The Detective Bride

by Sylvia Damsell

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  She turned to look at him. “Sorry for what?”

  “That you’ve had such a burden put on you. You’re good at your job but, through no fault of your own, you’re restricted.”

  “I feel guilty that I’m finding the children a burden. I love them to bits and don’t resent having them. It’s just complicated at the moment.”

  “You could go to Independence tomorrow and I could care for them,” Noah said.

  She looked at him in some surprise. “That’s not fair on you.”

  “I’m happy to do it. If you take Linda I can care for her youngsters as well.”

  “You didn’t come here to be a babysitter,” Susannah said.

  “I came to help you. That is what I’m doing.”

  She frowned. “I thought you came for a holiday. You do think I’m not capable of doing this job, don’t you?”

  His reply was hot. “I don’t think that at all. In something as big as this most detectives work in pairs. It would be far too big a thing for you to do alone.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “They do. We did in Princeton and New York.”

  “I thought you were a bodyguard.”

  “I am but we worked together which is what I do when things like this occur and that isn’t just for ladies. There have been some potentially violent situations quite a few times when I’ve accompanied a detective.”

  “This isn’t potentially dangerous.”

  He sighed. “It could be.”

  “I thought you’d resigned from the agency before you came.”

  “In a way I did. Somebody has taken my place though now I’m on the payroll again.”

  She was being unfair, she thought, because whatever the reason for Noah coming she was actually glad to have him with her. He brightened up the days. He was helpful. He didn’t run her down in any way. Added to which was the fact that he did not regard her romantically despite him kissing her in New York, which he didn’t do here.

  There was silence for a few minutes before she spoke and when she did her voice was a bit gruff. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “Thinking about me needing help. Didn’t you know Blair would be coming?”

  “No.” Noah frowned in concentration. “Well, yes, but he’s not a bodyguard, just a detective.”

  “Just a detective,” she repeated.

  He grinned. “They’re alright but bodyguards are definitely superior.”

  “I’ll push you off the wagon.” She giggled as he hung onto the side of the seat. “Coward.”

  “I have been at the end of your ways of dealing with a man,” he said.

  “I’m sorry for that. I really am.”

  “Maybe.”

  “You don’t believe I’m sorry?”

  “I’m actually pleased you know how to defend yourself. I learnt the hard way but I’m magnanimous enough to accept the results.”

  She looked at him sideways. “At least you’re treating me more as if I know what I’m doing and less like a woman.”

  “I was wrong about that,” he said. “I realised it afterwards. I shouldn’t have kissed you without asking first.”

  “Oh.” That meant he wouldn’t kiss her again and she wasn’t sure she was happy about that.

  “Unless you ever want me to, that is.”

  “I’ll let you know if I do,” she said lightly.

  “Well, maybe a light kiss on the cheek as friends, if that is acceptable.”

  Better than nothing. Well, maybe. “That’s acceptable.”

  “Good. I could do you a meal now, if you like.”

  “No. We’ll eat at my place. I have food which I’ll never finish and which won’t keep for too long.”

  They carried on chatting while they drove as Susannah asked Noah about other cases he helped with, and as she told him a bit about her home and how she worked in the mercantile. She hadn’t transformed it the way Arena had this one, she said, but obviously she hadn’t been assertive enough. They enjoyed the conversation and the lunch which followed before making their way to the rectory to babysit.

  Chapter 15

  “Are you sure you don’t mind coming with me to Independence?” Susannah looked sideways at Linda who sat beside her at the front of the wagon.

  “Quite sure. I’m looking forward to it. Are you sure Noah doesn’t mind babysitting?”

  “He said he doesn’t so I’m choosing to believe him. I’m sorry we took Jonathon away from you earlier than he planned to go?”

  “I don’t mind being on my own and the children are no chore. They argue sometimes but not that often and there are things to amuse them. They love riding round the garden on their bicycles so I’m glad Dan and Becky brought theirs. They also spend hours very often playing with their schools, hospitals, farms, Noah’s Ark, trains, to name a few things.”

  “Not all mothers are so patient,” Susannah said. “When I worked in the mercantile in New York the children would often be arguing and the mothers yelling.”

  “The secret is to get them to help you. That way they’re occupied. Even David and Seth can be asked to get things and the others have little lists.”

  “Do you lecture on mother care to the ladies in Lower Pine?”

  “You do it by example.”

  “And you’re in a good position to be an example. I’ve come to love Dan and Becky but I do hope for their sake that Blair finds their mother. I know they miss her though they don’t say much or cry or anything over her not being with them. They must have moments of sadness though.”

  “It’s hard to get into a child’s mind,” Linda said. “All you can do is love them. Noah is good with them, isn’t he?”

  “He is.”

  “Men can often be very good with little things where children are concerned. They teach them and spend hours poring over details. I rather think Noah is like that.”

  “Yes. How did you and Jonathon meet?”

  And it was nice chatting with Linda, Susannah found as they drove along. The hour was early because they had left at five, even before Linda’s children were awake. They would help dress them, Dan and Becky said when they left the rectory, and fortunately had woken early themselves.

