“Mistress Roxanne, if you’d prefer,” Shemaine replied rigidly.
The back door opened and closed, and manly footsteps progressed a short distance into the corridor. A shuffling of papers evidenced the fact that Gage had stopped at his desk and was searching through it.
Shemaine felt a surge of relief with his presence. “Mr. Thornton is here now,” she readily announced to the woman. “Perhaps you’d care to visit with him.”
Gage heard her voice but continued leafing through his receipts as he called out, “Is someone here, Shemaine?”
“You have a visitor, Mr. Thornton,” Shemaine declared over her shoulder. In the next instant she found herself stumbling back from the portal as Roxanne pushed her way in.
Gage stepped to the kitchen door and then halted abruptly when he recognized his guest. Though he tried to conceal his annoyance, his brows gathered in a tense frown, for he knew what would be forthcoming. “I’m surprised to see you here, Roxanne. I thought you’d be taking care of your father.”
The blonde lifted her chin in the guise of a suffering martyr. “I came to see what you had bought for yourself, Gage, since you had made no effort to inform me of your intentions. Mrs. Pettycomb, on the other hand, was most eager to bring me news of your new purchase. ‘Twas so gracious of you to let me know that you had found someone to replace me and that my services would no longer be required.”
“I told you before, Roxanne, that I would be needing someone and couldn’t wait until your father got back on his feet,” Gage countered, yearning to put Mrs. Pettycomb out of her meddling misery. “You must have been aware of that fact more than anybody. I’m sorry I didn’t have time to stop by your place and tell you yesterday, but with the storm and all, I had to get back here. I was just making plans to come into town today and had intended to let you know while I was there.” He paused, curbing a vexed sigh. He was sorry that she had been subjected to the gossip’s insensitivity, but he had given Roxanne plenty of warning. She just hadn’t wanted to listen. “I should have realized Mrs. Pettycomb would beat a path to your door in her eagerness to be the first to tell you the news. And for that, I must apologize—”
“Of all the women in this area,” Roxanne interrupted, having dismissed much of what he had said, “why did you have to buy a convict to care for your son? And this one in particular?” Her voice became wheedling, almost pleading. “Aren’t you afraid of what this creature might do to Andrew?”
Though his hackles rose at her questions, Gage managed to meet Roxanne’s gaze with a tolerant stare. He was unwilling to hurt her with the truth, that he had made up his mind to be free of her long before the smithy had ever run afoul of a horse and gotten his leg broken. But he refused to be grilled about his motives for singling out Shemaine as his choice. “I’m capable of making rational judgments as to the merits of the woman I engage as a nursemaid, Roxanne, and I’m confident that Shemaine is everything I was looking for.”
Wondering what effect the conversation was having on the girl, Gage allowed his gaze to stray beyond Roxanne. Shemaine was clearly distressed, but the main reason seemed to stem from the fact that she was progressively losing her struggle to hold Andrew in her arms. Her whole body was shaking with her effort to keep a grip on him. Indeed, a fall seemed imminent.
Gage ran to help his bondslave, giving little thought to how quickly he would be rousing his visitor’s jealous indignation. Shemaine was more than willing to yield her burden to more capable arms and leaned forward as her master slipped an arm between them to gather his son to him. The shock of that steely limb sliding against her breast sent a hot blush rushing into Shemaine’s cheeks, and in painful embarrassment she sought to retreat and was brought immediately up short. To her chagrin, she found herself a prisoner of Andrew, whose fingers had become entangled in the torn lace of her collar. Urgently seeking to free herself, most of all from the man, Shemaine struggled blindly behind her neck to free the tiny digits.
“Here, let me,” Gage urged, brushing one of her hands aside. “You’re only making it worse.”
Though excruciatingly conscious of her predicament, Shemaine stood submissively still, not wishing to compound her dilemma. With Andrew between them, Gage had to lean into her to see behind her neck as he sought to unravel the lace from his son’s fingers. Totally conscious of him, Shemaine dared not lift her gaze to his handsome features, but kept it fixed unswervingly on Andrew, who patiently endured their attempts to separate him from Shemaine.
