by Kristin Holt
Two days after that, and many telegrams later, he interrupted his honeymoon to be escorted into his own damn mining company by the Army.
Blast the whole thing into the ground!
He’d wanted to leave Josie behind, but she wouldn’t stay. She’d claimed she’d follow if he tried to leave, and he finally decided he wanted her by his side, anyway. After all they’d been through, she had a right to see this to its conclusion.
Plus, he didn’t want her out of his sight. He still didn’t have the culprits in hand, and wanted her safe.
And if he was completely honest, he’d admit he wanted her to see him in action.
His chest puffed out a bit as he handed his wife down from the wagon and offered his arm. He escorted her through the opened gates, his gaze watchful.
With the Army at his back, the men above ground stopped working, visibly surprised, and afraid.
Damn straight they should be afraid. Frighten his bride? Try and kill her?
Two men took off running, but it did them no good and soldiers collected them forthwith.
“Take control of the telegraph office,” he instructed the two men he’d briefed beforehand. Let me know if anyone tries to send or receive messages. Absolutely no telegrams go out. And any coming in are to be reported to me directly. Meanwhile, find the names of anyone who has been actively sending telegrams. For any reason.”
The foreman headed toward him, his calm gaze taking in the reinforcements. “Can I help you?”
Adam stopped, as did everyone else. “Mr. Obadiah Smith?”
“Yes.”
“Production ceases immediately. Call everyone in from the mines. I’ll address the men together.”
The man’s brows rose. “And you would be who, exactly?”
“Adam Taylor. I own this mine.”
Something flickered in the other man’s gaze but quickly vanished. Smith nodded, turned and shouted the order. “All men topside! Gather in the quarry!”
As per orders, Adam watched the soldiers spread throughout the camp so no one slipped away.
This ended today.
He escorted his wife to the top of the platform and when everyone finally gathered, Adam, from his position outside the telegram office, looked down at his men. “I am Adam Taylor of Cannon Mining. I know some of you. Others, I don’t.”
He searched the faces of the men and boys, holding eye contact with the most cantankerous. “I’ve had an interesting journey on my way here. A coward tried to knife me in the back.”
“Another coward tied dynamite my company purchased to the bottom of my rail car. He lit a slow fuse, timed to blow on a bridge.” Just remembering how close the coward had come to murdering Josie stoked Adam’s anger.
A few voices in the crowd as men turned to each other. Surprise registered on several faces.
“And,” Adam bellowed, “many of you standing on my land, right here, attempted to burn down a house not far from here with my wife and me inside.”
A few men flinched and glanced nervously about, at each other, at the guards, until finally many of them simply rooted their attention to the dirt under their boots.
“I won’t hesitate to press charges against every last ungrateful one of you.”
The doctor moved halfway up the stairs. “I can vouch for what happened. I don’t know who thought murdering the man who pays your wages was a good idea. I’ve been working for mining companies for the last thirty years, and this is the best one yet. Cannon Mining has safety measures in place here unlike any I’ve seen before. And they pay better too.”
“Then how come men are dead?” A bear of a man in back yelled, anger contorting his features.
More mumblings ricocheted through the crowd.
A man took off his hat. “Beggin’ your pardon, Boss. I didn’t have nothin’ to do with this. Nothin’.”
Others joined in, proclaiming innocence.
“Then speak up. Who stirred up trouble three nights ago? And why? A smart man doesn’t bite the hand that feeds him and his family.”
No one spoke for a long while. Adam took the time to search the crowd, stare a few belligerent men down, and show his mettle.
“If your loyalty is to this coward, this traitor, and not me, know this: I’ll shut down the mine. I’ll lock the gates. You are replaceable.”
Adam gaged the men’s reactions. They didn’t want to talk? He’d come prepared, with far more than idle threats.
He allowed one more lengthy pause, then turned to his foreman. “All right. We can wrap this up. I want—”
Smith wasn’t there.
