“What are you doing here?” he demanded in a tortured hiss. “Your mother will kill us both if she discovers you in my room.”
“She wouldn’t care,” Priscilla said, preparing to climb onto the bed with Nathan. Her hand had fallen away from her bosom allowing her gaping robe to reveal a nightgown perilously transparent. “She wants me to marry you. She wants us to get married right now.”
Even as she lifted her leg to climb onto Nathan’s bed, he lowered his foot to slip off the other side.
“I’m not interested in getting married.”
“You don’t like women?” Priscilla paused, a confused look on her face.
“Now” Nathan amended. “I’m not interested in getting married now.”
“But I need a husband,” Priscilla said, reassured. She climbed across the bed, and Nathan moved around to the other side. “I want gowns. I want money of my own. I want a house of my own. I want all kinds of things I can’t have unless I’m married.” She giggled. “Do you ever have urges, Nathan?”
“What kind of urges?” he asked, pulling the sheet more tightly around him.
“Urges. Sometimes they keep me awake. I feel that my body is burning up.”
She stalked Nathan.
“I feel I’ve got to touch secret places, and I can’t even stand clothing next to my skin.”
Nathan climbed back on the bed. Priscilla followed without hesitation.
“Mama says those urges disappear when a girl gets married. Mama says a man makes them go away.”
Priscilla tumbled off the bed right behind Nathan. He took refuge behind a high-backed Windsor chair.
“Please marry me, Nathan. I don’t think I can stand it much longer.”
Nathan forced himself to be calm, though he kept imagining Serena bursting into the room with Lester and Delilah in tow and announcing to everyone in the western half of Massachusetts that he must marry her daughter because he had ruined her.
And if she and he were found in this compromising position, he would have ruined her, even if he’d never touched her. Bitch. Why couldn’t she find someone else to stalk?
“Pull your robe together and stop this nonsense” he said as sternly as he could in a whisper. “I’m not marrying you or anyone else.”
Then let me sleep with you,” Priscilla pleaded, reaching for him across the chair. “Mama says that works just as well.”
“I can’t believe your mother said any such thing,” Nathan said, certain in his own mind Serena would have in order to incite Priscilla to just such an exhibition as this.
“Mama said men like to have women sleep with them. She says then are terrible that way.” Priscilla giggled. “Lucy says the same thing, only she says some women like to sleep with men.” She giggled again. “Do you think I would like it? With you, I mean?”
“I doubt it very much,” said Nathan, feeling exceptionally hot in his sheet. “You should only marry someone you love a great deal.”
“But I like you a lot.”
“Like is not enough. It is very important in a marriage for two people to be in love.”
“If I can like you this much already, maybe I could love you after we got married.”
“I will bet if you were to go away tomorrow, you would forget me in a week.”
“I can’t go away. Mama has no money.”
An idea popped into Nathan’s head. It was a coward’s way out, but he didn’t feel he had many choices just then. “I can give you some. Would you like to go on a visit?”
“I’ll have to ask Mama. I can’t go anywhere without her permission.”
“You can ask her first thing tomorrow. Maybe I’ll send both of you to Boston. Would you like that?”
“I don’t know. I’ll ask Mother.”
Empty-headed bitch. Why does she have to be my cousin?
“Go back to your room. If you don’t, you won’t be able to go to Boston.”
Priscilla seemed to be thinking it over. Nathan could only hope the offer of going to Boston was more attractive than sleeping with him so she could get rid of her urges.
“You promise I can go to Boston?”
“I promise.”
“Very well” she said, but Nathan thought she still looked doubtful. He held his breath as she turned and walked toward the door.
“Are you sure I wouldn’t prefer to sleep in your bed?” she asked as Nathan started to open the door for her.
“Positive.” Nathan held back a sigh of relief. “You will enjoy Boston much more. You might even find someone you would rather fall in love with than me.”
“I don’t know.” Priscilla did look doubtful. “Mama says you may be a bloody fool, but you sure can fill out a pair of breeches.”
Nathan almost burst out laughing.
“Well, I don’t have them on now, and if I’m caught with you in this state, there’ll be hell to pay. You hurry back to your room and dream about Boston. Well talk in the morning.” He turned her around and pushed her out the door. As he turned the key in the lock, he made a silent vow never to open the door again except in full daylight.
He had already decided Priscilla lacked common sense, but he’d never thought she lacked sense altogether. If Serena thought he would marry her, she had better think again. No intelligent woman would have come to his room on such an errand. He only hoped she would forget what had occurred by tomorrow.
But if Nathan had seen Priscilla a few moments later, he would have seen the episode in a different light. She scampered to her room as quickly and quietly as she could. Once inside, she dashed to her bed, buried her face in the pillow, and laughed until her entire body shook. It was ten minutes before she grew calm enough to consider going to sleep.
“Are you sure you feel well enough to be up this morning?” Nathan asked his aunt. Serena didn’t look well. Her eyelids drooped, and she looked as though she had a bad headache. ‘You can go back to bed if you like.”
