The Heart's Haven

by Jill Barnett

Maddie took over. “You boys go over to the table, and we’ll set the cat down so you can look at her. But remember, she’s frightened, so don’t scare her more. And Liv found the cat so it’s hers. When you boys are older and can take care of animals, you’ll be able to have a pet too.” Maddie leaned down toward Liv and whispered, “Let them pet her, and then they’ll leave you be.”

  “All right,” Liv relented, but not too graciously. She lugged the towel-wrapped cat over to the wooden table and set it down. Duncan stood quietly by the boys, and Hallie watched as Liv unwrapped the damp cat. The animal was all black, except for a little white around her whiskers and the wide strip of white that covered her huge belly.

  “She’s expecting,” Duncan stated.

  Maddie groaned.

  Knut looked up. “What’s she ‘specting?”

  “Kittens!” Liv exclaimed, thoroughly delighted.

  The cat laid on her side and started cleaning her paws. She didn’t look the least bit frightened. In fact, Hallie thought she looked completely contented. The twins were studying the cat’s bulging stomach, obviously looking for the kittens.

  “She looks like a skunk,” Knut announced.

  “No, she doesn’t!” Gunnar argued, his voice full of scorn. “A skunk has a stripe on its back.”

  “That’s what I’ll call her,” Liv interjected. “Skunk. Mrs. Skunk, because she’s going to be a mother.” She picked up the cat and announced, “I’m taking her upstairs to my room. So she can rest.” She walked out of the kitchen with the twins close behind her, both of them arguing over the cat’s new name.

  Maddie shook her head. “What have I done?”

  “Probably kept her out of trouble for weeks. The cat will keep her too busy to pull any of her usual antics.” Hallie smiled at Duncan. “Did you get all settled in?”

  “Yes, miss.”

  “Can I get you something? Some coffee maybe?”

  “No thanks, miss. I think I’ll check the locks.” Duncan walked over, bolted the back door, checked the kitchen window and then left the room.

  Maddie glanced at the closed door. “He’s a quiet one.”

  “He’s so big. The first time I saw him, he scared me to death. But he’s really very kind.”

  “He asked me earlier if he could visit Dagny. He appears concerned. What do you think?” Maddie asked.

  “The man saved me from burning up, and Dagny from Abner Brown. He wouldn’t harm her. There seemed to be something special between them, before. Maybe he can reach her. I remember when they met, right after Da died, Duncan was the first person she responded to. I had been so worried about her then, and now . . . oh, Maddie, I didn’t think things could get any worse, but they have, and it’s all my fault.”

  Maddie grabbed Hallie’s hand. “Now don’t you go getting all upset. Everything’s going to be just fine. It is not your fault that Dagny was hurt. Casting blame won’t change things, and it won’t heal your sister. In fact, your moping around like this could make her worse. She needs our strength. And young lady, you are one of the strongest young women I’ve ever met. So knock it off!”

  Hallie smiled. Maddie was good for her.

  Maddie added, “We’ll take good care of Dagny. She’s much safer here; all of you are.”

  “But we’re a bit of a handful.”

  “You stop that kind of thinking right now. If you and the children weren’t here, I’d be rambling around this place with no one to harp at but that nephew of mine. Which reminds me, did you two have an argument?”

  “No.” They hadn’t argued. Hallie had thrown herself at him once again, and then run out of the room. She didn’t want to face him or talk about him . . . or remember him or his mouth and the way he held her . . .

  Maddie looked puzzled. “The last time I saw him, he was blustering out the front door, wearing his scowl.”

  Hallie stood. “I’m exhausted. I think I’ll go up to bed.”

  “Of course, dear. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Bidding Maddie a good night, Hallie left the warmth of the cozy kitchen, and stopped in the sitting room, then rushed around the spot where they’d kissed, and she took the stairs two at a time. Some of the day’s warmer air still lingered in the second story. She checked on Dagny, stood there for a long time willing her sister to be okay, then went to see about the boys’ next door. Maddie was already tucking them in. Liv’s room across the hallway was next. Liv was all tucked into bed, Mrs. Skunk curled contentedly at her side. Liv looked over at Hallie and grinned, and that grin almost broke her heart. How long had it been since Liv looked happy? She couldn’t actually remember. Liv raised a finger to her lips, then blew out the oil lamp, and Hallie quietly shut the door.

