Texas Tiger TH3 (40 page)

Georgina could hear the call of the newsboys hawking Daniel's newspaper outside the factory at noon. As the work shift broke for lunch, she could hear the women calling for their papers, and she smiled as she listened to the excited discussions erupting outside her office window. At least someone was reading the fruit of Daniel's labors.

Janice entered the open factory office door without knocking. The open-door policy had been one of Georgina's better ideas, but the truce between the two of them was still a fractious one. The other woman resented her inexperience, didn't trust her wealth or background, and wasn't prepared to accept Georgina as a working woman. Georgina figured Janice was waiting for her to get bored or tired and walk out complaining. There were times when she wanted to. What Janice didn't count on was that Daniel would be waiting for Georgina back at the news-paper if she did give up, and she couldn't face Daniel feeling a failure. So she gritted her teeth and kept working.

"Audrey says the Mulloney workers are ready to strike." Janice contained her excitement in a whisper as she glanced over her shoulder to make certain no one was listening.

Georgina sat back in her chair and allowed satisfaction to roll over her. "All of them?"

"All the ones that count." Janice threw the latest edition of the paper on the desk. "If the strike goes on for long, they're going to get mighty hungry."

Georgina picked up the paper and spread it out so the blaring headlines about ABC Rentals could be seen. "They can use their rent money to eat. This article will see to that."

"Sooner or later, though, they'll have to pay the money. We'll all be in debt so far we won't see our way out."

Georgina frowned and glared at the newsprint. "I wish I knew an easy solution. If we had a real union and paid into it for weeks and months until we had a balance built up..."

"Nothing would ever get done," Janice said firmly. "It's got to be done while everyone is fired up. And they're furious because Mulloney has told them they have to work July Fourth. That's when the big parade and celebration are held downtown, and he wants to take advantage of the crowds."

"That will do it!" Georgina looked up and grinned. "Independence Day. How symbolic can you get? We can stage a parade of our own right through Mulloney's front lawn."

Janice managed a smile of appreciation. "I'd like to see that. Of course"—her smile disappeared—"I'd like to see them march right through your father's front lawn, too."

Georgina waved a hand. "Go ahead. There isn't anyone there to appreciate it at the moment, but if it makes everybody happy, I won't deprive them. Anyway, from what my father said, his lawn will be Mulloney's before long, unless something changes. I just keep waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Janice sank into the nearest chair and crossed her hands in her lap. "Then the rumors are true. This place is going under and we'll all be out of work."

Georgina's lips straightened into a thin line. "Don't say that. Words have a tendency to make themselves true. I don't know a lot about bookkeeping and selling and such, but Doris knows everything there is to know about that end of it. She's helping me. We've already picked up several new accounts. It's just a matter of having their purchases made up out of existing stock and receiving the money for them so we can buy new material. I don't think anyone will to sell us material on credit anymore."

Janice nodded thoughtfully. "All right. We'll cut the patterns so as to limit waste as much as possible. We'll be able to squeeze a few extras out of every bolt. If I spread the word, there's half a dozen ways we can cut waste. That should give you a little extra cash to make a bigger purchase for the next sale."

Georgina sighed in relief. "If I had any authority, I would make you foreman—or forewoman—or whatever it would be called. But if you can manage to cut waste, I'll try to see that there's a little extra in everyone's paycheck when that sale comes through."

Janice stood up and prepared to leave. "The money has to be there somewhere. Your family lived off it for years."

Georgina stood up with her. "I'm thinking my family lived off Mulloney for years. He owns us. I don't want him owning me."

Janice grimaced. "He owns the whole town. If you can figure out how to get us out from under him, you're a genius."

Georgina didn't even see her go. Janice's words had started the wheels spinning, and she was afraid to contemplate the results. Daniel was a Mulloney. Daniel was the eldest Mulloney son. Somehow, Daniel had the means to force his father to release his heavy-handed grip on the town.

Those facts still churned uneasily through her mind as she set out for home that evening. Home. Georgina looked up at the boarded windows of the nearly empty warehouse across the street and marveled that she could call such a place home. She had to be out of her mind. But the thought that Daniel was waiting for her there, that he would be sitting there with his newspaper, eating from a pot of some concoction heated on that old stove, sent her hurrying in anticipation.

Georgina stopped short as she noticed the man pounding nails into boards across their front door. She had thought him a hired workman come to repair some of the damage. The stink on the front stairs had been enough to nearly bring her breakfast up this morning, and Daniel had assured her he would have it cleaned before she returned. But this man wasn't cleaning anything. He was nailing boards across the door.

"What on earth are you doing?" Georgina demanded as she came up beside him.

The workman pulled on the bill of his flattened cap in a mocking salute, spit a wad of tobacco in the street, and resumed hammering. "This building's condemned. It's unsafe for human habitation. Owner's going to have to tear it down."

Georgina froze, unable to juggle the variety of panics springing to mind. Her gaze flew to the boarded windows where Daniel ought to be waiting. This just couldn't be. Everything they owned was in there. This was their home.

She heard Max's howl, and it jarred her back to action. She grabbed the man's hammer and began ripping out the boards. "My dog is in there. You can't board up a dog."

The man had little choice but to stand aside and watch her rip off the board he had just installed. He'd probably never seen a lady in silk gown and bustle tear into a boarded door before, but she was pretty sure he wouldn't touch her. He waited, stuffing a new rope of tobacco into his cheek as Georgina swung open the door and raced into the darkened interior.

There weren't any lamps lit in the office as she opened the door. Max leapt out of the semidarkness and licked her exuberantly, but there wasn't any sign of Daniel. Pushing her fear deep down inside her, she snapped Max on his leash, ordered him to stay, and went to search through the rooms for what seemed most portable.

