Wild Roses

by Hannah Howell

  Harrigan recognized several of Harold’s men as he rode down the street. A gasp from Ella stole his attention from counting them. He followed the direction of her wide-eyed gaze and inwardly cursed. There would be no aid from Louise. Thompson was roughly pushing the woman into his jailhouse, her boys being urged after her by Thompson’s deputies. Harrigan briefly looked around for George, but saw no sign of the man. His only consolation was that he had not seen George being dragged into the jail along with the others. Since he was confident that Louise had not injured the man, he knew George would be along shortly.

  “He’s had Louise arrested,” Ella cried in outrage.

  “Considering some of the things your aunt does and says, that arrest might not have anything to do with Harold,” he replied, wondering why he was still so quick to defend such a man.

  “We both know that Harold had a hand in that. He had Thompson lying in wait for my aunt.”

  “There has to be some reason for an arrest to be made, especially of a woman.”

  “The reason is that Harold told Thompson to do it.”

  Ella made her last statement just as Harrigan reined in in front of Harold’s huge brick house. Harold was standing on the walk in front of the house, clearly expecting them, and he gave Ella a very condescending smile.

  “What have I instructed our duly elected sheriff to do now?” Harold asked, his air of innocence almost more than Ella could stomach.

  “You sent Thompson after Louise,” Ella accused. “You had him put her in jail.”

  “I don’t know where you get such strange ideas. Why should I do such a thing to a member of my own family?”

  “To get her out of your way so that you can finally have a chance of winning this little game. She’s been a thorn in your side for years, but you haven’t been able to reach her in Wyoming.”

  Harold shook his head and adopted a look of innocent sorrow that made Ella want to gag. When she looked at Harrigan, he was wearing an expression that was tight and closed, and she wondered if he was finally seeing Harold for the deceitful, dangerous man that he was. That Harrigan could see the danger in her guardian was of the utmost importance to her, even if he couldn’t keep her out of the man’s house. Somewhere, somehow, Harrigan had to begin to see the truth. It was all she had left to hope for.

  She tensed as Harrigan dismounted and picked her out of her saddle. Ella had talked to herself about this moment from the time she had ridden away from Wyoming. Time and time again she had told herself that she would not let it hurt her, that Harrigan had his reasons, and she had to respect them or how could she truly love the man? It had been easy to decide that she would be calm and mature, understanding and forgiving. Harold had still been many miles away.

  Now she trembled, her heart skipping painfully in her chest. She felt afraid and betrayed. She saw George walk up to them and was anxious to ask the man a few questions about what had happened to her aunt. He had to have been with Louise when Thompson appeared. Then she realized that, if he had been, he had obviously not done anything to stop it.

  It was hard to suppress a cry when Harold grabbed her by the arm, then shoved her toward one of his huge guards. Ella saw Harrigan’s face tighten and his hands clench, but he did nothing. He just wanted his money, she thought sadly. That was all that really mattered to him.

  “Ella and Louise tell a different tale than you do, Harold,” Harrigan said, his voice tight as he fought to control his anger.

  “I warned you about that,” Harold said smoothly, waving his guard away. “Take the girl into the house, Matthew,” he ordered.

  Harrigan watched the big, dull-faced Matthew drag Ella away. It took every ounce of his will not to go and yank her out of the man’s rough hold. Harold was certainly not acting as if an errant child had been returned to the fold, more as if a prisoner was being returned to her cell.

  “I just found it odd that both of them told the very same story,” Harrigan murmured.

  “Well, of course they would. They’ve had several years to concoct it and perfect its telling. I fear Louise is mostly at fault. She wants the child to stay with her and has slowly turned Ella against us.”

  “If you say so, sir. My next question concerns the money owed me.”

  “You’ll be paid,” Harold said and briefly shook Harrigan’s hand before disappearing into his house.

  George stepped up next to Harrigan. “I believe the man intends to try and cheat us out of that money.”

