by S. L. Hawke
“You’re worried that you hurt John and she will pay,” Jack said with such lack of emotion, Uriah cringed. He never expected me to help or defend him. The understanding that Uriah was never to be included or trusted with the welfare of his family stabbed deeply.
“I spoke to the Marshal in town. Says you’re going to right some wrongs in your life. That you have a price on your head.” Uriah saw his brother straighten and stare hard at him. Then, as if Jack decided Uriah could be trusted, he simply nodded.
“And then you decided something different about your ‘foul-tempered big brother.’” Jack added with some humor.
Uriah met his brother’s gaze. “Wiggins is Sheriff now. Says you caught the Sheriff while out there with the Russian security man. He says you are going to take the law into your own hands and work with McKenna.”
Jack visibly relaxed. Uriah also felt tension leave the room.
“Is that all?” The man Uriah saw before him was someone he recognized, yet never knew, and he felt for the first time a sense of duty and bond.
“Is it true that the Tong want you dead?” Uriah held his breath. Someday he’d want the whole story, but when they could sit together without worry.
“Yep.” Jack took a breath. He was a man to follow and die for. Uriah was proud to have him as kin.
“I’ve been a fool,” Uriah swallowed. Jack looked away with a half-smile then back at Uriah again with warmth and relief.
“You’re young, and it’s no different than when I packed up on my fool’s errand fifteen years ago.” Jack placed a hand on Uriah’s shoulder. “The love of a good woman changes things.”
Suddenly both men saw a frightened Ang gesticulating at them. Uriah saw that his brother did not know that Ang had no tongue. Jack held his horror in check and quickly gesticulated back to Ang. He and Uriah went into their mother’s bedroom. Their mother was trying to get out of bed.
“Mother, lie back,” Uriah said as he came forward to help her. But his mother pushed him off.
“I need to go into the garden,” she insisted. Uriah began to lift his mother back into the bed when suddenly Jack simply grabbed Mother into his arms as if she weighed nothing and carried her outside into her rocking chair.
Uriah brought his mother’s shade hat and placed it on her head, telling Ang to get a glass of water.
“I’m glad you boys made up.” She took Uriah’s hand and Jack’s and held them. “Tell your sisters to make sure they enjoy their grandchildren, as I have enjoyed all of them.” She looked up at Jack, then at Uriah. Suddenly she gave a great squeeze to both their hands. Slowly she let them go. Jack squatted down to look at their mother’s face as she slumped into her rocking chair. Uriah heard him say something very strange at that moment, something he would never forget, especially at the end of his own life.
“Namu Amida Butsu.”
Uriah did not cry, he simply sat next to the chair, as did Jack.
“I’ll support the Union,” Uriah said. “If it helps you make all of this right. I want to help you stop all of this.”
“One thing at a time, Uriah.” Jack stood and put on his hat. “But you can start by calling me A.J.”
5
My mother was laid out in her best dress, black, as she had never stopped mourning my father. Beth and John had declined to visit, due to Beth’s state, but I knew it was otherwise. I had called on my sister to tell her about Mother’s passing when Sally had answered the door.
“My, my,” Sally said. There was ice in her voice. “How is life as the consort to a savage princess?”
“Miss Towne,” I said, moving forward through the door. Sally tried to brush up against me, which I allowed, as I had nothing her hands could hold onto. “I need to see my sister.”
Sally blocked my path towards the stairs. “She is indisposed.”
Mind you, I was not a man to burst into any woman’s room without her permission. But I did not trust Sally on this and pushed past her up the stairs to my sister’s bedroom.
“Beth!” I called up the stairwell, then again as I approached the door. I could hear it rattle. Beth was locked in.
“Jack! Jack! In here!” I could hear her sobbing behind the heavy door. Sally was smiling at me. I had no patience to play these games with her.
“Open this door!” I ordered.
“Or what?” Sally leaned against the wall. “You’ll arrest me?”
