A Fortune for the Outlaw's Daughter

by Lauri Robinson

  She was worried. Very worried. He sensed that. There wasn’t anything he could precisely put his finger on, but it seemed as if he’d lost half of her someplace along the line. He’d tried to convince her she had nothing to be ashamed of when it came to her father, the life she’d had, but that hadn’t seemed to help. The only time she was really herself was at night, when they were alone. The fiery, passionate Maddie came forth then. That thrilled him, and he wanted to see the luster in her eyes during the day, too. Every day, for the rest of her life.

  She sighed heavily, and he squeezed her shoulder. “I’m sure the mayor’s house will be quite festive tonight.”

  “I can’t wait to see it,” she said.

  That was about the biggest lie she’d ever told. However, Cole kept his thoughts to himself. Not going would put a kink in his plan. He had hired men lining the docks, watching every ship that landed for Mad Dog, and they needed to know where he was every minute of the day. Changing his schedule could leave him not knowing if Mad Dog was in town or not.

  She let out a heavy sigh. “Do we have to go to the mayor’s house tonight?”

  As much as he’d like to say no, he said, “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  He wanted to say because it was the only way to assure her safety. Instead, he dived into a softer explanation. “The gold rush to Alaska has been good for Seattle. The city has started proclaiming itself as the gateway to getting there, and we’ve become the proof it can happen. That anyone willing to take a gamble has the chance of making it rich.”

  Cole had been surprised that the entire town knew of their mining success before they’d landed, but it had given birth to his plan. Before then, he’d planned on securing her a hotel and heading north again, in pursuit of Mad Dog.

  “Jack’s hoping to find a buyer for his claim tonight,” Cole said, glad he had one solid truth to tell her.

  “Do you wish we’d sold everything to the Fenstermacher brothers, instead of just making them partners?” she asked.

  “No,” he said honestly. “My grandmother once told me that a smart man invests in things that will keep working for him long after he walks away. The brothers are good men, and with their leadership, I believe the Big Bonanza will continue to make us money for years to come.”

  “Me, too.” She glanced out the window. “So we’re going tonight because of Jack?”

  Cole held in his own sigh. “The party is sure to have people chomping at the bit to acquire an already promising claim.”

  The carriage stopped, and Cole waited for the driver to open the door before escorting Maddie down the steps and up the walkway of an impressive brick home. He’d lined up these tours in hopes to put a fire inside Maddie. Get her talking about future plans at the parties they attended.

  Though Maddie was kind and pleasant, she barely muttered a word. Knowing he couldn’t cut the tours short, Cole continued as planned, but was brooding as deeply as Maddie by the time they were over.

  On their way back to the hotel, they passed a rather large and elaborate church, and he recalled another thought, one that was never far from his mind. He and Maddie had never discussed what Elwood had told the miners, not fully.

  Displaying little emotion, Maddie said, “Don’t worry. I haven’t told anyone we aren’t really married here, either.” Turning away from the window, she went on to say, “If they find out differently, and they will, considering how fast word spreads here, they’ll start to question other things, and that could ruin Jack’s chances to sell his claim.”

  He didn’t want her to be right, but she was, and the set of her jaw said she wasn’t open to discussing any of it. She seemed to react that way to everything lately. Refused to talk about the future, of where she wanted to live, to build a house. All she’d say was they’d discuss it after Trig arrived and she paid off her debts.

  Growing more frustrated by the heavy silence growing between them, Cole asked, “Do you want to go shopping?”

  “We went shopping yesterday,” she said without glancing his way. “And this morning. Let’s just go back to the hotel. I want to read the newspapers.”

  “You’ve read every paper they have,” he snapped. “From all across the nation.”

  “Mr. Harms promised to collect any new ones that may have arrived this afternoon,” she said, turning back to the window. “I like reading about new places.”

  I don’t, he wanted to bark. He liked seeing new places, exploring new places, which was the one thing he was having a hard time giving up.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The mayor’s house was more elaborate than the ones they’d visited earlier in the day. Maddie attempted to be impressed, to be awed by the decorations and the furniture and the servants, but she wasn’t.

  She wasn’t impressed with Lucky, either. Shortly after returning to the hotel this afternoon, he’d left, giving her strict instructions to stay put, as always. She didn’t mind him telling her things like that; he was just worried. Besides, it wasn’t as if she had anywhere to go. That was what was driving her crazy. At least when she’d been in hiding with Smitty, she’d been outdoors. Able to breathe.

  Mr. Harms, the man behind the front desk at the hotel, had delivered new papers, but they hadn’t held her attention. Instead, she’d questioned things. Like how long it would be before Trig arrived. Though she didn’t want to be parted from Lucky, she did want Mad Dog caught, and that wouldn’t happen as long as Lucky was at her side. It wasn’t safe for Lucky, and with all the people he had guarding her, Mad Dog might never approach her. And knowing that he was out there somewhere, waiting, was worse than having him actively chasing her. An oddity, but a reality.

  When one of the girls from the dress shop arrived with the green gown, Maddie had let her in and accepted help in getting ready, since Lucky wasn’t there to button the back of her dress.

