****
Rather than sit with the other girls, Lilly prepared a plate of food and carried it into Addie’s bedroom. “Have you eaten?” she asked Nadene, who was propped up in bed reading a book.
“Yes. And I’ve talked to Miss Addie, too. I know why she’s upset with you.”
Lilly moved to the edge of her chair. “Why?”
“It seems that Miss Mintie was on her way to a meeting the night you and John Farnsworth met to shop for Miss Addie’s birthday present.”
“What difference does that make?”
Nadene gave her a look of exasperation. “I’m going to tell you, if you’ll give me a minute. Miss Mintie saw you two together, and she couldn’t wait to tell Miss Addie. Mintie has convinced her sister that Mr. Farnsworth is romantically interested in you and that you’ve betrayed her by alienating Mr. Farnsworth’s affections.”
“Oh my! How could Miss Addie believe such nonsense? Mr. Farnsworth is old enough to be my father.”
Nadene scooched up a little farther and leaned against her pillow. “I know, but I think Miss Mintie has succeeded in winning her over. Why don’t you go and talk to her after supper when she’s alone in the kitchen?”
Lilly agreed that a private discussion with Miss Addie would be best. “Will you pray with me?” she asked Nadene. “I want to be able to tell Miss Addie the truth without ruining her birthday surprise, but most of all I want to restore our friendship. I can’t do that unless she trusts me. I fear I won’t find the right words.”
“Let’s pray that God will give you the perfect words to set things right. I’m certain God wants your relationship restored, too.”
Lilly gave her friend a smile. “Thank you, Nadene. I think you’re right—the words do need to come from the Lord.”
An hour later, bolstered by the time she and Nadene had spent in prayer, Lilly walked into the kitchen and offered to help with the supper dishes.
“I would think you have other things of more importance, perhaps a gentleman caller to go shopping with in town,” Miss Addie replied as she picked up a worn dish towel and began drying a plate.
“We need to talk about gentlemen callers, Miss Addie. Nadene told me what you believe—about John Farnsworth and me—and none of it is true.”
Miss Addie wheeled around and glowered. “You expect me to believe my sister didn’t see you in town with John Farnsworth? Mintie is many things, but a liar isn’t one of them.”
Lilly wanted to pull back her words. After all that prayer, she’d still said the wrong thing. “I misspoke. The part about there being any romantic involvement is totally false. We were in town together. I was assisting him with a purchase—for a friend. We stopped in several shops and then came back home.” Lilly paused before continuing. “Miss Addie, John Farnsworth is old enough to be my father. Surely you don’t think I could have feelings for him. He’s a kind and generous man—a wonderful suitor for you. But certainly not for me. And even if Mr. Farnsworth were a man who captivated my interest, I would never seek his affections when I know that you find him . . .”
“The most wonderful man on earth?” Addie concluded, a blush rising to her cheeks.
Lilly smiled. “Exactly! Miss Addie, I would never intentionally do anything to hurt you or destroy our friendship. I love you,” Lilly said, the words fighting their way around the lump that had risen in her throat.
“Come here, child,” Addie said, beckoning Lilly into a warm embrace. “I’ve missed you, too, more than you can imagine. I must tell you that Mintie’s words were very convincing. I had hoped that young Matthew Cheever would come calling and assuage my fears. When that didn’t occur, I thought you were probably meeting John on the sly so I wouldn’t suspect.”
As if on cue, Prudence rushed into the kitchen. “You have a caller in the parlor, Lilly—a gentleman,” she announced with a broad grin.
“Not John Farnsworth?” Addie inquired, then quickly placed a hand over her mouth. “I’m merely jesting, Lilly.”
“No, much younger and much more handsome,” Prudence replied. “Guess!”
“I certainly hope it isn’t my brother,” Lilly replied. “Lewis is the last person I want to deal with this evening.”
Prudence crossed her arms and gave Lilly a scowl. “Well, personally, I’d love to see Lewis, but I’ve not seen him for several days. It’s Matthew Cheever.”
