by Harvest Moon
“Ouch!” Lee held up a hand as if to ward her off. “That hurt.” He tried to look wounded. “I’ll take Coalie and raise him as my own.” He reached to ruffle Coalie’s blond hair. “He’s a fine boy. And I’ve got a real nice apartment in Chicago big enough for the three of us.”
“Apartment?” Tessa glared at him. “You’ll have to do better than that. I’m sick to death of apartments.”
“Then you’ll think about it?” Lee pressed her for an answer.
An idea occurred to Tessa. “Only if you agree to do something for me.” She had no intention of marrying Lee, but she had no qualms about using his position as a Pinkerton detective to get the information she needed. For David. “Agreed?”
“That depends on what you want.” Caution was second nature to Lee.
“Tessa?” Coalie spoke up.
“What is it?” Tessa asked.
“Could I go outside for a little while? I’ve been inside so long.” Coalie managed a decent whine.
“As long as you stay close,” Tessa told him. “And come when I call.”
“Okay.” Coalie jumped down from the bed.
“Don’t forget,” Tessa said.
“I won’t,” Coalie assured her. He waved good-bye and raced out of the room like a shot.
As soon as he was gone, Tessa stopped packing and leaned on the bedpost. “I want you to find someone for me.”
“Who?”
“A baby girl. Her name is Lily Catherine Alexander. Her mother was Caroline Millen.”
“Christ!” Lee whistled. “Finding a needle in a haystack might be easier.”
“I know,” Tessa said, “but David doesn’t want a needle in a haystack. He wants a family. He wants Lily Catherine.”
“And you intend to give David what he wants.”
“Exactly,” Tessa confirmed. “It’s my way of repaying him. A life for a life.”
* * *
“Coalie, what happened?” Mary whispered, reaching out to grab hold of the boy’s shirt as he went racing past her.
“He asked Tessa to marry him,” Coalie whispered back, wriggling in her grip like a worm on a fishing hook.
“He what?” She looked at Coalie. He looked at her. “We’d better find David,” she said, lowering the boy to his feet.
“Where’d you think I was goin’ afor you stopped me?”
Unable to hide her grin, Mary smoothed his cowlick. “Clever boy, aren’t you?”
Nodding his enthusiastic agreement, Coalie flung open the front door and darted into the street. Mary waited until he was halfway to the courthouse before closing the door with a satisfying slam.
* * *
Coalie ran through the courthouse hollering, “David! David!”
David opened the door to the judge’s chambers and stepped into the hall. “Here I am.”
Coalie was panting, nearly out of breath. “You gotta come quick!”
David’s heart raced as he remembered the first time he’d heard those words. The memory of Tessa being paraded down the street dressed in bloodstained blue satin flashed through his mind. He’d spent the past hour talking to Judge Emory about the possibility and legality of buying Coalie’s Chicago work contract. He’d managed to convince the judge that he planned to marry Tessa and give Coalie a loving home.
To his amazement, David found Judge Emory had a real soft spot for children. He’d also found himself telling the judge the truth about the Washington scandal, even asked Judge Emory to make inquiries about Lily Catherine on his behalf. All David wanted was to get home to Tessa. He had a romantic evening all planned. The diamond and sapphire ring he’d bought for Tessa at the jeweler’s was burning a hole in his pocket. He couldn’t let anything happen to her now.
Mary burst through the doors of the courthouse right behind Coalie, gasping for air. “David, you’d better come quick!”
“Mary, what is it? Has something happened to Tessa?”
Mary nodded. “He happened to her,” she managed. “I knew I should’ve shot him when I had the chance!”
“Lee?” There could be only one man Mary wished she’d shot.
“Yes,” she panted.
“He asked Tessa to marry him!” Coalie announced. “And she’s packin’ her things. You better hurry!”
David looked to his sister for confirmation.
She nodded frantically in agreement with Coalie. “I’m afraid the silver-tongued scoundrel will talk her into it. That’s why I came running.”
“By dammit, I’ll kill him!” David grabbed his suit coat.
