The cook wrung her hands fretfully. She would be sorely distressed to have to leave. After working for the Latimers for so long, she felt as if she were part of the family and the master himself more like her own son. Yet she could understand that his commitment to his young wife came first.
Alaina’s own spirit was much humbled by Cole’s threat. Struggling to control an urge to tremble, she murmured an excuse and left the room. Concerned, Cole followed her to stand in the hall, and watched as she slowly mounted the stairs. He could think of no comforting words that might soothe her. She moved on past the balustrade out of his sight, leaving him to stare in troubled silence at the shadows she had just left. He was about to turn away when she appeared again, this time ramrod stiff and pale of face.
“Doctor Latimer?” Her voice trembled with emotion. “Will you come up here a moment please?”
He hurried up the stairs at the best gait he could manage with the aid of his cane, wondering what damage had been done now. Mentally he began sorting out the dire proceedings he had threatened should his fears prove correct. But when he stepped into his wife’s bedroom and saw what had aroused her, he laughed aloud in relief.
“I see nothing amusing in this!” Alaina snapped, white lipped. “Something is always being moved in here while I’m gone! And now this! What kind of fool jest is this, anyway?”
She lifted the small, painted tin box that had been left in the middle of her bed and handed it resentfully to Cole. It was less than half the size her own box had been, but bore the same rich bonbons inside.
“It’s Mindy’s,” Cole answered. “I think you have gained a friend.”
“Mindy!” Her voice cracked with ire brought forth by his jovial grin. “Who is this Mindy? Is she some paramour you have kept in this house beneath my very nose?”
“Paramour?” He chuckled in amazement. “I would guess she has need of love, at that, but not the sort you mean. Perhaps it’s time you meet Mindy. Come along, my pet.”
Giving her no choice in the matter, he caught her hand and led her down the hall to a bedroom on the far side of Roberta’s suite. He pushed the door wide and drew her in with him. The room had a strange, untouched look about it. Indeed, no sign of habitation existed. Cole grunted, then pulled Alaina back through the hall to the stairs and descended them.
“Cole!” she hissed, trying to pry his long, thin fingers loose from her wrist. “Let me go! What will the servants think?”
“This is my house, madam, and I don’t give a damn what anybody thinks!”
She was still in tow when they passed Miles and Mrs. Garth in the dining room. The servants paused to stare in surprise, and Alaina attempted to appear quite composed and dignified as Cole pulled her unceremoniously through the swinging door that led into the kitchen, leaving the two servants gaping in astonishment. Having had to match the limping pace of her husband’s long legs, Alaina was slightly breathless when Annie turned from the wood stove with a ladle in her hand.
“Now this be a rare day, to be sure! Both the mistress and his lordship coming to visit me at the same time.” She looked at them suspiciously. “Gives me to wonder what’s brewing in the mill.”
Cole shushed her with a wave of his hand, further rousing the cook’s curiosity. She maintained an obedient silence, but contemplated him narrowly as he glanced about the kitchen. He checked beside the wood box and in the pantry, then stepped out the back door onto the small, enclosed porch.
“There you are,” he said to someone whom Alaina could not see. He held out the tin. “Did you give this to the lady after her box was burned?” Though no sound came that Alaina could hear, he apparently received an affirmative reply, for he smiled. “She would like to thank you, and I think it’s time you stop hiding and come out and meet the lady. Come on. You needn’t be afraid of this one,” he coaxed, reaching behind the door. “Her name is Alaina, and she’s a very nice lady.”
Alaina gasped as he brought into view a child, a girl no more than six or seven years of age, clutching a tattered cloth doll close against her. She was wearing a long ankle-length, faded calico dress beneath a woolen coat that was at least a size or so too small, and though the kitchen was warm, she was shivering like a frightened rabbit. Large, dark eyes cast a quick, furtive glance around at Alaina, but after that, she refused to lift her gaze again and held it fastened on the worn toes of her black, high-topped shoes. The thin, tiny face was smudged and blackened with soot and grime, while the long, badly snarled braids indicated much neglect.
