Rapture's Rendezvous

“What. .. ?” he gasped, pulling away from her.

“Nathan. He knows there is a man snooping in his community with the name of Hopper. He talked to me of this. I knew immediately that it was you, Michael.”

“He knows of my investigations? God. How could he?”

“His representatives. They are quite good at what they do. They have discovered that it is a man named Hopper dressed in disguise who is snooping for this thing called … the … union. What does it mean, Michael?”

Michael began to knead his brow. “Damn it all to hell,” he grumbled. “I belong to the union. We exist because of the need to better the conditions of the workers here in Saint Louis and all over the country. Damn. So Nathan Hawkins does know we have infiltrated his area, huh?” Then Michael swung around, studying Maria closely. “And it sounds as though you know more than what Nathan Hawkins revealed to you. How would you?”

Maria moved across the room, wringing her hands. Should she tell him? What would he think of her? She swung around, smiling coyly. “How did I know that it had to be you when the name Hopper was spoken to me? How would I know this man disguised would be Michael Hopper?”

“Yes. How .. . ?”

“Ruby so much as told me so,” she quickly blurted, turning her back to him, not wanting to see his reaction to such a confession on her part.

“Ruby… ?” he gasped. So much was becoming clearer in his mind. That night. The darkness of the room. The way that wench had made love with him? When he had returned the next night, requesting the girl who preferred remaining faceless and voiceless, Ruby had acted quite strangely when she had been unable to make this same girl materialize a second time.

Had it been because it had been .. . Maria . . . ? Hadn't she already left for Saint Louis to wed Nathan Hawkins … ?

Maria's gaze lowered. “Yes. Ruby,” she said softly. When Michael touched her and pulled her to face him, she smiled even more sheepishly, lowering her lashes to protect the truth that was so evident in the depths of her dark eyes.

“You. It was you, Maria,” he said thickly. “You were the one with me at Ruby's that night. Damn. I should have known.” He paused, eyeing her closely. “But how? Why . . . ?”

“Alberto saw you there. He came home gloating to me about how poor you looked. How down on your luck you had become since you were dressed so shabbily, like a bum. When he told me you had been at Ruby's, I just had to seek you out.”

“But… to … ?”

“To be in that room? Waiting?”

“Yes.”

“It was Ruby's idea. She said that it would work. I was willing to do anything to get to be with you. But since I had already been made to agree to my marriage to Nathan for fear of what would happen to Papa and Alberto, I couldn't reveal myself to you. Don't you see?”

Michael's fingers worked through his hair. “But, how did you even .. . know . . . Ruby . . . ?”

“We met. One day when I was taking a walk. The first day I was in Hawkinsville, when I just had to get away from that terrible house near the mine.”

“God, Maria,” Michael said, wrapping his arms around her, pressing his nose into her hair. “My sweet Maria. God.”

“But, Michael, what I said about you being in danger? Nathan Hawkins even said that.. . he . .. was planning to kill you … if he discovered your true identity.”

“He said that?” Michael said, pulling away from her, his expression troubled.

“He even said there were ways … of … of .. . hiding bodies in his coal mine,” she stammered, finding the words hard to speak, envisioning Michael being dragged into the bowels of the earth … and … left

“Well, we'll see about that,” Michael stormed, beginning to pace the room. “I see now that we at the union have to move ahead with our plans. We don't have time to fool around any longer. But I have to have me an ally. I need someone who is a part of the mines to help me. I need someone to help spread the word of the retaliation I have been planning.”

“Michael,” Maria said, rushing to him, clasping onto a hand. “Please. It all sounds so dangerous. Can't you just quit whatever it is you are doing? Don't you see? Nathan Hawkins means business. It is his coal mine. He says that no one can tell him how to run it. Isn't he right? How can anyone tell him how to run his own coal mine?”

Michael took both of Maria's hands in his and squeezed them. “Maria, you know the way you and the rest of your Italian friends are forced to live. And you don't even know the half of it. You don't know the conditions of the coal mines. They are death traps. Even much worse than that ship that carried you from Italy. Men are in danger each and every day. And only because Nathan Hawkins refuses to run his coal mine with the proper safety equipment and standards. The members of the union are going to see to it that the Italians get better wages and better working conditions. It is the American way. Most businesses are moving toward the ways of the union. Nathan Hawkins has no choice but to do so also, or it will be he who will suffer in the long run. Trust me, Maria. We know what we are doing.”

“But you are in such danger. I know it.”

“You must remember. Your father and brother are in even more danger. Each and everyday of their lives. When they are lowered into that mine, they never know if they will be raised to the top again. It is as dangerous as that.”

Fear grabbed at Maria's heart. She had suspected as much, but just hadn't let the reality linger in her mind. She had known that her Papa and Alberto had no other choice but to work in the mines … or be sent back to Italy. “He is the devil,” she murmured, biting her lower lip. “The man I married is the devil. Oh, how I hate him.”

“So you see what I have to do is quite necessary,” Michael said, pulling her into his arms once again.