“It’s ready now,” Pam said, pushing Houston into the pink tiled bathroom. “You get undressed while I call and see how my father is. And Houston! don’t just stand there looking as if the world were about to end.”
Through years of training, Houston obeyed as well as any trained animal, and when Pam returned, she was lying in the big tub, up to her neck in suds.
“Dr. Westfield finally calmed my father down,” Pam said. “He’s too old to go through nights like this one. Whatever did Kane say to him? The only thing that I know of that could upset him so badly would be something about Zachary. If Kane thinks that he’s going to take my son away from me, he’d better be prepared to fight—.”
“No,” Houston said tiredly. “He’s not after his son. Nothing so noble.”
“I think you should tell me.”
Houston looked up at this woman whom she really didn’t know, a woman who was once the love of her husband’s life. “Why are you helping me? I know you still love him.”
Pam narrowed her eyes for a moment. “So he told you, did he?”
“I know he . . . refused your invitation.”
Pam laughed. “That’s tactful of you. I guess he didn’t bother to also tell you that I, too, realized we’d never make it together? We came to a mutual understanding that if we married we’d probably kill each other within three months. Now, tell me what happened between you and Kane. It’s all family, if that’s what you’re thinking, and it’s going to come out sooner or later.”
If Kane decided to take the Fenton money that was legally his, it would indeed all come out, Houston thought. “Do you know who Kane’s mother was?” she asked softly.
“I have no idea. I don’t think I ever considered that he had a mother, probably because he seemed too self-sufficient to need something as simple as a mother. I guess I assumed he’d arrived on earth all by himself.”
Houston sat in the hot water and told the story of Charity Taggert slowly, trying not to color the tale with her own viewpoint.
Pam had pulled up a pink upholstered brass wire chair. “I had no idea,” Pam said at the end of the story. “You’re saying that everything my father owns is legally Kane’s. No wonder he’s so angry at my father, and no wonder my father is shaking with fear. But, Houston, you didn’t walk out on Kane tonight because he wasn’t born a pauper. What else happened?”
It was more difficult for Houston to tell about herself, to admit that she was second choice to Pam and that, now that she’d fulfilled what Kane needed her for, she was useless to him.
“Damn him!” Pam said, standing and pacing the floor. “He would feel completely justified in telling you that he’d married you for what he thinks he needs. He is the most spoiled man I ever met in my life.”
Houston, showing the first signs of life, rolled her head upward to look at Pam.
“He likes to imagine that his life was one of great misery, but I can tell you that he was the real ruler of our household when he lived there. People look down on me for having fallen in love with the stable lad, but that’s only because they never had someone in their stables like Kane Taggert.”
She sat down in the seat again, leaning forward, her face angry. “You know him. You’ve seen his temper and the way he orders everyone about. Do you think he was ever any different, merely because he was supposed to be someone’s servant?”
“I don’t guess I really thought about it,” Houston said. “Marc did say that Kane was a tyrant.”
“Tyrant!” Pam gasped, getting up again. “Kane ran everything. More than once, my father had to miss business appointments because Kane said he couldn’t have a carriage or a horse, that the animals weren’t ready to travel. At dinner, we ate what Kane liked because the cook thought his tastes were more important than Father’s.”
Houston remembered the way Mrs. Murchison had succumbed to Kane’s teasing and how the woman adored him.
“He was always a handsome boy and knew how to get whatever he wanted out of women. The maids cleaned his rooms, they did his laundry, they took meals to him. He didn’t run Fenton Coal and Iron, but he ran our household. I can’t imagine what he would have been like if he’d known that all the money was legally his. Perhaps my father did him a favor. Maybe living in the stables taught him some humility, because he certainly wasn’t born with it.”
Pam fell to her knees by the tub. “You have my permission to stay here as long as you want. If you want my two cents, I think you were right to leave him. He can’t marry a person in order to enact some plan of revenge. Now, get out of that tub while I fix you a toddy that will help you sleep.”
