Reckless Rogue

by Davis, Mary

  “What are you smiling about?”

  He focused on Agatha, who was smiling back at him, then turned and looked out the train window. This was going to be a long trip.

  ❧

  Lizzie lay across her bed still crying. She couldn’t stop. She moved her head to find a dry spot on her pillow, but there was none. She didn’t even care anymore if her cheek was on a cold, wet part.

  She’d believed in Pete. Had everything he’d told her been a lie, even the “truth” he told her? Did he mean it when he’d said he loved her? Doubtful. His wife had believed him, too, when he’d confessed his love to her. They had a daughter! He’d gone back to his wife as he should and left Lizzie with a broken heart.

  And the bootleg whiskey? That was probably his, too. He’d been flying alone and then wouldn’t let her fly. Was it there, and had he been trying to keep her from seeing it?

  How could she have felt so much for someone in two short weeks? She thought it was one of those “it was meant to be” things, but it obviously wasn’t.

  Lord, thank You for taking. . .she sniffled. . .him away before. . . she choked back fresh tears. . .it was too late. But she knew it was already too late. She’d fallen in love. Take this unbearable ache away. Why did You let this happen? I wish You’d never brought Pete into my life. It was best if she started right now to forget she’d ever met Lieutenant Pete Garfield. A new wave of sobs crashed over her, and she buried her head in her pillow. She’d never marry anyone.

  She heard a knock on her door. “I’m not here.” She sniffled.

  “That’s why you’re talking to me?” Ivan said.

  “Go away.” She didn’t want to see or talk to anyone.

  “Lizzie?” Ivan’s voice was clear instead of muffled by the door. He’d come in against her wishes.

  “I said go away.” She buried her head deeper into her cold, wet pillow.

  The bed sank on the end. Ivan had obviously sat. “I’m sorry about Pete.”

  She nodded into her pillow.

  “The sheriff was by earlier. He was telling Dad about Pete’s wife and Pete leaving town with her.”

  She sat up quickly and glared at him. “I don’t want to hear about it! Don’t ever mention his name again! Ever! Do you hear me?”

  Ivan’s eyes had never been so wide.

  “Go on now. Get out of here.”

  Ivan didn’t move. “The sheriff said something else.”

  “I don’t care. Just leave me be,” she said through gritted teeth.

  “I think the sheriff had something to do with that whiskey jug in Pe—the aeroplane.”

  She relaxed her jaw. “What?”

  “Dad, too.”

  “That can’t be. You misunderstood.”

  “The sheriff said he’d gotten rid of ‘that bum, no-good flyboy.’ Then he told Dad about Pete’s wife and daughter and them all leaving for Spokane. Dad was pleased to hear it. Dad said he was glad Pete was finally gone. That he was nothing but trouble.”

  “That doesn’t mean the whiskey wasn’t Pete’s. If anything, it proves it was. He’s a liar.”

  Ivan shook his head. “Sheriff said it all worked better than they planned. Dad’s idea of the whiskey was brilliant, but when the sheriff uncovered Pete’s wife, he knew that was the nail in Pete’s coffin. They could get rid of Pete and not have to deal with trying to persuade him to leave town to avoid the charges. But this way you wouldn’t want to talk to Pete even if he did decide to return.”

  The sheriff was right about that. “They wouldn’t have just told you all of this.”

  “They didn’t know I was there. They were talking on the porch; I was inside in Dad’s chair under the window. It was open a crack.”

  She’d been the one to open it. “I can’t believe Daddy would be part of setting up Pete.”

  “You know how Dad is always talking about how much he needs you and if it weren’t for you he couldn’t do anything. I think he was afraid of Pete taking you away.”

  Daddy had acted like he knew nothing about the whiskey and been there for her and even gone to the sheriff for her. He’d been against her the whole time? He’d done this? She didn’t want to believe Daddy would hurt her like this.

  She rose, wiped her nose, and strode out to the sitting room where Daddy read his newspaper. “Is it true, Daddy?”

  He looked up.

