Deborah Camp (36 page)

The maid bobbed like a cork. “ ’Tis a pleasure, Mrs. Lonewolf.”

Mr. Lancaster retrieved a cup of coffee that he must have been enjoying before Elise’s arrival. He sat in the other chair beside hers.

“As you know, Mr. Lancaster, this isn’t a social visit. Can we get down to business, please? I have chores at home I need to be tending to.” She flashed a mischievous grin at Nicole. “Eggs to gather, butter to churn, bread to bake. Honest work.”

Nicole covered her smiling mouth with one hand and retreated to a corner.

“The Wellbys will be out in a minute, I’m sure. They know you’ve arrived,” the solicitor said.

Elise sipped her tea. “They may make their grand entrance any time,” she said in a louder voice that would carry to the bedroom. “We’re all in our appointed places, so let the performance begin!”

Mr. Lancaster hid his smile behind his coffee
cup. “You are a spirited young woman, Mrs. Lonewolf.”

“And a good thing that is,” she responded tartly. “Otherwise I’d be working in a brothel somewhere, after what the Wellbys did to me and my siblings.”

Mr. Lancaster frowned and eyed her dubiously. He opened his mouth to speak, but at that moment the bedroom door creaked open, and Katherine and Shelton Wellby entered as if they were in a processional. They walked straight to the settee, never once looking in Elise’s direction, and Shelton held his wife’s hand as she settled on one end of the furniture. Only then did he take up the other end. Katherine arched a brow and nodded to summon the maid, who came forward and poured tea, then retreated to her post in the corner once again.

Elise tilted her head and leaned forward. Neither Shelton nor Katherine had looked at her or acknowledged her in any way. Exasperated with their rude behavior, Elise waved a hand back and forth, testing for blindness.

“Hello? Have you two lost your senses since I’ve been away? Can you see me, hear me?”

Her grandmother puckered her lips in distaste and brought her gaze to bear on Elise. The old woman’s hooded eyes reminded Elise of an eagle’s.

“I see that your manners have not improved, Elise.”

“Neither have yours,” Elise rejoined, something she would never have done before. She had been taught to respect her grandparents. Although it had always been obvious that the Grandparents Wellby cared little, if anything, for them, Elise’s mother and father had taught their children to show the proper respect for their elders. Considering how the Wellbys had treated Elise since her
parents’ death, she figured she was still treating them with the “proper respect.”

Katherine looked like an icicle in her white gown and with her white hair piled high on her head. Beside her, Shelton was a peacock in a blue suit, shirt and red cravat. He had plastered his hair against his scalp with shoe-black, his vanity refusing him to be seen in public with white hair. He was four years younger than Katherine and had always thrown it up to her. Her family had left her a more sizable inheritance, and the Hoffmans were on a higher rung of society’s ladder, but Shelton would always be younger and, he thought, better-looking.

“I will get straight to the point,” Katherine said. “We have been inconvenienced and embarrassed by you.”

“By me?” Elise spread a hand above her breasts. “How, pray tell, have I accomplished that?”

“By having lies printed about us in the Baltimore newspaper,” Katherine replied archly. “And don’t pretend that you aren’t solidly behind the articles your friend’s cousin has printed.”

Donetta
, Elise thought with a little thrill. What else had her friend been up to?

“I’ve been corresponding with Donetta Peterson,” Elise admitted. “She’s been concerned about my welfare.”

“You don’t seem any the worse for wear,” Shelton observed, lounging back on the settee, legs crossed, teacup and saucer in hand. A gold-and-ruby ring sparkled on his left pinkie.

Elise said nothing, preferring to stare coldly at them while she waited for them to voice the reason for the meeting. Surely they hadn’t come all this way to chastise her for contributing information,
however indirectly, to the newspaper! No. Something else was on their narrow, little minds.

“We want these items in the newspaper stopped and we want a statement of retraction.” Katherine Wellby set the teacup into the saucer firmly to emphasize her demand. “We will suffer no more embarrassment from you, Elise.”

Elise arched a brow. “Is that so? I believe you’ve met with the wrong person, Katherine.” She used her grandmother’s first name on purpose and was glad for the shock it caused in the room. “You must approach the newspaper editor for a retraction. First, of course, you must be able to prove that what he has printed is incorrect. You may have a difficult time of that, I fear.”

