“I did,” Eric said, spotting the guilty party just beyond the door. He shot her a quelling glare.
“We,” Tilford droned on, “feel you ought not shoulder the burden of the children as well. We will immediately place them with families in town. There are too many of them for one unmarried man.”
“No.”
All the males turned toward Letty. Eric smiled. This should prove fascinating. She intended to tackle the whole town.
“Dr. Morgan!” Pastor Stone said, obviously dismayed by her presence at the men’s meeting.
When her chin tipped skyward, Eric fought to stifle a laugh.
“Pastor Stone, gentlemen,” she said, “it’s not at all in the children’s best interest to separate them and farm them out like . . . a litter of kittens. I took them home yesterday, but because of my limited space, I brought them here. This large, lovely home has many empty rooms, and Mr. Wagner owns all the land children need to exercise and breathe wholesome air. I will, of course, help while he recuperates.”
Dr. Medford reddened. “You’re still treating Mr. Wagner?”
“As a matter of fact,” Eric said before Letty could answer unwisely, “Melvin Harrison removed my stitches last night.”
His answer seemed to mollify the surgeon, but it did nothing to mellow the man’s glower at Letty.
The pastor weighed in. “Can you handle all this and treat your patients, too?”
“Absolutely,” she stated.
Eric then heard Medford murmur, “. . . she’s an unfit influence on the brats. They run wild as it is, and if the town must take them over, then we should find a responsible person to watch over them, not a hussy who mingles with tarts.”
He flinched. “If you have something to say, Dr. Medford, say it so everyone might benefit from your opinion. Otherwise, please keep your thoughts to yourself.”
Medford shot a venomous glare at Letty. “She’s nice enough to look at,” he said as he stalked to the door, “and now that she’s taken up with strumpets, there’s all kinds of help she’ll give you.”
Eric lunged, but Douglas Carlson pinned him back down. Only when the surgeon had left did Douglas lessen his hold.
Letty’s face was paper white. Her eyes, dark with hurt, looked nearly black, and she’d raised her hands as though to fend off another blow.
“Letty . . .”
She shook her head and then spun on her heel. She ran for her shawl in the entryway and wrapped it around herself.
“Dr. Morgan,” called the reverend.
“No,” she cried and left.
“That was foul,” Eric said. “If the rest of you came for a lynching, you’d best leave. I’ll stomach no more abuse of a woman who’s only helped folks since the day she came to town.”
Hubert Tilford cleared his throat again. “You cannot deny she’s consorting with fallen women, Eric.”
“Helping two girls leave a sordid trade doesn’t constitute ‘consorting with prostitutes.’” Eric blinked. Did he really mean what he’d just said?
Good heavens, he did! Scraps of arguments dizzied him. Although her actions had angered him, her motives had been pure. Had she really changed his mind?
His mother’s voice rose from the past. “You mustn’t judge, Eric. Only God sees the motives in our hearts. He is our only true judge.”
He tried to ignore the words but couldn’t. They rang too clearly with truth.
“Tell me, gentlemen,” he continued, “what do you think will happen to the Patterson girls if they’re farmed out and no one truly loves them? I can suggest one option at least two girls in our town found to be their only choice. Bessie will be happy to offer the Pattersons to those of you sick enough to lust for little girls.”
Eric studied Regis Tolliver, since the man was known for his vices. He smiled when Regis squirmed.
He went on. “I would suggest that before any of you speaks against Dr. Morgan, you examine your heart. As Pastor Stone preaches, make sure you’re without sin before you cast that first stone.”
What had Letty done to him? She had him quoting sermons, quoting Scripture! He was even fighting for her right to help Mim and Daisy. She was as dangerous to his peace of mind—No! She was far more devastating than he’d ever suspected.
“The children stay here,” he said to settle the matter. “The better choice will be the family who’ll adopt all five. Only then will they leave my home. And I welcome Dr. Morgan’s help.
“In case you care, one of the children is ill. Dr. Morgan has treated him free of charge since she arrived in town. She’s also fed all five from the food she’s received for her services. She doesn’t deserve Medford’s rancor. Or yours. Good day, gentlemen.”
