Instant Frontier Family. Regina Scott

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      Maddie shook her head, trying not to let her sister see her amusement. “If you can believe it, the trees aren’t in any park. They live out all on their own, everywhere.”

      Ciara put her hands on the hips of her blue coat. “You’re teasing me.”

      Maddie gave her a hug. “No indeed, me darling girl. It’s a whole new world here, and we have the privilege of helping to build it.”

      Ciara’s brow cleared as Maddie released her. “We had the building of it back home too. That’s what the Dead Rabbits did.”

      A shiver went through Maddie at the name of the dreaded Irish gang that had run Five Points. “The Dead Rabbits were violent, nasty creatures who used Irish pride to further their own gains,” she told Ciara.

      Her sister shook her head. “You don’t understand. You were gone too long. The Dead Rabbits protect us, keep us safe. We need them.”

      Maddie stiffened. “Who’s been filling your head with such nonsense?”

      Ciara raised her chin. “I figured it out all by myself. I’m grown now, you know. Oh, look! What’s that?” She ran to the edge of the pier where Aiden had stopped to stare down at something in the water.

      Maddie followed more slowly. She would never be able to see the vicious gang as heroes as Ciara did, but her sister was right about one thing. Life had definitely changed since Maddie had left New York. Sylvie McNeilly, who ran the children’s home where Maddie had left Ciara and Aiden, had little use for the gang violence that brought her another orphan every month. She would never have allowed Ciara or Aiden to admire the Dead Rabbits. So who had convinced Ciara otherwise?

      If it was Michael Haggerty, he was about to find something considerably harder to deal with than sleeping on the floor.

      * * *

      Michael slung his cloth bag over his shoulder and picked up the children’s carpetbag to start up the pier. He didn’t want to lose sight of Maddie. He had a feeling she’d have liked nothing more than to leave him behind. His aunt had warned him as much.

      “Maddie is a good person,” Sylvie had assured him over the narrow table where she and all her children ate under the light of a single sputtering lamp. “You’ll not be finding a kinder heart. But she’s expecting the lass I promised her, not a big strapping lad the likes of you. See that you win her over straightaway. She can be a big help to you.”

      At the time, he’d agreed with his aunt that winning over Maddie O’Rourke would be key. He just didn’t think the winning-over part was going particularly well. Try as he might, he couldn’t understand her.

      Help me, Father. I know she isn’t Katie, but how can I be sure that she’ll be any more faithful after leaving her brother and sister behind? These children need a family, a secure future, not more heartache. I’m not their father, but I feel like their brother. Show me how to help them.

      “Hold up, me lad!”

      The familiar voice stayed Michael’s step. He had known Patrick Flannery most of his life, though they’d lost contact for the past few years as Michael worked the Brooklyn docks and Patrick remained in Five Points. Michael had been pleased to find his friend among those heading to Washington Territory. With his warm blond hair, green eyes and a spring in his step, Patrick was all things good and bright about their heritage.

      His friend craned his neck now to see up the pier, battered top hat shading his eyes. “Is that her, then, your warden?”

      “She’s not my jailer,” Michael said, starting up the pier.

      Patrick kept pace, long legs flashing in his plaid trousers. “She holds the keys to your freedom, my lad. That sounds like a jailer to me. What’s she like, then? Is she the fire-eater Ciara led us to believe?”

      Ciara had bragged that her sister could do anything, but Michael wasn’t so sure. For all her confidence, Maddie O’Rourke had a fragility about her. Perhaps, like her sister, a more tender woman dwelled inside the bold shell.

      But maybe that was just wishful thinking.

      “Give me a day or two, Pat,” Michael said as they moved up the pier, shouldering their way through the crowd. “And then I’ll be able to tell you the truth about Maddie O’Rourke.”

      “If anyone can, you can,” Patrick said. “You’re good with understanding people. Me? I just like getting things done. So, I’ll explore the place and let you know me findings.” He dropped back and allowed Michael to continue on alone.

      Michael caught up to Maddie, Ciara and Aiden at the top of the pier, where they’d stopped. Aiden was down on his knees, bent over the water and grinning at a furry face that appeared to be grinning back.

      “Ah, and here you’ve gone and made a new friend already,” Michael teased him with a nod to the seal.

      Aiden glanced up at him. “Can we bring him home?”

      Maddie chuckled, a sound as warm as the color of her hair. “No, I’m afraid not. His family would miss him.”

      Aiden nodded as if he accepted that, then climbed to his feet. “The people here probably want him for the menagerie anyway.”

      “No menagerie,” Maddie said. “All the wild animals here roam about free.”

      Aiden stared at her, and Michael couldn’t tell whether the boy thought it a grand idea or a horrible one.

      Ciara stomped one foot. “There you go again! You stop teasing us, Maddie!”

      Maddie’s smile disappeared. “It’s the honest truth.”

      Ciara turned to Michael. “She said you don’t need permission to cut down trees in the park either.”

      “What I said,” Maddie clarified, “is that the trees aren’t in a park. Here you can own your land, up to one hundred and sixty acres per lad or lass.”

      “Well, that’s a whopper,” Ciara said with a shake of her head.

      “It’s the truth,” Michael told her. “It’s from a law called the Homestead Act. I read about it. If you’ve an interest in farming and a stomach for hard work, you could go far.”

      He thought Maddie would thank him for supporting her, but she frowned at him as if she wasn’t sure what he was trying to achieve.

      Ciara’s frown eased. “Well, maybe you can farm, but that still doesn’t mean you get to cut down trees anytime you please.”

      “You have to be cutting down the trees,” Maddie told her. “Those one hundred and sixty acres you claimed most likely are covered in trees so thick you can barely squeeze through them. If you don’t cut them down, you’d have no place to be planting your vegetables.”

      “Why would they plant vegetables?” Aiden asked. “Why don’t they just buy them from the grocer?”

      “I suspect you’ll not find many green grocers just yet, my lad,” Michael told him. “Or all that many farmers either. This is the wilderness. But СКАЧАТЬ