Wild Roses Read online

  “I think stopping a train is a crime,” Harrigan drawled, obeying Joshua’s silent signal to move toward the others gathered at the front of the train.

  “Possibly, but I don’t think anyone will bother with us. We ain’t robbing it, just taking a friend off it.”

  “You needed rifles for that?”

  “Thought you might complain.“ As they stopped, Joshua scowled at Louise, who was still standing in the middle of the tracks. “You can move now, Louise. We’ll have Ella free in a minute. Thomas and Edward have probably found her already.”

  “I am glad to hear it.” Louise grimaced and glanced first at Joshua then at Manuel, who held a gun on the engineer and his men. “I think I might need a little help.”

  Joshua cursed softly. “Don’t tell me there’s been a small problem with your brilliant plan?”

  “Sarcasm will not help get me free.”

  “Aren’t you going to do anything to stop this?” Harrigan asked the engineer, who looked far too at ease for his liking. “These people have held up the train.”

  “They’ve just stopped it for a little while,” the burly man replied, rubbing his bristly chin and eyeing Harrigan with dislike. “It seems someone kidnapped a friend of theirs.”

  “It was not kidnapping. I was hired by the family to bring the girl back to Philadelphia.”

  “That ain’t none of my business.” The engineer clapped his skinny brakeman on the arm and moved toward Louise. “C’mon, Billy boy, let’s get the little lady free, so we can move along.”

  Harrigan shook his head and cursed. He had become the villain in this little play. When he heard Joshua laugh softly, he glared at the youth.

  “Louise has a cozening way about her when she chooses to use it,” Joshua said, then shook his head as he watched a now freed Louise hobble toward him. “She also has a brain when she chooses to use it. This wasn’t one of those times.”

  “It worked,” Louise said as she carefully stayed out of Harrigan’s reach while she limped around him.

  “Auntie,” cried Ella as she stepped off the train and ran up to Louise, Edward and Thomas strolling after her. “What happened to your foot?”

  “We can talk about that later,” Louise replied as she returned Ella’s hug. “Thomas, get the horses.” She looked at Harrigan. “When you see that sore excuse for a man, Harold, you can tell him that Louise wishes him her worst, that I know exactly what game he plays, and that he will never win, not as long as I still breathe.”

  “When I see Harold Carson again I will tell him that the cost of my services has soared,” drawled Harrigan. “He told me how much trouble his niece was.” Harrigan just cocked one eyebrow when Ella glared at him. “But he neglected to tell me anything about her equally troublesome aunt. Bringing Miss Ella Carson back to Philadelphia is worth far more than he has offered.”

  “Yes, you should be charging dearly to take part in a murder,” snapped Ella.

  “We don’t have time for this argument,” said Joshua as he nudged the two women toward the horses Thomas led over to them.

  For one brief moment Harrigan considered the possibility of disarming Joshua and turning the tables on Ella and her friends. A close look at Joshua put a swift death to that plan. The youth was still watching him closely. Despite his appearance of a relaxed guard, Harrigan knew he would not get two steps before Joshua offered him a choice of being shot or backing down. He found himself wondering how the diminutive Louise had won the loyalty of such a hard young man.

  An involuntary smile touched Harrigan’s face when Ella and Louise mounted their horses. Neither woman paid any heed to how their skirts were hitched up as they sat astride their horses, their slim stockinged legs displayed past the knee. When he looked up he met Ella’s glare with a smile. He knew his look held some of the lechery he felt and, at the moment, he found that more amusing than alarming.

  The moment Ella and her valiant rescuers rode away, Harrigan looked at the engineer. That man was staring at him as if he was something nasty the man could not scrape off his boots. It took Harrigan a moment to quell his anger and outrage enough so that they would not creep out into his voice.

  “How far ahead is the next town?” he asked the man.

  “About an hour,” replied the engineer, wiping his hands on his oil-stained pants and turning back toward the train.

