“Damn it, Blair,” Lee shouted, then closed his eyes against the pain at his side. He looked back at her. “Maybe for once you should be an observer. I’ve told you what I can. I don’t want you involved any more than you are.”
“So, I’m to stay innocent, is that right? At your trial, I can honestly say that I know nothing, that even when my husband came home with two bullet wounds, I remained innocent.”
“Something to that effect,” Lee mumbled, then put down his fork and looked at her. “You say you love me, maybe that you’ve loved me for years; well, now’s the test. If you do love me, you’ll have to trust me. For once in your life, you’re going to have to put aside your defiance and your participation. I need you now, not as a colleague or an equal, but as a wife.”
Blair stood looking at him for a long time. “I think you’re right, Lee,” she said softly. “I think that maybe until now I never realized what a wife was supposed to be.” Her voice lowered. “But I’m going to try to learn. I will trust you, and I won’t ask you again where you went. But if you want to tell me, I’ll be here to listen.”
Much of the pain began to leave Lee’s face as he leaned his left hand on the table and raised himself. Blair went to help him.
“Lee,” she said. “Why don’t you go to the clinic today? You won’t have any surgery to do, Mrs. Krebbs will be there to help you, and it will be easier. Besides, a Pinkerton man will look conspicuous amid all the women.”
“That’s a good idea,” he said, kissing her forehead. “That’s the kind of talk I like.”
“Just trying to be a good wife. Here, let me help you dress.”
“What about you? Shouldn’t you be getting dressed?”
“To tell you the truth, I think I’m a little tired today. After the dreadful experience of yesterday morning, and then last night, not to mention today, I think I’d like to stay home and pamper myself.”
“Why, yes, of course,” Lee said. She made sense, but he’d never heard Blair say such a thing before. “You stay home and rest. I’ll take care of the clinic.”
She smiled up at him through her lashes. “You are the kindest of husbands.”
Five minutes after Lee left the house, Blair was on the telephone to her sister. “Houston, where can I buy a twenty-pound box of bath salts? And where can I get a manicurist and an hourly supply of chocolates, and where can I buy silk yarns? Don’t laugh at me. I’m going to become the epitome of the perfect wife by this evening. I’m going to give my dear husband what he thinks he wants. Now, are you going to giggle all day or answer my questions?”
Chapter 32
When Leander got home at six, he found Blair stretched out on the couch in the parlor, a box of chocolates on the floor beside a litter of magazines. Blair, seemingly unaware of his entry, was sucking on a piece of candy and avidly reading a novel. As he walked toward her, he could see the word “seduction” in the title of the book.
“This is something new,” Lee said, smiling down at her.
Blair slowly moved her head to look up at him, a slight smile on her lips. “Hello, dear. Did you have a pleasant day?”
“It wasn’t until now,” he said, eyes alight as he bent toward her. But Blair turned away just as his mouth came near hers, and his kiss landed on her cheek.
She put the entire piece of chocolate into her mouth, and from the difficulty she was having chewing, it must have been a caramel. “Would you be a dear and go get me some more lemonade while I finish this chapter? And then, you’d better dress for dinner. Mrs. Shainess and I have arranged something special.”
He stood, taking the empty glass she handed him. “Since when have you and the housekeeper done things together?”
“She’s really a very good woman, if one knows how to talk to her. Now, Leander, please go. I am perishing from thirst, and you wouldn’t want to keep a lady waiting, would you?”
With a puzzled look, he backed away. “Sure, I’ll be right back.”
When he had gone, Blair finished chewing her candy, smiling to herself as she continued reading her book. She hoped the heroine would break a chair over the “sardonic” hero’s head and tell him to go drown himself.
“Why, Lee,” she said when he reappeared with her lemonade, “you haven’t changed for dinner yet.”
“I’ve been too busy fetching lemonade for you so you won’t perish,” he snapped.
Instantly, Blair’s eyes filled with tears, and she applied a lace-edged handkerchief to the corners. “I’m so sorry I imposed on you, Leander. I just thought that since you were up and I…Oh, Lee, I’ve been working so hard today and—.”
