Читать книгу Justin's Bride - Сьюзен Мэллери, Susan Mallery - Страница 9

Justin stared at the little girl and wondered what he was supposed to do now. She continued to study her worn shoes. Thomas came back into the office after having followed the woman.

“She disappeared,” he said, between breaths. “She must have had a wagon somewhere. I’m sure it won’t take me long to find out where she lives and who she is. I could—”

Justin cut him off with a shake of his head. He crouched in front of the little girl. Long matted black hair hung past her shoulders and shadowed her face. She was as dirty and smelly as the woman had been.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“B-Bonnie.”

“Was that lady your mother?”

“No. My mama’s dead.”

“I’m sorry, Bonnie. Was that lady taking care of you?”

The girl nodded. “Mama couldn’t be with me, so she left me with Mrs. Jarvis. Mrs. Jarvis told me whores go to hell, and that I’m going to hell, too, to be with my mama.” She swallowed. “Is this hell?”

Despite her slumped shoulders and trembling voice, Justin smiled slightly. “Sometimes I think so, honey, but no. This is Landing. Mrs. Jarvis brought you to town.”

Her small, dirty fingers twisted together. He could see several cuts and scrapes that were red and inflamed. He reached his hand toward her. She flinched.

“I just want to look at your pretty face.”

He touched her chin with his forefinger and tilted it upward. When her tear-filled blue eyes met his, he felt as if he’d been kicked by a horse. She had Laurie’s eyes, and her mouth was the same shape. At least he thought it was. It was hard to tell because her lips were swollen and there was the faint shading of a bruise on the side of her face. Someone had slapped her hard.

“Are you gonna take me to hell?”

“No. No one’s going to hell.” Except possibly Mrs. Jarvis if she ever showed her face in town again. Justin stood and glanced at Thomas. “From what the woman said, she took the girl to Colleen and was turned away.”

Thomas looked surprised. “I haven’t heard of a minister’s wife ever doing that.”

“You probably haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Colleen Estes yet. You’ll be less surprised by this when you do.” Justin glanced out the window. It was already getting dark. “Bonnie needs a place to spend the night.”

Thomas looked panicked and started backing up toward the door. “I’m staying at the boardinghouse, Sheriff. There’s eighteen of us to a room. That isn’t a place for a little girl.”

“I know.” Justin tried to think of someone in town who could help. Megan flashed through his mind, but he dismissed her. Someone that respectable wouldn’t want to be tainted by the daughter of a dance-hall girl.

Beside him, Bonnie shivered. As soon as he’d let go of her chin, she’d gone back to staring at her shoes. He touched her shoulder, and was shocked to feel her bones. “Have you eaten today?” he asked.

She shook her head.

He bit back a curse. There was no one he trusted, no one he could turn to. Looks like the responsibility was his, at least for tonight. “Come on, Bonnie. I’ll take you back to my hotel and get you something to eat.” He started toward the door. “Thomas, you wait for Wyatt and find out what he learned. If it’s important, come tell me at the hotel, otherwise it can wait until morning. While you’re here, see if you can find any information on another murder. It happened about four years ago. Another saloon girl. The two cases may be related.”

Thomas raised his eyebrows. “How?”

“I don’t know,” Justin admitted. “It’s just a feeling.” When he reached the door, he realized Bonnie hadn’t moved. The little girl stood where he’d left her. She was still staring at her shoes. “Come on, honey. I’m going to take you home with me. You’ll have something to eat, and maybe a hot bath.”

Slowly, she raised her head toward him. Big blue eyes shone with terror. “It’s going to be all right,” he promised.

She didn’t budge. He thought about picking her up, but that would probably scare her more. Besides, she was filthy. He settled for holding out his hand.

“Is there really food?” she asked.

He nodded.

She took several shuffling steps toward him, then shyly reached for his hand. Her fingers were chilled. He bent over and touched her coat. It was threadbare. How could Laurie have left her daughter with that woman? He cursed silently, figuring he would never get an answer now.

