For the Sake of the Children

by Danica Favorite

  “No!” Milly went back to him, clinging to him. “No leave.”

  “We can go together,” Silas said. “I want them to see how much taking her has upset Milly. They weren’t just hurting me, but the little girl they claimed to love so much.”

  They climbed out of the wagon just in time to see the deputies putting handcuffs on Flora and the Garretts.

  “What are you doing?” Rose asked.

  “They’re being charged with kidnapping,” one of the deputies said. “We’ll be taking them in tonight.”

  “It’s not that much farther to Granite,” another added. “There’s been an increase in lawlessness in this area, and everyone will be safer in town.”

  “You don’t mean we’re going to jail,” Flora shrieked. “I can’t go to jail. I’m a Montgomery.”

  Will shook his head. “I guess you should have thought of that before you helped the Garretts kidnap a little girl.”

  Flora opened her mouth to speak, but Will turned away, his attention taken by some of the deputies needing to consult with him.

  “We need to get moving,” one of the deputies said. “We’ll put the prisoners in the wagon, and...”

  Prisoners. It was hard to think of Flora and the Garretts as prisoners, particularly since the three of them looked so downcast at the label.

  One of the deputies drove the wagon, and two others sat with Flora and the Garretts. Silas and Rose climbed in with Milly, and the other deputies tied up their horses to follow behind.

  Though Silas couldn’t have imagined a better feeling than sitting in the wagon, Rose beside him, and Milly in his lap, every time he looked up at the Garretts, he felt downright awful. All he’d wanted was to get Milly back. Even though the deputies came with them, it hadn’t occurred to him that they’d be looking at jail.

  They’d done a terrible thing. They took his daughter. They tried poisoning his daughter against him and Rose.

  But he also knew that they’d lost their daughter. A grandchild. And now, in their eyes, the only family they had left.

  Did they really deserve jail?

  He stole a glance at Flora, whose eyes were red from sobbing. Did she, a girl only listening to her employers, believing she was doing the right thing, deserve to have her life ruined?

  But some sort of justice needed to happen.

  What, then, was the answer? Silas closed his eyes and sent a prayer heavenward that God would clearly show him how to handle the situation.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Rose couldn’t help but smile as she watched Milly fall asleep in her father’s arms. No, not totally in his arms. Milly had wanted them both, and she’d ended up sprawled across both of their laps.

  “She is something, isn’t she?”

  Rose smiled up at him. “You’ve done a great job with her.”

  “So have you.” The tender look in his eyes warmed her to the toes. Not a bad thing, since the night air had grown cold. As it was, they were wrapped in blankets and still chilly. It had been a good idea to head to Granite tonight as opposed to spending the night on the road.

  “Thank you,” Rose said.

  Silas adjusted his position, putting his arm around her. “Come closer. I can feel you shivering.”

  “That wouldn’t be proper.” Rose tried to straighten and move away, but he pulled her closer.

  “We have chaperones. Even handcuffed, I’m sure the Garretts won’t let me ravish you in the wagon. Plus, Milly’s in the way.”

  He winked, and for a moment, Rose thought she recognized the boy she once fell in love with.

  They’d aged, both of them, and though she liked the person she’d become, part of her missed the carefree way they used to be.

  “You know what I mean,” Rose said.

  He gave her a look of mock horror. “You were thinking of ravishing me?”

  “Silas.” She swatted at him playfully but didn’t resist when he pulled her closer.

  “It’s freezing. I know you don’t want me to be so free in my affections, but I’d prefer not to have you die just so I can say I was being a gentleman.”

  She smiled and snuggled into him. “I know we said we aren’t going back, but right now, you’re sounding a lot like the old Silas.”

  “I feel more like that old Silas,” he said. “I saw my worst nightmare coming true, and as I faced those fears, trusting in the Lord, I realized I didn’t have to hold on so tightly. I’ve felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders, needing to do everything right, because otherwise, I’d lose the only thing I had worth living for.”

  Then a smile settled across his face. “I feel safe.”

  Feeling his warmth around her, Rose would have had to admit that she felt safe, as well.

  Was it wise to allow herself to have feelings for him? To pursue a relationship that Mary said was obvious to everyone?

  Rose looked across the wagon to where the Garretts sat. Though they had coats on, they lacked the warm blankets piled on top of Silas and Rose. Clearly the Garretts had traveled without thought to the weather and the fact that once the sun went down, temperatures dropped significantly. They’d only had a couple of blankets with them, and Milly had been wrapped up in them.

  At least they’d given thought to keeping Milly warm.

  When Rose and the rest of the party had set off, they’d brought a number of blankets, anticipating having to sleep out in the cold. She’d taken the blankets off her and Silas’s horses, knowing they’d need them, but hadn’t given much thought to what the others in the wagon might need.

  “Let’s put Milly under the blankets with us. Flora and the Garretts have nothing other than their coats. We can give them Milly’s blankets.”

  Silas stared at her. “You’re giving them Milly’s blankets?”

  “It’ll be warm enough for her under ours. Weren’t you the one who suggested we keep each other warm?”

