Enchanting Nicholette

by Dawn Crandall

  “Of course not, but now that you’re back from Europe and your mourning is complete, aren’t you ready to plan your own course for the future?”

  I looked across the table to where my parents sat a few seats down from each other. They had done what they thought was best for me in planning my union with William and the Everstone family, and it had been good. I could not begrudge them for wanting to make it happen. It wasn’t as if anyone could have known how tragically it would end. No one would have dreamed of such horrid happenings.

  “I don’t believe it is all up to me, Alex. I trust that God has my future and He knows what I need.”

  “If you believe in things like that, I suppose.” Alex rolled his eyes, as if the thought that God was involved in our lives was preposterous. “Wouldn’t you rather simply choose who you would like? Someone familiar, someone who would provide the same kind of arrangement your family had made with the Everstones? You know, since you like being told what to do.”

  I stared at him, my disbelief rendering me speechless. Had he really just said that?

  “Just imagine having a part in joining the Everstone and Fairbanks families, as well as now linking all that with the Summercourt family.”

  I was surprised by his indiscreetness. Everything I’d ever known about Alex Summercourt had led me to believe he knew what to say to get to a woman…but perhaps it was the whole trying-to-gain-a-wife part of the equation that threw him off. I was positive he’d never mentioned the word marriage in a conversation with me before, and here he was trying to incorporate it into his smooth—or rather, not-so-smooth—ways of trying to woo me.

  Which certainly weren’t working. Especially knowing his views concerning God’s sovereignty…and my “following directions.”

  “What about you, Mr. Hawthorne?” I asked, finally able to turn away from Alex and his non-stop barrage of questions and comments. “What do you believe about such things?”

  “I believe God works in the hearts of His people and works all things for the benefit of those who love Him,” he answered without having to take a moment to think. Then he added with a whispered smile, “And I also believe that Mr. Summercourt’s efforts to seek your favor are failing quite miserably.”

  “They are. Quite miserably, indeed.” I laughed under my breath.

  “And how are mine doing?”

  “Your what, exactly?” I asked slowly, keeping my voice low and my eyes discreetly focused on his.

  He held my gaze and dipped his spoon into his bowl of rice pudding. “My own efforts.”

  “Nonexistent, in fact,” I answered playfully, knowing full well that wasn’t the truth.

  His only answer at first was that half smile he loved to playfully display, his eyes saying so much more than his words. “Is that a fact?”

  “You must try harder, it would seem.”

  “Duly noted, Mrs. Everstone.” He flashed that heavenly smile of his, catching my eye with a meaning-filled glance.

  “Nicholette, it seems you’ve lost your chance at buying Hilldreth, as I wished,” Miss Abernathy said from across the wide table. “And with the house sold, I’ll be on my way to Everston to be with Estella and Dexter before we know it.”

  “What? Someone’s bought it already? How would anyone have even known?” It wasn’t as if she’d actually advertised her intentions.

  “It seems someone got word of my wishes to move and they’ve sent a lawyer straight to Whidbey Island to speak to Nathan and Amaryllis firsthand about an offer. And they’ve accepted!”

  “What?” I repeated, wishing I’d realized I wanted Hilldreth sooner than that evening when I’d been speaking with Cal on the landing. I looked to him now. He watched me closely, but he had a fairly indecipherable look on his face.

  “And you’ll never believe from whom!” Miss Abernathy loved to share news, and she did so now with a flair of entertainment. “I just found out today, but the offer was from none other than Mr. Chauncey Hawthorne III.”

  “What?” It was the only word I could seem to come up with after so many new and wild pieces of information came to light. And my heart sank, even as the fact that this scandalous stranger I’d heard so much about in the last few weeks became more real than ever before. How odd it was that he would be the one to steal Hilldreth right out from under my nose.

  “Of course, Nathan and Amaryllis know nothing of the family’s reputation, but can you imagine it now? Hilldreth in the hands of those Hawthornes? It hurts my heart to think that my decisions have come to this. For if the son is to move back to Boston, surely he’ll bring the rest of his family to live on the prominent corner of Commonwealth and Berkeley....” Miss Abernathy’s attention was down the table now, as she added, “I don’t even know what to say.”

  I could hardly come up with anything myself.

  “You weren’t seriously considering buying it, were you, Nicholette?” Miss Abernathy asked as her gaze came back to our part of the table and fixated on me.

  I looked her way. Up until that moment, I’d been concentrating on the table settings, in complete shock. “I had thought about it, a little,” I admitted.

  “If I’d known as much,” Miss Abernathy continued, “I would have surely sent them word not to consider any offers until they heard from you. And now, how I wished I’d told them!—that they wouldn’t have sold it to this family. I thought it was all my own wishful thinking.”

  And that’s all it ever would be now, my heart cried. I didn’t know why it mattered so much, but I couldn’t fathom living anywhere apart from my parents except for somewhere familiar. Just as Everthorne would have been.

  At that precise moment, Vance and Violet stood from their seats at the ends of the table, indicating dinner was over.

