While Passion Sleeps Page 3

Startled that he had noticed, she said quickly, "Oh, no, Father, everything is wonderful."

  "Well, then, let us hope that it remains so," he replied in a bored tone, banishing further chance of conversation.

  Nathan glanced up just as they approached. With an almost panic-stricken look, he muttered something to his companion. Longstreet instantly turned to greet them, saying with an edge, "Ah, Lord Selby, you are to be congratulated on your daughter's marriage. She made a lovely bride, and I'm sure"—shooting an enigmatic smile at Nathan—"that young Nate here will make an exemplary husband."

  "How clever of you to notice," Lord Selby returned. "But then, you know Nathan rather well, don't you?"

  His eyes like hard pebbles, Longstreet bowed. "Yes, I do. Have you any objections, my lord?"

  "None, provided your... ah... friendship does not interfere with my daughter's marriage. You do understand my meaning?"

  It appeared that both of the other gentlemen did, but Elizabeth was bewildered as she looked from Nathan's stricken white face to Longstreet's darkening one.

  "Are you threatening me, Selby?" Longstreet growled.

  Selby's eyebrows rose. "I beg your pardon, sir! How absurd of you to take exception to my words. Now, Longstreet, do calm yourself. I merely meant that I will allow no scandal to touch my daughter. Your friendship with Nathan is of no interest to me, provided you are discreet. Have I made myself clear?"

  Again, Longstreet bowed. "Perfectly, my lord. And I believe your views on the subject are a bit moot. Nathan and his bride leave shortly; it would be impossible for anyone to create a scandal in that short time."

  Lord Selby nodded. "Of course. I merely thought it wise to make certain that you understood the situation."

  "Of that you can rest assured!"

  Nathan remained silent during the curious exchange, his eyes not meeting Elizabeth's as she stood by her father's side. Baffled and mystified by the exchange, she stirred, wishing her father had not chosen to take such an unwarranted interest in Nathan's friendship with Longstreet. It was obvious that Nathan was embarrassed by the whole thing, and her gentle heart went out to him.

  Moved by a protective feeling, she released her father's arm and crossed to stand by her husband, her small hand entwining tightly around Nathan's. It was as if she were giving him encouragement, and, smiling at Longstreet and her father, she said quietly, "Nathan and I appreciate your concern, but your fears are misplaced, Father, in thinking that Mr. Longstreet's friendship will cause us any difficulties. Nathan would not have a friendship with anyone who was not a gentleman."

  To say who was the most astonished by her words would be difficult. Certainly Elizabeth herself was astonished that she could speak so bravely to her father, and her father was taken aback that a daughter he stigmatized as a foolish chit would express herself so confidently. Nathan too was caught off guard, but he quickly recovered himself, murmuring, "Well, now that we all understand the situation, I propose the subject be dropped. After all, this is our wedding day."

  Lord Selby gave him a faintly contemptuous smile. "Just so, and you would do well to remember it." Then, glancing over at Longstreet, he commented, "I suggest we absent ourselves, Longstreet, as the newlyweds obviously wish to be alone."

  Longstreet hesitated a moment, as if he would say more, but then Lord Selby prodded him further by drawling, "Longstreet, dear fellow, I know you are saddened by the thought of Nathan's approaching departure, but really, all things must come to an end. Come along now and let the children be."

  After that, Longstreet had no choice in the matter, and with ill-concealed irritation he followed Lord Selby across the crowded ballroom floor. With their departure an awkward silence fell between Elizabeth and Nathan. Amazed that she had boldly spoken out in front of three gentlemen, Elizabeth queried uncertainly, "Should I not have spoken, Mr. Rid—I mean Nathan? I didn't mean to intrude, but Father and Mr. Longstreet were having such an odd conversation—and you looked so miserable that I felt I had to do something!"

  Nathan sent her a grateful look and, squeezing her hand, he muttered, "No. No, I'm just delighted the incident is behind us."

  Her eyes troubled, she stared up at his faintly harassed features. "Nathan, is there something I should know? I mean, is Mr. Longstreet not a very nice man?"

