Jessica was beginning to actually hear Eleanor’s words. “All this has happened in one short day?”
Eleanor raised one eyebrow at her sister. Jessica had no idea of the havoc she’d caused this morning. “Jess, there have been fourteen eligible and two ineligible men come to the Montgomery house today, most of them bearing gifts for you.”
Jess began to smile. “What sort of gifts? We could use a pig. Anybody brings a pregnant sow, I’m his.”
“Jess, this is serious.”
Jessica sat down by her sister. “The admiral was sent here to find the Raider and that’s all. He doesn’t have the power to force a marriage.”
Eleanor took her sister’s hand. “He burned your boat; he can burn our house. I think he spoke without thinking this morning, but now he has to stand behind what he said. And, besides, I don’t think the men of this town will allow him to back down. Too many of them want a chance to be your husband.”
“Really?” Jess said, smiling. “Anyone interesting? What about Mr. Lawrence’s youngest boy?”
“He’s seventeen years old!”
“Get them young and they’re easier to train. All right,” she said when Eleanor started to yell again. “We’ll straighten this out. I still think Alexander is the one to fix this.”
“He certainly does rescue you often enough.”
“He’s just a nosy old maid, that’s all. He can’t do anything else, so at least he can talk. Here, help me with these fish and let’s go home. We’ll worry about this tomorrow.”
“When there are only thirteen days left,” Eleanor said heavily.
Jess, bending over the nets, looked at her sister. “I guess I could marry that big Russian of Alex’s.”
“Over my dead body,” Eleanor snapped then put her hand to her mouth. “I mean…Of course…”
Jessica started whistling as she emptied her nets.
It was later, as they neared the path to their leaky little house, that Jessica began to understand what Eleanor was talking about. Men lined the path home, some holding wilted flowers, some molded maple sugar candy, some just standing there, their caps in their hands.
“I own six acres of good farmland, Mistress Jessica, and I’d be pleased to have you for a wife.”
“I own the Molly D and you could sail with me. I’ll hang you a clothesline wherever you want.”
“I own the depot twenty miles north of New Sussex and I’ll buy you a mule for plowing.”
“I own six mules, three oxen and eight cooking pots. I’d like to marry you, Mistress Jessica.”
Her mouth open, Jessica stared at the men as Eleanor pulled her through the gauntlet. She jerked hard on Jessica’s arm when she nearly stopped in front of a man holding a fat pig by a string.
“You’re no help at all,” Eleanor hissed as she slammed the door behind them.
“I had no idea I was so popular,” Jess said, smiling. “Maybe I should just stand on the wharf and let them bid for me. Although that man with the pig was very good-looking.”
Eleanor slammed a bag of corn meal on the table. “I ought to sell you, just outright sell you. Then maybe the kids and I could have some peace.”
“No food, but peace,” Jess said complaisantly. “Eleanor, don’t be so upset. This will blow over. I have no intention of marrying anyone right now. You’ll see, Alex will use his silver tongue to reason with the admiral and the old man will forget all about me. You’ll see.” She leaned back in the chair and thought that she had no intention of marrying any man except the Raider. All she had to do was wait until he could reveal himself to her and then she’d proudly walk down the aisle to him.
* * *
Jessica was trying to concentrate on her fishing but she kept looking over her shoulder. The last week and a half of her life could only be described as hell. There seemed to be men everywhere: men reaching for her, men with bowed heads, men offering her their worldly goods. They came from as far south as Boston and there was one French fur trader who had come in from the northern woods. He’d heard there was a shipload of beautiful women for sale. He seemed rather disappointed to find only one woman. He thought Jessica was “real pretty,” but there just wasn’t enough of her.
Jess had had an awful time escaping the men to make her way to her private little cove.
It had taken most of the first week, but Eleanor and Alex had just about persuaded her that the admiral meant what he said when he’d commanded Jessica to get married. He’d made some threats against her home, her family and her way of earning a living if she didn’t obey him—and keep him from looking like a fool. He’d even introduced her to the man he said he’d force her to marry if she disobeyed him: a big dullard with a heavy lower lip that was constantly wet. The admiral had laughed at Jess’s involuntary shudder.
