As Love Blooms (28 page)

“I need to get back to Mr. Nussbaumer.” Reese glanced in his boss’s direction.

“He’s speaking to the host and hostess, Mr. and Mrs. Noyes,” Edward said. “Why don’t you let me introduce the two of you? I went to school with their son.”

Tessa bit her lip. “But Reese, if Mr. Nussbaumer sees that you’re with me—”

“I don’t care, Tessa.”

“But I do. I don’t want to do anything that could jeopardize that position for you.”

“If I may be so bold . . .” Edward cleared his throat. “Tessa, you came with me. Perhaps we can continue that ruse for now.” He glanced from her to Reese.

Reese frowned. The thought of someone else claiming Tessa, even if it wasn’t real, sent a fresh jolt of jealously writhing through him.

“I can open doors for Tessa and for the Como project. Just watch how Tessa works these people. It’s amazing, and I promise I don’t have any other designs on her.”

Reese’s jaw ticked, but it wasn’t his decision to make. “Tessa can decide for herself. She’s had people telling her what to do all her life, and I don’t want to be another one. If that’s what she wants to do, I’m fine with it.”

Edward raised his eyebrows. “Tessa?”

She pinched the brim of her hat between her finger and thumb and pulled it down until it tipped alluringly. “What I want and what
I have to do aren’t the same thing right now.” She cocked a sassy smile at Reese, then slipped her hand in the crook of Edward’s arm. “Shall we?”

For the second time today, Reese had to see Tessa with another man, and he didn’t like it one bit.

Swallowing the distaste in his mouth, he followed the couple. Sometimes you had to make sacrifices when you loved someone.

But one thing was for sure, when it came time to leave, Tessa Gregory would be going with him—not Edward Ferrell.

 23 

Sam had not yet reached the front door when James Ferrell’s Packard pulled into the driveway of her home. He’d ignored her entirely today at the capitol. It would serve him right if she refused to see him.

But that would be childish.

“Samantha.” Jolly to a fault, he walked toward her. “I tried to find you after my speech, but we must have missed one another.”

“You must need glasses.”

“Why?”

“Because I was right in front of you.” She put her hand on the doorknob.

He covered her wrinkled hand with his. “You’re right. I did see you. Sometimes my position requires more in the line of duty than enjoyment.”

She sighed. He was right, of course, but it hadn’t felt that way today. Something inside her said there was more to it, but she hadn’t been involved with a man for a long time. Perhaps her instincts were as rusty as her joints.

“Samantha, I’ve come over here to ask you to join me this afternoon at Fort Snelling. There’s to be a military review in honor of the retirement of Brigadier General Walter, and I was asked to
attend. Afterward I hope to visit the soldiers in the post hospital. I promise it won’t be like today. I won’t leave your side.”

“I can handle being alone, and you know it.”

“Then you’ll go?”

She waited a few seconds before nodding.

He glanced at her attire and touched her suffrage sash. “You might want to change.”

“Out of my bloomers or out of the sash?”

“I thought you might be more comfortable in a dress.”

“These”—she tugged on the sides of her bloomers—“are very comfortable.” She looked into his face. “James, what you meant to say was you’d be more comfortable with me in a dress. If we’re to have any kind of relationship beyond friendship, perhaps you had better say what you’re thinking.”

“All right. I’d be more comfortable at this formal affair with the woman I am escorting wearing a dress.”

“Very good. Why don’t you wait in the foyer while I change?”

Samantha made quick work of selecting a modest violet walking suit Tessa had insisted she purchase at the beginning of the season. But at the last minute, she added one more thing to her outfit and descended the stairs.

James’s eyes widened. He blinked not once but twice, as if he could make the suffrage sash lying diagonally across her suit disappear by sheer will.

She stopped in front of him. “Shall we go?”

“You’re not going to, um, wear that, are you?”

Touching the rim of her hat, she feigned ignorance. “You don’t like my hat?”

“No, I was talking about your sash.”

“You still haven’t learned to say what you mean.” She slipped the sash off and laid it on the entry table. “Of course I wouldn’t put you in that kind of position. This was a test, and you, Senator Ferrell, have failed.”

He let out a hearty laugh. “What can I say? You’ve bested me, and I doubt it will be the only time.”

Sam touched the sash as they left. Would he have taken her if she’d insisted on wearing it? They hadn’t actually talked about where he stood on the issue of women’s suffrage now, but they should. Surely James’s eyes had been opened or he wouldn’t be courting her. On their many lunch dates over the years, they’d always teasingly bantered about the topic. But what if he still held to an antiquated notion? Would he tell her the truth?

The drive to Fort Snelling took nearly half an hour, but Sam decided to put any suffrage discussion on the back burner for the time being. Instead, they discussed his speech that morning, their families, and a new education bill he was working on.

They were ushered to seats on an elevated platform to witness the military review. Another senator and his wife also attended and were seated beside them. How odd it felt to be there publicly as a couple. If she were going to do this regularly, she needed to say something to her family. She’d hate for them to learn she’d been keeping her relationship with James a secret from them but had let the rest of the world know.

