Clay sat down on the grass and leaned against a rock that looked as if it had been chosen for its comfort. “We made it as kids. It took a long time, but we spent every moment we had on it. We wanted a private place.”
“It certainly is that. You could walk within a foot of it and not see it. The brush is too thick.”
Clay’s eyes had a faraway look. “My mother thought the dogs were carrying her seedlings away. She’d visit someone and leave with five cuttings. When she got home, there’d only be four. I often wondered if she suspected us.”
“By us do you mean you and your brother?”
“Yes,” he answered quietly.
Nicole’s eyes twinkled. “Surely the two of you didn’t plant the flowers. I can’t imagine two boys risking punishment to steal iris bulbs. Could there have been a young girl involved?”
Clay’s face hardened, and he didn’t speak for a moment. “Elizabeth planted the flowers.”
The way he said it made Nicole know that this Elizabeth had meant a lot to him, but she couldn’t tell if he loved her or hated her. “James and Beth,” she said quietly, sitting beside him. “Is their death the cause of your sadness, the reason you rarely smile?”
He turned to her with a face full of anger. “Until you are prepared to confide in me, don’t ask for confidences from me.”
Nicole was stunned. She thought she’d cleverly avoided answering his questions about her family, but he had been sensitive enough to realize that she was hiding something. Just as her past was still too painful to speak of, so must his be. “Forgive me,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to pry.”
They sat in silence for several minutes. “You said you wanted to talk to me about something,” Nicole said.
Clay stretched out and let his mind change from his dead brother and sister-in-law to a more pleasant subject. “I’ve been thinking about Bianca,” he said, his eyes turning dark. “When I planned the
kidnapping, I also sent a letter to be delivered to her father after the packet had been out to sea for a week. I didn’t want him to worry about her, but at the same time I didn’t want him to think he could prevent our marriage. That’s why I arranged the proxy marriage, which of course didn’t go as I planned.”
Nicole was only half listening to him. She wouldn’t have believed his words could hurt so much, and to cover the pain she let her mind wander to the mill. She could run that mill. Maybe she could find work in America, or maybe she could live and work in the mill—and be near Clay.
“Remember the frigate that came in just before your ship?” Clay was saying. “I sent a letter to Bianca on that ship. I explained everything to her. I told her that by mistake I’d been married to someone else but that the marriage would be annulled immediately. Of course that was before I had the letter from the judge.”
“Of course,” Nicole said flatly.
“I also sent her passage money to America. I told her that I still wanted her and asked her to please forgive me and come to America.” He stood and began to walk around the open area. “Damn! I don’t know why all this had to happen. I couldn’t return to England, not when I’m the only one running the plantation. I wrote her several letters and begged her to come to me, but she always had excuses. First her father was very ill then she was afraid to leave him. I could see that she was afraid to leave England. Sometimes the English have odd ideas about Americans.” He looked at Nicole as if he expected her to answer but she didn’t.
He went on. “It will be some time before she receives my letter, then months before I know if she accepts me or not. “That’s where you come in.” He looked at Nicole with hope in his eyes but still she didn’t speak.
“I don’t know what you feel about me. At first I thought you liked my company, but lately…You see how little I know about you. In the past weeks I’ve come to…respect you a great deal. My house is pleasant again, the twins love you, the servants obey you. Your manners are excellent and I believe you could manage a few social functions. It would be nice to have people visit again.”
“What are you trying to say?”
He took a deep breath. “If Bianca refuses me, I’d like to remain married to you.”
Her eyes turned from brown to black. “A marriage that would produce children, I assume.”
Clay’s eyes crinkled, and he smiled slightly. “Of course. I must admit that I find you quite attractive.”
Nicole didn’t think she’d ever been so angry in her life. She could feel the anger from her toes to her hairline. She stood up slowly, and it was a strain to speak. “No, I don’t think that would do at all.”
He grabbed her arm as she turned away. “Why not?” he demanded. “Isn’t Arundel Hall big enough for you? With your looks, maybe you could get something bigger.”
The hard slap she planted on his cheek echoed through the woods.
He stood there, his cheek turning red, his fingers digging into her flesh. “I would like the courtesy of an explanation,” he said coldly.
She jerked away from him. “Cochon! You ignorant, vain man! How dare you make such a proposition to me!”
“Proposition! I just proposed marriage to you, and I think I’ve shown a damned lot of respect for you in the last few weeks. After all, you are legally my wife.”
“Respect! You wouldn’t know the meaning of the word. True, you’ve given me a separate bedroom, but why? Because you respect me, or so you could tell your beloved Bianca that you hadn’t touched me?”