But now, doing something familiar like hauling nets made Jess think of how her life would change if she married. So far, no man in his proposal had even mentioned her young brothers and sisters. And some of them had taken an active dislike to Nathaniel.
Jess smiled. Of course Nate didn’t help any. He loved making the men look like fools. He asked one old man how old he was, then laughed uproariously at the answer. He insisted one scrawny chicken farmer show his bicep, then told Jess the man wasn’t strong enough for her. He swatted a man’s head, saying he saw lice in the ancient wig the man wore. Nate weeded out the worst of them.
But even the best of them didn’t interest Jessica. There was only one man who interested her and he was the Raider. She had only to close her eyes and she could feel his hands on her body. Why didn’t he come forward? Why didn’t he ask to marry her? Why wasn’t he rescuing her from these lecherous men?
At the sound of a falling rock, she opened her eyes and turned sharply to see old man Clymer inches away from her, his grubby little hands outstretched and reaching for her. She took a step backward and almost tripped over her net.
His eyes were on her nearly bare bosom, then his gaze moved down to her bare legs. Up and down, his eyes couldn’t rest.
Jess put her hands up to cover herself. “Mr. Clymer, you shouldn’t be here.” She was backing away from him.
“Why not?” he rasped, advancing on her. “You are here. Jessica, I have loved you for years. Marry me. I’ll give you anything.”
She was looking about for a weapon but saw only fish at her feet. She bent, grabbed a twenty-pound haddock by the tail and hit Mr. Clymer on the side of the head.
He was stunned only momentarily before he grabbed her, pulled her to him and tried to kiss her mouth.
Jess pushed at his face while turning away. He was amazingly strong for a man his age.
“Jessica,” he murmured and buried his face in her breasts.
“Let go of me, you old piece of fish bait!” she yelled, but he ignored her.
“I mean to make you my wife! To have you always! Mine, Jessica, mine for all eternity.”
Twisting about, she saw Alexander standing on the cliff above the cove. “Help me!” she screamed. “Get this squid off of me. Mr. Clymer,” she begged, “remember yourself.”
Alexander took an infuriatingly long time getting down into the cove. Jess struggled while the fat old man slathered her breasts with his wet kisses. She thought she might be sick.
Alex minced his way across the rocks, making sure his shoes didn’t get wet. Delicately, he kicked a fish aside as he made his way to Jess. He tapped Mr. Clymer on the shoulder.
At first the man didn’t respond. Alex had to tap him three times before he looked up. His red, glazed eyes bugged when he saw Alex. He straightened and pulled away from Jessica.
“Might I suggest that you’ll find your own home more comfortable?”
“Why yes…I was just…Yes, I’ll…” Mr. Clymer released Jessica, then scrambled up the cliff bank. They could hear him running through the forest.
“Well!” Jess said, straightening her dress and then looking around for her fish that had flopped all over the cove. “Some r
escuer you are!”
“I got rid of him, didn’t I?”
“Not until after he’d…You should have hit him.” She broke off to look down at herself with a sneer. “He slobbered all over me.” She went to the water and began to wash her exposed bosom. She was unaware of the increasing heat in Alex’s face as he watched her.
Alex turned away and sat on the fallen tree. “Have you made up your mind yet?”
“About what?” she asked, tossing a couple of codfish in a bag. “Oh, you mean about marriage. Yes and no.”
He dusted an imaginary bit off his coat. “Let me guess. You want to marry the Raider, but he hasn’t come forward to ask for your hand.”
Jess dropped a fish, then retrieved it. “What do you know?”
“Every unmarried woman in town wants to marry the Raider. They all seem to think he’s taller than life. It’s like marrying a handsome prince from a child’s fairy tale.”
“He’s flesh and blood, I know that for a fact,” she said smugly.