Katherine snapped her fingers. “Mr. Lancaster, show her the newspaper items.”

“My pleasure.” He opened his leather satchel and withdrew a few newspaper clippings, which he handed to Elise. “I’ve underlined the objectionable comments.”

There were four clippings, each pointing out that the Wellbys’ youngest grandchildren had been placed on an orphan train and adopted by strangers in Missouri, and that the eldest, Elise, had been forced into a marriage with a half-breed dirt farmer in order to stay near her siblings.

She passed them back to the solicitor. “All true.”

Shelton Wellby stifled a yawn. “Offer her the settlement, Katherine, so we can be out of this hellhole.”

Settlement? Elise looked from one to the other. Were they going to offer passage back to Baltimore and a house to live in as Blade had predicted?

“I want a peaceful and permanent separation,”
Katherine stated flatly. “Give her the terms, Mr. Lancaster.”

Giles Lancaster cleared his throat and jerked at the knot of his black tie, loosening it. “The Wellbys are offering you a generous sum, Mrs. Lonewolf. You, your sister and brother will each receive an amount specified in this agreement.” He removed a rolled parchment from his satchel. “In exchange for this, Mr. and Mrs. Wellby ask that you immediately cease any further exchanges to the newspaper or to your newspaper source and swear that you will not correspond with the Wellbys or any of their representatives. Also, the Wellbys ask that you write one final missive to the publication to clear up the misunderstandings you have propagated.”

Elise received the document he had unrolled and read it. It seemed that everyone in the room dared not breathe while she considered the terms. The wording was legal, but not difficult to understand. She was being paid to lie.

“You want me to make up a story so you can save face?” she asked, letting go of one end of the document, which curled into a roll again. “You can take this officious paper and choke—”

“Mrs. Lonewolf, might I interrupt to expound on some points before us?” Mr. Lancaster asked, his tone and countenance unruffled. His and Nicole’s were the only friendly faces in the room, but Elise reminded herself that these people were on the Wellbys’ side, not on hers.

“Go ahead,” she said, needing time to tamp down her temper.

“The monetary offer is quite generous, Mrs. Lonewolf. Isn’t this a fair way to terminate an unfortunate, unfruitful relationship? Please remember
that you are answering not only for yourself but also for your younger brother and sister. It is a serious decision, Mrs. Lonewolf, and I urge you to consider carefully before giving your final answer.”

Questions dogged her and she found she couldn’t keep them at bay. Facing the only people who could answer them, she struggled to keep her voice emotionless. “Tell me, did you ever care anything at all for your daughter’s children or her husband?”

Katherine Wellby set her cup and saucer on the tray and waved off Nicole, who moved to pour again. “I loved my daughter, but I never made any pretense of hiding my great disappointment in her marriage.”

“But you chose to support us financially.”

“I would not have my only child live as the wife of a common cobbler,” Katherine said, her upper lip curling. “Shelton and I agreed to maintain an acceptable style of living for Gwendolyn. We bought a house and let her reside in it and gave her an allowance that she spent as she saw fit. All we asked is that she insist that her husband stop practicing his trade in public.”

Elise rolled her eyes, sickened by what these people felt was important, what mattered. Her father had made shoes and they found that occupation vile. A common laborer! Shudders!

“If you loved my mother so much, how could you both turn your backs on her children?”

“Anything that came of that union did not interest us,” Katherine said starchly. “As I stated, we did not approve of or acknowledge
that man
as our son-in-law. Naturally, we were not interested in children he sired.”

“We hoped that Gwendolyn would come to her senses and have the marriage annulled so that she could wed someone suitable,” Shelton said, buffing his nails on his lapel.

“But each child was another heavy chain, keeping her shackled to that ne’er-do-well,” Katherine added, her voice dripping with disdain.

Elise shook her head. “To punish innocent children—
your
grandchildren—it’s despicable.” She wanted badly to throw their offer back into their smug faces, to tell them that money would never buy her silence or make her lie for them, and that she hoped they suffered for their sins.

