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* * *
Belle stared at Sidney, her heart pounding. Despite the smile she’d planted on her face, she was not at all as happy or as confident as she appeared. On her way out here from Little Creek, she kept imagining what she would say to Sidney, what he would do, how he might react. In all of her imaginings, nothing like this had ever happened.
“A mistake?” she said and laughed. It sounded false to her ears, but she didn’t care much about that just now.
She forced her smile to remain where it was and blinked several times, though she wasn’t sure why precisely. Her body seemed to be reacting to things against her will. Her foot tapped nervously on the ground, her fingers began to beat against her hip in rapid succession. Still, she continued to smile and laugh.
“There’s no mistake,” she said.
“But there is,” he said. “A terrible one, I’m afraid.”
She wished that Sidney did not look so good to her. If his hair had been a shade lighter instead of the midnight black she loved so dearly... if his deep caramel eyes had only looked dull and faded... everything he was saying to her now might have been easier to take.
“I saw your ad in the paper, Sidney,” she replied, feeling the color in her cheeks begin to rise. “I saw it, and I know you meant for me to see it, so there is no point in denying it further.”
She took a step toward him, but it was more tentative than her previous ones.
He stepped back, shaking his head as if she were a child he was saying no to.
“I’m sorry if you’ve misunderstood in some way, but that ad I placed was answered a fortnight ago. And accepted.”
She stared at him blankly, not understanding. “Accepted?” Her head felt dizzy. He nodded. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean what I’ve said. The woman who wrote to me seemed a good person. She agreed to marry me, and I... agreed to marry her. She’s on her way here now.”
Belle’s heart dropped into her stomach. She thought she might faint. Feelings of dread and foolishness and humiliation washed over her, and now she was certain the world around her would go black and she would faint dead away. Perhaps she’d bump her head on the way down and injure herself, then Sidney would feel shame for causing her such grief.
“I don’t understand,” she finally said, and Sidney’s eyes, which had been filled with shock and alarm when she’d first stepped in his barbershop, now softened to something else... pity. She hated seeing that more than anything else.
“Belle, I don’t know precisely what you were thinking, but I placed that ad a month ago. If you wished to be considered for it, then you should have written me. Though why you should wish to marry a barber, I don’t have the faintest idea. I can only assume you’ve missed your sisters and want a way back into their lives without burdening them, and you thought you might use me to get it.”
She shook her head, wanting to yell at him. Was this some sort of trick? Was it a game? “Why should you speak to me so cruelly?” she said, and now she saw a flash of guilt run across his yes. Good. She was glad of it. He did not understand what she’d done to get to him; perhaps that was the problem. She wasn’t being clear enough. Again, her signals were too subtle.
“Sidney, enough games. I saw your ad in the paper, and I knew at once it was meant for me. Why else would it have appeared in a Kansas newspaper?”
Sidney sighed. “I had no control over where the ad was sent. The company I placed it with told me they would handle all of that, and I let them. The woman I’m to marry—”
“Stop saying that!” she shouted. “There is no other woman. You’re only trying to make me jealous. It won’t work.” She heard the desperation in her own voice and abhorred it.
Sidney cleared his throat. “As I was saying, the woman I’m to marry, Miss Irene Bailey, is from farther south in Missouri. Because we’re so close, she was able to come to me more quickly than others who wrote from farther away.”
“Other women wrote to you?” she gasped.
He nodded. “I had several responses, but none of them struck the right tone with me as Irene’s letter did. In fact, Irene is on her way here now, you see. We’re to meet for the first time.”
Belle could hardly believe what she was hearing. She looked around the shop as if she might see something which could explain all of this. Something which might alert her that she was merely dreaming and that when she woke up, this nightmare would vanish.
Her knees began to buckle, and suddenly she knew that she really was going to faint if she did not sit down this very minute. Sidney was watching her closely, and despite her dizziness, she refused to let him see her suffer any more than she’d already shown. She certainly would not faint in front of him so that he could pity her all the more.
She crossed the room and sank into one of his chairs, folding her arms across her chest.
“What are you doing?” he asked, hardly believing her actions. His eyes were wide, and she noted the alarm in his voice.
“I’m not leaving until I meet her,” she said. All she really wanted was for her legs to stop trembling so that she could run away, but she would never admit to that. Not to him, not to anyone.
“You must go,” he said, his hands making a sweeping motion toward the door, urging her out of the chair.
Belle gulped. There was no point in pretending everything she’d said up till now had been a joke. It was obvious it had not been. She’d been ill-prepared for the truth, and her shock had shown itself plainly on her face. Now, all she could do was to save whatever little dignity she had left by acting as though she was not in any pain because her plans had failed so miserably.
“Why don’t you let me send for Meadow?” Sidney asked. “No, Summer. She would love to see you just now, I’m certain. You can give her the surprise of her life.”
“Thank you, but I’ll wait and see my sisters later.”
Sidney ran a nervous hand through his hair. “It’s getting late. Are you not tired from your journey?”
“It’s only just after six. I’m tired, but not so badly that I must lie down. I’ll wait here a bit and regain my energy.”
“Belle, please. I promise to call on you tomorrow if you shall only go now.”
Her impulse to stay where she was wavered. Her knees felt steadier now, but she was not at all sure they would stay that way if she stood. But then... did she really want to see this woman right now? After she’d been traveling for three days and was not looking her best? Perhaps Sidney was right. Perhaps she had better go, after all.
She debated it in her mind, weighing her desire to see this mystery woman against her desire to run far away from here and never return. While she was debating with herself, the door jingled and a beautiful woman with dark chestnut hair walked in. She was a year or two older than Belle, twenty or twenty-one at the most, with smooth, pale skin and naturally rosy cheeks. Her gaze circled around the room and landed on her and Sidney.
Belle gulped. The woman’s eyes were as striking as the rest of her; green as emeralds and shining with excitement. Altogether, the woman’s image was one of breathtaking perfection.
Belle felt sick to her stomach. She started to rise from her chair, wanting to be gone from this place at once but found that her legs no longer worked, and she was stuck where she was for the moment. Her breath hitched in her chest and her head pulsed with pain.
“Miss Bailey?” Sidney asked, his eyes wide as two full moons.
She nodded and smiled warmly at him, setting down her bag, a black leather purse with a silver buckle hanging over her shoulder. “Please, call me, Irene. We’re to be married, after all.” She blushed suddenly. “Unless I’m mistaken. You are Sidney Poole, aren’t you?”
“I am,” he said and offered her his hand. Belle’s stomach began to spin. Waves of nausea crashed against her like a stormy sea. She tried to stand again and failed.
Irene’s eyes turned to her. “And who’s this?”
Sidney turned around and looked at Belle as if he’d forgotten she was there. He mouthed the words, “Don’t ruin this for me,” and Belle found her irritation with him outweighed every other emotion she was experiencing. She wanted only to hurt him as he was hurting her.
She smiled at Irene. “Me?” Belle said sweetly. “I’m Sidney’s mail order bride.”
* * *