  After everyone left the table and mingled for a while, the gentlemen of the party congregated at the far end of the dining room, and the ladies filed out to the hall. Cal caught my eye and held my gaze for a moment before I followed his sister. I stopped near him, and he quickly whispered, “There’s something I need to tell you before we join the others.”

  “Meet me in the receiving room at the front of the house,” I said as quietly as possible.

  After leaving the dining room, I held back as Violet, Mother, Miss Abernathy, Sylvie, and Mabel all went into the music room, and then I walked past the curtained-off entrance of the room, down the hall, and into the receiving room. I hoped no one would notice just how long I’d be gone before rejoining them.

  The small, round room I’d told Cal to meet me in was more like an alcove, with an impressive fireplace facing the doorway, which was flanked by two windows, and then as the wall curved around, two built-in bookcases. And at the center of the room was a triangular-shaped, gray Borne Settee with three seats.

  I never had understood why the room had been built into the floor plan off the hall. It was a bit removed, and just out of the way enough for some privacy. But I was thankful for it now, because it was exactly what I needed.

  13

  After

  “Each time you happen to me all over again.”

  —Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence

  I wasn’t sure what to do as my hopeless thoughts regarding Hilldreth swirled about my mind. I certainly hadn’t thought there would be a race to make an offer, and now it was too late.

  Awaiting Cal after dinner, I opted to stand before the locked glass doors of the built-in bookcase, between the fireplace and one of the windows, studying Violet’s collection of first-edition Jane Austen and Brontë novels, which I’d heard about from Miss Abernathy.

  The beginning strains of Mozart’s “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” came from the music room, and I realized Mabel and Sylvie were performing the piano duet they’d spent time perfecting. They both played wonderfully, and I regretted not having the chance to watch them do so. I delighted in watching others perform the piano, because I certainly couldn’t. At least as not as well as either of them could.

  A few minutes
later, when Cal finally came to the entrance of the receiving room, he leaned against the wood trim outlining the opening, pushing the brown-velvet curtains behind him with his shoulder. “A little night music for accompaniment. How perfect.” He watched me from across the room.

  Laughing to myself, I recalled Sylvie’s literal English translation of the German title. She always referred to it as “A Little Night Music,” but always emphasized the word “little” instead of “night.”

  “They are becoming quite good, aren’t they?”

  “They do practice almost every other day, I’ve heard.” Cal’s blue eyes stayed on me as he crossed the room.

  Taking a few steps away from the bookcase, following the curved wall of the round room past the window, I met him halfway. As I stood before him, he put his hands at my shoulders, holding me at arms’ length, as if he didn’t trust himself to touch me beyond holding me in place.

  But it was already too much. Too much for there not to be more.

  Reaching up, I put my hands upon his arms and pulled him nearer, making him take a step closer. Quickly, my hands were at his shoulders, and all I wanted was to be tangled up in his arms. Cal took yet another step closer and brought a hand to the back of my neck, his thumb grazing my jaw.

  He swallowed nervously, which I found to be incredibly endearing. It amazed me that I could make a man of such caliber anxious. Grabbing the material of his jacket, I took a step back to stand against the wall behind me, and he followed, keeping his hands on me.

  He raked his other against my side, and just as I was about to lose all patience and pull him near, he leaned forward, wrapped his arms around me, and closed the distance between us...

  Pressed against him, in his arms, we were so close that my nose was an inch from his jaw, close enough that kissing him would have been extremely easy. I’d never wanted something so desperately before, and it still felt so terrifyingly new.

  He looked me in the eyes and said, “I wanted to tell you how long—how very long I’ve wanted this. You, how long I’ve wanted you…how I’ve loved you.”

  Astonished by this admission, I watched as Cal’s gaze roved over my features, studying me. He smiled, apparently delighted that I couldn’t seem to find any words. And before I could catch my breath, he kissed me.

  I closed my eyes, and his last words echoed through my mind, creating pure bliss mixed with an almost sinking feeling as I kissed him back. Lifting onto my tiptoes, I slipped my hands up his chest to his shoulders, and then slowly, to the back of his high white collar, wanting him to know I felt everything he did too.

  For I certainly wasn’t going to stop kissing him in order to say so.

  Cal cradled my jaw, inched his fingers near my ear and then into my hair, and I sank further. He took his time, slowly, deliberately, tilting his head, and mine, in order to kiss me more deeply. The delighted sigh, which escaped his throat as he did so, sent a shiver of pleasure through me.

  I raked my fingers under the lining of his waistcoat, spreading my fingers wide as they reached his shoulders.

  Cal shuddered noticeably, but kept his focus on me—on kissing me—and pulled me closer. His hands pressed at my back, and yet I stayed pushed against the wall.

  “Nick…Nicky…” his raspy, whispered plea brushed against my lips, and I couldn’t help but smile as his shoulders still trembled under my touch.

  Scrambling for a cohesive thought, I sighed. “I thought you were”—stopping to catch my breath, I eventually went on—“going to call me Nicholette…always.”

  “I couldn’t,” he breathed heavily. “I’m sorry, I simply couldn’t think.”

  “Well, I can’t hold that against you,” I whispered.

  I wasn’t so certain how much thinking I’d been doing myself.

