Chapter Five
Nate stormed into his office, slamming the door behind him. He kicked at the desk and then slumped into his chair, throwing his Stetson across the room. It bounced off the wall and landed on the threadbare settee.
He couldn’t believe that Isabelle would do something like this. He’d been very clear about what he wanted her to do, and she’d completely ignored him.
How could she do that? He knew his sister was incredibly stubborn, but to carry on without a care for his welfare… that was too much.
She’d been doing it more and more over the last two years.
It had been subtle in the beginning, to the point Nate hadn’t noticed.
But then it became obvious. Nate understood what was going on.
His sister was trying to find him a wife.
He’d told her off for that, but Isabelle showed no remorse.
She just said that he deserved happiness.
After that, it was the girl at the Christmas fair, the young lady who worked in the haberdashery, who thought he was courting her the evening he went to dinner with Isabelle and Jack.
Then there was a young woman from the next town who had come to attend her brother’s wedding, and had been under the impression that Nate had pined for her for some time.
That had been the most embarrassing, especially when that woman kept sending him letters saying that he mustn’t give up on love, and he was being foolish for ignoring her.
“Nate.”
He groaned. Isabelle had pushed open the door and was standing in the doorway, her arms folded with a large scowl on her face.
“How could you behave so childishly? And in front of Rachel?”
“I wasn’t expecting to run into her like that.”
“You humiliated the poor girl.”
“I humiliated her?” Nate was outraged at that. “How about you humiliating me? How were you going to manage the wedding when she did get here? Get me to church on Sunday morning and surprise me with a sudden ceremony?”
She didn’t answer, which confirmed his suspicions. He buried his face in his hands.
“Oh, no, you weren’t! Tell me you weren’t going to force me into a surprise wedding!”
“I wasn’t going to force you into anything!”
“What? Were you thinking that I would willingly go into the wedding without any fuss? You’d cause me to lose face in the community!”
“Not if you marry Rachel. She’s a perfectly nice young lady.”
“How do you know? You’ve only read her letters, not met the girl.”
“I know a lot about her.” Isabelle stuck her nose in the air. “Miss Shaw and I have exchanged notes about the two of you.”
“What? Who’s Miss Shaw?”
“The owner of the orphanage Rachel came from. She’s fond of the girl and wanted her to head out to have a better life, and she saw my advertisement. It took a couple of letters for both of us to come clean, but then we decided a bit of matchmaking wouldn’t do any harm.”
“Rachel is from an orphanage?” Nate slumped in his chair. “Good grief. You really reached the bottom of the barrel, haven’t you?”
Isabella gasped. “That’s a horrible thing to say! It’s not her fault she grew up there!”
“That’s not what I… I mean… oh, for goodness sake!” Nate slapped his hands on the arms of his chair. He was getting his words in a muddle. “My point is it doesn’t matter if she’s from British royalty or from the slums of New York City! I don’t want to marry anyone.”
“You don’t know until you get there.”
“With an unwilling wife? Rachel didn’t look too happy about it herself.”
Isabelle scoffed at that, waving a hand carelessly.
“She’ll come around. She’ll understand the situation better than you, that this isn’t something that can be ignored.”
“Ignored? She was upset and crying.”
Nate felt sorry for Rachel. She’d been thrust into this through no fault of her own, and she didn’t want to be stuck in the middle, either.
And, instead of gushing over him and pleading that it would work, she’d tried to extricate herself from the situation.
Nate could see it took a lot of courage to do that after finding out what happened.
At least the girl had some sense to know this wasn’t right. It was a shame Isabelle didn’t have the same sense.
“You really need to stop being scared,” Isabelle said crossly.
“Scared of what?”
“You’re scared of being happy. That’s why you refuse to get married. You think you’re going to be miserable, but you’re miserable now!”
“I’m not!” Nate snapped. “I’m perfectly content with my lot!”
“Content is not the same as happy!”
“It is, and I intend to keep it like that.”
Isabelle rolled her eyes. “You really shouldn’t talk like that. There’s nothing wrong with being married. You’re making it sound like a life sentence.”
Nate wanted to pull his hair out. It was either that or hit something, and he wasn’t about to lash out at Isabelle. He jumped up and started pacing.
“I never said I had a problem with marriage. It can be a good thing if you get it right. But I have a problem having one of my own. Not everyone’s happiness is the same, you know.”
“I don’t understand why you’re so against it. I’ve never been happier since getting married. My children are my world. And I have a husband who adores me. Why wouldn’t you want that with someone?”
“I don’t want it!” Nate shouted.
“You’ve never given me a proper reason why!” Isabelle insisted. “It’s like you’re a child all over again.”
Nate glared at her.
“I’ve already said no. I don’t need to explain myself further than that.”
“When it comes to me, you absolutely need to! I’m your sister!”
“You may be my sister, but that doesn’t mean you can meddle in my life.” Nate swung around on her. “I can’t believe you would just ignore me. Why would you do that to me when you know my feelings?”
Isabelle sighed.
“Oh, Nate, I’ve been looking after you for such a long time I see you as another son of mine. That’s not right. You’re my brother, not my child, and I feel like I’m smothering you too much.”