He had been making a concerted effort to engage her in conversation, but Serena made only minimal responses. Priscilla had said nothing about the past night-indeed, she seemed to have forgotten all about it–and he avoided her eyes. He didn’t want to do anything to jog her memory.
“I feel it’s my responsibility to be up when you are here,” Serena said in response to Nathan’s solicitude. “I never missed a morning for my husband or Ezra. They would have thought it very odd if I had.”
“Well, I don’t. You can stay in bed any morning you don’t feel well.”
An uncomfortable silence fell over the group. Priscilla ate her breakfast in a desultory style–actually she played with her food rather than ate it–her mind apparently far away from the table or the people seated about it.
Nathan felt his best first thing in the morning. He enjoyed breakfast, and he liked being up early. But apparently no one else did today. Except for Delilah. She had come in only moments before, looking brighter than spring sunshine. Somehow it seemed inappropriate to feel the stirrings of desire at this early hour, but one look at her and his body responded as it always did.
Nathan placed his napkin in a strategic place.
Delilah entered the dining room again. “Mrs. Stebbens wants to know if you would like any more batter cakes. There’s also more fried apples and veal croquettes.”
Neither Priscilla nor Serena responded. “I’d like some apples” Nathan said. “And coffee.”
Delilah disappeared through the door. She reappeared a moment later with a small bowl of apples and a blue speckled pot of steaming coffee.
This is the last of the winter’s supply,” she said as she set the bowl of apples next to Nathan’s plate. There won’t be any more until picking time.”
Nathan handed his cup to Delilah. She poured the coffee and handed it back. He had a brief intimation of how it might be to have breakfast with her every morning, her pouring his coffee, both of them sharing plans for the day, then his looking forward to seeing her again in the evening.
Natha
n shook his head to get rid of the daydream. She was not sitting at the table with him, so there was no use teasing himself.
“Did you know the Supreme Court met at Worcester two days ago?” Nathan asked.
Delilah stiffened. For the first time that morning Serena showed interest in the conversation.
They indicted Luke Day and ten others in the group that closed the court at Northampton last month.”
It’s about time they did something,” Serena said, a smile of satisfaction on her thin lips.
“Was Reuben with that group?” Nathan asked Delilah.
“Of course he was,” Serena stated. “He’s probably hand in glove with half the rebels in this part of the state.”
“Reuben wouldn’t follow Luke Day anywhere,” Delilah said. “Luke’s got a terrible temper and uses his size to bully his men.”
“Sounds a lot like your brother,” Serena commented.
They don’t get along,” Delilah explained, ignoring Serena. They never have.”
“Probably both wanting to be the leader.” Serena apparently wasn’t going to pass up any opportunity to annoy Delilah.
“Captain Shays doesn’t trust Luke Day either” Delilah said.
“Heaven help us,” Serena exclaimed. “We have a servant in the house who’s intimately acquainted with half the rebels in the state. Shell tell them everything she knows.”
“She could tell us everything she knows,” Nathan pointed out.
Surprised, Delilah looked squarely at him. What she saw reassured her. “But you won’t ask me.”
“No, I won’t.”
“Why not?” demanded Serena. “You could force her to tell you.”
“I know more about the insurgents than she does. You didn’t know about Luke Day or the Supreme Court, did you?”
“No.”
“That’s fine in the ordinary way,” Serena said, “but someone may let a vital piece of information slip.”
“If someone did such a thing, would you tell your brother?”
Delilah had never expected Nathan to put this question to her. For one wild moment she thought he must know she was a spy and was about to expose her. Then she remembered the extent of her spying had been looking in the window. The existence of the list was the only thing she knew that he hadn’t told her. And her mentioning it to Jane probably didn’t matter. Shays had to assume they had such a list.
But that wasn’t what Nathan asked her. He wanted to know if she would give Reuben any information she uncovered. I ought to lie, she told herself. She knew she was more likely to learn something if he didn’t suspect her. But she couldn’t he to him, even though that didn’t make sense when he was opposed to what Shays and Reuben were trying to do.
“Yes, if I thought it would keep him out of danger.”
“I told you,” Serena said. “Get rid of her.”
“Would you tell the rest of your friends?” Nathan asked.
Delilah’s hand fiddled with the hem of her apron. She didn’t want to answer this question because she wasn’t sure of the answer. She would do almost anything for Reuben, but for the others?
“I don’t know” she finally answered. “I don’t want anybody to get hurt. I guess I would do just about anything if I thought it would prevent a battle.”
“Pack your things and be out of this house within the hour” Serena ordered. “I won’t have a traitor staying under my roof.”
“I don’t know why I must continually remind you that it is my roof.” Nathan’s voice was quiet, the deadly quiet Delilah had learned to distrust.
“But she admitted she would spy on us.”
“No, just pass on information. It’s only reasonable to expect her to protect her brother. If I were part of her family, I hope she would feel the same way about me.”
Delilah didn’t dare look at Nathan, not under Serena’s eagle-eyed glare. She didn’t know what he meant by those words. Maybe she placed too much hope in things spoken as an ordinary part of conversation. But something in Nathan’s voice had sounded new, unfamiliar. She couldn’t identify it just yet.