Again, Houston did as she was told, drying herself with one of Pam’s pink towels and slipping into Pam’s chaste night gown.
Pam returned with a steaming mug in her hand. “If this doesn’t make you sleep, it’ll make you not care that you’re awake. Now, get into bed. Tomorrow has to be better than today.”
Houston drank most of the concoction and was asleep very soon. In the morning, when she woke, the sun was already high in the sky and she had a headache. Draped over the end of the bed was her underwear and a dressing gown. A note from Pam said that she had to go out and for Houston to help herself to breakfast downstairs and to tell the maid if she needed anything.
* * *
“Edan,” Jean Taggert was saying, “I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done tonight. There was no need for you to stay up with me.”
They were standing in the corridor of the Chandler Hotel. Both of them looked tired. After they’d left Kane’s house, they’d come to the hotel. Ian had gone to bed immediately, but Sherwin had been extremely upset by the night’s happenings and, in his weakened state, he’d begun coughing and couldn’t catch his breath. He gasped that he was afraid that Jean and Ian would have to return to the coal fields.
Edan called Dr. Westfield, and Lee was there in minutes, already dressed from having just seen to Jacob Fenton. Edan also roused the hotel staff and had hot water bottles and extra blankets brought. He sent a bellboy to get the druggist out of bed to fill a prescription for Sherwin.
Jean was able to stay by her father throughout the night and try to reassure him that she and Ian would not return to the mines, while Edan tended to all the necessary details.
Now, with the sun just coming up, Sherwin asleep at last, they stood outside his door.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Jean said for the thousandth time.
“Then stop trying. Would you like some breakfast?”
“Do you think the dining room is open at this hour?”
Edan grinned at her as he pushed a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. “After last night, this hotel is so afraid of me that they’ll do anything for me.”
He was right. A weary-looking clerk escorted them into the dining room, removed two chairs from a table by the window and went to drag the cook out of bed. Unfortunately, the cook lived four miles out of town and it took him a while to get there. Neither Jean nor Edan noticed that breakfast took over two hours to arrive.
They talked about when they’d grown up, Jean telling about taking care of all the men in her life, of her mother dying when Jean was eleven. Edan told of his family, of their deaths in the fire and of how Kane had taken him in.
“Kane was good for me. I didn’t want to love anyone again. I was afraid that they’d die, too, and I didn’t think I could bear being left alone again.”
He put down his napkin. “Are you ready to go? I think the business offices should be open by now.”
“Yes, of course,” she said, rising. “I didn’t mean to keep you from your work.”
He caught her by her elbow. “I didn’t mean me, I meant us. You and I are going to a realtor to buy a house today. It’ll have to be something large to have room for all of us.”
She moved out of his grasp and turned to look at him. “All of us? I don’t know what you mean, but Ian, Father and I couldn’t possibly live with you. I’ll get a job in t
own, perhaps Houston can help me, and Ian can go to school and work afterwards, and Father—.”
“Your father would hate himself for being a burden to you both, and Ian is too big to go to school with the others and he’d be better off with his tutor. And you couldn’t earn enough to support them. Now, come with me and help me find a big house, and you can be my housekeeper.”
“I couldn’t possibly do that,” she said, aghast. “I can’t be a housekeeper to an unmarried man.”
“Your father and cousin will be there as chaperones in case I try to molest you and, then again, from what I’ve seen of married life in the last few months, I rather like the idea. Come on, Jean, close your mouth and let’s go shopping. We’ll probably have to buy furniture and food and all sorts of things before we can get out of this hotel. Do you think the staff will volunteer to help us if they know their help will get rid of us faster?”
Jean was too stunned to say another word as Edan led her upstairs to her father’s room to tell him where they were going, In the end, Ian, Jean and Edan went to the realtor’s.
* * *
Houston sat at Pam’s dining table, listlessly poking at a bowl of oatmeal.
