Adams, Eve - Patience is Their Virtue [Brides of Bachelor Bay 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (18 page)

Several melodramatic gasps sounded, and Patience rolled her eyes.

“What sort of danger is there in protecting their rights?” Constance flashed her eyes at Lizzie and looked ready to start a fight herself.

Lizzie simply sighed. “I see you’ve been swayed by Mr. Petty’s words.”

“He isn’t swaying anyone,” Constance countered. “He is simply informing those who have, up until now, been misinformed.”

“Ignorance is not misinformation,” Patience said, unable to stand Constance’s own ignorance passing as fact. “It is simply that—ignorance, and it shouldn’t be tolerated.”

“Patti, please.” Lizzie gave her a small smile.

Amelia took Patience by the arm and pulled her back. “Do not let her provoke you. She’s doing this for the attention.”

“What kind of attention is she wanting? This is ludicrous.”

“Lizzie will take care of it. She always does.”

Patience sighed. She certainly hoped so.

“Perhaps we should look at this another way,” Olivia, the middle Prescott sister, spoke up. “Constance, you clearly have motivation for your strong feelings about this. I, for one, would be interested to know what has happened to you to warrant this hatred for your fellow man.”

Constance’s jaw fell open as she blinked at Olivia. Lizzie gave her sister a sideways glance and they exchanged quick smiles.

Patience leaned toward Amelia. “Did you know those two were in this together?”

Amelia merely smiled the same smile the other two sisters had just flashed.

Oh, those Prescott girls were good.

“I, well, um, I…” Constance stammered as she attempted to justify her position.

Several of the women standing with Constance looked at her with confusion crinkling their brows.

Barbara, one of the most recently wed brides, took a step away from Constance. “On what basis do you want to drive the Indians from town?”

“Surely one of them has done something to you to merit your stand.” Ruby, one of Constance’s more devout followers, waited for an answer.

“On the words of Miles Petty?” Patience asked, not able to remain silent.

Constance let out a huff. “My business is my business.”

“Not when you are trying to make it everyone else’s business.” Lizzie smiled.

“Ladies, the fact remains that this ordinance is tearing our town apart. Whether we support it or not, some, if not most of our husbands support it. If it passes, what’s to stop them from banning woman from town? Or children?” Patience asked.

“It would never come to that,” Constance assured her.

“How do you know?”

“Miles would never take it to that level.”

That comment burrowed under Patience’s skin. “But the level he is taking it now is acceptable?”

“What happened to you, Patti?” Constance shook her head and crinkled her brow in mock concern. “Marriage has changed you.”

“For the better, I assure you.”

“Not from what I see.”

Of all the nerve.
Patience knew better than to engage in this petty argument with Constance, but she couldn’t stop herself. “I’m married to a wonderful man who loves me. I have a family and will fight to the death to defend them.”

Constance spiked her dark brow as her emerald eyes glimmered. “Them?”

Patience closed her eyes and let out a long breath.
Oh no.
In her haste to prove Constance Kendall wrong, she didn’t even think about what she was about to say until it slipped out. Fear and irritation sparked heat into her cheeks.

“Oh, my Lord,” Constance murmured as comprehension sank into her expression, brightening it. “That savage who follows him around. I see it now.”

Shaking her head, Patience whispered in desperation, “No, you see nothing.”

“Those eyes.”

“Constance, this is none of your business.” Dread fed her anxiety, pulling it to the surface.

She ignored Patience, and her smile widened as she put it all together and announced it for everyone else.
The witch.
“I knew there was something wrong with Adam Steele.”

The hairs on her arms and neck stood on end. “There is nothing wrong with him.”

“Why, of course there is. Although I don’t believe he’s full blood like his manservant. How are they related, precisely? Cousins? No, they must be brothers.”

Anger threatened to cause Patience to throw propriety aside and unleash on Constance. She doubled up her fists and shook her head. “Don’t.”

She practically cried with delight as she delivered the final blow. “Adam Steele is a half-breed. Of course! It’s perfectly obvious now. All this time, I wondered why I couldn’t turn his head, but now I know. A savage like him would never find an upstanding woman of society, such as myself, suitable. He’d rather have a woman with morals equal to his.”

Several of the women gasped.

“How dare you!” Amelia jumped forward, but Olivia and Lizzie held her back. “You are nothing short of the devil, Constance Margaret Kendall.”

Constance laughed, and the shrill sound rang in Patience’s ears, sending a crawling of annoying chills across her skin. Patience’s gaze moved across the room at all of the sets of eyes staring at her. She trembled as rage mixed with raw sorrow twisted inside her.

