A tear welled in Ann’s right eye and dripped down her cheek.
“Let me help you, sweetheart.”
She wiped her eye. “I’m still suffering side effects from the cayenne yesterday. You can help me by going. I need to be here right now.”
Her words stung, but he knew he was fighting a losing battle. “I did come here without making arrangements. I’ll go back for now, but I’ll return soon, and when I do, I’ll expect you to come home with me.”
“Harry might need me.”
That irritated him, made him sharp. “You can’t do Jeremy’s work, whatever it was. He’ll have to hire a boy.”
“I’m very upset.” The words required comfort, but her tone held a hint of accusation.
“I understand that, but I thought we comforted each other rather well last night. We have some spark that brings us together.”
“I know,” she whispered. “But I can’t think about that right now.”
He sighed. “Take care of Fern. Her illness may be as much emotional as physical, after yesterday’s events.”
“I thought so, too.”
“Tell her goodbye for me and that I’ll see her soon.”
“I will.”
Slowly but firmly, Ann shut the door in his face. He had a sudden urge to kick it down and hoist his wife on his shoulder, drag her out of here like a caveman or a medieval Scot. But that would achieve nothing.
All he could do was keep his business afloat, and figure out how to win Ann back. She wanted to communicate by letter? He could do the same. And bring her money, and a remade ring. Maybe displaying a hint of sentiment would melt her heart. He had all but forgotten, after yesterday’s events, that she had fled their home.
The inn’s maid disappeared shortly after Gawain left in a hired cab for the station. Ann had to tend the two children and clean most of the rooms. That night, Ann and Harry sat in their sitting room. He looked as tired as she felt.
Harry rested his head on the back of his favorite old armchair. “I suspected she were dallyin’ wi’ Jeremy.”
“She must have been frightened when he died.”
“Maybe she thought Gawain was going to the authorities about her when he left so abruptly.”
Ann stared at the tiny shirt she was sewing for Noel. She crumpled it into her lap. “He didn’t leave abruptly. I sent him away.”
“Upset that he killed the boy?” Harry closed his eyes.
“No, not that. I would have done it myself if I’d had a weapon. He wanted to kill me.” She touched the corner of one eye, remembering the pain of the cayenne. Under some circumstances it was actually used as medicine in the eye, but not like that.
“I forget you already left Gawain. I don’t understand why. Seems a decent enough fellow.” Harry sat forward in his chair, as if hearing some noise, then sat back. “I thought I heard Fern.”
“She hasn’t made a noise since she took to her bed.”
“Has she ever?”
“Yes, now and then. Gawain suggested a program of encouragement, since her problem was inside her head. I guess I thought she’d start speaking again, now that Jeremy is dead. Her terrible secret is in the open now.”
“She don’t need to be afraid anymore.” Harry made a fist. “I can’t believe I failed me own sister this way, bringin’ Jeremy here, not realizin’ what he was.”
“He was kin. Wells—”
“I persuaded Wells. Jeremy’s mother was mad and he didn’t want him in the inn with you. But I said we couldn’t leave him to the rest of the family. There aren’t many of us, and we were best suited to find him work.”
“He killed over my mother’s necklace,” Ann said. “Without that, there would have been no temptation.”
“He murdered his own cousin, Ann. You can’t blame yourself for any part of that.”
Ann turned away, fighting back the tears that had been ever present for a day and a half. “But I do.”
Harry lifted his hand then dropped it to his knee. “I need a dram o’ gin. I’m goin’ to the common room.”
“No singing,” Ann warned. “Let Noel sleep.”
Harry grinned. “I’ll go visit Thomas. He’ll let me sleep on a pallet by the forge if I’m too drunk to wander home.” He stood up and strode away.
Ann noted that Gawain’s boots needed resoling. But he wasn’t her responsibility anymore. She’d left him. Still, she wasn’t taking her responsibility toward Harry any more seriously. Where did she belong? If Gawain came back, she guessed she’d know. Meanwhile, she should think about finding Harry a wife.
