“Come see, Aunt Kate. There are so many pretty ones. Uncle Colin had Simon stop the wagon so I could pick them.”
Kate turned to him, fear clouding her blue eyes.
“I’ll get Damian down.” Colin continued across the wide lawn toward the oak wondering what would it be like to have Kate greet him with open arms?
Talking Damian down from the tree took a while. By the time the two of them joined Marie and Kate, Colin’s ankle was on fire.
As always, Kate sensed that he needed to sit. She helped him lower himself to the bench near the crypt.
“There’s a butterfly!” Damian yelled. “Can we catch it?”
“You can try,” Colin said.
“Stay beside the hedge where we can see you,” Kate warned.
The children ran off, and Colin leaned back.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“I will be. Tell me about your meeting.”
“Mr. Rogers liked my work,” she said. “He gave me another assignment and my first pay. I cashed the draft while I was in town.”
“You’ve already invested enough in this place.” He noticed that she blushed and quickly looked away. “Kate?”
“What?” She continued to avoid meeting his eyes.
It shamed him to think he might have to ask her for money sooner than later. The cane cuttings he just purchased cost more than he had planned on spending, but he’d come home with enough to plant a sizable crop.
“I don’t want your money,” he told her.
Finally she turned and looked deep into his eyes, her irritation more than evident. “If we need it for the children, you will most definitely use it, Colin Delany.”
“Fine.” He couldn’t help chuckling.
“Why are you laughing?”
“I’m just happy to see signs of the old Kate again.”
The foreman’s residence at Belle Fleuve was quite modest, but with a fresh coat of whitewash inside and out, crisp cotton muslin curtains, and Cora’s loving touch, the wood frame house was warm and welcoming.
“It’s wonderful,” Kate said as Jason ushered them across the wide enclosed porch into the main room. “I can imagine it must have needed a lot of work after sitting empty for so long.”
She glanced back to see if Colin and the children were following, but they had stopped to pet a hound that came running to greet them. Each time she had tried to initiate conversation on the drive, Colin had answered in short syllables or grunts, his eyes focused on the road.
As Kate walked through the door, Jason pointed out where he had carved his initials into the wood as a child.
“My family was very happy here. I can only hope my children find as much happiness. It’s exciting knowing my son will grow up alongside Marie and Damian the way I did Colin and Amelie.”
Proudly cradling their newborn, Cora greeted Kate. She rocked the babe in a chair Jason claimed his great-grandfather had made.
“This chair has rocked a whole passel of Boltons.” He smiled as he ran his hand over the top of the headrest.
Cora pulled back the blanket and Kate smiled down at the little boy named Jake. She marveled at his round chubby cheeks and plump hands.
“He certainly looks healthy,” Kate said.
“Would you like to hold him?” Cora offered.
Kate hesitated. “He looks so content. Perhaps later.”
She glanced over her shoulder as the children and Colin came through the door. Marie carried the gift they had brought for the baby and handed it to Jason, who remained beside the rocking chair smiling down on his new son.
“Open it,” Damian encouraged.
Jason held the small bundle in his hands. Marie had helped Kate wrap it in a piece of ticking from Eugenie’s scrap basket.
“I’m painting you something for your wall,” Marie said. Cora thanked her and claimed she couldn’t wait to see the finished product.
Colin had little to say. As a career soldier, he probably cared nothing about visits to see newborns. Or perhaps his dark mood was due to pain. Kate made sure he was comfortably seated before she returned her attention to the baby.
Jason opened the gift and held up the cobalt cloisonné rattle for Cora.
“It’s so beautiful.” Cora carefully shifted the baby and held out her hand.
“Kate found it in the attic,” Damian informed them.
“It was in an old trunk of things the Yankees decided they didn’t want,” Kate said.
Cora shook the rattle. It made a ringing sound.
“This is surely a family treasure,” Cora looked to Colin. “We’re thrilled to have it, but you really should keep it for your own children.”
