she’d asked him to marry her. She glanced at her brother, to find his brows once more furrowed, as if he hadn’t expected an argument and wasn’t sure how to deal with it.
Meredith brought both hands to her face and bowed her head. “Oh,” she moaned, her voice coming out muffled. “That you would take our dear Nora away. I do not know whether I can bear it.” Her shoulders shook with her sobs.
How could she be so distressed? She scarcely abided Nora. She’d been positively eager to send her off to Seattle. This had to be an act. But why?
Charles evidently thought it sincere. “See what you’ve done?” he said with an audible sigh. “Calm yourself, Meredith, dear. I will have words with Mr. Wallin. Kindly take Nora to the door and make your farewells.”
Her farewells? He was going to let her go! Nora wanted to grab both of Simon’s hands and dance around the room in pure joy, but she knew that would only give away the game. Instead, she squeezed his hand for encouragement, trusting him to withstand any of her brother’s blandishments, and turned for the entryway.
The sound of a sniff behind her told her Meredith was following.
“Oh, take heart, Meredith,” she said as they entered the shadowy space at the front of the house. “Think how much happier you’ll be without the burden of caring for me.”
Meredith sniffed again as she took down Nora’s cloak from the brass hook at the side of the door. “It was a burden I gladly bore, I assure you. Right now, I can only pity you, Nora.”
Nora frowned, accepting her gray cloak from Meredith’s elegant fingers. “Why would you pity me? I married a good man.”
“I can certainly see that you believe so,” Meredith said, her hands fluttering. “I can imagine how exciting it must have been to have such a commanding fellow propose, but you must have known that it wasn’t love motivating him.”
Of course it wasn’t love, but she wasn’t about to hammer the point home. “I am satisfied with Mr. Wallin’s intentions,” she replied.
“How nice that you are now a better judge of character,” Meredith said, her voice verging on a sneer. “I remember another young man you thought was serious, but alas he never came up to scratch.”
She would bring up Mr. Winnower. Nora shook out her cloak and slipped it over her dress even as she pushed away the memory. “I will always be grateful you and Charles took me in, Meredith. But I’ve made my own way here, and I no longer need your help.”
Meredith reached out a hand to smooth back a tendril of Nora’s hair. The touch would have been tender if not for the hard look in Meredith’s eyes. “You have no understanding of the world, Nora. A man says he’ll marry you, take care of you, and off you go, with no thought of the consequences, no idea of the damage he could do.”
Damage? Despite her hopes, a shiver went through her. She’d thought Simon Wallin a good man, had believed in him because Catherine and Rina had married his brothers and Maddie had spoken highly of him. But what did she actually know about Simon? Would he hurt her? Treat her unkindly?
“I cannot sit idly by when your very life is in danger,” Meredith continued as if determined to press her case. “Did you not see the squint in his cold eyes, those brutish hands?” She lowered her voice as if suspecting Simon might be hiding just around the corner even now, waiting to pounce. “Nora, I fear for you if you go with him.”
Nora squared her shoulders. “I’m not going with him. I shall live in town. He will live on his claim.”
“Indeed.” The sweetness of Meredith’s tone warned Nora she had made a mistake, but she wasn’t sure how. “What a quaint arrangement. However did you convince him to agree?”
By giving him one hundred and sixty acres.
Now she just needed to know that he would keep his part of the bargain and stop her brother from ruining her life.
* * *
“What do you want from me?” Charles asked Simon the moment the ladies left the room. “I warn you, I do not take well to blackmail.”
The man was insufferable. Did he really think that Simon and Nora’s marriage had anything to do with harming him?
“I want nothing from you,” Simon told him. “Your sister is of age, as am I. We married. She is mine now to protect.” He met Charles’s gaze head-on. The man had gray eyes, like Nora, but they were not nearly as warm and welcoming as his sister’s. In fact, right now, they swam with tears.
Tears?
“Do you have a sister, Mr. Wallin?” he asked. “Would you want to learn of her marriage in this cold manner?”
Not at all. He couldn’t imagine how he’d feel if Beth had walked into Wallin Landing with a stranger on her arm claiming him as her husband. But Nora wasn’t Beth.
“Perhaps you should ask yourself why your sister chose to marry without informing you,” he countered.
“I don’t have to ask,” Charles said, his voice as heavy as his look. “I know. She is simple, unaware of life’s dangers. She trusts too easily. I have done all I can to shelter her.”
Simon frowned. From what he could see, Nora might be a bit whimsical, with unexpected giggles and hearts embroidered on her sleeves, but she did not appear to have a diminished mental capacity. Was that how her family saw her? Was that how they treated her? Small wonder she longed to escape.
“Nora will want for nothing,” Simon promised him. “I earned the patent on my original claim, and I registered another for my wife. I can provide for her, should she need it.”
“Well, certainly she will need it,” Charles insisted. “You didn’t expect me to hand you a dowry, did you?”
Why did they both pluck on that string? Perhaps dowries were important where they came from, but not in frontier Seattle.
“I don’t want your money, or hers,” Simon told him. “All I demand is that you treat her with respect and consideration. Do that, and you will have no trouble with me.”
“Yes, well...” Charles smoothed back his hair with one hand. “I have some demands myself, sir. You will bring her to see us at least once a week, and you will see to it that she accepts our invitations to dinner.”
“Nora can see you if she likes,” Simon returned. “But I won’t have time to come in weekly.”
Charles’s face fell. “Live that far out, do you?” He sighed. “Oh, but I cannot like it. She’s never dealt with farms and animals and that sort of thing. She’ll be completely out of her element, and that is never good, let me tell you. No, you must move into town, for her sake.”
Simon stared at him. Was he truly so selfish he would give no thought to Simon’s plans, his family’s needs or Nora’s hopes? He wasn’t sure how to respond.
Meredith spoke for him as she sailed back into the room with Nora right behind her. He noticed she hadn’t fastened her cloak. Was she uncertain as to whether she was leaving?
“No need for concern, Charles,” Nora’s sister-in-law announced. “Nora tells me she and Mr. Wallin do not intend to live as man and wife. She will be staying in town while he returns to his claim. We can go on as we always have.” She came to her husband’s side and gave his arm a squeeze. “Isn’t that good news?”
Charles seemed to grow a little taller. “Excellent. Nora can stay with us, then. You can visit when you like, Mr. Wallin, but do provide a few days’ notice first. Only practical considering our busy schedules.”
Simon felt as if he’d turned the page in the book he’d been reading only to find his adventure novel had become a farce. “Nora?” he couldn’t help asking. “Is this what you want?”
She opened her mouth, but once again Meredith spoke first.