Nellie didn’t answer.
“The puppy?”
“Puppy?”
“Cute little collie pup. It was returned to the hotel with a note from you saying you didn’t want anything from me, nor did you ever want to see me again. He was a frisky pup, wasn’t he?”
“I never saw him,” Nellie mumbled.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you.”
“I didn’t see the puppy,” Nellie said louder. Could Terel or her father have kept her from knowing of these gifts and messages? Why would they do that? Terel had said that no word had come from Mr. Montgomery. “How is Olivia Truman?”
“Who?”
“Olivia Truman. She’s a very pretty redhead. Her father owns quite a bit of land outside Chandler.”
“I don’t remember meeting her.”
“You must have met her at one of the social events you’ve attended this week. The garden party? The box lunch? The church supper?”
Jace was beginning to understand. “Since I saw you last I have worked in your father’s office, bent over a stack of dirty ledgers, and I have spent my evenings at my cousin’s house. Houston will tell you that I’ve had dinner at their house every night this week, and my social life has consisted of giving about a million piggy back rides to those three kids.”
Nellie was silent for a while. Every evening Terel had told her where she had seen Mr. Montgomery and with whom he’d been. One of them was not telling the truth and instinctively she knew it was Terel. Perhaps she meant to protect me, Nellie thought. Perhaps she was doing what she thought was best for me.
“How are you enjoying Chandler, Mr. Montgomery?” she asked, trying to make polite conversation.
“I’m enjoying it quite a lot now that you’re beside me again,” he answered.
Nellie didn’t know what to say in reply. Was he the villain portrayed by her father and Terel, or was he as he seemed to her? She’d never had any reason before to doubt her family, but now there were things puzzling her.
They were some miles out of town when, coming over a hill, Jace looked down into a valley and saw the freight driver’s wagon, loaded with corn and still sitting beside the cabin. He knew without a doubt that the man hadn’t understood his plan.
Jace brought the wagon to a halt. “Nellie, I have to leave you here. I’m afraid that the driver’s wife may have some contagious illness. I couldn’t bear to expose you to it.”
“Don’t be absurd,” she was saying, even as he came around the wagon to help her down. “If you can be exposed to it, so can I.” But he didn’t listen to her, just put his strong arms up to help her down. “Mr. Montgomery, I want to go with you. I—”
He kissed her softly but distractedly. “I’ll be back for you as fast as I can, honey. Don’t worry.”
He leaped onto the wagon, flicked the reins, and left in a cloud of dust.
Nellie stood back, coughing, and watched him. “Honey,” she murmured. No one had ever called her honey before.
By the time Jace reached the Everetts’ cabin he was in a fine temper. “I’ll wring his neck,” he muttered as he pulled the horses to a halt and leaped down from the wagon. The front door of the cabin was open to the Indian summer warmth, and inside the whole family—two adults and six kids—were quietly eating lunch. The table was loaded with ham and vegetables and corn bread, and a pie stood waiting on the sideboard.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Jace bellowed, causing all eyes to look at him. “I apologize for my language, ma’am,” he said, removing his hat as he stepped inside, “but what are you doing here?”
“I was up all night loading corn,” Frank Everett said. “I just got up.”
Jace glared at him. “You haven’t told her, have you?”
Frank leaned back in his chair. He wore his dirty longjohns with suspenders over them. He yawned and scratched his arm. “To tell you the truth, Mr. Montgomery, I ain’t sure I understood it all.”
Jace’s anger left him and was replaced by embarrassment. He looked down at the toe of his shoe.
The man’s wife stood. “Won’t you sit and eat? We got more’n enough. I guess you’re the man that gave Frank the job haulin’ the corn.”
“Yes, I am.” Now that he was here, what he’d planned to do seemed ridiculous. “But I can’t eat. I have someone waiting for me.”
Frank, looking puzzled, turned to his wife. “He wants you to be sick and he wants the kids to be hungry, then he wants to bring a young lady out here and save us all. Don’t make no sense to me.”
