Emmeline's Exile (The Alphabet Mail-Order Brides Book 5) Read online

“Oh yeah,” Jason smiled. “Very profitable.”

  “Dinner!” Emmeline’s sing-song voice called from around the corner in the kitchen.

  Lawson straightened up and stuck out a hand to help his brother off the sofa. Feeling more kinship with the man than he had in a long time, he clapped him on the back as they made their way over to the dining room table.

  Emmeline had laughed at Lawson’s dinner suggestion when he’d first requested tonight’s meal, but she had done what he asked. Using a recipe she had torn from an old newspaper, she’d mixed up a batter and fried chicken in a puddle of grease on the stovetop. She’d went to the mercantile on her way back from the schoolhouse this afternoon and brought back a jar of Mrs. Field’s homemade maple syrup. On the tabletop before them, beside a pile of spicy fried chicken, was a stack of golden waffles.

  Jason checked on the threshold. “Chicken and waffles?” he said on a chuckle. “Just like Mum used to make? You trying to butter me up, Laws?”

  Lawson shrugged. “Hadn’t had it in a while.”

  “You two are so very odd. Dinner and breakfast together?” Emmeline shook her head. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

  “It’s common in the South, from what I hear,” Jason said, waiting—very uncharacteristically—for Lawson to take a seat at the dinner table first. “Mum was, what?” He looked to Lawson. “Sixteen? When she and Pop traveled in that wagon train to the Texas territory?”

  Lawson nodded. “Didn’t stay long though, did they? They ended up in Louisiana within a few years.”

  Jason sat down at the table too. “We were both born… then they headed to… Where was it again?”

  “Wisconsin,” Lawson answered. “They were there when it gained its statehood in forty-eight.”

  Emmeline was looking between the pair of them as though she were watching the most engaging debate of her life. “So the pair of you grew up in Wisconsin then?” She settled herself down and reached carefully around the jar of milk on the table, dishing up Lawson’s plate. He smiled at her in thanks.

  “Nope,” said Jason, starting to fill his own plate. “Moved shortly after that.”

  “Why did your family move around so much?”

  The brothers looked at one another and shrugged. “Pop’s work?” muttered Jason.

  Emmeline looked confused. “What did your father do?”

  Again, the brother’s exchanged looks. Lawson wracked his brain. “As a matter of fact,” he chuckled. “I’ve not a clue what my father did for a living, do you Jason?”

  Jason shook his head and the men burst into laughter.

  They said Grace, and all three ate with gusto. Lawson thought the plates likely looked cleaner when they finished than they had when Emmeline had taken them from the hutch.

  Lawson was happy but a little bit confused to find that he was actually enjoying his brother’s company. They talked about this and that and reminisced on old times. After dinner had finished up, they headed back to the sitting room, where Emmeline brought them both steaming helpings of apple crumble. Lawson went back into the kitchen for a glass of milk.

  Emmeline was at the wash basin, cleaning up after their meal. “I’m going to pop back over to the schoolhouse for a moment and collect some papers for grading. I completely forgot about them until now. I won’t be a moment.”

  “Take Cooper with you,” he said, and then he laughed and kissed his wife as she made a sour face.

  He was having such a good time that he hardly heard the kitchen door open and shut again. Jason had his ankle crossed over his knee when Lawson reentered the room, and his arm slung up on the back of the sofa. He gave Lawson a lazy smile.

  “Think I might owe you some thanks and a bit of an apology,” Lawson said, settling himself back into his chair and taking up the plate of crumble he’d left on the table.

  Jason’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Oh yeah?” he said dubiously.

  “For Emmeline,” Lawson elaborated. “She’s—well, in truth—she’s some kind of wonderful, Jason.”

  His brother grinned. “Knew you’d suit,” he said, reaching up and tweaking his own nose. “Knew you needed a good woman.”

  Lawson shook his head and took a bite of crumble. “I might not have known what I was missing,” he said. “But I know I did not react well when you told me what you had done.”

  Jason winked at him, uncrossing his leg and bending forward. “Don’t think on it, little brother,” he said. “I’m glad you went through with it. Might be the first decent thing I ever done for you.”

