A Matter of Principle (4 page)

“
You have fallen harder than you knew,” she chided herself as she examined her reflection in their bedroom mirror. Leaning closer, she searched for the signs of the injuries that brought her here in the first place. A thin line above one dark brow was nearly indiscernible. And the split lip left no scar at all.

Sydney pulled the neckline of her dress to the side. A faintly pinkish line ran diagonally from below her right shoulder to halfway under her collarbone. The scar was a reminder of her traitorous first husband, Devin Kilbourne. Sydney sighed and readjusted her décolletage. That was long past. Today, Nicolas would be home.

The dress she selected was the perfect color of green to enhance her gray-green eyes. It also contrasted nicely with her dark brown hair. She pulled her straight hair back on the sides and let it hang loose down her back, the way Nicolas preferred.

Sydney pinched her cheeks and bit her lips. Temporary measures, to be sure, but she would repeat them when Nicolas arrived. She smiled, pleased with the overall results.

“
Hurry home, husband,” she whispered. “God speed your mission.”

The shouts of welcome came mid-afternoon. Completely forgetting to pinch and bite, Sydney burst through the front door and ran into Nicolas’s reaching arms. He swept her in a circle—laughing—and kissed her soundly before setting her on her feet.

“
Å min Gud!
How I missed you!” Nicolas grinned at her.

Sydney felt she was drowning in the deep ocean-blue of his eyes; it was an entirely wonderful sensation.

“
And I, you, husband!” she replied. She looked past him then, to the Negro couple dismounting from Rusten. “You accomplished it!”

“
That I did! And for only seventy-five.” Nicolas led Sydney to the pair.

“
Only?” Sarah’s eyes went to Jaqriel, then to Nicolas.

“
I was prepared to pay a hundred, as I did for Jack,” Nicolas explained. “Sarah, might you remember my wife, Sydney?”

Sarah curtsied. “Yes, sir. Pleased to see you again, ma’am.”

“
Welcome to the Hansen estate, Sarah, modest though it is.”

Nicolas reached into his pocket and retrieved several coins. “I believe I’ll give the additional twenty-five dollars to you to set up housekeeping.”

Jaqriel did not reach to accept the proffered coins. “That’s not necessary, sir.”

“
Oh, but is it. We have undoubtedly forgotten something. This way, you may see to your own needs in a manner that suits you.” Nicolas grabbed Jaqriel’s hand and pressed the coins into it.

“
Housekeeping? I don’t understand, sir.” Sarah’s caramel brow creased in confusion.

Jaqriel took both horses’ reins. “Perhaps it’s best to show you. Come with me, Sarah.”

Sydney and Nicolas followed the couple, their hands clasped and bodies closely aligned.

One of the two storerooms in the stable had been cleared out to house the couple. Nicolas and Jaqriel laid a wood floor on a platform over the dirt. In one corner of the twelve-by-twelve room, Nicolas installed a cast-iron Franklin stove. Jaqriel built a bed over a bank of drawers, like the ones that Nicolas described in ships’ cabins. There was a table with two chairs, and shelves with a few dishes; two pots and a pan hung from hooks below them. Sydney had added a wool Turkish rug, featherbed, sheets and pillows.

“
I apologize about there being no window, as yet. Jack will cut one through the stone, once we decide where and how big. He felt you might want to have a say,” Nicolas said.

Sarah frowned and shook her head. “Who is to live here?”

“
We are,” Jaqriel answered. “This is our home.”

Sarah sank into one of the chairs and stared at Nicolas in disbelief. “And we are to work, of course. What are our tasks?”

“
Since our former maid chose to remain in Norway earlier this year, you’ll assist Anne in the running of the house.”

Sarah looked as though she might swoon.

“
Come, husband. Let’s give them some privacy, shall we?” Sydney pulled Nicolas from the remade room and closed the door. “I desire some privacy as well,” she murmured.

“
Madam, are you suggesting—?”