Kate flushed. Colin stretched his injured leg out in front of him. He shrugged and deferred to Kate.
“We wanted you to have it for Jake,” Kate assured her.
Cora handed the rattle back to Jason. “We’re honored. We’ll treasure it and make a gift of it when you have your first.”
Thankfully, Damian drew their attention to a rocking horse near the window.
“This is too big for a baby.” He touched the dappled gray horse’s wooden head, inspected the oiled leather reins and the bright blue and yellow felt saddle. “Too bad nobody’s riding it.”
“Would you like to? I’m sure Jake won’t mind,” Cora encouraged.
“Slowly,” Kate advised when Damian jumped on the rocking horse and lunged forward. When she noticed Colin staring at the toy she said, “There is one almost like it in the attic.”
“I thought it was familiar. I’ll have to tell Simon to find it and see if he can bring it back to life,” Colin said.
Before long he asked Jason if they could speak outside, and soon after their conversation ended Jason returned and announced that Colin was in the wagon and ready to leave. Kate shepherded the children out. They scrambled into the back. Kate sat next to Colin and blushed every time their shoulders touched. Still preoccupied, Colin didn’t seem to notice.
“Is everything all right?” she finally asked.
He drummed his thumb impatiently against his knee. “I can’t stop thinking of the large portion of my savings I used to buy cuttings that may or may not yield a crop next year. I have cabins full of families dependent upon me to help see them through until harvest. All it would take is one hurricane or drought and we’d be finished. You want to know if everything is all right? Who knows, Kate? Who knows?”
Before Amelie’s death, Kate would have given him endless encouragement. She would have assured him that everything would work out. But now she wasn’t sure of their future, or of anything else for that matter.
Even though he was right beside her, Kate didn’t feel as if she could talk to Colin about how she felt and add to his burdens. She was still thinking of the blissful look on Cora’s face as she nestled Jake and of Jason’s loving expression whenever he looked at his wife. Watching the two of them together, Kate was sorely reminded that she was twenty-nine years old with no children of her own and little hope of having any if her situation remained the same.
Kate still believed she’d done the right thing for Marie and Damian, but in doing so, she might very well have sacrificed any chance she had for her own happiness.
They rode along isolated in thought as the children chattered in the back of the wagon. When they neared the house, Kate’s gaze wandered toward the garden. She imagined Myra kneeling there in Eugenie’s floppy straw hat and hoped that soon she would receive the promised letter from Ireland.
“Do you know who that is?” Colin’s question broke her reverie.
“Where?”
Colin pointed and Kate looked toward the back of the main house. Eugenie waited on the gallery beside a man in a double-breasted, navy-blue coat and cream-colored trousers. He reached up and rubbed the muzzle of what was obviously a very expensive piece of horse flesh tied to the hitching post.
“I have no idea.” She scooted to the edge of the wagon seat, curious to see
who had come to call, thankful it wasn’t Dan Rosen. Though she trusted him to be discrete, she wasn’t ready to have Colin meet him while the issue of the taxes was still a secret.
As Simon pulled up close to the back of the house, the gentleman waiting for them shoved his hat back off his forehead and stepped toward the wagon. He reached up to help Kate down.
“Mrs. Delany?” He had an infectious smile beneath a thick, golden moustache.
“Yes, I’m Katherine Delany.” She smiled in return.
He helped her climb down and held her hand a moment longer than acceptable. Kate shook the dust off her skirt and wished she’d worn a hat. She smoothed her hair into place.
“I’m Captain Ezekiel Stevens. Roger Jamison told me you’d be working on my house designs.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Captain Stevens. I told Mr. Jamison I’d be happy to discuss things with you at his office.”
“That’s exactly what he said, but I didn’t want you to have to make the journey.”
Stevens studied Colin as he slowly made his way over to them. Both children were on his heels, staring at Captain Stevens with wide-eyed curiosity. Eugenie excused herself and went back to the kitchen while Simon drove the wagon back to the stable area.
