Declan sat again, staring into his tea mug, and Kevin chattered away—in an attempt to distract him until Declan could see his wife again.
* * *
Seamus nodded his thanks, as he allowed Cormac to lead his horse to the livery, as Seamus trudged to the house he shared with Mary, his way lit by the half-moon shining over them. He paused, when he saw the outline of his house, and he battled a desire to race away. To not have to admit that he had failed to find Maggie. Only the hope that her brothers had rescued her gave him purpose, as he strode forward.
“Ardan!” he bellowed, as he entered the back door. He heard the chattering in the kitchen instantly quiet, and he marched into the crowded room. “Maggie?” he asked, as he looked at his sons, sitting at the table. At their shakes of their heads, he swore and spun around, as though he were to head back out to search for her again.
“Nay, Da,” Ardan said from the doorway. “We found Lorena. She’s badly injured.”
Seamus turned to focus on his eldest, who stood stoically in the inner doorway leading to the rest of the house. “What happened to the lass?” Seamus stepped forward, stilling when he remembered he would be in the way in the sickroom.
“A blow to the head. She’s unconscious.” Ardan shrugged. “Madam Nora says there isn’t much more to be done but wait. And pray.”
“Jaysus,” Seamus breathed. “Any sign of your sister? Of wee Maggie?” His blue eyes gleamed with hope and terror in equal measure. When Ardan shook his head, Seamus swore again and spun away, slamming his hand against a wall again and again, before roaring like a wounded animal.
“Da?” Henri asked.
Seamus turned to face the youngest son, who Mary had had with Jacques’s brother, Francois.
“I’m sorry,” whispered the thirteen-year-old, who was still more a boy than a man, his red-gold hair mussed and his brown eyes filled with sorrow.
Taking a deep breath, Seamus crouched to be at eye level with the boy he considered his son. For any child of Mary’s was his. “What’s the matter, lad?”
“I should have been brave. I should have jumped into the wagon when I saw Jacques. Offered myself up and saved Maggie.” He shook at the thought, as he still occasionally suffered night terrors with his uncle as the bully.
“Never, lad,” Seamus said, as he squeezed Henri’s shoulders. “Don’t you know he would have just taken you too, and then we’d be worried about you as well as wee Maggie?” He shook his head, as he forced a smile. “I couldn’t lose another of my children.”
Henri’s jaw quivered, and he nodded, as he battled tears. When Seamus pulled him close, he cried on his shoulder. “Thanks, Da.”
“There’s a good lad,” Seamus murmured, patting him on his back, before releasing him. “We’ll find Maggie, and she’ll be well.” He looked up to see Niall fidgeting. “Niall? What has you lookin’ as though you have a pocketful of stolen jewels?”
Niall attempted to smile, but it faded as quickly as it appeared. “It’s all my fault, Da,” he blurted out.
Seamus rose, squeezing Henri’s shoulder once, before releasing the boy to scamper away and to be with the brothers his age. “How is it your fault?”
“Maggie asked me to escort her to the bookstore,” he whispered, shifting from foot to foot. “But I was distracted.” He flushed, as he met his father’s stare, the blue of his eyes enhanced by his da’s intense emotions. “I saw a woman I’d chatted with the day before, and … I wanted to continue my acquaintance.”
“You abandoned your duty to your sister to flirt with some floozy?” Seamus asked in a low voice. When Niall nodded, Seamus heaved out a breath. “I won’t say I’m not disappointed in you, lad, because I am.” He took a deep breath and swallowed what more he would have said, when he saw Niall flinch, and as a tear coursed down his cheek. “But I remember what it was to be young, lad. To see a pretty lass and to think I’d die if I didn’t speak with her.” He reached forward, clasping his son’s shoulder. “Apologize to your sister when she comes home. That is your penance.”
Niall paled, before nodding. “Aye. I will.” He took a step away, before lurching forward and hugging his da. “I’m sorry, Da. I’m so sorry.”
“Ah, I know you are, lad. Keep Maggie in your prayers, and hopefully she’ll be returned to us soon.”
Staring at his father with abject terror in his gaze, he whispered, “But what could have happened to her by then?”
