Coming Up Roses (20 page)

“
Damnation, Miss Gilhooley! You don’t
know what you’re talking about! There are street gangs in Chicago
that would as soon slit your throat as look at you! And that’s
after they’d . . . assaulted you. All of them!”

To her storehouse of fury, Rose piled on a
whole bunch of embarrassment. Assault assuredly meant rape, in this
case. “How dare you speak to me like that,” she said in a voice
shaking with indignation. “I can use a gun, a knife, and a whip
better than a thousand of your Chicago ruffians. Just let any of
them try to hurt me, is all I say!”

“
Jesus.” H.L. had his hands stuffed
into his pockets. Rose got the feeling he’d like to strangle her
with them and was keeping them in his pockets as a defense against
committing a felonious attack. “If you hare out after this kid, you
can bet your sweet life I’m going with you.”

She sniffed. “Don’t be absurd. You’d only
slow us down and get in the way.”

“
I would not!”

“
Would, too.”

“
This is ridiculous.”

He might have thought it ridiculous, but at
least he finally shut up about it. Rose would have taken some pride
in having silenced him except that she was so worried about
Bear.

Bear in Winter was Little Elk’s nephew, the
son of his sister, and was a delightful child. He was one of
Colonel Cody’s favorites, and was a whiz at riding and shooting. If
life had been fair to the Sioux and they’d been allowed to maintain
their nomadic life on the plains and in the hills, he’d probably
have made a spectacular warrior.

The free life was over for the Sioux, though.
While Rose held certain opinions about savagery, which she’d
garnered from her childhood on the Kansas frontier, she honestly
didn’t hold any grudges against any of the Sioux knew. She’d
learned in the cradle that life was a difficult proposition—and
that’s even if the culture into which you were born still thrived.
She couldn’t imagine what it must be like for Little Elk and his
kin, who were no longer allowed to carry on as they’d done for
generations, but were obliged to make do in a new and, to them,
alien world. She honored Colonel Cody for giving so many of them
employment, and for paying them the same wages he paid his white
employees.

Some of the old Sioux skills, however, could
be used in this instance, no matter what H.L. May thought. The big
city was as different from the Kansas plains as night was from day,
but the principles of tracking were the same no matter where they
were practiced. Not only that, but Rose had been taught by experts.
If she had to kill a few of Chicago’s ruffians whilst practicing
them, so be it. Bear in Winter was worth it.

The three of them practically ran through the
throngs of fair visitors on their way back to the Wild West. Rose
was perspiring buckets in her pretty sailor suit. She was also
beginning to feel distinct pangs of hunger, since she hadn’t eaten
anything but a sausage-on-a-bun for lunch, and it was getting close
to supper time. She reviled herself for thinking of her stomach at
a time like this, but her stomach didn’t care.

When they finally found the colonel, who was
regaling a band of city slickers with tales of his scouting days
with the army, H.L. did the talking, much to Rose’s initial dismay.
She discovered, however, that he could be a concise and thorough
communicator when he chose to be. Probably his journalistic
training.

The colonel expressed sincere dismay. “Hell,
Little Elk, this is terrible. You want me to get a scouting party
together and go look for the boy?”

Rose cast H.L. a superior smirk. He rolled
his eyes. She wanted to kick him.

“
I think we’d better report the
kidnapping to the police first.” H.L. sounded totally rational and
cool, and Rose chalked it up to his cold heart. “After we find out
if they plan to do any searching, we can better decide if there’s
anything the Wild West people should do.”

The colonel nodded. “Good idea, son. Rosie,
can you and Little Elk tell the police what happened?”

“
Yes. Little Elk has a description of
the man who took him.”

Little Elk nodded in agreement, and the
colonel said, “Very well, then. Good luck to you. Will you be back
for your performance, Rosie? If you need somebody to fill in . .
.”

Rose was shocked. “Oh, no, Colonel! I’ll be
back. You don’t ever have to worry about that.”

