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Maddie found the girl in the kitchen, refilling the plate along with several other servants, who all stopped talking when she entered.
“Are you looking for the facilities, Mrs. DuMont?” one of them asked.
“No,” Maddie said, walking up to the girl. “I’d like to speak with you.”
The maid turned red.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, that would be most improper,” an older woman said, most likely the main housekeeper.
“I know,” Maddie said, holding a stern and steady gaze on the older woman. “This will only take a moment.”
The housekeeper eventually nodded toward the young maid, and Maddie took the girl’s arm, which trembled beneath her touch. “You haven’t done anything wrong,” Maddie assured her, leading the girl out the door.
Down the hallway she found a quiet corner, away from the traffic leading in and out of the kitchen. Unsure why her heart was skipping beats, Maddie said, “I remember you from Mrs. Smother’s.”
“I remember you, too,” the maid answered. “Mrs. Smother was in a tizzy when you came up missing. And again when those men came looking for you.”
“Alan Ridge’s men?” Maddie asked, her insides churning.
“Yes. I’m glad to see they didn’t find you.”
The sincerity of the girl’s tone touched something soft inside Maddie, yet she muttered, “They found me, all right.”
“But we all told them we didn’t know where you’d gone.”
Maddie laid a hand on the girl’s arm. “I’m not saying they found me because of you.” Unsure what to say next, she asked, “How old are you?”
“Fifteen.”
She’d assumed the girl was much older when meeting her last spring. Maddie then asked, “How old were you when Lu—when Mr. DuMont rescued you, took you to Mrs. Smother?”
“Thirteen.”
Maddie held her breath for a moment. “He rescued you from Ridge, didn’t he?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
With Maddie’s prodding, the girl shared a harrowing story of how Mad Dog overtook her family wagon, killing her parents and capturing her and her sisters. The maid, named Ilene, had escaped and eventually ended up at Hester’s, from where Lucky had whisked her away to Trig’s ship.
“What about your sisters?” Maddie asked.
“I don’t know what happened to them,” Ilene answered. “But I will someday. As soon as I’ve earned enough money to pay off my debt to Mrs. Smother.”
Maddie’s head was spinning. She had no way of knowing just how many girls Mad Dog had captured over the years. It was a moment before Ilene’s statement entered her thoughts. “What debt?” Trig had told her he paid Mrs. Smother to educate the girls, giving them a new start.
“For my training and room and board.”
“Captain DuMont paid for that.”
Ilene shook her head. “Only for the first month.”
Maddie highly doubted that was the deal Trig made with Mrs. Smother. “Do you know of other girls indebted to Mrs. Smother?”
“Yes, ma’am. Several. Some of them work here, for the mayor, and others for his friends.”
Maddie’s spine quivered. “And they were escaping from Ridge?”
The maid nodded. “Or others like him.”
“Maddie?”
She spun at the sound of Lucky’s voice and held up a hand, telling him she’d heard him, but silently asking that he not come any closer.
“You were lucky, ma’am,” Ilene said. “Getting away, going to Alaska and marrying Mr. DuMont.”
Turning back to glance at Lucky for a moment, Maddie let her thoughts flow in several directions, yet they settled on one. The man looking at her curiously. “Yes,” she said. “I was lucky. I am lucky.”
“You’ve given the rest of us hope.” Ilene blushed slightly. “That if we have a mind to, we can change our status in life.”
The emptiness Maddie had felt the past few days dissolved. “That’s right,” she said, squeezing Ilene’s hand. “You can. Anyone can.” She felt a tide of purpose rise within her. She had changed her status in life. Lucky, Trig, even Jack, was who she had to thank for that, as well as the Fenstermacher brothers and other miners. Lucky most of all, though. He’d changed a lot of things about her.
Months ago she’d recognized he’d turned her into a woman, but at the time she hadn’t known exactly what that meant. It was more than crying at the drop of a hat or wanting to wear clothes that would make her look pretty. In truth, Lucky had allowed her to become who she wanted to be. At the time, she’d thought that was to have money. Make it rich so she’d be self-sufficient. There was more to it, though. Lucky had made her believe in herself. That her dreams weren’t just dreams, but goals, and that she could succeed in whatever she chose.