  “Is the train going to stop there?” Harrigan followed the man, biting back his resentment over the way the engineer had turned his back on him and was walking away.

  “Yup.”

  “For how long?”

  “Don’t see that you need to know that.”

  Harrigan clenched his fists at his side as the engineer stopped in the doorway of the locomotive and stared down at him. “I need to know if I will have enough time to get Miss Carson back and still catch the train or if I will have to meet up with you at another stop.” The engineer stepped back a little into the cab of the locomotive and Harrigan decided he was doing a very poor job of hiding his urge to strike the man.

  “It don’t matter how long we set at the next stop or where we go after that. Not to you. When we stop at that town up ahead you’re getting off my train and staying off it.”

  “You can’t do that. I’ve paid for three passages.”

  “I can do most anything I damn well feel like on my train. The passengers have been complaining about how you treated that little lady and now we’ve been held at gunpoint. You’re trouble, mister, and I don’t need trouble.”

  “I’m not the one who held you at gunpoint.”

  “Nope, but you made those folks do that so they could save their friend.”

  “The authorities won’t see it that way.” Harrigan had no intention of speaking to any lawman about Louise stopping the train, but the engineer did not have to know that.

  “You can talk to the law all you want, mister. If they come and ask me about this, all I’m saying is that a little girl decided she didn’t want to go back East, so I let her off the train. Now I suggest you get back on this train unless you’re inclined to walk to the next town.”

  Harrigan swore and strode back to the passenger car. He and George had barely stepped up into the car when the train jerked to a start. When he reached his seat and saw the empty shackles dangling from of the arm of the seat, he cursed again. As he sprawled in his seat, he caught the look on George’s face and sighed, massaging his temples in a vain attempt to rub away a growing headache. His partner would continue to work with him, but it was clear that George now hated the job they had been hired to do. Harrigan silently admitted that he was beginning to detest it himself.

  “I should have listened more closely to Ella when she said I did not know her auntie,” Harrigan drawled as he began to get his anger under control.

  “That was her aunt?” George asked, a brief look of astonishment flickering over his usually expressionless face.

  “Yes, that was Louise Carson, the bane of the Philadelphia Carsons, and, if one can believe anything Sheriff Smith says, the bane of Wyoming as well. Didn’t you hear Ella call the woman auntie?” Harrigan frowned when a blush fleetingly put a hint of color in George’s pale cheeks.

  “I fear I paid little heed to what occurred once I set eyes on Miss Louise Carson,” George confessed quietly.

  “She does have a skill at drawing one’s attention.”

  “Yes, although I realize you do not speak kindly. I had not realized Miss Ella’s aunt was so young or so lovely.” He suddenly smiled, an expression as short-lived as all the others he employed. “I do not believe she had intended to be truly stuck, only to appear as if she was.”

  “The fool is damned lucky Joshua could get the train to stop.” Harrigan shook his head as he stuffed the now useless shackles into his carpetbag. “Joshua speaks plain to her, but he clearly has no power over her. I am sure that he did not like this plan at all. He certainly didn’t sound as if he did.”

  “What do you think Joshua is to her?”r />
  “Like a nephew or a son if I judge it right.” Harrigan met George’s look squarely. “I am not sure it’s a good idea to cast your eye that way, old friend.”

  “You mean to go after the girl.”

  “I do. We were hired to bring her back to Philadelphia. The right or wrong of it is not our concern. And I don’t intend to be beaten by two tiny ladies and a ragtag group of boys.”

  Ella gratefully accepted the canteen Joshua held out to her. She rinsed her mouth out, took a small drink, and then dampened her handkerchief so that she could wipe off her face and neck. They had ridden hard for about an hour and her body was reminding her that it had been a long time since she had indulged in such strenuous activity. Cooking, cleaning, and tending gardens could be hard work but it did not prepare one well for a long, hard gallop. Once they were back at Louise’s ranch, Ella promised herself, she would make the time to do some riding and, perhaps, toughen up some of the tender parts that were already complaining. She did not even want to think about how much further they had to ride.

