Rugged and Relentless (27 page)

“This is much better!” Cora’s murmur ended in a muffled
oomph
as Evie landed on top of her sister, whom she hadn’t noticed follow her outside. “Get off me! We’re missing everything!” The barest breath of sound, Cora’s voice lost no urgency as they struggled to their feet.

As usual, it took her sprightly sibling less time to recover. Cora didn’t bother to brush off the dust coating her skirts, merely glanced about to make sure they hadn’t been spotted and hopped into place atop the rock where Evie so precariously perched the moment before Cora startled her.

“That’s my spot! Find your own!”

“I like this one, and you lost it!” Cora peered into the room. “Now be quiet, Evie, or they’ll hear us and—”

Her sister didn’t get the chance to finish that sentence, as Evie grabbed Cora’s apron strings and tugged her off Muffin Rock, leaving her standing beneath the window while Evie reassumed her rightful position. Smug smile still playing about her lips, she turned to look through the window.

And found herself eye to eye with Jake Creed.

Her exclamation of outrage when he shut the door made Jake smile … and decide to lock it before beginning his discussion with Lyman. They didn’t say a word before the other man pointed to the base of the door, where shadows played and a thin scrap of green flirted with the floorboards. The same green Evie wore.

Jake stopped wondering if he’d become overly suspicious. The women were spying. At least, they were trying to. He and Lyman watched and waited, and sure enough, the faint sounds of footsteps and even what sounded like a small scuffle pushed through the barrier to their ears.

When it became clear they’d not hear anything, Jake turned to his unlikely ally.

“I’ve got a few questions of my own, Mr. Lyman.” He kept his voice low. Not a whisper, but low enough that it couldn’t carry past the room. “But you go ahead and ask yours first.”

“Can you and this Reary fellow you mentioned keep them safe?” Lyman kept his priorities in order at least.

“No one man can watch over four women, Lyman. Even two won’t manage that task every hour of the day, and it’ll be worse once we start heading into the timber, and I can’t account for all the men at any given time.” Jake didn’t hold back. “Then we’ll be splitting into about four teams. Riordan and I can only monitor half. If any from the other crews double back to town …”

“Can you enlist two men you trust to lead the other crews?”

They know me as Granger
. Jake hesitated.
They’re smart men; they won’t slip up. If they do, better my identity is lost than one of the women
. “I can. We need to choose the site for the mill and clear it, from what I can see. That will buy us time. Wouldn’t hurt to have a day or two of rain to hold things up.”

And speed up my hunt for Twyler so I can give this more focus. When the rain falls, trees and mud aren’t the only things to make a man slip. Boredom loosens tongues like little else
.

“I’ll pray for rain then.” A muted thump outside the window halted Lyman’s next words. The men exchanged glances.

Not even a peep for the next moment, and then a muffled cry and thudding bump, accompanied by a series of not-so-quiet whispers. Finally, a stifled
oomph
before scrabbling at the windowsill.

Lyman turned his head, trying to hide his chuckles.
If the government employed these women as spies, we’d still belong to the British
. Jake crouched and pulled back the curtain, not surprised to find a pair of golden eyes staring back at him. They widened in surprise before darkening in irritation long before either of them said a word. “Next time you decide to take up jumping
through windows, I’d be happy to teach you better technique, Miss Thompson.”

“Why, you lousy—” She reached for him, only to lose her purchase on the windowsill and make a hasty grab for it.

Curious, Jake leaned out the window to see the cause of her troubles. Aside from Cora, who gave a sheepish wave, the construction of the building left too much distance between the window and the ground for such a petite woman to cover. Evie balanced precariously on an uneven stone, clutching the windowsill to maintain her perch. He guessed she’d slipped twice and downright fallen at least once, if the dust coating her and her sister’s skirts was anything to go by.

“Lousy what?” He moved back into the room and gave her a grin. “I make a far better spy than you and your sister here.”

“I’d expect that, from a double-crossing sneak.” A lock of brown hair, threaded with cinnamon strands and dusted with, well, dust, escaped from her pins. She tried to puff it away from her vision and failed, looking adorably thwarted.

“Double-crossing?” Jake wouldn’t protest the sneak part of her insult. He’d let everyone believe he’d come to Hope Falls to win a bride. “How have I double-crossed anyone?”

“Despite your presumptuous, arrogant, high-handed summation of my choices, I listened to you.” Her chin jutted out. “I took your advice to make better choices. Not because of you, but because I’ll do whatever it takes to do right by my sister.”

“Even yank her by her apron strings to take her eavesdropping rock.” Cora’s mutter explained the thump.

“Reclaim her rock, more like.” Evie spared a glare for her sister before turning back to Jake. “But when I decided to accept your assistance and set you in the position to help us, you turned right around and sided with Braden instead.”

She thinks I’ve betrayed her trust
. It stymied him. “You entrusted me with your protection, Miss Thompson. Have I done anything to endanger any one of you?”

He waited for the reluctant shake of her head.

