He wasn't a poor man. He could buy Georgina a modest house and support children, but the cost would eat into his capital quickly. He would have to make money to keep her comfortably for the rest of their lives, but he couldn't do that here. Artemis would see to that. Daniel was realistic enough to know that he could cause his father untold grief, but he could never stop him entirely. On his own, he would have stayed to fight. A wife and children were another matter entirely. They would have to leave Cutlerville if he wanted to provide for a family.
But this was Georgie's home. Her life was here. Daniel knew the power of family, and he didn't want to deny her that, even if her father was cut of the same cloth as his father. He didn't want to destroy the sheltered world that had created a gem like his Miss Merry. He was accustomed to living without family, to traveling without a home, but Georgina wasn't. He couldn't do that to her.
If this had been a love match, had Georgina married him because she loved him in defiance of all else, Daniel might have considered other options. For the love of a woman like Georgina, he would have climbed mountains and swum seas, anything she might ask of him. And he would have expected her to do the same for him. As it was, he couldn't even ask her to leave home for him.
It was a dilemma he didn't like. He could stay and try to destroy his family for her sake. He could take her with him and force her to leave her family behind. Or he could give her her freedom and walk away.
Selfishly, he preferred the first two alternatives to the last. Georgina was the best thing that had ever happened to him, and he didn't want to give her up. Remembering how she had looked in the bathtub last night, her wide blue eyes stunned and delighted as he had taken her in the most erotic experience of his life, Daniel groaned and forced his thoughts to the practical. He couldn't be practical while dreaming of the full globes of her breasts glistening wetly in the lamplight. He would never think further than their bed at that rate.
They were good together in bed, there was no doubt of that. But how long would that last if he took Georgina away to a place totally alien to her? From his experience, women made love with their brains as much as their bodies. If they were unhappy, they weren't satisfied physically or emotionally. He would destroy what little they had together when he destroyed her happiness.
So he would have to do the unselfish thing and make Georgina happy. He was damned tired of playing the hero, but he couldn't do anything else. As much as he despised giving in to the man, he would have to take his father up on his offer, for Georgina's sake. All he had to do was scribble his name on the document in his coat pocket and disappear. It shouldn't take any effort at all.
But it did. As he left the porch to find a pen, Daniel heard his wife's laughter drifting from the front lawn. He had imagined living the rest of his life hearing that laughter. He had daydreamed of how she would look when she grew round with his child. He had wanted to take her south with him to meet his friends and the rest of his adopted family. He had invested a lifetime of wishing for love in his desire for Georgina Meredith Hanover. He would rather keep those dreams intact as dreams rather than see them destroyed by the reality of a loveless marriage.
Trailing slowly up the stairs, Daniel imagined he could still smell the fragrance of lilies of the valley wafting from the room they had shared last night. The bare room they had shared in the warehouse had been his. This frilly concoction in her father's house was hers. He wondered what kind of room they would have created together had they been allowed.
He wasn't destined to find out. Sitting at Georgina's desk, he penned his name to the agreement, went over the newly written mortgage to make certain of its legality, then placed the latter in Georgina's desk and the former in an envelope to be delivered to his father. With that done, he stared at the empty blotter and Georgina's stationery for a minute longer. Writing was his business. Surely he could come up with something that would make her understand.
As he wrote, Daniel tried to tell himself that he didn't have to do this tonight. He could stay and spend another night in Georgina's arms, memorizing all those things he would miss when he was gone. If he took enough memories with him, they might last a lifetime.
But he would feel like a traitor if he stayed, now that he had signed the papers. It was better to make the break swift and clean. Georgina was much stronger than anyone imagined. She would see to the workers at the factory and the department store. She would lead them to victory over his father's machinations. He could count on her to finish what he had started. There was no reason to linger over sentimental maundering.
Leaving the letter under her pillow, Daniel packed his few belongings and slipped down the back stairs and out through the kitchen.
At twilight Georgina sent the children off to bed and went in search of Daniel. She had been aware of him the whole time he had watched her from the porch. She had known when he had gone inside. She had hoped he would join them, but Daniel had never learned to play as a child and probably didn't know how. She would have to teach him someday.
She figured she would find him occupying the study, either writing or reading, but the light was cold as if he had never been there. In hopes that he had decided to bathe after his miserable day dismantling the press, she slipped into her bedroom and partially disrobed. Two could play at this game.
But he wasn't there. Sighing, she filled the tub and finished undressing. Maybe he would find her.
He didn't appear by the time she had finished. Wrapping herself in a cotton robe, Georgina found a book and settled in her bedroom chair to wait. Daniel was quite capable of anything. She couldn't possibly pin him down and didn't want to try. She loved him too much the way he was.
Something had been bothering him all evening, she knew. Perhaps it was those photographs mysteriously appearing in the kiosk. She hadn't been down to see them herself, but she'd heard about them from the Harrisons. Daniel hadn't mentioned them, but he hadn't asked questions either, so he knew about them. Maybe he had gone to find out who had put them there.
