A Question of Hope
Page 2
“He found me,” she whimpers as she runs.
Clint laughs. “Run, Maggie,” he shouts. She won’t get far. He has five men waiting. One at all the exits. His smile falters when she pulls the bell, and people pour out into the lobby. Smart!
“Damn!” Two of his men come running and he points to the elevator.
“One of you, watch the elevator!” he snaps.
Clint tries to run behind the desk, and when he attempts to push past, the staff stop him.
“Sir! You need to get behind the desk!” A doctor yells.
Clint curses and shoves past him, anyway. “Hey! Security!” The doctor shouts.
People are everywhere, but he only has eyes for Maggie. He spots her just as she runs through a back door.
Maggie knows he’s coming, and she grabs a mop and slides it through the handle just as Clint slams into the door.
“Maggie!” Clint screams and beats on the door.
“Why are you here?” She demands.
“Payback, Miss Rose!” He glares at her through the glass, “My Father is dead because of you!” He punches the pane of glass with his fist, cracking it.
Maggie screams and runs up the stairs, gasping. Maggie had a plan in place in case she needed to run. They will expect her to run for the main exits, but this hospital has a rooftop deck where the staff likes to meet. It connects to the building next door.
She has a bag waiting in a closet on that floor with cash and a change of clothes.
“He’s insane!” she isn’t even aware that she’s talking to herself. People are running and when the alarm goes off, she freezes for a second.
“No. I need more time!” she bursts through the door, on the fourth floor, and runs to the closet where her carpet bag waits. Dragging it free, she pushes through the doors leading to the rooftop deck.
Maggie gasps in the frigid air as she runs across the connected rooftops, slipping, and sliding through the snow. It’s only three across to her friend’s bakery. She climbs down the fire escapes to the ground below.
Maggie digs her key out with trembling fingers and uses it to let herself inside. Greta Moretti was the first friend she made when she arrived in Colorado a month ago. Finding a job was relatively simple but finding a friend to trust was a rare treat. Greta understood immediately, having had an experience of her own with a violent man. She quietly locks the door and moves inside up the back stairs to the apartment above.
The tremors start once she’s safely locked inside. Luckily the apartment isn’t rented yet. She drops her bag and moves to the window overlooking the front street. Not brave enough to turn on a light, she stares out into the night. Its two hours before she sees them. Clint and five men. They are walking the streets and looking in store windows.
She holds her breath and waits for them to pass the bakery. The tears start when they move on.
“What now, Maggie?”
An image of Shepherd pops into her mind and she curses herself for leaving him. Is it possible that he’s looking for her too?
“You robbed him, Maggie,” she whispers. “He will never want to see you again.”
Tomorrow, you will figure out what to do. Exhausted, she drifts to sleep propped up in the corner of the room.
Chapter 2
Utah
“Shepherd Millard,” the bank teller repeats his name.
“Yes, exactly like it says on the paper,” Shep grumbles.
“I see. Give me one moment, Sir.” The teller moves to the back and returns with a smile.
“Right this way, Mr. Millard,” he unlocks the swinging wooden gate, and gestures for Shep to follow him.
Inside a private room, he invites Shepherd to sit on the other side of a mahogany desk. “Mr. Millard, you requested a transfer from your bank two weeks ago in the amount of one thousand dollars.” He glances up at Shep.
“That’s correct,” he snaps and taps his fingers on the desk. “Time is of the essence,” he insists.
“Yes, Sir.” He opens the box and counts out the cash, dropping it inside an envelope he slides it to Shepherd with some papers for him to sign.
“Sign on the x’s, please.”
Shepherd signs quickly and slips the envelop inside his jacket with a sigh of relief.
“It has been a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Millard.”
Shep grunts and hurries from the room. Maggie is unaware of the danger hunting her and guilt is driving him hard.
When his friend Tucker showed up in San Francisco a few months ago asking for his help, he instinctively said yes. He had no way of knowing that he’d meet a woman like Maggie Rose.
It was supposed to be a simple distraction at the train station. Some first date. Maggie trusted him to keep her safe, but neither of them had any idea how sick Clint Hayden was.
He fixated on Maggie, attacking her in her apartment and from what he knows the madman is still hunting her. According to the last telegram, Clint Hayden’s father attacked Tucker’s family at his farm and was shot dead.
Clint left with five men a few days before the attack and he’s afraid that means he’s hunting Maggie. With nothing left to lose, Clint is a danger and Maggie’s in deep trouble.
Maggie was long gone by the time he arrived in Utah. Shep took the time to file a police report as instructed by Wyatt. This should buy her some time.
He wasn’t counting on winter hitting so hard and soon, stranding him with little money. “Thank God for Western Union.”
Shep could work from his hotel for the duration of the storm and melt off. In the meantime, he planned how to get to Maggie.
Finally, the weather gives him a break. Shep goes straight to the train station and buys a first-class ticket to Colorado. He settles back to read the report sent to him from his friend, Wyatt in Nebraska.
The report includes information on the Hayden family and found they owned the Hayden Flour Mill. It has fallen into massive debt. Hayden admitted before his death to causing an explosion at the competing Mill, hoping to steal their customers.
