Eventually, he looked back up at us. “Anyway, it may be too late. Well number eighty-eight is our last, best chance. Our geologists tell us they are sure there is oil somewhere nearby on the same land, but if eighty-eight doesn’t come through by the end of the week, we’ll be left with hardly enough money to pay off the crew, let alone renew the lease.” He looked at Mayflower. “I’m sorry, May, I thought Hans had told you.”

Mayflower shrugged. “He never tells me bad news. He’s got too much pride.”

“Isn’t there anything we can do, Aidan?” I said.

He shook his head. “No. We’ve tried raising more capital, but nobody will lend to us.”

Mayflower and I exchanged glances. What else was there to do, except pray that a well somewhere would come in? Even if it was only a tiny drizzle of oil, it would be better than nothing.

After Mayflower left I walked back over to the hotel with Aidan. Shane Kearney, as always, was standing in the lobby watching us. My head was buzzing. Aidan’s news about the business was bad, but that was dwarfed by the possibility that Nora might be alive. If the woman Aidan described was her, I should be over the moon. But if it was her, why was she trying to ruin Aidan’s business? Eventually, it dawned on me that she must have found out I had passed myself off as her when I came to New York and was exacting her revenge. Nora had always had a vengeful streak. But who had told her? I reasoned it must have been Dom. He was the only one who knew.

I made up my mind then and there that I would find her and face her down. I wasn’t going to let her get away with this.

Nora

Nora

I gaped at the child, unable to take it all in. Standing in front of me was Aidan O’Hanlon’s child—the child the whole town was searching for. How in God’s name had she landed in my hotel room? Shane Kearney must have had her hidden in the hotel all this time. But why? There was no point in asking the child what had happened to her. She was either mute or afraid for her life to say a word.

I walked over to the window, trying to calm the thoughts that were tripping over one another in my head. Kearney had said I was to take her on the train to New York. He’d found a convenient chaperone in me. But he didn’t say who was to meet her at the other end. What if I was delivering the child into some oul’ divil’s evil clutches? There was no telling what might happen to her. Well, I wasn’t going to be part of it.