  “Did you have someone put a jug of bootleg in Pete’s aeroplane so the sheriff could arrest him?”

  Daddy’s gaze flickered from her to Ivan and back. “I think you’re overwrought and dreaming things up.”

  She shook her head. “No. You, my loving father, wouldn’t do that. You would have just asked your best friend the sheriff to run Pete out of town. Didn’t you, Daddy?”

  “What does it matter how it happened? The man was a liar and was using you. He’s married and has a child with another one on the way. It’s best you found out now.”

  “Daddy, how could you?”

  “I’m just looking out for what’s best for you. And I obviously did know what’s best. You can’t trust a man who has no roots and flies all over the country taking people’s hard-earned money. It doesn’t matter what I did. The man has a wife and child. You should be grateful and just forget about him.”

  Her heart would never forget Pete. He’d given her her first taste of flight. He’d let her pilot his Jenny. He’d shown her a world beyond the earth.

  She stared at Daddy. Grateful? How could he have betrayed her like this? She ran outside and kept running until she was in town at Bill’s Garage. She was shaking from both the fatigue of running and the growing cold. Bill and her grandpa rushed out to her.

  Grandpa pulled off his outer shirt and wrapped it around her. “Come inside.”

  Bill looked around. “Where’s your Tin Lizzie? Did it break down?”

  She shook her head. “I ran.”

  Grandpa led her to a chair. “What happened to you?”

  “Daddy.” She put her face in her hands and started crying again.

  “Did something happen to him? Should we call for the doctor?” Grandpa asked.

  She shook her head, then spewed out the whole wretched story.

  Grandpa snarled. “He don’t deserve you. How that son of mine could raise a fine daughter like you, I’ll never know. You must have gotten a lot of good from your ma.”

  Not her mom. “I doubt that. She ran off with another man.”

  “Then your Grandma Lilly. She was good.”

  ❧

  As the train pulled into the Spokane station, Officer Dale held out a pair of handcuffs. “Hold out your hands.”

  Pete did as instructed.

  Agatha pushed Ruth toward him. Ruth flung her tiny arms around his neck. “Don’t hurt my daddy.”

  He looked at Agatha and shook his head. He hated the way she used her daughter.

  Agatha turned a shining smile on the two officers. “Can you give us a moment?”

  Officer Dale nodded and looked to his partner. “You stay where you can keep an eye on him. I’ll go see if our transportation is here.”

  Pete sent Ruth back to her mother.

  Agatha slid forward in her seat. “All you have to do is marry me, and you won’t have to spend one more minute in jail.”

  He leaned forward and said, “I would rather rot in jail than spend one minute married to a manipulative cat like you.” He stood and held out his hands. “Officer, I’m ready to go.”

  Agatha stood and whispered, “Have it your way, Pete. But I think a few nights in jail will make you a little more willing.” She took Ruth’s hand and sashayed away.

  Pete stepped off the train. He was back. It felt as though a hot coal burned in the pit of his stomach.

  ❧

  Not more than a half hour after the jail door had swung shut, a guard came to Pete’s cell. “You have a lady visitor.”

  He shook his head. Did Agatha think he’d changed his mind already? “I don’t want to see her.�
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  “Well, that’s a fine how-do-you-do.”

  Aunt Ethel. He sighed. She was a sight for sore eyes even if she did look like a floozy with her bleached, bobbed hair, bright red lips, and short blue flapper dress.

  He pushed off the cot and came to the bars. “It sure is good to see you.”

  “Of course it is.” Aunt Ethel turned to the young guard. “Now be a peach and unlock this cage.”

  “I’m not supposed to, ma’am.”

  Aunt Ethel stepped closer, flashed her smile, and with a well-placed hand on the guard’s chest said, “Sure you can. You have all those keys right on your belt. I’d really appreciate it.”

  The guard swallowed hard. “I. . .I. . .I. . .”

  Pete reached through the bars and took his aunt’s arm. “He can’t. It’s all right.”

  Aunt Ethel took her hand from the man’s chest and let it hang by her side. “Well, go on.”

