Dangerous Men (Flynn Family Saga Book 2) (6 page)

Flynn slept, but his dreams were
filled with longing and sadness.  Sometimes, he dreamed of Jennie and woke
sweating, despite the cold.  Sometimes, he dreamed of Maggie, but even those
dreams were bittersweet.  He longed to tell her how he felt, but Jennie always
stood between them.

One week before Christmas, he
packed his saddlebags and rode toward St. Jo.  He felt better than he had since
he left Maggie standing alone in the Sacramento Valley.  The sun was setting
over the Missouri, and the shadows lengthened in front of him a he rode up to
Kate Hamilton’s boarding house.

Flynn knew, instantly, that
something was wrong.  The upper floors were dark.  He dismounted cautiously. 
He checked to make sure his pistol was loose in its holster.  He knocked on the
door.

Maggie opened it.  Her face was
pale, and there were dark smudges under her eyes.

The knot in Flynn’s belly
tightened.  “What’s wrong, Maggie?  Is Sam all right?”

Maggie nodded.  “He’s fine.  Come
inside, Flynn.  I’ll tell you all about it.”

He nodded and followed her into the
echoing hallway.  They went into the kitchen and sat down at the table.  Flynn
listened without interrupting.  When Maggie finished speaking, he sighed. 
“Maggie, I’m sorry you had to go through all this again.”

Maggie shrugged.

Flynn raised one eyebrow.  “How are
the nightmares?”

Maggie looked away.

“I thought so.”

Kate came in.  She looked thin and
pale, but she managed a smile for him.  “Hello, Flynn.”

“Hello, Mrs. Hamilton.”  He stood
up and removed his hat.  “Maggie just told me what happened.  I’m sorry.”

Kate nodded stiffly.  “Maggie, I
need help with the potatoes.”

Maggie nodded.  She picked up the
paring knife.

“I’ll make the coffee.”  Flynn
stood up and took the large coffee pot down from its shelf.

Kate smiled wanly at him.  The
three of them worked in silence while the fire popped and crackled.

Christmas dinner was subdued. 
Frank was the only one who talked, and he talked too much, trying to fill up
the silence.

“Shut up, Frank.”  Sam swatted his
arm.

Frank bristled.  “I’m just trying
to make conversation.”

“Well, stop trying.”

Frank scowled, but he said nothing.

After dinner, Maggie ran up the
stairs to her room.  Flynn followed her.  She tried to carry a bundle of
papers, rolled and tied with red ribbons.  She turned, saw him and dropped
them.  She put her hands on her hips.  “You’ve got to stop—”

“Sneaking up on people.”  Flynn
grinned.  “Can I help you with those?”

Maggie shook her head.  She
gathered them in her arms and practically ran from the room.

Laughing, Flynn followed her.  They
went into the parlor, and Flynn placed her present under the tree.  Maggie
dropped the rolls of paper again.  This time, he helped her pick them up and
put them under the tree.

One by one, Sam handed out the
gifts.  There was a book for Kate, a primer for Frank and a compass for Flynn. 
Sam handed Maggie her gift last.  She opened it carefully, smoothing out the
paper.  It was a new bridle for Patches.  “To go with that fancy saddle of
yours,” he said gruffly.

Tears filled Maggie’s eyes.  She
touched the smooth leather reverently.  She threw her arms around Sam’s neck
and hugged him.  “Thank you, Papa,” she whispered.  She drew a deep breath and
wiped her eyes.  She picked up a package and handed it to Sam.  Sam unwrapped
it slowly.  He held out a red woolen scarf.  “Maggie, did you make this?”

Maggie blushed and nodded.  “Mrs.
Evans taught me how to knit when I was sick.”

Sam smiled at her and squeezed her
shoulder.

Maggie handed Frank his gift.  It
was a large, oddly shaped package.  Frank shook it before he opened it.  There
was a muffled clank.  His bushy eyebrows rose.  He unwrapped it cautiously, as
if afraid it might explode.  Then, he laughed and held up a coffee pot.

Maggie grinned at him.

Flynn knelt beside the pile of
gifts and picked up his gift for her.  As he handed it to her, he felt as shy
as if he were sixteen.

