Tidewater Inn (45 page)
Maybe hot milk would help her sleep. She rose and went to the icebox. Her hands closed around the glass jug and she held it up to the faint light. Nearly empty. She bit her lip and put it away. The children would need it more than her.
Turning back toward the cot, she heard a faint click. Almost like the door latch. Surely Jed wouldn't be sneaking out. The wood floor was rough and cool against her bare feet as she tiptoed back toward the entry. She didn't call out for fear of awakening Eileen. As she neared the door, a figure loomed out of the shadows, and she smelled a man's hair tonic. The fellow was much too big to be Jed. It wasn't Albert either. The figure was too burly.
Her memory flashed back to the man who'd been following her, and she recognized the shape of the hat. In her haste to back away, she stumbled over the hem of her nightgown and fell, banging her back against the leg of the cot. She bit back a cry at the pain that gripped her and struggled to scoot away from the intruder.
A man's voice growled out of the blackness. “Where is it?”
She scrambled to her feet and felt for her footstool. It had to be here somewhere. Her fingers closed around it and she whirled to brandish it over her head. “Get out of here!” She swung the stool and it collided with the thug's head.
He swore at her, and his calloused hand seized her arm. He tore her weapon from her hand.
“Help!” She darted away from the man and raced for the door that showed a crack of light from the way it hung slightly ajar. A middle-aged couple lived next door, and the husband was a burly ironworker. “Mr. Thomas!” She had no idea what time it was or if her choked cry was loud enough to summon help, but she was too small to deter the brute.
She threw open the door and screamed again before the man shoved her. She stumbled to her knees, then regained her feet and lurched to the porch, screaming for Mr. Thomas again.
A faint shout came from the house next door. “Coming.”
She whirled to face her attacker. He wore tan pants with suspenders over a dingy plaid shirt. He was tall and thick with a shock of pale hair that fell over angry eyes peering from under his floppy hat. His gaze flickered to the street. His scowl darkened, then he plunged into the wash of light from the streetlight before the shadows beyond swallowed him up.
Lucy gasped as Mr. Thomas, still belting his pants under his nightshirt, rushed up the steps to the porch. His wife was behind him. “A man broke into our house.” Lucy pointed down the street. “He ran that way.”
“I'll summon the police.” Mr. Thomas rushed down the steps.
“Are you all right, my dear?” his wife asked, leading Lucy into the house. “Did he . . . ?”
Lucy shook her head. “He didn't harm me, Mrs. Thomas, thanks to you and your husband.” She lit a gaslight, and its comforting glow filled the room. “I must check on the children. If they heard me scream, they'll be frightened.”
Still clucking, the older woman followed her. “I'll prepare some tea. You've had a shock to your nerves.”
Lucy nodded and rushed to the tiny bedroom at the back of the house where her siblings slept. Eileen lay curled up on her pallet, but Jed's cot only contained rumpled covers. “Jed?” she whispered. She touched the cot in case her eyes deceived her, but her hand grasped only cool sheets.
Maybe her brother was in the privy. Retracing her steps, she crossed the parlor to the kitchen where she lit a lamp and carried it to the back door. She stepped onto the back stoop. “Jed, are you out here?”
Jed's form appeared in front of the outhouse. “What's wrong?” He rushed up the steps.
She hugged him. “There was a man in our apartment.” She released him long enough to draw him inside.
“Maybe he was looking for money,” he said. “He broke into the wrong apartment if he was.”
“He's been following me.”
Jed went still in her arms, then pulled out of her embrace. “I'm scared to stay here. Scared for Eileen too. What's going to happen to us now that Pa is gone?”
Lucy's gaze jerked to her sister, who was rubbing her eyes in the bedroom doorway, before veering back to Jed. “I could marry Mr. Stanton's son and get us out of here.”
His eyes were moist. “I think you have to, Lucy. Where will we go if you don't?”
A knock came at the door, and a man's voice called out, “Police, Miss Marsh.”
JED LISTENED TO the policeman question his sister. His heart rebounded against his ribs. He'd nearly told her. Dad would have been disappointed after he'd specifically said not to tell anyone, not even Lucy.
Eileen tugged on his arm. “I have to go potty, Jed.”
“Use the chamber pot.”
Eileen wrinkled her nose. “It smells.”
Sighing, Jed took her hand and led her to the back door. The outhouse loomed in the backyard. He took her to the building that listed to the left.
She snatched her hand from his. “I can go by myself.”
“I'll wait outside.” He leaned against the door she closed and tried to make sense of what had happened.
His head ached every time he tried to remember the night of the accident. Flashes of the horse screaming, the rain pounding on his head, and the sound of the carriage screeching along the cobblestone swarmed in his head. Every time he tried to remember, those thoughts filled him with panic. He swallowed hard. There was something on the edge of his remembrance, but it always played hide-and-seek with him.
He straightened when Eileen came out the door, tugging down her nightgown. “Ready?”
She nodded and took his hand. As they walked back to the house, he thought he heard something rustling in the bushes. “Who's there?” When there was no answer, he rushed Eileen to the back door and pushed her inside.
It might be one of his friends who dared him to lift Mr. Stanton's wallet. He sidled to the shrubs. “Joe?” he whispered.
But a hand much larger than Joe's grabbed his arm. “Where are the dollars?” a harsh voice growled.
“I don't have any dollars.” In trying to tug his arm away, Jed fell against the fellow, and the tight grip loosened enough that he was able to tug free and run for the house. He stumbled inside, then jumped up and threw the dead bolt.
The acrid taste of fear clung to his tongue. If only Dad were still alive. He'd know what to do with the danger that drew closer every minute. Jed wanted to go to his cot and cover his head, but he wasn't a little kid anymore. Lucy and Eileen needed him to figure out what to do.
He turned back toward the window. Something moved at the edge of the outhouse, but he couldn't see in the gloom. And it didn't matter. Nothing on earth would make him go out there again.
The story continues in
Blue Moon Promise
by C
OLLEEN
C
OBLE
Also by Colleen Coble
A novella included in
Smitten
Under Texas Stars novels
Blue Moon Promise
The Lonestar Novels
Lonstar Sanctuary
Lonestar Secrets
Lonestar Homecoming
Lonestar Angel
The Mercy Falls series
The Lightkeeper's Daughter
The Lightkeeper's Bride
The Lightkeeper's Ball
The Rock Harbor series
Without a Trace
Beyond a Doubt
Into the Deep
Cry in the Night
The Aloha Reef series
Distant Echoes
Black Sands
Dangerous Depths
Alaska Twilight
Fire Dancer
Midnight Sea
Abomination
Anathema
R
ITA finalist Colleen Coble is the author of several best-selling romantic suspense series, including the Mercy Falls series, the Lonestar series, and the Rock Harbor series. She lives with her husband, Dave, in Indiana.