“I hope you do,” Mary fervently added. Liam Kincaid deserved to die. If he hadn’t been set on proposing to Tessa, she would not have had to run to David for help. “And I hope I get there in time to see it.” She gathered her skirts in one hand.
“Mary,” David said, “take Coalie and go to the hotel for the night.”
“I planned to stay at your apartment tonight. I thought I’d double with Tessa,” Mary protested.
David fixed his gaze on his younger sister. “Mary…
“Very well.” She recognized the look in his eyes and the tone of voice. “But I’ll expect a full account of what goes on between you and Liam Kincaid!” she shouted as David sprinted for the door. “Punch him in the nose. Break it!” she advised. “It’s too perfect. It makes him too handsome.” She took Coalie by the hand. “Come on. We’d better go to the hotel and get a room with a good view of the street before they’re all gone.”
She was already visualizing the headlines: “Disgraced Attorney Wins Case and Fatally Wounds Surprise Witness.”
* * *
“Where is he?” David demanded. He flung open the front door with enough force to shatter the windowpanes.
“Liam?” Tessa hurried from her bedroom at the sound of David’s voice.
“Yes, Liam. Who else?” David stalked into Tessa’s bedroom and surveyed it with a jealous eye.
“He’s gone.” She spoke from behind him.
“Where?”
“How should I know?” Tessa snapped. “I’m not his keeper.”
“Really? I heard you were about to become his wife.”
“Who told you that?” Tessa demanded.
“Who didn’t?” David countered, turning to face her. “By now the whole damn town must know.”
Tessa thought of the newspaper headlines for the past two days. She couldn’t read them, but she could see the big black letters. And she didn’t have to be able to read to know the scandalous things they’d printed.
“Well, they’ll know soon enough anyway,” Tessa replied.
“You’re not seriously considering marrying Lee.” David ran his fingers through his hair. “Are you?” She didn’t seem bothered by the idea that the whole town would soon know Lee Kincaid had proposed.
Tessa couldn’t seem to control the urge to spur David on. “I could do worse.” She stared pointedly at David. Ask me, dammit, ask me.
“Two days ago you hated the sight of him,” David reminded her.
“I’ve changed my mind,” Tessa replied. “Now I think he’ll make a fine husband.” For someone else. Not for her. She’d realized he hadn’t meant his proposal any more than she meant to consider it.
“The hell he will!” David whirled around and stomped out of the room.
Tessa went back to her packing. She lifted Horace Greeley off the pile of clothes and hugged him. She hated to admit it, but she’d even miss David’s ugly cat.
David. She snorted. He was angry now, but she was willing to bet that in ten minutes he’d be drinking with Lee and celebrating his lucky escape. He was free. He was rid of her. His life would return to normal…
* * *
A small crowd had gathered outside David’s office. He paid them no heed as he left to begin his search. He was too intent on finding Lee Kincaid.
He found his old friend in the hotel bar, waiting.
“What the devil do you think you’re doing?” David demanded, tapping L
ee on the shoulder.
Lee read the furious expression on his friend’s face and decided to push him a bit more. “I’m having a glass of Irish whiskey to celebrate my forthcoming nuptials.” He held up his glass. “To Tessa Roarke. She’ll make a lovely bride!”
David raised his fist.
Lee saw the punch coming a second before he felt it.
He rocked backward and fell off the barstool. “Damn it, David! I think you broke it!” Gingerly he touched his nose. His fingers came away bloody.
“Good!” David stood over him, feeling supremely satisfied. “Mary’ll be happy!” But David’s moment of glory was brief.
“What’s she got to do with it? I thought we were fighting over Tessa.” Lee came up swinging.
The punch to his midsection sent David reeling out the front door. He landed on the boardwalk. Lee bolted after him.
“We are!” David picked himself up, turned, and swung wildly.
Lee ducked. “Missed me!” he taunted.
David swung again and connected with Lee’s jaw.
“Damn!” Lee swung back. “That hurt!”
