Chapter 21
“Bellamy!” Zaira screamed. She wanted to rush to Bellamy’s side and help him, but she couldn’t shift her aim from Mr. Wright. Even though he was wounded, she had to make sure he didn’t get away.
He had to pay for all his crimes.
Several more people raced toward them, including a distinguished gentleman she recognized as a friend of her da’s, the bank owner, Mr. Conway.
The Conways shared the same social circles as the Shanahans.
In fact, the Conways—including Emilie, one of her closest friends—had been at the eating-of-the-gander party out at Oakland earlier in the week.
Surely Mr. Conway would realize she hadn’t been a part of plotting the bank robbery as Mr. Wright had suggested.
No doubt the fellow had been accusing her and Bellamy to take the blame away from himself.
But they’d heard him talking with the robbers last night, had heard him admit to unlocking the doors.
If their testimony wasn’t enough to implicate him, surely they could find other proof that he’d been involved.
“Mr. Conway,” she called, “it’s me, Zaira Shanahan. And I’ve caught the mastermind behind the robbery, Mr. Wright.”
Mr. Conway halted beside her. “Zaira Shanahan. My word, child. What are you doing down here?”
Thankfully, a police constable was one of the other men striding down the hallway. He’d probably been nearby, patrolling the streets when the bank workers discovered the robbery. Zaira was never more relieved than at that moment to have him arrest Mr. Wright.
“Mr. Wright not only orchestrated the robbery,” Zaira said as she handed over the gun to the constable, “but he tried to kill Bellamy.”
Without waiting to find out what Mr. Conway and the police did with Mr. Wright, Zaira rushed over to where Bellamy had fallen. Her heart pounding, she lowered herself to his side. “Bellamy. Talk to me.”
He lay face down and didn’t move.
“Bellamy!” She began to tremble but somehow got her hands to work to roll him over. Blood was everywhere. It was pooled on the floor, saturated his shirt, and even smeared across his face.
“Bellamy needs a doctor!” she called out as she ran her hand over his chest, searching for an injury, frantic to stop the bleeding.
She suspected he’d been hit by the first gunshot, but he hadn’t acted as though he’d been in pain. Instead, he’d charged toward Mr. Wright, then had stabbed the fellow and disarmed him in no time.
Mr. Conway crouched on the other side of Bellamy and spoke curtly to a worker down the hallway. “Send someone for the physician.” As he turned back to Zaira, thankfully he didn’t ask her again why she and Bellamy were there at the early morning hour.
Hopefully, no one else heard what she and Bellamy had told Mr. Wright about spending the night in the bank storage room.
Hopefully, instead, they would be able to assure everyone that their stay had been accidental, that they’d simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time—or the right place at the right time, if one wanted to solve a crime, which she did.
No matter the excuses, she wouldn’t be able to hide the fact she’d spent an entire night alone with Bellamy McKenna. People would hear of it.
Perhaps the gossipers would be more forgiving since she was engaged to him. Perhaps the scandal wouldn’t tarnish the Shanahan name. Perhaps she’d find a way to avoid disappointing her parents.
Whatever the case, she and Bellamy wouldn’t be able to put an end to their match. Not anymore. After all that had happened, she wouldn’t be surprised if her da and mam pushed her to get married sooner.
If Bellamy lived . . .
She again skimmed her fingers over him, peeling back his coat and vest and finding a bloody hole in his shirt at his shoulder. From what she could tell, the bullet hadn’t gone all the way through his body, but blood was still bubbling out of the wound.
She wasted no time lifting her petticoat, pressing it to the bullet hole, and attempting to stanch the flow of blood.
She wasn’t sure how long she sat on the basement floor beside Bellamy, holding his wound tightly, but Mr. Conway stood and spoke with the constable and Mr. Wright, who was sitting against the wall a dozen paces away, moaning from his knife wounds.
At some point, the older physician who usually looked after her family hurried down the hallway and knelt beside her with his leather satchel. Someone else had already lit a lantern and now moved it closer at the physician’s command.
As the light splayed across Bellamy’s face and revealed the pallor of his skin and his shallow breathing, tears pricked Zaira’s eyes. She didn’t want Bellamy to die. Even if she could never gain his approval or love, she would still always care about him.
The tears spilled over. She was pathetic to care about a man so much when he didn’t reciprocate and had basically told her she wasn’t the woman for him.
Aye, she was very pathetic. She needed to build a few walls around her heart to protect it from being broken.
