Wedded in Sin (39 page)

“Yes, well, men with debts will point at all sorts of devils so long as the finger never points to themselves.”

Penny straightened, finding her voice despite her memories. What she wouldn’t give to have Samuel beside her right now. “What has brought you to our back door, Mr. Porter?” she asked.

“It appears that a Mr. Addicock created a false will and trust and then sold your property out from under you.”

Penny straightened. “Yes, that’s true.”

“Well, he did such a thing so as to pay off a debt to me. The constable informed me of the illegal nature of his transaction, so I have taken steps to remedy his crime.”

Penny shuddered. The way he said “steps” gave her the chills. But as he appeared to be waiting for her reaction, she forced herself to whisper, “I don’t understand.”

He handed over a piece of paper. She took it slowly, looking down to see a great deal of legal language, which she couldn’t process with Wendy standing beside her radiating fury and Mr. Porter in front of her looking so bizarrely charming.

“It is the deed to your store. To the building and the land as should have been your inheritance from the very beginning.”

She gaped. That was all she could do. Just stare at him, and then down at the paper that still made no sense to her. It was Wendy who spoke, her voice trembling with some emotion that Penny couldn’t name.

“Why would you do such a thing?”

Mr. Porter flashed them both a warm smile. “Because that is what should have happened in the very beginning.”

Finally Penny found her voice. “But Cordwain is there. He and Jobby—”

“Have both been removed. I cannot speak to the state of your home. I am sure that there have been things broken or changed. I understand there was a fire in one of the rooms.”

Penny bit her lip, remembering the way all her things had been burned. “But he’s gone now? It’s mine again?”

Mr. Porter held out a key. “It is yours. Mr. Cordwain and his associates have been told to keep away, and I believe they will listen.” He flashed a smile that showed his teeth. “I have some influence with them, I think.”

She took the key and held it in her hand. She felt the weight and size of it, and in that moment her world shifted. It settled back into a familiar place. Was it possible? Was it truly over? “And Mr. Addicock—”

“Is dead.”

She gasped, as did Wendy beside her.

“I apologize for speaking so bluntly. It appears remorse hit Mr. Addicock in the late night hours. He was found dead this morning.”

“Dead?” she whispered. She didn’t have any idea how she felt about that. Certainly she hated the man. But…dead? He kept claiming that he wasn’t the one who had murdered her parents. Foster and the constable both had promised her that they would find out the truth of a great many things from Addicock once the man was incarcerated. Now he was dead?

“Yes. Quite dead, I’m afraid.” Then he flashed a rueful smile. “Or not afraid since surely that is the man’s just deserts. After everything he did to you and young Tommy? Let us all pray that he made peace with God before he died.”

Penny nodded because that was what good Christian women did. But her mind was still reeling.

“But what about my parents?” she whispered. “He was supposed to tell us who killed my parents.”

“As to that question, I believe I have an answer. Tell me, do you perhaps recognize this?” He pulled a simple bracelet from his pocket, holding it aloft such that nicked links of gold caught the light.

“Mama’s bracelet!” Penny cried, rushing forward.

He handed it to her and once again, she felt the weight of it, heard the clink of the metal, and for a brief second she believed her mother was there with her, as if that horrible night had never happened.

“Papa gave this to her at Christmas when I was eleven. She wore it every day after that. I never thought I’d see it again.”

Mr. Porter cleared his throat. “Do you perhaps recall that I was pursuing a thieving ring?”

“Yes,” she whispered, wishing again she could forget what she’d witnessed that night.

“This was in their treasure. I made some inquiries and guessed it might be your mother’s.”

“Everyone knew it was hers,” she said, holding it as if it were the most delicate thing.

“And now it is yours,” he said.

“So, my parents were killed by footpads? It had nothing to do with Addicock? What about that man named Bill?”

Mr. Porter shrugged. “There was a man named Bill in the thieving ring. Bill Worsley.”

Her hands tightened into fists and the bracelet bit into her palm. “Where is he? This Bill Worsley.”

“Dead, Miss Shoemaker. And unable to harm you ever again.”

She blinked. Another villain dead, both her mysteries solved, and her property returned to her. She should be happy, but instead she just felt overwhelmed. And inside, there was that soul-deep longing for Samuel. He would understand this.

“But surely this is a happy day,” Mr. Porter pressed. “You have your home back. Your life. You should be celebrating!”

“Yes,” she said, though her heart wasn’t in her words. This was too much, too fast. And Samuel wasn’t here to explain it to her. Thankfully, the thought of him was enough to settle her mind onto some very solid facts. First off, that this was indeed excellent news, but it wasn’t her life.

She straightened and was gratified to hear that her voice rang strong. “This is good news, Mr. Porter, and I thank you for arranging it. But my life was never in question. I have friends, family—” An absent lover. “With or without my home, I would have been fine.” She said the words and finally believed them with her whole heart. Thanks to Samuel’s efforts and her own strength, she and Tommy would be fine.

“Of course,” he said.

“But…” she continued, lifting the deed to the shop in her hand as well as her mother’s bracelet, “I thank you for this. You have been very kind.”

He flashed a grin that was all teeth. And even odder, it wasn’t aimed at her but at Wendy. “I can see that you are indeed an extraordinary woman, Miss Shoemaker. I am pleased to have some small part in restoring your home back to you.” And with that, he gave them both another small bow and left.

Penny watched him go, keeping an eye trained on Wendy. There was something between those two. Wendy made no attempt to hide her glare as the man sauntered away, a jaunty whistle filling the air. Penny waited until he turned the corner out of sight before turning to her friend. She meant to ask for an explanation, but she never got a chance. The seamstress was pulling on her cloak.

“Wendy?”

“I need some more thread. Might take me a bit. Got to match the color exactly right.”