Lee winced as he knelt beside her, taking her hand in his as he pushed three magazines aside to get to her. “I’m sorry I was cross. But it’s nothing to cry about.”
Blair sniffed delicately. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately. Everything seems to upset me.”
Lee kissed her hand, stroked it. “It’s probably nothing. All women get this way sometimes.”
He had his head down and didn’t see Blair’s eyes flash fire. “You’re probably right. I’m sure it’s just female problems, the vapors or something.”
“Probably,” he said, smiling, as he stroked her forehead. “You just rest while I change. A nice dinner will make you feel better.”
“You’re so wise,” Blair murmured. “I have the very wisest of husbands.”
He stood, smiling down at her, then, with a wink, he left the room.
When Blair heard him go up the stairs, she jumped off the couch and stood with her back to the fireplace, her hands on her hips and glared toward the direction of their bedroom.
“Of all the vain, imperious—,” she said aloud. “‘All women get that way sometimes’! He’s worse than I thought.” Her anger made her begin to pace. “I’m going to give you ‘women problems,’ Leander,” she said. “You wait and see if I don’t. I’m going to be more of what you think a woman is than you ever dreamed.”
By the time Lee had bathed and dressed for dinner, Blair had managed to calm herself so that she could smile at him again. He was very solicitous, holding her chair for her, carving the meat and serving her. Blair was quiet and calm, not saying much, but smiling demurely as she cut her meat into tiny little pieces.
“Something interesting came into the clinic today,” Lee was saying. “The woman thinks she’s pregnant, but I think it’s a cyst. I’d like you to look at her tomorrow.”
“Oh, Lee, I can’t. Houston made me another appointment with her dressmaker, and then Nina and I have a luncheon engagement, and in the afternoon I need to be back here to supervise the house. I really have no time at all.”
“Oh, well, I guess it can wait until later in the week. So, you won’t be at the Women’s Infirmary again tomorrow?”
“I don’t see how I can be.” She looked up at him through her lashes. “It takes more time than I thought being a wife. There seem to be so many things that need to be done. And now that I’m going to be a part of Chandler again, I really do think I should help with the charity work. There’s the Ladies Aid Society and the Christian Mission and—.”
“The Westfield Infirmary,” he added. “It seems that what you’re doing there is more than enough to help the town.”
“Well, of course,” she said stiffly, “if you insist, I’ll go to the clinic tomorrow. I’ll cancel the dressmaker, and I’m sure the other wives can get along without me. They’ll have to understand that you want me to work outside the home. I’m sure I can make them understand the concept of a woman having to help pay for the food on the table.”
“Pay for—!” Lee gasped. “Since when have I made you pay for anything in this house? When did I ever fail in my duties of supporting you? You don’t have to work tomorrow or ever. I thought you wanted to work!”
Blair looked close to tears again. “I did; I do. But I had no idea being a wife took so much time. Today, I had to plan meals, that new maid was utterly impossible, and when the rib
bons for my new dress arrived, they were the wrong color! I just want to look nice for you, Lee. I want to make a nice home for you and be the best, the prettiest wife any man ever had. I want you to be proud of me, and it’s so difficult when I’m at the infirmary all day. I didn’t know—.”
“All right,” Lee interrupted, throwing his napkin on the table. “I didn’t mean to yell at you. I just misunderstood what you meant. You don’t have to go to the infirmary tomorrow or ever.” He caught her hand and began caressing her fingertips.
She pulled away from him and began folding her napkin. “This morning, John Silverman called and asked me to tell you that there was an important meeting tonight at your club. He didn’t explain, and I didn’t ask what it was about.”
“I know what it’s about, and they can do without me. I really did have a couple of patients I wanted to talk to you about. There’s a man at the hospital who has an infected hand. I thought you might look at him. I’d value another opinion.”
“Mine?” Blair fluttered her lashes. “You flatter me, Lee. I haven’t even finished my medical training yet. What could I tell you that you, with all your experience, don’t already know?”
“But in the past—.”
