Mary Rose sat at the table alone, poking at her odd breakfast and listening to the last two families making their preparations for departure. Both mothers spent most of their time walking back and forth in the hallway, scolding their children, and giving orders no one obeyed. Mary Rose found this amusing in a tired and detached way. She decided she was of the most use where she was, tucked out of the way.
Mary Rose finished her cake and was wondering if two pieces of cake would make an acceptable breakfast when Hauer appeared in the doorway. “Oh, good morning,” he said.
“Good morning.”
“Any coffee left?”
“I think so, but it’s probably cold.”
“No matter.” He found a mug, wiped it out with a corner of the red-checkered tablecloth, and filled it. When he saw her watching him, he said, “Don’t tell Jubilee. A man’s got to have his coffee, you know.”
“Of course.”
“Not much left by way of food, I see.”
“There’s cake.” To be sociable, Mary Rose stood up. “I was just going to have some myself.”
Hauer glanced at her crumb-filled plate.
Mary Rose put a slice of chocolate cake on her plate. “Don’t tell my grandmother?”
Hauer laughed. “Fair enough.”
They were about to seat themselves when Jubilee arrived. “Still eating?” she asked.
“I came down to sharpen my axe at the whetstone,” Hauer explained. “And to grab some breakfast.” He saluted her with his coffee mug. “I’ve got to run out to town for a few things—you need me to pick up any supplies while I’m there? Or do you want me to wait and drive you?”
“Goodness, no, I can’t go to town. We have this whole house to set to rights. Ask Mrs. Mills if she needs anything, would you?”
“Of course.”
Mr. Linden entered the room, looking like he had slept for a full night, not even a little the worse for a long evening of frivolities. He greeted them cheerfully.
After acknowledging his greeting, Jubilee continued her conversation with Hauer while Linden helped himself to cake. She asked, “You’ll be back for supper?”
“I’m not sure. There’s been squirrels nesting in the cabin’s loft. I need to find their hole and block it once I get back from town. If I’m not back for supper, don’t wait on me. I’ll come down eventually.”
“I see. Better take some food with you, then.”
“I’ll do that.”
Mr. Linden sat down across from Mary Rose. Hauer asked him, “How’s the work coming? Close to straightening everything out?”
“I think so.” Mr. Linden looked over at Mary Rose, who quickly stared down at her half-eaten cake. Two slices for breakfast now seemed unwise after all.
Jubilee said, “What does it matter? He’ll finish when he finishes. You know these things take time.” She sounded cross, almost peevish.
Hauer pulled out a chair for her. “Set a bit and rest,” he suggested.
“I’m perfectly fine,” she retorted. “Unlike some, I have long finished my breakfast. Mary Rose, when you’re done, find me and I’ll tell you what to do next.” Then she left with an impatient swirl of her skirts.
Hauer shrugged and took that seat himself. He sipped his lukewarm coffee. “How close?” he asked Mr. Linden.
“Excuse me?”
“How close? You’ll finish this next week? Next month? How bad are her money troubles, anyway?”
“I don’t know that I should discuss them with you.”
“I’ve known Jubilee longer than anyone else yet living. I’m not asking for specifics. I just want to know if I should be… concerned about her.”
“All right.” Mr. Linden folded his hands on the table in front of him. “She’s in worse shape than she thinks. I wouldn’t go so far as to say she’ll lose the ranch, but her husband left things in a tangle, and they’ve gotten worse over the past few years. She hasn’t kept track of her accounts, she’s simply stuffed all her receipts and bills in desk drawers. The stocks and bonds she owns—I’m still working out which ones are worthless and which ones may yet bring her some returns.”
Mary Rose wanted to cry. Lose the ranch? This was her grandmother’s home! She and her husband had built it together, raised their son here. If Mr. Linden had explained even some of this to her, no wonder she was snappish.
Hauer said, “I had no idea she was in such a bad way.”
“Neither did she.” Mr. Linden sighed. “I should finish things on Tuesday. Wednesday at the latest.” He raised his napkin and wiped his mouth, then rose. “But only if I stop wasting time.” He left the room.