Gage could hardly ignore the intriguing pressure of the soft womanly bosom against his arm, but as delightful as it was to be snuggled close to Shemaine, he couldn’t allow himself to be carried away, certainly not with Roxanne standing there watching them.
As she viewed the pair, Roxanne was confronted by familiar yearnings that had been far too frequently felt during the length of her infatuation with Gage Thornton. She longed with all of her heart to be where the bartered woman was at that precise moment, but she stood alone, for the most part forgotten. It wasn’t the first time she had been overlooked when another woman was in the room. It was just a different time and a different face.
It had been a terrible assault on Roxanne’s emotions to hear that she had been replaced by a convict in the Thornton household, but she had held out hopes that Alma Pettycomb had been deliberately brewing trouble when the matron claimed the chit was notably pretty, perhaps even more lovely than Victoria. Roxanne had been nettled, taking offense at what she perceived was nothing more than an unspoken insult. The gossipmonger never praised anyone unless she had intentions of making her listener feel slighted. Roxanne’s heart had nearly failed her when she saw Shemaine for herself and realized that Alma hadn’t exaggerated. The girl was exceptionally pretty, as difficult as it was for Roxanne to admit. And although it was the heart of the man she had desired more than the position, she now saw the danger of that, too, being stolen from her. The fear of losing Gage wasn’t anything she hadn’t experienced before, but it flogged Roxanne unmercifully, stirring up an old grudge that had sunk its cloven claws deep into her heart several years ago.
Roxanne could not bear watching them together a moment longer. Vowing to lend whatever assistance she could to bring this outrageous and disgusting farce to an end, she stalked forward with fury flaring in her eyes. Her frustration was supreme, and she saw the bondslave through a raging red haze.
Andrew’s fingers were finally set free, and with a sigh of relief Shemaine stumbled back, still refusing to meet the man’s gaze. Before her nerves had time to settle, however, the sound of rapidly advancing footsteps intruded into her awareness, and she glanced around to find herself the recipient of a glower so menacing it would have readily put to shame any that Morrisa had ever bestowed on her. Wary of being attacked, Shemaine fell back before the other’s approach.
The blonde forged on like a fierce gale. “You conniving little bitch—”
“Roxanne!” Her caustic slur had brought Gage around in sharp surprise. Although years ago the woman had let him know in no uncertain terms how he had disappointed her by taking another to wife, she had never verbally attacked Victoria. But he would tolerate it no better now than he would have then. “I’ll hear no insults in my house! Do you hear?”
His crisp tone sliced through Roxanne’s fury, and as if in a stunned daze, she turned and stared at him in painful supplication. “Could you not see through the girl’s ruse, Gage?” she asked in anguish. “Did you not see how she was throwing herself at you . . . letting you touch her . . . ?”
Shemaine’s face flamed at the woman’s accusation, and she opened her mouth to protest, but words failed her. How many times had she tried to deny her guilt before the magistrate’s bench, only to be sentenced to prison? Explanations seemed no less futile now.
Gage was greatly disturbed by Roxanne’s behavior. The color had faded from her cheeks and her eyelids fluttered unsteadily over a lusterless gaze, as if she balanced precariously on a pinnacle between sanity
and madness. He had no way of predicting what she would do next, whether she would swoon or fly at his bondslave with claws bared.
Turning his back upon Shemaine, Gage set himself before her as a protective barrier as he faced his visitor. Once again he tried to explain, hoping he could bring Roxanne out of her trauma by a softly spoken rationale. “I thought you understood, Roxanne, that I couldn’t wait until your father was on his feet again. I needed a nursemaid who would be more accountable to my dictates than to another’s, someone who could teach Andrew to read and cipher in years to come. Shemaine has been well tutored and is capable of fulfilling those requirements, and I could not dismiss her abilities when I had such a need—”
“No need!” Roxanne snarled in denial, reclaiming her former wrath. “That’s only your feeble excuse for getting rid of me.” She could almost hear the villagers whispering and laughing behind her back, cruelly berating her for being so foolish as to think that Gage Thornton, of all people, would actually marry her. He had ignored maids far more comely than she and had taken to wife a young beauty none of them had been able to surpass. Fool she was to believe that any man would take her to wife, they would say. And more fool she for setting her hopes so inconceivably high that she would dare to imagine the cabinetmaker would ever court her. She was, after all, the smithy’s daughter, the plain-faced offspring of that rough-featured, callous man whose wife, years ago, had deserted him and their daughter to run away with a traveling man. Just like then, there would be the pitying stares, the sadly shaking heads, and the long serpent tongues that would suddenly start hissing whenever she approached. “I’d have come back to work for you just as soon as the splint had come off Pa’s leg. Hannah could have watched Andrew until then!”
