by Diana Palmer
Chapter Ten
NOELLE COULDN’T REMEMBER ever feeling so miserable. Andrew had made her out to be a loose woman, Jared believed her capable of sporting with any man at all, and Mrs. Dunn would probably never speak to her again. Worse, the terrible Mrs. Hardy would gleefully spread news of Noelle’s downfall around the city to anyone who would listen.
She put her few possessions into her nice valise and looked wistfully at the pretty things Jared had bought her, still hanging in the chifforobe against the wall. She didn’t want things from a man who could think her so vile a woman. He wouldn’t even listen to her explanation. He’d judged her and found her guilty from Andrew’s cowardly lie. His contempt hurt more than the threat of having her good name ruined in the community.
With her cloak around her, dressed in the familiar white blouse and black skirt, with a simple wide-brimmed black hat on her head, she left the room she’d occupied for so many months and made her way down the staircase.
Andrew was nowhere in sight. He was probably nursing the cheek Jared had hit. She was surprised that Jared had done that when he held her in such contempt, but she was pleased that Andrew had at least some small retribution for the lie he’d told. She’d idolized Andrew until the first time Jared had kissed her. How strange, she thought, that Andrew was everything Jared was not, and yet it was Jared whose admiration and attention she craved. What a tragedy that it should have taken this to make her realize that she had no affection at all for Andrew!
With her head high she went straight to the front door and opened it. She had no money, no train ticket, no place to go except her uncle’s, and no way to get there. But she was too proud to ask the family for help. She would wait tables, if she had to, or cook in a kitchen or get a job as a housekeeper and earn her way back to East Texas. She’d starve before she’d ask Jared for help now.
But as she opened the door and started onto the porch, a steely, merciless hand caught her by the upper arm and dragged her back into the house. The valise was taken from her and tossed aside; the door was closed.
She jerked away from Jared with hatred in her green eyes. “Don’t you touch me!” she hissed.
“Why deny me what you dole out to other men?” he asked, still in a quiet rage at what he’d seen.
She rubbed the arm he’d gripped and stared at him accusingly. “Andrew lied,” she said flatly. “I wasn’t encouraging him, I was trying to get away. Or do you think I welcome such blatant advances from a man?” And then she remembered how eagerly she’d responded to Jared and blushed furiously.
He mistook that flush for guilt. His pale eyes narrowed. They were unblinking, steady, frightening in that lean, rigid face. “How easily you lie,” he remarked in a deep, soft undertone. “Women are treacherous at best. I’d actually forgotten how treacherous until tonight.”
Her hands clenched at her sides. “Believe what you like, then, Mr. Dunn,” she said formally. “I want to go now.”
“Where?” he asked angrily. “It’s the middle of the night, and you have no money.”
“I’ll earn it!”
Her haughtiness outraged him. He couldn’t get the picture of her with Andrew out of his mind. Every time he thought of it, he hated them both. It didn’t occur to him to wonder why. “And where will you work to earn money?” he demanded. He smiled coldly. “In a brothel?”
Her gasp was followed by a furious upswing of her hand, which he caught effortlessly. She’d never been able to land a slap on that arrogant face. He was incredibly quick.
He threw her hand down. “Will you never learn?” he muttered. “A lady doesn’t indulge in brawls.”
“I’m no lady,” she said, stinging from his remarks. “And you’re no gentleman!” Tears of pain and loss stung her eyes, although she was too proud to shed them. Her eyes widened, trying to hold them back.
But he saw the shimmer and he felt bad about the things he was saying to her. She loved Andrew. Everyone knew it. Andrew had seduced her and now he was trying to make it sound as if she were no better than a prostitute. He was furious, but not quite furious enough to believe that of her. She had a sweet, passionate nature but she’d been untouched when he first took her into his arms. Whatever had occurred with Andrew had been very recent, because the shy, half-frightened girl to whom he’d made gentle love had not been a fallen woman.
He stuck his hands in his pockets to keep from grabbing her and shaking the truth out of her.
“Why should I care what you say?” she asked huskily. “After all, Andrew’s made me out to be no better than I should be. Perhaps you think I’m only fit for a brothel…” Her voice broke and a single tear escaped her eye.
That did it. With a soft groan, he reached for her, pulling her roughly against his broad chest, wrapping her up tightly in his arms. “I can’t bear to see you cry,” he ground out at her ear. “Stop it.”
She hit his chest, trying to stem the hot tears. “I’m not…a fallen woman,” she bit off.
“For God’s sake!” He pressed her face closer. “Did I say that you were?” he demanded.
“You said I could go to a brothel,” she said tearfully.
He sighed heavily. “Noelle,” he bit off. His cheek nuzzled hers. “Noelle,” he whispered huskily. “I didn’t mean it.”
He rocked her in his arms until the sobs died away. Then he handed her a handkerchief and watched broodingly while she dried the tears. His hands were back in his pockets again and he watched her steadily.
She hated that intense stare. She didn’t know what he was thinking. He said that he hadn’t meant it, about calling her a loose woman, but he thought less of her. She knew it.
