Noelle

by Diana Palmer

  He glanced up from his newspaper, smiling absently. “There you are! Where have you been, dear girl?”

  “I went to town with Mrs. Pate,” she said.

  “How boring. Come. I’ll let you ride to the office with me, if you like. I have to pick up some papers. There’s just time before luncheon is served.”

  “Could I?” she exclaimed, forgetting her resolve to be cool and distant after he so easily replaced her company for the dance.

  “Of course.” He folded the paper and got up. “We won’t be late,” he assured his stepbrother and grandmother. “Let me get my hat and coat, Noelle. It seems to be rather wet outside. I’ll meet you at the front door in five minutes.”

  “All right.”

  He left, and Noelle turned to find Jared watching her with vague amusement.

  “They’re sending the things on to the house,” she said hesitantly.

  He nodded. “I hope you found some things you liked,” he said carelessly.

  “Why, yes. There were two warm-weather suits and a winter suit in sapphire velvet—”

  He got up from the sofa, leaning on the cane. “I’m sure Grandmother would enjoy hearing about it when you return. I have to go out.”

  He passed her without another word, leaving her lost and confused by the polite snub. The whole thing had been his idea.

  When the door closed behind him, Noelle grimaced. “Have I offended him?” she asked.

  Mrs. Dunn smiled. “No, dear, of course not. Jared broods. From time to time, he seems very distant, but that’s just his nature. He isn’t a family man, or a social man. He keeps to himself, just as he did when he was younger. You mustn’t take offense at his manner.”

  “Oh, I don’t, not at all. I just wanted to thank him for my things,” she explained.

  “He knows that you appreciate them. Now run along with Andrew and have a good time.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Dunn. Thank you for everything.”

  Mrs. Dunn waved her away with a smile. But she was concerned. Noelle was a very innocent woman and Andrew was experienced. He could hurt her badly. Her infatuation with him was noticeable, which was not a point in her favor. Andrew thrived on admiration from women. Mrs. Dunn hoped that there would be no complications because of this growing interest.

  * * *

  ANDREW WAS PLEASANT company, friendly and attentive, and Noelle blossomed under his regard. He held her hand in the carriage while he told her about his sales job with the brick company and how he’d topped their records already. He was hoping for a management position eventually.

  “I was an officer in the army, you know,” he added, with a smile. “I do know how to get things done.”

  “I’m sure you do, Andrew,” she said huskily.

  He smoothed his fingers over her gloved hand and looked deep into her eyes. She adored him, and his attention was flattering. But she felt no thrill when he touched her, and that was puzzling. Jared had only traced his fingers around her ear and she had gone weak in the knees. Of course, Jared was older and experienced. She thought of him with a woman and her face colored. She could almost see him, those blue eyes flashing like summer lightning in his eyes as he held a woman close against his lean body and kissed her to within an inch of her life…

  “Are you all right?” Andrew asked, frowning. “You’re very flushed.”

  “It’s hot in here, isn’t it?” she improvised, fanning with her gloved hand.

  Andrew only smiled. He assumed that she was reacting to his closeness, and it made him arrogant. He couldn’t touch Jennifer, not if he wanted to win her. But there was nothing stopping him where Noelle was concerned. Nothing except Jared, that was, and what Jared didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. “We’re almost there,” he murmured.

  She glanced past him out the window at the row of businesses that graced the long, wide street. “How long have you worked here?” she asked to divert him.

  “Since last year,” he said, without telling her that Jared had more or less demanded that he find work. “I had hoped to advance much more quickly, but I suppose I’m doing well enough. I must say, I really am in my element with selling, and we have a superior product, too.”

  “Are there different sorts of bricks, then?” she asked innocently.

  He laughed. “Dear girl, there certainly are! And inferior grades can be extremely dangerous when used in construction projects. Why, a building actually fell down in California only weeks ago because the bricks used to build it were fired improperly.”

  “I had no idea,” she said, listening intently. “How very interesting.”

  “I must educate you in the brick trade,” he said, and smiled again at her interest.

  The carriage stopped. Andrew helped her out of the cab and paid the driver, then escorted her into the tall brick building that held the headquarters office of James Collier & Sons. He introduced her to the two girls who worked in the front, writing out invoices and taking orders over the telephone.

  “It’s just like the study at home, isn’t it?” Noelle asked excitedly. “It’s so modern!”

  She was still getting used to the modern equipment, although it felt more familiar to her now. She’d lived in rural areas most of her life. The telephone fascinated her, like so many of the modern gadgets that could be found in most households in Fort Worth nowadays. She did know now how to use a typewriter and a Dictaphone, though. She felt proud of her small accomplishments.

  “Compared to some places, I suppose so. We don’t have electric streetcars yet, but that sort of progress will come, soon enough.”

  Andrew took her elbow and guided her into a small cubbyhole of an office, which contained a desk and some war mementos and a framed portrait of himself in his uniform.

  “How very handsome!” she exclaimed as she stood before it.

  “Thank you. I do miss the uniform at times.”

  “Your office is very nice,” she added, glancing around at the rolltop desk and swivel chair, and the two wing chairs by the potbellied stove, presumably for visitors to sit in.

