His Haunted Heart (17 page)

The night that changed my life.

I watched as she took a necklace off and shove it into the top drawer of her dresser.

“I never noticed you wearing a necklace.” I mentioned, turning around to toss my shirt over the top of a chair.

“I—I found it.”

“It must be my mother’s. She left some things here for you. I’m glad you like it.”

I heard the swish of the tie on her robe and her feet pad across the Cypress floor, onto the rug, and back to wood again. Before she reached me, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise. My chest tightened as she came near, every time.

“You’re okay?” Her question was coupled by long and lithe arms encircling my waist. She pressed her cool face between my shoulder blades. As she spoke, her breath skittered along my skin.

It broke me.

“I just wanted to save you—bring you to my home and take care of you—even if you never loved me or even liked me. It’s all gone to hell now.”

“She hasn’t been around much since—since the last time. Maybe something happened to make her stop. The way I see it, the good far outweighs the bad.”

I brushed off her sideways compliment and the kiss on my shoulder that went with it.

“If the note wasn’t her writing—do you think Marie was murdered?”

“What other reason would there be for someone else writing a suicide note?”

Her tone grew more and more disenchanted as the days drew on. Before long, the angel that had by accident come into my life would grow to despise this life if I couldn’t put an end to the constant upheaval around us.

My name, once sapid on her tongue would sour and grow to be a bitter word in her mouth.

Like Marie’s name had become to me.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to speak on the matter anymore.”

She giggled, letting go of my waist and rounding my body to stand face to face with her husband.

“I would be happy to let it go if you would stop bringing it up, husband.”

A bit of laughter huffed from my nostrils at the word. It still had a breath of honey coming from her. Not too late to salvage my wife’s love.

As we strode into the bedroom, I noticed her wardrobe and the drawers to her vanity were open. After asking her to stay behind me, I investigated. Nothing was misplaced and the clothing and items inside the open drawers and cabinets were untouched.

“Maybe your mother has been in here looking for something.” In desperation, Delilah attempted to rationalize the out of turn incident.

“She was looking for something but moved nothing?”

Now I was the one who sounded haunted.

“Let’s go to bed. I can’t think about this anymore.”

She crawled into bed without a second look in my direction.

It was then I realized how the tables had turned. Once, I sought her in some misplaced sense of heroism or redemption only to find that now she was the one who held my entire being in the palm of her hand and my soul was wrapped around hers.

The creature that once needed saving had saved me from a purgatory I’d damned myself to.

Before my head hit the pillow, I felt the wracking sobs coming from the docile creature beside me.

Oddly enough, I felt honored that she would show me such emotion. For years, I knew, or I assumed, her emotions or any outward show of emotions were kept to herself. Her crying was saved for dark corners or solemn moments of peace.

“You don’t have to cry by yourself anymore, love.”

My voice took her by surprise. She froze in place and tried in vain to squash her rapid breathing.

“Delilah, if nothing else, allow me to hold you while you cry. I’ll be damned if I can change the things happening around us, but I can hold you and keep you. Or I can leave if you wish me to.”

Her body flipped and she faced me again. I swore that every time I looked at her, another feature became apparent. At that moment, I could see a triangle of freckles by her collar bone.

I hadn’t seen those before.

I was a fool.

“I will never wish for you to leave, Porter. As much as I never wanted to get married, or never thought I had the chance of getting married—there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

“Do you mean that?”

“I do.”

Her confirmation rang with the truth that her first ‘I do’ should’ve. With the truth of concrete emotion behind it.

I pushed one stray strand of hair behind her ear. She pulled it back down immediately, still trying to cover up a part of her that I’d grown to love just as much as the rest of her.

“Does it ever pain you?”

“Every once in a while. It stings—here.” She pointed to the top where the deepest cut must’ve occurred, at the very start of the jagged line.

“Maybe there is still something a doctor could do.”

“It reminds me. It used to remind me of horrible things and nasty people. But now it reminds me that those days are long gone.”

I couldn’t help the chuckle that burst from my mouth. This woman was intelligent and wise beyond her years. Anyone who looked beyond her decrepit home and her dreadful family would’ve seen the angel that stayed tucked into the corners of her own hell.

“You are beautiful.” I whispered down to her. I’d shifted to rise above her, partly covering her with my body.

She blushed but did not disagree. Her lips, full and ripe begged for mine. Her tongue ran a haughty path along the bottom lip as eyes the color of the sky itself gazed at me in a way that no woman ever had.

“Porter?”

I answered her with a groan of sorts.

“Close the curtains.”

Chapter Nineteen

Delilah

After a fitful night of sleep for the both of us, we barely spoke until both of us had ingested enough coffee for a week.

“I was thinking of going to the city today,” Porter said. The word city made me frightened as a girl. Now as a married woman, it made my stomach turn. “I thought maybe you’d like to come with me.”

I looked at both June and Eliza whose smiles seemed to encourage the venture.

“For how long?”

“A couple of days. Three at the most.”