She curled up in the chair, hoping to sleep for a bit before Noel woke for his midnight feeding. Fern needed to feel better tomorrow, so she could watch the baby while Ann cleaned the rooms.
She drifted to sleep as she composed the advertisement for a new maid.
By the next evening she was exhausted, since she hadn’t had to clean a floor full of rented rooms since the first month of her pregnancy with Noel. She tossed her buckets and rags in the little room set aside for storage, and put the dirty sheets in a bin, grateful they’d hired out the washing over a year ago.
Back in the family quarters, she pushed open Fern’s door to check on her and Noel. The girl was seated on the rug in front of the fire, playing patty-cake with the baby. While she didn’t sing, precisely, she was mouthing the words and an occasional sound came out. Progress. As Fern finished the game, Ann saw Noel smile.
“Oh!” Her hand flew to her chest. “His first real smile, Fern!”
The girl smiled and picked up Noel, kissing him. The baby snuggled against her.
Ann sank awkwardly to the floor, unsure if she’d be able to get up later. Fern handed Noel to her.
“Is it time for a feeding?”
“No.”
Ann’s gaze flew up from her baby. “Fern? You spoke?” She watched the girl swallow hard.
Fern nodded.
Ann reached for her hand. “Please, speak again.”
Fern smiled tentatively. “Ann.”
Again, Ann felt the tingle of tears at the base of her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I have missed hearing your voice.”
“G-g’wain?” Fern had trouble with the pronunciation.
“He’s gone back to London. I sent him away,” she confessed.
Fern frowned.
“He wasn’t very nice to either of us,” Ann reminded her. “With the doll clothes, and sending away my patient.”
Fern pointed at Noel.
“I know I have Noel to care for, but he hired Jenna. What does he expect me to do all day? It’s silly to form societies for good works like ladies do when I have skills that can help people directly. I don’t even need to take money.”
Fern just looked at her.
“Of course, I don’t want to bring disease into our house,” Ann said. “I am not certain how best to manage the situation, but certainly I could be a midwife to poor local women, just by word of mouth.”
“G-g’wain,” Fern said again.
“I need to speak to him,” Ann said. “We didn’t talk about my plans, not that I had clear plans. Maybe he didn’t either, and that was the problem. He found the house, moved us in, and then went back to his work.”
Fern gestured around the room.
“Yes, the house needs to be furnished,” Ann agreed. “But that takes time. And I don’t really know how much money there is to spend. Gawain didn’t give me an allowance or a household budget.”
“M-money?”
“We have the money back from the necklace,” Ann said. “And I gave Gawain my mother’s ring to sell. So that’s a dowry, certainly. I’m sure Gawain has plenty, but even if he didn’t, we have money for furnishings now.”
Fern looked at her, bemused.
“Well, he was an enlisted man. He’s only been in business for a couple of years. I don’t know how much money his father has given him, but even he’s been rich for only a few years.”
Fern rolle
d her eyes.
“I’m reaching for excuses, I know. Gawain and I, we need to talk about our marriage, not assume. We only have one thing in common—Noel.”
“Herbs,” Fern said, and coughed.
“That too,” Ann said. “You’re right. Which makes it all the more inexplicable that he’d ban me from working with them.”
Fern parted her lips, then shook her head.
“What?”
Fern waved her arms, as if the thoughts in her head were too big to speak. Ann decided to spare her and change the subject.
“Harry needs a wife,” she said.
Fern said, “Leeds,” and made a face.
“Not in Leeds?”
“Batt’sea.”
“You think I should sell the inn and persuade Harry to move to Battersea?”
Fern nodded vigorously.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” she mused. “But with what happened here, it might be hard to sell anytime soon. Still, we could look for a nice girl for Harry in London, instead of here.”
Noel woke and yawned, then began rooting for his next meal. Fern came to her knees and helped Ann into a chair so she could nurse more comfortably.
