by Gordon, Rose
“How exactly do you plan to get such a hefty sum?” Mr. Parker wondered aloud. “I understand your family had to have some money in order for you to go to West Point to be an officer; otherwise, you’d have had to enter the army like the majority of the others: as a private.”
“Don’t worry about where I get the money,” Wes snapped. “You’ll get it and that’s all you need to know.”
“You won’t ask your family to sell their plantation for you, will you?” He picked an imaginary piece of lint off his coat. “I’d hate to know I was responsible for sending a family into the street.”
“I’m sure you would,” Wes muttered. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have arrangements to make.”
“You’re not thinking about speaking to Allison and telling her the joyous news yet, are you?”
Wes stared at him.
“I will not give her my permission to break our contract until I get my money, Mr. Tucker.”
“Captain Tucker,” Wes corrected sharply. He folded his arms across his chest. “I don’t know what kind of lies you’ve poured into her head that have made her believe she must honor that damn contract. But sir, if you want any money from me, you’d better understand that I’ll do as I please and so will Allison. She has no obligation to marry you as far as I’m concerned, and as her rightful husband, the law is on my side. It is only to ensure you never bother her again that I’m even willing to entertain this ridiculous formality of giving you money in exchange for releasing her of whatever fear you’ve put into her head; and you should consider yourself fortunate that I’m willing to give you money to leave her alone and not bash your skull in. Is my meaning clear, sir?”
“Quite,” he said quickly, then tsk, tsked. “But you are a bad businessman, Captain Tucker. Any man with any sense of business at all wouldn’t take my word or handshake for this but would insist we write it all down.”
Wes pierced the man with his stare. He was right, dash it all. “All right, since you lack the honor of the men I generally do business with and feel you’ll have a problem keeping your word, let’s go write down our terms, then we’ll go see Allison.”
~Chapter Twenty-Four~
Allison tried to pay attention to what Sarah was telling her to do. With all of the things she’d learned about cooking the past two days, she could have all of the men here fighting for her hand.
Not that it mattered. She had to marry Nicholas come tomorrow and there wasn’t anything else she could do about it. She tossed the wooden spoon on the table and rubbed her eyes with her fingertips. It would only be a matter of hours now before General Bridges arrived. Then she’d have to sign the papers.
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis would probably be glad to see her leave, she thought with a self-deprecating smile. They’d been kind enough to allow her to stay in their home overnight, but she imagined they’d like their privacy again.
Not to mention some quiet. Wes had knocked incessantly at the door last night, demanding to speak to her. She’d been unable to force herself to go. She knew what he wanted; though why he wanted it, she didn’t know. When they’d been out riding Midnight yesterday morning, he seemed impatient to get her out of his company. Then only hours later, he was being sweet and trying to convince her to stay. She didn’t understand it.
That wasn’t true. She did. He wanted the same thing she did. Only, she knew how impossible it was.
“Allison, why don’t you uncover the meat? It’s time to cook it.”
Allison did as Sarah asked, then put it onto the skillet when Sarah held it out to her. Last night she’d barely been able to be of help as she tried to lock in the tears. She vowed that tonight she’d do her best to be helpful and earn her stay.
“Thank you. I can do this if you’d like to go put on your other dress for dinner,” Sarah said.
Allison swallowed. Nicholas was supposed to join them for dinner. Apparently, he found the food being served in the dining room wasn’t up to his standards of fine fare. She bit her lip. How did she word this without hurting the other woman’s feelings? “Actually, Sarah, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to wear what I have on.”
Sarah gave her a sideways look.
“It’s not that I don’t like the dress you made for me,” she blurted. “I do. It’s just that...um...” Her face flushed.
“It’s just that that dress is from Wes and I made you the other one.”
“Well, it’s not from Wes,” she said. “He didn’t buy everything and give it to me, he just—”
“Bought the materials and helped you come up with the idea,” Sarah supplied.
“Yes.” She bent to help Sarah place the large skillet squarely on the fire. “Please, don’t take it to heart. I love the dress you made and I promise to wear it tomorrow on my journey to Santa Fe. I just want one more night in this.”
Sarah didn’t say anything about the way her voice wavered, and for that, Allison would be forever grateful. The older woman opened her mouth as if she were going to say something, then closed her mouth and nodded once. “Very well.”
The door of the Lewis’ cabin swung open, followed by heavy boot falls.
Allison’s stomach knotted to the point of pain. She forced down her nerves and turned to face the men. “Where’s Nicholas?”
“I’m not exactly sure,” Colonel Lewis said, removing his hat. He hung it up on a peg by the door, then shrugged out of his coat.
“The last time I saw him, he was talking with your husband,” General Ridgely said. He flashed a tender smile at his wife, which would have surprised Allison to see if she wasn’t nearly shocked to the toes already when she heard that Wes and Nicholas were seen speaking to each other.
“Do you know what they were speaking about?” she hedged.
A wide grin split Colonel Lewis’ face. “I do believe General Bridges’ presence won’t be needed after all.”
Understanding hit Allison like a carriage being pulled by a team of four and dread washed over her from the roots of her hair to her toes. “No!”