  What troubled her more than her own discomfort and the promise of more to come was her own confused feelings. She knew she ought to be elated. She had escaped. Yet again she had eluded Harold’s deadly grasp. Everyone had survived the rescue. There was more than enough reason for her to celebrate, yet she felt no joy at all.

  The longer she considered the matter, the more certain she was that Harrigan Mahoney was the reason she did not feel joyous about her freedom. Ella was slightly horrified when she realized that she regretted leaving him. The man had snatched her from her home, shackled her, and was determined to take her to Harold. He was in the pay of her enemies. She should be delighted to see the back of him, but she was not. Ella decided that her poor confused mind wanted it all—freedom and Harrigan Mahoney. She was going to have to push such mad thoughts aside. Harrigan Mahoney wanted to take her back to Philadelphia and Harold. Reluctantly, she admitted that she was intrigued by the man and strongly attracted to him, but he was a real threat to her. Her interest in him only added to that danger. She was determined to kill that reckless attraction.

  “I would have thought you’d look a bit happier,” murmured Louise as she rode up next to Ella.

  “I am happy, and deeply grateful to all of you.” She included Joshua and the others in her glance. “I cannot believe you put yourself in front of a train.” Ella shook her head, glanced down at her aunt’s foot, and gasped when she saw how swollen Louise’s bootless foot was. “My God, you were really trapped on those rails!”

  Louise looked at her foot, tried to wriggle her swollen toes, and winced. “That was not part of my plan. I was standing there thinking that my foot didn’t look trapped enough, wriggled it about and, lo and behold, got myself well and truly stuck. Never mind that. It will heal. Now, I know you’re glad to be free, but you didn’t look too happy. I want to know why. Did that bastard hurt you? Besides shackling you in that barbaric way, I mean.”

  “Ah, so you were told about the shackles. It was just a small manacle around my wrist. You can’t really blame the man for fearing that I would run away. We all made it abundantly clear that the last place I wanted to go was Philadelphia.”

  “Alright, I will grant him that. He’s no better than some bounty hunter, however, so that is all I will grant him.” Louise studied Ella closely for a moment. “I know you, girl, better than you might like. That is because we are so much alike. Something is gnawing at you. If you would just spit it out, we could chew it over together, and then the problem might not seem so big.”

  Ella smiled faintly, saw that the men were too far ahead to overhear them, and said, “I’m not sure it’s a problem. More of a puzzle, really. I am delighted to be free yet I find that I regret seeing the last of Harrigan Mahoney.” She gaped slightly when her aunt began to laugh. “I don’t see the humor in this conundrum.”

  “You will some day.” Louise struggled to subdue her amusement. “Child, even as I was aiming my Henry at that tall fool, I could see that he was a fine figure of a man. A woman doesn’t see many like that in her lifetime. You wouldn’t be a woman if you didn’t appreciate a man as beautiful as that.”

  “Auntie, he was taking me to Harold, to my death. He thinks I am a spoiled, rich child given to lies and fancies. He shackled me to my seat. He carried me to the train like a sack of meal.”

  “And I bet that, for one brief moment, you thought it was a fine broad shoulder.” She laughed again when Ella blushed faintly. “It might seem mad to give him any thought at all, but, I swear to you, any other woman with eyes in her head would find herself in the same quandary. You’re still running away from him, aren’t you?”

  “Of course I am. He was taking me to that pig, Harold, who desperately wants me dead before his guardianship of me ends.”

  “Exactly. True madness would be if you walked back to him. Thinking about a handsome man yet still protecting yourself and your heart is just natural. What you’re regretting right now is that you didn’t meet him under different circumstances. Don’t worry, Ella, there will be another one.”

