Threads of Love Read online

Such familiarity galled her. “So you’re a gambler as well as a lawman?” Emily could only imagine Mr. Ollie, weeping in heaven.

  “I partake in a game of cards on occasion.”

  “Family funerals being one of them?” She couldn’t squelch the quip.

  Jake inhaled, but then seemed to think better of a reply. Instead, he guided her the rest of the way to the bench.

  Emily tugged her capelet around her shoulders and sat. She eyed the crowd, praying no one would recognize her as Maple Street School’s third grade teacher or Agnes Sundberg’s niece or Jacob Dunbar’s cousin . . . or Captain Daniel Sundberg’s daughter. With so much family surrounding her in this town, Emily knew the odds were against her anonymity.

  “Once again, I am terribly sorry you got in the middle of this whole mess.”

  He couldn’t be sorrier than she!

  Mr. Fransmuller began sweeping up glass and shooing people away from the scene when shrieks from across the street pierced the air.

  Iris. She turned in time to see her best friend making an unladylike sprint from the department store.

  “Emily! Emily Sundberg!”

  Standing, she cringed. So much for hiding her identity.

  Emily lifted a hand in a tiny wave. Iris spotted her and crossed the street. She held her hat in place on her head with one of her slender hands. In the other she clutched her wrapped purchases.

  “What’s happened? Oh, my stars!” A pale blue dress hugged Iris’s wispy frame as she hurried toward Emily, while her wire-rim glasses slipped down her long nose. “I heard there was some barroom fight and you got trampled half to death. What would I do if I’d lost my very best frie—”

  Iris’s gaze lit on Jake, and she slowed her steps. Giving him a timid smile, she let go of her hat and pushed up her glasses.

  He touched the brim of his hat. “Ma’am.”

  Iris leaned toward Emily. “Is he the one who ran you over?”

  “That about sums it up. But I’m fine, so let’s finish our shopping, shall we?”

  Iris didn’t budge. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?” She nudged Emily, who felt a new soreness in her rib cage.

  Jake spoke up before she could. “US Deputy Marshal Jake Edgerton, ma’am.”

  “Deputy marshal? How impressive.” Iris’s smile grew. “I’m Miss Iris Hopper and Emily’s best friend, going on eight years now. Right, Em?”

  “Right.”

  “My parents were killed in a horrible mud slide in South America where we were missionaries. I’ve lived with my grandmother ever since.” She pointed to where Mrs. Hopper still stood, recounting the event to an accumulating cluster of women.

  “Sorry to hear of your loss.” Jake’s gaze, the color of the brandy he denied drinking, shifted to Emily. “As for Em and me, we go way back too.” A slow grin spread across his mouth. “Ain’t that right? And I must admit it’s been a pleasure, um, running into you today.”

  Shut up, Jake. She looked down the block, wondering if he had any idea how much heartache he’d caused her over the years. Because of him and his big mouth, she’d spent half her life repairing her blemished reputation in this town. Worse, Jake never wrote back to her when she’d attempted to apologize for her part in the wrongdoing.

  “How’re your brothers?” He gave a nostalgic wag of his head. “That summer I visited Granddad and met all of you Sundbergs was the best in all my life.”

  “Eden and Zeb are fine. Just fine.” She couldn’t get herself to say any more. “We’re all fine.”

  “Glad to hear it.”

  “Emily’s never mentioned you.” Iris’s pointed features soured with her deep frown. She leaned closer to Emily. “I thought we told each other everything.”

  “No? You never mentioned me, Em?” Jake’s dark eyes glinted with mischief.

  Tried half my life to forget you! She clenched her jaw to keep back the retort and realized that it hurt too.

  His expression changed. “Maybe you ought to see a doctor, Emily.”

  She wished he hadn’t picked up on her wince. “No, I’m fine.”

  “She always says that,” Iris tattled. “She’s always ‘fine.’”

  “How far’s the doctor’s office from here?”

  “I don’t need a doctor, Jake. But thanks, anyway.”

  “Well, goodness, Em, you certainly did take the worst of it.” Iris brushed off the back of Emily’s capelet. “And, oh, my stars! Just look at your hat. It’s ruined.”

  “Yes, I know. But Jake reimbursed me.”

