www.samhainpublishing.com
The Vow
He spread his hands in an apologetic gesture. “Clever is the word I would have used.”
Hannah raised her chin. “You were not the only victim of Reiver’s selfishness. I had to endure being the object of gossip, and my children the taunts of their school friends. I will never forgive my husband for subjecting my sons to that as long as I live.”
She smiled. “But I digress. If you agree to speak to your fellow bankers in Hartford and persuade them not to ostracize Shaw Silks, both of us will benefit.”
“I fail to see how I will benefit at all.”
“If the company should fail, Reiver’s dreams would be destroyed, true. But if Shaw Silks prospers, I will continue to control it.” She raised her brows.
“Wouldn’t that be punishment enough for a proud man, to see his mill prosper and to know that it will never be his again?”
They locked gazes for what seemed like an eternity. Hannah held her breath and prayed.
“How do I know you won’t return control of the company to your husband?”
“If I did that, I’d put myself in Reiver’s power again. He could divorce me or take another mistress. Then where would I be?”
Tuttle nodded. “I take my hat off to you, Mrs. Shaw. You’d do a Borgia proud.”
She was relieved he couldn’t see her knees knocking beneath her long skirts.
“It’s a rather fitting revenge, don’t you agree?”
“Most fitting. Why kill a man quickly when you can make him suffer and kill him slowly?”
“Exactly.” Hannah paused. “So, you will talk to your Hartford banker friends?”
www.samhainpublishing.com
305
Lindsay Chase
“I’ll see what I can do.”
She thanked him and turned to leave.
“Mrs. Shaw?”
She turned back. “Yes, Mr. Tuttle?”
His hard face twisted with pain. “How is Cecelia’s daughter?”
“She is a sweet, happy little girl, as beautiful as her mother, and I love her and care for her as if she were my own.”
Having told Tuttle what he yearned to know, Hannah left his office without a backward glance.
“Well, what did he say?”
Hannah seated herself across from Reiver in the carriage and settled her skirts about her. “Nate’s farm is as good as ours.”
Reiver let out a loud whoop of triumph that caused a passerby to stare through the carriage window. “So the bastard was behind it after all.”
“He wouldn’t admit it,” Hannah said, “but I think he was.” Reiver grinned and shook his head as if he was unable to believe his good fortune. “What did you say to him that made him change his mind? I’m surprised he agreed to see you at all.”
“I threw myself on his mercy, that’s all. I told him that if Shaw Silks didn’t get this loan, it would surely fail. And if that happened, my children—including Cecelia’s daughter—and I would be destitute.”
“You mean to tell me that he agreed to talk to the Hartford bankers because he felt sorry for you? That I find hard to swallow.”
“Why? Amos Tuttle is a very compassionate man.” And a hard and bitter one, thanks to you. “He couldn’t bear to hurt a helpless woman and her children.”
306
www.samhainpublishing.com
The Vow
Before Hannah could blink, Reiver was at her side, holding her hand. “Thank you, Hannah. I’ll remember what you did today as long as I live.”
He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it.
Hannah recoiled at his touch. She drew away and fussed with her collar.
“Shouldn’t we be getting back to the train station?”
Reiver nodded and returned to his side of the carriage, signaling the driver to be off.
But he didn’t stop staring at his wife.
www.samhainpublishing.com
307
Chapter Sixteen
Hannah thought it fitting that the Bickford farm now belonged to the Shaws, just retribution for all she had suffered at the hands of her own cold, uncaring relatives.
She stood beside the dry-stone wall bordering the tobacco field where she had once toiled, so stooped over that she thought she’d never straighten her spine again. The plants no longer shivered in the warm summer breeze, for they had all withered and died from Nate’s neglect and been cut down to rows of ugly stubble. Someday houses for the Shaw workers would rise in their place.
“Hannah?”
She adjusted her parasol to block out the sun and kept staring out over the field, caught up in her own dreams.
Reiver came to her side. “Are you looking over my latest acquisition?”
“I was reminiscing.”
Reiver placed one foot on the stone wall and leaned on his knee. “This is the place we first met. Do you remember?”
“Of course. I almost collapsed because of the heat, and you insisted on taking me back to the house.”
“Isn’t it amazing how one incident can change a person’s entire life’?”
Hannah absently shooed away a horsefly. “Yes. If my parents’ carriage hadn’t skidded that winter night, I’d be still living in Boston right now, no doubt married to a doctor, like my father.”
The Vow
Reiver removed his foot from the wall and sat down facing her. “Do you think your life would have been better if you hadn’t come to Coldwater?”
She refused to spare him. “In many ways, yes.”
He winced. “Candid, as always. Granted, our life together has been far from perfect, but it hasn’t been all bad, has it?”
“No,” she agreed. “You gave me Benjamin and Davey.” And Samuel, by not loving me.
Reiver smiled slowly. “They’ve grown into fine young men any parent would be proud of.”
“Yes, but I wish Davey weren’t so envious of Benjamin.”
“A little competition between brothers is to be expected. I wouldn’t have them any other way.”
