“Of course not.” She put the empty bowls between them—one for waste, one for the broken beans—and filled his lap with beans, then filled her own.
“Where is home, Mr. Montgomery?” she asked.
“Warbrooke, Maine,” he answered, and once he started talking he didn’t want to stop. He’s as lonely as I am, Nellie thought, then she corrected herself. How could she be lonely when she had Terel and her father?
He told her of his life, of growing up near the ocean, of having spent as much of his life on a sailboat as on the ground.
“I met Julie when I was twenty-five,” he said.
Nellie looked at him, at his profile, and she could see the sadness in his eyes, hear the grief in his voice. Her father had said Mr. Montgomery was a widower. “She was your wife?”
He looked at her, the pain in his eyes making her feel pain also. “Yes,” he said softly. “She died in childbirth four years ago. I lost both her and the baby two days before my thirtieth birthday.”
She reached across the bean bowls and clasped his hand. The touch seemed to startle him awake. He sat there blinking for a moment, then smiled. “I do believe, Miss Grayson, you’ve put a spell on me. I haven’t talked about Julie since she…”
“It’s the beans,” she said brightly, not wanting him to be sad. “They’re enchanted beans. Same ones Jack used to grow his beanstalk.”
“No,” he said, looking at her intently. “I believe it’s you who has bewitched me.”
Nellie felt herself blushing. “Mr. Montgomery, you are wicked, teasing an old maid like me.”
He didn’t laugh at her jest; his face grew serious again. “Who told you you’re an old maid?”
Nellie felt very confused. “No one has to tell me. I…” She didn’t know what to say. She’d never had such a divinely handsome man flirt with her before. Wait until he sees Terel, she thought. Terel, wearing one of her beautiful evening gowns, could bring a whole room full of handsome men to a halt. “My goodness, Mr. Montgomery, look what time it is. I have to finish dinner, and Father will be home soon, and Terel will be down, and I must change clothes and—”
“All right,” he said, laughing. “I know when I’m being dismissed.” He picked up the bowls, not allowing Nellie to carry them, and blocked her way on the path. “Tell me, Miss Grayson, are you as good a cook as you are beautiful?”
Nellie could feel her face turning brilliant red. “What a flirt you are, Mr. Montgomery. You’ll have half the female population of Chandler blushing.”
He took her hand in one of his and looked at it. “Actually,” he said softly, “I don’t flirt at all. In fact, I haven’t looked at another woman since Julie died.”
Nellie was speechless. Utterly without words. That this man, so handsome, a man to set any girl’s heart on fire, would pay any attention to her, a fat old maid, was one thing, but that he acted as though she were the only woman he looked at was another.
She snatched her hand from his. “I am not a fool, Mr. Montgomery,” she said. “You waste your soft words on me. Perhaps you should try tempting someone who is younger and more foolish than I am.”
She had meant to set him on his ear, but all he did was smile at her, flashing that single dimple in his cheek, “It’s good to know that I am a temptation,” he said, dark eyes twinkling.
Nellie felt herself blushing again as she turned away and hurried toward the house, Mr. Montgomery close on her heels.
Inside the house all was chaos. Her father was home, and instead of finding what he’d expected—his two daughters entertaining his guest—he’d come home to an empty house. Anna had disappeared as usual, neither Terel nor Nellie could be found, and there was no sign of his honored guest.
Nellie, looking like the hired help, walked into the house, Mr. Montgomery behind her bearing bowls of string beans, just as Terel came down the stairs wearing not evening dress, as her father had requested, but an ordinary day dress. Charles Grayson’s temper snapped.
“Look at you!” he said under his breath. “Look at the both of you! Nellie, I would fire a servant who dressed as badly as you. And have you been treating our guest as a scullery maid?” he asked, motioning to the bowls of beans.
Before Nellie could speak Mr. Montgomery put himself between her and her father, almost as though he meant to protect her. “Miss Grayson very kindly agreed to sit with me when I so rudely arrived quite early for dinner.”