Frightened by the woman’s angry tone, Andrew began to whimper as he clung to his father. Turning aside, Gage tried to reassure him, but he could feel the boy trembling against him.
“You know what I say is true,” Roxanne accused harshly, moving toward him.
Gage glared over his shoulder, bringing Roxanne up short with the penetrating chill of his gaze. “We’ll have to discuss this matter at a later time, Roxanne,” he muttered. “You’re upsetting Andrew—”
“I’m upsetting him?” Roxanne railed, outraged at his accusation. She was equally incensed by his curtness. Jeeringly she thrust her chin outward to indicate Shemaine. “And what about that filthy little baggage you’ve bought for yourself? Your son has more cause to be frightened of her than of me! You don’t know what she’s done, Gage! She may be a murderess for all you know!”
Gage whirled to face the blonde with fire in his eyes, but when his actions caused Andrew to cry out in sudden alarm, he bit back the angry retort he had been about to make. Taking himself firmly in hand, he gave his sobbing son back to Shemaine and silently motioned her into his bedroom. He closed the door behind them and then, grasping Roxanne’s elbow as gently as he could manage at the moment, ushered her out to the front porch, but he did not stop there. Escorting her down the steps at a rapid pace, he took her back along the path toward the riverbank, where he espied her father’s dinghy pulled up on shore. It was only after he had put his ship behind him and was well out of earshot of the two men who were working there that he could finally trust himself to speak and not to roar.
“Roxanne, you and your father were among the first people I met after my arrival in Virginia,” he began in tense but moderate tones. Dropping her arm, he faced her. “You brought baskets of food to me when I was building my cabin here, though I assured you at the time I didn’t want you to go to the trouble. When Victoria arrived in the colonies with her parents, you were kind to them and befriended her.” He paused at the sharp prodding of his conscience, for in all actuality it had been Victoria who had gone out of her way to take Roxanne under her wing, having felt a great empathy for the spinster. But he could not bring himself to callously remind the woman that she had virtually been without friends until Victoria had taken pity on her. “Months later, you consoled Victoria when her folks died. I know you think I betrayed you when I married her. You said as much, in fact. But you finally visited us, and for a time, it seemed that you had forgiven me. You came with some of the other women to help out the night Andrew was born. You were the one who assured me that everything would go well with Victoria . . . that she was too strong to die in childbirth. You were here many times after that, helping her care for Andrew. Shortly after she was killed, you pleaded with me to let you clean my house and look after Andrew, saying that being here would help you get over your grieving.
“During all of that time, Roxanne, I never knowingly encouraged you or gave you reason to hope or to expect anything more from our acquaintance than the friendship I had offered you. But you wanted something more, something I wasn’t able to give. I know now that I must speak clearly of this matter so there will be no further cause for error. If you have ever imagined there could be anything more between us than a willingness to be friends, then you’ve been mistaken, Roxanne, and have simply presumed too much.”
His stoic rebuff crushed the lifeblood from Roxanne’s heart. All the love she had felt for him earlier now congealed into a seething hatred. “You presumed too much, Gage Thornton. If you think I’m going to keep still about Victoria . . .”
Gage felt a cold prickling along his nape and an uneasiness in his vitals. She had never outwardly threatened him since Victoria’s death, but after his purchase of Shemaine, he had foreseen the likelihood. Cautiously he asked, “What do you mean?”
