Ana Seymour (10 page)

It was the first reference to the circumstances of her
relationship with Sean all evening, and, coming from one of his best friends, it made Kate decidedly uncomfortable. “I’m quite content with my husband, thank you,” she said quietly. She wished he would go away.

Charles gave a wobbly nod. “Well spoken. Like a proper, dutiful wife. Which is more than he deserves, I would say, the lucky bugger.”

He leaned close to her, the smell of liquor overpowering on his breath. Kate slid along the balustrade trying to increase the distance between them. “I think you’ve had too much to drink, tonight, Mr. Raleigh. It might be time for you to go home.”

He ignored her comment. “I used to tell him that when he’d go off to meet you up in the mountains. Such a lucky bastard to have found a sweet little nugget like you to while away his time.” He gave a leering smile. “I tried to get him to arrange your sister for me, but he said she was too starchy, not the roll-inthe-hay type. You, however, sweet Kate, were easy prey, weren’t you? Sean didn’t even have to try very hard.”

The heavy supper that had made her uncomfortable earlier threatened to erupt from her stomach entirely. Kate swallowed back pure bile. “You’re drunk, Mr. Raleigh,” she said coldly. “I have to ask you to get away from me.”

“Aw, sweet Kate. Now you’ve hurt my feelings. C’mon and give me a little kiss to make up for it.” He launched himself toward her and almost fell as she jumped out of his way.

“What the hell!” Sean came through the door and walked angrily over to them. “What are you doing, Raleigh?”

Charles blinked his eyes as if trying to clear away the haze. He put both hands on the stone railing to hold himself upright. “I’m blotto, Sean. Could you help me get to my carriage?”

Sean looked at Kate. “Is everything all right here?”

She crossed her arms and rubbed her hands up and down her shoulders, feeling cold, but she nodded.

“I’ll be right back,” Sean said, throwing Charles’ arm around his neck. “Just let me turn this souse over to his family.”

Kate leaned back against the carved stone, her expression unreadable. “Yes,” she said. “Please get him out of here.”

Even after they’d made tender love when they’d arrived home in the predawn hour following the dance, Kate was too embarrassed and upset to tell Sean what Charles had said to her. Of course, the man had been drunk, and was therefore perhaps unaccountable for his words, but they’d been said and she’d heard them. Nothing could alter that.

Had Sean really confided such a thing to his friend when they were in the mountains? Had he thought that she was an easy and loose woman, suitable for a quick romp while he was in town, and nothing more? The way he’d left her so abruptly would tend to validate Charles’ account. But he had, after all, come back for her, though it was months later. If he’d once thought her a trivial light o’ love, he must have changed his mind somewhere along the way. He’d come for her with a ring, ready to propose marriage. The memory was enough to allow her to block out his friend’s cruel words and welcome him into her arms.

They’d stayed in bed most of the lazy Sunday, bringing Caroline in to join them around noon when Sean had a tray of breakfast sent up to them.

For the second time, a Nob Hill gathering had ended disastrously for her, but for the moment, Kate tried to forget about the rest of the world and concentrate on her little girl and her husband. Late in the afternoon, they got dressed while Caroline napped, then took her and Nonny for a drive down to the wharf, where they supped on freshly caught shrimp.

It was a happy day, almost enough to erase the distasteful moments with Charles Raleigh. But the next morning when Sean left early for work, Kate once again felt the uncertainty creeping over her. She’d been accepted, even admired, by the Nob Hill elite, but it would never truly be her world. There would always be someone to remind her that she was not “one of them.”

Sean slammed shut the big ledger and pushed it to the back of his desk. Clarence Applewhite would go over all the numbers anyway, so what was the point?

He was unusually restless this morning, and he knew it was because he’d been avoiding having the conversation with his father for too long. It was odd. There’d been times that he’d been accused of having a glib tongue that could charm the claws off a grizzly, but when it came to talking with his own father, he seemed to feel as if he were still a stammering eightyear-old.

