The Bachelor's Bride (The Thompsons of Locust Street #1) - Holly Bush Page 0,40

known where we live because he was leaning against the tree in front of Mr. Ervin’s, looking at our house.”

“Come on, Robert! Let’s go get him!” Payden jumped from his place at the table, throwing down his paring knife and wiping his hands on his pants.

“Sit down, Payden,” Elspeth said sharply. “Sit down right now. You too, Robert. These men are dangerous. We are going to keep to the house until we can talk to Muireall and James as a family. No one go outside, and keep the doors locked.”

“Yes, miss,” Mrs. McClintok said. “That is exactly what we are going to do, Robert? Payden?”

“Yes, Mum,” Robert said.

Payden looked at Elspeth and dropped to his seat. “We’ll see what James says, Lizzie.”

Elspeth was helping Mrs. McClintok with the produce a few minutes later when she heard the front door slam. She and Kirsty ran up the steps and down the hallway, where Robert stood looking out the window by the door. He looked at them ruefully.

“I couldn’t stop him,” he said.

That’s when she heard Payden shouting.

“Come out now! Come out and fight like a man! I’m warning you to stay away from my sisters!”

Muireall’s face went completely white when Elspeth told her that two men had followed her home. She was seated beside Aunt Murdoch, who was listening attentively, her rheumy eyes darting from Muireall to James, who stood leaning against the fireplace mantel. Kirsty sat in a chair with Payden on the floor at her feet. Elspeth stood as she told everyone what had happened, unable to settle herself into a chair, her back to the parlor door, where Mrs. McClintok stood just outside the room in the hallway. Robert sat on the floor in the hall, holding his knees in front of him and scrambling to his feet as his mother answered a knock at the front door.

Elspeth was trying desperately to hold on to her emotions. She was afraid. She’d admitted it to herself, but she did not want to scare Kirsty and Payden unduly. If they weren’t cautious, though, Payden especially would be bold and perhaps put himself in danger more than just shouting into the wind from the street in front of their home. And it would be her fault.

“Details, Elspeth,” James said. “I want to hear everything that happened. Everything you noticed.”

Elspeth recounted the young boy who’d bumped into her and prompted her to notice the two men. “They were looking straight at me from across the street. One of them was the one that hit Mr. Pendergast the night of the fight. I recognized him right away.

“I slipped into the bookstore, Plymouth’s—you know the one, Muireall. They keep their back door open to the alley. I went through Lattanzio’s Bakery’s kitchen and out their front door. I was running by that point,” Elspeth said and realized her voice had gone high-pitched and breathy. “I was running, bumping into people, and looking over my shoulder, worried I’d see them at the corner of Seventh.”

“Elspeth,” she heard from behind her and turned to see Alexander Pendergast in the doorway to the parlor. “Elspeth. Are you all right?”

James pushed away from the mantel, and Muireall jumped up from her chair, shouting and demanding that he tell them what his business was and why he would barge into their parlor when they were having a family meeting.

“Alexander,” she whispered and felt tears fill her eyes.

Three long strides and he was there, holding her arms gently, gazing into her eyes, and reaching into his coat for a handkerchief. Her brothers and sisters were shouting, but she did not hear them.

“I was so afraid,” she said. He put his arms around her, and it was the first time she’d felt safe that entire day, sobbing into his coat. “I ran. I ran as fast as I could,” she whispered.

He kissed her hair. “Of course you did.”

She leaned back to look at his face. “Then he was across the street, leaning against the tree in front of Mr. Ervin’s house. He knows where we live.”

“Unhand her!” James shouted. “This very minute, if you know what’s good for you Pendergast!”

“Oh, stuff it, James,” Kirsty said with a shrug. “She had a terrible fright, and I don’t see any of you offering her comfort.”

“He is not family!” Muireall shouted, red-faced.

“He will be when he marries her,” Kirsty said, seemingly unfazed by Muireall’s clenched fists and shouts.

“Kirsty!” Elspeth said. “Please!”

“What? Look at him. Just look at him. He’s taken with you and has