The girl raised her chin in defiance, looking every inch the queen in spite of her rather ragged appearance. Her coat was worn at the elbows and a bit too tight at the waist.
More than likely she had been unable to afford a new coat after gaining weight. A corset could only do so much after a woman had given birth.
“You might tell him Ida Thomas is calling.” Her raised voice must have inspired Hermione and Oliver to inspect their visitor, and Ida stared at them over Cate’s shoulder. “And if he knows what’s good for him, he will let me see my baby.”
Cate held onto the door to keep herself from swooning and sliding to the floor.
“What is the meaning of this?” Oliver demanded, marching up to them. “What you mean, your baby?”
“Just as I say. That baby is mine.”
“Oliver, please. Do not upset the girl. Perhaps you had better go alert the authorities, for she is surely disturbed.”
Cate glanced over her shoulder to find Hermione backing further down the hall, holding Violet close.
“What is this all about?” Oliver turned to Cate. “Do you know this girl?”
She managed to find her voice. “No, I cannot say that I do.”
“I don’t know her, either, but I can assure you, she is not Mrs. Jenkins. She is not that baby’s mother. Violet is my baby.”
Oliver sputtered. “You know her name?”
Ida scoffed. “I ought to know. I named her.”
There were footsteps on the stairs behind her, and soon Landon came into view. His face fell when he saw what took place before him. For the briefest moment, Cate wondered if he would turn tail and run.
“Son, what is this about?” Oliver stepped out onto the porch, hands on his hips. “Someone had better explain this, and quickly.”
They had come so close. So close to ending this without anyone being terribly hurt.
Cate looked at Ida, beckoning with one curled hand. “Come inside. I believe the two of us ought to have a talk.”
Ida smirked, looking her up and down. “Why would I want to talk with you? You’ve been pretending Violet is yours, and pretending you are married to this man.”
“I am married to this man,” Cate retorted. “Still, I believe there are things we ought to speak about. Please, come inside.” The fact was, she had no idea what she would say to the girl. She only knew how important it was to get her off the porch and out of public view. It would not do for a scandal to start up over this.
She went to the parlor, closing the doors behind her once Ida joined her. Out in the hall, Oliver peppered Landon with questions while Hermione exclaimed in surprise.
That was Landon’s problem. She wanted to die of shame, and nothing she said or did at this point would make any difference.
“What is it you want to talk about, then?” Ida asked, looking about the room. “He’s changed things.”
Cate let this pass, willing herself not to imagine this girl sitting in this room with him. “What brings you back? How could you abandon your daughter that way? Do you know he wanted to make things right with you, but could not because you ran away? It might have been you here in this house instead of me. He might have been able to have his true family, not some false front.”
“So you admit you aren’t his wife?”
“Oh, no, I am his wife. We were married. But that is beside the point now. What brings you back? And why did you leave?”
“I’ll tell you why she came back.”
Cate jumped in shock. Somehow, in the midst of all the chaos, Mason had found his way into the house and now stood there, watching her. He had even managed to open the parlor door without her noticing.
“Mason! How did you know… I mean, what brings you…”
“Let’s just say someone asked me to look into Miss Thomas and her movements.” He turned away from Cate and focused on Ida, a faint smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “It seems you fled Carson City while in the company of a young man. The young man abandoned you in Kansas City, which led you to return here. You needed money, badly, and chose to return to Mr. Jenkins’s home in hopes of blackmailing him into paying your way elsewhere. If he refused, you planned to tell the entire town that his child had been born out of wedlock and that he had lied to his parents to avoid a scandal. Is that not the long and short of it?”
His thoroughness took Cate’s breath away, and clearly had a similar effect on Ida.
The girl’s already pale skin turned shades whiter, her cheeks draining of color. “H—how do you know?”
“You had best learn not to share secrets with girls in a boardinghouse. Especially girls in situations similar to yours, who are so in need of money that they are willing to share your secrets with anyone who can provide them with a dollar or two.”
He opened his topcoat just enough to reveal his deputy’s badge. “You do know blackmail as a crime, do you not? And that the information I collected on you provides grounds with which I might place you under arrest? I’m sure the judge will not look kindly on your scheme.”
Cate found herself feeling sorry for the girl as her eyes welled with tears which soon spilled over.
“I only—that is, I needed—I could not manage her on my own, and he told me he would take care of me…”
Cate went to her, draping an arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry for what you’ve been through,” she murmured, meaning it with all her heart.
Ida looked at her in shock, her mouth falling open. “How can you say that to me? After what I came here intending to do?”
“I have always been able to sense the motivations of others. I feel the pain of your situation quite keenly, and I cannot imagine doing anything differently were I in your place.”
She turned to Mason, silently pleading with him. He lifted his brows, and she lifted a shoulder in a shrug. There seemed no reason to arrest the girl, when not true harm had been done.
Well, no harm aside from the grief this revelation must have caused Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins.
“Perhaps you had best discuss this with Landon,” she suggested.