Maggie opened it slowly.  The
package held a pair of tortoise shell combs, inlaid with mother-of-pearl. 
She gasped.  “Flynn, they’re beautiful!”

“They were my mother’s,” he said
hoarsely.  A dozen emotions scrabbled around in his chest, like possums trying
to wriggle out of a sack.

Maggie touched the combs
reverently.  “Thank you.”  She set them down carefully.  Then, she picked one
of the rolls of paper and handed it to him.

“What is it?  Poetry?”  He grinned
at her.

Maggie smiled smugly and shook her
head.

Flynn untied the ribbon and
unrolled the paper.  Inside was an exact copy of one of Alexander Ridgeton’s
maps.  His looked at Maggie.  “Did you make these?”

Maggie nodded shyly.

He stared at her.  “Thank you. 
I—thank you.”

Maggie looked away.

When the last present had been
opened, Kate sat down at her spinet and started to play.  Maggie stood behind
her and sang.  “O Little Town of Bethlehem...”

Flynn stood next to her, so close
she could feel his warmth.  “How still we see thee lie.”  His voice was deep
and rich, like the color of his eyes.  "The hopes and fears of all the
years are met in Thee tonight."  Their voices blended easily.  She longed
to tell him how she felt, but she was afraid, afraid that he would laugh at
her.

Kate continued to play until midnight.  Then, she yawned.

Sam touched her shoulder lightly. 
“You must be exhausted.”

Smiling, Kate nodded.  She stood up
and started toward the door.

Maggie crossed the room.  She
hugged Sam and kissed Kate on the cheek.  “Good night.”

“Good night, sweetheart.”  Kate
patted her hand.

Frank stood up.  “Don’t I get a
hug, too?”

Laughing, Maggie hugged him.

Grinning, Flynn stepped into the
doorway, blocking Maggie’s escape.  “What about me?”

Maggie’s face reddened.  Then,
grinning, she held out her hand.

Not to be outdone, Flynn took her
hand, bent over it and kissed it.  The top of her hand was soft and smelled
faintly of lavender.  His grin faded.  He thought of the hours she must have
spent copying the maps in secret while he slept, and some of the aching
loneliness he always carried around with him eased a little.  “Maggie, that’s
about the nicest present anyone ever gave me.” 

Maggie stared at him, like a bird
staring at a snake.  “So was yours.”

He stood for a long time, holding
her hand, watching the emotions flit across her face like the shadows of clouds
on the prairie.  Then, he grinned.  “Good night, O’Brien.”

She grinned back.  “Good night,
Flynn.”  She pulled her hand free of his grasp and ran up the stairs.

Flynn stayed at Kate's house, which
was unusual for him.  He usually went back to his cabin right after Christmas,
but despite the pall of gloom over the house, Flynn was happy.  Every morning,
he and Maggie rode out in the crisp winter air.  They talked about everything
and nothing, sometimes just riding side by side in companionable silence.

And his love for her grew and
deepened.

Then, Richard Hamilton’s trial
began.

The night, Flynn dreamed of Jennie. 
She sat on her white mare with her hands tied together.  Her face was bruised
and bloody.  Nick Vaughn raised his hand and struck the mare's rump.

Flynn woke with a gasp.  It was all
he could do to keep from packing his saddlebags and riding back to his cabin.

But he couldn't desert Kate
Hamilton.

And he especially couldn't desert
Maggie.

But his hands shook as he pulled on
his black trousers and white shirt.

CHAPTER
SIX

On the day after New Year's, Maggie
accompanied Kate and the others to the courthouse.  She sat on one side of
Kate, and Sam sat on the other.  Frank and Flynn sat behind them.

As Maggie listened to the testimony
of the witnesses, the knot in her stomach tightened.  Jasper Williams did his
best, but too many people had seen Richard Hamilton kill Jimmy Fagin.

Finally, Jasper Williams sat down.

Maggie and Sam led Kate out of the
courtroom.  Kate’s hands were cold, and she trembled.

Maggie took her back to the
boarding house and made a pot of tea.  She poured the tea into one of Kate’s
hand-painted teacups.  She put two lumps of sugar into the cup and
stirred it.  Sam handed Kate the cup, and she drank it without complaint.  She
had barely finished the tea, when Frank came to the kitchen door.  "The
jury’s back!”