Hauer swirled his coffee as if he were seeking answers in it the way some old women consulted tea leaves. “That’s that.”
“Isn’t there anything we can do?” Mary Rose pushed her plate away, feeling sick over all she’d heard.
Hauer drained his cup and set it on the table with a hollow clunk. “When he’s done what he came to do, maybe we’ll know better.” He reached over and touched Mary Rose’s shoulder. “Don’t worry too much yet. And of course there’s something you can do. You can pray. That’s always a help, for all involved.” He squeezed her shoulder, then left.
Mary Rose spent the morning stripping the bedding from all the guest bedrooms except Mr. Linden’s. She piled it in a heap in one empty room where it could wait until they were ready to tackle so much washing. While she worked, Mary Rose prayed. She started out asking God to please let her grandmother keep the ranch and ended up asking for the right things to say and do to make this easier for her grandmother.
After a quick lunch of more party leftovers, she lugged the chairs in the dining room back to their proper homes. She couldn’t quite remember where they all went, but she did her best. She felt easier in her mind that afternoon and even managed to wonder two or three dozen times what Deputy Small was doing, what his duties as deputy were, and whether he would speak to her before or after church the next day. She also wondered if there were many pretty girls nearby and whether Deputy Small had ever tried courting any of them. It did strike her as odd that such a worthy, upstanding young man had remained unattached. She did not find it surprising that he would find a sixteen-year-old stranger so interesting. It would be a rare girl with a pretty face and good family who wondered at that. And Mary Rose, while uncommon, was not exactly rare.
When Mary Rose arrived at supper, she found only Jubilee and Mr. Linden occupying the dining room. “Hauer’s not back yet?” she asked, taking her seat.
Jubilee said, “I’ve not seen him.” She looked weary, older. Mary Rose suspected Mr. Linden had told her more bad news about her finances.
Mary Rose had the sudden wish that Mr. Linden had never come to the ranch. That wouldn’t change anything about her grandmother’s money troubles, of course, but it would certainly have made Mary Rose’s visit much more pleasant.
Then she was ashamed for having such thoughts. Riding horses, dancing, meeting new people, running through the pasture—hadn’t that been wonderful? And if she could support her grandmother through a difficult time, she should count herself happy for that too, shouldn’t she?
Mary Rose squared her shoulders. She lifted her chin, looked at Jubilee, and offered, “Might I say grace tonight?”
Jubilee smiled. “How lovely.”
Mary Rose bowed her head. “Lord, I thank you for our food, for the time we have spent together, for the chance to make new friends here. Bless all of us in the days ahead, and keep us ever mindful of your lovingkindness. Amen.” It wasn’t all the things she’d wanted to say, but it was a start.
Jubilee wiped her eyes with her napkin. “Amen,” she said softly.
Across the table from Mary Rose, Mr. Linden lifted his glass. “May I propose a toast? To Jubilee and Mary Rose, and all that awaits them.”
For the first time, Mary Rose smiled at Mr. Linden because she wanted to. She clinked her glass with his and Jubilee’s. She was determined to see her gran
dmother through whatever lay ahead. Even if it meant they both had to take the train to Peoria at the end of the summer and make their home there together.
After supper, Mary Rose decided to forsake her habit of spending the evening in the sitting room with her grandmother. Instead, she took the first volume of Pride and Prejudice to her room. She finally had time to look for the passage about dancing that Deputy Small had teased her about. But her eyelids grew heavy over the book, and she gave up after a few chapters. She changed to her nightclothes, plaited her hair, blew out her lamp, and crawled into bed.
But once she had snuggled under her quilt, Mary Rose could not sleep. Whether it was the general sense of letdown that had dragged at her all day, her worries about Jubilee and the ranch, or something else, she was never afterward able to say. But the fact was that whenever she was about to drift off, some thought or other would pop unbidden to the forefront of her mind, and she would lie there wide awake once more.
