His Californian Countess (12 page)

After the man left, Jamie turned to her. “I thought you could use the extra room as a dressing area. Once I find you a maid, we won’t be able to dress in the same place.”

Relieved, Amber sighed dramatically. “And just when I’d gotten you so well trained in the profession. Very well, if I must break in a new lady’s maid, I might as well get started.”

Jamie tossed his head back and laughed. “Minx. You should rest. And while you do that, I have a bit of business to handle. I need to secure staff for the house and contact the builder. I want to inspect the place and make sure it’s ready for us before I take you there. They tell me there’s a salon here called The Office. There are supposed to be attachés waiting there to handle business and run errands and such for guests. I may as well avail myself of their expertise. Come to think of it, we’ll need a carriage and driver. Perhaps one of them can deal with that, as well.”

She hadn’t realized there was so much for him to accomplish. “Very well. I suppose I could use a rest. Disembarking was very exciting. You aren’t interested in waiting for the refreshment you’ve sent for?”

“That is for you. I’ll find something at the Men’s Grill. We’ll dine in one of the restaurants this evening.” He bent, cupped her cheek and kissed her. “Promise to rest?”

She nodded and he dropped his hand, worry in his gaze. Darn it all! She didn’t want to burden him with even a minor inconvenience. Being married to a woman he didn’t love was inconvenient enough.

“Dream of me,” he ordered with a gentle smile. Then he left before she could find a way to reassure him.

Dream of him? She dreamed of little else. Thought of little else.

Amber came awake with the vague feeling that she wasn’t alone. She opened her eyes in the darkened room and found Jamie sitting in a chair, watching her. She sat up and swung her bare feet to the floor. “What time is it?”

He took out his watch. “Seven. We have reservations for eight.”

“You should have awakened me. I’ll have to hurry to be dressed on time.”

“I meant to. I lost track of time. I was thinking and watching you sleep.”

What had he been thinking about with such concentration that he’d lose track of time? “Thinking about what? Is there something wrong?”

“I have news. Our house is ready and waiting. We still have to hire a few more staff, though. But the most important news is that Meara and Mimm have already arrived.”

“That’s wonderful! You’ve seen them? Were they happy or upset that you married a woman neither has met? Will we be leaving now or in the morning?”

Jamie laughed. “Slow down, Pixie. Unfortunately, no, I didn’t see them. They were away from home when I got there. Hadley said they’d gone to visit with a playmate of Meara’s.”

“You didn’t wait? Why ever not?”

“Because he said they often stay at the playmate’s house for dinner. I’d left you here and you wouldn’t have known where I was if I’d waited. I didn’t want to worry you by disappearing for hours. I left Mimm a note telling her about our marriage, but I asked her to allow me to tell Meara. Now let us get you ready for our dinner.”

He stood and opened the draperies. Rays of the setting sun poured in, backlighting him as he returned to sit at the bottom of the bed. “I thought we’d devote a day or two to a bit of sightseeing and shopping.”

Amber stared at him. What was he thinking? She’d thought from the way he’d talked about Meara that he missed his child. “Sightseeing? But you should see Meara and I’d hoped to meet both her and Mimm as soon as possible.”

“And you will. I’ve made arrangements for Mimm to bring Meara here in the morning. I ordered the suite expanded to five bedrooms to accommodate our little family and Mimm and Hadley, my valet. And your maid when one’s been hired. I thought we’d go to Woodward’s Gardens tomorrow. You seemed to have enjoyed the Exhibition in Philadelphia. I know Meara did. I thought you’d both enjoy this, as well. There is a zoological garden there. They have camel rides, if you can
believe it. My daredevil daughter will be over the moon about that idea.”

Amber frowned. What was he talking about? “Over the moon?”

“You must have heard of the nursery rhyme, ‘high, diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle,’” he began.

“Oh. ‘The cow jumped over the moon,’” she finished, glad of the education Uncle Charles had insisted upon. She’d learned the rhyme and many other facts about the land of Jamie’s birth from an English literature professor, this one from one of the sillier moments in his class. Without her boarding-school experience and her Vassar education, Amber wouldn’t have had a prayer of fitting in with Jamie’s circle of friends and business acquaintances. Actually all she really lacked was a fine pedigree. Unfortunately, birth was often the most important element of all.

“The idiom means very excited,” he went on to explain. “I’ve ordered a picnic lunch from the kitchens for us to take along. Woodward’s Gardens are a must on any visit to San Francisco.

“The first thing in the morning, though, an agency is sending several maids for you to interview.”

“Me?”

He smiled. “I wouldn’t know a laundress from an upstairs maid.”

