Captured by Love (Michigan Brides #3)(14)
Even so, she had to admit, she’d missed bantering with Pierre.
“Angelique?” Pierre said slowly, his scowl disappearing and his eyes widening. “My little sister, Angelique?”
“Yes,” she said, spinning to face him. Something within her protested his title for her. She wasn’t little anymore. And she wasn’t his sister either—although she was almost his sister-in-law.
“I can’t believe it.” This time he took his time studying her from her face down to one of her bare feet peeking out from beneath her muddy hem.
Her face was unwashed, the muck of the hen house still splattered over her skirt, the stench of it probably in the air. Embarrassment seeped through her. She should have taken more time to clean herself, at the very least change into the other skirt she owned.
But ever since the previous spring when Therese had reached her eighteenth birthday, when Ebenezer had married her off to the trader willing to pay the highest price for her, Angelique had done her best to hide any trace of beauty. She couldn’t bear to think that Ebenezer might sell her too, especially now that he no longer considered the marriage agreement with Jean valid.
And since she’d recently turned eighteen, she had no doubt Ebenezer would start looking for a husband for her soon.
Who else would want her—a poor, uneducated woman—if not a trader? The idea of having to marry a fur trader strangled her every time she thought of such a fate. She’d decided the best course of action for the duration of the war was to do the best she could to cooperate with Ebenezer and make herself into the kind of woman no man would want.
And hopefully she’d survive until the end of the war, until Jean came home and she could finally marry him.
“You’ve grown up,” Pierre said.
Gone was the animosity that had filled his eyes. Instead they reflected pity, which seemed to reach across the room and slap her cheeks. Although she’d been the object of pity plenty of times over the past couple of years—like the pretty woman on the beach earlier in the day—none of the pity had stung quite like Pierre’s.
“Angelique has developed into a lovely young woman, hasn’t she?” Miriam said.
“She’s changed so much I didn’t recognize her.” Pierre avoided eye contact with Angelique just as smoothly as he avoided his mother’s question.
Angelique’s face burned. Of course she couldn’t expect him to agree with Miriam that she was lovely, but deep inside she wished he’d missed her the same way she’d missed him. The truth was he hadn’t known who she was and had likely been too busy to think about her even once during all the time he was away.
“Angelique has been a gift from the Lord,” Miriam added, smiling in her direction. “I don’t know how I would have survived this past winter without her.”
At Miriam’s words, Pierre looked at her again, this time with new interest.
“She’s been such a blessing to me.” Miriam shuffled toward her, in slow, halting steps, her hands outstretched. “I thank the Lord for her every day.”
Angelique reached for the dear woman’s hands and immediately found herself wrapped in Miriam’s embrace.
“You’ve been a blessing to me too,” Angelique whispered. “And now I must run home. Before I’m missed.”
It didn’t matter what Pierre thought of her, she told herself as she released Miriam and backed out of the cabin. It didn’t matter in the least.
She’d pledged herself to Jean. And from the letters they’d received from him, she knew he thought of her every day and missed her. When he returned, she’d clean herself up once and for all. She’d marry him, and they’d finally start the life they’d been planning.
Pierre’s opinion wasn’t important. He’d likely be gone by the week’s end anyway. And this time she’d make sure he didn’t carry away another piece of her heart.
Chapter
5
Angelique gingerly opened the back door of the tavern, holding her breath and praying Ebenezer was still down on the beach.
She hadn’t meant to linger at Miriam’s. If only Pierre hadn’t been there when she’d arrived. If only he hadn’t been kneeling before Miriam, offering the sweetest, most sincere apology she’d ever heard. If only he hadn’t returned to the island at all. Then maybe her whole body wouldn’t be trembling from the confusion his presence had stirred inside her.
She pushed the door wider, the dark interior of the kitchen devoid of its usual heat. The dining room beyond was alive with the loud laughter and songs of the men who’d claimed a spot at the inn—the first time sleeping in a real bed in a year’s time.
Perhaps Ebenezer was busy pilfering his customers, as was his custom. Whatever the case, Angelique released a soft breath, grateful the kitchen was deserted. She closed the door behind her and began to tiptoe past several barrels Ebenezer had purchased from the supplies that had come off the ships.
God had helped them survive another winter. Their days of starvation were over. At least temporarily.
At the beach earlier, everyone had been talking about how an attack from the Americans was imminent, that a fleet of American ships was on the way, and that they would attempt to retake the island.
When she’d heard the news, Angelique didn’t know whether to be excited or worried. The last time the Americans had sailed into the northern waters of the Great Lakes, they’d formed a blockade that hadn’t allowed the British supply ships to reach Michilimackinac. She just prayed they wouldn’t experience another blockade and that this time the Americans would reclaim the island so Jean could return.