“You’ll never learn anything about taking care of your own, will you?” Serena asked, spots of rage on her sallow cheeks. “Let a female smile at you, and you invite her to sit down with us for dinner. Let her tell you she plans to carry information to the enemy, and you say it’s only natural she should want to protect her family. What are you going to say when they come in here demanding we empty our storehouses for them?”
“No one is going to threaten Maple Hill. If you feel unsafe here, maybe you and Priscilla would like to go to Boston for a visit.”
“And leave you here to be preyed upon by this brazen hussy?”
“If you refer to Miss Stowbridge as a hussy again, you will leave this house whether you have anywhere to go or not. As for Boston, Priscilla and I talked about it last night. She would like a chance to visit her friends. She feels confined here.”
“Priscilla will feel as I tell her to feel” Serena declared. “We’re not moving a foot from Maple Hill. Any friends she wants to see will have to come here.”
“Why don’t you make up a list of those you wish to invite?” Nathan said. “I’ll be in the library if you wish to discuss it. Delilah, don’t forget our appointment at ten.”
“Appointment?” Serena demanded, apparently having forgotten about the past night’s occurrences. “If it’s about the household, she should go to Lester and he will come to me.”
“It has nothing to do with the house,” Nathan told his aunt, “so you need not put yourself about.”
Serena continued to protest, but as Nathan left the room without answering her and Delilah made her escape while she could, she was left with no one to listen to her except Priscilla.
“What do you mean by telling Nathan you’d like to go to Boston?” her mother demanded. “If I were to leave now, there’s no telling what that girl would get up to. Your cousin is no more able to take care of himself than a young colt.”
Priscilla came out of her abstraction with a snap. “The sooner you get over the idea Nathan is impressionable, or that you have any influence over what he does, the quicker you’ll see what’s really going on around here.” Her voice was still wispy, but the hard glint in her eyes gave the lie to the fiction that she was a silly, half-witted female.
Serena looked startled. “If you would only marry him, everything would be all right.”
“Nathan doesn’t want to marry me.”
“But he’s not clever. Surely you could entice him into–”
“When will you realize Nathan is as strong minded and astute as Uncle Ezra was. Maybe more so. No one is going to entice him into anything, except maybe Delilah.”
“That female! If I had my way–”
“You’d do something stupid and Nathan would throw us out. No matter what happens, leave her alone. I’m working on getting what I can for both of us. Don’t get in my way.” Priscilla threw down her napkin and stood up.
“But I don’t understand …” Serena no longer looked like a virago. She seemed confused and frightened.
Priscilla’s eyes softened. “You never did, Mother. Not your husband or your brother. You never understood then at all.”
Nathan stopped to consider whether he should light a fire, but the autumn days had remained much warmer than in England. Too, he had discovered that a wood house wasn’t so cold as one made of stone. He resisted the temptation to open the windows and allow the crisp, refreshing breeze to blow through the library, but he positioned his chair so he could see the changing fall panorama as he sat at his desk. After spending nearly every day of his life in London, he found himself fascinated by the limitless space, the pervasive quiet, and the unequaled beauty of the changing hillsides. It might not be such a terrible thing if he couldn’t return to London. He might be able to get used to living in Massachusetts.
As long as Delilah is with me.
The thought had not been in his head
before, but here it was, just like that. What more proof could he want that her hold over him had become more than a painful longing to claim her body. He had developed a strong interest in her, and that meant he wouldn’t be satisfied with a few tumbles in the hay.
But then he had always known Delilah wouldn’t accept that kind of relationship. It might be common practice in England, especially when the man was a wealthy aristocrat and the woman a servant, but both his aunt and uncle had been at pains to inform his parents, frequently and at great length, of the differences between the colonists’ morals and those of decadent, sinful, merry old England. In Massachusetts, a servant girl could be ruined just as surely as a lord’s daughter.
A healthy young man naturally desired a beautiful young woman. It was natural he should think of her often when she worked in his household. But it was also natural for him to realize that if he had any real feelings for the girl, he couldn’t use her and discard her afterward. Nathan had begun to think about a different kind of relationship. He found himself looking for a way to keep Delilah with him.
He was standing at the window overlooking the garden when Delilah entered the library. The light blinded her to this features, but the perfection of his silhouette hit her like a broadside. If I start thinking about his body, I’ll never make any sense, Delilah told herself. He’s asked me to offer advice. If I can’t come up with anything that makes sense, everything I’ve said loses its value.
“I’m glad to see you remembered,” Nathan said as he turned toward her.
“I almost didn’t come,” Delilah replied, a tiny smile on her lips. “Your aunt is on the stairs, looking so fierce I nearly backed out.”
“Really?” Nathan said, pulling one of the Windsor chairs near his desk.
“I was tempted. It’s never pleasant to have your employer angry at you.”
“I’m your employer, and I’m not angry.”
Delilah swallowed. “You know what I mean.”
“I do, but I think it is time I rectified a mistake I made at the very beginning.”
Rebel Enchantress Page 17