Into the Whirlwind (29 page)

His fist clenched around the leather sack. She was trying to cut him out of her life, and he wouldn’t let her. “And what about Colonel Lowe?” he demanded. “Is Colonel Lowe among the things you want?”

She stiffened and couldn’t meet his eyes. “Richard means a lot to me,” she said softly.

Richard
. So he wasn’t even Colonel Lowe to her. A wave of heat crashed through his body, and he wanted to break something. He stood and stalked a few feet closer to the lake. He couldn’t bear to sit beside Mollie while she talked about another man, but she hadn’t stopped speaking.

“Richard and I are very much alike,” she said. “I feel . . . safe with him. I don’t need to change to suit him.”

“
I don’t want to change you
,” he said through clenched teeth. Where did she get these insane ideas? He could feel her slipping away from him, like water dribbling out of his cupped hands, and there was nothing he could do to stop it from draining away.

“Please let me go,” she said. “I need to move on with the rest
of my life, and I can’t do that with you in it. The notes need to stop. And the visits. I will be forever grateful for what you did for me on the night of the fire, but, Zack . . . that’s all there is. It was gratitude and the temporary rush of insanity because I was glad to be alive. You and I will never work.”

The wind gusted in from the lake, blowing long strands of her hair that escaped like a cloud of smoke whirling around her head. How could he have lost her so completely? “And you think Richard will make you happy?”

The tension on her face eased. “I do.” When the lines eased around her eyes, her face was transformed. A faint smile graced her mouth, and she looked peaceful. Happy.

It stunned him to realize he had never really seen Mollie look peaceful. He’d seen the business side of her, the logical, competent aspect that first drew his admiration. He’d seen her valiant courage the night of the fire. In the following weeks, he had seen how she’d borne up under stress, battling challenge after challenge without breaking her stride. He had seen her hopeful and triumphant. But he hadn’t really seen her at peace.

He needed to be smart about this. If Mollie thought Colonel Lowe would make her happy, she would resent any attempt to interfere with that. He would wait for Mollie into the next century if need be, but for now, he needed to get out of her way.

“All right, then.” He couldn’t believe he was speaking the words, but to the core of his soul he wanted Mollie to be happy. If that meant giving her the breathing space she needed to explore this curiosity with Colonel Lowe, he would do it. It was like letting someone carve a piece of his soul from his chest. Stepping aside to let Mollie’s rich, handsome golden boy slide into place beside her went against every impulse in his body. Once again, he was the grubby wharf rat laboring on the docks while the white knight trampled over him.

“If Colonel Lowe doesn’t treat you like a goddess, he’ll have me to answer to,” he said gruffly.

She mustered a little laugh. “Please, no basket of fish on his desk.”

“Trust me, I’ll be far more creative if he hurts you.” The diamond powder weighed in his hands. “You will want this,” he said as he extended the sack to her.

“Zack, I don’t want any gifts.”

He picked up her hand and pressed it into her palm. “It’s diamond powder. I heard you were in short supply, and Caleb Magruder has a mill that can produce it.”

Her eyes widened in surprise, and she peeked inside. It looked as if she was about to cry as she pulled the drawstrings closed. “Zack, I can’t accept this. It wouldn’t be right.”

“Take it. What would I do with diamond powder?” He tried to sound light-hearted, as if this glorious woman had not just trampled on the dreams he had been building for three years.

She still looked hesitant, which was insane because he knew she craved that diamond powder like a drowning man craved a life raft. He sighed impatiently. “If you don’t take it, I’ll throw it in the lake. You know I will.”

She must have believed him, because she relented and accepted the gift. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “Thank you for everything, Zack.”

“You deserve it,” he said bluntly. “I’ve never seen anyone work as hard as you.”

“Don’t be nice to me,” she said. “I’ll start bawling like a watering pot if you do.”

His hand looked big and clumsy against her delicate cheek. He was such a sap where this woman was concerned. Had been from the first time he ever clapped eyes on her. “Don’t shed any tears over me. I’m not worth it.”

He had to get out of there before he made a complete fool of himself. Before he fell to his knees and begged her not to fling herself at a man who would never feel a fraction of the soaring love he had for her. Stepping aside and letting Richard Lowe court his woman made his gut tie itself into knots, but it had to be done.

20

H
ow long would it be before she could quit crying? The naked pain on Zack’s face would probably haunt her for the rest of her life, but she had done the right thing. She couldn’t ride the streetcar while she was blubbering, so Mollie walked the three miles back to the brewery. Why did it feel like she had just torn her heart out? Her chest ached, and it hurt to even draw a full breath of air. In a couple of weeks, Zack would realize she was right—that this insane rush of madness that had flared up between them would never last—but that didn’t ease the gnawing pain in her heart and mind.

She dreaded seeing anyone. For once in her life, the prospect of making watches held no appeal. She just wanted to go home and bury her head underneath a pillow and escape, but this diamond powder needed to be delivered.

Pulling the gloves from her hands, she pressed her cold fingers against her cheekbones, hoping they would ease her swollen eyes and mask the fact that she had been crying. People at the 57th would want to know why, and she couldn’t speak of this yet. Not without starting the water spigot again.

The yeasty scent of beer comforted her as she mounted the steps to the attic. Getting her factory back in business had been
one of the most exhilarating experiences of her life. Difficult and scary, but necessary.