“I’ve reacted badly,” he said after a minute, having regained the control she nearly cost him with her unexpected vulnerability. “What you do with Andrew is, after all, your business. But the two of you have created a scandal. Mrs. Hardy will have it all over town that you and Andrew were in a state of dishabille in a room, alone. By the time she’s finished exaggerating it, you’ll have been found in bed together.”
She bit her lower lip hard and lifted her chin. “Will you lend me the price of a train ticket to Galveston?” she asked proudly.
“And if you leave, what then?” he demanded. “What about my grandmother? Have you considered what the scandal will do to her life, while you’re safely away?”
“I don’t want to marry Andrew,” she said harshly. “He lied!”
“Oh, what does it matter?” he burst out. His pale blue eyes were unyielding. “It’s common knowledge that you worship him. I can’t hold you in contempt for giving way to your feelings for him, when it was so obvious that he shared your hunger.”
“But we did nothing,” she persisted. “Jared, he—”
“I don’t want to know any more,” he said wearily. “You and Andrew can work this out together. But you must marry. A scandal of this sort is unthinkable. My grandmother has a weak heart. I can’t allow her to suffer the sort of notoriety she’ll be subjected to if this is unresolved. I think you have some idea of the effect gossip has on her already.”
From her gardening, she thought miserably. Yes, she knew that Mrs. Dunn had suffered from the gossip started by Mrs. Hardy.
“I don’t want to marry Andrew,” she repeated.
He laughed coldly. “What you want doesn’t matter.”
She clasped her hands in front of her. “You sound so superior,” she said quietly, lifting her eyes to his. “And yet you made love to m
e when you were all but engaged to Miss Doyle.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Engaged?” he exclaimed.
The door to the living room opened and Andrew came out into the hall. He was glowering and red-faced, and through the open door, Noelle could see little Mrs. Dunn sitting bowed and tearful on the sofa.
Andrew glared at Jared and fingered his bruised cheek. “There was no reason to hit me,” he began.
Jared, still angry, turned toward him in a threatening way, and Andrew actually backed up.
“No reason?” he asked, nodding toward Mrs. Dunn. “What would you call that? You’ve disgraced us. You have the morals of a rutting pig.”
Andrew inhaled sharply. “You have no right to speak to me like that!”
“The hell I haven’t. This is my house,” Jared reminded him. “You puffed-up little dandy, who do you think you are?”
Andrew grew redder. He glared at Noelle. “She tempted me,” he accused, and then averted his eyes from the look on her face.
“And you couldn’t resist her,” Jared drawled.
“No, I couldn’t. She’s very attractive,” he admitted, “and she hung on my every word. She watched me all the time. How could a man not react to such admiration from a pretty woman?”
Jared knew this to be true, and so did Noelle. She wanted to say that she had found Andrew less attractive with each day she spent in his company, but Jared’s expression was uncompromising. He might comfort her, but he wouldn’t believe her.
She stared at Andrew with bitter resentment. He made it sound so logical. And yet it hadn’t been that way at all. He’d forced his unwanted attentions on her and now he was denying it—and Jared wouldn’t believe her. Why should he, though? Jared had no feelings for her, unless it was one of mild physical attraction. He himself had no scruples about kissing her in dark rooms at night, but he was outraged when Andrew did the same thing. She could hardly say that.
“You must see that marriage would be a grave mistake,” Andrew said, pleading with his stepbrother. Then laughing, he said, “It was only a kiss, after all.”
“You insinuated that it was much more,” Jared reminded him.
Andrew cleared his throat. He couldn’t brand himself a liar, nor could he make an already bad situation worse. “I’m only human,” he said then, to save face.
Jared’s eyes were using other adjectives to describe the pretentious man facing him. Andrew put on airs and pretended to be a war hero, when Jared knew for a fact that the younger man had held down a desk job in the Philippines and had never been in combat. He had kept his silence because it was no concern of his if Andrew wanted to play toy soldier. But Noelle and other women took that swaggering hero image at face value, and it had led to Noelle’s downfall.
“I can’t marry you,” Andrew told Noelle. “I’m sorry. You’re very pretty and I’m fond of you, but you’re not the sort of wife I want. I had been seeing Miss Beale,” he reminded her, wincing at Jared’s expression.
“And despite that, you toyed with Noelle’s affections,” the older man accused.
“She invited it!” Andrew raged. “It’s unspeakable to say so, but she teased me until I was wild. Surely you’re man enough to understand that.”
Jared lifted an eyebrow. His stepbrother was probably voicing the collective notion of what he appeared to be. He didn’t really mind. But he did mind Andrew’s determination to leave Noelle in the lurch. It was a very serious matter. If there was no marriage, the scandal would be unbelievable.
“I’ll go to Dallas and work out of our office there,” Andrew announced firmly. “I can arrange that very easily. Perhaps when I’m gone, the gossip will die down.”
“Do you think so?” Jared asked mockingly.
“It’s no longer my concern. I’m sorry for the embarrassment to Grandmother, but I’m not willing to sacrifice my entire life to stem gossip when none of this was my fault.”
