The Marker (29 page)

Claire took a seat at the table where she fed her children and motioned for Lexie to join her. When Lexie looked at her expectantly, Claire said, “Do you need to tell me something?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Are you sure?” Claire asked, as if Lexie understood exactly what she was referring to. Only Lexie had no idea.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Claire got up from her chair and sat down in the one next to her, putting a hand over hers in a sisterly way. “Lexie, honey, you can tell me.”

Lexie extricated her hand and pushed hair out of her eyes and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sweetie, I’ve noticed you’ve been sick recently. Don’t take this the wrong way, but we’ve
all
noticed.”

Taking a long breath to calm her nerves, Lexie was grateful to not be discussing Nicholas. “Yeah, but I’ve always had a delicate constitution.”

Claire rubbed Lexie’s back between her shoulder blades. Odd how these strangers had become family in such a short period of time. Just as Nicholas had become family.

“Is that it? Are you sure?”

Lexie looked up at Claire, confused. “What else could it be?”

Claire’s gaze was sympathetic. “I don’t mean to pry, but could you be pregnant?”

“What?” Lexie asked, shocked. The thought had not occurred to her. Her first, immediate response was, “Certainly not!” But as the words hung in the air between then, the notion didn’t seem so outlandish.

Oh God, please no
,
she thought wildly. She couldn’t be pregnant, not now. She couldn’t be unmarried, pregnant, and engaged to a man she was certain would beat her—a man so possessive of her he had threatened to rape her for simply arriving at a dinner with Nicholas. What would he do to her if she arrived at their wedding carrying Nicholas’s child? What would he do to the baby?

“I couldn’t be,” Lexie said miserably.

“Are you certain? When did you last have your monthly?”

Lexie’s cheeks flamed, embarrassed, but Claire was so non-judgmental that, instead of immediately denying it, she considered the possibility. Her heart sank like a stone in her chest when she realized couldn’t remember the last time she’d had her monthly. It had been a long time. Lexie suddenly recalled thinking she had been late before she left Nicholas almost three weeks ago. She was late. Very late. She wanted to blame it on her fragile emotional state, but that wasn’t it. Unlike many other women, Lexie had always been able to count on her monthly.

She was going to have a baby.

Burying her head in her hands, she said, “Oh God, this isn’t happening.”

Claire rubbed her back gently. She touched her own belly and said, “This is my third pregnancy. I’ve noticed the signs in you, too, Lexie. The weeping at the smallest things, the retching.”

Lexie glanced over at Claire. She had noticed Claire had a radiant glow about her, which seemed unfair when Lexie had eyes rimmed red from weeping, and she constantly fought the urge to vomit. “You’re married, Claire. I’m not. It’s not possible. I’m just sad, that’s all.”

Claire bit her lip and regarded her carefully. “Is it not possible, or do you not
want
it to be possible?” Lexie hid her face behind her hands. “We had heard you were engaged in an affair with Mr. Wetherby.” When Lexie looked up, miserable and ashamed, she continued. “I’m not condemning you. But if you are pregnant, you need to face it and figure out what you’re going to do.”

“I can’t be. He was always so careful,” Lexie cried, bursting into tears. “What you must think of me. I’m a fallen woman.”

“You’re not a fallen woman. You fell in love with him, didn’t you?” Claire asked, taking Lexie into her arms. Her head on Claire’s shoulder, she nodded, bereft. “You need to tell him, Lexie. Let him make this right.”

A strangled sob erupted from her throat. “You saw him. He doesn’t care! How can this be made right?”

“Look at me, Lexie,” Claire said sternly. She took Lexie’s face into her hands and said, “You’re wrong if you think he doesn’t love you.”

“You saw him the other day!” Lexie wailed. “You saw the woman he had with him.”

Claire shrugged. “She doesn’t mean anything to him. He was only with her for business, and he managed to insult her not long after he took his leave of us.” She paused for a long time, stroking Lexie’s head, and Lexie’s heart lightened a little. He hadn’t gotten over her as quickly as she’d thought. The thought shouldn’t have made her as happy as it did. Claire sighed. “He didn’t accept the money I gave him to pay your debt, either.”

“What?”

“He sent the money back. No note, but he sent it back. You need to talk to him. Stop asking us to turn him away. Or turn him away yourself, because we’re not doing it for you anymore. We
can’t
. If he comes here again, we’re allowing him in, and he can stay as long as he wants.”

Claire’s words gave her pause. She couldn’t face Nicholas again, just couldn’t, because deep down, in the core of her soul, she had always understood their relationship hadn’t been about money for Nicholas. He had been as involved in their love affair as she had been. But such an admission only pained her, so she said instead, “So he sent the money back. It just means he realizes he made a whore out of me and regrets that.”

Claire snorted in disbelief. “
That
is the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard, and you’re not a stupid woman. You don’t believe that any more than I do. Besides, he’s been brawling.”

“What?” Lexie asked surprised. “Nicholas?”