As if she did? Well, now that she thought about it after the summers on the Hudson she did know what their duties were, but she’d never hired anyone. She was certainly capable of talking to the women and deciding who was pleasant, trustworthy and sufficiently industrious. The real problem was she didn’t want Mimm to feel displaced as if their marriage suddenly made her a
servant in Jamie’s home. Clearly she was much more to him.

Jamie leaned forward and tapped on her forehead as he said, “What is going on in there, Pixie?”

“I wondered who made decisions like this before?”

“Before?”

“Before me. Who would have hired staff for your house had we not arrived married?”

“Mimm.”

“That’s what I thought. I’d rather include her in on decisions like this, in that case.”

He smiled. “I appreciate how considerate you are and how blind to life’s different stations. We’ll delay the interviews until after they’ve arrived. Meara and I will breakfast together while you and Mimm conduct the interviews.”

Which meant she’d get a few minutes’ privacy with Mimm. She looked up and caught Jamie staring at her, his gaze hot with desire. “You know, I would much rather eat at nine,” she told him.

“Hmm. A much more civilized hour,” he agreed, his tone hopeful and a bit strangled at once.

“But whatever will we do with all the time?” she asked, but she didn’t expect a spoken answer. Nor did she get one. Instead Jamie pulled off his shoes. She had come to know him as a man of action. Another of his better traits, she decided a minute later when he’d joined her on the bed and covered her lips with his. Perhaps it was his best trait of all.

She laughed and flopped back on the pillows and he followed her down.

It would be fine. He did still want her. They could build on that.

J
amie waited anxiously in the courtyard and finally his new open carriage rounded the end of the building. “Da! It’s Da,” he heard Meara shout. He couldn’t wait to hug the squirming little minx whom Mimm was trying to rein in.

With Amber in their lives, the circle would be complete and they would finally be a true family. Now, his child would have a mother. A very good mother.

One who happened to be the perfect wife for him.

The now bouncing carriage pulled to a stop and Jamie reached for the door. He pulled it open and Meara launched herself out the door into his arms in the next instant. He hugged her to him and inhaled the little-girl scent that was so uniquely his Meara’s.

Then she squirmed, arched her back and propped her hands on his shoulders, staring at him with her wide blue eyes. “It’s me, Da. Haven’t I grown? I’m a whole year older! Thank you for my birthday pony! I called him Spots. He has them on his rump, you know. We brought him along, though he was very sad all alone in
the car for horses. Hadley found a stable for him near our house and we go to see him three times a week. There’s a little girl there named Isabella. Only I call her Bella. She’s nearly my age.” She paused, took a deep breath and was off again. “And I’m learning to ride from her da. Only she calls him Papa. They have a huge horse who looks like Spots. I want to get him for you for your birthday in November. When you come meet Spots you’ll meet Bella. Mimm says we are quite opposite, but only because she has the blackest hair and the very darkest eyes. I love her brown eyes. But we aren’t really much different. She doesn’t mind getting dirty in the least and—”

“Hush now, child,” Mimm called from the coach. “Let your da get a look at you, then he can help this old woman down.” She leaned forward and looked up at the building. “My goodness, your lordship, this is certainly quite the thing, now isn’t it?”

Jamie set Meara on her feet and went down on one knee to get a good look at her. Curly blond hair, peeking out of her pale blue bonnet, framed her cherubic face and her bright blue eyes flashed with excitement.

“And now, Lady Meara, have you been a good girl?” he demanded, trying to look severe.

She nodded vigorously and gave him a cheeky curtsey accompanied with a wide, happy smile, then closed her eyes with exaggerated vigor and put out her hands. It was a ritual with them. He was now supposed to present her with a trinket from his trip.

He reached in his pocket and pulled out the jewelry box, clasping a tiny pearl bracelet about her wrist. Then he took out the matching necklace and looped it about her neck, fumbling with the catch.

This was the first jewelry he’d ever given Meara. Tonight at dinner he’d give Amber a matching set of pearls—a first from him to her, as well. He and Meara were going to get Amber’s wedding ring after breakfast. He also wanted her to have her own betrothal ring. There was so much sadness attached to the Adair betrothal ring. His mother had worn it, then it had been Iris’s. He didn’t want it for Amber. This was their new life and he wanted nothing of the past to haunt them.

“Right-o, little one,” he said, having mastered the clasp. “You can look now!”

Meara looked at her wrist, then ducked her chin to her chest so she could see the pearls around her neck. Then she looked up, happily, a question in her gaze. “Oh, Da. ’Cause I’m a big girl now?”

Meara was again the picture of health, thank the good Lord. She had roses in her cheeks. Her eyes, the exact color of his father’s, sparkled in the bright morning light. When last he’d seen her, she’d been pale and thin after the ravages of the fever that had almost taken them both.

