“It’s not my day to work but I came in for an emergency. I’ve got my horse in the field. Would you and Blair like to come for a meal?”
“Blair has gone to Zedekiah and Elise,” Susannah said. “If it’s your day off don’t you want to relax?”
“Not really and I will be relaxing, anyway, because Jude will have cooked a meal. He always does far more than we need.”
“I have someone with me.”
“Bring that someone too.”
“It’s a man from the agency in New York.”
“Oh?”
“I’m a detective.”
“Working on the university and seminary case?”
“Yes. Noah is taking Blair’s place because Blair wants to find the children’s mother.”
“I don’t understand all that,” Rachel said. “But maybe you can tell us more over the meal.”
“Thank you. Are you sure Jude won’t mind us invading your privacy?”
“Jude loves having visitors and so do I.”
“I’m ready,” Noah said, striding over from behind the hospital.
“Hello, Noah.”
“You know each other?” Susannah asked.
“Noah had a brick fall on his foot and I dealt with it. I had to amputate it.”
“I hope that’s a joke.”
Rachel smiled. “Ask him to show you his foot.”
“It grew again,” Noah said, grinning. “Rachel said it would.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” Susannah went to climb on the front of the wagon. “Why don’t you hitch your horse with mine and come in the wagon?”
“I’ll ride next to you. Goldilocks might get a bit restless.”
“Goldilocks? That’s a lovely name for a horse.”
“I didn’t name her but I think so too.”
“I could lift you up,” Noah said as Rachel made her way to the field where the horses were munching grass and hay.
“How about I lift you?”
“You could always try.”
She climbed up onto the front of the wagon and took the reins. “Maybe not. I may not have a wagon and horses when Blair goes. I’m not sure what he’s going to do where that’s concerned.”
“Then I’ll get hold of another one for you.”
“That would cost a fortune.”
“People hire them out.”
“Then I’ll hire one myself. The agency can pay for it.”
“Good thinking.” He jumped up beside her. “What are we going to do first?”
“Rachel has invited us for a meal. I’m starving so I accepted.”
“I’m starving too. Am I included in the invitation?”
“Yes. Do you want to drive?”
“I’m happy to be driven by a woman.” He grinned as she looked at him. “More than happy and particularly a beautiful one.” He put up his hands at her withering expression. “Sorry. That didn’t come out well.”
“It didn’t. I am a woman working in what men consider their territory. Just remember that.”
“I will, ma’am.”
They pulled away as Rachel rode towards them and were soon at her house.
Chapter 11
The wagon was packed when they went to Independence on the Saturday. Bruce and Hazel had offered to go too in order to care for Dan and Becky while Noah and Susannah interviewed Larson Miles. Blair had also come with a view to obtaining materials for his sculpting. He wouldn’t be able to do it until he returned to Lower Pine, he said, and maybe he would settle here because he wasn’t that fond of Los Angeles. He also liked the church in Lower Pine and the people.
Or maybe he was interested in Susannah, Noah thought as he sat in the front where he and Blair were beside Bruce. They had manly things to discuss, Bruce had told Hazel when they all got on the wagon. She ruffled his hair and he lifted her in before lifting the children. The way he stood holding her for a couple of minutes before setting her down made Noah feel a bit jealous.
But the feeling did not last long as he turned to Susannah and lifted her. He couldn’t hold her for as long as Bruce held Hazel in view of the fact that everyone was watching them but he could at least hold her for a few seconds. He set her down gently and Blair lifted Dan and Becky.
“It’s a good thing you have a big wagon,” Susannah said, her head bent as she straightened an already straight shoelace on Dan’s shoe. Was she blushing? No, she couldn’t be because she showed no interest in him romantically.
“The carriage would have been too small,” Tony said. “Wouldn’t it, papa?”
“It would son. Is everyone comfortable and ready to go? Most importantly is the food safe?”
“Your stomachs will be well catered for,” Hazel said.
“We helped mama make a cake and some pastry,” Larry said.
“My mama makes cakes,” Becky said.
“And pastry,” Dan added. “We make pastry animals.”
“We look forward to seeing her,” Hazel said.
Dan looked at Blair. “Will you go and get her soon?”
“I plan to go on Monday on the stagecoach. If you look in that box you’ll find some games for all of you.” Blair pointed.
“I like games,” Becky turned to Susannah. “Can we open it and look?”
“Yes, darling. Of course you can.”
“Your names are on the parcels,” Blair said.
The children eagerly opened parcels and there was even one for Amos, Susannah noticed. Blair really was improving. The presents were shirts for the boys and a dress for Becky, also chocolate and a furry bear each which Blair said Monica made for him to give them. They all immediately wanted to change into their new clothes, which included a little shirt for Amos, and afterwards settled to play a game.
Larry and Tony were good with Amos, Susannah thought. He couldn’t understand the game but Larry got him to move round a little counter and Tony gave him the dice to throw. When Dan and Becky saw what they did they also let him throw the dice for them which kept him amused.