Hannah frowned. “You’re uncharacteristically sentimental today.”
He shrugged. “I’ve been examining my life, too. I’m forty-three years old.
The best years of my life are almost over. When you’re young, you think you’ll live forever.” He looked out over the field. “Where does the time go?”
She regarded him closely, and for the first time she saw the subtle signs of aging. While Reiver’s stocky physique was still as hard and sleek as it had been in his twenties, new lines scored his face, and his thick light brown hair revealed strands of silver.
She knew she should offer him some reassuring platitude, but she couldn’t.
“It’s too hot out here. I’m going back to the house.” And she turned to go.
“Wait.” Reiver slid off the stone wall and walked over to her, his blue eyes beseeching. “It’s time we put the past behind us, Hannah. I want us to start fresh.” He looked back at the field. “We can pretend it’s the summer of 1840
again and I’ve just rescued you from heat prostration.”
“You ask the impossible of me.”
www.samhainpublishing.com
309
Lindsay Chase
“I’ve forgiven you for Samuel. Why can’t you forgive me for Cecelia?”
“Because my affair with Samuel didn’t hurt you as much as your affair with Cecelia hurt me.”
His gaze slid to the ground. “I’m sorry I could never love you as you wanted to be loved, but I loved Cecelia long before I met you. I won’t insult your intelligence by saying that I never did.” He sighed. “Now she’s dead, and no matter how much I want it, she’s never coming back.”
Hannah flinched, surprised at how his love for Cecelia could still wound her.
The most she could offer him in the way of comfort was to say, “You have Elisabeth. Part of Cecelia still lives in your daughter.”
“That is of some comfort to me,
but I need more.”
Hannah raised her brows.
Reiver grasped her free hand and stared deeply into her eyes. “I want peace between us, Hannah. I don’t want us to spend what’s left of our lives alone, two strangers living in the same house.”
“By ‘peace’, I’m assuming you wish to avail yourself of your husbandly rights?”
He grinned, his eyes sparkling as they roved over her appreciatively. “You’re still a beautiful woman, Hannah. Of course I’d want to share your bed.”
Now that Cecelia wasn’t here.
“We don’t love each other, and I doubt if we ever will.” She drew her hand away. “I won’t sleep with a man I don’t love.”
The light died in his eyes. “We can learn to love each other.”
“But I don’t have to.”
And Reiver knew why.
310
www.samhainpublishing.com
The Vow
Hannah adjusted her parasol and started back to the house. She fully expected him to explode and rail at her, but to her surprise, a subdued Reiver fell into step beside her, his hands clasped behind his back.
“I’ve been a fool. I’ve had a treasure under my nose all this time, and I’ve thrown it away.”
Hannah stopped and faced him. “What nonsense is this?”
“I suppose I can’t blame you for being so suspicious of my motives, but this time I am sincere.” He bowed his head. “You’ve stood by me, Hannah. You’ve borne my sons and. raised them into fine young men. You even adopted my illegitimate daughter.” He looked beyond her. “I can’t even fault you for the way you’ve run the mill.”
“Coming from you, that is a high compliment.”
“All I want is a second chance.”
She resumed walking. “I’ll have to think about it.”
“You’re the kind of woman who needs a man,” he said, his voice low and seductive.
She shivered as if he had physically caressed her. “I have my children and the mill. Why should I need a man?”
Reiver smiled slowly, his gaze languid. “Don’t you remember what it felt like when I kissed your neck and licked your breasts?”
Cheeks flaming, Hannah stopped and glared at him. “That will be quite enough!”
He just smiled. “Do you remember how you’d guide my hand to where you wanted me to touch you, and—”
She drew back her hand, but before she could slap him, Reiver caught it and pressed her wrist against his lips.
Hannah yanked her hand away. “Don’t you dare touch me again!”
www.samhainpublishing.com
311
Lindsay Chase
His eyes held a mocking twinkle. “But I like touching you. Your skin is as soft as Shaw silk.”
“Why don’t you go to a whorehouse and leave me alone? I’m sure they’d welcome your patronage.”
Reiver laughed, for he had been doing just that. “I had forgotten what a little Puritan you can be.” Then he raised his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry if I offended your great sense of propriety with my bawdy talk. I shan’t do it again unless you give me your permission.”
“That will never happen.”
Reiver increased his stride. “Don’t be too sure,” he called back over his shoulder, and disappeared down the path.
By the time Hannah got back to the house, her head was pounding and she felt jittery, so she went upstairs to lie down.
“All this talk of making peace…” she muttered to herself as she unbuttoned her dress. “This is just a plan to get the mill back.”
Reiver’s words echoed through her mind: I’ve been a fool. I’ve had a treasure under my nose all this time, and I’ve thrown it away. Hannah shook her head. Did he really think she was so—so gullible as to believe such sentimental twaddle?
She stripped down to her chemise and pantalets and was heading for her bed when she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror. She stopped and stared, wondering if Samuel would still find her desirable.