He remembered lying in bed on the ship, burning up with fever and asking God why, but now he knew. His suffering had not been in vain because through it God had given him a sprite of a woman to make his life and his daughter’s complete.

That perfect mate waited nervously in their suite to meet her new daughter. And Mimm! Remembering that his substitute mother was still waiting, he turned from Meara and lifted Mimm to the ground. She was a bit taller than Amber, her silver-gray hair covered by a cotton sunbonnet. Her eyes were the palest of blue and her stout, compact body encased one of the largest
hearts in creation. She habitually wore navy skirts, snowy-white blouses with lace collars and sensible half-boots. She called it her uniform, but he made sure only the best materials were used in everything she ordered.

“So, it’s to a palace you brought the girl,” Mimm said as they entered the lobby. “I suppose she’ll be the type to expect such.”

“Of course we’re to stay in a palace,” Meara said. “I’m my da’s princess.” She waved her pearl-decorated wrist about then giggled, clearly not understanding the meaning of Mimm’s comment.

Holding Meara’s hand, he dropped his free arm around Mimm’s shoulders, relishing the surprise Amber was going to be for both of them. “You are in for such a treat and that’s all I’m going to tell you,” he whispered to her.

He led them to the elevator and ushered them inside. Meara, putting on a comical face, looked up at him and pointed to Mimm.

He glanced at the older woman. Her face looked set in stone. “This is the newest and perhaps the smoothest elevator in the world,” he told her. “You’ll hardly know we’re moving. I promise.”

“Don’t you try to reassure me,” Mimm snapped. “You know I don’t like these contraptions. There’s nothing wrong with stairs and more wrong than I can say with riding in a cage hundreds of feet from the ground. Folks these days are just plain lazy.”

“Seven stories of stairs would be tiring, even for you. And we have quite a day ahead so we don’t want to wear you out so early.”

They stepped off the elevator a few moments later and he steered them toward their door. But he stopped at the doorway, squatting down to Meara’s level again,
and said, “I have another surprise for you inside. There is a young lady in there I want you to meet. I met her on the voyage here. And I married her.”

Meara gasped. “You mean I have a mum now! A real live mum who’ll hug me and read to me and…and…”

“Oh, child, don’t go thinking—” Mimm began.

“Actually,” Jamie interrupted, knowing Mimm expected someone completely unlike Amber, “she’ll probably do all that and more. She loves children. In fact, she went through school all the way to college. She’s a very well-qualified teacher. I expect her to make quite a bluestocking of you, my dear. Now come, both of you. And keep an open mind,” he whispered into Mimm’s ear.

Oh, this was going to be quite a good time. He had to stop himself from rubbing his hands together in anticipation. Amber was going to shock Mimm down to her toes.

Thank God she was as completely different from Iris as could be. But then he opened the door and watched Amber pop to her feet, wringing her hands. He was drawn to her, wanting to comfort her and alleviate her worry. He glanced down at Meara, who nearly vibrated with excitement while Amber looked as if she was about to faint.

Decision made, Jamie rushed ahead and put his arm around his sweet young wife, then turned back toward the doorway. “This is my new wife, Amber. Amber, these lovely ladies are my daughter, Meara, and—”

“And you must be Mimm,” Amber jumped in, then hurried out of his arms and toward them. She held one hand to Meara and one to Mimm. Jamie followed.

Meara, friendly as a puppy, giggled and, while holding Amber’s hand with both of hers, said, “We
call
her
Mimm, but she isn’t
really
Mimm. She is really Mrs. Miriam Trimble. You are quite silly, aren’t you?”

“Meara!” both he and Mimm gasped.

Amber, her creamy complexion flushed rosy, shook her head and said, “No. No. She’s quite right. I am so sorry, ma’am. I shouldn’t have interrupted Jamie and been so familiar as to call you by their pet name for you. I’ve just been so excited to meet you both and sometimes when I get excited I speak before I think.”

“I do, too,” Meara said, still a bit deflated.

And Mimm smiled warmly. Clearly she saw a new, uncertain chick in the nest and swept Amber under the safety of her wing in less than a second. “Me name actually
is
Miriam Trimble. Learnin’ to talk as he was when I came to the Earl’s home, me lamb couldn’t say that mouthful. Mrs. Trimble come out Mimm. And fine by me it were. And ’tis fine for you, as well. I scarcely remember the other name now that Mr. Trimble is passed on and I am full-time again with his lordship and o’ course Lady Meara.”

Mimm held out her hand to the new Countess Adair. She couldn’t believe this was the woman Jamie had picked as his wife. She wasn’t a thing like that greedy temperamental Iris, the former countess. And certainly nothing like that Helena Conwell who’d had Jamie’s head all mucked up and his heart all a-twitter. She’d come to the New York house with her father a few days before the poor man was murdered. Mimm had noticed the cool way she’d treated Jamie. She hadn’t even been able to look at little Meara without taking a step backward. Jamie said it was terrible nerves and youth that was wrong with her, though, having never before been
out in society. But she’d dressed the same as Iris had. Expensive.

