Ana Seymour (8 page)

He closed his eyes and let his still-aroused body slump into the sofa. It had always been easier to let his mother win these contests of will. But then, he’d never before had anything he cared about enough to make it worth the fight. Behind his closed eyelids danced the memory of how Kate had looked in his arms moments ago, her lips swollen from his kisses, her eyes loving and sensual. She was definitely worth fighting for. It was time to see if he had the mettle to go to battle.

Madame Lavalier’s assistant proved to be a rolypoly woman who made pleasant quips during the measuring process, apparently not bothered by the fact that neither Harriet nor Kate seemed too amused by her attempts.

Kate’s thoughts were on Sean, on the kisses they’d shared in the music room, on the arousal of his body, which had been so obvious as she’d sat on his lap. Tonight, when the interminable measurements were completed, she’d open that connecting door and finally join him in his bed. The thought of it hummed through her as the round little woman worked around Kate’s slender body.

When the seamstress left, Kate thanked Harriet hastily and went to the nursery to give Caroline the most abridged nighttime feeding she’d ever attempted. Then she fled to her room and took out the nightdress that she’d gotten from Jennie for her wedding night. After throwing water haphazardly on her face and washing
out her mouth, she undressed and put on the nightgown.

There had been no sound from the adjoining room. Suddenly a thought struck her. Sean had been out so late last night, perhaps he had already fallen asleep. She tiptoed over to the connecting door and hesitated, listening. All was quiet.

For a moment, she thought she would give up and go sleep in her own bed, but, with a frown of determination, she changed her mind. She was Sean’s wife. She didn’t care what the big-city customs were. Her place at night was beside her husband in his bed.

Slowly, she opened the door to his room. No lights were lit, but the light from her own room slanted across the floor all the way to Sean’s bed, plenty bright enough to see that it was still made up. The room was empty. Her husband was nowhere in sight.

“Did he spend so much time out with his friends before I came here?” Kate was rocking Caroline after her morning feeding while Nonny sat nearby embroidering a dress for her new great-grandchild.

“Sean’s always been one to love a good time,” the older woman answered carefully.

“Which means drinking and gambling?”

“Which means whatever makes him forget that he’s never really had to accomplish much of anything.”

Kate stopped the chair’s rocking motion. “What do you mean by that?”

Nonny smiled at her and put aside her sewing. “Like many of the sons of Nob Hill, Sean was raised in luxury. He had everything he wanted and needed,
except a challenge. And except a sense that he was worth something. Sean has never had to fight for anything in his life.”

Kate considered the older woman’s words with astonishment. Since she’d met Sean, she’d considered that
he
was the lucky one. He’d had everything. Even his ill-fated prospecting adventure in Vermillion had been more like a game to him than a life’s necessity, as it was for most of the men who came to try it. She’d never considered that in some ways she was luckier than Sean for having grown up with an appreciation for the struggle that life sometimes represented. The Sheridan household had been rich in love, but poor in worldly goods. They’d had the large, comfortable home that now was Sheridan House, only because her father had built it with his own two hands. She wondered if Sean’s hands had ever held a hammer.

“But he’s working in the family business,” Kate said. “His father seemed happy to have him back. Surely that gives him a sense of pride.”

Nonny shook her head. “I don’t blame my son for the way he’s raised Sean. He had little example to follow. Patrick’s own father died when he was only eight.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Kate said quickly.

Bridget gave one of her merry smiles. “It was long ago, dearie. And it didn’t take me long to discover that there were advantages to living without a man in your life. A permanent one, that is.” Her eyes danced. “I’ve had a number of temporary adventures along the way.”

Kate was mildly shocked at the older woman’s boldness
but found herself smiling back. “I’m glad,” she said.

“But as to Patrick and Sean.they’ve never quite been able to get it right. I think Patrick would give anything to have a son he can be proud of, strong enough to take over Flaherty Enterprises, but he doesn’t see that it’s been his own overbearing ways that have kept Sean from becoming that man.”

“I’ve noticed that his father tends to tell Sean what he should do.”

“Always has. I told him long ago that he had to start giving the boy some freedom, let him make his own mistakes and find his own successes, but Patrick just doesn’t seem able to do it.”