Pam burst into the room, pulling off long, white chamois gloves. “Houston, the entire town is on fire with gossip about last night,” she said without a greeting. “First of all, after you left, it seems that Kane and Edan had a brawl in an upstairs bedroom. One of the maids said that the fight went on for hours and, when it was over, Edan left the house in a storm.”
“Edan left, too?” Houston asked, wide-eyed.
“Not only Edan, but also the other Taggerts: Jean, Ian and Sherwin. And when they were gone, Kane marched downstairs and fired all the servants.”
Houston leaned back in her chair and gave a great sigh. “He said he was tired of all of us taking so much of his time. I guess he can work all he wants now . . . or go back to New York and work there.”
Pam unpinned her Strada hat, fluffing the ostrich plumes atop the white Italian straw. “I haven’t told you the half of it. Edan and Jean took up residence at the Chandler Hotel and kept the staff up all night, waiting on Sherwin who was, as far as I could find out, near death’s door, and this morning they bought a house together.”
“Edan and Jean? Is Sherwin all right?”
“Gossip says he’s fine and, yes, Edan and Jean bought that enormous Stroud place at the end of Archer Avenue, across from Blair’s hospital. And after they signed the papers—Edan paid cash for the house—Jean went back to the hotel and Edan went to The Famous and bought, I hope I get this right, three ladies’ blouses, two skirts, a hat, two pairs of gloves, and assorted underwear. That nasty little Nathan girl waited on him, and she kept after the poor man until he admitted that the secret woman he was buying the clothes for was approximately the exact same size as Miss Jean Taggert. If Edan doesn’t marry her after this, her name won’t be worth much in this town.”
She paused for a moment. “And, Houston, you might as well know that the Chandler Chronicle is hinting that there’s another woman involved in everything that happened last night.”
Houston picked up her coffee cup. The local paper didn’t faze her. Mr. Gates had complained for years that the paper was nothing but a gossip rag consisting of reports on the most bizarre deaths from around the world and inane articles about where each English duke’s family was wintering. He stopped delivery of the paper after it carried a half-page story in which an Italian man declared Anglo-Saxon women to be the best kissers in the world.
“Wherever did you hear all this?” Houston asked.
“Where else but Miss Emily’s Tea Shop?”
Houston almost choked on her coffee. The Sisterhood! she thought. She had to call an emergency meeting to let them know that Jacob Fenton knew about the women disguising themselves and illegally entering the coal camps. All the man had to do was get angry enough at Kane and he could have the women arrested. “May I use your telephone?” Houston asked. “I have some calls to make.”
Chapter 25
Houston called her mother first and interrupted Opal in a fit of crying. After Houston’d managed to calm her mother without giving her too much information, she persuaded Opal to help her call some of the members of The Sisterhood. The only suitable meeting place, where they were sure of not being overheard, seemed to be the upstairs of the teashop.
“At two o’clock, then,” Houston said as she hung up and began calling the others who were on the telephone system.
When the women finally met in Miss Emily’s parlor, they all looked askance toward Houston. She was sure they were dying to hear the truth of what had happened last night when everyone left Kane’s house. She walked to the front of the women who stood waiting.
“Last night, I found out some very important information,” she began. “Jacob Fenton knows about our going into the coal camps. I’m not sure exactly how much he knows, but I called this meeting to discuss it.”
“But the guards don’t know, do they?” Tia asked. “Is it only Fenton himself who knows? Has he told others? How did he find out?”
“I don’t know any of those answers. All I know is that he’s aware that we disguise ourselves and go into the camps . . . and he’s threatened to prosecute me.”
“You?” Blair gasped. “Why you, particularly? Why not all of the drivers?”
Houston looked at the floor. “It has to do with my husband and Mr. Fenton, but I don’t believe that I will be arrested.”
“I don’t think we can chance it,” Blair said. “You’ll have to stop driving.”