Of course, it didn’t help matters that Patrick Flaherty was
always
busy when he was at work. Sean could have spoken to him at home, but then there would be
the possibility of interruption by his mother, and he wasn’t about to risk that.

Surprisingly, his father was alone in his office. He was reading a thick stack of papers, shipping documents it appeared, but laid them down and looked up with a smile when Sean gave a light knock, then entered.

“Ah, it’s my boy. I didn’t see you at breakfast this morning.”

“No, ah. I slept later than normal.”

“Don’t look embarrassed, lad. You’re a newlywed with a beautiful young wife. I’d expect no less of you.” He gave a conspiratorial wink.

The topic, coming from his father, made Sean uncomfortable, but he decided to use it as his opemng. “That’s what I wanted to discuss with you, Father,” he said, sitting in the chair opposite his father.

Patrick had picked up the papers again after his greeting. He held them ready in his hands. “What is it, son?”

As usual, Sean had the distinct feeling that he’d have a measured amount of time to say his piece and then his father would be off to the next item on the agenda. “It’s the fact that I’m now a married man with a wife and daughter.”

“Caroline’s a sweet little colleen,” Patrick interrupted.

“Yes, she is. They both are, and I’d like to be able to provide a home for them.”

Patrick gave a jerk of surprise that made his spectacles slide down his nose. He reached up and took them off. “The Flaherty mansion’s not good enough?”
he asked. “Lord, I thought your mother was the fussy one.”

Sean shook his head. “Of course it’s good enough. But it’s not
our
home. I’d like to be able to have a place where Kate and I could raise Caroline by ourselves. A small place,” he added hastily.

Patrick set the papers down again on the desk and looked out the window at the harbor. “You want a house.just like that?” His disapproval was obvious in his tone.

“Well…I’d need your help to acquire something. I don’t think I’d have enough…”

“When I first came to California, I lived in an abandoned barn. Made my bed right in one of the horse stalls.”

Sean felt his irritation rising, but he made an effort to stay calm. “Would you like me to raise Caroline in a horse stall?”

Patrick looked back at his son. “No. But it seems to me you and your family have got a pretty nice roof over your heads. I don’t understand what the complaint is.”

Sean let a stream of air out through his nose. “I just want to be on my own.”

Patrick looked thoughtful. “Well, then, work for it, lad. I’ve not been too demanding when you’ve spent more of your time off drinking with your friends than concentrating on business. I figured, he’s young-let him sow his wild oats. But if you want things in this life, you have to be willing to earn them.”

“I’m not afraid of work,” Sean protested. “I just never seem to have any.”

Patrick looked skeptical. He took the stack of papers
he’d been reading and pushed them in Sean’s direction. “Here’s a start.”

Sean looked at them blankly. “What am I supposed to do with them?”

Patrick snorted. “Learn!” He made a gesture that encompassed his office and out the window to the Flaherty Enterprises ships in the harbor beyond. “I got all this by learning…and by working.”

Sean had heard it before. In fact, most of his conversations with his father through the years had concerned how hard his father had had to work to reach where he was today. It always made him edgy. Only the thought of Kate kept him from giving in to his overwhelming impulse to throw the papers back down on his father’s desk and leave.

“If I start taking on more duties here at the office, will you help me get a house for my family?” he asked, getting back to the original topic.

Patrick hesitated. “Show me you deserve it, Sean. Then we’ll see.”

Sean felt as if he were going to be sick. Show me, boy. How often had he heard it over the years? Show me that you’re good enough to be the son of the amazing Patrick Flaherty. The rich, successful Mr. Flaherty.

He laid the papers carefully on his father’s desk. “On second thought, don’t worry about it, Father,” he said. “I’ll figure things out my own way.”

Then he stood up and left.

K
ate was surprised and disappointed when Sean didn’t come home for supper. After the pleasant Sunday they’d had, she’d been hoping for a nice long evening together to help further dispel the doubts that crept into her mind every time she thought about Charles Raleigh’s terrible words.

As she endured another dinner alone with his parents, she tried to be understanding about his absence. She knew that dealing with them was a trial for Sean. Things would be so much better once they were established in their own home.

