“Your life should be here at Belle Fournet with your family. You’re my son and you should be here working the land with your brother,” his father said, his voice rising, taking advantage of the opening to express his frustration with his youngest son. Stunned, Marian watched as Louis defended his decisions.
“When the time comes I will return home and help with the harvest. But I have my own company in New Orleans, Papa.”
His father turned to Marian. “I apologize, Mrs. Cuvier, but this has been a long standing argument between my son and me. Edmond is my oldest, but I always dreamed both my sons would work the plantation. But one of them runs away from his responsibilities to the family.”
“I do not, Papa. I’m just not a planter. I find no pleasure in watching the cane grow.”
“Who says you’re supposed to get pleasure from the work? This is the way we earn our living,” his father insisted.
Marian saw the tightening of Louis’s facial muscles. She watched his eyes darken with anger and she suddenly felt sorry for him.
She turned to Mr. Fournet, needing to say something to help Louis. “Sometimes our children don’t always follow the dreams we have set out for them.”
He dismissed her comment with a wave of his hand, but the words suddenly resounded in her head and she wondered at them. Wasn’t she setting up her own son in exactly the same situation? Would Philip want to inherit the shipping company or was there some other profession that he dreamed of, one she knew nothing of?
“Wise words, Mrs. Cuvier,” Louis’s mother said, and then turned her steely gaze on her husband. “I think this discussion should be continued after lunch, Mr. Fournet.”
The older man started to reply, but then closed his mouth. “As you wish, Mrs. Fournet.”
“Thank you,” she replied with a nod.
Marian glanced across the table at Louis. She felt like a window had been opened and the reasons for some of his actions were clearly revealed. Cuvier Shipping was his escape from working under his father and brother. Without the shipping company he would have to return to working the plantation, which he clearly didn’t enjoy.
So why then did he want to sell the business? What did he want to do if he no longer had the shipping company? Had she been wrong in assuming he intended to sell Cuvier Shipping?
Chapter Fourteen
Louis stood on the deck of the steamboat next to Marian, waving goodbye to his mother, a distant figure on the balcony of the house.
“I like your family,” Marian said. “Your mother especially.”
“Mere is the glue that holds us all together,” he said quietly. “I should apologize for my father and brother’s behavior at the dinner table today.”
She turned to face him, her head tilted, her eyes questioning. “Do they often try to encourage you to return home?”
“Every trip. It’s one of the reasons I don’t come home very often. My father tries to convince me I should be home working the plantation like my brother.”
She leaned against the railing of the boat, glancing down at the muddy waters of the Mississippi.
“Yet, you seem to love them very much.”
“They’re my family. Just because we don’t agree on my choice of work doesn’t mean I don’t love them,” he said wondering about her own family.
The wind teased wisps of hair around her face and he wanted to put his arm around her waist and pull her against him, shielding her from the breeze. But he resisted; her children stood close by, but more than anything he didn’t know how she’d react. The boat hit a whitecap on the water and bounced. She gripped the railing tighter, but didn’t flinch as she returned her gaze to him.
“I can see that. My own family experience was different and Jean was never close to any of his people. It’s odd to me that though you have conflict with your father, you appear to care about him.”
“We’re dissimilar, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love him.” Louis shrugged and turned back to face the water. Nothing about his life had turned out like he’d planned. And his father’s disappointment ate like a cancer at him.
“You yourself told my father that children don’t always follow the dreams parents have for them. What if Philip wants to be an architect instead of running a shipping company or what if Renee decides to become a teacher?” he said pushing away the thoughts of how selling the business would hurt Marian.
She frowned. “I know. As the words came from my lips they awoke me to my own prejudices as a parent.”
He gazed out at the flowing river and wondered how he would be as a father. He still would like to have children someday, he thought and glanced at the woman beside him. If he were going to marry her for the business, he needed to get back to courting her, but somehow the day spent together had changed things between them. Their friendship and working relationship seemed more intimate, more personal than just the act of trying to convince her to marry him for profit
“So what path are you following, Louis? One moment you want to buy my part of the shipping company and then the next you want to sell the business? What are you trying to do?”
Her words yanked him from his thoughts, spiraling alarm, taking him by surprise as he gazed at the woman standing at his side. She was the only other woman besides his wife that he had taken to meet his family. What prompted him to take Marian and her children to see his father in such an intimate setting? He’d let her see a side of him that very few people ever saw and now because he’d let her into this part of his life, he’d given her the ammunition to question his motives. Questions he felt he owed an answer to, yet feared answering.
“If I were free to do what I wanted, I would own my own business. But it would be something that I could do to help my brother and father. That way I would still be involved with the family business, but I would be in control of my own destiny.”
“Can’t you do that with the shipping business? Aren’t we hauling their refined sugar to market for them?”
“Yes.” He gazed deep into her green eyes. “But this is Cuvier Shipping, not Fournet Shipping. Not even Cuvier/Fournet Shipping. Jean got into financial trouble and that’s the only reason I own part of the business now.”