Nellie held her breath, for there was a hard tone to Mr. Montgomery’s voice, as though he were almost daring her father. No one spoke to Charles Grayson in that tone.
Before her father could speak, before Mr. Montgomery could say another word, Terel came floating down the stairs, her eyes alight at the sight of the beautiful man.
“What is all the fuss?” Terel said in her best there’s-a-handsome-man-in-the-room voice as she moved toward Mr. Montgomery. “Please forgive us, sir,” she said, bowing her head demurely and looking up at him through her lashes. “We are usually not so inhospitable.” Never taking her eyes from his face, she continued, “Shame on you, Nellie, for telling no one that Mr. Montgomery had arrived. If I had known, I would have hurried back from my charity work to entertain you myself. As it was, you can see that I had no time to dress properly. May I take those?”
Terel took the bowls from him and shoved them at Nellie. “Why didn’t you tell me he was young and handsome?” she hissed. “Were you trying to keep him for yourself?”
Nellie didn’t have a chance to answer before Terel slipped her arm through Mr. Montgomery’s and began leading him toward the dining room.
Nellie turned away and went to the kitchen. So much for her afternoon’s flirtation, she thought. So much for a handsome man’s words that he wasn’t a flirt. Even as Nellie told herself that this was what she’d expected, she suddenly felt very, very hungry, as hungry as she’d ever been in her life.
On the sideboard was the jam roly-poly she’d made for dessert. It was light sponge cake filled with homemade jam, then rolled into a log. Nellie didn’t even think about what she was doing. She didn’t bother with a plate, didn’t bother getting a fork. One minute the dessert was there, and the next she had eaten it.
Afterward she stood staring at the empty plate, as much in wonder as anything.
Anna, found by Charles, came running into the kitchen. “They want dinner, and they want it now.” The maid looked from the empty plate to Nellie’s jam-smeared mouth and began to smirk. “You eat all the dessert again?”
Nellie looked away. She would not cry. “Go to the bakery,” she said, trying to hold back tears of shame.
“It’s closed,” Anna answered, her tone of voice telling how she was enjoying her triumph.
“Go to the back. Tell them it’s an emergency.”
“Like last time?”
“Just go,” Nellie said, almost pleading. She didn’t want to be reminded of the other times she’d eaten the dessert meant for the family meal.
Her shame at once again having eaten an entire cake made her keep her head down throughout the meal. Anna lazily and sullenly served the dinner while Charles and Terel kept up a steady stream of conversation with Mr. Montgomery.
Nellie didn’t enter into the talk because she was dreading the time when what she’d done would be discovered. Her father had specifically asked for jam roly-poly for tonight, and she knew he’d be angry when he didn’t get it. She also knew he’d know instantly what had happened. Every word he’d ever said to her over the years about her eating came back to her. Throughout the long meal she prayed that her father wouldn’t say anything in front of Mr. Montgomery.
All too soon, Anna brought in the bakery cake. There was silence from her father and Terel, and Nellie hung her head lower.
“Did it happen again, Nellie?” Charles Grayson asked.
Nellie gave a brief nod, and there was a longer silence.
“Anna,” Charles said, “you will serve the cake, but I believe my eldest daughter has had enou
gh.”
“Nellie has a bit of a problem,” Terel said in a stage whisper to Mr. Montgomery. “She often eats whole cakes and pies. One time she—”
“Excuse me,” Nellie said as she tossed her napkin on the table and ran from the dining room. She didn’t stop until she was outside in the coolness of the garden. For a while she stood there, trying to still her pounding heart, making all her usual promises to herself. She swore she’d try in the future to control her eating, she swore she’d try to lose weight. She promised herself all the things she’d promised her father during the many talks they’d had in his study.
“Why do you have to be an embarrassment to both me and your sister?” he’d said a hundred times. “Why can’t you be someone we’d be proud of? We’re afraid to go anywhere with you. We’re afraid you’ll have one of your attacks and eat half a dozen pies in front of everybody. We’re—”
“Hello.”