David raised an arm, blocking the punch. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, asking Tessa to marry you?” He swung a left.
“What’s it matter to you?” Lee panted. He ducked again, but this time he rammed his head into David’s stomach. “You never said you wanted to marry her.” He grabbed David’s jacket, pulling him back to head-butt him again. The coat pocket tore loose. David went sprawling backward into the muddy street.
Lee dove after him.
“Fight! Fight!” The cry broke out. The saloons and businesses along the main street emptied. Men, women, and children rushed outside to see the action. “The lawyer’s fighting the Pinkerton man!”
Upstairs in the hotel, Mary and Coalie opened a window, stuck their heads out, and yelled encouragement. “Hit him again, David!”
“Well, I do want to marry her, dammit!” David rolled over, struggled to his knees, then came up lunging for Lee.
“I hate like hell to hurt you, old buddy, but you’re so damned stubborn.” Lee shoved David backward, then followed him. “Why didn’t you say something?”
Lee swung. His right missed, but his left connected with David’s ear.
David shook his head. The ringing in his ears continued loud and clear. “I was going to.” He blocked another punch and landed one of his own. “Dammit, I can’t hear a thing!”
“David!” Mary screamed. “Look out!”
Angrier now, he walked into Lee’s fist.
“You won’t be able to see anything, either.” Lee managed a short laugh. He looked up and saw Mary and Coalie hanging out of the hotel window. “You bloodthirsty hellion, whose side are you on?” he shouted to Mary.
“Mine.” David socked Lee in the eye. “And neither will you!”
Lee staggered back a few steps. “Hell, David, I don’t want to marry Tessa. I’m only doing this for you.” He cocked his fist.
“You proposed to my woman for my own good? I don’t believe it!” David drew back his own fist.
“When did you plan to propose to her?” Lee demanded, going for broke. He let fly a punch.
David blocked. “This evening. I had it all planned, dammit!” He drew his fist back a bit farther. “I’ve got a sapphire the size of a bird’s egg burning a hole in my pocket right now!” At that thought David froze. He unclenched his hands and used them to pat the pockets of his jacket. His left pocket flapped in the wind. “It’s gone! I’m gonna kill you!” He glared at Lee.
“Wait!” Lee held up a hand. “Don’t hit me! We’ve only got two good eyes between us.” He squinted at David’s battered face through the slit of his own rapidly swelling eye. “I’ll help you look for the ring.”
“You bloody well will!” David got down on his hands and knees, searching the street. “And if we don’t find it…”
Lee got down beside him, crawling around Main Street, combing the mud, looking for a sapphire ring the size of a bird’s egg.
“David!” someone screamed.
* * *
Tessa ignored the noise coming from the street as she crammed the last dress into the suitcase and snapped it shut. She grabbed her hatbox, then lugged the suitcase off the bed and into the office. Steam poured from the spout of the teakettle. Mary was nowhere in sight. Tessa set the suitcase down and lifted the kettle off the stove. Where was everybody?
“David!” Tessa heard the scream echoing from the street. She plunked the kettle down in the dry sink, crossed the room, and opened the front door. She made her way down the street, but she couldn’t see over the crowd of people standing in a large circle in the middle of the road.
“David!” Tessa heard the scream again. It sounded like Mary. Had something happened to him? Following the sound of Mary’s voice, Tessa looked up.
“Why are you stopping?” Mary demanded of the men crawling around in the street. “What are you doing, David? Get up. Hit him again!”
“Shut up, Mary!” Lee yelled back.
It was Mary. She and Coalie were hanging halfway out of an open second-story window in the hotel.
Her heart pounded at the sight. “Coalie!” Tessa shouted. “Get down from there!”
“Aw, Tessa!” Coalie wailed.
“Don’t ‘Aw, Tessa’ me, young man,” she shouted. “Get down and come over here. We’re leaving!”
“Where we goin’?” Coalie yelled back.
“Anywhere away from Peaceable, Wyoming,” Tessa answered. She went back down the street and inside the office to get her suitcase and hatbox.