“So you’re passing me from you to someone else? Isabelle, I’m a grown man. I can take care of myself!”
“I can tell. I’ve seen the way you look after you’re home.”
Nate scowled. He did clean his home properly, but it was just not up to Isabelle’s standard.
She was highly clinical, almost like a nurse.
Nate had admired it when they were children, but now he wished that she would just leave it alone.
He knew what he wanted and what worked for him, and Isabelle had to keep mothering him.
She talked about smothering him and wanting to stop, but she couldn’t help herself.
“My home is fine, and you need to keep out of it.”
“Nate, I’m just worried about your welfare. Now Tommy and Sammy are getting bigger…”
“I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
“So you’ve never thought you were lonely when you return home at night, and you’re not coming to dinner at mine?” She raised her eyebrows. “That you might like some company without having to leave afterward?”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“I just want you to be happy, and…”
“Getting married is not going to make me happy, Isabelle,” Nate said in a snarky tone. He turned away and glared out of the window. “What do you expect me to do now? I have to clean up your mess.”
“It’s not…”
“I’ll do it.”
The sudden third voice made Nate spin around, bumping into the wall.
Rachel was in the doorway, standing tall and shaking, wearing the massive coat that Clarence had draped all over her.
He could see her hands were clenched tightly, and her pale face made her look like a ghost. Isabelle moved toward her.
“Rachel…”
“I have nowhere else to go, Mr. Calloway. I would prefer to buy a return ticket to go back, but I know I won’t be accepted there either. And I don’t have the money to return home.”
She looked close to tears, her voice trembling. Nate felt a twang of sympathy for her. She really didn’t want to do this, but she was keeping herself composed. He had to respect her for that.
“I’ll be your wife,” Rachel said, drawing in a deep breath. “I don’t want to, but I’ll do it. And I’ll work hard to earn my keep. I’ll do whatever I can to make myself useful to you. I promise that I won’t get in the way or cause any trouble.”
“What?”
“I’ll do whatever you need me to do. Clean your house, cook your meals, or I could get a job and pay my way myself.” Then she added quickly, “I used to work in a bakery. If there’s one here, I can work there, or I’ll look after the home. Whatever you want.”
It all came out in a rush, and Nate was sure that she’d said all of it twice. It was making his head spin.
She was clearly desperate, and Rachel looked like she would rather be anywhere else. Isabelle, on the other hand, looked delighted and clapped her hands together.
“That’s perfect! There you go, Nate. She’s determined to do whatever she can to make this work.”
“Not willingly,” Rachel said through gritted teeth. “I don’t like being lied to. I have to make the best of what I’ve got now, and, sadly, this is my only hope.”
“You don’t need to see this as a bad thing.” Isabelle moved to her, but Rachel stiffened, leaving her hand hovering in the air for a moment before it dropped. “It’s going to be a good thing. And Nate is going to be happy about this, aren’t you?”
Isabelle shot a dark look at him, but Nate was already shaking his head.
“I’m not the one who wanted a bride, Isabelle. Why don’t you find someone more willing to marry her? I know there are a few gentlemen…”
“Oh, stop it, Nathaniel! The poor girl is willing to become your wife and do what’s needed. Would you like her to be at home all the time or go out and get a job? I think working in a bakery would be perfect!”
Nate felt like he was in an alternate reality. How was this happening to him? It was like Isabelle had listened, and then carried on as if he hadn’t said a word. It was maddening.
“You’re not helping, Isabelle. Would you please leave the room?”
Isabelle giggled.
“I can’t leave you two unchaperoned…”
“Now!”
That made her jump, and there was a slightly annoyed look on her face. Nate didn’t care, and he ushered her out, shutting the door hard as Rachel walked in. She flinched, but she didn’t turn around. Nate wanted to reach out to her and give her some comfort, but that was highly inappropriate.
He leaned against his desk, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“I can’t believe this. I didn’t mean for this to happen to you, Miss Bell.”
“I didn’t want to cause you any pain or discomfort, Mr. Calloway…”
“Marshal.” Nate cleared his throat. “That or Nate. We might as well not be formal, given the circumstances.”
Rachel hesitated a moment, and then she nodded, biting her lip.
“All right. I’m so sorry about all of this. We’re in such a bad situation, and I was trying to think of a logical way we could get around this…”
She broke off. Nate didn’t need her to carry on. He could see that she was close to tears. Getting angry at her wasn’t going to make things any better.
“Look, why don’t we have a trial period?” he suggested.
“A trial period?” She looked confused. “What do you mean by that?”
“Where we see if we can live together without murdering one another. We don’t have to get married, but we can find out if we can cope with being in the same house. I haven’t lived with anyone since I moved out of my sister’s house ten years ago…”
“We can’t do that!”
Her eyes were wide, and she looked shocked. Nate frowned.
“Why not?”
“Because that’s living out of wedlock! I know this is a small town, so I’m guessing gossip goes around here very quickly.”
“Yes…”
That was when Nate remembered. Living alone with an unmarried woman was guaranteed to ruin a woman’s reputation. It hadn’t mattered when he lived with Isabelle, because they were siblings, but Rachel was not.
There was only one thing for it. He was going to have to marry her, even if neither of them were willing about it.