Tomorrow's Sun (46 page)

Emily hung the clean barbeque fork on the grill and pointed at the circle of chairs around the campfire. “Let me try this again. The three who are standing are Amy, Kerry, and Luis. Rich and Dom are on the bench, and the guy in the blue hoodie is Wayne, your lawyer. I already knew Topher, Colt, and Tina, and the guy in the Brewers hat is…uh…on the tip of my tongue.”

“Ralph. He installed your toilets. You shouldn’t forget his name.”

“You’re right.” She rested her head on his shoulder, thinking for the hundredth time this week that he was the perfect height for her. “This was a good idea. Everyone needed a distraction.”

“Everyone else needed one. I already have mine.”

“Nice to be useful.”

“Oh, you are.” He nuzzled her ear with his nose. “You are definitely useful.”

“Uh-oh. Interruption at two o’clock.”

Tina walked toward them, carrying a folded lawn chair. “We need to go pick up the kids and get them to bed. But first I want a tour of Emily’s house.” She aimed her I-told-you-so grin at Jake. “Can I steal her for a minute?”

Emily yawned. “I think I’m ready to call it a night.” She raised up and kissed the frown off Jake’s lips. “Send them home and get some sleep.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

They were barely out of earshot when Tina whispered, “Well? Is this a kiss-and-run or a kiss-and-stay-forever?”

“It’s not a kiss-and-run. I don’t know about forever yet.”

“But you want it to be, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“I knew it.”

Emily tuned in and out of Tina’s monologue about how she knew Colt was “the one.” The reverie continued until Emily opened the front door and turned on the new overhead lights. Tina let out a respectable gasp. “It’s amazing. So new, and yet you kept all the old feel.”

“Thank you. That could have been the tagline on my spec sheets, but with Dorothy buying it…”

Wide brown eyes flashed at her. “You’re still selling? Only if you and Jake don’t work out, right?”

“No. I mean yes, I’m still selling. If Jake and I…we’ll figure it out if that time comes.”

Tina’s long-legged strides loped through the dining room and into the kitchen where she continued to gush, not just about the house, but about how perfect it would be for a family of four. She headed for the stairs. “How could this not be your destiny, girl? Four bedrooms. One for Adam, one for Alexis, one for you and Kiss-and-Stay, and a nursery for the cute babies you guys will have.” Tina rubbed her bulging belly. “They’ll be buds.”

Happy place
. She thought of Jake’s nose on her ear, his whispers sending chills skittering up her back. She had more happy thoughts than she’d ever need. She flipped on the bathroom light switch. “Jake said he found this light fixture in your barn.”

Tina squealed. “That used to be in my grandma’s dining room! See? It’s a sign. If you keep the house, I can come sit in your bathroom and feel like I’m having Thanksgiving dinner with Gramsy.”

The heart-stab from the nursery comment dissipated. Laughter was the only option. “If I were staying here, I’d keep a gravy boat on the counter just to make you feel at home.”

Tina’s eyes grew uncharacteristically serious. “Walk me back.”

She had no idea what possessed her to agree. Tina was silent until they crossed the street.

“Jake won’t ditch
you
. You know that, don’t you?”

She’d shared almost nothing of her past with Tina. Was it that obvious?

“Maybe I’m wrong, and it’s none of my business, but if you’re holding back because you think he’s going to dump you, you’re dead wrong.” They reached the redbrick house. Colt sat in the car in front. Tina gestured to the side of the house. “Now go get one more good-night kiss.” With a quick hug, she sprinted toward the car.

Emily was a step from the backyard when she heard her name mentioned. She stepped back and crouched close to the edge of the house.

“…did what I told you.” The lawyer’s courtroom voice carried around the corner. “You tell them you’re getting married and you’ve got a major leg up over Madsen. I’m telling you, man, she’s your lottery ticket. With Emily in your pocket you got this sewed…”

The last thing she heard before she ran was Jake’s laugh.

November 2, 1852

“Must I come?” Hannah offered Papa a spoon of cooling apple Betty.

Papa shook his head. “It would look odd if you didn’t accompany me.” He slipped one arm into the frock coat he wore only for church or business, or supper with cousins he’d rather not see. “We cannot be guided by fear, Hannah.”

Her mouth puckered. She should have used more sugar. “The way Cousin Jonathan looks at us, it’s like he knows. He knows what kind of man you are. How could he not suspect that you are actively involved? I don’t like this. Why are they back so soon? I feel like we’re walking into one of Liam’s wolf traps. Only
they’re
the wolves who should be trapped!”

Papa’s eyebrow rose high. “Funny you should bring up Liam.”

“What do you mean?” Hannah ran a finger under the high, and suddenly too tight, collar of her calico dress.

“Put on your coat.” He lifted it from a hook by the back door. A hook made by Liam. “We’ll talk as we walk.”

Her fingers trembled. She counted buttons. Twenty-four. She slipped damp hands into gloves and followed Papa out the front door and down the steps. He said nothing until their shoes echoed on the planks of the bridge.

“There are rumors.”

“Abou—” Her voice rasped, disappearing beneath the rush of water and the echo of their footfalls.

“About you and Liam.” His voice was stern, without a trace of approval. “Mrs. Baker came into the store this morning. Apparently Dolly has shared some things with her I assume you told in confidence.”

Bile rose in Hannah’s throat. Clamping a glove over her mouth, she prayed the spoonful of apple Betty would stay down. “Wha— what did she say?”

