Tears of Gold (42 page)

The Swede and Nicholas glanced around the room, their eyes traveling quickly and without interest over the prostrate form of Molly as they searched for the little boy. Suddenly Nicholas stepped forward as a bundle of blankets piled in the corner moved slightly. Flinging aside the suffocating cover, he stared down in disbelieving anger at the little boy tied up beneath. His dark curls were tangled above fear-widened eyes as he blinked up at the tall, savage-looking man looming above him, blood smearing his hands.

He cringed in horror as his round eyes caught the rustling movement of Molly just behind the tall man standing over him. Nicholas’s attention was drawn to the sound as Molly, having regained consciousness and discovering she’d lost, was trying to slip unnoticed from the room. As the Swede made a move to stop her, Nicholas shook his head, signaling him to let her go.

“She lost, and she knows it,” Nicholas said as he turned back to the little boy. “I don’t think we need worry about her any longer.”

“If she tries to cause any more trouble, I’ll make her wish she’d never set foot in California,” the Swede promised, an angry glint still darkening his soft blue eyes.

When Mara had heard the Swede’s terrifying scream, she had stood aghast, paralyzed with fear, until she heard the sound of a scuffle, and then the roar of a pistol. She had finally come to her senses and started toward the breached entrance to the office, when a figure suddenly emerged from it and Mara came face-to-face with Molly.

The two women stared at each other in silence for a second, before Molly gestured contemptuously at the small gun Mara held pointed at her.

“You won’t shoot me,” Molly spat. “But if I were holding the gun, I would kill you without a qualm: You think you’ve won, but you haven’t. You may have gotten help this time, but those two can’t always be around to protect you,” she warned with a sneer. “Just remember that I intend to get that fortune, and that I’ll be here waiting. I can get fifty more friends who’d like a share of it. You haven’t won, Mara O’Flynn…but I will, eventually,” she promised as she gave Mara a vicious push against the wall and rushed past her down the alley, disappearing into the street.

Mara breathed a shuddering sigh and hurried to the debris-scattered doorway of the office. “Paddy!” she cried as she stood looking around her in dismay.

Paddy’s silence crumbled as he heard Mara’s voice, and with a cry he started to struggle from his bonds.

Nicholas stepped aside as Mara rushed into the room, her eyes seeing only Paddy’s little body huddled in the corner. The Swede squatted down and quickly cut the ropes binding Paddy’s wrists and ankles. Then Mara had him in her arms. She held him pressed tightly against her breast.

“She said she was my mama. She isn’t, she isn’t, I hate her!” Paddy cried, his sobbing muffled against Mara as he wrapped his arms around her neck. “She’s ugly and awful and I hate her!”

“There, there—it’s all right now. Mara’s here, isn’t she? Have I ever let anything happen to you? Now come on, Paddy, we’re leaving here and you’ll never have to see her again, I promise you,” Mara told him as she struggled to her feet, Paddy’s weight dragging her down.

“Here, let me take the little fellow,” the Swede said as he scooped Paddy up in his arms and grinned down at him.

Mara turned around and stopped in surprise as she saw, for the first time, the blood on Nicholas’s shirtfront. “Oh, Nicholas,” she breathed softly as she hurried to him. He swayed slightly.

Putting her arm around his waist, she steadied him, ignoring the quizzical look in his green eyes as she helped him to the door. They left behind a crumpled Count and the late Jacques D’Arcy.

Nicholas now leaning heavily against her, Mara followed the Swede’s bold stride out into the night. She could feel Nicholas’s breath warm against her forehead. “Are you all right? Do you want to rest?”

Nicholas glanced down at her face, her eyes wide with concern as she stared up at him. “Do you care?” he asked cynically.

“Yes, I do,” Mara answered simply as they stepped out into the street. She nearly collided with the Swede’s heavy bulk. He stood stock still, staring at the skyline.

“My God! The city’s on fire!”

Mara and Nicholas followed his gaze in disbelief as flames shot upward above the rooftops of San Francisco, the crackling heat engulfing everything. Nicholas’s arm tightened instinctively around Mara’s shoulders as they stood watching the heavy smoke billowing up above the city, the whole sky lit by the fire.