“It were him!” a man pointed. “He’s the one what got us angry. Willie Norris! He said you were murderin’ us, with no care whether we lived or died.”
Adam turned to study a man he didn’t know. Painfully thin, with lank, greasy hair, and bulging eyes. “Mr. Norris?”
Two soldiers grabbed him, one holding each arm. “No!” He struggled. “It weren’t me! I swear it!”
Murmurs of agreement raced through the crowd. “It was him!” said another. “He got us to do it. Gave us the torches and everything!”
“Mr. Norris, you will explain yourself.”
“No!” The man bawled as he struggled, head suddenly bowing in rejection and fear. “It wasn’t me. I swear it!”
“Don’t listen to ’em! He’s the one what convinced us!”
“Mr. Taylor?”
Two recruits, young and eager, shoved Smith in front of them. “This man insisted on sending a telegram. We did exactly what you said and pretended to go along with it. We found this on him.”
One soldier handed Adam a piece of paper. A cipher?
“Smith?” Adam’s mouth parted in surprise. The man had been trusted with much. Obviously far too much. Intentionally, Adam banked the fire in his gut. “Let him go.”
The four soldiers flanking Smith did as ordered, releasing the foreman.
Smith jerked away. “What’s going on here?”
Smith had unlimited access to the telegraph office. No one would question him. “You needed to send a telegram?”
“Yes. I wanted to warn some of the other mines.”
“According to the cipher, he gave the all go for something.” A corporal stood at the ready.
Adam glanced at Norris who stared at Smith, terror as plain as day on his lean face. “Norris? Do you have something to add?”
He shook his head, pressing his lips as if to prevent himself from spilling the beans.
Adam turned back to Smith. “Why?” His jaw tightened as he remembered the murdered men. “Why would you do this?”
The foreman attempted to put on a grand, indignant show of surprise, his honor, his innocence.
But something Smith must have seen in Adam’s expression caused his own features to twist in rage. He rushed Adam, his fist swinging, only to be jerked back by two soldiers. “I’ll tell you why, you bloody boat-licker!” His breath expelled in gusts. “The Hidden Queen. Do you even remember what happened there?”
The Hidden Queen Mine caved in, entombing over fifty men ten years earlier. Adam nodded. “I know it well.”
“My father died in that cave-in. I saw you there, you know, with your grandfather and cousin after the accident.”
Grandfather had taken them to the mine to offer assistance and determine what needed doing. They’d worked tirelessly to see every need met.
“When my father died,” Smith screamed, “we lost everything.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” Smith snarled the word. “I’ve been planning this for years. Planning to take your company down. Ruin your lives like you ruined ours.”
“By killing innocent men in accidents?”
A rumbling started in the crowd.
“What do a few more men matter to you?” Smith threw out a hand. “We are all replaceable.” He threw Adam’s words back, laced with venom.
“You don’t care,” Smith insisted. “You visit us here, t
hen go back to your fancy houses, wear your fancy clothes, and don’t give dead men another thought. If you only knew what my mother did to survive.”
Josie made a sound of distress and Adam stepped in front of her, blocking her view.
“You killed all those men? Our friends?” A hoarse voice growled from the crowd.
Smith drew in a breath. “No!” He pointed to Adam. “He did. Him and his family.”
“You killed our own?” Disbelief and growing anger lit the crowd’s fuse.
“He wasn’t here when our friends died.” Gathering rage lit a man’s voice. “But you were.”
“You killed them? And Norris did too? My sons?”
This miner’s voice broke in agony so raw, Adam nearly gave the signal for the Army to break up the crowd, but he forced himself to wait. This employee, obviously innocent, deserved to have his say.
“Matthew, and Thomas, and all the others.” The heartbroken father shoved his way through the crowd.
