Rebel Enchantress (22 page)

“I don’t know” she finally answered. “I don’t want anybody to get hurt. I guess I would do just about anything if I thought it would prevent a battle.”

“Pack your things and be out of this house within the hour” Serena ordered. “I won’t have a traitor staying under my roof.”

“I don’t know why I must continually remind you that it is
my
roof.” Nathan’s voice was quiet, the deadly quiet Delilah had learned to distrust.

“But she admitted she would spy on us.”

“No, just pass on information. It’s only reasonable to expect her to protect her brother. If I were part of her family, I hope she would feel the same way about me.”

Delilah didn’t dare look at Nathan, not under Serena’s eagle-eyed glare. She didn’t know what he meant by those words. Maybe she placed too much hope in things spoken as an ordinary part of conversation. But something in Nathan’s voice had sounded new, unfamiliar. She couldn’t identify it just yet.

“You’ll never learn anything about taking care of your own, will you?” Serena asked, spots of rage on her sallow cheeks. “Let a female smile at you, and you invite her to sit down with us for dinner. Let her tell you she plans to carry information to the enemy, and you say it’s only natural she should want to protect her family. What are you going to say when they come in here demanding we empty our storehouses for them?”

“No one is going to threaten Maple Hill. If you feel unsafe here, maybe you and Priscilla would like to go to Boston for a visit.”

“And leave you here to be preyed upon by this brazen hussy?”

“If you refer to Miss Stowbridge as a hussy again, you will leave this house whether you have anywhere to go or not. As for Boston, Priscilla and I talked about it last night. She would like a chance to visit her friends. She feels confined here.”

“Priscilla will feel as I tell her to feel” Serena declared. “We’re not moving a foot from Maple Hill. Any friends she wants to see will have to come here.”

“Why don’t you make up a list of those you wish to invite?” Nathan said. “I’ll be in the library if you wish to discuss it. Delilah, don’t forget our appointment at ten.”

“Appointment?” Serena demanded, apparently having forgotten about the past night’s occurrences. “If it’s about the household, she should go to Lester and he will come to me.”

“It has nothing to do with the house,” Nathan told his aunt, “so you need not put yourself about.”

Serena continued to protest, but as Nathan left the room without answering her and Delilah made her escape while she could, she was left with no one to listen to her except Priscilla.

“What do you mean by telling Nathan you’d like to go to Boston?” her mother demanded. “If I were to leave now, there’s no telling what that girl would get up to. Your cousin is no more able to take care of himself than a young colt.”

Priscilla came out of her abstraction with a snap. “The sooner you get over the idea Nathan is impressionable, or that you have any influence over what he does, the quicker you’ll see what’s really going on around here.” Her voice was still wispy, but the hard glint in her eyes gave the lie to the fiction that she was a silly, half-witted female.

Serena looked startled. “If you would only marry him, everything would be all right.”

“Nathan doesn’t want to marry me.”

“But he’s not clever. Surely you could entice him into–”

“When will you realize Nathan is as strong minded and astute as Uncle Ezra was. Maybe more so. No one is going to
entice
him into anything, except maybe Delilah.”

“That female! If I had my way–”

“You’d do something stupid and Nathan would throw us out. No matter what happens, leave her alone. I’m working on getting what I can for both of us. Don’t get in my way.” Priscilla threw down her napkin and stood up.

“But I don’t understand …” Serena no longer looked like a virago. She seemed confused and frightened.

Priscilla’s eyes softened. “You never did, Mother. Not your husband or your brother. You never understood then at all.”

Nathan stopped to consider whether he should light a fire, but the autumn days had remained much warmer than in England. Too, he had discovered that a wood house wasn’t so cold as one made of stone. He resisted the temptation to open the windows and allow the crisp, refreshing breeze to blow through the library, but he positioned his chair so he could see the changing fall panorama as he sat at his desk. After spending nearly every day of his life in London, he found himself fascinated by the limitless space, the pervasive quiet, and the unequaled beauty of the changing hillsides. It might not be such a terrible thing if he couldn’t return to London. He might be able to get used to living in Massachusetts.