Secretly, she hoped it had been Peter. Peter had her camera, after all, and he had access to all those houses. Daniel needed to get to know his family, and Peter ought to be the easiest. She really thought they had been making overtures of a sort the other night, but nothing had come of them. Maybe she could devise some way of bringing the brothers together.
The day at the factory had left her bone weary, and her head began to nod over the book. Glancing up as the mantel clock struck eleven, Georgina frowned and set the book aside. Where could he have gone at this hour?
Putting on her slippers, she went downstairs to see if any of the servants knew anything, but they had long since retired, as had the Harrisons, she discovered, as she noted their darkened room. There was no one up and stirring but herself.
Making certain the front door was unlocked so Daniel could get in, Georgina dragged back upstairs to her empty bed. It was amazing how quickly she had become used to sharing a bed. She wanted to snuggle against Daniel's warm, bare chest and feel his arms close around her. She liked feeling his breath blowing across her ear and his fingers entangling in her hair. She didn't know how she had ever lived without him before.
Somehow, she needed to tell him that. Would that scare him away? It might some men, but she didn't think it would scare Daniel. She rather thought he might flash that wide smile of his and kiss her until she was dizzy. He might even try to love her back if she made it easy for him. Perhaps they hadn't started out with the traditional romantic courtship, but they already had the most romantic marriage Georgina could think of. Daniel's constant thoughtfulness had seen to that.
Throwing her robe over the chair, she climbed into bed, resting her head wearily on the pillow. She probably didn't have the strength to make love tonight anyway. She didn't think she could really sleep until Daniel came home, but she could rest her eyes.
Turning on her stomach and running her hands beneath the pillow to hug it closer, Georgina felt the brush of stiff pa
per beneath her fingers at the same time as it crackled in her ear. Something unpleasant clenched at her stomach as she curled her hand around the envelope, crushing it as she drew it from its hiding place.
She was tempted to leave it until morning. She could just lie here and wait for Daniel to return, and they could read it together in the daylight. Daniel would make any unpleasantness go away. Notes under pillows could only be unpleasant.
On the other hand, it might be a love note. Daniel could be waiting for her somewhere, wondering why she didn't come in answer to his romantic overtures. It would be just like Daniel to dream up something like that.
With a mixture of anticipation and fear, Georgina sat up in bed and lit the lamp. The bold scrawl of her name on the outside was definitely Daniel's handwriting.
Holding her breath, Georgina slit the envelope. By the time she removed the sheets of paper, her hand was shaking. It didn't take this many sheets to make plans for a romantic tryst.
She didn't want to read it. She squeezed her eyes closed and tried to put it aside, but the first line—"My dearest Miss Merry"—swam in front of her eyelids. It was like hearing Daniel's voice in her ear to see that line. Tears formed beneath her lashes, and irritated, Georgina wiped them away and opened her eyes again.
She read it through the first time hastily, waiting for the punch line, waiting for that line that said everything would be all right if she would just be patient. It never came. Puzzled, trembling, she tried to read it more carefully, but tears kept blinding her to the words.
He was leaving her. He had already left. He was on the seven o'clock train to Cincinnati. He would write whenever he got wherever he was going. He would keep in touch. If there was a child, he wanted to know about it, because he wouldn't let any child of his go without a father. But he wanted her to have her house and her freedom and her life back just the way it had been before he had come into it. He wanted her to be happy, and he would only cause her grief and trouble.
It was just like Daniel. She could hear him speak every word. He was very eloquent, astonishingly sincere, and heartbreakingly honest. He was also the biggest damned cad she'd ever had the misfortune to run into, and she would make him pay for this.
Georgina didn't even bother looking for the mortgage he had assured her was in her desk drawer. Damn the mortgage. Damn the house. Damn all damned Mulloneys. He wasn't doing to this to her. He had played the hero for the very last time. This time, she was going to shoot him down.
Raging inwardly, Georgina leapt from the bed and began jerking on whatever clothing came to hand. It was the middle of the night. The last train had left with Daniel on it. But she knew how to find him. She had one ace up her sleeve that he obviously didn't believe she would play. He was about to learn differently.
She would telegraph Tyler and Evie.
* * *
Daniel watched the brief show of lights as some unnamed town flashed by. He had passed the last stop between Cutlerville and Cincinnati. There would be no turning back.
He tried to look ahead, to plan a future that seemed suddenly empty. He didn't think he would go back to Natchez right away. Tyler and Evie would be full of questions, and they wouldn't be pleasant ones. Perhaps he would go to the Despatch in St. Louis. Pulitzer had been a good teacher.
Or he could go to Texas and find a town that didn't have a paper. He wouldn't get rich, but he could make a comfortable living. He'd find some pleasant little girl who would make a good wife and wouldn't require rescuing and they could settle down and have twins or something. He'd like to have roses in the front yard and a picket fence. His needs really were very few. Surely he could acquire these basic desires.
Or he could risk it all and have Georgina.