  “Well, he can think again.”

  Harrigan looked up at the windows on the second floor. One glimpse of a small, pale face was enough to tell him which room Ella was in. He was not sure what he could do, or how useful that knowledge might be, but he was pleased to have it. Even if he decided not to do anything, he was determined to let Louise know which room her niece was in. Harrigan was still not quite sure how dangerous Harold was, but he was sure that the man deserved every drop of aggravation Louise could deal out.

  One other thing he was sure of was that he hated what he had just done. The look of hurt on Ella’s face was burned into his mind. He felt wracked with guilt and self-loathing. Right up until he had handed her to Harold he had convinced himself that he could do it, even that it was the best way to handle matters. Now he felt as if he had been kicked in the gut, and the one who had delivered the blow was himself.

  “Why was Louise arrested?” he asked George as, knowing there was nothing he could accomplish by standing outside of Harold’s house staring up at the window, he grasped the reins of the horses and started to walk toward his office.

  “Because Harold ordered it,” George replied.

  “Are you sure that is the reason?”

  “Very sure. That fool Thompson nearly said so himself. There was no outright confession that he was taking a totally innocent group of people to jail simply because Harold Carson told him to, but he was too stupid to think of a good excuse to cover himself.”

  “Louise must have been furious.”

  “Yes, but not surprised.”

  “And how was your little journey with the group?”

  George smiled faintly. “You aren’t really interested in that, at least not now.”

  Harrigan grimaced and shook his head. “Sorry, old friend, I was just trying to make conversation.”

  “There are other things you need to do besides try and be pleasant.”

  “Such as make sure that bastard pays us for the dirty work we did for him?”

  “There is that. I was thinking more of what you can do to take that load of guilt off your shoulders.”

  “That noticeable, is it?” Harrigan released a short, bitter bark of laughter. “I’m still not sure the man means to kill her, but I do know it was wrong to bring her back here. He means her no good. I do, wholeheartedly, believe one thing she accused him of, and that is wanting her money. I just have to decide if he’s capable of murder to get it.”

  “I believe he is,” George said quietly.

  “Then help me prove it. Perhaps I should go and talk to Louise.”

  “If you’re in the mood for a great deal of abuse, go right ahead.”

  “Even if she feels like spitting in my eye, don’t you think she’ll answer my questions if it might help Ella?” Harrigan paused across the street from the jail and worried his bottom lip with his teeth.

  “Yes, I think she will. I do not, however, think she will believe that you are going to help Ella until you actually do so. Go on then,” he urged. “I’ll wait here and hold the horses.”

  “Not going to come with me?” Harrigan felt a little hesitant about going on his own.

  “I believe I’ll give her a little time to calm down before I go to see her. Just ask her what she wants me to do with her horses.”

  “Alright, but there is a chance the answer will be profane.”

  George briefly grinned. “A very big chance, but then she will tell you what I should really do.”

  Harrigan followed Thompson to
the cells. He winced a little under Louise’s glare then noticed that she redirected her anger to something behind him. A quick glance revealed that Thompson had no intention of allowing them any privacy. Warily, Harrigan stepped closer to Louise’s cell, nodding briefly to the four youths in the next cell. Thompson was far enough away, trying to act as if he was not listening, so Harrigan hoped that if he and Louise talked very softly they might actually be able to exchange a few bits of information.

  “You have a lot of nerve coming here to face me after what you’ve done,” Louise said. “You’ve already delivered my niece to that bastard, haven’t you?”

  “Yes. I made a bargain with the man.”

  “A devil’s bargain.”

  “I begin to think so.”

  “If you were having doubts,” she whispered, suddenly lowering her voice, “then why did you bring her here? Why didn’t you just set her somewhere safe until you were sure which one of us was telling you the truth?”

  “I don’t think we’ll be allowed the time to really discuss this in the depth it needs. I promised Ella that I would now look into Harold’s affairs.” He kept his voice very low, forcing Louise to lean against the bars. “I need names.”

