Читать книгу Questions of Honour - Kate Welsh - Страница 7

Helena grew visibly nervous when the town came into sight the next morning. “How did you meet Brendan?” Josh finally asked, hoping to get her to relax.

Helena smiled. “Uncle Franklin brought me here when he had to go away on business. He thought I’d be well chaperoned, but I was only here a couple days when your father was shot. While the house was in turmoil, I had a groom saddle a mount, and I rode into the mountains. I was quite lost, and enjoying every minute of it, when I came upon Brendan fishing.”

“And that would have been it for Brendan. You’re everything he used to say he wanted in a wife.”

Helena looked confused. “But he sneers at my money. He wants a ranch and I could buy one for him but he won’t hear of it.”

Brendan was clearly the more practical of the two. Which meant he’d changed. Had he changed enough to warn a friend if he learned of the Irish-sounding earl who was undercover for the Pinkertons and hunting his hide?

As they rode through the outskirts of town, Helena said, “It’s so dreary. I’ve wondered why they stay here.”

“They were lured here with a promise of a better life. They stay,” Josh answered, “because men like Gowery and my father promised to be their saviors but keep them enslaved to debt.”

“That angers you, doesn’t it? Imagine how terrible it is to be told where to go, who to see, who to love.” Helena blinked away a mist of tears.

Joshua felt her hopelessness. The life she described was clearly her own. “Helena, this will work. You’ll be safe and we’ll keep Brendan safe. We just need to resist the temptation to warn him about your earl. The man sounded honest if angry over your relationship with Brendan so I doubt he’ll manufacture evidence against him.”

She nodded and glanced away toward the company store. “Look. There goes that boy from the station yesterday.”

Joshua pulled the carriage to a stop. “Ever been in a company store?” Helena shook her head. “Then you need to see how the miners get enslaved to debt. You’ll notice the prices are ten to fifteen percent higher than what you’re used to seeing in the stores near Philadelphia. Mining companies pay in script. That forces employees to buy their equipment, explosives and all their staples from their company store. They run up a bill, and then can’t leave till it’s paid,” he explained as he helped her down from the carriage.

Helena looked around town. “You should have just whisked your girl away from all this. Was she very pretty?” she asked as Joshua opened the door to the store.

He followed Helena inside and found himself looking at that long-remembered face. “Beautiful, in fact,” Joshua whispered, staring at Abby as she spoke with Mr. Prescott.

She looked just as he remembered … a little thinner perhaps but the years had been more than kind. Her long auburn hair was pulled into a tight bun, but just as in her youth it refused to be tamed. Tiny ringlets had pulled loose to softly frame the delicate high cheekbones of her lovely face. Josh felt his heart seize in his chest. How can it still hurt so damned much?

“Are you all right?” Helena whispered.

Josh couldn’t tear his gaze away from Abby.

“Oh, that’s her, isn’t it?” Helena asked. “Your father says she broke your heart by marrying another man.”

“My father talks too much,” Josh growled. He didn’t need reminding that the tormentor of his youth had stolen Abby.

“She is beautiful,” Helena went on, throwing salt in the still open wound. “Her hair is like fire in the sunlight.”

He wasn’t ready for this. He took a step backward, but Helena turned into a proverbial pillar of salt holding him in place. Then in a flash she turned into an iron horse, all but dragging him across the room.

“Come along and introduce me,” she ordered. “Get this out of the way. You’ve come back here to live. You can’t hide in the manor house.”

Joshua cleared his throat when they reached the counter. “It’s been a long time, Abby,” he managed to say in what he hoped was the neutral tone of a man greeting an old acquaintance.

Abby sucked in a deep, shocked breath. Seeing Joshua the day before hadn’t prepared her for the sound of his voice. If she had prior warning, she’d have fled but now she had no choice. She turned to face the man she’d once loved and the woman she’d heard he intended to marry. The meeting was inevitable, but she wasn’t ready, and that wasn’t fair.

Because he obviously was.

He sounded as if they’d been no more than childhood playmates. But they’d been more—much more. They’d created a child together. A child he’d abandoned to grow up in poverty while he traveled the world and found another woman. Righteous anger rescued her pride. “Joshua. I’d heard you’d returned. Planning to suck the miners and laborers even dryer? A little warning—they can’t squeeze their budgets tighter without starving. And if they died, who’d go down into those death traps your father calls tunnels?”

“Things are going to get better now, Abby. I’m back and with enough power to make some real changes. All the changes we’d planned.”

“Well, I beg your pardon but I’ll not be believin’ a Wheaton’ll honor his word. I learned that long ago.”

“Why so hostile, Abby? You should know what I’ve always dreamed of for this town and its people. I do intend to carry on with all those plans and promises I made.”

“You’re ten years too late to keep a good many of them! Nobody trusts the word of a Wheaton, least of all me.”

“My, you two are intense,” Helena drawled before Joshua could respond to Abby’s indictment. “Darling, introduce me to this lovely, dusty creature.”

