The Irish Devil Read Online Free PDF Page A

Lennox as much as possible, as did most war veterans. William lifted an eyebrow but said nothing as he turned to meet his caller.
    Paul Lennox pulled the buggy to a stop before the depot’s office. He quickly looped the mare’s reins over the rail as he looked around for William. A keg of beans thudded to the ground in the yard beyond, making his horse toss up her head in alarm. Lennox paid no attention to her fretfulness as he headed toward his quarry, twirling his ever present walking stick.
    Rio Piedras must be more restless than Morgan had mentioned, if Lennox was wearing a gun belt. Extravagantly ornamented and holding a pair of pearl-handled guns, it was still worn with the casual ease of someone all too familiar with its weight.
    “Donovan,” Lennox hailed jovially.
    William kept a polite smile on his face. He knew far too well about men like Lennox, who were happy to do business with him but would cut him dead if they met him at a private party. “Good morning, Lennox. Handsome rig you’ve got there.”
    “Thank you! You’re very kind to say so. It commemorates my acceptance into Pericles,” Lennox purred, visibly preening. “Really, the club’s even more magnificent than I’d heard. Too bad you’ll never see it.”
    “Congratulations,” William bit out. The most elite private men’s club in New York, the Pericles Club was where much of New York’s banking business actually occurred. He had as much chance of entering its halls as he had of walking on the moon.
    “Secretary of War Belknap, a very agreeable fellow, presided over my initiation,” Lennox continued.
    The most notoriously corrupt man in Grant’s administration? He probably had been accommodating to someone with Lennox’s money and connections.
    “I’ve always found him and his staff to be quite effective,” William agreed. Especially after a few bribes exchanged hands.
    Lennox beamed. “Four generations of my family have celebrated acceptance there with a splendid equipage, such as this horse and buggy. Nothing else in the territory quite as fine, don’t you think? And it should look magnificent when Mrs. Ross rides in it to our wedding.”
    William’s jaw tightened. Lennox wasn’t worthy of kissing her boot, much less putting a ring on her finger. A long-winded former Union cavalryman and New York real estate mogul, he’d never set foot west of the Mississippi until a year ago. She’d refused offers from far better men, but perhaps now she’d want the future he offered, since Mrs. Watson had absconded with the laundry’s last funds.
    “It certainly should be very impressive. What can I do for you on this fine spring morning?” William’s voice was silky smooth, a perfect camouflage for his seething emotions. He stepped up to the colonnade that ringed the yard, drawing Lennox after him.
    “Just wanted to exchange greetings and chat about the latest affairs in town.” Lennox followed William and accepted the mug that Abraham produced, some magic telling the houseman when coffee would soothe William’s business contacts.
    William nodded politely and cradled the heavy stoneware in both hands. “I trust matters have been going well for you.”
    “Well enough now. You heard about the cave-in?”
    “My condolences,” William began but Lennox kept talking.
    “Dreadful event. We lost at least a week’s production over that.”
    And you’re mourning lost revenue, not dead men. Hopefully, you’ll take the offer from those San Francisco bankers and sell out.
    “I had to take over management myself, now that expensive fool Tregarron’s gone.”
    William kept his face expressionless at this dismissal of a great mining engineer. The stamp mill echoing through the town was Tregarron’s masterpiece, a mechanical contraption that had more than quadrupled the Golconda’s output.
    “He used to handle problems in town for me, as well as at the Golconda. Now you and I both understand the need for our men to blow off steam, kick