Mountain Laurel Read online

  He smiled at her, then pulled her to sit on the log beside her.

  “What happens now with you two?” Jamie asked, trying to lighten the mood. He asked as though the answer were a foregone conclusion. Women may hate to talk about justice, but it was his experience that they loved to talk of marriage.

  ’Ring smiled. “Oh, the usual thing with lovers, I guess. You and I are going to see what we can do with the kidnappers, and when I return Maddie and I will be married at the fort.” He looked at her. “I guess you’ll make an honest man out of me, won’t you? You weren’t taking advantage of me in the last few days, were you?”

  Maddie was too upset by his pronouncement that he was going off to wage a minor war to give him her full attention. She looked at her coffee cup and nodded. It wasn’t the marriage proposal she’d hoped for, but after what they’d done the past few days, she had expected him to marry her. If nothing else, he was an honorable man, she thought with some anger, and blinked away more tears.

  Toby looked from one Montgomery to the other, then at Maddie. “Where you two gonna live?” he asked softly.

  “In Paris,” Laurel said with wonder in her voice. “Bailey has told me all about Paris.”

  Maddie opened her mouth to speak. An opera singer lived all over the world. But before she could say a word, ’Ring answered for her.

  “We’ll live in Warbrooke, of course.” He winked at Laurel. “We’ll visit Paris and maybe you can go with us, but I have a business to run, so we’ll have to live in Warbrooke.” He turned to Maddie. “You’ll love it there. It’s on the sea and it’s beautiful.”

  Maddie was quiet for a moment. “Where do I sing?”

  He reached for her hand, squeezed it, then released it. “I’ll build you the most magnificent theater you’ve ever seen.”

  Her voice was very soft. “With plush seats?”

  “Whatever you want. If you want silk brocade, I’ll buy it for you.”

  “And a gilt ceiling?”

  “Of course. I’ll hire some craftsmen from Italy to carve cherubs on the ceiling. Sweetheart, it’ll be the most beautiful theater in America.” He looked at Jamie. “Hell, we’ll make it the most beautiful theater in the world.”

  “And who will hear me?” Maddie asked.

  He smiled at her. “Anybody you want. I don’t think you have yet to realize what kind of family you’re marrying into. You want the President there? We’ll have him come up.” He smiled broader. “We could have your cousin, the king of Lanconia, visit.”

  Maddie didn’t smile. Her eyes were very serious. “Will you pay them to applaud me? Will you buy flowers for them to toss at my feet? Will you buy me diamonds after each of my performances? Or will you just toss me a tidbit as you would a trained dog?”

  ’Ring’s face lost its laughter. “Wait just a minute. You’re taking this the wrong way. I don’t think of you as a trained dog. You’re the woman I love and I want to make you happy.”

  “By buying me?”

  ’Ring looked at Toby and Jamie, and a wide-eyed Laurel who was watching them. “Maybe we ought to talk about this in private.”

  “Why? So you can touch me and make me forget the good sense that I was born with? No, I think we should talk about this here and now and in front of witnesses. I am not going to spend the rest of my life in some isolated community where I sing only for you and your relatives. Oh, yes, and for whoever you pay to hear me sing.”

  “That is not what I meant at all. You weren’t listening to me.”

  She set her coffee cup down and stood. “No, you are the one who wasn’t listening to me. Either you weren’t listening or you don’t actually understand about my voice. I am one of the best singers in the world. I am one of the best singers who has ever lived.”

  ’Ring forgot about the people around them. “Sometimes your vanity surpasses itself.”

  She turned to him, her face intense. “No, you don’t understand. Not really understand. I don’t think that I’m the most beautiful woman who ever lived. I’m really only average-looking. I’m not the most intelligent, and, as you point out rather frequently, I’m not the most well educated. I’m not one of those women who inspires love from all she meets. True, men have wanted me, usually for my voice, but I have never—at least not until I met you—had anyone love me who wasn’t related to me or wasn’t a friend of my father’s, not really love me. And I have never had a woman friend in my life.”

  “What does this have to do with us…and where you sing?”

  “This has everything to do with my voice. My voice is what I do have. I don’t have brains or beauty or a particularly good character, but I do have the best voice of anyone alive today, one of the best voices that has ever been given to a human being. Don’t you see? I have to use what I have. You have an obligation to go back to Maine and help your father run that company of yours because you’re good at business. I have an obligation to share my voice.”

  He gave her a patronizing smile. “There’s a great deal of difference between a ‘company’ the size of Warbrooke Shipping and performing in operas. I don’t think you realize how big Warbrooke Shipping is. We are the transporters of the world.”

  She nearly sneered at him. “Do you print that on your stationery?”

  He looked away. The motto wasn’t on stationery, but it was on several plaques about the office.

  She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. He must understand. “I’m sure that you help a lot of people. But, truthfully, if your family didn’t own the ships that people sail in, then someone else would. I, on the other hand, with my voice, am irreplaceable. No one can take my place. No one on earth can do what I do as well as I do it.”

  “You’re wrong if you think just anyone could run a business the size of Warbrooke Shipping. My family has owned the business for over a hundred years. We’re trained to run it from the time we’re children. Each son—Where are you going?”

  “You’re not making any attempt to listen to me. You have your mind made up that what you do is important and what I do isn’t important, and you’re not going to listen to what I have to say. I see no reason to discuss this further.”

  He was on his feet instantly and caught her arm. “You can’t just walk away. Don’t you realize that this is our life you’re talking about? If you don’t live with me in Warbrooke, what’s going to happen to us?”

  Her voice and face were very calm when she spoke. “What are we going to do if I don’t do what you want?” She jerked her arm out of his grasp.

  “Look at you,” she said. “I sensed that you had money the moment I first met you. You walk with that air about you, of someone who has always been able to buy whatever he wants. This time you decided you wanted to buy an opera singer. You wanted to buy her a pretty cage in the form of a theater full of plush and gilt and famous people. You wanted to buy her diamonds and silk gowns. And in return, whenever you wanted to hear your little opera singer, all you had to do was look at her and say, ‘Sing, little bird,’ and she would do so. After all, you had bought and paid for her, hadn’t you? She was yours to command as you wanted, just as all those many men who work for you are yours to command.”

  “You don’t understand.”

  “It’s you who doesn’t understand.”

  “What am I supposed to do if you want to keep on performing in public?” He made it sound as though she were a strip dancer. “Am I to follow you around from city to city? Hold your cloak? Maybe you’ll let me see to the stage sets. Maybe I should have cards printed that give my name as Mr. LaReina. Do I get to be a duke?”

  She looked at him and there was sadness in her eyes. “I have never lied to you about what was important to me. I have always told you that my voice is the most important thing in my life.”

  “I’m not asking you to stop singing,” he yelled at her. “You can sing from morning to night for all I care. I want you to sing.” He stopped shouting. “Maddie, I can’t do what you want. I know you think Warbr