Rebecca Hagan Lee (23 page)

Will burst out laughing. “How can it not? Two days ago you were the same Jamie Craig I’ve come to know and love, and today you’re a virtual stranger. So what’s changed in the one full day since I last saw you except that you’ve gone and hired yourself a right beauty of a governess named Beth?”

“Her name is Elizabeth, Will,” James said. “As in LilyBeth. Does that name ring a bell?”

“San Francisco Lilybeth? Russ House Lilybeth? The one the men were gossiping about?” Will stopped dead in his tracks in the middle of the brick-paved path that led from James’s house around the park to the Main Street office of Craig Capital, Ltd., beside the First National Bank of Coryville.

“The same,” James said.

“Thunderation, Jamie! What were you thinking to bring her to Coryville and into your home?”

“I hired her as governess for my children,” James reminded him.

“After you spent the night with her in San Francisco,” Will added. “Are you sure that’s wise? How many nights have you spent in her company? What do you know about Elizabeth Sadler?”

“I’ve only spent one night in her company.” James
paused, frowning. “Two, if you count last night.”

“Exactly my point,” Will said. “I know you’re desperate for a governess, but you don’t know enough about this woman to take her into your home and into your bed.”

James sighed. “I didn’t take her to bed, Will. I spent the night in her room at the Russ House, but not in her bed.”

Will glanced over at James, a skeptical look on his handsome face. “She looked awfully cozy in her nightclothes, Jamie, with her hair still in its braid and her feet bare. She looked completely at home and natural—as if she was accustomed to sharing an intimate breakfast with you.”

James laughed. “You call the presence of four children, a housekeeper, two maids, and yourself intimate?”

Will quirked an eyebrow at James. “She invited me to join you as if she had the right—as if you’d given her the right. What was I supposed to think? The other governesses you hired didn’t come to breakfast in their nightclothes.”

“That was my fault,” James said. “I rushed her. I didn’t give her a chance to bathe and dress because I—”

“What?” Will asked, although he had a very good idea that James’s next words were only going to confirm his suspicions.

“I wanted to be sure she ate something,” James said.

“Why?”

“Because she didn’t touch her supper tray last night. Because I thought that—” He stopped and raked one hand through his hair. “Oh, hell, what does it matter what I thought?”

“Don’t read anything into her skipping supper, Jamie,” Will warned. “You know how women can be. Maybe she’s watching her waistline. Maybe she just wasn’t hungry. Maybe she had a big lunch.”

James shook his head. “She didn’t have any lunch, Will. They don’t serve lunch at the San Francisco City Jail.”

“What?” Will was genuinely surprised.

“I couldn’t wait for you to get back, Will. I left for San Francisco without you yesterday because I needed to get there before the city police arrested her. I had asked for a
couple of favors and set a few wheels in motion …” James felt, rather than saw, Will’s censure and held up a hand to forestall the outburst he knew was coming. “I regretted it immediately, Will, and I was doing my damnedest to get into town before the police hauled her into jail for stealing a handkerchief from me.”

“So, that’s why you commandeered the express train,” Will interrupted.

“Yes. But I was too late. The Treasures were being difficult yesterday morning and Mrs. G. had her hands full so I had to stay and help out as long as I could, and by the time I arrived, Elizabeth had already been arrested, charged with theft and destruction of private property, and jailed because she didn’t have enough money to pay the fifty-dollar fine Judge Clermont levied against her,” James told him.

“Whoa.” Will held up his hand. “Whose property did she destroy?” He shook his head. “Wait, don’t tell me yet. Just start at the beginning.”

James took a deep breath and began. He told Will everything. And by the time they left the brick path and entered the elegant American headquarters of Craig Capital, Ltd., and the private suite of offices James and Will occupied on the second floor, Will Keegan knew as much about Elizabeth Sadler as James did.

“So you see,” James concluded, dropping his leather satchel on his desk. “I need you to do a little digging for me. Lo Peng will have members of the Tong watching me too closely. I need you to use your contacts outside Craig Capital to discover what happened to Elizabeth’s brother and why she risked so much by alienating a powerful warlord like Lo Peng.” He sat on the edge of his desk.

“Does she have any idea how powerful Lo Peng is or how much she’s risked?” Will asked, pulling James’s desk chair around to the side of the big mahogany desk where he sat down on it, propped his feet up on the desk and crossed his ankles.