Marian’s eyes widened at this knowledge. “Jean told me you were an investor who bought into the business.”
“I did, when he was about to go bankrupt.”
Marian turned and faced the front of the boat, the wind blowing tendrils of her hair. “Sometimes I think I would be better off selling Cuvier Shipping, just to get rid of the bad memories of Jean that seem to come with this business.”
Louis jumped at the opening.
“You know I’ll buy you out right now. You could have a fresh start in life with the money.”
Marian considered his comment for a moment, her face thoughtful, her eyes squinting in the sunlight. She tilted her head sideways and gazed up at him. “But how would I support my family? Are you going to pay me enough for us to live on the rest of our lives? Enough for me to put Philip through school and give Renee a season? Or will I be forced to remarry just to keep my children and myself from starving in several years?”
Louis frowned, unable to respond. A month ago he would have leaped at the chance to convince her that everything would be all right, but now suddenly he couldn’t lie to Marian and tell her that her fears were ungrounded. Her concerns were realistic.
“You’re not answering me, Louis.”
He turned to face her, his eyes taking in her interested expression. Very little slipped past Marian and certainly she’d noticed his sudden lack of response.
“No one can promise anything, Marian. I don’t know if I could pay you enough money to make certain that you could live the rest of your life on the proceeds from the sale. Maybe you could buy into another business. Whatever you decide, I would suggest that you consider your options very carefully.”
Just call him the biggest idiot in New Orleans. He’d just forfeited an excellent opportunity to
persuade Marian to sell the business. He wondered if he’d told her too much.
She smiled at him and touched his arm. “Thank you.”
“For what?” he asked, feeling the soft warmth of her hand on his flesh. She thought he was being considerate.
She didn’t know the business was in the final stages of being sold. That any day now, he was going to have to sit down, tell her the truth, and ask for her signature.
The thought depressed him and left a bad taste in his mouth. He didn’t like what he was becoming.
“For being honest with your response. I appreciate it”
The sudden urge to kiss her almost overwhelmed him. He wanted to pull her into his arms and feel her body against his own. He wanted to hold her and reassure her that he didn’t want to hurt her, yet his pride refused to let him give up the idea of getting the business of his dreams. And owning a mill and working for the family business again would certainly make his family happy.
How could he force her into the situation she feared? But how could he continue doing a job he despised each day? And how could he give up doing a job that would make him look good in his father’s eyes?
But most of all, how could he live with himself knowing how he had hurt Marian?
***
Marian sat in her office going over the latest shipping manifests, her mind focused on the afternoon spent with Louis’s family. The time together had showed her many of the reasons for Louis’s behavior. Like a small boy, he seemed to crave the approval of his father and even a need to outdo his brother. Were all men this way and she’d failed to notice, or was she more observant regarding men’s motivations since Jean’s betrayal?
Determined to finish this stack of work before leaving today, her eyes returned to the papers before her. Louis had already left for the day, saying that he had an errand to run. Several days had passed since their trip to his family’s home, and they had returned to the easy atmosphere they enjoyed before being intimate with one another.
Though she couldn’t help but think of that night every time she glanced at him, remembering the way his broad shoulders felt beneath her hands, the way he smelled, and the taste of him upon her tongue.
Since that night he had not made any overtures toward her. He’d not even touched her. And while she was grateful in one regard, another part of her missed him. Her sense of loneliness had awakened like a sleeping giant, roaring for attention. Now she craved his touch and his body next to hers, but even more she yearned for the sound of his laughter and the way he could make her smile.
For the first time in her life she enjoyed being with a man and that amazed her. Louis hid his caring soul behind his teasing nature, but she knew from watching him with his family that feelings ran deeper in him than in any man she’d met before. Her thoughts of him being like Jean had not accounted for the man he hid from public view. He cared profoundly about the people he loved, and she wondered what it would be like if he felt concern for her in that same manner.
Quickly, she pushed the thought away. She was not going to become involved with a man again. After Jean’s death she’d promised herself she would never marry. Yet now the words rang hollow and she wondered at their emptiness.
The sound of shouting and running footsteps drew her attention away from her thoughts.
Jon came running into her office, gasping for breath, his chest rising and falling in panic. “Mrs. Cuvier—the dockworkers—have gone on strike and they’re marching this way. A nasty mob is on its way to the office, Captain Paul sent me to warn you to get out.”
“What?” she said, stunned. “The workers are striking? Why? No one’s told me they were unhappy!”
The young boy looked sheepish. “Ma’am they’ve been upset for months. Since before Mr. Cuvier... passed on.”
Marian grabbed her reticule, intending to follow Jon, a thousand thoughts floating through her brain.
“No one told me. Did Mr. Fournet know of this?” she asked, anger swelling within her. Could this be one of those details that he’d somehow forgotten to mention to her?
“Yes, Ma’am. He met with the workers several weeks ago.”