  Lawson threw back his head and laughed to the ceiling. “So you admit it then!” he cracked, jabbing at his brother with his boot. “You admit the rest of your meddling was nothing but meddlesome.”

  Jason held up his hands in a look of feigned innocence. “Look, that treasure map could have been something,” he said defensively, but then he let loose a bark of laughter when Lawson rolled his eyes heavenward. “So she’s settling in then? Emmeline, I mean?”

  Lawson grinned. “Think so. She’s finally putting up with the dogs, if that means anything to you. Hated animals, in the beginning. Scurried right up that tree in her wedding dress the first night I brought her home.” Lawson indicated the swaying branches of the apple tree outside the front window.

  Jason guffawed loudly. “Did she really?! You hear that, Emmeline!? Your husband is telling tales on you!” he shouted into the kitchen.

  Lawson waved him off, popping his last bit of apple crumble into his mouth. He washed it down with a sip of milk before he spoke. “She ran out for a minute,” he said. “Had to pick up something she left at the schoolhouse.”

  To his confusion, Jason sat bolt-upright in his seat. “She went to the schoolhouse?” he demanded. The atmosphere shifted. Where moments before, the house had seemed sleepily relaxed, the air now seemed to thrum with tension. Jason’s face had gone as pale as chalk. He leapt to his feet.

  “Jase? Jason, what—?” but his brother had already bolted out the front door.

  Joe and Smudge let loose enormous barks of protest as Lawson’s brother flew across the yard.

  “Jason!!” Lawson shouted after him, but his insides had suddenly turned icy.

  A quick tally of everything he knew about his brother was enough to make Lawson hightail it out into the night after him.

  One, Jason was a scoundrel. He was always out for his own gain.

  Two, It had been Jason’s idea to bring Emmeline here, to Buffalo Creek. Lawson remembered. His brother had specifically searched for a woman to fill the empty position of school teacher.

  Three, Jason was keeping “supplies” in the basement of the schoolhouse.

  Four, Emmeline was now alone at the schoolhouse and that had scared his brother. Scared him bad enough to make him run out after her. Scared him bad enough to risk revealing to Lawson the true reason he had needed a teacher in Buffalo Creek…

  Chapter Eleven

  Fifteen minutes earlier

  Emmeline slapped her thigh and whistled for Cooper as she exited out the kitchen door. Night had already fallen, so she took a moment to strike a match and light the lantern that Lawson always kept beside the back door.

  The little collie dog, Cooper, came trotting up to meet her. Joe and Smudge lay their heads back down on the front porch as she passed them. She could just make out their brown and spotted blurs. They were far too used to Emmeline coming and going over the past few weeks to be much concerned.

  “Shall we go to the schoolhouse for a minute?” she said to the top of the collie’s head, and she reached down to give it an awkward pat. Cooper tilted his head back to lick Emmeline’s fingers before she could stop him and she made a disgusted face as she wiped them on her coat.

  “Gross,” she said to him. “Don’t do that.”

  She opened the garden gate and looked ahead of her into the shadow-lined street. She couldn’t see much, but she knew that she had to walk to the end of the street: thirty-five paces. Turn rig
ht and walk seventy-two paces, then turn left and walk one hundred and fifty more. The schoolhouse sat on the edge of town, close enough that the students of Buffalo Creek could all walk to class each morning, and far enough away that they didn’t disturb the people in the houses nearby when they played outside for break.

  As repulsive as she found the fuzzy little beast, she could not deny that there was something oddly comforting about his warm presence beside her. Cooper kept close to her leg, occasionally nudging her this way and that along the road. He had done the same thing when she had made her way to the mercantile after school had concluded this afternoon. He had even waited for her outside the building and nudged her on home. What had Lawson called him? A herding animal?

  Tonight, it rather felt as though the dog was steering her away from unseen dangers. Twice, he gave a little nip to her fingers and Emmeline only just avoided stepping into a dip in the path. It was very odd. It was as though the dog knew that she could not see well. Although how he could possibly understand that, she had no idea.