A perplexed look come across Joshua’s features before they hardened. “Abaigeal Sullivan. Helena Conwell. Helena is my intended.”

Helena Conwell seemed flustered but then the neighbor girl Abby cared for in the mornings skipped up. “Mrs. Sullivan, Daniel said to ask if we could have a candy stick?”

“I’ll try my hand at a bit of candy-making when we get home.”

Two candy sticks suddenly appeared in a large masculine hand. “Hope you like cherry, sweetheart. It’s the only flavor Ethan Prescott ever stocks from what I can remember.” Joshua held the candy out to the children and smiled at little Susan. “If Abby hasn’t improved on her candy-making skills, she’ll likely burn the house down. She nearly did to Mrs. Henry’s kitchen when she was younger.”

“I’d rather take brimstone from the devil,” Daniel snarled, having come upon them. With that said, he kicked over a bucket of dirty water, soaking the skirt of Miss Conwell’s lovely gown, then ran out the door.

Helena gasped in shock and stepped back, holding the sodden material off her limbs. “That boy is a little animal!”

Joshua stared down at Abby, fury burning in his eyes. “He and I had words yesterday at the train station. I forgave his behavior because it was directed at me, but this is too much.”

“I apologize for my son, but you should understand his resentment.”

Josh felt dizzy. The air left his lungs, and he sucked in a strangled breath. Her son. He’d assumed the boy was her brother. The one her mother had been expecting when he left for Germany. Her mother’s condition had been the chief reason Abby had refused to go with him. So the boy was Abby’s son. He should have been theirs but instead he was proof she’d betrayed him within months in the bed of a man Josh despised.

“He needs a good trip to the woodshed with your husband,” he said, then wished instantly he could take it back. The boy had been wrong, but Liam Sullivan was a brute.

“I’ve no husband, as you well know!” Abby spat at him.

Josh blinked. “Of course you do. Liam Sullivan.”

“I’m widowed, you fool. How long do you think he lived the way he was?” She turned her gaze on Helena, who stood gaping. “'Tis sorry I am for what Daniel did. He really does have his reasons. I truly feel sorry for you to be marrying a blackguard like Joshua Wheaton. You’d better be askin’ what has the boy so upset! Come along, Susan.”

Josh would have followed Abby but Helena said, “Take me home. Please, Joshua.” She pulled a face and held her sodden hem away from herself. He guided Helena to the carriage and helped her in, but his mind stayed on Abby. Something didn’t add up. Why was she so angry at him?

“You need to find out who that boy is,” Helena demanded as he climbed into the carriage.

“He’s Abby’s. And Sullivan’s. He looks a lot like Abby’s father. I thought he was her brother. Except for his eyes now that I think about it. All the Kanes have one shade of green eyes or another,” Joshua added absently. Something about his statement bothered him, but another thought replaced it. “Abby isn’t married. My father never told me Sullivan had died.”

“You should find out why. Especially since your father is so anxious to see us marry immediately. Speaking of which, why did you call me your intended when we agreed to hold that in reserve?”

Josh’s heart sank. Abby’s hostility had pushed him over the edge and he’d made a mess of things. He’d wanted her to think he’d moved on they way she had. But he hadn’t and had learned too late she was free. It was too late for them anyway since she clearly hated him now, though why was a puzzle. He’d been the one wronged.

“It’ll be okay. This is about saving Brendan’s life and you from the earl. But I need to find out why my father never told me Sullivan was dead,” he muttered, his mind trying to put the puzzle together.

Josh flicked the reins and started the carriage toward home. Even after ten years, the thought of Abby with Sullivan made his stomach turn. “I’ll never understand how her father allowed her to marry such a miserable excuse of a man.”

“Perhaps there was a good reason.”

“What reason could he have to let his daughter marry a drunken lout?” Josh demanded as he pulled the carriage to a stop at the front entrance of his father’s house.

Helena stared at him, her expression hard. “I’m not going to tell you,” she told him as he helped her down. “but you’d better find out. And while you’re at it, find out why men are so blind and stupid!”

Mystified, Joshua watched as Helena ran up the stairs and through the front door. He winced when she slammed it behind her. What the hell had he done? This was no way to play happy couple.

He stared after her for a moment then returned to town. There he found that Abby and Helena weren’t the only ones who held him in disdain. Every time he approached anyone from the mining families, and Father Rafferty as well, they snubbed him. Three different times women who had once been his and Abby’s friends refused to acknowledge his greeting. Frustrated and angry, he decided to go inspect the mines.

Joshua’s first impression was that little had changed there. Then he looked past the mud and coal dust. More tunnels had been added and consequently there were more ore cars and tracks converging on the spur that linked the mine to the railroad. There were more men milling around, as well. The supervisors all carried rifles and wore sidearms now, a legacy of the problems with the AMU. AMU’s Workmen had given mine owners the excuse they’d been after for years to arm their management.

A man who’d once been chief engineer came out of a shed and headed toward him. “Joshua, I’d heard you decided to come back.”