“Sean went up into the mountains by himself,” Kate pointed out.

“Yes, and look how it turned out. The mining was a failure and, I’m sorry to put it this way, my dear, but in the eyes of the family, what happened with you was a failure on Sean’s part, too.”

Kate began rocking again, tears stinging her eyes. Coming from Nonny, the words sounded harsh. Caroline had fallen asleep. Kate looked down at her and told herself for the hundredth time that she would
not
regret the act that had brought her beautiful daughter into the world. What she and Sean had done was wrong, but they’d faced the shame and owned up to it. Now they were married and should be able to move beyond it.

Nonny spoke again, sensing her turmoil. “It wasn’t anything of the kind, mind you. Falling in love with
you was perhaps the most independent and sensible thing Sean ever did in his life.”

Kate lifted her head and smiled. “It wasn’t right for either of us to let it happen, but I’m content with the way things have turned out.”

Nonny didn’t look totally convinced. “Which is why you’re sitting here with me instead of enjoying a leisurely morning in bed with your new husband.”

Kate flushed. “Things will work out with time.”

“That’s exactly what I hoped when I saw Sean’s proud face that night he brought you here. But I’ll admit I’m disappointed he’s gone back to spending time with Charles Raleigh and the like.”

“His friends at the gaming house?”

“Yes. They’re all like Sean. Rich sons of self-made fathers. I think they find gambling and drinking and loose women easier than trying to prove they can match their fathers’ ambitions.”

Loose women? The drinking and gambling were bad enough, but the thought that Sean might have gone from their kisses in the little parlor last night to the company of another woman was almost too painful to consider. She’d left her home and family and come all the way to San Francisco in order to make a life with Sean. She wasn’t about to let it be ruined by his parents or his drinking or his gambling. And she certainly wasn’t about to lose him to another woman.

She stood and went to place Caroline in her crib. “Perhaps I will go see if Sean is still in his room, after all, Nonny, if you don’t mind.”

Nonny picked up her sewing once again. “Take
your time, dearie. I’ll just sit here till the wee one wakes.”

“Bless you,” Kate said over her shoulder as she hurried from the room.

“And you, child,” Nonny said softly with a sad smile as Kate disappeared down the hall.

This time Kate didn’t even knock. She marched into her room, then crossed to the connecting door and threw it open. He was still in bed, reading the newspaper, stark naked except for a blanket up to the waist. He looked up in surprise.

“Good morning,” she said, willing herself to calm down. She walked into his room and closed the door gently behind her.

“Good morning.” He looked uncertain.

“I was disappointed to find you gone last night.” She came closer to the bed.

“I thought Harriet had carried you off for the evening,” he said.

“No. The measuring only took a few minutes.”

“I’m sorry. I should have left word. I thought you were busy. And Charles Raleigh stopped by and invited me out for a game.”

Her eyes followed the quickening rise and fall of the muscles of his chest. Some of the physical frustration she’d felt last night when she’d been ready for lovemaking and found him gone returned. She hesitated for a minute, then plopped down onto the bed next to him, took a deep breath and said, “Well, that’s too bad. Because I was hoping to continue the game you and I had started earlier in the parlor.”

The words startled a pleased chuckle out of him. “Were you now?”

“I was so impatient that I snapped at the poor dressmaker trying to get her to hurry. I was terribly rude. But when I came to your room, you were gone.”

Sean folded his newspaper and tossed it to the floor. He pushed himself up a ways in the bed, heedless that the blanket was now only barely covering his most private area. “You came to my room?” he asked softly.

She nodded.

“So you meant what you said about continuing. the game?”

She nodded again, her eyes growing wider.

Sean didn’t speak for a moment, then said, “Well, now I
am
sorry I went out”

“I am, too.”

They looked at each other. Unlike the dim music room last night, Sean’s bedroom was bright, the morning sun streaming in through his triple window. He looked rumpled from sleep, but handsome as ever, the slight growth of whiskers merely enhancing the rugged line of his chin. His eyes had taken on a predatory gleam.

“I’m here now,” he said, his voice low and husky.

Kate nodded. “I am, too.”

Sean reached out and put his hands under her arms, boosting her toward him on the bed. “Do you think we could continue that game after all?”

