Nathan’s head did a little jerking of its own. “Have you forgotten that until just a few years ago everyone in Massachusetts was English? Or do you think the mere act of crossing an ocean has transformed you into a different race? I can’t see that this savage land has cleansed your souls of pride and covetousness, or any other sin. In fact, if my uncle’s correspondence is any indication, greed and lust for power run unchecked throughout the colonies. England might not be the perfect society, but at least we are civilized.”
They rode for a while longer without speaking, and Nathan was aware his anger was being drained away by a very different kind of feeling, one that was a direct consequence of Delilah’s presence. He gripped the reins a little harder. His body grew stiff from leaning imperceptibly away from her. No woman had ever so affected him.
Her mere presence filled him with excitement. She was truly lovely, but she was unforgiving—and she probably cursed his very existence. What could be appealing in that? Yet he wouldn’t have stepped down from the buggy if he had been given the chance.
Give up! Get your mind off Delilah. Think about your loans, Lucius Clarke, the General Court.
“I don’t know what you’re expecting, or maybe I should say afraid of, but you’ll be well cared for at Maple Hill. You won’t be overworked, and you’ll be returned to your family not a whit worse off than the day you left.”
“I didn’t expect you would hurt me.” Her utter complacency caused Nathan’s desire to flare. Shocked by the burning intensity of his feeling, he spoke harshly to hide the truth from her.
Then what in the blazes did you expect? You and your family acted as if I were a first lieutenant of the devil come to cart you off to my private chamber of horrors.”
Delilah couldn’t help but laugh. It helped cover some of her embarrassment. “I guess we have acted pretty badly,” she admitted. “I doubt if I could explain it to you.”
“Try,” Nathan said, a sharpness in his voice. “Since we are to live under the same roof, I should feel a good deal more comfortable if I didn’t have to wonder whether your fondest wish might not be to sink the carving knife into my back rather than the Sunday roast.”
Delilah felt herself blush.
“I don’t want to do anything to harm you.”
That’s a relief. For a while there I was wondering if I might not be better off trading you for someone a little safer.” He felt Delilah looking at him, hard. “I don’t yet know what it’s like to live in the colonies, but in England we’re not used to going to bed in fear of our servants.”
“You needn’t be sarcastic.”
“I’m surprised you noticed,” Nathan shot back. “What with holding me personally responsible for the war, the ruin of your family, and the loss of God only knows how many oxen, horses, cows, and pigs, I don’t know how you found time to notice sarcasm.”
“A deaf man could notice sarcasm in an Englishman,” Delilah replied, nettled by the truth of his accusation as well as his ungentlemanly conduct in putting his feelings into words.
“You aren’t going to try to convince me your treatment of me has been subtle, are you?” Nathan asked.
“Nothing about this situation is subtle. I hope you don’t expect me to face the loss of everything I own without showing anger. I can’t do it. Could you?”
Honesty made Nathan shake his head.
“It may not be fair to blame you, but you are an Englishman, and if England hadn’t closed her markets to us, this might not have happened.”
“And I just happen to be the one who holds your brother’s debt, even though I’m not the one who lent him the money and it wasn’t my fault he went into debt.”
Delilah nodded.
“You can’t imagine how much better it makes me feel to know you have no compunction in blaming me for everything that happens, regardless of where the blame should rightly be placed.”
“How dare you imply I’m unfair.”
“Aren’t you?”
“You hold my brother’s note,” Delilah persevered. “You could forgive it.”
“Then I would have to forgive all the other debts owed me.”
Delilah looked uneasy. “Well …”
“Would you forgive them if it meant you had to sell your house, maybe even your farm?”
“But you’re rich.”
“Would you have all the landowners pauper themselves, or is it just me you’re trying to ruin?”
Delilah didn’t answer, but she seemed. He had no right to accuse her of trying to ruin anybody. He was the one causing all the trouble.