He nodded curtly and stepped warily around Jared, quickly moving out the door. He didn’t spare Noelle even a glance.
When it closed behind him, Jared was left with Noelle in the hall. A subdued, worried Mrs. Dunn came out of the living room.
“Whatever shall we do?” she moaned. “Mrs. Hardy was shocked and livid with outrage. She’ll tell everyone. And now Andrew has run away in the middle of the night!”
“There’s only one thing that can be done.” Jared didn’t look at Noelle as he spoke, but his posture became even more rigid. “I’ll marry her myself.”
“Never!” Noelle burst out furiously. “I wouldn’t marry you if you came with a trunkload of gold sovereigns!”
He looked at her without speaking, one eyebrow lifted.
“Yes,” Mrs. Dunn said, ignoring the red-faced girl. “Yes, that would be an ideal solution, Jared. Mrs. Hardy didn’t really see anyone except Noelle. Andrew was in the shadows with his back to the door, and Mrs. Hardy didn’t see you at all, because you came up behind us after she had seen Noelle. It was dark in the room and she got only a glimpse, and while she and I started toward the front door, you went quickly into the room with them and closed the door.” She was nodding as she considered it. “Yes, we might convince her that she saw you instead of Andrew with Noelle.”
“It doesn’t matter what anyone will think, because I won’t marry you,” Noelle told the tall man belligerently, even as her heart ran wild at just the thought of being Jared’s wife.
He lifted his chin arrogantly. “You have no choice in the matter,” he said. “It was your behavior that landed us in this mess.”
“I didn’t do it all by myself! And Andrew lied,” she said. She stomped her foot furiously. “Why won’t you believe me? He pawed me!”
“You invited it,” Jared said mercilessly. His pale eyes blazed at her. “For weeks you’ve been his shadow, doing his paperwork at night, hanging on his every word, staring at him adoringly. He’s a man. What did you expect?”
She shivered with revulsion at the memory of Andrew’s wet mouth on hers. “Even if I am partially to blame, he had no right to make me sound like a loose woman,” she said passionately. “He’s a cad!”
“Pretending rage will do us no good,” he replied indifferently. “You’ll marry me as soon as we can arrange the ceremony.”
“Why are you willing to sacrifice yourself?” she demanded. “And won’t your precious Miss Doyle slash her wrists if you leave her in the lurch?”
“Miss Doyle is none of your concern,” he said flatly. “As for the sacrifice, surely you know that I’d do anything to spare my grandmother further pain.”
Noelle looked at the older woman and her rage melted away. Poor little Mrs. Dunn was paper white, and her small body was more stooped than usual with age and dejection. It didn’t take much guesswork to know that Mrs. Hardy would have a field day about the scandal.
Jared saw the expression on Noelle’s face and knew that he’d won. He couldn’t permit a scandal of this sort to put his grandmother in her grave. She’d been his anchor all his life. He would have done anything for her—even marry a soiled dove like Noelle. He thought back to the first kiss he’d shared with Noelle and his heart hurt. She’d been innocent then, he was certain of it. But she’d wanted Andrew, not Jared. And judging by the familiarity and intimacy with which Andrew had been handling her in the study, she’d been in Andrew’s bed. He was sick at the thought.
“It won’t be so terrible a thing, Noelle,” Mrs. Dunn said gently. “You must save your reputation. And ours.
Think what the scandal would do to Jared’s law practice.”
That hadn’t occurred to her. Jared might be well-known in New York, but he was only just getting started here. A scandal might cost him business.
“My practice isn’t what concerns me,” Jared said. He was leaning against the wall, looking worn and irritated. “If Noelle’s reputation can be salvaged, that must be our first priority.”
She looked down at her feet. What he meant was his grandmother’s. He was being gallant, something that her dashing Andrew wasn’t.
He shouldered away from the wall. “Can you make the arrangements, or shall I have my secretary make them?” he asked his grandmother.
“I can’t see Adrian being quite that efficient, Jared. I’ll be happy to do it,” Mrs. Dunn said proudly. She touched Noelle’s shoulder lightly. “Don’t look so sad, child. None of us is perfect. God forgives.”
God might, but Jared looked as if he never would. Mrs. Dunn went back into the living room, mumbling to herself about invitations and a minister.
“Your hero had feet of clay, didn’t he?” Jared taunted, with a twisted smile. “He ran like a chased rabbit.”
She swallowed. “He isn’t what he seemed to be,” she said faintly.
“No one is. Not even you. I thought you were a model of purity, of all the virtues,” he said shortly. “But you’re a dark angel, Noelle. You’ve disappointed me.”
She drew in an indignant breath. “Perhaps I did lead Andrew to believe that his attentions would be welcome,” she confessed tautly. “But he made advances that I neither encouraged nor wanted. Believe that if you believe nothing else good about me.”
“What I believe is irrelevant,” he said carelessly. “I hope that you don’t expect to share my bed,” he added softly, lest his grandmother hear. “Despite your attractions, I have no desire for my stepbrother’s leavings.”