CHAPTER 13
Once breakfast was over and the dishes were done, Julia began planning the holiday meal for Christmas Day. Dev had gone to the barn and taken the children so they could check on Princess.
The house was clean, the fire blazing, everyone was fed…it was so much more than Julia ever hoped for when she’d answered the ad for a nursemaid for Jamie, and set out on this journey West.
Dev had turned out to be an honorable man. Love would come, in time, she told herself. She was a married woman, now—in only a few short days’ passage. Married…but not really. Not until tonight.
Tonight, she planned to make her marriage a reality—to accept Dev and this life she’d come to completely—with no more reservation. There would be no thought after tonight of ever returning to Atlanta. She had no reason to go back to Georgia—and every reason to stay here.
Her heart ached when she thought of Dev’s earlier words—thinking she had expected ‘more’ in this house. In this life. In him.
But truthfully, it all exceeded her expectations—whatever those might have been. Had she had any thought of the future, other than hoping her new employer would be a kind man?
The house was not as formal or stately as her family home had been—but that made it all the more precious to her. It had been built, Pete had told her, by Dev and some of the hands who had first hired on. Dev had won some money in a card game. At only eighteen, he’d claimed the land and built the house—a home, he’d told them as they’d worked—and what a home it was! Strong, tight, and big enough to hold a family, eventually—the family he’d always wanted, Julia surmised, as a young man.
But tragedy had struck with the deaths of first Heather, then Annella—and the house had stood as a mockery of all the happiness that might have been.
Now, there was a second chance; a chance for her and Dev to catch and hold on to the joy and love between them, with the close bond of the children as a good beginning. And with the acceptance of Alex, Julia hoped, for both his sake as well as Dev’s. Tonight, she was going to do her best to show him she believed love could be theirs, if he wanted it as much as she did.
Just then, a knock sounded at the door, and Julia set aside the pinto beans she was picking through to answer it. It sounded again, urgently, and she called, “I’m coming!” as she hurried to get there. It was cold as blue blazes, she knew, and she certainly didn’t want to keep anyone standing on her porch.
She opened the door to a beautiful young woman, dressed in a green velvet gown with a hooded cloak to match, both the very color of her eyes.
“Come in,” Julia welcomed the woman, stepping out of the way to allow her entrance.
“Oh, thank you!” The girl swept in and went immediately to stand before the fire. She looked directly at Julia, pulling the hood from her long, auburn hair. “I’m sorry to barge in like this—I’m Deborah Miles. You must be—”
“I’m so sorry. Forgive my manners, Miss Miles. I’m Julia—Julie—Campbell.”
Green eyes widened in surprise, but also with genuine warmth. “Oh—congratulations!” A wistful cloud came over her expression and she looked away. “I heard you had come to care for Jamie. You and Dev will be very happy, I’m sure.” She pulled off her gloves, and Julia moved to take them from her.
“Would you like me to take your cloak, Miss Miles?”
But Deborah shook her head. “Oh…no. No, thank you. I’m surprised you let me in the door after—after what my father did. I’m terribly sorry. I had to come over here and let you all know—I didn’t know what he had in mind—or that he would go so far! Though…I suppose I should have.”
“Miss Miles, please come to the kitchen with me. I don’t mean to be rude, but I have to get these beans on to soak. Tomorrow being Christmas, and all, I wanted to make a really wonderful meal.”
“I’ve always wanted to learn to cook. My mother died when I was eight.”
Julia gave her a quick hug of understanding. “Mine passed when I was ten. It seems we have something in common.”
“Yes…but—you’re so kind to me after— Well, truthfully, I didn’t know what I would find in the way of a greeting here.” Deborah looked at her. “Oh, Mrs. Campbell, I have to know…is Alex all right?”
Julia smiled and patted her shoulder. “He’s going to be fine. You’re in love with him, I’m guessing—else, you wouldn’t have risked your father’s wrath—or ours—to come here now.”
Reluctantly, Deborah nodded. “Oh, I messed everything up! Alex and I were already seeing one another. Papa told me he encouraged the match, but he wanted me to ‘do more to speed it up’, he said. If I didn’t, he said he’d—he’d ask Mortimer Townsend to marry me instead. Or maybe Elliott Wylie.”
