Sadie's Secret: 3 (The Secret Lives of Will Tucker) (16 page)

Jefferson grinned. “Indeed. I believe you and I are going to get along fine, Kyle.” He paused to address the butler once more. “I have another question that may seem odd to you. One year ago a box was delivered here with my name on it.” He offered a brief description that included the sender’s address and the size and color of the package. “Do you know where that box went?”

“Of course, Mr. Tucker. It’s in the storage vault awaiting your further instruction on its disposition. Shall I deliver it to your bedchamber?”

“No, the judge’s library, please.”

“As you wish, sir.”

The butler then ushered Kyle up to his room, leaving Jefferson to pay a visit to the matriarch of the Tucker family. However, as he opened the door to the bedchamber where his grandmother held court, he found a candlestick flying in his direction before he could say a word.

“I told you to stay out of here, you no good scamp!” she declared as Jefferson quickly stepped back into the hallway.

“Cease fire, Granny. It’s Jefferson. I just want to talk to you.”

Silence greeted him until he braved another peek into the room. This time a vase of cut crystal in a deep blue went flying. Jefferson neatly caught it and then set it aside to close the door.

“Throw all the things you can reach, Granny,” he said to the woman whose hand had stilled on the handle of the silver biscuit dish where she usually kept a stash of sweets. “But if you manage to hit me, it won’t be John Tucker you wound. It will be his twin.”

“Jeffy?” She sat back up against the pile of pillows, each a riot of color that attested to her hobby of needlepointing flower bouquets on every possible surface.

“Yes, Granny. May I approach, or do I need to find the helmet I left here the last time I visited?”

“You left no such thing,” the silver-haired former beauty said. “Get yourself over here and hug your grandmother, William Jefferson Tucker. Then we shall discuss the reason why you’ve neglected me so long and what we will do about your brother.”

Twelve

S
adie stepped off the train and into the arms of Seamus Callum. His grip was firm, his smile broad.

“Sarah Louise, my ray of sunshine.”

“Daddy,” she whispered against his lapel as she held him tight.

He smelled of fresh air and soap with just the slightest hint of the earthy Louisiana soil that grew his sugarcane. His red beard, incongruous in comparison to his blond hair, scratched against her face. Even now, with so much to hide and so little time to spend at home, there was no better feeling than to be held by her daddy.

Then he held her at arm’s length, his eyes searching her face as if memorizing it all over again. Concerned, unconditional love, that’s what his face told her. What his eyes said. All the more reason to never allow disappointment to show in those eyes.

“I wondered what kind of reception I might get,” she said carefully. “Considering the letter you wrote.”

His expression softened, though his grip on her arms did not. “And I stand by what I said. You cannot be showing yourself on the pages of the newspaper for all the world to see. It’s just not…”

Daddy paused and seemed to be at a rare loss for words. Though she was glad for the temporary silence, Sadie felt no compunction to allow it to continue.

“I know you must be disappointed, but I promise nothing untoward was happening when that picture was taken. It isn’t at all what it appears.”

“I don’t suppose you want to tell me what it is, then?”

If only she could. “I was doing a favor for Kyle Russell,” she said as she chose her words carefully. “He was on an assignment. His wife…” What to say? She let out a long breath and then continued. “His wife was fully aware that I would be attending with her husband. What none of us expected was to be photographed.”

“Obviously,” he said as he looked away.

“Daddy, I’m sorry I’ve caused you and Mama trouble. I never meant to.”

Slowly her father returned his attention to his daughter. “You never do.” Again he paused. “Just one question and then we’ll leave this topic alone. If you answer truthfully, then maybe I’ll see that Mama doesn’t bring it up either.”

“All right. I will answer if I can.”

“Fair enough. This person you did the favor for? Might that be Allan Pinkerton?”

She felt a flush climb into her cheeks. “No,” she said slowly.

“He was the one who hired you as a secretary up there in Chicago. I figured he was the one to blame for putting you in front of those cameras with Agent Russell. And I ought to warn you that I know Russell’s daddy and have been aware that Russell has been with the Pinkertons for some time now.”

The truth demanded more than a one-word response. “Daddy,” she said slowly, “I am no longer a secretary to Mr. Pinkerton.”

“So you quit that job.” He shook his head. “I cannot say I’m sorry to hear that.”

“No, I did not quit my job.” She paused again as she determined just exactly what to say. “But I no longer work for Mr. Pinkerton himself. Instead, I have been shifted to another department. It was in the discharge of those duties that I happened to be called on to help Agent Russell.”

Daddy seemed to be considering her statement. Meanwhile, Sadie allowed a small amount of relief over the fact that while she had told the truth of her current situation, she had not been forced to admit the full extent of her duties in working for the Pinkertons. Merely allowing her to continue as a secretary, when she was not traveling with Uncle Penn, had taken quite some time and energy. She would not add any further grief to what had already been expounded upon unless she absolutely must.

