New World, New Love (22 page)

‘My love,’ he said huskily when their kiss ended, both looking at each other breathlessly, her eyes wide and shining. ‘Marry me, Louise. I want you for my own. For always.’

‘This is not the time for talk of that.’ She jerked herself free of his embrace and suddenly she seemed as self-controlled and elusive as ever. ‘Everything I said in the past still holds good.’

Turning swiftly on her heel, she left him. That night, in spite of what she had said, he tried her door, but it was locked.

She heard him and turned on her pillow, aching for him. Slowly, almost from the start and without realizing it, she had fallen deeply and irrevocably in love with him, knowing only that he presented a threat to the way she wanted to organize her life. She could see now that loving Charles had been a refuge without demand on her senses or a threat to her freedom. Nothing could take the joy of having loved him away from her. Nobody could blot him out and he would have a part of her heart until the end of her days. Yet Daniel had the power to make her feel she was missing half of herself if he was not there.

Ever since Delphine had been able to receive visitors, Daniel had been to see her at least once every day. At first she lay weakly against her pillows, barely able to talk, but as soon as it was possible, Louise sat her in a chair every day, a plaid rug over her knees, and her foot resting on a footstool. Then Daniel would stay to play cards or backgammon with her. Louise always left them on their own together, partly to let her sister enjoy a complete change of company and also because it gave her the chance to take a walk and to explore a little more of the city each time.

Delphine always looked forward to Daniel’s visits. He rarely came empty-handed, bringing her a box of caramels or some other candy that she liked, sometimes a nosegay of flowers or a book he thought she would enjoy, and he always had something to tell that made her laugh. As time went on she remained extremely thin and a slight cough still troubled her, but a glossiness returned to her copper curls and some colour began showing itself in her cheeks. Her provocative ways had quickly revived and she used her eyes and her smile as they chatted.

‘I’m tired of being ill now, Daniel,’ she said one day. ‘I want to start dancing again and to get on with my life, but my ankle still hurts badly and your footman with the thick black eyebrows was to blame for that!’

‘So Louise told me. Didn’t you know? I dismissed him on the spot.’

‘Yes, but you should have thrown him out as he did me!’

‘What makes you think I didn’t?’ he asked with a grin, making her laugh again delightedly, and she clapped her hands together in approval like a child. ‘How would you like me to carry you downstairs for a change of surroundings? You’ve been shut up here long enough.’

‘Oh, yes! Now! At once! I’ve been longing to get out of this room. Dr Harvey is so afraid that I’ll undo the good that rest has done to my ankle if I go downstairs. He seems to think I’ll start walking about.’

‘You can have a footstool downstairs, as you have up here.’

From then on Delphine was downstairs for most of each day. After the first time, she insisted on being dressed, for by now both her trunk and Louise’s had arrived from the farm.

Although she had given Louise a brief outline of what had happened on her journey to Boston, there had always been certain details that she had kept to herself, unable yet to voice them. But feeling better in health gave her the strength to finally put the horrific experience into words. Even so, she found she had to lead up to it by repeating a little of what she had told Louise before.

She chose a moment when the two of them were on their own in the drawing room, Louise having been reading to her.

‘As you know from what I’ve told you already,’ Delphine began, ‘I had lifts on my journey from some kind people. An elderly couple took me the greatest distance, saying I had made it a pleasure for them with my chatter and my company. They were so protective, saying they would do for me as they would for one of their grandchildren. I stayed ten days at their homestead before they found someone they trusted to take me on the next stage.’

Louise put her bookmark into place and put the volume aside. ‘There’s something I’ve been intending to ask you. Didn’t all these people think it was strange you were travelling alone?’

‘I told them I was on my way to stay with my cousins in Boston, because I’d been ill-treated by the couple I’d worked for, which was why I had no money for a fare.’

‘A pack of lies!’

‘But it worked.’ Then Delphine’s triumphant expression faded. ‘There were only thirty miles left to Boston when a drover gave me a lift on the back of his cart. Five miles on, he stopped and pulled me off the cart and into the forest.’ She drew a shuddering breath and covered her face with her hands. ‘He hurt me cruelly when he raped me. I thought he would murder me too. But he left me in the bushes and drove away, taking my purse and belongings with him.’

