They asked her if she wanted lunch and instead of waiting for a reply lead her to a beautiful garden restaurant. It was packed mostly with women who were so rich that there wasn’t a genuine smile in the entire restaurant. Garnett handed the maitre d' money and he showed them to a table. The eyes followed them as they waited for Mirisa to sit and then they sat down. Anyone who hadn’t heard the rumor was now aware that they were in town but there was still a question as to who the woman was or what her relationship could be with the four of them since they never appeared in public with any woman.
Jessica Parkeson could not take it another moment and got up from her table and walked over to them. “Alexander, darling I didn’t know you would be home for the holidays.”
Meeks stood and bowed slightly but made no effort to offer any other expression of familiarity. “Jessica, it’s nice to see you again.” Dominic smiled because Jessica had been pursuing Alexander since he inherited his father’s estate. “You know the boys.” She smiled sweetly then turned back to Meeks. “May I introduce my wife, Mirisa.”
“Your wife?” She looked at him then at the rest of them. “I have not heard one word about you getting married and I was just this week lunching with your sister.” At this point, she had not acknowledged Mirisa. “How long will you be in town?” She took in a deep breath and James almost fell out of his chair as Mirisa bit her bottom lip wondering how she would keep her husband to herself.
“We’ll be in New York for the winter season.”
The woman turned and looked at Mirisa before she looked back at Meeks. She was closer to Dominic’s age then Mirisa's and had been married twice but her last husband had been killed in a robbery leaving her to fight his children over the estate. “Then we will have to get together…” She had her hand provocatively laying on his chest as she leaned in to Meeks.
“Obviously you wrongly assume that my husband is still available to other women.” James looked at Mirisa and wondered what she was going to do since half the restaurant was now listening to the conversation.
“I beg your pardon. I don’t believe I was addressing you. For all I know he found you out in some dirty Texas card room or wherever he’s been hiding and you tricked him so you could have his money. And for your information, there’s never been a time that Alexander hasn’t been available.” Garnett thought for the second day they were really hitting gold.
“It doesn’t matter who you are addressing for I find it very vulgar to openly and publicly proposition any man in front of his wife.” Meeks didn’t think he had ever heard her so controlled while suppressing extreme anger. “And just to ease your curiosity and any ill obtained rumors you may have overheard or intend to spread, I am the granddaughter of Thomas and Mildred Vanderbid.”
Jessica’s expression was priceless as she abruptly turned from the table in a huff and went back to her table but the information was already circulating the room and now was going to change dynamics of the gossip. Mirisa asked Meeks what she should order for lunch.
James told her she was priceless when she was jealous then asked why he never knew she came from very old money.
“No one ever asked me.” They had a great lunch and then decided they needed to shop themselves. They asked Mirisa if she wanted to join them or if she wanted to head home.
“And leave the four of you unprotected? I think not.” They all knew she was extremely worried about women coming after Meeks. She helped them pick out new tuxedos and absolutely fantastic shirts. She also bought a lot of exquisite soaps that were for men. In fact, she spent so much time smelling the soaps that they thought there was more to it then they realized.
When they came back down after changing, Mirisa was standing in the library door talking to her husband. She knew that she had no defenses when she was around them but even less when they were dressed because it was so easy to close her eyes and undress each of them. James read Mirisa’s expression as though she said it out loud. He walked up to her, picked her up and kissed her passionately then responded to what she was thinking. You could see the shiver go down her before he put her back down. “Tit for Tat darling.” They said goodnight and left.
Mirisa and Meeks went upstairs to get dressed for dinner. He had bought her a lot of simple but elegant dresses for the nights when they would be out alone. They went to a small exclusive French restaurant and ate by candlelight before he took her for a walk in the park. They were both tired when they got back to the brownstone so they crawled into bed turning off all the lanterns and talked for hours before she fell asleep curled up in his arms.
By Sunday, the number of invitations were pouring in at a rate that a knock on the door didn’t make any of them look up. Meeks just left them on the desk and James said he would respond to them Monday morning. The days were on the cool side as the trees started to turn and lose their leaves making the city very surreal. The boys went out with Dominic while Mirisa and Meeks took Maggie to the park and allowed her to run up and down the hills with Dog. The park filled up with afternoon strollers as the churches let out. In exiting the park, they stopped at a vendor and bought Maggie a cone.
After the children were tucked in for the night, Mirisa decided to spend some quiet time at the piano. There was a fire in the fireplace and the candles around the room were lit and a single glass and bottle of wine was sitting on the table. Sometimes her husband knew what she needed before she did. She had been weighing whether the isolation of Denver with bears and mountain lions was as stressful as being in the pit of conniving fake women whose sole purpose in life is marrying for money. She poured a glass of wine, sat down at the piano and started playing a very soft melody. The coolness of the keys on her fingertips was so soothing. The men were in the library talking when Garnett stopped in mid-sentenced and turned toward the door. He got up and started up the stairs.
