Rebecca Hagan Lee - [Borrowed Brides 01] (11 page)

He looked at the clock once again. Two more hours. Two more hours to wait. He began sorting of his mail, determined to complete the task without interruption.

A cream-colored vellum envelope caught his eye. He studied the handwriting and the return address. Senator Darcy’s office. The senator was head of the Appropriations Committee and who was sponsoring several bills regulating the uses of the open range in the Wyoming Territory.

Reese ripped open the envelope. How long had it been buried under the pile of paperwork on his desk? Damn, he thought, of all the times for this to happen. Inside the envelope was an invitation to a New Year’s Eve reception and dance at the senator’s residence. He glanced at the date on the invitation and then checked the desk calendar. Tonight. And Faith Collins was arriving in two hours.

Reese paced between the desk and the window for several minutes, thinking, planning, calculating. He smiled as he thought of a way to turn the situation to his advantage. The reception started at nine. That should give him adequate time to get her ready.

He grabbed his hat and coat, pulled on his gloves, and hurried out of the suite.

* * *

The train whistled sounded shrilly, as the iron monster pulled into the Union Station.

David Alexander rose from his seat, stretched his arms, and reached for the sleeping child lying across the laps of the two women in the seat across from him. “I’ll carry her,” he told them, “You, ladies, have held her for hours. You must be tired.”

Tempy lifted Joy from across Faith’s lap and handed her to David. She was stiff and numb from the weight of Joy’s legs and she knew Faith was just as stiff. Joy’s head had rested across Faith’s arm and in her lap for the better part of the journey. “Thank you, Mr. Alexander.” Tempy was grateful for the relief.

Faith nodded in agreement. “My limbs are numb,” she said, stretching her legs in front of her. She bit her lip against the painful tingling in her arm and legs.

“Take your time, ladies. Reese is supposed to meet us. I’ll take Joy on out to the carriage and come back for you.” David made his way down the aisle, five-year-old, Joy Collins following sleepily behind him.

Reese spotted David as soon as he exited the train. He jumped down from the carriage and hurried to meet him. “Where is she?”

“Still on the train,” David told him. “I took Joy to give them a minute to stretch their legs in privacy. She’s been sleeping in their laps for over half the trip.” David smiled down at the little girl.

“Ladies? How many did you bring with you?” Reese knew a moment of panic. Suppose the others couldn’t bear to be parted from Faith? What would he do with all those women in tow?

“Just one of her aunts. Relax, Reese. We need someone to witness the agreement. And I thought Mrs. Collins would be more comfortable with one of her relatives. And one of her trusted aunts is less likely to talk to strangers about this scheme,” David explained.

Reese sighed in relief and held his arms out to take the child. “Give her to me. I’ll hold her while you go back for the ladies.”

David handed Joy over to Reese and went back to the train to help Faith and Tempy with their belongings.

Reese studied the child he held. Her hair was different from her mother’s. It was blond and curly, almost white. Her nose was smaller, too, turned up at the end where Faith’s was slim and elegant. But the bone structure was essentially the same. One was pale, one was dark, like a photograph and its negative, but anyone could see the likeness.

Joy squirmed in his arms and yawned. Reese stared at her eyes. They were gray. Identical in color and shape to Faith Collins’ eyes.

Joy looked up at the stranger. She struggled to sit up and Reese shifted his arms to accommodate her wiggling. Her legs locked around his waist and she anchored her arms around his neck. A brush of moisture touched his neck. A red mitten covered her right hand, but its mate dangled across Reese’s chest from a cord sewn to the right mitten. Reese reached up and pulled her right hand from around his neck. Her thumb was red and swollen and wet.

Something tightened in his chest as he smiled at Faith Collins’s little girl. “You must be Joy.”

Joy nodded shyly. “Who are you?”

“My name is Reese.”

“Weese,” Joy repeated, then looked up at him with those solemn gray eyes. “Where’s Faith? Where’s Aunt Tempy?”

Faith stepped down from the train and hurried across the platform. She searched the crowd for several seconds before she spotted Reese Jordan holding Joy. Her heart pounded painfully in her chest and her breath seemed to catch in her throat as she hurried across the platform. She stopped in her tracks and stared at the sight.

Tempy halted behind her niece. “Faith, what is it?” She was alarmed. Faith had stopped so suddenly.

