Mail-Order Cousins 2

by Joyce Armor

  “Gus?”

  He looked back at her.

  “Who is Adelina?”

  It was as if she had thrown a cold bucket of water on him. He did not talk about Adelina. Ever. To anyone.

  “None of your business,” he spat out, knowing he was being churlish and not caring at that moment. He dressed quickly walked out of the tent before she could even begin to think of a response. If he could have slammed the flap, he would have.

  Chapter 6

  Well, there’s a little emotion left over there.

  That’s what bothered her much more than his mean comment. So he had secrets, too. It’s not like she had shared her wealthy background or the fear that her mother had sent someone to haul her back to Pennsylvania. And he certainly did need to know that. She sighed, donning a fresh pair of breeches and a clean blue shirt. After the meal she would do laundry and try to figure out the best way to tell Gus about her situation. If she ever decided to speak to the lout again.

  The trout was delicious. Per served it with beans, peas and biscuits. The meal, however, was a bit strained, with Per annoyed at Gus’s disrespect and Gus irritated at Karl, who had obviously said something to Per about Adelina. Per found her appetite was stunted, and midway through the meal she set her plate down for Buddy to attack before excusing herself and heading down to the creek with her plate and the pans.

  Karl studied Gus, who was assiduously avoiding his eyes. Finally, Karl spoke. “Trouble with the little woman?”

  Gus didn’t say anything for a long time, then sighed and looked at his brother. “Why did you have to mention Adelina to her?”

  “Oh.” Now he felt guilty. “I didn’t do it on purpose, I swear. But if she’s to understand you, don’t you think you need to tell her?”

  When Gus started to protest, Karl interrupted.

  “I know it was a bad experience for you, Gus. And when it happens to you, it seems like the whole world knows about it and cares. Honestly, though, it’s long forgotten. Most of the people at the ball didn’t even know what happened.”

  Gus didn’t know what to say about that. The pain was not nearly as raw as it once was. It was obvious, however, that he wasn’t over the experience if he could have treated Per so poorly just at the mention of Adelina’s name. He looked toward the creek.

  “She’s special, brother. Don’t mess this up because of something that happened years ago. Per is not Adelina. She’s gutsy and funny and smart. And gorgeous.

  While she was all that and more, Gus wasn’t sure he liked his brother noticing her finer qualities.

  Karl studied his younger sibling. He was his own worst enemy, not seeing what was right in front of him, a wonderful, willing woman. He would never be able to love her like she deserved to be loved if he didn’t get Adelina and her betrayal out of his system. He made a decision then.

  “Oh, I almost forgot, I picked up some mail for you in town.”

  He hadn’t forgotten at all. He sounded casual, but Karl had struggled for hours over whether or not to present Gus with the letter, especially after meeting Per, and after his reaction to the mere mention of his former sweetheart’s name. Karl was an honest man, however, and could not in good conscience withhold the letter from his brother. He reached in his vest pocket and pulled out an envelope. Hesitating a second, he handed it to Gus.

  Gus recognized the handwriting immediately. The letter was from Adelina.

  “How did she know where to send this?”

  Karl shrugged. “Someone in the family must have told her.”

  Gus felt blindsided. He was tempted on one hand to toss the letter into the fire and curious on the other hand to see what the woman could possibly have to say to him. He also wanted to fix things with Per and didn’t think he could do that unless he were forthcoming about his humiliation and its repercussions. Now he was torn between heading down to the creek or walking off and reading the letter. What a coil. He supposed he should read the letter first in case it had bearing on what he would tell his wife. His wife. Sometimes he still couldn’t get over that.

  He stood and stretched, rotating his head to work out a kink he thought just might be there permanently, then trudged toward the corral as he tore open the envelope. The woman had put some kind of smelly perfume on it, and it was starting to give him a headache. At that point his heart began pounding wildly. He thought about Adelina Spencer before that disastrous night. She was his first love, and he fell like a ton of bricks. He met her at a friend’s birthday party, and they courted for several months, an innocent courting. They even talked about their future. He would work in his family’s shipping business, and she would raise their children. He had kissed her only once, and it was soft and sweet. At the annual Christmas Eve ball, he was planning to propose. He had the ring, had practiced his speech and could not wait to make Adelina his fiancée and then his wife. He wanted a short engagement. He was utterly flabbergasted and devastated when, early in the festivities, the host announced that his son was engaged to Adelina. It took over an hour to finally get her alone. He led her onto the dance floor for a waltz.

