He caught her hand and held it firmly. “I have always been truthful with you, and I will not lie to you now. As you suspected, I went into your house.” His arrogant gaze as much as told her that he was making no apology for what he had done. “There were things I needed to know about you.”
She wriggled her hand free of his. “I can hardly believe you were so bold as to trespass on my privacy.” She covered her eyes for a moment and shook her head. “You were in my house, going through my belongings?”
“It pains me to admit it, but oui.” He pinned her with a direct look and smiled slightly. “Archimedes was my partner in crime. He stayed with me while I learned your trouser and boot measurements.”
“You went through my clothing?”
He glanced away. “If I do not ask your pardon for anything else, I do ask you to forgive my going through your personal belongings. It was necessary.”
What shocked her most was that he would dare to ask her pardon for such a deed. “I will never pardon you. Never! You broke into my house, spied on me, and made me wear those horrible trousers. But worst of all was when you accused me of shooting my husband. I will never forgive you for all the things you have done and said to me.”
He seemed undaunted. “I thought you might see things that way.” His words were laced with heavy irony. “Before I met you, I had never known a woman to try my patience as much as you have, Caroline. If you had been a man, I would have come for you without all the extra fuss. You have been nothing but trouble.”
She took a breath before answering him furiously. “Good! I am glad. I may be your prisoner, but you will never conquer me.”
He was standing near a table where a world globe was displayed. With a hefty spin he sent it twirling, but his eyes were on Caroline and not the world as it spun on its axis—he had become fascinated as she paced in front of him. Every move she made, every gesture of her hand, enchanted him. Did she know how adorable she looked in that yellow gown?
“One conquers in a war. I am not one of your soldiers who fall all over themselves to get your attention.”
“No. You are not.”
“And you continue to trouble me, madame.”
She drew herself up tall and gathered her wits. “I’m happy if I have inconvenienced you in any way. I want you to think about me, and remember what you did to me long after I am out of your sight.”
His eyes narrowed. “I will not soon forget you.”
“I’m counting on it.”
He glanced away from her. “Looking at the situation from your point of view, I suppose it may seem—”
She pressed her hands over her ears. “I won’t listen to anything you have to say in your defense. I hate you!” She watched him flinch at her angry words, and she was glad if she had pierced his thick skin.
“I hope that is not true, Caroline.”
She reconsidered, softening her stance a bit. “I don’t really hate anyone except Brace. You, I just don’t like.”
“But you are no longer afraid of me.”
“I was at first.”
“Yet in San Sebastian you came charging to my room to confront me. I see something of the survivor in you.”
“I have had to confront many people in my life.” She rubbed her temples again, wishing her headache would go away. She was not prone to headaches, but this one was persistent. “I should have left town that day.”
“I would only have caught up with you.”
She nodded. “Yes. You would have.”
“Caroline,” he said, his tone deepening. “I wish it could have been different. I did not set out to hurt you.”
She was staggered by his statement. “And what do you call what you have already done to me? Can you not see that?”
He was thinking how adorable she looked when she was mad. He was thinking the sun that shone through the front window fell on her hair and streaked it with gold. He was thinking she had the bluest eyes he had ever seen. “I believe we should join our hostess.”
She hesitated when he extended his arm to her, but when Dolly suddenly entered the room, Caroline decided not to make an issue of it, and quickly placed her hand on his sleeve.
“Why, honey, you are just as pretty as you can be.” Dolly walked around Caroline, inspecting her carefully. “It’s no wonder Wade has lost his head over you.”
“I’m . . . not, he isn’t—”
“What Mrs. Duncan is trying to tell you,” Wade said, coming to her rescue, “is she does not think of me in that way.” He nodded down at her. “I am right about that, am I not?”
“Wade told me you are a widow,” Dolly said soothingly. “It’s too bad that you lost your husband at such a young age. The passing of time will dull the grief.”
Caroline was uncomfortable talking about Michael with Dolly. “I loved my husband very much.”
For the first time, Dolly saw the angry flush on Caroline’s face, and she realized that she had come in on a confrontation between the two of them. “I’ll just wait for you in the sitting room. You can come in when you want to. I told Trudy to bring in the tea when you’re ready.”
Dolly disappeared through the arched doorway, and Caroline turned her attention back to Wade. “It is unthinkable for me to deceive that kind woman. When do we leave?”
“I have business that will keep me in town today.” He reached out and tilted her face so she was forced to look at him. “San Antonio is a rowdy town for a woman alone. You will not want to venture outside the house.”
She pulled away from him. “My life has not been my own since the day I met you.” She took several quick steps away from him. “Or should I say since the night you went prowling in my house without my knowledge?”
“I will return later this afternoon.”
She watched him walk away as an unsettling feeling hit her. She should be furious with him, and she was, but she had been with him for so long, she almost panicked at the thought of his leaving her. Her headache was getting worse, and for a moment she could not take a deep breath. Caroline knew she was ill. But she could not let anything delay her return to Charleston.
