Page 16 of His Perfect Bride
He scowled at the open draperies and the sunshine pouring in. “This is inexcusable! Unacceptable!”
“Do you know what is inexcusable and unacceptable?” She began to round the desk, her voice rising with uncharacteristic anger. “Your behavior. You’re acting like a child having a temper tantrum.”
He didn’t miss a beat in his ranting, almost as if he hadn’t heard her. “You shouldn’t have moved my stuff! I knew where everything was, and now I’ll never be able to find anything.”
She couldn’t keep back a laugh of disbelief. “Never find anything?”
“I had a system that worked for me!”
“Did it really work?” Now that she’d let her frustration loose, she couldn’t seem to force it back down. “From what I’ve observed, the only system you have is that you lose or misplace everything.”
If Jackson was surprised by her impertinent statement, he gave no indication. Instead, he merely roared back. “I left stuff out so that I’d know where to look when I came back to it.”
“Oh, please. You know that’s not true.” She was practically shouting now too. “You know what the truth is? The truth is that you’re a selfish, shaggy beast, and you don’t think of anyone else but yourself.”
As soon as she finished, she cupped a hand over her mouth, suddenly mortified.
His steel-blue eyes met hers—hard, unyielding, and angry.
For a moment neither of them said anything, their angry words still lingering in the air.
What kind of person was she becoming to lose control of her emotions and her words so easily? Fresh frustration swelled inside her, this time not at him, but at herself. A wave of remorse rolled over her along with mortification. This wasn’t like her, and she needed to apologize, but she couldn’t get the words out.
He pivoted and faced one of the tall bookshelves, his back rigid, his shoulders straight.
This would be a good time for her to make her escape from the room before he yelled at her again and before she said more that she would regret.
She started forward, lengthening her stride.
Before she made it to the door, his question snagged her. “You alphabetized the books?”
“Yes. And now I regret that I did.” She tossed her answer over her shoulder, not willing to pause and subject herself to another rebuke.
She hurriedly stepped into the hallway, her firm tread echoing in the silence of the home. She hastened into the parlor and didn’t stop until she crossed to the front bay window.
Dragging in a deep breath, she peered outside, her heart racing and her mind careening with everything that had just happened.
What had she been thinking to argue with a man like Jackson Lennox and speak to him so disrespectfully? If he went to Augusta and told her about the incident, Augusta was sure to be disappointed in her, and Sage couldn’t bear the thought of disappointing the sweet woman.
Even so, Jackson’s anger and belligerence raked across her nerves, setting her on edge once again. Surely she was justified in telling him how selfish he was. Someone needed to deliver the news.
She was surprised Augusta hadn’t been more forthright with Jackson yet, because normally Augusta was a forthright person. Maybe, however, she wasn’t sure how to approach her brother, not after so many years apart and not after what had happened with the bridge. She was likely trying to be patient and win him over steadfastly.
A sigh slipped from Sage. She should have done the same, exhibited patience and steadfastness instead of railing against him.
Blinking away her regrets, she took in the view out the window. On the clear afternoon without a cloud in the perfectly blue sky, she could see across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The imposing but majestic sight of the Olympic Mountains greeted her and reminded her of the beauty of this new land, especially with the colorful changing trees in the lower elevations.
Maybe this new world and new life wouldn’t always be easy, but she couldn’t forget that it came with fresh opportunities and possibilities and life that she’d never been able to experience back in Manchester.
She and Willow would put their resources together and try to make a way for the rest of their family to come.
If ever she found Willow…
Sage hadn’t had any luck, and finally Augusta had started asking around after the bride-ship women who had come on theRobert Lowe. But since the colony had experienced two boatloads of women arriving so closely together, they hadn’t met anyone yet who had definitive news about Willow.
Sage wasn’t sure how long she stood looking out the bay window before a clearing throat startled her. She spun to find Jackson just inside the parlor door, a stack of papers in his hand, the one with his diagrams.
He was riffling through them. “You organized my work by the dates?” His voice was level, the edge from before gone.