Mrs. Everett frowned for a moment as she thought, then her face lit with a smile. “Why, Frank, he’s in love.”
Jace’s face turned even redder as the older children began to titter.
Mrs. Everett took over. “I’d be glad of a few days of rest, and if one of them town ladies wants to save us, she sure can.” She looked at her children. “Sarah, I saw Lissie makin’ eyes at that oldest Simons boy you’re sweet on. And Frank Jr., your brother said he could outride and outshoot you any day of the week.”
The oldest girls immediately went into an earsplitting argument, and the two oldest boys, without a word spoken, fell on each other, fists flying. The youngest children, scared, started crying.
Frank looked at his family, at the girls just about to start pulling hair, and at his sons rolling about on the floor trying to kill each other, at the babies screaming so energetically that their mouths were bigger than their faces, then back at Jace. “You sure you wanta court a woman?” he yelled over the noise.
Mrs. Everett pushed past her husband. “Go on,” she shouted to Jace. “You go get your young lady and bring her here. We’ll be the neediest family she ever saw.”
Jace nodded and went out into the relative peace of the cool Colorado air. He took his time driving back to Nellie. He didn’t like staging this farce but he knew of no other way to get her out from under her family’s thumb. She was sitting quietly waiting for him when he returned, and slowly they drove back to the cabin. By the time he got there he was ready to tell Nellie that he’d lied to her and that Mrs. Everett wasn’t ill, and since Jace had given Mr. Everett a job, the family wasn’t starving. But the minute they entered the cabin he was glad he’d done what he had. All six children, with tearstained cheeks, looked sad and forlorn. There wasn’t a bite of food in the house; Mrs. Everett, looking very poorly, was lying in bed; and Frank and his wagon were gone.
Nellie took over at once. Within minutes she had the wagon unloaded, the stove going, and food cooking. From the beginning Jace had had an idea of what Nellie was really like, but his ideas were based on what he sensed, not what he’d seen. Now, out from under the influence of her dreadful family, she blossomed. Here there was no Terel telling her she was plain and fat and old. Her father wasn’t there to remind her that she should be grateful for everything she had.
All that was in the cabin were eight people who thought she was wonderful, for Jace saw that if Nellie liked children, it was nothing to how much children liked Nellie. Within an hour of her arrival all six kids were talking to her at once. The smallest girl dragged out a doll for Nellie to repair, the boys were bragging of their exploits, and the oldest girls wanted to know all about the young men in town. Nellie told them that Jace was a relative of the very handsome seventeen-year-old Zachary Taggert, and after that there was no peace for Jace.
Nellie also took care of Mrs. Everett, bringing her a plate of food on a tray, fluffing her pillows, and in general, making her more comfortable than she’d ever been in her life.
Jace sat back in the bustle and watched and participated. He had never felt more at home in his life. He held a child on his lap and watched Nellie rolling out dough for a pie while she helped one of the boys with his sums. The oldest girls had gone to gather eggs and milk the cow while a boy fed the horses.
Jace looked across the head of the child in his lap and exchanged a smile with Nellie. This was all he’d ever wanted in his life. He had never been
like his brother Miles, who wanted lots of women. No, Jace had just wanted a home with a wife and some kids, a place of safety and security, a place where he knew he’d be loved.
Nellie looked across the table at him, sitting there with that blond child on his lap, and she knew that he had never lied to her about anything. If he said he cared for her, then he did care for her. If he said he hadn’t been out with other women, then he hadn’t. She smiled at him, and it flashed through her mind that she’d like to keep smiling at him for the rest of her life.
By the time she’d cooked enough food to last for a few days, bathed the youngest two children, and gotten the rest of them in bed, it was nine o’clock at night and fully dark outside.
“I must get back to my family,” Nellie said to Jace in the quiet stillness of the house. “But I hate to leave Mrs. Everett alone.”