“Speak of the devil,” Lilly muttered. “Please tell Matthew I’m busy this evening,” she said to Prudence, then turned to pick up the dish towel. Miss Addie was staring at her with a question in her eyes. If Addie’s suspicions about John Farnsworth and Lilly were going to be laid to rest, Lilly knew she must see Matthew. “Pay me no mind, Prudence. I’ll be into the parlor momentarily. I’m tired and didn’t want Matthew to see me looking so disheveled, but I doubt he’ll even notice.”
“Don’t keep him waiting, or one of the other girls will soon have his attention,” Prudence warned as she left the kitchen.
Lilly forced her lips into a bright smile and tucked a loose curl behind one ear. “You see, Miss Addie? Matthew has been quite busy. Mr. Boott has had relatives in town, and Matthew has been required to spend his evening hours at the Boott residence. Otherwise, I’m sure he would have been here.”
“I do apologize, dear. I allowed my mind to conjure up all sorts of wild ideas. Do forgive me,” she asked, placing her plump arm around Lilly’s waist.
“Of course you’re forgiven.”
“You need to give your cheeks a pinch. You need a little more color,” Addie instructed as Lilly walked out of the room.
Matthew was standing in the doorway, holding her cape. “I thought we could walk into town,” he said as she neared him.
“Do you have Isabelle’s permission?” she asked, immediately scolding herself once the words were out. She sounded like a jealous lover worried about competition for her beau.
Matthew grinned as he held out her cape and escorted her out the door. “You have nothing to fear from Isabelle. Isabelle and I have nothing in common; we’re totally unsuited.”
Lilly stopped in her tracks. “Is there some reason you came calling upon me tonight, or were you merely hoping to heap more misery on what has been a wretched week?”
He pulled her hand into his arm and tugged her along toward town. “Wretched because I came to the mill with Isabelle? Because if that’s the case, I’ve come to set your mind at ease,” he said with a smile.
She moved onward, intrigued by his statement. “How so?”
“Isabelle has returned to Boston to find a man she considers more suitable. She wants to live among her privileged friends in Boston, and of course I have no interest in living anywhere but Lowell. When I made it clear we were not of like minds, she insisted on immediately returning to Boston.”
The moonlight shone upon Matthew’s finely chiseled profile. As he turned and smiled, Lilly’s heart began to melt—his gaze warm upon her icy heart. Quickly she turned away, forcing herself to remember the pain he had caused in the past. Matthew Cheever would not hurt her again. “And you think that because Isabelle has rushed off to Boston, you’ll begin calling on me. After all, I should fall at your feet in thankfulness for the privilege. Is that correct?”
Matthew stared at her in obvious disbelief. “What has gotten into you, Lilly? You sound angry and bitter.”
“Perhaps because I am angry and bitter. And it’s you that’s helped to turn me into what I am, Matthew,” she fired, her hands curled into fists.
Matthew looked down at her. “Take charge of your own life, Lilly. I’m not the cause of your happiness or your sadness. You’re the girl who once told me your joy was in the Lord. Is it not still so? Because you’ve fallen upon hard times, have you forgotten where true happiness lies?”
She knew he was right, but that only served to increase her anger. “How dare you talk to me about bitterness or happiness, Matthew. You’ve experienced nothing but prosperity and good times. Come and talk to me when
you’ve had to suffer losses, and we’ll see where your joy lies,” she spat.
“I’m sorry,” he offered in a voice that suggested true sympathy. “I know your losses have been great. Perhaps we should change the subject to something more neutral,” he suggested as they sat down in the Wareham restaurant.
“Coffee, tea, hot cider?” said the young man who stood poised to wait upon them.
“Tea,” Lilly replied.
“I’ll have tea, also,” Matthew said, then turned back toward Lilly. Before he could speak, however, several other patrons entered the room, their voices loud and excited.
“The mills are truly giving life to this community,” an older man said to the group. “I would have been in the poorhouse by now, but the mills brought prosperity to my business.”
“You don’t have to sell me on it, Benjamin,” another man said. “I couldn’t be more delighted. I was ready to take a loss on the farm and move south with my sister. I watched my father die trying to work the land, and I wasn’t going to follow suit.”