  They arrived in Independence just before ten, early enough to enable them to spend a few hours there. They were going to the library to check if they could find out anything about the sellers of the property in Lower Pine and Linda would be enquiring at the Post Office. They would also be visiting a few people she knew to make further enquiries, which included the church the couple had attended.

  “What did they use the land for?” Susannah asked after they left the library with no success concerning the owners’ whereabouts.

  “It was a ranch. They had a house on it but were quite happy for it to be pulled down though it hasn’t been. They sold another plot to Jonathon and me to build a house on but it is attached to the seminary and university land so we will lose it.”

  Susannah frowned. “That’s not fair.”

  “Nothing about it is fair but we have to accept the fact that it may all be lost.”

  “Will you and Jonathon then stay on at the rectory?”

  “We havn’t decided on anything. Both of us felt Jonathon should accept the post of principal of the seminary but maybe the Lord has something else for us.”

  “It must be very unsettling.”

  “We’ve given it to the Lord.” Linda smiled ruefully. “That may sound simple but it did take a bit of accepting. However, nothing on earth is permanent and we are citizens of Heaven which it is good to always remember. We may have a long time on earth or a short time. That is in God’s Hands. While we’re on it God will lead us but we do need to keep material things on the open palm of our hands and not clutch onto them.”

  “I don’t know much about such things,” Susannah said.

  “No. You’ll learn as you go along though and it will be a wonderful jour
ney. Noah is a Christian, isn’t he?”

  “Yes.”

  “He seems a nice man.”

  Susannah laughed. “Are you going to start matchmaking?”

  Linda laughed as well. “No. I won’t do that.”

  “But you have brought quite a few mail order brides here.”

  “We have. Men outnumber woman in this part of the country, probably in a lot of places in the west. I’d like to buy a new gown. Jonathon will raise his eyebrows but he’ll also bring me a present which is often an article of clothing. Not usually dresses though because he knows I prefer to choose my own. He might buy the children clothes though they have plenty, and he will buy them a toy of some kind. He loves doing that and they are totally spoiled.”

  “They’re very good children,” Susannah said.

  “Spoiled doesn’t involve naughtiness. It involves being loved.”

  “Yes. I hadn’t thought of that before but on that basis I’m also spoiled. I might look at the clothes as well though I bought a few gowns in New York which were paid for by the agency. They also paid for the ones I purchased to play my part as a French singer.”

  “French singer?”

  Linda was fascinated by the story and said they had read about her in the newspapers though they didn’t realise the singer was not French and not a famous singer. “But you must sing well to be able to take that part,” she said after Susannah finished the story.

  “I sing passably and adding a French lilt into it helped.”

  “Then you must sing at church. Zedekiah and Elise have outstanding voices and having another one will be good.”

  “I’m not sure about outstanding. Where are we aiming for now?”

  “The minister and his wife of a church we’ve been to.”

  “We went to a church last week where they had a puppet show. Benjamin’s parents attend it.”

  “Not that one. The couple in the one we’re going to are older and will soon be retiring. They know a lot of people.”

  The Reverend Brian Longshawe and his wife, Maisie, a pleasant couple who were delighted to see Linda. The inevitable cake and drinks were produced after they were there for thirty minutes and Linda asked them concerning the couple she wanted to locate while they ate and drank.

  “They went to Darwin,” Reverend Longshawe said. “They bought a part share in one of the mines. I’m not sure how good an idea that was because there are rumours that the mines aren’t producing so much now. However, James is an astute businessman, and his wife equally as astute, so they may have sold their share and moved on.”

  “I just wondered how they were doing,” Linda said. “I was sorry to lose touch with them.”

  “Did they own the ranch in Lower Pine for long?” Susannah asked.

  “About ten years, I think. The university and seminary bought the land, didn’t they?”

  “They did,” Linda said.

  “Are you having problems concerning the purchase?”

  “We just need some documents,” Susannah said. “But Darwin is thousands of miles away.”

  “Not that Darwin. It’s about sixty miles from here.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “Miss Smythe is new to the area,” Linda said.

  “You could easily travel there from Lower Pine.” Mrs. Longshawe broke into the conversation though she had said very little so far.

  “Yes. We go there on occasions. Have you decided yet who you’re going to call to take over the church when you retire?”

  When they left an hour later both their spirits were lifted a little at the information they had obtained. Darwin, and they could easily travel there, Linda said. She had friends where they could stay.

  But it would mean taking Dan and Becky out of school, Susannah replied, trying not to feel a bit angry at Blair for his thoughtlessness and sheer stupidity. Who ever adopted children to establish an identity? It had been totally unnecessary and also totally stupid. Except that he might now find their mother.

  She tried not to think of it because she had such conflicting thoughts concerning it. While she loved the children she knew Blair shouldn’t have done what he did, and feelings of resentment rose now and again. Of course it would be good if he found their mother. It would be wonderful and she mustn’t think negative thoughts because it was a wasted enterprise. Linda squeezed her hand briefly from where she sat beside her on the wagon.