“It looks like it started over toward Portsmouth Square, but it’s spreading fast,” Nicholas said worriedly.

“Jamie!” Mara cried out as her eyes stared in dazed horror at the flames shooting up into the sky. “And Jenny and the boys, they’re right in the middle of it. We’ve got to get to them!”

People were crowding out onto the street to watch the fire, and in the distance they could hear the clanging of fire engines.

The Swede stared down the street where they had left their carriage. It was gone. A man was climbing up onto the seat of a wagon across the street and the Swede hailed him. “Give us a lift uptown?”

At the man’s nod they hurried across, the Swede tossing Paddy up first, then lifting Mara in before jumping up himself. Holding a hand down for Nicholas, he helped him climb aboard. Seated in the back of the wagon, they rode toward the heart of the fire, not bothering to question why their driver should be riding right into it. At least they didn’t wonder until they passed several wagons loaded down with goods of every description, and realized that looters were already at work, scavenging at the scene of the disaster.

As they neared the fire, the heat intensified, becoming almost unbearable. Their eyes began to burn and they coughed as they breathed in the thick layer of smoke that hung over the city. They quickly fled their transport as they neared the fire, not caring to be shot as looters. As falling timbers crashed to the street with a shower of sparks and spooked the already frightened horses, they moved to safety on the side of the road. A minute later a team of screaming horses, pulling what remained of a wagon, fled past, their eyes rolling in fear as they raced through the streets.

Buildings were collapsing all around them. In the distance they began to hear loud explosions as the desperate men fighting the fire dynamited. It was a vain attempt to stop the fire’s march as it was fanned by a northeaster blowing it into the most densely populated part of the city. They passed the burned-out ruins of restaurants and hotels where all that was left were melted piles of twisted silverware and molten glass among the smoldering embers.

Hundreds of people were crowding into the street, some crying for help, others moaning in pain from injuries suffered in trying to save their belongings from the destruction of the fire. The sky above them was smothered in a dense black cloud of smoke that rolled across the flame-lit city and blended with the dull orange glow that looked like a false sunrise. The air was thick with choking, sulfuric fumes from the blasting that was going on in a last-ditch effort to halt the fire. The water supply had long ago run out and now the firefighters could only stand helplessly aside while building after building fell prey to the voracious flames.

The fire raced along Kearny from the plaza, already ablaze, and down Montgomery toward the wharves along the bay. Incredibly enough, some of the buildings in the plaza still stood, among them the El Dorado, its gaming tables and roulette wheels still safe. But where the Union Hotel had once stood, now only smoldering bricks remained, and the Parker House was lighting up the sky with its flames.

They wearily made their way up the hill, pushing their way through the throngs of panicked people fleeing the roaring heat. The wind increased as they climbed the hill toward Jenny’s boardinghouse, praying they would find it still standing. With a cry of happiness Mara saw the plain, little building outlined against the backdrop of distant flames.

The Swede rushed ahead, pushing through the door with Paddy clinging around his neck. Mara and Nicholas, following close behind, entered the hallway in time to see the Swede vaulting up the stairs two at a time as he called out, his voice bellowing through the silent house.

Jenny appeared at the top of the stairs with a bundled-up Peter in her arms, his little red head covered by a cap. Gordie and Paul crowded close, their arms full of their most prized possessions. Jamie had come out behind them, her arm in a professionally wrapped sling as she peered over the railing, her wizened face seeming to split open with a thousand wrinkles as she caught sight of Paddy.

“Come on, we’ve got to get out of here,” the Swede urged them as he helped to guide the heavily laden group down the stairs. “We should get to a safer place higher on the hill.”

Jenny smiled stiffly around her bruises as she stared up at the Swede and Paddy. The Swede herded them from the boardinghouse, Jenny glancing back sadly at her home as she slowly made her way up the hill.

***

Below them the city of San Francisco continued to burn through the early morning hours. A blood red sun rose slowly over the city and revealed the devastating destruction. The fire was finally beginning to die out, and people were starting to return to their homes, hopeful that they would still be standing.

