Love Everlasting

by Tracie Peterson

  When he had proposed a contract between them, a contract that would allow Abrianna the means by which to help her old sailors and indigent citizens while giving Welby the right to court her, she had thought it utter foolishness. But she had been so long praying for an answer as to how she could better help those poor people that Welby’s proposition seemed like answered prayer. Aunt Miriam had long taught her that answers to prayer didn’t always come in an expected form. Because of that, Abrianna had to allow that God might very well have sent Priam Welby as His answer.

  “Kolbein, do you have a moment?”

  He nodded and led her to the far side of the room. “I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”

  “I suppose I should. To be honest, I’m in such a fitful state of confusion, I don’t know if anything I say will make sense. You know, I once heard tell of a man who, upon receiving a great shock, was forever unable to even remember his address without prompts. Do you suppose I shall succumb to such madness?”

  He laughed. “Abrianna, you will never succumb to madness of any kind. To do that would require you yielding control, and I’ve yet to see you do that in any area of your life, save perhaps your encounters with the Almighty, and even then I’m somewhat certain you barter with Him.”

  “Oh, you do have a poor opinion of me.” Abrianna shook her head. “Perhaps I shouldn’t even ask for your help.”

  “I have only the best opinion of you, Abrianna. I have always admired your strength. Now what can I do for you? Did you want to discuss your inheritance?”

  “No.” She shook her head again. “I want to dissolve the contract with Mr. Welby.”

  “Ah yes. I presumed that would be forthcoming and have already arranged the papers for you to sign dissolving the agreement. He won’t be happy about it, you know.”

  “His happiness is not my responsibility. Besides, he knows full well I only agreed to court him because he offered help for the poor. I made it quite clear that I would never love him nor would I pretend to court him with any thought of marriage. He was the one who was deluded in thinking that he could somehow win me over. And now, given my recent . . . discovery of feelings for Wade, I cannot court Mr. Welby.”

  Kolbein chuckled. “Not unless Wade were to come along, and I doubt Welby would be tolerant of that.”

  “No, I’m certain he wouldn’t. Mr. Welby doesn’t seem to be tolerant of much.”

  Her words appeared to sober Kolbein. “He is known for being vindictive, Abrianna. I can’t say what he might do to attempt punishment for your change of heart.”

  “I do not think he will attempt anything. I was never meant for Mr. Welby, and I told him so. Why he thought he could win me over is quite beyond me. He did not appeal to me in the least, especially given his big ears, although I truly would never let that be a reason for rejecting someone’s love, if I loved him in return. Which, of course, I don’t.” She gave a heavy sigh. “I will rely upon you to finalize the matter.”

  “I am your humble servant,” Kolbein declared with an exaggerated bow.

  “I haven’t had you to myself all day.” Wade led Abrianna out onto the wraparound porch. The sun hung low in the sky and painted the horizon in hues of orange and red. “I can’t remember us having a moment alone since the Fourth of July.” He grinned. “A day I still reflect on with great pleasure.”

  “It was quite the affair. My birthday party, that is. Well, the Fourth of July was quite a wondrous event, as well.” She fell silent.

  Abrianna looked tired, and Wade felt selfish for demanding her time. But she was all he could think of these days. The only soul in the world he wanted to be with. With great care Wade tucked her arm in his and walked to the farthest point away from the front of the house. The porch offered them a private yet respectable place to share a moment alone, and Wade intended to take full advantage of it.

  “We need to talk.”

  She looked up and nodded. “I suppose we do.”

  “With the long hours I’ve been putting in helping with the rebuilding of the city, we’ve hardly been alone. And when I am here, you seem busy or have already gone to your room for the night.” He reached out and lifted her chin with his finger. “You aren’t avoiding me, are you?”

  “Maybe.”

  He hadn’t expected her answer. “Why?”

  “I don’t know.” She pulled away and walked to the porch rail. “I suppose I’m very confused. This is all so new to me. One minute we’re good friends, and the next you kiss me and everything changes. Stuff and nonsense. I can’t even look at you without all sorts of thoughts rushing through my head.”