She grabbed her satchel, added some of Daniel's shirts, and went to the pressroom where he kept the locked chest. Realizing she still held the hammer, Georgina slammed it into the lock, splintering it. She didn't think Daniel would keep gold in a chest so easily opened, but his guns were there. She wouldn't leave them behind.

The chest was filled with yellowed manuscripts. She hoped they were ones already published because she couldn't possibly carry them. The gunbelt was there. The rifle wasn't. She didn't know what that signified, but with Daniel and his rifle missing, and the man downstairs shutting them down, it smelled of warfare.

Adding the belt and guns to her satchel, Georgina took one last glance around and found nothing else that she could carry. She glanced over her shoulder at Daniel's printing press. Surely there was some way he could come back and save that. There had to be.

She marched down the stairs with Max in one hand and the satchel in the other. Somebody would hear about this, and they weren't going to enjoy one minute of it.

"Who's responsible for condemning buildings?" Georgina demanded as soon as she hit the bright light of the street.

The workman shrugged and took the hammer from her. "Mayor, I imagine. I just take orders from my boss." He backed away from Max's threatening growl.

Georgina gave him her best vapid smile. "Then I'd suggest you don't trouble yourself too much with those boards. They'll be down again tomorrow. The mayor is a friend of mine."

"That's what they all say." The man went back to hammering.

Fuming, Georgina stalked down the street. She couldn't go to the mayor's house dragging a satchel and Max, and looking like this. She needed to know where Daniel was. She needed something in her stomach. She was about to starve. And she needed to know where she was sleeping tonight.

She certainly hadn't got much sleep the night before. Remembering what Daniel had done to her last night, Georgina felt the heat rush through her cheeks. She was still sore, but it was a soreness she was more than willing to suffer again. If this was what it meant to be a wife, she was sorry she hadn't started years ago. Even now, her need to know where she would sleep tonight had little to do with sleep and much to do with Daniel. She wanted his arms around her right now.

She didn't even know where to begin to look for him. He had always been right there, where she needed him. It felt very odd to be wandering around without him, without even knowing where to find him. It was like losing a part of herself, the better part.

But she couldn't stand in the street, looking lost. She had to do something. And the nearest place she knew to go was the Harrisons.

When she reached the street where the Harrisons lived, she knew she had made a wrong decision. The narrow dirty alley was swirling with angry young men, screaming women, and crying children. As Georgina approached, some turned their attention from the center of this chaos to glare at her and yell curses.

Max growled and kept the worst of the crowd at bay. A stone sailed over her head, but it had been a halfhearted throw at best. The worst of the fury was focused on something just out of her sight—something terrifyingly close to the Harrisons' little hovel.

Having just experienced what it was like to be arbitrarily thrown out of her home, Georgina felt fear leap to her throat. Daniel had managed to produce his paper despite threats and shotguns and intruders in the night. The person behind those threats would have to vent his fury and frustration in some way, especially since the contents of that paper would now be the talk of the town. The Harrisons had already been targeted for vengeance, and they weren't as strong as Daniel.

With Max's help Georgina shoved her way through the crowd. Just as she had feared, she could see Janice holding a weeping Betsy in her arms, while Douglas danced up and down on a table, screaming and cursing at the top of his lungs. The objects of his curses calmly continued dumping loads of furnishings into the growing pile in the street.

With relief, Georgina discovered Daniel filling a wheelbarrow with some of the Harrisons' smaller possessions. Behind him a man filled a pony cart with furniture. Other men arrived with wheelbarrows and carts as she pushed through to this inner circle, and an insane idea began to dance in Georgina's mind.

As if there were some magnetic current between them, Daniel's gaze lifted to her as soon as she broke through the crowd. Sweat was pouring down his forehead, and his partially opened shirt clung to his back. Georgina could see the helpless fury in his light-colored eyes as their gazes locked, but she reacted with a laughing smile that set him back.

Throwing her satchel into the nearest cart, Georgina sent Max into Douglas's waiting arms, then approached Janice and Betsy with an insouciance she could portray easily in her rich traveling silks, but one she couldn't feel inside. The men carting furniture from the house snickered at her approach, but she ignored them. Janice looked immediately suspicious, and Audrey turned away, but their aunt met Georgina's laughing approach with a bright look. The old lady was ready for anything.

"Remember that parade we talked about earlier?" Georgina addressed the question to Janice who responded with weary bewilderment. "The one across my father's front lawn?"

Recognition lit Janice's eyes briefly, but wariness replaced it. She nodded, and her gaze went to the procession of carts and barrows and donkeys forming in the alley.

"Since Daniel and I have just been kicked out of our rooms, we have to go somewhere. You might as well go with us." Georgina grinned as Janice looked startled and Douglas jumped down to join them.

Daniel came up behind her then, putting a hand on her shoulder and squeezing it. Georgina glanced up and gave him a slightly wavery smile. "They condemned the newspaper building," she whispered. "They're boarding up the doors right now."

Daniel's hand was hot and sweaty, and Georgina could see the weariness in his eyes as he nodded in understanding. She was so physically aware of him that she knew his leg hurt even without seeing his limp. She could smell the male musk of him beneath the odor of perspiration, and she would have given anything to be able to dive into his arms right now. But she couldn't stop to think about things like fear or she would collapse in sobs right here in the middle of the road.

"I thought it would be a nice night for a parade. We have to march past Mulloney's before we reach my father's house. I don't think the servants can stop us from getting in, can they?"

Even through his weariness, Daniel grinned. "You have a malevolent mind, Miss Merry. I really do appreciate it."