She put Caroline down for the night with a little sigh of relief. The baby was occupying more and more of her time each day, which Kate didn’t mind in the least, but it wore her out occasionally. Caroline’s afternoon naps were becoming increasingly shorter, and often in the morning she didn’t want to take one at all. She’d become so proficient at crawling that she could scoot all the way across the nursery and out into the hall in the time it took Kate to fold her crib blanket. Any day now she’d take her first tottering steps.

Kate smiled and gently shut the door to the nursery. She wished Jennie could see her, she thought with a pang. By the time her sister saw Caroline again, she’d be so big she wouldn’t recognize her. Of course, by now, Jennie might have a little one of her own on the way. And Kate would not hear the news until the undependable mail arrived from over the mountains. Though perhaps Carter would be kind enough to send a wire. Jennie was far too frugal for such extravagance.

The memories of home gave her a bittersweet warmth as she walked downstairs and made her way into the library. She’d determined that along with her new high-class image, she was going to spend some time each day reading to improve her mind. Of course, this was not new. There had always been reading in the Sheridan household when she was growing up. Usually the whole family read together, gathered around the little fireplace in the parlor. Kate missed those close family times. She missed the sharing. Sharing was definitely not a priority in the Flaherty home.

But Caroline was flourishing, and Sean was a tender husband in bed, if not so much out of it. As soon as they were in their own place, everything would be different. She needed to open the cookie jar and count her blessings, as her mother used to say.

“There you are,” Sean said, walking into the room. She was dismayed to see that he was a little unsteady on his feet.

He crossed over to her and leaned down to kiss her on the mouth. His breath smelled of liquor, evoking unpleasant memories of the night with Charles Raleigh. But this was not Charles, this was Sean, her
husband, who had spent much of yesterday making tender love to her. “I was hoping you’d be home early today,” she said. “I missed you.”

He grinned at her. “I missed you, too. That’s why I left Charles and Harold in the middle of a game to flee to your side.” He plopped down beside her on the sofa. “To your lovely side,” he added, running his hand along the side of her breast.

She moved back. “You’ve been drinking.”

His grin turned silly. “Just a little. They say it makes the beast come out in a man, have you heard that, my lovely wife?”

She shook her head, unsure how to react. This was a totally different man from the one with whom she’d spent such a happy day yesterday.

“I’m feeling the beast a little right now,” he said. His hand slid to capture her breast, none too gently, and he pressed her back against the cushions and kissed her. She pushed on his chest.

“Please, Sean. I think you’ve had too much to drink tonight.”

He let her go immediately and flopped back toward the other end of the sofa. “I think you’re right,” he said morosely. “I don’t know why you put up with me, Kate.”

“Because I love you,” she said instantly.

He closed his eyes, shaking his head. “Poor Katie. She’s m love with a worthless sot.”

Kate was alarmed. His voice was full of selfloathing. She’d never seen him this way. “You’re just tired,” she said. “And I think it’s difficult to balance
things out with me and your parents. When we get our own home, things will be better.”

He gave a harsh laugh. “Do you like barns, my darling Kate? Do you think Caroline would enjoy sleeping in a pile of hay?”

He wasn’t making any sense. “We need to get you up to bed,” she said.

He pushed away her hands as she leaned forward to help him up. “There will be no home of our own, Kate. We’re not going anywhere. We’re going to stay here the rest of our lives listening to my mother prattle and my father pontificate.”

“But you said-”

“I say lots of things, but the truth is, we’ll have a home only when my father decides to open his purse strings. Which he’s not inclined to do at the moment. Perhaps he never will be.”

Kate remained silent for a long moment, then said, “I take it you talked this over with him?”

Sean squinted at her as if trying to focus his eyes. “You don’t talk things over with my father. He tells you what will happen and you listen.”

She frowned. “If it’s money, perhaps with Nonny watching Caroline, I could get a job. Jennie did it in Vermillion.”

“Oh, that’s a wonderful idea.” His voice dripped with sarcasm. “Wouldn’t my mother love that tale for her Nob Hill friends? Sean’s
wife
has to work to keep them out of the cattle stalls.”