I was sure that a visit to the city would seem like a vacation to most, but for someone as obscure as myself, it was yet another place to hide my scar and duck from unwelcome stares.

“No harm will come to you, as my wife.”

“Oh yes, Porter is very important in the city. He is well-respected and listened to. You’ll see.”

Eliza spoke as if the decision had already been made.

“All the reason for him to go alone,” I muttered under my breath.

Porter had impeccable hearing.

“I changed my mind. I’m insisting you come with me.”

Just weeks ago, I would’ve folded under that subtle command. Firmly intending to rebel against his insistence, my arms crossed over my chest—until I looked into those gray eyes.

Any mutiny I thought I’d built up was squashed.

“When do we leave?”

In vain, he attempted to squander a smile. “As soon as you can get packed.”

Not wanting to seem too enthusiastic, I waited a few minutes until Porter went to his office to burst up the stairs and look for a bag. I didn’t even know what to pack.

Eliza came in wordlessly and plopped a huge leather suitcase on the bed. I stood in the middle of the bedroom, helplessly as she packed for me.

“These boots are unworn. Walking on the concrete of the city is different from walking on the land. You’ll want to wear your worn boots. They will be more comfortable.”

She went on and on as she neatly packed everything I would need for a week or more. She didn’t touch Porter’s things and I assumed that fell to me as the wife.

“Will we need another suitcase for Porter?”

“There’s one at the bottom of the closet, under his coats. Here, let me help you.”

I sighed as she bustled around, but took mental notes. Next time, I would’ve preferred to complete the task myself.

Porter came in and took the suitcases without any effort. “I’m ready when you are.” He smiled at me and winked.

A shiver willowed through my veins at that wink. Some things I hoped to never get used to.

~~

We trotted along the dusty road in an open carriage which afforded us no protection from the weather or the dust—or the other people we would soon run into.

“I need to address what Adele brought up. I don’t want to see any doubt of my character in your eyes.”

I turned to him in a swift tick. “Do you see doubt in my eyes?”

“No. I don’t. And I don’t want a whisper to turn into that. That’s why I want to tell you.”

Benjamin neighed in agreement and so did I.

“Your sister is referring to one of two places. The first, I’ve alluded to. I was in the The Plots the night I heard your father trying to-sell you off.” He stuttered it out. It still bothered him twice as much as it bothered me. “That night, I was collecting payment. If I don’t go and collect the payments once a month, then I don’t get paid. The owners aren’t the most upstanding of citizens.”

Disgust curled around my gut. “You loaned money to those people? What they do to women…”

“I wasn’t the one who made the deal, Delilah. My father signed some less than upstanding mortgages. I’m trying to get out of them, but it seems no one wants to deal with those people. They were probably desperate when they approached my father about them in the first place.”

I’d once heard Adele comfort Elaine when she thought her husband was visiting The Plots. She’d said that ‘Boys will be boys.’

I never wanted to meet one of those boys.

Porter wasn’t one of those kind.

“Why would Adele be there?”

He shrugged. “Maybe it wasn’t her that saw me there. Maybe she’s just repeating gossip.”

Looking out across the swampy grass, I squinted against the sunlight, determined to heat me up despite the constant chill in my bones. Porter’s word-of-mouth indiscretion was the last thing on my mind.

They would laugh—or worse, whisper. Whispering was the cruelest of offenses. Whispers held enough evil to rattle the strongest of hearts but not enough to be deemed a sin.

They would chastise him for his choice of bride.

“Where’d you go?”

His voice jolted me out of my self-loathing. “I’m here.”

“I’m sorry. I will get out of any business with that side of town as soon as possible. I knew it would bother you. I’d planned to get rid of it all before you found out. I hate that place even more now.”

“It’s not that. Are you sure I should be going with you? It’s not too early to turn around—or I could walk back.”

With one jerk on the reins, he brought us to a complete halt. “Tell me the truth. You don’t want to go with me?”

“I don’t want to be an embarrassment to you.”

He cracked a sideways smile and the reins on Benjamin’s back. “You’re the only one who still sees that scar, Delilah. I’m proud to have you as my wife.”

That shut me up for the rest of the trip.

~~

The city was concrete—all of it. The buildings were, for the most part, the same color and they matched the street, creating a singular wave of vision from the building to my own toes, never breaking pace.

It was ugly.

Yet beautiful in its bustling people. They gave the place color. Pink and peach colored dresses pockmarked the rest of the crowds of blue and gray ones, every woman done up as though they were prepped for a wedding—or a church service.

I’d never seen such fashion.

It looked painful.

Waists were cinched below hats that mimicked tiny top hats with bursts of flowers or colors to prove they were feminine.

I looked down at my drab burgundy dress and was thoroughly unimpressed either way.

There was no point in dressing up a ghastly beast.

“The hotel is over there where I usually stay. If you like it here, I was thinking about buying an apartment. The top floors of the hotel we are staying at are apartments.” Seeing the quizzical look on my face, he chuckled. “We’ll talk about that later.”

My eyes flared at some things I’d never heard of but dared not ask about.

“Where else did you go?”

