Читать книгу Charity House Courtship - Renee Ryan - Страница 13

Chapter Four

Home at last, Laney stood at the bottom of the front steps and admired the three-story house glowing golden under the streetlamp. She couldn’t help but smile at the house that was now a home for nearly thirty abandoned children.

After four lean years, and two strapping loans, Laney had turned the ordinary structure into an enchanting brick mansion. The result was as fine as any house owned by her fashionable neighbors in the Highlands of North Denver. She’d come a long way from the grubby mining camps and saloons of her childhood.

In her overzealous attempt to provide more than a roof and bed for the children, she’d left no detail to chance. She’d furnished the twelve bedrooms, two sitting rooms, and three parlors with tasteful furniture. She’d hung expensive wallpaper, ordered rugs straight from Paris, and purchased assorted fineries for every room.

Perhaps she’d gone a bit overboard.

How could she not? What better way to demonstrate God’s majesty than by providing the children with unspeakable beauty and grandeur in their everyday lives? Lives that had been filled with far too much squalor and despair prior to arriving at Charity House.

An image of Marc Dupree splintered through her thoughts and a sudden, ugly dose of conscience whipped through Laney. She hadn’t behaved completely without fault tonight. In fact, she’d been intentionally misleading, deceptive even, practically lying to the man. Just how far was she willing to go to save Charity House from foreclosure?

The front door opened a crack, rescuing Laney from further reflection on the consequences of her behavior this evening. Katherine Taylor, the young woman she’d left in charge, came out onto the porch. “Well? What happened?”

Laney skipped up the steps. “We did it, Katherine.” She pulled her friend into a fierce hug. “Our worries are finally over.”

“You got the money? He gave you all of it?” Katherine pulled back and searched Laney’s face. “All five hundred dollars? How did you convince him?”

“The details aren’t important.”

Stepping farther back, Katherine scanned Laney from head to toe. “What happened to Sally’s dress?”

“Plans changed.” Laney held up the gold silk bundle. “I had to switch clothes at the last minute.”

Katherine planted her balled fists on her hips. “You didn’t do anything unlawful, did you?”

“Of course not.”

The truth, up to a point. She’d only allowed Dupree to think she’d planned to conduct a shameful act with Judge Greene. Her actions had been misleading, but not criminal.

Considering how Katherine would worry herself sick if she knew the full story, Laney decided to keep the details of her encounter with Dupree to herself. “I have in my possession the money we need to save Charity House. Now stop with the questions and enjoy our moment of triumph.”

“Oh, I’m thrilled. But why won’t you look me in the eye? I’m almost twenty. Plenty old enough to handle whatever it is you’re hiding from me.”

Laney squared her shoulders. But to her chagrin, she couldn’t hold Katherine’s gaze longer than a second or two. It was no use pretending all was well. She was going to have to tell her friend at least part of what had occurred this evening. “Don’t start making judgments before you hear the whole story.”

“Oh, Laney, what did you do?”

“Only what was necessary.”

“No, I’m sure you did more, as always. Look at this place.” She wound her hand in a circle. “It’s a mansion. Orphanages are usually full of filth, misery and despair, especially for the likes of us, the unwanted children of prostitutes.”

Uncomfortable with the turn in conversation, Laney grimaced. “I didn’t do anything special.”

“No, you just made a dream come true for children who have lived without hope most of their lives. You are a good, Christian woman with a big heart, Laney O’Connor.”

If only that were true. “Don’t make me out to be more than I am. When my mother moved us to Mattie’s brothel, I couldn’t get out fast enough. I didn’t want to go it alone, so I took the rest of the children with me. That’s selfish, not noble.”

“Keep telling yourself that, but I know how hard you’ve worked to make Charity House a reality. You wouldn’t intentionally jeopardize it by...” Katherine’s voice trailed off. “Are you sure everything’s all right?”

Laney looked over her shoulder, praying she’d done enough to ensure Dupree hadn’t followed her. She’d darted up, down and across several streets, then doubled back three more times.

But just in case...

“Let’s head inside for the rest of this conversation.”

Frowning, Katherine allowed Laney to hook their arms together. “We’re going to keep Charity House, right?”

The quick flash of terror in the younger woman’s eyes, the same one Laney saw every time she looked in the mirror, called to the part of her that would do anything to save the orphanage. Unfortunately, her efforts never proved enough. Oh, she provided a home, material luxuries, and even love, but she had yet to figure out a way to erase the one thing the orphans all shared.

Uncertainty.

Mistrust and fear lived in all their gazes, in their very souls. It was one thing to teach the children about Christ’s love, quite another for them to accept the Lord in their hearts, fully, and without reservation.

If only it were easier for them to believe they mattered, truly mattered, as precious children of God. But their pasts didn’t allow for a straightforward, trouble-free path to salvation. The choice to believe was an individual matter, one Laney couldn’t settle for anyone but herself, despite her desire to do so for the children in her care.

