Page 1 of A Steadfast Heart
Chapter1
March, 1893
How on earth did I end up at another socialite’s mansion?
Drew McGraw shifted, the cobblestones foreign beneath his cowboy boots that were far more accustomed to the long prairie grasses back home.
Dread pooled in his stomach as he looked at the three-story building, then compared the address to the letter he held. Maybe Leona Fitzsimmons was a servant here? He checked the mailbox. No name that he could see. His cousin had a better angle, since she stood on the side. “Merritt, do you see a name on the mailbox?”
“It says Fitzsimmons.”
Drew rubbed the back of his neck. What was he even doing here?
His suit coat pinched his shoulders. A decade of ranch work would do that. He resisted the urge to adjust his tie. It felt like it was choking him. He lowered his hand.
Merritt stepped up beside him, her head tilted to the side as she studied the house. “You don’t have to go through with this.”
Thisbeing a mail-order marriage he’d arranged over the past months of corresponding with one Miss Leona Fitzsimmons.
“The kids could go to school regularly if they spent weeknights with me,” Merritt went on.
Sure they could. His eyes slid closed briefly. He hadn’t realized how bad things were until he’d seen David struggling with a math problem out of a fifth-grade math book. If he went to school in town, he’d be placed with children three years younger than he was—just because his father had needed every available hand on the ranch and hadn’t noticed the problem developing right before his eyes.
His girls were struggling too. Tillie burst into tears at random moments, and he never knew what would set her off. Or how to comfort her when she cried. And Josephine? Drew rubbed the ache in his chest. Her long, angry silences proved something was wrong in his second child’s life. Bad wrong. What child didn’t want to go to church when church meant seeing the neighboring families?
He loved the ranch his father had started and his brothers shared, but it was too far out of town for the family to attend church every Sunday, much less for the children to go to school regularly. That probably contributed to Jo’s problems. He’d noticed the town girls hanging together and giggling behind their hands when Jo got close, had tried to discuss it with her—if “How was Sunday school?” counted as trying. If her mother were alive, she’d know what to say, might even help Drew know what to do. Then again, if Amanda were alive and things had gone according to her plan, Drew wouldn’t know Jo at all.
He needed help. Had no money to hire a tutor, nanny, or cook. And when Merritt’s mail-order ad had brought her husband Jack into her life, he’d thought for once he had the answer he needed.
He laid a hand on his cousin’s shoulder. “I appreciate the offer, Merritt. I really do. But if I send them to you, I’d only see them a couple of days a week.” Not to mention his cousin was a newlywed. She and Jack didn’t need three kids underfoot. He shook his head. “No, the children need a mother, one who can give them the fundamentals of an education. A few manners wouldn’t hurt either.” If Leona Fitzsimmons lived here, she ought to be qualified.
A sense of misgiving settled over him. He and Leona had exchanged several letters after he’d posted his mail-order bride ad. Why hadn’t she told him she was from a wealthy family? Why did she want to tradethisfor his Wyoming ranch?
Amanda had certainly thought it a bad bargain. Had told him in plain English she’d made a mistake in marrying him.
He inhaled deeply, but the smoke-laden air of St. Louis did little to brace him. He could still remember the first time he’d stepped onto the front stoop of his former father-in-law’s estate. He’d been naive then, shoulders straight with pride and heart full of determination. The world had been his to conquer.
It had conquered him instead.
He was doing this for the kids. David, Josephine, and Tillie were all that mattered. He crossed the porch and knocked on the door.
The door opened to reveal a man dressed in a black suit. “May I help you?”
Drew didn’t miss the man’s brief perusal nor his quick frown. Too bad. Drew had spent two years dressing to society’s exacting standards. No more. “Mr. McGraw and Mrs. Easton to see Miss Leona Fitzsimmons.”
From somewhere deeper in the house, a few giggles, quickly shushed, reached his ears.
“Won’t you come in, sir? I will see if Miss Fitzsimmons is available.”
If she’s available?They’d settled their plans weeks ago. Wouldn’t she have told her family, the staff, that he was coming? The unsettled feeling in his stomach grew bigger, knotted tighter.
The man led them to a formal room furnished with matching armchairs and sofas. Floral prints abounded, from the upholstery to the wallpaper. A piano stood against the wall, the tiger oak veneer competing for attention with some fancy carved overlay.
“It’s not too late. We can still leave.” Merritt’s gaze widened as she glanced around the room. Drew had once been impressed with displays of wealth like this, back in the early days of his marriage. It’d taken years for him to realize the simpler life on the ranch was better.
“I told her I’d see her today.” He led Merritt toward the sofa and took the seat closest to the main door. He wanted to see his intended as soon as she entered.
A second door in the back of the room opened a crack. Shuffling sounds drifted across the room, but the door opened no farther. Merritt gestured in that direction, and he nodded slightly. With their hearing deadened by life in the city, the spy most likely thought he was being quiet. Probably a servant. No society miss would meet with a man alone, even to accept a proposal.
