***
Later that morning, Marian watched from the window as the carriage arrived with Claire and her children inside. God, she dreaded facing Claire. How much should she tell her sister? Wonderful night, fantastic lovemaking, until he’d ruined the night by proposing?
How many women turned down a marriage proposal the morning after being so intimate with a man?
Once he’d left this morning, she’d thrown herself into cleaning Jean’s old bedroom. The time to purge her life of Jean’s personal belongings and put him in the past had come.
The midnight’s moonbeams had touched and healed her, while the morning sun’s glare left her disturbed and disappointed that Louis could be such a cad. To think he would deliberately marry her just to get his hands on Cuvier Shipping!
Now doubts crept in like spring ants crawling their way through cracks. If he would propose to gain control of the business, should she believe he had really accepted their partnership? And was the proposal just another lie he wanted her to believe for his own reasons?
Marian pasted a smile on her face and smilingly opened the front door, happy to see her children home again.
“Momma,” Renee said, running up the walk to fling herself into her mother’s arms.
“Hi, sweetheart. Did you have a good time?” Marian asked hugging her daughter to her, the child’s body feeling comforting and uplifting.
“Yes. We played Old Maid and I won. I stuck Philip with the old maid two times. He got mad at me.” She leaned back and looked up at her mother, her arms still around her. “What did you do?”
“I went to a dinner party with Mr. Fournet. Then today I’ve been cleaning out your father’s room,” she said.
“Oh,” said Renee and stared at her mother for a moment. “What are you going to do with Papa’s things?”
“Today you and Philip can go through them and pick out what you want and the rest we’ll give away to charity,” Marian told her daughter.
“All right,” Renee replied in a subdued voice. “It’s going to be strange not seeing his stuff.”
“You’re right,” Marian acknowledged. Philip and Claire walked up.
“Hello, Mother!”
“Hello, son. Did you have a good time?”
Philip glanced at his younger sister. “It was all right. What’s to eat?”
“I smelled lunch a little while ago. Go check the kitchen.”
Philip started toward the kitchen, the smell even now drifting on the breeze.
“Me, too!” Renee said, running after her brother and leaving Marian alone with Claire.
“Well?” Her sister smiled at her. “You look a little peaked this morning. What happened?”
Marian shrugged as if it meant nothing. “The evening was lovely.”
“And?” Claire said, her face lighting up into a grin.
“I’m really tired.”
“That’s usually a promising sign that someone didn’t get enough sleep the night before.”
Marian shrugged. “Come into the parlor where we can talk.”
She led her sister into the small room not certain what she intended to tell Claire. She’d have to tell her sister something or Claire would never let her have any peace, but the night had been intimate. She didn’t want to discuss the way Louis pleasured her until she cried out his name. Some things were private. Some things hurt too much to remember.
After Claire walked in the door, Marian closed it firmly behind her. She turned and faced her sister. “I’m tired and I really don’t want to discuss the details of last night.” Marian took a deep breath. “But I will tell you this much. We came back here after dinner last night and, yes, we made love.”
Her sister smiled and then she frowned. “You’re all right aren’t you? He didn’t hurt you?”
Marian shrugged and walked away. “I’m fine. Actually last night was really good.”
Claire took a seat on the couch. “Then why aren’t you happy?”
“I’m fine, really. It’s just that before he left this morning we had an argument.”
“I see. Then you’re not upset about what you did with Louis?” Claire asked Marian, her eyes questioning. Claire took a seat on the settee.
“No. I didn’t expect what he said to me this morning. I don’t know. In some ways, I’m more confused than ever before,” Marian acknowledged.
“Did you at least get the answers you were looking for?” Claire asked.
Marian paused in her pacing of the floor and smiled wryly at her sister. “Yes. And I’ve spent the morning cleaning out Jean’s bedroom. It’s time to put that man out of my life. He’s dead and I must go on.”
A sigh escaped from Claire as she brushed a speck of lint from her skirt “That sounds very good. Do you consider last night a success?”
Marian stopped her pacing and frowned. “I enjoyed being with Louis. The dinner party was fun and he is a fantastic lover. But...”
She could feel the tears coming, pricking her eyelids. She shook herself and turned back to Claire, regaining control. “Anyway, last night was great but this morning everything came apart.”
“I see. As long as you’re all right and you don’t regret what you’ve done...” Claire said, her voice sympathetic.
“No, I don’t. Louis helped me realize a lot of things about myself. Jean never spoke to me about why he was unhappy or why he didn’t want to share our bed. Last night proved to me that I’m attractive and I can have normal relations with a man. So my marital problems weren’t all my fault.”
“Good,” Claire said, studying Marian closely. “Are you going to see Louis again?”
Marian bit her lip in consternation. She glanced at her sister reclining on the settee, her skirts spread about her. She’d asked herself this same question several times this morning, and at first her response had been an emphatic no. But later, the voice of doubt kept rising up asking, What if his proposal had been sincere? What if she were wrong about his ulterior motive? What if she’d accused him falsely?
No! He acknowledged he’d lain awake all night making plans. She suspected he’d been plotting how to get complete control of Cuvier Shipping and came to the conclusion that marriage seemed the easiest answer. No she didn’t have any real proof. How do you get proof that a man was lying? But her instincts told her his motives were less than honest. She didn’t know what but something wasn’t right.
“I’ll see him at work each day,” she finally responded.
“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
Marian gave a half smile. “I know. I just don’t know if I can answer your question just yet. It’s doubtful I’ll ever do anything with him again, but just the same, I’m not ready to say never.”
Claire smiled. “Then don’t.”
“I’m not ready to say never, but then, I’m not ready to agree to be his wife or anyone else’s, for that matter.”
“His wife?”
“Yes, he asked me to marry him.”
“Oh my!” Claire said surprised. “This is quite a shock. No wonder you’re upset I certainly didn’t expect Louis to propose.”
“Me neither,” Marian said with a sigh. “But it would be a nice and tidy way for him to gain control of Cuvier Shipping.”