When she’d stared into Dupree’s eyes, Laney had seen a similar restlessness and need for peace.

Could that have been why she’d come so close to sharing her troubles with him? Because something deep within her had recognized a hurting soul like her own?

No. Ridiculous, dangerous thinking. Clearly, she’d lost her perspective. Thanks to the harsh reality of life as the daughter of a prostitute who’d killed herself with too much laudanum, Laney knew better than to rely on a man, any man. After witnessing her mother’s choice of lifestyle and eventual destruction, how could Laney toss away her caution after one evening in the company of Marc Dupree?

A breeze kicked up, rustling the bushes lining the porch. The ominous quiver in her heart urged Laney to pull Katherine toward the house. “Inside. Quick.”

“Why the urgency?” Katherine looked behind her. “Laney? Are you in trouble?”

Concentrating on hustling the other woman inside the house, Laney tugged harder. “Quickly, Katherine. Quickly.”

Once in the front parlor, with the dark night firmly locked outside where it belonged, Laney tossed Sally’s dress on a blue velvet couch. Katherine moved through the room lighting candles. Laney waited, savoring the moment of serenity passing through her. How she loved the soft, warm glow of real candlelight.

Katherine lit the last candle, turned and centered her gaze on Laney’s bare feet. “What happened to your shoes?”

Waving her hand in a dismissive gesture, Laney moved deeper in the room. “Nothing to concern yourself over.”

“Perhaps it’s time you shared the details of your evening with me.”

Laney worked her reticule free from her wrist then handed over the bag. “This is all you need to know.”

Fingers shaking, Katherine opened the satchel and caught her breath inside an audible gasp.

“It’s real,” Laney said with a smile.

Almost reverently, Katherine touched the money with a delicate caress, as though afraid it would disappear if she handled it improperly. “Oh, Laney.” Unshed tears pooled in her eyes. “Our troubles are truly over.”

Drawing closer, Laney peered inside the reticule as well. Why didn’t she feel the same joy she heard in Katherine’s voice? Perhaps because she’d come so close to losing it all. She hadn’t been prepared for Marc Dupree. Or her strange reaction to him. Or the inexplicable need to profess her situation and ask for his assistance, no matter how fleeting.

A thousand ripples of unease churned in her stomach, reminding her of the weakness she’d discovered in herself tonight, the unthinkable wish to rely on a man, a man with impossible standards she could never hope to meet.

“All right, Laney. What happened? You might as well tell me whatever it is you’re hiding behind that scowl.”

Sighing, she lowered to a brocade settee and gave up pretending everything had gone as planned. “I went to the Hotel Dupree to meet Judge Greene at the agreed upon time...”

She stopped midsentence, unsure how to continue. How could she tell Katherine about Marc Dupree and their strange run-in? “I don’t know if you should hear this, Katherine. You’re not like the rest of us.”

“Of course I am.”

“No, you’re not.” Laney softened her words with a smile. “Your mother only turned to prostitution after your father died. She never made you live among it. That alone makes you different. You’re also formally educated. You went to that prestigious school back East. What was it called?”

“Miss Lindsay’s Select School for Young Ladies.” Katherine sat beside Laney and set the reticule between them. “But that was my past. I’m here now, as much a part of Charity House as the rest of the orphans.”

“Not by choice. You’d still be living in Boston, probably married to a wealthy gentleman, if that school hadn’t expelled you when they found out about your mother’s profession. Even now, you could get a teaching job in any number of places.”

Eyes blinking rapidly, Katherine swiped at her wet cheeks. “But Charity House is my home. Where I belong. I’d do anything to keep this orphanage running.”

“As long as it was ethical.”

“Well, yes, that goes without saying.” Katherine took Laney’s hand. “All right, enough stalling. Let’s have the rest of it. You went to the hotel, and...”

Laney bit her bottom lip as she searched for the right words. Katherine might have been forced to return to Denver, but she was still a product of her years back East, educated, moral, raised with Christian values, an example for the others. Would she understand the desperation that had led Laney to withhold information from Dupree?

She didn’t want to find out. Not tonight. “And...the judge handed over the money. His debt is canceled. Charity House is saved. The end.”

“So, it’s that simple.”

Laney drew a quick breath of air. “Yes.”

“Don’t you think I deserve to hear the rest, the portion you’re hiding from me? Please, I’ve lived with the fear of losing Charity House just as deeply as you have. Maybe more.” A shadow fell over her face. “I have no skills, no real life experiences to speak of.”

“You have an education. You could teach school, just as you’ve taught me.”

“Who would hire a woman like me, an infamous madam’s daughter?” Katherine shut her eyes a moment and sighed heavily. “I have nowhere else to go. Now convince me I have nothing to worry about.”

Taking a deep breath, Laney began her tale, but Katherine cut her off almost before she begun. “The hotel owner witnessed the transaction?”