He smiled beatifically at her. “You’re a good
little girl, Rosie. Don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Rose, H.L., and Little Elk rode a trolley car
to the police station. Rose had never been on a trolley car before,
and if the circumstances hadn’t been so frightening, she might have
enjoyed herself. Her insides cramped with worry about Bear in
Winter, though, and she wanted to get out of the trolley and push
it sometimes, it seemed so slow.

“
For crying out loud, Miss Gilhooley,
it’s a lot faster than walking would have been,” H.L. grumped at
her when she expressed impatience.

“
I know. I know. It’s only that I’m so
worried.”

Little Elk, who sat on his seat in the
trolley with his arms folded over his chest, and looking so much
like an Indian from the wild, western frontier that the rest of the
passengers actually seemed scared of him, grunted. “This thing goes
fast, Wind Dancer. Calm yourself. You waste spirit with worry.”

Rose glared at her oldest friend, feeling
abused, misunderstood, and completely out of sorts. Was she the
only one here who was worried about Bear in Winter?

It didn’t help that she was still as hungry
as a bear—so to speak—and still had on her corset. She wasn’t
accustomed to wearing a corset, and she didn’t feel any inclination
to get accustomed to wearing one, either. Corsets cut off one’s
breath, made walking quickly difficult, and in general interfered
with a woman’s life. She had a grumpy suspicion that men had
created them as a means of keeping women in what men recognized as
their “place.”

Blast all men. She hated them all with equal
ferocity at the moment.

“
I can’t help it if I’m worried about
Bear, Little Elk,” she said resentfully. “He’s just a little boy,
and he doesn’t know anything about life in a big city.”

H.L. snorted. “And you do?”

She rounded on him indignantly. “I know more
than Bear in Winter does. Don’t forget that I’ve been to London and
Paris—”

“
And Rome. I know. But at the moment
you’re in Chicago, and it would probably behoove you to relax and
let me take care of this problem. I know the police, and you don’t.
What’s more, they’ll be more apt to pay attention to you if you
don’t screech at them like you did to that poor Columbian
Guard.”

“
I did not screech at the man.” Rose
crossed her own arms over her breasts and sat back with a huff.
“Besides, he was a moron.”

H.L. had the gall to laugh. “He might not
have been the brightest candle in the box, but you gave him a
touchy problem, don’t forget. The most those Columbian Guards
usually have to contend with is folks who’ve had too much beer in
the German Village.”

“
Hmph.” Rose didn’t think anything
about this situation was funny. “This is much more serious than
that.”

“
Right. Which is why we’re on our way
to the police station right now. Don’t worry, Miss Gilhooley, we’ll
get the boy back if it’s possible to do so.”

Rose had her doubts about that, if she were
forced to depend on H.L. May to do it. She gave him another “Hmph,”
and passed the remainder of her trip staring at the city of Chicago
as they traveled past it.

She was impressed, although she’d eat a
bumblebee before she said so to H.L. But Chicago seemed like a nice
place and pretty in spots, although Rose was more comfortable in
her native wide open spaces than in cities. Still, if one had to
live in a big city, Chicago might not be a bad one in which to do
it, especially if one had a good income and could buy a nice place
by the lake. She liked Chicago better than New York City.

Her mother would probably love it here.
Although Mrs. Gilhooley had come from a family in modest
circumstances, she’d begun life in Massachusetts, in the city of
Greenfield. She used to regale her children with stories about life
back home, and Rose had been able to discern the longing in her
voice, even though her mother had always tried to hide it.

Every time Rose thought about her poor
mother, she ached inside. It made her feel better to know that the
money she sent home helped ease her mother’s burdens. It would
really ease her burdens if Rose could take her away from Deadwood
and find her a home somewhere in a more civilized environment.

Her mother never complained, and she loved
her family more than anything else in the world, but her life had
been so hard. Rose longed to make her remaining years comfortable.
She had a long-standing dream of moving her entire family somewhere
other than Deadwood; somewhere they could all be together, but
where there more opportunities for a decent life than there were in
Deadwood.

