Rebel Enchantress (32 page)

“I’m going to do everything in my power to convince you I’m the most important thing in your life. I’ll shower you with gifts and grovel at your feet.”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort. I’d never be able to endure the gossip.”

“God, the woman is never satisfied.” Nathan groaned. “What do you want, my heart on a platter?”

“If you don’t keep your voice down, Serena’s going to have my head on one.”

“Serena be damned.”

“A lovely thought, but not entirely Christian.”

“Be serious.”

“I am. You’ve got to go before someone discovers us. You may be immune to gossip, but I’m not.”

“I’d marry you.”

“Then none of us, the townsfolk included, would ever know if we really loved each other.”

“Do you doubt me?”

“No, but if I forced you into it, I would never know if you’d have made that last step on your own.”

“Do you have so little faith in my integrity?”

“No, Nathan. In myself. Why should you marry me? What can you gain? I have no dowry, not even a decent wardrobe. My family is poor and sides with your opposition. My friends don’t like you. The people I’ve grown up with don’t trust you. I know nothing about living in a house like this, having servants, wearing beautiful clothes, meeting important people. I don’t know how to do anything except be a farmer’s wife. And in a few months I’ll be twenty.”

“You’re beautiful.”

“Okay, I’m beautiful;” said Delilah, willing to concede him at least one point. “What good is that? You can’t put me in a cabinet with the best crystal or lock me away with the silver.”

“You’re not meant to be locked away,” Nathan said, a tender warmth coming into his eyes. “You’re meant to be loved and cared for each day, to be prized above rubies but to be enjoyed as easily as stone.”

“That’s sweet, it really is, but you haven’t given me an answer because you can’t.”

“You want to know what I love about you, what I need that I can’t find anywhere else? I need your honesty. When I came here, I thought all colonials were out only for what they could get for themselves. Everybody I met here was like that. Except you. You didn’t want anything for yourself, only for Reuben. I want your caring. I’ve never met anyone who cared so much about the people she loved. I’ve heard you mention Reuben and Jane, their boys, your friends until I almost want to banish them from the face of the earth. I wish you would care about me like that. I need your loyalty. I need someone who will always think of me first, someone I can trust enough to reveal my weaknesses. I need your strength. You don’t know what it is to stand alone. You may think you do, but you’ve got your family, your community, the kind of life you’ve led—you’ve got all that to support you.

“I love you because it makes me feel good to love you. Just being in the same room with you is better than being able to collect on a dozen loans. And there are a hundred more reasons. I’ve never met anyone like you, and I know if I let you go, no matter, the reasons why, I’ll never meet anyone like you again. I give you fair warning, I don’t mean to play fair.”

Suddenly Delilah thought of the painting in his closet, and she understood the character of the person he had painted. He looked upon her as someone bigger than life, bigger than any human. He had put her on a pedestal, and she had the dreadful suspicion she might end up staying there for the rest of her life.

Delilah knew instinctively that would ultimately destroy what they had together. She wanted him to admire and respect her, but she wanted to be his partner, his
human
partner. As he saw her now, how could he come to her for help, admit a failure or a weakness? He would ultimately go to someone like himself, someone imperfect, and she would be left to her pedestal, alone.

She didn’t like that.

She had to decide who was most important to her, but he had to decide whether he wanted a very human wife or a saint.

Nathan had overslept. If he didn’t hurry, he’d be late for his appointment with Delilah. He jumped out of bed and began to get dressed. The cold in the room encouraged him not to linger over his shaving water. A boy he didn’t remember brought it up piping hot.

“I’m Tommy Perkins,” the lad informed him, “the one as was hired to help in the kitchen.”

“How are you getting along?”

“Famous. Mrs. Stebbens says I needs some fattening up.”

He does look too thin Nathan thought. I wonder if his family has enough to eat.

“And Miss Delilah sees to it that old Lester don’t plague me too much.”

“Does he plague her?” Nathan asked.

“Naw, but there’s them that do.”

Nathan was shaving under his chin. He paused and looked at the boy. “What do you mean?”

