Courting Misfortune

by Regina Jennings

  Instead of tracking his dirty boots through Mr. Trochet’s shop, Matthew walked around the brick building and came through the garden gate. As much as he liked this crowded, overgrown square of beauty, he hoped for more, and he hoped for it with Calista.

  Yet he wasn’t expecting to find her inside his cabin.

  When he opened the door, she froze, bent over the table with a pencil against a piece of paper.

  “I’m writing you a note,” she said. Her face was drawn tight, her eyes weary. Whatever was going in that note, Matthew knew he didn’t want to read it.

  From the floor, Howie fussed as he crammed his fist into his mouth. Calista spared him a glance, then dropped the pencil. “I’ve got to find Maisie. I think she’s with Silas, but I don’t know where his claim is.”

  “I can take you,” Matthew said, “but I have some news first—a lot of news. Before I tell you what is happening at the mine, I want you to know that on Sunday we arranged to start a Bible study for the working girls. Loretta Campbell is leading it here in my cabin while I’m at work on Fridays. You can invite whomever you like.”

  “That’s wonderful. It really is.”

  “It was your idea, but now for the real surprise. I’ve got a new job at the mine. It’s not in the mine, but it’ll still be working with the miners. I talked to your uncle—Olive’s father. He said I’d be like a manager.”

  She blinked like he was speaking Greek. “I’m happy for you,” she said finally, but she didn’t act like it.

  “Do you know what this means?” he asked. “I’ll be doing something that matters. I’ll have permission and access to the people I want to help. And what’s more, I’ll be more independent. My salary—”

  Howie screeched as he rolled to his knees and crawled to Calista. He pulled on her skirt to no avail.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m glad you’re happy. It’s good news. It’s just that . . .” Her gaze went down to the fussy baby tugging on her hem. “I spoke with my boss. He’s sending another operative.”

  Matthew felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest. “About time. I know it’s important that the girl is found, but I’ll rest easier knowing you aren’t in danger. Let someone else deal with the corrupt police. Now you’ll have time to take me out to the ranch. I really want to meet the rest of this family you’ve talked about.”

  The day was getting better and better, if only Howie wasn’t having such a bad time. Matthew scooped him up and bounced to soothe him. He’d been looking for a good home for Howie. Could it be that they’d have a house to raise him in shortly?

  But Calista seemed immune to all the good news.

  “I went to the Children’s Home,” she said.

  “Alone? Calista, you know better. What if you were arrested again?”

  “I was there, and I heard a girl who was leaving a baby. She said that the father of the child . . .” Her hands trembled. “There’s so much to do here. I can’t leave. Not now. But I’m being reassigned. I’ll have another client somewhere else. A new town, a new state. I can’t stay.”

  Her words hit him like an anvil. “You’re going? Away?”

  She nodded. “Tonight. Tomorrow, at the latest. I found out that Mrs. Rush used to be a Bowman. Somehow she and Mrs. Bowman are tied, so I went to find Mrs. Bowman at the Children’s Home, but she was gone. Didn’t show up for work today. There’s a connection. I can feel it.”

  She was telling him things that were important, but he couldn’t understand. All he knew was that it was impossible that Calista could be going away. She didn’t mean it. She would explain soon. She’d tell him how she’d figured out how to stay.

  “And while I was there, I heard the girl. What she said, Matthew, I hate to repeat, but you must know. She said the father of her baby is Silas Marsh.”

  Her words cut through the fog. “Silas?” He shook his head. “No, there’s a mistake.”

  “It’s not a mistake. Unless she’s lying to the nurse, but why would she do that?”

  Silas? He’d thought Silas was a decent sort. Silas had been a friend to him.

  “If I’d known, I never would’ve introduced him to your cousin.” Matthew had to make amends. He motioned to the door. “Let’s go. Maisie is lucky that she hasn’t known him long enough for an attachment to grow.”

  “How long have we known each other?”

  Her question stopped him in his tracks. “I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”

  “I’m leaving. I don’t know when I’ll see you again, but how long we’ve known each other matters. One shouldn’t change their course because of a short acquaintance.”

