She sneezed as she swept the back corner of the store. This had become Sean’s job, but she had told him to take the day to play with Belinda in the yard behind the house. He had given her a baffled frown when she asked him not to go out on the green today. For as long as she could, she wanted to protect the children from the horror hovering over them like a malignant shadow.
Sweeping the dust and dirt—much more than usual, because of the many people who had come in and out today—toward the front door, Emma paused when a man walked across the porch and through the door. He was dressed with an elegance that was completely out of place in Haven. She froze and stared when she realized she had seen such a fancy outfit before—twice before. Noah had worn such clothes to the Smiths’ wedding and to their own yesterday.
This man’s suit was dark brown, almost the very shade of his hair and the thick mustache that seemed to explode from beneath his nose to cover both his upper and lower lips. When he walked toward her, she saw he also held in his gloved hand a cane with a carved ivory handle and what appeared to be a gold tip. Every inch of him announced he was very rich and wanted everyone to know that.
She said nothing as he glanced around the store, the hint of a condescending smile curving along the outer edges of his mustache. Usually she would have bristled like a frightened woodchuck if someone had looked down their overly long nose at her store, but some sense—the same sort of survival instinct that had guided her to Haven—warned her to wait and see what this dandy wanted.
“I would like to speak with Mr. Delancy,” the man said without the courtesy of a “good afternoon.”
She would be more polite. “Good afternoon, sir. There is no Mister Delancy. I run the store.”
“Is it Miss or Mrs. Delancy?”
She did not hesitate as she answered, “Folks around here just call me Emma.”
“How very informal of you! I guess that’s one of the interesting parts of life in the country.”
“I guess so.” She kept her broom between them. She did not like the way this man eyed her up and down as if she were just another piece of the merchandise for sale.
A nagging suspicion in the back of her mind grew louder. The fancy clothes, the even fancier carriage she could see parked in front of the store with a driver waiting patiently, the man’s arrogant expectation that she would welcome his salacious stare … she prayed she was wrong.
“How may I help you, sir?” she asked when he continued to ogle her. “I trust it won’t take long. I don’t want to seem inhospitable, but I’m ready to close the store.”
“I will not keep you long … Emma.” His smile was warm, but his eyes remained calculating. “I have a single—and hopefully simple—request.”
Now she really wanted to stiffen with fury at his tone, which suggested anything more complicated than the most elementary task might be beyond her country bumpkin comprehension. She could not keep her irritation from chilling her voice as she asked, “What request?”
“Can you give me directions to Noah Sawyer’s farm?”
She did not react, for she had expected this very question. “Of course, mister …”
“Gilson. Laird Gilson.” He bowed slightly toward her as if they stood in a ballroom instead of her store.
Even though she had already guessed this must be the man who wanted to ruin Belinda’s life as Miles had ruined hers, she could not halt the icy river of disgust racing down her back. She wanted to take her broom and bat him over the head with it while she demanded how he could try to destroy a little girl’s happiness simply to get a share of a successful furniture factory.
As he straightened, he said, “A man who used to live in Haven suggested I should stop here to get directions.”
“A man who used to live in Haven?”
“Mr. Baker.”
She had not anticipated this. When she bought the store, she had endured Mr. Baker’s odd ways and his whining about being penniless. Then he had left Haven. Somehow, he must have met Laird Gilson and revealed that Noah and Belinda were here. But how? She could not understand how this had happened.
“Emma?” asked Gilson. “I’d like those directions now.”
She clasped the broom tightly as she said in the most pleasant tone she could manage, “Ah, Mr. Gilson, giving you those directions is very simple. Noah Sawyer’s farm is outside Haven. Take the road past the school and keep going until you get to a ruined bridge. Then turn away from the river and follow the creek until you come to another bridge. Cross that and drive back down to the road that would have connected across the ruined bridge. His farm is not far from there.”
“That sounds like a roundabout trip.”
“It’s the quickest way since the bridge was washed away earlier this spring.” She must continue to be honest with him, because he had to trust her directions. If he asked anyone else in Haven, they would direct him to her house.
He tipped his hat to her again. “Thank you, Emma.”
“Good afternoon, Mr. Gilson.”
Instead of leaving, he stepped forward and plucked one of her hands off the broom. He bent over it and pressed his mouth to it. She yanked it away, putting it behind her to wipe the moisture on her skirt.
“I’ve heard how shy country misses are,” he said with a smile.
“We simply know to mind our manners.”
He laughed, but the sound was as cold as the shiver that ran its frigid finger down her back again. “Clever as well as pretty, I see. Would you join me at the Haven Hotel for dinner this evening, Emma?”
“The hotel has no public dining room.”
“I know.”
It was so tempting to think of slapping his face to wipe that superior smile off it. Instead she said coolly, “I believe you have mistaken my store for another sort of business establishment, Mr. Gilson.” She walked past him and put her hand on the door. “Good afternoon.”
He tugged on the top of one glove, cleared his throat, and nodded toward her as he left her store. Her hope that she had persuaded him to treat her properly vanished when he turned and said, “I trust we shall speak again, Emma, soon. Very soon.”
