Redeeming Love (59 page)

What do you want me to do? Tell me. Oh, God, tell me.

My will.

Despair filled her. She didn’t know what that was.

“There’s your signal,” her guard said. “Are you going to walk on your own?”

Even if she were able to get away, where could she run? She opened her eyes, and suddenly the shaking inside her stopped. She couldn’t explain it, but she felt calm. Unnaturally so. She gave the guard an imperious look. “If you let go of my arm,” she said. He blinked, surprised, and let go of her. She stepped forward, and he held the curtain aside so she could walk out.

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As soon as she appeared, the place went wild. Men whistled and cat-called. She kept her head up, her eyes straight ahead, and walked to the center stage where Duke stood smiling at her with malicious delight. He leaned close, his mouth near her ear so she could hear him above the din.

“Feel the power, Angel? You can share it with me. We can bring them to their knees!” Then he left her standing in center stage alone.

The noise was deafening. Were they all mad? She wanted to run and hide. She wanted to die.

Look at them.

She forced herself to display the old arrogance and disdain as her gaze swept the crowded room.

Look into their eyes, Sarah.

She did, the men closest to the stage at first, then sweeping outward.

They were young. There was a hollow, haunting look in their eyes. She recognized that look. Disillusionment and broken dreams, defiance. Hadn’t she felt the same loneliness and desperation she saw reflected all around her?

She looked at the men standing near the faro tables, staring up at her. She looked at the men lining the mahogany bar, glasses of whiskey in their hands. Was it her imagination, or was the noise quieting?

“Sing us something!” a man called from the back. Others yelled their agreement. Her mind went blank except for one song, totally inappropriate, utterly out of place. “Sing, Angel!” The noise rose again like a tidal wave, and the piano player pounded out a bawdy tune the men recognized. Some took up the tune themselves, singing raucously, laughing with abandon.

Sing, beloved.

She closed her eyes to shut the men out and started to sing. Not the song being played, but another song. One from long ago. And as she sang, she stood again at the well with Michael and Miriam bending over the side, singing down into it, the harmony and music rising up to envelop her. She imagined Michael and Miriam on either side of her. She could almost hear Miriam’s warm laughter.
“Louder, silly. What are you afraid of? You can sing. Of
course you can sing.”

And then Michael’s voice echoed:
“Louder, Tirzah. Sing as though you
believe it.”

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But I don’t believe. I’m afraid to believe.
She stopped abruptly and opened her eyes, her mind suddenly blank. The words to the song were gone.

Vanished.

The place was silent, every man staring up at her where she stood, alone on the empty stage. She could feel the burn of tears behind her eyes.
Oh,
God, make me believe!

Someone began singing for her, picking up the words where she had left off. His voice was rich and deep, so like Michael’s her heart jumped. She searched for him and saw him near the bar, a tall, gray-haired man in a dark business suit.

As suddenly as they’d disappeared, the words came back to her, and she sang with him as he continued. He walked slowly through the parting crowd. He stopped below the stage and smiled up at her. She smiled back.

Then she looked around at the men again, all silent now, stunned. Some couldn’t meet her eyes but looked away, ashamed.

“Why are you all here?” she cried out, the tears so close she was afraid they would choke her. “Why aren’t you home with your wives and children, or your mothers and sisters? Don’t you know what this place is? Don’t you know where you are?”

The curtains swished open behind her, and the dancing girls came racing out. The piano player began again, and the young women began singing loudly around her, kicking their bare legs up high. Some of the men began to clap and cheer. Others just stood there, silent, ashamed.

Angel walked slowly off the stage. She saw Duke waiting for her, a look in his eyes that she had never seen before. Perspiration beaded his brow, and his face was pale with fury. He grabbed her arm brutally and yanked her into the shadows. “What made you do a stupid thing like that?”

“God, I think,” she said, stunned. She felt jubilation—and the presence of a power so immense she was trembling. She looked up at Duke and wasn’t afraid of him anymore.

“God?”
He spat the word out. His eyes blazed. “I’m going to kill you. I should have killed you a long time ago.”

“You’re afraid, aren’t you? I can smell it. You’re afraid of something you can’t even see. And do you know why? Because what Michael has is more 413

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powerful than you ever were, ever could be.”

He raised his hand to strike her, and a man spoke quietly from behind him. “You touch that young woman, and I will see you hang.”

Duke swung around. The man who had sung with her was standing a few feet away. He was slightly shorter than Duke and much leaner, but there was something about him that gave him an aura of strength and authority.

She looked up at Duke to see if he felt it too, and saw he did, indeed. Her heart began beating wildly.

“Would you like to leave, miss?” the stranger asked.

“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I would.” She didn’t question his destination or intentions. It was enough that she had a way of escape, and she grasped it.

She expected Duke to threaten the man for his interference, but he just stood by, silent and pale, his teeth gritted. Who
was
this man?

She would find out later. She started toward him, then halted. She couldn’t leave yet. She turned to Duke. “Give me the key, Duke.” Two men looked at her, one in question, the other livid with rage. And something more. Fear
.
“The key,” she said again, holding her hand out.

When Duke didn’t give it to her, she ripped open the front of his shirt, grabbed the chain, and broke it. He stared at her in shock, sweat pouring down his temples. She looked straight back into his eyes. “You can’t have her.” She held the key in her fist right beneath his nose. “Burn in hell, Duke.” She looked at the gentleman standing silent, watching them. “Wait for me, please.”

“I’m not going anywhere without you, ma’am,” he said very calmly.

