Mail Order Match Maker (14 page)

He stood for a moment, indecisive about which of them to go after, and decided on Higgins.  He was the one Max was rude to, so he needed to be the one to receive his apology.  Max hurried out the door and saw Higgins was already all the way at the end of the street.  Thankful he hadn’t worn dress clothes to the party Harriett had thrown for their nieces, he ran down the street as quickly as he could trying to catch up to Higgins before he disappeared.

Once he’d reached the old man’s side, he stopped, panting.  “Higgins, I’m sorry.  What I said was rude and uncalled for.  I know you’ve been a father-figure to Harriett, and I know you’ve saved her life.  It makes sense you watch over her and try to keep her safe.  I would just like you to let me take care of her as well.
  She’s my wife, and I love her and feel like you’re trying to keep me from doing my job as a husband.”

Higgins turned on him, his eyes furious.  “Do you have any idea what it’s like to return home from an errand and find your only child lying dead on the ground, dead at her own hand because of what some monster had done to her?  A
nd then to find another girl you feel you must to protect from that same monster, and watch her pushed down a flight of stairs, lying in a puddle of her own blood?  I killed a man for her, and she stayed by my side.  I’ve never felt the kind of bond I feel with Mrs. Farmer with another human.  Not my wife, not my child.  Helping her, for me, was my salvation.  It gave me something to concentrate on during one of the darkest times in my life.  I will never stop worrying about her and caring about her.  It’s part of who I am, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I stopped.”

The butler’s words made Max pause.  He’d never thought about it from the other man’s point of view.  “I’m very sorry.  I shouldn’t have said what I did.  I’ll do my best to not become jealous of your relationship with my wife in the future.”
  How he’d keep that promise, he didn’t know, but he would do his best.

Higgins sighed
, shaking his head.  “You realize there’s no reason for jealousy?  I have no feelings for your wife that are not fatherly.  She’s been my employer and my friend for many years, and I hope it continues that way.  I realize you have the power to fire me and never let me see her again, so I shouldn’t be so blunt in my words, but I have to be.  Please don’t interfere with my friendship with Harriett.  We’re both better people for having found one another.”

Max nodded.  “I will do my best.  Please accept my apologies.  I’ll watch over her on our trip and bring her back to you sa
fe and sound.  You have my word on it.”  Max offered his hand to shake Higgins’s and after a moment, Higgins held out his own.

“I leave her in your good hands then.”  Higgins turned to walk in the direction he’d been headed before, his stride confident in what he was doing.

Max watched him walk away, feeling like a louse.  He’d had no reason to get jealous, and he knew it.  He just wished Harriett turned to him when she had a problem instead of automatically turning to a servant.  He could only hope time would teach her that he was just as trustworthy as her friend.

Walking back toward the house, he kicked a rock viciously out of his way, hating himself for angering the woman he loved.  Now he would have to grovel and tell her that he’d done the right thing by apologizing to Higgins.  He was not looking forward to it, but when a man made a mistake, he made up for it.  On his knees if necessary.  He hoped she wouldn’t make him go down on his knees, though.  That would be humiliating.

He walked the distance back to the house much slower than he’d left it.  When he reached the front door, he opened it, listening for Harriett but hearing nothing.  He was relatively certain she was still in her parlor, so he walked there, finding her on the sofa staring down at a book which was unopened in her hands.

He walked to the sofa and sat at her side, turning her chin up to look at him when she didn’t acknowledge him.  “I ran after Higgins and apologized.  I’ve never been through what the two of you have been through together.  I have no right to question your friendship in any way.  You’re doing nothing wrong, and I’m just jealous that you go to him about things before you come to me.  That you have a level of trust with him that we don’t have.”  He sucked in a breath.  “But that’s no excuse.  I’m sorry.”

She nodded slowly.  “I can’t imagine my life without Higgins at this point.  He’s done so much for me, and I need to have him around.”  She shrugged.  “He’s been my right hand for a long time, helping with my business, and anything else I needed.  He’s a good man, Max.”

“I never questioned whether or not he was a good man.  My problem has always been your relationship with him, because you seem to trust him more than me and that’s hard.”  He paused for a moment trying to find the right words.  “When you finally agreed to marry me and then sent a letter postponing our wedding because your butler was sick, I couldn’t figure out what was going on.  I didn’t get the letter in time to cancel the wedding my sister had planned.  I got it the next day.  So you never arrived, and there I was looking like an idiot
waiting at the altar.  And then you show up with the sick butler?  And go off and whisper about something with him all the time?  What was I supposed to think, Harriett?  I love you.  I’ve loved you for a long time.  Not as long as you and Higgins have been together, of course, but never having loved another woman, I thought we would be first in each other’s lives.  Instead, you rely on your butler in a way that I think you should rely on me.”

Harriett sighed, leaning forward to rest her head on his shoulder.  “
I didn’t know you didn’t get my letter in time.  I’m sorry!  I know our relationship must seem strange.  Now that I’ve told you, I thought you’d be more understanding.  I shouldn’t have gotten angry with you about it.”

Max shook his head.  “No, I was in the wrong.  I can see that.  I’m just so jealous of your trust for him.”

“I trust you, too.  I wouldn’t be leaving without Higgins otherwise.”

“I know that.  It’s just strange to have a man who is unrelated to my wife object to me taking her on a business trip with me.”

She smiled.  “I can see where that would seem strange.”  She stood up, taking his hand, leading him from the room.  “But you know, there’s something that I’ve trusted you with that I’ve never even thought about doing with Higgins.”  As she talked she pulled him down the hallway toward their bedroom.

“Harriett!  It’s still light out!”
  He blinked down at her, not believing that she was initiating love-making while it was still light outside.