She dropped her attention to her hands in front of her, and she wrung them until they ached. Patience kept her gaze hidden as best she could, but the heat of Constance’s glare burned into her neck. How could she have been so foolish? A simple slip like that would run rampant in the hands of the likes of Constance Kendall.

“Ladies, let’s return to the matter at hand.” Lizzie pulled everyone’s attention back to her.

“I do believe I’ve had my say.” Constance nodded her farewell and went to the front door.

“Where are you going?” Patience had already started toward her.

“I must pay a visit to a friend.”

Patience knew better. Constance was about to find Miles Petty and tell him about Adam.

She had to stop her.

“Constance, please. Don’t do this.”

But she simply smiled, those green eyes shimmering with maliciousness, and walked out of the inn.

“I must go,” Patience stated and grabbed her cover.

Amelia stopped her with her hand on Patience’s arm. “Stay.”

“But Constance is going to tell everyone.”

“Then let her,” Lizzie said.

Patience blinked at her. “Excuse me?”

“Patti, you can’t stop her.”

“I must try.”

“And then what? Will you be able to stop her tomorrow? Or the next day?”

Patience closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath as the despair took over. She’d ruined her husband. He’d lose his seat as Mayor of Port Steele, and that terrible ordinance would pass. He and Raven would be run out of town. He’d never forgive her.

No doubt Constance would run straight to Miles Petty and inform him of Patience’s loose tongue. It wouldn’t take much convincing. Adam and Raven had such similarities between them.

She collapsed down in the closest chair and buried her face in her hands. Her perfect life. Gone with one slip of the tongue.

“I wouldn’t worry about her,” Barbara said and moved to Patience’s side. “Constance is just upset that you have everything she wants.”

Patience blinked back her tears as she lifted her gaze to Barbara. “I do?”

“Of course.” Amelia sat down on the arm of the chair and wrapped her arms around Patience.

“And that is?”

“Power,” Lizzie answered. “Constance is looking to attach herself to the most powerful man in all of Port Steele. Adam Steele was clearly one of the top choices. When you married him, she deemed that as a personal threat against her. You, Patience Steele, have everything she’s ever wanted. Money. Power. Men who love you.”

Patience swallowed thickly as Lizzie offered her a knowing smile. She then whipped her gaze to Olivia, who gave the same smile. Just how many women knew about her choice to love two men? Did they share the same desires?

“So why don’t I feel like the winner in all of this?”

“It will work itself out,” Amelia assured her with a pat of her hand.

“I certainly hope so.” Patience stood. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to make my way home now. You already know how I feel about the ordinance.”

“Of course.” Lizzie nodded at her. “Rest assured, Patti. Constance is swiftly gaining more enemies than friends. If she continues down this path, her only option will be to marry Miles Petty, and I don’t think he’s terribly fond of her to begin with.”

Patience thanked her and left before any of the other women shot accusatory glares her way. The rain had settled into a frigid drizzle that soaked everything it came into contact with. She shivered as she hurried down the long path in front of the inn and turned down the muddy street toward her house.

Why hadn’t she taken Raven up on his offer to escort her in the coach? She lifted her skirts and hurried as fast as she could without breaking out into a sprint toward her home.

Panic urged her to push through the mud even though her legs burned, her lungs burned, and her conscience burned. She had to reach him before anyone else.

Like Miles Petty.

She didn’t slow until she slammed the front door behind her. Raven hurried out of the back office, looking mad enough to chew glass. His dark eyes blazed at her.

“Where have you been?”

“I hurried home as fast as I could,” she said, panting to catch her breath.

“Not fast enough.”

“Raven.” Her eyes filled with tears of sorrow, of regret. “I’m so sorry.”

“I’m not the one you owe your apology to.”

“Is that Patience?” Adam’s clipped voice sounded from his office.

“Yes, sir.” Raven narrowed his eyes on her.

“Bring her in, please.”

“Let’s go,” he growled, his voice so cold, so unkind.

She kept her head down as she slowly made her way into the office to face her husband.

“Hello, Mrs. Steele.”

She whipped her gaze over to Miles Petty. Beside him stood Constance Kendall, looking quite pleased with herself. But that wasn’t the worst of it. The entire town council sat in the room. As she walked in, every set of eyes snapped to her. Not one of them had a kind look for her.

Oh, no.
No, no, no
.
She was too late.

“Ms. Kendall brought something to my attention,” Miles started.

Constance lifted her chin and offered each of the town council members her most flirtatious smile. “I felt it was my duty to uncover the truth, you see. I’m simply beside myself that you’d keep a secret from me, Patti.”

Patience took a breath to say something, but Raven reached behind her and squeezed her arm to silence her. She held her tongue and continued to glare at Constance.