Eventually, Mary Rose gave up. She climbed out of her cozy bed and shivered a little in the cool night air. A glance out her window showed a full moon bright as a new silver dollar. It edged the back pasture’s grass with a gleaming enchantment, and Mary Rose knew at once that a walk through the pasture was what she needed to make her grow sleepy.
Her nightgown was much too thin for a moonlit walk, not to mention an unseemly clothing choice for any proper young woman to venture out of her bedroom in. She exchanged it for the blue dress she had worn all day, then pulled on her bloomers, trusting those to keep her nicely warm. And instead of taking the time to put on a pair of boots, with their endless hooks and laces and buttons, she slipped on the moccasins Hauer had given her. How light and soft they were! And how quiet! No one would even hear her footsteps when she left her room and stole down the hall.
Mary Rose was surprised to see light spreading out from beneath the door to her grandmother’s study. She wondered if Jubilee was also having difficulty sleeping but decided not to disturb her. Instead, she continued along the corridor until she reached the back door. There, she discovered it was colder outside than she had thought, for a chill seeped in through the door. She looked at the hooks which had overflowed with coats and wraps and shawls the evening before. Now only Mr. Linden’s long coat and the two red cloaks occupied the walls.
Mary Rose took down her new cloak and swung it around her shoulders. She fastened it at the throat and relished how warm and soft and heavy it felt. The evening chill would never bother her.
Then Mary Rose heard a series of peculiar noises from somewhere inside the house. First came a sound like hands clapping once, and then a sort of muffled cry, as if someone had put something over their mouth and tried to yell through it. Was it her grandmother, in the office? Had she perhaps fallen? Tripped over something? Mary Rose listened, but heard no other sounds.
She walked noiselessly back down the hall, enjoying the feel of the floor beneath her moccasins. This really was almost as good as being barefoot! Mary Rose thought back to all those childhood summers spent running about shoeless on the soft grass surrounding her home. If she had known then how she would miss going barefoot now, she would have tried to enjoy that privilege more before it ended.
She did not hesitate at the door to the study but pushed it open. “Grandmother? Is everything all—”
She stopped speaking, shocked at what she saw inside the room.
Jubilee sat slumped in her usual chair behind her desk where she attended to the business side of running a large ranch. Her arms were pulled behind her in a way that left no question about whether or not her wrists were tied together. A white cloth gag pulled cruelly against the sides of her mouth, giving her a grimacing facsimile of a smile. And over her, with his hand raised to strike her, stood Mr. Linden.
Chapter Thirteen
At the sound of Mary Rose’s voice, both Mr. Linden and Jubilee looked at her in surprise.
Jubilee shook her head violently and tried to say something. It came out as “Un! Un!”
Too late, Mary Rose realized her grandmother had meant “Run! Run!” Too late, because in the instant it took her to understand, Mr. Linden sprang around the desk, grabbed her, and pulled her inside the room. He kicked the door shut with his foot and clamped both hands tightly around her upper arms.
“Miss Mary Rose O’Brien,” he said. “So kind of you to join us.”
“Let go of me!” Mary Rose tried to pull away from him. “What is going on here?”
“Now, now.” He shook his head. “Don’t make this worse for yourself than it already is.”
“What do you mean?” Mary Rose looked over at her grandmother. Jubilee’s eyes were wide. Desperate. Frightened. That scared Mary Rose more than anything else. She noticed a red mark on one of Jubilee’s cheeks. Mr. Linden had already struck her at least once. An elderly woman, tied up and helpless. That was what she had heard: his hitting Jubilee, and her crying out in pain.
Anger rose inside Mary Rose, indignant and righteous and strong. It overwhelmed her fear. She looked Linden straight in his cold, pale eyes. “You monster,” she said. She stopped struggling to free herself and stood as tall as she could. “You will not get away with this.”
Mr. Linden grinned, baring all those awful teeth. “I think I will. No Hauer here to intervene. No Mrs. Mills to put her nose in where it isn’t wanted. No deputy to rescue you. I will get away with this, Miss Mary, and more.” With that, he pulled her close to him so suddenly that she lost her balance and fell against his chest. “I can have whatever I want,” he murmured, his face inches from hers.
