Rebel Enchantress (27 page)

“I didn’t do anything to her,” Delilah said, unable to hide her resentment at Priscilla’s automatic assumption.

“If it wasn’t you, it must have been Nathan.”

Delilah felt an almost overmastering desire to tell Priscilla just exactly where the fault lay, but she decided such a tactic would achieve nothing.

“Shays dosed the Supreme Court today,” Delilah began, trying to keep the exasperation out of her voice, “and everybody came here. Serena tried to turn them against Nathan by showing them some sketches she said he’d done. She got very upset when I said I did them.”

“Did you?”

Delilah’s gaze didn’t waver. “I proved it by doing a sketch of your mother”

“I don’t imagine it was very nice”

“She hasn’t been very nice to me. She was particularly unkind tonight. She got upset when the men didn’t believe her, but I think what upset her most was Nathan’s saying he would cut her off without a penny if she did anything like that again”

“The bastard” Priscilla let out a furious hiss. The bloody, stinking bastard.”

Delilah had decided that Priscilla was not nearly so sweet and helpless as she tried to appear, but the chiseled look of rage on the young woman’s face shocked her.

“Why can’t he just bloody well leave her alone?”

“Serena attacked him in front of his friends. She tried to turn them against him by showing them those pictures.”

“Where did she find them?”

“In Nathan’s room.”

“You mean she …” She turned back to her mother.

“Nathan was livid.”

“I suppose he was.”

“Why does she hate him so much? She’s always saying something cruel or trying to discredit him. She even said something about his mother one time. I thought he was going to strike her then.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know,” Priscilla said.

“Would it explain why the bottom of her wardrobe is filled with empty brandy bottles?”

“By God, you’ve been snooping”

“I was looking for her robe.”

“Does Nathan know about the bottles?”

“No”

“Do you plan to tell him?”

“That depends on your explanation.”

“And if I don’t explain?”

“Your mother’s growing more out of control every day. Whether I tell him in a way that will protect Serena or he learns it in a way that will put her in a very bad light is up to you”

“Why are you doing this?”

This was no time to dissemble. Priscilla knew Delilah had a personal interest in protecting Nathan, but maybe they could work together instead of against each other.

“I doubt you’ll believe this, but I feel sorry for your mother. She’s obviously miserable. I’ve had enough unhappiness in my own life not to wish it on anyone”

“And Nathan?”

“That’s not so easy to answer.”

“Try. I imagine it’ll be interesting if nothing else.”

Delilah didn’t like exposing her most private thoughts to anyone, especially Priscilla, but she decided only candor would serve at this point.

“Part of it is guilt. When I came here, I disliked and distrusted him as much as anyone. And I made no effort to hide it. I blush to think of some of the things I said. I even meant to spy on him. Nathan knew all this, and_ he still shielded me from your mother’s ill treatment. He even tried to ease the shame of my position by providing me with nice dothes and inviting me to dine with you occasionally.”

“So much for your conscience” Priscilla’s tone was bitingly cynical. “Now why are you really doing this?”

“Because I admire him very much.” Delilah took a deep breath. “And I like him even more than that.”

“Now we get to the crux of the matter. The little serving girl wants to play Cinderella, to move from deaning the grates to being mistress of the castle.”

“Of course I would like to marry someone rich and handsome like Nathan, what girl doesn’t dream of something like that happening to her, but I’m no fool. I don’t know anything about London or the kind of life he’s used to leading. I could make a fool of myself and not know why”

“Do you think he’s interested in you?”

“Yes, but partly because most of the people here won’t have anything to do with him. I know I’m pretty, but there are prettier girls in Boston and Providence, especially London. And that’s where he’s likely to go when all this is over and he gets his money.”

“Are you in love with him?”

Delilah was not too taken up with her own thoughts to hear that Priscilla’s tone of voice had become halfway sympathetic.

“I don’t know I’m so bewildered I hardly know what I feel. I never thought anything like this would happen to me. I dreamed of a Prince Charming, but Nathan is real’ She shivered. Then tonight, when your mother was wandering about the hall, he came out of his room in nothing but a thin shirt. Open at the throat. I nearly forgot about your mother”

Priscilla frowned. “Nathan saw Mother?”