“No?” everyone in the room echoed.
“No! No!” she shrieked as her heart pounded out of control. Tears blinded her eyes and she lurched forward to leave the dining room. She had to stop this madness before Wes did something stupid. He didn’t deserve the life he was about to be forced to enter. “Where are they?” she demanded as best she could over the tears clogging her throat. “Where did they go? I must find them!”
A pair of strong hands came down on her shoulders. “Do you not want to marry Wes?”
“Let go of me,” she cried, pushing at the large body of Mr. Lewis that held her hostage. She gasped for air. “I need to find them!”
“Allison, what’s wrong?”
“I—I—I c-c-can’t s-s-stay w-with Wes. I-if I d-don’t marry N-nicholas then Wes will be tr—trapped,” she sobbed, her body shaking uncontrollably.
“Allison, calm down,” came Colonel Lewis’ soft voice. “All men say they’re trapped when they get married. They don’t mean it.”
“Colonel Lewis, please,” she begged. “Let go of me. I have to find him before he does something stupid.”
“You think Wes staying married to you is stupid?”
“Yes! Now let go, so I can stop him.”
“Allison, I cannot let you leave this house while you’re shrieking like a madwoman. Now, explain to me what’s going on and I’ll help you find Wes and sort this out.”
“There’s no time,” she said, swiping at the tears falling from her eyes.
“Yes, there is, now sit down and tell us what’s going on.”
“I can’t!” She wiggled in his grasp but couldn’t get loose.
“I’m not letting you go until you talk to me and tell me what’s wrong.”
“I owe Nicholas money,” she said breathlessly, then hiccuped.
“What do you mean?” someone in the room asked, and at the same time, someone else asked, “How much?”
Allison gasped for breath to ca
lm her nerves but couldn’t manage. “My father—” hiccup— “and Nicholas—” hiccup— “had a business arrangement.”
“What kind of business?” General Ridgely asked.
“I don’t know.” Hiccup. “Money was exchanged and—” hiccup— “it was agreed that I’d marry Nicholas—” hiccup— “in exchange for my father’s loan.” Hiccup. “If I don’t marry him—” hiccup— “I have to pay Nicholas back.”
“Let me make sure I have this right,” Colonel Lewis said, his thin graying eyebrows furrowing. “Your father and Mr. Parker signed an agreement saying if you marry him, your father’s loan will be forgiven, and if you do not, that you’ll be responsible for the debt?”
“My family,” she clarified on a hiccup. “But I don’t—” hiccup— “have any left.”
“So it would be your husband who’d owe the debt,” General Ridgely said.
Allison nodded.
“How much is the debt?” Colonel Lewis asked, as if they were talking about something as casual as the weather.
“Twenty thous—” hiccup— “and dollars.”
Two low whistles sliced the air. “I see why you were in a hurry,” Colonel Lewis said dryly.
“Do you have a copy of this agreement that I might see?” General Ridgely asked.
“No. It was—” hiccup— “on the—” Her words died on her tongue as another hiccup erupted. It had been on the stage—in that little brown bag she’d kept all of Nicholas’ letters and other documents she’d deemed important. “I think I might,” she amended, praying it was still in there. She still didn’t know exactly how Wes had ended up with the thing. She didn’t remember it being in her purse for it to have fallen out when she’d run off to find peppermint, so the only thing she could think of was that Mary had found where she’d stuffed it in her travel bag, removed the letters of recommendation that Allison had traveled with that were to be given to Mary upon safe arrival in Santa Fe, then tossed the rest out of the stage as they drove away.
Not that it mattered. The only thing that mattered now was if Mary had been self-centered enough only to have taken only the letters of recommendation.
Allison held her breath to stop the hiccups and walked over to where she’d hidden the blasted thing in her purse and breathed one sigh of relief that she hadn’t followed her first instinct—which was to burn the whole thing when she’d first seen it.
Holding another breath, she dug through all of the papers until she found the little folded stack of papers she was looking for and wordlessly handed them to the general while simultaneously breathing another sigh of relief that they were still there.
“They’re still sealed,” he observed as he broke the red wax seal that held the bundle together.
She shrugged. “I already know what it says. I wasn’t that consumed with tedium on the way here to have to resort to reading it for entertainment,” she said, trying in vain to cover the hysteria she knew to be in her voice. Truly, she knew what the document said already, this was only taking up time. Unfortunately, it seemed that if she didn’t show them the documents, she’d lose even more time arguing with him about their contents and that was time she didn’t have. She needed to find Wes before he ruined his entire life.
Though his lips were moving, General Ridgely didn’t say anything as he read through the pages. “Did your father explain the conditions of this contract to you?”
Allison knit her brow. “No, Nicholas did. Why?”
The man frowned. “That’s what I thought. Come with me.”
~Chapter Twenty-Five~
“Captain Wesley Tucker, I order you to drop that pen at once.”
The hair on the back of Wes’ neck stood on end. General Rigid. Rarely did the man speak to him, and today was one of those days Wes wished he wouldn’t. “I’ll be at my post in the tower in a few minutes, sir,” Wes mumbled. He knew it was disrespectful to speak to the man that way, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. He had to finish writing out this blasted contract, so they could sign it and he could go speak to Allison.