“Where is he going?”
“Mirisa’s playing.” James sat back and listened. “I think it’s a good night to play cards.” They all got up and went upstairs. Garnett was sitting at the piano with her and was listening to her play. He loved watching her hands as her long fingers caressed the ivory so lightly that you didn’t know how she got any music out of it at all. Garnett reached over and picked up her left hand. She looked at him and he reached over and unexpectedly kissed her. James handed him a shot then sat on the other side of Mirisa.
Dominic set up the card table and Meeks put the bottle of whisky on the table. “Mirisa, do you want to play tonight?” She stopped playing and leaned back looking up at him.
“Of course but I need to change clothes.” James got up so she could slide out. “If I have to wear one more dress, I think I’m going to go home.”
Garnett looked over at her. “Exactly where is home?”
“I don’t know anymore.” She left the room and Meeks pondered her statement. She came back after a few minutes in jeans and a silk blouse but in stocking feet.
They played the rest of the night and she just sipped on her wine staying next to her husband. Meeks was becoming more possessive with her in New York and James didn’t know which one worried more about the other. Garnett reached over and pulled her onto his lap and kissed her neck. She looked at him then looked back at her cards. At midnight she got up, said something to her husband before retiring to her room. Mirisa poured a glass of wine from the carafe that sat on the bedside table before stepping out onto the porch. The house was so warm and inviting and their room opened up onto a large porch over the back gardens. She could tell that it would be beautiful in the summer.
The moon was almost full and the sky was so clear. Mirisa closed her eyes and slipped into the Conrad’s world. She loved the sound of the drums as they washed over her and she released all anxiety possessing her soul. Slowly she began to balance. Her mind cleared and Mirisa saw the fears that still kept her bound and off of her path. She turned to find Meeks leaning up against the door.
“Where do you go?”
“Into myself. I
t’s the only way I can work out the things that scare me the most.”
“What scares you?”
“Losing you.”
“I’m not Dominic.”
“Alexander, I never knew what he was doing. One of my weaknesses is that I avoid things that might hurt until I can no longer avoid them and then the pain is overwhelming. I know what I did was wrong and I am so afraid that I will one day pay for those mistakes by losing you.”
“Mirisa, I love you. I’ve always had any woman I’ve ever wanted but you are the only woman I have ever fallen in love with and you are the only woman who will lie in my arms. I know how difficult it is to trust again but I would not have married you if I didn’t plan on keeping that promise. You need to let go of your fear and believe in me.” He took her in his arms and held her. Meeks sometimes wondered how his mother dealt with her relationship with a married man and the problems that came with it. How many times had she been hurt unintentionally, how many things did she give up just to be in his arms, how often had she sat alone crying? “I’ve told all of them to leave you alone as long as we’re in New York. There are enough women to keep them busy and I’m not in the mood to share you right now.”
“Why are you telling me?”
“Because you need to know that it has nothing to do with you and the fact is that I have made the decision and they’ll attempt to respect it.”
She laughed because attempt was probably a good word to use with the three of them. He picked her up and laid her on the bed. “Mirisa, will you marry me?”
“Alexander I am already married to you.” She sat up and looked for meaning in his words. “I am, aren’t I?”
“Yes, we’re already married but I want to marry you in the church and I want to marry you in front of the world.” He leaned over her and turned off the lantern. She stopped him and took his face in her hands.
“Yes, except you need to know I must forgive myself for what I did to Dominic before I can walk down the aisle with you. I have been avoiding that for a long time and it’s now time for me to face my failure. I have made peace with the divorce but not with myself.” He started to say something and she put her finger on his lips. “This has to do with my conscious decision and the reasons I made them may be good but I still need forgiveness from myself.”
“Alright. I guess that I have done so much wrong in my life that I forget that such a small thing can be so big in someone else’s life. Is this going to take long?”
She told him to just make love to her because she had this overwhelming desire to touch him all over. He undressed and climbed on the bed. They woke up with all three children climbing nosily onto their bed. They sent them downstairs and both got up and put on jeans. He reached over and caressed her ass and told her she looked better than anyone he had ever seen in jeans and she told him he was wrong because she loved his ass more than he did hers. They argued as they stood there with their hands on each other’s ass then he relented and told her she was probably right.
Everyone was at the table when they came in and sat down. “Are you two going to just pretend you are in Colorado today?”
“No, we’re just going to dress however we feel like dressing and New York can just deal with it or not.”
James raised his eyebrows and Mirisa winked at him. Meeks poured a cup of coffee for both of them, reached over and took a biscuit but before it reached his plate Mirisa stole it and then kissed him. “I’ve asked Mirisa to marry me in the church while we’re in New York. I just wanted to let everyone know because I haven’t decided yet whether to keep it private or not.”