She hurried upstairs to the room next to hers and unlocked it. The child lying on the bed awakened immediately and sat up, her blue eyes wide with fear. She edged back, her pink dress bunching around her knees. She had pale blonde hair tied with pink satin ribbons.

Angel bit her lip. It was like looking in a mirror and seeing herself ten years ago, but she couldn’t just stand here, drowning in pain. She had to get this child out of here. Now. She came forward quickly. “It’s all right, sweetheart. I’m Angel, and you’re coming with me.” She held out her hand.

“Come on now.” She leaned over and took the girl’s hand. “We haven’t much time.”

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As they came out into the hallway, Angel saw Cherry standing a few feet away, her mouth open in surprise and wild hope. “Come with us,” Angel said. “You don’t have to stay here, but you must come
now.”

“Duke—”

“Come
now,
or you’re going to spend the rest of your life in a place like this. Or something worse.”

“Let me get my things—”

“Forget everything. Just leave it. Don’t even look back.” She hurried down the corridor. Cherry stood undecided for a moment and then raced after her. They came down the stairs together, and the stranger was there to meet them. Duke was nowhere in sight. As the gentleman looked at the two children with her, his face filled with wrath.

“I’m not going without them,” she said.

“Of course not.”

She nodded toward the stage door. “We can go out that way.”

“No.” His eyes were hard. “We’re going right out on the stage and through the front doors.”

“What?”
Angel said. Was he crazy? “We can’t!”

“We will. Let’s move.” His face was livid. “We’re going to expose this man for the devil he is.” The little girl was crying and clutching at Angel’s blue satin skirt, and Cherry was hugging close as well. “Here, I’ll carry the child,”

the gentleman said, but when he moved, the girl tried desperately to hide behind her.

“She won’t let you touch her,” Angel said, kneeling and giving her a hug.

“Hold tight, sweetheart. I’m going to carry you.” She looked up at the stranger and said firmly, “We won’t let anyone hurt you. Duke’s not going to stop us.” The girl’s legs clamped around her waist as Angel straightened. Her thin arms clung to Angel’s neck, and she appealed to the man. “Another way would be safer.”

“This way is best.” He held the curtain aside.

“There are a dozen men who’ll stop us.”

“There isn’t a man in that room who’ll touch me.”

“Who do you think you are?
God?”

“No, ma’am. Just Jonathan Axle, but I do own one of the largest banks in 415

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San Francisco. Now, shall we go?”

He wasn’t giving her any choice. Angel hugged the trembling child closer.

“Close your eyes, sweetheart. We’ll get you out of here.” Or die trying.

Cherry stayed close to her side as Jonathan Axle led them out to center stage. The music came to a discordant end, and the dancing girls came to a confused stop. Angel looked around and saw the shocked expressions on men’s faces. Duke was nowhere in the room. Neither was the man who had guarded her. “Let’s go,” Axle said quietly, his hand a firm but gentle support beneath her arm. She went down the steps into the middle of the room. The men parted before her.

Many of the patrons were staring at Cherry, dressed and made up like a fast woman though she was clearly still a child. Men moved back to open a path before her. The child’s whimper seemed to fill the room.

The men began talking in low, stunned voices. Angel overheard some of the remarks as she passed. “Why would he have a little one like that in a place like this?”

Angel stopped and looked at him. “Why do you think?” she said softly, grief-stricken, and saw the man’s mouth drop open in horrified comprehension.

Voices rose like a groundswell behind her, and she heard the violence in them. The men wanted blood, but not hers. She came out into the night air and let out her breath, not even aware she’d been holding it.

“This way,” Axle said. “I’m sorry, but I’ve no carriage. It’s several blocks.

Can you manage?”

Angel nodded and shifted the child’s weight. She followed him some distance in silence before asking, “Where are you taking us?”

“To my house.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What for?”

“So my wife and daughter can see to your needs while I figure out what’s to be done about that place. It should be burned, and that devil with it.”

She was embarrassed for her distrust, but she didn’t know anything about this man for all his apparent sympathy. The fact that he was a banker didn’t mean he had goodwill in mind. She had known bankers before.

The weight of the child seemed to increase with every step. Her muscles 416

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ached, but she kept walking. Cherry kept looking back worriedly. “Do you think he’ll come after us?”

“No,” Angel assured her, then directed a question to Axle. “Why did you help me like that? I’m a stranger to you.”

“It was what you sang. The Lord couldn’t have made it any more clear that I was to get you out of there.”

She glanced at him in surprise. She didn’t say anything for a while, but she couldn’t stop thinking about it. “Mister Axle, I’ve got to be honest with you.”

“About what?”

“I don’t believe in God.” She felt a piercing pain as she said it.

Don’t you?

The question came from deep within her, and she frowned. She had called to God in her fear, and here she was. And then there was that voice…had she imagined it? Axle’s next words echoed her confusion.

“No? You sounded pretty convincing back there.”

“I was scared to death, and it was the only song I could remember.”

He smiled. “There’s something in that.”

“I don’t believe in some little, shriveled up old man in a long white beard sitting on a throne looking over me.”

He chuckled. “Neither do I. I believe in something a lot bigger than that.

And I’ll tell you something else.” His smile was gentle. “Just because you don’t believe in the Lord doesn’t mean his power isn’t working for you.”

She blinked. Her throat closed tight, and she felt ashamed. She had tried every way to get away from Duke and been unable to accomplish it. And then tonight, a single hymn Michael had taught her had done the trick.