The captain wore an expensive saffron brocade vest, and a thick gold watch chain and fob dangled from his vest pocket. He was tanned by the sun and stood with his feet anchored wide.
Colin stepped closer, but before she could introduce him to Stevens the man said, “I heard congratulations are in order. Jamison told me you were just married.”
“That’s right.” She paused a moment and wished Colin would smile. “This is my husband, Colin Delany.”
“I’ll admit when Mr. Jamison told me a woman would be designing my plans I pictured someone older. More matronly.” He shrugged and flashed her another smile. “How wrong I was.”
“She’s older than she looks.” There was no warmth in Colin’s tone.
Pain might explain his lack of manners but his dark scowl was an embarrassment. Kate gave him a look that she hoped communicated her displeasure.
“Let’s all go inside,” she said. “I’ll have Eugenie serve tea.”
“That’s a fine-looking animal,” Colin complimented Stevens, perhaps trying to negate his cool welcome.
“Thanks. Brutus comes from one of the greatest Arabians ever imported to these shores.” Stevens turned to Kate again. “When I admire fine things I don’t let anything stand in the way of my acquiring them.”
“We should go inside.” Kate stepped back and took Colin’s elbow.
As they started into the house, Damian began tugging on Colin’s coat.
“Uncle Colin, can Simon get the rocking horse now? Please?”
Colin nodded. “You and Marie run and get Simon. Tell him it’s up in the attic.” He turned to Kate, “You did say the attic?”
“I did.”
As the children ran off, Stevens watched them. “They look just like you, Delany,” the captain noted.
“They’re my niece and nephew.”
Colin sounded barely civil, but Stevens’ smile didn’t dim a notch.
“Perhaps you could tell Eugenie we’d like some tea,” Kate said. The tension in the room was impossible to ignore. Kate hoped the sooner she separated the two men the better, but Colin’s expression darkened at her suggestion.
He looked from her to Ezekiel Stevens and finally gave her a cool nod.
“Enjoy your discussion,” he said before he walked out.
Kate turned to Stevens, trying to hide her embarrassment. Colin had been testy all morning but now his mood was completely sour. She would have plenty of time later to find out what had come over Colin. She led the captain into the dining room where her work was set up.
“It’s a shame this place is in ruins,” he commented as they crossed the floor.
“You should have seen it a few weeks ago.” Kate tried to forgive his bluntness. To insult Belle Fleuve in any state was to insult her. “Someday we’ll remodel. It’s important to save these old homes and preserve the integrity of the River Road plantation designs for the sake of history.”
“I’m of a mind history should be left in the past where it belongs. I’m a forward thinker.”
Please the client.
She touched the plans on the table. “These are the original plans for your home that Mr. Jamison obtained from the city archives.”
Stevens barely glanced at them until Kate leaned over to point out the features of the house she thought worthy of keeping.
Eugenie came in and left a pot of tea and two cups. Kate served. The captain ignored his tea, but Kate took a few sips. Awkward beneath the man’s silent stare, she took up pencil and paper and offered him a nearby chair.
“I’ll just stand here.” He leaned casually on the edge of the table. “You’ll need to be comfortable to write.”
When Kate sat down, he slid closer. It was hard to ignore him. He leaned over her as she wrote his name at the top of the page.
“Now, tell me a bit about what you’re planning,” she began.
“I want you to make my house look like a riverboat.”
Kate was speechless.
“That’s right, Mrs. Delany. A riverboat. With a capital R.” Big, bold, dramatic, he punched his fist in the air. “There won’t be anything else like it New Orleans, and we’ll both be famous.”
“A riverboat?”
“I’ve never seen anyone’s eyes get that big before,” he laughed. “You really should see your expression.”
“I’m trying to imagine—”
He began to pace the room, waving his arms like an opera singer as he spoke. He was bold and dramatic and nothing like Colin. He never stopped smiling.
