Questions of Honour

Helena gasped in shock and stepped back, holding the sodden material off her limbs. “That boy is a little animal!”

Joshua stared down at Abby, fury burning in his eyes. “He and I had words yesterday at the train station. I forgave his behavior because it was directed at me, but this is too much.”

“I apologize for my son, but you should understand his resentment.”

Josh felt dizzy. The air left his lungs, and he sucked in a strangled breath. Her son. He’d assumed the boy was her brother. The one her mother had been expecting when he left for Germany. Her mother’s condition had been the chief reason Abby had refused to go with him. So the boy was Abby’s son. He should have been theirs but instead he was proof she’d betrayed him within months in the bed of a man Josh despised.

“He needs a good trip to the woodshed with your husband,” he said, then wished instantly he could take it back. The boy had been wrong, but Liam Sullivan was a brute.

“I’ve no husband, as you well know!” Abby spat at him.

Josh blinked. “Of course you do. Liam Sullivan.”

“I’m widowed, you fool. How long do you think he lived the way he was?” She turned her gaze on Helena, who stood gaping. “'Tis sorry I am for what Daniel did. He really does have his reasons. I truly feel sorry for you to be marrying a blackguard like Joshua Wheaton. You’d better be askin’ what has the boy so upset! Come along, Susan.”

Josh would have followed Abby but Helena said, “Take me home. Please, Joshua.” She pulled a face and held her sodden hem away from herself. He guided Helena to the carriage and helped her in, but his mind stayed on Abby. Something didn’t add up. Why was she so angry at him?

“You need to find out who that boy is,” Helena demanded as he climbed into the carriage.

“He’s Abby’s. And Sullivan’s. He looks a lot like Abby’s father. I thought he was her brother. Except for his eyes now that I think about it. All the Kanes have one shade of green eyes or another,” Joshua added absently. Something about his statement bothered him, but another thought replaced it. “Abby isn’t married. My father never told me Sullivan had died.”

“You should find out why. Especially since your father is so anxious to see us marry immediately. Speaking of which, why did you call me your intended when we agreed to hold that in reserve?”

Josh’s heart sank. Abby’s hostility had pushed him over the edge and he’d made a mess of things. He’d wanted her to think he’d moved on they way she had. But he hadn’t and had learned too late she was free. It was too late for them anyway since she clearly hated him now, though why was a puzzle. He’d been the one wronged.

“It’ll be okay. This is about saving Brendan’s life and you from the earl. But I need to find out why my father never told me Sullivan was dead,” he muttered, his mind trying to put the puzzle together.

Josh flicked the reins and started the carriage toward home. Even after ten years, the thought of Abby with Sullivan made his stomach turn. “I’ll never understand how her father allowed her to marry such a miserable excuse of a man.”

“Perhaps there was a good reason.”

“What reason could he have to let his daughter marry a drunken lout?” Josh demanded as he pulled the carriage to a stop at the front entrance of his father’s house.

Helena stared at him, her expression hard. “I’m not going to tell you,” she told him as he helped her down. “but you’d better find out. And while you’re at it, find out why men are so blind and stupid!”

Mystified, Joshua watched as Helena ran up the stairs and through the front door. He winced when she slammed it behind her. What the hell had he done? This was no way to play happy couple.

He stared after her for a moment then returned to town. There he found that Abby and Helena weren’t the only ones who held him in disdain. Every time he approached anyone from the mining families, and Father Rafferty as well, they snubbed him. Three different times women who had once been his and Abby’s friends refused to acknowledge his greeting. Frustrated and angry, he decided to go inspect the mines.

Joshua’s first impression was that little had changed there. Then he looked past the mud and coal dust. More tunnels had been added and consequently there were more ore cars and tracks converging on the spur that linked the mine to the railroad. There were more men milling around, as well. The supervisors all carried rifles and wore sidearms now, a legacy of the problems with the AMU. AMU’s Workmen had given mine owners the excuse they’d been after for years to arm their management.

A man who’d once been chief engineer came out of a shed and headed toward him. “Joshua, I’d heard you decided to come back.”

“I hadn’t heard you had. You left town before I did.”

Helmut Faltsburg had aged but he was still a formidable sight. “Ya, we’ve both come home.”

“I’m back because Father made concessions. Actually he capitulated completely. I’m in charge now. I hope you won’t mind working with a younger man.”

“I have grown used to being ordered about. My boss may have problems adjusting, though.”

“My father?”

Helmut shook his head. “I speak of Geoffrey Williams.”

“Who in hell is Geoffrey Williams?”

“A man a friend of your father’s recommended to run things.” Faltsburg shrugged. “I tried to tell your father Williams is not as good as Harlan was told, but your father, he is not a good judge of men. I stay and try to keep things as safe as I can but he is not—”

The door to the shed crashed open. “I didn’t say you could leave. If you don’t start showing me some respect, old man, you’re going to find yourself fired.” The man stared at Joshua with a narrowed, mean gaze. “What are you doing hanging around the mines? It’s against company rules.”

Joshua moved toward the tall man, who stood in the doorway. “What rules are those?” he asked.

“We don’t allow any unauthorized people near the mines. Leave or I’ll have a guard escort you back to town.”

“Maybe you should talk to Harlan first.”

Williams frowned. “Wheaton didn’t tell me a thing about hiring a new man.”

“How odd. Helmut was just telling me he’d been looking forward to my taking over.”

The man’s jaw dropped then Helmut stepped forward, his shoulders a bit straighter, his tired eyes lively. “This is Joshua Wheaton.”

“Mr. Wheaton,” Williams stammered. “I had no idea you’d arrived.”

“That’s quite obvious. I’ve asked Helmut to take me on a tour of the yards. I’ll see you later to discuss my findings.”

Joshua followed the old supervisor toward River Fall tunnel. The first thing he noticed was the breaker shed, instead of being separate, was over the shaft that held the ventilation furnace. It was a clear safety violation. He stood at the edge and paced off the distance to the second shaft. Then back again.

“Is there another entrance I don’t see?” Josh asked. His one-time mentor shook his head. “But the second shaft is twenty feet too close to comply with current mining law.”

“Williams said one hundred and thirty feet was as good as one hundred and fifty feet.”

Josh arched his brows. “He decided to just ignore a congressional dictate?”

“Most owners ignore the 1870 Mine Act.”

“It isn’t nearly as strict as the one enacted by Parliament in England. We complied over there and still made a handsome profit.”

Helmut’s only answer was a shrug.

Joshua growled and picked up a Davy safety lamp. Safety would be an uphill battle, waged inside the mine and in the engineering shed. The miners were supposed to use safety lamps on days when the barometric pressure was as low as it was that day. The Davy lamp was a safety breakthrough but it was far from efficient. It was too heavy to wear on a cap, so it had to be set down away from the actual work and didn’t give off as much light as an open flame. He knew he’d find the men inside with naked flames blazing on their caps, the flame teasing the flammable gas the miners called firedamp to explode.

They reached the breaker shed housing the cage and pulley system used to transport men and coal to the surface. Helmut introduced Josh to the shed supervisor.

“I think you ought to wait before you go in there,” he said. “The men are clearing a crush. Can’t tell how much firedamp it’ll cause.”

Joshua turned back to the man. “It’s no more dangerous for me than it is for them.”