  “I disagree. Maybe under some circumstances, but not this one.” Calista looked nearly spent. Matthew drew in a long breath. “I don’t want to argue,” he said at last. “We’ll find Maisie and decide our next move.”

  She held out her hands for Howie. “Once I know Maisie’s safe, maybe I can think past the next hour.”

  Matthew wanted to think about forever with Calista, but unless he’d misunderstood, she wasn’t thinking along the same lines.

  Silas’s claim was on land that belonged to Mr. Green. In a few blocks, they left behind the paved streets of Joplin and were on the chat roads leading out to the minefields. Matthew carried Howie, who wasted no time falling asleep. He wanted to think about his meeting with Mr. Kentworth. He wanted to go back to basking in the happiness that his new position gave him, but he couldn’t get past the fact that Calista was leaving. He couldn’t see around that. Add to his hurt his concern that Silas wasn’t honorable, and that Matthew had introduced him to the ladies, and Matthew was about to snap.

  Dan and Loretta’s little shack was on their path. Normally, he’d stop to visit, especially with the Campbells’ good news, but they didn’t have time. Not today.

  But Loretta had seen them coming.

  She came out with a sock in her hand and a darning needle hanging by a string of yarn. “What are you doing?” she gasped. Her eyes bugged like she was seeing a ghost.

  “We’re looking for Silas. Do you reckon he’s at his claim?” Matthew looked around, but there was no sight of Dan. The intensity of Loretta’s eyes concerned him.

  “I reckon. Why do you have the child?” she asked.

  Calista said, “I’ve been caring for him since the raffle. Sometimes my cousin helps, but today it’s just me.”

  “You have him? How did that happen? How do you have him?” She reached out to brush Howie’s arm. Something about her actions made Matthew uneasy, but Calista felt differently.

  “Can he stay with you for a bit? We’ll return in less than an hour, but he needs a nap.”

  Loretta dropped the sock she was darning in the grass. “Please.” Her eyes shone as she waited for Matthew to hand him over.

  Matthew gave Calista another uneasy look, but she nodded her consent as Loretta gathered the baby into her arms.

  “I’ll take good care of him,” Loretta whispered. “Don’t worry about a thing.”

  Howie drowsily waved an arm before settling against Loretta’s chest and snoozing away.

  “Something’s wrong,” Matthew said as they continued toward Silas’s.

  “She seems thrilled to have him,” Calista replied. “Perhaps she and Mr. Campbell would like to raise him.”

  “You think that the first time they get a little money, they want a baby?”

  She shoved her hands into her pockets. “What do you think is going to happen to him? I can’t take him with me.”

  “I’m trying to forget that part of our conversation.”

  “It never was supposed to be forever.” She shot him a pained look.

  She had only been in town a month, but she’d changed his life. And he wasn’t going to let her go without a fight.

  But that fight was still ahead of them.

  “This is Silas’s place,” he said, “but I don’t think he’s here.” He pointed at a ditch in the ground with black bricks of g
alena visible in the rip and a shovel against the pile of dirt. “If he was, he’d be working right here.”

  But Calista wasn’t listening. Instead she marched past him to the neat clapboard shack that Silas had built with his first year’s earnings and banged on the door. “Maisie, are you in there? If so, you’d best come out right now.”

  The house looked empty, but when a floorboard creaked, Calista banged again. “Silas, it’s Miss York and Matthew. We need to speak to you.”

  “Coming,” he said from inside.

  “How hard is it to reach the door?” Calista groused. “This house is the size of a breadbox.”

  “I’ll do the talking,” Matthew said. “Silas needs to explain man to man.”

  “If Maisie is here, I’ll keep her outside until you can get an accounting—”

  The door opened. Silas frowned. “Aren’t you supposed to be at work, Matthew? Is everything okay?”

  “Send Maisie outside, please.” Calista reached in her pocket, and only then did Matthew remember the collapsible baton she’d used on her attacker.

