An Outlaw to Protect Her

by Harper St. George

  “Hardly recognizable. She was thin.” Mrs. Roarke shook her head. “She was so thin you could see her ribs. She was pale and she looked like she hadn’t slept for years. She was clearly running from something. They both were.”

  “But you don’t know what.” He hardly had to ask to know what the answer would be. Glory had said that she’d never told a soul and he believed her.

  She shook her head. “No, but I have my guess. You’ve seen the women in that house of hers out back?”

  Over the past week he’d seen a woman and two young children in the back courtyard playing with chalk on the cobblestones. Another woman kept to herself, but he’d caught a glimpse of her as she ducked inside one day when he’d walked over to check on Cas. They’d looked different, one tall, and one plump and short, but their eyes had been the same. Hollow and bleak. He’d started to think of them as the ghost women. Shells of themselves, because their spirits had run away from whatever had harmed them.

  “She was like them?” The words came out harsh and rough. He tried to imagine the vibrant and attractive woman he knew as one of those creatures and it hurt his heart to think of her that way.

  The woman nodded. “Worse because it had taken her a long time to get away, I think.”

  “To get away from...”

  Her brow rose again as if he should know. Zane thought he did know, but he didn’t want to believe the sick twist of his stomach.

  “She never said, but only one type of monster can put that look in a woman’s eyes.” She took another sip of tea, staring out the window as if lost in thought.

  “A man.” He didn’t need to hear her confirmation to know that he was right. He needed to say it out loud to make it somehow real. To acknowledge that some man from her past had hurt her in ways he didn’t want to think about, but he couldn’t not think about them. She was small, petite was the word he’d heard someone say to describe her. The thought of some man hurting her made him physically sick.

  Setting his cup and saucer on the delicate table between them, he leaned back, rubbing his palms down the coarse fabric of his pants. Impotent anger raged through him with no outlet in sight. He wanted to find this nameless person and make him feel some semblance of what she must’ve felt, but he couldn’t. He had no idea where to even look.

  The woman seemed to shake off her thoughts, looking back over at him to say, “Glory begged Madam Marin to open the house up to other women, but she refused. I’m not surprised, because she didn’t even want Glory to stay at first. Said she’d scare off the customers. Able convinced her and soon Glory won her over. They were close.” She gestured to the room. “Well, close enough that she left her all of this.”

  Zane narrowed his gaze at her, wondering if that was jealousy hiding in her words. “That must’ve been hard for you.”

  “How so?” She cocked her head to the side, sending a wave of curls flowing over one shoulder.

  “Well, you’d been here longer. I think it’s only natural that you’d assume she’d leave something to you.”

  The woman laughed again, tossing her head back. “Oh, no, I could never run this place. And besides, I was gone by then. A theater owner had heard me sing and offered me a position in Colorado. It turned out not to be that great, but from there I went to San Francisco and then I met my husband who was from St. Louis. I settled down a little, but he died only three years after we were married.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” he said.

  She waved off his concern. “I love singing, love traveling. I have enough bookings over the course of a few months to get me through the year. I’d never want to be chained to a place like this.”

  “You wouldn’t prefer, say a few thousand dollars, to retire? To not worry about money anymore?”

  She gave him a peculiar look as if just now realizing his questions weren’t strictly about learning more about Glory. “I am retired, Mr. Pierce. I get to do what I love and I don’t have to do it on my back anymore.” She gave him a coy smile. “Not that I don’t occasionally indulge myself.” When he didn’t seem inclined to take her up on what might have been an offer, she straightened. “Now what is this really about? I thought you wanted to know more about Glory.”

  “I do want to know more about Glory.”

  Her gaze narrowed in suspicion. “I believe that you do, but there’s more. Tell me.”

  “I can’t tell you. But I did come to find out if you mean her any harm, because let me warn you...I won’t let anyone harm her. Not you. Not anyone.”

  To his surprise, she grinned and leaned back again with her elbows on the arms of the chair. “Well, now, looka here. Glory has her very own protector. I love it. She hasn’t even slept with you yet to get you all—” she swished a hand in his direction “—knight in shining armor.”

  Zane swiped a hand over the back of his neck, feeling that somehow he’d lost control of the conversation and he hadn’t even seen it happen. “We aren’t sleeping together. She’s asked me for my help.”

  “Why does she need your help? Has someone threatened her?”

  She looked alarmed enough that he was pretty certain her surprise was genuine. Shrugging, he said, “I can’t explain the details, but she’s had reason for concern.”

  The woman raised her brow again as if she knew something he didn’t, and a slow smile curved her lips. “All right, Mr. Pierce, I can assure you that I have no intention of ever bringing harm to Glory.”

  “Can you think of anyone who would want to harm her? Someone who lived here at the House when you both lived here?”

  She gave a nonchalant shrug of a shoulder. “No and yes. No one that I know has any reason to want her harmed, but who can tell with people? There may have been an odd girl here or there resentful of her and Able inheriting the House.”