  “I can bring you a chair, ma’am,” the guard offered.

  “I don’t want a chair. If you can’t get my nephew the war hero out of jail, you’re no use to me.”

  The guard hurried away.

  Aunt Ethel turned a maternal face to him. “How’s my little Petey?”

  “I’m fine.” Aunt Ethel always was his champion. She’d walk through fire for him.

  “I’m going to get you out of here. I just have to find the right man in this place.” She undid the top button of her dress and pulled the neckline down over the top of her shoulders.

  Pete took her hand. “I appreciate what you want to do for me. But don’t. I want to take care of this my own way without that kind of help.”

  Aunt Ethel pushed out a pouty bottom red lip.

  “Promise me you won’t flirt with every man in this building on my behalf.” He didn’t want his aunt compromising herself to help him. The Lord had a better way.

  She straightened up. “Very well. But you can’t expect me to just sit around and do nothing while you’re stuck in here.”

  He smiled. “I love you, Aunt Ethel.”

  “I love you, too, my little Petey.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck. “You know I’m innocent, don’t you?”

  Aunt Ethel looked insulted. “Of course I do.”

  “I mean about everything. It’s important to me that you believe I’m not the father of Agatha Marshall’s daughter or of the one she’s carrying.”

  Her expression softened. “Sure I do.”

  “Really?”

  “Here’s the way I figure it. First of all, Agatha Marshall is not the type of girl you’d like in the first place. She’s manipulative and mean. Second, let’s say you were blinded by love or something foolish like that and you did like her. You wouldn’t get her pregnant. You’re not like that. Third, if you did get a girl pregnant—which I know you never would—you would own up to it and marry her. And fourth, well, I don’t know what that is, but all this is a lot of fiction. You are no more the father of her children than I am.”

  “Thank you.” Aunt Ethel’s belief in him meant more than almost anything on earth to him.

  Aunt Ethel put her hands through the bars and on each of his cheeks. “How did you turn out so good with only someone like me to raise you?”

  “You’re not so bad. You made me go to Sunday school.”

  “Maybe the only thing I ever did right in my life.”

  “You loved me when no one else would.” By most people’s standards, his aunt was a disreputable floozy, but he knew she had a heart of gold. When people could get past her outward appearance—even respectable people—they loved her.

  Tears pooled in his aunt’s eyes. “I just can’t stand to see you in here.”

  “Please don’t do anything.” He feared she’d flirt with every man in town until she got her way.

  She blinked back the moisture. “Merle has a friend who’s a lawyer. He’ll get you out of here. I’ll talk to him.”

  “Don’t you talk to Merle’s friend. I’ll figure something out.”

  She giggled. “I’m not going to talk to him, I’m going to talk to Merle. He’ll do anything for me.”

  Merle always was crazy for his aunt. “How is Merle?”

  “Dandy and as handsome as ever.”

  “Has he talked you into marrying him yet?”

  “Marriage would only ruin what we have.”

  He never understood how his aunt could live with a man she loved and who loved her more than the sun and moon and would marry her if she would ever say yes. “He loves you so much.”

  “The minute a man marries, he goes looking elsewhere for a younger woman. I don’t want to lose him.”

  “Merle would never do that. He’s too crazy for you. I think his heart breaks a little every day he’s not married to you.”

  Aunt Ethel reached through the bars and caressed his cheek. “I think you’ve fallen in love, too. Who is she?”

  He knew his aunt was uncomfortable with the subject of marrying Merle, so he allowed the change and the chance to talk about Lizzie. “I can’t begin to describe how wonderful Lizzie is. She’s sweet and kind. You should have heard her when I let her fly my aeroplane. She was so excited.”

  “You mean you gave her a ride.”

  “No. I let her pilot Jenny. She’s even building her own aeroplane. It’s a Bleriot. I was helping her wrap it in cotton.”

  “My, oh my. You really are in love with her.”

  “I’ve never met anyone like her and never will again.”

  “Does she know about Agatha?”

  He nodded and the ache for Lizzie to know the truth throbbed inside him. “Agatha came with her daughter. She kept making Ruth call me Daddy. That poor little girl.”

