Kisses and Scandal (Survivors) Page 22

  “Tell them I’m not here,” Raeni said. “Tell them you’ve never heard of me.” Her voice held a note of panic. Mrs. Poole glanced at Thomas for agreement, but he didn’t have any answers.

  “Tell Mrs. Price we will be along in a few moments.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Thomas closed the door and turned back to Raeni.

  “I have to go,” she said, looking about frantically. “But not in this. Help me—” She gave him her back and gestured to the dress, where pins and laces held the bodice together.

  “You want me to take off your clothing?” he asked.

  “Quickly,” she said, not hearing or not caring about the tone of his voice.

  “I will undress you, but I have no intention of hurrying.”

  She scowled at him over her shoulder. “Thomas. Mr. Gaines, you don’t understand. I have to go. I have to leave. Now.”

  “Why?”

  “The men who’ve come for me, if they find me, they’ll take me back.”

  He took hold of her shoulders and turned her to face him. “Back to Jamaica?”

  “Yes.” Tears sparkled in her eyes.

  “Why? Are you a runaway slave?”

  She bit her lips. “Not exactly.”

  “What does that mean? Are you free or not?”

  A tear slipped down her face. “No.”

  Thomas stared at her in disbelief. He was harboring a runaway slave, and now the slavers had come to reclaim her.

  Five

  Even through her tears, Raeni saw the way he looked at her. His expression was one of horror and disgust. And why wouldn’t it be? She had brought slavers to his door, an unwanted reminder of what he had escaped.

  “You needn’t worry,” he said, his voice surprisingly gentle. “The law is against them. They cannot take you back.” He gathered her into his arms, and she stumbled back out of bewilderment. “Raeni, you are safe now.”

  She shook her head. “They don’t care about the law. They will have me on the ship and set sail before any court can act.”

  “I believe it.” She heard the disgust in his voice and realized it had come from his dislike of slavery and the men who perpetuated it, not her own actions. “But I won’t let them take you.” He pulled back and cupped her face in his hands. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

  “I didn’t know who to trust, and...” She looked down. “I needed this position. I feared if anyone knew I might cause trouble, I would not be hired or let go.”

  “I’ll forgive you for thinking such things only because you didn’t know me very well. And now, we had better go down.”

  She jerked back, her heart squeezing painfully in her chest. “Go down? I have to run!”

  “You have to face them. I won’t let them take you. This is your chance to show them that you’re not afraid, that you’re more trouble than it’s worth to them. If they know you’ll put up a fight, they will probably find some easier means of earning their blunt.”

  She shook her head. “I’m worth too much.”

  His brow arched. “We’ll discuss that later, but you need to trust me on this. I’m not without power. I will convince them of the wisdom of leaving you alone.” The glint in his eyes would have frightened her if it had been directed her way. Instead, she allowed him to take her hand and lead her into the coffee room. It was late enough that most of the shops on Bond Street had closed and the coffee room was all but empty except for a woman and her baby.

  “Alice?” Raeni released Thomas’s hand and rushed to her friend. “What are you doing here?”

  Alice had tear tracks down her face, and in her arms George slept, his breaths hitching as though he had cried himself to sleep.

  “I’m sorry to come here, Raeni.” She looked over Raeni’s shoulder where Thomas stood back a little. “I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”

  “What happened?”

  Alice began to cry again, and Raeni sank down in the chair beside her. “Here, give me George. You’ll wake him.” She took the sleeping baby, and Alice covered her face with her hand.

  “I will confer with the cook,” Thomas said, withdrawing to give the ladies privacy. Raeni would thank him later. There was a long list of things she should thank him for.

  “Alice, you can tell me what happened,” Raeni said. “It must have been serious for you to come here.”

  Alice nodded. “There’s a new rector at the church. The old one has been sent to another parish or position or—oh, I don’t know what they call it.”

  “I see. And?”