  Her room was the largest and at the end of the hallway. Inside, she washed up and changed into her nightgown, then walked to the dressing table and opened the top drawer to get her hairpin box.

  The scent of Kit’s pipe tobacco filled the air, reminding her that this had been his bedroom. She didn’t want to be reminded. She jerked the pins from her hair, threw them into the drawer and quickly closed it. Grabbing her hairbrush, she pulled her long hair over her shoulder and furiously brushed out the tangles.

  The scent was still all around her. She dropped her brush and picked up the small vial of perfumed oil that Da had brought her from a voyage to Lahaina, then poured the sweet smelling plumeria oil onto her hankie. Some of the oil spilled onto her fingertips, so she dabbed the excess behind her ears. Determined, she marched over to the dresser, opened the drawer and dropped the perfumed hankie inside, muttering, “So there, Kit Howland and your horrid pipe smell!”

  But she knew it wasn’t horrid. It smelled rich and masculine and she felt entranced by the scent. But she didn’t need anything else to entrance her. She was already a lost cause when it came to him. So she went over to the huge feather bed, blew out the lamp and crawled under the mounds of covers, and lay there, looking up at nothing, her thoughts in places that would only keep her awake. She closed her eyes tightly, really tight and willed herself to fall asleep. In his bed.

  “Do you want another round?” Lee picked up the empty rum bottle.

  Silence.

  “Kit, do you want another bottle?”

  Silence.

  Lee eyed Kit. “Did you know there are seven gorgeous, naked redheads walking this way?”

  “That’s nice,” Kit said.

  “One of them is carrying a sign. It says, one dollar a lookie, five dollars a feelie, ten dollars a dooie.”

  “Dewey who?”

  “Fredriksen,” Lee answered.

  Kit blinked once and turned to Lee, now watching him with a clear look on his face. “What are you talking about?”

  “Obviously nothing of interest. I should have made them tall blondes,” Lee muttered before he pointed to Kit’s empty glass. “Do you want another round?”

  Kit glanced at the empty bottle in Lee’s hand. “Oh hell. Why not?”

  Lee banged the bottle on the table. “Hey, more rum over here!”

  An hour later Kit lifted his head from the table and stared at his half-empty glass. “I’m an ass.”

  “Me too,” Lee agreed.

  “I can’t keep my hands off Hallie,” Kit announced.

  “You are an ass.”

  “I know.” Kit lifted his glass and swilled down the rum. “You know this whole thing is my fault.”

  “Yup.” Lee poured more of the dark rum into Kit’s glass. Half of it poured onto the table.

  “I should have contracted Jan’s cargo sooner. I was greedy.”

  “Yup.” Lee closed one eye to better his aim and tried again to fill Kit’s glass. He poured the rum into his friend’s smoldering pipe instead.

  “I lost the fortune he intended for his childre
n’s future. I have to take care of them. They have no one else.” Kit sighed.

  “Do you like rum tobacco?” Lee asked.

  “Sure. That’s the blend I smoke.”

  “Good.”

  “Why?”

  “Just checking,” Lee said as he scrutinized the mouth of the rum bottle.

  “Hallie’s really changed,” Kit stated.

  “She sure has.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen hair that shade. Have you?”

  “Never.” Lee gave up on the glass and brought the bottle to his lips.

  “She really is lovely.”

  “Gorgeous,” Lee agreed, wiping his mouth with his sleeve before handing Kit the bottle.

  “But she’s so young. I feel like a lecher.”

  “I am a lecher.” Lee scanned the room. “I thought you wanted to cut your wolf loose? We need some ladies!”

  Kit finished off the bottle. Maybe Lee was right. He needed a woman. Then he would be able to keep his hands off Hallie. He was her guardian, after all, so he should guard her, even from himself.