My hands fell to my sides. I watched Sally’s face; she was fishing for me to react in some way. We were so close to an arrest now, so close to catching the thieves in the act, and yet somehow she had found out.
“It was so nice to attend such a lovely party. General Harrison Slocum was visiting his sister in town at the same time! I must say, he truly explodes with enthusiasm for his job and has a lot of interesting things to say about you. Indeed!”
General Slocum had been invited to the party up at the winery. He was seen with Sally in the gazebo. Fergus needed to make sure this man was permanently retired. He just jeopardized our entire operation in, literally, one blow.
To deny my link with the law would confirm it, but Sally’s mouth extracted the fatal blow. I saw no need to do either.
“I’m surprised he even knew which Andrew Jackson I was. The young Marshal shares my name. Now, open this door, as I have news for my sister. Your brother and I have some business as well. And by the way, Tom sends his regards.”
Sally stopped smiling. I sensed I’d made progress and pressed my advantage.
“I’m not blind. The man adores you.” Here I added a little extra: “All men do.”
Then I did something I did not understand but we all did things to save the causes we believed in. I moved forward and grabbed Sally by the waist. With one movement I pinned her atop the balustrade, spreading her legs apart with me in-between.
“Don’t be so quick to smear the Royal Family with rumors of illicit alliances.” Here I pulled her skirts up past her knees and ran my hands up the outside of her thighs to her mounds. I encountered silk, but loose silk and pressed my face very close to hers. Thankfully she had sweetened her mouth with mint, but the rest of her smelled of recent sex. Withdrawing my clutching of her rump, I grabbed her breasts. “Tom doesn’t seem like the kind of man who could interest or even intrigue a woman like you.”
Sally took a sharp breath. She was skeptical and seasoned. But the challenge of it drove me forward. My sister was calling for me. I called out that I was trying to get the keys. At this point I saw that the door to another bedroom was open, so I threw Sally over my shoulder and headed in that direction.
“You wouldn’t dare!” Sally said with a heavy smile and playfulness to her voice.
“Wouldn’t I?” I dropped her down on the bed and climbed atop her. “Isn’t this what you wanted? Or was I mistaken? This is so much better than…” Here for effect, I kissed her collarbone, which was salty and smelled of cigars. “…other things…” Her breath was quickening, so I pressed my hand against her breast and could fell the faint knob of a hardened nipple beneath the corset. Her hands found my belt, which she began to undo. I stopped her hands. Before she could pout or doubt me I pushed up her skirts so that they covered her face and pulled the bloomers apart.
Then I took a breath. Emma, forgive me for what I am about to do, I thought, but then I remembered something Miles had spoken about in her class. I moved back up and, pushing Sally’s skirts aside, placed her hands on me, while I placed my hand on her warmth.
“You are my brother-in-law’s sister and you are a lady.” Here I got up. “And I have bad news to tell my sister. Please, Sally, have mercy on her especially.”
Sally sat up as I got off the bed. She looked at my engorgement with regret but got off the bed and straightened her coiffure and her bodice. “I’m glad I was wrong,” she said lightly. “I suppose you are a dedicated man when working.”
I shrugged and tried to look embarrassed. “Please, I need to tell my sister that our mother has died.�
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The gamble played off and I did not betray Emma. Sally frowned and found the keys. “Jack, you must understand John drinks too much and I wasn’t here to stop him.” Sally looked remorseful and turned white as I opened the door to see my sister’s bruised and battered face.
My mother’s casket was lowered into the grave. All I thought about was Beth’s face, her swollen closed eye, her pregnant belly, and her tears. Sally took Beth’s hands and admitted that she feared John too, that he did other things to her, far worse things, so that Beth would not suffer. This was her punishment Beth was taking on and then tears flowed between the two women.
Sally was an actress; this much was certain. Timing for us to arrest these barrel scum had to be careful. Distance between myself and Sally was imperative, but she could bring us Tom. If I knew men’s need to have a strong leader, taking Tom out would be the best way and bring our real quarry, Captain Rufus Ingram, in full sight.