Kate shut her eyes.  She opened
them and stood up stiffly.  They all walked back to the courthouse.

 “Gentlemen of the jury, have you
reached a verdict?”  The judge regarded the twelve men solemnly.

Mr. Grover, the owner of the
general store, nodded.  “We have your honor.  We find the defendant guilty.”

Richard struggled against the
deputies as they dragged him from the courtroom.

Kate bowed her head.  Slowly, she
raised her head again and stood up.  Her knees buckled.  Maggie grabbed one
arm, and Sam grasped the other.  Together, they helped her from the room.  When
they reached the boarding house, Kate walked into her room and shut the door.

Maggie sighed.  She rubbed her face
with her hands.  “Well, I’m hungry.”  She started toward the kitchen.

Flynn grabbed her wrist.  “Oh, no
you don’t.  I’ve tasted your cooking, remember?”

Maggie tried to smile, but she
couldn’t quite manage it.

Frank squeezed her hand and went
into the kitchen.  Pots and pans clattered loudly as he began to make supper.

Maggie went to the door to Kate’s
room and knocked.  “It’s me.  Maggie.”

Kate opened the door and stepped
back.  Her eyes were red from crying.

“Can I come in?”

Kate hesitated, and then she
stepped back from the door.

Maggie entered the room.  “What
will you do now?”

Kate shrugged.  “I’ll have to sell
this place.”

“No!”

“Yes,” she said calmly.  “I am the
wife of a murderer.”

Maggie hesitated.  She remembered
the contempt in Tom Hanson’s eyes when he tried to take her father’s cross out
of the ground. 
You can’t put a cross at a suicide’s grave!  That’s
sacrilege
.  She nodded slowly.  “Where will you go?”

Kate sighed.  “I have a cousin in San
Francisco.  She runs a finishing school for girls there.  She needs a cook.”

Maggie stood up abruptly.  “No! 
You’re too good to be someone’s cook.”

“Maggie, Frank is someone’s cook,”
Kate said softly.

Maggie’s face reddened.  “That’s
not what I mean.  You have your own boarding house and—”

Kate sighed.  “Maggie, sometimes,
we lose things we love in life.  When Richard left, I thought my life was over,
but I picked up the pieces and made a good life for myself.  Now, I have to do
it again, that’s all.”

“I have money saved up.  It’s
enough to buy land near San Francisco.  I planned to raise horses before—before
my parents died.  You could run the farm with me,” Maggie said shyly.

Kate hugged her.  “Oh, Maggie. 
That’s a very generous offer, but you can’t run a farm alone.”

Maggie lifted her chin.  “I’ll be
seventeen by then.  A lot of women are already married and have their first
baby by the time they’re that age.”

Kate shook her head.  “Think,
Maggie.  Who will you hire?  Can you trust them?”  Kate looked worried.

Maggie bit her lip.  She thought of
Ellie Lonnegan’s bloody skirts.  She shivered.  “That’s why I need you, Kate.”

Kate sighed.  “I’ll think it over. 
Besides, I thought you loved life on a wagon train.”

Maggie looked away.

Kate smiled.  “I thought so. 
Maggie, don’t give up on your dreams, not even for someone you love.”

Maggie nodded slowly.  “That’s what
my grandmother said.”

Kate nodded.  She rubbed her face
with her hands and shivered.

“Are you cold?”

Kate looked away and shook her
head.

“Then what?”

“I was thinking about—about the
hanging.”

“You don’t have to go to the
hanging!”  Maggie stood up with her fists clenched.

Gently, Kate took her wrists.  “Yes,
Maggie.  I do.  Just like you had to stay with your parents.”

Maggie bowed her head.  She nodded.

*  *  *

Jasper Williams appealed twice, and
each time, his appeal was denied.

Richard Hamilton was hanged on a
cold February day.  Maggie stood on one side of Kate, and Sam stood on the
other.  Frank came to the hanging, but there was no sign of Flynn.

Maggie swallowed hard as the
deputies led Hamilton to the scaffold.  Kate’s hand groped for hers, and Maggie
took it.  They stood in silence as the priest prayed beside the condemned man. 
Hamilton’s face was pale and drawn.  The priest spoke quietly to him.  He
nodded.  He turned and looked at Kate.  “I love you, Kate.  I have never
stopped loving you.  I am sorry to have brought this shame on you.”