He knew exactly what I meant.

“I can show you tonight. It doesn’t open until late in the afternoon. Are you hungry? We can get something to eat before or after we check into the hotel.”

I wasn’t hungry at all.

“Hotel it is. After that, maybe I can show you where I work.” He grabbed my hand with the suggestion. “They’ve all been asking about you. They claim I’m keeping you hidden away. Don’t. Don’t even think it Delilah Jeansonne.”

Transparency was a great skill of mine—at least around Porter.

Minutes later, he stopped the horse at a place marked the carriage house and paid a man to take Benjamin, grumbling about him being taken better care of there than at home.

“The hotel is right next door. Come on.”

He offered his arm, though he was loaded down with suitcases. I saw a couple in front of us, the man and woman walking arm in arm as a boy no older than twelve struggled behind them, carrying their things.

I hoped he was getting paid well, but knew better.

“My father always said we shouldn’t get too comfortable in our money that we forget to work hard,” Porter whispered down to me.

I nodded, my eyes still trained on the thin boy who could’ve been my male counterpart.

“Porter, it’s been weeks. We were beginning to think your new bride had you detained.”

He laughed but I didn’t recognize the sound.

“She’s here. Delilah, this is Henry. He’s the owner of this hotel. Anything you need, he can arrange it.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Henry. Thank you for the offer.”

Henry, much shorter than Porter and much heavier, took the suitcases from Porter and bid us follow him up several flights of stairs to a room with double doors.

“We have it from here, Henry. Thank you.”

He didn’t move as Henry walked away, instead choosing to stare me down.

“Stay here one second.”

Porter jangled the keys in the lock and after only one trip brought all of the suitcases in, shutting the door behind him. When he came out, his arms were empty and he threw both doors open wide.

Before I knew it, I was in those arms.

“What are you doing?”

He kissed my non-scarred temple and wrangled me into a more secure hold. “We never got to do this. I’m trying to make things right here. It may not be our home, but it’s a threshold nonetheless. Here’s to a happy honeymoon, my love.”

I stayed stunned until he laid me down on the bed, covering my body with his.

“This is how it should’ve been. Alone. Like this. No one to bother us.”

His gray eyes ran so deep. He studied me, his face hovering above mine, the rest of him deliciously weighing me down.

“We have to make up for lost time.”

“Starting now.” He spoke those words against my lips, the warmth sending spirals of bliss around every muscle in my body.

Hours later, my stomach gurgled. I hadn’t heard that sound since marrying Porter.

“There I go, neglecting you again. Let’s go eat and then I can show you the other place I have gone.”

I stopped him with my hand on his chest. “Porter, it’s fine. I don’t need to know. I trust you.”

He didn’t budge.

“I think I needed to hear that more than ‘I love you’. I’m still taking you. I want you to see. Never do I want to see doubt in your eyes.”

“Let me get dressed and then I’ll go wherever you’d like me to. This place is a little overwhelming.”

“It can be. That’s why I choose to keep my house and travel. The city has its pulls—its secrets, just like everywhere else. The key is not to get sucked in. Before I had a reason to go home, I’d considered moving here.”

Taking a quick look in the mirror, I regressed to plaiting my hair over
that
side of my face.

Porter’s voice startled me. I startled at the slightest of noises lately. “Trust me. It would hurt if you got any more beautiful. Let’s go.”

The man was a liar.

We ate at a restaurant that doted on us even more than Eliza, if that was possible. Porter didn’t meet my gaze once during the meal, but then again, I wasn’t looking at him either. There was more fine things in that one room than I’d seen in my life.

The women in the room gawked at me. There was plenty to look at. Besides my face, there was the obvious difference in my dress. Theirs was much the same, but a little tighter, a little more revealing.

“We can go to the other place now.”

“Sure.”

Porter paid for the meal with a flick of his wrist. He must’ve had a tab there. They knew him by name and didn’t seem surprised to see his new wife seated across from him.

Again, he took my arm as we walked the streets. Other than a few gazes at my dress, I didn’t get very much attention.

“It’s through here.”

Porter pointed lazily down a bricked hallway between two buildings. At the end was a tiny shack that resembled the cabin at the edge of Porter’s property. As we approached, I saw flowers and plants that, from a distance, seemed to be dead, but bloomed the closer we got.

“What is this place?”

“Trust me.”

“Who is here?”

My curiosity overrode my trust.

“This is the other place that I went—someplace they might’ve seen me. Someone might’ve seen me here.”

He was still hung up on my stupid sister’s gossip.

We entered the place, stepping over a line of salt around the threshold. A haunting wind chime moaned our arrival.

“I told you not to come ba…” The woman, dressed in the most colorful outfit I’d ever seen stuttered at my presence. “I see you’ve brought your destiny.”

“My destiny?”

The dark-skinned woman hummed as she took her place in a chair that took up most of the room.

“I told that girl that she wasn’t her destiny. Wasn’t any use in trying to push against a wall.”

Porter stepped forward, acknowledging her.

“Told who? Marie?”