She laughed out loud.  “I think I can handle it.”  She shut the door with a snap, not at all worried that dinner might get cold before they got to it.

*****

Their week traveling to Spokane and back was one of the happiest Harriett had ever had.  Her parents hadn’t enjoyed travel much, so the only traveling she’d really done had been with Arthur for their honeymoon, and when she’d taken the trip out to marry Max.  Just going somewhere and enjoying the sights was something she found she really enjoyed.

They spent four days traveling there, stopping at hotels each night, and talking about everything from their growing up years to each of their businesses.  Harriett found she genuinely enjoyed being with her new husband and that thrilled her.  They planned to spend two days in Spokane and four days to get back.  When they got to Spokane, he left her to do some shopping for the day while he went to deal with the problems at the lumber camp.

She
happily wandered from shop to shop, looking at clothes in the latest fashions and some stores with simple furnishings.  In one small store, she found two paintings by a local artist that she thought would look good in her newly redecorated parlor.  She purchased them and happily took them back to the hotel room she shared with Max.

To her surprise, Max was already back.  “I thought you would be all day,” she told him, the delight apparent in her voice.

“I thought so too.  It was easier to handle than I’d thought it would be.”

She sat down on the bed beside him.  “So we have the rest of today and all day tomorrow in Spokane before we have to go home?”
  She was delighted to have the time while they were in the city with him.

He nodded.  “Do you want to go to the theater?  I saw they had a show tonight.  I’ve never heard of it, but I’d be happy to take you if you’d like.”

She thought about it for a moment before nodding.  “That sounds good.  What time is the show?”  She looked at the clock on the mantle over the fireplace.

He glanced at his pocket watch before unbuttoning his shirt.  “We have plenty of time,” he told her with a grin.

*****

Higgins leaned against the wall between two houses in a poor part of Seattle.  It was raining again, and almost time for him to leave, but by the man’s stride, he could see he was angry.  He walked to the house where Mildred Anderson lived.  Higgins had seen him before, but this was the first time he’d seen him look so angry.  He knew he wouldn’t be leaving until the small family was in bed for the night. 

The door across the street slammed as Mr. Anderson entered his home.  Higgins couldn’t make out the words, but he could hear his yells through the thin walls of the house.  He walked across the street, through the rain and stood outside the window of their parlor.  Higgins had sneaked into the house the week before to see what the layout of the home was.

He stood watching through the thin curtains as the man used his fist
s on his wife, who cowered before him with her hands trying to protect her head from the fierce blows.  This beating was worse than the other he’d witnessed there, and he was just about to go to the front door to interrupt, when the woman’s son rushed into the room.  He was a large boy, obviously able to take care of himself. 

Higgins watched as the boy yelled at his father to stop before getting slapped down.  The boy lay sprawled on the floor, his hand to his head for a moment while the father went back to his wife. 
As Higgins watched, the boy stood and picked up a vase from the coffee table and brought it down on his father’s head.  Mr. Anderson fell, his head hitting the corner of the coffee table.

Mildred
tried to go to him, but the boy held her back.  “I need to see if he’s dead,” she protested, the fear flashing in her eyes. 

“I hope he is!  He’s done nothing but hurt you!”
  The boy’s hands were fisted at his sides. 

Higgins closed his eyes for a moment and went to knock on the door.  He could hear panicked movements behind the closed door, but the woman opened it a minute later, the evidence of her husband’s abuse still plain on her face.  “May I help you?”
 

At first, Higgins was unsure how to approach the issue, but then it came to him.  “I witnessed what just happened through the window.  I’d like to help you.”  The woman stared at him for a second, opening her left eye fully for the first time.

“John?”

Higgins nodded.  “I see you remember me.”  He’d talked to her the day after her last beating, not mentioning the bruises, but making sure she knew help was there if she needed it
, and they’d spoken briefly several times since.  “Let me come in and help.”

She shook her head.  “What were you doing looking through my window at night?”  She looked between him and the parlor, as if she was waiting for her son to hide his father.

“Trying to protect you.  Please, let me come in and I’ll tell you a story.  Or you come out here if you don’t feel safe inviting me in.”  He knew she was wary of men.  Too much had happened for her not to be.

The boy appeared at his mother’s shoulder.  “Let him in, Ma.  I’m not ashamed of what I did.”

Higgins stepped into the small home and was led to the parlor where the man was nowhere to be seen.  He took a seat on the sofa beside the son, while Mrs. Anderson sat in an overstuffed chair perpendicular to the couch.   “My story begins with my wife’s death twenty years ago.”  He spoke using a soft voice as he explained about his wife dying and his daughter Annabelle.  He told them of Annabelle’s death and of Mr. Long taking a wife, and all that had happened.  “You met the woman I’m talking about.  She has blond hair and green eyes and walks with a limp?  You talked to her at the mercantile about three weeks ago.” 

Mildred nodded slowly, recognition in her eyes.  “She wanted to help me.”

“Mrs. Farmer knows about abuse and she sees it where others wouldn’t.  I swear she can spot an abused woman from a mile away.  She asked me to keep an eye on you, so I searched until I found your house and I’ve been watching it ever since, talking to you when I can and trying to become your friend so that if something like this happens, I can help.”

The boy spoke for the first time since Higgins had entered the house.  “What’s going to happen to me?”
  His voice was full of bravado as he asked the question. 

Higgins stood.  “First we need to determine if your father is dead or simply injured.”  Higgins privately hoped the man was dead, but he didn’t say it.  He didn’t want either of them to know just how much he hated wife beaters.  “What’s your name?”

The boy waited for a moment before answering.  “I’m Alex.” 

Higgins held his hand out to the young boy who had probably just killed his father.  “I’m John Higgins.”