Kate sobbed once.

Then, they placed the hood over Hamilton’s
head.  Maggie shut her eyes.  Kate’s hand tightened on hers.  Maggie heard the
trapdoor open, heard the rope hiss, heard the thud as Hamilton’s body reached
the end of the rope.  Then, there was silence.

After a long time, Kate sighed.  “Please,
take me home.”

Maggie nodded.  She opened her
eyes.

Hamilton’s body swung from the end
of the rope.

She swallowed hard and led Kate
away from the town square.

Frank made breakfast, but no one
ate anything.  Maggie helped him clean up.  Then, she went upstairs and changed
into her jeans and work shirt.  She took her sheepskin jacket from its peg in
the kitchen by the back door.  Then, she walked to the corral.  Patches stood in
the pale winter sunlight, looking as forlorn as she felt.  She threw her saddle
over his back.

“Want company?”

Maggie turned to Flynn.  Anger
flared inside of her.  “Where were you?”

Flynn looked away.  “I couldn’t
face another hanging.”

“Another—?  Flynn?”

He drew a deep breath and let it
out.  “I don’t want to talk about it.  Not today.”  He turned to her.  “But I
promise, one day, I’ll tell you the whole story.”

Maggie hesitated.  Then, she
nodded.

Flynn saddled Horatio, and they
rode out of town together.  The wind from the prairie was bitterly cold. 
Maggie shivered despite her sheepskin jacket.

Flynn touched her bare wrist.  “You’ve
outgrown it.”

Maggie nodded without speaking.

He sighed.  “Maggie, there are
things in my past that I’m not proud of.”

Maggie reined in Patches and turned
to face.  “I grew up over a saloon.  What could possibly be worse than that?”

Flynn looked away.  Anger hardened
the lines in his face.  “Damn it, Maggie!  You deserved better than that!”

“So did you!”  She kicked Patches into
a gallop.  Horatio caught up to him easily.  They rode hard until the horses’
breath came in gasps.  Then, Maggie slowed Patches to a walk.  They rode
together in silence.

Finally, Flynn spoke.  “Thank you
for the maps.”

Maggie nodded.  Tears burned her
eyes.  “You’re welcome.  Thank you for the combs.”

Flynn shivered and pulled his
jacket collar up around his neck.  “It’s cold.  Let’s go back.”  He turned
Horatio and rode back toward St. Jo.

Maggie watched him go.  She
wondered who had been hanged.

And why.

She sighed and followed Flynn back
to the boarding house.  As she climbed the steps to the porch, she heard raised
voices coming from the kitchen.  Her stomach clenched, and she ran around to
the back door.

“Guldurn it, woman.  You don’t owe
that scoundrel a guldurned thing!”  Sam’s voice came clearly through the closed
kitchen door.

“I’m sorry, Sam.  I just can’t
marry you.”

Sam slammed open the kitchen door,
almost knocking Maggie over.  He stormed past her.

Maggie hesitated and went inside. 
“Mrs. Hamilton?  Are you all right?”

Kate nodded, even though she was
white and shaking.  “He asked me to marry him, Maggie.”

“That’s wonderful!”

Kate shook her head.  “I just saw
my husband hanged, Maggie.  I can’t marry Sam.  Not right now.”

Maggie hesitated.  “Why not?”

“It wouldn’t be proper.”

Maggie nodded slowly.  “Kate, what
exactly did you do wrong?”

“I beg your pardon?”

Maggie shrugged.  “Well, everyone
left the boarding house.  No one except Diane will talk to you.  I know that
Mr. Hamilton killed a man.  But what exactly did
you
do wrong?”

Kate smiled sadly.  “Oh, Maggie. 
It doesn’t work like that and you know it.  You weren’t to blame for your
parents’ death, but people looked at you differently afterward, didn’t they?”

Maggie nodded.  Tears shone in her
eyes.  “So why won’t you marry Sam?  How could it be any worse?”

“I wouldn’t be.  Not for me.  But
people would say he took advantage of my weakness, my grief.”  She drew a deep
breath.  “Besides, I don’t want him to marry me because he feels sorry for me.”