“Anything stolen is not truly yours,” Mary Rose said. It was something her mother had often told Mary Rose and the other children, usually in reference to her missing thimble or someone dipping into the jam jars on the sly.
“I disagree.” Mr. Linden bent his head down and forced his mouth against hers.
Mary Rose squirmed, turning her head until her lips were free of his.
From her chair behind the desk, Jubilee cried out something quite unintelligible.
Mary Rose could see the door. If she could get out that door, she could find help. Help where? Mrs. Mills? She could do little aside from raising an alarm. Old Joe? Too slow and aged to rescue Jubilee.
Mary Rose fought down panic and disgust while Mr. Linden’s lips brushed a line down her neck from her jaw to the collar of her dress. Hauer. She could run to Hauer. He’d said he would come back this evening—maybe she would even meet him on the trail to the cabin.
But first, she had to get out that door.
Mary Rose put her hands flat against Mr. Linden’s chest and pushed with all her might. She must have surprised him, for his hold on her arms loosened. Mary Rose lunged for the door and tugged it open.
Behind her, Linden grasped her cloak and hauled her backward. The cloak’s clasp bit into her throat, choking her, and Mary Rose reeled back, straight against Mr. Linden. The door swung on its hinges, half open and half closed. Mr. Linden snared Mary Rose, one arm around her waist, his other hand capturing both of her wrists in front of her. He held her tight against him and growled, “You will not escape me.”
“What is it you want?” Mary Rose begged. His heart beat fast and hard against her back.
“I want a lot of things.” Linden gave a short laugh. “This is all your fault, Mary. You weren’t supposed to be here.”
“I’ll go back to my room. Let us both go, and we won’t raise an alarm until you’re gone.” Her throat hurt from the choking hold of the cloak, even though it wasn’t tight against her neck anymore. But she wanted to keep him talking, stop him from thinking about that half-open door. If she could get free again, she still had a chance. If he tied her to a chair like Jubilee, they would have no hope.
“I didn’t mean just now, though that’s true too. You weren’t supposed to be here at the ranch. Jubilee had no heir. It wouldn’t have been long before she trusted me with everything, before I gradually gained control over her enti
re estate. But no, you had to come visiting. You had to ruin all my plans.”
“I don’t understand. You said she had no money, that she might even lose her ranch.”
Linden’s arm around her relaxed a little. “I did say that.” He moved his hand over her waist, sliding it around back under her cloak, his grasp much too familiar. Then he spun her around to face him, the hand holding both her wrists arcing over her head as though they were dancing. “I lied. There’s plenty of money. But with you here, I couldn’t assume control the way I’d planned. Still, there were other possibilities. You might have fallen in love with me, for instance. But no, you picked that long-legged boy instead. A lawman, of all things.” He held her wrists between them, his other hand on her back. “Until last night, I was optimistic. But now... now I have to take what I can.”
“Then take it and go. Cash money, bonds, stocks—whatever you can find. Take it and leave us alone.” Mary Rose twisted in his grip, but his long fingers held her easily.
“Oh, I will. I’ve been persuading Jubilee to sign them over to me. But I can’t leave any witnesses behind.”
Mary Rose trembled. “What?”
“If you hadn’t wandered in here, I might have let Jubilee live. She could be frightened into silence. But I know too much about you—you would go running for your little deputy friend. I’ve stayed out of the law’s reach until now, and I am not about to find my face on a wanted poster. Once I’ve gotten what I want, I’m afraid there will be a dreadful accident. Someone falling asleep while reading in her room. The lamp turned up too high, too close to the curtains. By the time anyone can come fight the fire, both bedrooms will be beyond saving.”
“I promise I won’t tell anyone. Please—if you’ll only let me live!” Mary Rose allowed tears to spill down her cheeks, partly because she was frightened for her life, but partly in hopes that crying might soften Mr. Linden’s resolve.
Cloaked (Once Upon a Western Book 1) Page 10