“And what are the farmers going to do when they run out of money a second time and need a loan to pay their taxes, or to buy a new bull or have a few drinks?”
“You don’t have to be insulting,” Delilah said. “Nobody expects you to give away all your money …”
“I’m relieved to hear that.”
“… but there must be some way for people to pay back their loans without losing their property.”
“Isn’t that what you’ve done?”
“Y-yes.”
“Then the other farmers can too. It’s better than my giving everything I have to a lot of strangers. I daresay they wouldn’t do it for me.”
Delilah knew several farmers who would probably forgive a debt to a particular friend, but she was certain if they were in Nathan’s place, every one of them would do exactly what he was doing. In fact, to be perfectly honest, several would have been even worse than Ezra Buel.
“Is that what you’re hoping, that the farmers will all figure out new ways to pay their debts?”
“I’d much rather have my money than a lot of oxen. I haven’t been here long enough to know all I should about my uncle’s affairs, but he’s got too much money tied up in small loans to suit me. I want some venture capital.”
“What is that?” Delilah asked, bewildered.
“Money to invest,” Nathan explained. “Some people can get rich farming, but a man has to go into business if he wants to become wealthy.”
Delilah didn’t know what he was talking about. Everyone she knew was a farmer, even rich Ezra Buel had been one.
“I don’t understand,” she said.
So Nathan explained how a farm was basically limited in the amount of goods it could produce. But when it came to manufacturing goods for sale, the only limit was the size of the market and the strength of the competition. He talked about bankers, shipowners, factors, and lawyers. He talked of rates of interest, margins of profit, costs of doing business, and the difficulty of finding cheap raw materials. He explained how a man could begin with just himself and end up with hundreds of people working for him.
“Everything depends on the cities,” he finally explained. “There people can’t grow or make all the things they need and want, so somebody has to do it for them. The more of something I sell, me more money I make.”
Delilah wondered if Reuben had thought of that. Probably not. All he wanted was a chance to live out his days in the familiar ways. He would be lost in the world Nathan Trent wanted to create. Jane, too, though she would get along better. Jane could adapt. She doubted Reuben could.
But what about herself?
She knew the answer immediately. She hardly understood any of what Nathan had said, but it sounded like a challenge, possibly even a dangerous one. And that excited her. She liked challenges; she even looked forward to them.
A thought struck her. Had she agreed to spy on Nathan because it represented a challenge?
No. Spying was deceitful, and she hated dishonesty. She had agreed to spy on Nathan because she’d had no other choice. But she was aware of an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach, a feeling that had appeared sometime after she’d given her word that she would act as a spy.
What was it? It made her nervous and apprehensive but not uncomfortable, wary and distrustful but not afraid, excited and expectant but not pleasured. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but she knew instinctiv
ely it was dangerous and it had something to do with Nathan. Something about him was a threat to her.
Delilah pulled her mind back from these thoughts. There would be plenty of time for soul-searching later. They were approaching Maple Hill. She felt as though the bars of debtor’s prison were about to close around her.
Chapter Four
“What’s she doing here?” Serena Noyes stood squarely in the middle of the hall.
“She’s here to help Lester” Nathan explained.
“Then take her back where she came from. I won’t have her kind here.”
Delilah resisted a desire to draw close to Nathan. Though she hadn’t been willing to admit it, even to herself, the closer they had come to Maple Hill, the more apprehensive she’d become.
To be met by a shrill harpy the minute she stepped inside the dark hall was almost too much of a test of Delilah’s courage. She remained rooted to the floor, unable to retreat or move forward to meet Nathan’s aunt.
“She’s doing it to pay off her brother’s debt.”
“I told you I won’t have her in my house,” Serena repeated. “She’s poor, dirty, and probably stupid.”
Delilah tensed, her gaze riveted on Serena’s angry face. All thoughts of running away were forgotten. She might be poor—she had never expected to be anything else—but she wouldn’t stand for anyone calling her dirty or stupid.
