A Matter of Marriage

by Ann Collins

  “Well enough.”

  She took a step closer and looked up. Their eyes locked. “Alex, I owe you an apology. When you needed me last night, I failed you. Deep down, I knew you could never have harmed Mrs. Hensley. Despite being caught off guard, I should have spoken up for you right away.”

  His heart lifted. Maybe there was hope for them, if he could somehow get out of here. “Thank you, but it’s my fault for keeping secrets. I wanted to forget about my previous arrest.” He dragged out one of the chairs, scraping the legs over the concrete floor. “Last night,” he said, “dropping onto the chair and clasping his hands on the table, “after Alberta recognized me, I knew I couldn’t keep the truth from you anymore. I was planning to tell you when I got back to the apartment, but you weren’t there. And by then, Alberta had suffered the consequences of knowing me. I feel responsible.”

  She joined him at the table, lowering herself onto the chair opposite him. “You’re not responsible, and you’re not staying here. You’re coming home with me.”

  “I wish that were true, but I know better. Marshal Landis has made up his mind about my part in Alberta’s death. I didn’t think I could be held for the deaths of Elizabeth, Danny, and Sarah, the servant girl, either, but I was. For a while, anyway.”

  “How did that happen?” she asked, again fiddling with the ruffles at her neck.

  He briefly closed his eyes. Sharing with her those terrible weeks after the fire would bring the pain of it roaring back. But he had to do it, putting it once and for all behind him.

  Unable to sit still, he jumped up and paced the length of the room’s rough back wall. “You already know I fell from a tree that ripped open my face. Two days after my fall, I regained consciousness and found myself locked in a dimly lit jail cell. The only medical attention I received was from my cellmate. He’d wrapped a dirty rag around my head to hold my cheek together.”

  A visible shudder moved through her, but she didn’t interrupt.

  “My in-laws used their influence to have me arrested. It was days before the guards treated me with any kind of decency. My business partner had to bribe his way in, and when James saw my face”—Alex jabbed his hand toward his scarred cheek—“he vomited more food than I’d been given to eat in the three days I’d been awake. Then he demanded a doctor be sent for. By then, though, it was too late to do anything that would minimize the scar.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said on a shaky breath. “When Dr. Dolan commented about a delay in treatment, I assumed you’d been out in the country, away from any doctors.”

  He laughed, not a trace of humor in the sound. “No.” He leaned back against the cold wall, feeling again the anger and despair, frustration and defeat, that had haunted him since then. “After that, James got me a lawyer, a very good one, but even he had trouble fighting the pressure my in-laws brought to bear on the courts. I was kept in that rancid jail for two weeks. They wouldn’t release me for even a few hours to attend the burial services of my family.”

  The gas lamp flickered above them, casting parts of Julia’s face in shadow, but revealing tears in her eyes. “I wondered how your in-laws could have kept you from the services,” she whispered. “I never imagined you were incarcerated.”

  “The Ellingsons were furious when I got off for lack of evidence. I was surprised they hadn’t manufactured some, but they’d been too busy ruining me instead. They spread damaging rumors about my architectural work. Claims were made that I stole my designs from other people’s work, or I designed buildings with inadequate structural foundations.” He smacked the heel of his hand against the wall. “With cold calculation, they cast doubt on every one of my projects.”

  “What despicable people!”

  At her outrage, Alex felt the beginnings of a smile. “Over the years, I’ve come up with some choice descriptions of them myself. Gerald and Amanda Ellingson smeared my professional reputation and my character the length and breadth of the Eastern seaboard. Instead of grieving like normal people, they did everything they could to punish, humiliate, and ruin me. When I was released, I had nothing.”

  “No money at all?”

  “None. What Elizabeth hadn’t spent before the fire was used to pay the burial expenses. Ownership of the property had strangely reverted to my in-laws. The only clothes I had were what I’d been wearing the night of the fire and what my partner gave me before we severed our connections. It was the only way I could protect him. He could not afford to be seen with me.”