  He chuckled. “We’re still good friends, Abrianna.” He moved toward her. “Nothing will ever change that.”

  She turned and held out her hands as if to ward him off. “How can you be certain of that? After . . . well, after we . . . well, I think of you quite differently now.”

  He grinned. “I’m thinking of you pretty differently, too. But they’re all very good thoughts. I love you.”

  She nodded. “I know you do, and I love you, Wade.” Her expression puzzled him.

  “You look like you’re about to face a battle rather than a wedding.”

  “Wedding? We haven’t talked about a wedding.” She shook her head. “I vacillate between having a stomachache and then a headache. One minute I feel exhausted and the next I could climb a mountain. If this is love, then I’m not at all sure I am going to enjoy it.”

  He suppressed a grin. She would never understand his amusement with her. “Oh, Abrianna, you’re making this much more complicated than it needs to be.”

  “Well, it’s just that everything I knew to be stable in my life has turned upside down. I feel so . . . so . . . misplaced.” She shook her head again. “I don’t expect you to understand. I don’t understand it myself. Goodness knows, I’ve tried. I’ve even written out lists. I could show them to you to prove myself.”

  This time he couldn’t suppress his amusement and laughed. “Abrianna, I believe you. I can see that you’re confused. What I want you to know, however, is that despite all these changes, you are still the same. I’m still the same. That’s not going to change.”

  “Of course it will.” She gave him an indignant glare. “Only dead things don’t change. I’m not the same person I was five years ago. You are completely different than you were back then. I would never have dreamed of kissing you. I recall your being a pest to me, always ruining my plans.”

  “For your own good.” He took a step back. “Honestly, Abrianna, you make it sound like falling in love is the end of something rather than the beginning.”

  She turned away from him, and all those cinnamon-colored curls rippled down her back, begging his touch. Wade held himself in check. If he touched her now, she might go back to avoiding him, and he didn’t want to risk that.

  “I’m afraid of that very thing. I like what we have, Wade. You are the only person in the world I feel I can be completely honest with. You can be very harsh with me, but I always know it’s done out of concern for my well-being and not because you are striving to make me into someone else, as my aunts do.”

  “No one wants you to be someone else, Abrianna. Your aunts have only tried to make you the best person you can be.”

  She continued staring out toward the bay and the setting sun. Wade wanted to offer her something that would put her mind at ease, but he was rather baffled. He had fought for some time against the feelings he had for Abrianna, and now that he knew she felt the same way, he didn’t want to lose a moment in planning for their future. Abrianna, on the other hand, was fixed on the past.

  Without warning, she turned to face him. “What if we’re wrong? What if that kiss was just a coincidence? What if because we were in a celebratory mood and everyone was having a good time, the kiss only seemed right? Goodness, it could have just been the night air. Aunt Poisie always said the sea breezes could stir up one’s blood.”

  Wade closed the short distance bet
ween them and pulled Abrianna into his arms. His hand cradled her head as he lowered his mouth to hers, determined to prove their love had nothing to do with night air. He felt her melt against him, her hands going up to the back of his neck. His pulse quickened.

  Sea breezes indeed. “Does that help answer your thoughts of coincidence?” he asked after making certain she was thoroughly kissed.

  She didn’t try to get away from him or break his hold. She just laid her head upon his shoulder and gave the tiniest of nods. “It does. It’s just as I feared.”

  “Just as you feared?” He lifted her face to meet his gaze. “And what is that?”

  She blushed and looked away. “I like very much when you do that.”

  He laughed and touched her lips with his finger. “I like it very much, as well. And once we are married, I plan to do it often, so you might as well get used to the idea.”

  2

  But I have no desire to end our arrangement.” Priam Welby fixed Kolbein Booth with a hard stare. “She agreed to give me a chance.”

  “The contract clearly states that either party may dissolve it at any time. Miss Cunningham is otherwise engaged and can no longer allow for your courtship.”

