Chloe (7 page)

Behind her gloved hand, Chloe stifled an unladylike yawn. The train ride had taken longer than they’d anticipated. It was full morning before they arrived in New York City. Now the four of them waited for City Hall to open. Minnie hung back at the rear while Roarke stood just ahead on Theran’s opposite side. Chloe felt conspicuous in the extreme and couldn’t help fearing her father might appear at any moment. He wouldn’t be pleased.

Theran put an arm around her. He already held her hand. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. You’ll belong to me very soon.” He cast an aggressive glance at Roarke.

Chloe felt as if she were in a trance. She’d never been to New York City before. The tall, grand buildings and noisy streets—crowded with red-and-green-paneled taxis, tall green buses, and hundreds of cars—made her jumpy. Even on Saturday morning, everybody was in a hurry, honking car horns and shouting in strange accents. Foreigners called to each other in languages she’d never heard. Everything felt just too big, too strange, too complicated to settle down in her mind.
I’m getting married today. I’m marrying Theran Black.
The thought was unreal. The man beside her didn’t even look familiar. The man she’d planned to marry hadn’t worn a doughboy uniform and his hair had been longer. Whenever she tried to look at Theran, it was like peering through binoculars that wouldn’t focus.

Beside Theran, Roarke McCaslin’s profile was familiar. And Roarke had proposed to her last night. That also didn’t feel real. Why hadn’t Roarke ever said anything, made the least overture? If she hadn’t given her word, Roarke’s suit might have tempted her. But it had only made things harder for her.

“Hey!” Kitty hurried up the steps, joining them. They’d called her from the restaurant where they’d breakfasted. “Isn’t this thrilling?”

Chloe didn’t feel thrilled. Daunted and confused, she forced a smile. “Kitty!” She hugged her and they kissed cheeks.

“My first attempt at matchmaking—and I’m a success!” Kitty hugged her brother and greeted Theran. “You brought your maid along?” she squealed. “How very proper.”

“Minnie decided to seek employment elsewhere,” Chloe explained, blushing.

“I don’t blame her.” Kitty gave Minnie a teasing wave of her hand. “Why stay buried at Ivy Manor when you have a chance at New York City?”

Chloe turned away and caught the expression on Roarke’s face. He was frowning. As she gazed at him, he mouthed, “I still want to marry you, Chloe.”

She looked away. A kind of panic was brewing in her stomach. Roarke’s words made it churn faster and higher. She looked at Theran, who was teasing Kitty about something.
I am marrying this stranger today.
She tried to make herself believe these words. She failed.
This can’t be happening.

The imposing double doors before them were officially unlocked with a grating and snapping of the large locks. Roarke led them inside onto the marble floors, polished and gleaming. A few people walked around them up wide steps. Chloe and the rest paused to check a large directory hung on one wall. Then Theran led them to the elevators. Everything moved quickly after that. The formalities of obtaining the license took only a few minutes at a grilled window. They moved to another office where they waited for a judge. Soon, a tall thin man with thinning gray hair stalked in wearing his black robe.

“License?” Theran handed it to him. The judge read it as if looking for any discrepancies. “Young lady, you are very young to be making this decision and I don’t see your parents here. Are you sure you want to marry this soldier?”

Chloe hadn’t expected this. “I’m old enough to marry.”

“I didn’t ask you if you were legally old enough. I wanted to know if you wish to draw back. Marriage is for life, young woman. In times of war—” The judge looked Theran up and down. “—people sometimes marry in haste and repent at leisure.”

“This is none of your business,” Theran objected.

Chloe looked past the judge to Roarke, who stood beside him.

Roarke mouthed, “It’s not too late.”

Chloe closed her eyes. Would everything feel more real if she’d accepted Roarke’s proposal? That premise didn’t seem viable either. “I’ve made up my mind to marry Theran Black.” Her voice came out unexpectedly harsh.

Theran glanced back at her, startled. “Don’t sound so excited about it, honey,” he said, smiling. “Judge, I’m sure you mean well, but we’re in love. I leave Monday for France and we’re getting married before I leave. If you don’t want to do it, another judge will.” Theran took her arm to lead her away.

“No, I’ll marry you.” The judge glared at Theran. “I always try to impress on the couple what an important, life-altering step marriage is. But I can see your mind is made up. Join your right hands, please.”