She did not answer. Closing the door, she quickly locked it. Her name was called, and she whirled with a gasp.
Noah put his hands out to steady her. “Calm down, sweetheart.”
“He was just here.” She pulled him back away from the door. “Don’t let him see you.”
“Gilson?”
“Yes! How did you know?”
His smile was even icier than Gilson’s. “I saw the carriage come into town. I came through the barn and the storage room and got here just in time to hear you tell him to get out and to see his lecherous looks at you. Are you all right?”
“As long as I don’t have to talk to him alone again. He makes me feel as if a whole mound of ants are creeping across my skin.”
“Gilson does seem to have that effect on many women who aren’t interested in his money.” He took her hand. “Let’s get back to the house. Poor Lewis is going to think I have tried to give him the slip.”
“Lewis?”
“He’s still napping on your sofa.” He chuckled. “He refused to let Alice Underhill be my guard because she’s a woman, so he watched over me until he fell sound asleep about four hours ago.” He glanced out the window. “What did Gilson want?”
“Directions to your farm. He’s on his way out to there now. That gives us some time to find out how and why Mr. Baker contacted him.”
“Baker?” He looked toward the stairwell door.
“That’s what he said.” She released his hand and threw open the door to the dim stairwell. Gathering up her skirts, she climbed the stairs that twisted up to another door at the top.
She opened it. Her nose wrinkled as she smelled something that had gone bad. She would have to find it and get rid of it before the odor seeped down into the store. She opened both windows at the front of the main room.
Papers crunched under feet as
she went to peer into the other room, a bedroom which reeked even more than the main room. Holding her breath, she sprinted across the room and pushed up the window. Fresh air burst in, and she went back out into the front room.
“What a mess!” Noah said. He kicked yellowed newspapers aside.
“I had no idea he lived like this.”
“A single spark, and this could have burned your store to the ground.”
She nodded. “I will get it cleaned up … after.”
“A good idea.”
“If—” She gave a soft cry as the breeze slammed the door shut.
Noah chuckled as he brushed her lips with his. “Don’t be so jumpy, sweetheart. You need every bit of your wits about you now Gilson has arrived.” He reached to open the stairwell door. “What’s this?”
Emma stepped over the scattered papers as he ripped down one that had been nailed to the door. When he swore under his breath, then more loudly, she took the page he held out to her. She choked as she read the faded page that had the words Wanted in huge letters across the top. Beneath those letters were a description that fit Noah perfectly and described Belinda as she must have been when she was a baby. A reward of a thousand dollars was offered for information leading to the arrest of Noah and the return of Belinda to her uncle.
“Where did he get this?” Noah growled. He balled it up and threw it at the far wall.
She looked out the window toward the courthouse. “The only place he could have gotten that would have been from Lewis. I know Lewis doesn’t hold onto all the wanted posters that come to Haven. He concentrates on the ones issued in Cincinnati and Louisville.”
“Because he doesn’t expect any other criminals to come to Haven.”
“Yes,” she whispered as her throat threatened to close and leave her to gag on her own lies.
“Are the rest of these pages wanted posters?” He bent to pick up another.
She grasped his hand, halting him. When he frowned at her, she said, “I need to tell you something, Noah. Something very important.” She forced a swallow past the lump in her throat. “Something I should have told you before.” Closing her eyes as she tried to gather her waning courage, she said, “Or last night.”
“What is it?” He caught her hands in his. When they trembled against his rough palms, he asked, “What did Gilson say to you?”
“It isn’t Gilson. It’s—” The breeze shifted, and the odor of decaying food struck her like a blow. “Let’s talk about this downstairs.”
“A good idea. We need to decide what we’re going to do now that Gilson has come to Haven.”
Emma was so tempted to let him change the subject to that important topic, but she could not remain silent. If one of these pages had contained a description of her, Mr. Baker might have revealed that to Gilson also. She hurried down the stairs even more swiftly than she had gone up them, not wanting Noah to see her fear that if there was a five-year-old wanted poster for him in that debris, could there be one only a couple of years older which described Emma?
Shadows darkened the corners of the store—of her haven. Noah’s hand on her elbow steered her to the rocking chair. When she sat, he pulled another chair closer. Something she had said or done must have revealed to him that she was not willing to share what she had to say with anyone other than him.
A fist pounded on the front door. She looked toward the door to see Lewis’s face pressed to it. With a glance at Noah, she rose and went to the door. She unlocked it and stepped back as he burst into the store.
“Noah, you told me that you wouldn’t sneak away!” he shouted. “I thought I could trust you, but I turn my back for a minute—”
“For four hours,” Noah said coming to his feet and walking toward the sheriff. “If I’d been planning to take Belinda and leave town, don’t you think I would have done it as soon as you fell asleep on Emma’s sofa?”
“You should have wakened me if you were leaving the house.”