She pushed open the rickety attic door. “Sophie,” she said in surprise. There was no longer any suitable work for the girl at the construction site, so she had been helping Declan at the workshop. Usually the girl was gone by now, but she sprang down from a stool and darted across the room to Mollie.

“Gunner said that Zack brought you diamond powder! I wanted to wait and see it. That means we will be able to start making parts again, right?”

The lump in her throat grew larger. A glance around the room showed everyone watching her. The technicians should have gone home by now, but Oliver and the others were still here, watching her with hopeful expectation.

“Yes, I’ve got the diamond powder.”

Sophie jumped up and down, begging to get a peek. There was a collective sigh of relief throughout the workshop, and Mollie’s shoulders sagged. She did not realize that everyone was aware of how close they’d been to having to cease operations for want of polished metal parts.

Declan got out the almond oil and began making paste, showing Sophie how to judge the correct viscosity and blend it properly. Mollie pulled out some paper work. Now that she knew they would have more parts, she could begin filling in a production schedule. As she charted her operations, sliding the familiar tasks into the calendar and projecting due dates, her tension began to ease.

It made her want to begin crying again, but Zack’s gift of diamond powder meant she could meet the Christmas deadline for sending her watches to New York.

“I don’t trust you,” Dr. Buchanan said.

Zack leaned against the wall of his parlor and glared at the dentist. They had spent the afternoon boxing up the multitude of his parents’ towering stacks of paper that had once again overwhelmed the front room, spilling into the hallway and creating a fire hazard of towering Polish memories. Whenever his mother’s hoards of junk got out of control, he systematically boxed whatever spilled into the hallway and transported it to the third-floor attic. There was so much dust in the air he’d had to move Lizzie’s cage into the kitchen so his poor finch wouldn’t choke to death.

“You can trust me,” Zack said. “I’m not going to do anything foolish where Mollie is concerned.”

“But why do you have to get involved? Colonel Lowe has the situation well in hand, and given your feelings for Miss Mollie, I don’t think it’s a good idea. Not prudent.”

Zack shoved a newly filled crate of papers to the side and plopped another down in its place. “Colonel Lowe doesn’t know this city like I do, and he is heading down the wrong track if he hopes to catch the men who killed Frank by watching pawnshops.”

Pawnshops
, he thought contemptuously as he tossed another sheaf of papers into a crate. Scanning the pawnshops wasn’t completely foolhardy, but if those watches hadn’t surfaced by now, they weren’t going to, and Colonel Lowe didn’t have an alternate plan of attack. Mollie needed to be able to sleep at night, and that would never happen as long as those thugs were still roaming the streets. Zack could find them. For years, he had been rubbing elbows with people from the top of the city government all the way down to the street sweepers. He knew how to get things done in this city.

Besides, he wanted to get a good look at Colonel Lowe.
Richard
. Not that he intended to interfere with Mollie’s stellar new relationship. She’d made it brutally clear she had carefully considered her two suitors and made her choice. Not that Zack intended to accept her decision, but if he tried to interfere, she would build Colonel Lowe up in her imagination as the perfect alternative to Zack and his brash courtship. He needed to step aside for the time being.

Provided that Richard Lowe was not a complete and unabashed scoundrel. Given the praises Dr. Buchanan, everyone from the 57th, and even Sophie Durant had for Colonel Lowe, that appeared to be unlikely.

“Just tell me where the man lives,” Zack prodded. “I can’t go near the construction site because I promised Mollie I would stay clear of her, so finding him at home is the only way I can meet him.”

Dr. Buchanan leafed through a couple of photographs that were slipped among the towering pages. “Look at the clothing this woman is wearing. Do they really dress like that in Poland?”

Zack batted the picture away. “Don’t change the subject. Where does Colonel Lowe live?”

“I hear he has been staying with General Sheridan.”

Zack dropped the sheaf of papers he was holding. Brilliant. Mollie’s fair-haired soldier had connections to the most famous war hero in the city.

“I know you don’t want to hear it,” Dr. Buchanan said as he nervously fiddled with the corner of his mustache, “but everyone in the 57th is placing bets on when the wedding will be. Most are going for summer, but some think late next autumn. No one is betting any longer than that.”

The words came tumbling down on him like acid, but he forced his voice to remain neutral. “And when did you place your bet?”

“I put my money on May first. They both seem very taken with each other.”

His shoulders sagged. This was worse than he had anticipated. His gaze tracked to the painting of the girl in the garden. She looked so much like Mollie it was as if he had his very own portrait of her. It hurt him to look at it, but if he lost her, that portrait would be the closest he would ever come to having Mollie Knox.

He would find the men who’d killed Frank. Right now, that was the only thing he could do for Mollie.

Colonel Richard Lowe was exactly as he was rumored to be. Handsome, competent, and a gentleman to the marrow of his bones. Educated at West Point, he had an understanding of battlefield tactics and strategy to rival Napoleon. He was a warrior young boys wanted to grow up to become like. He was a son any mother would be proud to have. He was Lancelot without the pesky adultery problem.

Zack loathed him on sight. Standing on the porch of General Sheridan’s elegant townhouse, Colonel Lowe refused to see reason, no matter how clearly Zack explained.