by Karen Kirst
“Fine,” Olan said, but the look in his eye showed he wasn’t fooled. He knew Chris was only trying to give him time to compose himself.
Motioning to the waiter, Chris ordered before his father had a chance to get any more ideas about leaving the restaurant. Chris was relieved to see Olan slowly begin to relax as they talked about the opera they’d seen the night before. Eventually, Chris’s gaze strayed to the streetcars and hansom cabs that splashed through Houston’s streets at what seemed to be a frenzied pace. It had been an interesting visit, to say the least, and he was sorry that he wouldn’t have the chance to explore the city more. As for Adelaide, she should be able to follow through on the rest of whatever her plan might be without his help. So he’d served his purpose here. This was a good time to leave—before he got too attached to anything or anyone in this city.
*
Adelaide had been more than a little surprised when the Johansens returned from the doctor’s appointment to announce that they wanted to leave for Peppin right away. Since her stepfather was working at the paper and her mother had gone to one of her committee meetings, Adelaide had quickly arranged for their luggage to be loaded into the carriage before riding along to see them off. The reality of their leaving was just setting in now that they had their tickets and were waiting for their train. She eased closer to Chris to be heard over the rain. “I know your pa has to go, but are you sure you have to leave? I thought he said you’d be staying a few days after he left to take care of some business.”
A hint of a smile warmed his eyes. “That was simply a fancy way for him to say I would be sticking around to court you. I told him that I’d realized you and I weren’t going to last. He seemed satisfied.”
Adelaide wasn’t entirely sure how to respond graciously to that, so she didn’t try. Instead, she glanced over Chris’s shoulder to where Olan sat on a bench several feet away. He’d been rather taciturn since returning from the doctor. Adelaide tugged at the lapel of Chris’s coat until he leaned down enough to hear her whisper. “Is he all right? I mean, the doctor’s report. I’ve been afraid to ask, but was it very discouraging?”
“What?” He pulled back slightly to look at her as realization lit his blue eyes. “Oh, no. Not at all. I should have told you as soon as he and I got back to your house, but he was so set on leaving quickly that I guess I forgot to mention it. My pa going to be fine. He isn’t dying after all.”
“Chris,” she exclaimed, stepping forward to give him a jubilant hug. “That is wonderful news!”
His hands lingered at her waist to give it a quick squeeze in return before releasing her. “It certainly is.”
She narrowed her eyes in confusion. “Wait. So does that mean Doc Williams was wrong about your pa’s condition the whole time?”
“No, he wasn’t wrong. I guess you could say there was a misunderstanding.” He pulled in a deep breath and shook his head. “It’s all pretty confusing, which is why I think it’s important that Pa and I go home to discuss what the specialist said with the rest of our family.”
“Of course.”
He slid his hands into his pockets, then caught her gaze. “Listen, about our pretend courtship… If you’re having second thoughts, this would be a good time to end it.”
She tried not to look at him as though he was crazy, but she wasn’t entirely sure that she succeeded. No way was she turning back now. Not after having spent one of the most uncomfortable weekends of her life trying to convince her mother that the courtship was legitimate. “I’m not having second thoughts, but don’t worry about me. I’m sure I can manage the rest on my own.”
“I don’t doubt that you can. It’s just that I’ve been down that road. I know it doesn’t seem like it’s going to hurt anyone or anything, but shortchanging the truth…it’s going to have consequences. I wouldn’t encourage you to try to keep this facade going long-term.”
“Why not? It seems to me that it worked out pretty well for you.”
He gave her a disbelieving look. “Adelaide, it didn’t work out for me at all.”
“But you bought yourself more time.”
“For all the good it did me. I’m still in the same situation I started out in, except I’ve lost one pretend fiancée and my parents’ trust.”
“Your parents found out? You didn’t tell me that.”
“They didn’t have to find out. They suspected the truth from the moment you broke off our engagement. I guess I wasn’t very good at hiding my broken heart.”
She tilted her head and searched his gaze. “You were heartbroken?”
He froze. A flash of panic filled his eyes followed by resignation. He glanced away before meeting her gaze again. “I was for a while. Why? Weren’t you?”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” she said, ignoring the challenge in his voice, certain it was only meant to deflect her attention. “That last letter you sent me made it seem as though you didn’t care one way or another about—”
“I didn’t want you to know I was upset.” His jaw tightened even as he gently caught hold of her arm, probably in an attempt to make her refocus. “Listen, that isn’t the point. What I’m trying to say is…”
She nodded every so often as he kept talking. Hopefully that would be enough to make him think she was listening while giving her a chance to sort through her tangled thoughts. Chris Johansen had been heartbroken over her—so much so that his parents noticed, even when he tried to hide it. That didn’t fit into the neat little box where she kept all of the facts and her feelings concerning her engagement to Chris. Before this conversation, she’d taken his lack of emotion in that final letter as a confirmation that he no longer—and perhaps never had—cared for her deeply. If that wasn’t the case, what else had she gotten wrong?
She refocused on his voice just as he was finishing up his argument. “So we agree that you aren’t going to go through with it, then?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I’m going through with it.”