Faith didn’t answer. She stood rooted to the spot, unable or unwilling, to move. She caught her breath as Reese held a tiny red mitten by its cuff while Joy slipped her hand inside.

Tempy followed her niece’s gaze. A tall, handsome man in a black overcoat stood next to a carriage. He held Joy in his arms.

David Alexander moved to stand next to Temperance. He was followed by a porter. “There’s Reese,” he said, waving his hat to catch the other man’s attention.

“So, that’s Reese Jordan,” Tempy murmured. “Come along, Faith.” Tempy grabbed her niece’s elbow and propelled her forward along the sidewalk. “I want to meet this Mr. Jordan.” She glanced at Faith. Her niece’s cheeks were a very becoming shade of pink. Tempy frowned. Her own heart raced a tiny bit faster at the sight of him. The man was definitely a handsome scoundrel. She picked up the pace, taking longer steps, until they stood directly in front of Reese Jordan.

“There she is,” Joy announced to the man holding her. “There’s Faith and my Aunt Tempy.”

Reese looked down.

Faith looked up.

Their eyes met.

She was pale, her black dress was crushed, the front of it hopelessly wrinkled, several strands of hair hung down to her shoulders and a doll was pressed against her breast. There were purple shadows beneath her eyes, but her cheeks were a lively shade of pink, and her mouth, where she had bitten her bottom lip, was a swollen, pouting red.

Reese cleared his throat and quickly turned his attention to the other woman. She was short and slim, like her niece. There was a definite family resemblance, even her eyes were gray, like Faith’s and Joy’s, but the hair peeking out from beneath her black bonnet was a lively shade of red. He smiled at her and his body relaxed.

David made the introductions. “Miss Temperance Hamilton, may I present my cousin and employer, Mr. Reese Jordan.”

Reese shifted Joy onto his left arm and extended his right hand. “It’s a pleasure, ma’am.” Reese was surprised when the warm greeting sprang from his lips. He had been prepared to dislike Faith Collins’s aunt on sight.

“Yes,” Tempy told him, taking his offered hand, “I think it just might be, Mr. Jordan.” Her gray eyes were completely candid and Reese knew instinctively she had been equally prepared to dislike him. Tempy smiled back and unlike, Faith, who stood stiff and tense at her side, Tempy relaxed.

“Let’s get out of the cold.” David suggested, taking control of the situation. He ushered Temperance and Faith into the carriage then climbed in after them. He took Joy from Reese’s arms and waited while his cousin sat down on the seat next to him. Joy wriggled her way between the two men and leaned her head against Reese’s arm.

“Back to the hotel, Murray!” Reese shouted to his driver as the carriage rolled away from the station and onto the busy street.

They arrived at the Madison Hotel thirty minutes later. Reese had reserved the two-bedroom Vice Presidential Suite for Faith and Joy. Their dinner sat waiting to be eaten.

He had ordered a bath for Faith. A brass tub filled with water stood in the center of the dressing room. Steam danced along the surface of the water, then drifted toward the high, plaster, ceiling. A hotel maid waited in a chair next to the tub. She told Faith and Temperance she had been hired for the evening. She was to help Faith dress.

“Dress?” Faith was astonished. “For what?”

“We’re going to a New Year’s ball,” Reese Jordan said. He stood just inside the dressing room door. His back rested against the door frame, his long, legs crossed at the ankles, his arms folded over his chest.

Faith and Temperance turned in unison to stare at him. Faith sucked in her breath at his intrusion, while Tempy gasped at the sheer audacity of the man.

“What did you say?” Faith demanded as soon as she was able to speak.

“I said you and I are going to a New Year’s Eve ball at Senator Darcy’s residence.” He walked over to Faith and lifted her chin with the tip of his finger. His chocolate-brown eyes bored into hers.

Faith thought he was going to kiss her right there in front of Tempy, Joy, and the hired maid. Her eyes closed of their own volition, while her face tilted up a bit more.

“Your bathwater is getting cold.” He let go of her chin and stepped back. “Hurry up. I don’t like to be late.”

Reese turned and walked back to the door.

“I don’t care what you like,” Faith shot back at him, angry at herself for thinking he had feelings. “I haven’t signed any contract. You don’t own me.”

He stopped dead in his tracks.

Faith stood her ground.