  That thought had occurred to him, but it’d take a hell of a lot longer than a week for him to track down every woman who’d once lived here. And that was assuming most of them hadn’t simply disappeared. People had a way of becoming other people out here.

  He gave her a nod. “Thank you for talking to me.” Standing, he said goodbye and let himself out, unsure if he’d actually done what he came there to do or not. He did have more information about Glory though, and he was reasonably certain that Mrs. Roarke wasn’t responsible for the letter, so he’d consider it a win.

  Chapter Seven

  The room was quiet but for the steady sound of Glory’s voice as she read a bedtime story to her charges. Most nights she was able to escape the business of Victoria House to put the children who resided in the nursery of the boardinghouse to bed. It was her favorite time of day. She loved spending time with them and came over quite often, but the evenings were particularly sweet. Victoria House could be bustling with greed and lust, but she only had to escape to this room for a few minutes to be reminded that there was so much more to life. The children’s innocence and enthusiasm gave her hope.

  “‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair,’” she read, but after a moment a sound in the hallway outside caught her attention. The heavy scuff of boots on the hardwood floor when the boardinghouse so rarely saw men enter its doors. Her heart skipped a beat as she recognized the distinct cadence of Zane’s steps. Funny how she had already memorized it in so short a time. But she’d listened to it last night and again this morning from her bedroom as he’d walked around her parlor.

  She stuttered over the next line and five pairs of eyes stared up at her, eagerly anticipating finding out how Rapunzel would escape from the evil enchantress. Smiling at them, she stared down at the book in her hands and continued reading. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t see Zane. She could feel the weight of his stare when he looked around the partially open door, and she could sense his presence as he took up his self-imposed sentry post outside the room.

  When the story was finished, she closed the book o
f fairy tales and sat it on the table next to her rocking chair. The children were spread out on the rug staring up at her.

  “That’s all for tonight. Time for bed.”

  There was a chorus of groans and complaints, but she and Charlotte managed to get them to the bunks that lined one wall. Charlotte took the newcomers; the two boys who’d arrived with their mother a couple of weeks ago, escaping an abusive home. Glory took the other three. They were children who’d been raised at Victoria House. Though she encouraged her ladies to take steps to prevent pregnancy, it sometimes happened. Particularly when the woman had a regular customer who charmed her with gifts and sweet talk. That was the case for Emily and Edward, whose father had come into town around five years ago. He’d spent all his nights with their mother and had eventually left, leaving her brokenhearted and pregnant with the twins.

  They’d grown up here, along with Sarah who was nearly eight, whose mother had arrived when she’d been a baby and had chosen to stay and worked most evenings at Victoria House. Though Charlotte was Glory’s assistant, a large part of her job was caring for the children. Glory spent some time every morning and evening with the children overseeing their studies and playing with them.

  “Miss Glory, do we have to go to bed so early?” Sarah complained. “The sun’s still out.”

  Glory smiled and pulled the thin sheet up to Sarah’s chin. “Yes, you have to go to bed now.” They had the same discussion almost every night in summer when the sun didn’t set until well after nine o’clock at night. “You have a busy day tomorrow. Charlotte says you have two exams.”

  Sarah pulled a face, and Glory hid her laugh as she walked to the window to pull the curtains closed. “Good night, little ones.” Glory gave them each a kiss on the forehead, even the two newcomers who still stared at her with big owl eyes, unsure of their world now that it had been upended.

  Her heart ached for them. Their mother spent most of her time in her room, withdrawn from everyone. Glory knew from experience that it would take time to recover from whatever had brought her here. When she was ready, Glory would help her find a position in another town as a shop girl or maid or whatever lent itself to the skills she had, then she’d send the family off with enough money to get them by until they could get on their feet. It wasn’t a lot. In the future she envisioned a school where she could train them for professions far more lucrative and dependable than shop girl that would keep them self-sufficient for the rest of their lives. But for now she took comfort in the fact that she’d helped many women find, hopefully, better lives in the years since she’d opened her boardinghouse.

  “Do you want me to stay with them and make sure they go to sleep?” Charlotte asked when they stepped into the hallway. Zane was there, but Glory wasn’t ready to acknowledge him yet. She still didn’t know how she felt about this arrangement.

  “Give them a few minutes, and then go on up to your room. You’ve earned a well-deserved evening off.” Thanks to the faro tournament across the road, business was exceptionally slow tonight. She expected last night and Sally’s second performance tomorrow night to more than make up for it.

  Charlotte pushed a strand of dark hair back from her face, looking younger than her twenty years. She’d shown up at Victoria House four years ago, a new bride escaping an abusive husband. Sometime after she’d arrived, Glory had discovered she had excellent penmanship—far better than Glory’s own hasty scrawl—so she’d made her an assistant. She also had a gentle way with the children and doubled as a teacher for them. Glory had yet to find a trained schoolteacher who’d take the job here, so they made do with what they had.

  “I have a few letters to finish that need to post in the morning. I’ll go back to my desk and finish those first,” said Charlotte.

