Wild Roses

by Hannah Howell

  Silently he crept into the stable, keeping close to the shadows. He sent up a silent prayer of thanks when Thomas began to roll a cigarette, all the youth’s attention fixed on the chore. Hoping Thomas was one of those who was slow and meticulous, Harrigan slipped up behind him. Thomas seemed to sense his presence, but Harrigan was ready. When the youth turned toward him, Harrigan delivered one clean uppercut to the jaw, knocking the boy unconscious. He caught Thomas as he started to fall and gently laid the boy on the floor.

  He went and collected Ella, who grimaced when she saw Thomas. “He’s not dead, for God’s sake,” he grumbled as he pushed her toward their horses.

  While Harrigan saddled the horses, Ella crouched next to the unconscious youth. She could tell at a glance that Harrigan had only knocked Thomas out, but she was still angry. Thomas and the others were only trying to save her life. They didn’t deserve this kind of treatment.

  Just as she was about to make her opinion of Harrigan’s actions clear, he pulled her to her feet and tossed her on the back of the mare. She clutched the pommel of the saddle as Harrigan cautiously led them out of the stable. It didn’t surprise her when, just as they entered the street, there was an outcry. Harrigan immediately spurred their horses into a gallop and headed toward the mountains. She decided it was far more important to hold on and stay in the saddle than to argue with the man. They could talk later.

  “Damn it all to hell,” Louise snapped, and she gave in to the childish urge to stamp her feet, only to stir up the dust on the street so badly that she coughed. “So much for my good luck,” she said as Joshua moved to stand beside her.

  “We almost had them,” Joshua said in a weak attempt to console her.

  “I am getting very tired of almosts.”

  “I suppose there’s still no real point in getting our horses and chasing after him.”

  “None at all. Yet again, by the time they’re off the train, saddled and ready, he’ll have too big a lead. Also, there’s now a wider choice of trails he can follow.”

  “True, but he would leave tracks to tell us which way he went.”

  “Somehow I don’t think so.”

  “Sorry,” Manuel said as he walked up to her, George ambling along beside him.

  “It’s not your fault,” Louise said as they all moved out of the street.

  Manuel grimaced. “It might be. Met up with him and Ella in the alley. I let him go. Just couldn’t see how we could settle the standoff we had ourselves stuck in. He was aiming a gun at me and I was aiming one at him, but we really couldn’t start shooting. Don’t think I would’ve won a punching contest with him either.”

  “George,” Louise said, eyeing the man suspiciously.

  “He didn’t help him or warn him,” Manuel said in the man’s defense.

  “Didn’t help you though, did he?”

  “I didn’t promise to do so, Louise,” George said quietly.

  “Oh, you are a sneaky fellow.” She shook her head then did a quick head count and frowned. “Where’s Thomas?”

  “He was watching the horses,” answered Edward.

  “The horses Harrigan and Ella just galloped out of town on?” Louise asked.

  She did not wait for anyone to answer, but hurried to the stable. A cry of alarm escaped her when she saw Thomas’s prone body, but her first flash of terror faded when the boy groaned. She quickly knelt by his side, put her arm under his shoulders, and raised him up a little. When George knelt on the other side of Thomas and gently held a cold, wet rag to the boy’s chin, she directed all of her anger at Harrigan toward him.

  “Some friend you have. He beats up children,” she snapped.

  “Children?” Thomas muttered, glancing from Louise to George and back again.

  “Harrigan simply knocked him out,” George said, his calm voice a marked contrast to Louise’s emotionally charged one.

  “He punched someone smaller and a lot younger than he is.”

  “You would rather he had shot him?”

  “Er, Joshua, maybe you could take me out of the line of fire,” Thomas said and a laughing Joshua helped him stand up. “It was just one light punch, Louise,” he said in an attempt to calm the woman.

  “It couldn’t have been that light,” she argued as she stood up, slapping away George’s helping hand. “You were flat out on the floor.”

  “I was between him and the horses. Like George said, he could’ve just shot me. It couldn’t have been easy to creep up on me like that.”

  “I cannot believe the way you all defend him. He’s taking Ella to Harold. I don’t care if he does it gently or politely or any other way. He shouldn’t be doing it at all.” She muttered a curse and strode out of the stable.

  George looked at the four youths who were watching the rapidly disappearing Louise as if she was a stick of dynamite that was about to go off in their hands. He started to laugh, the looks of surprise on the faces of the others only adding to his amusement. Louise Carson was more woman than most men knew how to handle. George sobered as he realized that he might never be given the chance to try.

  “I can’t believe you hit that boy,” Ella said the moment Harrigan slowed their pace enough for her to talk.

  “That ‘boy’ is as tall as I am and probably as strong,” Harrigan said, inwardly relieved to hear little more than a hint of shock and annoyance in her voice.

  “That still didn’t give you the right to knock him down. He’s only trying to help me.”

  “Careful, you’re edging close to that forbidden topic.”

  “Tough. We are just a few days from a big, fat piece of that forbidden topic. I’m real tired of the game of let’s pretend we’re just strolling through the countryside.”

  “I was rather enjoying that game,” he muttered, realizing he was not going to be able to completely avoid an argument.

