Adams, Eve - Patience is Their Virtue [Brides of Bachelor Bay 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (11 page)

“Adam!”

Her husband came running out of the office, took one look at her, and paled as he ran over. “What happened?”

“They were so unkind,” she cried and held onto him as he wrapped her in his arms. “Oh, Adam. They are saying such awful things about me.”

He stiffened and pushed her back to look her in the eye. “Who?”

“Mr. Bartlett, the owner of that mercantile. And then Logan Gallagher walked in and only made it worse. I’ve never been so humiliated.”

He pulled her back to him and kissed her forehead. “Raven, ready my coach. We are taking a trip into town.”

He couldn’t remember ever being so damned angry, and he’d been angry enough to kill before. This, however, warranted another action. He wouldn’t use his hands. This time, he’d use everything in his power to make sure Jack Bartlett and anyone else who had an unkind word to say said it to his face. And when they did, saying it would be the last thing they’d ever do in this town.

The coach barely came to a stop and Adam was out, pulling Patience with him. “I really don’t think this is a good idea.”

“Nonsense. You came to purchase material for dresses. I’m here to see that you are treated with the respect due my wife. Nothing less.” The annoying rain beat down onto his coat, running off in large streams and soaking through his pants. He hated the rain. If it weren’t for the beauty of the land when the sun broke through the clouds, he would have packed up and moved away long ago.

After today, he may still do just that.

They splashed through the mud and up onto the wooden sidewalk. He threw the door open and stepped inside, keeping Patience close to him.

Logan Gallagher stood on the outside of the counter as Jack Bartlett stacked a flour sack full of items next to it. They both paused and looked at him as he walked toward them.

“Mr. Steele,” Jack greeted with a charming smile. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Patience tensed and buried her face against his shoulder, which only fueled his anger. “I can’t say the same.”

He darted his gaze to Patience and clenched his jaw as he put up his hand. “Now, before you start in, I have something to say.”

“Not before I have my say,” Adam growled evenly, laboring his breathing to control the fury pumping through his system.

“Hold your tongue, Adam.” Logan, who had been leaning on the counter, stood and nodded at Jack with a grin meant to ease Adam’s fury. “Jack simply had his facts wrong.”

Patience squeezed his arm and moved behind him. He felt her shaking against him and that only angered him more. With a burning glare, he nailed Jack to the spot. “You upset my wife.”

“I’m truly sorry. Please, allow me to apologize to Mrs. Steele.”

Adam narrowed his gaze. Patience stepped out from behind him and held her chin high as she bravely met Jack’s gaze. His opinion of his sprite of a wife jumped exponentially. He held her hand as she waited.

What a woman.

“Mrs. Steele, I was wrong. Dreadfully wrong. I implore you, please forgive me for having such a foolish tongue.”

“What changed your opinion of me in an hour’s time?” Her voice didn’t even shake as she spoke, and Adam’s pride in her soared.

Logan spoke up. “I was on my way to the inn when I saw Mrs. Steele in here, so I thought I’d stop by and see how her first public appearance as Mrs. Adam Steele was going.”

“Not well, from what I hear.” Although Jack had apologized, Adam still felt the need to hurt someone for making his wife cry. No one had the right to be the cause of her tears, not even him.

“I’m afraid I fell victim to the local gossips,” Jack explained. “Logan set me straight, and once I realized my mistake, I had every intention of paying a visit to apologize right away. But then you walked in and, well, here you are.”

Adam drew in a breath to tell him exactly what he could do with his apology, but Patience rested her hand on his arm and offered him a gentle smile that warmed her eyes. He frowned, baffled that she could find it in her heart to forgive so easily.

“You hurt me, Mr. Bartlett.” Patience stepped out from Adam’s protection and faced the source of her tears. “You were cruel and passed judgment without ever having met me.”

“That I did. I can assure you, it will never happen again. Please accept my humble apology.”

“I will,” she told him. She then shook her head. “But not for me. You were defending my husband’s honor vehemently, and for that, I know your intentions were true, despite your brutal delivery.”

Adam whipped his gaze from her to Jack. “What is she talking about?”

Jack reached up and scratched the back of his neck. “It really wasn’t anything worth repeating.”

“He questioned my loyalty to you,” Patience explained when Jack clearly wouldn’t. “In his opinion, as well as the town’s, it seems, I married you for your money. He was simply protecting you. It takes a brave man to stand up for what he believes.”

From the shocked look on his face, the way she explained it painted a softer picture than how he must have truly delivered the message. He nodded gratefully at her and then offered a smile. She nodded in return.

He didn’t like it. He’d come here to force Jack into an apology. Instead, the man had beaten him to it. On top of that, he had Patience complimenting him over it. The world had surely gone mad.