The Reverend from the church droned on about suffering and the Glory of Heaven, much of which I did not listen to. Instead I looked off across Evergreen Cemetery and thought I saw someone walking up the main path again, a shadow, looking like Emma as little Juan, or worse yet, The White Lady I saw there not long ago. A chill descended as I looked down at the casket in the hole.
“I’m afraid I had to order two headstones,” Henry said to me as we all dispersed to our wagons and horses. Beyond the fence, as I looked up towards the Chinese Oven, there were many Chinese there with Lam, all bowing towards Mother’s fresh grave, and a few held lit incense. The smell was welcome, despite the remarks and shouts of “Heathens!” and “Back to China the lot of you!” I held my hand up and acknowledged them, then turned and decided to bow to Lam, ignoring the shocked gasping of those that remained within the cemetery grounds.
“Why was buying extra stone necessary?” I asked after my public display of affection for the Chinese was frowned upon.
“The slab was too big, and no word on any new shipments for at least a couple of years, with the war and all. Wooden ones get taken and used for firewood by indigents around here. Sophie, Cynthia and I didn’t feel like a large monument was fitting, so the stone mason suggested we make all our headstones now and carve in our time later. Now, we all have ours; you were the only one we couldn’t figure out how to carve.”
My stare captured how I felt, but stone was at a premium right now and Henry simply wanted the best for the money. All I could think of was the voice on Shaw-Jones’ spirit recorder. Events were following this predicted date of my death.
“That’s a kind offer. I’ll put in my share.” Then I paused for a moment. “What’s on it?” I felt sarcastic, ready to hit someone or something right now.
“You love books. So we just chose a book. Yours and your mother’s name are abbreviations,” Henry said, with a look of embarrassment. “I’m just trying to plan for the future. They’ll keep the stone until it’s time and if they pull up stakes, you can keep the stone until it’s time.”
“Really?” I removed my hat for a minute then put it back on my head. It was new; Emma had seen to it that I finally dressed better. But the hat itched. “I’ll make sure to clear a space for it in my barn.”
“Jack, please, this is a serious occasion. Now, come on over to the hotel and have a bite to eat.” Henry placed a warm hand on my shoulder. But I had other places to be. McKenna was waiting for me at the arch.
*******
Sally walked through the dark streets of Chinatown until she came to a door marked with a bird. She knocked. The door opened without sound into the dark interior. She was taken deep into the den until she came to a small room decorated in blood red velvet with a couch, a round mattress covered with red and purple pillows, and two very young girls in transparent silk shifts seated upon the bed. Captain Ingram was in a robe smoking a small opium pipe.
“I have something to tell you,” Sally said softly. Ingram had twisted her nipples the last time she had tried to use her feminine wiles on him. It was a lesson she had never forgotten. She was his true slave, not Tom’s, but Ingram’s, as he had reminded her. Twist your brother to allow my ships to pass inspections, twist Tom so that I can add opium and slaves to his pathetic attempt to win a war that had no business to begin, or I will teach you the true meaning of pain and sacrifice. But do as I ask, and I will also give you riches and freedom beyond your imaginings. It was Ingram who kept his word above all the men she had ever known, even her brother. When she had Faustino steal the strong box so that she could give the letters to Ingram, she was paid in gold. When Ingram saw the letters, she was paid in gold and given a sapphire necklace that once belonged to Marie Antoinette. A local jeweler attested to its worth, but when Ingram found out she did not trust him, Ingram had the jeweler killed. Sally saved the situation by making sure the widow of the jeweler became her sister-in-law.
When Ingram saw what Sally could truly create from such a situation, he gave her the deed to a whore house in San Francisco, with clients who dropped gold dust as payment for a touch. Now she hoped to be free after this one last betrayal. And live the life of her dreams. Tom’s preaching of freedoms gave her purpose. All she needed was love, but she knew now, even love could be bought, at a price.