“Christ!” Lee moved faster, scrambling to locate the missing ring.
“I found it!” David grabbed the ring, stood up, and held it out for Lee to see.
Upstairs in the window of the hotel, Coalie looked to Mary. “What do I do? I promised I’d come when she called.”
“Coalie!” Tessa shouted.
“Go on,” Mary told him. “But take your time. Slow her down before she gets to the depot.”
“I’m comin’!” Coalie yelled to Tessa.
“Hurry!” Tessa urged. “We don’t want to miss the train.”
Coalie ducked out of the window, left the room, and inched his way slowly down the stairs.
Tessa stepped off the sidewalk to cross the street. Her progress was hampered by townspeople. “Excuse me.” She bumped into someone’s back. “Excuse me.”
“We sure hate to lose you, Miss Roarke.”
“Congratulations, Miss Roarke.”
“Glad to see you got off, Miss Roarke.”
“Hope you’ll consider staying here in town, Miss Roarke.”
All around her, citizens of Peaceable turned and spoke, offering their best wishes.
“That goes for me, too, Miss Tessa.”
Tessa glanced up as Sheriff Bradley tipped his hat.
“Let me help you with your bag.” He reached for the handle of her suitcase before she could protest. He picked it up and stepped forward.
The circle of people opened as if by magic.
“David! You’d better make your move before he does!” Mary shouted.
“I don’t need your help,” David yelled to her. “Or any more of yours.” He glared at Lee.
“How about mine?” the sheriff asked as he carried Tessa’s suitcase to the center of the street and dropped it at David’s feet.
David turned around and saw Tessa standing next to the sheriff. He eyed the suitcase at his feet. “Yours, I assume.”
“David!” Tessa ran forward and threw herself into his arms. “What happened to your face?”
Lee stepped up. “I happened to his face.” His face was as battered as David’s.
Tessa pulled away from David and rounded on Liam. “What did you think you were doing?”
“I thought I was marrying you,” Lee said, smiling in spite of his split lip.
“I don’t want to marry you,” Tessa told him. “I don
’t want a rogue of an Irishman for a husband. I’ve spent my life with them. And you didn’t mean that silly proposal. You only did it out of duty to my brother.”
“Nope,” Lee told her. “I did it for David.”
“David?” Tessa didn’t understand. “David doesn’t need you to propose for him.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell everyone.” David turned to the crowd. “I can ask her to marry me without anybody’s help. I plan to ask her to marry me, and I’m going to ask her to marry me.” He moved closer to Tessa and took her hand. “Tessa, will you marry me and let me take care of you?”
‘Take care of me?” Tessa threw the words back at him. “You want to take care of me?”
“Yes.”
“Well, forget it!” Tessa shouted. Yanking her hand out of his grasp, she whirled around to reach for her suitcase.
David caught her arm and turned her back to face him. “Forget it?” he shouted back. “What do you mean forget it?”
“I mean forget it! I’m not interested in letting you take care of me! I can take care of myself!”
“But I thought you cared about me!”
“I don’t care about you,” Tessa yelled. “I love you!”
Frustrated beyond belief, David glared down at the woman. “It means the same thing!”
“Not to me, it doesn’t,” she informed him. “If you can’t say you love me, then I don’t want you taking care of me!” She stamped her foot in the street for emphasis.
“Fine. Take care of yourself. Take care of Coalie. Take care of me.” David knelt at her feet and took her hand once again. “Take care of all the children we’ll have together, but marry me. Please.”
Tessa glanced around at the crush of smiling people, at the artists sketching and the reporters filling their notebooks with words. “David, you’re making a fool of yourself in front of the whole town.”
“It’s time I did.”
“But you’re causing a scandal!” She tugged on his hand, trying to pull him off his knees.
“I’ve caused them before.” David grinned. One eye was swollen shut. His jaw was bruised. His injured shoulder throbbed with pain once again. He had a cut on his lip, and his stomach hurt like hell. But he’d never felt better. “So have you. I doubt this will be the last one.”