Seamus shrugged and shook his head, unwilling to give voice to his worst fears to his son. “Cormac will try to find their trail tomorrow, and I know he won’t stop until he finds wee Maggie.”
When Niall turned away to join Lucien, Seamus looked to the doorway to see Mary, staring at him, the hope in her gaze fading. He shook his head, as he stood tall. “Nay, love.” He grunted as Mary threw herself into his arms, holding her close. “We’ll find her. She’ll be all right.” He repeated the words over and over, as though, if he said them often enough, they’d come true.
Ardan muttered, “Aye,” and Seamus breathed a sigh of relief to have his eldest’s support. “Stay here with Mum. She needs you.” He shared a long look with his father. “You know we’ll do anything we can to help Cormac, until wee Maggie is found. Then all will be well again.”
Seamus held a sobbing Mary in his arms, silently terrified that nothing in his family would be as it had been ever again.
Chapter 7
The following morning, Seamus, Ardan, Kevin, and Niall barged into the jail. “Don’t even think about denying me, Wilcox,” Seamus said in a lethally low voice. He glared at the town’s sheriff, Leander Wilcox, who sat at his desk, his feet propped on top, the ankles crossed. He stared over a pair of reading glasses, appearing unsurprised and unperturbed at the sudden appearance of the O’Rourke men.
“I’m surprised you didn’t arrive last night,” Leander murmured, as he set the book against his belly but made no motion to rise. He stared at Seamus, with a hint of exasperation. “You can’t kill ’em. We have enough people dying each week, without you adding to the tally.”
Seamus flushed red and leaned onto the desk, lowering down so he was near eye level with the lawman. “Don’t tell me what I’m to be doin’,” he snarled. “Those men”—he pointed in the direction of the lone jail cell—“kidnapped my daughter and my daughter-in-law.”
“You got one of ’em back,” Leander said, with a quirk of his lips.
Seamus roared like a wounded animal and slapped his hand onto the desk. “Don’t make me wish I was a man who walked around with a pistol fastened to his belt.” His blue eyes filled with rage. “For my daughter, I’ll do anything.”
Sighing, Leander heaved himself up. “Well, you can talk to ’em, but I’m not letting you into the cell.” He raised a hand and shook his head at the groans of protest from all the O’Rourke men. “No. Don’t even bother wastin’ your breath. You ain’t goin’ in there. I know all about the shenanigans you’ll pull that will lead them to accidentally die.” He put a mocking emphasis on the word accidentally.
Seamus cast a quick glance at his sons, before nodding tersely to Leander. “Fine. For now.” He walked into the cramped dark hallway to stare through the metal bars at the men who had been driving away with Lorena. Nondescript men, he couldn’t recall if he’d ever seen either man in town. He turned and murmured to Niall, “Go for A.J.”
One of the men sat on the cloth-covered bunk, while the other sprawled on the floor. The man on the floor peered up at the group of men with frank insolence. “What do you want?” He shifted as he saw Ardan and Kevin and shook his head. “You’re a fool if you think I’ll talk to you.”
“You’re a fool if you think you won’t,” Seamus growled, his hands gripping the bars and rattling them. “I’ll make you cry for your mother before you die for what you’ve allowed happen to my daughters.”
The man shrugged and rested his head under his bent arm, his bent leg over his knee, as though he were sunning himself by the river and h
aving a pleasant chat with a friend. “Doesn’t matter what you do or don’t do. We’s dead anyway. When ol’ Berg discovers we failed …” He shrugged, as his sidekick grunted in agreement with his statement.
Seamus looked to the sheriff and shook the cell door again. “Let me in to talk with them.”
Leander leaned against the wall, relaxed and unmoved by Seamus’s demand. “Hell no. You’ve already threatened to kill ’em.” His gaze sharpened, as he looked at the irate Irishman. “Somethin’ I’m only comin’ to realize you’re capable of. Thought you were too much of a pacifist to defend what was yours.”
Ardan and Kevin stepped aside from their place behind their father, allowing A.J. to squeeze in to stand beside Seamus. “Now what’s the fuss?” He looked around him, as he sent a glare in the sheriff’s direction. “Never have liked bein’ in these places.”