Today she was able to obtain letters found in the strong box and ledger of the now disposed Sheriff. These letters of payment to the Sheriff, acknowledgements of bribery and false deeds from some of the town’s founding members would help John, and help her get free of Ingram once and for all.
“Go on.” Ingram made a gesture to the small girl. Sally closed her eyes. This was her life before she and her brother came to California.
“The servant who spies for me in the Harris Hotel overheard the young Marshal say Jack Sloan is wanted by the Triad.”
Ingram studied Sally in a cold, careful way. He drew in his smoke, sent it out through his nostrils, and opened and closed his eyes.
“I see.”
“Jack admitted that he and McKenna are working to control the shipping. He wants to lead the law to Tom.” Sally kept herself very still. Her next words could mean life or death for her. “He could betray you and lead them to capture you.”
“Well then, my dear Sally, you will have to distract him.”
“He’s not like most men.”
“Then you must work harder to control him,” Ingram said, taking a breath of his pipe.
“It would lend too much suspicion if I resorted to blackmail.” Sally took out a set of letters tied with a ribbon. “But I believe you can use these to accomplish your goals with my brother.”
Ingram put down his pipe and took the stack of letters from Sally. He opened up the stack of letters and looked at one. He studied them carefully, as she stood there. Then with the look of a school master inquiring as to the validity of her work, he retied the letters and handed them back.
“These are of no use to me.”
Sally froze. “But I was assured–”
“I suggest that the next time you employ a spy you make sure you have some better hold over him than…your talent.”
Sally grinned at Ingram but falsely, showing all of her perfectly white teeth. She made a slow biting gesture. “I am sure, Captain, if you look carefully at what is there–” Sally adjusted her bonnet.
“These documents have been copied. They are not the originals and they say nothing of value to me. Which means you are of no value to me.”
“The men the Sheriff was blackmailing have vast accounts, holdings on rancho lands you could easily acquire–”
“Miss Towne, falsified deeds to acquire landownership from Royal Spanish grants are simply false deeds.”
“But what of the banker? And the financier?”
Here Ingram simply chuckled. “I have more money abroad than they could have in this entire town. I am afraid, my dear lady, that what I need you cannot acquire for me. You yourself have said Sloan cannot be charmed.”
Sally could barely breathe.
“Faustino Lorenzana will help you, I am certain,” Sally pleaded as Ingram walked behind her.
“I know. And I will look into it, my dear.”
The last thing Sally remembered was her purse being taken by the little girl. I would have done that too, she thought, before she felt the silk on her throat.
*******
Santa Cruz Chinatown,
Lower San Lorenzo, near the Pacific Ocean House
“Oh Gentlemen!” Fergus stood up, holding a tea cup up in the air for a toast. Andrew also stood, as did Shaw-Jones. “To Justice and Nuptials, and the injustice of their necessity in polite society!”
“Oh now, let’s be fair. To a man who has officially become a Royal pain in the arse.” Shaw-Jones held his tea cup up. I remained sitting, the white rose in my lapel bedecked with its white ribbon. “May you have many years of tranquility, sex and children. BUT, may the previous occur more often than the last.”
“What, tranquility?” Andrew said lightly, but everyone drank to my health and marriage. Emma retired early, reminding me that our real wedding night happened a few hours before we sought out the Reverend of the church downtown. When the message came for me to meet Andrew here, she promptly kicked me out the carriage door.
Lam joined us, bringing with him an enormous iron bowl filled with noodles, broth, vegetables, and the fresh chicken and eggs Emma insisted that I bring with me to Chinatown. I was still distracted from the news she had for me this afternoon.
Emma’s body was so sweetly clean and scented. I ran my hands around the mounds of her breasts, the dark chocolate nipples appearing engorged and enlarged. She seemed to glow. I kissed her navel and took in the smell of the islands from her skin.