Right Back Where We Started From by Joy Lanzendorfer

Author:Joy Lanzendorfer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Published: 2021-03-19T19:36:05+00:00

Chapter 25

october 1886 - sausalito, california

As Caroline disappeared outside Donald Shannon’s Villa, the wave of fighting swept against Mabel and she was caught upon it like a cork. She ran to the nearest wall and stood facing the rioting men, unsure whether to wait for Robbie to come get her or to try to push to the door herself.

Nearby a man was slumped on a bench with his head between his legs. Blood was dripping on the wooden planks under his feet. She looked away in time to see two men coming toward her while clenching each other’s heads, like mating insects. They crashed into the wall beside Mabel and she shrieked and looked for Robbie, but he wasn’t there.

Just as she was about to plunge into the mob, someone embraced her. She looked up at the young man who’d been staring at her during the fight, the one with the crooked smile. His arm was a rope of muscles around her waist. “When I say to,” he said, “walk as swiftly as you can.”

Mabel nodded, her eyes never leaving his. He led her through the riot, pushing her with his palm when he wanted her to go and tightening his fingers on her ribs when he wanted her to stop. In this way, they sidestepped a shouting match, slipped out of range of a fistfight, and dodged the bell when it fell off the wall and clanked to the ground beside them.

Behind the boxing ring was a door that Mabel hadn’t seen before. The man ushered her into the alleyway and released her. Cold air rushed around Mabel’s waist where his arm had been. She straightened her skirt, waiting for him to attend to her nerves, but he didn’t move.

“Thank you,” she said. “I believe you saved my life.”

“It was nothing,” he said in a lilting accent. “My pleasure.”

Why, he’s Irish, Mabel thought. Now that she was calming down, she saw how inappropriate this was. She’d let a strange man put his arm around her, and now she was in an alley with him. The stench of garbage wafted out of a bin, and there was something slimy near her shoe. If they didn’t leave right away, Vira would learn that she’d lied about going to church. Considering that walking down the street had made her mother threaten to put bars on the window, Mabel had a feeling this would be her last taste of freedom for a long time.

“I must find my friends,” she said in a commanding way.

The man settled himself on a crate. “Yep, they’re probably worried about you.”

In the parking lot, there was more shouting and commotion, as if the riot had spilled outside. Inside the Villa, the voices of the men roared like fire. The alley was a pocket of peacefulness in the chaos.

“Usually a gentleman introduces himself to a lady,” she said.

“A gentleman, am I? Pardon me. My name is Jared Smith. And you are?”

Mabel had never seen a man act like this. He was at once a dashing hero who had saved her from destruction and a cad with no manners.

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