“Perhaps I had better,” Mason agreed. “In the meantime, since he seems a bit… preoccupied, I suggest Miss Thomas come with me to the jailhouse. You will not be under arrest, strictly, but I would like to hold you in place until Mr. Jenkins decides whether to take this to the judge.”
He took Ida’s arm, turning to Cate before leading her from the house. “I don’t think I need to tell you that you have quite a bit of explaining to do,” he murmured, one eyebrow quirking up.
“No. You don’t need to tell me.” She watched as Mason and Ida left together, with Ida weeping into a handkerchief all the while.
Meanwhile, Landon’s voice raised in protest in the morning room, and Cate made it a point to dash up the stairs before any of them could notice her.
It would be better to leave as quickly as possible, for the sooner she put this behind her, the sooner she could move on with her life and forget the humiliation she had suffered this day.
23
“How could you do such a thing?” Oliver walked the length of the room, his hands clasped behind his back while Hermione wept softly, her cheek against the top of Violet’s head.
Landon had never known such humiliation was possible. Not as an adult, at least. Here he was, a grown man, suffering one insult after another.
The worst of it was, he felt most keenly for Cate. What his parents must’ve thought of her. He could manage their disdain, their disappointment. But she did not deserve any of it.
“As I told you, I wished to make things right with the girl, but she ran away. The only thing I could imagine doing was to pretend Cate was the child’s natural mother.”
“And she went along with this?” Oliver roared.
“Hush,” Hermione chided him. When his eyes flew open wide—as did Landon’s, for it was rare to hear her offer an opinion on anything he did, at least in public—she continued, “You are upsetting the baby,
and you are upsetting me. Regardless of whether or not she was born in wedlock, she is still our grandchild. And perhaps if you were a bit more understanding, our son would never have felt the need to mislead us this way.”
This was an entirely new side Hermione which neither man had seen before.
“I hope you are not trying to say you approve of what our son has done?” Oliver gasped. “Why, this goes against everything we taught him.”
He whirled on Landon, teeth bared in a snarl. “Did I not always advise you to behave like a gentleman?”
“Could we not discuss this so frankly front of my mother?”
“Your mother is a grown woman, and you are a grown man, as am I. We are all adults here, and since you have exposed us to this terrible scandal, it seems only fitting that we discuss it.”
“There is nothing to discuss. I knew you would react this way, and I wished to ease things for everyone involved.”
His mother spoke up again. “Is Cate truly your wife?”
Landon nodded. “Yes, I did marry her. I wanted that to be true, if nothing else. Our understanding was that we would end the marriage and I would provide her with the money she needs to start a business of her own.”
Oliver’s eyes widened as if he’d found the key to everything. “Aha! This was all about money. I should have known. The mercenary little thing, pretending to be a fine young woman while all along she had one hand in your billfold.”
If it were not his father speaking to him this way, Landon might have entertained the notion of strangling him with his bare hands. As it was, they curled into fists at his sides as he stared down his father. “I’ll have you know, it was my idea all along. I pulled her into this with the promise of financial reward, knowing how much she longed to build a theater in Carson City. I saw an opportunity, and I seized it. Isn’t that what you always taught me, Father?”
Oliver’s cheeks reddened. “So this is my fault, then?”
“Not at all. I simply thought you would understand if I put the matter in terms with which you were more familiar. Cate is blameless in all of this. She only wished to make everyone happy, and I believe she truly cares for Violet.”
Hermione nodded, wiping away a tear. “Yes, I sense that as well. I sense a great many things. I must admit, though you may not believe it, it seemed to be from the start there was something strange between the two of you. And that she did not seem quite as comfortable here as she should have been. But I do not doubt the purity of her heart.”
He went to her, using his handkerchief to wipe away the rest of her tears with a tender, grateful smile. “I do not doubt it, either. She has suffered a great deal today, and I hope to make it up to her.”
“Go to her, then.” Hermione took his hand, squeezing. “She’s a lovely girl. If you care for her, do not let her get away.”
“I cannot fathom this!” his father exploded.
“No, Oliver.” His mother sighed. “I suspect you cannot.”
Without a look at his father, Landon burst from the room. “Cate?” he called out, looking from one room to the other. Both she and Ida had disappeared.
He bounded up the stairs two at a time, still calling for her and still receiving no answer. When he went to her room, he found her things still waiting, but she was not there with them.
He had almost left the room and was about to return to the first floor when he noticed the folded piece of paper on the dressing table. When he picked it up and unfolded it, something fell out onto the floor.
He looked down, his chest tightening when he recognized the ring he’d given her.
I will send for my belongings shortly. Please, tell your parents goodbye for me, and tell your mother I hope she will forgive me for wearing this ring when I had no right to do so.
That was it. Nothing personal for him, not the slightest hint of anything else she might have felt. He supposed that meant she had never felt anything else at all.
His mother reached the top of stairs, finding him standing in the doorway with the ring in one hand and the note in the other. It must’ve been evident from his expression that he’d lost her.
Her face fell. “What are you going to do?”
