“Rose, please, don’t marry him. Not to get even with me. I wronged you, and I am sorrier than I can ever express. Yes, I lied to you. But I promise, I didn’t steal. And I promise, it wasn’t my fault that Silas married Annie. It’s not too late to come home.”
Her promises, she knew, meant nothing, given that she’d already admitted to being a liar. But surely she could appeal to the goodness in her sister’s heart. The love of their family that made her step in when Bess got the switch for spilling the milk because she couldn’t see the steps.
Mel stepped forward, carrying the box from which she’d taken the brooch. “Listen to your sister, girl. If Mary was a thief, then why does Ben have all the jewelry? If Ben is penniless, then why does he have such a fancy room? Why does everyone bow down to him?”
Mary watched her sister for any sign that logic was swaying her emotion, but then turned her gaze to Will. Did Will see that Mary couldn’t have stolen all these things? That if Ben had been telling the truth, he wouldn’t have a box full of jewels?
“Enough!” Ben stood, adjusting his fine clothes. Finer clothes than what he’d worn when Mary had known him back in Ohio.
“So I had a spell of luck after I met Mary. I was hoping to surprise my bride-to-be with my good fortune after we married. I don’t need your brother’s money. I fell in love with my beautiful Rose, who comforted me after my heart was broken by Mary.”
Ben turned to Mel, his eyes glittering with malice. “As for those trinkets, they were all gifts from lady friends. No need for me to steal. Mary gave what she had freely.”
“Liar!” The word burst out of Mary’s mouth as she forgot all decorum. “I saw the contents of your satchel the day we were supposed to have run off together. Jewelry and money, all things you shouldn’t have had, if your claims of poverty were true.”
“It was a friend’s.” Ben’s answer was so smooth, Mary again doubted how anyone would believe her over him.
But then Mel stepped in again. “Even if you were given the jewelry as gifts, as you say, how does a respectable man come into your line of work?”
She turned her attention back on Rose. “Think about it. Do you truly believe that he intends to make you his wife? I can introduce you to at least a dozen girls in this place who were tricked into thinking that Ben loved them.”
Mel didn’t sound bitter. In fact, she sounded more factual than anything else. As if she was reading from one of the newspapers.
“You’re just jealous,” Rose cried. “Just like Ben said. You’ve been replaced.”
Mel laughed. “I made my choice, and it wasn’t for the love of a man. I chose the life I did to give my sister a better life. If not Ben, there’s a dozen other places I could go. Miss Betty’s been trying to get me to move to her establishment ever since I got here.”
Mel chose her life for the love of her sister. Perhaps it wasn’t the life Mary would have chosen for herself, but in the end, both women were doing the same thing. Mary nodded at the other woman. A look of respect, or what seemed to be such, passed between them. And there, in Mel’s eyes, Mary saw something else. Sadness. Mel had sacrificed for her sister, only to have it all be for nothing. Daisy was shut away on a ranch somewhere, carrying Ben’s child.
Mary’s own sister would not suffer the same fate.
* * *
All this bickering was getting them nowhere. Will examined Ben’s face. Why was he tolerating this going on for so long? True, he seemed to enjoy watching the women arguing over him, but he bore the look of a man expecting something more.
Will glanced over Ben’s shoulder toward the window. The lace curtains were sheer enough that he could see out the window and into the alley. The two guards had been joined by several other men, likely members of Ben’s gang. They appeared to be waiting for some kind of signal.
Stepping between the women and facing Ben, Will pushed the other man’s gun aside. “What’s your game here? You haven’t shot anyone, and you act like you’re at the theater for the evening. This isn’t a show. Let Rose go, and we’ll be on our way.”
Ben chuckled. “Rose is free to go anytime she wants. But you don’t want to, do you, Rosie?” He twirled his fingers in her hair, but Rose looked slightly uncomfortable.
“Why haven’t you found someone to marry us yet?” Rose pulled from his grasp and stared at him. “You said we’d be here only for one night, and then we’d stay in respectable lodgings.”
“Now, Rosie...” Ben reached for her, but she stepped away.
“Don’t ‘Rosie’ me.” When Rose put her hands on her hips, Will knew exactly why the two sisters never got along. They were too much alike. Sure, Rose was the flightier of the two, and definitely pettier, but they were as their last names suggested—stones.
He stole a glance at Mary. Perhaps he was too quick to leap to conclusions in his comparison to Daisy. Daisy was like the flower, weak and easily wilted. Not so with Mary. Mary might have admitted to a few lies, but she was no liar.
Rose strode toward her sister, pulling up the bodice of the revealing dress as best as she could. “If you truly want to marry me, then you will do it right now, or you will take the time to court me properly. I’m not going to let you take advantage of me.”
For a moment, Will almost thought that Ben was going to give in. He looked at Rose with such a calculated expression that