A week passed, bringing a couple of genuine smiles from Noel and more scattered words from Fern. Ann kept her supplied with hot tea and honey, as speaking seemed to give her a sore throat after such a long time of not using her powers of speech.
Ann found a new maid for the rooms late in the week that Gawain had left, and she began on Monday, the first day of April. The sky over the inn had lost its continually leaden look and green sprouted in the flower boxes on the upper floors after a couple of weeks of steady tending.
They spent the afternoon upstairs together, Ann training the new girl in her duties. She was carefully mopping the hallway under Ann’s supervision when Fern came running up the steps.
“What is it?”
Fern smiled. “G’wain!”
Ann was pleased to hear Fern had lost her stutter, but her stomach lurched at the thought of facing Gawain. Had he come to fetch them home? Or serve divorce papers for adultery, though she hadn’t committed it?
“Where is Noel?”
“G’wain,” Fern said again.
Ann nodded. “Keep mopping,” she instructed the new maid, then lifted her skirts and went down the narrow stairs, careful to keep a stately pace.
Her husband was cooing over Noel in the hallway. She admired his broad shoulders, covered in a light overcoat. His hair looked overlong, partially covering his ears. The front door was still open and wind brushed at Ann’s hair, freeing a few damp tendrils. It felt nice, but she didn’t want Noel chilled, so she dashed past Gawain and shut the door.
“Come into the family quarters, where it is warmer,” she said.
“No kiss, no greeting?”
Ann felt that lurching feeling again. “I didn’t know if you wanted a kiss.”
“I always do.” His patch was off, and his gray eyes looked at her with a business-like seriousness.
She walked in front of him deliberately, watching to see if both of his eyes followed her. When they did, she clapped her hands together. “Your vision is better!”
“Indeed,” he agreed in his gravelly rasp. “But I would rather a kiss than an inspection.”
Harry strode out of the common room. “Redcake!” he boomed. “Did you get my letter ’bout the tea order?”
“My office did. They sent a box for you along with me.”
Harry rubbed his hands together. “Excellent. D’you know, the owner o’ that bakery up the street likes it so much he wanted to get five pounds off me?”
“I’ll be happy to sell it to him,” Gawain said.
Ann put her hands on Noel, ready to remove her baby if the men were going to stand there and talk business.
“I thought I could sell it to him, since it’s just a small amount,” Harry said.
“You want to become a wholesale supplier?”
“Why not? We have the storage space, and I already sell the herbs.”
“I was thinking of selling the inn,” Ann blurted.
Both men’s gaze swiveled to her. She snatched Noel out of Gawain’s arms.
“You were going to buy me out?” Harry asked.
“I have the money,” Ann said. “Remember?”
“I’d rather buy you out,” Harry muttered. “This is my livelihood.”
“I’m sure we can work something out,” Gawain said. “A payment plan.”
“It’s my inn,” Ann said. “Maybe I don’t want to sell it to Harry.”
“Why not?” Harry’s eyes took on a hurt expression.
Ann suddenly realized she couldn’t talk about moving to London, since she didn’t even know if that was where she was welcome. What had Gawain come to say? She wanted to scream in frustration. This conversation had gone in the completely wrong direction.
“I’d like a private reunion with my husband,” she said. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, Harry. I will consult with you later.”
Fern jumped off the bottom stair and went to Harry, patting his arm. “Wife,” she said very clearly.
Harry took a step back. “Wife?”
“She wants to find you one,” Ann explained.
Fern turned to her with a look of outrage.
“It was my idea,” Ann admitted.
“Because you’re so happily married?” Harry snapped.
Gawain held up his hands before Ann could say anything. “I would like that private reunion, if you don’t mind.” He put his arm around Ann’s shoulders and towed her off to the door below the stairs.
