Deadlier Than the Pen (18 page)

Her heart went cold at the thought of how close Ben had come to being the first man on the scene. Then she immediately felt guilty. Aaron had been horribly wounded saving her. For all Diana knew, he was even now at death's door. Ben hadn't let anyone into the carriage house but Maggie and neither of them had come out again.
"Well, Diana," said Foxe, finishing off the last of the sausages. "How soon can you be ready for the trip back to New York?" He took out his pocket watch and contemplated its face. "It's too late for the 7:15 for Boston but if you hurry up and pack we can catch the Flying Yankee."
"I can't leave now!"
"Of course you can. Nothing to hold you here. Is there?"
When she didn't answer, he looked alarmed.
"Well, now. I guess that means you want me to sweeten the pot." He cleared his throat. "Meant to, anyway. M' sister has been saying for months that I don't make the best use of your talents. How does the police beat sound? No more scandal. Just murders and other juicy crimes."
Not very long ago, reporting the news had been Diana's fondest dream. She told herself she'd be a fool to turn down Foxe's offer. And yet she hesitated.
"Confound it, Diana! What's the matter with you?"
"Maybe she doesn't like the way you do business, Foxe." From the doorway, Ben fixed the editor with a hard, cold stare. "You hired an out-of-work actor to attack Mrs. Spaulding, just to persuade her that I was a viable suspect in two murders that had nothing to do with me."
"They _were_ connected." Foxe puffed himself up and glared back.
"If not for you, Diana would never have been mixed up in this and my brother wouldn't be fighting for his life."
"He's still alive?" Tears of relief sprang into Diana's eyes.
"For now. The bullet struck near the heart and he's lost a lot of blood."
"How can I help? You said once that I'd make a good nurse."
Horatio Foxe bounced up and down in agitation. "You work for me, Diana."
Both Diana and Ben ignored him. "That's not necessary, Diana," Ben said. "I have Mother's help. And Joseph's."
Foxe sputtered indignantly and went so far as to employ the word "raise."
"Do you _want_ to go back to New York?" Ben asked.
"I do have to earn a living."
"Stay here and write for the _Whig and Courier_." The heat of his gaze was so intense that if she'd been a candle she'd have melted into a puddle of wax.
"If not for me, Aaron would never have risked his life," Diana whispered.
"What happened to Aaron wasn't your fault. In fact, having seen his paintings, I'd say he acted to save his muse -- an idealized concept, not a flesh and blood woman. Because of you, even if he doesn't pull through, he'll have left a legacy in those portraits and seascapes."
"Nevertheless, I should leave." She didn't want to go, but so much was unsettled here. Her presence would only add to the turmoil. "You need to focus on helping Aaron recover. You don't need the added burden of -- "
"I need you."
"Do you want a wife, or just a shoulder to cry on?" Foxe interrupted.
His bluntness grated on Diana, but Ben didn't seem to mind the plain speaking.
"I want a wife," he said.
Those were words she'd longed to hear, and because she wanted so badly to believe he meant them, she knew she must be sensible. "Aaron -- "
"If it's the fear of inherited madness that what's holding you back, it need not concern you. Father married Maggie when I was two. I don't remember my real mother and have always called Maggie by that name, but I'm not descended from the Bathorys." He kept his gaze on Diana. "Only Aaron was."
Remembering the inscription in the crypt, she nodded. He'd just confirmed what she'd already worked out for herself.
He drew in a deep breath. "I know Maggie isn't the easiest person to live with. My mother -- stepmother -- is -- "
"Eccentric," she finished for him.
"To say the least. Can you accept her as she is?"
The question was not asked lightly and Diana took the time to consider. She was no longer afraid of Maggie, but would Aaron's mother want her around if Aaron failed to recover from his wound? Would she hold Diana responsible for his death?
Puffing on his cigar, Foxe looked from one to the other. "Even if she were to marry you at once, she'd still need to return to New York to put her affairs in order."
"That shouldn't take more than a week." Ben crossed the room to go down on one knee beside her chair. When he took both her hands in his, Horatio Foxe slipped past them and left the room, for once respectful of someone else's privacy.
"Ben -- "
"Marry me, Diana."
But she shook her head. "We did not even know each other a month ago."
"What difference does that make?"
"I married in haste once, Ben. I don't want to make the same mistake again." A flood of memories from her life with Evan streamed into her mind, none of them happy. And she remembered how Rowena had tried to talk her out of eloping. She hadn't listened to Foxe's sister and she'd lived to regret it.
Ben rose and took a step away from her. For one chilling moment, Diana thought he was about to give in and tell her she _should_ go back to New York with Horatio Foxe.
His hands curled into fists at his sides. "I don't want to live without you. When I thought I'd lost you forever, thought I might never see you again, it was almost more than I could bear."
Diana could read that remembered torment in his eyes, but she had also seen how he'd reacted when he thought his brother was dead. "Evan -- "
"I'm not Evan!" His temper flared quickly and was gone again in an instant. He spread his arms wide, inviting her to take a good look at him. "Am I anything like your late husband?"
She shook her head. "But that changes nothing. You need to look after Aaron. I need to be sure what I feel for you is real. We both need time apart. If we rush into marriage, we might be making a terrible mistake, one that could ruin the rest of our lives."
"I won't change my mind about wanting to marry you, Diana, but I understand that you have to be sure how you feel about me. And about Mother and Aaron. I'll give you another month, the same amount of time we've known each other. If you haven't returned to Bangor by the end of April, I'll come to you and we'll settle this." He returned to her side and bent to kiss her lips, sealing the bargain, then left the room before she could voice any more objections.
The abrupt departure left her reeling.
Cedric appeared in the empty doorway a moment later. The black cat padded across the carpet, leapt into Diana's lap, and curled himself into a ball. Without thinking, Diana dropped her hand to his back and began to stroke his soft fur. The steady rhythm of the movement and the deep, throaty purr it elicited from the cat soothed her troubled thoughts.
By her silence, she had given tacit agreement to Ben's proposal. Mesmerism? Sorcery? Or love? To her own surprise, Diana realized she was smiling.
"The next time I see Ben Northcote," she told the cat, "I will be the one who tells _him_ what we will do next."
She would go back to New York with Horatio Foxe, Diana decided. She might even try out that new assignment he'd offered her. But first and foremost, she'd use the weeks away from Ben to contemplate her past. That was the only way she'd be able to make sensible decisions about the future.
"April," she said to Cedric, as she scratched him behind one ear and provoked a positive ecstasy of purring. "A month." She nodded. "Yes, that seems an entirely reasonable length of time."
Just look how much had happened to her in March!
Author's Note
Although the characters in _Deadlier than the Pen_ are fictional, I've made reference to a number of real historical figures, in particular to Nellie Bly, intrepid reporter for the New York _World_, whose investigation into the treatment of the insane is the basis for what Ben sees and Diana imagines. Both New York City, particularly "the Rialto," and Bangor, Maine are real places. They are presented as accurately as I could manage. Only specific private homes, and one newspaper office, are complete inventions. Real newspapers from 1888 provided a tremendous amount of information about these places and I am grateful to Mantor Library at the University of Maine at Farmington and the Maine State Library for collecting so many of them on microfilm.
I have incorporated a number of incidents that occurred during the Blizzard of '88 into my novel, in particular stories of passengers trapped on trains. The party for Jim the "trick cat" and the camel's escape on Broadway were also real events.
Those readers interested in the sources I've used will find a complete bibliography at my website, www.kathylynnemerson.com. Look there, too, for information about the next Diana Spaulding mystery.

Visit www.belgravehouse.com for information on additional titles by this and other authors.