Janie looked up. “Something’s happened.”
“No,” Nicole said. “At least nothing new.” She studied Gerard. “Gerard, I’ve just come to the conclusion that you would make an excellent salesman.”
His eyebrows came up. “People of my class—” he began.
Nicole cut him off as she grabbed the plate out from under his fork. “This is America, not France. If you eat, you work.”
He gave her a sullen look. “What is there to sell? I know nothing about grain.”
“The grain sells itself. I want you to persuade some lovely young women that they will be even lovelier in silks and sables.”
“Sables?” Janie asked. “Nicole, what are you talking about?”
Nicole gave her a look that stopped her from speaking. “Come upstairs with me while I show you the clothes.” She turned to the twins. “And you two are going to get lessons.”
“But Nicole,” Janie interrupted, “you don’t have time. The mill dresser is already here.”
“Not me,” she said firmly. “Upstairs is a highly educated woman, and she will be only too happy to tutor the children.”
“Adele?” Gerard scoffed. “You won’t even be able to make her understand what you want, much less get her to do it.”
“We don’t like the screaming lady,” Alex said, holding Mandy’s hand and stepping back.
“Enough!” Nicole said loudly. “I’ve had enough of these complaints. Janie and I are not running a free hotel any longer. Gerard, you are going to help me get some money for some land. Mother is going to take care of the children, and the twins are going to get an education. From now on, we’re a family, not an aristocracy with a couple of servants.” She turned and went up the stairs.
Janie grinned up at her. “I don’t know what’s happened to her, but I like it!”
“If she thinks I’m going to—” Gerard began.
Janie waved a hot, sticky spoon in front of his face. “You either work or we ship you back to France, and you can get your head cut off or make shoes like your father. You got that?”
“You can’t treat me like this!”
“I can, and I will. If you don’t get up those stairs like Nicole said, I may use my fist on that ugly little face of yours.”
Gerard started to speak, but he stopped as he stared at Janie’s fist in his face. She was a large, strong woman. He stepped back from her. “We aren’t finished yet.” He muttered several curses in French as he followed Nicole up the stairs.
Janie turned to the twins, gave them a warning look, clapped her hands smartly, and sent them scurrying up the stairs.
Chapter 18
IT WAS WESLEY WHO SAILED NICOLE UPRIVER TO where Dr. Donaldson was staying and then took them all to the judge’s house. Wes didn’t say much when Nicole told him she wanted her marriage to Clay annulled. In fact, no one said very much, and it seemed to Nicole that everyone believed it was inevitable. She wa
s the last one to have any faith in Clay.
It was surprising how little time it took to end a marriage. Nicole worried that since so many people had seen her with Clay and since the marriage had been consummated, it would make a difference. She found out that they could even have had children and, because of the force used during the ceremony, still have had the marriage annulled.
The judge had known both Clay and Wesley all their lives. He’d met Nicole at the Backes’s party. He hated to dissolve the marriage, to declare it had never existed, but he couldn’t dispute the doctor’s testimony. Besides, he’d heard the gossip about the woman Clay lived with. He made a mental note to visit Clay very soon and tell him what he thought of his immoral behavior. The judge looked at the pretty little Frenchwoman with sympathy. She didn’t deserve what Clay had put her through.
He declared the marriage annulled.
“Nicole?” Wes asked when they left the judge’s house. “Are you all right?”
“Of course,” she said flatly. “Why shouldn’t I be? If you wanted to buy some land, where would you go first?”
“To the owners, I guess. Why?”
“Do you know Mr. Irwin Rogers?”