As the men left, Douglas smiled at Eric, sympathy in his gaze.
Pastor Stone waited until the door closed. “Don’t for one moment think I harbor such thoughts about Letitia,” he said. “I know her too well. I am, however, concerned. About you, Letitia, and the children. I came hoping matters wouldn’t get out of hand, but my presence today mattered little.”
“Nothing matters to Medford save what things will cost him,” Eric spat out, “or how they might further gild his reputation. Please help me up, Pastor.”
“Son, I don’t think you should strain your leg.”
“Perhaps, sir, but I must find Letty.”
14
Eric finally realized how obstinate he’d been and how right Letty had been. He regretted that it took Slosh Patterson dying and orphaning the three girls for him to recognize what Letty had feared from the start. He’d heard her arguments all along, but he hadn’t wanted to accept the truth. He’d wanted to see himself and the pillars of Hartville society in a kind light, one that shed no blame on them.
He hadn’t wanted to revisit his father’s guilt, either. He’d kept hidden the dirty secret behind his parents’ deaths. It had been easier to focus on the lessons of truth and light his father had taught him at an earlier time than to acknowledge the man’s hypocrisy.
“Evil can’t flourish in the light of truth,” the elder Wagner had often said. The truth, however, was the dark double life he’d led, the life Eric accidentally uncovered.
In any case, the virtues his father taught had served Eric well. He’d led an unimpeachable life. He’d fought against the brothels but had, as Letty said, blamed only the women and let the men’s offenses slide. He’d thought himself virtuous; he’d been self-righteous.
Where had the upright folks of Hartville been when Mim and Daisy needed help and guidance? Mining silver, building mansions, buying rare walking sticks, running the town’s politics, minding their own business. Bessie, with her eye on profits, had seen the opportunity, and the girls had suffered.
He now knew how, if left with no alternative, sweet, responsible Caroline might become desperate enough to be lured by Bessie to support her siblings by selling herself. She had no education or training, and Eric would rather die than let that become her fate.
The strength of his conviction amazed him. He’d told himself he was helping the Pattersons because as a prominent person he bore a responsibility to the less fortunate, yet that had been a lie. True, charity and the urge to atone for his failures had started it, but since then his feelings had changed. He cared what happened to those five scamps, and he would not let more tragedy touch them.
He slowly left the porch, leaning on the cane Dr. Harrison had brought him last night, and headed for the barn to look for Andy. Letty’s buggy, still in the yard, caught him by surprise.
She hadn’t left.
Disgusted with his weak leg and resenting the need for the walking stick, he picked up his pace. He had to find her, and when he did, he would swallow his pride and accept her help.
He stood well inside the dark cavern when he heard a sound in the far right corner. What he saw stole his breath.
A beam of light entered through the loft window. Where it belled into a puddle of spring gold, Suzannah sat surrounded by o
range and brown balls of fluff, giggling as she played. Sprigs of hay stuck out from her blond braids, and the sunlight turned her faded calico dress a rich shade of rose. Beside the child, tears washing her cheeks, sat Letty, a hand on Suzannah’s shoulder. She leaned forward to whisper in the youngster’s ear. The little girl turned and smiled in response.
A woman, a child, a ranch, everything Eric had wanted, everything death had taken away. Yet here, in another time, with another woman and another child, Eric saw what might still be. If he dared.
Emotion suddenly choked him. When had he begun to feel so much? And how dare he when he couldn’t trust himself to protect them?
He’d failed his wife and child. He’d failed to prevent Slosh’s death and the loss of the children’s home. He’d even failed to protect Letty from the town’s scorn. How could he hope, even for the thinnest slice of time, to share their lives?
It hurt to face his weakness, to forgo a future that promised more joy than even his brightest dreams. His feelings for Letty were different from those he had felt for Martina. Whereas he’d loved his wife with sweetness and gentle emotions, Letty evoked in him something rare and rich and tumultuous. Their tenderness was spiced with desire, their friendship heated with passion born of their differences, and he did love her despite those differences.