Kate bit her lip. “You’re in no shape to discuss this tonight. Let me take you up to bed.”

Once again he pushed her away, but this time he
lurched to his feet. Looking down at her, he said, “I shall take myself up to bed, Kate. That, at least, is one thing I can do.”

Then he turned and walked carefully out of the room.

“He’s your son, Patrick. You speak to him.” Harriet had made one of her rare appearances in her husband’s bedroom, though the purpose had nothing to do with marital relations.

“I’m sorry, Harriet, but I don’t see the problem. The boy’s enjoying his wife. It’s a normal, healthy response.”

“Day and night,” she said with a huff. “Yesterday they stayed in bed
all day.
And were shameless enough to let the servants see them there.”

“The Wellington party lasted all night. Everyone slept in yesterday.”

Harriet ignored his argument. “He comes home from work and they go
straight
to the bedroom. It’s a disgrace.”

Patrick chuckled and removed his robe to slide into his bed. “There was a time when we’d head
straight
to the bedroom the minute I returned home, Harriet. It’s too bad you’ve forgotten those days. Leave the children alone.”

“They’re not children. Before you know it she’ll be in the family way again and then.”

“Then, what? They should have a dozen kids if they want. I always regretted that Sean was an only child. It made for a lonely life for him.”

Harriet’s expression was malevolently thoughtful.
“If she has another one, he’ll really be stuck with her.”

Patrick sat up in bed. “He’s married to her, Harriet. Whether they have one or twenty children. It’s time you got the notion out of your head that this is some temporary whim of his.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time he had a whim and later changed his mind,” she argued.

“Well, a marriage is not a whim. And I don’t think he’s going to change his mind. Just today he came into my office asking how he could go about getting a separate house for them to live in.”

“A separate house? They want to move out of here?”

“Evidently. I told him he’d have to work a little harder, but then I’d see about helping him, which made him go off in a huff, of course. But he’ll get over it. I found it rather encouraging. It’s about time the boy takes some responsibility for his life.”

Harriet was not listening. “She wants to get him off by herself, I suspect. Cement her claim.”

“She’s his wife, Harriet,” he said again. “That’s cement enough. Now do you want to climb in here next to me or are you going to go to your room and let me get some sleep?”

She bent toward him and sent a kiss in the vicinity of his cheek. “I’ll let you rest, Patrick. You’ve been working too hard lately. I think you’re right, it’s time you let Sean take on a little more responsibility.”

“I just hope I can get him to take more interest in the shipping business.”

Harriet’s face brightened. “There! You see, if he
weren’t so keyed up about getting home to his mountain woman every day, he might get more involved in the business.”

Patrick gave a heavy sigh. “Leave them
alone,
Harriet. He’s content with her. They’re going to have a long and happy life together.”

She made a grimace, then turned to leave. But as she walked up the hall to her room, she muttered under her breath. “A long and happy life? We’ll just see about that.”

Sean had already left by the time Kate finished with Caroline in the morning and went down for breakfast. She hadn’t slept well after their encounter the previous evening. It had been unsettling to see him in that state, not only inebriated, but so obviously unhappy. When she thought of the carefree young man she’d met over a year and a half ago, she had a sick feeling that she’d brought nothing but misery to his life

The only thing that kept her trying to work things out was the knowledge that even when he’d tried to forget her all those months in San Francisco, he’d been unable to. He hadn’t been able to live without herhe’d come back for her.

She sighed and decided to return to the library to finish the book she’d abandoned last night when Sean had appeared. Her mother had always told her that improving the mind was the best remedy for a sad heart.

To her surprise, Harriet was in the library, sitting at the little corner desk going through some papers. “Oh,
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you,” Kate said, beginning to back out the door.

“Kate dear, please come in. The post has arrived and there’s a letter for you from home.”