  “And the new one told the caretaker we can no longer stay there. He threw all of me belongings onto the street and told me not to come back. Raeni, what am I to do? Where will we sleep?”

  “I have a little money now,” Raeni said. “I’ll find us a place to stay for a few nights.”

  “But you’ve already done so much for us,” Alice said. “You bought us clothing and food and medicine for George’s fever.”

  “She has done enough,” Thomas said, setting a tray of pastries and coffee on the table. Raeni started when she saw him, not expecting him to bring a tray of food. He hired people to do such work, and she had thought he’d returned to his office. “It’s time someone else stepped in to help.”

  “You’re right,” Alice said softly, taking George back. “I will be on my way. I shouldn’t have troubled you—"

  “Sit down,” Thomas said, his voice stern. “If I understand correctly, you don’t have anywhere to go. I take it you have been sleeping in a church?” He gave Raeni a dark look. “Yet another fact I was unaware of. That’s simply unacceptable.”

  “As I was saying,” Raeni broke in, “I have a little money now, and I can get us a room for the night.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest. “A room with eight of you cramped inside and that’s not counting the rats and fleas. No. You’ll stay at my town house in Cheapside.”

  Raeni gaped at him. “But we couldn’t do that!”

  “I will sleep here. Then it will be proper.”

  She didn’t care about what was proper. She could not move herself and a woman and child he did not even know into his home. “Sir, that’s simply far too much to ask of you.”

  He shook his head. She had seen the look he wore before when he’d been negotiating with merchants. She’d come to think of it as his stubborn look. It meant he had made up his mind and nothing she said would change it. “If you’re to insist, then we will stay here,” Raeni said. “Just for a night or two.”

  “A baby sleeping above a shop on Bond Street? That won’t do.”

  She wanted to ask why not. Surely there were many babies sleeping above shops on Bond Street.

  “I’ll take you home until we figure out another arrangement. Miss Alice?” He looked at Alice, who stared at him open-mouthed. “Is that acceptable to you?”

  She looked at Raeni. Thomas cleared his throat. “Would you like a clean room, a bath, supper, and a bed for you and your child?”

  She gave Raeni an apologetic look. “Yes?”

  “Good. Have something to eat now while I arrange for a coachman to drive you.”

  Alice’s eyes went wide again. While she reached for a slice of cake, Raeni gave her the baby back and followed Thomas into the back room. Mr. Miller looked up from his ledger when they entered, but she paid him no heed. “I will agree to this on one condition.”

  Thomas turned on her. “You’ll agree to this without any condition. What else are you hiding from me, Raeni? Sleeping in a church? Anything could have happened to you.”

  “You’re angry at me?”

  “I’m angry at the world—at men who buy people as though they were a sack of flour, at the rich who pass the sick and diseased and do nothing more than put their handkerchiefs to their noses, at the wounded former soldiers begging for money on street corners who fought Napoleon for their country and now cannot work because they have only a stump of a leg. I’m angry.” His eyes softened. “Bu
t not at you. Not at your friend. I can help them, and it’s the least I can do.”

  Raeni swallowed. He was a good man. She had not really believed such men existed. “Then you will have my thanks, but I cannot put you out of your home. If there aren’t enough rooms to accommodate all of us, I will sleep with Alice or on the floor or—why are you smiling?”

  “There is room enough, and you’re right. There’s no reason for me to go. Besides, this arrangement might actually work out well. I haven’t had a chance to discuss the details of the opening celebration with you, and it’s only a week away. You can tell me what arrangements you have made in the hackney.”

  Raeni sighed as he left her to find a hackney. As much as she admired the businessman, she liked the man who had kissed her even better. She did not want to impose on him, but when she thought about the advantages of doing so, more time to discuss work matters was not on her list.

  More time to kiss him, more chances to wrap her arms about his strong shoulders, more opportunities to accidentally meet in the wee hours of the night when she was wearing nothing but her chemise and he...