After several tries, she was finally able to take a deep breath. She was slightly lightheaded and held on to the stair railing until the dizziness passed. After she had composed herself, she moved toward the sitting room, thinking a cup of tea might make her feel better.
Dolly was sitting before a large tapestry frame, her needle darting in and out of the canvas with vigor. She looked up, smiled at Caroline, and nodded for her to be seated in the chair by the window. “I’m sorry if I busted in on the private talk you and Wade were having.”
“Please do not be concerned. It amounted to nothing.”
Dolly frowned as she took a stitch. “I knew when I first saw you and Wade together that he’s in love with you.”
Caroline was taken aback by Dolly’s incorrect assertion. She could not tell Dolly that the intenseness with which Wade watched her had more to do with intimidation than any soft feelings he might have for her. “You are mistaken. I can assure you he does not feel that way about me.” She searched for the right words. “Mr. Renault and I have a sort of business arrangement.”
Dolly was curious, but she was too polite to press Caroline on the matter. But she did know Wade, and he was smitten with Caroline. “You see, Wade has a way of looking at people as if he were measuring them for a pine box. But when he looks at you, there isn’t a doubt in my mind what he’s thinking.”
Caroline was glad that Trudy chose that moment to enter. There was only one cup on the tray the maid placed on the small round table beside her. “Dolly, will you not have tea?”
“I never developed a taste for it. I’m an old west-Texas gal and the only thing I’d drink hot is strong coffee.”
Caroline poured a cup of the steaming brew and added cream. “Will I be meeting your husband?”
“I’m ’fraid not this time. He had to go to South Carolina today. Some kind of business for Wade.”
> Caroline’s spine stiffened. “Charleston?”
“I’m not sure of the name of the town.”
Caroline’s hand began to tremble, and she was afraid she would drop the delicate cup, so she carefully placed it on the tray. Her throat seemed to close, and she could not catch her breath. Frightened, she leaned back in her chair. After trying several times, she was able to breathe. “I did not know that your husband worked for Mr. Renault.”
“Goodness, yes. Nate worked for Anton Renault until he died; now he works for Wade.”
Caroline wanted to know more about Wade. Perhaps she could find a weakness in him somewhere. Dolly seemed more than willing to talk about him, so Caroline shamelessly asked, “Is his mother still living?”
Dolly was amazed that Wade hadn’t told Caroline about himself. But then, he had always been a very private person. She had no qualms about telling this young woman whatever she needed to know. In the end, Wade and Caroline would wind up married—she was sure of it.
“Wade never knew who his mother or father was. Anton Renault found him sleeping in one of his warehouses down on the docks and took him home with him. He was half starved at the time.”
Dolly talked ceaselessly as she stuck her needle through the canvas and leaned back to give Caroline her full attention. “Anton’s wife died some years back, childless. So he finally adopted Wade, and the boy became the son Anton had never had.” She calculated on her fingers. “At that time Anton figured the boy was around six or seven, we don’t really know his true age. The one thing Anton was sure of was that the boy was Creole. He might’ve come from the streets, but he spoke French like one of those uppity people.” She grinned, her eyes dancing with a teasing light. “You know, the same way you speak American, all prim and proper.”
“I have been accused of having an accent.”
“And so you do. Why, if Wade is of a mind to, he can rattle off that French as well as anyone.”
“I have heard him at times.”
“Well, Anton didn’t like him speaking French. He told the boy if he was going to live in this country, he could just speak the language.”
Caroline suddenly saw Wade as a boy, and pity for him washed over her. “Mr. Renault does not know who his parents were?”
“No, he doesn’t. But if it bothers him any, he never says so. I doubt the truth of his past will ever be known.”
Caroline took another sip of tea, her heart hurting for the boy Wade had been. Having grown up with a mother and father who loved her, she could not imagine what he must have gone through in his lonely childhood. Even if his adopted father loved him, that did not give him a past. Now she could better understand why he was such a loner.
“It is easy to see that he has had a very good education.”
“Well, for a time he did attend one of those fancy schools. Then he and Anton had a falling-out—I never knew what it was about, and, of course, Wade would never say. But he took off, heading here to Texas. He stayed with me and Nate for a while.” She shook her head. “He actually became a bounty hunter for a time, and he was good at it, from what Nate tells me.”
“I have heard about that myself.” She wondered what Dolly would do if she told her the truth. She decided against it. She would take care of Wade in her own way.
Dolly’s expression was sorrowful. “Then Anton got sick and sent for Wade. He went home, and they settled whatever it was that was wrong between them before Anton died. Wade took up the family business and even made it more of a success than Anton had. But he’s a restless soul, always looking for something that is just out of reach. I hope he will find it in you.”
Caroline saw no reason to state the obvious, because Dolly was determined that she and Wade belonged together. She certainly could not tell her she was actually his prisoner. “Mr. Renault informed me that we would be leaving tomorrow.”
Dolly rubbed her hand over her knee is if it hurt from sitting for so long. “That is what he told me, too.”
“Why does he have a private railroad car?”