It worked for a short time, but he wasn’t counting on the competitor to rebuild the Mill. “The man was desperate and desperate people are dangerous.”
Shep runs a hand over his face. “Father, please keep her safe,” he murmurs, and the guilt eats him.
Chapter 3
Maggie smiles as Shep leans towards her, “Wake up, beautiful,” he whispers, and she reaches out to touch his whiskered face only to recoil in horror as his face shifts. One second, she’s looking into his loving eyes and the next second Clint’s gripping her throat and choking her.
Greta leaps back and smothers a scream as Maggie jerks awake, swinging to push Clint away. “No!”
“It’s okay!” Greta shouts as Maggie scrambles away from her.
“Greta?” Maggie glances around in confusion and touches her throat.
“I heard about what happened at the hospital. It’s all over the street. Are you okay?” Greta sets the lantern on the wooden floor and crouches down next to her friend.
“Yes. I think so,” she stammers. “Greta, I’m so sorry. I needed somewhere safe to go.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. You know you are welcome to stay here as long as you need to.”
“What time is it?” Maggie glances at the window in surprise to find it’s still dark outside.
“Five in the morning,” Greta replies.
“Oh, I have to go!”
“Go where, Maggie? Surely it's safer for you to stay put,” she insists. “You have witnesses to vouch for the incident at the hospital.”
“Greta, he was talking crazy! He said his father died because of me!” Maggie pulls the crinkled note from her pocket and hands it to her friend to read.
Greta’s face pales as she reads. “He’s disgusting!” Greta knows that Clint attacked Maggie once before.
“I need help.” Maggie sighs and runs a hand over her face. “I don’t want to take trouble home to my family.”
“That’s understandable. What about the handsome architect?” Greta asks.
“Shepherd Millard will never forgive me, Greta,” she stands up and stretches, “I robbed him.”
“Senza-seso,” Greta snaps in Italian and seeing the look on her friends face she smiles. “Nonsense. You did no such thing, Maggie! From what you told me you were protecting yourself. I mean the man put you on a train with no warning and expected you to just go along with him. It was one date, for goodness sakes. He can’t expect you to fall at his feet after one date.”
“True,” she yawns. “I’m just so tired and I haven’t slept for weeks, Greta.”
“You can stay here as long as you need.” Greta tosses her dark hair over her shoulder. “No one needs to know that you’re here, Maggie. I haven’t even told my father yet. You could send a telegram asking for this Shepherd’s help and hide out.”
“I’ll think about it. I will stay here until figure out how to get out of the city.”
“I can help with that.” Greta beams, “I have an idea. It’s a little unorthodox but it could work.”
“I’ll take any help I can get,” she laughs softly.
“Wash up and change, then we will talk. I’ll sneak some food to you when I can. I’ve got to get baking before my customers show up. After the morning rush, we will talk.”
“Thank you, Greta.” Before she opens the apartment door Maggie stops her.
“Greta, you will protect yourself at all costs. I don’t want you to get hurt because of me. Do you understand me?”
“No one will get hurt.” Greta grips her hand, “Men assume women are too stupid to outsmart them, but we must stop this monster. Maggie, if he’s doing this to you, I’m sure he’s done this before.”
“I know, but it was his eyes, Greta, they were so full of hate.” She shivers remembering the attack.
“Rest, we will talk soon.”
Greta leaves and Maggie strips out of her nursing clothes and folds up the dress and white apron, tucking them inside her bag. She washes in a water bowl and realizes her hands are trembling.
Brushing her long blonde hair out, she sits heavily on the one stoop in the two-room apartment.
A flicker of light across the street in the Church window catches her eye. A lone candle flickering in the darkness. Somehow that wavering light reminds her that she isn’t alone. No matter how scared she is, the Lord has always looked after her.
“How have I forgotten that?” A tear of regret slips free and she drops to her knees to pray.
“Father, I need you more than ever. Please forgive my distance, bring peace to my prideful heart, joy to my sadness and hope to my heart. I’ve forgotten that in my pride as I pushed everyone away that I also pushed you away. Forgive me.”
She lifts her face and watches in awe as the church windows begin to glitter with candles, “Guiding all the lost home,” Maggie laughs softly through her tears.
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” Maggie softly quotes John 8:12 from memory.
“It’s time to go home,” Maggie sighs.
Chapter 4
Clint paces in the room at the brothel. He’s traveling under a different name, thanks to the nurse. She filed a police report in three cities, including his hometown. Making it impossible for him to go home. Now he’s a wanted man.
“Maggie Rose will be mine!” he hisses and pays the woman for services rendered. “She will wish she’d never fought me,” he mumbles and looks at the woman tying the laces on her corset.
“What else can I do for you, Mr. Crast,” the saloon girl asks.
“Surely you can call me by my first name, Beth. Aren’t we friends now?” he teases and strokes the swell of her breasts.
“Of course, John,” she grins.
“That’s better. Beth, if you were being hunted, in this city, where would you hide?” he asks watching her freshen her rep lipstick.
