Nellie (The Brides of San Francisco Book 1) (14 page)

Nellie didn’t want the tea but her mouth was dry and she needed the moisture. Excited, able to tell him something he obviously didn’t know, she gulped the liquid. “But she is. She told me and unrequited love can be a dangerous catalyst. It will make a person do things they would never do otherwise or wouldn’t have done again.” She knew from reading her thriller novels that people can be pushed only so far. Goodness, she was starting to feel like she was at her wits end and might do Blake harm if he didn’t believe her soon.

“Like push someone in front of a moving carriage, you mean?”

“Yes.” She pointed her finger. “Exactly that.”

Nellie crossed her arms in front of her chest, covered now by a sheet. She still felt naked and she didn’t like it.

“I need to get up. I’ll get all stove up if I don’t move.”

She pulled back the covers and put her legs over the side of the bed.

“I don’t know,” said Blake. “You’ve been through a lot. You’ve some scratches on your face and a lump on your head—”

“Lump? That explains the horrific headache I have.” Her hand flew to the side of her head where her headache was and sure enough, there was a lump the size of a chicken egg under her fingers. She should have felt it when she brushed her hair but her head hurt all over so she didn’t think any more about it.

“Isn’t it getting better now? I put some laudanum in your tea. You should be getting tired, but your headache should have lessened. You can’t possibly get up and try to see the children.”

“Yes, while we have been talking the pain in my head has gotten better. But I still think I should get out of bed. What I really need is to massage some of my cream into my skin. It’ll help the muscles get better, faster.”

“I can do that. Turn over onto your stomach and I’ll get your cream.”

He went to her dressing table and came back with a large white jar.

The rose scent was her favorite. Lots of women liked lavender or lilac, but roses had always been her favorite. With her head resting on the pillow, she was getting a little sleepy. The laudanum was definitely working.

Blake warmed the cream by rubbing it between his hands before putting them on her back.

“You’ve scrapes on your back, too. In fact, you’ve scrapes or bruises everywhere even your face.”

She arched off the bed. “Oh, that hurts.”

He eased up the pressure of his hands on her back. “Is that better?”

“Yes.” She relaxed again. “I tried to cover my face with my arms. That’s why my elbows and forearms are so scraped up. If I hadn’t I would have hit the street face first and it would be my face that looked like that.”

He touched the side of her face. “I’m glad you protected your lovely face. Not that I would have treated you any differently if you’d damaged it. I would feel the same.”

“And how is that? How do you feel about me Blake?”

“I like you a lot. Maybe more than I’ve ever liked a woman before.”

“You like me a lot.” She gently shook her head against the pillow. “I guess that will have to do for now. I don’t think I’ve ever had a man actually like me before. Robert professed to love me, but now, I don’t believe he did. He wanted someone to submit to him and I did, willingly, because I didn’t know any better.”

That Blake liked her was better than nothing. She could build on that. Expecting him to have fallen as hard for her as she had for him was a mistake she wouldn’t make. She couldn’t even say exactly why, but she knew when. He’d let Violet kiss him and pat his face with her wet baby hand without flinching. That was when she fell for Blake Malone. He loved her children. Now if she could just get him to love her, like she did him.

Whether the laudanum was doing its work or she was just feeling the effects of the horrors of yesterday, she was getting sleepy.

“Lay with me Blake. Until I go to sleep. Just lie here with me.”

“Nothing would make me happier than to hold you in my arms. I find I like having you there.”

He put the lid on her jar of cream and set it on the night-stand. Then he dropped his robe by the bedside and crawled in beside her. He was very gentle and carefully took her into his arms.

“You won’t hurt me. I’m fairly resilient, as you can see. Just hold me, Blake.”

He gathered her to him, holding her as gently as he could, but still closing his arms around her and cocooning her in his embrace.

She was so sleepy. So very tired.

“I love you, Blake.”

He brushed the hair back from her forehead, and kissed her softly.

“I know.”

CHAPTER 9

Nellie awoke and gingerly felt her head. The lump was still there, but her head hurt less than it had. What? Yesterday? Had she lost a whole day?

She turned toward Blake and discovered he still slept with her. He hadn’t gone back to his room like she expected him to do once she was asleep.

Grabbing her robe from the end of the bed where she kept it, she tied it around her and walked to her dressing table. Sitting in the chair, she stared at herself in the mirror. She hadn’t managed to protect her face as well as she thought. Her left eye was swollen and blackening, probably something she’d done to herself when she threw her arms up to protect her head. There was also a large scrape on her jaw.

“It’s not as bad as you think,” said a groggy voice from the bed.

“I think it’s pretty bad. I thought I had protected my face and head, but apparently not very well.”

“Come back to bed, Nellie. It’s still early,” he yawned.

“Aren’t you working today?” She looked at the little clock she kept on the side of her vanity table. “It’s past time that you usually get up.”

“Not today. I’m spending the day with you, here.” He patted the bed next to him. “Resting. Nick is coming by later and we’ll do some business.”

“You’re talking about firing Maddie, aren’t you?” She tied her robe.

Blake sat up, rearranged the pillows behind his back, and watched her. It was still disconcerting, she didn’t know if she’d ever get used to it. Robert had never watched her dress.

“Yes, but I’m not going to fire her. If you’re right, and I’m not saying that you are, but if you are, then we need to keep an eye on her at all times.”

“I am right. She’s dangerous, Blake. You need to do something so she can’t hurt the children.”

