by Megan West
“Oh I didn’t mind, really. I don’t know anyone here so it would have been rather silly to try to arrange a huge affair.”
“Hmm.” Lizbeth had a rather unreadable expression on her face but Cassandra did not feel that it was a friendly one.
“Noah suggested that I stop in to see Sarah and have her help me choose some new cold weather clothing. It really is a lovely shop.”
Lizbeth opened her mouth as if to say something when the door behind her opened setting off the little tinkling bell once more. All three women seemed a bit surprised to see Noah enter the shop. He spotted Cassandra and his face lit up in a smile.
“There you are!” he exclaimed. “I thought I might find you still here. Have you been able to find some suitable clothing?”
“Oh yes! Sarah has been wonderful! She is truly talented and she has been such a great help to me. I am confident that I will be quite in style with all of the other Salem women this year.”
Lizbeth cleared her throat rather loudly as she stared at Noah.
“Ah, hello, Lizbeth,” Noah said in passing. “You are looking well.”
Cassandra watched in amazement as Lizbeth’s expression transformed from almost hateful to that of sweetness and light.
“Why, thank you, Noah,” she purred. “You are also looking well.”
“Well, you know what they say,” he replied. “A beautiful woman on a man’s arm always makes him look better.”
Her face instantly returned to its former poutiness.
“My dear, if you are finished here, we can go to the Inn and have lunch. I believe that you will find the food there quite delicious.”
“Ahh…I don’t know…” she said as she turned to look at Sarah.
“Oh I have more than enough to begin,” Sarah said. “You will need at least one fitting but I have everything I need for now. You two go and enjoy your lunch! It was so wonderful to meet you, Mrs. Montgomery.”
“I so enjoyed meeting you, Sarah and I look forward to working with you on my wardrobe.”
“Thank you for taking such good care of my wife, Sarah,” Noah said. “I knew you were the best for her to see.”
Cassandra watched in amusement as the older woman actually blushed under the compliments from her handsome husband. He took her arm and they headed toward the door, which Lizbeth was now, somehow, blocking. Raising her eyes to Noah’s face, Lizbeth gave him a look that Cassandra couldn’t exactly read, but she was starting to understand what Sarah had said about plenty of disappointment and broken hearts over Noah’s marriage.
“It was nice to see you, Lizbeth,” he said in an offhanded manner. “Now, my wife and I really must be on our way.”
Without another word, Lizbeth moved out of the way and let them pass. Cassandra could feel the woman’s eyes still on them as they moved down the steps and onto the walkway.
“I don’t think that Lizbeth liked me very much,” Cassandra remarked as they walked to the Inn.
“Oh, don’t pay her any mind,” Noah said. “She’s had a rather privileged upbringing and does not take well to not getting everything she thinks she wants.”
“I assume that she thought she wanted you,” Cassandra said.
“Here we are!” he said rather than answering her.
Opening the double doors to a rather large, ornate building, he stood aside and waited for her to enter first. It was all she could do to avoid gasping. This was one of the most beautiful buildings that she had ever had the privilege of visiting. New Orleans had quite a lot of quirky architecture; much of it quite stunning. This, however, was a new type of beauty to her.
The foyer was decorated in various shades of red and gold. It served as the lobby of a hotel as well as the entrance to the restaurant. There was a lot of activity as people were checking in, checking out and simply going to lunch in the restaurant.
“I take it this place meets with your approval,” Noah remarked with a hint of amusement.
“It’s magnificent!” Cassandra cried. “I love it! I thought New Orleans was the only place with such colorful architecture.”
“I really do need to visit your New Orleans one day.”
“Yes, you do. I would love to show it to you.”
There was a table waiting for them even though the restaurant was rather crowded with the lunch patrons. After they had placed their orders, Noah looked at her seriously and picked up their previous conversation.
“There is something that I should probably discuss with you,” he said. “Just so that there are no more awkward moments. Lizbeth is someone that I went out with on occasion. I escorted her to various social events in and around Salem. However, she is not the only woman that I kept company with. I was always very honest and forthcoming with them about not wanting to marry again. Most of them believed me while others may have continued to hope that they would be the ones to change my mind. Lizbeth is one of those women. In fact, it is the reason that I had stop seeing her at all. She did not take it well.”
“That was obvious,” Cassandra replied wryly.
“I apologize for you having to go through that.”
“Oh please, Noah, there’s no apology necessary! I assure you that I have been exposed to much ruder people than Lizbeth Aberdeen.”
“Still, I feel that I should have explained the situation before you ran into her.”
“But how could you have known that I would run into her, Noah? It’s fine, really.”
Cassandra noticed that he was staring her with a rather odd smile on his face.
“Why are you looking at me that way?” she asked hesitantly.
“I was just thinking that I rather like the way that you say my name,” he replied.
“Well, then I shall have to find as many opportunities to say it as possible.”
They both laughed at that and then enjoyed their lunch together. By the time they were ready to leave, Cassandra felt as if they had grown just a tiny bit closer. She found that she liked that feeling.
As they exited the Inn, Noah once again took her arm.