“I’m sorry,” Julia said, motioning for Deborah to take a seat with her at the table. “I don’t know either of them. I only just arrived from Georgia a few days past.”
“And here I am, telling you my troubles instead of making polite conversation.”
“Oh, Deborah, please don’t think like that! I am curious to know how all this came about. You see, Lauralee is my niece. It was she, along with Jamie, that your father’s men stole.”
Deborah flinched at Julia’s words, and Julia instantly regretted her own lack of genteel phrasing.
Deborah looked down, shaking her head in disbelief. “I still can’t believe he would go so far. And why? I truly don’t understand.”
“Tell me about Mortimer and Elliott,” Julia coaxed as she went back to picking through the beans.
“Mortimer is twice my age. He owns the bank. He—well when he looks at me, it’s as if he strips me buck naked with his eyes. Oh, Julie, have you ever met someone like that?”
Immediately, Ellis Redmond came to mind. Oh, yes. She had definitely known someone like that. She shivered at the memory. “Yes. I have. I can’t imagine spending a lifetime with that kind of man.”
“And Elliott—even worse. He owns several acres a few miles north of town. No one knows how he got the land, because the previous owners, the Meltons, had been there ever since I can remember. Suddenly, they were gone, and he’d moved in.” She shuddered. “He is unspeakably cruel. But…he has a lot of money. It seems that’s all my father cares about. He says he only wants to see me married well, but—I’d rather never marry than to wed either of those awful men!”
For a moment, Julia thought the girl was going to cry, but she straightened her spine. “I will not marry either of them.”
“Well, I don’t believe you have to worry about that anymore,” Julia said comfortingly. “Your father—he’ll most likely be in jail for a very long time because of what he’s done.”
Deborah’s beautiful features hardened. “I will testify against him. I’ve told the sheriff that. I guess—I truly never knew my father as well as I thought I did.”
After a moment, Julia tentatively asked, “Would you like to see Alex?”
Deborah’s face brightened. “Oh… may I? Do you think he’ll want to see me, though? Maybe—oh, maybe he will never care if he sees me again!”
“He cares,” Alex called from the top of the stairs. “But you’ll have to come up here. The stairs are beyond me right now.”
• ♥ •
Deborah stood quickly. “Alex!” She hurried out of the kitchen, and Julia, somewhat alarmed, followed. Alex shouldn’t be up and about, but she could understand him not wanting to greet Deborah flat on his back.
As they came out of the kitchen and stood at the foot of the stairs, a slow grin spread across Alex’s handsome features. Shirtless, he bent, leaning across the stair railing, dark eyes dancing with laughter at Deborah’s anxious look.
Deborah’s breath caught and held as she stood gazing up at him, and Julia felt lightning spark between the two of them, even from where she stood.
Deborah exhaled a soft, “Oh…” and Julia couldn’t help but smile.
“Come on up here, Deb. You too, Julie, if you can spare a few minutes,” Alex said. He pushed away from the railing and headed back to his bed. Julia imagined it was all he could manage just to have gotten up for those few short moments. He didn’t want to appear weak in front of Deborah.
Pressing her lips together to hide her smile, Julia motioned Deborah up the stairs, then followed after a few seconds.
When Julia reached the top of the stairs, she could hear Deborah fussing over Alex already.
“Here, let me fluff your pillows. Goodness, the bed’s a mess—covers all tangled…here we go—”
Then there was a telling silence, and Julia knew Alex had planted a fierce, welcoming kiss on Deborah’s lips. She held back a moment, then gave a cough as she stepped on the board that always creaked. Though they knew she was coming, it was only right to remind them—
—for all the good it did! They were still kissing when Julia stepped through the door. She cleared her throat, and slowly, they separated.
“Alex…” Deborah breathed. “I wanted—”
“Don’t say anything. Just listen, first. I have to know for sure that you coming here isn’t more of your daddy’s planning, Deb.” At her indignant pout, he went on. “If I find out it is, that’ll be the end of us for good. And you know I mean it. So be honest.”