The tension was so thick she could feel it. It hung like a storm cloud in the air, energy crackling. Joy bit her lip at the sound of Faith’s angry voice and started to cry. Tempy took Joy’s hand and beat a hasty retreat into the bedroom. The hired maid followed closely behind her.

Reese turned to face Faith, his right eyebrow raised in disbelief. “You’ve signed one. And in addition to that, there is the tiny matter of Christmas and a bank draft.”

“I didn’t ask you to send Christmas gifts.”

“But you did ask me to send money to the Bank of Virginia in your name, if I recall correctly. I have your telegram on my desk.” His normally husky voice was clipped and cutting. He was every inch an aristocrat. As aristocratic as any Virginia planter. “How long do you think it will take you to pay back a salary advance of three thousand dollars? Nine months? A year?”

Faith’s eyes widened with shock at his words. He would be cruel enough to remind her of the job she’d been hired to do.

“Unless, you have three thousand dollars to spare, Mrs. Collins, I suggest you hop into the bath.”

Faith hated him then, for forcing her to face her obligation. She glared up at him, her clear gray eyes as sharp as steel.

Reese gave her his most charming, endearing smile. The smile guaranteed to melt the heart of any number of hostile women. “It’s a party, Faith, we’ll enjoy ourselves.” He felt like a heel for forcing her to attend the ball with him, but how was he going to get someone else at this late date? He wasn’t about to change his plans. “How long has it been since you’ve been to a party?” He opened the door, then checked his watch. “You have exactly one hour.”

One hour. She cursed him under her breath as she stepped into the hot water. She cursed him as she quickly bathed when she would rather have soaked out the aches and pains of the long train ride. And she cursed him for making her attend a New Year’s Eve party when she only had one night left to spend with Tempy. Faith rubbed the sponge over her body with vicious force. He wanted her to attend a party in Washington—a Yankee party in the home of a Yankee senator.

She would stick out like a sore thumb, and she wasn’t in the mood for further embarrassment or humiliation. She didn’t have anything to wear except the black dress she’d just taken off. Was he planning on conjuring up a dress out of thin air? She rinsed the soap from her skin. Leave it to a man like Reese Jordan to overlook such important details—like wedding bands and evening gowns.

“Have the fireworks ended?” Tempy peeked inside the dressing room in time to catch her niece wrapping a towel around her damp body.

Faith nodded, but didn’t answer, nor did she look at Temperance.

“I gave Joy her supper and left her playing in our bedroom. I thought I would take a hot bath when you finish dressing, then crawl into bed. Such luxury!” Tempy sighed dramatically. “I’d forgotten how good it felt to have a maid do everything for me. I could get used to it. I guess it’s a good thing I’m going home tomorrow.”

Faith raised her head and met Tempy’s smiling gray eyes. Her own eyes shimmered with unshed tears. She felt very fragile all of the sudden, very alone. “I wanted to spend this evening with you, Aunt Tempy. Our last evening together.”

“I know you did, my dear, but perhaps, it’s better this way. I don’t want you to go to Wyoming with swollen eyes because we sat up all night crying. Go to this party and tell me all about it in the morning.”

“I don’t want to be humiliated. What am I supposed to wear, Aunt Tempy, my shift?” The words came out in a rush.

“Oh, no, Faith.” Tempy’s soft voice quavered with excitement. “Wait until you see it. It’s beautiful! You’ll look just like a princess. I’ll be able to keep the girls entertained for months by telling them about it.”

“About what, Aunt Tempy?”

“Your ball gown. Faith, darling, Mr. Jordan bought you a ball gown. It’s lying across the bed in your room and it’s perfect for you. The dressmaker had one made up. She’s in the sitting room waiting for alterations. I couldn’t stand it any longer. I had to come in and get you!” Tempy couldn’t contain her enthusiasm. She handed Faith a cotton robe. “Hurry.”

Faith shivered in the cool air as she followed her aunt into the sitting room.

“Come here, my dear.” The seamstress motioned to Faith. “It’s warmer next to the fire.” She held out her hand. “I’m Madame LeClerc. Here are your underthings. Let’s get you dressed. Monsieur Jordan is not a patient man.”

Faith started to protest, but Tempy gave her a warning glance.

A mound of clothing was stacked on the sofa next to the dressmaker. The maid took the top garment from the pile and held it out for Faith. She stepped into pantalets were shorter than the ones she usually wore. The silk, smooth and soft against her legs and buttocks, was decorated with French lace.