“I bathe regularly,” she said, looking squarely into Serena Noyes’s watery blue eyes. The challenge was unmistakable. “In fact, one of my requirements is that I have the use of a tub and hot water every evening.”
“The cheek of her,” exclaimed Serena, but her voice betrayed a note of uncertainty.
“Neither am I stupid,” Delilah continued. “My work will soon give you reason to know that.”
“I doubt you’ll find much scope for proving anything in the wash shed,” retorted Serena spitefully.
“Miss Stowbridge will work with Lester,” Nathan stated firmly. “Now that he’s got someone to help him, you and Priscilla can entertain more frequently.”
Serena directed a venomous look at her nephew. “I won’t have that girl serving my friends.”
“As you wish,” Nathan replied, unperturbed. “We need to settle on sleeping quarters. Which room should she have?”
“The loft above the laundry.”
“I thought one of the rooms on the third floor would be suitable,” Nathan said. Delilah could see the tension in his jaw as he spoke.
“You mean to house a common servant under the same roof as your own family!” It was not a question. It was a screech of disbelief.
“It’s only a temporary situation. She will return to her brother’s home as soon as the debt is repaid.”
“It would be better if you had taken his oxen.”
“I have assured Reuben Stowbridge and his wife that his sister will be safe while she is here. I can only do that by keeping her under my own roof. Don’t you agree?”
“No, I don’t,” Serena snapped. “And to think you’re forcing this wretched girl on me the very day my beloved brother was laid in his grave. You have no consideration for my feelings, Nathan Trent, and no respect for your uncle’s memory.”
Delilah felt a twinge of sympathy as Serena dabbed ineffectually at her eyes.
“I’m not as gullible as your friends, so you can put away that handkerchief and stop pretending an affection you never felt,” Nathan said with brutal frankness. “After what you said when you heard the conditions of his will, I’m surprised you didn’t shovel the dirt over him yourself.”
“I would have if it would have changed anything,” Serena said, dropping all pretense. “Ezra was hard and cruel. I don’t suppose you’ll be any different.”
“That will depend on your attitude toward me,” Nathan stated. “Miss Stowbridge would like to know her duties.”
Serena directed a hate-filled glare at Nathan before turning her cold gaze on Delilah. “You can help Lester clean up, keep the rooms dusted, lay the fires, and empty the grates. You ought to have some experience in that, even in a farmhouse.”
“Is that agreeable?” Nathan asked.
Delilah nodded her head. She recognized deep-seated enmity in Serena Noyes’s eyes, but she also saw fear. What hold could Nathan have over this embittered woman?
“Your uncle would never have settled for a servant girl in exchange for his money,” Serena hissed, a look of scorn and triumph mingling in her eyes. “He’d have taken the oxen, the plow, and the farm if necessary, but he’d have had his money. That’s how he built Maple Hill.” She pointed an accusing finger at Delilah, a look of loathing on her distorted features. “She’s how you’re going to lose it.”
“I don’t intend to lose my inheritance,” Nathan said.
Delilah could see him struggle to hold back the words balanced on the tip of his tongue.
“You’re just like your father,” Serena almost screamed. “There’s no Buel in you. You’re all Trent, soft and weak. If Ezra had left Maple Hill to me, I’d have thrown the wretches out months ago.”
“Even Uncle Ezra believed in giving people a chance,” Nathan said, dismissing the subject. “Now I think you ought to show Miss Stowbridge to her room.”
“Put her where you want. I’ll have nothing to do with it.” Serena Noyes turned and stalked away.
Nathan forced himself to breathe deeply and slowly. He wanted to get out of the house before the wave of exasperation, which had been building inside him all day, swept away the last of his self-control. But after his aunt’s disgraceful display of hostility, he couldn’t leave Delilah without some explanation. He weighed his words carefully.