Without looking at them, the judge opened a small black book and began to read the wedding ceremony in a flat, unhurried voice. Chloe tried to keep her eyes on Theran, the man she was marrying. But they insisted on drifting to Roarke. He stood as best man on the opposite side of Theran.

“Repeat after me,” the judge intoned.

Chloe breathed in deeply for strength and recited, “I, Chloe Lorraine Kimball, take you, Theran Black, as my lawfully wedded husband.” All the while, her desperate eyes pleaded with Roarke’s.
I’m not a jilt. He’s going to war. How could I throw him over?
The ceremony raced ahead. Soon, Theran was slipping a cool, gold band on her ring finger and kissing her. The judge shook their hands. Roarke and Kitty signed the certificate as the witnesses.

Chloe’s life had changed in an instant.
I’m married to Theran Black.
Tears trailed down her cheeks. She tried to hold them in, but they flowed unchecked. “Don’t cry, honey.” Theran, her husband, pulled her close and hugged her.

In an instant, the same breathless feeling she’d felt that night after the tango caught Chloe up in its web. Desperate to know she’d done the right thing, she pressed herself against him, drawing his assurance to her.
This is my husband.
And she turned her face and kissed his lips as she had wanted to for weeks. But even though his lips were reassuringly solid, the feeling of unreality lingered.

From behind Theran, Roarke gazed at her, but differently. Now, he looked at her the way he always had before yesterday. Had she broken his heart? She couldn’t believe it. But then, she’d barely believed he’d proposed to her.

Clutching her hand in his, Theran hurried them out the door and down the wide marble staircase. “Let’s go celebrate.”

Chloe glanced back at Roarke. He nodded to her and she smiled at him uncertainly.
I married Theran Black and it was the right thing to do.
The judge’s words came back to her: “Marry in haste and repent at leisure.” She closed her eyes and drew on her inner resolve.
There will be no repenting. I married for love, not for gain like my mother. We’ll be fine.
Everything would turn out all right, she knew it would.
I’m married now. Let it all work out.

The day had passed in a whirl of sightseeing. Each moment made Chloe feel more as if she were in a trance. Every few minutes, Theran would touch her in some way. His touch compelled a response from her, that intensity she’d experienced with their first kiss. She imagined them alone together—completely alone as man and wife. The thought both enticed and frightened her. She kept reminding herself that he was her husband and he would want to be intimate with her. But she had no idea what that meant beyond kisses.

Riding in taxis and buses, they’d traveled all over Manhattan and across the Brooklyn Bridge and back. They’d all strolled through a buoyant Central Park eating hot dogs—a new food to Chloe and Minnie—and ended with a tour around the stately grounds of Columbia University, now Theran’s alma mater. Proud and awed, Chloe kept glancing at Theran, the stranger who held her hand.
I’m married. This is my husband.
For all their reality, she could have been saying, “I can fly. This is my airplane.” The words didn’t ring true.

Now, in early evening, Chloe and everyone looked out a taxi window into what Theran had announced was Harlem. Chloe noticed that the people on the street were almost all Negro. In the backseat, Minnie perched between Kitty and her. Minnie was sitting up straight and looking around, hungry for every sight, just as Chloe was.

“Minnie, you’ll like it in Harlem,” Kitty said, glancing at Chloe from the girl’s other side.

“I ’spect I will, Miss Kitty.”

“I haven’t written you your letter of recommendation yet.” Chloe sat up straighter. She hadn’t been thinking about Minnie leaving her. Her heart suddenly sped up.

“Minnie won’t be going to any employment agency until Monday,” Theran soothed from the front seat. “Right now we’re taking her to a nice boarding house where she can stay the weekend. When you said you were bringing her along, I thought I better find a place for her. Yesterday I talked to a janitor on campus and he recommended this place, said the landlady was very respectable. I checked and she had a room vacant, so I reserved it for your maid.”

Chloe looked at the back of Theran’s head. She reached forward and caressed his neck. “That’s so sweet of you, honey.”

Theran glanced over his shoulder. “I am sweet, sugar.”

Chloe recoiled. “Sugar” was what her father called her. “Please . . . don’t call me sugar.”

“Okay. How about ‘honey’?”

“Fine.” What a silly thing to be talking about. “Fine.”

The cab pulled into the curb in front of a tall, narrow house. “Here we are, Minnie.”