Until she’d met the colonel, her dream had
been an idle one; a mere daydream. The longer she worked with the
Wild West, the less impossible it seemed. She’d never spoken aloud
of her ambitions, not even to Annie, because Rose was sure people
would think she was only being fanciful. Whoever heard of a woman
taking care of her whole family?

Actually,
lots
of women took care of their families, but
not the way Rose wanted to do it. Rose wanted more than poverty and
worry, which is what the normal female-headed family experienced
daily. Rose wanted peace and, if not luxury, at least comfort for
her loved ones. Before they died. It was all well and good to rest
in eternal peace, but Rose wanted to provide her family with a bit
of peace long before then.

Fiddlesticks. She wanted
everything.
Why not ask for the sun and
stars while you’re at it, Rose Gilhooley
?

Still and all, maybe her secret dream wasn’t
too far out of line. After all, even if she couldn’t move her whole
family to Chicago or somewhere else as nice as this, at least she
could eventually allow them to live a better life in Kansas, and
that was the main thing. With her brother’s help, it should be
possible, too. Good old Freddie worked hard to help their mother,
just as Rose did. The two smallest girls were too young to help a
whole lot, but Rose had no doubt that they’d pull their weight one
of these days.

She heaved a huge sigh.

“
What’s the matter? Worried about Bear
in Winter?”

She turned to glance at H.L., whose voice had
actually sounded kind. She didn’t believe it and squinted at him
narrowly, trying to figure out what his game was. “Of course.”

“
We’ll all do our best for him, Miss
Gilhooley,” he said, still sounding sympathetic and
kindhearted.

What was going on here? Why was he being nice
to her? Did he know something she didn’t about the fate of
kidnapped children in Chicago? Was there some kind of ring that
captured loose children and did awful things to them? Obviously,
something was amiss, if H.L. May had taken to being kind.

She didn’t get the chance to ask him what
terrible fate he envisioned for Bear, because the trolley pulled to
a stop in front of the police station, and H.L. announced, “Here we
are. Little Elk, will you help Miss Gilhooley down? I want to ask
the driver something.”

Rose watched him narrowly as she climbed down
from the trolley. He only spent a couple of seconds with the
driver, and then he climbed down, too, and joined them on the
sidewalk. “I asked him if he’d seen anyone with a wooden leg and a
black moustache with a little Indian boy.”

“
Oh.” Rose hadn’t even thought about
asking the trolley driver if he’d seen Bear. But it was a logical
question, since the trolley ran right past the Exposition, and
anyone might have caught it. “And had he?”

“
No.”

“
Oh.” There was no reason for her to
feel so disappointed. After all, it would have been a miracle if
finding the child were to be as easy as all that.

“
So,” H.L. went on, “let’s see what the
Chicago police have to tell us.”

“
Right.”

The three of them walked up the steps to the
police station, and H.L. opened the door for Rose and Little Elk to
enter before him. Rose looked around with interest. There was a
counter over to one side, with a blue-uniformed man with a big
walrus moustache behind it. He looked bored until he glanced up and
saw H.L. Then he frowned. Rose wasn’t sure, but she thought this
might be an unlucky-for-Bear reaction on the policeman’s part.

“
What are you doing here, newshound?
Didn’t know we’d had any riots or police beatings
lately.”

The man had a thick Irish accent. For some
reason, Rose wasn’t surprised, perhaps because she’d heard
somewhere that lots of Irishmen became policemen when they moved to
the United States. Why that should be she didn’t know, but she
wondered if Freddie might like to take up a career in law
enforcement if he moved with their mother to Chicago. She warned
herself not to get sidetracked. Bear in Winter was her first
priority at the moment.

“
No such luck, Morty,” H.L. said with a
hard laugh.

Rose looked at him, surprised by this change
in his tone of voice. He sounded sharp and sarcastic with this
police person. Only moments earlier, he’d sounded kind and
concerned. She hated people who changed their personalities this
way. They were so disconcerting. One never knew how to react to
them.