  “What’s going on?” he had asked. He knew there had to be some mistake. They would get this mess straightened out.

  “Oh, Gus,” she laughed, “we had some fun, but that’s all it was. William is heir to a huge fortune, and his family knows all the right people. We’ve been seeing each other for quite a while.”

  He looked at her, stunned, as her words sunk in, and then he walked off, oblivious to the curious looks he got or the insult he had dished out by stranding her on the dance floor. He went home, packed his steamer trunk and left Baltimore forever that night.

  Leaning on the corral fence, Gus scanned his property, taking in the foundations for his buildings, the tent, the garden, the forest, the fire pit, where his brother still sat. This was where he belonged. He felt a peace here he had never felt in Baltimore, even when things were going well with Adelina. Or when he thought they were. Sucking in a breath, he pulled out the letter and read. Then he read it again. He might have known. Adelina said she was sorry she had married William; it had been a mistake. She wasn’t happy and wanted Gus to come get her. She would leave her husband and get a divorce so they could get married.

  He crumpled up the letter and threw it on the ground. He wasn’t sure what he felt. It certainly wasn’t joy. It was more like indifference. And then it came to him. He was finally over Adelina Spencer. It was finished. He realized his reaction when Per mentioned her name was more of a habit than a deep-seeded feeling. Perhaps it wasn’t the loss of Adelina, although that hurt terribly at the time, that had kept him fixated on the event for five years. Maybe it was his wounded pride all along.

  Gus looked toward the creek. Time to pay the piper. He walked slowly toward what he felt sure would be the wrath and then the pity from Per, unless it was to be more of the silent treatment. She had finished cleaning her plate and the pans and was sitting at the edge of the creek with her feet in the water. Her slippers sat by her side. It wasn’t until then that he remembered she didn’t have boots anymore; he had cut her boot off when she broke her leg. They would have to remedy that.

  He sat down next to her. He didn’t expect her to say anything right away and she didn’t. They sat for several minutes before he spoke.

  “I thought I was going to marry Adelina Spencer.”

  She turned and looked at him with almost a blank look. He couldn’t read it and decided to forge ahead. He explained the courting, his humiliation at the ball and how he had left Baltimore in shame.

  She wiggled her toes in the water, absorbing the story. Finally, she turned and said, “I know how that feels.”

  He scoffed. “You couldn’t possibly.”

  “Maybe not precisely, but I know what it’s like to feel used and how it feels when your mother spends your whole life trying to mold you into something you don’t want to be. I know how it feels to be disappointed and frustrated and undone.”

  God
, she was beautiful when she was all angry and feisty. He reached over and grasped her hand.

  She squeezed it back and then said, “Adelina Spencer is an idiot.”

  He smiled. “As am I.”

  She captured his eyes with a wary expression, a look that worried him. He was not surprised at her next words.

  “I have something to tell you, too.”

  And then suddenly she wouldn’t meet his eyes, which made him even more apprehensive. She busied herself swishing her feet in the creek for a few moments and then started to speak.

  “My father was very wealthy, from investments and a huge inheritance, and when he died my mother was more than set for life. Ever since I was born she has been determined to marry me off to royalty or the British peerage or some other wealthy dandy.”

  He felt a ringing in his ears as she spoke. “You’re an heiress.” It was an accusation. His voice was hard. He obviously was angry.

  “Yes. If my mother hasn’t disinherited me.”

  “For marrying me.” He started to get up. She grabbed his arm.

  “Wait. There’s more.”

  He was seeing red. He didn’t want to hear more. “I can’t talk about this right now.”

