Nellie (The Brides of San Francisco Book 1) (18 page)

Blake narrowed his eyes. “It won’t be for you, if you go anywhere near Nellie again. I’ll see to it that you don’t work in this town again. You’ll have to leave, go back to New Orleans. Is that really what you want?”

“I’m telling you, I didn’t do anything. I ran into her and said ‘good day’ that’s all.”

“And I’m telling you, if anything happens to Nellie, I’m coming after you. Don’t mistake my not firing you right now for anything other than a request by Nellie that I not do so. Understand? Her benevolence, her kindness, is what keeps you here.”

“I understand.” She swallowed and licked her lips. “May I leave now? I have to talk to Trixie and see if we can trade back. Suddenly, I don’t want to work with you, after all.”

“That would probably be best for everyone concerned.”

*****

Maddie walked out of Blake’s office. She was mad, angrier than she’d ever been in her life. Even more than when she’d killed Spence. She’d warned her, told her what could happen. Nellie shouldn’t have crossed her. She shouldn’t be having a baby. Now she really had to die. It didn’t matter whether Blake ever came back or not. Maddie didn’t care about him anymore. Now her target was Nellie. Nellie who ruined Maddie’s life. Nellie who would die, just like Spence had. Maddie didn’t let anyone get in her way. Not then and not now.

*****

Blake went home after his argument with Maddie he wanted to be close and available to Nellie if she needed him. He still wasn’t certain of Maddie’s role in Nellie’s accident, but with her expecting, he was loathe to leave her alone.

A knock sounded.

“Yes,” said Blake without looking up.

“Sir, Mr. Balfour, the attorney, is here to see Mrs. Malone.”

“Please show him in, James, and then locate Mrs. Malone and have her join us.”

“Very good, sir.”

A minute or so later, James entered with Mr. Balfour on his heel.

“Mr. Balfour,” Blake approached the man with his hand out. “I’m Blake Malone.”

The attorney shook Blake’s hand with precisely two shakes. It was the strangest handshake Blake had ever had.

“Mr. Malone, I’ve come to get an answer from your wife on my client’s proposal.”

“I understand that and she will be here shortly.”

Nellie walked into the room a few minutes later, her head held high and back straight as if a broomstick was down it. Blake was so proud of her. He knew this was hard for her.

“Mr. Balfour, I see you received my message. Thank you for coming. Gentlemen, please sit.” She waved at the two chairs that were across from the settee. There was a small table between the chairs and the settee that Nellie used for serving tea.

James entered as if right on cue, carrying a tray with tea and coffee pots as well cups and saucers. He set the tray on the table in front of Nellie.

“Mr. Balfour can I interest you in a cup of coffee or tea?”

“Yes, ma’am. Coffee would be much appreciated. Black please.”

She poured his coffee and handed it to him. Then poured a cup for Blake with one sugar and a spot of cream. She knew how Blake took his coffee and didn’t need to ask.

“Thank you, my dear,” said Blake, accepting the cup. He was amazed her hands didn’t shake. Cool as a cucumber, was his beautiful wife.

“Now, Mr. Balfour, I believe I’m ready to give you the answer for you to give to Edward. Mr. Malone and I have discussed this, though he left the decision up to me. I’ve decided that I won’t be moving back to New York, nor will I be sending my son to be raised by his grandfather.”

Mr. Balfour, set his cup on the table and reached into his pocket. “Again, my employer anticipated that this may be your response. He sent another letter for you in the event this happened.

July 2, 1867

Nellie,

I’m sorry you have made the decision to refuse my offer, though you can see that I did anticipate that response from you. I knew Robert hadn’t trained you properly being gone so much as he was.

I am prepared to do whatever I need to in order to get Henry here. I will take you to court for custody. What judge is going to deny my suit, especially when I tell them that you cuckolded my son, while he was gone to war. Fighting for his country and you were dallying with another man, the result of the liaison being Violet. Who you tried to pawn off as Robert’s child.

What judge is going to give custody to a mother who took her children across the country to marry a saloon keeper, rather than stay in New York, where you would be cared for and pampered. Treated like a princess to all the best that money could buy, as would your children.

I will not hesitate to use my money to get what I want.

Think about my offer and send Henry to me. You and Violet can stay with your new husband. I would have taken you, but Henry is the only one I really want.

Edward

Nellie covered her mouth as bile rose in her throat.

Blake set his coffee down, stood and came around the table to sit on the settee by her.

“What’s wrong?”

She handed him the letter.

He scanned it quickly, and turned to the attorney. “It looks like your employer is showing his true colors.”

“I have been instructed to give you the letters but I do not know the contents of them.”

“You tell your employer, we’ll fight him with everything we have,” said Blake. “There is no way, he’ll get Henry. He may own the courts in New York, but those laws have nothing to do with San Francisco and he may find it harder to buy his way through the system here.”

Mr. Balfour, stood and doffed his hat. “Is that the last word that I may give to my employer?”

“Yes, and get out. Now.” Blake put his arm around Nellie who was now shaking.

James waited at the library door to show the attorney out, closing the door behind them.

“Nellie, we’ll fight this. That old bugger won’t get his hands on Henry.”

“What if he can? What if he buys the judges and the courts here?”

“He won’t. I have friends there and if I have to, I have blackmail of my own I will use. Edward will not turn him into the kind of monster that your husband was and that I suspect he is as well. That does explain a bit of why your mother-in-law treated him so badly. She was getting back at him for years of torture. She probably treated you the same way because you escaped when her son died and she knew it.”

She sniffled. “What if Henry would be better off with his grandfather? Am I wrong to want to keep my family together?”

