Millwright's Daughter Read online

  Eliza pulled on her navy blue wool gown. Although the dress was too warm to wear during the summer days, the nights along the river proved to be cooler. She tucked the white collar edged in lace to the inside. She smiled at the thought the long dark sleeves would discourage any mosquitos that might still be about as well as help her blend into the night.

  Carrying her everyday black boots in her hand, Eliza stepped carefully down the stairs in her black-clad stocking feet. She had spent the past week identifying which steps squeaked, so she knew where to not put her weight.

  Outside, Eliza paused long enough in the shadow of the house by the back stoop to pull on her boots and lace them. With her eyes adjusted to the darkness, the moon cast enough light for her to follow the path that lead behind the bluff that formed a northern windbreak for the house. She hurried towards the rendezvous place.

  Sucking in air after the swift climb up the hill, Eliza looked around. She saw no sign of Kit. Wondering if she had read his signal wrong, she slumped her shoulders with disappointment. She moved into the shadow of the trees and waited several minutes.

  Only the slight movement in the darkness tipped her off he arrived. He stepped from a niche created by a clump of scrubs next to an oak tree at the far edge of the cluster. She realized he had arrived before she did. He stepped out into the light of the moon only long enough to speak her name softly. Next, he captured her elbow and pulled her back into the darkness. However, it had been long enough for her to see he also wore dark clothes and a black derby.

  “You saw my signal.”

  Although she knew he could not see her expression, Eliza smiled at his observation of the obvious. “Yes. Have you received a letter for me from my grandmother?”

  “I have. I also received a letter from her thanking me for forwarding it to you.”

  “Really? What did she write you? If it’s not personal, that is.”

  At first Eliza thought Kit might not answer. “No, it’s not personal. She thanked me for helping you, of course. She also asked me to help you travel back to Ohio when it’s the right time—if that’s what you want. Is that what you want, Eliza?”

  Eliza laughed softly. “You called me by my given name. And, yes! More than anything I want to go home. I’d sneak away on Uncle’s horse and ride for the rail station if I had the money to buy a ticket. But, I didn’t come out here with much, and most of it I spent with my cousins, thinking my uncle intended to return me before winter set in.”

  “I can write to your grandmother and ask her to send me a ticket for you. The only concern is you traveling without an escort.”

  Eliza huffed in frustration. “I don’t know why I need an escort. As long as I have a ticket, I can travel by myself. If nothing else, I’ll attach myself to a family and offer to help with the children in exchange for sitting next to them.”

  After a long pause, Kit responded to her.

  “I’ll write again and see if that is agreeable with your grandmother. After all, she knows little about me other than I helped you by forwarding your letter to her.”

  “Where is the letter you said she sent to me? I’ve been so worried she was not well enough to write. Even someone writing to tell me how she fares would be better than nothing.”

  She felt Kit’s arm graze her front as he reached inside his shirt to produce a letter. Even in the shadow of the trees, the white paper stood out in contrast against his dark clothing. Eliza stepped into the light in an effort to read the handwriting. Did her grandmother write it, or someone else?

  “Based on the handwriting on the letter I received that was signed with your grandmother’s name, she is the one who wrote your letter.”

  Excited by his words, Eliza sucked in her breath and stepped back into the shadow next to Kit. “Oh, that is such wonderful news. That means my uncle is mistaken. If she can write her own letters, she is getting better. Oh, Kit, I’m happy, I could kiss you.”

  Eliza felt Kit’s arms loosely encircle her waist.

  “I’ll accept a kiss.”

  Eliza’s breath caught. She had said it in jest, more as an expression of appreciation. She wondered now if she had sounded too forward.

  Then again, she had been dreaming of kissing Kit Halsey for the better part of over two weeks. She had placed herself in a dark closet with him on the faith that he was trustworthy. He had not taken advantage of her. Who better than him to give her the experience of her first kiss?

  “I’d like that, Kit. It’s the least I can do after all you’ve done for me. You won’t take advantage, will you? It would embarrass me terribly. If you told anyone else, I know my reputation would be in shreds. I don’t know what would happen if it got back to Uncle Joseph.”

  Eliza felt his arms pull her closer. “You can trust me, Eliza. Besides, I don’t want the kiss in payment for what I’ve done. I’ve grown to care about you.”

  Eliza quickly recalled her mother’s words of warning that some men will say whatever a woman wants to hear to flatter her into giving them what they want of her body. Was this what Kit intended—teasing her to take advantage of her? Or, were her first instincts about him correct—she could trust him?

  Eliza chose trust. “I wish to kiss you because I want to kiss you, and no other reason.”

  Eliza closed her eyes and gave herself over to the sensation of Kit’s soft kiss. She felt a hint of prickle where his beard had begun to grow since his last shave, but that did not diminish the sweetness. The tender caress on her lips left her breathless. As the kiss ended and Kit leaned away, she sucked in a deep gulp of air.

  “Are you all right, Eliza?”

  “Yes.” Eliza leaned in and nudged his face with hers. “Again, please.”

