Where Courage Calls: A When Calls the Heart Novel (28 page)

D
AWN
ARRIVED
AT
LAST
. Beth had spent those wakeful hours scribbling her thoughts on a piece of paper, turning and retracing each memory until it took clearer shape. And slowly, ever so slowly, she began to determine what to do next—despite Frank’s warning merely to wait.

Teddy was easy to locate in the woodshed behind the house. He seemed surprised to see Beth appear out of the cool morning mist, but he greeted her warmly as usual, then asked, “Miss Thatcher, why ya up so early?”

“I need to speak with you, Teddy. Please sit down.”

His eyes grew wide, but he sank onto the chopping block and laid the ax on the ground beside him.

“Teddy, I need you to tell me the truth. And I want you to believe that you can trust me with exactly that—with the absolute truth. Do you understand? I am not here because you’re in trouble. I’m here because I think you need help to get
out
of it.”

“Ma’am?”

“I know about Mr. Grant’s business,” Beth said, looking him straight in the eye. “I need you to tell me the rest.”

Instantly, his head dropped to his chest, and he refused to meet her gaze.

“Teddy Boy, please believe me, I want nothing—absolutely nothing—but to help you find a way out of the mess.” Beth crouched down before him and placed a hand on his knee, shaking it gently. Tears were already streaming down his face as he lifted his eyes to hers. “Please, Teddy, for Marnie’s sake—and for Wilton—please, please tell me what you know.”

“I didn’t want to do it. I jest couldn’t find a way to make ’em stop,” he said through sobs.

“Do what?”

He wiped the back of his hand across his dripping nose. “The men. The ones my daddy use ta work for. They made me do it—when he couldn’t no more ’cause he was dead.”

“Oh, my dear boy!”

Now that he had begun, the tale seemed to rush out all at once. “My daddy, he use ta pass the stuff along—so’s nobody would know where it come from. And when he died they said they’d give me money if I’d do it, ’stead of him. But I said no, Miss Thatcher—I really did.” He briefly raised his pleading eyes.

“I believe you, Teddy. I do.” Beth pressed her handkerchief into his hand.

“But when I wouldn’t, they started in sayin’ what they’d do to Marnie. I couldn’t let ’em—I had to do whatever they said.” He gulped back another sob. “All I did—all I did was pick it up at a place in the woods, and then I’d leave it by the boat downstream. I don’t know what else happened to it. I don’t know who took it from there or nothin’ else.”

“Do you have any idea how it came to be in Wilton’s hands? Think, Teddy. It’s so important we know.”

He covered his face with his hands, muffling his words.
“Addison found one of the bottles I left hid in the woods. He thought it was a joke—took it to his fort, laughed about drinkin’ it someday. I couldn’t tell him ’bout what I knew. . . . Then Willie found it. It wasn’t s’posed to happen like that.” He sobbed into his hands.

Beth pressed further, “Do you know who made it?”

“Yeah,” he whispered. “Mr. Grant did. But he’ll kill me if he ever finds out I told—an’ Marnie too. Maybe Molly—”

“No, he will not,” Beth assured him. “We will go to Jarrick—Mr. Thornton. He’s going to keep you safe.”

A flash of fear. “No, ma’am. I can’t. I can’t. What about Marnie?”

Anger and purpose crowded out Beth’s own fear. “This is what you will do,” she said firmly. “Finish chopping the wood, then go to your room. When Jarrick arrives—and I think he will be here very soon—I want you to let him take you with him. If he is worried about Marnie too, he’ll take her along. He’ll keep you safe. He already knows most of what you told me.”

“He does?”

“As I understand it, Teddy, there are many who are striving to put a stop to all this. And I assure you they will all work tirelessly to keep you safe. Nobody—and I mean
nobody
—is going to bring you harm. They’ll have to go through me first . . . and Mr. Thornton, and . . . well, I can’t tell you exactly who else. But it’s a whole team of people who love you very much and will stand between you and any danger that might come.”

His gaze said he was anxious to believe the things Beth was saying.

“And, Teddy darling,” she whispered, a smile flickering on her face, “Miss Molly doesn’t even know yet. Can you just imagine what she’ll do when she finds out somebody has
been mistreating you and Marnie? I just don’t even want to imagine!”

“Yeah,” he said, returning a feeble grin. “I wouldn’t wanna cross her.”

Beth loaded her arms with the piles of wood as Teddy chopped them and together they quickly filled the bin in the kitchen, even before Molly made a first appearance for the day. Then Beth shooed the boy up to his room and warned him to stay put.

As quickly as she could, Beth wrote a short note to Jarrick, explaining what she had been told. She folded it and tucked it deep inside her sleeve. Then she descended the stairs and stood in the center of the foyer, uncertain of how she would get the note to him.

Peering through the curtain on the front door, she noted a car parked before the house. For a moment she was puzzled, and then she heard Nick Costa at the dining room table.
He must have come
late in the evening—or very early this morning.
Her mind began to whirl once again.
He came in
a car. Why does Nick always come by car? The
others, the company men, they come and go by train.
Almost always by train.

Beth pushed her way into the dining room, past the men who were standing waiting for breakfast to be served. She moved with determination straight toward Nick Costa.

“Beth,” Nick smiled in greeting. “So good to see—”

“We must speak,” she said evenly. “Please, follow me.”

Retreating into the entryway, Beth turned without explanation. “I must ask you to deliver a note to Jack Thornton.”

He stared at her.

“I need you to pass on a note to Jack,” she reiterated. “It’s important. It’s an emergency, in fact.”

“But why me? Why do you—”

Beth leaned closer. “Can you, or can you not, deliver my note? Or do I have to find a way to get it to him myself?”

