by Nancy Bush
So while Jesse was his most appealing, entertaining Charlotte with his razor wit and exhibiting a leashed control Kelsey wouldn’t have believed possible of him, Kelsey watched and waited. She sat in a corner chair at the other side of the room and listened. Or stood by the windows and gazed outside, ostensibly ignoring him… and listened. Or bent her head over Agatha’s correspondence at the desk… and listened. In her prim, high-necked gown, and exercising a control to match Jesse’s own, she was demure, quiet, and simply forgotten. Charlotte sent her sizzling warning looks whenever she caught Kelsey’s eye, but Kelsey was a model of propriety. Kelsey had felt Agatha gentle perusal a time or two as well, and at least once an evening she looked up to find Agatha’s gaze pinned on her. A bright smile only made the elderly dowager frown and cluck her tongue.
Agatha was harder to fool than Charlotte.
And Jesse. Had she fooled him? She didn’t think so. But it was difficult to tell since any time his gaze happened to fall on her, his eyes swept past without interest. He’d locked her out, which should have filled her with triumph but instead made her uncomfortable, edgy, and nervous.
Inside her head, Kelsey’s mind whirred and plotted and planned. She would stop him, by God. Her will was as strong as his – stronger! And she had the advantage of knowing who and what he was, while he knew nothing about her. If she had to, she would reveal every sordid aspect of his past to Charlotte and Agatha. Even if it meant sacrificing her own anonymity and freedom.
But there had to be a better way …
Late one night, a solution occurred to her, one so diabolically clever and risky that she sat bolt upright in bed, her heart pounding in her ears, a hand to her mouth. No, she couldn’t. It was too dangerous. It would give him ultimate power, yet it would deter him like nothing else.
Lord sakes! Slowly her pulse returned to normal, matching beats with the lonely ticking of her bedside clock. But her mind churned. A chill slipped down her spine and she hugged her knees to her chest. Her plan threatened her own self-respect, her pride, her basic womanhood. But it would save Charlotte.
Moonlight lay in an elongated rectangle on her bed. Kelsey’s fine brows drew into a hard line of thought. She hadn’t been in such turmoil since she’d run away from Emerald and Jace.
In the cold morning hours she made a final decision. Gathering a dressing gown around her, she walked to the window, gazing despairingly at the ground below. Her plan would take her away from Charlotte and Agatha, cut her off from them like the severing of an umbilical cord.
But it would garner her a sweet, sweet revenge. She would have the last laugh on Jesse Danner.
¤ ¤ ¤
Jesse stood in front of the window in Zeke’s office, gazing broodingly down on the rain-drenched streets below. Men in bowler hats hurried past. Women huddled beneath awnings. Neither the electric lights lining the street nor the sparks of the trolley connection could dissipate the gloom.
The door to Zeke’s inner office opened and Jesse heard Zeke stop short in surprise as he saw him standing by the window. “Jesse!”
“Hullo, Zeke. I needed somewhere to think.” He kept his eyes trained on the bustling midday traffic below.
Zeke headed to the desk and his humidor. Jesse heard him twist off the leather lid and the scent of tobacco wafted gently his way. After several minutes of silence, he asked, “How’s it going with Miss Chamberlain?”
“If I asked her to marry me, she’d say yes. Her grandmother still has a few doubts, but not many.” He didn’t add that Orchid Simpson couldn’t stand the sight of him.
“Well done,” Zeke congratulated him.
Jesse glanced back. Zeke wore a black wool suit with a striped waistcoat, a far cry from Jesse’s rugged denim trousers and cotton workshirt. Jesse could play the part of a sophisticated Portland businessman with ease, but he’d grown up on a farm and was just as comfortable in work clothes.
“You don’t sound all that happy about it,” Jesse observed, hearing the hesitation in his friend’s voice.
Zeke sat down at his desk, puffing on his cheroot. He couldn’t tell Jesse that the idea of him using Charlotte Chamberlain bothered his conscience a bit. No, he couldn’t say that – not after he’d practically forced Jesse to pursue her! Poor Charlotte. She was a trusting child who deserved better. Now Zeke wished he’d turn Jesse’s attention to that shriveled-up Orchid Simpson. She was a woman past her prime, and as mean-tempered as she was morally stringent.