“What is there to do? She’s gone. I wouldn’t know where to begin.” He closed his fist around the ring, aching and sorrowful and very much of the feeling that he’d just been run over by a speeding train. There had still been time to repair things between them, or at least that was what he’d told himself when he could not sleep the night before. That he would find a way to make things right.
There had been no accounting for Ida’s sudden presence, or the way she would humiliate Cate and himself. It was not that he cared for his own humiliation, but hers? He would have moved heaven and earth if it meant avoiding causing her even a moment’s discomfort.
His mother sighed, coming to him and taking his face in her hands. “It does seem as though you’ve gotten yourself into a terrible mess,” she murmured, mournful.
He could only laugh at himself, but there was no humor in his laughter. “Yes, it would appear as though I have.”
It seemed no matter how old he got, no matter how many years he spent managing his own affairs and conducting his own business, there was something about the probing, knowing gaze of his mother which left him open to her scrutiny and understanding. “I did not raise you to stand back and admit defeat without at least making an effort to avail yourself.”
“You did, however, teach me how to accept defeat gracefully. I will not make a fool of myself, not even for her.”
Now she was every inch his mother, fixing him with a stern expression. “Why not? She made a fool of herself for you.”
Her words chilled him to the bone. He wished she wasn’t right though he knew she was. Cate had risked quite a lot for him. Her reputation, her standing among her sisters, even the ranch—if word of her marriage were to get out and be used against her.
And here he was, cowering like a child, hiding in his home for fear of facing her once more. Leave it to his mother to put it all so plainly.
“Even if I were to find her, what would I say? How could I convince her how much I care?”
She beamed. “You do care, though?”
“Oh, Mother. You have no idea.”
“I suspect I do. Don’t be fooled by your old, tired parents. I suspect such depth of emotion is limited to the young, but the memory does not fade. I remember all too well feeling as if my heart would burst from my chest whenever your father entered the room. Even after we were married, I would sometimes forget to breathe when he came too close.”
Landon could scarcely imagine such a time ever taking place, though it was a comfort to know his mother understood. “I did wish to spare you all of this,” he murmured. “I’m so sorry.”
A brief frown crossed her face, creasing her brow. “I cannot pretend to approve of the situation as a whole, but these things do happen. I now have a beautiful granddaughter who is truly the light of my life. I cannot be entirely disapproving.”
He gathered her up in a tight hug, joyful in spite of the hole in his chest which Cate had left.
“Now,” she said after freeing herself and brushing off his shoulders and chest, “I ask again. What are you going to do about this? Are you going to allow her to leave, never sharing your true feelings?”
“It isn’t as if I will never see her again. We are business partners now, and I fully intend to see this through. I will not renege on our agreement.”
“No, it will be too late by then. What you intend to do? Confess what lies in your heart, days or even weeks from now? By then it might be too late. She might have turned away from you completely. At the very least, it will be terribly awkward to revisit the situation.”
He saw the sense in this, and knew it left him with only one clear option.
Yet another knock at the door, and Landon groaned. “I feel as though I live in a train station,” he grumbled as they made their way down the stairs.
Mrs. Davis was already on her way to receive their caller.
Landon immediately recognized Sheriff Connelly on the porch.
“Come in,” Landon invited. “Mother, this is Sheriff Connelly.”
Rance removed his hat, tipping his head in her direction. “Ma’am, I’m pleased to meet you. I thought you should know that Miss Thomas is at the jailhouse, and we are waiting to find whether you wish to go ahead with charging her with attempted blackmail. My deputy—”
Landon frowned. “Blackmail? I don’t know anything about this.”
“Cate didn’t tell you before she left?”
His heart skipped a beat. “You saw her? You saw her before she left?”
“Yes, she asked me to secure a ride for her to the ranch. She came to the jailhouse not long after Mason brought Miss Thomas in. I assumed you knew the details of the situation.” He offered a brief explanation, which left Hermione gasping in shock.
Landon did not gasp. The entire thing made perfect sense to him. “No, I do not wish to press charges against her. What’s done is done.”
His mother tugged his sleeve. “What if she decides to come back for the baby? She is her mother, after all.”
“I would like to see her try.” He turned to the sheriff. “And you say Cate went home?”
He nodded, looking decidedly more concerned now. “Yes, she did. She was in quite a state, if you do not mind my saying.”
Landon explained, “Sheriff Connelly is Cate’s brother-in-law, and I suspect he is none too pleased with me.”
To his surprise, his mother merely waved this off. “Do not worry, Sheriff. My son is going to make everything right.”
“And how does he plan to do that?”
Landon nodded. “Yes, mother. Please tell me. How do I intend to make things right?”
She laughed. “You will see. Now, get yourself dressed, and see to it that you look well. I shall dress the baby. We are going on a call.”
“But your train!”
“That can wait. I will not leave my son until he has found a way to straighten this out.” She marched to the morning room, where Landon could overhear her informing her husband that they would wait another day before leaving for Washington.
A Bargain For A Bride (Westward Hearts Book 8) Page 16