Then, too, the Pattersons needed what he ached to offer, but he was flawed, and his was a mortal flaw. After all they’d suffered, those children deserved better than another failed father.
He took in the fresh fragrance of hay underscored by the musk of healthy animals, and he remembered the afternoon he and Letty kissed in the shadowed shelter of the barn. Her words returned to haunt him. “You bear no blame in Martina’s death. She made the choice. . . . I’d rather have love such as you gave her than all the medical training in the world. . . .”
His memory became his enemy. It taunted him with what he wanted most. Letty was too innocent to see the danger she’d risk if she depended on a man like him.
Eric yearned to join them, yet he backed away, denying himself the chance to make his dreams come true. There was no atonement for him. Were he a different man, were there not a cloud over him, then perhaps he could have gone to their side. Instead, wisdom forced him to leave.
He left his heart with them.
As Letty’s last patient left, Randy called a greeting from the kitchen.
“I’ll be there in a moment,” she answered. “I’m tidying the examining room.”
The impulsive Randy joined her instead. Noting the redhead’s expanding girth, Letty reached out and patted her middle. “Growing well, wouldn’t you say, Mama?”
“I couldn’t be happier.” Then her smile crumpled. “Oh, I do so wish you and Eric—”
“Hush.”
Letty turned to avoid her friend’s gaze. After yesterday’s confrontation with Hartville’s men, she’d finally accepted Eric’s rejection. She shuddered and again asked God to heal her heart. Then, digging deep for strength, she blinked hard, refusing to spend another minute nursing her wounds. She’d started the morning with Scripture and refreshed faith in Christ. He promised and she believed that He would see her through. Besides, she had a visitor.
“How may I help you?” she asked Randy.
“I didn’t come for help. Douglas told me what happened at Eric’s ranch. How could they just ignore civility and treat you like that?”
She shrugged. “As you said, Douglas was there, too. Won’t he be scandalized to learn you’re here with me?”
“On the contrary. He urged me to come see how you were.”
Letty arched an eyebrow.
“Really. He went with the others because he’s a lawyer. The mayor has asked him to help with the children’s adoption.”
“He didn’t say a word the whole time.”
“What did you want him to do? Turn the scene into a brawl? From what he said, he kept Eric from pounding Dr. Medford into a pulp.”
“What about the hypocrites who fight me and talk about closing the houses but haven’t done so yet? Did you know they make use of the attractions at the brothels?”
Randy sniffed. “I’ll have you know Douglas would never frequent those places, and if he even entertained the notion, I’d incapacitate him. Permanently.”
“Oh, dear heart,” Letty said on a sigh. “I wasn’t condemning your husband. Not all men indulge in those vices, but I can’t excuse the ones who keep Bessie in business. The bordellos’ clients don’t want their playgrounds closed or the girls otherwise employed.”
Randy shrugged.
“What happened, happened. I’ll keep caring for my patients and helping any child who needs me. Especially the Pattersons, Daisy, and Mim. My morals can withstand what scrutiny the town gives them. I won’t stop doing what God’s put in my heart to do.”
“I don’t expect you to, and knowing what I know now, I want to do more,” Randy said, surprising Letty. “We need to see if there are more girls like Mim and Daisy in those houses. Then we’ll need a scheme to get them away.”
The back door opened. “I wouldn’t call it a scheme,” Adele Stone said, entering. “Strategy is the better term.”
Letty took Mrs. Stone’s wrap. “You’re ready to help me even after yesterday’s confrontation?”
“I’m not simply going to help, I’m determined we will succeed. As Randy just said, we must find any additional children who might be in the brothels, and we must free Daisy from Bessie’s control.”
Letty’s eyes teared. “Although I have everything I need in Christ, I still felt alone through the night. I felt I’d let down those who brought me here.”
Mrs. Stone laid an arm around Letty’s shoulders. “My sweet, as the pastor always says, when one goes about God’s work, Satan sets up great barriers, but if one abides by the Father, He will draw together like-minded brethren. Silver Creek Church stands with you.”
