Undaunted Hope

by Jody Hedlund

  The men looked at Percival but didn’t move.

  “What reason do you have to arrest me?” Alex crossed his arms over his chest as though daring them to come near him.

  “You destroyed the warehouse,” Percival answered.

  “What?” Alex roared, rising to his full height and puffing out his chest.

  “I’ve got several witnesses who saw you enter the building before the fire started,” Percival continued, his face a mask of steely calm. “And everyone here saw you leaving right before it blew.”

  “I went in because I saw a fire,” Alex said, his eyes widening. “I’m the one who sounded the alarm. I actually managed to make several trips out with supplies before the explosion.”

  Tessa nodded. Alex’s explanation made perfect sense.

  “No one is out this time of night unless they’re up to mischief.” Percival locked glares with Alex.

  “I was up in the tower and noticed a strange light in the warehouse,” Alex said. “I came down to investigate.”

  “In the tower? This time of year?”

  “As a matter of fact, yes, I was.”

  “You’re expecting us all to believe that you were sitting up in a completely dark tower tonight?”

  Alex released an exasperated sigh as if realizing his explanation did sound rather suspicious. “Tell me, why would I blow up the warehouse, Percival? What motivation could I possibly have for doing that?”

  Percival pointed at the swollen purple bruise beneath his eye. “Because you want to hurt me in whatever way you can. When you couldn’t beat me the other day, you decided to make me suffer another way.”

  Alex snorted. “You deserve to suffer long and hard for the hardships you’ve brought to this community. But how is blowing up a warehouse punishing you?”

  “Because you want to undermine me in the eyes of the new owner, Mr. Cole. You’ve never liked me and have always tried to diminish my authority here. You even tried to write a letter to my boss to get me fired.”

  “Tried?” Alex asked.

  Percival’s thin smile made Tessa’s stomach lurch. Had Percival intercepted Alex’s letter to Mr. Cole? Maybe Percival had done the same with her recent letter of complaint about the working conditions that had a part in killing Henry Benney. She wanted to believe that if her letter had reached Mr. Cole, he would have done something to help their community, although she suspected the business magnate would have responded only with silence.

  The flames consuming the warehouse cast a ghoulish light over the harbor, which was half covered with ice. If only the fire would melt the ice the rest of the way so that the ships could resume their transport and bring them food and supplies, something that was needed now more than ever before.

  “I’m not the only one who doesn’t like you,” Alex said. “No one else does either.”

  “Then you’re admitting your guilt. You started the fire to get back at me.”

  “Absolutely not—”

  “Maybe you started it because you didn’t want to take turns.”

  “Take turns?”

  Percival’s gaze flipped to Tessa. She fisted her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at him. Now that he knew about her past, she’d been waiting for him to come to her again and threaten to tell the news to the town if she didn’t do whatever he wanted.

  So far he hadn’t made any further mention of the incriminating information he’d discovered. Or if he had shared the news, no one had treated her any differently.

  The moment Alex grasped Percival’s insinuation, fury clouded his face. “I already told you to be careful what you say about Miss Taylor.”

  “Why?” Percival’s brow rose. “If her past is any indication, she’s quite proficient at sharing her favors—”

  Alex started toward Percival, probably to teach the man another lesson.

  “Alex, no!” Tessa shouted as she rushed to intercept him. Percival wanted Alex to attack him publicly. It would only add evidence to the case he was trying to build against Alex. And if the gasps behind her were any indication, Percival’s tactic was working.

  Before Alex could reach Percival, Michael broke through the crowd and grabbed his brother just as Tessa approached. He wrestled Alex’s arms behind his back and jerked up on one, which brought a quick end to Alex’s struggle to free himself.

  Even in the dark, Tessa could see Alex’s coat strain against his muscles. Michael’s face contorted with the effort it took to keep Alex under control. If Alex freed himself, Tessa doubted Percival would walk away this time.