“We missed our ship,” Mara said suddenly as she stared out over the bay and saw the tall masts of the sailing ships standing starkly against the hazy sky. “It sailed last night. I forgot all about it.”

“You needn’t leave now, Mara,” the Swede spoke beside her. “The danger is gone and you’ve got Paddy back.”

Mara shook her head, still not believing it was over. She remembered Molly’s threats. “For how long? I can’t always run to you, Swede, when I need help. Molly’s down there, just waiting. Now more than ever, she’ll need the money to get herself started again,” Mara told him as she chewed on her lower lip. “I’d always be worrying about Paddy, wondering where he was, if he were safe. No,” Mara said softly, “I’ve got to leave.”

The Swede put his arm around her shoulders comfortingly as they stood there and stared silently at the ruins of the city. Nicholas’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he noticed the warm smile Mara gave the Swede before she turned away and walked over to see how Jamie and Paddy were doing. Both had succumbed to sleep and were snuggled close together under a blanket.

“I’ve got a proposition to put to you, Mara O’Flynn,” Nicholas said as Mara knelt down next to him and checked his bandaged shoulder. “I’m leaving for New Orleans today, and I want you to come with me.”

“What?” Mara gasped, her golden eyes staring at him in amazement.

“You heard me,” Nicholas said calmly. “You want to leave San Francisco, and I can pay for your passage, as well as the boy’s and your maid’s.”

Mara eyed Nicholas suspiciously, wondering if their uneasy truce was over. “Why the sudden interest in my affairs?”

“With the right woman,” Nicholas said with a look at Jenny, who was now standing beside the big Swede, Gordie holding onto one of his huge hands, “the Swede could find happiness here in San Francisco. I just want to give him that chance.”

“And you think I might interfere with the course of true love?” Mara asked wearily.

“Let’s just say that your beauty holds a certain fascination which might blind him to another, less-alluring woman,” Nicholas said softly. “You also, my dear, are a dangerous woman to know,” Nicholas said, alluding to the many misadventures that seemed to happen to people around her. “I don’t think the Swede needs that worry as well.”

Mara smiled tightly. “Still acting the guardian angel for him? You needn’t worry, there’s nothing between the Swede and me. I have tried to tell you that, so you needn’t burden yourself with me,” Mara told him proudly. “And what makes you think
you
could survive being anywhere near me, if I’m as dangerous to be around as you say?”

Nicholas smiled. “I lead a charmed life. You might even bring me good luck, instead of bad. Well?” he asked, his green eyes narrowing on her profile as Mara stared down at the glistening bay. “Do we have a bargain? You did say that you’d do anything I asked if I would help you find your nephew.” Nicholas reminded her unfairly, but he was determined to have her sail with him when he left for New Orleans.

Mara nodded as she turned back to look at him, her tawny eyes staring deeply into his with a feeling of premonition as to her future destiny as she placed herself in Nicholas Chantale’s ruthless hands. “I’ll go with you,” she said simply.

As they were rowed away from the pier later that day, Mara glanced back at the city shrouded in a mixture of smoke and fog. She really would miss Jenny and the Swede. She wondered if perhaps Nicholas was right and someday the Swede and Jenny might make a life together. Jenny still had her boardinghouse, and she would certainly have a horde of borders, including the Swede—until some of the hotels were rebuilt. He’d lost most of his possessions with the destruction of the Parker House. There were moments when she wished things had worked out differently and she would be staying in San Francisco too, but it wasn’t meant to be. Never had been, Mara thought sadly.

As she stared at the line of waves curling against the shore, and at the hills in the distance, she suddenly heard Brendan’s laugh ringing across the water, his dark eyes flashing with the light of adventure, his handsome face mirroring his dreams of riches. This new land was to have changed the destiny of the O’Flynns.

“Good-bye, Brendan, my love,” Mara whispered, her lips barely moving as the sound of his voice faded from her mind. The shoreline grew fainter and was swallowed up by swirling fog, as they left the golden shores of California.

Chapter 11

“What the devil is this?” Mara murmured as she curiously picked up a shirt that had been tossed onto the berth in her cabin.

“It happens to belong to me,” Nicholas spoke lazily from the doorway as he entered the cabin, closing the door softly, yet firmly behind him as if he intended to stay.