  “How thoughtful.” After a smile his way, Iris examined Emily’s face like she was one of her fourth graders. “I’m not mistaken a bruise is already forming on your left cheek.” Iris clucked her tongue. “You’ll be a sight at the Memorial Day Dance tomorrow night. But if you need to stay home now, I will too.”

  “No. We’re still going.” Emily knew her friend looked forward to this community event that honored war veterans as much as she did. In addition, Andy Anderson would be there. Maybe if he saw her in the new dress Momma and Bestamor had sewn especially for the occasion, he’d finally notice her, and not just as Eden’s sister either.

  “Andy won’t give you the time of day if you’re all banged up. You might as well stay home.”

  Iris had spoken her thoughts. Sadness descended like a fog rolling in from off Lake Michigan. Emily fingered her sore cheek. She’d decided months ago that Andy would make a perfectly suitable husband. Would this ruin her chances of finally catching his eye?

  “Might help if you go home and put a cold compress on it,” Jake suggested. “I’ll bet no one will be the wiser by tomorrow night.”

  “Sure, that’s right,” Iris’s gaze softened. “Perhaps Andy won’t see any bruising. And we can cake on some of Granny’s concealing cream wherever necessary.”

  Glimpsing Jake’s amused grin, Emily blushed. How could Iris speak about such personal things in front of him?

  “Excuse me, but are you speaking of Andy Anderson by any chance?” Jake hiked his hat farther back on his head.

  “Yes.” Again, Iris seemed happy to provide all the information.

  However, the last thing Emily wanted was Jake Edgerton to get involved in her life. “We should be on our way, Iris. Let’s catch up with your granny.”

  “Well, I’ll be . . . ” Jake leaned against a hitching post. “Andy Anderson . . . what’s that rascal doing these days?”

  “Andy works over at the aluminum factory.” Iris pointed just beyond Jake’s left shoulder and toward where the large, thriving business was located. “He’s quite the lady’s man, but Em hopes to change all that.”

  “Iris, really!” Emily gave her friend a stern look.

  “Interesting.” Jake gazed off into the distance, his lips pursed as he kneaded his jaw. He seemed to mull over the information before looking back at Emily. “I wondered if I’d see Andy while I was in town.” His gaze focused on Iris. “Andy and I go way back too.”

  Every muscle in Emily’s body tensed. If only Mr. Ollie could have waited just a week longer to pass from this world to the next. Her hopes ran high for the Memorial Day Dance tomorrow night, and it vexed her that Jake might have the power to destroy her well-laid plans.

  “Emily is counting on Andy to ask her for a dance tomorrow night, but—”

  “Iris!” Aghast, she gave her friend’s arm a jerk. “I’m sure Deputy Edgerton doesn’t care about such things.”

  “Sure I do.” He straightened, still grinning. “And I’ll tell you what, Em, if Andy doesn’t dance with you, I’d be happy to.”

  “Thank you, but I can’t possibly accept.” She tamped down the urge to scowl.

  “It’s the least I can do.” After another charming smirk, he arched a brow. “What time’s the grand affair?”

  “Aren’t you in mourning?” He just couldn’t show up.

  “Of course I am.” Jake rolled one of his broad shoulders. “But I know Granddad fought in the Civil War, and I think he’d wa
nt me to attend.”

  Iris happily divulged the details, and Emily wanted to scream.

  “I’ll be there,” Jake said.

  “How grand!” Iris adjusted her colorfully decorative hat. “Then, of course, you must save a dance for me.”

  “Iris!” How could her friend be so bold?

  Jake didn’t seem offended. “It’d be my honor, ma’am.” He smiled rather sheepishly.

  Enough! Emily turned on her heel and strode down the walk, passing Mrs. Hopper and the other women. Her heels clicked hard on the weathered planks. While she walked faster than a lady should, if she didn’t hurry, she’d lose her composure here and now—and right in front of the man who’d nearly ruined her life!

  CHAPTER 2

  JAKE WATCHED EM

  hurry off. She’d turned into a lovely young woman with those arresting blue eyes of hers. And that thick auburn hair—why, it dared a man to unbraid it and run his fingers through it.

  Why did Jake have the urge to be that man? Sure, every now and again he wondered about Emily Sundberg and always imagined her married with a couple of children by now. But it would seem she wasn’t hitched quite yet. Amusing, though, that she had eyes for Andy Anderson. Jake had wondered about him too. A friend from his boyhood. An eternity ago.