Visitors lined the edges of the parade grounds. They grew quiet when the general and his staff galloped to the point of review.

James leaned close so she could hear him over the military band. “The first unit is the infantry corps.”

Sam watched the soldiers file onto the field in perfect rows and display the flags with great pageantry. When the military band began to play, the troops paraded in front of the general. Then the rifle drill team wowed the crowds with masterful twists and turns of their weapons.

“It looks like the cavalry has arrived.” James grinned. “Look at those mounts.”

Although she was no judge of horse flesh, she did find the soldiers’ mounts truly majestic as they rode across the review
field. The sunlight glinted off the well-polished saber handles at the soldiers’ sides. Why did a man on a horse somehow seem stronger?

After almost an hour, the artillery troops rolled in with their horse-drawn rocket launchers, field guns, and mortars mounted on carts. They were followed by what Sam believed to be two field howitzers, but she didn’t recognize the odd-shaped thing to roll in at the end.

She leaned close to James. “What’s that?”

“I’m not sure.”

One of the lieutenants posted nearby turned to them. “Sir, ma’am, it’s a carbon arc searchlight. The largest searchlights are permanently mounted, but this mobile one weighs almost six thousand pounds. That special rig behind it powers the light. It weighs another six thousand–plus pounds.”

James leaned forward. “What kind of engine does it have?”

“A three-cylinder, water-cooled gas engine is connected to the generator, sir.”

On the commander’s signal, the artillery soldiers took their places and fired the rocket launchers into an open space. The display caused the spectators to erupt in applause, and then the general dismissed the troops for a late afternoon picnic.

After they’d eaten with the general, James directed her toward the fort’s hospital. As James sat and spoke to each of the soldiers, Sam found her heart filling with amazement. His genuine concern and easy laughter made each man feel special. When he turned to leave the ward, he gave the men a final salute.

Sam took a deep breath to still the feelings stirring within her. Everywhere they went and every time he spoke to others, James garnered respect, and she’d always respected him as well. Even when they disagreed on something, he didn’t resort to belittling her thoughts. But could she love him? Perhaps mutual respect was the seed of love that would eventually bloom. Still, if they couldn’t
agree on something as simple as suffrage, would resentment eventually choke out anything that grew between them?

She laughed to herself. Tessa must be rubbing off on her.

With Tessa’s hand tucked in the crook of his arm, Reese walked with her along the back of the Noyeses’ garden. Amid colorful Chinese paper lanterns, the crowds continued their merriment on the lawn, but he’d had enough of sharing Tessa with those people. Right now he wanted her all to himself.

“We made great progress today.” Tessa slipped free and spun around. “When they vote on Monday, I’m sure Mr. Nussbaumer’s conservatory will be funded.”

He couldn’t share her excitement. “Yeah, that would be good, I guess.”

“What’s wrong?” She tipped her head to the side.

“How do you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Put on that charade.” He rubbed the kink in his neck. “Not only did you act like you’d been born with a silver spoon in your mouth, but you finagled those rich folks so that they’d end up having to side with you before they even saw what was happening.”

“Little old me?” She pressed her hand to her chest and added a thick Southern accent.

“Tessa, I’m serious.” He frowned. “I’m beginning to wonder if we’re all simply pawns in your game.”

She took his hands. “Remember, I was acting like when I’m in a play, but I never act when I’m with you. I’m always 110 percent Tessa Gregory with you.”

“One hundred and ten percent, huh?” He looked into her hazel eyes, alight with fun, and his ire faded. Getting these people to commit to the conservatory was a game to her, a challenge. It made alarm bells sound inside him, but was that her fault? No,
Laura had put those doubts inside him a long time ago, and Tessa deserved to know the truth.

With her hand tucked against his side, they continued to walk while he considered his words. “Tessa, I need to tell you about someone.”

He felt her stiffen beside him.

“Back in Chicago, I fell for a girl named Laura. She was good at manipulation, and I was young. I didn’t see her for what she really was.”

“I’m not like that, Reese. I’d never trick you.”

“I want to believe that.” He covered her hand with his own. “Laura drove a wedge in my relationship with my parents. She made me believe they were against me.”

“How?”

“They didn’t approve of her.” He drew in a long breath. “She told me I had to choose, and I chose her. I’ll never forget the look of anguish on my mother’s face when I told them, or the disappointment in my father’s eyes. In truth, my parents saw things in her that I didn’t. In the end, I found out from an acquaintance that she was telling all of her friends how she had me under her thumb, and she’d keep me around until something better came along.”

“Oh, Reese, I’m so sorry.” She stopped and cupped his cheek, her voice thick with emotion. “I hate that you had to go through something like that, but I’m glad she didn’t realize the treasure she had in you.” She let her hand slide down to his chest. “I’m sure it will be hard, but please don’t compare us. That isn’t fair to me.”