“But you were nodding the whole time.”
“I see how that could be misleading…just like your letter to me.”
“What?” He sighed. “You weren’t listening to a word I said, were you?”
“Did you love me?” She was suddenly aware that she’d been wondering that for a long time. “I mean, did you really love me?”
Confusion filled his gaze as if he still didn’t quite understand the question. She watched his jaw clench as he seemed to battle with the idea of letting his defenses down enough to answer her. Finally he took a small step closer. His voice was filled with certainty and a hint of aggravation. “You know I did.”
Truthfully, she hadn’t been sure. She was now, but it was too late for that to make a difference. Realizing she’d lost herself in Chris’s blue eyes, she glanced away to watch a train pull into the station. Chris checked his ticket. “That’s my train.”
Olan must have realized the same thing for she saw him stand and begin talking to a porter. She should probably say her goodbyes now. “Chris, I—”
“I could write to you, if you’d like…to help you keep up appearances with your parents.”
She waved away his offer. “Oh, you don’t have to—Actually, that would be wonderful as long as it isn’t an imposition to you. I’m sure once you find a bride… Well, I wouldn’t want you to get in any trouble with her for writing to me. Not that there’s any reason why our letters would—”
He caught her waist and tugged her into a hug. He placed a kiss on her temple before he stepped back to offer something just shy of a smile. “Goodbye, Adelaide.”
“Goodbye,” she whispered back as he began to turn away. Her lashes fluttered against a sudden sting of tears. What was wrong with her? Chris’s departure was a good thing. She didn’t need him here making her wonder about the past. An occasional letter just for show would be so much easier to contend with than living, breathing trouble. Yet his goodbye had been so final. It had felt as though he truly intended to
never see her again. That possibility prompted her to do something she should have done long ago. She hurried across the short distance between them to catch his arm. As soon as he turned to her, she said, “There’s something I have to give you. I left it in the carriage. I promise I’ll be back before your train leaves.”
He called her name in confusion, but she was already threading through the crowd and back into the station. It would only take a moment to retrieve the satchel. It held a copy of the first dime novel she’d ever completed—the one she’d never tried to have published because she’d written it for Chris. She’d cast him as the hero, and had meant it to be a present to him for his eighteenth birthday. Despite her best intentions, she hadn’t gotten up the courage to send it to him before they’d broken off their engagement. Each year it had gotten buried deeper in her desk drawer until she’d pulled it out this morning. She’d been uncertain as to whether or not she should give it to him, but now it seemed right. After all, it truly had been meant for him. She just had to make sure he got it before his train left the station.
She hurried through the baggage claim area and the waiting room before she made it out the front door. She peered through the rain until she spotted the carriage, then hopped across the puddles already forming on the sidewalk to get to it. The overcast sky did little to light the dim interior as she climbed inside. Her hand had just settled upon the satchel when the carriage door opened. She stiffened in alarm at the sight of a strange man entering the carriage. Before she had time to think or move, he’d pinned her to the seat and placed a cloth over her face. She pulled in a gasping breath to scream. Instead, her voice came out in a weak cry. She tried to struggle, but numbness crawled across her limbs. Finally, the world clouded over and everything faded to black.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“All aboard!”
Chris took another step backward toward the train while searching the crowd for any sign of Adelaide. It had been six minutes since she’d told him to wait for her. That was more than enough time for her to make it to the carriage and back, especially as fast as she’d been moving. What if something had happened to her?
“Chris,” Olan called from the train steps. “I don’t think she’s coming.”
Chris shook his head. “Something must be wrong.”
“Gentlemen, I’m sorry, but this is the last chance I can give y’all to get on this train,” the porter said. “What’s it going to be?”
Chris met his father’s tired gaze and made a decision. “Pa, I know you’re eager to go home so why don’t you get on the train? You can be in Peppin in a couple of hours. I’ll stay here, make sure Adelaide is all right, then take the next train headed for home.”
Olan frowned. “If something really is wrong, then maybe I should stay and help.”
“Whatever’s wrong, I’ll handle it. All I want is for you to relax and have a nice trip home. All right?”
Olan gave a hesitant nod, then boarded, much to the porter’s relief. Chris thanked the porter for being so patient with them and returned his father’s wave as the train began a slow chug out of the station. Grabbing his suitcase, he glanced down at his pocket watch. He waited exactly two more minutes for Adelaide to appear. When she didn’t, Chris slowly walked back through the station, carefully scanning the crowd as he went. He held the door open for a rain-soaked man, then stepped outside only to stop and turn around.
The other man did the same. “Mr. Johansen?”
“You’re the Holdens’ driver.” Chris searched his mind, then pointed at the man. “Ezra, right? I need your help. I’m trying to find Adelaide. Have you seen her?”
Alarm filled Ezra’s features. “I thought she was seeing you off inside the station.”
“She was, but at the last minute she said she needed something from the carriage. That was several minutes ago. She hasn’t returned and I haven’t been able to find her.”