“All right then. I suppose the subject’s closed for now. I’ll see what I can do about keeping your mama from bringing it up.”

“Thank you, Daddy. Now can we go home?”

“Is the one trunk all you have?” he asked as he shepherded her through the crowd and outside to the family carriage. “You packed light this time,” he said with a chuckle. “And didn’t do much shopping.”

“That’s all,” she said as she allowed Daddy to help her in. “And all the shopping I did fit easily inside.”

For all that his good humor raised her suspicions, Sadie allowed herself to feel a small measure of relief. Given the warnings sent through Uncle Penn, she had fully expected her father to give her what-for right there on the platform before they ever left the train station.

As she settled back on the padded seat, Daddy excused himself to step outside and speak to the porter about her trunk. A folded newspaper, likely her father’s entertainment while he awaited the train, had been left on the seat across from her. Sadie picked it up to reveal the front page of
L’Abeille de la Nouvelle-Orléans,
the French language newspaper also known as the
New Orleans Bee.

Among the advertisements for Pharmacie Americaine on Canal Street and Mmes. Godin et Martinet Robes et Confections on Bourbon Street was a notice for the grand opening of yet another library sponsored by the Millie’s Treasure Foundation.

Sadie smiled as she thought of Kyle Russell and his bride, Millie, the couple behind the foundation that had done so much in the past year since its inception. That smile dimmed as she wondered whether she might someday find love as her fellow Pinkerton agent had.

For to love would mean to share secrets that Sadie was unsure she might ever be able to share. She folded the paper along with her dreams of a life beyond her beloved Pinkerton work and pressed them away.

A moment later, with the trunk safely loaded, Daddy was back and they were off. Seamus Callum still bore the fair-haired good looks he had passed on to two of her brothers, but Sadie couldn’t help noticing that the eyes that sparkled upon her arrival bore smudges beneath them.

“Are you tired, Daddy?”

“I suppose I am. Had some trouble with an evaporator that broke down. With Brent and Cade off who knows where, I’m shorthanded.”

“Did you send them after me again?”

The question, bold as it was, hung in the air between them. Until this moment neither had ever spoken of the way Callum men shadowed her. Rather, by tacit agreement, Daddy pretended he didn’t send them and Sadie pretended she didn’t mind when one or two of her brothers arrived unannounced.

He studied her, or at least he appeared to. Barely blinking, he rested his square jaw against one scarred fist until Sadie was sure he didn’t intend to answer at all.

“Never once have I sent anyone after you, and that’s a promise. But now that we’re talking about it, where is it you go, Sarah Louise?”

Swinging her gaze toward him, she found all evidence of his former good humor gone. Instead, his big hands rested on his knees, fingers drumming against his trouser legs as if the energy required to hold them still was too great.

“Different places,” she answered carefully.

“That’s no answer for a man’s only daughter to give her father. I know you’re grown, but when the good Lord gave you to me, I promised Him I would look after you best I could.”

“And you have, Daddy.” She reached across the space between them to rest her palm over his knuckles. His movement ceased. “Thank you for that.”

He turned his hands over to capture her wrist. “Where is it you go?” he repeated. “Tell me the truth.”

“I did. Different places is an honest answer. Wherever Uncle Penn goes, I tag along,” she added.

“Then I’ll know the answer why.”

That she couldn’t tell him. Not without giving away the exact nature of her employment at the Pinkerton Agency.

“Now, Daddy, you know I have acted as traveling companion to Uncle Penn ever since Auntie decided she was too old to leave Mobile and I finished my course of studies at the Institute. Maybe you should be asking him why he goes to the places he’s gone.”

The statement was a risk. Sadie was banking on the knowledge that Daddy and Uncle Penn said as little as possible to one another.

“I have.”

Oh.

“He’s a spy, sunshine. So I need to know if you’re one too.”

“A spy?” She laughed. “Daddy, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. The war ended more than two decades ago. What could Uncle Penn possibly be spying on?” His expression stopped her. “You’re serious.”

“I am.”

She gave him a sideways look. “Did he tell you that?”

“Not in so many words.”

Sadie thought carefully before speaking. “Well, then, I will allow that he might have done some sleuthing during the war as you’ve claimed over the years, but a spy? If he is, then he’s a good one because I’ve seen no evidence of it.”

The truth. What she did not add was that her ability to do her own spying would have called attention to any similar proclivities in her uncle years ago.

Her father’s eyes narrowed and he moved his hand away as he shifted positions. “If he was good at it, then you wouldn’t see any evidence of it, would you?”

He had her there. And yet Penn Monroe was a harmless but interesting older gentleman with a wife who had turned into a homebody in her old age.

A man who called Henry Smith a trusted friend. Yet he had showed no interest in the cases she had handled, preferring instead to be used as her reasons for travel and nothing more.

“I can see you’re thinking about it now, aren’t you?” Daddy shrugged. “I’m no genius, but if Penn didn’t tell you, then maybe that just makes all those travels you two have done together all the more suspicious.”