“He carried her in here. I couldn’t control her. She fought me.”

“Did he say anything?”

Quite a lot but nothing I’m going to tell you.
“He wondered why you weren’t home.”

Now it was Priscilla’s turn to feel uncomfortable, but she didn’t seem very concerned about what Delilah might think of her.

“I was visiting a friend.”

“I don’t think Nathan realizes how often you visit this friend.”

“I don’t care whether he knows or not” Priscilla was defiant.

Go slowly. There’s something her you can't see just yd.

“But I will tell you why my mother acts the way she does. I don’t think it would change how Nathan feels about her, but you may feel differently”

“Don’t judge him before you give him a chance. I did that, and I was very wrong.”

Priscilla didn’t look convinced, but she let the statement pass.

“My mother married Abner Noyes when she thought she was too old to attract a man any longer.”

“But your mother must have been very pretty when she was younger”

“I don’t know why she felt like that; she just did,” Priscilla continued. Mother didn’t want to marry him—he was an older man and he made her a little uncomfortable—but Uncle Ezra told her to marry Noyes or leave his house. Mother had nowhere to go, so she did as she was bid. She met my father almost immediately after that.”

Priscilla glared across the bed, but Delilah kept her face impassive.

“He was a young boatman on the Connecticut River. I don’t know anything about him—Mother refuses to speak of him—but they fell in love and met as often as they could. A week after he was killed in an accident on the river, Mother learned she was pregnant. When I grew up to look nothing at all like him, Noyes must have suspected I wasn’t his daughter. He started to mistreat Mother.

“He had always been awful to her in private, but now he started to be cruel in public. He embarrassed and ridiculed her. But what he did behind dosed doors was worse. As he grew older, he found it more difficult to perform in bed. But he soon discovered if he had an argument with Mother, things were better. She could always tell when he wanted to be amorous by the ferocity of his abuse.

“It got worse when things started to go badly for his business. He hit her. He was always careful to avoid hitting her where anyone could see the bruises, but I can remember seeing her with marks all over her shoulders and sides.

“She became petrified of him. One night he came home drunk and mean, and headed straight for Mother. She screamed at him from the top of the stairs not to come up, but he paid no heed.

“I don’t know what happened. Mother turned and ran when he reached the top of the steps. Whether she caused the rug to slip under his feet or he was too drunk to keep his balance, I don’t know. He fell down the staircase and broke his neck.

“We were left penniless. It turned out he had lost everything on speculation with a slaver that went down in a hurricane. We would have been thrown out into the streets if Uncle Ezra hadn’t taken us in. But it might have been better if he hadn’t. He made Mother a slave in his house, made her beg for everything she got from him. Mother lived for the day she would have some funds of her own.

“Uncle Ezra made a lot of money during the war, so he built this house and hired servants because he wanted to look good in the eyes of the community. All the time he promised my mother she would have his fortune when he died.”

“And he left everything to Nathan”

“Mother nearly went mad. She used to drink before Noyes came home so it would be easier to stand his abuse. When we moved in with uncle Ezra, she drank when he was cruel to her. Now she drinks whenever she feels threatened”

“Has she always wandered about in a stupor?”

“NO, that just started”

“She might hurt herself.”

“I know she’d be all right if she would leave here,” Priscilla said. “Maybe go to Boston. She has friends there. But she won’t budge. She’s afraid Nathan will go broke if she’s not here to watch him”

“Maybe if you explained this to Nathan …”

“I don’t want anyone to know. I wouldn’t have told you if you hadn’t pressed me”

“He may figure it out for himself. He’s not a stupid man”

Priscilla laughed. “I’m not afraid of him. I still have a trick or two up my sleeve”

“Maybe, but the trickster can be tricked, and I have a feeling Nathan Trent is a bad man to cross”

“What makes you say that?”