  Percival turned to those around him. “Do you need any more evidence? Isn’t it clear that Alex Bjorklund wants to harm me? And isn’t it clear he set this fire to try to destroy me?”

  No one nodded. But neither did anyone disagree with Percival. The light of the fire reflected the fear on their faces and in their eyes—the fear that held them captive to his control. They were all likely thinking of what Percival would do to them if they stood up for Alex.

  “Rawlings. Carter,” Percival barked. “Take Bjorklund back to the company office and lock him up in the cell.”

  William Rawlings took a step backward and started to shake his head.

  “Do as I say, Rawlings. The man is a safety hazard to our town and needs to be locked up so that he can’t cause any more trouble.”

  “Now wait a minute,” Michael said, pulling Alex back a step. “You can’t arrest him without proper evidence. And there’s nothing here that says Alex started the fire except a whole lot of speculation.”

  “That’s right,” Tessa said. She wasn’t afraid of Percival, she told herself. Percival couldn’t arrest Alex, could he? “Everyone knows that Alex is a good man. He’s kindhearted and helps those in need.” Including his brother, she realized. No, most of all his brother. Alex lived to help his brother.

  She swallowed the revelation to mull over another time. For now, she had to get the townspeople to defend him. “Each person here can testify to some way Alex has come to their aid,” she went on, raising her voice. “He’s a man of integrity and above reproach—”

  “I suppose that’s why he took you up to the mine,” Percival said, “to share intimacies with you.”

  A murmur arose from those surrounding her, and suddenly she wanted nothing more than for the ground to open up and swallow her. How had Percival learned about her indiscretion? She should have guessed he’d find out eventually since he knew everything. But who had told him?

  Her eye caught a movement on the edge of the gathering—a thin girl with short-cropped bangs. Josie.

  Tessa’s first thought was relief that Josie was safe. She hadn’t been hurt or anything. Her second thought was that Josie must have told someone about seeing her at the mine with Alex.

  “Everyone around here knows what goes on when a couple goes up to the mine,” Percival added.

  Tessa was too horrified to defend herself. In truth, she had no right to defend herself. She’d been wrong to be alone with Alex there.

  Alex shook his head, his frustration etched in every line of his face. “Nothing happened between Tessa and me. She’s innocent—”

  “Neither of you are innocent!” Percival said with disgust. “And now I have no choice but to fire her from her job.”

  A fresh wave of murmurs circled her. Yet she was so shocked that she didn’t hear what they were saying. Instead all she heard in her mind were the words fire her, fire her, fire her . . .

  Alex and Michael called out their protest, but she couldn’t think straight, not when her life was unraveling before her.

  Percival’s harsh response broke through the haze. “I won’t allow a woman of her questionable reputation to teach the children of this community any longer. And anyone who provides her shelter or help will be guilty by association.”

  “You can’t do that!” Alex shouted.

  “Where will I go?” Tessa asked at the same time, trying to control the panic bubbling up in her chest.

 
Percival shifted his hard eyes upon her. “It doesn’t matter to us where you go, Miss Taylor. That’s up to you. We simply don’t want a woman of your loose morals in this community any longer.”

  “I won’t let you do this.” Alex yanked to free himself from Michael.

  “You have no authority to stop me,” Percival said. “Besides, you’ll be in jail. Right where you belong.”

  “You can’t take him,” Michael said. His features were taut with pain. Without his cane, and in the exertion of trying to contain Alex, Michael had put too much pressure on his wounds.

  Percival nodded to Mr. Rawlings and Mr. Carter again. “If you men don’t arrest him right now, you’ll find yourselves and your families in the same situation as Miss Taylor.”