His eyes squinted slightly, but he admitted, “I can.”

“It must go right now.”

He merely nodded.

Beth reached inside her sleeve and pulled out the paper. She hesitated before releasing it to him. “No one—no one else can read it. No one but Jack.”

“I give you my word,” he answered soberly. And in a moment Nick was gone, his car sputtering away up the road.

Beth patrolled the main floor of the house as inconspicuously as she could, watching that Marnie stayed in the kitchen with Molly and that Teddy remained upstairs. She was not surprised that she did not wait long. Jarrick’s car slid to a stop beside the front gate, followed closely by Nick’s vehicle.

Jarrick entered with resolute steps. “Get the children.” Beth hurried to comply, leading first Teddy and then a dazed Marnie to where he waited.

“You are both going with Mr. Thornton,” Beth told them, keeping her voice as calm as she could. “We can’t talk about why right now. Please just go as quickly and quietly as you are able. I’ll explain to Molly.”

Teddy reached for his sister, putting an arm around her protectively, and they disappeared together into the waiting car. Beth breathed a sigh of relief. Then she reached for her coat and felt a hand grasping her arm. Molly stood in astonishment, staring out at the departing cars.

“I’m sorry, I can’t explain now, Molly. But I’m bringing all the children in to roll yarn today. I think that’s what we’ll do for school.”

Molly was still gaping as Beth rushed out. It took very little time to knock on all the doors in the little row of houses, in
forming each of the mothers that all students would begin the day at Molly’s home for a special project. Then Beth hurried back again, her breathing labored under the weight of the events she had set in motion.

Soon they appeared, two or three at a time, all her treasured children. Beth ushered them in to the parlor and seated as many as possible, then led the rest into the dining room. “I don’t know what I was thinking,” she said, waving her arms. “We still have a great deal of yarn to roll, and time has gotten away from us. Pastor Davidson gave us one last box when he was here last week. So we need to finish up this morning. But we can do it.” She made a good attempt at a smile. “You’ve all done such a wonderful job so far—let’s see how quickly we can finish.” She was grateful that they were compliant and didn’t ask any questions.

However, upon closer inspection of the circle of students, Beth noticed that Addison was absent from among them. “Luela, why didn’t Addison come?”

“Oh, Miss Thatcher, Mr. Thornton—he come and got Addie in his car. I thought ya knew that.”

A shiver ran through Beth’s body. Then she quickly reminded herself that Jarrick had them all together. They would be safe with him. “Oh, yes, Luela, that’s right. . . .” Fortunately the exchange had not prompted any questions.

The clock made awfully slow circles measuring off the morning hours. They were running out of yarn, and Beth was trying to think of how she would keep the children occupied once that was depleted.

Suddenly a frantic knock on the door, and Frances rushed inside without waiting for someone to open it.

“Molly,” she called out, “Molly!”

Beth followed her to the kitchen. “They caught that
wretched man,” cried Frances over her panting breaths. “They caught him, I tell you. With all his spite and wickedness—right there with his own hand in the cookie jar, so to speak. Those Mounties are goin’ through his place, both up and down—this very minute.”

Molly shushed her with a finger to her lips, gesturing toward the children with her eyes. “Lookin’ fer what?”

“Hooch!” Frances almost shouted, despite the warning.

Molly’s face instantly went white, and then she turned slowly toward Beth. “Where’s my kids?” Beth was taken aback by her severe expression.

“With Jack.”

“Now, I let you be all mornin’ long—I asked ya nothin’ at all. I didn’t like it, but I let ya be. Now yer gonna tell me right this very moment why my own kids ain’t here.”

If Davie is truly in custody, what
harm will it cause now for Molly to know? Frances
has found out already.
Beth answered quickly, “Teddy, he didn’t want to, but they were making him deliver the liquor for them. Marnie and Addison knew. I believe the children went to show Jack where the still was kept and to testify that it belongs to Davie Grant.”

“No need for testifying now,” Frances asserted. “I heard they got him stone-cold guilty.”

By noon Jarrick’s car had returned, along with several other official-looking vehicles all crowding the short street of Coal Valley. The children, no longer able to be restrained indoors, were gathered in the yard, watching the amazing sight in excitement and disbelief. When, at last, Davie himself was led from the company hall toward a waiting car, shouts erupted, followed by a cheer. Beth tried to hush the children but was ignored.

Suddenly, from the corner of Beth’s eye, she spotted Molly pushing past the crowd of children and out through the gate, crossing between the cars and the men in blazing red uniforms who were supervising the scene.

“Davie Grant,” she shouted, marching defiantly toward him, “ya despicable coward! Usin’
children
ta do your dirty business—
my children.
You answer me now! You answer me now!”

“Molly, no.” Frank came from nowhere to reach for her arm and hold her in check.

“No, Frank, ya best let me go. I’m gonna tell him just what he is.”

Frank held tight his grasp. “Just let’a him go, Mollina. He can’a hurt them no more.”

Molly struggled. “I’m jest gonna tell ’im what kinda man he is.”

“No, Mollina. No. You’re’a better than this.”

Her anger broken, she turned and wept on Frank’s shoulder, his stub of an arm patting her back comfortingly. A moment later, Teddy and Marnie fell into her embrace, and all Molly’s attention was lavished upon them.

Beth noticed that one of the officers who had turned toward the commotion was Edward Montclair. She had never guessed he might also be part of the inquiry, even though Jarrick had as much as told her when he remarked that Edward’s specialty was investigation. In fact, Edward himself had admitted he was in the area for a special assignment. Beth was certain nothing could surprise her now.