Jesse would be outraged to know he was having second thoughts, so Zeke wisely kept his mouth shut. “So when are you going to get down on bended knee?”
Jesse’s answer was a frustrated growl. “I don’t know.”
“I suppose we’re running out of time.”
Zeke realized his doubts had surfaced in spite of himself. The keen look Jesse seared him with burned to his soul. Abandoning any attempt at deception, Zeke lifted his palms in surrender. “All right, all right. As much as I want to get Montana” –his voice deepened with the strength of his desire for vengeance– “I can’t help comparing Charlotte to Nell.”
Jesse gazed at him steadily. “Your second thoughts are a tad late, Ezekiel.”
“Sorry, Jesse. My mistake was when I started to think of Charlotte as a human being, not just as a means to an end.”
Jesse snorted. “Well, then you’ll be glad to know that I’ve come to the same conclusion. I can’t go through with it. I can’t ruin her life for the sake of revenge. And God knows, I have no interest in marriage. Not even if it’ll help bring Gray down in style.”
“Hmmm.” Zeke wasn’t exactly cheered that Jesse agreed with him. “So you haven’t been courting Miss Chamberlain the past few weeks.”
“Oh, yes, I have.” Jesse threw his friend a sardonic smile. “But it was just to get Miss Simpson’s goat. She can’t bear the thought of Charlotte marrying me.”
“What about our revenge?”
“It’ll have to wait, I suppose.” Jesse glowered at the thought. He lived for the day when Lila Gray tasted the bitterness of financial ruin. With the added experience of five extra years, Jesse saw her for what she was and had always been: a bored woman who lived in grand style and who took lovers indiscriminately before feeding them to her shark of a husband. He had no doubt that his seduction had been a planned thing.
“Have you scrubbed the marriage plan completely?”
“I’d rather stay away from women altogether. This is business, and a woman can’t be trusted to react in a businesslike manner.”
“All you have to do is marry one. A socially well-connected one. You don’t have to enter into a business relationship,” he pointed out.
“This marriage would be a business relationship.”
“All right, all right.” Zeke waved that away. “It’s still the best plan.”
“Fine.” Jesse stalked impatiently across the room. “So pick someone more suitable than Charlotte Chamberlain. Someone with some savvy. Someone whose heart isn’t made of glass. Give me a name, Zeke.”
“Orchid Simpson.”
Jesse threw back his head and laughed, the sound roaring to the rafters. “Orchid Simpson? My God, man. Have you lost your mind? You told me yourself to stay away from her!”
“And you just asked for someone whose heart isn’t made of glass. That woman is iron, through and through.”
“For God’s sake, Zeke, I don’t even like her! She’s hard and cold and withered inside.”
“You told me she didn’t look cold.”
“You said she’d be too much of a challenge for me,” Jesse shot back furiously.
“Well, she is a challenge,” he admitted with a shrug. “But she’s got all the right connections via Lady Chamberlain.”
“She can’t stand the sight of me, and I can’t stand the sight of her.”
“You were attracted to her at Charlotte’s party. You admitted that you were more interested in her than in Charlotte.”
“I wasn’t interested in Cha
rlotte at all, so how could I help but be more interested in Orchid Simpson!” Jesse snapped. “No, Zeke,” he warned in a tone that sliced through any further objections, “I’ve since learned a few things about that spinster, and I would rather swallow broken glass than so much as speak to her. I’d no more marry her than I’d sleep with Lila Gray again.”
“You don’t have to like her, Jesse. You don’t even have to respect her. That’s the point, isn’t it?” Zeke said softly. “You’re better off with a woman who won’t win your sympathies. Someone you can use without complications. Though she may not be easily won, if anyone can do it, you can.”
“You didn’t have so much faith before,” Jesse growled, infuriated with the conversation. The trouble was, Zeke’s idea wasn’t half bad.
“Well, I do now. Even bossy, small-minded women like Orchid Simpson can be won. I’ve seen the way she looks at you when she thinks you don’t notice.”
Jesse snorted. “The woman throws daggers from those gray eyes.”