“Or you.” He was up in a flash, completely naked and standing in front of her. He took her hand and kissed it on the inside of her wrist, where there were no scrapes or scratches. “I wouldn’t like it if anything happened to you either, Nellie.”

He pulled her a little closer for a kiss.

But she was having none of it and pulled away.

He sighed.

Couldn’t he have said he couldn’t bear it because he loved her, or something else that would tell her how he felt? She guessed she should be glad he included her at all.

“Thank you. I’m gratified to learn you’d like to keep me around.”

“Well, of course, I do. The children would miss you.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m their
mother,
of course they’d miss me. What about you? Would you miss me?”

“Well, I…yes, I think it’s fair to say I would miss you.”

She huffed. “Or is it my body you’d miss, not me?” She turned and stomped to her dressing room.

Blake followed.

“Nellie, that’s not fair. Ours was not a love match, but one of a practical nature. That we find some modicum of pleasure with each other is a blessing. That I like you is a given. I wouldn’t constantly be making love to you if I didn’t. And it’s not just your body. If I wanted just a body, I could have Maddie.”

How was she supposed to respond to that? How do you tell your husband he’s a selfish ass, in a nice way?

She dropped her robe and grabbed her undergarments. She let a silky chemise fall over her head and pulled it down to just past her hips, and then shoved her legs into sturdy cotton bloomers, followed by her corset and slips. Then she put on her best black skirt and crisp, white blouse with lacey front.

“It’s obvious you’re not staying in bed like you should, with me to cater to all your needs.” He waggled his eyebrows at her. “What are your plans for the day? I want to make sure you’re protected.”

“I’m helping Cook in the garden.”

“Dressed in your best clothes, you’re digging in the dirt?”

She stopped looked down at herself and started to laugh.

“Now what?” He cocked one of his perfect brows.

“I was concentrating so hard on being angry with you, that I didn’t pay any attention to what I was putting on.”

She took off the blouse and skirt and placed them both on hangars. Then she took her gardening dress off the hook behind the door where she kept it, away from all of her good clothes. It was brown and covered in a pink floral print.

“Is that better?” she asked of Blake.

“Hmm. Not better, but definitely more appropriate.” He frowned. “You are one stubborn woman.”

“No more so than you are.”

“I’m determined, not stubborn.”

“Call it what you want, it amounts to the same thing. Mule-headedness. You’re being an ass.” She rolled her sleeves to the elbows and walked past him. “If you want me, I’ll be in the garden. I do recommend, however, that you dress first. Otherwise you’ll frighten the staff.”

He heard her chuckle before she shut the door.

“Darn fool woman,” he muttered under his breath. Then he shook his head. “Great. Now I’m talking to myself.”

Blake dressed quickly in a three-piece suit, this one gray rather than his normal black, and followed Nellie downstairs. He found her exactly where she said she’d be…in the garden with the trowel in one hand and seeds in the other.

“What are you planting?”

“Corn. It would be too late in the season to plant it now back home, but Cook says the growing season is much longer here due to the mild weather.”

“I’d like for you to come inside. We have things to discuss.”

“I can’t imagine what.” She didn’t look up but continued with her planting. One seed poked into the soil with her finger, then covered with dirt. After she’d planted about five or six seeds, she dig a small trench with the trowel and plant a few more seeds then dig another trench and so forth. Blake liked watching her. Even doing such a mundane task as planting corn, she was beautiful.

“Please, Nellie. I want you to tell Nick what happened.”

“You can tell him. You don’t believe me anyway.”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you. In all the time I’ve know her, Maddie has never hurt anyone.”

Nellie stopped, sat back on her heels and stared at him. “How much do you know about this woman? Do you know her at all, or were you just taken with her beauty?”

“Of course, I know her. She’s worked for me for the past four years as my manager, and before that, she was one of the girls for a couple of years.”

“Really.” She stood and dusted herself off. “Then you already knew she’d killed the man she told me about?”

He had his hands fisted on his hips. “That’s ridiculous. Maddie? She wouldn’t hurt a fly. She was just trying to scare you.”

“Well, it worked. She’s scared me, this paragon of virtue you have working for you.” She stopped when she saw one of the scullery maids, lurking in the doorway. “We’d better go inside. I don’t want the staff to overhear. No reason to air our dirty laundry in front of them.”

He swept his hand to toward the door. “After you, my lady.”

She rolled her eyes, dropped the corn in a bucket by the door and the trowel on the ground next to the bucket, before going inside. Stopping in the kitchen, she washed her hands and rolled back down her sleeves.

Blake waited.

“I’m ready. When does Nick get here?”

James interrupted. “I was just on my way to inform Mr. Malone that Mr. Cartwright has arrived. I put him in the library.”

“Thank you, James. Please have breakfast served in there. You can make plates and bring them in rather than setting out a buffet. Scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, sausage, fried potatoes and lots of coffee, should do it,” instructed Nellie.

“Yes, ma’am, right away.”

She turned to Blake. “Shall we?”

He grinned. “Whatever you say, Mrs. Malone.”

While she walked down the hall to the library, she asked, “Why are you grinning?”

“Because you’re finally acting like you’re staying, like you belong here. You’re instructing the staff, working in the yard, going to market…” He frowned. “No more going to market.”

She smiled at him. “We’ll see.”

Opening the door to the library, she strode in like she owned the place, which she realized just now…she did. Blake was right. She had been acting like she was a guest, staying only for a short while. Well, she was staying permanently, and it was past time she started acting like it.

“Nicholas! How good of you to come.”

Nellie sailed to Nick, where he stood by the side bar, took both of his hands and put her cheek out for a chaste kiss.