General Ridgely yanked the pen from Wes’ grasp and tossed down a stack of papers in front of him.
Wes scowled at the man, who had stepped so close to where Wes was sitting that he was now all Wes could see. “What’s this?”
“Read it.”
Wes’ eyes scanned the lines.
On this eighteenth day of May in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and forty-three..
“Out loud,” General Ridgely barked.
Wes turned his eyes to Mr. Parker and froze. The man’s face looked harder than stone. Suddenly, he leaned over in his chair as if to reach for the papers in Wes’ hand.
Wes jerked the papers back out of his reach and the man fell forward against the desk. It would seem that he didn’t want Wes to read whatever was in the lines of these papers.
“‘On this eighteenth day of May in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and forty-three, I Franklin Robert Pierson bequeath my daughter Allison Jane Pierson’s hand in marriage to thee Mr. Nicholas William Parker.
“‘Those signed below have entered into this agreement with the expectation that Franklin Pierson shall bestow upon Nicholas Parker a sum of a collective thirty thousand dollars as a dowry.
“‘This contract shall be a supplemental addendum to the original loan agreement between Franklin Pierson and Nicholas Parker.
“‘Herein, twenty thousand dollars of the dowry will be in the form of a forgiven debt in which Franklin Pierson funded the undersigned’s business. The other ten thousand shall be set into a trust and signed over to Nicholas Parker at which time the marriage takes place.
“‘If the marriage fails to commence, at the discretion of either party, the terms of this contract shall become void and the original terms of our business agreement shall be reinstated.’”
Wes flipped the page and scanned the lines of the original agreement.
...non-repayment within thirty-six months from the date of the loan shall result in default and the business and all assets shall revert to Franklin Pierson, or upon the event of his untimely demise, his heir, Allison Pierson, to be put into a trust until her twenty-first...
Wes dropped his eyes to the date the agreement had been signed: 1841.
“You owe Allison your entire business,” Wes breathed in disbelief, looking up at the pale, stone-faced man across the desk from him.
Just as he said it, a gasp rent the air and Wes craned his neck to confirm what his mind already knew: Allison was in the room.
“You owe me money if I break this contract? But you always said I owed twenty thousand dollars because my father would then default on a loan if I didn’t marry you,” she said, her voice wavering with every word.
Everything made sense to him now: she wasn’t holding true to her original promise to Mr. Parker because she wanted his money, but as he’d expected, because Mr. Parker had bullied her. He’d just never imagined it had been with money, though why he hadn’t thought so, he’d never know. It had been he who’d kept insisting she was only keeping her promise because of the man’s wealth. Not Allison.
How could he have been so blind as to actually believe that Allison was only interested in money? She’d dined on jerky—and enjoyed it, for goodness’ sake—and had worn the same dress for nearly a week before she wore another far less flattering costume. How many times had she told him that his assessment of her was wrong, only to have him discount her words and let his own fear of a money-hungry young lady attaching herself to him take their place?
Even her cryptic words yesterday, about her loving him too much to marry him, now made sense. She was refusing him because she believed herself responsible for an amount of money that was far more than some men would ever make in their lifetime. She was just trying to protect him. His heart constricted and his throat went dry at the realization.
He needed to make this right. This new technicality with Mr. Parker could be handled later. Right now h
e needed to make things right with Allison. He got from his seat and, in a voice full of raw emotion, called for her.
***
Allison couldn’t move. In the past two minutes, roots must have grown out of the soles of her feet, keeping her numb body planted firmly in place. Nicholas owed her money? No wonder he wanted to marry her so badly. He’d pressed her almost to the point of forcing himself on her in Boston, then had written letters nearly every day after she left. First polite, then more demanding, informing her it was time. And now, to hire someone to escort him here and refuse to allow her to marry Wes, it all made sense: he needed her. He needed her to marry him to clear his debt and secure him more money.
“Go on,” General Ridgely encouraged, a sparkle in his brown eyes.
Before she could move, Wes was off his feet and at her side. “Allison—”
“Allison!” Nicholas barked. “Don’t you be entertaining any foolish ideas in that head of yours, now. You’ve given me your word—”
“And you deceived me!” That was her voice, though she had no idea she’d said the words. They just slipped right off her tongue. “You—you lied to me. You t-told me my father owed you m-money, and if I didn’t m-marry you, his debt w-would fall to me,” she said through sobs.
“You were the one foolish enough to believe me,” he said arrogantly.
“Only because you—”
“Shhh,” Wes crooned in her ear, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her close. “He’s not worth it. There’s nothing he can say now to talk his way out of this. You do not have to keep your word to him—only me.”
“Does that mean she has no intention of collecting?”
“Of course she does,” Wes snapped.
Allison jerked at his tone, and the meaning of his words. He still thought she was obsessed with money. She pulled back to get out of his hold and blinked back the new round of tears she felt pricking her eyes. Even now after everything that had been exposed, he still saw her as greedy. “Wes, I—I don’t want his money.”