Rebecca Hagan Lee (41 page)

“I know he’s in a meeting,” Elizabeth replied. “But I need to see him now.” She fought to keep the edge of panic out of her voice as she stalked up to the closed door separating her from James, knocked once, then pushed it open.

JAMES STARED AT
the leaders of the different labor factions in the camp and bit back a sigh of frustration. It was no use. These men couldn’t see the forest for the trees. They couldn’t see the common good because they were searching so hard for the flaws. Every question they’d asked him had begun with “What’s in it for us?” What was in it for the Welsh? The Irish? The Cornish? The Chinese? They couldn’t seem to grasp that he wanted what was good for all of them, not just one group. He gritted his
teeth, then took a deep breath. This meeting was a waste of time. These men weren’t ready to negotiate because they weren’t ready to listen to reason. But he’d finish what he started. The sooner he got through his proposal, the sooner he could pack up his family and go home. To hell with the lot of them. If they wanted to quit, fine. He’d hire other workers. Or. he’d close the place down.

James halted his proposed sale of common stock in mid-sentence and frowned at the interruption as the door opened. What now? “I asked not to be disturbed—”

“I’m sorry, James,” Elizabeth stood in the doorway. “But this is an emergency.”

He looked over at her. Her eyes were wide, panic-stricken, and shimmering with unshed tears. Her face was white, and her voice quivered with emotion as she struggled to hang on to her composure. A knot of fear tightened in his belly. Perspiration dotted his brow. And he dreaded whatever it was she had to say. “What is it? What’s happened?”

Elizabeth squeezed between the carriage and the doorway, forgetting the men in me room, forgetting everything except the need to throw herself in his arms and have him hold her as she broke the news. She ran toward him.

But James held her off. “What is it?” he demanded. “What’s wrong?”

The tears that had shimmered in her eyes moments before rushed to the surface of her eyelids and brimmed over them, rolling down her cheeks in a steady stream. “It’s Ruby,” she breathed, reaching for him, wanting comfort, needing to comfort as she told him.

James stepped forward and grabbed her by the shoulders, placing distance between them so he could read the look in her eyes, the expression on her face. “What about Ruby?”

“She’s gone!” Elizabeth tried again to hold him. “Oh, James, she’s gone!”

“Oh,
Jesus
, no! Not again!” James let go of her shoulders and pushed away from her, instinctively recoiling from
the bearer of bad news. Recoiling as if Elizabeth had stabbed at his heart with the sharpest of knives. His face turned an ashen shade of gray and his knees threatened to buckle as his world tilted beneath him and those words he’d hoped never to hear again came back to haunt him. Along with those words came the flood of memories and the rage—the overpowering sense of helpless rage. He stared at her as if he didn’t see her, then took her by the shoulders and shook her.
“For the love of Christ, Mei Ling, what have you done with my child?”
he roared.

“I-I-I’m n-not M-Mei L-ling,” she protested her teeth chattering in reaction, “I-I’m E-Elizabeth.” She jerked away from him. “I’m Elizabeth,” she said in a strong, angry voice. “And I didn’t do anything with your child. She was playing hide-and-seek in the meadow with Delia and Garnet. I should have been watching more closely, but I … And I can’t find her. She won’t come out. She doesn’t answer.”

James stared down at her, then turned to Will. “Oh, God! Help me. We’ve got to find her. We’ve got to find her before … She’s so little. She’ll be so afraid.” He turned to Elizabeth. “You were supposed to be watching her!” he accused. “You said you’d watch over them. I trusted you. Christ! I trusted you!” He shook his head. “I knew I shouldn’t have left her with an inexperienced governess—” He broke off. “If anything happens to Ruby …”

Elizabeth sucked in a breath.

“I should have known you couldn’t handle the responsibility. I should have known it was too much.” He lashed out at her. “I should have known from your reaction the first time you saw her. Christ! What was I thinking of? What was I thinking with? You didn’t even know how to change a diaper, and I hired you to be their governess. Delia does a better job of looking after them.”

“James, I …” Elizabeth stood before him. “It’s my fault. It’s all my fault. I’m so sorry. I—”

“You’re sorry? You think that makes everything all right? I’m going to go find her, and I just pray—”

“So do I, James,” she told him. “I pray she’s all right. And I’m coming with you to see that she is.”

“No,” he ordered. “You stay here. I don’t need any more problems. I don’t need any more distractions. If anything happens to my child, I’ll never forgive myself.” He looked Elizabeth right in the eyes. “And I’ll never be able to forgive you.”

Then he took hold of the handle of Emerald and Garnet’s baby carriage, wheeled it past Elizabeth, and was out the door, shouting for men, shouting for volunteers as the search for Ruby began.

“
HE DOESN’T MEAN
it, Beth,” Will said, stepping from the shadows, reaching out to enfold Elizabeth in his arms as she stood hugging herself with tears running silently down her cheeks, alone in the center of the meeting room. “He’s just terrified and railing at the fates that have put him in this position once again.”

Elizabeth looked up at the underside of Will’s chin. “You should be out helping James look for Ruby.”

“And leave you to blame yourself for something that isn’t your fault? Not a chance.” Will shook his head. “I made that mistake with Jamie years ago. I should have helped him to understand what happened then, instead of allowing him to blame himself and shoulder responsibility for a tragedy he couldn’t have prevented. Or waited nearly four years to correct my mistake.”

Elizabeth pushed against Will’s chest and leaned back so she could look at him. “He called me Mei Ling.”

Will nodded. “His wife.”

Elizabeth shivered. “Who starved to herself to death because James couldn’t forgive her.”

“Jamie told you that?” Will was surprised.