  Seeing Emily round the corner up ahead, he blinked. What was she so mad about anyway? Of course, he had flattened her like a flapjack. Could be that he’d bruised her pride as well as her cheek. He just prayed to God he hadn’t bruised anything more. He felt awful about hurting her. And maybe it was worse than that. Maybe she’d only been putting up a public front.

  “I think you ought to go make sure Emily’s okay.” He looked at Miss Iris Hopper, who unlike Emily was reed-thin and pale as a lily. Jake was glad he hadn’t landed on her.

  “I suppose I should. Seems Em took a nasty fall.”

  “That she did.”

  Miss Hopper surveyed the scene around her, her gaze lingering on the fugitive, still unconscious on the ground. “So he’s the criminal, hmm?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Jake had recognized the wanted man shortly after he’d arrived in town this afternoon to meet with the undertaker and leave a message for Granddad’s friend and attorney. Spotting Wilcox, Jake had followed him into the saloon and engaged him in a poker game.

  “Poor Em.” Miss Hopper looked back at Jake.

  He shifted his weight. “Before you go, let me ask you something, if I may.”

  “Of course.” Miss Hopper gave him an eager smile.

  “Is, um, Andy courting Emily?”

  Miss Hopper shook her head, threatening the flowery hat she wore. Her flaxen curls bounced like bad buggy springs. “Emily wishes he’d court her. The problem is Andy doesn’t notice her a bit. Either that, or he speaks to her like one of his pals. You see, Em used to be quite the tomboy, and she and Andy, along with her brother Eden, were childhood friends.”

  “Yes, I know.” Jake couldn’t help a chuckle as his gaze ran down the length of the boardwalk in Emily’s wake. “But she’s all grown up now.” And lovely.

  “True. However, she can’t seem to get Andy’s attention.”

  “What a shame.” But was it?

  Jake straightened, unable to figure out why he felt more challenged now than during that last poker game. It felt rather refreshing too after watching Granddad breathe his last.

  Granddad. Gone.

  Sorrow weighed like a brick on Jake’s chest. He’d miss the old man. Should’ve made an effort to spend more time with him. Jake, of all people, knew how fleeting and precious life was.

  “I best hurry along and see after Emily.”

  Miss Hopper’s voice reeled him into the present again. Jake forced himself to pay attention. She batted her eyelashes at him through thick lenses that seemed to magnify them. “But I’ll be sure to save a dance for you tomorrow night.”

  “You do that.” He politely touched the brim of his hat and glimpsed the sheriff striding toward him. The man’s badge glimmered against the sunlight, and somehow Jake sensed the lanky fellow would be reasonable enough. The sheriff paused to bend over Wilcox, who seemed to be coming around. Jake looked back at Miss Hopper. “Until tomorrow night then.”

  “Oh, Tante Agnes . . . ” Emily held the cool, damp cloth against her bruised cheek. “Poppa’s going to insist I come home for the summer when he hears what happened just now.”

  “Your mother will want you out of town, that’s for sure!” Her aunt stood with her hands perched on her ample hips. She tipped her head. “You know you can always stay here, sweetness. With four children and a husband to feed plus a shop to run, I can always use some help.”

  “I know . . . ” Emily figured it would, at least, be an option.

  Her gaze skipped to the wide doorway and the entrance to the shop. Tante Agnes had continued the boutique business that Bestamor began decades ago, before Poppa curbed his seafaring ways, as Momma liked to put it. Bestamor had grown too old and tired to run it, although she and Momma knitted and crocheted all kinds of lovely things from capelets and caps, to shawls, hats, and gloves, either finely laced or thick and warm. Both Momma and Besta said it was good for a woman to have a little of her own money. Poppa said he couldn’t fight the both of them.

  Tante Agnes moved the curtain to peer outside and check on the girls, playing in the backyard. The boys were helping their father today at the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, where he was the foreman. Uncle Christopher liked to brag, in a fun-loving way, of course, on Manitowoc’s nickname, “Clipper City,” because of all the ships it produced and repaired. Today Emily’s cousins, Kjæl and David, were probably sawing wood for another ship’s construction. Too bad she couldn’t be a shipbuilder. Then she’d have an excuse to stay in town and near Andy.