Beth frowns, “Hunted?” She stands up and straightens her tights, “I’d stay with friends.”
“She’s only been in the city a few months,” he grumbles.
“Then I’d go to the St. Francis Church to ask for help. Our Madam pays dues to the catholic church. They have a do-gooder group offering help to women in trouble.”
“Really?” he asks. “Why didn’t you go?”
“Too many rules, John.” She walks over to him, “No drinking, no fun, and worst of all, no men,” she kisses his neck and gasps when he grips her upper arms.
“I ain’t paying for a second round, Beth,” he shoves her roughly away from him. She glares at him, all pretense gone now.
“Suit yourself, John. Ask for Sister Theresa, she might help you. They love a good sob story. Good luck finding your Rose,” she stomps from the room leaving him cursing after her.
Clint finishes his drinks and walks over to the window to look out at the snow-covered streets. “Guess, I’m visiting Church tomorrow,” Clint laughs and thinks about all the ways he will make Maggie pay.
Chapter 5
“Greta, how will I ever thank you?” Maggie asks over coffee.
“By being safe, Maggie,” she smiles. “The carriage is out back, waiting to take you to the church. They’re expecting you.”
“Thank you!” Maggie grabs her packed bag and rushes through the shop into the waiting carriage.
A half hour later, Maggie smiles and listens to the Sister explain the rules. “Sister Mary, perhaps my friend wasn’t clear about what I needed.”
“Oh, we didn’t have much time to talk, she had to get back to work. Don’t worry, here at St. Francis we offer shelter and assistance any way we can.”
“That’s very kind of you Sister, but what I need is a way to get to the train station and buy a ticket home. I have the money, but I can’t let them see me.” Maggie nervously wrings her hands.
“I see.” Sister Mary places a hand over top of hers. “What kind of trouble is chasing you?”
“It’s a long story, Sister,” Maggie explains as quickly as she can. “My family will be happy to make a donation to your cause, Sister Mary, but I can’t get to the train station. Greta said you might help me with that.”
Sister Mary smiles. “Absolutely, come with me.”
Sister Mary leads her into a small room and hands her a folded pile of clothing, “Change into this habit. I’ll wait for you outside.”
Maggie happily changes into the shapeless brown habit and hair covering. With help from the Sisters she will be able to fade into the background.
“How is this going to help, Sister?” Maggie asks while the Sister looks her over and twists the white collar of the habit into place.
“Simple. We send a group of Sisters to the train station daily to offer our support to the women arriving daily on the train. Some have no support, family or jobs waiting and they are taken advantage of. Many end up working in the brothel or saloon. You will blend into this group. One of the Sisters will purchase a train ticket for you and you will be on your way.”
“Thank you,” Maggie gasps and claps her hands. “This is perfect.”
Sister Mary stares at her. “Not quite. You must keep your eyes on the ground. The color is exquisite, but a definite problem. I will make sure they keep you in the center of the group until it’s time to board.”
“Thank you.”
“Wait here, and I’ll get the Sisters.”
Maggie sighs in relief and stares up at the cross on the ceiling and closes her eyes in a silent prayer of thanks.
“Excuse me, I’m looking for Sister Theresa,” a male voice says from behind her. Maggie’s heart almost stops. Clint has found her! Weak in the knees, she bends down to pray.
“Follow me,” the Sister he’s speaking to demands and Maggie keeps her face turned away from him and her eyes downcast.
To the man walking past her she appears to be in deep prayer and that isn’t far from the truth.
“Sister, are you ready?” Mary asks from behind her.
Maggie nods and stands on trembling knees. “We need to go now, he’s here!” She whispers. The women surround her, and they walk to the Sanctuary doors, just as a voice shouts from across the church.
“Maggie girl, are you leaving me so soon?” Clint’s vile voice echoes causing her to stumble in fear.
“No,” Maggie whimpers.
“Keep moving,” Sister Mary insists. “He can’t know which one you are.” The group rushes through and Mary stops to ring the bell, calling the Sisters to the Sanctuary to pray.
Immediately the room fills with brown habits and Clint curses, shoving his way through the throng of people.
Mary and her Sisters don’t stop, they’ve learned that most men are hesitant to hurt a female and especially a nun. Stepping outside they find a carriage with two men waiting.
“Gentlemen, it’s so kind of you to arrange our ride,” Mary smiles. “The Lord will reward you mightily,” she opens the carriage and the ladies jump inside.
“Wait, what?” one guard says.
“Your friend, Clint said you’d be happy to give us a ride,” Mary says
Maggie keeps her eyes averted and prays.
“Oh, he did? Miss?” One man asks.
“Sister Mary,” she replies and climbs inside. Mary uses her cane to tap the roof, “Train station, hurry!”
The driver snaps the reigns just as Clint breaks through the doors, waving and shouting.
“Mary, you are a powerful force of nature!” Maggie laughs and covers her face with a trembling hand.
“We won’t have much time,” Mary says, glancing behind them. “We will have to split up and pray this works. You won’t have the luxury of waiting on a specific train. I’m afraid you must take the first available.”
“I’m fine with that. Thank you.” Maggie sits back with a sigh of relief.