He led Bonnie out of the office and toward the hotel. The three-story building was the largest one in town. It had been built in the last year and contained every modern convenience. When he entered, tugging Bonnie along with him, the desk clerk looked up, then turned bright red, as if he were about to have apoplexy.

“Mr. Kincaid, that child! She’s filthy.”

“I know, Newt.” Justin stopped at the front desk and reached into his vest pocket for several coins. “There’s a room adjoining mine. Is it vacant?”

Newt adjusted his glasses, leaned over the counter and stared down at the child. “Yes, sir, but I don’t think—”

“Good. Send up a maid with hot water for a bath, and deliver two dinners from the dining room.”

“But sir!”

“The key?”

Newt turned around and pulled it out of the box. “Mr. Kincaid, I think I need to discuss this with the manager. You can’t bring a lady in here alone.”

Justin rolled his eyes and took the key. “She’s five years old.”

Bonnie tugged on his arm. “Mister, I’m six.”

“She’s six. Tell them to hurry the water.”

Justin tossed the coins on the desk and started up the stairs. Newt was still spluttering behind him. When they entered his room, he let go of Bonnie’s hand and unlocked the door between the two rooms.

“You’ll be in here,” he said, motioning to the adjoining bedroom.

He glanced around. It wasn’t quite as spacious as his room. The bed was smaller, the windows not as wide. But it would do. The hotel was clean, the rugs were taken out and beaten regularly, the sheets changed weekly. He walked around the room and pointed out the pitcher and basin, opened the armoire, showed her the lantern.

She stood in the doorway between the two rooms and stared at him. Big eyes got bigger. Both her arms hung at her sides with her hands balled into fists. For a heart-stopping second he thought she was going to cry.

“What’s wrong, Bonnie?”

She shook her head and didn’t speak. Before he could ask again, there was a knock on her door. He opened it. Two teenage boys carried in a tub, followed by three more with buckets of hot water. When the tub was filled, a maid came in, bringing towels and soap.

“Will there be anything else?” she asked.

He glanced at her, then the water. “I think there might be. Would you mind bathing a rather small little girl?”

“Sir?”

The maid wasn’t much more than a child herself, he realized, studying her upturned nose and brown eyes. With her neat cap and apron, she looked older, but she couldn’t be older than sixteen.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Alice.”

He grinned.

“It’s not a funny name, sir.”

“I know. It’s just...” He paused. He didn’t really want to explain that Megan had just named a calico kitten Alice.

“Alice, there’s a little girl in my room. She needs a bath. I think it would be easier for her if you helped her rather than if I did.”

“Yes, sir.” Alice smiled. “I’ve got seven younger brothers and sisters. I know plenty about bathing a young’un.”

“Wonderful.” He turned. “Bonnie, Alice here is going to—”

But Bonnie wasn’t standing in the doorway. He frowned and walked into his room. She wasn’t there, either. Everything was as he’d left it. He glanced toward the door. Had she run off? No, he would have heard her leaving. Then where was she?

He walked around the bed. Part of the carpet had been turned up, as if someone had tripped over the edge. He bent down and touched it, then got on his hands and knees and looked under the four-poster bed. Bonnie lay on her belly up by the headboard. He could see her face. She had her eyes tightly shut.

“Are you hiding?” he asked.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“I’m scared.”

She looked so small huddled there. With her tattered clothes and dirty face. She also smelled like a sheep.

“Are you afraid of taking a bath? There’s a nice lady, whose name is Alice. She’s going to help you. They sent up some soap. I think it smells nice.”

“Will it hurt?”

“No. It’s warm water. You’ll feel toasty when you’re done. Then we’ll have something to eat. Would you like that?”

Instead of answering, Bonnie shimmied out from under the bed. Alice stood in the doorway between the two rooms and smiled encouragingly.