  “Did Lizzie believe you when you told her the child wasn’t yours?”

  “I didn’t get to speak to her. But as soon as all of this is taken care of, I’m going back. I’ll explain everything to her.”

  Aunt Ethel took his hand in hers and patted it. “I’m going to talk to Merle. The sooner we get you out of here, the better.” She turned and left.

  He was grateful for his aunt’s help. Especially if it involved someone else pleading on his behalf. His aunt’s heart was in the right place; she just didn’t have a problem with using questionable means.

  Eleven

  Lizzie sat in a straight-backed chair with Fred on her lap and looked out the upstairs window of Bill’s apartment above his garage into the black night. It reflected how she felt inside: dark, empty, and alone. Everything she’d cared about had been stripped away. No one was who he seemed to be.

  She took the pins out of the back of her hair and let the lump fall down her back.

  Pete was not a freewheeling gypsy flyboy without a care in the world who loved her as he’d made her believe. He was a husband and father with responsibilities and commitments that didn’t involve her. Couldn’t involve her. Had he been running away from his responsibilities?

  She finger-combed her hair back and held it at the nape of her neck.

  Daddy’s betrayal hurt worse. He was supposed to love her no matter what. She knew he was needy and played on her sympathies because of his infirmity. He made sure she knew he “needed” her, couldn’t live without her. But she never thought he’d sabotage her.

  She reached toward the windowsill and picked up the scissors she’d asked Bill for.

  And flying? She didn’t care if she ever went up again. What was the point? It was best if she kept both feet firmly planted on the ground. Flights of fancy. Daddy had been right. Nothing good could come of flying. Her dreams had soared and taken her heart right along with them. Then they’d crashed. Just like Lincoln Beachey, grandmaster of aerial stunts and the greatest daredevil of them all. For all the wonder and spectacular flying, he was dead, smashed into the ground, and so were her dreams and her heart.

  She reached behind her head and worked the scissors up and down until she’d cut through the whole wad of hair. Then she trimmed the
longer front pieces to her jaw to match the length in the back. She wound the long tresses she’d cut off and folded them up in a handkerchief.

  She saw headlights heading toward the garage. “Bill, you have a customer.”

  Bill stood from the table where he’d been playing cards with her grandpa. He looked out the window. “I think that’s for you.”

  She took another look. Sure enough, Daddy sat in the passenger seat. But who was driving? Ivan? He came to a jerky stop.

  Grandpa patted her arm. “You can stay here if you want. We’ll go down and talk to him.”

  She followed Bill and Grandpa downstairs and to the front door with Fred in her arms but stayed back.

  Grandpa did his best to straighten his old body. “She’s staying here.”

  Daddy leaned on the open door of the Ford. “You had your chance to be a father and threw it away. I’m her father, and I know what is best for her. Come on, Elizabeth, let’s go home.”

  “You sound just like your ma’s father. He thought he knew what was best for Lilly. She died sad and lonely because of him, and he raised you to be a bitter man.”

  Daddy stepped away from the Ford and took a couple of steps toward Grandpa. “My grandfather was a good man. At least he was there to raise me, which is more than I can say for you.”

  Grandpa advanced a couple of steps. “Robert was a controlling man who didn’t care about his daughter’s happiness. He trained you well. You’re making Lizzie just as unhappy as Robert made Lilly.”

  Daddy moved forward, and the two men were nearly toe-to-toe. “Her name is Elizabeth, and I think I know what’s right for my own daughter.”

  Grandpa raised his voice. “You’re only thinking of yourself.”

  “You’re one to talk!” They were shouting at each other now.

  She couldn’t stand it and handed Fred to Bill. “Stop it! Both of you!” She didn’t know what else to do or where to go so she walked around the Model T to get in.

  Ivan looked proud behind the wheel. She could see him reaching for the door handle. She walked past the driver’s door and climbed into the back.

  Ivan turned in the seat. “Aren’t you going to drive?”

  “You drove here. You can drive us home.”