Wronged (The Cuvier Widows Book 1) (35 page)

I can only tell you that until you came into
my life, I led a very selfish existence, thinking of only myself
and my dreams. But you’ve shown me just how empty my life is, and
how my dreams mean nothing without you by my side.

I know that words from me mean naught right
now, so I want to show you how much I love you, how much your
happiness means to me. I’m giving you my part of Cuvier Shipping.
It is my gift to you and I hope it will fulfill your dream for you
and your children. Along with the business, I give you my heart and
my love, though they are only words to tell you of my
affection.

All my love, Louis

Tears trickled down her face as Marian
finished reading his letter. What should she do now?

***

After Drew left, Marian returned to the
parlor where she read the letter again. She wanted to believe him
so much, but fear held her in its grasp more firmly than ever
before. And if she made the wrong decision, she would have to live
with the result for the rest of her life. That could be a long time
and she’d already made one wrong choice regarding marriage and
love. What if she made another?

She sat there remembering the way he’d been
good to her children, the way he’d made love to her that first
time, soothing her fears. She remembered how he’d finally begun to
teach her the shipping business, the impromptu baseball game with
Philip, the picnic in her office, the trip to his family home, and
all the little things that made her laugh. From the very first he’d
been kind to her, while lying repeatedly regarding the business.
The business seemed to be his Achilles’ heel and he’d just given it
to her.

If it were possible, she’d sell the business
and they could start something new, but that wouldn’t be fair to
Philip and she wanted so much to give the business to her son.

Claire entered the parlor. “Edward said you
had a visitor. Who was it?”

“Drew Soulier, my attorney,” Marian said
staring into space, the weight of everything seeming to pile upon
her, immobilizing her.

“Is everything all right?” Claire asked,
concern filling her voice.

“No,” Marian said, and handed her the letter
from Louis.

Claire sank to the settee beside Marian and
read the missive.

No matter how much Marian tried, she still
found it hard to believe that he’d just given her the business.

“Oh, Marian,” she said, her voice filled with
sympathy. “What are you going to do?”

“He gave me the business, Claire. He outright
gave me the business, which means he’s sacrificing everything for
me,” she said, her voice filled with all the emotion whirling
inside her.

“Is it legal? Can he just give you a
business?”

“Yes, Drew assured me that everything was in
order. That Cuvier Shipping is all mine,” she said feeling so
alone. “Louis’s dream of buying the other company is gone. What do
I do?” she asked Claire. “Do I just accept his gift or do I go to
Louis?”

Claire sat silent for a few moments, her face
contemplative. “I can’t answer that question, Marian. You’re the
only one who can. But I will say that not many men would just give
away a business they had invested so much in.”

Marian nodded her head.

“I know,” she said, her voice wavering. “He
wants me back. I love him, but I’m so afraid.”

“I think your fear is understandable. You’ve
been hurt. You’re afraid to gamble on a man who has not always been
honest with you. But what does your heart tell you?”

“It wants to give him another chance. But I
don’t think I could take it if he hurt me again.”

“So are you ready to crawl away and become a
dried up widow who never risks her heart?” Claire asked. “What
happens in five to ten years from now when the children are all
grown up and you’re alone? Will you regret not giving him one last
possibility of love again?”

“Oh, Claire, I don’t know.” She took a deep
breath and sighed. “I’m tired of being hurt by the men in my life.
I need to believe that he will love me for the rest of our lives. I
need to believe he will be honest with me.”

“Whatever you decide, don’t make the decision
based on fear. Make your decision based on love.”

Marian glanced at her sister suddenly. “Are
we talking about me or you here?”

Claire’s eyes filled with pain. “I don’t want
you to make the same mistake I made. Go to him.”

Marian sat there on the settee, her heart
aching with sadness. She loved Louis more than she’d ever thought
she could love again, but she was afraid. Yet he wouldn’t have
sacrificed his dream of owning a sugar mill, if his love for her
wasn’t serious. But could she get over her fear of being hurt and
accept his love once again?