Letty released a relieved sigh that was part laugh, part sob, part hiccup. “Even if you lose your parishioners?”
“Are they truly in the Father’s flock with their hardened, judgmental hearts? We must not fret but commend them to the Holy Spirit. We must speak with my husband, plan our strategy, and work diligently for our Savior.”
Letty and her visitors stepped outside. Randy and Adele were truly staunch friends who made up for those fair-weather companions who had abandoned her when she challenged the masculine bastion of medicine back in Philadelphia. Perhaps, despite her heartbreak and the scandal sparked by her convictions, God had really brought her home.
Here she’d found the friends she’d longed for.
In Hartville, God had gifted her with love.
“Randy Carlson, I can’t condone the murder of pregnant ladies. When Douglas learns what you’re doing, murder will be his first response.”
“Oh, hush,” Randy shot back.
“Look,” Letty said, “we didn’t come to argue. But I do wonder if I’m not too gullible. I don’t know how you persuaded me to come haunt East Crawford Street’s back alleys.”
“Of course you know. We can’t send Douglas, Eric, or Pastor Stone to ask an establishment if it offers children unlawfully and then have the men gather up the youngsters and bring them home.”
Letty tightened her shawl. “You’re right, but I don’t like this part of our strategy, especially since neither Pastor nor Mrs. Stone knows what we’re doing.”
The shrub in the alley behind the targeted emporium offered dubious camouflage. Letty hoped no one happened by while they were there. Then she heard an argument coming from one of the upstairs windows in Bessie’s Barn. A familiar voice demanded, “Bessie, how could you?”
“Daisy,” Letty whispered in dismay.
The madam answered, “Business, kid, and I do the business here.”
“It’s a rotten business, Bess,” the girl countered. “Those little kids have nowhere to go, and you didn’t even need the money.”
The crack of a slap elicited Dai
sy’s cry. Letty took steps toward the brothel. Randy held her back.
Bessie went on. “Don’t tell me what I need or don’t. You jus’ keep doin’ what you gets paid to.”
Letty cringed at Bessie’s crudeness. She tugged against Randy’s restraint, ready to drag Daisy away no matter what the girl had to say about the matter.
But Daisy fought back, her voice defiant. “Still, Bess, it’s wrong. You and that . . . that man . . . of yours, you have so much money, I don’t see what you want with more. The kiddies have nothing, not even a father anymore.”
Letty tipped up her chin. She was not leaving without Daisy. A glance showed her Randy’s equal determination. She nodded; Randy nodded back. They marched up to the back door, but the sound of a scuffle upstairs stopped them cold.
“Who’re you tellin’ what’s right and what ain’t? I’ll teach ya to talk back at me. Who fed ya when you was so hungry you was eatin’ garbage? Who gave ya work to keep on eatin’? Just who gives you a place to live? Remember that, Daisy, and get back to work. Itchy miners don’t hold to no hours. Go on, I said. Get back to work.”
Wood crashed against wood. Daisy cried out again.
“I won’t,” she sobbed. “Not anymore, Bessie. I can’t do it again. I’d rather eat garbage than face another client. I’m leaving. You and your man can beat me till I die, because I’d rather be dead than be like you.”
Bessie roared her rage. Letty turned to Randy. “I’ll go out front. You stay here. We can’t let Daisy run away.”
Randy stepped closer to the door, and Letty ran around the building. Realizing how she must look, she slowed her pace and prayed she wasn’t too late. As she reached the street in front of the bordello, she saw Ford walking toward her. Not wanting to be detected, she ducked behind a bush at the corner of the building. A moment later, a disheveled Daisy burst from the brothel’s swinging doors and plowed into Ford.
The silver-framed spectacles flew off the reporter’s face. His decrepit hat toppled to the ground, gaining a grubby new look. A pen slipped from somewhere and landed at their feet. Daisy lifted her tear-stained face. She blushed as the dumbstruck Ford stared at her. “Excuse me, miss, but are you all right?”
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