Even though she was a thirty-four-year-old matron, her body was still supple and slender, though her breasts were fuller—hardly a flaw in any man’s estimation. Hannah thought the tiny lines radiating from the corners of her eyes 312
www.samhainpublishing.com
The Vow
added character and maturity to her face. Not one strand of silver marred her hair.
You’re still a beautiful woman, Hannah, Reiver had said. Of course I’d want to share your bed.
Hannah sat down on the edge of the bed Reiver wanted to share and placed her aching head in her hands. Uncertainty niggled at her. What if her husband really had changed? What if he finally desired her as a woman? Shouldn’t she give him a second chance?
“Don’t fool yourself, Hannah,” she said aloud, lying down. “That conniver will do anything to get the mill back. Even pretend that he loves you.”
As she dozed off she dreamed of a man making love to her again, but it was Samuel’s gentle hands caressing her, not Reiver’s.
“When are you going to surrender?”
Hannah surveyed the dining room, ravaged from the crush of Shaw Silks employees and their families who had been invited to the main house to partake of refreshments and welcome in the first day of 1857. “I wasn’t aware that we were at war.”
Reiver leaned against the mantel and smiled slowly. “You know we are.” He saluted her with a raised glass of claret. “You’ve been able to resist me so far, but I will win you in the end.”
Hannah pretended to examine the glass punch cups for chips, but inside she felt the tense foreboding of a wild animal who hears the hunter’s footsteps drawing inexorably closer.
Reiver had been stalking her. There was no other word to describe his calculated pursuit.
www.samhainpublishing.com
313
Lindsay Chase
She gathered her skirts and headed down the hallway. Reiver followed, ever the hunter.
“That shade of green is very becoming on you,” he said. “It’s too bad it’s imported French silk and not our own.”
“I thought the color complemented my jade pendant,” she said, absently fingering the dragon. This past Christmas Reiver had given her matching teardrop-shaped jade earbobs, another extravagant gift.
Hannah went to the front door and peered out through the sidelights.
“Where is Mercy? She’s supposed to clean up tonight.”
Reiver stood too closely beside her. “It’s New Year’s Day. Give her a little time.” He paused. “Why are you so skittish tonight, Hannah? Am I making you nervous?”
She turned, her taut nerves finally snapping. “I’m tired of your badgering!”
He raised his brows in affronted innocence. “Badgering? I think of it as courting my own wife.”
“I don’t wish to be courted! I want to be left alone.”
“I don’t believe that for a minute,” he said, his voice soft and low. “Every woman wants to be wooed with soulful looks and sweet compliments.”
“It’s too late for soulful looks and sweet compliments,” she replied, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice and failing. “The time to woo me was when we were first married. I would have appreciated it then.”
“Don’t be such a crosspatch, Hannah. This is a new year, a time to look forward, not back to the past.”
I mustn’t let him wear me down, she told herself. I must resist him. I must.
Yet as loath as she was to admit it, when Reiver exerted himself, he could be damn near irresistible. Tonight, with the severe black of his frock coat 314
www.samhainpublishing.com
The Vow
accentuating his fair coloring and that sensual, teasing gleam in his blue eyes, he looked dangerously attractive.
Like a true predator, he sensed her thoughts changing direction and her weakening resolve. “What’s 1857 going to hold for us, Hannah? Is it going to be another year filled with the same bitterness and
blame, or are we going to write a new chapter in our lives?”
She stepped away from the door and ran her hands up and down her arms as if to warm them.
“Cold?” he asked. Before she could reply, he set down his wineglass, grasped her hands, and warmed them with his own, his compelling blue gaze trapping hers.
Standing there mesmerized, Hannah thought of the coming year, another year spent alone in her cold, empty bed, another year of barricading her emotions behind a wall of hard resolve, and she wavered. What could be the harm in accepting what Reiver offered?
Don’t be a fool! a little voice inside her cried. He only wants his mill back.
Reiver’s mouth hovered perilously close to hers. All Hannah had to do was close her eyes and surrender.
The thought was like a dash of cold water in her face. She pulled her hands away. “I think I hear Mercy now,” she said. “If you’ll excuse me…”
She left Reiver kissing air.
“Just you wait, Hannah,” he said to himself as his furious eyes followed her retreating form. “I’ll have you before the spring buds start to bloom.”
Yet by the time spring came, Reiver still hadn’t won his wife.
www.samhainpublishing.com
315
Lindsay Chase
Hannah and Georgia sat in the private display room of Miss Zenobia Zola’s Hartford dress shop, sipping tea and admiring bolt after bolt of colorful Italian and French silk brought out for their inspection. Although Hannah had been feeling out of sorts all morning, she had promised Georgia a visit to the dressmaker and didn’t want to back out at the last minute, especially since James wanted his bride-to-be to have an extensive wardrobe befitting her new status.
Hannah fingered a soft blue slubbed silk enviously. “I long for the day I’ll wear a gown made from Shaw Silks.”
“Why can’t we make cloth now?” Georgia asked, holding up a length of flattering forest green jacquard against her and admiring the effect in the long pier glass.
The Vow Page 29