Adams, Eve - Patience is Their Virtue [Brides of Bachelor Bay 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (5 page)

Before she could stop herself, her widened gaze flew up to his. She licked her lips nervously and darted her gaze back down.
Think, Patience
. “Ask your wife, then. I did come over on the ship with the others.”

At least that much was the truth.

“And you came to marry one of my men?”

Uh-oh. She couldn’t very well lie to this man’s face. “Why else would I have taken the journey?”

“Why else, indeed.” He nodded at his brother Andrew as he grinned and nodded back. “I’ll leave you to retire, Miss Weber, and look forward to talking with you again.”

She tried to smile but gave up, knowing she’d have until daybreak to pack what little she had and be on the next ship out of Port Steele.

Patience’s Journal, Sunday, April 2, 1865

Port Steele, Washington Territory

I’m packing while I write this. I don’t have much, but what I do have I plan to take with me. Logan Gallagher is already suspicious of me, and for that alone, I must go. I plan to slip away while the rest of the town is at church so no one will notice my departure. My dearest friend, Amelia, has snuck away from the dance to help me pack and, I fear, try and talk me out of leaving Port Steele. If I had reason to stay, I would. However, with no money, no place to live, and no way to repay the debt I surely owe the Gallaghers, I have no choice but to leave—before Amelia finds a way for me to stay.

 
“I’m sure if you talk to Logan, explain your situation, he’ll understand,” Amelia Prescott pleaded with Patience. “He’s a very reasonable man. My sister wouldn’t have married him otherwise.”

Patience placed the ribbons she used to tie up her hair into her bag for the third time. As soon as she did, Amelia pulled them back out, as she’d done with everything else. What should have taken her minutes to pack had taken her close to an hour.

“I appreciate your concern. I really do. However, even if Mr. Gallagher is as understanding as you say, I can’t possibly pay him back. It would take me until I’m old and frail to work off my debt.”

Amelia grabbed the hairbrush out of the bag. “What makes you think he’ll ask you to pay off any debt?”

“Because he’s a businessman.”

“He’s a gentleman first.”

Patience looked at her but said nothing. When it came to business, men were one of two things—gentlemen or businessmen. They weren’t one in the same, and a gentleman rarely stayed in business for too long. She placed the ribbons back in the bag.

“It’s best this way.”

“For whom?” Amelia pouted as she pulled the ribbons out of the bag once again.

“Am, please. I must pack.”

Amelia stood and released a jaw-popping yawn. “I suppose there isn’t a thing I can do to convince you to stay.” She batted those brilliant blue eyes of hers at Patience. “Is there?”

“The only thing that could possibly save me at this point is—”

“A husband!” Amelia exclaimed and clapped her hands together.

Patience shook her head. “No, that isn’t what I was going to say.”

Amelia’s eyes shined with determination. “Of course. It’s positively perfect.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Oh, and I have the perfect man for my perfect plan.”

“Am, this is insanity.”

But she’d already made up her mind. Patience saw the resolution in her excited expression. “His name is John.”

Wonderful. There really was a John. Wouldn’t Adam Steele love that. “You aren’t listening.”

“Imagine the look on Constance Kendall’s face when another bride marries before her. She’ll be beside herself with jealousy. Oh, Patti. This is simply perfect.”

Patience’s first attempt at marriage resulted in disaster. Before her husband deserted her for a woman from the South, he’d paraded his indiscretions right there for her and the entire town of Boston to see. She’d been a fool to stay with him for as long as she had. “I don’t want a husband, Am.”

“Oh, pishposh. Of course you do.”

Patience shook her head and gave up. Once Amelia Prescott started on something, it would take the power of God to stop her. She’d just have to make sure she slipped out before Amelia brought John to call.

“Am, I’m tired. Could we continue this argument tomorrow?”
When I won’t be around to protest.

With a nod and smile, Amelia kissed Patience on the cheek and went to the door. “I’m traveling to Seattle in the morning with my sister Olivia and her husband.”

“Which one?”

They both shared knowing smiles.

“Both, I believe. Liv and I will be doing some shopping while Aaron and Jack tend to business. It seems Aaron Lambert is planning to open a bank here in Port Steele. Isn’t that splendid? We really are pioneers, and I’m thrilled that you’ll be staying in Port Steele, Patience Weber. You are one of my very dearest friends, and it would just break my heart to lose you.”

Amelia closed the door behind her, and Patience sank down on her bed before her knees gave out. As if she didn’t have enough emotions twisting around inside, now she had guilt on top of the others.

“Really, Logan, you must let me have my manservant show you how to make a good cup of coffee. This is dreadful.” Adam Steele set his cup and saucer down on the desk in front of him.

Logan Gallagher glared at him with those intense brown eyes of his. They may have the men who work for him scared, but it took more than a stern look to sway Adam.

“Why are you here, Adam? Because I know you wouldn’t make a special trip just to insult my wife’s coffee.”