As long as Delilah is with me.

The thought had not been in his head before, but here it was, just like that. What more proof could he want that her hold over him had become more than a painful longing to claim her body. He had developed a strong interest in her, and that meant he wouldn’t be satisfied with a few tumbles in the hay.

But then he had always known Delilah wouldn’t accept that kind of relationship. It might be common practice in England, especially when the man was a wealthy aristocrat and the woman a servant, but both his aunt and uncle had been at pains to inform his parents, frequently and at great length, of the differences between the colonists’ morals and those of decadent, sinful, merry old England. In Massachusetts, a servant girl could be ruined just as surely as a lord’s daughter.

A healthy young man naturally desired a beautiful young woman. It was natural he should think of her often when she worked in his household. But it was also natural for him to realize that if he had any real feelings for the girl, he couldn’t use her and discard her afterward. Nathan had begun to think about a different kind of relationship. He found himself looking for a way to keep Delilah with him.

He was standing at the window overlooking the garden when Delilah entered the library. The light blinded her to this features, but the perfection of his silhouette hit her like a broadside. If I start thinking about his body, I’ll never make any sense, Delilah told herself. He’s asked me to offer advice. If I can’t come up with anything that makes sense, everything I’ve said loses its value.

“I’m glad to see you remembered,” Nathan said as he turned toward her.

“I almost didn’t come,” Delilah replied, a tiny smile on her lips. “Your aunt is on the stairs, looking so fierce I nearly backed out.”

“Really?” Nathan said, pulling one of the Windsor chairs near his desk.

“I was tempted. It’s never pleasant to have your employer angry at you.”

“I’m your employer, and I’m not angry.”

Delilah swallowed. “You know what I mean.”

“I do, but I think it is time I rectified a mistake I made at the very beginning.”

“That’s for you to settle with your aunt,” Delilah said, dropping her gaze to the papers Nathan handed her. “You asked me here to discuss a different matter.”

“Quite so,” Nathan said, smiling at her determination to stick to business. It was good that one of them could. His thoughts kept getting sidetracked by her lips. He didn’t know why he hadn’t noticed them before. He should have. They were the most inviting, kissable lips he had ever seen. They could almost make him forget the inviting mound of her bosom. Almost, but not quite. Nothing could do that when he was standing above her and his line of vision included more of her tempting flesh than he’d ever seen before.

This is a list of the farmers, merchants, and townspeople who owe me the most money. I want your advice, most particularly about the farmers. I included the others in case you had any thoughts that might be of help.”

“What’s Hector Clayhart’s name doing on this list?” Delilah asked, surprised. “His inheritance ought to make him one of the biggest of the River Gods.”

Nathan didn’t blink at her unconscious use of the derogatory phrase. “His father let everything go during the war. Then he had to borrow money from my uncle to keep up his style of living. His debts will keep Hector poor for years.”

Delilah shrugged fatalistically. “Hell hate that. “He’ll surprised he hasn’t abandoned the whole thing.” She turned back to the list. “I see George Morton’s on here, too,” she said with a slight sniff. When Nathan raised his eyebrows in a questioning look, she added, “If he could keep his wife from spending twice her allowance every month and his son from gambling away a fortune while he’s at Cambridge, he could pay you back within two or three years. He’s the most sought-after lawyer in Springfield.”

“I thought you wanted to help the farmers.”

“I do,” Delilah said with a quick, guilty smile. “I guess I was just being nosy. Anyway, it’s not going to be as easy for them. They don’t have much they can do without. And don’t say I already told you so.”

“Take your time. I’ve got plenty of work to do.”

Nathan seated himself at his desk, his profile easily in the range of Delilah’s peripheral vision. This would never work. As long as she could see him, she couldn’t keep her mind on the list. She fidgeted in her chair.

“Is anything wrong?” he asked.

“I need more light.” She got up and went over to the window. This is better.” She had her back to him. It was much better.