“I should have.” He sighed as he put his arm around Emma’s waist. Smiling down at her, he said, “I saw Laird Gilson’s carriage out in front of the store, and I didn’t want to wait even the time it would have taken to wake you. I didn’t want Emma to have to face him by herself, but she’d dealt with him by the time I got here.”
“Gilson?” Lewis’s brow rutted with concentration. “The man who had the warrant sworn out for your arrest?”
“I think he hoped to get here to see me dragged away in chains.”
“Noah!” she moaned. “Don’t even jest about such things.”
“I have to, sweetheart.” He tipped her face toward him and kissed her gently. “Joking at Gilson’s expense is the only way to keep me from hunting him down and choking him with my bare hands.” His smile returned as he said, “I trust you didn’t hear that, Lewis.”
“Not a word.” The sheriff took a deep breath and released it with a long sigh. “I hope you can fight this, Noah.” He brightened. “Why don’t you and I go to see Judge Purchase?”
“He’s the local judge,” Emma explained, wondering why she had not thought of this herself. It might be as simple as she never felt comfortable around Judge Owen Purchase. The judge was a genial man, but she could not forget that, if he knew the truth, he would be the one to send her back to Kansas to hang. “He sometimes rides a circuit, but he has been overseeing cases in Haven all winter.”
“Do you think he’ll see me?” Noah asked.
“We can call on him, and then you’ll know.” Lewis’s grin became even broader. “He’ll have to hear the case here first because you were arrested in Indiana instead of Illinois.”
“True.” Noah’s smile did not dim as he added, “I know you wanted to talk to me, Emma, but can it wait?”
“I guess it must.”
He kissed her again so swiftly that she did not have a chance to put her arms around him before he had released her and was walking out of the store with Lewis. Closing the door behind them, she locked it again. She needed to tell Noah about why she was in Haven, but she could not in Lewis’s hearing.
Tonight … tonight when they were alone, she would tell him.
“Emma!”
She whirled as she heard Sean’s distressed voice. She did not want to think what else might be wrong now.
The door from the storage room struck the wall as it was shoved open. Sean ran into the store. Before she could chide him for being so thoughtless, she saw the paper he was holding in his hand. It was the letter from the Children’s Aid Society.
“Where did you get that?” she asked.
“It fell out of your apron pocket when I was hanging your apron back up in the kitchen.” His voice broke as he cried, “Why didn’t you tell me that they’d looked for Maeve and couldn’t find her? Why did you hide it where you thought I wouldn’t ever see it?”
“Sean, I will explain. Just not now. I have to—”
He threw the page on the table. “You told me you would let me know when you got an answer back from them. You promised me you would.”
“I know I did, but—”
“You lied to me.”
“I didn’t want to upset you when there was no real news. They—”
“Can’t find Maeve!”
“I know.” She started to put her arms around him to offer him the comfort she needed so desperately.
He flung out his hands, knocking her arms away. The epithet he snarled at her shocked her motionless. Grabbing the letter, he raced out of the store. The storage room door slammed as viciously as it had opened.
She started to follow to calm him, then paused. What could she say to him? That she had gone against her better judgment in protecting him? That she had been urged to keep this secret until she had good news for Sean?
This she could not blame on Noah. It had been her choice. What had she said all day at the store? That this was just a horrible mistake.
It was, and this horrible mistake was one she had made all on her own.
&
nbsp; CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Noah came into Emma’s bedroom, which was much smaller than his at the farm. And lacier, he noted with a smile, something many of her friends would find unexpected about the competent storekeeper. Even through the shadows of the unlit room, he could see lace dripping from the white curtains and along the pillowcases that leaned up against the simple headboard.
He undid his collar and placed it on her dresser. He turned back to the bed and touched the wooden headboard. With a sigh, he recalled her delight with the bed he had made especially for them. When he had imagined sweeping her up into his arms and bringing her up here to her bed, it had not been because he could not return to his own home without Lewis Parker trailing after him like Emma’s dog, who followed her cats endlessly about the yard.
Cursing Gilson would do no good now. The man was here and was determined to do whatever he could to discredit Noah and take Belinda away forever. Gilson must have some trick prepared, for he would not have come to Haven, where Noah was sure to have garnered allies, unless he was ready to discredit him completely. Or was it as simple as Gilson could not resist watching gallows built for Noah?
No, he did not want to think of the future tonight. Tonight, he wanted to lose himself in the love Emma offered him. He turned as the door opened. The light from the lamp in the hallway glowed like the morning sun on Emma’s golden hair.
“Noah?” she asked quietly. “Are you in here?”
Instead of answering, he tugged her into the room and up against him. Kicking the door closed, he did not need light to know how her eyes brightened at his touch. That memory was followed by one of the sight of them closing as she offered her lips to him. The familiar sensation of need flowed through him whenever her face came into his mind, and he knew it was more than her lips that he wanted.
“Sweetheart,” he murmured, “you’ve enchanted me with your magic. Now I’m going to spin you a spell of mine.”
She ran her fingers along his unyielding chest where his shirt had fallen open, but said, “Noah, we need to talk. I must tell you—”
Twice Blessed Page 22
