Now she was up to her elbows in flour as she rolled out dough for an apple pie for dinner. She had already prepared a standing rib roast, even cutting the little paper frills for the rib tops. Everything was ready to be put in the oven for dinner tonight.
She was so absorbed in the pie that she jumped when someone knocked on the frame of the back door. The door was open, since—with the stove filled with wood and blazing—the kitchen was hot.
“I knocked at the front, but no one answered,” Jace said, smiling at Nellie and clutching a large bouquet of late fall roses.
“I’m so sorry,” Nellie said, putting her rolling pin down and wiping some of the dough off her arms. “Anna is supposed to be dusting, but I guess…” She trailed off, remembering her father’s lectures about telling family business to outsiders. She looked at the flowers and smiled. “I guess you’ve come to see Terel, but I’m afraid you’ve missed her. She—”
“I came to see you.” Without being asked, he stepped inside the overly warm kitchen. “For you,” he said, holding ou
t the roses.
Nellie stopped where she was and blinked at him. She didn’t take the flowers.
Jace walked to the table, took a slice of apple from the bowl, and ate it. “You don’t like roses? I thought you did, but if you don’t I’ll get you something else. What do your other beaux bring you?”
Nellie was tempted to look behind her to see if there was someone else in the kitchen to whom he was talking. “I like roses,” she whispered, “and I have no…male friends.”
“Good,” he said, and he smiled at her warmly.
Nellie couldn’t move but just stood there watching him as he sat on the edge of the table eating apple slices.
“You want to put them in water?”
“What?”
“The roses,” he said, smiling again.
“Oh. Oh, yes.” She recovered a bit as she took the roses from him. The Grayson household owned several vases to accommodate the many bouquets of flowers Terel received, but Nellie had never received so much as a daisy before. She slowly arranged the flowers, taking her time so her head could clear. Calm once again, she turned back to him.
“Thank you for the flowers, Mr. Montgomery, but I’m afraid Terel won’t return for hours yet. She—”
“I want you to take a walk with me.”
“Walk? You mean walk to where Terel is? I’m sure—”
“I do not want to see your little sister,” he said sternly. “Nellie, I came to see you and no one else. I want you to walk with me.”
Nellie took two steps backward. “I couldn’t possibly do that. I have much too much work to do. I have to finish my pie, the roast has to go in the oven soon, I have to dress for dinner, and—”
“One hour,” he said. “That’s all the time I’m asking of you.”
“It’s not possible.” Nellie backed away from him even further. She didn’t care for the way he was looking at her. He was making her feel uncomfortable. “I have much too much to do.”
“Thirty minutes then. Thirty minutes of your time for a lonely stranger in town. Walk with me downtown and introduce me to people.”
“I don’t know many people,” she said quickly, “and I have to finish my pie. I couldn’t possibly—”
“An apple pie?”
“Yes. It’s for dinner. My father loves apple pie. He—”
“How can you make an apple pie without apples?”
She looked at him, then at the bowl that had a moment before been filled with apple slices. “Mr. Montgomery!” she said, sounding like a schoolteacher, “you have eaten the entire pie!”
“An easy thing for a person to do,” he said slowly, watching her.
Nellie knew instantly that he was referring to her having eaten all of the dessert the night he came to dinner. Blood rushed to her face as she remembered her shame, but then she looked at him. His eyes were twinkling, and that dimple showed in his cheek. He was teasing her.