  “So you left Baltimore,” she said softly, “and took to the road like a drifter.”

  “I was a drifter, but I didn’t leave Baltimore until I’d touched the headstones standing over my wife and child.”

  Alex blinked hard against the stinging in his eyes. That had been another life. On Coronado Island with Julia, he had forged a new life, but now that was in jeopardy as well.

  He pushed away from the wall and spread his arms wide. “Now it’s happened again. I’ve been arrested for a crime I didn’t commit, and I may lose you, too.”

  “No. Never.” She came to him, pressing her palms to the rough cotton covering his chest. “I love you, Alex MacLean, and I always will.”

  He slipped his arms around her narrow waist and planted a kiss on each cheek of her upturned face. “I love you, too. I think I’ve loved you since the first moment we met, when you saw my scar and didn’t flinch.” He smiled down at her. “You brought me back to life when I thought my life was over.”

  “Oh, Alex, I didn’t know how you felt. Growing up with my father, I haven’t had much experience with love from a man. Now I realize you’ve shown me your love in countless ways.” Her hands slid up to his shoulders, and her arms wound around his neck. “Can you forgive me?”

  Alex mourned the family he would never have, the years that he could have spent with Julia. “There’s nothing to forgive. I brought this on myself. I was wrong to keep my past from you.”

  “Thank you for saying that.” She stood on tiptoe and tantalized him with a light kiss on his lips.

  He felt an immediate stirring in his lower body and tried to quash it by pushing her away. “You should go now. This place is not for you.”

  “Nor is it for you. I tried to tell you before. Mrs. Hensley’s killer—my assailant—has been arrested.”

  He held her at arm’s length. “What? How? Who?”

  “Tilden. Muffie alerted us to him this morning in the lobby. I believe she must have smelled Mrs. Hensley’s lilac scent on him. He was carrying her diamond bracelet in his pocket. You were right about him wanting you out of the way so he could get to me. I would have been his third victim.”

  “Third?”

  “He also killed my father.”

  Alex shook his head, trying to grasp it all. “But I thought …”

  “I know. I did, too. Nobody knew, and I never questioned his death, never even suspected.” Tears glistened in her eyes. “I should have.”

  Alex recognized her feelings of guilt. He reached out and stroked her arm. “Why did Tilden do it?”

  “He was obsessed with my stepmother. They met back in New York, and he ended up in prison for beating a man she’d only conversed with. He thought of her as his property with no rights of her own. She escaped him, moving as far from New York as she could, but even so, after he was released from prison, he tracked her here. He was too late, though. When he discovered she was dead, he blamed my father and me and decided we had to die, too.”

  “Thank heaven he didn’t finish what he started.”

  She glanced away, a troubled look on her face.

  “What? Did something else happen?”

  She shivered and touched her ruffled collar. “He attempted to strangle me, too.”

  Alex felt his blood boil. With shaking hands, he pushed her hand away, undid the top two buttons of her shirtwaist, and gently drew the collar away from her neck. Her perfect skin was an angry red blotched with darkening bruises.

  He had tro
uble speaking. Had to clear his throat several times. Judging by the marks, he had come very close to losing her. When he dropped his hands, she quickly refastened the buttons.

  “Tilden made sure you wouldn’t be there. Even if you had, he acted so quickly he would have surprised even you. Tyler and Theo were only inches from me when he attacked. They tried to pull his hands away from me, but he was too strong. I scratched his face. Even that wasn’t enough. Not until Tyler dealt him a crippling blow near his kidneys did Tilden let go. “I’m all right now. Just a little sore. There’s no permanent damage.”

  “I could kill him.” Alex wanted to punch the bellboy himself, and keep on punching him. He wanted to mash Tilden’s face in and make him suffer for the damage he’d done and the lives he had taken.

  “Don’t say that. The law will take care of him. He will hang for what he did to Father and Mrs. Hensley.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “On his way here with the marshal. He admitted to everything. Not even Tom can question your innocence. You’re coming home with me once the warden has spoken with Tom.”