Chloe suddenly panicked. She caught Minnie’s shoulder. “Theran, give her our address. Minnie, I’ll go with you Monday to the . . . employment place. I want to make certain you get settled with a nice family.”

Minnie looked into Chloe’s eyes and smiled reassuringly. “Yes, miss.” Roarke opened the door and Minnie climbed around Kitty and out. “Good-bye, Mr. Theran. Take care of yourself and don’t let them Germans hurt you none.”

Theran chuckled. “Don’t worry, Minnie. I’ll come home singing a song.”

“Minnie,” Chloe said, opening her purse, “do you have money?”

“I been savin’ up, miss. I’ll be fine.”

Chloe still handed her a dollar. “Come over after one on Monday. Theran gave you the address. I’ll be seeing him off in the morning.” Nodding, Minnie waved and with her cardboard valise walked up the six steps to the door of the boarding house, painted in neat gray and white.

Chloe felt tears gathering in the back of her throat. Theran would be leaving and so would everyone else familiar. Wasn’t Roarke escorting Kitty home for a visit? That meant her best friend wouldn’t even be here. Suddenly Chloe was very glad Minnie had come with her to New York.

The rest of the evening fled by—a festive supper at a little Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village and then Roarke and Kitty were dropping Chloe and . . . her husband off at Theran’s rooming house.

Roarke hung back beside a taxi at the curb, facing Theran and Chloe. “I’m heading home right after I drop Kitty off.”

“Oh, Roarke, I can’t leave till after Monday,” Kitty said from the front seat. “I have to meet a professor once more.”

“I can’t wait. I need to get home.” He looked at Chloe.

She tried to read his eyes, but the curtain had come down and would not be lifted. She’d made her decision and she could see he’d accepted it. She held out her hand. “Thank you for everything, Roarke.” She wished she could say more to her old friend. “Rest on the train. You didn’t sleep much last night.”

He touched the brim of his hat and then lifted her gloved hand to his lips. “All the best, Miss Chloe.”

She nodded, unable to speak. Kitty clambered out of the car and hugged her one more time. “I’ll be leaving soon, but I’ll check on you Monday. You’ll love it up here. Nobody watches a person’s every little move like at home.”

Theran shook Roarke’s hand and kissed Kitty’s cheek. “Thanks, Little Miss Matchmaker.” Kitty chuckled. Then Roarke and she got into the taxi and drove away. Theran swept Chloe up into his arms. “Alone at last.”

CHAPTER FIVE

C
hloe stood looking out the large, dusty window in Theran’s room. The view featured the rear windows of other brick houses. For a moment, she let her mind drift to the very different view from her window at Ivy Manor—green lawn and magnolia blossoms. Then she stopped herself.
I’ll probably never see it again.
This brought moisture to her eyes and an ache over her heart. She’d loved Ivy Manor. That wasn’t what she’d run away from.

“It’s late, Chloe,” Theran said, as if commenting on the weather. “I’m going to turn out the light, give you some privacy.”

She froze in place. The mystery of what intimacies a wedding night entailed loomed before her and uncertainty sluiced through her like ice water. “Theran . . .”

He came up behind her and wrapped his strong arms around her, nuzzling her neck. “Don’t be afraid of me, Chloe. I’d never hurt you.”

“I know that.” But her voice sounded low and slid over her throat like splintered wood. Theran’s banded arms moved up and rested on her dress just above her corset top. The intimate contact made her inhale sharply.

“I’m going to lie down and turn my back to you.” He kissed her nape again. “I’ll be waiting, dearest, but take your time.”

Within moments, she heard the brass bed’s springs creak and then only the street sounds from below. She lowered the shade on the window; the street lamps glowed around the frayed edges. Then in the semi-darkness, she began unfastening the row of small mother-of-pearl buttons down the front of her dress. Her every move seemed layered with new significance.
This is my husband. Being together like this is right and proper.
But her fingers fumbled with the buttons and her breath came out in shivers.

Theran began humming some slow melody, something that reminded her of dancing at the honkey-tonk. The sound did things to the hairs on the back of her neck. A tingling coursed through her in cadence with her shallow breathing. A problem presented itself. Her mother still insisted Chloe wear an old-fashioned corset that laced up the back—she said it was the mark of a lady to need a maid to dress herself. But Chloe couldn’t call Minnie all the way from Harlem to untie her corset. There was only Theran. She tried to loosen the ties herself without luck.