  Reluctantly the two men shuffled forward, their faces wreathed in apology. Over the past months she’d learned that Percival earned loyalty from a small circle of miners by the favors he bestowed on them, and William Rawlings was one of his best workers. Although Mr. Rawlings was a decent man, Tessa had early on realized that he was also very passive. He did everything Percival asked. As a result, Percival allowed him to remain in his big house along with a decent salary. Percival knew that if he had a man on his side whom everyone respected, a man like Mr. Rawlings, then he’d gain control over the others by default.

  Michael began pulling Alex backward away from the men. “I won’t allow this. You won’t be able to arrest him without arresting me.”

  “Oh,” Percival said, his voice echoing over the strange silence of the gathering. “So you’re admitting that you had a hand in the warehouse fire too? Very well, we’ll arrest you both.” He motioned to several other miners.

  Both of the brothers protested and defended each other at the same time.

  “I’m sure you don’t want to cause any trouble for my men,” Percival said, raising his voice. A warning edged his tone. “As long as you cooperate, you won’t cause problems for anyone else.”

  Alex strained against Michael’s hold only a moment longer before his muscles slackened and his shoulders slumped. Though his eyes still glittered with anger, resignation rolled across his face. He said something to Michael about leaving him and going back to the lighthouse, but the miners had already surrounded the two, preventing any attempt to escape.

  “This is ludicrous!” Tessa found her voice. “You can’t arrest them!”

  Percival’s smirk told her he could and there was nothing she could do to stop him. The words he’d spoken to Alex after the funeral came back to haunt her. “You just bought a ticket to the graveyard.”

  Percival wanted revenge for the way Alex had struck him and humiliated him after the funeral. She had no doubt that Percival had somehow orchestrated the warehouse fire so he could blame Alex, have him arrested, and then make him suffer for it, slowly and painfully.

  She scanned the gathering and searched the now-familiar faces, the men and the few women who’d come out of their dingy cabins to witness the warehouse fire. Some were parents of her students. Some had been in her evening class. Still others she’d met at church. “Are you all just going to stand there and let Percival Updegraff throw these innocent men in jail? Why don’t you stand up for yourselves and your rights? You don’t have to do everything this man commands you to do.”

  At her request, most dropped their gazes, refusing to meet her challenge. They stood mutely, their apprehension and shame as life-sized as the fire still burning the remains of the warehouse.

  “If we stick together against Percival,” she continued, “if we all refuse to do as he asks, then what power will he have?”

  Again no one said anything. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Percival’s smile crook with satisfaction. Her insides churned with a rising helplessness. Was there nothing she could do to save Alex and Michael or herself?

  “Mr. Rawlings?” she said, seeking him out. But he kept his focus on the rope he was tying around Alex’s wrists. She turned to Henry’s dad. “Mr. Benney?” He lowered his head, stared at his boots, and said nothing.

  A fresh wave of shame coursed through her. They wanted nothing to do with her now—now that they knew about her stained past.

  When Percival issued several more orders and the men didn’t hesitate to obey, Tessa’s body sagged in defeat.

  “Tessa!” Michael yelled as a couple of the men finished binding his hands behind his back.

  Through the bodies surrounding him, she caught a glimpse of the desperation on his face.

  “Take care of the children,” he said.

  “You have my word,” she called back.

  He nodded his thanks before he was shoved forward. She waited for Alex to turn and look at her one last time. But he hung his head and allowed himself to be led away behind his brother.

  She wanted to sink to the ground and weep. In just a matter of minutes she found herself jobless, homeless, her reputation in tatters. Worse, she was watching the man she loved being taken to jail with little hope of seeing him ever again.

  Chapter 23

  Tessa opened the little door at the back of the lens. Its brass hinges squeaked from lack of use over the winter. With the extinguisher she reached carefully inside the tall lantern and covered the flame. The flicker disappeared without even the tiniest amount of smoke.

  Gunnar stood by and studied everything she did. She’d told him she wanted him to learn how to operate the Fresnel lens so that he’d be able to take care of the lighthouse if anything happened to her. But the truth was she didn’t want to do it at all. She wanted Gunnar to run the lighthouse so that she wouldn’t have to.