  She shifted, and they pulled Milly under the blanket with Silas. Then Rose picked up the blankets Milly had been using and carried them over to Flora and the Garretts.

  “Here,” she said, handing a blanket to the Garretts, then another to Flora. “You aren’t prepared for the weather, and you look cold.”

  Mrs. Garrett ignored her, but Mr. Garrett took the blanket. “Thank you. My wife doesn’t like to admit it, but she isn’t well. It’ll help to keep her warm.”

  Flora just glared at her. “I hope you don’t think this changes anything. You might win people over by doing nice things for them in Leadville, but I know what you are.”

  Rose wanted to grab the blanket back and let the other girl freeze to death.

  “No you don’t,” Rose said. “You don’t even know me. Even before my scandal, you’d never said more than a handful of words to me.”

  Then Rose remembered her criticisms of the other girl. She didn’t know Flora, either. Not really.

  “But I do owe you an apology. I’d warned the Garretts against hiring you because they want Milly to be accepted into the finest homes and you’re not welcome in many homes. It was wrong of me to divulge that information, both to them and to Silas. I don’t know you either, and I don’t know if you were qualified or not to care for Milly. I apologize for speaking against you.”

  Flora gave the nasty little smile she was famous for in town. “I don’t know why you’re apologizing. Obviously, your attempt at sabotaging me didn’t work.”

  So much for trying to do the right thing. “All the same, I apologize. I shouldn’t have said anything to begin with.”

  “Don’t try to be a better Christian than me,” she said, glaring. “You’re already so deep in your sin that only the women on State Street are worse off than you.”

  Mrs. Garrett chuckled. “So true. A couple of blankets don’t ab
solve you of your sin.”

  “My sin?” Rose looked at them, baffled. “Are you not on your way to jail for kidnapping a child?”

  “Saving a child,” Mrs. Garrett said smoothly. “Taking back what was ours to begin with.”

  The wagon hit a bump, and Rose started to fall backward, but Silas caught her.

  “Milly was never yours.” Silas glared at them. “I can’t believe that Rose is doing you a kindness and you still find fault with her.”

  Uncle Frank had told Rose early on that there would always be people who could never see past her sin. Silas had wanted her to let go of her shame, but couldn’t he see how hard it was to do so when people never let her forget?

  “And you refuse to see any of her faults,” Mrs. Garrett said, glaring at Rose. “What kind of woman goes after a man who is practically engaged?”

  Tears filled Rose’s eyes. “I didn’t know. I was too busy raising my siblings to have time for gossip, and Silas never told me.”

  “It’s true,” Silas said. “If you want to point the finger of dishonor at anyone, point it at me. I was the one who spoke promises of love to Rose. I was the one who hid the truth about Annie. I even shushed a girl in church when she started to say something to Rose.”

  Silas turned and looked at her. “I’m sorry. I just remembered that now. It was wrong of me, and it only serves to remind me of how deeply I wronged you.”

  Oddly enough, this new revelation didn’t hurt as much as Rose thought it would. In fact, it served more to give her more sympathy for Silas and the depth of his guilt over his mistakes. The trouble with being aware of your mistakes was that it often served to make you feel worse as you saw every moment where you made a decision that was wrong, culminating in the one thing that so defined you, you could never go back.

  “It’s in the past,” Rose said, looking at him for a moment, trying to see if he understood that she was trying as hard as she could to let it go.

  “The past has a way of sticking with a person,” Mrs. Garrett said. “So much so that I can’t imagine Millicent will have a future if you continue to allow Rose to care for her. And what if you marry her?”

  Mrs. Garrett looked at Silas with such disdain that Rose found it hard to maintain any sympathy for her.

  “It’s obvious that you’re taking up where you left off, and if she truly is leading a respectable life, I can’t imagine the pastor will let you carry on for too long without a wedding.”

  “We’re not carrying on!” Rose felt the heat rise in her cheeks.

  “Really? What were you doing on the other side of the wagon? You two seemed awfully cozy under those blankets.”

  The older woman’s taunt was precisely why Rose hadn’t wanted to let Silas get so close. And yet, the fact that she was turning something so completely innocent into something disgusting made Rose’s skin crawl.

  Flora’s satisfied grin told Rose that as soon as the other girl got back to town, she’d be sure to spread tales of Rose’s downfall—again.

  “That way of looking at things is exactly why you’re not fit to be around my daughter,” Silas said, his voice full of rage. “I jokingly told Rose that her reputation wasn’t worth freezing to death, but that’s the only thing that would satisfy you, isn’t it?”

  “She is a loose woman!”

  Mrs. Garrett’s words echoed in Rose’s head. That was all she’d ever be. Her ears burned and her vision blurred, making it impossible to hear Silas’s response. Rose should have been gratified to know Silas was defending her, but anymore, she didn’t know how much those defenses made a difference. No matter what she did, or how hard she tried to prove that she was a woman of honor, no one would let her live beyond those mistakes.

  * * *

  Silas had never imagined that Mrs. Garrett would actually think it preferable for a woman to die than to live with questionable morals. Unfortunately, in their world, the wrong woman’s morals were being questioned.