“I don’t know about that.” Gage Gallagher stood behind his brother and crisply crossed his arms.

Raven audibly growled behind Adam. The tension between the Gallaghers and the Steeles thickened. Finally, Andrew, the most composed and charming of the Gallaghers, spoke up.

“Who was that woman you were dancing with last night? She was quite beautiful. I don’t recall seeing her before.”

Quite beautiful, indeed.
Adam remained relaxed in his chair although he really wanted to straighten and make sure Andrew knew that Patience Weber was no longer accepting suitors. No, Patience Weber was spoken for.

By him.

“I’m not here to discuss my choice in women,” he snarled.

Logan narrowed his gaze. “Then why are you here?”

“Constance Kendall.”

Logan’s lips curled into a crooked grin. “If you’re here to ask permission to marry her, by all means, take her. She’s a nuisance.”

“I’d rather marry my manservant than that insufferable woman. When she isn’t following me around, she’s got Miles Petty in her sights. Hell, I think she follows me around just to make him jealous.”

“Aren’t you two like peas in a pod?” Logan set his jaw at the mention of his cousin’s name. The Pettys and Gallaghers got along about as well as a dry forest and an open flame, and their hatred for each other burned as hot.

“Are you interested in why I’ve come or not?” Adam didn’t have time for their snide comments. He had plenty of people in line to bark insults at him. He didn’t need to sit here and take it from these men. “I’m sure the Pettys would appreciate my offer.”

Andrew, always the peacemaker, nodded. “It’s all in good fun, Mr. Steele. Please, go on.”

But before he could, the devil woman herself stormed into the room, looking mad enough to spit nails. She skidded to a stop, and bright color flooded her cheeks as soon as she spotted Adam sitting there. Behind her, Miles Petty casually strolled in and leisurely leaned up against the threshold frame, looking more smug than normal.

“Good morning, Miss Kendall.” Logan greeted pleasantly before stealing a glance at Adam, who raised his brow in return. Logan gave him a single nod in understanding.

“I wish it were, Mr. Gallagher.” She darted her nervous gaze between Miles and Adam, clearly upset with having them both in the same room.

How interesting.
Just what was the wretched woman up to now?

“I’m afraid I have some rather troubling news.”

Logan leaned back in his chair and seemed annoyed at her distress, as did the rest of the Gallaghers. “And that would be?”

Constance cast a dismayed glance Adam’s way and held it there. “I felt, as the elected representative for the remaining brides, that I simply must bring something to your attention. Last night, at the dance, I saw a woman there I barely recognized.”

“I find that difficult to believe.” Elizabeth Gallagher glided into the room, looking as proper and beautiful as ever. Logan was a very lucky man to have placed a ring on her finger. Gage stood at attention as well as Logan, and Adam hid his smile. It was no secret that Logan and Gage shared everything, including a wife.

“Lizzie,” Constance greeted in forced pleasantry. “I didn’t realize you still had a say in the brides’ welfare.”

“Until the brides say otherwise, I will stand up to you and everyone else I feel are leading them down the wrong path.”

Constance dropped her jaw, and Adam hid his smirk. He knew he liked the Gallaghers’ wife for a reason.

Logan straightened in his chair. “We are in the middle of a business meeting, Miss Kendall. Speak your business.”

She looked at Adam again, but this time something else flashed in those deep green eyes. It wasn’t distress. It was malicious determination. “There is no record of a Patience Weber on the ship’s manifest.”

The three Gallagher brothers in the room all stiffened, as did the rest of the occupants of the room—except Constance and Miles, of course. Adam watched them both carefully. They’d exchanged several quick glances. Miles was calm, too calm, and although a gifted actress, the gleam in Constance’s eye gave her away.

Logan turned to Lizzie. “You know her, don’t you?”

Lizzie thinned her lips at Constance. “Yes, I know Patti.”

“And she came over on the ship with you?”

“That she did.”

Satisfied with his wife’s answer, Logan turned to Constance. “I’m afraid you must be mistaken, Miss Kendall.”

“I assure you,” Miles said as he stepped forward. “She’s not.” He pulled out the ship’s manifest and dropped it down on the desk under Logan’s nose.

“How did you get your filthy hands on this?”

Miles spiked his dirty blond brow as his cold gray eyes shined. “It’s a matter of public record, cousin.”

“Logan?” Lizzie asked in a small voice after he’d spent several tense moments reading through the manifest.

Logan shook his head. “She’s not here.” He glanced up at Gage. “There’s no record of her.”

“Let me see that.” Gage took the manifest and read the open page then flipped a few pages before and then after, carefully reading each name. He then set the manifest on the desk. When Andrew went to grab it, Gage muttered, “Don’t bother. Logan is right. She’s not there.”

“Then how did she come to be on that ship?” Andrew asked.

“A stowaway,” Constance practically cried, her expression a cross between disturbed and delighted. “Patience Weber is not a Bachelor Bride.”