“That your father is dumb as a post.”

“She did not!” Relief tumbled like the dark water at the tease in his voice.

“No, she did not. But clearly I am. Would you like to tell me what I am too obtuse to figure out on my own?”

Hannah stopped beneath the gas lamp in front of the bank. She needed to see her father’s face before answering. What she saw was not disapproval, but a hint of fear—the very emotion he’d just told her they could not be guided by. “We are in love, Papa.”

“The feeling is mutual?”

“Very much so.”

Papa’s eyes closed briefly. “What are his intentions?”

“The highest. You know him. He—”

“I thought I knew him. Go on.”

“He won’t ask me to marry until he is making more money.”

Papa nodded, took her elbow, and they walked to the door of the Union House. “I imagine there is more to it than that. He is, as you say, a man of the highest intentions. He is protecting you, Hannah.”

“From what?”

“From being linked to him as a coconspirator should he ever…” The sentence went unfinished. “I’ll not allow that. There is far too much danger in being seen with him.”

Her breath stopped.

As Papa grasped the door handle, he smiled. “But if that boy would like your father’s blessing to court you secretly, he’d best come and ask for it.”

Hannah gasped. The apple Betty rose again then settled back where it belonged, but there was no way her belly would calm enough to allow her to eat.

Cousin Jonathan stood as they approached the table. Hannah hugged him with more exuberance than ever before. His mind-reading stare and evil politics wouldn’t touch her tonight. As always, he tolerated the embrace as well as he would a bucket of ice water. Hannah kissed Victoria’s powdered face and tried not to sneeze as she sat down.

“We took the liberty of ordering.” Jonathan motioned for the innkeeper’s wife.

Hannah slid the ivory napkin from her plate and twisted it in her lap. Liberty?
You dare use that word?
She concealed her ire with a tight smile. “How was your trip?”

“The new road is a marvel.” Jonathan fiddled with his collar as he prattled on about the wonders of the plank road stretching from Janesville to Racine. Papa joined in.

Hannah stared at the pressed tin ceiling, hearing nothing, as she imagined Liam shaking like a schoolboy when he came to Papa, hat in hand, asking for permission to court his daughter. The secrecy only added to the romance.
Liam, wait until you hear what
—

Two men pushed past the innkeeper’s wife. She stumbled. Water doused Hannah’s sleeve. She jumped out of her chair. The tallest man, unshaven and streaked with dust, pointed at her. “It’s true,” he whispered, turning to Jonathan. He took a step toward her. Hannah gasped. “We didn’t find the letters, but we found something else. There’s a room in the cellar.
Not
for storing potatoes.”

Hannah clutched her stomach. Dolly was the only one who knew of the letters.

The man grabbed her arm.

“Leave her be. She’s just a girl. It’s him you want.” Jonathan pointed at Papa and the two men advanced. Three men rose from the bar and yelled at the men to step away from him.

There was nothing she could do for Papa. With all eyes on her father, she slipped around the ruckus and ran outside. She ran and didn’t look back until she got to the back door of the blacksmith shop.
Please, someone be here
. She knocked. One knock, followed by two.
Please
. The door cracked open, showing a sliver of Jim’s face, then flew open. “Hannah! What is it?”

“Two men. They got Papa. I need your horse. I have to warn Liam.”

“What men? What did they say?”

“I can’t…explain now. Your horse…please.”

“Can you ride?”

“Yes.” She hadn’t ridden a horse since they’d moved into town, but it would come back to her. It had to.

Big Jim moved like a man half his width. In five minutes she had mounted his massive roan and was flying over the bridge. The shoed hooves clamored like church bells ringing out danger.

Father God, protect Papa
. Her mind scrambled to picture the cellar room. What had they found? What proof that could hold him? It was a storeroom, swept clean since the last guests, and lined with barrels of apples. No different from any other cellar.

Unless they lifted the barrels and the lids of the benches, dug beneath the burlap sacks, and found blankets and bandages and clothes of every size.
Oh God, hear my prayer. If they have not found those things, blind their eyes
. She thought for a moment of turning back, of taking the clothes and stuffing them in the walls with the letters. But time was precious. All that mattered was Liam.

A half moon crouched between tall, skinny pine trees. The sky was deep blue, the color of the velvet dress Mama was buried in. An hour from now she might not find her way home. She might not want to go home. She willed her thoughts to fill with hope, but nothing slowed the tympani of her pulse as the horse pounded the dirt.

The church roof, silhouetted against the night sky, marked her turn.
Mama, can you see me?
Shadows slithered around the gravestones. Hannah shivered and turned her eyes back to the disappearing road. It wasn’t far. A mile, maybe two from the church. Please, let there be lights lit. A plot of cut corn to her right, and then the house, small, low, far from the road. Firelight glowed from a tiny window. Hannah slowed the horse.

She’d never been to Liam’s house. Never even seen his mother. She needed an excuse for being there. Papa. She’d say her father was hurt. No…Jim. Big Jim needed him. That would make sense. She knocked. Heard footsteps.

The door swung open and a wild-eyed man stood in front of her, a squat brown jug swinging from one finger.

“I…I need to talk to Liam.”

The man laughed. “Sure ‘n’ you would, lass.” He stepped onto the porch. “Not nearly as much as you’d like to talk to his da, now, would ya?” The wind whipped at the stained muslin shirt that hung to his knees.