“They’re cute,” Susannah mouthed to Hazel.
Hazel smiled and took some papers from a box. “I have something I thought you might like to look at,” she said.
“Oh?”
“It’s about some mining which was done here about twenty years ago. This is not a mining area but there are silver mines about forty miles away. Evidently what they did here was abandoned after a while but there was definitely mining activity. Read what’s in the report.”
Susannah read eagerly. Mining and could that be what was behind all this? There had been silver, she found, but not enough to encourage the people doing the mining to carry on with it. The mines had closed and eventually even the access to them was covered up which meant nobody would know what happened.
“Surely people who have lived here for a while would know about this,” she said to Hazel.
“They probably do so you need to speak to them about it. I can find out who was here at the time.”
“That’s real progress,” Susannah said. “Thank you.”
“I also thought it would be a good idea to go in the library in Independence. It’s not a big one but they do have records. We wouldn’t be able to borrow books probably but we could take notes.”
“That would be good. Can I show this to Noah and Blair?”
“Yes, of course.”
Susannah stood up to walk forward so she could speak to the men. She tapped on Noah’s shoulder and he turned.
“Hazel got hold of this,” she said. “Maybe you and Blair would like to have a look.”
“Thank you.” He took it and held it out to Blair. “Would you like to look first?”
Blair looked back at Susannah. “Would you be offended if I tell you I’m not interested?”
“Not at all. You chat to Bruce while Noah reads or else look at the scenery or else sit and meditate or else work out some earth shattering problems.”
Blair laughed. “No more alternatives?”
&nbs
p; “You could sculpt but you haven’t got your materials yet.”
“I’ll do that on the way home. I could sculpt you if you like. Posterity might like it.”
“I don’t think posterity would be particularly interested in me. Well, maybe I’ll become famous because I’m the second woman to become a detective, but I won’t become famous unless I can solve loads of mysteries. We could, however, write a book when I’m about ninety, if I live that long, and make up fictitious crimes which I solved.”
“We?”
“We can keep in touch and I’ll give you half the royalties.”
Blair turned to grin and Noah beside him ground his teeth. That was altogether too familiar and did Susannah have feelings for the man? If she did he could do nothing about it but he hadn’t come all the way to California to sit by while the woman he knew he had come to love fell in love with someone else.
So after Blair had gone, and he hoped he would be away for years, he would do everything to make her interested in him and hope that the old saying which said absence makes the heart grow fonder was not true in this case.
Except that really Blair shouldn’t be long because of Dan and Becky. They wanted their mother and hopefully Blair would find her. However, if she was dead he would then want a wife to care for them and Susannah was the obvious choice.
He wasn’t going to think about it. If Blair did find the children but didn’t want Susannah and she didn’t want him Noah would happily adopt them. They were great little guys and he certainly wouldn’t want them to go back to the orphanage. But if none of that happened he would go back to New York and nurse his wounds. He started to read and became absorbed in what was in the notes.
He turned to look at Susannah. “Shall I come in the back?” he asked. “Then we can discuss it?”
“Yes, if you can squash in.”
“I don’t mind squashing.”
He swung round and stood a bit unsteadily in the wagon as it went over a bump which nearly sent him flying. They hit another one and this one he took advantage of as he pretended to sprawl next to Susannah. He put his arm round her and straightened his legs.
“Sorry. That took me off guard.”
“Noah,” Amos said, sitting on his lap.
He’d never had a baby on his lap before and he mustn’t let the child fall. Taking his arm from round Susannah’s shoulders he put it round Amos who had obviously lost interest in the game the other children were playing.
Hazel reached in her bag and held out some dough. “He likes making shapes,” she said.
Noah took the dough and broke some off for Amos. “Can you make a horse?” he asked.
“Horse,” Amos replied, squashing the dough into something totally unrecognisable.
“Yes. You do the body first and then add the head and the legs.”
Noah demonstrated as he rolled a bit into a long shape and Amos copied him. He did the legs slowly and was fascinated as Amos copied him again and as he stuck the legs on. The head was not the shape it should be but he was obviously proud of it as he held it in front of his mother.
“Horse,” he said.
“It’s very lifelike,” she replied. “Can you and Noah do another one each so we have enough to pull a really big cart?”
Which was what they did and Noah forgot about the notes as he made shapes and watched Amos copy them. Susannah beside him observed them with a lot of interest.
It filled the time it took before they made their first stop some five miles from Lower Pine. The horses needed to rest, Bruce said when he jumped off the front of the wagon and swung Larry, Tony and Amos down. Blair leapt off the cart and did the same to Dan and Becky while Bruce lifted Hazel.
Blair turned to lift Susannah but before he could get to her Noah had, his expression unknowingly triumphant as he set her on the ground. Hazel bent her head to smile and Susannah looked at him in exasperation.
“Women are quite capable of getting off wagons themselves,” she said.