“She doesn’t say much,” Cole informed his young wife. “But this is Mindy.”
“Good heavens, Cole! What on earth have you been doing with that child?” Alaina demanded, horrified at the girl’s bedraggled state. “She’s filthy!”
“I bought her clothes”—he shrugged—“but she won’t wear them. There is a bedroom for her upstairs, but she refuses to sleep in it. She seems to prefer it here in the kitchen. In a quiet way, she is very independent, much like another one I came to know quite well in New Orleans.”
Glancing away from his pointed stare, Alaina realized that Annie was closely following their exchange and watching them attentively over the tiny wire-rimmed spectacles that perched on the end of her nose. Cole turned, following his wife’s gaze, and Annie hastily busied herself with scraping a carrot for the soup. Yet it was not in her character to withhold comment.
“Mindy don’t take ter people as a rule, and I guess I can’t blame the poor tyke. The old mistress used to rant and rave ’bout havin’ ter share her house wit’ every ragamuffin brat the mister be finding. Even took a razor strap to Mindy, one time she did, but the mister showed up afore any real harm was done.”
“Annie, your tongue rattles far too much too often,” Cole observed gruffly.
The woman appeared undismayed. “I’ll be speaking me mind with no adornments, to be sure. But the child seems to have taken right well with the new mistress. Mindy’s been watching her for days now.” Annie sniffed loudly as she continued. “In fact, she was so worried ’bout the mistress, she give up her own tin what the mister gifted her with. Ye cannot be disputing the gentle heart she has, poor wee orphan.”
“Doesn’t she have any kin?” Alaina asked.
“She had an uncle,” Cole stated. “He worked as our gardener for a while after I came home from New Orleans, but no one seems to know what happened to him. Mindy’s been here ever since he disappeared.”
“But where are her parents?”
“The massacre three years back,” he whispered softly and shook his head to warn her away from the topic.
Alaina took the tin from beneath Cole’s arm and held it out to the girl. “I’ll need help eating all these. Would you mind keeping the tin for me and helping me along with them?”
Mindy blinked her large eyes and looked inquiringly at Cole as if seeking his guidance. He nodded his approval, and hesitantly her gaze came back to the lady. Accepting the box, she immediately clutched it to her breast, then sidled nearer the door, anxious to escape.
Alaina had known firsthand the fear, the hunger, the displaced feeling of not having a home, and could well understand the young child’s anxieties and fears. Her ragged appearance alone could wrench the heart of anyone capable of having compassion for another being, and Alaina was most susceptible. Tenderly she bade the girl to come near, assuring her, “I won’t hurt you.”
Mindy crouched in sudden trepidation, not willing to trust her, and started through the door, but Cole caught her arm, forbidding her escape. “Here now! Where are you going? Didn’t you hear the lady?”
Dark eyes grew enormous with panic as he drew her back. In nervous apprehension Mindy clasped her possessions to her and balked at being dragged past his leg, which she clung to desperately.
Alaina’s mother had raised her children with a firm but gentle hand. She had never been harsh, but she had not been overly lenient with them either. It was this kind of upbringing that Alaina fell back on now.
>
“I would like a closer look at you, Mindy. Come here.” Her voice, though soft, brooked no disobedience. Reluctantly Mindy moved nearer, and Alaina made a slow tour around her, lifting a braid to peer at a well-crusted ear, scanning a dirt-caked neck, and turning small, thin hands to stare with disapproval at the soiled palms and begrimed knuckles. Finally Alaina raised her gaze to Cole who watched her in wry amusement. “You’ve let this child live in your house like this? You? Of all people?”
Cole chafed beneath her tone of reproof almost as much as Mindy had under her inspection. “Madam, you may ascribe to me a great deal of experience where woman are concerned, but I assure you, this one falls outside of that realm. If you can enlighten me as to the best way to deal with her, I would be most grateful.”
“What every child needs, sir, is a good guiding hand and to be told when to bathe and how to keep clean. And that, Doctor Latimer, will be the next step here. Now come along, Mindy,” she said, taking the child’s arm. “We’ll deal with a few of your most obvious problems first.”