“I had started to pull out my finest fabrics to bring to you, some straight from Paris. Perhaps I can interest you in a green silk. It would offset your lovely red hair beautifully. Or a pale blue cotton that matches your eyes perfectly.”

She darted a quick glance to Adam, and the smile she gave him warmed him from his scalp to his toes and flooded heat to his loins. He’d never seen such a striking smile. It not only lit up her pale eyes, it brightened the entire room.

“Thank you,” she whispered, the depth of her eyes swirling with thick emotion.

He covered her hand with his and continued to stare into her eyes, losing himself in the love reflecting in them.

“I definitely stand corrected,” Jack said and broke the spell.

Adam blinked and tossed him a skeptical look. “About?”

“She is as lost in you as you are in her.”

Olivia Bartlett’s Journal, Monday, April 3, 1865

Port Steele, Washington Territory

My little sister, Amelia, tells me that our dear friend Patience Weber is now Patience Steele. What on Earth possessed her to marry a man like Adam Steele, I’ll never understand. She seemed to have a better head on her shoulders than that. But, then again, perhaps living at the inn with Constance Kendall was a far worse fate. Jack tells me that they are surely in love, but I have my doubts. I’ve never trusted Mr. Steele. Let us pray that having Patience as his bride will surely turn the mayor from the man he is currently into the man he should be.

 
“Will you have time to fashion yourself a new dress before the town council meeting?” Adam eyed her skirts for the umpteenth time before glancing down at his pocket watch. He then snapped it closed. “You have two hours.”

Patience gave Raven a quick glance and widened her eyes. He narrowed his in return. When she shook her head ever so slightly, Adam caught the gesture and tilted his head as he studied her.

“Don’t tell me. You don’t know how to sew.”

Heat crept up her neck. Every woman should know how to sew, and she could, to an extent, but only to sew up holes and apply patches. “I’ve done my share, but never to complete an entire dress. I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

Adam audibly growled and shook his head. “How is it you’ve made it all this time as a woman without learning such an obvious trade?”

Another dig at her gender. She couldn’t please this man unless they were naked. The look of sheer arrogance on his handsome face fueled her irritation. “I would wield a needle and thread with expertise if it meant using it on your condescending mouth.”

His gaze darkened as it swallowed her. “Is that so?”

Patience restrained her smile as the coach came to a stop and Raven stepped out. He opened the whalebone umbrella before reaching inside the coach to help her out. The rain beat down against the canopy as they hurried inside.

“Does it ever stop raining here?” She handed him her cover.

“Occasionally, but I happen to like the wet.” Obvious sexual undertones hung between them, heating her and charging the air until it crackled.

Adam pushed into the house behind them, shaking the rain from his hair. “Thank you for leaving me to drown.”

Raven’s lip twitched as he took his employer’s coat. “I do apologize, sir.”

“See that it doesn’t happen again.”

“Yes, sir.”

He turned to Patience, his heated expression dark and full of hidden meaning.
Oh, what an interesting look, if not a bit unsettling.

“And for you, my wife, I’d like to take you in the study.”

Her breath caught at his brazen admission. A whimper escaped her throat when he took a step toward her, that fire in his gaze burning with a need that she felt growing inside her.

“I have a few things to tend to first. Go to the study, Mrs. Steele. Try to keep yourself out of trouble until I arrive.”

She dropped her jaw at his arrogance. Determination set her jaw as she glared at him. “I believe I’ll go lay down instead.”

He spiked his brow, and embarrassment smacked her cheeks.
What a terrible choice of words.
With each touch of his gaze, each wicked gleam in his eyes, Patience lost a little more of her resistance to him.

“The study,” he ordered.

“I’ll be in my room.” She turned to the stairs.

He grabbed her arm and whipped her back to him, holding her against him. Those eyes glowed as they imprisoned her.

Leaning down, he rested his lips a breath away from hers and whispered, “The study. I won’t ask again.”

“Perhaps this conversation can continue somewhere other than the
open
foyer.” Raven’s voice broke them of their tense spell. Patience pushed back and looked first at Raven, and then at Adam.

That roguish twinkle in his eyes tempted her. Dear Lord, he was handsome. Mouthwatering. Addictive.

“The study,” he repeated.

“I’ll see that she finds something to keep her occupied in the study until you can join.” Raven then waved his arm to have Patience lead the way.

With a steady breath, she walked into the study and turned as Raven closed the doors behind him. He held that same wicked glimmer in his gaze that Adam had been using against her.

That same glimmer.

Those eyes.

In an attempt to regain some of her control, Patience focused on the resemblances between Adam and Raven instead of her undeniable need for them both to touch her and ease this constant ache between her legs.

“Tell me, how long have you known Adam?” The walls had bookshelves that reached clear to the ceiling, and she glided over to one of the cases to give her hands something to do and so she wouldn’t throw propriety aside to attack Raven as he stood at the doors, watching her.