“I have one more stop to make before we head back,” he said. “It’s not far.”
“I’m in no hurry,” she said.
They walked along the walkway in front of the shops and other establishments. Suddenly, Noah stopped in front of a shop with a full glass display window.
“Here we are,” he announced.
Cassandra looked up and read the sign attached to the shop: Jacque’s Jewelers. With a puzzled expression on her face, she looked at her husband.
“Why are we here?” she inquired.
“Do you remember that I promised you a surprise?” he responded.
“Yes, I do remember that,” she said.
“Well, this is where we are getting your surprise.”
Then they walked into the shop.
A fussy little man with a French accent greeted them enthusiastically.
“Bon jour, Monsieur and Madame! Welcome to my humble establishment! How may I be of assistance to you?” he gushed.
“Hello, Jacques,” Noah said. “This is my wife, Cassandra Montgomery. We are here to select a wedding ring for her.”
“Oh Noah!” Cassandra gasped. “You don’t have to do this!”
“Of course I do,” he replied. “You are my wife and you need to have a ring showing that status. I was going to buy one before you arrived so that you would have one for the ceremony but then I realized that I did not know your ring size. Also, I thought you might want to choose it for yourself.”
She couldn’t help but smile in pleasure. This was not something that she expected.
“This is just so very kind of you, Noah. I don’t know what to say.”
“You can say thank you once you have chosen the ring that you want. I mean that, too. Choose whatever style you want. There are no limits on what you can select.”
“Have a look at these, Madam Montgomery,” Jacques said as he scurried around behind the counter. He pulled out som
e rings from beneath the glass case and set them up on top of it.
“Oh these are so very beautiful! How will I ever choose?” Cassandra cried.
“You don’t have to choose from these, Cassandra,” Noah said. “You can tell Jacques what you would like in a ring and he will design and create it. Then you will have a custom made ring.”
In the end, that was the direction that they decided to take. Cassandra carefully chose a large amethyst stone for her ring that would be surrounded by a combination of diamonds, rubies and emeralds. Everything would be set tastefully in a wide golden band.
“Are you sure that it’s not too much?” she asked for the third time.
“It will be magnifique, I promise!” Jacques cried as he clapped his hands together.
“I trust your talent, Jacques,” Noah said. “When do you think you will have it ready?”
“I will have it completed in one week.”
“That’s perfect, Jacques. We will be back in a week to collect it.” Turning to Cassandra, he said, “Are you ready to go home?”
“Yes, of course,” Cassandra replied. “Thank you so much, Jacques.”
“It was my pleasure, Madame,” he said, smiling.
She and Noah left the shop together and began to walk back to the center of town.
“Is he really from France,” she asked Noah.
Lowering his voice, he said quietly, “He’s about as French as I am.”
Somewhat startled at his answer, Cassandra looked at him only to see that he was wearing a slight smile that threatened to erupt into full blown laughter.
“He is not from France. I doubt that he has ever been close to France. He just thought it would make his jewelry business seem more authentic.”
“Well, he is quite good at what he does! I was totally convinced!”
“Oh, he will present you with an exquisite ring. Have no doubt. But he is most assuredly not French.”
Cassandra thought that she and Jacques might just be a lot alike. She had behaved similarly in New Orleans with her invented career of being a fortune teller. It was simple to understand why Jacques would want to reinvent himself in order to achieve more of a trusted reputation.
Remembering that she had still not told Noah about her background, her spirits sank a little. She could only hope that he never found out or he would most likely boot her out as fast as possible.
Over the next few weeks, Cassandra and Noah spent a great deal of time together getting to know each other. They took long walks on the grounds of Noah’s home. He taught her how to ride horses and they went horseback riding along the trails, sometimes even taking along a picnic lunch with them.
Obviously, Noah still had a business to run and was away at times. When he was not there, Cassandra missed him quite a lot more than she would have imagined. She had become accustomed to having him in her life now. In a lot of ways, she did feel as if she was his wife. Then, there were other ways that she did not feel connected to him. They still slept in and maintained separate bedroom suites. Although he often took her arm when they were walking and he had held her hand on occasion, he had not hugged her or kissed her.
On the other hand, they had become quite close in other ways. They talked for hours about everything and she could see that he was looking at her differently. Yet, they still maintained their non-traditional marriage of convenience. She didn’t want to complain, though, because she knew that her life could be so much worse. In spite of everything, she had to concede that she was content.
If Cassandra had only known what Noah was thinking, she would have had her hopes raised quite a bit.
She had been right in thinking that he was looking at her differently. What she did not know was that he also felt differently about her. Not only was she working her way into his life, but also into his heart. This was a problem for him.
Noah had sworn since the day of his first wife’s death that he would not expose himself to such deep and agonizing pain ever again. He still blamed himself for her death. How could he not? He had been the father of their baby. The baby that had killed her in childbirth before dying as well. No. That was not something that he could do again. It would destroy him.
