How would they ever fight six or eight men? Especially without someone getting hurt.
Violet’s chest pinched tightly. She didn’t want anyone suffering on account of her and Hyacinth, especially Sterling. But what could she do?
Should she step outside and try to negotiate with Claude’s men? Or would that only put her and Hyacinth in more danger?
She shuffled forward a step.
The movement drew Sterling’s sharp gaze. He held out a hand and cocked his head toward a short bureau that the family used for hats, gloves, handkerchiefs, and umbrellas. “Stop and get down low next to that.”
His eyes warned her not to argue with him—not that she was prone to arguing the way Hyacinth was. Instead, she made her way to the bureau and lowered herself down the wall as Hyacinth did the same. When they were huddled side by side with the chest of drawers acting as a shield, only then did she allow herself a full breath.
Two more shots rang out. One pinged against the front door. The other shattered a parlor window, the glass crackling and tinkling as it fell to the floor.
Sterling and Beckett crouched together and talked in low tones for a minute before Beckett crawled into the parlor. Sterling started back up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
He paused halfway up and pinned Violet with a serious look. “Stay right there. And don’t move until one of us says it’s okay.”
She nodded.
Hyacinth grasped Violet’s hand and squeezed it. “I can’t sit here and do nothing, Violet.”
“We have to listen to Sterling.”
“No,” Hyacinth whispered back. “We have to figure this out on our own.”
Violet wished they could. But wasn’t that what had gotten them into the predicament to begin with? Mother had wanted to keep their affairs private. Instead of involving the law in Father’s thefts in his places of employment, she’d paid his way out of the problems. And instead of seeking help for Father, Mother had just covered up the issues.
If they’d been more open to talking about their problems and asking for help, would Violet have felt more open to telling Sterling about her father’s gambling rather than keeping it from him? Maybe if they hadn’t been so embarrassed and isolated, they would have made more friends, had more support, and she wouldn’t have had to turn to her ex-fiancé for help.
She had to do better in the future. She couldn’t hide the problems, had to be more vulnerable, had to let others share the burdens. Because sometimes life’s problems were too heavy to carry by oneself.
“Hold the shooting!” came Sterling’s shout from upstairs. “No more shooting!”
His tone held a strange desperation that sent Violet’s heart thumping with a strange fear. Something was wrong.
She wanted to get up and go to him, but she’d promised him she would wait by the chest of drawers.
A voice boomed from the yard outside the house. “If you want him to live, then hand over the women.”
Him?
“If you don’t do it,” said the booming voice, “then you’ll force me to get rid of this worthless, sniveling son of a gun myself.”
Violet sat up at the same time that Hyacinth did. Was the worthless, sniveling son of a gun their father? Who else could it be?
Hyacinth started to climb to her feet, her features set with determination. What was she planning to do? Run outside and give herself over in exchange for their father?
Violet pulled her back down. “No, Hyacinth. We have to think.”
Sterling couldn’t claim her as his wife yet, but could he tell Claude’s men that she was his fiancée the way they’d planned to introduce Hyacinth as Beckett’s fiancée?
“I’m marrying Violet today, this morning.” Sterling’s shout came from the upstairs room at the front of the house. He was clearly thinking the same way she was. “And Hyacinth is engaged to be married to my foreman, Beckett Thorpe.”
“If they’re not lawfully yours, then they still belong to Claude.” The spokesperson for Claude’s posse was obviously not willing to show any mercy. “Marvin shook on a deal, which in this country is as good as done.”
“The reverend is on his way,” Sterling responded.
A moment of silence ensued. Were Claude’s men trying to decide what to do?