Mr. Lancaster, as if sensing her temptations, leaned forward, his expression partly pleading, partly encouraging. “Mrs. Lonewolf, will you walk away empty-handed, or with something in hand with which to build a better future for yourself and your brother and sister?”

“What sort of letter must I write to the newspaper?”

“I’ll help you draft it if you wish,” Mr. Lancaster offered. “The Wellbys feel you should discard any belief that you are destitute and grievously unhappy. They want it made clear that your removal from Baltimore was by choice and not by force. They wish you to convey that you and your siblings are living together in harmony.”

She examined the two shallow people on the settee and knew that to ask for anything meaningful or emotional would be like asking the henchman for mercy.

“Since love is out of the question, I suppose that money will have to do,” she said, then dismissed the Wellbys by turning sideways and addressing the solicitor. Solicitor! An idea rang in her head,
clear as a bell. “Mr. Lancaster, I will accept these terms on one condition.”

He glanced nervously at the Wellbys. “And what would that be, Mrs. Lonewolf?”

“Your services, paid by the Wellbys, to clear up a couple of legal matters for me.”

“Do these matters concern the Wellbys or these issues we have addressed this morning?” Mr. Lancaster asked.

“No, and they can be handled quickly. You shouldn’t be detained for more than another day here.”

“Ah, then I see no problem.” He looked at the two people on the settee and must have received an affirmative response, because he extended his hand to Elise. “It’s a deal, Mrs. Lonewolf. I am at your service.”

By the time Elise arrived home, she was bubbling with excitement and the world was bright and shiny to her eyes. She’d seen Blade in the fields as she’d driven the buggy along the road to their house, and she’d waved, signaling him to meet her at the cabin.

Now she paced restlessly on the porch, darting looks from time to time across the flatland in search of him. Where was he? Why didn’t he hurry?

The sun was bright and fooled her eyes, but then she saw a dot, a moving shadow, and she ran off the porch and met Blade at the edge of the fields. Coiling her arms around his neck, she hugged him and kissed his warm lips with such enthusiasm that she knocked his hat askew.

He leaned back and his eyes held a hundred questions. Elise laughed joyously and straightened his hat.

“You’re stuck with me, Blade Lonewolf. What do you have to say about that?”

“What happened in town?” he asked, not yet joining in her jubilation.

She released him, taking one of his hands in hers, and began strolling toward the cabin. “I saw them. They haven’t changed. They’re still cold and distant like the stars.”

“Then why are you so happy?”

“Because they have given us our miracle, Blade.” She smiled at him. “Oh, not by the goodness of their hearts, but through blackmail. But who cares? We’re getting our miracle and they’re getting what they want—for me and Adam and Penny to forget they exist.”

“This makes you happy?”

“Yes, yes!” She danced ahead, then turned to face him while she walked backward. “Blade, they are giving us money to keep our mouths shut about their shabby treatment of us.”

“Who have you been talking to about that?”

“Donetta, my friend. Remember I received a letter from her? Her cousin writes a column for the Baltimore newspaper and has printed what the Wellbys did to us—sending Adam and Penny away on the orphan train and all that.” She pulled at his hands impatiently. “Come to the house and I’ll explain it all to you.”

She hurried him along, up the porch steps and inside the cabin. She whisked off his hat before he could and hung it on its peg by the door.

“Sit, sit,” she ordered with a smile, and she sat in her usual chair to his left. “Remember how we prayed for a miracle last night?”

He nodded. “I remember.”

“Our prayers have been answered,” she announced,
barely able to contain her joy. “Thanks to my stingy grandparents, we can keep this farm, Blade.”

A guarded look came over his face. “What do you mean? How can we keep the farm?”

“By paying off the loan!” She giggled and clutched his hands, which were folded on the table. “They are giving me and Adam and Penny money in exchange for our never darkening their doorstep again or mentioning their names to anyone. My share of the money will pay off the loan, Blade. Their solicitor—the man who was here yesterday? Well, he’s going to look over the original papers and make sure everything is legal and that we won’t be bothered by Judge Mott ever again. And Mr. Lancaster is also going to help us rescind Adam’s adoption. He is confident that with our testimonies of Adam’s inhuman treatment, he can force the judge to relinquish Adam legally.”