Sophia pressed her hands to her lower back, stiff after hours of arranging the library to satisfaction, but seeing her favorite titles lining the shelves in their new home sent a thrill through her. Half the shelves of the mahogany-paneled room remained empty, but Carver promised her that a lifetime of collecting books was in their future—a collection that would be passed down through the generations. Even though she had a hundred new titles to read, Sophia selected her now favorite poet, Keats, and settled into the chair before the stone fireplace, but the stillness about her made it rather hard to concentrate.
She flipped open the book once more. Tomorrow, she would begin tutoring the children in the orphanage. The noise of the children was just what she needed. Even after a week as Carver’s bride, the quietness of the house still took some getting used to after living with her Harvey sisters and growing up in a houseful of children.
Upon her marriage, Sophia sent a telegram to her friends in New Mexico, letting them know she was safe and where they could write to her, along with the news of Kane’s duplicity. He had thankfully been apprehended in New Orleans while Prescott had been excused already on grounds of passion after paying a hefty donation to the church—all of which Sophia had explained to her parents in a lengthy telegram.
Sophia rested her hand on the pocket that held their responding letter that arrived just this morning. Her parents offered stiff congratulations and a promise to visit next week to formalize her inheritance transfer and find out just what had truly happened with Prescott. She could not wait to tell Carver once he returned home from his meeting at the department store. Perhaps she could take a ride to tell him the good news that her parents were coming and might forgive her for running away.
With a gentle knock on the doorframe, Ruby, the young housemaid, dropped into a short curtsy. “Pardon me, Mrs. Ashton, but you have a guest. I showed her to the parlor.”
“Oh? Did she give you her name?” Sophia inquired as she snapped her book shut and flitted through the names of the handful of women that she had met at her first Sunday service in New Orleans. Mayhap it was Mrs. Lennox who had three daughters that Sophia mentioned potentially tutoring?
“No, ma’am, but she, um . . .” she fiddled with her apron pocket, her freckles standing out in her distress in trying to find the right words. “She doesn’t seem to hold herself as well as a lady of your status might, even though her dress is quite pretty.”
Sophia nodded her thanks, calling over her shoulder. “If you could bring some tea for us that would be lovely.” Her heels clicked on the hall’s solid pine floors, her curiosity rising as she flung open the French doors. “Nora!”
“You look well, Mrs. Ashton.” She smiled, holding out her arms.
Sophia rushed to her friend and embraced her, Nora’s abdomen poking her in the stomach. “Are you well? Are you here to see. . .”
“When I discovered where Kane was being held, I had to come and make amends with you in person.” Her eyes filled with unshed tears. “Between the actions of myself and Kane, I wouldn’t blame you for hating us. I am so very sorry for what happened.”
“I am sorry as well, but I could never hate you.” Sophia embraced her friend and led her to one of the pale blue settees tucked in the bay window alcove shaded by the long, dipping branches of the live oak with its Spanish moss swaying in the light breeze just outside the window.
“I never thought Kane could be capable of such a horrid deed.” Nora’s eyes saddened as she sank onto the soft cushion. “When I went to visit him this morning, I learned that he’s capable of so much worse than just kidnapping you.” She dipped her head and wiped her eyes with her stained handkerchief.
Sophia gripped her friend’s arm, concern and anger flooding her voice. “Has that man hurt you?”
“Besides breaking my heart? No.” She gave a short, bitter laugh. “How could he when he is in jail? He would never physically harm me, nor our baby anyway, but he would do anything, anything to make our fortune. It seems with the impending arrival of our child, the need for more wealth has consumed him. He always wants more and that is why I am here. I know I said I came to apologize, but after my visit to the jail, I knew I had a much greater reason to see you. I came to warn you.”
Sophia’s heart thudded. “Warn me?”
Nora nodded vigorously, her chapeau in danger of tumbling off her head. “Kane seemed to think it was only a matter of hours or days before he would be free.”
“How could he possibly think that? He will be in jail for a very long time. He has no friends or power in New Orleans.”
“Yes, but they didn’t lock away Mr. Payne, now did they?” Nora commented quietly.
Sophia bit her lip.
“You may want to check and see how well they are keeping an eye out for Mr. Payne in New Orleans.” Her hand trembled as she pulled a wrinkled telegram from her reticule. “Kane slipped this to me through the bars.”
Sophia unfolded it to read, Isaiah 51:14.
Perplexed that the verses she had held dear were the sole message, Sophia looked up to Nora. “What’s this supposed to mean?”
“Even the devil can quote scripture to suit his purposes.” Nora scowled. “It’s a verse about setting the captives free and how they will not die in the dungeon.”
Sophia paled, knowing in her gut who sent the telegram. “Prescott would dare to use scripture as a means for evil?” She crumpled the note in her hand and threw it into the fireplace.
“It’s rather brilliant of him because the jailer isn’t going to look up a scripture reference. He will see it as innocent while Mr. Payne meant it for a message.”