  He stalked off. She watched him go, sighing. She could see why he wasn’t happy she came from the same strata as Adelina, but how did he think she afforded all that traveling? She was educated and proper. Mostly. He had to know Per hadn’t come from a humble background, if he took the trouble to think about it. He probably never thought about her at all, except in bed or when he was eating. And he had not mentioned it, but if he was courting an heiress and attending a ball, he obviously came from wealth as well. What a hypocrite! Well, if he wasn’t going to listen to her, she wouldn’t chase him down to tell him her mother might have sent someone to haul her back. She doubted if he cared at this point. He would probably help the man load her into a wagon and give the horse a smack on his rear to speed him on his way.

  She stayed at the creek for a good 30 minutes, allowing her feet to air dry before donning her slippers, grabbing the items she’d washed and heading back to the campsite. She felt thankful that Gus and Karl were not in sight. She went into the tent to put the dish and pans away and returned to the fire to pick up the remaining dirty dishes. Where was Gus? She looked at the corral. His horse was gone. So was the horse that had been hitched to Karl’s wagon, as was Buddy. That made her feel better. At least Gus wasn’t alone.

  On her way back down to the creek to wash the dishes, she stopped at the corral to feed her horse a couple of pieces of apple. “Glory, you might be my only friend now.” She chuckled mirthlessly. Oh, stop feeling sorry for yourself. Gus would be back and they’d work things out. Even if they never loved each other, they could rub along nicely. It was a good partnership when he wasn’t being so hardheaded. Well, there was a possibility she could be a little stubborn, too. Karl was here, and he was fun to be around. Buddy would never forsake her. Things would be all right. She turned to head down to the creek, and her foot hit something. She bent down and picked up a crinkled piece of paper. Curious, she opened it up, flattening it against the fence post.

  It was a letter to Gus. She shouldn’t read it, especially when she recognized feminine handwriting, all loopy and flowery. She knew she shouldn’t read it. Of course she shouldn’t read it. But she read it anyway and her heart sank. Now she truly understood. Gus was torn between her and Adelina, and she had just given him the ammunition to choose Adelina. She felt tears springing to her eyes. She rarely cried, but she knew she would if she lost Gus. Well, if she did, she was taking Buddy with her. That’ll show him.

  Debating what to do with the letter, she decided to crumple it up again and throw it on the ground. She wanted to stomp on it, but realized how childish that was. And then she did it anyway, with her good leg. And it felt satisfying. Her other leg was starting to ache, and she limped a little as she walked back down to the creek. She was bent over at the edge, lost in a myriad of thoughts as she washed the dishes, when suddenly an arm grabbed her around the waist and another clamped a sweet-smelling cloth on her face. For a split second, she knew exactly what was happening and why. She struggled to retrieve the little pistol in her pocket, but her hand didn’t seem to want to move fast enough. Though she tried not to inhale, that plan didn’t work for very long either, and then she felt her world closing in. I’ll never have a chance to fight for Gus. It was her last thought before she fell unconscious.

  * * *

  “Why are you so angry at Per? You come from money, too, you know. Does Burgen Shipping sound familiar?”

  “She lied to me.”

  They were five or six miles from camp and dismounted near a small brook, where the horses could drink. Buddy happily pranced through the shallow water.

  “Did she lie or just not mention it? It’s not like you told her about Adelina or apparently your background before today.”

  Gus knew his brother was right, but it still galled him that he had ended up with another heiress. He threw a couple of pebbles in the stream, and couldn’t help smiling as Buddy pounced on the splashes.

  “Per is an heiress. I swore I would never again…”

  Karl interrupted. “For God sakes, Gus, Per is nothing like Adelina. Get your head out of your backside.” He squatted down by the brook and filled his hat with water. “I never told you this, but I didn’t really care for your former sweetheart.”

  “What? Why?” That thought had never occurred to him. If he loved Adelina, he believed everyone else must.

  “She seemed perfect to you, I know, but I thought she was phony. And I didn’t like the way she flirted with me.”

  “She didn’t.”

  Karl just looked at him, and Gus knew it was true. “Christ, I was such a fool. Why didn’t you say something?”