  They arrived at the schoolhouse a few minutes later. Cooper followed Emmeline up the step and then nudged his way through the door the moment she had it open. She lifted her lantern high, but even so, it was slightly eerie not to be able to make out distinctive shapes. The shadows of each desk and bookshelf played havoc on her eyes.

  Emmeline made her way carefully across the room, allowing the stubborn collie to nudge her this way and that, and found the edge of her desk. Cooper sat down beside her as she took a seat and rummaged through the stack of parchment she had left in the drawer there.

  A sound from beneath the floorboards made Emmeline pause. Her immediate thought was that Jason must be here, dropping off or picking up goods from the storage space beneath the school. But the she remembered that Jason Aldridge was sitting in her sitting room with her husband.

  “Who do you suppose—?”

  Another heavy thud made the floor rattle.

  Curious, Emmeline stood and moved swiftly over to the locked door in the corner of the room. She pressed her ear to it, and from within, made out the sound of soft male voices. She listened harder still, but could not make out a single word.

  “Shall we go have a look?” she murmured to Cooper. “Perhaps Jason… perhaps he has a customer who mistook their fitting date or…” she shrugged.

  Something about the situation made Emmeline cautious. She reached for the lantern, and turned the light low, setting it on the ground behind the open schoolhouse door, so it’s light could not penetrate the darkness outside.

  She beckoned Cooper to her side and held tight to his collar for balance as she made her careful way down the schoolhouse steps. Cooper let out a low growl as they rounded the corner.

  “Shh,” Emmeline said to him. “Come here.” They moved quietly over the grass in the schoolyard. Cooper’s paws made absolutely no noise as they moved over the earth, but Emmeline kept stepping on twigs. She winced each time this happened because her instincts were telling her to keep as quiet as possible. Ahead of them, a soft light was omitting a pearly glow around the corner. She heard the squeak of door hinges and another thud, then more indistinguishable male voices.

  Emmeline pressed her back to the schoolhouse wall, inhaled, and then peered quickly around the corner. Squinting, she struggled for a moment, and then ducked back into the shadows. The blurry scene she had glimpsed didn’t make any sense at all. She had seen three figures. They were tall, and…wearing buckskins? Or…she peeked around the corner again, and this time, she concentrated on the things closest to her.

  A male voice spoke again, and something horrible clicked into place. She pulled back into the shadows once more, her hand at her mouth. At that moment, Cooper let loose a booming bark that echoed off the side of the schoolhouse.

  “Cooper!” she hissed. “Shh!”

  But the sounds of shuffling from the basement below had gone silent. Emmeline sat there, breathing hard and gripping the dog’s collar in her trembling hand. Indians. Why were they here? What were they doing?

  She had to leave. She had to go. Now. If she stayed here, and they found her…

  Emmeline removed her fingers from her mouth. Move, she thought. Go!

  The voices on the other side of the wall had resumed. Emmeline backed away slowly, slowly…willing herself not to make a sound. Cooper’s low growl alerted her to the fact that she was no longer alone.

  Emmeline spun on the spot, lost her balance and nearly tumbled over. Someone that she could not see in the darkness seized hold of her upper arms. He spat words that she could not understand into her face as he jerked her forward into the pool of light from the lanterns in the other men’s hands. And now…she saw the red of their skin clearly.

  The man that had hold of her shook her, hissing those unintelligible words into her ear. The other two stepped forward menacingly. Emmeline couldn’t make out their faces, but their voices sounded furious. Cooper was barking loudly and letting loose low, furious growls that echoed in Emmeline’s core.

  Then, out of nowhere, out of nothing, there came the sound of shouting. Two voices, mingling with one another, erupted out of the night like firecrackers.

  “I’d thank you to remove your hands from my wife!!”

  Lawson.

  “Paytah!” That was Jason’s voice, and it sounded as though he was calling one of these red-skinned men by their name. But why would Jason Aldridge know an Indian man by name?

  The man holding Emmeline spun on the spot but did not release her.