Now, Noah was second guessing everything that he had believed since Cassandra had come into his life. She knew how to run a household and she and Larissa were practically more friends than employer and staff. He had watched her on more than one occasion join in with meal preparation as well as dusting and polishing the furniture. She also seemed to love the horses and had spent quite a lot of time in the stables.
Cassandra had also made him aware of how blind he had been to the attention of certain women in the city. The most notable occasion was the day that they had returned to Jacques Jewelers to pick up her wedding ring. She had been thrilled with the results and pronounced it to be the most beautiful ring that she had ever seen in her life.
He had left her and Jacques to work with the sizing of the ring while he stepped out to do some business at the bank. Just as he was leaving, Lizbeth Aberdeen appeared right in front of him almost as if by magic. She surreptitiously placed her hand on his arm and looked at him urgently.
“Noah, I must speak with you,” she whispered. “It’s important.”
“What’s wrong, Lizbeth?” he asked, clearly puzzled.
“Come with me. I must speak with you in private.”
Noah was not thrilled about being accosted by Lizbeth in this way, but he found himself being led along to an alley. Once she was positive that they could not be seen, she turned to face him.
“Noah, I know that you’re not in love with that woman you married,” she began. “You and I, we had something very special. I know you felt it, too. This mail order bride fiasco was done on the spur of the moment for whatever reason. We can get you out of it. You know that a marriage can be annulled when it has not been consummated.”
“Lizbeth,” Noah said sternly. “How dare you presume to think you know anything about my marriage! Cassandra is a very beautiful, intelligent and loving woman. I will not hear any words against her!”
“But what do you actually know about her, Noah? She comes from New Orleans, for god’s sake! Do you have any idea what sort of people live there?”
“Well, if they are all like Cassandra, then I would happy to know them. Stop this foolishness now, Lizbeth. You are only embarrassing yourself."
He turned as if to walk away when Lizbeth suddenly and fiercely grabbed him. Before he could say or do anything, she had placed her mouth on his and was kissing him hard.
It was at this point that Cassandra appeared at the opening of the alley. Taking in this scene before her, she was not quite sure what her response should be. Instead, she chose to simply keep observing to find out how Noah would handle things.
She watched as Noah pushed Lizbeth away from him and glared at her.
“Lizbeth, don’t you ever try anything like that again! I’ve been considerate of you because I know that you had larger expectations from our brief time together than I ever did. I was honest with you from the beginning. I never made any promises to you. Now, I am a married man and you will respect that! Am I clear?” he said in a frighteningly quiet voice.
Lizbeth’s face had crumpled into tears but she also seemed a bit afraid of Noah in that moment. Managing to nod her head, she dissolved completely into sobs. Loosening his hold on her arms, he turned to walk out of the alley and froze when he saw Cassandra standing there.
“Cassandra,” he said with a bit of a plea in his voice. “I can explain what you just saw.”
He approached her cautiously as if he felt she might take flight.
“Oh, don’t worry about that, Noah. It’s clear that Lizbeth is under the mistaken impression that she had some claim on you. I know that isn’t true. It’s alright.”
Noah stared at his wife with a look of wonder on his face.
“Cassandra, I have never known a woman like you,” he said softly as he ligh
tly touched the side of her face. “You are amazing.”
“Not really. I’m just a woman who is familiar with designing women such as Lizbeth,” she laughed.
In the background, Lizbeth sobs were growing louder and angrier. Placing her hand on her husband’s arm, Cassandra moved past Noah and approached the seemingly inconsolable Lizbeth.
“Lizbeth,” she said softly. “You need to pull yourself together before you cause a scene in the middle of town. I will forgive your transgression this one time. However, rest assured; that I will not tolerate your disrespect for me and my marriage a second time. Here, take this and tidy yourself.”
Lizbeth was so shocked that she did stop sobbing and accepted the handkerchief that Cassandra offered her.
Cassandra went back to join her husband and together they left the alley without a single look back.
Noah had gained an entirely new insight into his wife. Not only was she beautiful and smart, but it seemed as if she could also handle herself when needed. He had never been prouder of her than in that moment when she faced off with Lizbeth.
At dinner, they were discussing plans for the upcoming holidays and Noah saw how animated that Cassandra became as she talked about decorations for the house. Suddenly, he had an idea.
“Cassandra,” he said after he had taken a sip of wine. “How would you feel about hosting a holiday party here?”
Her eyes lit up instantly and she turned her brilliant smile on him.
“I would love it!” she cried. “When would we have it?”
“Well, I was thinking that we could do it the week of Christmas. It will be a formal dinner and ball. We will have live music and a catered buffet. In that way, everyone can eat and drink as they choose. What do you think?”
“Oh, that sounds wonderful! I shall sit down with Larissa first thing tomorrow and make plans!”
“Also, I thought you might want to order a new dress for the event,” Noah smiled.
Eyes shining, Cassandra continued to smile at him.
“Noah, you are the most wonderful husband a woman could ever ask for,” she said.
They went into the study where Larissa served them coffee after dinner and continued to talk about their upcoming party. Suddenly, with no warning, Cassandra yawned widely. Finishing it on a giggle, she shook her head as if to clear it.