Sydney smiled. “And if I was?”

“
The children?”

“
Stefan and Leif are at school. Kirstie is napping. We have an hour to ourselves.”



Nicolas rolled onto his back with a long groan of satisfaction. Sydney could not have moved at that moment, even if the bed were in flames.

“
You were only gone four nights,” she whispered. “That felt like the first time in a month!”

“
I did spend time with Rosie to find Sarah, you realize. And I slept one night in a brothel.” Nicolas rubbed his face hard. “I burned for you, then.”

Sydney flopped the back of one hand onto his chest. “And I’m now well-assured that you didn’t dally with either!”

Nicolas faced her, his long, blond hair in disarray, blue eyes glowing in the afternoon light. Desire still showed in his gaze.

“
None but you,
min presang
. Ever.” His lips curled, showing straight white teeth. “But I do recommend a substantial supper. You’ll need your strength later.”

Sydney rolled on her side and ran her hand over Nicolas’s body. Firmly muscled, it was furred with blond curls that darkened to a line low on his flat belly. A clump of brown fuzz surrounded his manhood and covered the heavy balls behind it. He stirred at her touch.

“
Careful,” he warned. “I may not wish to wait until nightfall.”

Sydney climbed on top of him. His chest hair tickled her breasts and she felt him hardening between her thighs. She lifted her lips to his. He responded by wrapping his arms around her and taking her mouth with his. She adjusted the position of her hips.

A fussy cry from the next room doused their ardor with icy water.

Sydney pulled her mouth from Nicolas’s. “Kirstie’s awake,” she mumbled.

“
Skitt
,” Nicolas closed his eyes. “Tell me again why we have this child?”

“
Because you could never keep your hands off me!” Sydney laughed and pulled her shift on over her head. “And,” she retrieved the green dress from the floor, “you are so virile that your seed planted swiftly!”

“
Ah, yes. I knew it was something such as that!” Nicolas teased back.

Sydney leaned over him and kissed him slowly, softly, longingly.

“
Tonight,” she whispered before disappearing through the nursery door.



Supper that evening was served buffet style, as all the residents of the estate were invited to eat together in celebration. Addie Spencer, the Hansen’s retired housekeeper, helped her young replacement, Anehka McCain, prepare the food. Called Anne by the household, the dark beauty was born of a French trader and his Sauk Indian wife twenty-one years earlier.

Leif, Nicolas’s thirteen-year-old orphaned cousin from Norway, carried Kirstie on his hip. Eight-year-old Stefan kept moving, trying to avoid being given a task.

Sarah came up to the house and joined in the meal’s preparations without needing to be asked. Addie’s husband, John, helped Nicolas set up trestles for the bodies that wouldn’t fit at the formal dining room table. Anne’s husband Jeremy—Nicolas’s new foreman since John retired—came through the kitchen’s back door with Jaqriel, their faces and hands dripping. Jeremy grabbed a towel for each of them.

“
The animals are bedded down for the night,” Jeremy stated. “And we’re starving!”

Sydney stood at the head of the dining table next to Nicolas, his hand in hers, and surveyed the oddly diverse group. This household was so different from when she arrived two-and-a-half years ago.

“
I’ll ask the blessing now,” Nicolas volunteered. Hands clasped around the table and heads bowed as his bass voice filled the crowded room.

“
Father in Heaven, thank You for allowing Sarah and Jack to be reunited. Bless this food that we are about to receive, and bless the hands that prepared it. Amen.” Sydney crossed herself.

A chorus of amens preceded the rush for victuals. Sydney and Nicolas stepped back to allow their charges a chance to eat first. She smiled at the group of erstwhile strangers, now bonded under the Hansen roof. But when she looked up at her husband, her smile faded.

Nicolas was pale, and his cheeks sunk above a jutting jaw.

“
Nicolas?” she whispered.

His eyes, dark and dilated, dropped to hers.