“Alexander Carlton Campbell! I would never do anything to hurt you! I didn’t know my father was…so—evil! And I never would have thrown myself at you that day in the mercantile if we hadn’t already—” She broke off, horrified at what she’d been about to say, and glanced at Julia quickly. “I mean, if we hadn’t already known we had—feelings for one another.”
Alex regarded her solemnly for several seconds. He reached up to cup her cheek, as if by touching her he might be able to know her thoughts. “Do you love me, Debbie? Really love me?”
“I—”
But Julia interrupted. This wasn’t fair. He was making the girl grovel, and that wasn’t right! “A lady never says it first, Alex,” Julia said, arching a brow.
Deborah nodded at the reminder. “Yes, Alex. Maybe I should be asking if you love me!”
Alex shot Julia a dark look. “Thanks for the reminder.”
She smiled. “My pleasure.”
At Alex’s silence, Deborah said, “I want you to know that—my father has nothing to do with what—what I feel for you, Alex. Yes…I acted on my feelings—I was more forward than is proper. But…” She lowered her head, and Julia understood that the ‘forwardness’ she described was only a part of what was being left unsaid.
Had Alex taken advantage of her? If he had…
Julia’s accusing glare arrowed over Deborah’s bowed head, straight to Alex’s dark gaze. The resignation she saw there gave her the answer she sought. Alex put a hand out to lift Deborah’s chin. A tear dripped from her cheek to the bed. Silence thundered through the room as the seconds ticked by.
“Deborah Ann Miles, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
• ♥ •
When Dev returned from the barn with the children, he sensed a change—and it wasn’t necessarily one for the better.
Julia greeted them as they came in, helping the little ones out of their coats and listening to their excited talk of what they’d seen in the barn, but she seemed distracted.
“Whose rig is that outside?” Dev asked when Lauralee paused for a breath.
“Deborah Miles’s. She’s upstairs with Alex.”
“What?”
Julia laid a hand on Dev’s arm her gaze moving quickly to Jamie’s worried expression at his father’s outburst. “They had some things to discuss—”
“I’ll just bet they did. And you left them—”
“Devlin Campbell!” Her eyes flashed blue fire at him, and she put her hands on her hips. “You stop that this minute!”
He watched her, enthralled. In all the years of his marriage to Annella, she’d never shown any passion—in anger, in life, or in lovemaking. Joy rose up inside him at Julie’s fiery display. Didn’t that mean she cared? If she didn’t, she would have been content to let everything drift by, just as Annella had.
“Yes, ma’am,” he responded, not even trying to keep the grin from covering his face as he walked to the settee to sit in front of the fire and get warm. “Come tell me about it, will ya?”
Julia lowered herself to sit beside him, and he put an arm around her. Lauralee looked up at him from where she sat on the floor beside Jamie. Her eyes narrowed, and she pursed her lips, then said, “I hope y’all aren’t gonna start kissing again.”
Dev’s lips quirked as he turned to look at Julia. “I don’t know,” he said thoughtfully. “We just might.”
Lauralee shook her head. “Oh, brother!”
It sounded so grown-up, Dev and Julia both laughed aloud.
“What’s going on up there?” Dev asked after a moment.
Julia began to fill him in on Deborah’s visit with her, and subsequently, the revealing conversation with Alex.
“So…we’ll be having another wedding before New Year’s…” Dev murmured.
Julia nodded. “It does look that way, but I left before she answered him. That moment was too—intimate—to have to share.”
“Yeah. I’m sure it’ll happen.” Dev sighed. “I always liked Deborah. I don’t believe she’s like her father, but…” He shrugged. “I’ll be on the lookout, just the same.”
“Or…maybe we could just accept her, Dev. I believe she was willing to ‘move things along’ with Alex because she—she loves him. And when her father pushed her into hurrying it up, she wanted the same thing, so—”
“So why not do it. Makes sense.”
“I made some popcorn to string for the tree,” Julia said, changing the subject. “I realize we’re getting a late start, but maybe next year won’t be so hectic.”
“How do we string popcorn?” Dev asked, puzzled.
Julia chuckled. “I’ll show you. You’ll be the best popcorn stringer west of the Mississippi before we’re done.”