They reached the shore, and Nicole noticed that Anders kept looking upriver. “Is something wrong?”
“The sloop should have been back by now. W
e heard last night that a ship was in, and Clay sent the sloop out early this morning.”
“You aren’t worried, are you?”
“No,” he said as he helped her from the rowboat. “It could be anything. The men could be having some ale with the ship’s passengers—anything. It’s just Clay. Ever since James and Beth drowned, he’s anxious if the sloop is an hour overdue.”
They walked side by side toward the house. “Did you know James and Beth?”
“Very well.”
“What were they like? Was Clay very close to his brother?”
Anders took a long time answering. “The three of them were very close. They practically grew up in each other’s pockets. I’m afraid Clay took their deaths too hard. It changed him.”
Nicole wanted to ask a hundred more questions. How had it changed him? What was he like before their deaths? But it was not fair to Clay or to Anders to ask now. If Clay wanted to talk to her, he would, just as she’d confided in him.
Anders left her on the garden porch. The house was as beautiful inside as she remembered. The twins seemed to appear out of nowhere and grabbed her hands to pull her upstairs. They had a long list of stories they wanted her to tell them before they went to sleep.
Clay was waiting for her at the foot of the stairs, his hand outstretched to her. “You’re even prettier than I remembered,” he said quietly, and looked at her hungrily.
She looked away from him and started toward the dining room, her hand still caught firmly in his. She wore a gown of raw silk, the weave slightly nubby in places, the sheen gentle and subdued. It was a warm apricot color trimmed in satin ribbons of a darker apricot. The neckline was very low. The tiny cap sleeves and the bodice were trimmed with a row of seed pearls. The pearls gained luster from Nicole’s skin. Her hair was intertwined with pearls and apricot ribbon.
Clay did not once take his eyes off her as they walked into the dining room. Nicole saw immediately that Maggie had outdone herself. The table fairly bowed under the sheer quantity of food.
“I hope she doesn’t expect us to eat all that,” Nicole smiled.
“I think she’s trying to let me know that if you’re here the food will improve. It would have to improve over what it’s been.”
“Did the sloop arrive yet?” She saw the frown cross his face before he shook his head.
They had just sat down at the table when one of the plantation workers burst into the room. “Mr. Clay! I didn’t know what to do,” he said in an explosion of words. He held his hat in his hands and threatened to destroy it any minute. He was very nervous. “She said she’d come all this way to see you and that you’d string me up if I didn’t bring her.”
“Calm down, Roger. What are you talking about, and who are you talking about?” He threw his napkin onto his clean plate.
“I wasn’t sure I believed her. I thought she might just be some English scum tryin’ to pull the wool over my eyes. But then I got a good look at her, and she looked so much like Miss Beth I thought it was her.”
Neither Nicole nor Clay heard the man, for standing just behind him was Bianca. Her dark blonde hair was limp and straight about her round face. Her little mouth was pursed into a pretty little pout. Nicole felt as if she’d forgotten what Bianca was really like. Her life had changed so drastically in the last few months that the time in England seemed as if it had never happened. Now she vividly remembered the way Bianca liked to control people.
Nicole turned to Clay and was astonished by his expression. He looked as if he were seeing a ghost. There was a look of incredulousness as well as rapture on his face. Suddenly, it seemed that her whole body was turning to water. She knew then that deep within her she’d always hoped that when he saw Bianca again he would know he no longer loved her. As sharp tears stung the corners of her eyes, Nicole knew she’d lost, that he’d never looked at her as he was now staring at Bianca.
Nicole drew her breath in slowly and deeply, then stood and walked across the room to Bianca. She held out her hand. “May I bid you welcome to Arundel Hall?”
Bianca gave Nicole a look of hate and ignored the hand offered to her. “You act as if you own the place,” she said under her breath, then smiled demurely at Clay. “Aren’t you glad to see me?” she said teasingly, the dimple appearing in her left cheek. “I have traveled a long way to be near you.”
Clay’s chair nearly fell as he dashed across the room to Bianca. He grabbed her shoulders with both his hands, then stared at her face with a burning intensity. “Welcome,” he whispered, and kissed her cheek. He did not notice the way she recoiled from his touch. “Take the trunk upstairs, Roger.”
Roger backed away from the group. He’d just spent six hours in a sloop with the blonde woman, and a couple of times he had to restrain himself from throwing her overboard. He wouldn’t have believed it was possible for one woman to find so many things to complain about in so short a time. She railed against Roger and his men’s lack of subservience toward her. She seemed to expect all the men to cater to her merest wish. The closer the sloop got to the Armstrong plantation, the more Roger was sure he’d made an error in delivering her to Clay.
Now, looking at the way Clay stared at the woman, Roger was astounded. How could he look at her like that when that pretty little Miss Nicole was standing there, her heart in her eyes? Roger shrugged, jammed his hat on his head, and carried the trunk up the stairs. Boats were his business, and he was thankful women were not.
“Clayton!” Bianca said sharply, twisting out of his grip. “Aren’t you going to ask me to sit down? After that long trip here, I’m afraid I’m exhausted.”
Clay attempted to take her arm, but she eluded him. He held a chair for her, to the left of his at the head of the dining table. “You must be hungry,” he said as he took another place setting from the chippendale cabinet.
Nicole stood in the doorway and watched them. Clay hovered over Bianca like a mother hen. Bianca swept the green gauze of her dress aside and sat down. Nicole was aware that Bianca had gained at least twenty pounds since she’d last seen her. She was tall enough to carry the weight, and as yet it hadn’t distorted her face, but her hips and thighs had greatly increased in size. The high-waisted fashions concealed it to a degree, but the sleeveless style completely exposed her heavy upper arms.