The only way to find out the truth would be
to go and speak with him. Drew said he was at Belle Fournet. She
would go there and talk with him and see what her heart said to
her.

“You’re right. I can’t go to Virginia until
I’ve spoken with him. Tomorrow, I’m going out to his parents’
plantation. I need to see him and let my heart decide if I can
trust him ever again. I need to see if I can give him one more
chance to be honest with me,” Marian said, slowly rising from the
settee.

She was so afraid, but she knew her heart
would never heal, unless she spoke with him and then she could
decide whether to give love another opportunity.

T
he sun glinted off
the water as the steamboat chugged up the mighty Mississippi River
to the dock of the Belle Fournet plantation. No one expected her,
but she could see a wagon heading up the road that led to the main
house. She’d only brought her damaged heart and she didn’t know if
this trip would heal the wounded organ or just deepen the
injury.

“I’ll be back in four hours to pick you up,”
Captain Paul reminded her.

“Thank you. I’ll be watching for you,” she
replied, thinking that four hours was a long time to spend with a
man when she wasn’t sure of the outcome. The time span could be not
nearly long enough or it could seem like an eternity, but either
way, she was here for the next four hours.

As she stepped off the boat, the wagon pulled
up to the dock and the same servant as before jumped down to greet
her. “Hello, Mrs. Cuvier, I don’t think the big house is expecting
you.”

“No, Leon they’re not But I’m here to visit
with Mr. Fournet,” she said, as he helped her into the wagon.

The drive to the big house seemed to take
forever, and Marian sat, twisting her gloved hands in her lap,
sweat trickling down her back from the hot afternoon sun. Part of
her wanted the slow horse to hurry, while another part needed more
time.

She couldn’t help but wonder what she was
doing here. Second thoughts seemed to attack her like a plague,
though she remained outwardly calm. Her insides twisted nervously
and she kept trying to remember the carefully worded speech she had
prepared, but somehow the words deserted her.

Mrs. Fournet, Louis’s mother, stood on the
balcony staring down at her. As she disembarked from the wagon,
Marian felt like a five-year-old child looking up at the woman.

“Mrs. Cuvier, what a pleasant surprise.”

Marian climbed the stairs. “Mrs. Fournet, how
nice to see you. I’m sorry for dropping in unannounced, but I must
speak with Louis.”

“I’ve already sent for him from the fields,
dear. I thought that might be why you were here.”

Marian felt the sweat seem to multiply as she
realized there was no backing out now, and he would soon know she
was here and wanted to speak with him.

“Come into the house and let me fix you a
glass of lemonade. This sun will ruin your pretty skin, so let’s
get inside where there’s shade.”

Following the older woman through the door
into her bedroom parlor, she motioned for Marian to sit in a nearby
chair and though she was ill at ease, she did as the woman
asked.

The woman gazed at her curiously.

“My son has been different since he’s been
home this time and I’m wondering if maybe the changes I see have
something to do with you,” the older woman said.

Marian gazed at his mother, wondering about
her words, and then shrugged her shoulders. “It’s hard to say. How
has he been different?”

“He seems more serious and settled. Almost
like he’s lost his frivolous ways and finally become a man. Though
I must confess he’s in his thirties and has been a man for quite
some time,” she said, her mouth turning up in a smile. “Some men
take longer than others to reach a certain maturity.”

Marian returned her smile. “I don’t know how
I could have helped him to mature. For more than a week things have
been strained between us and we’ve not spoken.”

She nodded her head. “That explains a lot.
You see, several nights ago, my husband came in from outside
disturbed by a conversation he’d had with Louis, our youngest.
Seems that Louis told him he had acted in shameful way trying to
obtain his own selfish interest and had instead lost someone he
loved.”

“I ... I don’t know what to say,” Marian
said.

