Questions of Honour (Questions of Honor)

“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.”

“But what if something happens to you, sir?”

Joshua smiled and clapped the man on the shoulder. “I take full responsibility for my actions. Shouldn’t take long.”

But it did. And he was appalled. The open flames on the miners’ caps continually elongated as pockets of methane flowed through the tunnel, proving the old-fashioned furnace didn’t ventilate nearly well enough. In England, the shaft would not only have been closed, but it also never would have been opened in the first place. Anger felt as if it had burned a hole in Joshua’s gut by the time he reached the surface.

“Pull the men out,” he ordered, fury rife in his tone. “I counted five violations. Each one could cause a disaster. There are too many men in each breast. They’ve robbed the pillars to the point of insanity and the wood’s either rotted from the water or too light to start with. And the ventilation system’s a joke.”

“If we pull the men out they’ll be furious, as will your father,” Faltsburg protested.

Josh pinned him with a steely look. “Close it down, Helmut.”

“Joshua, I know you’re thinking of the safety of the men but what about their families? We shut it down and they go further in debt to the store. You know how it works. The men would rather take chances. That’s what this business is about.”

Through gritted teeth Joshua repeated his order. “Close … it … down! I won’t risk their lives for money. Gather them around the engineer’s hut. When I get through firing Williams, I’ll talk to them. As for my father, he wouldn’t relish spending the rest of his natural life behind bars. If even one of those engineering violations results in loss of life, he could. And at this point, I wouldn’t lift a finger to stop it.”

Forty-five minutes later Joshua emerged from the engineers’ hut. Williams had been fired exactly forty-two minutes earlier. Josh had checked the specs. Engineering plans hadn’t been followed. Corners had been cut. Dangerous corners.

Chapter Four

Joshua stopped on the boardwalk outside the shed to talk to the miners and laborers milling about on the snowy ground. Their faces were blackened with coal dust. Their hands buried deep in their pockets. “Some of you may recognize me,” he began. “But for those who don’t, I’m Joshua Wheaton. I’ve returned to Wheatonburg to take over my father’s mining operations. The first thing I did was close down the River Fall shaft until it’s brought up to government standard.”

“And what are we supposed to be eating on until then?” a voice shouted.

“You’ll be paid an hourly wage to equal your best week during the last quarter. I’ll expect each man to work to his full ability. I see no reason why we can’t have River Fall in operation by the New Year. The furnace will be replaced by a top of the shaft ventilation fan. We’ll replace a good portion of the timbers, clean out the gob from the crushed-down breasts, add more brattles and construct safety doors to get the air currents moving. I’d also like to implement a better system for pumping the water out of the mine.” Joshua glanced down ruefully at his soaked trouser cuffs and boots. “Easy to see why it’s called River Fall.”

Several of the men laughed, giving Josh hope that he might be able to come to a pleasant accord with them.

“Ve all get paid the same?” a man with a German accent called out.

“This is not specialty work. If you object, you needn’t work. I’m sure Prescott would issue you credit but that would increase your debt.”

“It sounds like a fair shake,” another man shouted. “I say we go along. We lose nothing and even gain since no one can dig as much in winter as summer.”

“It’s fools you are to believe the word of a Wheaton. The same old Biddle fans sit where they’ve put in topside ventilation. How’s he going to be getting Harlan Wheaton to go along with buying new fans?”

Joshua scanned the crowd looking for the familiar face that went with the voice. It had matured but Brendan Kane’s Americanized Irish brogue was still easily recognizable. Josh fought to hide his hurt. Brendan was the best friend he’d ever had. First Abby, then the people he’d met in town and now Brendan. He didn’t understand.

“I don’t know what’s been happening around here, Brendan. But I’m now solely in charge of the mines. I’ll get the fans. In fact, Helmut, wire Bannans in Pottsville. Tell them to send the two Gribal fans I had them hold for me.”

The men murmured amongst themselves for several minutes before Joshua drew their attention. “So what do you say? Will you give me a chance to turn things around?”

“What about the men in the other shafts?” one man shouted. “My son and brother are working Destiny and my cousin’s at Lilybet.”

“I’ll personally inspect them, too. If we have to halt production there it will be done in the same way. Digging on the new tunnel will be stopped until the rest are brought up to European standards. Those who want to work on the cleanup show up here at your regular time tomorrow. You have the rest of the day off with pay.”

Joshua watched the men break up and head for town. He wondered what they were saying. Once he would have been privy to their opinions but everything had changed. Deep in thought, he didn’t hear the footsteps.

“So you’ve come back, have you?” Brendan Kane sneered. Joshua turned to his old friend and was met with a solid punch in the jaw that sent him sprawling. Joshua looked up into the blazing green eyes of his onetime friend. “Stay away from Abby and Daniel or I swear I’ll kill you.” Brendan didn’t wait for a response. He just pivoted on his heel and stalked off.