A bit of rebellion showing in her dark eyes, Mindy pulled herself away. She had been perfectly satisfied to lead her life the way it was and could do without the likes of a bath! Her uncle hadn’t cared one whit about seeing her tidy, and though Doctor Latimer had insisted, she had hidden from the servants until they were too busy with other chores to take time for her. Thus, she had maintained her present state of comfort, and was not anxious to see it end.
Calmly Alaina faced the show of obstinance and nodded, folding her arms sedately. “Well, I suppose I could call Peter, Miles, and Mrs. Garth to help hold you while I give you a bath. It makes no difference to me whether it’s by force or consent, but either way, you’re going to have a bath.”
The girl glanced quickly to Cole in hopes he might save her from this woman who was making such threats against her. After all, he had rescued her often enough from the first mistress. But now he seemed most disinterested in her plight as he drew out his pocket watch and casually noted the time. With that last appeal spent, Mindy had no other option open but to yield. Glumly she hung her head in submission.
“Come along then,” Alaina urged and took the girl’s narrow fine-boned hand. “Doctor Latimer?” The gray eyes came back to him. “I may need your able assistance should I meet resistance along the way. Will you join us?”
“I’ll have Peter fetch some hot water for you, mistress,” Annie offered enthusiastically. She was much impressed with the common sense displayed by this young woman and agreed with a goodly measure of gentle force. It was the unnecessary violence of the first mistress that she had abhorred.
Cole was also impressed. “Madam, if you can perform such miracles as leading her calmly to a bath, then perhaps you can get her to sleep upstairs in a bed.”
Mindy passionately shook her head.
“But why not?” Alaina asked, pausing at the swinging door.
Annie coughed loudly to gain their attention and interjected, “Pardon me interruption, mistress, but as I said afore, the first Mrs. Latimer was real spiteful to the girl whenever the master weren’t about, and little Mindy was given the bedroom right next to the red room. I would be thinking the dearie is afraid that Miss Roberta will come back. It’s a fact that she fears being up there by her lonesome.”
“We’ll see what can be done about that,” Alaina replied.
Upstairs in his wife’s bedroom, Cole laid more wood on the fire as she brushed the tangles from the child’s hair. Mindy obediently put aside the tin box, but refused to give up her doll even while her coat and gown were being removed. Alaina wrinkled her nose at the grubbiness of the garments, and was struck with the memory of the garb she had worn as “Al.” At least she had been clean beneath the clothes, while Mindy was not.
Cole contemplated the small, trim woman who had taken charge of the child. It seemed with each day’s passing that his knowledge and understanding of her increased tenfold, yet he doubted that with all the facets of her personality he would ever know her completely or cease to be amazed and intrigued by some newly discovered characteristic. He saw the warm look of determination in her eyes as she rolled up her sleeves and pinned an apron to her bosom. She was quite a spirited woman, and he wished to tame nothing more than her heart.
At her bidding, he lent his assistance by pouring fresh water from a pitcher, while she painstakingly rinsed the soap from Mindy’s hair over a basin in the bathing chamber. When faced with the prospect of putting aside the doll while she bathed, the girl clutched it all the more fiercely to her. Alaina was not disturbed.
“That’s fine. She looks like she needs a bath, too. Only, you’ll have to be careful with her. She’s far more delicate than you are, and it would be a shame if she came apart in the water.”
Cole smiled as Mindy, on second thought, carefully perched the doll on the bench beside the tub. No fuss, no furor, just a little calm-voiced logic that the child could comprehend. He returned to the bedroom, lifted a glowing stick from the fireplace, and touched it to the end of his cigar before leaning back in a chair to smoke and muse upon his young wife. He could guess that along about now Mindy was regretting that she had offered her box of bonbons as a replacement for the burned chocolates, for Alaina had set to scrubbing her with nearly as much vigor as she had the floors of the hospital.