She transferred Noel to his arms, feeling self-conscious as she pulled her ring of keys from her belt and unlocked the door. “I look a fright. I’ve been teaching the new maid her duties and playing in the flower boxes whenever I had a minute.”
“I like it when your hair gets all curly,” Gawain said.
“It does that when I’m warm.”
For the first time, her husband grinned at her, and she recognized he took her remark in a more intimate way than she’d meant it. Forcing herself to keep her hands away from her hair, she tossed her key ring onto the table.
She walked over to the fireplace in the sitting room and lit the fire. “So you came to bring some tea to Harry?”
“And to see you. I have something for you.”
“Oh?”
“Where are you keeping Noel?”
“His cradle is in Fern’s room. Come and sit down. I’ll get it.” She stepped out of the room and retrieved it, then came back.
Gawain gave Noel a tender kiss on his forehead and placed him on his small mattress, then tucked in the blanket.
“He’s smiling,” Ann said. “I’m sorry you missed it. I’ve seen him smile three times over the past week.”
“I’m sorry, too.”
“How is your hip? I know it hurts when you travel.”
“I’m not limping too badly.”
“I’ll give you a treatment tonight. If you’re staying.”
The fine line of his cheek scar seemed to pale. “Do you want me to stay?”
She was scared to take a breath. How could she answer so soon? “I don’t want you further injuring yourself with another long train ride.”
“That isn’t what I meant, Ann.” He reached into his pocket. “Here, I brought two things for you.”
She took a small book and box from his hands. With a sense of trepidation, she noted the box was familiar—her mother’s ring box. The book did not appear familiar, though.
“What is it?”
“A pass book. I opened a bank account for you.”
“Why?”
“I had your ring appraised and placed the price of it in the account. You can draw on it as you wish. You may also want to deposit the necklace money as well, so that you don’t have so much tempting cash around, unless Harry dealt with it already.”
“No, I would be obliged if you w
ould take care of it.”
“One of us can go to the bank when we are back in London.”
“So you were able to sell the ring very quickly.”
He patted the box in her hand with one finger. “Not exactly. Take a look.”
She opened the box and was dismayed to see the stone she had wished gone from her life returned to her. Why was Gawain giving her all this money if he still wanted her to live with him? Was this his way of suggesting to her that she remain in Leeds to lead a separate life?
“Why?” she whispered.
“Take it out,” Gawain said, clearly pleased with himself.
Though she had never wanted to touch it again, she reluctantly picked it up. “The band is different.”
“It doesn’t look Indian anymore. I had it reset on a plain gold band. You are the wife of a prosperous man, so no one would think you couldn’t afford such a ring. You can wear it now without anyone thinking you are hiding the royal jewels of Caliata.”
“It’s still bad luck,” she said. She let the ring drop into the box.
“You don’t want it?”
“I asked you to dispose of it. Don’t you see that I can’t look at it without thinking about Jeremy, without worrying about someone coming after Noel someday like Jeremy did with Wells? With me?”
“But it was your mother’s.” He sounded like a child surprised to have displeased his parent.
“I have her mortar and pestle, all the knowledge she gave me. I don’t need this ring.” Agitated, Ann stood and began to pace the room.
He reclaimed the box with a wounded air. “Very well. I will sell it. I’ll give you the money.”
“You already gave me the money. I don’t need any more.”
“You shouldn’t be angry with me. I tried to do as you asked.”
“I asked you to dispose of it,” Ann repeated. “If you want me to have expensive jewelry, then buy me something that isn’t Indian.”
“So now you want me to buy you jewelry?”
“No. You were the one who mentioned what your wife could have. Do you know, I wasn’t even sure you could afford furnishings for the house? I have no idea. You didn’t make any suggestions. You just hired Jenna to care for Noel and left me to my own devices.”
“We were moving,” Gawain said. “And we didn’t hire a wet nurse. Clearly you are still providing a great deal of Noel’s care. You can’t even sleep through the night yet.”
His Wicked Smile Page 24