Daniel looked into her eyes. “We lost our mother two years ago, and some days I still can’t accept that she’s gone.”
Iris nodded. “Once my mother passed, I promised myself I would once again escape from my family and their criminal life, forever. I never wanted to set eyes on David Lake or Eric Lake again as long as I lived.”
“I can understand escaping a life you don’t want. I’ve done the same by turning my back on the family ranch and becoming a deputy. Not because they were crooks, but because I hated ranching.”
“But you don’t fear your family will find you.”
“True.”
“Every day, I worry my father or brother will come after me. I’m terrified Father will find where I am. Ruin the life I’ve made for myself: a reputable lady with an honest, respectable job.”
“I wouldn’t allow your family to pull you back into that life. You’re a grown woman and you can refuse to return to a situation you finally escaped.” Daniel reached for her hand. “No one will touch a hair on your head, if I have any say in it.”
“Thank you. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your understanding and your support.” Iris smiled at him. She could never share her other suspicions with Daniel, but the fact he hadn’t judged her horrible misspent past meant the world to her.
“Well, I was on the way to meet with my sister at her store. She’s summoned me, so I’d better get a move on. We’ll talk soon.”
“Thank you for your understanding, Daniel.” Iris waved as he mounted his horse and rode away.
She heaved a sigh, feeling a troubling weight had lifted off her shoulders. But the fact she hadn’t shared everything with him still plagued her thoughts.
Maybe someday.
Chapter 7
Alerted to a new arrival by the bell tinkling above the front door, Amanda peeked over her sewing machine. Tuesday usually proved a quiet day, but perhaps someone had dropped by to shop. Instead, Daniel strode through the middle of the store, twirling his Stetson with his fingers.
“Sorry I’m late,” he offered.
“Doesn’t matter. It hasn’t been busy today, and I’m still working on this day dress for Mrs. Carter.” Amanda stuck the needle into the pin cushion and stood, stretching her back.
“What did you need me for?” Daniel glanced around as if the reason she’d asked him to drop by would pop out at him.
“Must I have a job for you in order to extend an invitation?” Amanda laughed. “Perhaps I wanted to share a cup of coffee with you.”
“Coffee?” He sounded skeptical.
“All right… another mouse invaded the upstairs kitchen. Could you find where the little beggar came in? Jackson fixed one hole, but this mouse discovered another one.”
Daniel smiled. “Which of you women met him first? You or Aunt Ruby?”
“Aunt Ruby,” Amanda answered, giggling. “Folks may have heard her screams clear down the street to the Copper Nugget.”
Daniel laughed. “Let me take a look.”
Amanda locked the front door since she remained behind when Aunt Ruby and Nancy left for lunch at the hotel, accompanied by Mrs. Carter from the bakery across the street. They should return soon, but she needed to follow her brother upstairs.
“The last mice came in through one of the upper cupboards. Ruby and I looked in every cupboard and drawer but we’ve no idea how this one got in.” She stood hands on hips while Daniel began checking every nook and cranny in the kitchen.
“I talked to Iris this morning.”
“Did she explain why she’s been acting so strangely?”
Daniel nodded. “Told me about her childhood. Her family members are pickpockets and thieves from what I understand. She wanted a different life for herself. Graduated from a normal school in Rhode Island. Accepted the job here as schoolteacher. Turned her life around.”
“I’m proud of her!” Amanda exclaimed.
“Yeah, I am, too.” He shook his head. “I thought I knew her, but… I never would have imagined the type of home she came from.”
“What are your feelings toward her now? Still falling in love?”
“What!” Daniel cracked his skull on the top of the large lower cupboard he’d had his head inside.
Amanda covered her mouth with her hand, willing herself to stop the smile threatening to crease her face. “Careful. You’ll brain yourself,” she warned him. “Besides, you heard me. You’re so smitten with that girl you can’t think straight.”
Daniel rubbed his head. “I wish I knew how I feel about her.”