“I’m picturing white railings, a ship’s wheel, three stories graduated in size right up to a room that mimics the wheelhouse. Oh!” He snapped his fingers. “Round windows like portholes. Maybe we should use real portholes.”
“All of the windows?”
“Not all, but some.”
Kate envisioned the flat roofs with their potential for leaks.
“Lots of spindles and chandeliers,” he added.
“How about a paddle wheel?” she joked.
Stevens turned on his heel and hurried back to the table.
“Why, that’s a fabulous idea, Mrs. Delany. I knew we’d get along the minute I laid eyes on you.”
“I wasn’t serious, sir.”
He sobered, but only for a second. He leaned far too close and, in a conspiratorial tone, said, “You can do it, can’t you?”
Please the client.
Kate sighed. “Of course I can.”
“So you say, but I sense some hesitation on your part, Mrs. Delany.”
Of course she sounded hesitant. He wanted her to turn a perfectly fine home into a steamboat on land. She risked becoming the laughing stock of New Orleans. Not only that, but Roger Jamison’s reputation was at stake as well. She couldn’t wait to hear what he would say when she discussed Stevens’ insane notion with him.
She was so appalled she didn’t notice that Ezekiel had moved until she looked up and found him looming over her. He was uncomfortably close, so close she was forced to lean back.
“I’m somewhat of a purist when it comes to remodeling historic homes, Mr. Stevens.”
“Mine isn’t that old.”
“Another reason not to change it.”
“Jamison assured me there would be no problem.”
She looked down at her notes wishing she could feign enthusiasm.
“Maybe I’ll have to use my charm to convince you.” He leaned even closer. She drew back.
Was he flirting? His overtures came as a shock not only because she was married, but she suspected she was a year or two older than he. That fact didn’t seem to matter to him in the least.
“We found it, Aunt Kate!” Damian yelled as he ran into the room, and Kate glanced over her shoulde
r. Colin was in the doorway holding the rocking horse, his gaze pinned on Stevens as the man lingered on the edge of the desk, effectively trapping Kate in her chair. Finally, Stevens rose and sauntered a few steps away.
“Aunt Kate, we have the rocking horse.” Damian ran over to her and took her hand.
“That’s wonderful.” She watched Colin set the wooden horse down before he continued into the room.
His eyes never left hers. “I thought you would give us some suggestions as to how to go about restoring this thing.” When Kate failed to respond, Colin added, “Unless you two need to be alone?”
She didn’t care for the cynical arch of his brow nor the suspicion in his cold perusal. She’d done nothing wrong and yet she felt as if she should apologize.
Just then Stevens spoke up.
“I believe we’re done here, aren’t we, Mrs. Delany?” He was smiling at Kate as if they shared a secret. “You have your notes, so I’ll leave the rest to your fertile imagination. I’m excited to see what you can do.”
I’ll just bet you are, Captain.” Colin left Damian chatting to himself and inspecting the woefully worn and faded wooden creature from nose to tail as the adults paid him no mind.
Was Kate aware that he had seen the way the captain had her pinned in her chair? Stevens had been far too close for proprieties’ sake, yet Kate hadn’t said a thing to put him in his place. What was she thinking, letting a stranger that close? Or any man for that matter?
The bounder had the kind of polished looks women probably found attractive. Had Kate been so dazzled by Stevens’ charm that she was powerless to tell him to keep his distance?
Colin was grateful for Damian’s presence. The boy kept him from entertaining a physical altercation with the captain but not from crossing the room to stand behind Kate. Colin wrapped his hand over the back of her chair.
It was hard to forget what he’d seen. If Stevens had leaned over another inch or two, he would have been close enough to kiss Kate.
Would she have let him?
Kate glanced up at Colin as she stood. The captain started the horse rocking with the toe of his boot. “I believe this thing is beyond repair.”
When the captain looked over at Kate again, Colin had an urge to slip his arm around her shoulder.
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