Nodding slowly, Claire seemed to contemplate her next words. Finally, she said, “He’s been picking fights down at the gambling hall, drinking himself into a stupor. You have refused to speak to him, and I know you’ve gotten letters from him you send back. After every one of your rejections, he’s done something absurd. He even picked a fight with my brother, James.”

Lexie’s hands flew to her throat, her heart racing. Nicholas was a big man and she was certain he could to handle himself, but against someone like Campbell, she wasn’t sure how Nicholas would fare. They seemed evenly matched to her. “Is he all right?”

“Jamie’s fine,” Claire said. Watching Lexie, she recognized the concern in her face. “But you didn’t mean Jamie. You meant Mr. Wetherby, didn’t you?” They sat in silence for a time. Lexie kept her gaze fixed on the tabletop, unwilling to meet Claire’s penetrating gaze. “According to Jamie, he’s fine. Too drunk to put up much of a fight.”

Poor Nicholas. She couldn’t bear the thought of Nicholas destroying himself like her father had.

Claire heaved a heavy sigh. “Listen, this can’t go on. We’re business partners with Mr. Wetherby, and his behavior is threatening our venture. It’s one thing for him to like the ladies and get into a scrape every now and again, but it’s another thing entirely to ignore business meetings and insult the daughters of some of the richest men in the state.”

Lexie’s blood ran cold. She’d made a fine mess of everyone’s lives—hers, her father’s, Nicholas’s. Now Claire and her family were being pulled into the web of her deceit. She took a shaky breath, and her voice wavered when she said, “Do you want me to leave? I don’t want to cause problems for you.”

Claire shook her head. “No, Lexie, I don’t want you to leave. I want you to
fix
this. He’s suffering, you’re suffering, and you owe it to him to tell him you’re carrying his baby. I think he’ll do right by you. I think he loves you.”

The tears began flowing again. Weeping, Lexie said, “I can’t. You don’t understand.”

“I understand just fine. He loves you, you love him, and you’re pregnant. It’s his baby, is it not?”

“If there’s a baby, of course it is!” She shook her head and closed her eyes. “But you can’t know how he feels about me.”

Claire gave an exasperated sigh. “You didn’t see how he looked at you the other day. The man is in love with you, and he’s destructing because of it. Who’s he going to go after next? He’s well on his way to picking a fight he can’t win. What will happen then?”

“I can’t tell him, Claire, I can’t.”

“Why not?”

Before she could even think to stop them, the words exploded from her in a high-pitched wail. “Because I’m engaged to someone else!”

Those words stopped Claire cold. Her hands dropping to her sides, she said woodenly, “To whom?”

“Patrick Buchanan.” Lexie turned her midnight eyes to Claire to gauge her reaction.

Claire flinched and wrinkled her nose in distaste, a similar reaction to the one Lexie had every time she thought about Buchanan. Claire wasn’t very good at keeping her emotions in check. Her expressive face always betrayed her the same way Lexie’s blushing betrayed her. “Good God, Lexie,
why
?”

As they sat at Claire’s sturdy kitchen table, morning light streaming through lace curtains, Lexie told her everything. Told her about the deal that had been brokered between her, her father, and Buchanan almost a year before, about how possessive Buchanan was. She even told her why she had left Nicholas the way she did, about how Buchanan had come to her suspecting her affair with Nicholas. The only thing she neglected to mention were the threats against Nicholas. She didn’t want Claire any more in the middle than she already was.

When Lexie finished her story, Claire sighed and said heavily, “That’s quite a mess you’re in, Miss Markland.”

Lexie rested her elbows on the tabletop and buried her head in her hands. “I know.”

“You need to tell Mr. Wetherby about the baby. You need to fix this.”

“I can’t, Claire.” Lexie was silent for a long time. Her voice hollow, she said finally, “But I will fix this, I promise. I’ll make this right for you. I never wanted you to get hurt.”

Claire laughed wryly. “It won’t hurt us. We’ve got more money than we need. The business is an entertaining diversion. Michael would go crazy if he didn’t have something to do with his days. Still, just because we don’t need the money doesn’t mean I want to see my enterprise fail.”

“I understand.”

Claire took Lexie’s face into her hands, and Lexie was surprised by how calloused they were. “But you know what I want more than anything?”

“What?”

“I
want
for you to make this right with Mr. Wetherby. I
want
you to be happy.”

“I’ll fix this,” she repeated.

Nodding slowly, Claire said, “Let’s hope you do, for your sake and the sake of the child you carry. You owe it to him.” Lexie had no idea whether Claire meant Nicholas or the child growing in her belly. She suspected it didn’t matter: she owed them both. Claire gave her a pat on the shoulder, and, standing, said, “Think about it.”

Lexie put her head down on the table and wept until she had no more tears. She had told Claire the truth. She would fix this for them. Later the same day, that was precisely what she did.

But not in the way Claire had intended.

Because Lexie wrote to Buchanan and requested they be married before the month was out.