Penny knew a lie when she heard it. Wendy had thread of every color and make already at her station. But the woman’s face was pale and her jaw was set. Whatever was going on would not be discussed now. So Penny didn’t argue. She just watched as her friend gathered a swatch of fabric with shaking hands. Then when Wendy turned for the door, Penny stepped into her path.

“You have all stood by me these last weeks,” she said. “Without all of you, I don’t know what I would have done.”

Wendy’s expression cleared. “Don’t be silly. You would have managed without us. Didn’t you handle things all those weeks alone before you came to work here?”

Penny shook her head. “I was at my wit’s end, and you know it.” Then she boldly touched the woman’s arm. “I hope you know that I would do anything for you. All of you. You need only ask.”

Wendy blinked, and for a moment, there might have been tears shimmering in her eyes. But a second later, they were gone and Wendy was holding up the swatch of fabric. “What I need is good thread that matches and won’t break.”

“Wendy—”

“Don’t you wait up for me. Don’t know when I’ll be back.” And with that, the girl slipped around Penny before rushing out the door.

Hours later, Wendy still hadn’t returned, but Tommy
had woken from his nap. He’d played with Mrs. Appleton as Penny whittled a block to make a like. Then there was dinner and soon bedtime for the boy. But not for her.

“I’ll put him to bed,” said Mrs. Appleton as she bent down to pick up Tommy. “You go on. I know you want to.”

She did. But she had left the boy in Mrs. Appleton’s care too many times. “It can wait.”

“No, it can’t. It’s your home. Go. Make it yours again.”

Penny felt her lips twist into a rueful smile. “I don’t know that that’s even possible. And I certainly won’t be able to do it in a single night.”

“Never you mind that right now. Go while there’s still light. And mind you keep a sharp eye out. I don’t know that this Demon Damon has done all he said.”

Penny pulled on her cloak, stopping long enough to press a kiss to the boy’s forehead, and then another to Mrs. Appleton’s cheek. “I couldn’t have done any of this without you. I still can’t,” she said.

“Oh piffle,” the lady huffed. “I should be thanking all of you. I was a dried-up old prune, hiding in the shadows and dreaming of earlier days. If it weren’t for all of you, I would have wasted away years ago with no one to mourn me.”

“That can’t be true.”

“It can, and it was. But that’s different now, thanks to all of you. I’ve got little Tommy to play with, Wendy to teach reading and writing to—when she’s around, that is. And my daughter’s a lady again, just as she ought to be. That’s all thanks to you girls.”

“You’re a part of us,” Penny said, meaning every word. “A part of the family.”

Mrs. Appleton smiled, her cheeks turning bright. For a moment there, Penny saw the beauty she’d once been years ago. Then the lady waved her away. “Go on now. Go find out what damage they’ve done to your home.”

Penny nodded and left. Twenty minutes later, she was pushing into the dusty interior of the shop that had once been her father’s and his father’s before that.

It was stripped bare. Cordwain hadn’t left her anything of value. And what he couldn’t take, he’d smashed. She stood in the middle of ruins. Except, of course, that she didn’t need any of it. She had her own tools now and her own workbench. Her father’s lay at her feet in splinters, but that didn’t matter. Her memories remained. The things he’d taught her remained as well.

And if she looked around and saw the debris of the men’s shoe store that had once been, part of her also saw how the space could be redone. It would take a while, but she could change this into a lady’s shoe establishment easily enough. She’d need new furnishings, new displays, new everything fit for a lady of the
ton
. And now she had the space to do everything she envisioned. And what she saw in her mind’s eye was glorious indeed.

She was still thinking, tabulating costs in her mind, when she heard a noise. The sound came from the front door, which she knew she’d closed and locked. She whipped around, seeing a dark male figure stalking toward her. In his hand, he carried a large sack. She drew breath to scream even as she was reaching for the largest piece of wood to use as a weapon. But just before she released it, the man stepped into the light.

“Samuel!”

Chapter 25

He looked good, Penny thought, as he slowed to a stop
about two feet away from her. At first, she wasn’t sure what was different. His hair was just as wild, his body still as lanky, like sticks stuck together. But his eyes were steady instead of hopping around. And though his shoulders were high in a kind of awkward shrug, his face looked softer somehow.

“I knocked but you didn’t hear me,” he said by way of greeting. “So I—”

“You picked the lock.”

He dropped the satchel on the floor by his feet. Now in the light, she could see that it was her bag of likes. The one Max had been hiding for her. “I had to see you,” he said. “I went to the shop and Mrs. Appleton told me you were here.”

She nodded. “Did she tell you that the shop is mine again? I even have my mother’s bracelet back.” She held up her wrist to show it to him. “It has all worked out just as you said.”

He snorted. “Not just as I said, Penny.”

“You told me that I would be fine. That Tommy and I would have food and shelter, and we do. We are.”

“You had that without me.”

She nodded, knowing it was true. “But without you, it doesn’t feel as good. In fact, without you, it feels unstitched.”

His eyebrows went up. “Unstitched?”

“Like I have all the pieces, but they don’t hold together.” She looked at him, only now realizing what she should have understood from the beginning. “Oh, Samuel, I was so wrong. I don’t care if you’re in debt. I don’t even care if you’re going to prison. I will have enough money to get you out. And you’ll be here with me and Tommy. And I want that. I want you. I love you.”

There. She’d said it. She’d laid her heart bare for him as she never thought she would for any man ever. She looked in his eyes, wondering what he thought. Did he want the same—

His mouth was on hers. Somehow he’d crossed the distance between them in one breath. His arms were around her, his mouth was on hers, and he was lifting her up. She didn’t even know why, but she didn’t care. She was in his arms and they were kissing.