Louise, full of compassion, moved to put an arm about her shoulders. ‘Delphine! I had no idea that had happened to you.’

Delphine’s hands slowly left her face and her lashes were a-glitter with tears of self-pity. ‘My clothes were torn and I was covered in bruises. Without any money, I had to walk the rest of the way to Boston, begging where I could and sleeping at night under bushes. Then I arrived at Cousin Madeleine’s house to find they were far away. Even Daniel was in New York.’ She hesitated briefly, her voice thick with shame. ‘One morning before you came to my room, I asked Nurse Annabelle if that drover had given me any contagion, but she said no. She also assured me I wasn’t pregnant, even though my moon circle hadn’t returned. She said that was because I have been starved and ill.’

‘I’m sure she’s right.’

‘It still hasn’t come back and I hope it never does! I don’t want any more babies. I would have died if I’d found you had brought Pieter’s son here.’

Louise had waited deliberately over the past weeks for Delphine to become her normal self again before raising the subject of Philippe, giving her the last chance of a change of heart. ‘But I’ve thought how we can manage to look after Philippe. When I start work again I could hire a girl to look after him during the day. The rest of the time we can both care for him.’

‘No! Never!’ She shook herself wildly in the chair as if she wanted to spring out of it and run physically away from the idea. ‘Let him be sent to Pieter!’

‘You know that is entirely impractical. And how can you be sure that Pieter would accept him? There is an alternative.’ It was then Louise told her of Alexandre and Blanche’s wish to adopt the boy. ‘I have the necessary papers with me.’

Delphine answered at once. ‘Bring me pen and ink. I’ll sign them now.’

Louise despatched the papers the same day.

Daniel had thought that with Delphine downstairs he would see more of Louise. Although now she dined with him every evening, Delphine was always there too. He realized that it suited her that her sister’s presence prevented any intimate conversation between them, and he was constantly irritated by it. He began to take up the social threads of his life again, spending evenings at gaming and cards with friends, attending balls and parties, and political gatherings. He would have taken Louise with him to many of these occasions, but she always refused, saying that the evenings would be long for Delphine without her. Finally he decided to pin her down with an invitation she could not refuse.

‘You leave Delphine every morning when you go out walking. So come riding with me instead on Saturday. I’ve a horse that would be perfect for you. You sister won’t be alone in the house.’

‘I can’t,’ Louise answered calmly. ‘I’m meeting someone.’

‘Who?’ he demanded fiercely.

Amusement showed in her eyes. ‘Am I not allowed any private life?’

‘Yes,’ he replied impatiently. ‘But you have all the week to meet this person, whoever he or she might be.’

‘I can’t cancel the arrangement I’ve made, but I promise you shall hear all about it afterwards.’

That evening he left the house to attend an evening of cards, hoping for some good play to banish his gloom. He was not used to being celibate, having a powerful sexual drive, and with Louise flitting about the house and the fragrant bouquet of her so often in his nostrils, he was totally possessed by his desire for her. If the library door had been locked that day he was certain she would have given herself eagerly to him.

He had just arrived at the venue when Theodore Bradshaw greeted him. ‘You’re looking well, Lombard.’

‘So, you’re back from Louisiana!’ Daniel exclaimed. ‘Yes, all is fine with me. Have you quite recovered your health?’

‘Indeed I have.’ Theodore was a man of immense dignity, quiet-voiced, with thick grey hair and aquiline features. ‘We returned three days ago. I must say it’s good to be back in Boston again.’

‘How is Mrs Bradshaw? I have some important news for her concerning her cousins.’ Briefly Daniel explained that they were staying with him after Delphine had injured her foot, but he left all details to be given by them.

‘How soon may we call?’ Theodore smiled. ‘I know Madeleine would leave her bed and go this night if I told her when I get home.’

‘Then why not tomorrow afternoon?’

When the sisters heard that their cousins would be coming to see them, their reactions were quite different. Delphine was wild with excitement in hopeful anticipation of what the future might hold for her now, whereas Louise thought only of the joy of seeing again the cousin of whom she had been so fond as a child.