  “It’s tiny,” he said gruffly, “but someday I hope to have one big enough to suit my needs.”

  He stuck his hands in his pockets and stood beside the curtained window, studying Noelle in her black skirt and white, high-necked blouse, the old brown cloak wrapped around her for shelter from the rain. She was very dowdy. But she was pretty. If only she had better manners and clothes she would be outstanding.

  She turned, catching his eyes on her, and flushed. “The cloak is old,” she murmured. “I have a new one, but I didn’t have time to put it on. In fact, I have a lot of new clothes,” she added.

  His eyebrows lifted. “Indeed?”

  “Your grandmother insisted,” she said, reluctant to mention Jared. He’d told her that Andrew need not know the source of her windfall, and now she was vaguely ashamed not to tell Andrew the truth. Jared had been generous and kind, and she was ignoring his part in her new wardrobe. But to tell Andrew where her things came from…

  “Grandmother was right,” Andrew agreed. “You are family, after all. What did Jared say?”

  “He said that I must have some clothes,” she hedged.

  He apparently saw no significance in that, assuming that Mrs. Dunn had orchestrated the shopping. “So you should. I will enjoy seeing you in your new things.”

  She wanted to tell him that she was going to learn how to behave in proper company and how to speak like a lady, but he was already back on his favorite subject: himself.

  “As you see, I have my own telephone,” he said, gesturing toward the black stick instrument, “and another Dictaphone, just like the one in the study at home.”

  “Yes, I did notice.” Her eyes brightened. “Andrew, I don’t suppose you need another girl in your office?” she ask
ed hopefully.

  He hesitated. He didn’t want Noelle here, of all places, where he hoped to have Miss Beale meet him for lunch once in a while. “I, uh, share a secretary with Mr. Blair, our vice president. Come along and I’ll introduce you to him.” He picked up a sheaf of papers from his wooden filing cabinet, checked it, and then opened the door for Noelle, ignoring her faint blush.

  Mr. Blair was an older man, very businesslike and brief. He nodded curtly to her and went about his business. The owner of the firm wasn’t in, nor were any of the other executives. Andrew led her back into the outer office and introduced her to Trudy and Jessica, the secretaries. They, at least, were friendly. But it didn’t escape Noelle’s notice that they were cool until Andrew introduced her as his cousin. Both were young and pretty, and apparently unmarried. Andrew flirted with them gently, which made Noelle feel like an intruder. It embarrassed her that she’d as good as asked him for a job. What a silly thing to do!

  “Nice girls,” he remarked as they left, having said their goodbyes. “They’d do anything for me, you know.”

  That had been very obvious. “They seem efficient,” she remarked.

  “Indeed they are. Charming girls.”

  He hailed another carriage and put Noelle into it before he joined her, his papers, in their file, clutched in one hand.

  “I have to take work home to get it all done,” he said, chuckling. “It’s a very responsible position. They depend on me.”

  “I expect you’re very good at your job,” she said.

  He nodded, leaning his head back to close his eyes. He stifled a yawn. “I must keep better hours. Miss Beale is a delightful companion.” Before Noelle could bristle, he turned his head and looked at her. “Perhaps next time I ask you to a dance, you will come with me.”

  “I had nothing to wear,” she said shyly.

  “Nothing? Why didn’t you say so?”

  “I was too embarrassed.”

  “Then what a good thing that my grandmother offered to kit you out,” he said, grinning.

  She only nodded. It hadn’t been that way at all. Jared had noticed her sadness and reacted to it. Andrew hadn’t. But he was still the most dashing, exciting man Noelle had ever met. Poor old Jared was hardly anyone’s idea of a man of action, after all, even if he did have a strange effect on Noelle’s nerves. She might have imagined that, she told herself firmly. Surely it had been pity that had affected her when he stood so close and touched her. She could hardly be attracted to him and in love with Andrew.

  Andrew grasped her hand in his and sighed. “I’m very glad that you came to live with us.”

  “So am I.”

  He squeezed her hand. “You mustn’t mind Jared. He’s moody and withdrawn. I hardly know him.”

  “But you’re brothers.”

  “Stepbrothers. His mother married my father. He was a grown man then, and I was just out of knee pants.” He stretched lazily. “We never had the chance to learn anything about each other. He went to law school up North and I finished school and went into the army. We’re nothing alike.” He glanced at her. “He’s very reserved. Almost cold. Do you find him intimidating?”

  She only smiled. “A little.”

  His head shifted. “He isn’t to me, of course,” he said quickly. “But he has this way of looking at people when he’s annoyed; it’s rather like having a hole bored into you.” He chuckled. “Odd, isn’t it? A lawyer with a killer’s stare. Perhaps he looks at witnesses like that, and it’s why he wins so many cases. I’ve heard that he has quite a reputation in criminal law. Odd that he’d want to leave a successful partnership in New York to practice law here.”

  “He’s old, isn’t he?” Noelle asked.

  “Old?” He pursed his lips. “To you, I suppose he is. Thirty-six, I believe.”