“Hello,” she said. “Can I help you bathe?” She held out her hand, then wrinkled her nose. “What do you want me to do with her clothes, sir?”

Justin opened his mouth, then closed it. “Wash them?”

“Does she have others? These won’t be dry by morning.”

“No, Mrs. Jarvis didn’t leave anything.” He thought for a moment. “Here.” He opened the armoire and pulled out one of his shirts. “Put her in this after her bath. Take her clothes outside, brush them and let them air. In the morning, I’ll find her something else.”

When he was alone in his room, he sank onto the window seat and sighed. He’d been back in Landing exactly two days. In that time he’d fought with Megan twice, kissed her, found out about a murder, insulted half the women in town by asking them about a dead saloon girl, learned about a second murder and found himself responsible for a small child.

A knock sounded on the door. A cheerful male voice called out that it was a delivery from the dining room. As he rose to let the man in, he hoped they’d remembered to bring whiskey because he sure as hell needed a drink.

* * *

The little girl who was escorted to the table set up by the foot of his bed wasn’t the same child who had disappeared thirty minutes before. Instead of a dirt-encrusted waif, this girl was all pink and white, sweet-smelling with beautiful, shiny black hair that fell halfway down her back. His white shirt dwarfed her, dragging on the floor. Alice had rolled up the sleeves.

“Here you go, sir. One clean girl. We had fun, Bonnie, didn’t we?”

Bonnie nodded. Justin wondered if she ever smiled.

Alice held the child’s dirty clothes in her arms. “I’ll see what I can do about these and leave them outside her door in the morning.”

“Thank you.” Justin accompanied the maid to the door, then tipped her generously. When she’d left, he turned back to Bonnie, who stood beside the laden table staring as if she’d never in her life seen that much food.

“Why don’t we start with some soup and bread,” he said, pulling out a chair for her. If she hadn’t been eating regularly, she wouldn’t be able to hold that much. He didn’t want to make her sick on her first decent meal in God knows how long. She glanced from him to the table setting and back. Confusion darkened her blue eyes, and fear, or maybe hunger, made her tremble.

“Don’t be afraid.”

He picked up a biscuit and handed it to her. She stared at it, then snatched it from him and shoved it in her mouth. While she was busy chewing, pushing and swallowing all at the same time, he lifted her and set her on the chair. Her head barely cleared the table.

Justin frowned. That wasn’t going to work. He grabbed the pillows from his bed, picked her up with one arm and shoved the pillows under her behind.

“How’s that?” he asked.

She swallowed the last of her biscuit. “Nice.”

He grinned. “Try the soup.” He lifted the cover of the tureen and ladled some broth into the bowl in front of her. The aroma of chicken and spices must have enticed her because she licked her lips. He tucked the napkin into the collar of the shirt she wore, then handed her a spoon.

“It might be hot,” he said. “Blow on it first.”

She stared at him as if he’d told her to ride a pig to market, then obligingly bent forward and blew on the soup. After a couple of minutes of listening to her huff and puff, he told her the soup should be fine now.

Before he’d even chewed more than two bites of his steak, she’d finished the bowl and set the spoon neatly on the table.

“You still hungry?”

“Uh-huh.”

He handed her another biscuit. This time she ate it slowly, a bite at a time. Her big, blue eyes studied him. He wondered what she was thinking. He cut another piece of his steak and chewed slowly. After swallowing, he took a sip of the whiskey that had come with his meal, then leaned back in his chair.

“You mind staying here tonight?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“I’ve never had a little girl around before, so you tell me if you need anything. And if you want to know something, you just go ahead and ask me. You’re safe here. Mrs. Jarvis isn’t coming back.”

She set the half-eaten biscuit on the tablecloth and wiped her hands on her shirtfront. He could still see the faint outline of the bruise on her face. It made him want to find that wretched woman and show her what it felt like to be bullied by someone bigger and stronger.

“What’s your name?” the child asked.