  “Is this for you?” One of the red-skin men was speaking to Jason in broken English.

  “Yes.” Her brother-in-law was breathing heavily as he stepped right up to Emmeline. “My brother’s wife. The school teacher. I explained to you.” He took hold of her arm.

  “She has seen,” said the red-skin. “She will tell.”

  “She won’t say a word,” said Lawson. “My wife is blind.”

  Emmeline could not help the tears that slipped down her face then. Lawson. Lawson. Please help me. She was shaking.

  “Who are you?”

  Jason tugged on her arm, but the Indian that held her would not release her. “My brother,” he said, nodding to the place where Lawson stood. “I trust him.”

  The Indian that held her spat on the ground at her feet. He stuck his face offensively close to Emmeline’s and she saw a pointed jaw, wide mouth and nose, and dark eyes. His breath smelled like smoke and rancid food. He muttered something that made the other two red-skinned men laugh, then he relinquished his grip.

  Emmeline stumbled away from him and into Lawson’s arms. She clutched at her husband, feeling the ragged catch in his breathing beneath her cheek. Lawson’s grip on her was nearly painful. Together they turned their backs on the Indians and began to move away. Jason, still struggling to catch his breath, thanked the three men and followed just behind them.

  Lawson’s arm was rigid around Emmeline’s shoulders. Cooper was dancing around their ankles. Her husband led her to the front of the schoolhouse, and Emmeline sank down on the topmost step. He took hold of her face.

  “Are you all right? Did they hurt you?”

  She shook her head.

  “JASON!”

  Emmeline jolted as Lawson bellowed his brother’s name into the night like a curse.

  “Not here!” Jason’s voice hissed out of the darkness. “Not here, Lawson. Shut up! You want to get us scalped?”

  Lawson was breathing hard through his nose, Emmeline reached for his hand and realized it was balled into a fist. “Get the light,” he barked at his brother. Then he lifted Emmeline bodily from the stairs and carried her out of the yard.

  The fight that followed was one of the worst Emmeline had ever experienced in her entire life. Emmeline was quite sure the neighbors from three houses away could hear the Aldridge brother’s voices roaring at one another.

  “How dare you?! How dare you put my wife in danger like that! How dare you even ask! D
o you know how much blood is on your hands, Jason?! Men have died because of you!” Lawson’s furious voice, one hundred times louder than usual, shook the walls of their tiny house.

  Jason’s pleas sounded weak in the wake of his brother’s wrath. “I’ve a family to look after too, Lawson! I have a wife and kids that will starve if I don’t bring home the money we need!”

  “Selling whiskey to murderous savages is not the way a man provides for his family, Jason Aldridge!”

  It seemed to go on for hours. Lawson and Jason had shouted themselves hoarse when Lawson finally collapsed on the settee and pointed to the door. “For the sake of your family,” he hissed through gritted teeth. “You get out of my house, and don’t you ever darken my doorstep again or so help me, brother, I will hang you myself.”

  Jason started to protest. Emmeline saw his head turn to look at her, and then his shoulders dropped. He was beat and he was in the wrong, and if the town of Buffalo Creek ever found out what he had done, he would be hanged.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered. Then Jason Aldridge slumped to the door, removed his hat and coat from the hook there, and departed.

  Emmeline needed to see Lawson’s face. She needed to understand, to confirm the things she had heard against the things she had not seen clearly that night behind the schoolhouse.

  She unfolded herself from the corner of the settee and curled her body into Lawson’s arms. It was a long moment before he relaxed enough to bury his face in her hair.

  “I’m sorry,” he breathed. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I’m sorry he made you part of this. I should have known.”

  “Explain,” Emmeline murmured, reaching out to twine her fingers with his. “I don’t understand.”

  Lawson took a deep breath, and then he spoke into the top of her head.

  “Jason wrote for you to come to Buffalo Creek so that he would have a connection to the school teacher here. He needed a place large enough to store his contraband until it could be sold, and he needed it here, in Buffalo Creek, because he had always used the schoolhouse. His red-skin friends wouldn’t like to change location. He might lose their business.