  “Oh.” She looked at her skirt and picked off a tiny piece of lint. Thirty-six to her nineteen; of course, she would be twenty in December. That still made him sixteen years older than herself. It was a gap.

  “I shall be twenty-eight on my next birthday.”

  “When is it?” she asked.

  “In November,” he replied. “And your birthday?”

  “In December. I was a Christmas baby, so I was named Noelle,” she explained.

  He laughed delightedly. “I shall wrap your present in holly.” He studied her narrowly and a wicked gleam came into his eyes. “On second thought, I shall wrap it in mistletoe,” he teased softly. “And you can kiss me for it.”

  “Andrew!”

  “But we must make certain that Jared doesn’t know,” he added, teasing, but serious just the same. “We wouldn’t want him to send you away, would we? And he might not approve of, shall we say, too much affection between us.”

  “I shan’t say a word,” she promised, and then blushed as she thought of the possibilities.

  He laughed uproariously at her shocked and delighted expression. He knew that she was his for the asking. It made him feel smug. Women always reacted that way to his flirting. He was handsome and eligible and well-to-do, and women loved him. It was hardly surprising that Noelle found him fascinating. He liked her, too. But only as a diversion. His mind was already back on the night before, on the delightful Miss Beale and her father’s immense fortune.

  Chapter Five

  THE PARCELS ARRIVED by late afternoon, and Noelle flew upstairs to try on her new things. Her favorite was the blue velvet suit. It was a winter garment that hadn’t sold at its original price, and had been marked down for the spring trade. She adored it. Having no knowledge of the fact that most store-bought clothes were fashionable only from season to season, she was certain that she could wear it next fall and winter and it would still look right in style. She had seen drawings of this suit in the local paper and wanted it badly, but its price had been beyond her pocket. The drawings didn’t have the striking color of her suit, and despite her misgivings about it, the hue suited not only her hair but her eyes as well. Jared had been right. It was a color made for her.

  She donned the hat that matched it, and the new shoes, and primped before her mirror, making sure not a hair of her coiffure was out of place. She pinched her cheeks to make them rosy and smiled at her reflection. She wasn’t beautiful, but her features weren’t ugly, either.

  Anticipating Andrew’s response to her new look, she went downstairs to the living room, where she’d left the family. But when she arrived, only Jared was there.

  He looked up and saw her in the doorway, and his features seemed to freeze. She was a vision in the suit, and the color looked as he had imagined it on her. The vivid shade brought her face to vibrant life. He caught his breath.

  “Wh-where’s Andrew?” she asked, disconcerted by his stare.

  The expression left his face. “He took Grandmother to town for some crocheting thread,” he replied. “She meant to have Mrs. Pate pick it up this morning when she did the weekly shopping, but she didn’t foresee that I would send you with her or that you’d leave so early. She didn’t have time to give her the sample to match.”

  “Oh, I see.”

  Her expression was now morose and disappointed. She had a parasol that matched the pretty outfit and it was point-down on the floor now.

  Jared stood up slowly and walked, with the aid of his cane, to meet her in the doorway.

  “You look lovely,” he said kindly. “Andrew would certainly tell you so if he were here.”

  She smiled wanly. “Thank you. And you were right about the color.”

  “A woman with your pale complexion needs bright colors.”

  “My face isn’t so pale,” she said defensively, touching her cheek with a gloved hand.

  He lifted an eyebrow. “Not when you pinch your cheeks to make them color,” he teased.

  She laughed deep in her thro
at. “You aren’t supposed to know that I did that.”

  His chest rose and fell under his nice gray suit as he studied her. “You have a pronounced drawl,” he said.

  She bit her lower lip. “I must learn to enunciate.”

  He shook his head. “The accent is part of you, part of your heritage,” he said. “It has a charm all its own.”

  “But you said that I had a backcountry drawl!”

  He smiled. “To someone from New York, anyone in Texas does,” he clarified.

  “Aren’t you from Texas?” she asked him curiously.

  The smile faded. “No.” He shifted his cane. “This suit is lovely, but impractical for warm weather. Did you buy some things for late spring and summer?”

  “Of course, but nothing is as lovely as this,” she said. She peeped up at him shyly. “It is lovely, isn’t it?”

  He laughed mockingly. “It isn’t the suit that you want me to admire,” he taunted softly.

  She glowered at him. “You’re generous but very disagreeable,” she informed him.

  “I know too much about women,” he said, and for an instant, there was a chilling lack of feeling in his eyes.

  Her hand contracted on the handle of the parasol. “You shouldn’t speak of such things.”

  His face lifted. “In the normal course of things, no. But I said that we would be honest with each other.”

  She stared at him and her thin brows drew together. “I don’t understand.”

  “What don’t you understand?”

  “Why you…disturb me so,” she said reluctantly. “And yet, I feel as if I’ve known you for a long time. I feel…safe with you.”

  The iciness left his blue eyes. He moved no closer, yet his presence seemed to envelop her like a cloak. His eyes narrowed as he watched her without speaking, without blinking, in that way that was peculiarly his.

  “Are you certain that you feel…safe?” he asked deeply.

  She held up a gloved hand in a curious little gesture, like someone warding off an unseen invader.