Wishes Read online

  “Sure thing, mister.”

  Jace pulled a quarter from his pocket. It was too much to give to the boy, but he wanted to insure his loyalty. “To Nellie and no one else.”

  “I heard you the first time.”

  “Go,” Jace said. “I have to pack.” The boy left, and Jace threw some clothes into a bag. He meant to make the four A.M. train. Even if he had to ride on top of a coal car, he was going to be on the first transportation out of Chandler. When he snapped his bag shut he paused. His father ill. His robust, aggressively healthy father ill. As he picked up his bag his hand trembled a bit.

  There was no one downstairs at the hotel desk, so he quickly wrote a note saying he was checking out, then left money with the note. When that was done he began running. He made it to the train station as fast as his long legs could travel, and once there he paid an exorbitant amount for passage inside a freight car to Denver. He didn’t care what discomfort he had to endure. He was going to get to Maine and his father as fast as possible.

  “Well?” Terel demanded of the boy. Last summer she had seen the boy terrorizing a little girl half his size and age, and she knew that he would be the one to do what she wanted.

  “I done it.” The boy squinted his eyes at her. “He give me two bits.”

  “You little blackmailer,” Terel muttered. She’d promised the boy to double whatever Jace gave him if he’d bring her any note Jace might write. She gave the kid fifty cents, taking Jace’s note at the same time. “One word of this gets out and I’ll know who told,” she said, threatening him.

  “You can do your own sister in for all I care,” the boy said, backing away from her and grinning insolently. “You need any more help, Duke’s the one.”

  She glared at him, refusing to call him by his self-given name of Duke. “I won’t need you anymore. Go home.”

  He grinned again, then took off running.

  Terel shivered in the cold morning and could feel that the crisp, pretty days were almost over and winter would be there soon. She lifted her ball gown off the gravel and started to walk home. She hadn’t been home since yesterday, the night of the Harvest Ball, the night that had come so close to changing her life.

  She crumpled the letter Jace had written and kept walking. It would take him weeks to get to Maine and back, and by the time he returned Terel planned to have Nellie convinced that Jace Montgomery was a blackguard, and that he’d deserted her. She smiled in the gray early-morning light and quickened her step. Today she was having a tea party for her friends so they could discuss the ball. She planned to have some extraordinary gossip for them.

  Nellie awoke with a start, and at first she thought that last night had been a dream, but as her eyes focused she saw her beautiful gown hanging on the back of the door. For a few moments of luxury she closed her eyes and relived last night. Being in Jace’s arms. Seeing him smile at her, his dimple showing now and then. She remembered feeling so proud: proud of him, proud of herself, proud just to be alive. He’d kissed her when he brought her home, kissed her and told her he loved her.

  Nellie hadn’t said anything in return. What she was feeling for Jace was more than love; it was closer to worship. He was changing how she felt about herself, how she looked at the world. He was changing how the entire town looked at her, spoke to her, thought of her. Love him? she thought. What she felt for him was considerably more than love.

  Slowly, Nellie got out of bed and began to dress. She felt almost dreamy after last night. Even though she’d had only a few hours sleep she felt wonderful. For a moment she waltzed about the room in her underwear.

  She stopped and smiled. “You great cow,” she said, but with no real anger in her voice. “Stop daydreaming and get to work.” She picked up her corset, slipped it on over her head, and then started pulling the front drawstrings closed.

  “That’s odd,” she said aloud. Usually she had to pull the strings hard to make the sides come within four inches of meeting, but this morning the sides of the corset were only two inches apart. She pulled on her old brown dress. Yesterday the dress had been so tight the ribs in her corset could be seen, but today the dress was almost loose.

  Nellie smiled. “Probably all the dancing last night,” she said, then hurried from the room.

  For the rest of the day she had no more time to think, for there was an enormous amount of work to do. Her father was talking to investors, and she had to prepare food for them. Terel was having some of her women friends over for tea, and there were cakes to bake and ice.

  By three P.M. she was already exhausted. She hadn’t had a moment to sit down, but she hadn’t stopped smiling all day. For once in her life it seemed she had pleased everyone. At breakfast her father had beamed at her, said he had heard she’d taken Mr. Montgomery’s eye. He said some things about ships that Nellie didn’t understand, but she’d been too busy serving buttermilk biscuits to ask questions. Later she’d overheard her father say to Terel, “If Montgomery wants her, he can have her. I can hire a house-keeper for what the man will bring this family.”

  “If Montgomery wants her,” Nellie had whispered, and she felt her skin glow with warmth as she carried a platter of ham into the dining room.

  All day Terel had been especially kind to her. Terel had talked of their going to dances together in the future, of their shopping together and maybe even getting married in a joint ceremony.

  Marriage, Nellie had thought as she rolled out pastry for apple tarts. Terel was smiling at her from across the big work table. “I’m not sure Mr. Montgomery has marriage in mind. Perhaps he…” Children of her own, she thought. A home of her own.

  “You couldn’t see the way he looked at you. Oh, Nellie, you two looked so good together last night. Hardly anyone remarked on the fact that you’re twice as wide as he is.”

  “Twice as…” Nellie ate two slices of apple coated in sugar and cinnamon.

  “It didn’t matter at all. You just looked divine. I was so proud of you.”

  Nellie smiled and began placing apple slices on the pastry. “I had a wonderful time.”

  “Yes, I know you did. When will you see him again?”

  “I don’t know. Sometimes he comes by in the afternoon.” She glanced toward the kitchen door, almost expecting to see him there.

  “I’m sure he’ll turn up sooner or later. Nellie, I don’t mean to pry, but you didn’t…I mean, well, last night you seemed to be very free with him. Not that I’d ever be one to criticize, but you kept—well, touching him in a very improper way.”

  “I didn’t mean to.” Nellie ate four slices of apple.

  “No, of course you didn’t, and only a few people commented on it, and I’m sure they know you’re a woman of good repute. They know you’re not the…well, the loose woman you seemed to be last night.”

  On the end of the table there was a large tray covered with freshly baked cookies. Nellie ate two cookies.

  “I just wondered,” Terel continued, “if you’d allowed him to do anything to you. You are still a virgin, aren’t you?”

  Nellie ate two more cookies. “I am still a virgin,” she whispered.

  Terel stood. “Good. I told Father I would ask. He’d heard so much about your behavior last night that he came to me for advice. I assured him that even though you may have looked like a wanton woman I was sure you weren’t. Now I can reassure him and everyone else in town.” She moved around the table to kiss Nellie’s cheek. “You looked so good last night, Nellie. Please remember that and don’t eat so many cookies that you won’t be able to wear that lovely gown again. It would be a shame to insult Mrs. Taggert’s generosity by gaining even more weight.” She smiled. “See you at tea,” she said, then she left the room.

  Nellie ate two dozen cookies before she could stop herself. Had she acted like a wanton woman last night? Was the entire town talking about her behavior? She knew how she felt about Jace, but had she actually made a fool of herself before everyone?

  When she pulled three