“A flesh-and-blood who isn’t here. How do you know he isn’t one of your many suitors?”
“I’d know him, believe me. Alex, put your foot on that fish’s tail and hold it there.”
With a sigh, he put his toe on the big fish’s tail. “Jess, you have four days in which to decide. You have to make up your mind.”
She tossed the last fish in the bag and then sat down on the tree by Alex. “Can I be honest with you?”
“Of course,” he said softly, his eyes intent.
“I don’t like any of them.” She looked down at her hands. “I don’t want to let Eleanor know, but I’m getting a little worried. I know you’ve guessed how I feel about the Raider. He and I are…we’ve been closer than most people think.” Her head came up. “I don’t want to marry any other man. I want to wait until this is all over, then the Raider can reveal himself to me and I’ll be more than happy to marry him.”
“But, Jess, our problems with England won’t be solved overnight. What if they go on for years? What if England sends more men to pursue the Raider? What if he can never reveal himself to you?”
“I’ll wait. He’ll come to me someday, unmasked, and I’ll be waiting for him.”
“But you don’t have until ‘someday.’ You have four days and you have to marry someone.”
“I’ll wait.”
He rolled his eyes upward in frustration. “What do you plan to do? Wait until midnight four days from now? If he hasn’t arrived by then, will you close your eyes and choose one of your other suitors?”
“I don’t want any of them!” she said with force. “All they want from me is…is what Mr. Clymer wants. I can’t go off and leave the children. Who will support Eleanor and the babies? All those men want me alone, not the kids. They want their own children, not someone else’s.”
“I’ll take the kids,” Alex said softly. “I have room for them at my house.”
She paused, smiled at him and squeezed his hand. “That’s kind of you, but I couldn’t do that. What if the Raider is the captain of a ship? I’d be sailing with him and you’d have the care of all those children. I couldn’t even help support them.”
He held her hand in his tightly. “I want you to come with the children.”
She gave him a blank look. “The Raider and me and the kids to live with you? That’s real generous of you, Alex, but—” She stopped, her eyes wide. “You couldn’t mean…”
“You could marry me, Jess,” he said solemnly. “I’ll take care of you and Eleanor and the children.”
Jess began to smile, then her laughter bubbled out. “You!” she gasped. “Oh, Alex, what a joke. I want the Raider, and I get offered a weak-spined, blue-and-orange piece of seaweed. You’ve certainly lightened my day. And old Mr. Clymer thought—” She stopped when she saw Alex’s face. Never had she seen such anger on a human face before.
He rose from the log.
“Alex,” she said, “you were kidding, weren’t you?”
He turned his back on her and made his way up the steep hill.
“Alex,” she called after him, but he didn’t look back. She kicked at the rocks and shells on the beach, sending many snails flying. She hadn’t meant to hurt Alex’s feelings—again, she thought. Eleanor was right, he’d been good to her and her family and they owed him a great deal. She should have turned him down gently, or at least without calling him a…She didn’t like to remember what she’d called him. She put her scarf back in the top of her dress, gathered her nets and catch and started home.
Jessica had no sooner made her way through the tidal wave of suitors—accepting gifts of food along the way, for she was nobody’s fool—than Eleanor started in on her.
“Mr. Clymer came by here and he was very angry.”
“I think this is ham,” Jess said, inspecting her bundles. “And here’s candy for all of you.”
“I hope they always want to marry you, Jessica,” Molly said, putting the maple sugar man in her mouth.
“But you don’t have always,” Eleanor said. “Oh, Jess, you have to make up your mind.”
“I know which man I want.”
Eleanor ignored that remark. They’d already had a long discussion about the Raider, with Eleanor saying Jess had to be practical rather than romantic. “There’s that man who owns the Molly D,” Eleanor said.
“How many of the kids will he take with him when he sails?” Jess asked as she sat down and began sucking on a piece of candy. “And, besides, he has a wart on his chin.”
Eleanor named several men, but Jessica found fault with each of them.