  She swallowed and put a hand to her heart. She shouldn’t imagine what he wouldn’t be wearing.

  “Are you all right, Miss Sawyer?” Mr. Miller called.

  “Just fine, sir.” She had better go back to Alice and George. “Everything is fine.”

  THOMAS WASN’T CERTAIN how to describe the first few days of having Raeni live at his house. Well, Raeni and Alice and George. There was the annoyance of waking up because a baby was crying, but there was also the pleasure of sitting across the table from Raeni in the morning. For Raeni, he would put up with a baby crying all night, though from the look of Alice, listening to the baby and actually tending the baby were two very different things.

  It wasn’t but one day before he told Alice if she left her position ironing he would hire her to work for him. She couldn’t do such demanding work during the day and then be up half the night rocking a baby. And he’d stopped by the place where she worked. It wasn’t safe for a young child.

  He had hired her to wash dishes at Bond Street Coffee & Tobacco, but he didn’t really have need of her there. He was thinking of asking if she’d be willing to work for him at his inn in Wapping. He could always use maids there, and the housing in Wapping was more affordable. But he had plenty of space in his town home at the moment, and he was in no hurry to send Raeni’s only friend away.

  Raeni herself had made comments about looking for a room to share with Alice, and Thomas realized he was in no hurry to send Raeni away either. He hadn’t spent this much time at his town house since he moved in. He had actually learned the names of his servants and seen all the rooms of the house more than once.

  And he and Raeni had stolen kisses more than once. There’d been that night in the corridor when he had been wakened by the baby and gone down to the kitchen for tea. When he’d gone back to his room, she’d been coming out of Alice’s chamber. They’d whispered for a few minutes in the corridor and then he found himself taking her into his arms and kissing her until they were both breathless with desire. His chamber and his bed had been just a few steps away, but he’d sent her to her own bed and spent the few hours before dawn in restless half-slumber.

  And then the other afternoon she had asked to borrow a book from his library. Thomas had a vague memory of asking Mr. St. Aulyn of The Hungry Mind book shop to fill his shelves, so he went in with her to see what volumes he owned. Before he knew it, he had pressed her against the bookshelf and was kissing those lovely lips while she ran her hands up and down his back.

  And just this morning at breakfast they’d been the only two in the dining room at first. They’d both gone to the sideboard to fill their plates, and when their hands brushed reaching for the pastries, he hadn’t been able to resist stepping behind her and kissing her neck. She had been wearing a new turban, and her neck was deliciously bare. They’d had to move away from each other quickly when his butler entered with another tray of food, but Thomas liked the conspiratorial smiles he shared with Raeni for the rest of the day.

  He did not see her at Bond Street Coffee & Tobacco as much and when he did, he made certain not to kiss her, even when they were alone. He did not want her or anyone else to think he had hired her as a plaything. She was certainly nothing of the sort. She’d been busy organizing his opening celebration and based on the plans he’d seen and the expenses he’d authorized, it would be quite the affair. If there was anyone on Bond Street, or in London for that matter, who was not aware of Bond Street Coffee & Tobacco now, they would be after the opening.

  But the opening was a matter for another day. Tonight he had the Dark Ball to prepare for, and he’d sent Raeni home early and then followed shortly thereafter to bathe and dress. When he arrived home, he stepped into his foyer to find Madame Renauld was already there, one of her assistants holding a large dress box. Raeni was also in the foyer, making what was usually a comfortable space feel quite small. As soon as he stepped inside his butler muttered, “Thank God” and all three women turned to look at him and spoke at once.

  Not surprisingly, the modiste won the skirmish and shushed the others. “Monsieur, you must tell your lady that she ees ridiculous.”

  Thomas looked at Raeni, who gave him an exasperated eye roll. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Madame Renauld.”

  “But, monsieur, she wants to take the dress and send me away.”

  He arched a brow. “Is that not how it’s usually done?”

