Texas Tiger TH3 (49 page)

She was crying now, and Daniel leapt to his feet, reaching for her hand even as Peter started across the room.

"Please, don't cry. I was a cripple until I was eighteen. I could easily have died without Nanny's care. It's all worked out for the best. You couldn't have known, and you couldn't have made it any better for me if you had. I'm just sorry I never had a chance to know you."

"Maybe you'd better leave now." Hands in pockets, Peter stood beside him, gesturing his head toward the door. "Dr. Phelps said she shouldn't be overexcited just yet."

"No. No, you can't leave. We have too much to talk about. Go get your brothers, Peter. They need to know about Daniel. I'm not ashamed of him, and I don't intend for him to be hidden from the rest of you anymore."

The fragile hand gripping his had a strength Daniel never expected. He turned uncertainly to Peter. "I'm not sure this is a good idea. Your father doesn't claim me. He will throw Georgie's parents out of their house if he knows I'm here. I think you'd better think about this carefully before we do anything rash."

Peter's smile was almost malicious. "Heaven forbid that we should do anything rash, big brother. You might get saddled with this whole crazy house instead of me. But one thing I can tell you for certain, if the old man says one thing to insult our mother, I'll deck him myself. You'll have to wait your turn."

The frail hand tugged at his, and Daniel turned his attention back to the beautiful woman he was being told was the mother he'd never known. Chaotic emotions warred within him, and he struggled to control them as she spoke.

"There isn't one iota of truth to what Artemis claims!" she said indignantly. "It's true I was in love with another man before my parents agreed to his proposal, but I would never have done what he thinks I did. My father lost a great deal of money in land speculation. We would have been impoverished if I hadn't accepted Artemis's proposal. I am ashamed of myself now, but at the time, all I could think of was living without the servants and pretty frocks I was accustomed to. The man I loved was far from wealthy. I couldn't bring him any dowry. So I married Artemis, and I remained faithful to him, even though he swore otherwise. You may not have been the healthy son or image of him that he expected, but you are his child. He will simply have to accept that fact."

Before Daniel could find the words to reply, the bedroom door slammed open and the boy he now knew as John burst through. John looked slightly disheveled and smelled of horse sweat, but he brushed at his hair with his hands and straightened his shirt in his mother's presence. He glanced with curiosity at Daniel, but his attention reverted to Peter.

"You'd better get down to the store. Something's going on, and it doesn't look good. All the employees seem to be in the street outside, and I don't see any sign of Father."

A younger version of Peter strolled in at a more sedate pace, his green eyes veering to the room's various occupants and a frown similar to Peter's formed on his forehead. "You're that newspaper editor, aren't you?" He turned to Peter. "What's he doing in here?"

Edith was the one to answer. "Boys, I want you to meet your eldest brother, Daniel."

The silence that fell over the room was broken by the faint strains of a band playing "Yankee Doodle" in the distance.

Chapter 39

"Daniel is dead," Paul announced flatly, glaring at Daniel through eyes so like his father's and Peter's it was eerie. "I've seen the grave in the cemetery."

"You wish," Peter answered. "Undoubtedly, that was what Father wished, too. But Daniel had the obnoxious gall to survive."

Discomfort crawled over Daniel's skin, but the woman in the bed clung to his hand like a lifeline. He had always wondered what his family was like. He wasn't certain he wanted to find out all at once.

Twenty-year-old John stepped forward first, his eyes alight with curiosity, his message forgotten. He studied Daniel as if he were a foreign object to be catalogued. "You don't look like Father," he decided.

"He looks like my side of the family, just as you do." Edith gestured for her youngest son to come to her side. "I think he's been denied enough as it is. I want you all to make him feel welcome."

"When hell freezes over." Paul crossed his arms over his chest and glared.

With a lopsided grin John held out his hand. "Paul and I don't agree on anything. You're the one who won Georgie, aren't you? I am green with envy."

As if the sound of her name caused her to materialize, a familiar voice called from the stairway. "Yoo-hoo! No one answered the door, so we let ourselves in."

Daniel felt a wave of relief sweep over him. He had a dire need for Georgina's presence right now. Giving John's hand a brief shake and releasing himself from his mother's grip, he took a step toward the doorway.

Georgie was faster. And Evie. And Tyler. Daniel gaped as the trio swept in. He must have fallen on his head when he jumped off that train. Or maybe he ate a strange mushroom in Mama Sukey's jambalaya last night.

Trailing lavender organdy and smelling of lilies, Georgina sailed across the room. "Mrs. Mulloney! You are looking so much better! I trust Peter took my advice and called in Dr. Phelps."

Laughter danced in Evie's dark eyes as she glanced around at the men standing stiffly in various parts of the room. Behind her, Tyler propped a shoulder against the door frame and crossed his arms, his gaze measuring the situation for any elements of danger. Garbed in a fawn frock coat and low-crowned Stetson, he was nearly as elegant as Evie in her yellow traveling gown with narrow bustle and shortened skirt.

Georgina made introductions, and the Monteignes gracefully shook hands and uttered pleasantries. The stunned Mulloney brothers could scarcely take in all the chatter at once. It was only when their mother made an exclamation of joyous surprise that they turned in unison to the center of their world.

"So you are Louise's daughter! How much like your mother you look, my dear. You don't know how good it is to meet you!" Edith clasped Evie's hand in both of hers.