Amanda heard Aunt Ruby and Nancy coming through the back door, laughing heartily about something. She glanced at her lapel timepiece pinned to her dress. “It’s one o’clock. I must return to my work.”
Daniel peered behind the woodstove. “Here’s where the little dickens got in. There’s a hole in the wall near the floor back there. I’ll fix it tonight after supper. Then I’m heading to Butte for a few days to work with Sawyer.”
“Thank you. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this.” Amanda touched his arm. “You’re my favorite brother.”
Daniel laughed. “You probably told Jackson that when he fixed the first hole.”
“I’ll never tell.” Amanda smiled and followed him downstairs.
He kissed her cheek and headed toward the front door. “Goodbye, sis.”
“Tell Sawyer I said hello.” Amanda crashed into his back when he stopped in his tracks. She peeked around him and noticed Iris talking with Aunt Ruby beside one of the mannequins. Iris turned and her jaw dropped when she spotted Daniel.
Amanda glanced up at her brother. He stuck his Stetson on his head and then stood for a moment as if conjuring up something to say. Without a word, he touched the brim of his hat while nodding at Iris and Aunt Ruby, and then charged out the door.
“Goodbye, Daniel,” Iris whispered, her gaze following him to the sidewalk before she returned her attention to Ruby.
Amanda walked toward her customer. “Hello, Iris. How are you today?”
“All right, I guess. Depends on what Daniel told you.” A pained expression appeared on her face. “Am I still welcome here?”
“Come with me.” Amanda reached for Iris’s hand and tugged her toward the back of the store. She slipped behind the curtains separating the store from the staff area; Iris had no choice but to follow. “Take a seat,” Amanda instructed. “Coffee or tea?”
“Tea, please.” Iris flopped onto one of the chairs reserved for the staff work breaks. She remained silent while Amanda grabbed the dipper and filled the kettle with water from the drinking water pail and then set the kettle to boil on the woodstove. She added a log and settled onto a chair beside Iris.
“Now, we should talk.”
“What did Daniel tell you?” Iris whispered.
Amanda reached for her hand. “Probably everything you shared with him. It’s my understanding your father and brother aren’t the most honorable folks in the world.”
“Honorable? Not an honest bone in their bodies.” Iris shook her head. “My mother was such a lovely person. How she ended up marrying a man like Father is beyond me.”
“She loved him would be my guess. Perhaps she didn’t know what he was like before the wedding, and then she was stuck in the marriage,” Amanda speculated. “She wouldn’t be the first woman misled after the ‘I dos’.”
“That would explain a lot.”
Amanda smiled at Iris and then tipped her head. “Who gave you your name?”
Iris gaped at her.
“Who named you Iris?” Amanda reworded her inquiry.
“My mother. Several varieties of irises filled the flowerbeds where our family lived most of the time. She could hardly wait for her favorite perennials to poke their heads out of the ground every spring.” Iris stared into space and shut her eyes for a moment. “I can still see Mother lovingly weeding her beloved flower garden.”
“Describe the flower for me.”
Iris
’s eyes flew open. “Have you never seen one?”
“Several varieties flourish in our flowerbeds on the ranch.” Amanda smiled, recalling her own mother weeding in the garden also. The whistle on the kettle drew her from her seat and she rushed to remove it from the heat. “Irises are lovely. I’m very familiar with the flower and that’s the reason I asked you to describe them, please.”
“Well, the leaves grow as tall spikes. Green and white in color or sometimes green and yellow.” Iris shifted on the chair, appearing totally confused by Amanda’s request. “Many of Mother’s plants had the most vibrant violet blooms with a white center. Others were paler, more the color of lilacs with a white center and red or orange bits in the core as well.”
“I believe you were well named.” Amanda set out teacups, sugar and milk.
“Thank you.” Iris frowned. “But I don’t understand your meaning.”
“Irises are very multi-colored. Variegated is the word I’ve heard them described as.”
Iris smiled. “Yes, Mother often used the word.”