Jace took her hand and led her outside into the cool, clean air. Leaving the warmth of the house made her shiver. He pulled her back against his chest and wrapped his arms around her. “It’ll be winter soon. Winter and snow and blazing fires and—”
“Christmas,” she said.
“I know what I want for Christmas,” he said, nuzzling her neck.
“Jace…”
“It’s nice to know I’ve finally graduated from being Mr. Montgomery.”
She leaned back against him. Here and now, standing so close to this man, she could almost believe that the moment could last forever. “I must go home,” she said, but she made no effort to move out of his embrace.
“There are no lanterns for the wagon and no moon to speak of. We’ll have to stay here tonight.” He clasped her tighter. “I guess you’ll be safe with all these chaperons.”
She turned around in his arms. “I’m not sure I want to be safe.”
She felt him draw in his breath, then he kissed her, long and deeply and lovingly, letting her know how he was coming to care for her more each day.
From the porch came a set of giggles.
“We have an audience,” he whispered as he nibbled her ear.
“So it seems.” She was reluctant to release him, but the giggles came again, so she dropped her arms and he took her hand in his and they started back toward the cabin. There was the sound of children scurrying into the cabin ahead of them.
“Our kids behave like that and I’ll tan their backsides,” Jace said.
Nellie laughed. “I can’t imagine you striking anyone, least of all a child.”
“Maybe not. Maybe I’ll just put our bedroom on one end of the house and the kids’ on the other.”
It wasn’t until later, when Nellie was snuggled down into bed with the girls, that she realized they had been talking as though their marriage was a foregone conclusion. She went to sleep smiling.
Chapter Seven
When Nellie awoke the next morning she was still smiling. There was a great deal to do in preparing breakfast for six kids and three adults, but she loved the bustle and activity. The children saw that Jace was a pushover when it came to discipline, and they talked their way out of doing their chores for the day. It was only when the unmilked cow was bawling, there was no wood for the stove, and no water had been brought from the well that Nellie went after them.
Jace teased her, untied her apron strings, then talked Nellie into playing with them. The boys piled bales of hay up to the barn roof, then made a slide. After much teasing and laughing, Jace and the kids persuaded Nellie to take a turn on the slide, too. Jace sat down behind her, his legs stretched out beside hers, and they went sliding down together, landing at the bottom in a heap of straw and petticoats. Jace tried to “help” her right herself and regain her dignity, but his hands seemed to be all over her at once, and she was laughing so helplessly that she fell back into the straw, the children tumbling on top of her and Jace.
When she came up for air she didn’t at first recognize the sheriff standing over them.
“Hello,” she managed to say, pulling straw from her hair and righting a child at the same time.
“Nellie,” the sheriff said, “did you know that all of Chandler is looking for you? There are rumors that you’ve been kidnapped, or worse.”
Nellie sat blinking at the man. “But I left a note,” she managed to say, and she turned to look at Jace, half-buried in the straw beside her. He looked away, and she knew without a doubt that he’d stolen the note.
“You’d best come back with me, Nellie,” the sheriff said, “and show everyone that you’re all right.”
“Nellie,” Jace said, his hand on her shoulder, “I’ll go back with you. I’ll explain that it was my fault that you were missing.”
“You’d better not,” she whispered. She knew what waited for her at home: her father’s anger, Terel’s tears, and her own feelings of guilt for having worried them so. “I must face them alone, and besides, you need to stay with the children until Mrs. Everett is well.”
Jace walked her to the sheriff’s buggy, and as she started to mount the steps he turned her toward him. “Nellie, don’t let them be too hard on you. I’ll see your father later today and explain.”
“No,” she said quickly, “you might lose your job.”
He smiled at her. “Don’t worry about my job.” In front of everyone, he took her in his arms and kissed her. “I have to go to Denver tomorrow on business, but I’ll be back the day of the Harvest Ball. I’ll see you then.” He kissed her again. “Save every dance for me.”
She nodded at him and reluctantly released him, and he helped her into the buggy.