  “If we go straight after school on Friday we can be back by Sunday evening,” she said.

  “But I can’t wait a week.”

  “Then we’ll go overnight tonight and, if we find what we need, we’ll come back tomorrow evening. It takes eight hours to get there but if we go back home now we should be able to leave by five or six.”

  “That’s a lot for you though.”

  “I have an interest in all this too. Even if I didn’t I would be happy to go. Let’s go home now.”

  “Alright.”

  But would Dan and Becky be happy about going somewhere because really they had been shunted around a lot? They would make it as exciting as they could for them, Susannah decided, and if they missed a few hours of school on Monday it would be alright. She would have to send a telegram to Mrs. Harrison or shoot round and see her. Probably a telegram because there wouldn’t be time for visits after they picked up clothes for the children.

  “Dan and Becky will be alright,” Linda said, almost as if she could read her thoughts. “We’ll make the journey interesting and they will sleep some of the time. I just need to send a telegram to my friends in Darwin to see if it’s alright to stay the night. I’ll ask them to send the reply to Lower Pine.”

  “Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  “We all have an interest in this and you’re doing a wonderful work, a work we couldn’t have done alone or, at least, a work we wouldn’t have thought of doing. Home?”

  “Home.”

  Though, much as she loved Lower Pine, she wasn’t quite sure where home was at the moment. Where your heart was, her mother would say, but where was her heart? A picture of a tall, handsome young man who was cut out to be a bodyguard, but who also could easily with his insight and brains be a detective, rose to her mind but she pushed it away determinedly.

  Chapter 16

  They managed to reach Lower Pine by four and Darwin by one in the morning. It had involved taking all four horses owned by Blair and Jonathon and Linda but made it quicker though they had to give them a rest every couple of hours. The children slept by eight and remained asleep, much to the adults’ relief. If they woke when they got there, Linda said, it wouldn’t matter, because they would soon sleep again. However, they would carry them into the house which might mean they would stay asleep.

  The pretty, dark haired young lady who ran down the path to meet them was satisfyingly welcoming after a long journey. Her husband, tall, good looking and also welcoming, was close behind her. The men lifted the children one by one and, to all their relief, they stayed asleep. Linda’s children were taken up into the loft and Noah had his own bedroom with Susannah. Dan and Becky occupying another.

  “We’ll talk tomorrow,” Carole said. “But I’ve made drinks for you all and put a few sandwiches on your trays. Is that alright?”

  It was, they said, and were glad to retire so quickly. Linda went up into the loft with the children and Noah looked down at Susannah before going to his.

  “Are you alright?” he whispered.

  “Yes, thank you, and you?”

  “Fine. Dan and Becky seemed to enjoy themselves until they fell asleep.”

  “Yes, they did, and they’ve got the children. Becky isn’t that much older than Rachel and they all seem to get on well. Dan is good friends with the boys as well and the babies just like being with everyone.”

  “Yes. Dan and Becky talked a bit about their home today. I’ll tell you tomorrow.” Noah bent to kiss Susannah to the side of her mouth. “As a friend. Goodnight.”

 
“Goodnight.” She turned quickly, knowing the kiss had made her blush. It was so annoying the way that happened. Did it happen to men? She went into the room and the children were sleeping peacefully.

  She lay on top of the bed with her clothes on. It wasn’t worth changing because they would probably be awake early. She could wash and redress once they were up and ready to be with the other children.

  It was all becoming rather complicated and how she hoped this journey would be worth it. If they couldn’t find the people for whom they were looking where would they go next? Their only hope would be to trip up Miles when they saw him next.

  But how to do that she wasn’t sure. She lay covered with the thick padded cover which was on top of the bed, her eyes open as she looked unseeingly into the dark.

  Blair and Jonathon would still be on their way to Los Angeles though they had gone on the express coach which did the journey from Independence once a fortnight. If Jonathon had waited until Monday it would have taken him longer but would have been less expensive. She must reimburse him for going with Blair.

  Would Blair find the children’s mother? So far he hadn’t shown a lot of ingenuity. But he was more interested in this and had, she felt sure, become really fond of Dan and Becky. Maybe that would spur him on and then there would be Jonathon.

  It was nearly a week since their baptism and they had been in Lower Pine for three. Before that she had been travelling for two weeks. It was all quite an adventure and receiving Jesus was the highlight of it all. Was He interested in what they were doing and whose side was He on where the land was concerned? Surely the side of the seminary at least because they trained ministers who were His followers.

  But He loved everyone. He loved Miles, even if he was the villain in the plot. Maybe at some time she could tell him of his need of Jesus. If he received Him he might be more inclined to tell the truth. She also wanted to speak to her family about Jesus though she had written a letter to tell them what she had done.

  Except that letters took ages to reach their destination. How she hoped that when it did get there they would also receive Jesus because she had explained as best as she could. She closed her eyes. What would it be like to have a man snuggled up beside her? What would it be like to have Noah? She frowned. It wasn’t right to think that and was something he would never think, she felt sure.