one who could read. He looked the papers over and told us what the words were. We kept the papers in the basket for years. We only saved them so that Mary Rose would have something from her past.'
'Who taught you how to read?' Harrison asked Douglas.
'Adam taught all of us.'
'Do you know who strangled the nursemaid?' Cole asked.
'No,' Harrison said. 'But Elliott never believed she acted alone. She wasn't smart enough to plan a kidnapping. She was also extremely timid. The woman had to have had an accomplice.'
'Maybe he's dead now,' Douglas said.
'It could have been a woman,' Harrison reasoned.
'It was a man.'
'How do you know?'
'I saw him.'
Harrison sent his drink careening. He didn't even notice what he had done.
'You saw him?' His voice shook with emotion.
Douglas nodded. 'I guess it's my turn to explain, isn't it?' he said. 'A man got out of an expensive-looking carriage. There was a crest on the door. He wore a black cloak, like the kind rich men wear to the opera. He wore a hat with the rim pulled down over his forehead. I still saw his face. He stood right under the streetlamp and turned to look in my direction. He didn't see me though. He must have thought he'd heard a noise and that's why he turned.
Anyway, I got a good look at him. Do you want me to describe him to you?'
'How could you possibly remember? You were twelve years old, Douglas. Our memories become twisted and confused over the years. It was a long time ago.'
'Tell him about your cut, Cole,' Douglas suggested. The brother smiled. 'We were around fifteen years old, weren't we, Douglas? I was still stupid then. I went charging into someone else's business, thinking I could swipe some animal skins. We needed coats for the winter. I figured I'd get some. I was real quiet, wasn't I, Douglas?'
'Not quiet enough, Cole.'
'There must have been twenty renegades in their camp. They'd been plaguing the area, stealing and killing and burning people out, for quite a spell. Everyone was afraid of them. I was too, but I wanted the skins and I figured I had to take them, no matter how afraid I was. Every damned one of them lit out after me. I got cut across my belly. It hurt like the fires of hell. I remember the pain all right. Adam had to sew me up. Mary Rose cried while he worked on me.'
'She held your hand, remember?' Travis said. Cole smiled. He remembered. 'She thought it would help me to hold on to her. She was around three or four back then and as sweet and sassy as they come.'
'How did you ever get away from the Indians?' Harrison asked. 'I didn't do it on my own. I was busy running and then fighting for my life, and I didn't get a look at the one who cut me. Douglas did though. He was riding toward me with his shotgun up and ready. He saw the faces of the two who held me down and the third who cut me. The bastard was going to cut my guts out. Douglas started shooting just in the nick of time, and they took off running to get their guns.'
Cole paused to think about the incident before continuing. Harrison was fascinated by the story, but he couldn't imagine what the incident had to do with the discussion about Mary Rose's kidnappers. He waited to find out.
'We went back. Winter set in and we had to wait. We didn't forget, and as soon the snow melted, we went after them.'
'We made them admit they were the ones.'
'How? Did they speak English?'
'One did a little. It didn't matter though. Douglas never, ever forgets a face.'
'They boasted about cutting you, didn't they, Cole?'
'They thought their friends would get us.'
'We made certain they couldn't,' Travis said.
Harrison didn't ask what had happened to the Indians. He already knew.
'The tribe that threw the misfits out heard about it. They gave us wide berth from then on,' Cole explained. 'Now do you want to hear Douglas 's description?'
Harrison nodded. 'Yes.'
'The man I saw in New York City had a light-colored mustache. I couldn't see the color of his eyes. He was about six feet tall and very thin. His cheeks were sunken in like a skeleton. His nose was kind of pointed, and his lips were thin. He wore shiny black shoes, not boots. I noticed the shoes because I thought about figuring a way to steal them. The man was dressed in black, formal evening clothes.
'The woman didn't want to take the basket from him. She kept shaking her head. I wasn't close enough to hear what they were saying to each other. He pulled the envelope out of his pocket and gave it to her. She snatched it up real quick and then she took the basket.'
'The man got out of the carriage with the basket?'
'Yes.'
'Was she already standing there on the corner, waiting for him?'
'Yes.'
'What about the driver? Did you get a look at him?'
'No. Once I saw the envelope, I kept my eye on it. She put it in her coat pocket. The man got back in the carriage and took off. She waited until he was out of sight and then started looking around for a place to get rid of Mary Rose. She chose our alley. She went running inside, threw the basket, and then took off. I waited until she reached the corner again, whistled to get Adam's attention so he'd notice the basket, and then I followed her. I took the envelope from her pocket just as she was getting on the midnight train.'
Harrison leaned back in his chair. His eyes had turned cold with anger.
Cole watched him closely. 'Do you know who the man was?'
Harrison slowly nodded. 'I think so. I'll make certain first.'
'Is he still alive?' Douglas asked.
'Yes… if he's the one, yes, he's still alive.'
'Are you going after your Indian the way we did?' Cole asked.
Harrison understood what Cole was asking. He wanted to know how far Harrison would go to gain revenge. Would he retaliate the same way the brothers had against their enemy?
His answer was immediate. 'Yes.'
'Have you forgotten you're an attorney?' Adam asked.
'I haven't forgotten. One way or another, justice will be served. Douglas, tell me what happened once again. Start at the beginning.' Douglas agreed. Harrison waited until he'd finished, then plied him with more questions. He was finally satisfied he knew everything they could tell him.
'Now what?' Travis asked. 'When are you going to tell her?'
'I'm not going to tell her,' Harrison answered. 'I think…' Travis wouldn't let him continue. 'Why should we believe you? You've done nothing but lie to us from the beginning. You never really wanted to learn how to ranch, did you?'
'Yes, I did want to learn,' he answered. 'I had thought that I would eventually go back to the Highlands, but now I know exactly where I'm going to settle for the rest of my life. Eventually I'll have a ranch of my own. Legal work will support me over the rougher times. All of my plans have changed,' he added. 'When I first came here, I wasn't even certain Mary Rose was Victoria. Yes, I saw the resemblance, but it wasn't enough. She also looks a little like you, Cole. Blue eyes, yellow hair. She's a hell of a lot prettier though. The more I found out, the more confused I became. She shouldn't have had any reason to be so reticent with me. All of you cleared up that mystery for me. As I mentioned before, the way you reacted when you found out I was an attorney was certainly curious. One night Mary Rose asked me why I spent the evenings talking to Adam. She seemed worried, and when she asked me if I questioned him about his past, I concluded she didn't want me to find out about something he'd done. If I'd spent the evenings with Travis or Cole or Douglas, she would have been just as worried, wouldn't she?'
'Probably,' Cole answered. 'We told her everything we'd done. She knows all about our sins.'