  In the end, Maddie had even let the girl, April had been her name, curl her hair with a piece of iron the shape of a gun barrel and hot enough it made her scalp sizzle. Maddie still wondered if she’d ever find all the pins April had shoved into her head to keep the curls in place.

  She wasn’t impressed with the mayor’s house, or Lucky, but the mayor’s wife really aggravated her already raw nerves. Normally Maddie welcomed Lucky’s touch, and his nearness, but this evening, the way he kept his palm in the small of her back, urging her forward to say hello to people she had no desire to meet, made her want to stomp on his foot.

  She wouldn’t, though. Not because he’d given her another lecture on being neighborly, either. He no longer did that. She wished he did. It was easier to understand. She understood the concept of being neighborly. The concept of being a rich woman was what she didn’t understand. Rich or not, no one needed to be rude. The mayor’s wife was. Rude. Mean. And ugly.

  Maddie bit her lip, knowing her reactions to the other woman were just as bad mannered. Perhaps that was what happens when a woman has money. Their lives became so boring and empty they took it out on everyone else. She’d once thought all she needed was money and her life would be wonderful. It wasn’t so.

  However, Maddie was smart enough to know deep down that wasn’t what bothered her. For as long as she could remember, she’d wanted things. Things that would make her life better. Reasons to get up in the morning, and it hadn’t all been about money.

  Pulling her gaze away from the young serving girl the mayor’s wife had just reprimanded in public, Maddie turned to accept the glass of punch Lucky held toward her. Trying not to let her anger show, she said, “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said, sounding as icy as she had.

  He’d seen the scolding, too, and she knew he wasn’t pleased. A warmth settled in her chest. Not only did he look overly handsome in his dark green suit jacket, but he was also the most down-to-earth person in the room, so unlik
e all those other snobbish and superficial men. All the gold in the world wouldn’t change Lucky.

  Several of the men at the party reminded her of Mad Dog—how he’d put on fancy clothes, masquerading as someone else, when deep down he was still a no-account, low-down, mean outlaw.

  A jovial laugh had her turning again. Nothing changed Jack, either. Though he was wearing a three-piece black suit with a red silk vest and tie and his hair and beard had been trimmed short, he was as boisterous as ever.

  When her gaze settled on Lucky again, she had to admit gold wouldn’t change Lucky, because he’d grown up with it. With all this. He was as comfortable amongst this finery as he had been living at the mining camp.

  He took the cup of punch from her hand, which she hadn’t even tasted, and set it on a nearby table. “Would you care to dance?” he asked, nodding toward an adjacent room where couples were sashaying around a dance floor.

  “No, thank you.”

  “Come on,” he coaxed, tugging on her elbow.

  She kept her feet planted. “I don’t know how,” she whispered through a painful and false smile in case anyone was looking.

  “I’ll teach you.”

  Though his whisper tickling her ear sent a delightful shiver down her back, she shook her head. “I don’t want to learn.”

  The disappointment in his eyes formed a hard knot in her stomach, and she considered giving in, but the maid—whom the mayor’s wife had chastised—was approaching with a plate of bite-size delicacies, and Maddie couldn’t stop staring at the girl.

  “Would you care for one?” Lucky asked, gesturing toward the tray.

  Maddie didn’t respond. The girl looked vaguely familiar. She’d met many people since arriving in Seattle and wasn’t sure if this was one she’d seen recently, or some time ago. Considering the maid worked for the mayor, and Maddie had never been in the house before, she wondered if the maid just resembled someone else.

  Lucky took one of the tidbits and thanked the girl before popping it in his mouth.

  The maid gave a curtsy and smiled before turning to walk away, and that was when recognition hit. “I know that girl.”

  “Of course you do,” Lucky said drily. “The entire room does after the tongue-lashing the mayor’s wife just gave her.”

  “No,” Maddie said. “I know her from Mrs. Smother’s. She thought you were handsome.”

  He lifted a brow, and when his gaze went to follow the girl across the room, Maddie wanted to stomp on his foot again. When he slowly turned to look at her again, he asked, “How would she have known me?”

  “You rescued her the year before.”

  He nodded as if it didn’t matter and folded his hand around her elbow again. “Are you ready to dance now?”

  Maddie let her gaze follow the girl again. The plate she held was almost empty. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  His hold tightened on her arm. “Where are you going?”

  “I want to talk to her.”

  “Why?”

  “Just because I do.”

  Lucky shook his head. “Servants aren’t allowed to speak to guests.”

  “I’ve figured that out already,” she said, watching the girl leave the room. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Maddie—”

  “I’ll be right back,” she insisted, tugging from his hold. A burning desire said she needed to talk with the maid.

  Maddie found the girl in the kitchen, refilling the plate along with several other servants, who all stopped talking when she entered.

  “Are you looking for the facilities, Mrs. DuMont?” one of them asked.

  “No,” Maddie said, walking up to the girl. “I’d like to speak with you.”

  The maid turned red.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am, that would be most improper,” an older woman said, most likely the main housekeeper.

  “I know,” Maddie said, holding a stern and steady gaze on the older woman. “This will only take a moment.”

