Page 68 of A New World for the Irish Daughter

“I don’t think so.” He lowered his chin as he gestured to Sheetka. “You can go, but the half-breed kid stays.”

As if she’d abandon Sheetka right on the street, to a man such as him! Maggie stared at him in silent fury. They’d gathered a small crowd of spectators around them, and no one, she saw, seemed inclined to help. Maybe some of the people of Juneau felt she’d had this coming to her? No one, not even the nuns, Maggie knew, had approved of her taking Sheetka for her own. She thought she’d gained their acceptance, but maybe she hadn’t.

Either way, Maggie knew she was going to have to handle this on her own… and so shewould.

“Then I will have to use other means to make you move out of the way,” she told the man in a steely voice, and withdrew her pistol from the pocket of her coat. She’d taken to carrying it with her every time she went out, and she’d spent a whole box of the ammunition Brendan had given her on target practice. When she raised the pistol, her arm was completely steady.

The man’s eyes widened and, for a second, he looked surprised, but then he gave her a cursory, dismissive up and down and his lip curled once more. “As if you know how to shoot that thing.”

“I assure you, I do,” Maggie replied. She was thankful her voice was as steady as her arm, because, beneath her skirts, her knees were shaking. “And I have no compunction in using it against a man who is threatening me,” she added, although she knew that wasn’t precisely true. She didn’t want to kill or even injure a man… but she would if she had to, and after all her practice, she trusted her aim.

A murmur went through the crowd, of interest more than alarm. This was, Maggie thought ruefully, becoming quite a spectacle, and everyone enjoyed a show, especially after a long, dark winter. All she wanted was to get past the man.

“All right, little lady,” the man sneered, rocking back on his heels. “Try me.”

Maggie stared hard at him—taking in the unshaven cheeks, his beard patchy, his skin raw-looking and speckled with acne. Broken veins spread across his nose, and his eyes were small and bloodshot. He was drunk,verydrunk, and he’d probably been hanging around Juneau for too long already. Hewanteda fight.

And so he’d get one.

Maggie trained her gaze on the front sight just as Brendan had told her and then hesitated. She really didn’t want to hurt a man.

“See,” the man jeered. “You can’t do it.”

“Oh, she can,” a man said from behind her. “Trust me, I’ve seen it myself.”

Brendan. Maggie nearly whirled around, but forced herself to stay focused on the man in front of her. Was she dreaming? Was he really finally here?

“And who the hell are you?” the man demanded, curling one hand into a fist as he started toward Maggie.

With her arm still steady and straight, she pulled the trigger. The man let out a yelp of shock and pain; as Maggie lowered the pistol, she saw she’d shot him right where she’d meant to—in the fleshy top of his arm, putting a bullet hole through his coat but not hitting bone. Blood was already soaking his sleeve.

“Youshotme!” he gasped in surprise.

“You asked for it,” someone from the crowd called to him with a chuckle. A few people clapped.

Maggie blinked back a wave of dizziness as she kept standing with effort, and then, to her sweetest relief, Brendan’s arms were around her and he pulled her into a hug. Maggie collapsed against him.

“You did it,” he murmured against her hair. “You really did it.”

“I can’t believe I did,” Maggie admitted. She glanced down at Sheetka, who had hidden her face in her skirts. The man had limped away, the crowd already starting to disperse, looking for the next amusement. A shooting in Juneau wasn’tthatexciting an occurrence.

Maggie pocketed the pistol and then let out a shuddery sigh as she put her hands up to her face. She felt sick with nerves, the aftershocks of what had happened crashing through her.

“You’re all right, Maggie,” Brendan told her, gently removing her hands from her face. “And so is Sheetka.”

“And you’re back!” She stared at him in wonder, blinking back sudden tears. “I can’tbelieveit…”

“I’m sorry I took so long. It was one delay after another, and then, would you believe, the steamer I was on crashed into a tree that had fallen into the bay! We all had to scramble out onto the trunk and escape to safety. The ship was a wreck, but they managed to salvage their freight, including everything I’d bought, thank goodness. But it set my journey back by nearly a month.”

“Oh, Brendan…” Maggie stared at him in dismay, grateful he’d survived the ordeal, but hating that he’d had it.

“I’m back now,” he told her. “And not a moment too soon. It seems like every prospector from the whole west coast has landed here.”

“So you would think.” Maggie managed a laugh, although she still felt shaky. “Why don’t you come over tonight?” she suggested. “For a slap-up meal, like my da used to say? To celebrate.”

His gaze was warm on hers, seeming full of promise and making her tingle. “I’d like nothing better,” he told her.

An hour later, Maggie was flying around the cabin, trying to make everything as nice as it possibly could be. There were drop biscuits with canned butter and bear stew with potatoes and carrots, as well as a bread and butter pudding for dessert, to be served with Juneau’s local fireweed honey.