“We’re being true gentlemen,” Bruce replied, grinning. “We’re willing to dislocate our backs.”
“Can we play ball?” Larry asked.
“I brought a bigger one we can kick around. Shall we make two teams?”
“What about Amos?”
“I’ll have him on mine. He likes kicking balls too.”
“Alright. We’ll let him kick it sometimes so he thinks he’s part of the game.”
“That would be good. Shall we let mama decide who goes in which team?”
“Alright.”
“Better still.” Hazel reached for paper and a pencil. “We’ll put all our names on a piece of paper and mix them up then we’ll throw some on one pile and some on another. How about that?”
Which was better, Susannah thought, and Hazel was very tactful. Because the children hadn’t been chosen they were quite happy to go in the teams to which they had been assigned and the game took about thirty minutes before they sat to have cake and drinks prior to starting off again for Independence.
Keeping children amused was a full-time occupation, Susannah thought, but it was also interesting and kept the adults active. They stopped twice more before they reached Independence and the first place they visited was the mercantile for Blair to purchase his sculpting materials and everyone else to look around and buy a few wares.
“Blair and I will take the children while you go in the library,” Bruce said to Hazel when they came out of the mercantile. “I telegraphed Benjamin’s parents to see what’s going on and there was an answer at the mercantile. Their church is holding a children’s party and there will be a puppet show. If you drop us off there you can take the wagon to the library and come back when you’re finished.”
Hazel’s expression was grateful as she reached forward to kiss him. “Thank you, darling. That’s a nice thing to do.”
He put his arms round her. “Be as long as you like. The party and show will last for about four hours.”
They dropped them off at the church and Hazel said she knew the way to the library because she had visited a few times. She also knew some people there who would be able to point them in the right direction.
And so began an interesting couple of hours as they pored over documents. Hazel had some work of her own to do, she said, and Susannah had plenty of time to look at the documents and take copious notes while Noah did the same beside her. They dropped Hazel off at the church before going on to meet Larson Miles at the appointed venue.
“We’ll have to make him think he has a good case,” Noah said just before they reached it.
“Yes, we will.”
“I’ll let you do the talking.”
“You can say what you like.”
“Blair said you told him that you would talk.”
“Blair is not a detective and never will be. He is good at many things, I’m sure, but it’s better for him that he’s acknowledging his lack of interest in detective work. When we first met I wasn’t very polite about that but I think I managed to persuade him that his talents are elsewhere and he’s accepted that. You, on the other hand, are astute and know what you’re doing.”
“I’m not a detective either,” Noah tried not to feel too flattered by what she said without much success.
“You could be.”
“We’ll get what we can out of Miles without letting him know we are.”
“And I’ll act the dumb female, which is what he thinks I am.”
“Oh? Why would he think that?”
Her expression was a bit rueful. “I actually hadn’t thought of it but Benjamin said he thinks Miles asked for a lady detective because he felt a lady wouldn’t be smart enough to think things through.”
“I’ll pulverise him,” Noah growled.
“With my blessing but not today.”
“We won’t mention what we know about the mining activity.”
“No, we won’t. We’ll just take things slowly and we’ll also tell him you’re not a detective. Is
that alright with you?”
“That’s fine.”
And the interview went better than Susannah was expecting as she told Miles that she felt he had a good case. The body who bought the site obviously did it illegally and she would make sure they were brought to justice and Miles was reimbursed for the trouble they had caused. However, she did need to know a few things so she could bring the matter to a satisfactory conclusion.
“What things,” Miles asked, frowning at her.
“Who did they actually buy the property from? I can’t quite fathom how someone managed to sell it if they didn’t own it.”
“They got it through a second party.”
“Do you know their names?”
“Haven’t they told you?” he asked.
“No, because they mustn’t know I’m a detective. Do you think they knew it wasn’t above board when they bought it?”
“They must have known because I have the papers to prove I own it.”
“Do you have those papers with you?”
“Yes.” He held out a rather scruffy piece of paper.
“Can I have it?” she asked after she looked at it.
He snatched it back. “No. I need it as proof.”
She wrote quickly in a book she had in front of her as she copied exactly what was written on his paper. He frowned.
“What are you writing?”
“What you’ve told me so I remember it.”
“Why do you need a detective as well as lawyers?” Noah asked.
“I don’t want it to go to court. If you can prove it belongs to me we can bypass that. Anyway, it says in the Bible that you shouldn’t take people to court if you believe in God so they shouldn’t do that.”
“If the person you feel is wronging you is also a believer. Are you?”
“Of course. I’m a good living man.”
“We’ll carry on with our investigation,” Susannah said.
“There’s nothing to investigate. It’s mine.”
“Yes, but it has to be proved before you can have your land back.”
“This paper proves it.”
“But they will have papers too. What Mr. Howes and I will do is try to see their papers and interview them. That might take a little while because they live in New York and Los Angeles. The other course you can take is to take them to court then they will have to come here and face you in person.”
The Detective Bride Page 13