“Iris, you are as multi-dimensional as the variegated flower you were named after.” Amanda rinsed the teapot with hot water then boiled the water again. She added tea leaves, filled the teapot, and then set it aside on the table to allow the tea to steep.
“I’m still not following your thinking.”
“Consider your childhood. Then compare it to your present situation.” Amanda returned to her seat.
Iris sat quietly, appearing deep in thought.
“You cannot be held responsible for your father drawing you into a life of crime, just because that was all he’d ever known. A child doesn’t instinctively know right from wrong.”
“Initially, I had no idea what we were doing was against the law,” Iris blurted. “Not until I’d grown older.”
“Exactly my point. But when you realized what you’d been doing was criminal, you made changes and turned your life toward good. What better example of the exact opposite of a thief than teaching young children?”
Iris nodded.
“I would wager that a lot of your lessons are centered on the differences between right and wrong. Good and bad. Am I correct?” Amanda tipped her head.
“You’re right,” Iris admitted, smiling. “My goodness, you’re younger than I am and yet you’re so mature and astute.”
Amanda looked into her eyes. “You’re like a variegated iris. There are differing sides to you.”
“I never thought of myself that way. Daughter from a family of bad seeds, now a schoolteacher and upstanding citizen. My family is habitual lawbreakers whereas I’m honest to a fault. Complete opposites. I broke away from my past and reinvented myself.”
“Exactly, Iris!” Amanda exclaimed. “You’re a reinvented lady.”
“I am! And I’m proud of the person I’ve become.” Iris met Amanda’s eyes. “But I worried about sharing my history with Daniel.”
“I’ll say it again. You’re not responsible for your family. You cannot be held accountable for their unlawful actions. Or for them misleading a child and drawing her into their dishonest way of life.” Amanda touched Iris’s arm.
“I’ve no idea what the future holds for us, but I welcome Daniel in my life. And I couldn’t ask for a more understanding and open-minded friend than you.”
“I see how my brother looks at you. And I’ve caught you staring at him also.” Amanda laughed. “I predict he’ll be in your life for years to come.”
Iris’s hand moved to cover her mouth.
“And I would be proud to have you as my sister-in-law.” Amanda poured the tea into the teacups. “Perhaps one day, we’ll be busy planning a wedding. I’d be honored to sew your wedding dress.”
Iris gasped. “I saw Lily’s dress on her wedding day when I peeked into the hotel dining room. Did you sew it?”
Amanda laughed. “Yes, I did.”
“I’d love for you to sew my wedding gown, but I’m the least likely candidate for Daniel’s wife.” She took a sip of tea.
Amanda raised her teacup in a salute. “As long as you don’t keep secrets from him, I would guess he might propose someday.”
Iris’s face paled and she choked on her tea. She set the china teacup on the saucer with a rattle and leapt to her feet. “I need to go. Thank you.”
Amanda stood, open-mouthed, as her guest pulled aside the curtains, raced through the store, and stumbled out the front door.
“Where’s the fire?” Nancy quipped, seated at her sewing machine.
“I have no idea,” Amanda muttered. But she’d wager Iris was keeping another secret or two from her brother, and she needed to remember to relate the details of their strange encounter when Daniel returned tonight to fix the mouse hole.
Chapter 8
Next day, Daniel wound Honor’s reins around the hitching rail outside the Pick Axe Saloon in Butte. The Milestone lawmen hadn’t formulated a plan to solve the bank robbery simply because they had no other information than twenty thousand dollars had been taken and two down-on-their-luck fellows had been seen outside the Copper Nugget in Milestone. The pair had been conversing with Sid Cameron a day or so before the robbery, and nobody believed Sid had been steering them toward a particular ranch to inquire about work since they hadn’t been seen in town since.
“Slim pickings as far as clues go,” Daniel muttered to himself as he patted Honor’s neck and then climbed the two steps leading to the batwing doors. Not much to work with, but more than they’d known before.