  “Rose is a good woman,” Silas said firmly. “And she is wonderful with Milly. I don’t regret a moment my daughter spends with her.”

  Mrs. Garrett grunted. “At the expense of my time with her.”

  “Is that why you took Milly?” Silas asked. “I gave you time with her, and if you’d wanted to see her more, all you had to do was ask.”

  “I shouldn’t have to ask to see my own grandchild.” Mrs. Garrett straightened, her haughty expression completely out of place with the handcuffs on her wrists and the deputies flanking her side.

  “You wouldn’t have to if you hadn’t tried to keep me from her in the first place.”

  For a moment Silas felt like a hypocrite, mentioning the fact that he’d been the one to take Milly first. But he was her father, and they’d made all sorts of excuses to keep him from going up to the nursery to spend time with his daughter. Silas had at least attempted to include the Garretts in Milly’s life.

  “And now I don’t know what to do,” Silas said, his voice shaking. “You did everything you could to keep me from her, and I wanted to do the same, but I found it wasn’t fair to Milly to keep her from the people who loved her. So I tried to compromise. But you were never willing to share, were you?”

  The older woman appeared completely unaffected by Silas’s words.

  “You’re not a fit parent,” Mrs. Garrett calmly said. “We tried talking sense into that Leadville judge, but he wouldn’t even listen to our case. Back in Ohio, we had a judge ready to sign papers.”

  Silas closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He’d been right in taking Milly from Ohio, right in going after them. They weren’t going to stop unless they got to keep Milly.

  “By what standard are you calling me an unfit parent? Milly is happy, healthy and progressing beautifully.”

  Mrs. Garrett cocked a head to one side. “She is ill-mannered, undisciplined, and your choice in nannies leaves much to be desired.”

  Silas’s gut burned. Why did she always have to turn it back onto attacking Rose?

  However, when he looked over at Rose to give her an encouraging smile, her face remained impassive.

  “I am fortunate to have Rose as a nanny.”

  Even those words didn’t change the expression on her face.

  “Yes, it is your lack of fortune that is at issue, isn’t it? You can’t afford everything a growing young lady needs. Which is why you’re living on the charity of the local minister and can only provide a woman of questionable morals for a nanny. Surely you can see that’s not the best environment for a child. We can give Millicent everything. A good father would not deny her that.”

  His pride. They wanted to shred every remaining bit of his pride. But for Milly, he would accept it. If only it would have been enough for the Garretts.

  “So why haven’t you helped me instead of being my adversary? None of this would have happened if you hadn’t taken away my livelihood and forced me out of my home. If you had Milly’s best interests at heart, you wouldn’t have tried separating us.”

  He had no regrets in taking Milly to Leadville. In the battle for his daughter, they’d fired the first shot. From a cannon. And they’d kept firing until he’d had the strength to finally find a way to build a new life with his daughter. Even when they came after her, he tried to find ways to get along with the Garretts, but here they were.

  “I believe I did offer my French nanny. But no, you had to have that strumpet care for our precious girl.”

  “That’s enough!” Silas was done with the niceties and trying to reason with the Garretts.

  “You will not refer to Rose by any more of those names. I’ve tried being reasonable, even now. I tried to understand your point of view, but you’re not willing to see mine. So here it is. If you want to see Milly, you will treat Rose with respect.”

  “How dare you?” Mrs. G
arrett pulled against her restraints, and one of the deputies pushed her back.

  “No.” Silas turned to look at Rose. Her disinterested expression remained, though he could see the lines on her forehead deepening.

  He returned his attention to the Garretts. “How dare you? You continually insult a kind and decent woman, yet you act like you’re the one being insulted. No more.”

  Pausing to take a deep breath, he felt it easier to breathe than it had been in a long time. Before he could speak again, Rose stepped forward.

  “Silas, let it go,” Rose said, putting her hand on his arm. “I love Milly. I told you, she’s like my own. But you’re never going to convince people like Mrs. Garrett that I am anything but that reputation. I promised Milly I’d always be there for her, and I will. But once we get back to town, I’ll help you find a new nanny.”

  His chest ached as she said the words. Wasn’t she listening when he’d just defended her?

  She looked up at him, pain etched all over her face. “You asked to court me earlier today. Even if my heart were so inclined, I could never marry you. I refuse to subject you to the talk, and the doors that will close having me as your wife. You deserve better.”

  Removing her hand from Silas’s arm, she looked down at Mrs. Garrett. “You win. Since I seem to be your biggest objection to Silas raising Milly, you can have no further issue with finding a way to work together in caring for her. I know you want Milly all to yourself, but Silas loves her, too. Let him be a father to her.”

  Taking a deep breath, she turned her attention to Flora. “If there is talk even hinting at impropriety between Silas and me, I promise you, you will have to go a lot farther than Denver or even Ohio to escape the repercussions of your actions.”

  Silas had no idea what those repercussions would be, but the look on Rose’s face should be enough to scare anyone. Yet somehow she’d been scared into giving up Milly.

  He grabbed for her hand, but Rose held it out of reach. “There’s nothing you can say that will change my mind. I have to stop thinking about what I want, and instead, look to Milly and what is best for her.”