Elizabeth nodded.

“Did he tell you why?” Will asked. “Did Jamie tell you why he couldn’t forgive her? Did he tell you what Mei Ling did that made his forgiveness impossible?”

“No,” Elizabeth whispered. “He didn’t.”

“She killed his child,” Will replied baldly. “She waited until Jamie had to go to Macao on business for a couple of days, then she took their six-week-old daughter and gave her to the old woman next door to bathe.”

Elizabeth shook her head in shock. “I don’t understand.”

“ ‘Bathing the infant’ is a polite Chinese euphemism for drowning the infant. It’s what families do with unwanted children, especially daughters.”

“I can’t believe that any child of James’s was unwanted,” she protested in horror.

“Exactly,” Will agreed. “And that’s why Mei Ling waited until Jamie went to Macao on business. Mei Ling knew Jamie loved his daughter. She knew he wanted the baby and that he would never allow his daughter to be killed to make way for that all-important son and heir. The old lady next door had been Mei Ling’s midwife, and Jamie had forbidden the old woman to enter his house after the baby was born because he’d had to prevent her from strangling it when she realized Cory was a girl.”

“Cory,” Elizabeth breathed the word.

“Yes, Cory,” Will said. “She was baptized Julia Coral, but Jamie called her Cory. Mei Ling gave her to the woman next door. She took Cory down to a pond not far from where Jamie and Mei Ling lived and drowned her. Jamie came home from his trip to Macao, went in to see the baby, and found the crib empty. He knew what had happened when Mei Ling refused to offer any explanation except that Cory was gone. Jamie searched the area until he found Cory’s body. It took him several days to find her remains because she’d been dragged from the pond by wild animals. There wasn’t much left. There was no way Jamie could really be sure if the bits of baby he found was Cory, but …” Will stopped and swallowed hard twice. “That’s
why Jamie doesn’t sleep much. He still has nightmares about it. The Lord knows I’ll never forget how he looked at Mei Ling when he returned with Cory’s body.”

“Coryville.” Tears burned Elizabeth’s eyes and nose and throat as she looked up at Will for confirmation. “He built the town and named it after his daughter.”

“That’s right. He envisioned a perfect town, a haven for children to grow up in, and he built it as a monument to Cory. Because she’d died. Because he hadn’t been there to save her.”

“And Mei Ling?” Elizabeth knew the answer, but she had to ask. “What happened to her?”

“She begged Jamie’s forgiveness. And he tried. He honestly tried. But some things are unforgivable. Mei Ling was too ashamed to face him unless he forgave her. She withdrew to her room with her maid and slowly wasted away. By the time Jamie came out of his grief over Cory long enough to realize what was happening to Mei Ling, it was too late.”

“And Ruby?” Elizabeth asked. “What about Ruby’s mother?”

“We don’t know anything about Ruby’s mother,” Will told her. “Jamie found her after Mei Ling died. She’d been abandoned on the rocks along the shoreline to await the incoming tide. Jamie waded out and rescued her.” He smiled at the memory. “Then he showed up at the office with a wet, naked, and squalling girl baby, soaked himself, and grinning from ear to ear. Ruby’s been with him ever since. He left Hong Kong with her and brought her to Coryville. And the others—Garnet, Emerald, and Diamond—are all foundlings, too. Girls who would have died if Jamie hadn’t taken them in. He loves them all. But Ruby …” Will walked away from Elizabeth and began to pace the width of the room. He ran his fingers through his hair, then shook his head as if to clear it. “I don’t know if he saved Ruby or she saved him. All I know is that Ruby is Jamie’s favorite. The apple of his eye. I don’t know what he’ll do if something happens to that child.…”

“I do,” Elizabeth said, meeting Will’s gaze and struggling not to flinch as she said what they were both thinking. “He’ll blame himself for hiring me to take care of her. And he’ll never forgive either one of us.”

IT WAS THE
longest afternoon of his life, and there was every reason to believe that the night would be no different. James watched as the darkness closed over the meadow, watched as his employees lit torches and canvassed the area for the hundredth time. He watched as they paused at the edge of the forest and began shouting Ruby’s name. It was too dark to search the forest, even with torches and lanterns, too dark to see the treacherous network of ventilation shafts reaching out from the abandoned mines. And although his employees were willing to risk it, James couldn’t let them. It was best to wait until morning. To resume the search at first light when it was safer. He couldn’t risk having them trample any signs—any trail Ruby might have left. They had searched the meadow, and Ruby wasn’t there. The only place left to search was the forest. And James couldn’t risk having his employees miss something at night, something they should have seen, some clue they might have noticed if they’d waited for light. He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Although his every instinct as a father railed against it, it was time to postpone the search until morning.

He walked to the center of the path where the men had made a ring of protective stones and built a fire on the hard-packed earth inside it. “Thank you all,” James said in a voice hoarse from hours spent calling Ruby’s name and from choking back the tears that threatened to strangle him.

“Thank you all very much for your hard work and cooperation.” He managed a crooked, halfhearted smile as he stared at the oriental and occidental faces of the men standing shoulder to shoulder before him. “I knew you could find a way to work together as a team; I just wish my daughter’s disappearance hadn’t provided the means.” He
stopped to regain control of his emotions as his voice broke. “But it’s too dark to see anything and it’s late and you’ve all worked a full day. Go home to your beds and get some sleep. I’ll be here at first light if any of you would like to help with the search. If not, take the day off. Stay in bed. Rest. Whatever. Go see your wives. Go see your children.” James lifted a hand to his brow and covered his eyes. “I wish to God I could see all of mine.” He waved the men away, then walked over and sank down on the quilt beneath the aspen tree.