“Wait a minute!” Miss Emily said. “Fenton must have known about this for a long time. He didn’t just learn about it yesterday and come storming to your house to threaten you. Is that right, Houston?”
She nodded.
“It’s none of our business, of course, but am I safe in saying that a great deal happened at the Taggert house last night, and that it’s likely that Fenton’s declaration of his knowledge of you was only part of what happened?”
Again, Houston nodded.
“My guess is that Fenton has decided that what we do isn’t all that harmful, and so he allows us to go safely into the camps. If I’m correct, and I do know Jacob, he’s probably had a few laughs about the silly women dressing up and enjoying themselves. I say that we continue the visits. For myself, I feel better knowing that, in a way, we’re protected.”
“I don’t like it!” Meredith said.
“And how do you propose secrecy?” Sarah asked. “It doesn’t matter about Fenton, anyway. He overlooks half of what goes on at the camps. Remember last year when that union official was found beaten to death? The official verdict was ‘death by person or persons unknown’. Surely, Fenton knew who did it, but he keeps his hands clean. Do you think he’s going to prosecute the daughters of the leading citizens of Chandler? My father, after removing some of my hide, would go after Fenton with a shotgun.”
“If we’re an object of humor, and we’re protected by the mine owner himself, then what’s the use of all the secrecy?” Nina asked. “Why don’t we wear lace dresses and travel in pretty carriages and just distribute the goods?”
“And which miner will let his wife accept charity from the rich town women?” Miss Emily asked. “I think we should keep on with things just as they are. Houston, I want you to consider this very seriously: do you think Fenton’ll press charges against you or the other women?”
And risk exposing that he’d stolen everything from a three-day-old baby, Houston thought. “No,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll be arrested. I say that we proceed as always. The few men who know what we do have a vested interest in keeping our secrets. If that’s everything, I say we adjourn and go home.”
“Just a minute,” Blair said, standing. “Nina and I have something to say.”
Together, Blair and Nina told of an idea they’d been working on for weeks, of a ladies’ magazine that, in code, informed the miners of wh
at was going on throughout America concerning the organization of unions. They showed sample articles and talked of distributing the magazine as a gift to the women in the coal mines.
The women of The Sisterhood were hesitant at first to agree. They’d already experienced fear when they’d learned of Fenton’s knowledge.
“Are we committed or not?” Miss Emily asked, and the women began discussing the new magazine.
Hours later, it was a quiet group who left Miss Emily’s parlor, each woman thinking about the possibility of arrest of either herself or one of her friends.
“Houston,” Blair said as the others left. “Could we talk?”
Houston nodded, but couldn’t bring herself to tell her sister what’d happened. Blair just might start blaming herself again, and Houston didn’t need more misery right now.
“You want to tell me what happened last night?” Blair asked when they were alone. “The gossip says that you left him. Is that true?”
“True enough,” she said, refusing to cry. “I’m staying with Pamela Younger, Jacob’s daughter.”
Blair looked at her sister for a long time but offered no advice nor any comment. “If you need me, I’m here to listen, but in the meantime you’ll need something to keep you busy. The first issue of Lady Chandler’s Magazine will have to be submitted to the Coal Board for approval and I want it to be as safe and innocuous as possible. I need articles on how to clean clothes, how to take care of your hair, how to dress like a duchess on a coal miner’s salary, that sort of thing. I think you’ll do a great job of writing them. Can you go with me now and we’ll buy you a typewriter? I’ll show you how to use it this afternoon.”
Houston hadn’t thought about how she’d spend her time when she didn’t have Kane to care for, but now she realized that, if she didn’t do some work, she’d sit at Pam’s and curse herself for being such a fool as to love a man like Kane Taggert. “Yes,” she said, “I’d like to be busy. I’ve had some ideas about how the miners’ wives could brighten up the cabins and how they could add a little beauty to their lives.”