“In that case, we might have a problem. The carriage is gone. I was standing by that overhang to get out of the rain and keep an eye on it. A man stopped to ask me for the time. I looked down, and the next thing I knew I was waking up in an alleyway. I figured whoever did that to me was intending to steal that carriage. Now, I’m thinking—”
“They took Adelaide.” Chris’s stomach tightened at Ezra’s nod. “We need to notify the police.”
“All due respect, sir, it might be better to speak with Mr. Holden first. He’s got some powerful enemies in this city. It could be that one of them had something to do with it. If so, he’d have a better idea of who might be responsible. That could help us find her more quickly.”
Chris frowned. “How could he possibly be faster than the police?”
“He has contacts. The police wouldn’t know where to start, other than asking if anyone saw anything—which we can do ourselves. These men were stealthy enough that I didn’t see or hear them coming. I doubt they would have made it easy for anyone to identify them later. Even if they did, that won’t necessarily help us find Adelaide or the carriage. The best thing we can do is let Mr. Holden handle this.”
If this had happened in Peppin, Chris would have strapped on his Smith & Wesson before helping Sheriff O’Brien round up a search party to canvas the town and its outlying areas for any trace of Adelaide. This wasn’t Peppin, though. This was Houston—a much bigger, unfamiliar place where one wrong turn could render him completely lost. He’d never missed his hometown more. He couldn’t wait to get back there. But first, he was going to do everything in his power to find Adelaide. Right now, that meant agreeing to let her stepfather handle the search, so Chris finally agreed to Ezra’s plan.
No one in the immediate vicinity admitted to having seen anything, so Ezra flagged down a hansom cab, which they took to the Houston Gazette office. Ezra insisted on being the one to go in to Everett’s office to break the news. After the driver left, Chris entered to find Everett standing at his desk gathering a few papers. The man looked pale, but determined. “Chris, thank you for not getting on that train. It would have taken us much longer to figure out Adelaide was taken. Are you going to stay and help us find her?”
Chris nodded. “I’ll do whatever I can.”
Everett rounded the desk and clasped Chris’s shoulder. “I knew I could count on you.”
“Did you know she was in danger?” The question was out before he could stop it.
“There was no threat to her specifically.”
“But there were general threats.”
“To me and the paper. That’s nothing unusual. I can’t take them all seriously because most of them aren’t. I do try to be watchful and careful. That’s why I hired Ezra. I’m sure you’ve figured out he’s more than just a driver. He’s a bodyguard. And, no. Adelaide had no idea. I’m sure you have plenty more questions, but now is not the time. C’mon, son. We’re going to rally the troops and find our girl.”
*
Adelaide awakened slowly, vaguely aware that for some reason it was very hard to move. She tried to open her eyes, but her lashes felt too heavy to lift. She groaned. Realizing something was covering her mouth, she reached up in an effort to pull it away. A hand caught hers before she could. A calm voice reached her ears. “Everything is all right, Miss Harper. Just stay calm. I won’t hurt you.”
Hurt me? Why would he hurt me? A murky memory filled her mind, then slowly cleared until she recalled a man climbing into her carriage and pinning her down. She jolted upright in the seat she’d been slumped against. Her left wrist jerked painfully and she realized it was bound to something immovable. The reason she couldn’t open her eyes was because she was blindfolded. The gag in her mouth promised to muffle any sound, though she was too groggy to emit anything more than a questioning moan.
“Take a deep breath, and focus on my voice.” He waited for her to still before continuing. “We’re still in your carriage. We simply went for a little drive. You haven’t been touched except for what was necessary to restrain you. I ask that you return our c
ourtesy by listening closely to what I’m about to tell you. Are you awake enough to do that?”
She finally took the deep breath he recommended and found that it helped to clear the last vestiges of fog clinging to her mind. She still felt disoriented, but she had a feeling that had more to do with the fact that she was bound, gagged and blindfolded than anything else. Oddly enough, this situation felt rather familiar. Perhaps that was because she’d written a scene similar to this for one of her books. The setting had been only slightly different—a stagecoach rather than a carriage. One of the outlaws had ridden along as a passenger, then used chloroform to incapacitate the hero. She was relieved to find she’d described the smell of the chemical accurately, even though no one had agreed to provide a sample for her.
“Miss Harper?”
She snapped to attention with an indiscernibly mumbled, “Yes?”
“Take this warning to your stepfather…”
Relief filled her at the realization that she could only take a message to her stepfather if her assailant planned to release her. Since he’d explained how careful he’d been with her while she’d been unconscious and since she felt uninjured, she’d even go so far as to say he planned to keep his word about not hurting her and releasing her soon. She allowed herself to relax a little.
“If he continues to investigate the charity house in Peppin, you will be the one punished for it.”
She grunted her displeasure. “That hardly seems fair.”
“I can’t understand you.”
“Then ungag me so I can tell you that you’re a lout. A gentlemanly lout, but a lout nonetheless. I would like to punch you in the nose.”
“Stop talking,” he said loudly before he leaned closer and lowered his voice. “Listen, I don’t cotton to manhandling women, but I’m not the only one here right now. My boss has men working for him who wouldn’t think twice about hurting you whether he ordered it or not. If Everett Holden doesn’t heed this warning, those men will be coming after you and your mother. Do you understand?”
