Instant Frontier Family

“But he came all this way,” she protested to her sister. “He took care of us.”

“We like him,” Aiden added, slipping his hand back into Michael’s. That was Aiden, loyal as the day was long, to each of his sisters, to Michael, to anyone who befriended him. His trembling lower lip was enough to make anyone rethink whatever they’d been doing to cause his distress.

For a moment, Michael thought Aiden’s look had touched Maddie as well, for her tension eased. “Glad I am that Mr. Haggerty was so kind to you both,” she told her brother. “But that doesn’t mean I owe him my hand in marriage.”

Ciara stiffened as if she quite disagreed.

“No, ma’am,” Michael said before the girl could build up a head of steam again. “I’m the one who owes you a debt. Your money paid for my passage.”

Maddie frowned. She had delicate russet-colored brows over a pert nose and the creamiest skin Michael had ever seen. And that hair, thick as coals after a fire and twice as fiery. But a pretty exterior could hide a far less pleasing heart, he’d learned to his sorrow.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “I asked for a lady to escort my brother and sister, someone who could be helping me at my work.”

That’s what Aunt Sylvie had been intending to send her, until the threats to Michael’s life had convinced her to beg him to go instead. But he didn’t want to explain that now, not with people crowding around them on the pier, gazes already curious.

So Michael released his hold on Aiden and saluted as the men on the naval ships in New York harbor had been wont to do. “Able Seaman Michael Haggerty at your service, ma’am.”

Her lips tightened until they were a pretty pink bow on her oval face. “I’m not a captain of a ship, Mr. Haggerty. I have no use for sailors.”

Michael lowered his arm, determined not to give up so easily. “You must have some fixing and carrying that needs to be done, ma’am. All I ask is a chance to repay my debt to you.”

She shook her head, threatening the placement of the tiny green hat that perched on her braid. He’d seen a few of those in New York, usually on women who couldn’t be bothered to count the cost of the whimsical things.

The thought brought his aunt’s voice to mind. Don’t you be going and judging all women like your Katie O’Doul. Not every lady sets her heart on breaking others’.

“I’ve never held with indentured servants, sir,” Maddie informed him. “Too many of our people labored under that system.”

Our people. The Irish. Was she one of those who valued the home country more than the country they now called home? He’d been fighting the battle of misplaced allegiances for most of his life. The only reason he was here now was because he’d lost that battle in New York and lost the woman he’d thought he’d loved at the same time.

He wasn’t about to lose more.

“Nevertheless, Miss O’Rourke,” he said, “I’m a man who pays my debts. And I’ve grown quite fond of Miss Ciara and Master Aiden. Until I know they’re safely settled, I’m afraid you’ll have to suffer my presence.”

It was a bold statement, so he wasn’t surprised when her dark eyes flashed fire even as her hands tightened into fists at her sides. Oh, but he was in for a tongue-lashing now. As if Ciara thought so as well, she latched on to Michael’s arm again.

“Oh, please, Maddie!” she cried. “Don’t send Michael away!”

Aiden pressed himself against Michael’s leg, face tightening with worry. “He’s our friend.”

Maddie O’Rourke drew in a deep breath. Michael knew the position in which he and the children had placed her. She was an unmarried woman, by all accounts, a laundress, Aunt Sylvie said, though no laundress Michael had ever met dressed half so well or carried herself with so much pride. But he truly didn’t want to marry her. He wanted to make sure Ciara and Aiden were safe, and he needed a job so he could pay back what he owed and find his footing on the frontier.

“Have you no other friends or family in the area, Mr. Haggerty?” she asked as if trying to determine some other solution to the problem he presented. She raised her gaze to his, and he thought the movement was at least in part a way to ignore the pitiful looks on her siblings’ faces.

“A fellow came with me on the boat,” Michael said. “But he has only enough to pay room and board until he finds employment.”

She sighed, fingers relaxing against the material of her skirts. “’Tis a difficult choice you’re giving me, Mr. Haggerty. To begin with, I’ve no idea what to do with you. A woman working off her debt might have slept upstairs with the family. I’ve no bed available for a bachelor.”

“I don’t need much,” Michael assured her. “I can make do with a blanket on the floor.”