  “Would you have believed me?”

  Gus didn’t reply. They both knew the answer to that question.

  His brother took a drink of water from his hat. “Adelina’s beautiful, no doubt about it, at least on the outside.”

  “Have you seen her since…that night?”

  “I saw her early in their marriage, prancing around town. And still flirting. I think she’s one of those women who needs lots of attention.”

  Gus knelt down, cupped some water in his hands and drank. “The letter she wrote?”

  “What’s our dear Adelina want now?”

  Gus shook his head. “She wants to divorce her steel and railroad heir and marry me.”

  Karl started to laugh and then stopped suddenly. “You’re not…”

  “God no. Even if you hadn’t just made me see her in a different light, I would never break up a marriage or take up with a woman who had so deceived me. Honestly, when I read her letter, I felt nothing.”

  They led the horses away from the water and mounted. Karl looked over his shoulder at Gus. “So what are you going to do about Per?”

  Gus blew a breath out, hesitating.

  “If you don’t want her, I’ll…”

  “Get a fist in your mouth.”

  Karl laughed as they walked the horses out of the woods and began cantering through a meadow with purple, yellow and pink wildflowers, Buddy trotting behind.

  Per would love this. Gus had to go make it right with her. It wasn’t her fault Adelina had so skewed his perception of wealthy women. He wasn’t ready to trust her with his heart, of course, especially since she had concealed her true background. He couldn’t deny, however, that she had adapted remarkably well to the wilderness hardships. In fact, she virtually thrived. Now that she had the cast off, she seemed even more…buoyant. And then he had a selfish thought. I hope we can make up before bedtime so we can…enjoy bedtime. There was no doubt about it: Per was his match in bed. She also was a great cook in the making and didn’t have a lazy bone in her body. And what a body. Why did it always come back to that? Maybe because you’re a man?

  * * *

  Her head throbb
ed and her tongue was somehow furry. She felt sluggish and found it difficult to move. Where was she? She smelled dirt. Was she lying on the ground? And her lips felt grimy, like she’d been eating dirt. Why? When she tried to wipe it off, she couldn’t get her hand to move. That’s when she realized her hands were tied behind her back. And then, slowly, it all started coming back to her. Finding the letter from Adelina. Going down to the creek. The arm grabbing her, the smelly cloth in her face. Per struggled to sit up and finally made it.

  Her eyes were out of focus at first and she fought the urge to vomit. The jury was still out on that when she heard a man chuckle. She turned her head and waited until her eyes focused. The kidnapper wasn’t what she had expected, although she couldn’t have said exactly what that was. This man looked like a dude. He was sitting on a rock, so she couldn’t tell his height, but he appeared tall and quite thin. He was dressed in a gray suit with a black vest, and were those ruffles peeking out of his sleeves? He was eating an apple as if he hadn’t a care in the world.

  “I see you’re awake.”

  She sighed. “My mother hired you.”

  “No. I took on the job after finding a Pinkerton notice. You’re worth a $5,000 reward.”

  She tried to think of the best approach. Her mind was still fuzzy, though, and it was a struggle. Then she hit on something. “You know I am of legal age. This is kidnapping, which, I believe is punishable by hanging.”

  “For $5,000 I would kidnap my mother. But this is not a kidnapping. It’s a rescue.”

  “You can’t rescue me from a happy marriage.” A little stretch, but any port in a storm, as the saying went.

  “Says you.”

  All right, that approach didn’t work. She needed to try something else.

  “If this trip harms or kills my child, that would be a murder charge for you.”

  He sat up. “What child? I don’t see a child.”

  She struggled with the rope behind her back as she realized this man was not the brightest ornament on the tree. And then a thought struck her. She hadn’t had her woman’s time since before she left Elizabethtown. That was…this was…oh, Lord, she was pregnant. She hadn’t experienced the nausea many women felt when they were with child. Her appetite had been odd, though, and her breasts seemed tender. She had thought that was from so much action with Gus. She chuckled at that and looked at her captor, who was looking back at her, confused at her mirth.