by Lucy Evanson
“Beg your pardon?”
“Your name, your last name,” the heavy man growled. “What is it?” The man’s eyes, red-rimmed and watery, were narrowed as he stared at Nathan, waiting for his answer. He looked like a predator ready to pounce.
Nathan’s throat had gone dry and he had to swallow before he could speak. “Booker,” he finally managed to choke out.
The fat man’s eyes dimmed slightly. “Booker, huh?”
“That’s right. And Nathan is my middle name. I just always liked it better than my first name,” he said.
“What’s your first name?”
“Paul.”
“Paul,” the man repeated as one side of his mouth pulled back. “Paul Booker. I don’t suppose you’re married?”
“Sure am,” he said. “Just recently, in fact—” he started to say, then stopped as the man shook his head and headed out of the room. “Did you want to see the rest of the hotel?” Nathan called after him as he locked the door.
“I’ve seen enough.” In a moment Nathan heard the stairs creak and complain as the man descended to the lobby and left the hotel.
The man’s image, with that look of such hungry anticipation, wouldn’t leave Nathan’s mind for the rest of the day. He never would have guessed that his marriage would cause any trouble, or even be of interest to anybody else. After all, the world was full of married people. He knew several himself, and some of them were among the most boring people you could imagine.
But apparently, if money was involved, everything could be interesting. He had no doubt that Emma was behind it. She had practically promised to destroy Cora, after all, and now she’d sent the fat man snooping around, probably trying to trip him up somehow. So much for family, he thought. I’ll have to tell Cora to watch out for her cousin’s tricks.
Nathan forced the man’s face out of his mind and tried to concentrate on his work for the rest of the afternoon, busying himself until the hotel’s front steps had been swept and the brass rail was again gleaming in the day’s fading light.
His cheeks were red and numb by the time he climbed the stairs to their apartment and stepped inside. Although the wind had picked up, chilling him thoroughly by the time he’d arrived home, Nathan hadn’t been in any hurry. With the way that Cora seemed to be suffering from her nerves, he sure wasn’t looking forward to making things any worse by telling her about the man at the hotel. He had even stood outside the back door, shivering in the darkness and trying to avoid going inside, until he’d come to the realization that there was no way around it. He would have to tell her.
He expected her to be in her normal spot, sitting by the window watching the street, but as soon as he’d entered the apartment Cora was there to greet him at the door. She was smiling broadly, which was unusual; lately she’d had a pinched, worried expression so often that he was afraid it had become permanently affixed to her face.
“I’m glad you’re home,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for you.”
“Really? Why is that?”
She took his coat and hung it up for him. “I have something to show you.” She led him to the sitting room, where an explosively colorful bouquet of flowers stood in a crystal vase. “Look what Becky from downstairs gave us as a wedding present.”
He couldn’t have guessed how much it cost, but he was sure it wasn’t cheap. The thick glass had a rose delicately etched in each side and the flowers themselves had to have come from the greenhouse. “That’s some present,” he said.
“Yeah, I was really surprised. She’s a sweet girl,” Cora said. “Some of these flowers I don’t even recognize.” She laughed and leaned over to breathe in the aroma. When she stood and faced him, she had such a contented look that it drew out a smile from Nathan as well.
“How was work?” she asked. “Anything interesting?”
At that moment, she looked more beautiful than he’d ever thought. Her smile was warm and relaxed, and her eyes were bright. There was no trace of worry, no wrinkled brow, no clenched jaw. She finally looked happy, and it almost took his breath away.
“Nope,” he said. “Not a thing.”
Chapter 10
“Something wrong?”
Cora lifted her gaze to Nathan across the table. “What’s that?”
“You’ve been sitting there staring at your food for five minutes, but you’ve hardly touched it,” he said. “Is it that bad?”
Cora looked down at her plate. After a few weeks of splitting the chores evenly, he had convinced her that it would be in their benefit if he took over the cooking. It wasn’t a bad deal. She kept the place clean and he cooked dinner. Considering that he’d been lazy about sweeping and she hated to cook, it was working out well so far.
“No, it’s fine,” she said, stabbing a piece of fried steak. “It’s good. I just have a lot on my mind.”
He nodded. “We’re almost halfway there,” he said. “It’ll be over soon.”
She smiled faintly and tried to take one more bite, but then pushed her plate away.
“Thank you, Nathan,” she said quietly. “I’m just not very hungry tonight.” She stood up and turned to go to her room.
“Cora, wait,” he said. “Talk to me.”
“What’s there to talk about?”
“I should be asking you,” he said. “I can see that you’re worried about something. It might feel better to talk about it.”
She stared down at the floorboards and let out a long sigh. “I’m just feeling a little low,” she said. “When the weather gets like this it’s hard to stay cheerful.”
He watched her for a moment, gauging what she had said, then glanced over at the window. There was a bit of snow in the air tonight, and the wind was pushing hard against the glass, making the frame creak every now and again. “Well, if that’s what’s bothering you, I’m afraid I can’t do anything about it,” he said. “Unless you want to pick up and head down south.”
