies, after all.
He slipped out of his chair, bending on one knee before Hortense. "Marry me, Hortense, I love you. I'll cherish you always. I've spoken to your brother and how does tomorrow sound?"
Hortense covered her mouth with both hands. She looked...pretty, with curls springing about her nodding head and tears leaking from her eyes.
"The day after tomorrow, if you please. I'll need a gown, and a few flowers from home if they're not all drowned," she said.
Mother clapped her hands. "Oh, my! Welcome to the family, Hortense, dear. At last, a daughter with both feet firmly on the ground. Not that Missy and Suzie aren't my heart and soul, you understand."
Love and joy overflowed the kitchen. It sang off the walls and danced a happy jig. Missy glanced out the window to see nothing but rain and a long, empty street.
"What do you say, Suz?" Desmond slipped down on one knee before Suzie in her chair. "Let's give the gossips a heyday back home. Marry me now, right alongside your brother and Hortense!"