Eleanor sat down at the table, her head in her hands. “That’s all of them. You’ve refused every man I know.”
“Even Alex,” Jess said, remembering his anger.
“Alex?” Eleanor’s head came up. “Alex asked you to marry him?”
“I think so. He offered to take on all the kids but he wanted me to go with them.”
“What did you say to him, Jessica?” Eleanor asked, her voice very, very calm.
Jess grimaced. “I didn’t know he was serious. I’m afraid I laughed at him. Tomorrow I’ll apologize. I’ll turn him down in a much nicer way and I’ll—”
Eleanor leaped up from the table and leaned over Jess. “You what?!” she yelled. “You turned down Alexander Montgomery? You laughed at his proposal of marriage?”
“I told you I thought he was kidding. I had no idea he was serious until I saw his face.”
Eleanor grabbed Jess’s arm and pulled her up from the table. “Watch the kids, Nate,” she called. Jess protested as Eleanor dragged her through the men camped outside their house, through the town and then up the hill to the Montgomery house.
Alex was in his bedroom, a book open in front of him. He didn’t rise when Eleanor burst into the room, nor did he look at Jessica.
“I’ve just heard what a fool my sister has made of herself,” Eleanor said, breathless. “She was just so overwhelmed at the generosity of your offer that she was giddy.”
Alex glanced down at his book. “Eleanor, I have no idea what you mean. I merely happened to rescue Mistress Jessica from one of her suitors. I remember we talked of marriage in general, but nothing specific.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Jess said, turning away, but Eleanor was leaning against the door.
“Alexander, I know she was rude but then she often is. Still, she’ll make a fine wife. She’s strong and sometimes she’s intelligent, a little proud, I admit, and sometimes she opens her mouth when it should be kept closed, but she’s a hard worker and she’ll help put food on the table and—”
“I am not a mule! Eleanor, I’m going.”
Alex leaned back in his chair as Eleanor threw her body across the door. Jess was pulling on the latch.
“I’ve seen her start work before sunup and not stop till she dropped and—”
Alex put his book aside, his index fingers together and contemplated Jessica. “I could buy a team of ox
en for what you’re talking about, and an ox doesn’t talk back. What else do I get out of this besides a fieldworker?”
Jess glared from one to the other and tried harder to push Eleanor out of the way.
“She comes with six free little workers. Think what you could do with all those eager little bodies to help you. You could expand and—”
“I could go bankrupt trying to feed them. Any other enticements? How about a dowry?”
“Dowry?” Jess gasped. “If you think—”
Eleanor poked her in the ribs. “On your marriage will come one-half interest in a beautiful little cove that’s alive with oysters and sundry other sea creatures.”
“Hmmm.” Alex slowly got up, walked toward Jess, then looked her up and down.
Aghast, Jess let go of the door and scowled at him.
He took her chin and lifted her face. “She isn’t unpleasant to look at.”
“The prettiest girl in town, in the whole area, and you know it. Some of the sailors have said she’s prettier than any of the girls they’ve seen all over the world.”
He dropped her chin, and stepped back. “I don’t know what came over me when I asked her to marry me, purely sympathy I assure you. I felt sorry for her after seeing that fat old man pawing her.” He adjusted the lace at his sleeve.
“Yes, of course, Alexander, but you did ask her to marry you and we wouldn’t want the words ‘breach of promise’ whispered in connection with the illustrious Montgomery name, would we?”
“I wouldn’t marry you—”
Eleanor clamped her hand over Jess’s mouth.
Alex turned away, stifling a yawn. “One woman is as good as any, I guess. And it would be more convenient to have a wife than these bond servants moving in and out. By the time you get one trained, she leaves. I imagine you’ll be marrying soon and leaving us, Eleanor. What will we do then? Shall we set the wedding for three days hence?” He sat down and lifted his book. “You can move in tonight. Put the boys in Adam’s room and you and the girls in Kit’s room. And feed everybody.”