They paused at the sound of Ruby’s soft knock at the door as she rolled in the tea cart. “Would you like me to pour, Mrs. Ashton?”
Sophia shook her head as Ruby set the tea and delectable Italian pastries on the alcove’s small round table. “I can do it if you need to run to the market before dinner? Thank you.”
“I’ll be back soon, Mrs. Ashton.” Ruby curtsied and closed the door behind her.
“I have to find Carver.” Sophia rose, hoping to catch him on his way home from the department store. “I’m sorry to leave you, Nora, but help yourself to the tea and pastries and ring for the cook if you want anything else. I will return in under an hour after I let Carver know and we can continue our conversation.”
“Let Carver know what? That Nora led me straight to you?” A deep voice called from the doorway, blocking their escape.
Nora grasped her by the elbow. “Kane!”
“Cry out and I’m afraid your friend will get very hurt.” Kane warned his wife.
“But h-how did you—you were in jail!” Sophia gasped.
“Money can do a lot of things. . . even get someone out of jail who is on trial for abduction and assault. The only reason I showed my dear wife the note was for the plain and simple fact that I knew she would want to warn her dear little friend and thus, lead me directly to her instead of my wasting precious time and incriminating myself further by asking for directions.” He patted his wife’s arm. “That’s what first drew me to you—your gentle heart, which is so predictable.”
Nora jerked her arm away from him. “You are breaking my heart. We have all that we need and more. Can’t you just leave Sophia and her husband alone?”
“It’s all for our child, my sweet Nora. Don’t you know that everything I do is for our future?” He gently wiped her tears away with his thumbs.
Sophia folded her hands in front of her skirt, praying she appeared without fear. “What do you want, Kane? More of our money? Because I haven’t received my inheritance yet, and you have the lion’s share of Carver’s savings.”
“You want to know what I desire? When Carver comes through that door,” he opened his coat and took out a revolver, “I will kill him and take you back to Prescott for a fortune.”
Sophia kept her face blank and her voice strong. “And what makes you think that you could take Carver when you couldn’t the first time?”
“Why, because I have his precious little wife, of course.” He grinned. “Nothing quite motivates a gentleman to surrender himself without a fight like having the woman he loves being threatened.”
“Carver and I will pay you more than what Prescott has offered you.” She moved toward her writing desk by the window. She glanced out the window onto the street, spying Carver atop his horse. “I can pay you all that we have now and more later.” She opened the drawer, finding the letter opener. Its sharp blade could prove useful.
Kane laughed as he leaned against the fireplace mantel, lifting the ornate porcelain and gold clock. “I know how much you can pay, and I’m certain Prescott will reward me more than you can ever imagine when I deliver you to him as a widow.”
“Try me,” Sophia replied as she leaned against her writing desk, her fingers grazing the silver piece.
Nora cried out and clutched her abdomen, sinking to her knees on the parlor rug.
Kane’s nonchalant façade dropped as he saw his wife’s pain. “Nora?” He grasped her arm and helped her back to the settee.
“Kane, please stop this madness.” Nora’s eyes widened in panic. “Don’t make me raise this child alone. We can run now. We can get away before it’s too late and live a good and full life with our child.” She grimaced, rubbing her stomach. “If you do this, you will be caught. I know it.”
“Kane, you have to let me send for a doctor.” Sophia interjected, grasping the handle of the letter opener behind her back, and reaching for the bell cord.
“Step away from that cord.” He commanded, waving her back over to the desk with the barrel of his gun. He shook his head. “We can’t send for the doctor. If we do, they will know where I am.”
“Do you want to endanger the lives of your wife and child? It’s far too early for her to be feeling such pains. Be a man and think of her for once in your selfish life.”
“Kane, please.” Nora whimpered.
Kane gritted his teeth against her pleas, throwing open the desk drawers were he found a stack of bills and stuffed them into his coat pocket before turning to Sophia. “Get me more and hurry.”
“You have everything in my desk.”
He seized her arm. “Well, then, go through your husband’s desk and get me all the money in the house. My child won’t grow up in poverty like I did. He will have his proper fortune, which was stolen from him by the Payne and Ashton families.” He shook Sophia. “If you do anything to jeopardize me from getting my hands on that money . . . well, let’s just say it won’t be very pretty for Carver when he gets home.”
“You’ll leave us in peace if I do?”
“Fetch the money and be back in two minutes, or I will make you a widow and cart you off to Prescott for both of your fortunes.”
Sophia ran to her husband’s desk, retrieved a small chest from inside the deep side drawer, found the key hidden under his clock on the mantel, and brought it back to the parlor, setting it on her writing desk.
Kane snatched the key from Sophia’s hand, along with the letter opener hidden up her sleeve, and gestured with the gun for her to stand by the curtain. “Stay where I can see you, and keep your hands in front of you.”
Sophia risked a glance over her shoulder to check the window and refrained from gasping when she saw Carver climbing the steps. Lord, help us!
Kane lifted his gaze from the chest. “What? Does having your money stolen from you hurt?” He stuffed the dollars and gold coins into his money pouch and jammed it into his pockets.