She frowned as if she wasn’t acquainted with such humble behavior. In truth, he wasn’t used to it either. He’d been proud enough, ambitious even: working on the docks in Brooklyn, rising among the ranks to a position of authority, engaged to the prettiest lass Irishtown had ever produced.

But his pride had lasted only as long as it had taken for the Dead Rabbits gang to try to force him into becoming a liar and a thief.

“And then there’s the work,” Maddie continued. “Have you any experience with the doing of laundry?”

“In truth, I’ve never tried it,” Michael admitted. “But I’ve a strong back and a ready mind. I should be able to learn the way of it.”

She shook her head. Perhaps she thought he denigrated her work by making it seem too easy. From what he’d seen, laundresses worked harder than most for less pay.

Ciara and Aiden were glancing back and forth between the two of them, as if willing their sister to give in. Maddie looked as if she couldn’t or wouldn’t budge, even for them.

You offered me light when all was darkness, Father. Show me the way now.

Michael reached out and took Maddie’s ungloved hand in his. “Give me the opportunity to help, Miss O’Rourke.”

Maddie gazed up at him, eyes narrowed as if she thought to see inside him and determine his worth. Michael held her gaze, wishing he could see inside her instead. Ciara and Aiden had talked often about their sister Maddie, and his Aunt Sylvie had sung her praises, but he couldn’t understand her. Why would anyone leave a little brother and sister behind? Why travel halfway around the world? Had she been escaping trouble, like him? Or was she the cause of it, like Katie?

“Very well, Mr. Haggerty,” she said, pulling back her hand. “You can stay with us, but only,” she cautioned, finger in the air as Ciara cried out in delight and Aiden began jumping up and down, “until you secure a proper job. I suppose I can find some use for you.”

“I’ll do anything that needs doing, Miss O’Rourke,” he vowed, “without complaint or compromise. You’ll have no cause to regret your decision to help me.”

“So you say,” she answered, but Michael got the impression that she was regretting it already.

Chapter Two (#ulink_65c4e29b-5b81-5c37-8c4d-a8cec6c7a092)

Maddie could see that Michael Haggerty was going to be trouble. For one thing, Aiden and Ciara looked to him rather than her for guidance. She supposed that was a natural consequence of him serving as their escort aboard ship, but she could not allow it to continue. She had enough doubts about her abilities to raise her brother and sister.

And as for Ciara’s insistence that Michael and Maddie must marry, that was nonsense. If Maddie wanted a brawny man in her life, she could have married one of the Wallin lads who were brothers to the man her good friend Catherine had married. Failing that, all Maddie had to do was whistle, and a dozen loggers and mill workers would have run to her side and dropped on bended knee to propose. Seattle was so desperate for marriageable females that she hardly needed to import a suitor all the way from New York!

Besides, why had Sylvie sent a man when Maddie had specified a woman? With her money going to pay Mr. Haggerty’s way, Maddie had nothing with which to hire the lady she’d needed. And by the size of him, he’d more than eat his weight in wages!

He was watching her now with those blue, blue eyes, as if waiting for her orders. She straightened her spine. “Set to work, then, Mr. Haggerty. Find Ciara’s and Aiden’s things. They’ll need to be carried home.”

He saluted her again. “On my way, Captain O’Rourke.”

Aiden giggled as Michael strode back toward the longboat.

Maddie drew in a breath. She could manage this. She must. In the next month, she had an opportunity to establish herself as the premier bakery in town by making all the cakes and rolls to be served at the biggest, most extravagant wedding Seattle had ever seen. Every man, woman and child would be singing her praises and lining up to purchase her products. Her future, and Ciara’s and Aiden’s futures, would be secure. She wasn’t about to jeopardize that for the likes of Michael Haggerty.

She pressed her hands into her skirts and bent closer to Ciara and Aiden. “Who’s ready to see their new home?”

“Me!” Aiden declared.

Ciara nodded eagerly.

With a smile, Maddie turned to allow them past her up the pier. “This way.”

Aiden ran ahead, darting between the waiting people and the sailors on the narrow pier. Ciara walked beside Maddie as if trying to be a lady, but Maddie could see her sister’s head turning this way and that as she took everything in.