“In the past, I wasn’t someone’s wife. I didn’t know what my full responsibilities were. Lee, I really think you should go to your club. I’d feel dreadful if I knew I’d kept you away from your friends. Besides, I really would like to finish my novel.”
“Oh,” Lee said bleakly. “I guess I could go.”
“Yes, dear, you should,” she said, rising. “I wouldn’t ever want it said that I interfered in your life. A wife should support her husband in whatever he does and not hinder him.”
Lee pushed his chair back and started to rise. His side ached, and he wanted to stay home and read the newspaper, but then it was true that he hadn’t visited his club since he’d been married. Maybe Blair was right and he should go. He could sit down there as well as at home, and maybe he could find out what they’d heard about the shooting at the mine last night.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll go, but I won’t stay long. Maybe we can talk when I get back.”
“One of a wife’s duties is to listen to her husband,” Blair said, smiling. “Now, you go along, dear, to your club. I have a little sewing to do, then an early night.” She kissed his forehead. “I’ll see you in the morning.” She swept from the room before Lee could say a word.
Upstairs, she watched him from the guest room window. He moved awkwardly, and she knew his side hurt, but she didn’t feel much guilt about sending him away alone. He certainly deserved to be taught a lesson.
When the carriage was out of sight, Blair went downstairs and called Nina.
“Let’s go riding tomorrow,” Blair said, “or I may go crazy from lack of exercise. Do you think your father can get me into the hospital to see a patient tomorrow? In secret? Without anyone knowing I was there?”
Nina was silent a moment. “I’m sure he can, and, Blair, welcome home.”
“It’s good to be home,” she said, smiling. “I’ll meet you at nine at the fork of the Tijeras.” She heard Nina hang up the phone, then said sharply, “And, Mary Catherine, if one word of this leaks out, I’ll know who did it.”
“I resent that, Blair-Houston,” the telephone operator said. “I do not eaves—.” She realized what she was saying and pulled the plug on the line.
Blair went to the kitchen, where she fixed herself a roast beef sandwich. At dinner, she’d had such a ladylike portion that now she was starving.
By the time Lee came home, she was already in bed and pretending to sleep. And when he began to caress her hip and raise her nightgown, she pleaded tiredness, told him she had a splitting headache. As he turned away, Blair had second thoughts about what she was doing. Was she hurting herself more than him?
“It’s osteomyelitis,” Blair said to Reed, as she carefully put the man’s hand down. “Next time you hit someone in the mouth, find someone who brushes his teeth,” she told the patient.
“I believe that was Lee’s thought, too,” Reed said. “But he wanted another opinion.”
She closed her medical bag and moved toward the door. “I’m flattered he chose me to ask. But it’s agreed that you won’t tell him I was here?”
Reed frowned, his ugly face moving into deep round furrows. “I’ve agreed, but I don’t like it.”
“As you’ve agreed to help Lee with whatever he does that brings him home with bullet wounds?”
“Lee was shot?” Reed gasped.
“A few inches to the left and the bullet would have pierced his heart.”
“I didn’t know. He didn’t tell—.”
“It seems that he doesn’t tell anyone much about himself. Where does he go that makes him come home bloody?”
Reed looked at his daughter-in-law, saw the fire burning in her eyes, and knew he couldn’t tell her about Lee’s trips into the mines. Not only did he owe respect to his son’s wishes, but he didn’t trust Blair’s save-the-world personality. It was just like her to do something foolish—maybe as foolish as what Lee was doing. “I can’t tell you,” he said at last.
Blair merely nodded and left the room. Outside, a saddled horse was waiting for her, and she rode hard and fast to reach the south fork of the Tijeras River where she was to meet Nina.
Nina looked up at Blair, then at the horse, both sweaty, both panting. “My brother caused you to run like this?”
Blair dismounted. “He is the most infuriating, close-mouthed, secretive, impossible man alive.”
“I agree, but what’s he done specifically?”