But that didn’t help as much as she had hoped. Nathan’s presence was so pervasive she could only see things as they related to him. The view to the river was gorgeous because it was one she shared with him each day. The library on the first floor, his bedroom on the second, and her room on the third, all looked out over the same piece of lawn, the same stretch of river, the same distant hillside resplendent with fall colors.

She forced her mind back to the list. Henry Wheaton’s name came first. His debt must be the equivalent of the whole farm. Poor Henry. He seemed to be perpetually dogged by bad luck. His only good luck had come when he’d married Emma.

Ebenezer Gardner was just plain lazy. Delilah doubted she could suggest anything to help him.

Isaac Yates, Andrew Russell, Gilbert Eells, all good men who’d fought in the War of Independence, all with so little to show for years of hard work. Where was the inheritance they had fought to hand down to their sons and daughters? They faced perpetual debt, the disgrace of prison, the hardship of selling up and going to the western lands to start all over again. It wasn’t right, not after they’d given years of their lives to win the war. Delilah had finally admitted Nathan couldn’t be held responsible for their plight; still, somebody ought to be.

But what could she do? What could Nathan do? They were only two people. And she couldn’t help wondering about him.

He intended to keep what was his, but he resisted the tyrannical suggestions of those who had much less at stake. He had gathered the reins of his household and properties into his own hands, but he hadn’t let this power blind him to the rights of those with less of the world’s goods.

He wasn’t like anybody she had ever known.

Chapter Thirteen

“Are you ready?” Nathan’s question brought Delilah out of her abstraction.

“I don’t know,” she said, turning away from the window. “I don’t have any suggestions for half of these people.”

“Then we can begin with the other half.”

If he was going to smile at her like that, she would forget the few ideas she did have. She seated herself on the chair and concentrated on her list.

“You’ll never get any money out of Henry Wheaton, but you might get some from his wife.”

“How?”

“You buy a lot of flax, and Emma Wheaton is the best spinner in Springfield. She might spin for you if you ask. And she has three daughters at home who can help.”

“It’ll take quite a while. The debt is rather large.”

“Emma will do steady work. It’s Henry you can’t count on. When you talk to them, you’ll have to talk to Henry. Emma won’t disgrace her husband by assuming his place, but make sure she’s there when you make the arrangements. Henry won’t know if she can do one spindle a week or a dozen.”

Nathan made some notes in one of his ledgers. “Who’s next?”

“Ebenezer Gardner’s so lazy he probably wouldn’t lift a finger to feed himself.”

“Then how can I get anything from him?”

“Through his wife, Anna. If she can talk Ebenezer into letting their son Jonas take over the farm, you’ll get your money.”

“And if he won’t agree?”

“Foreclose and hire Jonas to work the farm with the understanding it reverts to him as soon as the debt’s paid off.”

Isn’t that a little hard on Ebenezer?”

“Jonas would take care of his parents. Besides, I don’t have patience with people who are too lazy to try. Anyway, Jonas has been wanting to marry Dorothy Price for more than a year now. He could do it if he had a farm.”

“What about Andrew Russell?”

“I don’t know. Did Gilbert Eells have any surplus crops this year?”

“Yes.”

“He always grows more than he needs and then runs up a credit with Noah Hubbard. You could take some of his credit and force Noah to give you hard money for it.”

“I already thought of that,” Nathan said with a grin which almost made Delilah lose her train of thought.

“It might help if people see that you’re not totally against the farmers.”

“I’m not against anybody” Nathan said. “I just want what’s mine.”

“That may be, but as long as you’re collecting debts, you’ll be lumped with all the other debt collectors.”

“I’m depending on you to see that doesn’t happen.”

“How?”

“By helping me find alternatives. If they see I’ll only confiscate their property as a last resort, that I’ll even help them get ahead if it will help the at the same time, maybe it’ll stop some of this trouble.”

“Why should you care what happens here? I thought you were going back to London.”

“I may not. Several of my family found they preferred Massachusetts to London. Maybe I’m finding the same thing.”

His gaze was so penetrating, so unwavering, it made Delilah feel warm.