Rebecca Hagan Lee - [Borrowed Brides 01] (8 page)

David Alexander helped Faith out of the buggy and onto the ground.

“Aunt Tempy!” Faith cried as the bundle of energy ran up and embraced her.

“Faith, oh, Faith.” Temperance Hamilton hugged her niece as if she had spent years away from home instead of one night. “I missed you so much.”

Faith smiled. “I haven’t been away that long, Aunt Tempy.”

“Well, it seemed like forever. You know I can’t tolerate Virt, Agnes, and Hannah for long on my own. Their empty-headed chatter drives me crazy. I’m sure I don’t know why the good Lord didn’t see fit to give them brains instead of looks… Oh, pardon me for running on like that.” Tempy turned to study Faith’s companion. “I’ll have you thinking I’m no smarter than the others. And that would be a shame. You must be Mr. Jordan. We got your telegram last night. Bert Winthrop made a special trip out after midnight just to deliver it. And it’s a good thing, too. I was beginning to worry about Faith being gone so long.”

“Aunt Tempy,” Faith interrupted, “you’re chattering.”

“Good Lord!” Tempy looked mortified at the idea. “Where are my manners? Do come in, Mr. Jordan.”

“Actually…” David began as Tempy took her niece by the elbow and ushered her toward the house.

“Aunt Tempy, this isn’t Mr. Jordan. This is Mr. David Alexander, Mr. Jordan’s attorney.” Faith stopped on the porch to perform the introductions. “Mr. David Alexander, meet my aunt, Temperance Hamilton.”

“You’re David Alexander? But we thought…” Tempy began.

“Mr. Jordan asked me to see Mrs. Collins home,” David explained. “He thought she might need some time to get ready for the journey, and since Christmas is just days away, he thought she would prefer to spend the holiday in the company of her family, rather than with strangers.” David opened the front door and allowed the women to precede him.

“Oh, Faith!” Tempy was practically jumping up and down with glee. “That means you got the job! How wonderful! You got the job!” Tempy stepped inside the house and turned toward the front parlor. “Virt! Hannah! Agnes! Joy! He hired her! Our Faith is going to work in Wyoming!”

The other women crowded into the hallway, each trying to hug Faith and to get a better look at the attractive gentleman escorting her.

Remembering her manners, Faith introduced David to the members of the household.

David studied the women crowded around him. He couldn’t believe his eyes. They were all considerably older than Faith, except the little girl who looked to be no older than five or six. David smiled to himself, enormously pleased to discover that Collins House, while big and full of women, was not some sordid Richmond bordello. David was certain Reese would be even more pleased and relieved. He couldn’t wait to tell him.

“Do have a seat, Mr. Alexander.” Hannah and Agnes led David to the horsehair sofa, then quickly seated themselves on either side of him. Faith noticed they spread their skirts as they sat down to hide the bayonet holes in the cushions. And, bless them, they had also made certain David sat in the most comfortable spot in the room.

“Would you care for some refreshment?” Tempy asked politely,

“Tea,” Hannah said. “We have some very nice tea. Tempy, you know where I keep it. Would you care for a hot cup of tea, Mr. Alexander?”

When she returned, a few minutes later, Tempy set the tray on the table in front of Hannah. “Will you pour, Hannah?”

“I’d be delighted.” Hannah smiled, pleased at the opportunity to preside over a tea table once again.

David Alexander shifted uncomfortably in his seat on sofa between Hannah Colson and Agnes Everett and accepted the cup of tea Mrs. Colson placed in his hands. He waited patiently while Mrs. Colson finished pouring tea for the ladies, then took a drink from his cup. He accepted a gingersnap from the plate Tempy offered.

“Oh, please, Mr. Alexander, take another. It’s been so long since we’ve had a gentleman in for tea.” Hannah smiled prettily.

“It’s time for Joy’s nap,” Tempy said. “I’ll just take her to bed.” She took Joy by the hand. “Say your goodbyes.”

Joy smiled shyly at the stranger, then hugged each of the older women around the waist. When she reached her sister, she threw her arms around Faith’s neck and squeezed her tightly. “I missed you, Faith.”

“I missed you, too.” Faith brushed a kiss across Joy’s brow.

“You’re not going away again, are you?”

“Not without you, pumpkin.”

“Promise?”

“Cross my heart.” Faith solemnly traced a cross above her heart.