Nellie jumped at the sound of a voice. “Oh, Mr. Montgomery. I didn’t see you. Are you looking for Terel?”
“No, I was looking for you. Actually, your family doesn’t know I’m here. I told them I had to leave. I went out the front door and came through the back gate.”
She couldn’t bear to look at him in the moonlight. He was so tall and handsome, and she’d never felt so dirty and fat before in her life.
“It was a delicious dinner,” he said.
“Thank you,” she managed to mutter. “I must go in now. Would you like to see Terel?”
“No, I don’t want to see your sister. Wait! Don’t go. Please, Nellie, would you sit with me a while?”
She glanced up at him when he used her first name. “All right, Mr. Montgomery, I’ll sit with you.” She sat in the swing where they’d sat so companionably earlier in the day, but Nellie didn’t say a word.
“What’s there to do in Chandler?” he asked.
“Church socials, the park, riding, not much. We’re a boring little town. Terel knows everyone, though, and she can introduce you.”
“Will you go with me to the Harvest Ball at the Taggerts’ in two weeks?”
She looked at him sharply. “Which Taggert?” she asked, stalling for time.
“Kane and his wife, Houston,” he said, as though no other Taggerts were in town.
Nellie just sat there blinking. Kane Taggert was one of the richest men in America, and he lived in a magnificent house on a hill overlooking the town. His beautiful wife, Houston, gave elegant parties for their friends, and once a year they gave a magnificent ball. Last year she and Terel had been invited, Terel had gone while Nellie stayed home, but something had happened—she wasn’t sure what—and this year they’d not received an invitation, much to Terel’s horror.
“Terel would love to go,” Nellie said. “She would love to—”
“I’m inviting you, not your sister.”
Nellie had no idea what to say to the man. When she was twenty and much slimmer than she was now she’d had a few invitations from men, but she’d rarely been able to accept. At twenty she had had the responsibility of caring for her father and a twelve-year-old sister—and her father did not like his dinner late.
“Mr. Montgomery, I—”
“Jace.”
“I beg your pardon.”
“My name is Jace.”
“I couldn’t possibly call you by your Christian name, Mr. Montgomery. I have just met you.”
“If you go with me to the ball, you’ll get to know me better.”
“I couldn’t possibly. I must…” She couldn’t think of a single reason why she couldn’t go, but she knew it was an impossibility.
“I’ll take the job your father is offering if you’ll go with me. And if you’ll call me Jace.”
Nellie knew that her father wanted this man to take the job, knew that he needed someone to help run his freight company, but none of this made sense. Why was he trying to persuade her to go somewhere with him? “I…I don’t know, Mr. Montgomery. I don’t know if my father can spare me. And Terel needs—”
“What that young lady needs is…” He didn’t finish his sentence. “I won’t take the job unless you agree to go with me. One evening, that’s all I ask.”
Nellie imagined entering the big white house on the hill on the arm of this extraordinarily handsome man, and she quite suddenly very much wanted to go. Just once she’d like to go out for an evening. “All right,” she whispered.
He smiled at her as he stood, and even in the darkness she could see his dimple. “Good,” he said. “I’m very pleased. I’ll be looking forward to it. Wear something beautiful.”
“I don’t have anything…” She didn’t finish. “I will look forward to the evening also,” she whispered.
He smiled again, put his hands in his pockets, and, whistling, left the garden.
Nellie sat where she was for a moment. What an extraordinary man, she thought. What a very unusual man.
She leaned back in the swing, smelling the sweet fragrance of the flowers. She was going to the ball with a man. And not just any man. Not the butcher’s fat son Terel was always suggesting, or the grocer’s seventeen-year-old son who sometimes looked at Nellie with big eyes, and not the sixty-year-old man her father had once introduced her to. Not the—
“Nellie! Where have you been?” Terel demanded, standing over her in the darkness. “We have been looking all over for you. Anna is destroying the kitchen, and Father wants you to watch her, and I need you to unlace my dress. We’re suffering while you sit here daydreaming. Sometimes, Nellie, I don’t think you care about anyone but yourself.”