“I trusted you. . . .” Roxanne’s voice cracked as she blurted out, “I loved you, and I just couldn’t believe you could actually kill your own wife, but I was a fool to ignore the facts. I came here after Victoria was dead, after you had taken Andrew back to the cabin. No one else was around that day, remember? Your men had the day off. Wondering about it all, I recently went up to the ship’s prow to see for myself, and I realized that it would have taken a strong man to throw Victoria over the rail to the rocks heaped below, rocks that you and your men had hauled in to fortify the bracing stocks so the spring rains wouldn’t wash away the sand from beneath the supports. Unless your wife had reason to kill herself, then you are he only one who could have done it, Gage Thornton, because you were the only man around at the time. Perhaps you did kill her in a fit of temper as the townspeople have suggested, and you tried to make it look like an accident. Whatever the truth, I’ve no choice but to believe that when you saw me coming in the dinghy that day, you threw Victoria over the prow and then ran back to the cabin with Andrew to let me be the one to find her because you knew how I felt about you! You knew I would willingly accept anything you told me! But I’m smarter now, and I’ve come to believe that you killed Victoria that day, one way or the other!”
“That’s a lie!” Gage barked. “I heard Victoria scream after I reached the cabin, and when I came running back, you were standing over her dead body! If I had thought for one instant that you had the strength to accomplish her murder, I’d have seen you arrested that very day. But as you say, it would’ve taken a strong man to carry Victoria up to the prow and hurl her down, and as yet, I haven’t found anyone with reason enough to want to hurt her, much less kill her.”
“You’re the one who’s lying, Gage Thornton. Not me. And I’m going to let everybody know it!”
He laughed scathingly at her threat. “Do you think anyone will believe you after you swore you heard Victoria scream and hurried up from the dinghy in time to see me running from the cabin? I was too far away to have come from the ship, you said. I sincerely doubt that your new story will have much effect on the townspeople, Roxanne. With Shemaine here, everyone will see through your spiteful jealousy and accept it for what it is.”
“You murdered her!” Roxanne shrieked, hauling back an arm. With teeth gnashing and eyes blazing, she flung the flat of her hand across his cheek and felt the painful sting of the blow herself in her bruised and prickling palm. All the force of her
pent-up fury could not be spent so easily, however. She wanted revenge to ease her seething rage.
For a brief moment, Gage stood as she had left him, with his eyes closed, his face averted, his clamped jaw tensed with rigid control. Gradually turning his head, he arched an eyebrow sharply and glared at her.
“Don’t ever do that again, Roxanne,” he warned. “If you do, you will see just what I’m capable of.”
“Will you throw me from the prow of your ship as you did Victoria?” she taunted bitingly.
For no more than a passing moment, Gage stared at her, amazing Roxanne with the frigid coldness in those ordinarily warm brown eyes. Then, pivoting sharply about, he left her.
The bedroom door was still closed when Gage entered the cabin. He stood just inside the front portal for a long moment, listening to Shemaine singing a sprightly verse to his son, who giggled in delight as she punctuated each verse in a way Gage could only imagine was a gentle tickling or a clucking of his little chin. Raising a knuckle, he wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth and, with measured tread, crossed to his bedroom door. Lifting the latch, he pushed the portal inward to find Shemaine kneeling beside his bed. Andrew was now fully dressed and sitting on the edge of the bed within the circle of her arms. As he entered, the girl’s eyes were drawn immediately to his burning cheek, and in some embarrassment she scrambled to her feet.
Gage tried to smile to put her at ease, but his attempt was sorely strained. “I’ve got to take the wagon into town this afternoon, Shemaine, and I’d like you and Andrew to go with me.” He didn’t dare leave them when Roxanne could come back and assault the girl. “One of my men brought word this morning that there’s a widow visiting in the area who wants to meet with me about ordering a hutch. If she does, I’ll have enough funds to pick up a few supplies for the ship and order you a pair of shoes.”
Shemaine was astounded by his generosity. “I told you before, Mr. Thornton. I’m quite content wearing what you’ve already given me. I don’t need another pair.”
Petals on the River Page 14