The boy struggled momentarily with his conscience. “I shouldn’t be saying nothing, but I can’t stay quiet, especially after she stood up for me.”

Tommy was talking about Delilah. Even before he heard a word of explanation, Nathan felt a wave of anger start to build within him. His hands started to shake.

“You really going to wear them breeches?” Tommy asked, diverted by the sight of Nathan naked from the waist up.

“You think I shouldn’t?” Nathan asked, rather startled.

“Looks like your long underwear.”

Nathan’s lips twitched. “You think they look immodest?”

“I don’t know what ‘immodest’ means, but you sure do get talked about when you go into Springfield. My ma says you English are a sinful lot, always getting up to devilish things with young maids and the like. The mamas be fair pulling their daughters off the street when you come by looking like that.”

Tommy’s ingenuous words stunned Nathan. Having grown up in London where every man dressed similarly, he’d taken the American manner of dress
as
a sign of indifference to style. Now he began to wonder. This might also explain, at least in part, people’s reaction to him.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Now what was it you wanted to tell me?”

“It’s the things they’re making Miss Delilah do.” He was clearly reluctant to explain further. “I ain’t never lived in a big house before, but they don’t seem right to me.”

“If they don’t seem right to you, I’m sure they will seem the same way to me. Please, go on.”

With that kind of encouragement, Tommy hesitated no longer. “They told her she was to do the laundry, but Miz Pobodie wouldn’t let her help none. Said it wasn’t proper, so they set her to doing the ironing. When she did that, they emptied out the chests and made her polish every piece of silver till it shined like new. Miz Noyes didn’t like half what she did and made her stay up at night, doing it over again.”

“Is that all?” It was enough. Nathan could feel his entire body shaking with rage.

“Yesterday they set her to oiling the floors. Now that ain’t right, sir. Miss Delilah is a lady, even if she is as poor as a parson. Messing about with coal oil ain’t a fit job for her.”

“Thank you, Tommy. Now you’d better get back to your work. Is Mrs. Noyes up?”

“’Course she is. Sitting in that parlor of hers, calling me to get something from the kitchen every fifteen minutes. Mrs. Stebbens is fair boiling mad.”

An idea sprang full-blown into Nathan’s head. “Go find Jacob Pobodie. Tell him to round up every man on the place and meet me downstairs in fifteen minutes. Tell him I said to hurry.”

It had to be Serena. Lester wouldn’t have ventured anything without Serena’s backing. He had been a fool to leave her in control of the house and think she wouldn’t take every opportunity to punish Delilah for his attentions. He supposed it was his fault as much as Serena’s, but he had to do something about it now. Either that, or Serena was going to have to find somewhere else to live.

He was in the process of putting on a shirt when the repair of a small tear caught his eye. A cursory glance told him someone else had sewn up that one. He couldn’t possibly have done any work that fine. He went through the pile of shirts in his drawer. Every darn had been picked out and redone.

Delilah. It had to be. But when had she found the time, what with ironing, polishing silver, and oiling the floors? His anger rose up all over again. It boiled over when he reached the main hall and found Delilah on her knees, working oil into the floorboards.

Nathan knelt down, took the brush out of her hands, and pulled her to her feet. “You’re done with this,” he said, holding his voice as steady as possible.

“But I haven’t finished the hall.”

“Tommy will finish it when he can find time. You’re not to touch that brush again, or to do ironing or polish silver.”

“Who told you?”

“It doesn’t matter. I would have found out the minute I saw you on your knees.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Something I should have done in the beginning.”

“She can’t help herself. She hates me so much she can’t see reason.”

“I realize that now. If I hadn’t been so wrapped up in my own worries, I’d have seen it before. Go change your clothes. I’m going to find my aunt.”

But he was spared the effort. “I thought I heard your voice,” Serena said as she emerged from her sitting room at the back of the house. “Priscilla and I were just trying to decide whether to wake you or let you sleep until midday.” She stopped when she noticed Delilah and the can of oil. “You don’t have to do that now,” she said nervously. “I told Lester.” All of her buoyancy and confidence evaporated as she looked at Nathan out of the corner of her eye.

