“You!” Louisa said.
Jace looked up at the three young women and was puzzled to see them looking at him in horror.
“How could you dare show your face in the town?” Charlene said, teeth clenched. “After what you did to Nellie!”
“Is Nellie all right?” Jace asked, rising.
“As if you cared,” Louisa hissed.
Mae had not said a word, but suddenly she whipped out her hand and slapped Jace across his cheek. “I will not have your child,” she said, pushing past him. Louisa and Charlene, after snatching their packages from him, followed her.
Jace put his hand to his cheek and stared after the women. “What in the world is going on?” he said aloud.
After that encounter he slowed his pace and began to notice the unpleasant looks he was receiving from nearly everyone he passed. He was beginning to feel like the villain in a melodrama.
Three blocks from Nellie’s house he saw Miss Emily.
“I wouldn’t have thought you’d have the nerve to return,” Miss Emily said. “I guess you heard that Nellie’s, shall we say, dilemma was a false alarm, so perhaps you figured it was safe to return, but I doubt very much if Charles will give you the freight company now.”
She started to walk past him, but he caught her arm.
“Would you please tell me what’s going on?”
Miss Emily looked down her hawklike nose at his hand on her arm, and Jace dropped his hand. “Is no woman safe from you?”
“Safe?”
Miss Emily started to walk away, and Jace’s temper got the best of him.
“What the hell is going on?” he bellowed.
Miss Emily was disgusted by his language, and she was furious with him for hurting Nellie, but something in his tone made her halt and turn back. “Where have you been since the Harvest Ball?” she spat at him.
“Home in Warbrooke, Maine. I sold everything I owned there so I could come back and marry Nellie and live here in Chandler.”
Miss Emily stood blinking at him. “Why didn’t you tell Nellie?” she whispered.
Jace was sure everyone in this town was crazy. “Tell her? I’ve been writing to her since I left.” He pulled the packet of letters from inside his coat pocket, pink and yellow silk ribbons dangling from them. “Here are her letters to me, and”—he pulled a little box from his trouser pocket and opened it to reveal a ring with a big yellow diamond set in gold—“this is the engagement ring I plan to give to Nellie. It’s been in my family for years. Think she’ll like it?”
Miss Emily was trying to recover herself. A man whose family had a ring like that probably didn’t need a small business like Grayson Freight. “Oh, my goodness, what in the world is going on? Do you have engagement rings for the other young ladies of this town?”
Now Jace was sure the people were crazy. “No,” he said patiently. He hadn’t thought Miss Emily was senile, but he thought so now. “I only marry one woman at a time. Perhaps you have me confused with Bluebeard. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” He tipped his hat and turned away.
“Mr. Montgomery!” Miss Emily called, halting him. “You and I must talk.”
“We’ll talk later, I promise. Right now I want to see Nellie.”
Miss Emily firmly clasped her arm to his. “You and I have to talk first. Before you see Nellie. I think there are some things you need to know.” When he opened his mouth to protest, Miss Emily continued, “I’m not sure Nellie will see you.”
“See me? But Nellie has agreed to marry me.” He held up the letters.
“I don’t believe Nellie wrote those letters. Nellie believes, as does the whole town, that you jilted her.”
For a moment Jace couldn’t speak. He glanced down the street toward Nellie’s house. “Perhaps we should talk,” he said softly.
It was an hour later that Jace left Miss Emily’s house, and he was in a rage, a towering, furious rage.
“You’ll never guess who I saw today,” Johnny Bowen said to Terel. He was walking her home from her shopping expedition, carrying her packages.
“Who?” Terel asked, not really caring. She knew that Johnny was just walking her home in hopes of getting a glimpse of Nellie. Since the Harvest Ball, and especially since Nellie had lost weight, it seemed that every man in Chandler wanted to court her. As Miss Emily had laughingly said one day, “Nellie has everything: beauty, brains, a sweet temper, a rich father, and she can cook. She is every man’s dream.” And it seemed as though Miss Emily was right, because men seemed to swarm around Nellie. Not that Nellie paid any attention to them, but the more she ignored them, the more they tried to get her attention. Terel could no longer go anywhere or have anyone to her house for all the questions about Nellie.