The words hit Lilly hard. She’d never heard any of the locals, with exception to the Cheevers, sing the praises of the mills. How could they be so delighted to see the land torn up and scarred with huge brick monstrosities?
“Without this industrialization, my boy would have had to leave the area to find work. He was certainly no farmer and no storekeeper,” the first man continued. “I know at first I was against the mills, but in the past five years they’ve definitely convinced me. I don’t know when I’ve enjoyed a better life.”
Lilly looked up to find Matthew watching her. He knew she’d overheard the conversation. It was hard not to as the men had taken the table next to theirs. Without taking his gaze from her face, Matthew reached out and took hold of her hand.
“I’m not the devil, and neither is Kirk Boott.”
Lilly swallowed hard. Matthew’s touch was doing things to her that she’d just as soon ignore. But she couldn’t. She tried to fight it, but the memories came rushing back. Memories of his tender touch, his sweet, soft words, his gentleness.
Matthew’s voice was low, almost husky, as he added, “When you look at the overall scheme of things, more people have prospered from this than suffered.”
Lilly pushed aside the memories and replaced them with anger, for it was her only defense. “So my suffering and that of my family’s is unimportant because more people have prospered than endured what we have?”
“The mills didn’t rob you. Lewis did,” Matthew said matter-of-factly. “Sooner or later, you’re going to have to understand that.”
“Lewis may have squandered the money given him by the Associates, but he would never have had the money to begin with if it hadn’t been for their greediness to buy up all the land.”
“Lilly, be fair.”
She pulled her hand away. “Like the Corporation has been fair to me—to my father?”
“Your family received more than most,” Matthew countered. “Your father didn’t have to sell, but it was prosperous to do so.”
“Lewis connived him into doing it.”
“Lewis didn’t want to be a farmer. Your father knew that—knew, too, that he was getting too old to run the place alone.”
“He had me!” Lilly exclaimed, her voice raising an octave.
Matthew shook his head. “No, Lilly, he thought you belonged to me.”
Lilly felt the age-old tightness in her chest. The misery of the past few years and the bitterness that had taken root in her heart caused her no end of pain. She lowered her gaze to the table, fighting the urge to cry. It would do no good. It couldn’t take back the years of sorrow.
The waiter came with their tea, but Lilly could hardly drink it. She wanted to return home, to hide away in her bed and never get up again. She wanted to forget about bells and roving and loud machines that she seemed to hear long after they’d been turned off.
“I didn’t ask you out to fight with you, Lilly.” Matthew’s words were soft and soothing. “I want to find a way to get beyond your anger with me.”
The men at the table beside her were laughing and discussing plans for the holidays. One man confided that the extra money his business had made would allow him to take his wife to see her mother in New York. Lilly felt ill.
“Your tea is getting cold,” Matthew offered after several minutes had passed in silence.
Still Lilly said nothing. As her emotions tumbled over each other, she tried desperately to think of a way to dismiss herself from the table without creating a scene.
Matthew picked up the conversation again as if nothing had ever happened. “Speaking of your brother, I’ve seen Lewis several times over the past few weeks. I didn’t realize he was back in Lowell. The last I knew he was in Nashua. What brings him back?”
Thinking of Lewis was the trick she needed to steep herself in protective anger. Looking up, she met Matthew’s gaze. “I have no idea. Lewis and his whereabouts aren’t a topic I care to discuss,” she said in what she hoped was her most dismissive tone.
Matthew reached across the table and took hold of her hand once again. “Lilly, this is important. I’m concerned that Lewis may be involved in some unsavory activity. I’m concerned that he and a man named William Thurston are up to no good. I want you to be honest with me,” he said, his voice sounding urgent.
“You’re hurting me,” Lilly said, pulling from his grasp. She pushed back her chair and stood up. Everyone turned to look, but Lilly didn’t care. “If you want to know, I suggest you invite Lewis to join you for tea,” she said as the waiter came to check on them, “because I certainly don’t want the tea—or your company.” Pulling her cloak around her shoulders, Lilly turned to leave. “Please don’t follow me, Matthew.”