Mara turned and stared at him incredulously. “Haven’t you mistaken your cabin?” she asked politely, one sleek eyebrow arched in question. She watched in growing alarm as he removed his coat.

“No,” he replied casually as he began to undo his shirt.

“No?” Mara repeated skeptically. “That is all you have to say? But this is my cabin,” Mara informed him coldly.

Nicholas smiled thoughtfully. “Actually, it is
our
cabin.”

“The devil it is,” Mara expostulated, her cheeks flushing hotly with both anger and embarrassment.

Nicholas laughed. “How elegantly you express yourself, my dear, but I’m afraid I shall have to disabuse you of that idea. You see, since I had no prior knowledge that you would be traveling with me when I booked passage on this ship, I took only one cabin. Space being rather limited, I was most fortunate in finding even one extra on such short notice. That cabin is now occupied by your nephew and maid,” Nicholas explained to Mara as she watched uncertainly as he removed his shirt, grimacing slightly as he flexed his stiffening shoulder, the bandage over his wound a bright patch of white against his bronzed skin. He scratched his chest reflectively. Mara could have sworn she caught a mischievous glint in his green eyes as he continued blandly, “And since we have shared a bed before, I thought you wouldn’t mind sharing this cabin with me.”

Mara opened her mouth, but no sound came forth. She glared at him in stunned silence.

“I see I have shocked you. I’ll have to think up some more surprises, for it’s rather entertaining to have rendered you speechless,” he teased her, his smile of enjoyment confusing Mara even further as she gazed at him with growing suspicion, wondering what his game was.

“Besides, this will be quite convenient for you,” he continued smoothly. “You’re going to need someone to play the part of lady’s maid, what with your own maid suffering a broken arm, and all those exasperating hooks up the back of your gowns.”

“And you see yourself filling that role?” Mara asked in a carefully controlled voice.

Nicholas feigned surprise. “And who else? In fact, I’m quite looking forward to it.”

Mara smiled stiffly. “I beg to differ, m’sieu,” she told him haughtily, “for I shall be perfectly capable of seeing to my own needs, thank you. A pity to have to disappoint you, but perhaps you will be able to find a more accommodating female elsewhere on the ship.”

Nicholas shrugged complacently. “I’m quite satisfied with you, Mara, but we’ll see.” He calmly poured water into the washbasin and splashed his face with it, his broad back turned to her. She continued to watch him, her confusion showing on her face as she wondered uneasily about this change in his attitude.

“I thought you merely desired my absence in San Francisco,” Mara challenged him, determined to get to the truth of the matter. “But now I see you really desired a bedmate. You could have been more honest about forcing me to accompany you.”

Nicholas laughed. “You certainly put things bluntly, my dear.”

“It’s the truth, then?” Mara asked, not fooling herself that he could feel anything more than lust for her.

“The truth is that I wanted you out of San Francisco. In fact, I wonder if the distance of two oceans is indeed far enough. But,” he paused, a light entering his green eyes as they slid over her face, lingering on her lips, “I thought, as long as we are confined in such close quarters, why shouldn’t we make the most of this voyage?”

“Oh, I see. It is to be the mere gratification of mutual lusts?” Mara asked angrily, her eyes blazing. “Your self-conceit is astonishing, m’sieu. I had no idea I had given you reason to assume I cared to share your bed.”

Nicholas frowned thoughtfully. “My pardon, mademoiselle, but it seemed the only natural thing to do. After all, we are a man and a woman who are attracted to one another.”

Mara drew in her breath, covering her discomfiture with a scornful laugh. “Indeed, I have been mistaken. I had thought you disliked and distrusted me.” Mara said mockingly. “Could it be that you have changed your mind about me?”

Nicholas smiled. “Perhaps, now that I know you better, I have a more complete understanding of Mara O’Flynn than I had some years ago. I find I can overlook certain…character flaws.”

“
I
, on the other hand—now that I know Nicholas Chantale better—find that I cannot overlook his arrogance, his dictatorial manner, or his insolent effrontery.”

“Since you know me so well, Mara,” Nicholas said, not in the least concerned by her outburst, “you know that I shall ultimately win.”