“I saw that man, Jace Montgomery.”
Terel stopped in her tracks. “You saw him? When? Where?”
“Here in Chandler, about an hour ago. He and Miss Emily were talking. Actually, it looked almost as if they were having a quarrel, but I was across the street and couldn’t hear what they were saying. He didn’t look too happy.”
Terel quite suddenly didn’t feel very well; in fact, she felt quite frightened. She put her hand to her forehead and swooned against Johnny.
“Terel, are you all right?”
“I’m ill,” she whispered. “Take me inside.”
“Sure.” He put his arm around her shoulders and started to help her walk.
“Carry me, you fool,” she hissed.
“Oh, sure.” Johnny bent and picked her up. “You’re heavier than you look.” Struggling, he got her up the stairs, across the porch to the front door, then had to balance her on one knee to open the door. He was sweating, and his back was straining. “On the sofa?” he asked, his voice high with effort.
“Upstairs, you idiot, and call Nellie.”
Johnny leaned against the wall at the bottom of the stairwell and panted. “Nellie,” he said, little more than a whisper.
“She’ll never hear you if you don’t speak up.”
“Nellie!” Johnny yelled.
“Again.”
“Nellie!” His voice lowered. “Terel, what did you eat for breakfast? Rocks?”
She heard Nellie coming. “Get me upstairs, and slowly.”
“That’s the only way I can move.” Groaning, Johnny started up the stairs, his arms and back aching.
“Terel?” Nellie said. “Oh, Terel, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing, just a little dizzy spell. It’s probably just my heart.”
“Put her in here.” Nellie directed Johnny to Terel’s bed. “Go get Dr. Westfield. Tell him to come at once. Tell him it’s the utmost emergency!”
It was at that moment that the front door slammed open and the whole house jarred. “Nellie!” Jace Montgomery bellowed. “Where are you?”
All the blood drained from Nellie’s face as she stood up straight.
“Nellie.” Terel grabbed her sister’s arm. “Oh, my dear Nellie, it’s him, and I’m too sick to help you face him. I will do what I can to help you. Johnny, send him away.”
Johnny looked horrified. “The man is twice as big as me.”
Downstairs they could hear Jace going from room to room.
“I must go to him,” Nellie said softly.
“No, don’t leave me. Please, please, Nellie, don’t leave me. You say you care for my comfort, so will you leave me when I might be dying?”
“No, no, of course not.”
“Swear you won’t leave me. Swear it.”
“I will not leave you,” Nellie whispered. “I do not believe I can.”
The three of them stood silently as they heard Jace thunder up the stairs, and then he was at the doorway. He was more handsome than Nellie remembered: bigger, more alive.
The anger on his face softened when he saw Nellie, and in spite of what she knew to be true about him, she stepped toward him, but Terel clamped down her hold on Nellie’s arm. “Don’t leave me,” Terel whispered.
“What
can I do for you, Mr. Montgomery?” Nellie managed at last to say.
“I’ve come to take you away, to marry you.” After what Miss Emily had just told him, Jace wanted nothing more than to strangle Terel. He had no doubt she was behind all the gossip that had been spread about him. He was sure she was behind the letters he’d received and believed were from Nellie.
“I am perhaps a fool once, but not twice,” Nellie said. Her heart was pounding.
Jace couldn’t contain his anger. “As long as you stay around her you’ll be a fool forever.”
Terel tightened her grip on Nellie and gave a little whimper.
“My sister is ill, she—”
“Ill? She’s sick, all right, sick in her mind.” He tried to calm himself. “Nellie, I love you. I went home because I received a telegram saying my father was dying. I wrote you a note. I explained where I was going and why. I wrote you letters all the time I was gone.”
“We received no letters, Mr. Montgomery,” Terel said.