Anger coiled tightly in Maggie’s
belly.  “Sam would never do that, and you know it!”

Someone knocked at the door. 
Maggie went into the foyer and looked out.

Jasper Williams stood on the stoop.

She opened the door.  Kate came up
behind her.  “Jasper.  Won’t you come in?”

Jasper took off his city-slicker
derby.  “I’m sorry, Mrs. Hamilton.”

Kate smiled wanly.  “It wasn’t your
fault, Jasper.”

He nodded.  “Is Sam in?”

Kate shook her head.

“He’s probably down at the corral,”
Maggie said.

Jasper nodded, and turned to go.

“Is he in trouble?”  Kate took a
step toward the lawyer.

Jasper turned back.  “Not exactly. 
He petitioned to adopt Maggie.  The court just turned him down.”

Maggie turned and ran up the stairs
to her room and slammed the door.  She threw herself onto the bed and started
to sob.  A few moments later, someone knocked.  “Go away!”

A key turned in the lock, and Kate
Hamilton came in.  She sat on the edge of the bed and laid a soft hand on
Maggie’s back.  “What’s wrong, Maggie?”

Maggie turned to her.  “He can’t
adopt me!  That means I’ll have to go to that awful orphanage, and I won’t!  I
won’t!”

Kate gathered Maggie into her
arms.  “Hush, Maggie.  Hush.  We’ll think of something.”

Maggie nodded and clung to Kate as
if she were drowning.

Kate stayed with Maggie until she
fell into an exhausted sleep.  She dreamed that she was back on her
grandparents’ farm in Lawrenceville.  Tess and James were still alive.  Tess
was humming at the stove, and James sat with his long fingers wrapped around a
mug of coffee.  Then, her father came into the kitchen with a shotgun.  His
finger squeezed the trigger.

“No!”  Maggie woke with a start. 
She heard voices in the kitchen.  She got up and crept silently down the
stairs.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Sam.  I’m
not going to marry you just so you can adopt Maggie.  I’m marrying you because
I love you, you idiot.  That is, if you still want me.”

“Still want you?  Kate, I’ve loved
you since the moment I saw you at that dance.”

The knot of fear and anger in the
pit of Maggie’s stomach uncoiled.  Smiling, she tiptoed back to bed, and this
time, she slept without dreaming.

*  *  *

On the morning of the wedding, Kate
was fussing with her hair.  Her hands shook so badly that she kept dropping the
pins.  Maggie ran to Diane's dress shop.  Diane smiled at her.  "Hello,
Maggie.  I haven't seen you in a while.  What can I do for you?"

Maggie cleared her throat. 
"It's Kate.  She's marrying Sam today, and—”

"That's wonderful!"

Maggie nodded.  "Yes ma'am, it
is.  But she's having trouble doing her hair, and you know I'm no good at
it."

Diane nodded once.  She went over
to the door and hung up a sign that read "Closed."  Then, she put on
her hat and pulled on her gloves and strode to Kate's boarding house.

Maggie hurried to keep up with her.

Inside the house, she heard Sam,
swearing.  Maggie knocked on the door to his room.  "Papa?  Are you all
right?"

Sam opened the door.  He looked
very handsome in his tailcoat, but he was scowling.  "I forgot all about
the guldurned rings!"

Maggie grinned.  "Wait right
here."

"As if I was going
anywhere!" he bellowed.

Maggie ran to her room and opened
her trunk.  She took out her grandparents' gold rings.  She held them in her
hands a moment, remembering the way James and Tess looked at each other.  Then,
she ran back to Sam's room.  She held out the rings on her palm.

Sam's expression softened.  "I
can't take these, Magpie.  They belonged to your grandparents, didn't
they?"

Maggie nodded.  "You never met
my grandfather, but I think he would have wanted you two to have these.  You
see, he loved my grandmother the same way you love Kate."

Tears glistened in Sam's gray
eyes.  He nodded.  "All right, Magpie.  Thank you."

Maggie went back to her room and
put on the green gingham dress that Kate had given her two years earlier.  To
her chagrin, it was a little tight around her chest.  Then, she knocked on
Kate's door.

Diane opened the door.

Maggie gasped.  Diane had curled
Kate's hair and piled it on her head.  "Oh!  You look beautiful!"