  Another bottle thumped onto the table, and suddenly a woman sat on Kit’s lap. He looked at her, but he couldn’t make out her features. He squinted at her blurred nose—noses—while she snuggled up to his chest. Her perfume was strong, and it did nothing for him. Her lips met his and parted. Instinctively, he accepted her kiss and invaded her mouth with his tongue.

  “I’m sorry, love.” Kit pulled away and lifted her off his lap. “You’ll have to share your charms with someone else.” He shoved a handful of money into her hand. “It’s not my night.”

  The woman’s eyes roved over him like a prospective buyer. “No sugar, it’s not my night.” With that, she strolled off.

  Kit stood, and the room rolled like it was at sea, during a storm—a big storm. He leaned on the table for support. “Lee?”

  “Hmmm?”

  Kit couldn’t see Lee’s face with that brunette wrapped around him. “I’m going home.”

  Lee waved him off.

  Kit grabbed his coat and hat, and the bottle, and left the saloon. Shrugging on the coat, he hummed on of Lee’s whaling ditties while he walked up the street, but he stopped when he reached the corner.

  He remembered his horse. Walking back to the animal, Kit crammed his hat onto his head and the bottle into his pocket, untied the reins and mounted the horse, sipping and humming on his way through town.

  When he reached home, he dismounted, throwing the reins over the hitch post. He walked up the stairs and tried the door. It was locked.

  “Damn!” He searched his pockets. “Where is that key?” Then he remembered he kept a spare in the band of his hat. Feeling around the rim, he located the key and unlocked the door.

  He headed straight for the stairs, realizing that he had better scale them now or else he’d pass out on the floor. He entered his room and felt for the lamp. It wasn’t near his dresser. Oh hell, he didn’t need it.

  Kit shucked off his boots and clothes, casting them behind him as he headed for his soft feather bed. He pulled back the blankets and climbed in. He closed his eyes and turned over, slinging his arm over the extra bed pillows. Breathing deeply, he drifted to sleep, dreaming of the sweet tropical smell of plumeria blossoms.

  Hallie awoke, stirring slightly. One of the twins was in the bed again. She tried to turn over but the weight of a leg across her ribs stopped her. She wiggled to dislodge it, but it flopped back. Irritated, she opened her eyes so she could move the boy off, but it wasn’t a leg that had her pinned. It was an arm, a hairy, adult, male arm. Hallie screamed and twisted around, using both her hands and her feet to push the man out of the bed.

  Kit, in all his naked and hungover glory, hit the hard wooden floor. Stunned, he looked up at her. She knelt on the edge of his bed, staring at him in complete shock. He grabbed the sheet to cover himself.

  He grabbed her nightgown by mistake, pulled her off the bed, and right on top of him. They both rolled on the floor, trying to get untangled.

  Hallie was pinned under him. “Get off me!” Hallie shrieked, and she punched him hard.

  Kit grunted something like a curse.

  “Oh, my God!”

  Both Kit and Hallie looked up at the sound of Maddie’s voice. She stood in the doorway, spreading out her skirts to block the scene from the twins’ wide and curious eyes.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “My sister’s getting married,” Knut informed Agnes Treadwell.

  She smiled at Knut. “Yes she is, and it’s wonderful. That handsome Kit Howland just swept her off her feet. It’s so thrilling.” She turned to Hallie. “Isn’t it, my dear?”

  Hallie nodded, feeling as if the world were closing in around her.

  “Tell me, my dear, how did he propose? Wait! Let me guess.” Agnes gazed upward and her eyes looked dreamy. “I bet it was during a romantic walk in the moonlight, right?” Agnes turned her expectant face back to Hallie.

  “Well, uh, no. Actually, it was this morning.” Hallie picked up the pillow from the sofa and began twisting its fringed tassels.

  Agnes clapped her hands. “Oh my, that boy’s in a hurry, isn’t he?”

  “Aunt Maddie made him,” Knut announced.

  The tassel came off into Hallie’s hand.

  Maddie walked into the parlor. “Knut dear, would you please go find Liv for me?” Turning to Agnes, she explained, “I suggested that since Hallie didn’t want a large ceremony, they might as well get married today. That is, if Pastor Treadwell is available.”