He’d known for weeks and never told her? Why didn’t he tell her or was this just another one of those details that he’d forgotten to mention? Marian slammed her fist down on the table making the young man jump. “Is he never going to understand!”
The boy jumped with surprise. “Uh, understand what, Ma’am?”
“That I am to be informed on all decisions,” she said laying her reticule back down on her desk.
“Ma’am, we better be going. This mob is carrying torches. The police have been called, but the workers are likely to harm you and burn this place down.”
Burn Cuvier Shipping? Then what would she do? How could she support her children, and Philip would not only have no father, but he wouldn’t have the inheritance she was so desperately trying to hold on to for him.
But Jon was worried they could harm her. Could she somehow talk an angry mob out of their destruction? She had to try even though she knew she was putting herself at risk. She had to try for her children’s sake. Without the income from the shipping company they would be nearly penniless.
She only hoped her children didn’t lose their mother, since they’d already lost their father.
Marian glanced up at him, suddenly seeing the fright in his eyes. “You go on without me, Jon. I’m staying. I’m the only one who can calm them down.”
“Oh no, ma’am. You can’t do that. We’ve got to go!” She stood up and smoothed her skirt, rehearsing in her mind what she was going to say. What would calm a crowd of striking dockworkers? Why wasn’t Louis here to face this angry mob he helped create?
“Jon, how long do I have before they arrive?” she asked ignoring his attempt to persuade her to leave.
“Less than five minutes, Ma’am, that’s why we need to get going. There’s no time for trying to talk them out of this. They’re feeling real mean.”
Marian came around her desk and moved past Jon and out the office door. He followed her.
“You’re going to stay, aren’t you?” he said, astonished.
“Yes, I am. But thank you for warning me. You’re free to go.”
“What kind of man would I be if I left you to face this mob alone?”
She smiled at him. “Probably a very smart one.”
“Come with me, Mrs. Cuvier. It’s too late and it’s not your fault.”
“No, it’s not my fault, but I’ve got to clean up this mess or be blamed for the consequences. I could leave, but I’m going to stay and do everything I can to save Cuvier Shipping.”
She sighed and marched down the hall to take on this unpleasant task. Louis never mentioned trouble with the unions. Why?
When Marian reached the front office, only a few employees remained, cleaning out their desks and then hurrying out the back door.
“Mrs. Cuvier. We thought you had left.” Henry said coming out of his office.
“No. I’m not leaving, Henry.”
“You don’t understand. These men are mean.”
“Can you tell me what they’re upset about?”
“It’s been almost ten years since they received a pay raise. They work seven days a week and they’d like to have a little time off. Most of them are barely keeping their families from hunger. They’re tired of it”
Marian frowned. “Why haven’t we given them a pay raise?”
“In the five years I’ve been here, Mr. Cuvier never gave pay raises.”
Marian swallowed. “So they must think that I’m a rich widow who has everything.”
“Yes Ma’am, I’m afraid so.”
“God, how am I going to get out of this one?” she said.
“Just give them some concessions. Give them one day a week and holidays off. And if you can afford it, a small increase in pay. That’s all,” Henry said sympathetically.
“Why didn’t Mr. Fournet give them an increase
in pay?”
“Mr. Fournet offered them holidays off, but nothing else. He told them the business couldn’t afford a pay increase.”
She stared off into space, her finger tapping against her lower lip. Their earnings had dropped considerably during the period right after Jean’s death, but the figures she’d seen recently showed they were beginning to rise again. No, they couldn’t afford a huge increase in pay for anyone.
“When was the last time we increased the cost of our shipments?” she asked.
“It’s been years. We’re the lowest in the industry. That’s why our business has grown so in the last few years.”
She glanced at him surprised at this news since Louis had said he got into the business because it was in financial trouble. “Then how could the business be in financial trouble the last few years, if it was growing?”
The man’s face turned a telling shade of pink and he glanced away from her and then back. “No disrespect to your late husband, Ma’am, but Jean took a great deal of money from the business for his own personal use. If you understand me.”
Marian stood there for a moment, stunned. She knew he was telling her the truth as she’d seen where Jean had withdrawn cash from the business. And she also knew that money had been used to support two other households besides hers.
The rage she thought she’d put behind her at her dead husband’s betrayal once again flared, leaving her shocked at how many lives his evil actions had touched. Determined to show the workers that Cuvier Shipping’s owners were caring, she suddenly knew what she had to do.
“Then we’ll increase the cost of the shipments and give our workers a raise,” she said resolutely. “I can understand why they’re upset”
The man smiled. “For a woman, you’ve got a good deal of business sense. I like you, Mrs. Cuvier.”
She smiled. “Now if I can only convince our workers not to bum the place down.”
He frowned and tilted his head. “I hear them coming.”
The sound of angry shouts coming closer chilled her. “I guess it’s time to see if I’m persuasive.” She glanced at the man. “Henry, if it gets bad, get out of here. It’s me they want, not you.”
Wronged (The Cuvier Widows Book 1) Page 21