  “It’s a little late now, don’t you think?”

  “She’s still alive. I thought you might have a few pieces of information you would like to share, things that might shorten the time I spend finding the truth.”

  To his relief, Louise began to tell him names, incidents, and anything else she could think of. Since he did not dare write it all down, he struggled to remember it. Once she began, however, he knew he would have to come back again or have George do so. She was giving him far more than he could remember. He finally asked her to stop, promising her he would be back for more as it was needed. He then asked her what George was to do with her horses, not surprised by her first, very painful suggestion, but then she sighed and gave him some instructions to relay to George.

  Once he returned to George, they shared a brief smile over her first suggestion about the horses, then went to see that the animals were properly cared for. George was a little intimidated by the number of people they would have to check, but he was more than willing to be the one to go visit Louise and get more information as needed. They had no proof of anything yet, but the wealth of information Louise was ready to provide made Harrigan uneasy. He desperately wanted to find out just what the truth was, but he was beginning to fear that the truth was exactly what both Ella and Louise had been trying to tell him from the start.

  “What do you want me to do first?” George asked as they returned to Harrigan’s office, opening a window to air the place out, and then sitting down in his chair to face Harrigan directly.

  “I think you should keep a close watch on Harold,” Harrigan replied as he sprawled in his chair.

  “That’s what Louise asked me to do. She wants to know whatever happens at that house, whatever Harold does, and any news of Ella.”

  “And I want our money. I may have just sold my soul for it and I’ll be damned if that bastard will cheat me out of it.”

  “The man will be tripping over me each time he tries to leave his house.”

  “Good. If he’s planning to do something illegal, he’ll pay you off just to get you out of his way. He certainly won’t want someone constantly watching him. Once you get the money he owes us, you can continue to watch his house, but do so covertly.”

  “And what will you be doing?”

  Harrigan looked at the list he had been making, trying to write down as much of what Louise had told him as he could before he forgot it all. “I’ll be trying to find someone, anyone, who will tell me something I can use against Harold. I may be slow to do what I should, but believe me, it will be done thoroughly. If Harold has used us to give him a victim, he’ll pay dearly for it.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Ella paced her room, pausing only to try the door, find it locked, and curse. After catching herself at that fruitless endeavor for the fifth time, she clenched her hands at her side, and took several deep, slow breaths to try to calm herself. She wanted to hurl herself at the door until it fell open, but told herself firmly that that would be stupid. The door was solid oak with heavy iron hinges. She would just hurt herself.

  She felt torn apart by fury, pain, and fear. Despite all that had passed between them, Harrigan had handed her over to her relatives without hesitation. He had muttered some vague promises about keeping a close watch on her, but she refused to have any faith in his promises. With that one traitorous act he had shown her that he had never believed her, so she refused to believe in him. Her brief bout of understanding had faded the minute she had been given into Harold’s hands. Ella found it hard to believe that Harrigan would ever take Harold’s word over hers. He had his blood money and she had been fool enough to let him enjoy the use of her body. There was no reason for him to stay around and certainly no profit in it.

  “And you have far more important things to worry about than some handsome, grey-eyed rogue,” she grumbled, and kicked over a footstool. “Idiot,” she cursed herself as she hobbled over to her bed, sat down, yanked off her slipper, and rubbed her sore foot. “You will not get far if you break your foot.”

  “Ella?” called a tremulous female voice from the other side of the door. “Are you in there?”

  “No, I’m waltzing down the promanade,” Ella snapped as she limped to the door, wondering if some miracle was about to happen and her cousin Margaret was going to set her free.

  “There is no need to be pert. It is I, your cousin Margaret. Eleanor is here too. We wished to talk to you about Harrigan Mahoney.”