Harriet looked up at her from above a pair of spectacles that made her look like the teacher Kate had despised when the Sheridans had come down from the mountains and she and Jennie had attended school for the first time. She walked across the room toward her mother-in-law and extended her hand for the letter, but Harriet continued holding it, turning it over in her hand. “I imagine you miss your family, don’t you, Kate?”

Kate nodded, dropped her hand to her side and waited. She wasn’t about to let Harriet see how eager she was for news from Vermillion.

Harriet gave the envelope another turn. “From your brother-in-law, it appears. Carter Jones, from Harvard, I believe you said?” She nodded at Kate to take the chair across from her.

Sitting, Kate tried once again to tamp down her impatience. Something about her mother-in-law’s expression was making her uneasy. “Do you know what the letter’s about?” she asked.

Harriet shook her head. “No, but I thought this might be a good time to give you this
other
letter. I’m sure that now that you’re established here, you’ll want to thank your sister.”

Kate was totally mystified. “Thank Jennie?”

“For summoning Sean.” Setting aside the new letter from Carter, Harriet pushed a piece of paper across the desk. Kate’s fingers shook as she picked it up.

It was dated the previous May. Jennie’s familiar handwriting scrawled down the page.
“Your daughter is now six months old and if you have any desire at all to see her, I think you should not delay in returning.”
The paper dropped from Kate’s fingers.

“My dear, you look shocked,” Harriet said with a false note of concern. “So I was right? You didn’t know that Jennie had told Sean about the baby?”

Kate could not open her mouth to answer She shook her head.

“He was in turmoil over it all summer, trying to decide what to do,” Harriet said. “Finally his father practically forced him to go back and see you. Of course, both Patrick and I were delighted to hear that he’d decided to own up to his responsibilities and give little Caroline a name.” She leaned forward and adopted a mournful expression. “These are difficult moments for parents, Kate, when their children stray from the path. But I’m proud of how Sean did his duty.”

Kate tried to take in a breath and the effort made her give a kind of gasping cough.

Harriet stood up in alarm. “Are you all right, dear? Shall I get you some water?”

It felt as if the blood had drained entirely from her face. If she didn’t get some air, Kate was quite sure that for the first time in her life, she would faint. And she wasn’t about to give Harriet that satisfaction. She pushed herself up out of the chair and took a deep, gulping breath. “I don’t need any water, thank you,” she said when she could manage.

“Goodness me, I hope I haven’t upset you. I just thought…”

“If you’ll excuse me, Harriet, I need to get back up to my baby.”

She turned to make her way across the room, but stopped when Harriet spoke again. “Don’t forget your brother-in-law’s letter, dear.”

Her eyes blurred with tears, she turned and snatched the unopened envelope from the desk. Then she straightened with all the dignity she could muster and walked out of the room, down the hall and up the huge staircase. By the time she reached her bedroom, the anger was surfacing. She slammed the bedroom door behind her and flopped down onto her bed. Carter’s letter was still in her hand. She looked at it a moment, then threw it aside. She’d been longing for news of home, but now she didn’t even want to open it.

Finally she gave in to the hot tears that had been welling in her throat. Lying on the bed with eyes closed, she let the tears stream down her cheeks, dripping sideways into her hair and ears. She’d stayed dryeyed through all the nastiness of the San Francisco doyennes, but this was too much.

It wasn’t really Jennie’s letter that had left her devastated. She was furious with her big sister, but it wouldn’t be the first time that Jennie had meddled in Kate’s life, trying to do things she thought were best. What hurt now was Sean’s deceit. And the discovery that, after all, he hadn’t come back for
her.
He’d come back for
his child.

He’d never said he loved her. And now she knew why. It was because he didn’t. Looking at the way
Sean’s parents were toward each other, she wondered if he would ever be able to love. He loved Caroline, of that she was sure. But loving one’s own child is as natural as breathing. Even the self-centered Harriet appeared to love her only son. But the love of a man and a woman was something else. With her own loving parents as an example, it had been easy for Kate to fall in love with Sean. Though she’d wanted to believe otherwise, it appeared that he’d never truly been in love with her. He’d left her, and if it hadn’t been for Jennie’s letter, she would never have seen him again.