  “Of course you were. It was very nice and pleasant for you. You got to do just what you wanted without the annoyance of constantly having to explain yourself.” He just shrugged when she cast him a look of irritation.

  “Discussing the matter is much akin to banging our heads against a brick wall. What’s the point?”

  “Probably none.” She sighed. “It’s just I that look at those mountains and the whole game seems a little silly now. We’re riding right in Harold’s shadow now. I did try. Believe me, I was enjoying the game too. I just can’t do it any longer.”

  “So you intend to try and talk me out of taking you to the man? Do you really think I’ve changed my mind?”

  “No. I begin to wonder if you will change it even if Harold grabs me and drags a knife across my throat right in front of you. You’d probably tell yourself that he just slipped while trying to cut my hair.”

  “Ella!” The image she painted chilled him even as he was distressed by her lack of faith in him. “I’ve told you that I will look into the whole matter.”

  “You sound like a damned lawyer.”

  He slowed his pace so that he was riding right next to her and eyed her warily. “You don’t like lawyers?”

  Something about the way he asked the question told Ella not to say the derogatory words that immediately sprang to mind. “Don’t have much against them really. It was just an expression of sorts. Everyone knows that lawyers are clever with words. It’s what they’re trained to be. That’s why people rush to hire one when they’re in trouble. Why? Have a close friend who’s a lawyer?”

  “You might say so. I went to Harvard and trained to be a lawyer.”

  Ella gaped at him. “A lawyer and a Harvard man? What the hell are you doing taking work as a bounty hunter?”

  “I am not a bounty hunter,” he snapped.

  “You are paid money to find people and bring them in. Sounds like a bounty hunter to me.”

  “You’re in a particularly contrary mood at the moment, aren’t you? Are you looking for an argument?”

  Ella studied him for a moment then gave him a slightly contrite smile. “I think
I might be.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I almost got away and, as always, you ruined the opportunity.”

  Harrigan sighed and shook his head. He could understand how she felt. This time rescue had been very close. He was still surprised that he had eluded Louise. It was probably foolish, but he began to wonder if fate had a hand in it all, if it was pushing them toward some destiny of its own choosing.

  “You have a very strange look on your face,” Ella said, breaking into his thoughts.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt your tirade.” He grinned at the almost petulant look that briefly crossed her face.

  “You have a true skill at taking all the joy out of a good temper.”

  Harrigan laughed, then quickly grew serious again. “I know that everything that stands between us, what you want and what I must do, are totally incompatible, and I guess that’s why I try so hard to keep you off of the subject. I don’t mind a good argument, rather fond of them actually, but there is so much between us, I’m not sure we can have one and still be speaking when it’s over. Nothing will be resolved.”

  “Are you afraid I might be able to change your mind?”

  “Maybe. The closer we get to Philadelphia and Harold, the less I like this. I don’t want to do this, but I have to. It’s that need that will make it hard for you to change my mind. If I let you talk me out of this, I let down my whole family. The money I’m being paid is already earmarked for things, much-needed things. It also puts us all closer to making a new start. Perhaps building a business as good as the last one, and one that can’t be stolen away.”

  “And you’re not going to fully recover from what Eleanor did until your family has a good business again, are you?”

  “Probably not. That shipping business was everything to us, a future for me, my brothers, cousins, the whole lot. It meant a comfortable life for my parents as they aged. It means nothing to the Templetons except for one more possession, and a little less competition. I think that angers me more than the fact that I was completely duped and tricked. It wasn’t needed. They could have lived in grand splendor without it. In fact, I have kept an eye on it, and there is no sign of improvement in it, no changes at all. Maybe if they had thought we were not bringing it to its full potential and were doing good things with it now, I could somehow understand. Instead, it just sits there putting money in their pockets.”

  She felt a strong wave of sympathy for him. A lot of people were fooled in love. Heartache was an acceptable risk in the game. Total destruction of a family’s life was not. Even after Harrigan got over his stung pride and hurt feelings, the damage of his relationship with Eleanor Templeton continued.

  “I think they did not like the competition,” she said quietly. “It was the grandfathers of both the Templetons and the Carsons who built the fortunes. The last two generations, the sons and the grandsons, have done little except live off the labors of their forefathers. They’re very good at deception and all of that, but I don’t think they have what their grandfathers did. They don’t have the wit and skill to build a business of their own or strengthen the ones they have. They don’t compete because they don’t know how.”

  “So they steal.”

  “Yes, they steal or, in a few cases, they completely destroy what they fear is threatening them.”

  “Are we back to you and Harold again?”

  “I don’t believe Harold sees me as a threat, or even competition. He sees me as a way to add to his fortunes without even breaking a sweat. In truth, except for his precious Margaret, I do not believe Harold could ever see any woman as a threat or a competitor. He simply does not see us as strong enough, smart enough, or even worth his time.”

  “He obviously hasn’t had much to do with you or Louise,” he drawled, and was pleased to see her smile. “Still, he and Templeton used women to get the businesses they’ve stolen over the years.”