She gave a slow smile and started unbuttoning her dress. “That’s what I was hoping you’d say.”

I
f his body hadn’t been racing too fast for rational thought, Sean would have taken time out to curse himself for his stupidity last mght. After Kate had gone off with his mother, he’d left the house in a frustrated pique. He’d been a fool. Evidently, if he’d just been patient, they could have resumed their lovemaking right at the place where his mother had interrupted. They could have finally spent the night in each other’s arms like proper man and wife.

But at the moment he had no time for regrets. Kate’s arms had gone around his neck and she was kissing his chin, her tender lips soft as silk against his rough beard. His arousal was immediate, total and utterly revealed by the thin blanket that covered his nakedness.

Kate was still fully clothed, but the hard nubbins of her breasts protruded under the cloth of her dress, showing that she was as excited as he. “I’m sorry I let you down again, sweetheart,” he murmured.

Kate merely shook her head and sought his mouth with hers. The passions they’d begun to summon in the music room the previous evening returned in full
force. “I’m going to lock the doors, darling. There’ll be no interruption this time.”

He rolled out of bed and Kate’s eyes followed his tall, lean form as he strode across the room and locked first the outer door, then the one that connected to Kate’s room. In an instant he was back beside her in bed. He smiled when he saw how she was shyly looking at him, noticing the hard length of his arousal. “I’m ahead of you, Katie. One doesn’t need clothes for this kind of game.”

He proceeded to help her shed her dress and undergarments, and when she reached for the blanket to cover her nakedness, he pulled it back and threw it over the end of the bed. “I want to see you. I want to see every inch of your perfect body here in the sunlight.”

She lay back against the pillows with a seductive wriggle that he would not have thought her capable of. Then she gave a kind of sensuous purr and held her arms out to him. He was on fire.

He ran his hand up her long, slender leg, then followed its path with his mouth, kissing along the sensitive skin of her thigh, then along her stomach, now more softly rounded than it had been before the baby. He halted his progress at her breasts, taking time to draw first one, then the other, into his mouth, in and out, rhythmically, until she made a whimpering sound and slid down the pillows to slip beneath him.

He needed no further invitation. Holding himself carefully above her, he found the fit of their bodies and began the slow fusion. Kate was the first one to urge speed, and their movements became increasingly
frenzied until finally she stiffened in his arms and he felt the tremors of her climax. His own followed instantly.

“Lordy,” Kate said after several moments of silence.

Sean laughed, jiggling her chest, as well as his own. They were glued together by the sheen of their bodies. “Lordy,” he agreed emphatically.

He rolled to one side and lay side by side with her, letting the sun through the window warm their rapidly cooling skin.

“So tell me,” Kate said after another long silence. “Was your game with Charles Raleigh better than ours?”

Sean gave her shoulders a squeeze. “Katie, I’ve never even come close to having a game better than ours.”

Kate smiled smugly. “Perhaps you’ll remember that the next time you get the urge to run off at night, husband.”

“Perhaps you’ll remember it, too, wife, when you decide to sleep next door in your lonely bed instead of in here with me.”

“I never wanted my own room in the first place, Sean,” she answered more seriously. “But it seemed as if you wanted me there. I thought maybe this was considered the proper way for married people to behave on Nob Hill.”

Sean boosted himself up on one elbow and looked down at her. “I don’t give a damn what’s considered proper on Nob Hill or anywhere else. We’ll live the way we want to live.”

“In our own house?” Kate asked happily.

Sean was a little less sure on this score than he had been when he’d boldly proposed the idea the previous evening, but he answered, “Yes, in our own house.”

She pulled his head down for a kiss. “In the meantime, I’d just as soon sleep here next to you at night, if you don’t mind, husband.”

Sean kissed her gently, then once again less gently. Their breathing deepened. “Ah, Katie, at this rate, I’m never going to get to the office.”

“Five more minutes,” she pleaded, opening her mouth to his third kiss.

“Five more minutes,” he agreed, taking her breast into his mouth.

Sometime later it was duly noted by Flaherty Enterprises chief clerk Clarence Applewhite that the boss’s son did not arrive at work until well past the noon hour.