“It was Smith!” Norris shouted in terror so sharp his eyes showed white all the way around. “He forced me into it, threatened to kill me.” Norris dropped to his knees in supplication and the soldiers allowed it. “He made me stab you. Made me write a letter to the newspaper editor.” The man’s head lifted, looked into the heavens. “Please, no.”
Smith’s nasty expression faltered as fear crowded in. “It wasn’t like that.”
The soldiers fell back, shoved away, as Smith was swallowed by a mob of his own.
“Wait!” Adam rushed down the stairs and shoved his way inside the crowd. “Hold on!”
The men closed ranks and took turns beating the man, kicking, gouging, and punching as the infantry tried to separate them.
Adam landed hard. He’d taken an elbow to the gut.
He fought his way upright again, shoving men and surging forward. Two soldiers arrived before him and hauled Smith out of the crowd. One arm hung at a an unnatural angle, and his face was battered beyond recognition.
Norris, still on the stairs, keened loudly, the whites of his eyes rolling in terror.
Adam, breathing heavily, heart thundering, stood in the middle of his men and took turns meeting their gazes. His fists clenched. “Is there anything else I need to know?”
Gazes dropped to the ground, left and right. Heads shook in negation.
“Give me one reason why I should let any of you keep your jobs.”
Breathing hard, they remained silent.
“I didn’t have nothing to do with it, sir.”
“Me, neither,” said another.
“Please, I need this job. I have a wife, kids.”
Pleas rose in the air as Adam made his way up the stairs, back to the platform.
He glanced at the soldiers, weapons at the ready. “Stand down.”
He glanced at Josie, who seemed to have stars in her beautiful brown eyes as she watched him, making him feel ten feet tall as he stopped at her side.
She placed a hand on his arm. “Please, Adam. I know what it’s like to be without work. To depend on the good will of others for my next meal. They were tricked into trying to harm us.”
He looked out at the men once more. They gazed at Josie, hopeful, then back to him.
“They could have killed you.”
“They were deceived. Desperation does terrible things to a person. I can forgive this.”
He took a breath, well-pleased with the fact that though she spoke softly, the men in the front relayed her words to the others. “I ought to have the lot of them arrested. Prosecuted.” His voice hardened as he remembered exactly all she was too willing to forgive.
“Please, Adam.” She took his hand and wove her fingers between his. “I couldn’t find a job this last year and my sister had to support me. I was willing to work. I searched fourteen hours a day for seven long weeks. It was awful.”
He released a long breath while he gazed at her beautiful face, her gaze soft, expecting the best of him. “It seems I can deny you nothing.”
Her smile did not declare triumph nor celebrate his forfeiture.
Her smile told him how much she loved him. Her smile reminded him why he loved her.
With great effort, he turned back to the men, glimpsed disbelief and cautious hope mingling on too many faces. “Though my bride crawled through a burning building a few nights ago, fearing for her life, she asks that I show you mercy.”
A rumble of voices, their relief sharp and sweet, cut Adam off. He held up his free hand, ordering silence. “Apparently the fact she’s worked in factories and mills since childhood makes her compassionate toward each of you. So get back to work before my reason returns and I change my mind.”
The men, glancing at each other in disbelief, slowly returned to their chores, several removing caps and bowing at Josie as they passed by, much to her obvious consternation.
“Sir?” One of the men he’d hired to help with his investigation stepped forward. “We’ve received messages from other mines. “It looks like they caught men on the other end who received telegrams from Smith. At Big Ezra, Black Spades, and Tea Kettle.”
He held Josie’s soft hand, against the center of his chest, over his heart. Her touch centered him. She centered him. “Arrest them.”
That wouldn’t be the end of it, he knew. But they’d continue the investigation at each and every mine until they had them all.
No one would get away with murder. Not on his watch.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Please come to my parents’ home tomorrow night for supper. They want very much to meet you.”
Adam had just returned from visiting his parents, who'd not understood why he hadn’t brought his surprise bride with him. “I told them I’ve married the most wonderful girl in the world.”