“You stay out of this,” Jace said, glaring at her. “I don’t know how you’ve done this, but I know you’re behind it. For two cents I’d—”
“Do not speak to my sister like that. She is ill. Johnny, go get the doctor.”
Since Mr. Montgomery was blocking the doorway, Johnny wasn’t about to push past him. He stood where he was, pressed into the corner of the room.
“Look at this.” Jace pulled the packet of letters from inside his coat and threw them on the bed. “I received these from you while I was in Maine.” He looked at Terel. “What did you do with my letters to Nellie?”
Terel took the letters before Nellie could touch them. “Whose handwriting is this? It’s not Nellie’s, and it’s certainly not mine.” She tossed the letters to the floor at Jace’s feet.
“You little—” Jace began, starting toward Terel.
Terel lifted herself from the pillows and hid behind Nellie. “He’s going to kill me! Nellie, save me!”
“Mr. Montgomery, you have to go.”
“I’m not leaving here until you let me explain.”
Nellie was beginning to recover her equilibrium. “I think not. No, let me speak. You have had your say. I’m afraid, sir, that once I believed everything you said to me. I defied my family for you, but not again. I cannot give my trust to you twice. You broke it once, and I cannot trust you again.”
“Nellie,” Jace said, and the word came from his heart. “I never did anything to break your trust. I wrote to you, I—”
“I neither received nor sent any letters.”
“That’s because she took them.”
Terel clung to Nellie and whimpered.
“My family loves me and would have no reason to harm me. You, on the other hand, have wanted my father’s business. You have even courted the old maid daughter hoping to get it.”
Jace took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. “Nellie,” he said softly, “your sister has every reason to want you to remain with her. You are little more than a slave to her. You cannot buy the kind of loyalty and maid service you give her. She has merely to wish for something and you give it to her.”
He took a breath. “As for my wanting you just to get your father’s freight office, don’t you realize that my family owns Warbrooke Shipping? I could buy your father’s company with my pocket change. Everyone else in town seems to know of my money.” He squinted at Terel hiding behind Nellie. “I never wanted your money; I’ve only wanted you.”
Nellie’s head whirled. Was what he said true? If she believed him about the letters and his wealth, she’d have to believe that her family had had a hand in lying to her. Her family loved her. They would never want to harm her. They wanted her happiness.
“Nellie, come with me,” Jace said softly, holding out his hand to her. “I’ve loved you from the moment I saw you. Please come with me.”
She wanted to go with him. God help her, maybe she was a silly, desperate, love-starved old maid. Maybe he had lied to her. Maybe if she went with him he’d seduce her, get her with child, then abandon her, but at the moment she didn’t care. She wanted to take his hand, walk out with him and never look back.
But she couldn’t. She could not leave her family. As though chains held her, she felt she could not leave them and make them so—well, uncomfortable. Who would cook for them? Look after them? See to their needs?
“I cannot,” she whispered.
Jace dropped his hand, and the pain showing on his face was raw. “You won’t.”
“I cannot.”
Jace looked at Terel. “It looks like you win. My love isn’t as strong as your selfishness.” He looked back at Nellie. “I’ll be at the Chandler House for three days. Come to me there.” He turned and left the room.
The three left behind listened until the front door shut. Johnny peeled himself away from the wall and looked at Nellie. “You should have gone with him,” he said softly, then he left.
I know, thought Nellie, but she couldn’t explain to anyone how she felt. She could not leave.
Terel settled back against the pillows. “I’m glad that’s over. Nellie, I think I’d like some tea, and perhaps a slice of the cake you made this morning.”
Nellie turned to look at her sister. Was there any truth in what Jace had said? Had he written her, and had Terel destroyed the letters?
“Nellie, don’t look at me like that. You’re giving me goose bumps.”
Was she nothing more than a slave to her family? “Did you know he was wealthy?” Nellie whispered. “Is it true? Is he?”