“No,” James said. “I warned her to stay away from him
and his business, but I think that as far as she’s concerned, Lo Peng is just the angry owner of the Washington Street opium den she vandalized. And I don’t want her to know any differently unless it’s necessary.”

“It may not be wise to keep her in the dark about the danger she could be in,” Will replied.

“It may not be wise, Will, but it’s necessary,” James said. “Elizabeth already has the typical American distrust and dislike of the Chinese. So, even if she doesn’t quite understand how powerful an enemy she’s made in Lo Peng, she knows enough to be wary of him, perhaps even afraid of him. As long as Lo Peng keeps his word and Elizabeth keeps her distance, she’s safe. I don’t want to alarm her by telling her the truth about Lo Peng. I don’t want to fan the flames of her prejudice. I won’t risk having her dislike of the Chinese, in general, or her fear of Lo Peng, in particular, adversely affect the Treasures.”

Recalling the scenes he’d witnessed at breakfast, Will said, “I don’t think you need worry about Elizabeth’s fears adversely affecting those little gems.”

“I hope you’re right,” James said. “But you didn’t see the way Elizabeth reacted to the sight of them when we arrived at the house yesterday. She actually recoiled in horror and refused to get close to them, much less touch them.”

“She seems to have gotten over her fear,” Will commented with a shrug of his shoulders. It wasn’t that he dismissed James’s parental concern or Elizabeth’s disappointing first reaction to the Treasures lightly, but from what Will had seen this morning, she seemed to have come to terms with her feelings. “Thunderation, Jamie! Neither one of us wanted to touch little …” He let his voice trail off for a moment, then continued, “If the truth be known, I didn’t want to touch Ruby the first time I saw her, either. Not because she was Chinese, but because she was so blamed little. I was scared I’d damage something. Did you ever think that maybe Elizabeth’s reaction had more to do
with the Treasures’ ages and sizes than with the color of their skin?”

No, he hadn’t. The fact that she might have been afraid of his little girls because they were so small compared to the girls she must have taught at the girls’ school she’d worked in had never occurred to him.

“Give the woman a fair chance, James,” Will told him. “After all, not everyone is brought up with a working knowledge of infants.”

Will was right. Not everyone was brought up with a working knowledge of infants. This morning Elizabeth hadn’t known how to diaper a baby or how to feed and burp one, but then, three and a half years ago, neither had he. James steepled his fingers, propped his chin on his index fingers, and nodded. “I’d forgotten,” he admitted to Will. “Ruby has been a part of my life for so long now, it’s hard for me to remember what my life was like before diapers and bottles and governesses.”

“Is it really so hard to remember, Jamie?”

“No,” James answered truthfully. “Sometimes it seems like yesterday. I wake up in a cold sweat and I remember …” His voice broke for a second before he regained his composure. “I remember what life was like before Ruby. And then I find myself standing in the doorway of the nursery in the middle of the night just watching her sleep. I’ll never forget. I can’t forget.”

“I know, Jamie.” Will straightened, took his feet off the desk, then reached out in a show of emotion and clapped James on the shoulder. “I know.”

They sat quietly for a moment, each lost in his own thoughts until Will broke the silence. “Will tomorrow morning be soon enough? Or would you like me to leave after the meeting this afternoon?”

“You just got back from the mining camp,” James reminded him.

“So? You just returned from San Francisco,” Will retorted. “Besides, if I’m going to be digging for information
that’s weeks or even months old, I’d best get started before the trail gets much colder.”

“Do you still have that friend at the
Chronicle
?” James asked.

“Yes,” Will answered. “And he likes to entertain the ladies, but he doesn’t usually have two copper pennies to rub together. I figure this will cost me a few theater tickets, a few bottles of good brandy, and some champagne.”

James threw open his arms. “My wine cellar is yours. And I’ll be more than happy to reimburse you for theater tickets, hotel rooms, whatever …”

Will winked at him. “I’ll remember that.”

James shook his head, then grinned at Will. “I owe you an apology, Will, for my behavior this morning. I don’t know what came over me.”

Will laughed. “I do. It reminds me of old times, except that this time, she’s about five feet, eight inches tall, with streaky golden brown hair, extraordinary blue-green eyes, and an independent spirit.”

“Not my usual type.” James’s smile was sadder this time. “I don’t understand it.”