Nonny had warned Kate about the afternoon teas. “A bunch of ladies too rich to lace their own shoes,” she’d called Harriet’s friends. “They’re so busy trying to be the first to tell the latest gossip that they can’t hear that half the others in the room are gossiping about them.”

But Harriet had made her invitation to Kate sound more like a demand than a request. And Kate did not want to disturb her newfound harmony by starting a battle with her mother-in-law. It was enough that she and Sean had been together for the past four nightsfour wonderful, passion-filled nights. Sean had not gone again to the gaming hall, but he had, after that
first day, arisen early and gone off to work, putting in a full day at the company offices. It appeared that he was making a real attempt to become both a valuable employee and a model husband. Both Kate and Patrick were delighted.

So with only a niggling shiver of apprehension, Kate dressed to accompany Harriet to the Raleigh mansion for tea with Cynthia Raleigh, her daughter, Penelope, and various other ladies of the Nob Hill circuit. She donned one of her simple Vermillion dresses. She hadn’t worn any of the gowns Harriet had picked out for her since she’d learned that Sean had had no part in their selection. They might be more suitable for a Nob Hill ladies’ tea, but Kate was not in the mood to try to be something she wasn’t. She hadn’t even tried to duplicate the elaborate hairstyles that seemed to be the Nob Hill vogue. Sean liked her the way she was, plain and without pretensions. That was all she cared about.

She felt her resolve crumbling when she saw the looks on the faces of the other ladies as Harriet swept Kate into the Raleighs’ Italianate marble front hall. They were greeted by the Raleigh mother and daughter, Cynthia and Penelope. Harriet embraced both the women and planted kisses in the air to the left of their cheeks.

“So this is Sean’s new wife,” Cynthia Raleigh observed, her eyes taking in every detail of Kate’s attire, down to her serviceable leather shoes, which Kate
had
laced herself.

She reminded Kate of Harriet, similar age, same
questionable shade of red hair and a smile that went not a tenth of an inch farther than the teeth.

Penelope Raleigh’s welcome was more genuine She gave Kate a light hug and said in a voice brimming with fun, “Be prepared to have all the mothers hate you, Kate. You’ve snatched one of their richest prospects.”

“Don’t be crude, Penelope,” Cynthia commanded.

Kate smiled at the young woman who looked to be about Kate’s age. She wasn’t pretty, but she had sparkling brown eyes and silky, nut-brown hair that was held back in a simple bun, rather than the curlicued coiffures of most of the women. Kate liked her instantly.

Harriet had turned away to greet her other friends, leaving her daughter-in-law to make her own introductions. “We might as well get this over with,” Penelope said, slipping an arm around Kate’s waist and leading her into a huge room that was dominated by red—red brocade drapes, red velvet furniture, red Persian carpet, even red books lining redwood shelves all along the far wall. “The Red Room,” Penelope announced with a giggle.

It was full of buzzing ladies in clusters of twos and threes and fours like bees hovering around a hive. The drone softened as Kate and Penelope entered. Kate could see heads turning to make a quick assessment of her from every corner of the room. She felt her face growing pink.

“Tiresome, isn’t it?” Penelope whispered. “You’re the new grist for their mill.” Then in a louder voice she addressed a buxom woman who had turned in their
direction. “So nice to have you here, Mrs. Wellington. Have you met Sean Flaherty’s wife, Kate?”

And so it went around the room, a blur of ruffles and exaggerated coiffures and cool eyes and bland smiles until Kate felt dizzy from it all. Penelope expressed sympathy with a click of her tongue as she led her charge into the adjoining sunroom. “I’ll have to circulate a little or Mother will have my hide, but you can sit in here out of the arena if you like.”

“It is a bit overwhelming,” Kate admitted. “Thank you, Penelope.”

“I know. My debutante year, I used to go home after every party and puke,” Penelope said with one of her delightful giggles. Then she added, “Please call me Penny. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

She turned to head back into the “arena,” leaving Kate by herself in the bright, glass-enclosed solarium. Big, leafy plants unlike any Kate had seen before gave the room an outdoors feel. Kate found it peaceful after the overpowering decor of the Red Room. She took a seat in a small wicker rocker that was recessed amongst the plants, giving her a comforting feeling of solitude.