  “There,” she said, trying to still the trembling in her limbs that hadn’t gone away all night as she’d operated the light. “Now we just need to clean everything and we’ll be done.”

  “I know how to polish the prisms,” Gunnar said. “And I can wash the windows.”

  “That would be very helpful.” Tessa retrieved the small pair of scissors she’d tucked into her apron pocket. She reached back into the lantern and carefully trimmed the cotton wick.

  “Do you want me to refill the oil too?” Gunnar asked.

  Tessa straightened and peered out over the lake. After a week of fifty-degree weather, the ice was almost gone. The rising sun shone over the silver water and illuminated the remaining ice floes that floated in clusters near the rocks. The waves had finally reached the shore again, and through the thick glass panes she could hear their steady rhythm.

  She sighed and leaned against the cold window. She’d made it through the first night tending the light.

  “Why don’t you go on down to bed,” Gunnar said gently behind her. “I can finish up.”

  She nodded but didn’t make a move to leave. Last night, when she ascended the tower to light the lantern, she’d dreaded every step up. She’d cringed at every noise. She’d resisted every movement.

  She’d almost talked herself out of doing it. But after reading Alex’s hastily scrawled message for the hundredth time, she hadn’t been able to say no. Not after he’d pleaded with her. Someone had to manage the lighthouse now that the lake was thawed. They couldn’t leave the lantern dark, not with the possibility of steamers arriving any day.

  As much as she wanted to ball up his note and throw it in the fire, she’d kept it like the few other messages he’d smuggled to her through Samuel. After reading the note, she’d closed herself in the oil house and had cried and pleaded with God to find someone else to take care of the lantern. Hadn’t she already done enough by staying in the keeper’s cottage? Hadn’t she done enough by managing the house and caring for the children over the past week while Michael and Alex had been locked away? God couldn’t possibly be asking her to take the position as lightkeeper, not when she loathed the very thought.

  But when Ingrid had knocked timidly on the oil house door and asked her if everything was okay, Tessa hadn’t come up with any other solution than to walk up the tower steps at dusk and light the lantern.
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  She wanted to claim ignorance. Truthfully she didn’t know all that much except the little bit her sister Caroline had shown her over five years ago. Her sister had been locked in a cellar, and the Windmill Point Light remained dark for two nights as a result. After that, Caroline insisted Tessa be prepared for taking over should anything happen to her again.

  And now because of Caroline’s training, it turned out she was the only one in the community, other than the Bjorklund brothers, who knew the slightest thing about how to work the lighthouse. Besides, even if anyone else knew, they wouldn’t help her. Very few people were speaking to her. In fact, anytime she walked into town, no one even dared to look her way.

  Only Samuel talked to her. He didn’t understand that he wasn’t supposed to. She was grateful for his childlike acceptance of her. He didn’t care or know about her past. She doubted he even understood anything about what had transpired during the past couple of weeks.

  As it was, the responsibility of the lighthouse fell on her shoulders, at least until she could clear up the arrests. She’d written an additional letter to Mr. Cole and one to the lighthouse superintendent, praying Percival hadn’t intercepted her mail like he had in the past.

  “I’ve watched my dad do all the cleaning plenty of times,” Gunnar said from behind her.

  She turned back to the lantern room and studied the now-dark lens. She was surprised that the resentment she experienced last night when she’d turned it on had dissipated into a strange calm.

  “You did a good job, Miss Taylor. I know how much you hate the lighthouse, so I promise I’ll learn quickly so that you don’t have to do it much longer.”

  His words stabbed her with guilt. She didn’t want the children to think that she didn’t want to be here. She wouldn’t have left them to fend for themselves, not even if she had to kiss the tower floor a hundred times a day.

  “I’ll stay with you and help you as long as it takes,” she assured him.

  Gunnar nodded and glanced down, but not before she saw him swallow hard.