Mara stared at him coldly, her heart fluttering. “And what will you win, Nicholas?”

Nicholas shook his dark head, his green eyes narrowed in speculation as he gazed at her slender figure, stiffened with outraged pride. “I’m not really sure. Perhaps I’ll become acquainted with the real Mara O’Flynn. I think I have yet to meet the complete woman.”

“Nor shall you,” Mara told him stonily.

“I wonder,” Nicholas responded softly, a determined glint in his eye as he gazed at Mara, not missing the nervous wariness in the way she faced him. “You have reason to be concerned, my dear, for you are most accurate in reading my character. I am a very persevering man, especially when presented the challenge of a beautiful woman. I admit that you fascinate me, and have done so since I first saw your face in that damned locket. You’ve haunted my thoughts for far too long. I should warn you,” he added grimly as he threw down the towel he’d dried his face with and came to stand directly in front of her, “that I never yield an inch. I’m a very tenacious and stubborn fellow.”

Mara stood her ground despite his closeness, and stared up into his green eyes, losing herself for an instant in their luminous depths. She sought desperately to fight the almost overwhelming attraction he held for her.

“Do you think you can resist me, Mara?” he asked softly as he lowered his lips to the side of her neck, breathing in the heady fragrance. He rubbed his rough cheek against her soft skin. He felt her warm breath tickling his ear as she sighed. Pulling back, he stared down at her and shook his head. “Even dressed in black mourning you still look more beautiful than other women in their finest gowns could ever dream of. In fact,” he added almost resentfully, “you are even more beautiful for there is no color, no frills to distract from the stunning, almost pure beauty of your face.”

A slight flush spread across Mara’s face. She’d never before been subjected to a Nicholas bent upon seduction, and she was determined at all costs not to reveal any weakness. She raised her chin haughtily, allowing a slight smile to curve the corners of her lips as she gave him a disdainfully provocative look. To Nicholas staring down at her, she was the miniature portrait coming to life before his eyes.

“So you are no different from any other man,” Mara said as she purposely allowed her gaze to travel over him pityingly, “and have become a victim of your own lustful nature, letting that rule your head. A pity. I thought you were made of stronger stuff, or at least,” she added tauntingly, “so
you’ve
told me.”

Nicholas’s hard fingers closed over Mara’s chin as he forced her face up to his and looked deeply into her eyes. “You are mistaken, madam, if you think I am not different. I am no callow youth carried away by the breathlessness of your beauty, nor some bourgeois lout who has never seen such perfumed and silken loveliness before,” he told her with a grim smile, his thumb moving along the line of her jaw. “I cannot be fooled by you, and although I might desire your body, I have no illusions about you, Mara.”

Mara pulled free of him as she stepped away and said, “Nor I of you, Nicholas.”

“It should prove an interesting contest of wills,” Nicholas remarked, and Mara could have sworn he was actually enjoying himself and even looking forward to their next confrontation.

Mara unconsciously shook her head as she said firmly, “Since we shall be parting company in New Orleans, I prefer to keep our relationship as casual as possible by not falling prey to your baiting.”

“I won’t need to bait you, my sweet, for do you really imagine that you and I can share a narrow berth without becoming intimate? You are either very trusting, or dangerously naive, for nothing has, nor ever will be, casual between us,” Nicholas told her; yet he didn’t seem angry or even disappointed by her refusal as he pulled on his clean shirt and proceeded to fasten it carelessly. “You do have spirit, though, and that I do admire,” he said suddenly; then, picking up his coat, he left Mara in the silence of the cabin.

Her stern resolve for noninvolvement was much easier said than done, Mara was to think later as she prepared for bed and realized that the close confines of the cabin did not allow for privacy—in fact, very little at all, she swore as she bumped her knee against the berth while struggling into her nightgown.

The first night, Nicholas was still on deck when she prepared for bed, and by the time he returned she had already claimed her half of the berth and had even managed to erect a barrier down the middle in the shape of a rolled-up blanket. Mara pretended to sleep when she heard him enter the cabin, ignoring his snort of contempt when he saw her makeshift wall. But it held, with only the contact of cold feet during the inhospitable night. Mara awoke the next morning feeling refreshed and quite rested, but as she rolled over, she found Nicholas’s half of the berth empty.