“
Are you unwell?” she pressed.

“
No. I need some air is all.” He spun on his heel and disappeared into the hallway.

Sydney followed. “Nicolas, talk to me.”

He stopped before he reached the front door. He faced her, his forced smile stiff.

“
I’m fine, Sydney. Don’t worry about me. Go back and see to supper, will you?”

“
Are you certain?” Sydney felt his cheek.

Nicolas grasped her hand and kissed her palm. “I am. I’ll be back in a minute or two.”

“
Do you promise?”

“
Cross my heart.” Nicolas traced a finger over his chest.

“
All right then,” Sydney acquiesced, against her better judgment.

“
Save me some food!” Nicolas winked at her and stepped outside.



Sydney sat in bed, propped against pillows, and watched Nicolas unpack and hang up his clothing. She had postponed telling him about Lily as long as she dared.

“
We have a supper engagement tomorrow evening at Rickard’s.”

“
Oh? To celebrate the birth of their daughter?” Nicolas frowned at his waistcoat, then draped it over a chair. “That needs cleaning.”

“
Brace yourself.”

Nicolas turned to face her, breeches over his arm and eyebrows raised in question. “What’s amiss?”

“
Lily’s back.”

Nicolas stared at her for a moment, then went wordlessly back to his task.

“
She’s married, Nicolas.”

“
Hmph.”

“
She says he’s quite wealthy.”

“
Now
there’s
a surprise,” Nicolas said sarcastically. He sighed. “I suppose we must go. As much as I don’t wish to see that woman ever again, I can’t abandon Rick to deal with her alone.”

“
Or poor Bronnie.”

“
The hell-fire sister and the determined wife in one house? I’m surprised Rick isn’t sleeping down
our
hall, new baby or no!” Nicolas scoffed.

Sydney leaned forward and wrapped her arms around her knees. “She called the estate ‘hers’ and says she owns half now that their mother has passed.”

Nicolas stopped and looked at Sydney as though seeing her clearly for the first time. “That’s why.”

“
Why, what?”

“
Why she’s here. To claim half of the estate!” Nicolas put the breeches away and reached into his satchel.

Sydney’s eyes rounded, horrified. “She’ll ruin Rickard!”

Nicolas nodded grimly. “That she might. I suppose we’ll be enlightened tomorrow at dinner, eh?” He dropped a bundle of papers in front of Sydney.

“
What’s this?” She leaned forward and tugged the bundle onto her lap.

“
Newspapers from St. Louis and St. Charles. I thought you might like to see what’s happening in the world outside of Cheltenham.”

“
Oh! Thank you!” Sydney smiled at her husband. “That’s so thoughtful!”

“
And when you’ve done with them, I’ll give them to Rickard.” Nicolas stuffed his empty satchel into the bottom of his wardrobe.

Sydney glanced at each issue of the
St. Louis Enquirer
and the
St. Charles Missourian.
“There’s a good week’s worth of reading here!”

Nicolas crawled across the bed on his hands and knees until he could whisper in Sydney’s ear, “Tonight?”

“
Are you feeling better, now?” Sydney hugged the papers to her chest.

“
I’m fine,
min presang
. All I need is to be close to you.”

He kissed her earlobe. “To be naked with you.”

He kissed her cheek. “To be so deep inside of you, that I completely lose myself.”

His lips pulled hers in. Sydney lifted his shirt and lightly scratched his skin with her nails, raising gooseflesh. Nicolas tugged her nightgown above her waist. Slipping his hand up her leg. he began to love her with his tender and skillful touch. Moaning into his mouth, Sydney laid back and opened her thighs.

The papers slid, forgotten, to the floor.

October 24, 1821

Cheltenham

Sydney’s tight grasp on his arm betrayed her unease as they climbed the Atherton’s front steps. If asked, Nicolas would have confessed to the same. The last time they saw Lily, she was slinking out of Cheltenham in disgrace.