  “Yes, their daughters. Both men think of those women more as sons. They’ve raised them to walk in their footsteps. Even so, it’s still a matter of Eleanor and Margaret getting orders from Papa and doing exactly as they are told. They’re not given the run of the businesses after they help steal them, are they?”

  “No. Well, none of that matters, except that it might help me put a stop to it all before any other families are ruined.” He looked ahead at the slowly rising rock-strewn trail. “If you are still of a mind to have a roaring good argument, I think it had better wait for a little while. The trail ahead gets tricky and it’d be best if we keep all of our attention on it.”

  “I think I can save it for a while.”

  She smiled at him when he chuckled, then held herself more firmly in the saddle. As soon as they were too far away from town and her aunt for her to run right back to the woman, she would remind Harrigan to unshackle her. The trail through the mountains was only going to get worse, and she wanted to have control of her horse. If he asked for a promise that she would not try to run away while they rode the treacherous roads, she would give him one. She did not want to go to Philadelphia and end up in Harold’s grasp, but she did not want to miss the confrontation because she had plummeted down a ravine in the mountains.

  Chapter Fifteen

  A small pebble slipped out from beneath Ella’s boot, and she stumbled. As she righted herself, she silently and heartily cursed Harrigan. There had to be a better trail through the mountains, perhaps one well worn by thousands of pioneers. When they had first started up the trail late yesterday evening, she had thought it might be a poor choice. Now she was sure of it. She began to suspect that Harrigan was purposely taking the worst route he could find to discourage any pursuit. It also meant that they had little chance of meeting up with anyone, even the people who called the mountains their home.

  What Harrigan seemed to be oblivious to was the danger they were courting. She doubted he knew the trail they were on any better than she did. It was madness to walk along a rocky path over a ravine that neither of them had ever explored. Ella could not believe she was worth that much money or that Harrigan was that desperate to win. She cautiously leaned to the right, so that she could see around him, and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw a wider path several yards up ahead of them.

  Just as she prepared to demand an explanation, she saw Harrigan make a strange sliding step sideways. Ella cried out in alarm as his foot slipped over the edge. That unbalanced him enough to make him fall. There was not enough room on the narrow path for him to land safely. Harrigan scrambled to catch himself, but the ground was far too unstable, and there was not enough of it. She moved to try and grab him, but it was too late. Ella screamed his name as he disappeared over the edge of the ravine.

  For a moment, Ella knelt on the rocky path, shaking and struggling to catch her breath. She did not want to look down, terrified of seeing Harrigan’s body broken on the rocks at the floor of the ravine. Then, taking several deep, slow breaths to try to calm herself, she finally peered over the edge, and felt her heart skip painfully. Harrigan was not a sprawled mass of broken bones at the bottom. He was half sitting, half lying on an outcrop of rock that was barely wide enough to hold his large body.

  Ella considered leaving him there only for the space of a heartbeat. He was alive, and looked to be no more than bruised and battered. She would be free. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the heart to do it. He had no supplies and no protection. Although she could lower such things down to him, the real problem was that she could not count on someone coming by who could help him. If she walked away from him, he could well rot on that ledge.

  “I don’t think anything is broken,” he called up to her, a little unsettled by the way she was staring at him without saying a word.

  “This was not one of your better choices,” she called back.

  “Ah, so you can speak. I was a little afraid that you had gone into a state of shock or something equally unhelpful.”

  “No, although I was briefly contemplating just leaving y
ou there, turning the horses around, and riding back to that last town.”

  Harrigan wondered how long she had considered that idea, heartily relieved that she had decided against it. It had occurred to him too. He had already begun planning his arguments to make her help him. He knew that if she left him where he was he would be as good as dead. What had terrified him about the possibility was the sure knowledge that his death would have been a long, slow one of starvation, thirst, and deprivation.

  “I’m very glad you had a change of heart,” he said.

  “I just might have left you there if this path showed any signs of being used by humans. It is clear, however, that no one with any wits at all comes this way.”

  “Alright, I concede that it was a damned poor choice of road. Now, can we get to the business of getting me the hell off this ledge before it decides it can’t carry my weight any longer?”

  Ella smiled, pleased to have his agreement about his bad taste in trails. She moved to take the rope off his horse, then frowned. He was too big a man for her to pull up.

  “Do you think your horse can tug you up without plummeting down the ravine?” she asked.

  “Yes, especially if I don’t make him do all the work. Just tie the rope securely to the saddle.”

  The way he stressed the word securely made her a little nervous. She had no real knowledge of knots, of which was the strongest and which had the least chance of coming undone. Harrigan was a big man and would put a lot of strain on it. Trying to recall what little she had learned at Louise’s ranch, she tied the rope to the saddle, then moved to the edge to look down at him again.

  “Any suggestions on how I should make the horse help you?” she asked.

  “Just lead him forward slowly.”

  She nodded and went back to his horse. Taking the animal by the reins, she began to tug him along inch by inch. She could hear Harrigan’s boots scraping the rock wall as he climbed even while the horse pulled him, but she didn’t dare leave the animal to check on Harrigan. One wrong move and she suspected Harrigan would definitely land at the bottom of the ravine. It was not until she saw the top of his head edge up over the rocks that she began to relax.