  “Otherwise engaged?”

  Booth nodded. “I believe, although it hasn’t been formally announced, that she and Wade Ackerman will marry.”

  Welby brought his fist down on the desk. “I won’t stand for this. I’ll go and speak to her myself.”

  “As her counsel, Miss Cunningham asked me to handle this matter. I don’t believe she wants to see you.”

  “I don’t care. I think those old ladies have clouded her mind so much she doesn’t know what she wants.” He rose from his desk. “I won’t sit idly by and lose her.”

  “You can’t lose what you never had, Welby.” Booth remained sitting, as if he were somehow Welby’s superior. It irritated Priam to no end that where legal responsibility was concerned, Abrianna was free and clear to walk away from all that he had planned. Especially now.

  “I don’t expect you to understand.” Welby decided to take another line. “I have feelings . . . very deep feelings for her.”

  “She’s a wonderful young woman, to be sure. My wife and I are very fond of her. But her heart belongs to another. That’s hardly something you can change.”

  Priam smiled. “I’ve seen it happen before. I’m certain I can figure out a way to persuade Abrianna to give me another chance.”

  Booth got to his feet. “I wouldn’t count on that. You don’t know Abrianna very well at all if you think she’ll just put aside her feelings for Wade. They’ve a long history together. She trusts him, something I doubt she’ll ever do with you.”

  Welby narrowed his eyes. Booth appeared smug, in fact, delighted at the turn of events. “You and that pack of prudish nannies might well think you can control everything around Abrianna, but you can’t. I will do whatever it takes to win her heart.”

  To Welby’s utter frustration, Booth shrugged. “Waste your time and efforts if that’s your desire, but it isn’t going to happen. For a long while now I’ve seen the love those two have for each other. It’s based on things you will never understand. Time. Trust. Spiritual ideals.” He started for the office door but stopped short and turned to face Welby again. His eyes narrowed.

  “You might have fooled the women of the Madison Bridal School with your façade of disgust at the girls found in your basement last June, but you and I both know it was you who put them there.”

  Welby considered the Chinese girls he’d imported to be sold to the highest bidder for their virginal purity. They would have brought him a pretty penny, but Abrianna had found them and set them free, even as the fire ensued and destroyed his building. To convince her of his innocence in the matter, he had played indignant and shocked, then hired a missionary woman to escort them back to China. All in order to impress Abrianna and her meddling aunts.

  “You have no proof of that, Mr. Booth. I would suggest that rather than malign my good name, you would do better to keep such thoughts to yourself. I would hate to have to file a lawsuit against you.”

  To his surprise, Booth only smiled. “You do what you think you have to where I’m concerned. But I would advise you to leave Miss Cunningham alone. I don’t think you want to have to tangle with not only Wade but also Abrianna’s father. They are both rather protective and will not stand for your interference. Good day to you, sir.”

  Welby watched the man leave without awaiting his dismissal. He wasn’t used to such blatant disregard. Booth would pay for his attitude and words. Welby would see to it if it was the last thing he did. But for now, he needed to figure out a plan for taking Abrianna away from Mr. Ackerman.

  Only a week earlier Priam had forced information from a man very much indebted to him. A banker who knew many details of the Madison Bridal School finances relayed the details of an inheritance—a tidy sum—to go to Abrianna upon her twenty-first birthday. That sum would have allowed Priam to finalize plans for crushing his father.

  Priam walked to the window of his office and gazed out. His house, located away from the bay area on Denny Hill, had suffered no fire damage. Even the smoke seemed minimal, and his servants had worked wonders to negate the stench.

  All of Seattle lay below in various stages of destruction and repair. There was still a great deal of the burned city to be cleared, but already thousands of bricks were being laid out for new businesses. For the time, most businessmen set up shop in large serviceable tents, but Welby knew that given the things he’d heard, Seattle would be remade in as little time as humanly possible.

