Jace got a great deal of pleasure helping Nellie onto the wagon, and once she was seated he flipped the reins of the horses and took off. He wanted to get out of Chandler as fast as possible. He held his breath until the houses were in the distance and open country surrounded them.
He reined in the horses and slowed them to a walk. “How have you been, Nellie?”
Nellie looked at him, so handsome, his strong white teeth showing against lips she knew to be soft and warm, and swallowed. Perhaps she had been hasty in her decision to leave with him. “All right,” she mumbled, trying to move away from him on the seat, but the way he drove, with his legs wide apart, caused his thigh to press against hers.
“I hear you and your sister have been receiving invitations to everything in town.”
“Terel has, not me.”
He looked at her, surprised. “Yesterday Miss Emily asked me why you’d been refusing all the invitations sent to you. People are beginning to think you’re snubbing them.”
It was Nellie’s turn to be surprised. “But I haven’t been invited. All the invitations have been to Terel.”
“Hmmm,” he said, looking back at the horses.
“Mr. Montgomery, are you implying that my sister kept the invitations from me?”
“Did you get the flowers I sent? I’ve sent you flowers every day for the past week.”
“I received no flowers,” she said softly.
“How about the two letters I sent?”
Nellie didn’t answer.
“The puppy?”
“Puppy?”
“Cute little collie pup. It was returned to the hotel with a note from you saying you didn’t want anything from me, nor did you ever want to see me again. He was a frisky pup, wasn’t he?”
“I never saw him,” Nellie mumbled.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you.”
“I didn’t see the puppy,” Nellie said louder. Could Terel or her father have kept her from knowing of these gifts and messages? Why would they do that? Terel had said that no word had come from Mr. Montgomery. “How is Olivia Truman?”
“Who?”
“Olivia Truman. She’s a very pretty redhead. Her father owns quite a bit of land outside Chandler.”
“I don’t remember meeting her.”
“You must have met her at one of the social events you’ve attended this week. The garden party? The box lunch? The church supper?”
Jace was beginning to understand. “Since I saw you last I have worked in your father’s office, bent over a stack of dirty ledgers, and I have spent my evenings at my cousin’s house. Houston will tell you that I’ve had dinner at their house every night this week, and my social life has consisted of giving about a million piggy back rides to those three kids.”
Nellie was silent for a while. Every evening Terel had told her where she had seen Mr. Montgomery and with whom he’d been. One of them was not telling the truth and instinctively she knew it was Terel. Perhaps she meant to protect me, Nellie thought. Perhaps she was doing what she thought was best for me.
“How are you enjoying Chandler, Mr. Montgomery?” she asked, trying to make polite conversation.
“I’m enjoying it quite a lot now that you’re beside me again,” he answered.
Nellie didn’t know what to say in reply. Was he the villain portrayed by her father and Terel, or was he as he seemed to her? She’d never had any reason before to doubt her family, but now there were things puzzling her.
They were some miles out of town when, coming over a hill, Jace looked down into a valley and saw the freight driver’s wagon, loaded with corn and still sitting beside the cabin. He knew without a doubt that the man hadn’t understood his plan.
Jace brought the wagon to a halt. “Nellie, I have to leave you here. I’m afraid that the driver’s wife may have some contagious illness. I couldn’t bear to expose you to it.”