  Ella slumped against the door, cursed, and shook her head. She was locked in a room facing death at the whim of her relatives, and these two women wanted to gossip about Harrigan. He was the last person she wanted to talk about. There was, however, a slim chance that she could fool or cajole her cousin into setting her free, a very slim chance, but one she had to try for.

  “We could talk more clearly and freely if you would open this thick door,” Ella suggested, not really surprised when the two young women giggled, but thinking that it was a particularly cruel thing for them to do.

  “Come, cousin, do you think we are stupid?”

  Deciding it was best if she did not reply to that, Ella sighed. “I had thought that you might not wish to be party to a murder.”

  “Murder? Carsons do not spill the blood of their own.”

  “No, they hire others to do it for them.”

  “Ella! Eleanor and I have come to visit, to have a pleasant chat, and all you can do is spit accusations at us. If you do not wish to talk about Mr. Mahoney, you need but say so. There is no need to be so unpleasant.”

  For a moment, Ella stared at the heavy door and wondered if Margaret was truly ignorant of her father’s deadly plans, then shook her head. Margaret had helped her father destroy the lives of half a dozen men and their families. She was also very close to her father. In fact, Harold and Margaret’s love for each other was sometimes so obvious and intense it was uncomfortable to see. The woman knew exactly what her father wanted and just how far he would go to get it. Under Margaret’s genteel, pretty face, the woman was as cold and as avaricious as her father.

  “Many pardons. I fear the thought of my impending death has made me ill-tempered. What do you wish to know about Mr. Mahoney? I am not certain I can tell you very much. I was merely his prisoner.” Ella realized that, despite her hurt and anger, she did not want to tell these women anything they could then use against Harrigan. Their families had hurt him enough.

  Margaret laughed, a high, light, trilling sound she had practiced long hours to achieve. “Cousin, you are modestly fair of face and Mr. Mahoney is a rogue. Would you have us believe that nothing passed between the two of you?”

  “Yes, because nothing did.”

  Ella subdued the urge to tell Margaret and Eleanor that she and Harrigan had made w
ild, passionate love all the way from Wyoming to Philadelphia. She might yet escape her dire situation alive and she did not want that little bit of news to be spread far and wide. Giving Eleanor’s haughty pride a little tweak was simply not worth the price she might have to pay. She wavered slightly in her decision when she heard Eleanor say, “I told you Harrigan would never touch such a thin, plain mouse like Ella.” The woman’s vanity certainly deserved a thorough bruising. Ella hastily pushed aside all thought of how intimate Eleanor and Harrigan might have been during their courtship. That was something she neither should know, nor wanted to know, anything about.

  “But Ella, you were alone with him,” Margaret began in a too sweet voice.

  “Not often. And Margaret, you may deny that I have been brought here to die, but I certainly believe it. Do you really think I would stoop so low as to become romantically involved with the man who is dragging me to my own execution?” Margaret did not need to know the depths of her stupidity, Ella thought glumly.

  “Well, you could have thought it would help you gain the freedom you so crave.”

  “Harrigan was fooled once by close friends of this family. He is too smart to be fooled twice.”

  “Any man can be fooled by a woman,” Eleanor said, her voice heavy with scorn. “They are easy to blind with sweet words, promises, and passion. One simply must know how to stroke their vanity and stir their passions. A man caught tight in the net of his own desires cannot think clearly.”

  Ella was a little shocked at the cold, cynical way Eleanor spoke of men and then wondered why she was. The woman thought nothing of winning a man’s affections so that her family could more easily steal all he owned. Despite all her efforts not to, she also wondered just how deeply Eleanor had stirred Harrigan’s passions and if the woman had then satisfied them in any way. The images that that thought brought into her mind were painful and she shook her head, fruitlessly trying to fling them aside. What Harrigan had done before they had met was not her concern, not even if they had shared more than a fierce passion. She knew what troubled her most was not that he had been some other woman’s lover once, but that he had been Eleanor’s. That realization angered her, for it made her feel even more the fool than she already did.