  With her free hand Emily brushed some leftover dirt off her fawn-colored skirt.

  “You could visit your grandfather in New York City.” Tante Agnes turned from the window.

  Emily shook her head. Ever since her Gramma Ramsey died, she didn’t care to visit there anymore. Grandpa Ramsey, as generous as he was, didn’t appreciate feminine sensibilities, and Emily wasn’t a tomboy any longer. Besides, Grandpa had his hands full with Eden living out there while attending college. Her twin brother, Eden, would eventually step into an executive position at R S & D Shipping and Freight Company, her family’s business.

  “Go stay with Aunt Mary and her family in Green Bay.” After a soft laugh Tante Agnes wagged her head. Errant strands of her coiled, wheat-colored hair caught in the sunlight. “It’s still hard to believe she married that widower with seven children.” Tante Agnes gave a short laugh. “A new mother at forty-six. I was convinced she’d be a spinster till the day she died.”

  Emily mulled over the suggestion. But no. As much as she loved her great-aunt Mary, she had no intentions of spending her summer in Green Bay. She simply had to stay here in Manitowoc! It was the only way she could see to it that her paths crossed with Andy Anderson’s. He was the only man she knew who didn’t seem intimidated by Poppa. However, Andy just didn’t seem to intercept the signals she sent to let him know of her romantic interest. But perhaps that would all change tomorrow night at the Memorial Day Dance.

  That is, if her cheek wasn’t horribly bruised.

  Emily removed the damp cloth. “Is it better?”

  Tante Agnes’s blue eyes became narrow slats. “Too soon to tell, Em. We’ll just have to wait and see what it looks like tomorrow morning.”

  She just couldn’t miss that dance!

  Her two cousins burst in from playing outside. At thirteen years old Kate reminded Emily of herself as a girl. Tall, long-legged, and capable of outrunning any boy in the neighborhood. Hildi, on the other hand, was all girl, with her quiet, demure disposition. She enjoyed stitching, reading, and tending to her momma’s herb garden. Emily knew her traits well, having just passed her earlier this week from third grade to fourth.

  “Momma, Kate pulled my hair.�
�� Hildi walked over and wrapped her skinny arms around Tante Agnes’s thick waist.

  “You’re such a baby.” Kate stuffed her hands into the pockets of her dark brown pinafore.

  “Now, Kate, you’re not to hurt your sister.” Tante Agnes shook her head. “Hildi is only eight. You should look out for her.”

  Kate huffed and her lips fell into a frown. But seconds later her gaze lit up when she spotted Emily seated quietly at the kitchen table. She sprinted across the room, but then stopped short. “Snakes alive! Where’d you get that shiner?”

  Emily gasped and fingered her cheek. She glanced at her aunt, feeling somewhat betrayed.

  “Now, Em. Let’s see how it looks tomorrow . . . ”

  She didn’t wait to hear the rest of the sentence and hurried toward the shop where a large, oak-framed mirror hung on the wall. Her reflection revealed a completely disheveled young woman, from her unpinned hair to her dirty skirt. And that ghastly shadow on her cheek seemed to be spreading by the second!

  “Who socked you, Em?” Kate suddenly stood at her side. “One of those dumb boys at school?”

  “Nobody socked me.” She turned from the mirror to regard her young cousin. “I got knocked down in front of Fransmuller’s Tavern by two brawling men.” Jake Edgerton came to mind, and she rued the day her path ever crossed with his.

  “Did it hurt?”

  “A little . . . ” Truth be known, Emily’s muscles already felt stiff and sore. “I won’t likely be moving very fast later tonight and tomorrow.” The Memorial Day Dance came to mind, and she hoped she’d feel agile enough to take a spin around the floor with Andy.

  If only he’d ask.

  Emily imagined herself in his arms as they stepped in time to the music. Andy loved that ragtime sound. But maybe the band would play some traditional waltzes.

  “Why are you smiling so funny?” Kate nudged her.

  “Oh, nothing.” Emily turned back to the hanging mirror and pretended to examine her bruise.

  “You’re thinking about a beau, aren’t you?” Kate puckered her lips and closed her eyes as though she were kissing her beloved.