She forced a smile. “Maybe I should consider that.”
“Maybe you should,” he said. “It would be nice, wouldn’t it? To be able to spend the winters where it’s warm, and then come back up here before it got too hot?”
“Sounds good, but I wouldn’t know,” she said. “I’ve never been out of Wisconsin.”
“Really? Never?”
“I take it you’ve traveled quite a bit, then?”
“Oh, sure,” Nathan said. “I’ve been all the way over to Minnesota and all the way down to Chicago.”
“That far, huh?”
“Well, you know, I don’t like to brag,” he said, winking at her. “But seriously, I heard that down in Florida they have orange trees everywhere, like we have apple trees here. Can you imagine just walking down the street, and if you get the urge to have an orange, you just pick it fresh from the tree?”
“Honestly, no, I can’t imagine that,” she said. “I’ve never even had a real orange.”
“I did, once.”
“I thought you didn’t like to brag,” she said, letting a half-smile, more relaxed than before, show up on her face.
“Well, truth be told, it was only half an orange,” he said. “I had to share it with my brother. But let me tell you, half an orange was still something. When you tear off the peel, there’s this little spray of the sweetest-smelling oil you can imagine. Almost like perfume. Then the taste itself is so juicy, so sweet…it’s like nothing else you’ve ever had.”
“Sounds wonderful.”
“It really is,” he said. “When you get your money, first thing you should do is buy yourself an orange and see for yourself.”
The mention of the money seemed to bring back all the worries that he had hoped to erase, and Cora’s smile died like a flower under frost.
“Thanks for making supper, Nathan. I guess I’ll go ahead and turn in now,” she said quietly. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” he murmured. He’d had the chance to raise her spirits, and then he’d trampled all over them. Nice work. He
watched her go into her room and close the door. There was nothing else he could do.
Hours later, Nathan had drifted into a light sleep when an odd noise awakened him. He lay there for a moment, trying to think what it had been. A cough, maybe. Or a groan. Maybe she’s sick. He listened closely and heard it again, coming from Cora’s room, but now he knew exactly what it was. A sob. Cora was crying.
He whipped the blanket back and got to his feet, stepping into his slippers and putting on his robe. He padded down the hall to her door; it was closed, as usual, and he knocked lightly.
“Cora?”
There was no answer. He slowly opened the door a crack and called her name again. She may have been trying to hide the sound, but he could hear her still sniffling there in the dark.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Her voice was thick with emotion.
“I woke up and heard you crying,” he said quietly. “I wanted to come check on you and make sure you’re all right.”
“You’re coming into my bedroom in the middle of the night and you just wanted to check on me? You think I’m going to believe that?”
“Cora, it’s not like that,” he said. “If you want me to go, I’ll go. But like I said before, it might feel better if you talked about whatever’s bothering you.”
The room was silent for a minute, aside from the sound of her breath and the occasional sniffle. Nathan was just about to apologize for disturbing her and close the door when she finally spoke.
“Okay, let’s talk,” she said quietly. She sat up in bed and raised her knees, making room for him to sit at the footboard.
He sat down and looked at her for a moment. The pale moonlight that streamed into her room lit up the wet streaks that covered her cheeks, and more than anything else at that moment he wanted to take her into his arms, brush away her tears and tell her that whatever happened, everything would be all right. She had always seemed like such a strong woman—hell, he’d met plenty of men who could have learned a thing or two from her—that it was surprising to see that she had a vulnerable side. Surprising, and endearing.
“I’m going to ask you something, and I want you to answer me honestly,” he said. “Has your cousin been bothering you again?”
She remained quiet, which seemed to be as good as saying yes. Curse that woman, Nathan thought. He’d known she’d be trouble ever since he’d met her at the house, teaching her kids to steal the silver while looking down her nose at Cora. “What’s she been doing?”
Cora reached into the nightstand drawer and took out a handkerchief. “Oh, it’s her friends who’ve been giving me trouble.” She wiped her eyes and nose. “Emma knows a lot of women here in town and they all gossip about me. It’s not a big problem.”
“It is a problem if it’s making you upset,” he said. “You think I like to see you like this?”
“I just mean, it’s nothing you can help with. What are you going to do, go tattle on them to their husbands?”
“Of course not,” he said. “But I would…well, I don’t know what I’d do, but I just don’t like it. And I don’t like you hiding that from me.”
She ran a hand through her hair and wiped her eyes again. “There’s no reason for us both to be upset.”
“And there’s no reason for you to take this on all by yourself,” he said. “We’re married, for God’s sake. It might not be what either of us ever expected, but let me help you while I can.”
She let out a long sigh. “Nathan, I appreciate what you’re saying, but like I said, there’s nothing for you to do.”
“Maybe not directly,” he allowed. “But let me tell you, you shouldn’t let those women get you all worked up like this. Did I ever tell you what I thought when I first saw you in Bill’s Bar?”
“No, what was that?”
“I first thought, ‘Who is that beautiful woman with those gorgeous blue eyes?’” he said. “And then I saw how you handled that guy who was giving you trouble, and I couldn’t believe what a strong person you seemed to be.”