  Cal stared down into my eyes with the biggest smile I’d ever witnessed from him spread across his face. His hand caressed my elbow, then my upper arm, and then where the ruffled edge of my gown came to my shoulder. He grasped the edge of the silky green material in his fist for a moment, then his fingertips swept against my bare skin. And now, now that so many things had been revealed between us, I felt that even our hands weren’t close enough—for how close we needed to be.

  And it was all much more than I could stand. Without closing my eyes this time, I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him again.

  This time, he seemed more serious, more determined.

  All of the new feelings, which had raged through me at the mere thought of him up until then, had been surprising enough, but I hardly knew how to reconcile everything coursing through me—the emotions, what he’d said, and my complete lack of regret.

  I wanted him. All of him. Forever.

  I’d known what it was like to kiss William in the back halls of soirees and dinner parties, but doing so with Cal Hawthorne was proving to be astoundingly different, on so many levels. And I didn’t know why that surprised me, for I’d merely liked William enough to agree to marry him because my parents had wanted me to….

  But Cal Hawthorne, I didn’t just like him.

  And I definitely wanted to marry him.

  I was in love with him.

  The piano music from down the hall ended, and everything suddenly seemed so quiet, so revered.

  A thought occurred to me through the haze of desire we’d found ourselves enveloped in, and I tore myself away from Cal. “Do you mean you’ve wanted me ever since we were introduced at the bookshop?” We still had our arms tangled around each other, for I couldn’t actually tear myself away from all of him. Just the kiss, so we could talk. Face to face. “That wasn’t too long ago, considering.”

  “No, we’d met before that day.” He glanced at the opening of the room and seemed to think it a good idea to refrain from standing against each other as we were, for he promptly took his arms from around me and guided me to sit upon the nearest seat of the Borne Settee. He then sat to my left, and given the nature of the piece of furniture, we faced each other easily, our knees touching. “Upon meeting you at Brittle Brattle Books, it was obvious you didn’t remember meeting me, which wasn’t too surprising.”

  “Why would that be?” I looked to my hands now knotted in my lap, trying to remember that day. Yes, there had been a glimpse of a memory, but nothing I’d fully recalled of him.

  I looked up to face him again and startled at the intensity with which he’d been staring at me while I’d been focused on my lap.

  The music from the other room suddenly picked up again. This time, it was Violet singing “Hazel Dell,” an old song I knew well because it had always been one of my mother’s favorites.

  “You had the arrangement with the Everstones, and that, apparently, was all that mattered to you back then.”

  Although what he said was true, I wondered how I had ever come into contact with Cal Hawthorne all those years ago and not been branded with the memory of him for the rest of my life. “When did this happen?”

  “Let’s see, it was over a year before you’d officially become engaged to William Everstone.” Circling his arm around the small wooden finial at the center of the back-to-back seats of the settee, Cal reached to where my gown dipped off my shoulder again. He grazed the bare skin of my shoulder, my collarbone, with his fingertips. I leaned in slightly, offering my acceptance, of everything. “I’d met you seven months after Alice had passed. You were eighteen, stunning, beguiling…and also my employer’s daughter.”

  “But you were like a son to him. Father told me.” Everything my father had ever said about him came to mind. If he had been like a son once, Father’s opinion of him back then was surely just as favorable as it was now. But then again, there had been all the other determining factors, like the Everstones and Mother’s grand wish to see me married to one of her dearest friend’s sons.

  “Your father knew everything, all about the sad excuse my marriage to Alice had been.” His fingers had reached my neck now, the palm of his hand splayed over my bare shoul
der. “I didn’t know what he would think, so I’d harbored my interest, hid my feelings for months. And because I’d not been aware of your eventual engagement, I just knew you were the only young lady I wanted.”

  I didn’t know what to say. This surprised me, yet it made perfect sense. It was no wonder I’d felt something between us the first instant I’d seen him. There had been so much there already without my knowledge.

  “I’d done what my father had wanted and married Alice, and I was ready to marry for reasons of my own. I wanted to marry for love, and I wanted to marry you.”

  Reaching my arm around the finial, I could tell he thought, at first, that I meant to stop his touch, but instead of removing his hand from my shoulder, my fingers glided along the sleeve of his jacket, on past his forearm to his elbow and up, where I gripped the back of his arm, pulling him nearer so that his hand reached behind my neck.

  He drew in a slow breath and exhaled, then continued slowly. “I finally had the courage to ask for permission to court you five months later, but your father regretted to tell me you were already spoken for, and by whom.”

  “What did Father think?” I asked, truly curious.

  “He told me about the arrangement, that it had been your mother’s wish to see you marry into the Everstone family. He also told me that if it had been up to him, he would have gladly given me permission.”

  “Is that right?” I’d had my suspicions about my father’s hopes concerning Cal and me, but this information made everything fit into place.

  “My family was—is—well respected in Westborough, and my references were stellar, but you were already taken. And that was all there was to it.”

  “And I became engaged to William.”

  “I tried to forget you. But years later, I still hadn’t found anyone who intrigued me half as much as you. Then one day, I heard the news.” He shook his head at what had probably been a shocking, unexpected revelation. “I could hardly believe…”

  “How quickly my marriage had ended.”