“It’s used mostly for business. Wade has to travel a lot, and sometimes my Nate uses it. I traveled in it a few times myself, and I can tell you it’s better than riding in a public railroad car or a stagecoach.”
“Yes, I suppose it would be.”
Dolly went back to her tapestry, but she continued to talk. “Honey, I can tell you’re mad at Wade about something. But be kind to him. He’s about the most alone person I know. We only see him as a man, but there’s some of the little boy in him, too. It’s like he’s looking for something to hold on to.”
“I have never seen him in that way.”
“If I was as pretty and young as you are, and if I didn’t love my Nate so much, I’d set my sights on him. Even at my age, when he speaks to me with that exciting French accent, my knees go weak.”
Caroline could not help laughing. “I think the woman who decides to take on Mr. Renault will have her hands full.”
Dolly winked and chuckled. “You’re probably right—but wouldn’t it be fun just the same?”
“I don’t know what kind of business Mr. Renault owns.”
“He’s got several large warehouses in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Then there all those big barges that go up and down the Mississippi to bring back cotton, indigo, tobacco, and sugar cane.”
Caroline sat forward so she could catch the breeze that stirred the curtains, but when it touched her face, it was like a blast from an oven. She felt as if a fist were clenching her chest, and she gasped for breath. Something was wrong with her. Dolly was taking out a stitch and did not seem to notice that Caroline was having trouble breathing. She suddenly had the feeling that everything was closing in on her, and there was a ringing in her ears. “Dolly, would you think it rude of me if I went upstairs to rest for a while?”
“Not at all, honey. You just rest all you want to. If you’d like, I’ll have your lunch tray brought to your room.”
Caroline walked to the door and turned back to her hostess. “Thank you for the tea. It was delicious.”
Dolly noticed after Caroline had gone that she had not even finished a full cup of tea. She had a suspicion there was more to the situation between the young woman and Wade than either of them would admit. She could not be wrong about Wade’s feelings for Caroline. But why were they traveling together, and why had Wade sent Nate to South Carolina to make inquiries about her?
Chapter Thirteen
Caroline opened the window and stood staring outside for a time before she started to undress. She unhooked her gown and then removed her corset, thinking she might be able to breathe better without it. The world tilted a bit and then righted itself.
She was feeling very ill.
She leaned against the casement, wondering what she should do. If she were in San Sebastian, she would go to Dr. Davis and he would help her. The real problem she faced was keeping her illness from Wade, and that would not be easy because he noticed everything that went on around him. She moved to the bed and eased her body onto it. She ached all over. Then she was struck by a sudden chill, so she pulled the covers over her and finally fell asleep.
She was not aware that the maid came in to bring her lunch tray. She slept through the day, too weary to lift her head. When night fell, she still had not awakened.
Wade himself came into the room to see why she had not come downstairs for dinner. He knocked softly on the door, and when she did not answer, he went inside. He stood over her, watching her for long enough to determine that she was asleep. Guilt was a new emotion for him—he had pushed her too hard. He quietly left and softly closed the bedroom door.
It was sometime during the night when the fever struck. She was hot one minute and shivering the next. She was under the covers and then on top of them, wrestling with her illness all night.
Just before sunup she slid out of bed and got dressed. She had to hold herself together so they could leave today. She brushed the tangles from her hair and se
cured it to the back of her head in a chignon. Just the chore of dressing and doing her hair exhausted her. She sat down near the window with her hands folded in her lap—waiting for Wade.
As it happened, Trudy came in first, carrying a breakfast tray. The girl looked troubled when she saw that the guest had not eaten the food she had left the night before. “I’ll just take this tray away, ma’am,”
“Thank you, Trudy. I was not hungry yesterday.”
“But you will eat breakfast, won’t you, ma’am?”
Caroline knew she could not swallow a morsel of food because her throat was hurting. When the girl left, she did reach for the glass of water.
A short time later Wade knocked on the door and called her name.
“You can come in,” she told him, pinching her cheeks so she wouldn’t look so pale.
He looked surprised when he entered the room. “I see you are ready.”
With effort she held her head upright. “As you see, I am wearing the gown Dolly gave me. I hope I don’t have to wear it as long as I did the trousers. I don’t relish the thought of going into a river to wash it when it gets dirty.”
He saw the stubborn tilt to her head that always meant trouble for him. “Dolly has purchased other clothing for you, so you can have several changes on the journey.”
“You are kindness itself,” she said in a tone that implied otherwise.
He wanted to tell her how sorry he was that the trip to San Antonio had been so rigorous, but he knew she would only throw his words back in his face. “Shall we go?”
She stood, wavering a bit, and grabbed on to a chair to steady herself. She was glad he had his back to her and didn’t notice. “As always, I am yours to command.”
“If only that were true.” Wade was accustomed to her candid remarks, and he chose to ignore them this morning. He glanced at her breakfast tray and frowned. “You have not eaten anything.”
She walked to the door. “The one thing I still have is my right to eat or not to eat. I do not choose to eat this morning.”
He took her arm and escorted her downstairs. “Madame, in your present state of mind, I would deny nothing you say.”
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