She snorted. “If I recall right, he knocked me down and the bartender had to kick him out,” she said. “I didn’t handle him at all.”
“He did knock you down. But you got right back up. And if the bartender hadn’t gotten between you two, I think he would have gotten a lot worse than getting kicked out of the bar,” he said. “So I have no doubt that you’ll be able to handle a little gossip from Emma and her friends. But I want you to keep in mind that if you ever do get knocked down again, I’ll be here to help you up.”
She smiled briefly, then her gaze fell to the bedspread. “Thank you, Nathan,” she said.
“Is there anything else going on? Something besides those women?”
He wasn’t sure how to read her silence this time. She was a proud woman; that much he’d learned almost the first day he’d met her. Just getting her to admit that she wasn’t immune to the cruelties that people sometimes heaped upon each other, that she had feelings just like anybody else, may have been a big enough step for now.
Nathan reached over and patted her knee. “Well, if there is something else going on, you let me know,” he said quietly. “I was serious about what I said. As long as I’m your husband, you’re not alone in all of this. I’m going to stick by you, no matter what.”
He was about to head back to bed when she took his hand and squeezed it tightly. “Nathan, there is something else.”
He lowered himself back down. “What is it?”
She took a breath and opened her mouth as if to speak. She was truly beautiful there, with the pale light softening everything in the room. She was still his strong girl, but there was something about seeing her like this that nearly took his breath away. Of course, any man would find a pretty little blonde like her enticing, especially when she was dressed only in a nightgown and he was sitting on her bed. But there was more to it than that. Perhaps it was the fact that she had finally opened up to him a little bit, that she had lowered her guard for a few minutes and let him get a little bit closer to her. In the end he supposed it didn’t matter. She was breathtaking regardless of the reason.
If there was one thing that Cora had learned in her life, it was that you needed to be self-reliant. Her grandmother had constantly told her that she had to look out for herself because nobody else was going to do it. Cora took the advice to heart at an early age, having seen that her mother couldn’t be relied on to regularly cook for her, clean her clothes, nor do much else most times.
By the time Cora had become a woman, she had been hardened by experience, but even she wouldn’t have called herself bitter. It would have been like being bitter about snow being cold or water being wet. Life was the way it was; you came into it alone and you went out alone. She hadn’t seen anything to make her think that it was any different in between.
So it was surprising, then, when Nathan had come to her in the night. On the one hand, she’d been expecting his visit for a while now. When she had first taken him over to show him the place, she had pointedly explained which room would be his and which would be hers, so he couldn’t have imagined that they would be sharing a bed. But then again, he also probably couldn’t have imagined being married to a woman and not spending a little time together under the covers now and again. She had resigned herself to it happening sooner or later. The surprise had been learning that instead of coming to exercise a husband’s right, he was coming to talk.
Not that she was really in any mood for that either. She had retired early and tried to fall asleep, hoping to find some peace for a few hours. Slumber was the only place she had left where she was wasn’t fearful of running into Drake or more of Emma’s friends, and that was only because she hadn’t started dreaming about them. Yet.
Tonight, however, she’d been unable to get her eyes to stay shut. There was just too much looming over her, and no matter how much she told herself that it would seem better in the morning, she could no longer believe it.
Drake’s words
snaked around inside her head, slithering back every time she tried to shoo them away. Marriage fraud is serious stuff, he had said. She hadn’t thought that things would ever get to this point. She hadn’t thought that her cousin’s greed would run so deep. Perhaps that was the problem: she simply hadn’t thought.
Now it was too late. She not only had Emma’s friends out there like a band of spies, doubtlessly reporting every little thing to Emma, but also this Drake trying to dig up something—anything—that could be used against her. It might only be a matter of time before she tripped up and revealed the truth, at which point she might find herself with no inheritance and maybe even worse. She had heard that up in Waupun they had a prison built just for women, but she wasn’t eager to find out.
And then there was Nathan, who she’d pulled into this thing with an offer she hadn’t even been able to fulfill. She’d had him get married on the spur of the moment, under a fake name, and then she’d had to convince him to wait four months for the money she’d promised him. It was amazing that he’d managed to stay as cheerful as he was; another man might have left long ago rather than going along with everything that she’d put him through. His good nature would probably change if he were to find himself in front of a judge because of her, though.
Putting everything together, it was a hell of a spot she had gotten herself into. The only way out was to keep her head down and hope that things didn’t collapse all around her, but hope was a thin blanket against the icy winds that whipped through her mind, matching those that swirled outside. However much she might have wanted to put this all out of her mind, it had finally become too much—and they were only halfway finished.
The tears had finally rushed out like water breaching a dam, and though she had tried to muffle her cries, clutching her pillow to her face, Nathan had heard and come running, claiming that he wanted to talk.
The odd thing was that she actually felt better after telling him a bit about what had been happening. He had seemed so…sincere, when he’d said that he was going to be there for her. It would have been so nice to just believe him, without worrying what might be behind those sweet words. She would have given anything if it were true, if it weren’t just part of the role that she had asked him to play.