“Take good care of my girl, sheriff,” Jace called as the buggy started to move.
Nellie looked out the back and waved at Jace and the children and Mrs. Everett standing on the porch in her nightgown. She brushed away a tear and turned to look at the road ahead.
What greeted her at home was worse than she had imagined. She had never seen her father in such a rage.
“You could have been killed for all I knew,” he yelled. “Your sister and I, not to mention half the town, have been up all night looking for you. We have been worried sick about you while you…you…” He was too angry to speak.
Terel had no such problem. She wept into a lace-trimmed hankie. “I am the laughingstock of Chandler. My own sister cavorting about with that man. Where did you spend the night, Nellie? With him?”
Guilt seeped through Nellie with every word they spoke. If either of them had disappeared for an entire night, she would have been sick with worry. Part of her was glad Jace had destroyed the note or she would not have had the past heavenly twenty-four hours to remember. Another part of her was very sorry to have caused her family so much concern.
“I don’t believe you care about us, Nellie,” Terel said, sobbing. “You don’t care about the misery you caused us.”
“Yes, I do,” she said meekly.
“But what is to prevent something like this happening again? It seems to me that all Mr. Montgomery has to do is crook his little finger and you come running.”
“It’s not like that,” Nellie said, but she knew that it was. If Jace asked her to leave with him again, she probably would. “I apologize for worrying you. I really do.” Tears were coming now. She really had been very inconsiderate in her behavior. “I wish…”
“You wish what?” Charles said sternly.
“I wish that both of you got what you wanted from me,” she said, and, sobbing, she ran blindly from the room.
Terel and Charles stood staring after her. There was one thing they were in agreement on: What they wanted from Nellie was for her not to interfere with their comfort. If the truth were known, neither of them was too upset over Nellie’s absence, but they were furious that their comfort had been disturbed. Charles had had a cold dinner last night, and Terel had returned home to find that her clothes had not been ironed, and today she’d had to cancel her tea party because Nellie had not stayed home to prepare the food for it.
“That’s one wish that I hope comes true,
” Charles muttered.
Terel made her way down Coal Avenue toward her dressmaker’s. She had one more fitting for her dress for the Harvest Ball, and then it would be ready. She had spent far too much on the dress, but she’d worry about her father’s anger later. She was especially pleased with the gown. It had over a hundred pink silk roses on the skirt and bodice. The short sleeves were layered with lace, and there was a skirt of lace under a draped overskirt of pink silk charmeuse.
She couldn’t help smiling as she thought of the entrance she’d make at the Taggerts’ on the night of the ball. In fact, she couldn’t seem to help smiling about a lot of things. The best, and most surprising, thing was that an invitation to the Harvest Ball had arrived for her after all. She’d been sure that after the little mix-up with those boys last year she’d never be asked back. But Terel guessed that she was so popular now that the Taggerts just couldn’t ignore her. In addition, for the last four days Nellie had been a joy. The house had never run more smoothly. The meals had been on time and delicious, and all of Terel’s clothes had been perfectly pressed and hung in her wardrobe.
There had been no further mention of the night Nellie had disappeared, and no sign of Mr. Montgomery. After weeks of turmoil it looked as though the Grayson household was returning to normal. Except that now Terel was indeed the most sought-after young lady in Chandler—she couldn’t possibly accept all the invitations extended to her. And her father’s business was doing better than it ever had.
An hour later, as Terel stood in front of the mirror in her dressmaker’s studio, she looked at herself in her ball gown and smiled. All in all, there wasn’t a cloud in her sky.
“Yes, it’s perfect,” Terel said. “Send it to my house.”
The dressmaker was happy to have at last pleased Terel. The many roses had been very time-consuming to make. “Shall I send Nellie’s, too?”
Terel stopped pirouetting before the mirror. “Nellie’s what?”
“Her dress for the Harvest Ball. Shall I send Nellie’s ball gown to your house at the same time I send yours, or would she like to have a final fitting?”