“I hadn’t heard you had. You left town before I did.”

Helmut Faltsburg had aged but he was still a formidable sight. “Ya, we’ve both come home.”

“I’m back because Father made concessions. Actually he capitulated completely. I’m in charge now. I hope you won’t mind working with a younger man.”

“I have grown used to being ordered about. My boss may have problems adjusting, though.”

“My father?”

Helmut shook his head. “I speak of Geoffrey Williams.”

“Who in hell is Geoffrey Williams?”

“A man a friend of your father’s recommended to run things.” Faltsburg shrugged. “I tried to tell your father Williams is not as good as Harlan was told, but your father, he is not a good judge of men. I stay and try to keep things as safe as I can but he is not—”

The door to the shed crashed open. “I didn’t say you could leave. If you don’t start showing me some respect, old man, you’re going to find yourself fired.” The man stared at Joshua with a narrowed, mean gaze. “What are you doing hanging around the mines? It’s against company rules.”

Joshua moved toward the tall man, who stood in the doorway. “What rules are those?” he asked.

“We don’t allow any unauthorized people near the mines. Leave or I’ll have a guard escort you back to town.”

“Maybe you should talk to Harlan first.”

Williams frowned. “Wheaton didn’t tell me a thing about hiring a new man.”

“How odd. Helmut was just telling me he’d been looking forward to my taking over.”

The man’s jaw dropped then Helmut stepped forward, his shoulders a bit straighter, his tired eyes lively. “This is Joshua Wheaton.”

“Mr. Wheaton,” Williams stammered. “I had no idea you’d arrived.”

“That’s quite obvious. I’ve asked Helmut to take me on a tour of the yards. I’ll see you later to discuss my findings.”

Joshua followed the old supervisor toward River Fall tunnel. The first thing he noticed was the breaker shed, instead of being separate, was over the shaft that held the ventilation furnace. It was a clear safety violation. He stood at the edge and paced off the distance to the second shaft. Then back again.

“Is there another entrance I don’t see?” Josh asked. His one-time mentor shook his head. “But the second shaft is twenty feet too close to comply with current mining law.”

“Williams said one hundred and thirty feet was as good as one hundred and fifty feet.”

Josh arched his brows. “He decided to just ignore a congressional dictate?”

“Most owners ignore the 1870 Mine Act.”

“It isn’t nearly as strict as the one enacted by Parliament in England. We complied over there and still made a handsome profit.”

Helmut’s only answer was a shrug.

Joshua growled and picked up a Davy safety lamp. Safety would be an uphill battle, waged inside the mine and in the engineering shed. The miners were supposed to use safety lamps on days when the barometric pressure was as low as it was that day. The Davy lamp was a safety breakthrough but it was far from efficient. It was too heavy to wear on a cap, so it had to be set down away from the actual work and didn’t give off as much light as an open flame. He knew he’d find the men inside with naked flames blazing on their caps, the flame teasing the flammable gas the miners called firedamp to explode.

They reached the breaker shed housing the cage and pulley system used to transport men and coal to the surface. Helmut introduced Josh to the shed supervisor.

“I think you ought to wait before you go in there,” he said. “The men are clearing a crush. Can’t tell how much firedamp it’ll cause.”

Joshua turned back to the man. “It’s no more dangerous for me than it is for them.”

“But what if something happens to you, sir?”

Joshua smiled and clapped the man on the shoulder. “I take full responsibility for my actions. Shouldn’t take long.”

But it did. And he was appalled. The open flames on the miners’ caps continually elongated as pockets of methane flowed through the tunnel, proving the old-fashioned furnace didn’t ventilate nearly well enough. In England, the shaft would not only have been closed, but it also never would have been opened in the first place. Anger felt as if it had burned a hole in Joshua’s gut by the time he reached the surface.

“Pull the men out,” he ordered, fury rife in his tone. “I counted five violations. Each one could cause a disaster. There are too many men in each breast. They’ve robbed the pillars to the point of insanity and the wood’s either rotted from the water or too light to start with. And the ventilation system’s a joke.”

“If we pull the men out they’ll be furious, as will your father,” Faltsburg protested.

Josh pinned him with a steely look. “Close it down, Helmut.”

“Joshua, I know you’re thinking of the safety of the men but what about their families? We shut it down and they go further in debt to the store. You know how it works. The men would rather take chances. That’s what this business is about.”

Through gritted teeth Joshua repeated his order. “Close … it … down! I won’t risk their lives for money. Gather them around the engineer’s hut. When I get through firing Williams, I’ll talk to them. As for my father, he wouldn’t relish spending the rest of his natural life behind bars. If even one of those engineering violations results in loss of life, he could. And at this point, I wouldn’t lift a finger to stop it.”

Forty-five minutes later Joshua emerged from the engineers’ hut. Williams had been fired exactly forty-two minutes earlier. Josh had checked the specs. Engineering plans hadn’t been followed. Corners had been cut. Dangerous corners.