“What the hell was that about?” Joshua asked aloud, not expecting an answer. He pushed himself to his feet, while rubbing his sore jaw. Then he heard a sound often heard around mines—a hacking cough. Dolly McAllister sat on the edge of the raised boardwalk of the engineering shed. Josh had once made two promises to the old man. He was on the road to keeping one, but he knew he might never keep the other.

The first real contact Joshua had had with mine workers occurred during the rescue attempted for Dolly’s son, Daniel. He’d met Abby that day, as well. Harlan had been out of town and Josh had tried to fill shoes too big and soiled for a boy of thirteen. He’d dug with the rest of the men after Abby had shamed them into allowing him to help. Joshua had vowed to make mining safer, and to name his first son after the Daniel they had been unable to save.

“Well now, it seems no one else will be tellin’ you what the community thinks of what you did. Nor about how your return might cause more hurt to those hurt enough by you already.”

“I came back to make a difference. To help, not hurt.”

Dolly pinned Joshua with a measuring look. “I don’t doubt you believe you can, or that you’ll fail where mining is concerned. But I’m talkin’ about Brendan’s feelin’s on the matter. ‘Twas Brendan who had to pick up the pieces of Abby’s life after Sullivan was gone. ‘Twas Brendan who’s had to support her and the boy all these years. He’s had to be a father to a boy who’s sneered at by most of Wheatonburg.”

“I went away to school. I didn’t tell her to marry Sullivan,” Joshua growled.

McAllister shook his gray head. “Just goes to prove book learnin’ don’t mean a hoot in hell without common sense,” the old man continued with exaggerated patience. “Who else was to give your bastard son a name, boyo?”

Joshua stood stock-still. His body went hot then icy cold. He felt as if his breath had been sucked from his lungs. Surely his ears were playing tricks on him.

“What did you say?” he asked in a voice so choked it sounded more like a gasp.

“I said, boyo, that Sullivan gave yer boy a name, since you didn’t care to. Nice that he did something decent before he passed on. Abby kept your promise by namin’ the boy for my Daniel.”

“Abby’s son is … my son?”

“I think you’d better be sittin’ down, boyo. You look a bit pasty.”

Joshua sat on the edge of the boardwalk, his thoughts whirling. No one but Abby knew how he’d begged her to join him. No one knew about the money he’d scraped together and sent her for travel, clothes and food. Abby had taken his offering, but she hadn’t joined him. She hadn’t even written. By the time he’d sent the money, she must have known she was with child, yet she hadn’t joined him. She’d married another man. Given his son Sullivan’s name!

Forgetting Dolly’s presence in the face of his pain he muttered, “How could she do that to me? To our son?”

“To you?” Dolly asked in a high, excited screech.

“Did staying here with her family mean so much that she’d deprive me of my son and the boy of his birthright?”

“You’ve got a perverse way of viewin’ the past. ‘Twas your father and you who did that!”

“My father knows Daniel is my son?”

“'Tisn’t Philadelphia, you know. He knew. Mike Kane even went to Wheaton, but he wouldn’t send for you, so Mike struck a deal with Sullivan.”

Joshua stood. His knees shook as much as his voice. “Thank you for your honesty, Dolly. At least Abby named him Daniel. He has one of the names he should have. I need to think. Find someone to take the buggy on home for me, will you?”

Brendan shouldered his way into the saloon, flexing his hand and hoping he hadn’t broken it. After buying a beer, he heard Sean Murphy call his name from the center of a group of miners. This is all I need.

“What is it brought you into our midst? Wheaton’s return drivin’ you to drink already?”

One of the men with Murphy said Brendan would need to lock Abby in the house to keep her away from her former lover.

“I’ll not hear talk like that said about my sister,” Brendan growled and hoped the men would back down. His punching hand was damaged enough as it was.

“And I’ll not be hearin’ it, either,” Murphy chimed in.

Dooley snickered at Sean, but muttered an apology to Brendan, then slipped away, leaving Brendan and Sean at the bar.

“I was thinkin’ I’d ask Abby to the social on Saturday. With Wheaton back it’d be a good thing if she went with me.”

Brendan felt sorry for Sean. He’d been the butt of jokes for years and he could be particularly annoying when he bragged on imagined alliances with the AMU to make himself important.

“Sean,” Brendan said and clapped the other man on the shoulder. “She’s never seen you in that light. Besides, Joshua Wheaton is engaged to be married, so there shouldn’t be anything for people to talk about. Thanks for defendin’ her just now, though. I promised to pick up something for Abby at the store so I best be on my way.”

Sean smiled. “I’ll walk with you. Maybe I’ll get a glimpse of Abby as we pass your house.”

Brendan sighed and silently cursed his rotten luck. He was uncomfortable with Sean’s undying affection for Abby. She’d bluntly refused his courtship and yet he remained devoted.