“I don’t like to have an unfinished task hanging over my head,” Delilah said.

“Nor do I,” Nathan put in.

The sound of his voice made Delilah look at him.

Serena glanced desperately about as though seeking some means of escape.

“It had to be done,” she said. “Somebody had to do it.”

“I asked you to change none of my orders, but I had hardly left when you began seeing how many burdensome tasks you could give Delilah.”

“If she told you that, she’s—”

“She never said a word.”

“I told Lester she could take as long as she needed.”

“How was she supposed to finish the floors between redoing every scrap of ironing and polishing the silver as well as carrying out her other duties? And knowing how well she sews, I imagine you’ve set her to work on one of your dresses.” It was a random shot, but it hit center target.

“Amelia Cushing can’t do half as well.”

“You pay Mrs. Cushing. Are you paying Delilah?”

“But she’s a servant.”

“Anything outside her assigned duties deserves extra compensation.”

They were interrupted by the entrance of several men into the hall from the back of the house. When Serena saw they were tracking in the dirt on their boots, she positively swelled with fury.

“How dare you enter this house,” she screeched. “Get out before you ruin the carpets!”

“I sent for them,” Nathan said. “How else are we going to remove your furniture?”

“My furniture?” Serena repeated, totally uncomprehending.

“Your bed, tables, and wardrobes. I suppose you will want the chairs from your sitting room as well. You and your men can begin with the sitting room, Mr. Probide. Rear of the hall on the left.”

“What’s to go?”

“Everything.”

“And when you finish with the sitting room, start on the bedroom. You’ll need to ask Mrs. Noyes to help you with that.”

“What are you doing?” Serena shrieked.

“I’m moving you to the overseer’s cottage.”

“Nothing,
absolutely, nothing
will induce me to set foot in that place.”

“If you can’t walk, you will be carried.”

“B-but why?”

“You seem unable to live in my house without trying to order its running. I’m equally unable to live in a house where my orders are countermanded the minute I turn my back. This way we won’t interfere with each other.”

“But I can’t move to that place. It’s damp and the plaster is falling. How could I entertain my friends?”

“However you like.”

Priscilla emerged from the sitting room. “Mother, have you gone mad? Jacob Pobodie says you’re moving to the overseer’s cottage.”

“Nathan is forcing me to go.”

“You can’t do that,” Priscilla said.

“I can,” Nathan stated.

“But in the name of Christian charity and common decency—”

“Your mother exhibits neither. She has consistently scorned me and flouted my decisions.”

“I was only trying to make you understand—”

“She didn’t mean to.….”

Chapter Eighteen

“Nathan, may I speak with you a moment?” Delilah asked.

“I hope you won’t try to dissuade me.”

“There’s something you need to consider.”

“Jacob,” Nathan called when he saw Mr. Pobodie enter the back hall.

Pobodie ambled toward him at a majestic adagio. “Yes, sir?” he said.

“When you finish with the sitting room, get one of the ladies to help you with the bedroom.”

“I’ll go with Mother if she leaves,” Priscilla threatened.

“I expect you’ll need more men,” Nathan told Pobodie. “I want everything finished before noon.”

Serena sent forth a long, drawn-out sigh and fainted in a dramatic heap.

“Your mother needs you,” Nathan said to Priscilla. Then he turned on his heel to follow Delilah into the library.

“You can’t move her into an overseer’s cottage,” Delilah hissed even before the door closed.

“You know, you’re beautiful when your eyes flash like sapphires. You should always wear blue. It deepens the color of your eyes.”

“Everybody will turn against you when the word gets around. Even Asa Warner.”

“I saw some blue velvet in a shop in Boston. I was tempted to buy it for you.”

“Everybody knows Serena is difficult, but no one will countenance your throwing her out.”

“I also saw a necklace made out of some blue stones. They probably weren’t valuable, but they match your eyes.”

“Listen to me!” Delilah practically shouted. “I can’t stay in this house if Serena and Priscilla leave.”

That got Nathan’s attention. “Why?”

“I’d be alone with you. Reuben wouldn’t allow it even if I wanted to.”