  Eliza felt Kit pull her even tighter to him. His second kiss came with more force, more demand for her to meld her lips with his. She realized that if being married to a man she loved meant she could frequently enjoy kisses like this, then she was ready to find the right man to wed and spend the rest of her life with him. Would that be Kit Halsey? She didn’t know, but she wanted it to be. At that moment she felt loath to release him. A small, almost buried part of her not caught up in the wonder of the kissing experience, still preferred to find a man who lived and worked closer to home. For now, she tightened her arms around Kit’s neck and clung to him, unwilling to allow the kiss to end.

  Kit finally ended the kiss and pushed her from him although he clung to her upper arms. They both stared in the darkness, barely making out the outlines of each other’s heads. They each heaved deep breaths for several seconds until Kit spoke, his voice breathy.

  “I need to leave, Eliza. I don’t want to, but your trust, and your grandmother’s trust, is more important to me than staying.”

  Eliza paused but finally answered. “I know you’re right. Thank you for the kiss, Kit.

  Eliza heard Kit’s soft laugh. “I’m the one to thank you. I must go. I need to check on a few things. You need time to read your grandmother’s letter and write a reply. Do you still trust me enough to meet me back here in two weeks? There will a quarter moon again, almost like now. If you have a dark shawl, wear it over your head. I’m afraid your light hair shines like a beacon in the moonlight.”

  Eliza paused at the comment about the shawl. She was not as accomplished with secret meetings as she thought. She had worn a dark dress but wearing a dark head covering had not occurred to her.

  “Can’t we meet sooner? I can write my letter tomorrow, but I have a feeling if I give it to Aunt Phoebe or Uncle Joseph to mail, the post office in Kerr’s Ferry will lose it like they have the other ones.”

  “No, don’t give it to them, Eliza. Please. I don’t want to accuse anyone of wrongdoing, but I think it would be best if you didn’t tell anyone I brought you this letter. Don’t send a reply by way of your family and the local post office. Go ahead and give your aunt a letter to mail like you usually do, but don’t write anything in it different than what you’ve written before. Write your reply y
ou want me to send in secret and bring it to me in two weeks. I’ll take it to a different post office like I did last time.”

  Eliza tamped down the disgruntlement she felt. She hated what Kit implied—that her family had something to do with the letters between her and her grandmother not being exchanged. She would read what her grandmother wrote to her, then she would decide whether or not to take Kit’s advice. “Thank you, Kit. I’ll see you in two weeks.”

  “Then go. I’ll stay and keep watch to make sure you return to the house safely. Be careful.”

  “I will be.” Eliza took a few steps and turned back. “My cousin Julie is so much in love with Daniel Irwin. I hope for her sake Mr. Irwin kisses her the way you kissed me.”

  ~o0o~

  After Kit skirted the barrier of foliage along the top of the bluff that hid him from view of the house windows long enough to see Eliza disappear in the doorway leading to the kitchen, he crept back to his original hiding place where he had waited for her to arrive. He leaned the back of his head against the sturdy trunk of the decades-old oak. He closed his eyes while he willed his breathing to return to normal.

  Eliza was a woman who could take a man’s breath away, and she had his. However, to Kit, she affected him more than a momentary flirtation. The desire for her physically did not catch Kit by surprise as much as the longing—the yearning for a long-term relationship. Eliza was not a woman a man could walk away from after a few weeks and forget.

  Eliza was not rebellious by nature. Neither was she a woman so complacent and submissive she would forever accept what she knew to be wrong. She had made his job easier by seeking him out to contact her grandmother. She had make his job more difficult by being the woman he could feel himself falling in love with.

  Eliza came to him because she felt she could trust him. She wanted to kiss. He had not been surprised that he had enjoyed her kiss. The intensity of the kiss which felt like it melded his heart with hers caught him off-guard. Kit knew helping Eliza was no longer about earning the money for law school; he would do anything—give up all—to protect her and bring her home.

  More meaningful than love was trust, Kit decided. He had loved once before but learned through unfortunate experience the woman could not be trusted. He dreaded doing anything that would lose Eliza’s trust.

  Would Eliza still trust him once she learned he was working for her grandmother and had not come to Kerr’s Ferry by happenstance? What would she think if she learned not only did he send her letter under a separate cover, but he also sent his report of what he had learned so far? Although he delivered the letter from Caroline Arnold to Eliza, how would she feel if she knew Caroline had also written to him with further orders?

  Since Kit found Eliza, and knew she wished to leave her Uncle’s home, Kit had expected his employer to order him to grab her and bring her back to Ohio. Only, those had not been his instructions. Kit was to see Eliza remained safe and was not kept captive. He was to see what progress in the California courts Joseph Wells had made in being named her guardian. She wanted to know more about his financial situation. She wanted Kit to make sure neither Joseph nor his wife had done anything to besmirch Eliza’s name or reputation.

  That last task puzzled Kit. He could understand Joseph wanting legal control over Eliza if he wanted access to her money. However, the man was her uncle. Why would Mrs. Arnold have a concern Joseph would harm Eliza’s reputation? If he sought to become her guardian, he could not afford to let any unseemly behavior—behavior such as he and Eliza engaged in this very night—become known within the community.

