Terel lifted herself from the pillows and hid behind Nellie. “He’s going to kill me! Nellie, save me!”
“Mr. Montgomery, you have to go.”
“I’m not leaving here until you let me explain.”
Nellie was beginning to recover her equilibrium. “I think not. No, let me speak. You have had your say. I’m afraid, sir, that once I believed everything you said to me. I defied my family for you, but not again. I cannot give my trust to you twice. You broke it once, and I cannot trust you again.”
“Nellie,” Jace said, and the word came from his heart. “I never did anything to break your trust. I wrote to you, I—”
“I neither received nor sent any letters.”
“That’s because she took them.”
Terel clung to Nellie and whimpered.
“My family loves me and would have no reason to harm me. You, on the other hand, have wanted my father’s business. You have even courted the old maid daughter hoping to get it.”
Jace took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. “Nellie,” he said softly, “your sister has every reason to want you to remain with her. You are little more than a slave to her. You cannot buy the kind of loyalty and maid service you give her. She has merely to wish for something and you give it to her.”
He took a breath. “As for my wanting you just to get your father’s freight office, don’t you realize that my family owns Warbrooke Shipping? I could buy your father’s company with my pocket change. Everyone else in town seems to know of my money.” He squinted at Terel hiding behind Nellie. “I never wanted your money; I’ve only wanted you.”
Nellie’s head whirled. Was what he said true? If she believed him about the letters and his wealth, she’d have to believe that her family had had a hand in lying to her. Her family loved her. They would never want to harm her. They wanted her happiness.
“Nellie, come with me,” Jace said softly, holding out his hand to her. “I’ve loved you from the moment I saw you. Please come with me.”
She wanted to go with him. God help her, maybe she was a silly, desperate, love-starved old maid. Maybe he had lied to her. Maybe if she went with him he’d seduce her, get her with child, then abandon her, but at the moment she didn’t care. She wanted to take his hand, walk out with him and never look back.
But she couldn’t. She could not leave her family. As though chains held her, she felt she could not leave them and make them so—well, uncomfortable. Who would cook for them? Look after them? See to their needs?
“I cannot,” she whispered.
Jace dropped his hand, and the pain showing on his face was raw. “You won’t.”
“I cannot.”
Jace looked at Terel. “It looks like you win. My love isn’t as strong as your selfishness.” He looked back at Nellie. “I’ll be at the Chandler House for three days. Come to me there.” He turned and left the room.
The three left behind listened until the front door shut. Johnny peeled himself away from the wall and looked at Nellie. “You should have gone with him,” he said softly, then he left.
I know, thought Nellie, but she couldn’t explain to anyone how she felt. She could not leave.
Terel settled back against the pillows. “I’m glad that’s over. Nellie, I think I’d like some tea, and perhaps a slice of the cake you made this morning.”
Nellie turned to look at her sister. Was there any truth in what Jace had said? Had he written her, and had Terel destroyed the letters?
“Nellie, don’t look at me like that. You’re giving me goose bumps.”
Was she nothing more than a slave to her family? “Did you know he was wealthy?” Nellie whispered. “Is it true? Is he?”
“If he were wealthy, would he have taken a job as a clerk for Father? Would he have paid court to a woman no one else in town would have? Sometimes, Nellie, it’s shocking the way you seem to believe strangers over your own family. Why, for a minute I thought you were going to go with him. Going to leave the people who love you for a man you don’t even know.” She caught Nellie’s hand. “You wouldn’t leave me, would you? You promised you wouldn’t.”
“No, I don’t believe I can.” She pulled away from Terel. “I’ll get your tea now.”
“And don’t eat the whole cake. Father would like some, too.”
Nellie stopped in the doorway, and the look she gave Terel was icy. “I do not believe my weight is any longer a cause for concern. If you haven’t noticed, you are the plumper sister now.” Nellie turned away and went down the stairs.
Chapter Ten