“He seems so quiet and easygoing, people make the mistake of thinking they can talk him into doing what they want, but you’ll notice he gets his way every time.”

“How will that help my mother?”

“I have a strong feeling there’s some trouble in his past. He knows what it's like to be stepped on, to be the one to suffer. I don’t know what he’ll do if you talk to him, but I think you ought to trust him.”

“No.” It was emphatic.

“Before you do anything desperate, please reconsider.”

“Why are you so high on Nathan all of a sudden?”

“Because he’s the only person in this whole snarled tangle who’s been able to take advantage of the situation rather than letting conditions dictate how he responds.”

Nathan was waiting when Delilah entered the garden. She could see him down by the river, watching the leaves flutter from the trees and float off on the sluggish current, their scarlet and gold deserting the landscape, leaving it brown and barren. Even the grass had begun to lose its color. A few more nights of frost and it would turn as brown as the leaves.

Only some late carrots and a few bedraggled turnips remained in the garden. Old Applegate had cleared away the debris and had cleaned up the rows in preparation for next year’s planting. His only remaining task was to wrap the roses and mulch the flowering shrubs to protect them through the deep cold of the winter ahead.

Everything looked forlorn compared to the day she had arrived. At variance with the way she felt then and now. That August day had been one of the most miserable of her life. Today she looked at Nathan and knew a happiness she had never before experienced. She walked toward him.

You had best make up your mind what you think about him. His clearly got some course in view, so unless you want to find yourself agreeing to something you’ll regret later, you’d better know what
you
mean to do before he tells you what he wants you to do.

But she had already tried to do that. She had never felt this way before, and she wasn’t sure what it meant. Worse, she couldn’t even talk to Reuben or Jane about it. They would never understand. No matter what happened, they wouldn’t accept the fact that Nathan could be anything but the enemy they perceived him to be. And she guessed she couldn’t blame them. Even though they would be out of danger when Delilah completed her four months, Nathan and his like would still be the reason the regulators were pushing to close the courts.

And she didn’t know if Nathan’s attempts to find ways for people to pay their debts without ruining themselves would make much difference. So many people owed him money, yet he could only offer such a chance to a few. And no matter what he did, it wouldn’t stop men like Noah Hubbard and Lucius Clarke from abusing those indebted to them.

“I was beginning to wonder if you would come,” Nathan said as she stepped through the hedge that separated the formal garden from the more natural area along the edge of the river.

“It’s not easy for me to leave the house without being noticed. With just three servants, everything I do is observed.”

“I’ll start hiring tomorrow. By the end of the week they won’t be able to find you in the crush.”

Delilah laughed. “You could hire a boy to help in the kitchen. You’d be surprised what a lot of fetching and carrying has to be done.”

“Especially with me making you stay up half the night.”

“That’s part of it,” Delilah agreed. Then, before she could say another word, Nathan drew her into an arbor formed by two willow trees and a towering elm. He gathered her in his arms and kissed her fiercely. She started to protest, but the sweetness of his lips and the excitement of their nearness destroyed any desire to pretend he wasn’t doing exactly what she wanted. She put her arms about his neck and returned his kiss with equal fervor.

The moment Nathan’s tongue dipped into her mouth, Delilah’s own tongue responded. It stirred, quivered, and then roused itself to pirouette around Nathan’s tongue. As Nathan’s excitement increased, Delilah’s tongue darted under his and entered his mouth. She quivered with excitement. Success made her bold, and she explored his mouth as he had hers.

She didn’t resist when he slipped his knee between her legs. She wanted to touch him. She wanted her whole body alive with the excitement of being in his embrace, of being virtually entangled with this man she had watched from afar for so long. She longed to touch his buttocks, but she didn’t have the courage. It seemed brazen enough that she should have her arms wrapped tightly around his neck.

She became aware that one of Nathan’s hands was no longer at the small of her back. It moved down her side and then across her abdomen, making her stomach flutter in a way that unsettled her. She trembled as Nathan backed her up against a tree. His effect on her was so weakening, the task of supporting herself so far beyond her, she felt thankful for the support.