  The housekeeper eventually nodded toward the young maid, and Maddie took the girl’s arm, which trembled beneath her touch. “You haven’t done anything wrong,” Maddie assured her, leading the girl out the door.

  Down the hallway she found a quiet corner, away from the traffic leading in and out of the kitchen. Unsure why her heart was skipping beats, Maddie said, “I remember you from Mrs. Smother’s.”

  “I remember you, too,” the maid answered. “Mrs. Smother was in a tizzy when you came up missing. And again when those men came looking for you.”

  “Alan Ridge’s men?” Maddie asked, her insides churning.

  “Yes. I’m glad to see they didn’t find you.”

  The sincerity of the girl’s tone touched something soft inside Maddie, yet she muttered, “They found me, all right.”

  “But we all told them we didn’t know where you’d gone.”

  Maddie laid a hand on the girl’s arm. “I’m not saying they found me because of you.” Unsure what to say next, she asked, “How old are you?”

  “Fifteen.”

  She’d assumed the girl was much older when meeting her last spring. Maddie then asked, “How old were you when Lu—when Mr. DuMont rescued you, took you to Mrs. Smother?”

  “Thirteen.”

  Maddie held her breath for a moment. “He rescued you from Ridge, didn’t he?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  With Maddie’s prodding, the girl shared a harrowing story of how Mad Dog overtook her family wagon, killing her parents and capturing her and her sisters. The maid, named Ilene, had escaped and eventually ended up at Hester’s, from where Lucky had whisked her away to Trig’s ship.

  “What about your sisters?” Maddie asked.

  “I don’t know what happened to them,” Ilene answered. “But I will someday. As soon as I’ve earned enough money to pay off my debt to Mrs. Smother.”

  Maddie’s head was spinning. She had no way of knowing just how many girls Mad Dog had captured over the years. It was a moment before Ilene’s statement entered her thoughts. “What debt?” Trig had told her he paid Mrs. Smother to educate the girls, giving them a new start.

  “For my training and room and board.”

  “Captain DuMont paid for that.”

  Ilene shook her head. “Only for the first month.”

  Maddie highly doubted that was the deal Trig made with Mrs. Smother. “Do you know of other girls indebted to Mrs. Smother?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Several. Some of them work here, for the mayor, and others for his friends.”

  Maddie’s spine quivered. “And they were escaping from Ridge?”

  The maid nodded. “Or others like him.”

  “Maddie?”

  She spun at the sound of Lucky’s voice and held up a hand, telling him she’d heard him, but silently asking that he not come any closer.

  “You were lucky, ma’am,” Ilene said. “Getting away, going to Alaska and marrying Mr. DuMont.”

  Turning back to glance at Lucky for a moment, Maddie let her thoughts flow in several directions, yet they settled on one. The man looking at her curiously. “Yes,” she said. “I was lucky. I am lucky.”

  “You’ve given the rest of us hope.” Ilene blushed slightly. “That if we have a mind to, we can change our status in life.”

  The emptiness Maddie had felt the past few days dissolved. “That’s right,” she said, squeezing Ilene’s hand. “You can. Anyone can.” She felt a tide of purpose rise within her. She had changed her status in life. Lucky, Trig, even Jack, was who she had to thank for that, as well as the Fenstermacher brothers and other miners. Lucky most of all, though. He’d changed a lot of things about her.

  Months ago she’d recognized he’d turned her into a woman, but at the time she hadn�
�t known exactly what that meant. It was more than crying at the drop of a hat or wanting to wear clothes that would make her look pretty. In truth, Lucky had allowed her to become who she wanted to be. At the time, she’d thought that was to have money. Make it rich so she’d be self-sufficient. There was more to it, though. Lucky had made her believe in herself. That her dreams weren’t just dreams, but goals, and that she could succeed in whatever she chose.

  Right then and there, Maddie realized he’d done that by loving her. He’d never told her so, just as she’d never told him. Mainly because she hadn’t known that was what it was.

  Love.

  Her entire being grew warm, and when she glanced down the hall, saw him still standing there, waiting for her, her heart skipped several beats. With him she was capable of everything. Anything.

  Her greatest perception happened then. She didn’t have to change. Didn’t have to become someone she didn’t want to be. She didn’t mind having a man tell her what to do, either, not when they were partners. Happiness welled, and Maddie turned to Ilene. “I’d like you to come to the Empire Hotel tomorrow, around one.”

  The maid frowned. “It’s Christmas Day tomorrow.”

  “I know.”

  “But I have to work.”

  “I’ll arrange it with the mayor,” Maddie said. A lot of clout came with being a rich woman, and she was about to start using it. “One o’clock at the Empire Hotel.”

  With a newfound spring in her step, Maddie walked down the hallway, and when she stopped in front of Lucky, she stretched onto her toes and kissed him, heedless of the traffic going in and out of the kitchen.

  He grinned. “What was that for?”

  “Because I’m lucky,” she said.

  “You are?”

  She nodded. “Your luck rubbed off on me. Which was what I hoped would happen the night we met.” Hooking his elbow with hers, she added, “And it did.”

  “Maybe yours rubbed off on me,” he said.