Blair began to unsaddle her horse to let the poor animal rest. “Did you know that your father calls him, day or night, wherever he is, then Lee disappears for hours and refuses to tell anyone where he’s gone? Two days ago, he came home with two bullet wounds in his side and Pinkertons chasing him all the way to the front door. They were the ones who shot at him. What is he doing?” she yelled, as she dropped the saddle to the ground.
Nina’s eyes were wide. “I have no idea. Has this been going on for long?”
“I don’t know. I’m considered too stupid to know. I’m just allowed to sew up his wounds, not to question where he got them. Oh, Nina, what am I supposed to do? I can’t just stand by and watch him leave and not know if he’ll ever come back.”
“Pinkertons shot at him? Then what he’s doing must be…”
“Illegal?” Blair asked. “At least, on the far side of the law. And you know something, part of me doesn’t even care. All I want is his safety. I’m not sure it’d matter to me if he were robbing banks in his spare time.”
“Robbing—?” Nina sat down on a rock. “Blair, I really have no idea what he’s doing. Dad and Lee always protected me from any unpleasantness. And Mother and I always protected them from what unpleasantness we saw. Maybe Mother and I were too involved in what we were secretly doing to think that our men had any secrets.”
With a sigh, Blair sat down by her sister-in-law. “Lee found out about my taking the pamphlets into the mine.”
“I’m glad to see your head’s still on your shoulders. First time you’d seen his temper?”
“And the last, I hope. I tried to tell him that I was just as upset by his disappearances as he was by mine, but he wouldn’t listen to me.”
“He has a head made of marble,” Nina said resignedly. “Now, what are we going to do? No one else has access to the mines, and if Lee found out so easily, I’d be afraid to send the pamphlets with Houston or the other wagon drivers.”
“Yesterday, I had time to think, and something Houston said gave me an idea. She said she’d always wanted to write for a ladies’ magazine. What if we started a magazine and, out of a sense of charity, we gave copies to the ladies of the coal mines? We could submit preview copies to the mining board for approval, and I’m sure they’d let us distribute it, since it’d be full of utterly innocuous articles.”
“On the latest hair styles?” Nina asked, eyes beginning to light up.
“Our most militant plea will be to stop the South American slaughter of hummingbirds for feathers on ladies’ hats.”
“And not one word about organizing a union?”
“Not one word anyone can see.”
Nina smiled. “I think I’m going to like your explanation. Oh, Alan, please finish school so we can come home. How will we include our information?”
“Code. I read of a code used during the American Revolution. It was a series of numbers and letters that referred to a specific page in a specific book. The numbers referred to letters and, with a little counting, you could figure out the message. I would imagine that every house has a Bible.”
Nina stood, her hands clenched in excitement. “We could put a psalm reference in the first page of the magazine and then…How do we disguise the numbers? Won’t the mining committee be suspicious of a page of numbers in a ladies’ magazine? After all, we ladies don’t understand mathematics.”
Blair gave her a cat-that-swallowed-the-cream smile. “Crochet patterns,” she said. “We’ll have pages of crochet patterns full of numbers. We’ll put in a ‘to make the left sleeve’ now and then, but the entire thing will be in code, telling the miners what’s going on across the country with the unions.”
Nina closed her eyes and put her head back for a moment. “It is absolutely brilliant, Blair, and, more important, I think it’ll work. You’re at the clinic all the time, so I’ll go to the library and study this code and—.”
“I won’t be at the infirmary for a few days,” Blair said, unsmiling.
“But the last I heard, you had so many patients, they were waiting on the street.”
Blair looked away toward the river. “I did,” she said softly, then abruptly stood. “I could strangle your brother sometimes!” she said passionately. “I’m trying to teach him a lesson, but he may be too pigheaded to learn. He thinks he’s my father! He gives me presents—a women’s infirmary—he gives me orders, he supervises everything I do and, when I dare ask about him, he acts scandalized, as if I were a child asking her father how much money he earns. I know so little about Leander. He doesn’t share one single thing about himself with me, but I can’t even step out the door without his knowing about it. I don’t want another father, I’m perfectly content with the one I had. But how do I teach him I’m not a little girl?”