The train slowed to make a long curve. To his surprise, Daniel found himself putting on his hat and picking up his bag. Without a thought to what he was doing, he meandered down the aisle past the sleeping passengers, walking faster the closer the train came into the curve. He vas practically running before the train could pick up speed on the other side.
Dashing out the car door, Daniel grabbed the pole on the outside, threw his bag into a corn field, and leapt into the dark of night.
A man in a stained and crumpled Stetson watched him go, then pulled his hat farther over his eyes and smiled as he settled more comfortably into his seat. The boy had gumption, he'd say that much for him.
Chapter 35
The pounding on the front door echoed the pounding behind her eyes as Georgina jerked her hair tightly into a knot and stabbed another pin into it. She had just spent the most wretched night of her life, and she didn't need this infernal pounding. Maybe she ought to find one of her mother's bottles of laudanum.
She couldn't expect Evie and Tyler to respond to a telegram sent in the middle of the night. She should have waited until morning. But she couldn't just sit here and do nothing. If she had any idea at all which train Daniel had taken after he reached Cincinnati, she would be on the next train out. But she didn't, so she couldn't. Not until she'd heard from the Monteignes.
A servant discreetly tapped on her door. "Mr. Peter Mulloney to see you, ma'am."
Peter? At this hour? Georgina glanced at the mantel clock. She didn't think Peter even knew what the sun looked like at this hour.
She nodded her head in dismissal. "I'll be down in a minute."
It would only take a minute to gather her wrath and fling it at him. Had she been a violent person, she would blast the entire male population this morning. Georgina was almost grateful that Peter had presented himself as a target for her ire before she exploded with the need to release it.
She had put on a fresh dress this morning, but she wasn't at all certain which one or how it looked and didn't really care. She had stayed up all night in hopes of hearing something, anything, and she was operating on temper alone right now. Any Mulloney would serve to divert her fury.
Peter was standing in the front hall, his hands filled with familiar cases and equipment. The fact that he was in possession of her cameras only increased her ire.
"You have your nerve, Peter Mulloney! Any man with an ounce of conscience would hide himself from the face of the world after what you and your family have done. Just put those things down and get out of my sight. You disgust me."
Stunned by this virago who wore the same face as the laughing girl he had once known, Peter slowly lowered the camera equipment and stared at her. Bouncing golden curls were tied back in a severe knot that did nothing to detract from her delicate beauty, but the dark shadows under her eyes were not natural to the woman he had known.
"What's wrong, Georgina? You still can't be mad at me for making you marry Daniel. I thought you were happy about that."
"Happy?" Her voice nearly reached a screech. "Happy to be forced to marry a man who did absolutely nothing other than to be kind to me? If I had a rifle, I ought to force you to marry some poor woman who did nothing more than suffer from your selfishness. Did you know your father had Daniel's newspaper building condemned and the Harrisons evicted from their house? Did you? Now stand there and act innocent, Peter Mulloney. I dare you. Get out of my sight. If I never see another Mulloney again, it will be too soon."
She turned around and started back up the stairs. Audrey and Janice peered down at her from the upper hall, their eyes wide and frightened. At sight of them, Georgina turned around and glared at Peter. "Get out."
"I didn't do it, Georgina!" Growing angry, Peter focused on Georgina. "I have nothing to do with those rental properties. I'd think they would be happy to be thrown out of the rat-infested traps anyway."
"Oh, tell me another one, Peter," she responded sarcastically. "Tell me Mulloney's Department Store doesn't own part of that rental company. Tell me you're not in charge of the department store." She placed her hands on her hips and minced forward. "Tell me you're not a Mulloney, and maybe I'll even believe you."
"Georgina, what in hell is wrong with you? I brought back your camera in
hopes of a truce. I just wanted to ask a favor." Peter held his ground until Georgina was practically on his toes, then he backed toward the door. "Will you listen to reason just for a minute? My mother wants to see Daniel. You know she's an invalid. She's scarcely been able to eat since I told her about him. You've got to persuade him to come visit. Believe me, Georgina, I'm not the villain you want. I've argued with my father about those properties, but he doesn't listen to me. There isn't anything I can do about it."
"And there's nothing you can do about those employees you fired, either, is there, Peter?" Her first question was deceptively calm. "And there's nothing you can do about the hours they work or the salaries they make or the promotions you give only to men. And buying stools for them to rest on would undoubtedly bankrupt you." Georgina's voice rose with each new accusation until she was shouting. "Get out of my house, Peter Mulloney, and don't you dare show your face here again!"
"All right, thank you, I will!" Jamming his hat back on his head, Peter stalked out and slammed the door after him.
Wanting to collapse on the floor, Georgina held herself straight and stiff a few seconds longer, letting the fury race through her fingertips and out before she turned to face her audience. She had never done anything remotely like this in her entire life, and she wasn't at all certain that she ever wanted to do it again. Life had been much easier when she could face it with a smile.
She tried to paste one on now, but it faltered slightly as she turned and found Janice already at the bottom of the stairs.
"He won't do anything, will he?" she asked calmly.
Georgina shook her head. "Won't or can't. I don't know which."
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