Delphine chose to wear one of her best silk gowns and had arranged herself prettily in a chair where the June sun made a red-gold aureole about her hair. She had also had her chair turned to face the drawing room’s double doors, which stood wide open, so she would be the first to be seen. Her pink dancing slipper revealed its tip on the footstool. Daniel had come home from his work to be there and tea was to be served in the lily-patterned porcelain cups that Louise liked best. Everything was ready when the doorbell jingled in the distant realms of the house.

‘They’re here!’ Delphine exclaimed, levering herself up by the chair arms to catch a glimpse of the carriage drawn up outside. Daniel had already gone out to the hall and could be heard welcoming the visitors as they were shown into the house. Madeleine’s excited voice, sweet and high, was music to both sisters ears. Then she appeared in the doorway, a short plump woman with a round, still-pretty face, bright blue eyes, silver-fair hair under a magnificent hat and a smiling expression that matched her voice. In spite of Delphine’s careful planning, it was Louise whom Madeleine saw first.

‘My darling girl! You are here with us at last!’ Joyously, Madeleine flung out her arms and enfolded Louise in a bosomy embrace.

‘You make me think the clock has turned back, Madeleine!’ Louise declared happily when they had kissed each other’s cheeks. ‘It’s as if all those years between have condensed into yesterday.’ Then, as Louise turned to greet Theodore, his wife saw Delphine for the first time.

‘Merciful God!’ Madeleine clapped a hand to her mouth, her face becoming ashen, and she swayed on her feet.

Daniel was swift to steady her. ‘What is it, ma’am? Do you feel faint?’

‘No, no.’ She reached a hand behind her to seek her husband’s and he clasped it tightly as they stood together, staring at Delphine, whose expression was becoming dismayed in her bewilderment at not knowing what was wrong.

‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ she cried in abject disappointment that she seemed to have made a bad first impression.

Her cry broke the couple’s trance. Madeleine darted forward to cup Delphine’s face lovingly between her hands, her eyes shining with tears. ‘Forgive me, child. But you are the living image of our dear departed daughter, Mary Anne. She would have been just a few weeks older than you are now. You have the same eyes, the same nose and chin, as well as that wonderful bronze hair that comes from your mother’s and my side of the family. You could be her twin sister.’

Louise, who had been watching in surprise, saw as nobody else did a slight shift in Delphine’s eyes, and the smile curving her lips recalled the old adage about the cat having swallowed the cream.

‘What a great compliment you have paid me, dear Cousin Madeleine,’ Delphine breathed, radiating innocent pleasure.

Theodore was also deeply moved by her extraordinary likeness to the daughter he had loved. He could foresee this girl filling a gap in his wife’s life and maybe becoming instrumental in easing out the problems that had arisen in their marriage since their bereavement.

As Louise poured the tea and they all talked, exchanging news and accounts of much that had happened in the intervening years, Madeleine could not take her gaze from Delphine.

‘How did you injure your ankle, my dear?’ she asked with concern.

‘When I fell down Daniel’s front steps!’ Delphine answered merrily. ‘Wasn’t that a foolish thing to do?’

‘I still don’t understand why you or Louise didn’t write to let us know you were coming to Boston. Your letter would have been sent on to us and we could have returned in time for your arrival.’

‘My decision was made on the spur of the moment!’ Delphine had prepared herself for the question. ‘I have to confess that I became so bored with life on the farm that all I wanted was to come to Boston and stay for a little while with you and Theodore.’

Madeleine laughed delightedly. ‘How impulsive of you and how sweet!’

Delphine, well aware that both Louise and Daniel had their eyes on her, knew that she had to tell the truth about what had happened next. Madeleine and Theodore listened in dismay and astonishment to her tale of how destitute she had become and of Daniel’s rescue.

‘You poor dear child!’ Madeleine exclaimed. Then, having received Theodore’s indulgent nod in answer to the appeal in her eyes, she spoke directly to Daniel.

‘Would you allow us to take your two visitors away from you? Providing Louise and Delphine are willing to accept our abode as their family home from this day forward. After all, it’s where they belong.’