  “Well, of course he’s available. We just love doing weddings. And this one, well, I must say I’ve been expecting it. Why only last Sunday Mary Oatt said that Charles said that Kit Howland was just frantic with worry after the fire. Well, I’ll tell you, when I heard that, I just knew something like this would happen.”

  While Agnes rambled on, Hallie kept twisting the tassels. For some reason, she couldn’t still her hands—or her stomach. She was miserable. And this was her wedding day. It should have been the happiest day of her life, but instead it was the most humiliating.

  After sending the twins away, Maddie had told both Kit and her, in no uncertain terms, that Kit would marry her . . . today. So the one thing Hallie used to dream of, her proposal of marriage, took place on the bedroom floor, with her reluctant future husband garbed only in a sheet.

  Instead of hearing words of love, Hallie got: “I guess I have to marry you.”

  “Hallie?”

  She looked at Maddie, who was staring at the three torn tassels in her hand. “I think you should go up and get ready. The ceremony will be at four o’clock.” Maddie nodded slightly at Agnes, who was still grinning as if she were the bride.

  Dear, dear Maddie was giving her an escape, and Hallie took it.

  “You look lovely, Hallie.” Maddie closed the bedroom door.

  Hallie sat on a small stool in front of the dresser and looked down at her dress. It was one of the four Maddie had insisted be made for Hallie when she had first moved in. Maddie had delighted in clothing them all. “Do you really think so?”

  Maddie walked across the room and placed her hands gently on either side of Hallie’s face. She tilted her face toward the mirror. “What do you think?”

  Hallie bit her lip and stared at her reflection. The sleeves and the gown’s huge skirt were made of deep emerald-green silk embroidered with white, long-stemmed flowers. The skirt split in front to reveal a white silk panel embroidered with the same long flowers, only done in the deep green. The snug-fitting bodice was also done in the white. Hallie took a deep breath. “I think it’s the most beautiful gown I’ve ever seen.” She looked in the mirror at Maddie. “I don’t know how to thank you. I’ve never had anything so lovely.”

  “A be
autiful young woman deserves a beautiful gown. Seeing you in it gives me great joy.” She smiled and her gaze went to Hallie’s head. “Now what are we going to do about your hair?”

  Hallie pulled the pins from her wad of hair. “Cut it all off!” She held up bunches of her straight, fine hair. “It never does anything but hang.”

  Maddie bent over the dresser and grabbed the brush. “Let me see what I can do.”

  For the next few minutes Maddie worked silently while Hallie tried to shield her fear. Maddie had her best interests at heart when she had insisted on the marriage, Hallie knew that.

  “You know this marriage is best thing for you, don’t you?” Maddie asked.

  Hallie shrugged, not wanting to disagree, but feeling it was worse for everyone, not best.

  Maddie twisted another thin braid high on her head. “You have so much love to give, Hallie, and if ever there was anyone who needed loving, it’s my poor, foolish, hardheaded nephew. His love runs deep, dear. Trust me.”

  Hallie said nothing; she just handed Maddie another hairpin.

  “Don’t give up on him. Men need us women to make them aware of what’s best for them. Have you ever known a man who didn’t need a woman’s guidance?”

  “Kit,” Hallie answered.

  “That’s not true. He needs you more than most.”

  “Why would he need me?”

  Maddie pinned the last braid into the intricate cluster of interwoven plaits. She acted as if she hadn’t heard Hallie’s question.

  “I said—”

  “I heard you.” Maddie set the brush down and placed her hands gently on Hallie’s shoulders. “I know my nephew, and I can tell that he already cares about you.” She picked up the last pin and secured her hair. “There. Take a look.” Maddie looked at her in the mirror. “You like it?”

  “It’s perfect,” Hallie answered, close to tears, unable to believe that she could look like this. Maddie had her flyaway hair in at least twenty intertwined braids that softened her face and made her look . . . pretty.

  Maddie smiled. “I have some silk leaves that I think are the same shade as the dress. Let me go get them and we’ll weave them through the braids.”