  He’d toyed with the idea of leaving the area. Taking his insurance money and heading back east with the rest of his fortune to see the look on his father’s face when he came to realize that the industry and properties he’d spent a lifetime building up were now in the hands of the son he’d disowned. But Priam was never one to run from a challenge once he set his mind to it, and he had set his mind on Abrianna Cunningham.

  It wasn’t for love. That ridiculous emotion got way too much attention. No, his interest in her first arose in order to get her aunts to sell him their downtown building. Once they agreed to do that, without Abrianna having to compromise her wishes and court him, Welby realized he was rather obsessed with the redheaded hoyden, as he’d come to call her. He’d never met anyone quite like her. She spoke her mind and was able to stand up to most anyone, including him. Not only that, but Priam found her to be a challenge, one he intended to meet and conquer.

  Tea could be such a droll affair, even if it did involve her dearest friend. Abrianna sighed and picked a piece of lint off her gown as Lenore chatted with Aunt Miriam. The lightweight creation of white dotted Swiss trimmed in bold swaths of yellow and green was one of her favorites. And not just because it didn’t need a bustle. But that did make it praiseworthy, indeed. Oh, the atrocities women went through to look fashionable. Not that Abrianna didn’t appreciate her extensive wardrobe, thanks to Lenore’s generosity with hand-me-downs. Lenore’s mother abhorred any woman who would wear the same gown over and over like a fisherman’s wife. She raised her daughter to dress in the most fashionable attire available, and that influence hadn’t ended with Lenore’s marriage. Yes, Abrianna had much to be thankful for. Especially gowns without bustles.

  Aunt Poisie pushed in the tea cart, reminding Abrianna of the onion man who used to go from door to door with his wheelbarrow full of product. The thought almost caused her to giggle out loud, and she barely controlled herself as Aunt Miriam began to pour.

  “I do hope your husband’s law firm has plans to rebuild.” Aunt Miriam handed Lenore a cup and saucer.

  “Oh, they are already well into it,” she assured. “The plans were approved by the city, and building will commence right away.”

  “Goodness, it’s only been two months.” Aunt Poisie’s face expressed her wonder. “You would think such matters would take a great deal more time, but I suppose
the modern way of doing things causes people to always be in a rush. I do hope they take time to consider using quality materials. We wouldn’t want the buildings to fall down around us because they’re in too big of a hurry. Do you think there are requirements for such things?” Aunt Poisie paused for but a moment. No doubt she expected her sister to berate her for such a lengthy comment. However, when Aunt Miriam said nothing, she continued. “I suppose there must be a great many rules. Seattle is all about change these days. The newspaper said the city plans to connect Front Street to Commercial Street.” She shook her head in what appeared to be exasperation. “I fear I will never get used to that.”

  Abrianna grinned and met Lenore’s gaze. There was a twinkle in those brown eyes that let Abrianna know she wasn’t alone in her amused assessment of Aunt Poisie’s worries.

  “I suppose it will take time,” Lenore admitted, after sampling the tea. “I’m certain there will be a great many changes. However, Kolbein tells me that the entire city is determined to rebuild better and bigger. And they plan it to be done within the year.”

  “The year!” Aunt Selma declared. “Why, that doesn’t even seem reasonable. How will they ever ensure safety? I cannot think such rebuilding could be done that quickly. The very laws of nature would suggest otherwise. It sounds to me to be the work of Darwinists.” She nodded so fast her neat little bun bobbed and looked ready to come undone. “They believe”—her voice grew hushed—“that everything evolves in order to survive. At least that was what Mr. Gibson used to say.”

  “God rest his soul.” Aunt Poisie took her cup of tea.

  “Amen.” Aunt Miriam and Aunt Selma nodded most solemnly.

  Abrianna accepted a cup of tea from her aunt and slumped back in the chair in a most unladylike manner. From childhood, she’d been taught that ladies did not sit in a chair—they perched lightly, as if ready to spring up at any moment. Such perching did not lend itself to comfort and relaxation.