Wearing a simple day dress of green sprigged muslin, Amber’s hair was wrapped in a shining coronet of braids, her face as fresh as spring. If Miriam Trimble hadn’t lost her touch at sizing people up, this one was everything the previous countess hadn’t been.

Amber sat in a chair and called Meara over to her. “Tell me what you do with your time, Lady Meara,” she said, her voice as sweet as her smile.

“I ride my pony,” Meara said, beaming at the special attention. “And Mimm found me a painting teacher. She says I’m very good. Mimm tried to teach me to do stitching like this.” She pointed to the sprigs on Lady Amber’s muslin dress. “But I’m not so good. I pricked my finger and I cried.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. You’ll get better at it as you grow. My aunt taught me.”

“Didn’t your mother teach you?”

“No, she died when I was six of a fever and I was rather clumsy with small things like a needle back then. My da died at the same time. My brothers, too.”

Little Meara’s eyes opened wide. “Oh! So you was all orphaned and everything?”

“Yes, but my aunt and uncle took me in and raised me. They were wonderful to me. I was ten when my aunt taught me stitching. This material was plain muslin when I bought it, but I wanted it to be fancier so I embroidered it. Though I think Mrs. Trimble is more likely better at needlework than I am, I can help you learn anytime you want. Would you like that?”

Meara nodded vigorously.

“Princess, would you like to have breakfast with
me?” Jamie put in. “There’s quite the fancy dining room down near the lobby. We can let Mimm and Amber get to know each other. Amber, perhaps you could tell Mimm how we met and I will tell you, Meara, all about how Amber took such good care of me when I was sick with your fever.”

Mimm could only stare. He’d gotten that awful fever? Then Meara asked, “Was you sick as me was?”

“As
I
was, princess,” Jamie corrected.

“You just said you was sick,” Meara said, clearly puzzled. Then her thoughts must have turned where they often were—on food. “I want flapjacks. Do they have ’em?” she asked.

“They’d better,” Jamie answered and smiled at her. “That is all I’ve thought of since waking this morning. I believe my stomach will revolt if I have to settle for anything less. And afterward you can help me with an important errand. How does that sound?”

“Is it a secret important errand?” Meara asked with great anticipation in her winsome voice.

Jamie, ever the attentive da, stooped to her level again. “A great secret. And you must keep it for me until I say you’re allowed to say where we’ve been.”

“Yes! Oh, I love secrets,” Meara said, her little body vibrating with excitement. “And I can keep them, too, can’t I, Mimm?”

“Oh, yes, indeed,” Mimm agreed, hoping Meara wouldn’t need to keep this secret for long. She was better, but not completely discreet yet. That was why she’d misdirected her attention back in Cape May when she’d thought her father had come to visit. And it was why she hadn’t explained but to say bad weather approached as the reason they’d suddenly left for San
Francisco. She couldn’t have told Meara the truth and not had her mention it to Jamie. Mimm hoped and prayed Alexander wouldn’t track them here because Jamie didn’t see his cousin for what Mimm feared he was—a wolf in sheep’s clothing. If he did show up Mimm was in for a tongue lashing from Jamie. He’d told her he forgave Alexander for the fight they’d had and wouldn’t hear of her poisoning Meara’s mind against the man. But he’d never said she had to give him free access to the child or to Jamie for that matter.

“Then with your oath of silence given,” Jamie was saying, “I think we should be off. We’ll see you ladies later. And I’ll check on the picnic basket before we return. Your breakfast should be here at any moment. I ordered it just before our carriage arrived. We will see you both about noon.”

“I’m so sorry,” Amber said the moment the door closed behind Jamie and Meara.

“What are you apologizing for, lovie?”

“For the shock of…of all this. There was no way to inform you about our marriage before we arrived in the city and Jamie shouldn’t have just written a note and left it for you. He should have waited at the house for you to return, but he was concerned I’d worry if he was gone too long.” Amber shrugged her delicate shoulders. “I confess I probably would have.”

“He said you cared for my lamb when he took sick. Is that how you met? And just how sick was he?”

Amber nearly laughed at the thought of her big strong husband owning a pet name like
my lamb.
With Mimm obviously so emotionally tied to Jamie, Amber hesitated to go into how sick he’d been. But Jamie
had
said to tell Mimm so Amber gave the older woman the highlights of his illness and the reason why they’d married. It went without saying that she left out the part about how they’d consummated their marriage and who Jamie had thought she was when he’d married her. Some things were just too personal or humiliating to repeat. Ever. This was both of those things.