“Her anger masks something else.”
“Your belief in my abilities leaves me humble,” Jesse drawled sardonically.
“Go ahead and laugh, but I’m right on this. If anyone can find a way to get that woman to lower her guard, along with her drawers, it’s you. Think of it as a –”
A short, sharp rap on the outer door stopped Zeke in mid-sentence. Through the pebbled glass he could make out a woman’s figure, her head adorned by a wide-brimmed hat. Jesse started toward the inner office but Zeke stayed him with his hand as he answered the outer door.
In that split second, knowledge speared through Jesse as if it were a lance. He knew who she was before Orchid Simpson took her first step into Zeke’s office. Sucking in a sharp breath, he fought back an unreasonable urge to run. Premonition left him chilled. He didn’t want anything to do with her and whatever purpose had brought her to Zeke’s office.
“Miss Simpson!” Zeke exclaimed in shock.
Her face was shadowed by a gray felt hat tipped over one ear, its plume of peacock feathers trembling gently even in the still air. Her gown was gray silk, and there was a fichu of lace at her throat. The dress would have been fetching if the lines weren’t so severe. As it was, even the matching lace peeking from the bottoms of her sleeves couldn’t soften the overwhelming image of starched rectitude. She looked like a dowager, he thought in disgust. Didn’t she have any fashion sense at all? The gown was lovely, but should have adorned an eighty-year-old grandmother, not a young woman in her late twenties. Only her black reticule had some style and verve, but it swung heavily from her wrist, weighted down. What did she have in that thing anyway? Jesse wondered. A lead pipe?
She was half-turned toward Zeke. “Mr. Drummond,” she greeted him coolly, as yet unaware of Jesse’s silent presence. “I wanted to ask you about Mr. Danner. I need to speak to him, and even though he’s spent many hours at Chamberlain Manor, I’ve no idea where he lives or how to reach him.”
Zeke’s mouth twitched. He turned a palm in Jesse’s direction, and Orchid Simpson’s lovely gray eyes followed Zeke’s outstretched fingers. Those eyes were luminous, reflecting the silver sheen of her gown. Her breasts were outlined perfectly, small and round and lovely. Jesse immediately revised his opinion of the dress. Were the neckline deeper, it might be ravishing after all.
“You’re here!” she exclaimed in disbelief.
Jesse had positioned himself against the wall, braced by one shoulder, his arms crossed over his chest in a negligent stance. Now her gaze swept over him and he could see the nearly imperceptible tightening of her lips and the flicker of distaste in those otherwise magnificent eyes.
“Good. That will make my job easier,” she added with a frown
“Why don’t you sit down?” Zeke offered, indicating the couch at the side of the room.
She moved with grace to perch stiffly on a cushion, glancing in Jesse’s general direction but not focusing on him. For weeks she’d hovered around the room while Jesse had forced himself to entertain a giggling Charlotte. A silent wraith filled with malevolence where he was concerned, Orchid had made herself nigh invisible. Yet, he’d been attuned to her movements, to the glide of her skirt and the whisper of her petticoats. One day in particular he’d been fascinated by the trim ankle she’d inadvertently displayed while she’d sat silently on the windowsill. She was a woman of movement; he would swear it, yet she forced an unnatural stillness upon herself. He could picture her wild and free; he’d seen her in writhing fury in Tyrone McNamara’s locked embrace. Inside that careful shell she must be a mass of frustration and suppressed emotion. That thought filled him with a sudden passion, and Jesse was forced to look away first.
“What job have I made easier?” he clipped out.
“I’ve been giving your plan to marry Charlotte a lot of thought, as you know,” she said, clasping her hands tightly in her lap. “And I’ve come to some conclusions.”
“I’m just dying to hear them,” Jesse murmured sardonically, regarding her through half-shut eyes, studying her face. She was gorgeous, he thought dispassionately, keeping his more dangerous thoughts well under control.
Zeke’s head turned his way. He lifted his brows in a question. Jesse shook his head almost imperceptibly. Let the lady finish, he told his friend silently.
“I don’t believe you’ll give up this ridiculous, self-serving plan of yours unless you have a better offer,” she continued scornfully.