Sawyer Manning had been scouting around the Butte area for a week now and he’d sent Sheriff Robertson a telegraph requesting Daniel join him. It seemed highly unlikely any useful information would drop into their hands. But two heads were better than one, Daniel supposed, especially when they hadn’t anything better to do.
Regardless, he’d been summoned by the man supposedly training him to become a Pinkerton, so without questioning Sawyer’s thinking, Daniel had come on the run. He entered the smoke-filled saloon and the stench of stale beer and cigar smoke greeted him. He gazed around the room, hoping to spot Manning.
Several tables were occupied by fellows sharing a whiskey, and four gentlemen were playing poker at the table in the far corner. Friendly game so far, but experience told him that situation could change in a heartbeat. A piano player tickled the ivories on the battered piano pushed against the far wall. A couple of inebriated gents, each with an arm around the other’s shoulders, leaned against the tinny out-of-tune piano and exuberantly butchered a familiar Irish tune. As luck would have it, Sawyer was seated alone at a small table in the corner. Daniel bought a beer from the barkeep and wandered across the room to join his fellow lawman.
“I see you made the trip without incident.” Manning saluted him with his glass.
Daniel nodded and drank deeply. “Just rode in a few minutes ago. Haven’t secured a room for the night since I didn’t know where you were staying. Reckoned we should register in the same place though.”
Manning smiled. “Already arranged for a room two doors down from mine at the Copper City Hotel.”
“Thanks, Sawyer. My family always stays at the Copper City whenever we’re here.” Daniel leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “So what’s the plan?”
Manning laughed. “I was hoping you had one.”
“Who’s training who? Whom? Never figured that out.” Daniel chuckled. “Anyway, you’re not setting a very good example.”
“I’ll endeavor to do better.” Manning leaned forward in his chair. “Our luck may have shifted. I spotted a fellow in here a couple nights ago. The barkeep swore he’s never seen him before and has no idea what his name is. I can’t be certain, but listening to Carl’s description of Milton Brown, it might be him.”
Daniel twisted in his chair and gazed around the room.
“Whoa. He’s not in here right now, but we’ll wait. The fellow arrived last time around ten o’clock. Came in by himself after dark. Ordered a
whiskey and drank it. Left a half hour or so later.”
“Where does he go?”
“Don’t know. By the time I followed him out a few seconds later, he’d vanished!”
“How can that be? Unless he’s a dang ghost.” Daniel shook his head, recalling the night Iris charged out of the hotel and seemingly disappeared into thin air.
Manning grabbed his glass and downed the remaining contents. “The man never showed last night, but I’m hoping he’ll be back tonight.”
“Do you reckon he might have recognized you?”
“Doubt it. I never arrived in Milestone until weeks after the robbery. He’d high-tailed it out of town long before then.”
Daniel nodded. “That’s true. He shouldn’t know who you are.”
“My thinking also. But being a longtime citizen of Milestone, you’ll recognize him when you see him and can confirm if my suspicions hold water.”
“True enough. I’ve dealt with the Milestone bank since I was a youngster and Pa opened my first account.” Daniel smiled. “I’ve seen the man in the bank for several years now.”
“Good. We can’t approach him until we know for certain he’s Milton Brown.”
Sawyer ordered another whiskey and bought Daniel another beer at the bar and rejoined him at their table. And then they waited.
“Thought you never drank when on a case.” Daniel nodded toward Sawyer’s glass.
He leaned back in his chair. “You’re a bad influence on me.”
The two men waited for what seemed an eternity. Daniel worried he might doze off sitting there. He’d worked all morning and then headed to Butte after the noon meal, arriving just before dusk. He hadn’t eaten any dinner and the beer was starting to do funny things to his tired eyes. Daniel recalled Sawyer didn’t touch spirits when working, and he noticed Sawyer hadn’t touched his whiskey. Wise. Probably tossed the first one into a spittoon or something.
“There he is,” Sawyer whispered, jolting Daniel from his thoughts. “Don’t turn around.”
A Reinvented Lady (Sons Of A Gun Book 2) Page 5