“Well, he got her in a family way and then felt forced to go back and
marry
the chit.”

Kate stiffened in her chair as one of the buzzing clusters entered the sunroom, obviously without being aware of her presence. She ducked farther back behind the cover of the plants, unable to see the women but able to hear every word.

“Now, that was his mistake. Men do need their
amusements, but true gentlemen don’t go off and
marry
the unsuitable mothers of their by-blows.”

“I can’t imagine what the Flahertys were thinking to let him do it.”

“It was
cotton,
don’t you think? That dress? And her hair loose, as if she were a street person.”

“I heard that she’d lived in the mountains until Sean found her. Like some kind of wild thing. No family. Not a penny to her name, of course.”

“Poor Harriet. She must be devastated.”

A sympathetic murmur ran through the group, then they moved on to exit through the far door of the solarium toward the dining room where tea was being served. Kate sat frozen to her chair.

As Penny had described earlier, she felt as if she were going to be sick. She forced herself to take a couple of slow, deliberate breaths, trying to get her equilibrium. She was torn between the urge to crawl farther into the solarium greenery or get up and flee the party. The heavy tropical smell of the leaves around her was contributing to her nausea. She stood up and peered in the direction the ladies had disappeared, trying to decide what would be the safer exit. One way was the Red Room. The other was the dining room, which was now filling with guests lining up for tea.

As she stood, hesitating, Penelope appeared in the dining room door. “Kate, come have some sandwiches. I’m sorry to have left you for so long.”

Kate managed to walk toward her new friend without revealing how shaky she was feeling. “I’m not really hungry, Penny.”

Penelope grinned and said, “That’s good, because the sandwiches Maggie makes wouldn’t fill up a hummingbird. For some reason people think ladies don’t need to eat. But I do recommend the butter tortes. They’re tiny, but delicious. If you take two or three, you can get a decent mouthful.”

The girl’s chatter was helping to calm Kate’s nerves. Her stomach still threatened to rebel if she were to insist on putting food in it, so once again she politely refused Penelope’s invitation to fill a plate from the elegant array of minute delicacies arranged on the Raleighs’ long table. But she was more or less able to answer Penelope’s questions and nod in acknowledgment when she was introduced to yet another set of carefully polite ladies.

Were these the ones who were discussing her earlier? she wondered. Or was it the foursome over in the corner who were surreptitiously looking her way while they tried to appear occupied with their china cups and saucers?

Finally she could take no more. She blurted out, “Penny, I’m so grateful for all your attention this afternoon, but I’ve developed a dreadful migraine. Do you think you could find Harriet and see if she’d be willing to leave?”

Penelope shot her a sympathetic glance and didn’t bother to offer remedies for the nonexistent headache. “Certainly, I’ll take you to the foyer and bring Harriet out to you directly. If she wants to stay longer, I’ll arrange to have one of our carriages take you home.”

Kate gave her friend’s hand a squeeze. “I don’t know how to thank you,” she said.

Penelope paused for a moment. The ladies nearest them had moved away and they were alone enough not to be overheard. “It will be thanks enough if you can make Sean happy.” To Kate’s look of surprise she smiled and shook her head. “Don’t think I’m sweet on your husband, Kate. I think of him the same way I do my brother, Charlie.”

“They’ve been friends for a long time?” Kate asked.

“We all grew up together. And Charlie and Sean are a lot alike. They both have good hearts, but they’ve had trouble finding direction for their lives.”

Some ladies moved toward them and Penelope took Kate’s arm and led her toward the foyer as she continued speaking. “I was glad to hear that Sean had fallen in love, especially with someone unconventional, you know—” she gestured with her hand back toward the throng of ladies “—not one of us.”

They’d reached the foyer and Penelope looked around. “Wait here, I’ll send Harriet out. I hope we see a lot more of you, Kate,” she ended.

Kate nodded and thanked her, but as she watched her disappear into the red depths of the big parlor, Kate’s heart was heavy. As much as she had tried to convince herself that nothing mattered in her new life except Sean, this afternoon was proof that the rest of the world
did
matter. “Not one of us,” the friendly Penelope Raleigh had said. These weren’t her people and never would be. She was, in Penelope’s words, “unconventional.”