Josie sat on the sofa, frozen, the state she reverted to whenever his parents were mentioned. “What did they say? Are they okay with your choice to wed, especially me? They hate me, don’t they? They think I’ve ruined your life.”
“Josie Anne Taylor, I love you. You’re my wife, my heart, my life.”
“Oh, my goodness, you didn’t deny it. They’re not all right with our marriage. They hate me already.”
“My parents will see us together, see how gloriously happy you’ve made me, see—” his hand settled on her abdomen, “that we’re a family—”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“No?” His gut clenched. She’d been tender-hearted, a little moody since the pregnancy began. But to deny they were a family—
“We can’t tell them about the baby. Not yet. I don’t want them accepting me for the sake of our child. I don’t want them to know.” She gazed up at him. “You told them already, didn’t you?”
More tears. More doubts.
He’d always thought that as a man, pregnancy wouldn’t be his problem, that the condition wouldn’t affect him. He shook his head at how deluded he’d been.
He eased down beside her. The last thing he wanted was to upset her. He gently pulled her into his arms and she twisted to sob against his chest. “Well… I tell everyone. I tell the grocer, the florist, the boy who delivers the paper. I’m proud as can be, Josie. I didn’t know it was to be a secret. I want to shout it to the world.”
“Well, it is a secret. Lessie has to be the first to know.”
Adam chuckled, kissed the top of her head, and held her tight. She’d been concerned about meeting his parents before her pregnancy. Now, it seemed likely they would never meet.
Maybe, if lucky, she’d consider meetings his parents when the child turned eighteen.
Or perhaps at the occasion of their child’s wedding.
Perhaps then Josie would be ready…
The next evening, she wondered how she’d let Adam persuade her into dinner at his parents’ house, of all things. Like she’d be able to eat a bite.
She almost changed her mind. If she faked being sick, Adam would take her home. But then he’d worry, and no doubt all for a do
ctor. She didn’t want either of those things.
As Adam helped her out of the hired carriage, she lifted her chin. So what if they hated her? Maybe she’d hate them too.
She released a breath. She really wanted them to like her. She’d rarely admitted it, even to herself. But to have parents again, even by marriage… her heart ached.
Family had meant everything to her, had been one of her big reasons for choosing to become a mail order bride. Lessie had been her entire family, until their husbands had brought so much more to the meaning of the word: family.
She knew they weren’t excited about him marrying at age twenty-four. Adam had admitted it. They’d wanted him more mature, more settled in his career, operating the family business.
Adam’s mother probably had someone better in mind for her son.
Adam ushered her inside, and she prepared for their scorn. She would not allow anything they said nor any condescending facial expressions affect her.
An older couple rushed forward as if they’d been lurking about, waiting to greet them in the foyer.
They looked nervous, their gaze darting as they looked at her, at each other, and finally at Adam.
“Mom, Dad, this is Josie.”
His father’s hair was still a rich black, with much silver at his temples, and still looked young. “May I take your coat?”
Adam helped her off with her coat and she gave it up without a word.
His mother was beautiful, and Adam favored her. “Welcome to our home. It’s so nice to meet you.”
Josie remained stiff. “Thank you, Mrs. Taylor. It’s a pleasure.”
Adam had his arm around her back, supporting her. “I’m glad you could all finally meet.”
Adam’s mother shot him a quick glare. “If you’d let us know about the wedding we’d have been there.”
Josie bowed her head, though she didn’t know why she was embarrassed. “It was very quick.”
Adam grinned. “It’s true. I had to rush her to the altar before she got away. I locked her down before someone else saw her and she realized she had other options.”
Josie elbowed him.
“I have something for you.” The older lady pulled out a baby bootie, still attached to a knitting needle. “It’s not finished yet, but the yarn is quite lovely. I thought yellow, but if you prefer another color, I’ll begin another set as well. What do you think?”