  “You’re welcome to come in. It’s a mite crowded, but—”

  “Come on in.” Maisie tugged on Silas’s arm so she could peer over his shoulder. “You’ve never been here before.”

  “And you have?” Calista said coolly as she stepped inside.

  According to her own reckoning, Calista had failed. She’d failed Jinxy, she’d failed Mr. Pinkerton, but most of all, she’d failed Lila. Even though he had no part in this case, she also felt that she’d failed Matthew. But there was one person she wouldn’t fail to rescue, and that was her cousin.

  The threadbare house smelled of coffee and wet dirt, and Maisie looked way too comfortable being there.

  “Come in,” Maisie said as if she were the mistress of the home. “Isn’t this quaint? There’s not much room, but Silas already has plans to expand.”

  “Silas, I want a word with you. Outside,” Matthew said.

  Silas eyed him warily. Instead of moving to the door, he stepped toward Maisie and clutched her to his side. “I want a word about Maisie. This lady is the absolutely best woman in the world. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her, and I want to make her my wife.” Calista’s stomach rolled as he gazed at Maisie. “I’m sorry for not saying it sooner, but would you marry me?”

  “No,” Matthew said.

  “Yes,” said Maisie. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

  “We’re not here to plan a wedding,” Calista said. “We’re here to ask Silas about a girl I met today. She was at the Children’s Home.”

  If Silas had any idea what she was talking about, he hid it well.

  “No other woman matters. It’s just Maisie,” he said.

  “I feel the same way, Silas,” Maisie replied. “Let’s go home. I’ll get Ma and Pa and Granny and all the cousins together, and we’ll tell them then. I’ll be the second cousin married. Won’t that be something?”

  Had Matthew not been standing in the way, Silas and Maisie would have trotted off without a backward glance.

  “Silas, this conversation will be embarrassing,” Matthew said, “but Calista thinks she heard something.”

  “I did hear something,” Calista corrected.

  “Right. This is your last chance for us to talk without the ladies,” Matthew warned.

  “Say what you want to say. I don’t have anything to hide from my love.” Silas gave Maisie a wide grin.

  “The ladies are who it concerns,” Calista said. The clock was ticking. There was a train with her name on it already headed toward Joplin. She couldn’t leave this to be sorted out later. “The girl at the Children’s Home was leaving a baby, and she reported the name of that baby’s father. It was Silas Marsh.”

  So intently was Calista watching Silas that she didn’t see Maisie coming until she’d shoved her in the arm.

  “That’s not true,” Maisie said, her face florid. “That couldn’t be true. Silas is a gentleman. Some men might lollygag around and never tell you how they feel”—she looked down her nose at Matthew—“but Silas is true to his heart, and you shouldn’t hold it against him.”

  “I didn’t concoct this story out of thin air—”

  “Are you sure? The truth and you don’t always share a yoke,” Maisie said.

  “I was there. I heard it myself.”

  “Then the girl is lying.” Maisie squared her shoulders. “Why would we trust her? We don’t know her.”

  Considering that it was his honor being discussed, Silas remained calm. “Was she a bigger girl? Redhead?” he asked.

  “No,” Calista answered. “She’d just had a baby, but she looked petite. Had a birthmark on her cheek. Miss Vanek.”

  “Yep,” he said. “I know her. Didn’t know she was going to have a baby, though. Now, Dahlia, she’d told me already, and I thought her older sister was going to raise the kid, but this one is a surprise.”

  Calista couldn’t believe her ears. “You admit that you fathered this child?” she gasped.

  “I admit it’s possible.” He raised his shoulders to his ears and gave that winsome smile that had worked its magic on Maisie. “But that was before I met Maisie. Those girls don’t matter anymore.”

  It sounded like a bull’s bellow mixed with a pig’s squeal. Calista had always known her Kentworth farm cousins were uncommonly strong, but she hadn’t accounted for them being so fast. Maisie launched herself against Silas and shoved him with all her strength. He wasn’t prepared. No one was prepared. And when he tumbled toward the window, all they could do was watch as he toppled through and fell over the sill, head over heels, crashing on the grass outside.

  “Nicely done,” Matthew said.