“These men stole away my Maggie and our Lorena yesterday,” Seamus said in a low voice.
A.J. peered into the cell and nodded. “Ah, that’s where you ran off to last year, Rufus and Clem, rather than returnin’ to Saint Louis with me. Never did have the sense that God gave a goose. Your poor mama had a wake in your honor, although I talked her out of havin’ a funeral.” He rubbed at his head. “Alienated yourself with such a man that you’re now to battle the O’Rourkes?”
Seamus peered at him, murmuring, “Aligned,” before focusing on the men in the cell.
“What did you expect us to do?” groused the one on the bunk, Clem. “We wanted money, and we was promised a bagful of gold, if we got her to VC.”
Leaning forward, A.J. poked his finger through the jail cell. “I expected you to act like the decent crewmen I thought you were. Your mama won’t be pleased when I return to tell her that her spineless, maggot-for-brain sons turned so greedy they kidnapped women for a bag of gold. She’ll have your funeral just to ensure you can never come home.”
“You don’t know what it’s like, Mr. A.J.,” whined the one on the floor, Rufus.
He slammed his hand against the cell door. “Oh, you blockheads! How many times did I have to tell you about the money you’d earn on the trip downriver?” He shook his head, as he turned to look at Seamus with frustration.
Rufus rose to his knees. “You’ll still take us with you, won’t you, Cap’n? We can go home this year an’ leave this place behind.”
“Only to throw you overboard,” A.J. snapped. “Not worth wasting cargo space on the likes of you.” He saw them pale at his threat. “You wasn’t expectin’ that from me, was you?” A.J. asked, mimicking how they spoke, as he talked with them.
“No, Cap’n,” they said, with ducked heads. “We thought you’d get us out of here. We’re loyal crewmen.”
A.J. shook his head. “No, you ain’t. Now tell me everything, and I might keep the O’Rourkes from butcherin’ you, as is their right.” He stood as tall as his wiry frame allowed, and his brown eyes shone with determination, as he snorted at the two men who had been members of his crew the previous year, before they had disappeared into the Territory. Although it was a common occurrence for crewmen to give in to the temptation of remaining in the place they had traveled to, A.J. had never suspected they had aligned themselves with anyone who would harm his friends, the O’Rourkes.
The two men spoke, their words tripping over each other, as they talked about traveling into the Territory the previous year and meeting Jacques. They had thought him wise, as he was a trapper and wealthy, although he didn’t depend on mining. Soon they had agreed to help him recover his bride, who had run away from him.
“Bride?” A.J. asked, as he stood with fists on his waist. “Are you boys that plumb dumb?” He shook his head, before kicking the bottom of the cell door. “That man ain’t ever been married.”
“Well, he said he was. Why’d he lie?” Clem asked. “Said some man was intent on stealin’ her away, and we had to ensure he never got back to her.”
“What?” Ardan asked, as he stiffened beside his father. “What more did you do?”
“How is it that you two, as dumb as a pile of horse dung, managed to meet the man intent on hurtin’ Maggie O’Rourke?” A.J. asked on an exasperated sigh.
“Yeah! That’s the girl. Said she was pretty, an’ she is,” Rufus said, wincing when Clem hit him on his head. He glared at his friend. “You thought so too, although never could understand why we needed to steal two red-haired ladies. They have such bad tempers.”
“If she was his bride and eager to have him back, he wouldn’t have had to steal her, you idiots,” A.J. snapped. “Did you ever think of that?” They paled at his words. “No, you were too blinded by your thoughts of a bag of gold.” He clamped his jaw shut, and his gaze glowed with anger.
“What did you do to Dunmore?” Ardan demanded, taking a step forward to stand beside A.J.
Clem shrugged. “We was in on the search party, helpin’ to find the survivors from that crash. Wasn’t any surprise there were none.”
“Well, except for him. Ol’ Berg wanted us to kill him, but he was already dyin’. Didn’t seem right killin’ a man already on his way to bein’ dead.” Rufus scratched at his greasy head. “So’s we just moved him a ways. Kept him out of sight.”