  Glory waved her off. She did deserve an evening off, but more than that, Glory didn’t want her questioning why Zane was in her suite. So far that day he’d been a silent fixture in Victoria House, and if anyone found his constant presence odd, no one had asked because it wasn’t that noticeable. If he was known to be in her suite, however, that would be noteworthy.

  “Besides, you’re still working,” Charlotte teased.

  Glory put on her best hostess smile to cover her unease. “I’m always working. We have a rare night off, go enjoy it. Go have fun with the other ladies. I hear there’s a high-stakes dice game going on in the courtyard again tonight.”

  Charlotte gave a hesitant smile and nodded. “You’re right. We don’t get many nights like this.”

  Glory swallowed her sigh of relief. “Have fun.” Then she turned to Zane, reading the displeasure in his eyes. She raised an eyebrow and subtly gestured to Charlotte, indicating that he should keep quiet until they were alone.

  He waited until they were outside in the courtyard. “What the hell was that, Glory?” He kept his voice low, but the undercurrent of anger was there.

  “What are you talking about, Mr. Pierce?” She knew exactly what had him so upset, but she found she delighted in taunting him.

  “You left the house without letting me know. We agreed that either Able or I would be with you at all times.”

  Plastering a smile on her face because they were approaching the women playing dice, she waved to them as a few called out a greeting and asked her to join them. “I hardly call crossing the courtyard leaving the house. I declare, you’re behaving as if I took a jaunt across town.”

  Tension rolled off him as he waited for her to politely decline the women’s invitation. As soon as they were past the group, he let out a huff of breath through his nose. “Whatever you call it, it was wrong and potentially dangerous.”

  Glory couldn’t help but notice how several pairs of eyes lingered on them as they passed. Rumors would be flying soon if they weren’t already. At least no one knew that he’d spent the night in her room last night. Hopefully they’d find the perpetrator quickly and this would be over. “Well, as you can see, the children aren’t really that dangerous. I’m fine.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her, letting her know that her attempt at levity had been a failure. “It’s not the children I’m worried about. It’s you. You are my only concern right now and I can’t keep you safe if I don’t know where you are. Whoever got into your office, could be there waiting for you, knowing that’s where you’d least expect it.”

  She frowned. She supposed it made sense if she looked at it from his point of view; however, she also believed that he was making a huge jump from finding a letter attempting to extort thousands of dollars from her to her safety being imminently at risk. “No one is going to be waiting in a dark corner to jump out at me. I appreciate your concern and dedication, but right now we should be more concerned with keeping my past in the dark. I really don’t think my life is at risk. Yet.” She added that last part because she did believe that her life would be at risk if her past ever caught up to her.

  He was silent as he followed her up the back stairs to her suite. The frustration pouring off him was nearly palpable. It warmed its way up her spine and wrapped around her in a way that wasn’t unpleasant. It meant that he cared, that he planned to do everything in his power to keep her safe, and while she might take issue with his methods, she appreciated that she could depend on him.

  Stopping at the door that took her directly to her suite, she chanced a quick glance over her shoulder at him as she dug the key out of her pocket. His jaw was clenched and he was too busy looking at each door as if the person who’d left the letter might be hiding behind one to notice her. She let herself indulge for a moment in the secret thrill she got every time she looked at him. In profile, his strong features appeared even more chiseled. She lingered on the braid near his ear, half hidden by his hair which flowed free to his shoulders. He was so different from her, yet she felt this strange kinship with him and didn’t understand it. Exploring it would be pointless, nothing could come of them, but knowing that didn�
��t stop her curiosity about him.

  He looked down at her abruptly as if he’d felt her scrutiny, so she gave him what she hoped was a casual smile and pushed her key into the lock. Her heart nearly beat itself out of her chest when he put his hand on hers to stop her from going inside. The tingle of warmth that shot up her arm made her pull her hand back as quickly as she could. His brow rose, but he didn’t comment. Instead he pushed the door open and stepped in front of her. She realized that he only meant to make certain that no one lurked inside.

  “Come on in,” he said a moment later.

  She shook her head at his unnecessary attention to detail and followed him inside. He stood in the center of the room, seeming to almost fill the whole place up with the breadth of him. When he shrugged out of his coat as if he meant to stay for a while, she sighed and closed the door behind her. Apparently they needed to make this arrangement work for at least one more night. “I take it Hunter wasn’t able to find out any information.”

  He shook his head and relayed the information he had from Hunter, which wasn’t a lot. It was too early to be disappointed though. Hunter had only started his search this morning. They still had days to find the person. “And you’ve made no headway in finding out how the letter made its way to my desk?”

  “I have my suspicions.” He eyed her as he hung his coat on the rack beside the door.

  “Which are?” she prompted.

  He shook his head. “You’ll find out when I know for sure.”

  “At least tell me the top suspects.”

  He merely shook his head again and the corner of his mouth ticked up. “You’re too loyal. If I tell you, you’ll give me a list of reasons the people I need to question further couldn’t possibly be involved and it won’t get us anywhere.”

  She frowned. “Well, none of the people who work with me would be in cahoots with this person, so I suppose you’re right.”