It was a much cleaner, pinker, sweeter-smelling Mindy who, after a time, emerged from the bathing chamber bundled in two large towels. Alaina led the child to him and was strangely warmed when he threw away the cigar and lifted Mindy onto his lap.
The smaller armoire in the girl’s room was full of new clothes as Cole had indicated, but Alaina discovered something very strange in her search for apparel for Mindy. Every garment, even the lace-edged bloomers and petticoats, had been deliberately slashed, cut, or torn in some way, then carefully returned to the chest so the mischief would not be readily noticeable. She went through the clothes carefully, selecting the necessary articles that could be repaired the most easily, and returned to her own chamber. She fetched comb, scissors, thread, and needle from her bureau and, in passing the chaise, swept up the goose down comforter. Kneeling before Cole, she beckoned Mindy to stand, discarded the towels, wrapped the child in the quilt, and began to gently comb the snarls from the wet strands.
“I cannot say why or when,” she murmured in a calm, unhurried tone, “but all the clothes you bought for Mindy have been deliberately damaged.” Cole’s amazement changed to silent anger, and she returned the girl to his knee, adding, “I didn’t think you knew, but I believe that’s the reason why Mindy refused to wear them.”
The small girl hid her face against Cole’s shoulder as Alaina lifted the red velvet gown with its broad collar and cuffs, displaying the parted seams. She held up the undergarments for his inspection and pointed out the lace that had been torn free. Cole’s face darkened.
“There were even burrs in the stockings and butter in the shoes.” She shook her head in dismay. “I’ve wiped off the shoes as best as I could.” She sucked her finger where a burr had maliciously pricked her. “But the stockings proved a little more difficult.”
“Roberta!” Cole growled.
“Do you think so?” Alaina glanced up from threading the needle.
“The gardener disappeared a couple months before Roberta died, and when I took the child in, she threw the usual tantrums. It seems very likely that she avenged herself on the clothes when I wouldn’t let her abuse the child.”
Alaina sewed in silence for a long space, wondering how her cousin could have been so vindictive. Roberta had wanted for nothing, but for some reason had not been able to find the contentment to enjoy anything. How miserable she must have been.
Mindy had dismissed their presence, having found a haven in Cole’s cradling arms where she now slumbered most contentedly. Alaina lifted her gaze from the child, moving her eyes caressingly over the man’s features until he glanced up, then she hurriedly bent her attention to her n
eedle-work, hoping he would not notice the flush of color in her cheeks. She slipped the needle through the fabric, jerked the thread until the knot caught, and innocently presented an inquiry.
“Did you know Mindy’s uncle very well?”
Cole snorted. “Well enough to know that he was a bastard. He and Roberta would have made a likely pair.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mindy was as afraid of him as she was of Roberta. The man seemed to delight in punishing the child. I once threatened him with dismissal if I ever caught him beating her again. Shortly after that he disappeared, leaving the girl behind.”
“I think Mindy can do without the likes of him,” Alaina stated. She glanced askance at her husband. “But you, Major, seem to have a way about you. Indeed, Mindy seems quite taken with you. Perhaps you should adopt her.”
Cole arched a brow and gave her a crooked smile. “’Twas my understanding that fatherhood came more gradually. First the bedding, then the diapering. Isn’t that the way it usually goes?”
“You should know, sir.”
He laughed in amazement. “Madam, I have never fathered any children—believe me!”
She considered him dubiously. For all of his criticism of Roberta, they must have found some common ground between them. “What about your first wife? Was she not in a child-bearing state when she died?”
Looking down at the small form in his arms, Cole tucked the quilt carefully around the thin shoulders as he replied. “Roberta and I did not share a bed—or anything more intimate after my return from the Red River campaign. She became pregnant by some other man.”
Dropping her gaze, Alaina stared unseeing at the velvet gown in her lap. “I’m sorry, Cole. I didn’t know.”
“No need for apology, my pet. It was by mutual consent. She didn’t miss it, and I—”
Alaina glanced up as he halted and wondered what he had been about to say.
“—Didn’t either,” he finished stiffly. “At least, not from her.”