  Calista caught Maisie by the arm to keep her from climbing out the window and inflicting further damage. Maisie leaned out the window and yelled, “You lowdown beast. You’re so low a pig would scrape you off his hoof before he got in the sty.” She hiked her leg over the windowsill. “Let me go, Calista. Did you hear what he said? Those girls don’t matter? Those girls he ruined? Those girls who had his children? I’m not finished with him. Let me go.”

  “I have half a mind to do it,” Calista said.

  Then Maisie spun on Matthew. “You’re his friend. You should’ve known. How well do you know Matthew, Calista? Have you thought about that? We shouldn’t trust these men at all.”

  Calista feared looking Matthew’s direction. She had no questions about his character, but had she been just as impulsive as Maisie in allowing him to mean so much to her? Had she opened her heart before she’d thought through the consequences?

  “Take her back to the hotel,” Matthew said. “I’ll finish up here.”

  “I’ll get Howie on my way,” said Calista. “C’mon, Maisie.”

  Maisie followed with teary-eyed fury. Calista kept a sharp eye on her cousin when they exited, fearful that she might run around the house to attack Silas again, but she’d recovered her dignity and marched through the mine claims with the posture of a soldier.

  “I thought he really loved me,” Maisie said, wiping away tears. “I thought I was special.”

  Calista took her arm. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Maisie Kentworth. You are special. Everyone you meet knows it. Just because a cad took an interest in you doesn’t mean that’s all you’re good for.”

  “I want to go home. This dirty city isn’t any fun anymore.”

  “Now’s a good time for you to go. I’m leaving Joplin tonight. Going home to Kansas City.”

  “You’re giving up on getting a job here?”

  Calista had never told her about being a Pinkerton. There was no reason she needed to know now. “Yes. I can find somewhere else to finish my class requirements.”

  “It’s for the best,” Maisie said. “I wouldn’t want you to get too besot with Matthew. These city boys aren’t what they advertise. Go back to Kansas City. But those would be city boys too.” She kicked a clod of dirt. “There’s nowhere safe, I
reckon.”

  They’d reached the Campbells’ house. “Let’s stop and get Howie,” Calista said.

  “You do what you need to. I’m going back to the ranch. Do you want me to tell Granny that your visit is over? That you’re leaving?”

  Granny would want the full story, but Calista answered to the office first. “Yes, please. Tell her that everything is just fine, but my stay ended. I’ll write her with the full story soon.”

  Calista turned to walk down the bare path to Loretta’s, but Maisie wasn’t finished.

  “Calista.” Maisie swung her arms listlessly. “It really stinks that Silas was a rotten apple, but thank you for watching out for me. And if you don’t mind, let’s not mention any of this business to the family. If Amos hears, he might put a hurt on Silas that would get him in trouble with the law.”

  True. And it’d be even worse if Maisie and Amos’s oldest brother found out. Finn was a known rounder. Where he was, no one knew for sure, but they didn’t doubt that he was up to his eyeballs in trouble.

  “As far as I’m concerned, Silas never existed,” Calista said.

  Maisie threw herself into Calista’s arms, forcing her to regain her footing before they both fell, but the gesture made her smile nonetheless.

  “Now, go on home,” said Calista, “and behave yourself.”

  She stopped for a quick prayer of thanksgiving as Maisie left. She’d been sick with worry over Maisie’s pain, but even more, over Maisie’s reaction. Praise God, Maisie’s good sense overrode any romantic instinct that had developed. But when it came to balancing romance and common sense, Calista wasn’t sure she was one to judge.

  Leave Joplin she must, but she couldn’t bring herself to buy the tickets. She couldn’t bring herself to make arrangements. She told herself that it was because Lila Seaton hadn’t been found and she hated to give up on an unsolved case, but as the time approached, she had to admit that Matthew’s draw was just as powerful. With him, she felt stronger. She felt that together they could accomplish something. In fact, she felt certain that he would accomplish something, and Uncle Kentworth saw the same promise. But while Matthew was saving the world, she had the family of a missing girl counting on her.