  Alex could hardly think beyond what he wanted to do to Tilden. The bellboy had nearly killed Julia three times, and he dared to put his hands on her.

  “Alex, are you listening? I’m taking you home, but you are not leaving here in those clothes. I won’t have people seeing my husband in prison garb.” She strode to the door and rapped on the window.

  The guard’s face appeared. He unlocked and opened the door.

  “Please bring my husband’s clothes to him. He will be leaving momentarily.”

  The guard’s deep-set eyes widened with amusement. “Oh, yeah? That’s news to me.”

  “Well, I assure you it’s true. The real killer has been apprehended and will be here shortly, if he isn’t already. He is in Marshal Landis’s custody.”

  “I haven’t seen him, ma’am, so as far as I know, your husband here is still a guest of the county.”

  Her back stiffened, and her chin came up. “The warden knows,” she said. “I told him the situation when I arrived.”

  “Ma’am, he didn’t tell me nothin’.”

  “Why do you think he removed the handcuffs from my husband’s wrists?”

  He shrugged.

  “Please go and speak to the warden. He’ll clear up everything.”

  “Can’t leave my post.”

  “Then I’ll go.” She huffed. “I don’t want my husband staying in those clothes any longer than is absolutely necessary. He is an innocent man.” She started through the doorway. “Oh, there they are now.”

  Alex surged up behind her and through the doorway. Tilden shuffled toward them along the corridor with Tom Landis. He wore his innocuous bellboy’s uniform, minus the pillbox hat. Bandages covered his cheeks. When the bellboy spied Julia, the blue of his eyes seemed to flare like the hottest part of a flame. Alex ducked around her and lunged at him.

  “Alex!” she cried. “Stop!”

  He kept going, but something was slowing him down. He glanced around to find his wife hanging onto the back of his shirt. He was towing her, her feet sliding over the concrete floor.

  The guard raised his arm, a wooden club gripped in his hand.

  Fearing he might hit Julia by mistake, Alex stopped short and threw up his hands. “I won’t do anything.” His consolation was in knowing Julia had fought the bellboy and left her mark on his face. She had bested him, and Tilden would go to his grave knowing that.

  Arm still raised, the guard glared at him, looking as if he’d like nothing better than to knock him to the floor.

  Julia faced the guard. “Don’t you dare strike my husband.”

  Alex liked having her defend him, but not when it put her in harm’s way. He grasped her shoulders and shifted her to one side.

  “What is all the commotion?” The warden had stepped out of his office, pudgy hands propped on his hips. “Laramie, put down that club.”

  “Yes, sir.” The guard tossed Alex a narrowed glance and slowly lowered his arm.

  Tyler came out of the office as well and nodded to Alex.

  He nodded back, grateful for what Tyler had done to save Julia from Tilden.

  Marshal Landis shoved his prisoner forward. “Warden, this man is charged with two murders and the attempted murder of Julia Fairbanks MacLean. Her … husband”—he sounded as if he might choke on the word—“was set up to take the blame for one of those murders. As much as it pains me to say it, he’s innocent.”

  Alex cocked his head at the marshal. “Landis, I appreciate your statement, as begrudging as it was.”

  Tom gave him a minuscule nod.

  Julia took Alex’s hand and smiled up at him. “You see, it’s all straightened out now.” She turned to the warden. “Warden, may I please have the clothes my husband arrived in? I’d like to take him home now.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Laramie, get the man’s clothes. I’ll process our new arrival.”

  The guard returned shortly and handed her the clothes.

  “Thank you,” she said, though not as sweetly as she could have, Alex noticed. “Come with me, Alex.”

  He would follow her anywhere. They reentered the interrogation room, and he closed the door. Nobody locked it, and when he peered back out the window, no one was guarding him. He truly was a free man. Soon he’d be going home with his wife, to the future he had hardly dared to dream of.