“In that case, perhaps you need to reconsider your concept of trust. Look to what I do—not what you think you hear.”

With that, he closed the window. And the curtain.

     NINETEEN     

H
ave you done anything to earn it?” Lyman started talking the moment the window hit the sill. “Their trust, I mean.”

“Has the doctor done anything to stop the epidemic?” Jake countered. “Eavesdropping seems to be spreading like butter on Miss Thompson’s corn pone.” His stomach rumbled at the memory, but he ignored it. Another line of fabric peeked under the door.

“Corn pone?” Lyman perked up. “Is that what it was? I guessed corn bread. Did it taste as good as corn bread?”

“I’d say it’s about the same.” Jake lowered his voice a bit with each step he took toward the door, so the women wouldn’t catch on. “Seems Miss Thompson’s making do without milk, but we’d never know it by the meals she sets on the table.”

He set a hand on the doorknob and one on the lock, turning both at once. Something snapped inside the mechanism, but it worked regardless. The moment he opened the door, Miss Lyman and Miss Higgins tumbled into the room in a heap of cotton and blushes.

Jake helped the women to their feet before reaching down and plucking two water glasses from the floor.
Impressive
. “Which one
of you knew this little trick?” He held one up, the light catching on a hairline crack spidering down the side.

“An old friend taught it to me at boarding school,” Miss Lyman admitted as the two Miss Thompsons edged their way into the room behind everyone. “Though I never expected to use it.”

“You shouldn’t have needed to,” Evie defended her friend.

“Nor should you have had to lurk outside windows, only to have them slammed shut in your face,” Miss Higgins commiserated.

“Lurk? I did not lurk,” she objected. “I … hovered.”

“Until she fell on me,” her sister helpfully chimed in.

“One o’ the lassies fell?” His shadow preceding him, Bear filled the doorway as though unsure which woman to help.

“All of them,” Jake informed him. “Two toppled into each other beneath the window, while the other two met the floor when I opened the door they’d been eavesdropping against.”

The women spluttered—though they didn’t deny it, Jake noted. Lyman began demanding to know the name of the giant, and Riordan looked at them all as though they’d sprouted antlers.

For his part, Jake judged Riordan to have the best grasp on things. “Rory Riordan, meet Braden Lyman.” Jake didn’t say more. Let Riordan work out the connection for himself.

“Ahh …” Riordan caught on quick. “Miss Lyman’s brother and Miss Higgins’s cousin what owns the bulk o’ Hope Falls. We didna know you been injured in the mine collapse, Mr. Lyman.”

“We didn’t think it best to mention that detail until we had the situation more settled.” Evie stepped closer to Mr. Riordan to confide that fact. “It seemed prudent to wait.”

“Indeed.” Green eyes searched the room, lingering on Lyman as though to note that the man didn’t rise from the bed. “Though I’d go so far as to say it would hae been still more prudent for you lassies to wait to come here a’tal. ‘Tis no safe when your man canna watch o’er you proper in these parts.”

“We’d been told Braden died. When we heard he’d survived but couldn’t travel, we took the only choice.” Miss Lyman’s sudden
anger took them all aback as she defended her position at her brother’s side. “What else could we have done?”

“You could have hired a caregiver and corresponded,” Lyman burst out. “You could have waited for my recovery. For heaven’s sake, you could even have made a trip out here with armed men accompanying you to protect your safety and then returned to Charleston. You could have done
anything
other than sell our home and advertise for a horde of strange men to descend upon the town with no way to manage them or protect yourselves!”

“Aye.” Riordan nodded. “Any one o’ those would hae done.”

“Corresponding is what left us believing you dead, Braden.” Miss Thompson slipped past Jake to stand by her fiancé’s side. “And we had no way to know …” She fished around in her apron for something as she spoke. “Had no way to know if you’d recover at all or if you’d contract some wasting disease and truly”—a deep breath steadied what Jake strongly suspected shaped up to be sobs—“died before we saw you even one more time. Oh, where is my handkerchief?” She apparently gave up searching for it.

“Here.” Lyman pulled a folded square from his sleeve. “You gave it to me when you brought lunch—just before you stole it.” The fact he’d saved his fiancée’s hankie before hurling the remains of his lunch tray at the wall spoke volumes. “Now you see I’m recovering and plan to stay among the living.”

“Thank you.” Miss Thompson accepted her hankie to dab her eyes before glaring at her beloved. “Though I begin to suspect you hang on to your life simply to make mine more difficult.”

“A worthy cause.” If Evie’s smile seemed strained around the corners, it didn’t stop everyone from joining in. “Don’t deny the man whatever motivation keeps him among us, Cora. It’ll brighten his days when you find ways to get even with him.”

The hairs on the back of Jake’s neck prickled. Not from Evie’s words, but from the fact she looked at him when she said the part about getting even.
And I’m about to make her angrier
.

A smart man stops while he’s ahead. Any fool knows to quit when
he’s behind. So what does that make me, when I’m not only behind but plan to stay there and enjoy watching the sparks fly?