Jesse asked quietly, “Meaning?”
“There are other lovely and wealthy women in this city who would easily fall in with your plans. You said you wanted respectability. Since you choose to acquire it rather than earn it, why don’t you target one of them? I could make the introduction and –”
“No. I want Charlotte.”
Zeke coughed discreetly and stared down at his hands. He was trying desperately to keep a straight face.
“Mr. Drummond, would you mind if I spoke to Mr. Danner alone?” Kelsey asked a bit desperately.
“Certainly –”
“Zeke stays,” Jesse cut him off, slicing a look to Zeke who sighed and sank back into his chair, his gaze apologetic.
Kelsey’s face flushed deep red. “All right, then,” she said, stiffening her spine. “I suspected that you might be unwilling to see reason,” she told Jesse tautly.
“I’m a cad through and through,” Jesse agreed mildly.
“So I’m prepared to offer you an alternate solution. A proposition, actually, in exchange for Charlotte.”
“You’ve got my full attention, Miss Simpson,” Jesse drawled.
Kelsey took a breath. Gazing steadily into Jesse’s aquamarine eyes, she said flatly, “You can marry me instead. I have the same society connections as Charlotte, and I have a small fortune of my own. I will also make certain you receive a financial portion of whatever inheritance comes my way when Lady Chamberlain passes on. I know I’ve been named in her will, and it would be money well spent to save Charlotte inestimable heartache.”
Jesse’s face didn’t change expression one iota, but Zeke visibly brightened. “Jesse?” he asked, smiling at his friend.
“You want to marry me?” Jesse asked Kelsey slowly. She never released her eyes from the fierceness of his own.
“I would rather rot in hell first.”
“So you’ve offered yourself like the sacrificial lamb because you’re so selfless?”
Kelsey glanced away, unable to sustain that driving gaze.
“Charlotte’s young and impressionable. She needs someone to take care of her.”
“I’ll take care of her.”
Her nerves scraped at his knowing tone. She glanced at him again, unsure whether to be relieved or disappointed at this juncture. She’d been so certain he would accept. Why? He’d made it clear he disliked her intensely. And she certainly did not like him. But for some perverse reason she’d still thought he might agree. “You’re turning down my offer?”
“I don’t know.”
Thoughtfully rubbing his jaw, he asked, “Have you concocted this plan because you are so tired of being a spinster that you’d poach on your girlfriend’s man?”
Kelsey lips parted and she went white. She stared into Jesse’s darkly handsome face and had to fight every instinct she possessed not to bodily launch herself at him and claw his eyes out! “You’re the most arrogant and conceited man I’ve ever met!”
“How much money have you got?” he asked, watching her tensely contained body quiver with indignation. He’d been right about her active control. She was a volcano about to erupt.
“Twenty thousand dollars. Cash.” Her eyes were cold, wintry lakes of silver.
Zeke sucked in a breath, biting his tongue to keep from screaming at Jesse to take her up on her offer. Holy Mother of God! Twenty thousand dollars!
Jesse shot him a quelling look. He had more than enough money already. He’d even told Orchid so, but the scornful look on her face said she hadn’t believed him – then or now. “I’m sorry, Miss Simpson, I’m just not interested – in you.”
She climbed to her feet with quiet dignity and headed toward the door without another word. “Unless…” Jesse drawled slowly.
“You’ve humiliated me enough for one day, Mr. Danner,” she declared wrathfully.
“Bring a bank draft for the twenty thousand to this office on Friday at one p.m. and prepare to be married that same day.”
The order was cold and unemotional. Kelsey’s chest tightened. It hurt so badly she wanted to cry out, though why that should be so she couldn’t begin to figure out. What a horrible man he’d turned out to be! “You guarantee you’ll leave Charlotte alone?”
“I’ll never speak to her or look at her again.”
Kelsey drew a trembling breath. Uncertainty flashed through her. Now that she’d gotten her wish, she scarcely knew what to do. “There’s one more stipulation. This marriage would be temporary, just until you achieve the respectability you want so badly. And it would be a marriage of convenience only. You can keep the money,” she added tightly.