Daniel looked past the men to Hiram, who stood ashen faced in the corner. "Fine. Level your charges so that I might answer them."
"Moral laxness and contributing to the delinquency of a child," Ira said. "I believe that about covers it."
Daniel sagged against his desk. A glance at Hiram told him the poor man had done the same. Only Miss Cooper still stood, and from the look on her face, she was fighting mad.
"You bullies!" she said. "This is a good man. How dare you accuse him of such things?"
"He wore nothing but a sheet," a woman from the back called out. "Saw it for myself."
Daniel itched to ask just what a married woman was doing in a hotel in her own town in the middle of the night, but he kept his peace. Instead, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Will there be a trial for this, Ira, or shall you string me up without one?"
Ira appeared duly shamed at the question. "I know you"re a G.o.dfearin" man. I"ll take this up with the committee at the next meeting and get back to you."
"Why wait?" one of the fellows at the back asked. "Let"s take a vote right now."
Ira gestured to the door. "Outside, the lot of you. If we"re going to take a vote, we"ll not do it in front of Daniel."
While the men filed out, the women remained in place, their glares divided equally between Daniel and Miss Cooper.
"You too," Ira called to the women. "I"ll not leave Daniel in the lion"s den." With that poor attempt at humor, Ira followed the last of the females out onto the sidewalk, where a debate commenced.
"Any progress on trading in those train tickets, Hiram?" Daniel asked as he watched the animated discussion between the men and women.
"Not yet, sir."
Daniel looked at Miss Cooper, who now slumped in a chair near the door. She seemed to be having difficulty in two areas: remaining upright and not looking out at the folks likely debating her future.
"Still feeling poorly?" he asked.
"What? No, I"m fine now," she claimed, though she looked anything but.
"I"m sorry I"ve brought you here to be treated this way." He shrugged. "I know they mean well. This town could use cleaning up. It"s just that I don"t take kindly to vigilantes of any kind." He gestured toward the window. "From where I sit, I can"t tell the difference between the ones who string men from trees and the ones standing outside my office."
"Vigilantes." She nodded. "Yes, that"s it exactly."
Daniel turned to his a.s.sistant. "Hiram, would you see that Miss Cooper gets back to the Clarendon without the good ladies of Leadville stringing her up with their ap.r.o.n strings?"
"If you don"t mind, I prefer to stay here," the governess said.
"I do mind," he responded with as little emotion as possible. "If you"re here, how can you be adequately supervising Charlotte?"
His comment found its mark, and a few seconds later, she allowed Hiram to lead her past the silently accusing women. Daniel busied himself at his desk, or at least kept up the pretense of it, until his door opened once more.
"We"re ready if you are," Ira Stegman said.
Daniel looked past the men to where their womenfolk stood glaring at him from the street. "Of course," he said, praying this time only the men would partake of the opportunity. He got his wish when Ira closed the door and only half a dozen of Leadville"s leading male citizens remained inside-one of which, Daniel noted, was the mayor. The women, no longer cl.u.s.tered at the door, gathered across the street.
Ira looked uncomfortable, though the others seemed to be enjoying themselves. "I thought we had a plan that would work, Daniel," Ira said, "but it appears our wives are bound and determined to make an example out of you and Miss Cooper."
"Then let them," Daniel said, his temper barely holding. "Aren"t you all men? Act like it!"
"Spoken like a true bachelor," the mayor said.
"Not for long, if things go as my wife would like," Ira said. "A marriage appears to be the simplest solution."
"What are you talking about?" Daniel shook his head. "Don"t tell me they plan to see Miss Cooper and me wed?" When no one answered, Daniel"s temper finally got the best of him. "Well, I won"t have it. I"ll not be made an example of. You"ve chosen the wrong man to do this to."
Ira stepped forward. "Much as I hate this, Daniel, there"s nothing we can do. Our wives won"t rest until-"
"I don"t care," he thundered. "Handle your wives, and I"ll handle my business. Now, if you"ll excuse me, I need to get back to it."
"Daniel, it"s not that simple," the mayor said. "If you don"t agree to make this situation right, there could be all sorts of trouble."
"What kind of trouble, Mayor? Surely you"re not going to hold me to some silly proclamation I agreed to while trying to remain awake." He paused to search their faces. "We all know there"s no basis in law for a company to be seized because its owner has committed some act the townspeople disapprove of."
"True, but we do have to live with these women." The mayor looked uneasy. "There are permits. Lots of them. They come through my offices as a matter of course, and I generally don"t find fault with them. However, if I"m catching grief at home, that might make me cranky enough to take a second look at some of the paperwork coming into and going out of Beck Mines."
Daniel could barely restrain himself. "Are you trying to blackmail me, Mayor?"
"Oh, no," he said. "There"s plenty of that going on at my house. I certainly wouldn"t want to pa.s.s it on to you."
A few others mumbled in agreement. Each of them, Daniel knew, was involved in the Beck Mines in some way. To ignore their demands would be equivalent to putting a Closed sign on the company"s front door.
"I"m not going to marry the woman, and that"s final," he said. "So if that"s the only solution you see to this problem, I"ll go ahead and close the mine today."
"Actually, Daniel," Ira said, "I think I"ve got a solution that might work for everyone. That is, if you can get Miss Cooper to agree to it."
"And you don"t tell our wives," the mayor added.
The cookies burned, and the bullet she used to shoot One-Eyed Ed shattered her best teapot, but according to Henry, she looked lovely in her new yellow dress.
"Marry up with me, Mae," he said for the hundredth time, "and you"ll not regret it."
She dropped a lump of sugar in his tea and prayed the hog-tied criminal in her bas.e.m.e.nt wouldn"t come to before her beau left for choir practice. If he did, Mae would have to explain her secret life.