“Yes, you’re right. I’m sorry. I’ll straighten out Anna.” Reluctantly she left the swing and the garden and went back to the very real world inside the house.
It was hours later that she got the kitchen straight, had listened to another of her father’s lectures about her eating, and was finally able to get to Terel’s room.
“I got Anna to undo my laces,” Terel said bitterly, sitting in her robe and gown before her mirror and brushing her hair.
Nellie began to pick up Terel’s clothes. She was very tired and longed to take a bath and go to bed.
“Wasn’t he divine?” Terel said.
“Who?”
“Mr. Montgomery, of course. Oh, Nellie, aren’t you ever aware of anything that goes on?”
“He was very nice, yes.”
“Nice? He was much more than nice. I’ve never seen a better-looking man in my life, except maybe Dr. Westfield, but he’s taken. Father says he thinks there’s money in his background.”
“I think Dr. Westfield is quite comfortable,” Nellie said tiredly.
“Not Dr. Westfield! Nellie, why don’t you listen sometimes? Father thinks Mr. Montgomery has money. I can’t imagine why he’d consider a job with Father if he has money unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Well…I hate to say it myself, but did you see the way he looked at me during dinner?”
Nellie, behind the wardrobe door, was glad Terel couldn’t see her face. “No, I’m afraid I didn’t see, but Terel, dear, you must be used to men looking at you.”
“Yes,” she said softly, looking at herself in the mirror. Mr. Montgomery had indeed looked at her, but not in the way men often looked at her. In fact, there was something almost chilling about the way he’d looked at her with those almost-black eyes of his.
She put her hand to her throat. He would be a challenge to win, she thought.
“I wonder what his name is,” Terel murmured.
“Jace,” Nellie said before she thought.
Terel looked at her sister in the mirror. Nellie was standing so that just her face was visible above the little screen by the washstand. In the candlelight Nellie was beautiful. Her skin was flawless, her lashes long, her lips full. Glancing back at her own reflection, Terel knew she wasn’t half as pretty as Nellie. Next to Nellie, Terel’s face was too long, her nose too sharp, and her skin wasn’t nearly as smooth.
/> Terel opened a drawer to her dresser and withdrew a little bag of caramels, then went to Nellie and put her arm around her. “I’m sorry Father was such a beast at dinner. He didn’t have to tell Mr. Montgomery about how you’d eaten all the cake. You weren’t looking, but you should have seen the look on that man’s face.”
Nellie moved away from Terel’s embrace.
“Nellie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. I thought you’d be able to see the humor in the situation. It is amusing that a woman could eat an entire cake by herself.”
“It is not amusing to me,” Nellie said stiffly.
“All right, I’ll stop laughing if you can’t. Really, Nellie, if you’d just learn to laugh sometimes you’d have a much easier time in life. Where are you going?”
“To take a bath and go to bed.”
“You’re angry.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are, I can tell. You’re angry at me because of what Father said. That isn’t fair at all. I’d never tell a guest I had a sister who could eat a whole cake.”
Nellie could feel herself begin to grow hungry.
“I have a present for you,” Terel said, holding out the bag of caramels.
Nellie didn’t want the candy, but every time she thought of that handsome Mr. Montgomery knowing the truth about her she felt a hunger pang. “Thank you,” Nellie murmured, taking the bag, leaving the room, and eating half the candy before she got to the bathroom.
The Kitchen
The fog closed over the scene, and Pauline turned to Berni.
“So that’s my assignment?” Berni said thoughtfully. “I think I can handle it. What a hunk that guy Montgomery is. If I were there, I’d want him myself. Does he have money? It would be nice if he had money, because then he could buy Terel some more clothes. She could have—”
“Your assignment is Nellie.”
“He could buy her a mansion or, better yet, build her one. He could—what?”
“Your assignment is to help Nellie.”
Berni was too stunned to speak. “What help does she need? She has everything. She has a family who loves her and—”