Questions of Honour

The problem was the parents of the boys often sent them at too young an age to help support their families. He vowed before the day was out he’d have a plan to get them back in the school room, where they belonged.

He looked around. Who the hell approved this?

Joshua went looking for an answer from the breaker boss, Luther Dancy. As he passed in front of the breaker bins, he glanced down at the boys’ callused hands. But then he saw a pair of bleeding hands—a new boy unaccustomed rough work. The pain the child must have felt twisted Joshua’s stomach. How dare anyone do this to a child? Josh’s eyes automatically flew to search the young face.

Daniel’s face!

Joshua had never known such rage. This was his son. Until that moment he hadn’t felt it. Not really. This was his flesh and blood, bleeding for pennies. “What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded.

Daniel looked up at him, shocked at first, but then his little, coal-smeared chin jutted out. “I’m here helping do what you never did, supporting my mother.”

Josh was struck anew by all he had lost, and by the hatred in his own son’s eyes. It was nearly more than he could stand. A bad day just got so much worse. He knelt in the coal dust in front of his son and took him by the wrist.

“Open it,” Josh ordered. His brows rose at the curt, profane answer Daniel spat back at him. “That may well be true but I am bigger than you, too. We can do this the easy way. Do as I say—right now. Or the hard way. I pry them open, which may just hurt them more. But either way, I will see the damage done to those hands.”

Daniel, eyes hot, rotated his wrist slowly and opened his hand, palm up. “Ain’t so bad. Few days and Mr. Dancy says they’ll callus up real good.”

“Your sorting days are over.”

His chin, so much like Abby’s, notched up. “You saying I’m not good enough to separate your coal?”

“I’m saying my son isn’t going to hurt like that for a few measly cents a week. If your mother needs the money so badly, I’ll give it to her.”

Daniel’s cheeks paled beneath the coating of coal dust. “She … she won’t take money from you. Too little too late, she’ll say.”

Joshua could almost hear Abby saying exactly that but there was something about the way Daniel had grown nervous that gave him pause. “Does your mother know you’re here?”

Silence.

“Daniel?”

His son’s face reddened. “I hate you! You’re wreckin’ everything. I was going to buy her a fancy dress. Fancy as the one your lady wore. My ma is a hundred times better. She should have nice things, too. I’m gonna’ give them to her. I’m gonna’ give her everything you never did!”

Joshua had no reply. At least not one Daniel would believe. “Come on, son, I’ll take you home so your ma can take care of those hands.”

“You’re not my—”

“Father,” Joshua finished on a tired sigh and stood. “Tell me, Daniel, if I’m not, then why am I so damn proud to have you for a son?”

He didn’t wait for a reply, but steered the boy out of the shed. His business with Luther Dancy would have to wait. It was probably just as well, Josh decided as they rode toward the Kane house. Had he seen Dancy just then he might have beaten him till his face was as bloody as Daniel’s hands.

Worried over the late hour, Abby pushed aside the worn calico curtains, hoping to see Daniel. But instead, a man on horseback came into view at the end of the road. He carried a boy in front of him. It was Joshua and Daniel.

Abby saw red. She grabbed her shawl and rushed out of the house. “He was supposed to be home an hour ago. He knows better than not to come straight home from school on days I’m not in town. How dare you make him disobey me? Do you know I’ve been worried out of my mind?”

“He wasn’t in school.” Joshua dismounted, his tone betraying a tightly leashed anger. “He was in the breaker shed. He’d been there all day.”

Abby turned to glare at her son. “You are in a world of trouble, young man! Wait till your Uncle Brendan gets hold of you. You won’t sit for a week!”

Daniel refused to look at Abby. Joshua laid his hand on her shoulder and Abby felt his warmth through her shawl. It sent heat curling through her. She stepped back, shrugging off his disturbing touch.

“Ab, he was trying to earn money to buy you a dress.”

Having their poverty pointed out by the man whose father caused it only fueled Abby’s anger. “Don’t you be defendin’ him to me! If you wouldn’t hire them, they wouldn’t be tempted to give up school.”

“I’m glad you didn’t send him there and believe me, I didn’t know our breaker boys were this young.” He turned to Daniel. “I’ll pay you ten cents a day for every day you go to school.”

“We’ll not be accepting your charity, Joshua Wheaton,” Abby shouted. “Now get out of my way, so I can take him inside where his uncle can deal with him.”

Joshua stood like a rock preventing her from reaching up to pull Daniel out of the saddle. “Not until you listen. It wouldn’t be charity. All the boys, nine and up, will get ten cents for every day they spend in school. I value education every bit as much as you do.” He turned and lifted Daniel to the ground. He took the boy’s resisting hands and held them out. “Open them,” he ordered.

Abby hated him touching Daniel and it infuriated her that he had command of the situation. If only her brothers were aware of his presence. She looked down at Daniel’s hands then, expecting them to be black from the coal. Her anger dissolved in a heartbeat. “Oh, my good sweet Lord! Daniel, what have you done to yourself?”

Daniel shrugged his shoulders, but still refused to look her in the eye. “It ain’t so bad.”

“Oh, but it ‘tis,” she cried and sank into the dust at his feet, taking his bleeding hands in her own. “We’ll fix you up right and proper in a blink.”

“So did you find the lad?” Brendan called as he walked around the corner of the house. Abby glanced up as Brendan stopped short, shock in his eyes. His jaw turned to granite. “My father told you not to come ‘round here. You aren’t welcome.” He shifted his eyes to Daniel and raised one eyebrow, considering his appearance. “And you, boyo. From the look of you, I’d say you acted on that harebrained idea you had.”

“Yes, sir,” Daniel admitted quickly.

“After I told you to do no such thing?”

“But I—”

“No buts,” Brendan snapped. Daniel nodded silently. “Go get cleaned up. I’ll deal with you later.” There was an implicit parental threat in Brendan’s tone.

Joshua stiffened visibly and turned to face Brendan. Daniel moved forward, but Joshua stopped him with a restraining hand on the shoulder. “I don’t want him punished further. His hands are punishment enough.”

Brendan squinted against the glare of the setting sun. “Since you gave up any right to Daniel long ago, I’d say what you want is of no importance. I don’t want you within fifty feet of the boy from here on out. It’s obvious you aren’t a good influence. He’s never disobeyed me so defiantly before.”

Joshua let go of Daniel and curled his hands into fists. Abby could see him trying to control his anger. “I never abdicated my right to be Daniel’s father. It was stolen from me. Nothing any of you say will keep me away from my son, Brendan. Now that I know about him, I intend to see to his interests.”

Brendan tossed aside the bucket and charged forward. Josh’s horse shied and Josh stepped between him and Abby and Daniel. She scurried out of the way and pulled Daniel with her as Josh gained control of his mount. As he turned away and toward Brendan, her brother threw a punch that glanced off Joshua’s jaw. It rocked Joshua a bit but he ducked away and let go of the horse’s reins.

Josh backed off, holding up his hand to forestall Brendan. “I don’t want to fight you, but I’m getting dammed sick of you throwing punches without giving fair warning. Why is it you’re so opposed to my seeing Abby and Daniel?”

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