“No,” he hugged her close. “You’re not wrong.
Our
family will stay together. We’ll fight him, Nellie, we’ll fight and we’ll win.

CHAPTER 12

Blake came home just before noon. He bounded up the stairs, two at a time to Nellie’s room, knocking when he came to the door.

Not getting an answer, he entered. Empty. He checked across the hall in the nursery. Empty.

Rather than check every room in the house, he went to the kitchen to talk to Cook.

“Have you seen Nellie and the children?”

Cook looked up from the dough she was rolling. “Yes, sir. They are in the garden, having a picnic. I believe they are expecting you.”

Blake smiled and walked out the back door.

Violet saw him first.

“Daddy!” she squealed and ran to him as fast as her pudgy little legs would carry her.

Smiling, he bent down and lifted her into his arms.

Henry stood and very formally said, “Blake, sir. Very glad you could come.” Then he reverted to the excited little boy. “Blake, can we go to the wharf and see the ships? Please?”

“Henry, let Blake sit before you bombard him with questions.” She pointed to the blanket on the ground with food laid out upon it. Roast beef sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, potato salad, several apples and oranges.”

His mouth crooked up at the corners in a small smile. “I see Cook got into our stash of oranges. They just came in yesterday. I was going to surprise you.”

“And so you did, by your presence, not the oranges, though they are a good surprise, as well. Thank you for joining us today. Both children were hoping you would. Coffee, tea, or lemonade?”

“Coffee. Are you drinking tea now?”

“Yes, it seems to stay down better than the coffee.”

“What about food? Can you eat anything?”

She appreciated his concern. “The cucumber sandwiches are for me. Something light. This won’t last long, the morning sickness I mean. Then I’ll be eating like I may never get to eat again. I’ll gain weight and you’ll be totally repulsed by me.” She shifted on the blanket. “Robert always was. Though he was happy enough when Henry finally got here.”

“You husband was an ass,” said Blake under his breath, aware that Henry idolized his father and avoided hurting the boy’s feelings.

Nellie nodded in agreement and handed him his coffee.

“I could never be repulsed by you, no matter how big you get. You’re carrying my baby. How could I be anything but pleased with you?”

“That’s very kind, but you haven’t seen me yet. This reminds me, I’ll need to order more dresses to wear as I get bigger.” She brushed a crumb from her skirt. “I also want to give my older clothes away to the needy. Is there someplace I can do that?”

“Order as many dresses as you want, as often as you want. I don’t care about the money, you know that.” He took a bite of his sandwich and swallowed before talking again. “There is a shanty town just outside the city. Mostly widows and orphans live there but some of the miners live there with their families. I’ll have Otis take your clothing there. I’m sure your donation will be appreciated.”

“I’ll go with him.”

Blake shook his head. “I don’t think that would be wise. The conditions there are very poor.”

“Perhaps there is something I can do to help. We have so much, if we can help others, I think we should.”

“Nellie,” Blake sighed. “My business is to part the miners from their money, not to help them keep it.”

“I’m not trying to take away from your business, just to help out the families. Or maybe the widows and orphans.”

“There is a separate area for widows who have no men to help out. Mining is a dangerous business. There are lots of accidents. Against my better judgment, I’ll have Otis take you later in the week. Will that suffice?”

“Yes, thank you. I’ll have time to go through my closet and those of the children as well. They grow out of their clothes so quickly, sometimes it looks like their clothes have hardly been worn. I still have all of Violet’s baby clothes, but they will be wonderful for the new babe.” She automatically touched her stomach where the new life was forming.

He placed his hand over hers. “When do you think our child will be born?”

“I don’t know for sure.” She pursed her lips, like she always did when she was thinking about something. “I really should see a doctor. I think when we have the dinner party on Saturday, I’ll ask the ladies who they recommend. It will be a way for us to become friends and invariably good for your business.”

“I need to befriend their husbands not them.”

“You don’t know much about doing business with married men, do you? If you want these men to approve your plans, that approval would be much easier if their wives are in agreement. And I think they will be. The business you want to open, a family amusement emporium, is unique and very much needed as San Francisco grows.”

He reached over and placed his hand on top of hers, where it rested on her leg. “You’re amazing. I never thought I could get as lucky as I did when I married you.”

Heat rose to her cheeks and she looked down at her lap. “Blake you don’t need to say such sweet things to me.”

“You need to hear sweet things. I doubt your dead husband said sweet things to you, did he?”

“No, he didn’t. We didn’t actually talk very much. He was gone for more than half of our marriage. He joined the Army in late 1856, just after Henry was born. Because of his father’s status, he was stationed in New York but was only home on weekends. When the war started, he was sent to the Carolinas and I don’t know how many places after that. It was one of the most peaceful times that I had.”

She stopped and realized she’d always known something was wrong with her marriage, even though she didn’t admit it.

“Go on, you need to get these feelings out and I need to know what your marriage was like. I don’t want to make the same mistakes.”

“You couldn’t make those mistakes. You’re not that kind of person.”

Henry reached for another sandwich and Nellie suddenly realized that he was listening.

“Henry, take Violet and go play on the swing that James and Otis hung for you children.”

“Ah, Mama,” he dragged his feet, but took his sister to the swing in the garden. Before long Violet’s shrieks of pleasure were heard through the yard.

“I didn’t realize that the men put up a swing. I should have thought of that myself,” said Blake.

“Why would you think about that? You’ve never had children before. I asked if one could be put up so the children would have something to do when they went out to play.” She smiled and gestured toward her playing children. “It’s worked wonderfully. Henry is happy to push Violet for a while and then he takes a turn before she bullies him into pushing her again. She really is the spoiled child.”