  A voice in Ella’s head adamantly declared that she did not want another one, she wanted Harrigan, but she fought hard to silence it. She would put that man right out of her mind. She was not one to bemoan what she could not have and Harrigan Mahoney would not be allowed to change that. He was out of her life now and would not return. A chill ran down her spine and she decided that was a statement she would need to repeat a few times. Ella fixed her gaze upon the land stretching out ahead of them and sternly resisted the urge to look behind her.

  Chapter Four

  Harrigan sighed, tipped his hat back, and wiped the sweat from his brow with his handkerchief. Luck had been with them so far. The train had reached the next stop in under an hour, he had gotten some of his ticket money back, the horses and supplies had been easy to acquire, and Ella’s trail was clear to follow. He prayed that good luck would continue. A quick look at George told him that his partner was not as pleased with their good fortune as he was and Harrigan sighed again.

  “George, I wish you would shake free of that gloom that’s settled over you,“ Harrigan said. ”We both agreed to do this job for Harold Carson. We both need the money.”

  “I know,” George replied, then shook his head. “I know I reveal no secrets when I confess that I have grown to like this job less and less. And, now that I have seen Miss Louise, I begin to feel like the basest of traitors.”

  “You only saw the woman once, when she stupidly got her foot stuck on the railroad tracks.”

  “One look is all it takes sometimes.”

  A part of Harrigan agreed and he brutally silenced it. “George, Louise Carson is unquestionably a lovely woman. She is also the woman who tried to shoot a hole in my leg, who has been galloping over the countryside with four young men of dubious background, and who stuck herself in front of a moving train.”

  “All of which reveals spirit and a deep sense of responsibility for her niece’s safety.”

  Harrigan briefly lifted his hat and dragged his fingers through his hair. “You have picked a damned poor time to suffer a first love.”

  “And what makes you think it is my first?”

  The bite in George’s soft, melodious voice caused Harrigan to stare at his friend in surprise. “I meant no insult. Hell, George, I’ve known you for what, seven years or more, and you’ve never had much to do with the ladies. I just assumed you were, well, too quiet or shy. Considering you’re only two and thirty, I just figured the way you’ve behaved for the last seven years is the way you’ve always acted.”

  Harrigan watched the tight anger slowly leave George’s face and inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. He had never considered the possibility that George would have a sore spot somewhere, and he was not really pleased to have found it. At the moment, it seemed like George was the only one who was not angry with him, and he did not want to lose his only ally.

  “Sorry,”
George murmured. “I was married once, you know.”

  “Married?” Harrigan was so shocked he nearly choked on the water he was drinking. “You’re a widower?”

  “No, I got divorced.” George smiled faintly at Harrigan’s open-mouthed astonishment. “I shocked myself nearly as much at the time, but it did not stop me. That is, however, why I moved from Boston to Philadelphia. No one blamed me for divorcing the woman. In truth, they all sympathized. That might be one reason that I could no longer abide living there.”

  “What happened?”

  “I just grew weary of finding my side of the bed occupied with another man. I think I might have been inclined to stay, to try and win her back, if it had been the same man. It was not. This was not a matter of her loving another. I began to wonder if she was just pulling them in off the street as they walked by the house.”

  “Hell, George, I’m surprised you didn’t just shoot her.” Harrigan briefly thought of how it would feel to see Ella in bed with a man and was surprised at how angry the image made him. “I don’t think I would’ve paused to wonder if she loved the man. I would’ve just reached for my rifle and wondered which one of them to shoot first.”

  “There was one time when I came very close to doing just that. That was when I decided the scandal of divorce would be acceptible. A scandal is a lot easier to bear than a noose around one’s neck.”

  Harrigan decided that George’s painful tale made his own problems with women look a bit small and insignificant. “I would think that, after that bitter experience, you’d have the sense not to decide on a woman with just one look.”

  George shrugged. “Louise is not like my wife, nor would she ever be like that.”

  “Damn it, how can you be so sure of that?”

  “For one thing, my wife Ellen would never lift a finger to save or help anyone. I cannot explain why I think Miss Louise is completely different from Ellen. I just know it.”