  She laid his clothes on the table and watched him as he removed his prison-issue shirt and tossed it into the farthest corner. “When we get home,” she said, “you are going to get a thorough scrubbing in the bathtub. This place has a distinctly unpleasant smell.”

  His fingers paused in the act of buttoning his shirt. “Will you do the scrubbing?”

  Her eyes sparkled. “I believe I could be persuaded to perform that task.”

  As his breathing turned shallow, Alex decided he had better postpone any thoughts about their immediate future until they were alone in their apartment.

  He quickly changed his pants, noticing that Julia averted her gaze and withdrew a folded paper from her skirt pocket. “What’s that?”

  “A telegram. It was delivered as I was leaving the hotel.” She unfolded the paper and held it out to him.

  Alex fastened his pants, took the paper, and read aloud. “The Bank of New York would be pleased to loan you the amount specified in your correspondence regarding the Hotel Grand Victoria, Coronado Island, California.”

  She smiled at him.

  He picked her up, careful not to hurt her wounded side, and spun them in a circle. “You did it.” She laughed and held tight. When he set her down, Alex brushed her lips with a kiss. “I knew someone would recognize a good investment when it was offered to them.”

  “You were right, but I’m not sure I’m going to take it.”

  “What are you talking about?” He gripped her shoulders. “Julia, you love the hotel, you belong to it.” How could she think of letting it go? She’d married him to get it.

  “I’m thinking about accepting Tyler’s offer instead, the one in which he and I would become partners.”

  “Oh,” he said, drawing the word out.

  “I know my relationship with him didn’t start out on the best of terms, but I think he has redeemed himself. With his financial help, the hotel would be paid off, and, for the most part, he’d be a silent partner. What do you think?”

  “It’s your hotel, Julia. Your decision.”

  “No, it’s our hotel and our decision.” She clasped his hands in hers. “I love you, Alexander Devlin MacLean, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want your children, and I want to raise them on Coronado. Hopefully they’ll love the Hotel Grand Victoria as much as I do, but if their interests lie elsewhere, I will support their choices.”

  “They’ll love it. They’ll race through the hallways, climb into the towers, and tell each other stories about their fairy-tale castle and a princess named Julia. Most of al
l, though”—he raised her hands to his lips and kissed each one—“they will have us and their uncle.”

  “Does that mean you approve of a partnership with Tyler?”

  “I do. And I think he’ll be especially pleased that you chose him over the Bank of New York.” He slid his arm around her shoulders and steered her toward the door. “Shall we tell him the good news?”

  “Yes.” She slipped her arm around his waist and smiled up at him. “We’ll tell him on the way home.”

  Epilogue

  On a blanket spread over the warm sand, Julia struggled to keep six-month-old Lily from yanking off her little sunbonnet. Her daughter had a mind of her own, and her determination had no limits.

  Muffie watched from a corner of the blanket, safe from the wriggling Lily. Though the summer sun beat down, the breeze off the ocean cooled the air.

  Julia smiled under her straw hat, more content than she had ever thought possible. She had a brother, a husband she loved and who loved her, a growing family, and a position as manager of the Hotel Grand Victoria. The hotel was thriving under her direction and the occasional suggestion from Tyler. Theo, promoted to assistant manager when she discovered she was pregnant with Lily, kept the employees happy and hardworking. Mr. Chalmers managed the reception desk, his attitude much improved since receiving her ultimatum. Jacques Levesque had chosen to seek employment elsewhere.

  She smiled and studied a line of pelicans gliding above the waves. The surf was gentle today, and many of the guests frolicked in the water. Two boys and a girl shrieked with laughter as they splashed each other.

  She laughed, too. “See that, Lily? Someday that’ll be you and your brothers or sisters.” She looked forward to adding more little ones to her family. Lily’s birth had been easier than she expected. Alex had insisted on staying with her the entire time, holding her hand and calming her fears. Dr. Dolan, upon Lily’s delivery, had stated Julia was one of those women who seemed destined for a large family.

  Lily wasn’t looking toward the ocean. She gurgled and held out her arms.