“Good.” Joy hugged Faith a second time. “Night-night, Faith.”

“Sweet dreams, angel.” She blew kisses at Joy until Tempy led the little girl down the hall to the bedroom the three of them shared.

Hannah, Agnes, and Virt took their cue from Tempy. They quickly finished their tea, thanked David for seeing Faith safely home, then politely excused themselves and left the room, leaving Faith alone with David Alexander for the first time since their arrival.

“She calls you Faith,” David said.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Your little girl calls you by your given name. It’s unusual.”

Faith had forgotten about the fiction she had woven for David Alexander and Reese Jordan.

She thought quickly, scrambling for a plausible reason before she answered. “Joy has always been around adults. My aunts and the other ladies call me by my given name. Joy learned to do the same.” Faith shrugged. “It’s unconventional, but she’s never known anything different.” Faith clenched and unclenched her fists while her top teeth worried her bottom lip. She should have thought of this. She should have had Tempy explain the situation to Joy.

“I suppose you’re right,” David agreed. “Well, I’m going back to Washington. You can give me your answer now if you’ve made up your mind or you can telegraph Reese at the Madison after Christmas.”

Faith relaxed. Joy hadn’t given them away. “I haven’t made up my mind, yet. I need to think about it.”

David studied his surroundings closely. The house had once been elegant, but was now falling down around their heads. Light patches marked the walls where paintings had once hung, the windows were boarded up, and tell-tale water stains marred the plaster ceiling. The house was in desperate need of repair from roof to cellar. David didn’t have to be a banker to know the cost of repair was way above Faith’s present means.

He stood up and retrieved his hat. “I really must be on my way.” David bowed and made his way to the front door.

* * *

“Well, what did you find out about her?” Reese demanded as soon as David stepped inside the door of the Presidential Suite at the Madison Hotel.

“I had a miserable journey, Reese. I’m dying to deliver my report to you, but do you think I could grab a cup of coffee first?” David joked.

“Anything. Just give me the verdict.” Reese stalked to the silver coffee pot sitting on a tray beside his desk.

“You’re in a generous mood, today. How about a pay raise and your share of the Union Pacific stock along with the coffee?”

“How about a twisted arm and unemployment?” Reese shot back as he handed David a cup of coffee and took the damp overcoat David offered in return. “What did you learn?”

“I learned Faith Collins is a very proud woman.”

“Tell me something I haven’t learned on my own.”

“Well, she lives on Clary Street in Richmond in a house that’s falling down around her head. She shares it with her daughter and four other women—two aunts and two relatives by marriage.”

“Her side or his?” Reese wanted to know.

“Hers. They’re sisters-in-law of one of her aunts. Her daughter, Joy, is an adorable little girl of five or six, judging from her missing front teeth.”

“Five,” Reese remarked absently, remembering Faith’s description of her family. “Any men?”

David couldn’t control his grin at the innocent-sounding question. “While I was there, I saw an army lieutenant.”

“I was afraid of that. She made everything sound too good to be true. I knew there had to be men in the picture. How else are five women going to earn enough money to live on?” Reese began to pace the length of the room.

“They take in sewing.”

“What?” Reese stopped in his tracks and stared at his cousin.

“I said they take in sewing. The lieutenant was there because he’d ripped his jacket.” David finished his cup of coffee and sat down on the sofa to watch Reese resume his nervous pacing. “Give me a hand with these. My feet are frozen.” He lifted one booted foot in Reese’s direction.

Reese yanked the wet boot from David’s foot and dropped it beside the sofa. “Sewing? Making dresses, that sort of thing?” Reese searched his memory. She had been dressed in rags. “Can she earn a living like that?” With the exception of his maternal grandmother and a few other women at the ranch, all the women of Reese’s acquaintance were outfitted in the latest fashions from London or Paris. “Is there a dress shop? A business of some sort?”

“No,” David told him, “They call themselves the Richmond Ladies Sewing Circle. They don’t make ladies’ fashions. They make quilts, embroider, and take in mending, mostly from the soldiers stationed in Richmond.”

“Union soldiers?”

“Apparently.”

“Like the army lieutenant.” Reese resumed his pacing.