She was still standing in her petticoat when Nicholas entered the cabin a short while later, his skin roughened from the cold air up on deck and his black curls windblown as he shrugged out of his heavy overcoat. He didn’t look as if he’d had too comfortable a night’s rest, and as he saw Mara standing in her lacy underclothing, her skin glowing like soft silk, his mood blackened even more. Mara’s satisfied feeling of superior smugness faded, however, as, she pulled her dress over her head and attempted to hook it up, straining tiredly to get her arms behind her, and after a struggle of five minutes, with only a few fastened hooks to show for her efforts, she gave up. Mara stared silently at Nicholas’s broad back, for he’d turned his back on her as he read a book with increasing absorption, ignoring her and her futile attempts to dress herself.

Mara tapped her satin-shod foot indecisively for a moment before sighing in defeat as she walked over to him. “I find that I
am
in need of your services after all, if you’ll be so kind?” Mara informed him as she turned her back and waited for him to assist her.

Nicholas turned and stared at the slender back stiffly presented for his inspection, and a devilish glint entered his eyes as his gaze traveled up to the back of her neck and the fine, silky hairs on her nape just below the smooth, chignoned head held so arrogantly aloof.

“Of course. My pleasure. But,” Nicholas said as he stood up and, pulling the two gaping edges of material together, continued, “my services are no longer being offered for free. I shall expect payment.”

Mara looked up at him over her shoulder. “What do you mean? I don’t have very much money; you know that.”

“But you do have two very soft lips, and I think a kiss would be sufficient payment for my time and trouble,” Nicholas told her softly as he stared down into her tawny eyes, which were still locked with his.

Mara turned around, breaking that suffocating contact with him, as he continued to close the back of her gown, his fingers touching her skin every so often—perhaps unnecessarily, she thought resentfully as she felt his hand linger against the curve of her shoulder as he completed the last of the hooks.

Mara set her face firmly and turned around once again to face him, even though he still stood close behind her.

“Well, do I receive payment?” he demanded.

Mara knew she needed no urging to kiss him, yet she wouldn’t let him see that it would be an exquisite agony for her, so she cocked her head sideways as if in contemplation, her lips pursed thoughtfully. “Hmmmm, I suppose.”

A look of amusement showed briefly in Nicholas’s green eyes as he smiled. “How gracious of you, my dear, to bestow such a great honor on me,” Nicholas said lightly before suddenly pulling her into his arms and kissing her long and hard. Mara’s parted lips clung to his breathlessly as he lifted his mouth, his warm breath fanning her face as he stared down into her golden eyes, partially masked by her passion-heavy lids.

“I look forward to this evening when we dine with the captain and you have to change for dinner,” Nicholas said with a speculative gleam in his eye.

That day, Mara waited on Jamie for the first time in her life. Jamie seemed far more put out about that state of affairs than she was about the relationship developing between Nicholas and Mara. On first hearing of the cabin arrangements, she had seemed momentarily surprised, then suspicious, and finally almost pleased.

“I really can’t understand your attitude, Jamie,” Mara questioned her in perplexity. “I thought you didn’t like Nicholas Chantale. Doesn’t it bother you that I’m sharing a cabin with him?”

“Nope,” Jamie answered, with a shake of her head. “Don’t really know the man, so can’t say whether or not I like him. And what goes on in that cabin between the two of ye, well, ’tis no business of mine. Besides, I figure ’tis about time ye got yourself a man, and a good one at that. He’s a fine man, to be sure, and he’s proven he can be trusted. He saved Paddy, didn’t he? Aye, seems to me ye was destined to come to this, what with him bein’ mixed up in that London affair, knowin’ all about ye, comin’ to look for ye, and then meetin’ so strange like in California—twice too. Just seems as though ye paths were fated to cross.

“Anyway, it’s no good bein’ a woman alone, especially a beautiful one like you, just askin’ for trouble. I like the feelin’ of havin’ a man around now that, well…” Jamie trailed off huskily, both of them knowing what she had been going to say. Brendan was no longer with them. They needed a man.