“It gets worse.” Laney proceeded to tell her friend the rest.

When she reached the end, Katherine gaped at her for several long seconds. “He confiscated the money? But why?”

“He runs a proper hotel, Katherine, something I can’t fault him for.” Dupree, for all his other unsavory characteristics, was clearly a man of integrity. Hard on others, true, but probably just as hard on himself.

Before she started sympathizing with the cad, she shook her head and continued. “When he saw me speaking with Judge Greene and then witnessed money changing he hands, he thought...well, he thought the worst.”

“Oh, Laney.”

“I never admitted to any wrongdoing. Why would I? I’d done nothing improper. But I couldn’t reveal my reason for meeting with Judge Greene, per his adamant request. Nor did I try to dissuade Dupree’s misconception of my character.” And that had been wrong of her, dreadfully wrong. “When he locked me in his office—”

“He didn’t.”

“He did.”

“But I don’t understand.” Katherine shook her head. “How did you get the money back?”

She touched the reticule, pulled on one of the strings, then the other, toyed with them. The gesture reminded her of the way Dupree had captured her hair around his finger, how he’d stared at it for an endless moment, and how—

She cut off the rest of her thoughts and focused on answering Katherine’s question. “I had to...um...climb out of his office window, hence the change in attire.”

“Oh, Laney.”

She glossed over the part about breaking into his safe, making sure to tone down her use of physical violence to make her final escape from the alleyway.

“Oh, Laney.”

“Would you stop saying ‘Oh, Laney’ in that disenchanted tone of yours? You sound like a shocked, elderly aunt instead of a young woman barely twenty years old.”

“Well, someone needs to think like an adult.” Katherine jumped to her feet and paced through the room. After her second pass, she turned back to face Laney. “Tell me more about this hotel owner.”

A shudder quickened Laney’s pulse. Dupree had been a formidable foe, far more clever than the banker she’d sparred with this morning. Prescott incited only disdain in her heart. While Dupree called up a mixture of emotions that confused her, and blunted the edge she usually relied on to aid her in sticky situations.

“I never want to see that man again. He’s judgmental, arrogant and enjoys jumping to conclusions without a shred of evidence.”

Eyebrows traveling upward, Katherine wrapped her arms across her waist and said, “Not a shred?”

Laney broke eye contact. “All right, maybe I sent his mind in a few wrong directions.”

“I read in the Denver Chronicle that he’s impossibly handsome.”

“You have no idea.”

Silence fell over them as each considered the events of the evening from their own perspective.

“Laney?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you think Mr. Dupree will leave the situation alone now that you’ve taken the money?”

“I...” A shudder of apprehension passed through her. “I don’t know.”

“Will he still try to confront Judge Greene without the evidence in hand?”

She could lie. She could pretend matters weren’t as dire as they really were. Their long-running friendship deserved better. “He might.”

Hands trembling, Katherine sank back on the settee. “What are we going to do?”

“The only thing we can do. We’ll pay off the loan the moment the bank opens in the morning.” The idea swelled within her, creating a sense of peace she hadn’t experienced in days. “That way, no matter what Dupree decides to do next, we’ll already own Charity House. Even if he confronts Judge Greene there won’t be much either man can do at that point.”

“Other than make trouble for us, in all sorts of awful ways.”

Laney batted away Katherine’s objection with a flick of her wrist.

“No. Don’t dismiss my concerns like that. What if Judge Greene teams up with Mr. Dupree, if for no other reason than to save face? What if they try to shut us down for some unknown, yet perfectly legal reason? What if they—”

“Stop, Katherine. Just stop. We must stay positive, and pray that Dupree will drop the matter now that I’m gone.”

“You really think he’ll leave us alone?”

“Yes, as long as he doesn’t find us.”

Katherine sighed heavily.

Looking at the clock on the mantel, Laney shoved her worries behind a brilliant smile. “Three hours, Katherine. We only have three short hours before the bank opens for business. By the time Dupree finds me, if he finds me, he’ll be too late.”

“You seem awfully confident.” Rising to her feet once again, Katherine moved to the window and looked out. “You’re sure he didn’t follow you home.”

Laney joined her friend at the window. “I was careful to lead him far away from Charity House. If I’m as good as I think I am, which I am, Dupree is looking for me on The Row.”

“The Row?” Katherine’s mouth dropped. “He thinks you live in a...a...brothel?”

A slow smile spread across her lips. “That would be my guess.”

“You’re reckless. That’s what you are.” Although Katherine’s tone held far too much worry for Laney’s peace of mind, a loving glint filled the other woman’s gaze.

Visibly relaxing, Laney smiled in return. “Perhaps I am more than a little reckless. But thanks to my quick thinking, Marc Dupree is chasing shadows on the other side of town. Now, stop worrying and trust me.” She squeezed Katherine’s arm. “I have matters completely under control.”

Katherine rubbed her temples. “Why is it every time you say that we end up in worse trouble than before?”