  Nevertheless, Kit had his orders and additional funds sent to him for expenses. He would complete the job.

  Kit smiled and shook his head upon recalling Eliza’s comment about hoping Daniel Irwin kissed Julie Wells the way she had been kissed. If her cousin’s kisses affected Daniel the way Eliza’s affected him, Daniel better push for a wedding sooner rather than later.

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  Kerr’s Ferry, California – June, 1882

  Chapter 10

  ~o0o~

  K it relied on his sense of feel to position his set of picks in the lock of the mill office. He had waited until a night where there would be only of sliver a moon when it rose. Fortunately, his prior employment as a detective had trained him to move around in almost total darkness.

  Kit wore the same clothes as the night he met with Eliza. His choice of wardrobe was not left up to happenstance. He deliberately assembled the outfit years earlier. It consisted of a black shirt bearing a pattern of thin dark grey vertical stripes. He had taken the shirt to a tailor and had the stylish white cuffs and neckband changed for ones in black. He wore black wool trousers, carried a black cotton bandanna to cover his face if needed, and his black derby with a large enough crown to cover most of his light brown hair and forehead and cast most of his face into shadow. Black stockings and brogans as well as black leather gloves, which he had already removed in order to feel the picks, completed his covert ensemble.

  Mrs. Arnold wanted to know the details behind what prompted Joseph Wells to bring Eliza to California, keep her there, interfere with their correspondence, and seek to become Eliza’s guardian. Kit knew one of the surest ways leading to the truth was to investigate the business journals. Since he knew Joseph would never allow him to audit his books, he must resort to more clandestine measures.

  Even after double-checking to be sure all the blinds were drawn, Kit lit a short candle he kept in his shielded candleholder. Keeping the back of the shield turned towards any window that might allow light to seep through had become second nature to him.

  Kit found the books of accounts receivables and payables. He found no need to study them in detail. The monthly totals year to year for the most recent four years told the tale. Joseph Wells was not operating his mill in a financially irresponsible manner. He was not taking large sums of unexplained capital from his account beyond what the family needed to live in a modest, but comfortable manner. The total sacks of wheat ground to flour had steadily diminished for those four years.

  Kit did not need to think too hard on the cause to figure out what was happening. He had noticed the fruit and nut orchards, vineyards, and fields planted with row crops. Although he constantly heard it rumored the predominant crop in the region was wheat, he saw no evidence of it. If the farmers grew less wheat each year than in the past, that explained why fewer bushels of wheat and other grains were transported to the Kerr’s Ferry Mill for grinding into flour.

  Kit hunkered down on his haunches when he discovered the locked bottom file drawer. Again, he used his picks to spring it open. Inside were notes regarding mill improvements. Most importantly, Kit found notes which appeared to be a jotted record of terms of a partnership with Daniel Irwin. Making a point to leave them in order so it would not appear the drawer had been tampered with, he searched carefully among the papers for evidence of a completed and signed contract. He found none.

  In that drawer he also found letters both from Caroline Arnold addressed to Eliza, and from Eliza addressed to her grandmother. He opened and scanned them long enough to understand the general thread running through them. Both wanted Eliza back in Ohio. The disruption to making arrangements for this to occur was Joseph Wells.

  Kit checked the dates. The earliest letters were from late March. He glanced at the pot-belly stove in the corner of the room. Perhaps Joseph had felt no need for additional heat in the building since that time, and so the letters remained locked up in his desk until the next time he started a fire.

  Kit returned everything to their original places. He used his tools to attempt to lock the drawer. His efforts failed. He stood up with a huff of defeat and accepted he must hope Joseph would draw the conclusion that it was him who accidentally left the drawer unlocked.

  After using his skeleton key to relock the door to the mill office, Kit melted away into the new moon darkness of the night. As
he felt his way back to the location where he had left a lantern to help him find his way back to his room, he analyzed what he had found.

  In spite of his careful management, Joseph’s income from grist milling was diminished from what it had been even four years before. Although in the process of forming a partnership with Daniel Irwin to set up and operate a mill in Oak Hill nearer the railroad, based on what Kit saw in the books, if the amount of grain being milled continued to drop, within a few years Joseph Wells would be out of business. The books also revealed to Kit that Joseph did not have the ready cash to contribute his financial portion towards the new partnership.

  Joseph needed money. Eliza inherited a sizable estate from her parents. As far as the financial issues were concerned, the pieces all fit together.

  Kit still needed to check into Joseph’s legal application for guardianship regarding Eliza. Among his papers on the desk, he found the name of an attorney in Oak Hill. It would help him with his courthouse search for recent court filings. He would assume a disguise and take some time to review recent entries at the county court.

  Kit anxiously awaited the time of his scheduled meeting with Eliza. He would collect the letter for her grandmother. Hopefully, once he sent Caroline Arnold’s attorney the letter plus a report of everything he learned, his next instruction would be to help Eliza travel back home to Ohio.

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  Kerr’s Ferry, California – July, 1882