“You get what you came for and I’ll just look about,” Murphy said at the store.

Brendan waited at the counter for Ethan Prescott. Several minutes later Prescott pushed aside the curtain to his back room and stepped out. “What can I do for you, Murphy?” he said, staring right at Brendan.

It had not been a good day. “How long is it going to take for you to tell us apart? I’m Brendan Kane, Prescott. My sister works for you. I know one sooted-up miner looks like another to you but …” Brendan stopped, noticing Prescott’s bored expression. “Oh, forget it. Ten pounds of flour.”

“You want this on your account, don’t you?”

Brendan nodded and signed for the flour in the account book. When Prescott returned with the sack of flour, Brendan slung it over his shoulder. He turned to leave and found Murphy staring at him with an odd look in his eyes.

“Problem, Sean?”

Murphy shrugged. “I forgot I’ve something to do.

Tell Abby I said halloo.”

Brendan watched him rush away, grateful for the reprieve, but disturbed … as well. The only thing he could think Sean would find more important than another attempt at courting Abby was going off to try ingratiating himself further to AMU members. Murphy was not only odd, he had dangerous leanings.

Joshua walked in the hills for hours. He felt like a ship set adrift on becalmed seas. Lost. Hopeless. He thought of the years he and Abby had shared. First as friends then finally as lovers. He remembered the innocence of her sparkling eyes. He remembered her laughter when life should have held nothing to smile about. He remembered her guilty tears the night their son must have been conceived and the argument they’d had when she’d refused to leave town with him. Remembering. Hurting. He walked for hours scarcely noticing when the sun slipped behind the hills.

He arrived home long after dark. Dinner was thankfully a memory. With guests in the house, he would have been obligated to be civil to Harlan during the meal. Josh couldn’t have done it.

“Is Harlan in his room, Henry?” Josh snapped when Henry met him at the door. The butler stepped back, his eyes wide. “I apologize, Henry. I’m not at my best. I just found out I’ve been a father for nine years but no one has ever seen fit to tell me. I’ll show myself in. No need to risk him snarling at you, as well.”

“Thank you, sir,” Henry said, then seemed to scurry for cover.

Wise man, Joshua thought as he stalked toward Harlan’s lair. Since learning about Daniel, Josh hadn’t thought of Harlan as “Father” even once. And if he didn’t get a damned good explanation Josh probably never would. The old bear wouldn’t hide from him tonight! Without knocking, Josh slammed through the door.

“Joshua! What in heaven’s name is wrong?” Harlan shouted.

“Wrong? What could be wrong?” Josh asked, his tone biting. “This morning I realized half the people were treating me like a leper and the rest snickered when I passed. Then I went to take a look at the conditions in the mines. How does appalling sound?”

“Well—” the old man noisily cleared his throat “—I haven’t had my hand in there for some time now. Crippled the way I—”

“Don’t!” Josh roared.

Harlan blinked. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t try weaseling out using your condition. We’ll talk about the mines, and what I’ve decided to do with them at another time. Right now, I want to discuss why people acted the way they did toward me. Abaigeal Sullivan.”

“What about her?”

“Abby’s a widow. She has no husband. She does have a son, though. Mine!“ The word reverberated through the room.

Harlan sat a bit straighter. “You believe that claptrap?”

“Believe it? Why wouldn’t I believe it?”

“Because she married another man as soon as I tossed the two of them, their demands and lies out of my house. Michael Kane went so far as to threaten me. He’s lucky I thought he was amusing.”

“Threats? What would he have to threaten you with?”

“Hmmph! Kane said my grandchild would grow up in the coal patch, hating its rightful name. I assume he’s turning him into a Workman just like the rest of the rabble.”

“What did you say to that?” Josh asked, already having dismissed the very idea that any Kane would be mixed up with the AMU. Daniel clearly did hate his rightful name, though. What made it hurt worse was they’d chosen to give him the surname of a man everyone knew Josh hated.

“I said my son wouldn’t be held responsible for Kane’s daughter being a tramp.”

Fury surged anew through Josh. “Abby was not a tramp!”

“How do you know what she did when you weren’t around?”

No matter how much she’d hurt him, she’d been innocent. He wouldn’t retract his defense of her. “Because, you dirty-minded old bastard, she was a virgin! The night Daniel was conceived was the only time I took us that far. Abby was … Dear God … she was so guilt-ridden afterward it tore my heart out. I made her a promise that it wouldn’t happen again until we were married. A little over a month later you and I fought over you trying to make me give her up.”

Joshua had the pleasure of watching Harlan pale. He was clearly worried now. “But he doesn’t look like you. I’ve asked. Don’t you think I haven’t!”

“If you’d bothered to see him yourself you’d have noticed he has my eyes.”