Although Lilly truly expected him to come running after her as she stormed down the block, it appeared he had taken her words to heart. She glanced over her shoulder one last time. Matthew was nowhere to be seen.
Her thoughts turned to Lewis. What is he up to? she wondered. And what of that Thurston man? She remembered the name from when Kirk Boott had brought him and Nathan Appleton to the mill. Lilly knew nothing about William Thurston, but if there were underhanded deeds to be done, she had no doubt Lewis was involved.
Against Lilly’s wishes, he had occasionally called upon Prudence and probably several other girls who lived in different boardinghouses. Most likely he was garnering as much attention and money from the girls as his charm would permit. The thought of her brother preying upon girls who spent long, tedious hours in the mills sickened her.
Slowing her pace, Lilly tilted her head ever so slightly and listened. Footsteps. Perhaps Matthew was following her. In spite of her anger, she smiled and slowed her stride. A hand reached out to take hold of her, the arm coming around her shoulder.
“What are you doing out alone on this cold night?”
Lilly turned and looked up. Instead of Matthew, however, she looked into her brother’s face. “Lewis. How strange that you should suddenly appear.”
“Not so strange. I’m coming to call on your dear friend, Prudence. She promised to have a special gift for me this evening,” he said. “You do need to purchase something a little warmer than this cloak for winter, Lilly. And in case you haven’t noticed, it’s really quite shabby. They’ve been receiving new shipments of some very fine clothing in town.”
“I don’t have money for a new cloak, so there’s no need for me to go shopping. Obviously you have both time and money, Lewis. How is it that you can afford that new beaver hat?”
“Ah, not just the hat, but all of my clothing—even the boots and an expensive engraved pocket watch,” he replied. “Your little friends are most generous. Pru, Mary, and even little Franny make marvelous companions. So sweet and so giving. I’m going to have to redirect them soon, however. They truly enjoy buying me gifts, but now that my wardrobe is complete, I’d rather have their money.”
“Young ladies shouldn’t be buying ar
ticles of clothing for a man to whom they aren’t related. Nothing so personal should ever pass between you and those girls.”
“Ah, but they adore me.”
Lilly’s teeth were clenched so tightly that her jaw began to hurt. “You have no conscience, Lewis.” She wanted to hurt him, just as he was hurting the girls who worked in the mills—just as he had hurt her for years. “By the way, Lewis, exactly what is your relationship with William Thurston?”
He grabbed her arm, his fingers digging into her flesh. “How do you know about William Thurston?” His face was etched in both anger and fear.
Lilly met his gaze and pulled loose of his grasp. “So you have formed some kind of alliance with Mr. Thurston. You’re planning something terrible, aren’t you, Lewis?” she asked as they reached the boardinghouse.
He pushed her against the cold, hard bricks of the house and pinned her there, his hands on either side of her shoulders. “I want to know who has been making inquiries. How have you come by this information, Lilly? I trust you remember how cruel I can be when you’re not cooperative,” he threatened.
“I’m not a little girl anymore, Lewis. You no longer frighten me, and I’ll not tell you what I know. Suffice it to say that you have been seen in Thurston’s company, and people are wondering about such a liaison. Perhaps you and Thurston should consider setting aside any plans you might have—unless they be for good,” she said, ducking under his arm and hurrying inside.
Lilly leaned against the front door and listened to the sound of her brother’s footsteps as he walked away from the house. Prudence would have no gentleman caller this night.
Chapter 24
Matthew and Kirk pulled on their gloves and mounted their horses, one a bay gelding, the other a chestnut mare. “I want to ride out toward the falls,” Kirk said as the horses began to trot away from the livery. Matthew nodded as both men urged their horses into a gallop and moved toward the outskirts of town. It was an unseasonably warm December Sunday, perfect for a ride in the country and talk of the Associates’ expansion projects.
Daughter of the Loom (Bells of Lowell Book #1) Page 25