  His mouth tightened and he said with sudden and unaccustomed venom, "No, Mr. Longstreet is not a very nice man. I wish to God I had never met him!"

  Puzzled as much by the harshness of his tone as by what he said, Elizabeth asked, "Then why are you friends with him?"

  He flashed her an odd look and murmured, "Because I am a fool, and I cannot help myself!"

  Chapter 2

  Nathan would say no more. But from that point on, Elizabeth sensed something was not quite right, and as the day passed she grew more uneasy. All the uncertainties she'd experienced earlier in her bedroom resurfaced and she spent a miserable time, a smile pasted on her mouth as she received one congratulation after another, all the while wondering about the strange conversation and Nathan's odd words.

  She could tell her husband was also uneasy and equally unhappy. But why? And what part does Mr. Longstreet play?

  Finally the ostentatious affair was over and the last guest had departed. Her valises and trunks were being loaded onto the coach that would take them to the train station, Nathan's baggage having been strapped on earlier. Their departure from Three Elms would be within the hour, and Elizabeth found herself, despite all her reservations, glad to leave the coldly elegant house in which she had been raised. She would probably never see it again, and that thought brought no remorse. She had been unhappy here and wished to put all the lonely memories behind her. Yet there was no denying it gave her a queasy feeling in the pit of her stomach to know that when she walked out through those huge, brass-hinged double doors she would be severing whatever ties she had with her father, Three Elms, and England. She would be alone except for Nathan, and Nathan was a stranger.

  Elizabeth stared out at the gardens in the falling twilight, aware that she would miss her favorite rose-covered swing seat, where she had often spent hours and hours lost in the excitement and romance of a novel by Jane Austen or Sir Walter Scott. A servant broke her reverie and informed her that she was wanted in her father's library. Mystified, she found her way to that book-lined room.

  Her father was seated behind a tambour desk, Nathan nearby in a high-backed red leather chair. It was quiet in the room except for the soft ticking of a marquetry clock on the gray marble mantel. The soft glow of gaslight bathed the room.

  Nathan rose to his feet when she entered and saw that she was seated in the twin of his chair near the corner of the desk. From the quick look that she had at his face, she could see that he was under a terrible strain. When he said nothing and kept his eyes averted from hers, she looked to her father.

  Lord Selby smiled grimly. "Your husband has just suffered a reversal, and he is more than a little disappointed. I must confess that it is partly my fault. It seems that while your husband is satisfied with the amount I have settled upon you, he does not like the fact that I have set it up in a trust to be administered by a bank in Natchez."

  "I'm afraid I don't understand," Elizabeth confessed in bewilderment.

  "It is very simple, my dear," Nathan said in a mortified tone. "Your father is a very untrusting gentleman. He has decided that I am not competent to handle your money."

  Selby gave an unpleasant laugh. "You, my young cockerel, are not competent to handle your own affairs, and certainly not Elizabeth's!"

  Humiliated and showing it, Nathan surged to his feet; his fists clenched at his sides. "Sir! I do not have to stay here and be insulted this way!"

  "No, you don't, do you? But you will! Now sit down, Ridgeway, and I shall explain it to my daughter. Hopefully she has brains enough to understand what I am saying."

  Elizabeth flushed and stared at her hands folded in her lap. At this moment she almost hated her father—yes, hated
him for the way he was treating Nathan and for the way in which he belittled her intelligence. There was silence in the room for a moment, and then with an exaggerated sigh Lord Selby murmured, "If I may have your attention, please."

  Elizabeth's head jerked up at that, and, hiding her emotions, she stared back at him. Steadily, she said, "You have our attention now, Father. I can assure you, I will understand every word you say. At Mrs. Finche's they did teach us English."

  Lord Selby's eyes narrowed, and for a moment Elizabeth thought he would say more, but apparently he had grown tired of baiting them, for he said, "I won't mention the amount of money involved because it would mean little to you. Sufficient to say, it is a fortune and should keep you in the elegancies to which you are accustomed to for the remainder of your life... keep you, whatever children you may have, and your husband if need be. But as Nathan is a wealthy young man himself, that will not be necessary—" Throwing Nathan a derisive look, he finished dryly, "I hope."