  “Mon Dieu!” Madame Renauld threw a fresh litany of French at him, only half of which he understood.

  Fortunately, the seamstress intervened. “Sir, usually the first time a Renauld is worn, Madame herself assesses the fit and makes any alterations.”

  “I see.”

  “I don’t,” Raeni answered. “I’m perfectly capable of dressing myself.”

  Madame Renauld began spouting French again, and Thomas understood why his butler had been eager to retreat.

  Finally, Raeni motioned to a side table against the wall. “Let me see it then.”

  “Thees is not how it is usually done.” Madame Renauld gestured to her assistant. “But I will make an exception.”

  The assistant set the box on the table, lifted the top, and Thomas stared down at a froth of paper. As though she could see something he could not, the assistant reached into the paper and lifted the bodice of a silvery blue silk gown. He felt a surge of disappointment. He’d expected to see Raeni in bright colors that would highlight her beauty. But this was little better than the white most of the young women would be wearing.

  Raeni, however, gasped in pleasure. “Oh. It’s...the color!”

  Madame took the gown and showed Raeni the back. “You see, I have left this little bit unfinished. That is so I can adjust the fit so it is perfect, if necessary. Most likely, my work is already perfect. And I have included a few extras as well.”

  Thomas did not think he was supposed to notice that she pointed to white undergarments laced with blue hidden in the paper. He stepped back, intent on making an exit and allowing the ladies to continue the battle, but Raeni surprised him.

  “Very well. I suppose I could use some assistance. Alice is not back yet.”

  “We should leave at eight,” Thomas told her as she ascended the steps with her new entourage.

  Madame spoke before Raeni could. “She will be ready, Monsieur.”

  He had no doubt. And she’d be wearing those white undergarments with the blue piping. Now how was he to erase that image from his mind?

  Six

  Raeni did not recognize the woman in the mirror. She’d barely recognized herself the past few days. She had gone to having nothing and sleeping on the floor of a church choir room to living in a town house that was finer even than that of the plantation house she had grown up in.

  But her father’s house had been half a century old and worn by rain and heat. Money was always a factor, and whe
n he made a profit Charles Sawyer bought more land, more seed, or more slaves. He did not fix a leaking roof or a sagging railing on the verandah.

  But this town house was so new she could all but smell the forest from which the trees had been cut. And everything in it was new, from the carpets to the books to the linens on her bed. Thomas had told her he hadn’t been in London long, but she hadn’t really understood until she’d stepped into rooms in his house that had not yet been used. It was a lovely house, and it had the potential to be a home. It needed a few personal touches—but she did not need to think what those might be. It was unlikely she would be here much longer.

  She’d all but forgotten about the ball until Thomas had told her to go home early today. And then after her bath she’d been summoned to see Madame Renauld. Now they were in her chamber, and she was being prodded and tugged into the ball gown. She thought about complaining, but it was difficult when the dress was so beautiful and the material so lovely and silky against her skin. She loved looking at the color. It reminded her of the ocean in Jamaica. It was that same pure blue that was so lovely it almost did not seem real.

  And she did not feel real in the dress. Who was the woman wearing such a beautiful gown? Her skin shone, her eyes glinted, and when the seamstress—who apparently also had skills as a hair dresser—finished pinning her hair in an elaborate chignon, her hair framed her face with a halo of soft, dark curls.

  Madame Renauld had fussed with the gown, but really very little alteration had been needed. The skirts were just the right length, the bodice low but not too low, and the sleeves cut so they edged off her shoulders, showing off her graceful collarbone and long neck.

  “Have you any jewels?” Madame asked.

  Raeni shook her head. Even before all her belongings had been stolen, she had never owned any jewels.

  “No matter. You do not need them. You are the jewel tonight.” She gestured to her assistant to gather her sewing materials, leaving the dress box on the bed with the paper spilling out. “You will call on me when you need a wedding trousseau? You will not even think of going to Madame LeMonde’s.”