“My husband and Louis seem closer than ever
since then. I’ve often worried that they would never breach the
gulf that existed between them. I want to thank you for sending him
home,” his mother said. “He appears a stronger man. I think you’re
good for him.”

“I didn’t send him home,” Marian said. “He
made that decision on his own.”

Just then the back door slammed in the house
and she could hear Louis calling, “Mother, where are you?”

“In my room, dear,” she called.

Louis pulled open the door and strode in, his
white shirt clinging to him, his hair wet as if he’d dunked his
head into water and then run his fingers through his hair. His
pants were tucked into boots that had seen better days.

Marian gazed at him, her eyes filling with
the sight of him and she thought he’d never looked more handsome
than he did at this moment. His blue eyes returned her gaze and he
went silent at the sight of her.

“Mrs. Cuvier has come to see you dear,” his
mother said. “Maybe you should take her for a walk around the
grounds. That would give the two of you some privacy.”

“Marian? Would that be all right with you?”
he asked tentatively.

“Yes,” she said breathlessly, feeling like a
forty-pound weight sat on her chest. The urge to throw herself into
his arms almost overwhelmed her, but she resisted.

She stood and they walked out the door, side
by side, wordlessly, down the steps of the big house. When they
reached the ground level, they strolled through the trees, away
from the house.

“I’m surprised to see you here,” Louis said
glancing at her, his eyes wide with disbelief. “I guess you
received the papers from Drew.”

“Yes,” she stopped and faced him. “Why did
you do it, Louis? Why did you lie to me, and then give me the
business? I’m so confused now, I don’t know what to do.”

She watched him reflect on her words, his
hand reached out to touch her and then fell to his side. “When I
first met you, I thought that Jean had treated you so badly. I
couldn’t believe that he had betrayed you for two other women. It
was wrong, yet you held your head high. I was amazed at your
strength.”

Louis ran his hand through his wet hair. “But
you didn’t deserve to be treated that way, and then I acted much
the same way by lying to you. I’m not proud of what I’ve done. I
felt the need to make it up to you in some way or be just like
Jean. And that was the only way I knew how to show you I love
you.”

He wrapped his hands around her arms and held
on to her. “You see you made me a better man. Working with you has
changed me from being such a selfish bastard to a man who wants to
be your husband, and Philip and Renee’s father. Unfortunately, I
had already set the wheels in motion to sell the business long
before I discovered I love you. And then I waited too long to
cancel it, once I realized that I wanted you, not the shipping
company or even that damned mill.”

She gazed at him, hearing the pain in his
voice seeing the tears in his eyes, but she said nothing.

He released her arms. “For the first time in
so many years I’d found something that made me happy and I can only
blame myself for its destruction.”

“Oh, Louis. I want to believe you, I really
do, but I’m so afraid,” she said in a quiet voice. “That’s why I
came here today to see if my fears were real, or if they were
not.”

He cupped her face in his hands. “Let me love
away your fears, Marian. I promise you, that I will never willingly
hurt you again. I love you and want you for my wife,” he said, his
voice breaking at the end.

She stepped away from him and walked a little
way ahead. “Your mother told me you were different this trip, that
she saw changes in you that she’d never seen before and she liked
them.”

“I came back to find how I’d taken the wrong
path as a man. And discovered what I was missing in my life I’d
left in New Orleans. I love you, Marian. Even if you never marry
me, I’m asking for your forgiveness,” he said moving to walk beside
her.

She stopped and faced him, touching him on
the sleeve. “Louis, I came to you an empty shell of a woman and you
made me flower. You taught me that I was beautiful, I was sensual,
and I could do anything I set my mind to. You’ve made me stronger
than I’ve ever been in my life and I love you with all my heart. I
forgave you long before I came to Belle Fournet. Show me we were
meant to be together.”

She met him halfway and their lips met in a
kiss that seared them together. Finally he broke the kiss. “There’s
nothing that we can’t overcome together. I’m sorry for trying to
sell the business and I promise to spend the rest of my days being
honest with you.”