Garnett looked from him to Mirisa but they all knew without looking what affect that had on Dominic. She was so damn beautiful and happy when she walked into that church with Dominic that this was going to be extremely difficult for all five of them. None of them said anything because they were still trying to digest Meeks statements after she left the room last night.
Mirisa reached over him for the jam then gave half of the biscuit to each child and took his second biscuit. “What do you mean private or not?”
“He means he doesn’t know whether to just have family or if he going to invite all of New York.”
“Isn’t that an awful lot of people? I mean just in the two restaurants we were in was enough people to fill two churches.”
Garnett refilled his coffee and poured in a shot of whisky. “Is this just your way of having the best event of the season?”
“This is my way of introducing Mirisa as the only woman in my life.” Garnett thought he was the only one who could so boldly make that statement in front of Dominic knowing his feelings for Mirisa hadn’t changed or the fact that Dominic blamed Meeks for taking her away from him. Thankfully there were enough women in New York that Dominic could take his frustration out in the way he always did.
“Have you picked a date or do you want to check all the invitations on your desk to see if there’s any dates open this season?”
“I think after the new year. There’s usually a few weeks that are low key.”
Mirisa reached over and turned his face to hers. “Do you plan your social life like you do military campaigns?”
They all laughed because she frequently saw such a raw truth in them. He asked her if she was going to eat more than biscuits or if she was saving her appetite for lunch with her father.
“What lunch?”
“Your father has made reservations for lunch. I’ll have the carriage take you since the invitation did not include anyone else.”
“Do any of you allow me to make any decisions anymore?”
“Mirisa, we have never allowed you to make decisions.”
She got up to get a fresh cup of coffee and wrapped her arms around Dominic and whispered something to him. He reached up and touched her before he responded. She left the room and he followed her. Garnett looked at Meeks who just nodded and they went back to eating breakfast. Dominic returned to the table and she went upstairs to change.
After breakfast, James went into the library to go through the invitations. They discussed each one like they did the dresses they bought for Mirisa and then they came up with a list that would keep them busy but not take up all of their time. They included several daytime events that they generally wouldn’t even think about just because they thought it would be good for Mirisa to occasionally appear in public properly but they decided to exclude anything that involved the children.
Mirisa walked into the library wearing a deep green plaid dress that was very socially proper. “Well, I guess after the last time I made you go with me that it would be expecting too much for anyone to volunteer this time.”
“Sweetheart, you couldn’t promise enough to get anyone in this room to get in that carriage with you. You have absolutely no idea how mad your father is with all of us.” Garnett handed her his glass and she sipped it before handing it back.
“You know he really does like all of you a lot or he would have never sent me to Mississippi but he feels guilty for it causing the problems with my mother.” They all just sat there listening because she rarely talked about her life before them. “My father is very much like all of you.”
Mirisa kissed her husband and when she walked past James he put his arm out and stopped her. She looked at him and he knew she didn’t want to see her father alone. James walked her out to the coach helping her in and told her he would start every morning and end every night holding her if he was allowed to but there was no way he was giving up his relationship with her just because they were in New York. Mirisa reached out and touched him softly and told him she loved him.
He came back into the library and sat on the corner of the desk looking at the final list.
“James, I thought for a moment there you were going to go with her.”
“I considered it but a father is one person you don’t challenge if you have no stake in the argument. I have thought about what you said last night and frankly I don’t think it will w
ork even though I understand your feelings.”
“James, is there ever going to be a day that you even slightly acknowledge your love for her?”
“Not to any of you.” He poured a shot and walked over to the window.
The doorman helped her out of the carriage and opened the door of the restaurant so that she could enter. It was a very dark and masculine restaurant filled with what appeared to be very rich men and a few very flashy women. She walked up to the maitre d’ and gave him her name as she slowly pulled off her gloves placing them in her purse. He nodded and told her to follow him as he prissily walked across the crowded restaurant. Her father stood as she approached the table and took her in his arms. Any anger he had for her was lost just at the very sight of her.
“It is too long between our visits.”
“I know, I’m sorry but time seems to just get away from me.” Dr. Eppes sat down and poured her a glass of wine. He realized that they were still being watched by almost everyone. A gentleman walked up to the table and her father introduced her then confirmed an appointment later in the month. Dr. Eppes and Mirisa talked lightly during lunch and after they took away the food he got serious.
“Mirisa, I am sorry that Dominic hurt you so much. I guess I thought that even if he couldn’t change, and I didn’t think he could, that he wouldn’t do anything so indiscrete to hurt you.”
“Father.” She stopped because it was one thing to admit to herself was what she had done but to tell her father knowing he would be crushed was going to be extremely hard. “Dominic divorced me because I had Alexander’s daughter.”
Her father looked at her and sipped on his whisky to give himself time to actually digest her statement. “He said it was because of his own behavior.”
The Visitor - Colorado 1869 - 1871 Page 21