“If he were wealthy, would he have taken a job as a clerk for Father? Would he have paid court to a woman no one else in town would have? Sometimes, Nellie, it’s shocking the way you seem to believe strangers over your own family. Why, for a minute I thought you were going to go with him. Going to leave the people who love you for a man you don’t even know.” She caught Nellie’s hand. “You wouldn’t leave me, would you? You promised you wouldn’t.”
“No, I don’t believe I can.” She pulled away from Terel. “I’ll get your tea now.”
“And don’t eat the whole cake. Father would like some, too.”
Nellie stopped in the doorway, and the look she gave Terel was icy. “I do not believe my weight is any longer a cause for concern. If you haven’t noticed, you are the plumper sister now.” Nellie turned away and went down the stairs.
Chapter Ten
The Kitchen
Berni left the Food room, and immediately she was again wearing her burial suit. She had been eating for quite some time, eating all the delicious things she’d denied herself on earth in order to stay slim, but now she was standing in the hall and thinking.
Pauline appeared out of the fog. “Have you been to the Fantasy room yet?”
Berni’s eyes widened. “What kind of fantasy?”
“Anything you want.”
Berni perked up. “Medieval men? Dragons?”
“Anything.” Pauline stepped toward a golden arch, Berni behind her, but Berni halted.
“I was wondering what happened to Nellie. Did she lose the weight? Did she marry her hunk?”
“She lost the weight, but she doesn’t see Mr. Montgomery anymore. He’s still in Chandler, but I think he’s about to give up hope. Nellie won’t see him. Right through here is the Fantasy room.”
“Wait a minute. Why doesn’t she see Montgomery? I thought he’d like her when she lost the weight.”
“Mr. Montgomery loves her—his love has nothing to do with her size—but Nellie is bound by the wishes you gave her. She can’t leave her father’s house and disturb the comfort of her father and sister.”
“Oh,” Berni said, looking down at her feet. “I never meant to do her harm. She seemed like a nice kid. I thought—”
“What does a fatty like Nellie matter anyway?”
“Nellie matters. Look at the way she was always helping people. People like that count. Nellie never—”
She stopped
because Pauline had stepped through the Fantasy arch and the fog had cleared. Before them was indeed a scene out of Berni’s wildest dreams. A beautiful young woman with blonde hair to her waist, wearing a clinging pink silk gown, was chained to a post. Before her was a large but rather cute dragon, with a forked tongue and fire coming out of his nostrils, fighting an incredibly handsome, muscular, dark-haired man wearing chain mail. Berni nearly swooned.
“Come on,” Pauline said, “you can be the maiden.”
Berni took two steps forward, then stopped. “No, I want to see about Nellie.”
“Nellie can wait. Did you see the man’s horse?” The fog cleared to the right, and there was a beautiful black stallion draped in red silk.
Berni swallowed and took a step backward. “No,” she tried to say firmly, but her voice quavered. “I want to see Nellie.”
Abruptly, fog closed over the scene, and Berni let out a sigh of relief. She grinned at Pauline. “Anyway, I’d never be able to choose between the man and the dragon.”
“Your choice,” Pauline said, and she led the way through the fog to the arch of the Viewing Room.
Berni settled down on the banquette and watched as the fog before her cleared and she saw the Grayson living room. Nellie was there putting branches of pine along the mantelpiece.
“She looks great,” Berni said. “She’s really built, and now she’s much prettier than her little sister, so what’s the problem? Why doesn’t she have Montgomery? In fact, why isn’t she at some party? Looking like that, she could have any man.”
“Nellie has never been much interested in appearances. All she’s ever wanted was to love and be loved. Mr. Montgomery sensed that.”
Berni watched Nellie hanging up Christmas decorations, tying greenery along the banister. She was so very pretty now, but in her face was a deep, deep sadness. When Berni had first seen her, and Nellie had been fat, Nellie hadn’t looked sad as she did now. Berni couldn’t understand it. On earth she’d spent many thousands of dollars for plastic surgery so she could look half as good as Nellie, yet here Nellie was, with a face that could cause a war, a body better than any centerfold, and she was all alone and looking miserable.