“You’ve suffered enough, Jamie, and more than paid for any imagined sins,” Will said. “Perhaps it’s time for a change.”

IT WAS TIME
for a change. Elizabeth took a clean diaper from the stack on the bureau and positioned it in the center of the thin cotton pillow atop it. She opened the lid on the tin of talcum powder in preparation and placed it, along with a damp facecloth, within easy reach, then approached the newborn lying in her crib with equal measures of determination and trepidation.

“Need any help, miss?” Delia called from the playroom where she was wiping down the small round table and setting out the bowls and spoons in preparation for the luncheon of chicken and rice Mrs. G. was sending up to the nursery for the Treasures.

Help? She didn’t need help. She needed rescuing. But she wasn’t about to let Delia know that.
Instead of handing over the diaper, the facecloth, and the talcum powder as any normal obviously-out-of-her-depths woman would do, Elizabeth called back, “No, thank you, Delia. You finish the lunch preparations. I’ll take care of Diamond.” She leaned over the crib and lifted Diamond out of her little bed, carefully supporting the baby’s head as she had watched James do, and carried her over to the bureau. “We can do this, can’t we Diamond?” Elizabeth flattened her
lips into a thin, determined line and prepared for battle. “We can do this.”

To Elizabeth’s immense surprise and satisfaction, Diamond seemed to agree. She demonstrated her cooperation by quietly submitting to the procedure, enduring Elizabeth’s awkwardness and inexperience with grace and patience.

When Diamond’s fresh undergarment was pinned firmly into place, Elizabeth, feeling the first flush of renewed confidence, gently eased the baby’s arms out of the sleeves of her nightgown, then pulled the damp garment over Diamond’s head and replaced it with another white cotton gown. She lifted Diamond from the cotton padding and held her cradled securely in the crook of her left arm, while she deftly gathered the dirty garments and facecloth and deposited them into the laundry pail. Wanting to share her victory with someone, Elizabeth hummed beneath her breath and rocked Diamond to and fro in her arm as she reentered the playroom.

“That was fast, miss,” Delia commented when she looked up and saw Elizabeth standing near the doorway with Diamond in her arms.

“Yes, it was.” Elizabeth’s voice fairly crackled with triumph. “I changed her diaper and she slept right through it.”

“You’re lucky, miss,” Delia said. “Some babies ain’t so accommodating. My mam always says she ain’t going to risk bothering a peaceful baby just to change a nappy.” She circled the table, setting a small wooden bowl and spoon in front of three chairs. “Besides it’s a waste to change ’em every few minutes when they’re just going to need another changing soon as they suckle or wake up from a nap. Lots of times my mam doesn’t even bother with a nappy on the little ones.”

“They go without clothing?” Elizabeth was shocked. “Inside the house?”

“Of course, inside the house,” Delia told her. “The little ones are too small to be outside yet. Letting ’em go without
saves on laundry.” She shrugged her shoulders once again as if having naked children running around a cottage soiling themselves was an accepted part of life. And indeed it was, for children less fortunate than James Cameron Craig’s precious Treasures.

“What about their beds? Doesn’t letting them go without a diaper ruin the bedding?” Not to mention the unsanitary conditions in the house and the smell and the mess.

Delia shook her head. “Nah. The little ones don’t sleep in beds like these. My mam spreads layers of newspaper on the floor in the corner of our house and the little ones sleep there.”

“How many little ones are there?” Elizabeth asked.

“Well,” Delia paused. “There’s Mam and eight of us. One older than me and six younger. And my cousin, Rose, and her little one lives with us.”

Elizabeth gasped. She couldn’t imagine eight children, nine if you counted Cousin Rose’s child, in one family. Nor could she imagine the responsibilities Delia, who couldn’t be a day over fourteen, as the second oldest had had to bear. “What about your father?”

“He died two winters ago, miss. He took the sniffles and died.” Delia shivered at the memory. “Imagine a big strong man like that dying of the sniffles after traversing the prairie building the railroad out from Missouri. I tell you my mam still ain’t got over it. Him up and dying and leaving us alone in Coryville. If he was gonna die of the sniffles, he could’ve done that back in Ireland. Not come all the way to the promised land to do it.” She turned away from the table to look at Elizabeth. “I already rang the bell for lunch. Annie should be up here with it any minute now.”