  Nathan's face whitened and he choked out, "How kind of you, sir!"

  Ignoring his son-in-law, he glanced at his daughter and continued, "I have arranged that until you are thirty years of age, the banking firm of Tyler and Deering in Natchez will oversee your fortune. They are to pay all bills and approve all but the most trifling expenses. You will be given an allowance which should cover the various fripperies you may wish to buy yourself. But everything must be approved by them. That includes even your dressmakers' bills. When you are thirty, if in their opinion it is proper to do so, Nathan shall then have the trust turned over to him to administer as he sees fit, and," he finished cynically, "by that time I trust he will have outgrown some of his more expensive habits."

  If Lord Selby had wanted to humiliate and belittle his son-in-law he couldn't have chosen a better way. It was one of the most galling things he could have done to the young man, and Elizabeth recognized it instantly. Weary of the baiting, she asked, "Is that all, Father? If it is, I believe it is time that Nathan and I were on our way. You have accomplished what you set out to do."

  It was Nathan's turn to look puzzled. Puzzled and a little surprised that the shy and retiring Elizabeth could speak so coolly, and to her father at that. It surprised Elizabeth also, but she had discovered a deep burning anger at her father, and with it came the courage to cross verbal swords with him. Her eyes defiant, she waited for his reply.

  Lord Selby smiled, not a very nice smile, and murmured, "So, the little mouse has turned into a scratching kitten. Perhaps marriage is good for you."

  With an action completely foreign to her, Elizabeth inclined her head haughtily and rose from her seat. "Thank you, Father. Nathan and I both appreciate your compliments on our marriage but I believe the carriage is waiting for us. Excuse us, please?"

  It was a regal leave-taking, and Elizabeth's unaccustomed rage lasted until long after Three Elms had disappeared in the distance. By the time they reached the train station, she was shaking, as much from the uncertainty of the future as the effects of behaving in such a bold and uncharacteristic manner. She was mortified to think that she had been so brazen as to speak for her husband, and she asked him, "Are you angry with me, Nathan, for saying what I did to my father? I didn't mean to speak out of turn, but I was so very angry."

  Patting her hand, he said wearily, "No, my dear, I don't mind at all. I am, if the truth be known, grateful that you said what you did. But at the moment I would rather not talk about it. Forget about it for now, my dear, and tomorrow or the next day we will discuss it."

  It wasn't what she wanted to hear, but it satisfied her and, like the obedient child she usually was, she did just that. Besides, this would be the beginning of an entirely new venture for her, and she made up her mind in that instant that she was going to enjoy it... no matter what!

  Entering the elegant first-class compartment that had been reserved for their journey to Portsmouth, Elizabeth discovered with pleasure the sturdy figure of Mary Eames unpacking her night clothing. Her face reflecting her pleasure, she asked, "Mary, what are you doing here?"

  "Well, I'll tell you, miss... er... madame, at the moment I'm not even sure myself! I've been in such a bustle and hustle since this afternoon that I don't know my head from my heels," Mary replied with a twinkle in her eyes. "It was only then that it occurred to your husband that you had no maid with you. He said it would be better if you had someone you knew to serve you rather than to hire a complete stranger."

  A tremulous smile broke across Elizabeth's face. "Oh, how kind of him! I was dreading the thought of having no one that I knew around me." And as Mary Eames had always been one of her favorite servants, she said impetuously, "Well, he couldn't have chosen someone that would please me better."

  "Now that's a nice thing to hear, miss!" Mary replied with a wide grin, her blue eyes resting affectionately on the young woman staring back at her. "I'm most happy to be here. And I can't tell you how excited I am to be able to serve you on this trip."

  Struck by a sudden thought, Elizabeth inquired anxiously, "You will be coming to America with me, won't you? You don't have to go back to Maidstone, do you?"

  A pleased and gratified smile spread over the plain face. "Why, miss, if you want me to, I certainly will! Mr. Ridgeway said we should leave it up to you, but he did ask me if I had any objections to leaving England and making my home in America. Fancy him knowing that you might ask me to come with you!"