“Sophia? I’m home!” Carver called from the front door.
Sophia closed her eyes against her tears, picturing him hanging up his coat on the hall tree, and with it, his pistol that he kept in his coat pocket.
Kane held his finger to his lips and stepped behind the curtain with his gun poised at her heart. “Call him in, but if you give me away—”
Nora groaned.
He glanced at Nora. “I am sorry this is taking so long, my love, but we will have you out of here in a few minutes after I have finished what needs finishing.”
Nora clutched her abdomen and leaned on the back of the settee for support as Sophia called, “I am in the parlor, Mr. Ashton.”
* * *
“What? No loving greeting?” He laughed as he swung open the parlor door, his gaze fell on Nora, and Sophia jerked her eyes to the curtain. Carver whirled around as Kane stepped out from behind it with his sights trained on Carver.
“I didn’t want to leave New Orleans without paying my respects to my cousin and the new Mrs. Ashton. That would have been so disrespectful,” he drawled.
“Well, you have paid your respects,” Carver replied, glaring. “So, I suggest you be on your way now before I retaliate for having a loaded gun in the same room as my wife.”
“Yes, yes, I am going, but first, Sophia was going to give me a little gift.”
Sophia gave him a puzzled look.
He nodded to her neck. “I think that a gold locket would be the perfect gift for my sweet Nora.”
Sophia’s hand flew protectively to cover her locket. “I’ve given you all the money you want. You don’t need an old locket.”
“But I know how much you love it, so you see, I do need it because it hurts you, and my bride could use a pretty bobble.”
Carver nodded to Sophia. “Give it to him, my love.”
Her heart tightened as she unfastened the locket, holding it out to the man when Nora moaned.
Kane glanced over his shoulder for a split second. “Nora?”
She grunted. “I just need to move a bit and distract myself from the pain.” She shuffled toward a pedestal with an antique vase. She wrapped her hands around it and hefted it from the pedestal. “I have taken a fancy to this vase, so I think I will take it if that’s all right with you, Kane.”
He laughed, his eyes still trained on Carver and Sophia. “That’s the spirit! You may have anything you want, my love. This wealth should have been ours after all.” Kane drew back the hammer on his revolver with a click.
Nora slammed the vase over his head, and he crumpled to the ground. Carver bolted over to him and jerked his arms behind his back, yanking off his neckcloth to use it to bind Kane’s hands as Sophia rushed to Nora’s side.
“Nora, that was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen. Are you all right?”
Nora rested her head on Sophia’s shoulder and shook her head, sobbing. “God help me. I-I love him so much, but he was going to hurt you. He wouldn’t have let you two go without someone being killed.”
Carver pulled the bell cord, praying aloud that Ruby had returned from her errands.
Ruby poked her head into the parlor. “I’m sorry my errands took so long Mrs. Asht—” Her jaw dropped as she took in the bound and unconscious Kane. “Oh, my word, is everyone all right?”
Carver nodded, raking his hand through his hair as he rose with the gun trained on Kane. “Yes. Ruby, please send for the police, then I want you to find the doctor for Mrs. Kane and send him over straight away.”
“Yes, sir!” She twirled on her heel and ran for the front door.
“Sophia, you see to Nora, and I will watch over Kane until the police come,” he instructed, his gaze never leaving the man. “I don’t trust him for a second not to twist his way out of those knots.”
* * *
Sophia drew Nora away from the horrid scene and showed her to the upstairs guest room, staying with her long after the doctor’s departure until her sobs had abated into the deep breathing of sleep. Exhausted, she slowly made her way downstairs to join Carver just as he was showing the policemen out of the house after giving his report, detailing Kane’s actions.
The moment he closed the front door, she flew into his arms, basking in the comfort and security of having his arms about her. “Is it over?” She whispered into his solid chest.
“I believe it is, and now the police are determined to take another look at Prescott’s case. Kane’s escape from prison was far too easy, and they know that if they can find out which officer was bribed, and by whom, they will be able to put Prescott away for his crimes against us.”
She pushed herself out of his arms. “Then it’s truly over? Prescott won’t attempt to separate us again?”
“I believe that his desperation in the end may have made him careless, leaving a trail for them to follow.” He pressed a kiss to her hands. “But I do wish to discuss the matter of Nora.”
Her stomach tightened. Nora couldn’t be without a husband and without funds—not with a baby on the way. “I know she has access to the funds we paid Kane, but please don’t ask her to return—”
“She must keep the funds, of course. I was thinking more along the lines that if she does not wish to return to a town full of memories of Kane, she should stay here and set up a business in New Orleans.”
“Here, as in, with us?”
He shrugged. “If she wishes, and I know you have commented on multiple accounts of the house being too quiet. Besides, I remember from your letters saying that Nora wished to be a seamstress and—”
She threw her arms about her husband’s neck and kissed him soundly. “Just when I think you can’t possibly become more wonderful, you find a way!”