“Sleep? But Father never sleeps past seven.”
“He will today. Trust me.”
Nellie looked at her aunt and knew she was telling the truth. “I will go to him.”
“Good girl. Now go get dressed and wear the blue velvet.”
Nellie started to ask how Berni knew of the blue velvet, but she didn’t want to take the time. She wanted to see Jace as soon as possible.
Alone in the kitchen Berni snapped her fingers and was out of her nightgown and into a lovely dress of rust-colored silk broadcloth. The lace at her neck was handmade. She sat down at the table, snapped her fingers again, and a month’s supply of People magazine appeared, along with a plate of croissants and a pot of mocha. Now all she had to do was wait. Once Jace saw Nellie he’d forgive her everything, and wedding bells would soon be ringing. She just had a little bit more to do with Charles and Terel and then she’d be done. She might at last get to try the Fantasy room in the Kitchen. But instead of dragons, how about cowboys? Maybe he’d be a scout and she’d be a spunky young lady who needs to rescue her father or brother, and the scout won’t take her because she’s a woman, but then…Well, anyway, she’d have to try it when she returned.
With a shaking hand Nellie knocked on the door of Jace’s hotel room. Her heart was in her throat as she planned what she’d say to him.
He opened the door, his face full of sadness, but when he looked at her the sadness left and was replaced with anger. “Come to say goodbye?” he asked, then he walked away from her. He was packing.
“I came to apologize,” she said, stepping into the room. “You were right about everything. I was totally wrong.”
“Oh?” he said, putting shirts into his case. “Wrong about anything specific?”
“This morning a girl brought your letters to me. It seems her aunt lied to the postmaster’s son, and the letters were given to the aunt rather than being delivered to me.”
“How interesting,” he said, but there was no interest in his voice.
“And this morning Mae came to tell me that she and her friends had lied. You didn’t try to…to kiss them.”
“No, I didn’t,” he said, turning for a moment to glare at her.
Nellie took a breath. “I came to apologize for all I said and even for what I thought.”
He walked toward her, and Nellie’s heart almost stopped, but he just kept walking toward the bureau to get his razor. “So now what am I supposed to do? Say that everything is fine? Forgive you for everything and start all over again?”
“I don’t know,” she said softly. “I only know that I love you.”
He paused for a moment, his hands on the clothes in his case. “I’ve loved you, too, Nellie. I’ve loved you from the first day, but I’m not strong enough to fight your family. You believe everything they tell you. I don’t want to spend my life fighting for a piece of you.”
“I didn’t know,” she said. “I didn’t know about the letters.”
He turned to look at her. “And you didn’t know about Warbrooke Shipping either, did you? Tell me did your father put you up to coming here? Or did you make a pledge with your greedy little sister? If you get Warbrooke Shipping you’ll give them—What? A hundred dresses a year for Terel, new freight wagons for your father?”
Aunt Berni had said to grovel if she must, but Nellie couldn’t bear any more of this. “My family has only wanted what’s best for me. They did not want me to marry a man who left town without leaving a message, or one who courted many women at once. There was no proof that you had sent letters or that you hadn’t—”
“Kissed all the girls?” he said angrily. “There was proof. There was my word. You should have believed me. You should—”
“Yes, I should have,” Nellie said, fighting tears. “But I didn’t. I’m not much of a fighter, Mr. Montgomery. I just wanted to do what was right for everyone concerned, and it looks as though I’ve’ failed. I apologize for inconveniencing you.”
“Your apology is accepted,” he said tightly. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have a train to catch.”
There was a knot rising in Nellie’s throat, a knot that threatened to choke her. She couldn’t speak. She just nodded then and left the room, walking down the stairs and out of the hotel. She walked home, but she wasn’t aware of moving. As surely as though she’d been killed, she knew her life was over.
Berni sat in the kitchen, still reading People magazines, when she heard the front door open. She expected Nellie, her handsome hero on her arm, to come running into the kitchen. Instead, Berni heard Nellie’s heavy footsteps going up the stairs.
“Now what?” she mumbled. “Antony and Cleopatra didn’t have this much trouble.” She snapped the magazines and mocha and chocolates away and went upstairs. Nellie was prostrate on the bed. She looked about two inches away from suicide.
“So tell me,” Berni said, licking her fingers.
Nellie didn’t answer, so Berni wiggled her ears.
“He says I should have believed him,” Nellie whispered.