But she couldn’t keep herself from liking him, maybe even being in love with him.
Was she in love with Bellamy McKenna?
She’d never been in love before, not even close. Probably because she’d always been so taken with Bellamy and never had eyes for any other man.
The physician worked swiftly to remove the bullet from Bellamy’s shoulder.
Then he carefully cleaned and sutured the spot.
Throughout it all, Bellamy remained unconscious and at times hardly seemed to be breathing.
Zaira hardly seemed to breathe either. But the doctor assured her Bellamy would live, even with all the blood loss.
He would be weak and tired and have a great deal of pain, but he’d been fortunate the bullet hadn’t caused much damage.
“Zaira!”
At the call of her name, Zaira glanced up to find Alannah and Kiernan hurrying toward her down the hallway. At the sight of the concern creasing both of their faces, tears welled up again.
“There you are.” Kiernan’s tone contained frustration.
“We’ve been so worried about you.” Alannah stopped and held out a hand to Zaira. “Kiernan found your horses wandering around an alley near Front Street, but there was no sign of either you or Bellamy.”
“We’ve been here all night.” Zaira wiped her hands on her skirt, then allowed Alannah to help her to her feet. “We got trapped in the bank storage room.”
“We know that now.” Kiernan cocked his head toward Mr. Conway, who was down the hallway on the other side of the doorway where a couple of constables were now leading away Mr. Wright.
Mr. Conway must have not only sent for the doctor but had likely also had a message delivered to her family’s house to alert Kiernan of her whereabouts.
Alannah started to draw her into a hug.
Zaira stepped back, not wanting to stain Alannah’s clothing.
“Are you injured too?” Kiernan was scanning her, likely seeing all the blood that covered her gown.
“No, this is just Bellamy’s blood.”
Kiernan took in Bellamy. “We thought the two of you were captured by the Farrell gang in retaliation for Shaw’s imprisonment.”
“No, thanks be.”
“Oh aye, thanks be.” Alannah’s voice contained relief. “With how close the horses were to the river, we’d also considered the possibility that you’d both fallen in and ended up downstream.”
“We left our horses in the alley behind the bank.” Since they hadn’t planned to be gone long, they’d neglected to secure them tightly, so it was possible the horses had wandered off.
Kiernan lifted his hat and combed through his auburn hair, which was as mussed as his suit. “We had search parties out for half the night, combing the streets and riverbanks.” Exhaustion lined his face. No doubt he hadn’t gotten much sleep.
“I’m sorry, Kiernan. I didn’t mean to cause a fuss.”
Kiernan replaced his hat. “You made a big fuss, and now the whole city knows that the matchmaker and his fiancée are missing. They’ll also soon know that the matchmaker and his fiancée spent the night together in a basement room at the bank.”
Zaira released a sigh. “Is there any way to stop the spread of the rumors?”
“No. Which is why you’ll marry Bellamy just as soon as he’s awake.” Kiernan’s voice held a finality that confirmed everything Zaira had already known was coming.
However, she didn’t have the energy to argue with her brother at the moment. “Do Mam and Da know I was missing with Bellamy?”
“Oh aye, they do.” Kiernan leveled a hard look at her that made her heart quiver. “When you didn’t return last night, Winston rode out to Oakland to alert us. Da and I came back to the city right away.”
Alannah tucked Zaira’s hand through her arm. “I was worried about you, so I was.”
“You did the right thing.”
Alannah’s pretty eyes were filled with concern as she tugged Zaira toward the back door that led to the alley. “I’m sure Zaira is needing some fresh air and a chance to take care of personal needs.”
“I won’t stop you.” Kiernan waved them forward.
Zaira didn’t want to leave Bellamy behind, but the doctor was mostly done, had only the wrapping of the bandage left.
Bellamy would likely require much tending over the coming days, and she wanted to be the one to do so. Jenny was already busy enough with her duties at the pub and now caring for Moya and Seamus, and she wouldn’t need the extra work with Bellamy.
As Zaira exited the building and started up the short flight of steps that led to the alley, she blinked against the brightness of the morning sunshine penetrating the hazy coal smoke that was a permanent shroud over St. Louis.
Riding down the alley toward the bank were about a dozen men. Was this one of the search parties?
She spotted her da among the riders. Even with his hat on, his bright red hair was easy to see. His brawny body and broad shoulders made him stand out in the crowd too. Like Kiernan, he had a commanding presence wherever he went.