David nodded. “I was about to climb into my hired hack when he walked up to the front door bearing a basket of fruit. A Christmas present for the ladies for treating him decent, he said. They refused to take it. Said they it wouldn’t be proper for a household of unmarried women to accept a gift from a gentleman. The lieutenant turned right around, walked to his buggy and proceeded to mutilate his jacket.”

“What?”

“He ripped off every button, every bit of insignia, and slit the sleeves. Then he went back to the front porch and asked them to mend it. He told them he’d spent his pay on Christmas, but he could trade them the basket in exchange for repairs. Faith graciously accepted the jacket and the fruit basket.”

“Just like that?” Reese stopped, then turned to look at David.

“Just like that.”

He shook his head in disbelief, then raked his fingers through his hair in an attempt to restore some order to the thick, black strands. “She wouldn’t take a basket of fruit from a soldier she’s met before, but she’ll consider having my baby for money?”

“Yep,” David confirmed. “Unless she changes her mind.”

“Is there a chance of that?”

“Of course. There’s always a chance.”

“She won’t change her mind,” Reese said confidently. “She needs the money too badly.” But he decided to sweeten the deal.

For the next half-hour, Reese asked David very specific questions about the house in Richmond. And each member of the household.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Tempy asked suddenly.

“Talk? About what?” Faith turned to face her aunt. They were sitting at the kitchen table, relaxing after clearing away the remains of the Christmas feast.

It was quiet. Hannah and Virt were napping, and Agnes was busy knitting a scarf in the corner of the parlor. Joy was pretending to serve tea from a miniature tea set to the dolls seated in tiny chairs at a tiny table in another corner of the parlor.

Faith observed the procedure from a distance, carefully noting the differences in the two dolls seated at the table. On Joy’s right, sat a baby doll with real blond hair and an exquisitely painted bisque face. Her arms and legs were made of the same bisque. She was dressed in a beautiful nightie made of white eyelet lace. On the left, sat Faith’s offering, a small cloth doll with brown embroidery floss for hair and a carefully embroidered face. She was dressed in a blue gown made from scraps of uniforms and a white pinafore made from one of Aunt Tempy’s petticoats.

Faith had spent many hours lovingly crafting the doll long after Joy had been put to bed. She was the best Faith had had to offer and she would probably still be under the Christmas tree if Aunt Virt hadn’t pointed her out. In her excitement over all her wonderful brightly wrapped packages, Joy had completely overlooked the plain, brown-wrapped packages at the back of the tree.

Faith wished now, that she had put them away. They couldn’t compete with all the wonderful things Augustus Jenkins had delivered.

Tempy studied Faith’s face as she watched Joy at play. “She’s a little girl, Faith. It’s her first real Christmas and she’s thrilled with all her new toys. Just as you were thrilled with your first doll.”

“I know, Aunt Tempy, it’s just that I wanted to give it to her. I wanted to be the one to provide all these gifts.”

“Didn’t you?” Tempy’s gray eyes were demanding an answer.

“He did,” Faith said resentfully. “I had nothing to do with it.”

“Really? I’d say you had a lot to do with it. I presume these gifts are from David Alexander. He seemed quite taken with you.”

“No,” Faith told her. “They’re from Reese Jordan. David Alexander might have suggested them, but they all came from Reese.”

“Reese?” Temperance probed a little deeper. “You didn’t tell me you were on a first name basis with your future employer.”

Faith saw the concern in Tempy’s face. “There was a lot I didn’t tell you, Aunt Tempy. I didn’t know how.”

“I’m listening now, if you want to talk about it.”

“Reese Jordan wants me to have his child.” Faith dropped the news quietly and carefully, as if to muffle an explosion.

Tempy’s mouth formed a perfect O, and her command of the English language momentarily failed her. When she finally recovered her power of speech, her voice was an astonished whisper. “He
what
?”

“He wants me to have his child. The Richmond advertisement contained a mistake. He isn’t hiring someone to provide
for
his heir. He’s hiring someone to provide the child. In his words, to conceive it, carry it, deliver it, and hand it over to him—forever. And he’s willing to pay me very well for the service.” Faith stood up and began to pace around the kitchen, stopping every now and then to straighten the cups in the cupboard, or to restack a dish. “When I arrived at the Madison Hotel, his suite was full of women applying for the job. I stood in line half the day before I saw Reese Jordan, from a distance, but I never got the chance to speak to him. And I never would’ve had a chance at all if fate hadn’t intervened.”