“Aunt Serena expected to inherit Maple Hill. She hates me so much she can hardly stand to set eyes-on me.”
“Then why doesn’t she leave?” Delilah asked. They had started to climb the ornate staircase situated midway in the hall.
“Uncle Ezra left me everything, even the linen and china. I’m to provide a home for her until her daughter marries.”
“Can’t you give her an allowance and let her live somewhere else?” Delilah knew this was none of her business, but she couldn’t imagine Nathan sharing a roof, even one as large as Maple Hill, with such a shrew.
“Another of Uncle Ezra’s conditions prohibits me from allowing Serena to live anywhere except Maple Hill.”
“Surely you can ignore that.”
Nathan smiled, rather grimly Delilah thought. “Apparently he didn’t trust me not to. He saddled me with a set of trustees for the next two years.”
“No wonder the poor woman is eaten up with bitterness.”
“I wouldn’t mind her being bitter at Uncle Ezra,” Nathan said. “It’s her anger at me I find difficult to tolerate.”
As they reached the upper landing, they paused before a double dormer window with a superb view of the maple-lined avenue leading up to the house. Those trees were all that remained of the stand of sugar maples that once covered the hillside and had given the estate its name.
“Why does she hate you?”
“I’m an Englishman.”
Delilah felt a stab of shame. After seeing how ugly that attitude was in Serena, she was embarrassed to have felt the same way herself. “But you’re her nephew.”
“My uncle came to Massachusetts forty years ago to escape being impressed into the navy. After he became prosperous, he invited his sisters to join him. My mother stayed in London and had a son, and Aunt Serena came to Massachusetts and had a daughter. It’s difficult for her to see the cause of her ruined hopes staring her in the face day after day.”
Delilah wondered why she felt no sympathy for Serena. They were actually in somewhat similar situations.
“I can see how you might sympathize with her” Nathan said, “but it’s unfair to hold me responsible for everything that’s happened in her entire life.”
His words merely increased Delilah’s feeling of guilt. Hadn’t she done the same thing?
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Nathan led her to the back of the hall, where he opened the door to a small but bright and cheerful room. The yellow-painted walls were plain, the woodwork was unadorned; but the bed, piled high with mattresses and pillows, was covered with a cotton print bedspread which matched the curtains at the single dormer window. A chair, washstand, and wardrobe were the only other pieces of furniture.
It’s not very large,” Nathan apologized, “but I’m afraid you won’t get to spend much time here. There really is a lot of work to be done.”
It was to be her own. Delilah thought it was the most beautiful room she had ever seen. “It’s perfect,” she said, unconsciously comparing it to her own tiny loft at home.
“Talk to Aunt Serena if you want anything else.”
Delilah looked up quickly, surprise in her eyes.
“She will calm down before long.”
Delilah could have sworn she saw a trace of tolerant amusement in Nathan’s eyes.
“She hates change, but she’s been complaining more than Lester about needing help.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if I told you and you spoke to your aunt?” Delilah had already decided to stay as far away from Serena as possible, but as she spoke she realized the real reason for her suggestion was a desire to hold on to some contact with Nathan.
“I won’t be around very much,” he said. He had turned to leave the room, depriving Delilah of the chance to see his expression, but she thought there was a different sound to his voice. “I have a lot of property I’ve never seen. I can’t be a good landlord until I know what I own. Now you must meet Lester. He’ll be your real boss.”
For the first time Delilah wondered about the wisdom of coming to Maple Hill. Serena Noyes obviously disliked her. Nathan Trent would be gone much of the time. And now she was being turned over to a third person, probably one whose only interest in her was getting as much work out of her as he could. Delilah felt abandoned.
Unlike the two upper halls, which had large windows at each end, the downstairs hall was lit only by the fanlight above the front door. Runners on the stairs and hallway deadened the sounds of their steps, and in the fading light of the late afternoon, Delilah felt like a ghost floating through the house.
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