With satisfaction Daniel noted it was Evie's turn to be shocked. She stared at the woman in the bed with a mixture of hope and surprise. She and Daniel had grown up as orphans, never knowing their real parents.

"You knew my mother?"

Edith smiled. "She was my favorite cousin. We grew up together. When I received word of her untimely death, I felt sorry that she had never experienced the joy of children. Now I know she must have had her love for you all those years. I hated to think all that was left of my family was gone. Now I have you. I think this has been the best day of my life."

Tears glittered in her eyes, and Daniel looked helplessly to the two women in the room for some clue as to what he should do. As the eldest, he felt responsible, but he'd never had a mother before. He didn't know where to begin.

Evie bent to kiss Edith's cheek, and Georgina hurried to fluff up her pillows. The music outside seemed to grow louder.

"The store!" John remembered abruptly. "We've got to get down to the store."

A loud slam and a violent curse in the lower hall ended that thought. A roar of "Peter!" sent the crystal lamp prisms shaking.

Smiling brilliantly, Georgina slipped from the bedside to clasp Peter's arm gently with one hand, patting it with the other. "The employees went on strike this morning. You'd better calm him down and make him see reason or it could become very ugly shortly."

"Georgina!" Peter and Daniel exclaimed in unison at her calm statement.

Tyler captured Evie's arm and pulled her behind him as furious footsteps resounded on the stairs. Daniel grabbed Georgina away from his brother, pushing her closer to his mother and standing guard in front of both of them. In complete accord as before, his three brothers formed a barrier between the bed and the door.

"Peter, get yourself out here now! We're going to have to straighten—"

The man in the doorway stopped abruptly at the sight of the room full of people. The barrier of his sons in front of the bed caused him no concern, but the sight of Daniel standing to one side brought the mottled purple of wrath to his sagging jowls.

"You! I should have known you would be behind this. I've reached the end of my patience." He turned and stabbed a finger in Georgina's direction. "You better tell your parents to start packing their bags. They'll be out on the streets tomorrow."

Concerted sounds of protest erupted around the room, but the silver-haired man gave no heed as he stalked toward the huge bay window at the rising sounds from the street below. "What the hell!" he demanded more than asked as he stared out to the street.

"It's a protest march," Georgina announced brightly. "Your employees are demanding better working conditions." She peered with curiosity out a smaller window. "And I rather think more than the department store employees are with them."

That was undoubtedly the understatement of the year, Daniel decided as he peered over her shoulder. Through the canopy of trees along the edge of the lawn he could discern what appeared to be the entire Independence Day parade marching up the quiet residential street. Horns blared, drums pounded, and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" became "The Star-Spangled Banner" as they listened.

"Goddammit, stop them!" Artemis roared as the parade veered toward the open gates of the front drive.

Georgina gave her father-in-law a nervous look and tugged at Daniel's sleeve so he bent to hear her whisper. "His color isn't healthy, Daniel. Maybe you'd better calm him down."

Daniel looked at her with incredulity. Half the town was marching across the front lawn, and she wanted him to calm his father down? "I quit being a hero," he reminded her.

"Ummm, that's true." A slight frown marred her forehead as she glanced around at the room's occupants.

Peter had gone to stand beside his father and stare at the mob of people filling the emerald lawn. Evie sat beside the woman in the bed, patting her hand, while Tyler hovered protectively. The two younger Mulloneys had found another window from which to watch. There really was very little any of them could do now that the scene had been set in motion.

Artemis flung open the windows and stepped out onto the small balcony beyond. Shaking his fist at the crowd forming below, he yelled, "Get yourselves out of here before I fire the lot of you! Dammit, I'm calling the police!"

The rousing cacophony of horns and drums gradually came to a standstill while people still marched through the gates, spilling across the lawn and up the trees and onto the walls so they could watch the action. A male voice raised loudly enough to be heard through the open window.

"We've come to declare our independence! We will no longer be slaves! We demand decent hours and decent pay!"

"You can have your damned independence!" Mulloney roared back. "You can all go look for jobs tomorrow."

Peter caught his father's arm and tried to pull him away. "Don't do this, Father. We can't possibly keep the store open without them. Let's hear them out first."

Artemis turned a deeper shade of purple and shook his fist at his son. "Stay out of this, you traitor. You're the one who brought that bastard in here." He shook his finger in Daniel's direction.

"I won't have you malign my mother like that, sir," Peter replied with calm indignation. "Daniel is as much your son as I am."

"You're no son of mine!" He shook his fist furiously. "You're..." With a sudden startled gasp he grabbed his chest and staggered.

Peter caught his father's arm and steered him away from the balcony. Below, someone continued the speech-making, and rousing cheers rose from the crowd.

"Let go of me, damn you!" Artemis fought off Peter's grasp and tried to straighten. He gasped as if the wind had been knocked out of him, and bent over again.

"John, find a doctor," Daniel yelled, rushing to help Peter.

Both John and Paul ran out the door. Their steps clattering down the stairs mixed with the yells and noise outside the window.

Worriedly, Edith attempted to rise from her bed. Both Georgina and Evie rushed to help her. "Bring him over here. Make him lie down," she ordered.

"Dammit, woman, I'm fine! You're not going to make an invalid out of me." Artemis tried to shake off the hold of both of his sons, but his weakness betrayed him. They led him easily in the direction of the bed.