  A burst of affection for her husband's unexpected intuition flashed through Elizabeth. How clever of Nathan and how kind of him to guess her feelings of strangeness and to realize how very, very welcome Mary's presence would be in Natchez.

  The train trip on "The Planet" was uneventful—Elizabeth sleeping soundly and alone in the comfort of their first-class compartment, Nathan finding his way to the gentlemen's smoking room and remaining there until they reached Portsmouth. At Portsmouth, they transferred to the handsome hotel where they would stay for the next two days before boarding the ship that would take them to America. It was there that Elizabeth's uncertainties returned to haunt her.

  It was nothing that Nathan did—rather it was what he didn't do. She hadn't thought a great deal about it when she had slept in lonely comfort in their compartment on the train, but when she discovered Nathan had booked suites at the hotel for both of them—her chaste state was almost certainly to continue—she grew puzzled. Though the facts of the marriage bed were somewhat mysterious to her, she wasn't so naive not to realize that it was strange for a bridegroom to avoid sleeping with his bride. She was too shy and embarrassed to question her husband about it, and those same reasons kept her from confiding in Mary. Maybe, she told herself wistfully, he was waiting until they were on the ship and on their way to America.

  Except for his avoidance of the marriage bed during those days in Portsmouth, Nathan was everything a young bride could ask for, escorting her about the bustling seaport town, pointing out sites of interest—such as Southsea Castle, built by Henry VIII and later taken by the Parliamentary forces in 1642 and partly dismantled, as well as the crumbling ruins of Porchester Castle, once a Norman fortress. He spoiled her outrageously, buying her trinkets, perfumes and powders, and several pieces of fine jewelry. She was flattered and delighted with the gifts, but at night, tucked up in virginal splendor in her bed, she would have gladly foregone them all to have Nathan pull her into his arms and teach her what physical love was about.

  It wasn't until the afternoon before they sailed on the evening tide that she discovered the reason for Nathan's denial of his conjugal rights. She was seated alone at her table in the tearoom of the hotel enjoying a cup of Earl Grey, while Nathan was busy seeing to the last-minute preparations for their journey, when one of the men sitting at a table behind her said something that caught her attention.

  "I saw Charles Longstreet earlier today."

  "That pederast! I thought he was mincing about London. I wonder what brings him to Portsmouth, of all places?"

  "I rathe
r think it is who rather than what! I just saw him and that American fellow Ridgeway together, and even a blind man could tell that Longstreet was enamored of the young man." The man gave an unkind laugh and added, "And that Ridgeway was spurning his advances... perhaps I should say spurning his further advances."

  Elizabeth's face went white and, with a hand that shook, she set down her cup. What in Heaven's name were they implying? One incredulous thought after another jostled about in her head and none of them made any sense. She only knew that there was something about the conversation that she should understand, but it eluded her... perhaps because she willed it to?

  Uneasy and apprehensive for no apparent reason, she was unable to remain seated at the table one second longer. Was it that she feared she would hear something that would bring understanding to her? She didn't wait to find out. Instead, like a startled fawn, she hurried to her room, unwilling to think about what she had heard. Once safely in her room, the words so carelessly spoken came back to haunt her and made her wish she were a more sophisticated young woman.

  Troubled, she stared out the window of the hotel at the wide expanse of the cold blue ocean. In just a few hours she would be boarding the ship that would take her from England. Was she going to let a bit of malicious gossip destroy her marriage and her future? For a second, the picture of Three Elms flashed through her mind, and the memory of Melissa's dislike and her father's cold indifference returned. No! She could not return there. Her future was with Nathan. Nathan who loved her and who cared for her. She must believe that, and she must dismiss the ugly conversation from her mind.

  Nathan entered the room, his smile warm and endearing. "Well, my love, are you ready for the long journey to America? I know you will find the journey boring, but when we reach New Orleans I know you shall feel it was well worth it."

  Taking a closer look at her, he noticed the signs of agitation that she hadn't been able to hide; his expression concerned, he asked, "Is something wrong, my dear?"