Seamus rubbed at his head and turned to speak to A.J. “Are they your relations? Friends? Responsibility in any way?” When A.J. continued to shake his head at every question, Seamus nodded. “Aye, ’tis good to know.”
“We was only savin’ the women from their fates that was worse than death,” Clem said, with an innocent helpfulness in his gaze. “That’s what that other man said. The pompous one with the big belly.”
“Chaffee,” Kevin breathed.
“Yes! Him,” Rufus said, pointing at them. “We’s not responsible for any of this. We’s just helpin’ out some friends.” He and Clem nodded, as though that were sufficient to excuse the role they played.
“Did you even know where you were goin’ in the Territory?” Ardan asked. When they stared at him blankly, he said, “You were headed into the Territory. Did you know where you were going? Where to change horses? What to do if you broke an axle?”
Clem and Rufus exchanged glances and shrugged, looking a bit sheepish. “We ain’t stupid, Cap’n,” Clem said, having decided that A.J. was the most receptive man in the group staring at him. “Without the trapper, we didn’t know up from down in this country. We was talkin’ about headin’ back. An’ then they showed up. With another one. Mad as a hornet’s nest.”
A.J. leaned forward. “Because you stole his wife.”
“That’s what the man claimed, but she wasn’t supposed to be married.” Clem scratched at his head. “We was transportin’ a tart to Virginia City.”
“A tart?” Seamus breathed.
“Why?” Ardan asked, as he stared at his father.
Seamus shook his head, before focusing on the sheriff. “Keep ’em locked up. If you don’t, I can’t promise what won’t happen to ’em.” He saw Wilcox nod in understanding, as Seamus strode from the jail, his sons and A.J. behind him.
Holding up his hand, he silently asked for quiet as he stood still and attempted to control his rage. After a long moment, he rasped, “Let’s go to the warehouse.”
After arriving, he slammed the door shut and began to pace. “Chaffee and Jacques are workin’ together. Why?” he muttered. “An’ why take Lorena to Virginia City?”
A.J. rocked in place, as he pulled out his pipe. He waved it at Seamus, who shook his head. He nodded, understanding it was unacceptable to smoke in their warehouse. Instead A.J. clamped it between his teeth, as though having it in his mouth helped him to think better. “I hear a lot of talk, workin’ on the levee,” he said, before moving to pull out a crate from the corner to sit on. “This mornin’, your family’s been the gossip of choice.”
The O’Rourke men stilled, focusing on A.J., as they had come to rely on him for his astute insights and for the information he gleaned, working with his men along the levee.
“And Lorena would have settled the debt?” Ardan asked in horror.
A.J. shrugged. “Aye. Or at least a big-enough part of it to buy him some time.” He looked exasperated, as Ardan and Kevin stared at him in horror. “Don’t act innocent, boy. Life ain’t easy for women, and some women are made to pay for men’s errors.”
“Not our wives and daughters,” Seamus said, his gaze haunted. “How could this have happened?” He gripped Niall’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “’Tisn’t your fault, lad.”
A.J. looked at the O’Rourke men. “The men at fault are the two fools in there”—he waved in the direction of the jail—“and the two men who plotted for this to happen. And the men in those towns who think a woman, willing or otherwise, is a way to pay off a debt.” He scowled, as he waved his arm to indicate the distant towns in the Territory. “I’ll spread the word I’m wantin’ information, but too many might chest their cards ’cause they know I’m associated with you.” He rose and sauntered away, after slapping Seamus on his shoulder.
“Chest their cards?” Niall asked, with a frown.
“In a card game, keep your cards close, so no one can sneak a peek,” Ardan murmured. “Though, if you cheated like that, you’d be one of the newer cemetery residents.”
They murmured their agreement, as they returned to the large family home, hopeful to find Lorena on the mend and Maggie miraculously returned to them. Unfortunately little was to go as they hoped for some time.
* * *
Seamus poked his head out of the back door, sighing when he saw Mary sitting on the steps. After a quick foray into the house, he emerged with a blanket, draping it over her shoulders. “Come, love,” he breathed, as he sat beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist. With a groan of relief, she rested against him, her head on his shoulder.
Pioneer Devotion: The O’Rourke Family Montana Saga, Book Six Page 10