And she was not yet brave enough to do that.
"Terribly sorry about the cookies, Henry," she said as she heard an unmistakable thump and knew her cover was about to be blown.
"I"m not going to do it, Mr. Beck," Gennie said. "I cannot believe you even considered it."
Mr. Beck looked around the room at the men a.s.sembled there, then back at her. "Under the circ.u.mstances," he said, "perhaps you should call me Daniel."
"All right, Daniel, but I refuse to take wedding vows with a man I barely know. This is not the Dark Ages."
"Actually," the mayor said, "you"ve not heard the entire plan."
Gennie looked at Daniel, her heart sinking. "There"s more?"
"Ira came up with a plan that, I"m sad to say, just might work." He shook his head. "Though I must tell you, I can"t recall when I"ve been more furious at being railroaded into something."
She could tell by looking at Daniel Beck that he spoke the truth. "I"m listening," she said.
"It"s brilliant, actually," Mr. Stegman said. "Daniel will marry you right here in this office, and then all our troubles are solved."
"And mine are just beginning." She shook her head. "No offense, Daniel, but I"d prefer to pick out my own husband, thank you very much."
She turned to head for the door, but the mayor cleared his throat. "It wouldn"t be a real wedding, Miss Cooper."
"Now how can that be?" she asked. "Where I come from, a wedding is a wedding. What"s going to be different about this one?"
Ira scratched his head, then looked over at the mayor, who nodded. "We"ve done a little research into this, and a wedding"s only legal if you turn in the paperwork for it. All we"ve got to do is lose the papers, and the wedding never happened."
"Never happened," the mayor echoed.
She looked at Daniel, who appeared thoroughly miserable. "I don"t know, gentlemen. Might I have a moment with the groom-to-be?"
When the office had cleared of all but Daniel Beck, Gennie took a deep breath. "I"m not going to do it."
He shrugged. "Then don"t."
His response stunned her. "All right." She paused. "But what will happen if I don"t?"
" To you? Nothing. You"ll go back to New York and marry that banker and live happily ever after."
"So you know about Chandler Dodd?"
"I overheard some of it," he said, "though I"ve got to say in my limited experience, a woman in love doesn"t make a habit of kissing another man." He paused. "Especially not more than once." He paused again. "And with such enthusiasm."
"I didn"t have enthusiasm."
His grin grew despite the gravity of the situation. "If that wasn"t enthusiasm, then that Dodd fellow"s a lucky man."
A knock ended the argument she was about to make.
"What"s the verdict, folks?" the mayor called.
Daniel looked at Gennie but said nothing.
"Do I have your a.s.surance we are just going through the motions? It"s not a real marriage?" She looked at Daniel. "My father will have your hide made into pillows if this isn"t the case. He"s a very powerful man, you know."
"And yet powerless to control his daughter," Daniel muttered.
"I heard that," she said.
"As I understand it, that is correct." Daniel called Ira and the mayor into the room. "She"s agreed, though the thought of an actual marriage to me does not make her enthusiastic."
He punctuated the word with a wink, which Gennie ignored.
"So," Daniel continued, "if we can be a.s.sured the paperwork for this will never be filed, then we"ve agreed to go forward with what I must say is possibly the most idiotic plan I"ve ever had the misfortune to be a part of."
"I"ll take that as a yes." Ira stuck his head out the office door. "Good news, honey," he called to his wife. "Daniel and Miss Cooper are getting hitched."
Daniel kept his expression unreadable. "Might I have another moment alone with my bride-to-be?"
Ira herded the mayor out with a promise to go fetch a parson. "Don"t you go running off now," he said jovially as he closed the door.
Gennie leaned against the wall and tried to take in what was happening. Daniel, however, had begun to pace.
"You need to know that I find this situation abominable," he said. "The thought of marrying you like this makes me absolutely furious."
"Well," Gennie said with as much sarcasm as she could muster, "I suppose I don"t have to worry about a wedding night."
Daniel moved toward her, then stopped. "That, Miss Cooper, is the biggest regret I have in this whole mess."
Hiram"s voice rang out on the other side of the door, and Daniel called to him. In a modic.u.m of words, he explained the situation.
"Then I suppose you"ll be happy to know I"ve managed to book tickets on tomorrow"s train to Denver," Hiram said.
"Good work, though I"d have preferred to be gone before sunset."
"I tried, sir," Hiram said, "but it wasn"t to be."
Gennie took a seat near the window and pointedly ignored the men until the parson arrived. In less than three minutes" time, and in full view of the good folks of the Greater Leadville Beautification and Improvement Society and their wives, she became a married woman.
The only person who seemed less enthusiastic than Gennie was the groom.
"What would you like me to tell Charlotte?" Gennie asked once the crowd of Leadville citizens, finally satisfied, had left.
"Tell her we"re going back to Denver tomorrow," Daniel replied without looking up from the stack of papers on his desk.
When Gennie returned to the Clarendon, she found that news of her midday nuptials had spread quickly. After fending off congratulations and questions, she entered the solace of her chamber only to find Sam and Charlotte had been busy in her absence.
In bold letters, Sam had helped Charlotte decorate and hang a sign that said "Congratulations, Papa and Miss Cooper."
"Oh, no." Gennie sank onto the nearest chair. "What have we done?"
They"d done nothing, of course, except possibly lie to an entire town and one little girl who looked more than pleased to have Gennie as her new mama.
Daniel attempted to explain the situation to Charlotte upon his arrival at the Clarendon an hour later, but her ten-year-old mind couldn"t get past the fact they"d said vows in front of the preacher.
"It"s exactly like I prayed it would be," she said. "I"m so happy."