Chapter Two

"You're late!" Rose confronted her as she entered the cottage. "Take that off!" She tugged at Hope's apron and whisked it off her. "Wipe the flour off your face." Before she could respond, her stepmother scrubbed her cheeks with the apron before flinging it onto a hall tree. "That will have to do."

Hope glanced at a bucket of water next to the coat rack and sighed. Another leak. That was one more repair there was no money to fix. She'd been working as hard as she could, taking extra shifts at the bakery, but money slipped through her stepmother's hands faster than the rain seeped through the patchy roof.

"Come with me. Don't keep him waiting any longer." Rose grabbed Hope's arm and dragged her toward the parlor.

"Who? Who's waiting?"

"Mr. Gleezer. "

"The mayor is here? Why?" A hard knot formed in the pit of Hope's stomach. A visit from the mayor was never a good thing.

"He's come to see you." She pushed her into the sitting room.

Pinky extended, Ivan Gleezer lifted a cup of tea to the slash of his thin lips. Rose had brought out the good china, and, judging from the aroma, the expensive tea. In his oversized paw, the delicate teacup looked like a child's toy.

She masked her distaste with a bland expression. His corpulent form squished into the settee like a giant blob of bread dough rising out of the pan. Somebody needs to punch him down . It's amazing how somebody so enormous can fit so easily into the regional commissioner's pocket—and still manage to line his own. She didn't feel the slightest bit guilty for her mean thoughts. Gleezer was not a nice man, governing Bloomhaven with an iron right hand while clutching the surtaxes squeezed out of the villagers in his left fist.

He set the cup on the saucer and wheezed to his feet. "Miss Bennett, it's so lovely to see you." Beady dark eyes looked like two raisins above his pasty jowls and doughy double chin .

Rose jabbed her.

She shuffled forward and extended her hand. "Welcome to our home." She tried not to cringe as his damp palm gripped hers with surprising strength.

"Shall we all sit down? We have business to discuss," Rose said in a syrupy voice.

Hope extricated her hand and took the chair farthest away, earning a scowl from her stepmother. But better to draw her disapproval than sit next to Gleezer.

She couldn't imagine what business they might have with him, unless he was raising taxes on the cottage again. However, that wouldn't require a personal visit, nor would Rose sound so ingratiating—not that she worried much about taxes, since Hope paid them.

It was a mystery how Rose spent her late husband's military pension. Oh, Daddy. Why did you leave me? Why did you ever marry her? Surely there was an alternative.

Hope was a baby when her mother died. She suspected her widowed father had married Rose Hollister, at least in part so she would have a mother when the space force sent him off planet, but the vain, self-centered woman didn't have a maternal bone in her entire body. And then he'd died in the line of duty, and Hope's life had gone from bad to worse.

Rose used young Hope as an unpaid servant up until she turned sixteen when she pulled her out of school and sent her to work. She had been at the bakery for ten years now, and although she loved her job—for one thing, it got her away from her stepmother—she was trapped. Taxes consumed half her salary. Rose claimed the lion's share of the remainder, leaving Hope stuck living with her because she didn't have the money to move out.

The conspiratorial glances Rose and Gleezer exchanged made her nervous. She wet her lips. "What kind of business?"

"Mayor Gleezer has agreed to marry you," Rose said.

For a moment, she couldn't believe her ears. But her stepmother's sly smile and the mayor's gleeful grin confirmed the worst. She leaped to her feet. "What? No!" They can't be serious! They can't! I won't. Her heart fluttered with desperation.

"It has already been arranged, my dear," Gleezer said, not the least bit fazed by her reaction. "I got the license, and the ceremony will be held at the village hall next month." His lascivious gaze crawled over her .

"I'm sorry. I can't marry you." She swallowed the bile rising in her throat at the mere contemplation of such a horror. The man was vile. And her stepmother was…evil. How long had they been conspiring? "It's not possible."

"And why not?" He picked up his teacup and took a sip.

Because you're thirty years older than me and gross. You're not a nice man. You use your power as mayor to dominate people and extort them for money. You lie and you cheat. You're the worst thing to ever happen to the village.

However, she didn't dare voice any of the reasons why no one would desire to marry him. He didn't hesitate to wield his power like a club.

"I don't love you. We don't know each other," she said. She resisted the urge to wring her hands. I can't let them see how upset I am.

"Love will develop in time," he replied with delusional arrogance. "And I know you , dear. I've been watching you."

Was that why he'd been coming into the bakery? He never had before, but recently, he'd become a frequent customer. Her stomach lurched. They couldn't force her to marry him, could they? She had rights. She was an adult. Marriage required the consent of both parties.

Squaring her shoulders, she shook her head. "I can't marry you because I'm already engaged to be married."

"To whom?" Raisin eyes narrowed to mere specks in his now-florid face. He glanced at Rose accusingly.

"She's lying. She's not engaged to anyone," her stepmother said quickly. "I'd know about it if she was. She'll marry you. Don't worry."

* * * *

Hope followed her stepmother into the vestibule as she escorted the mayor out.

"The wedding will proceed as planned; you have my word. Enjoy the rest of your evening." Rose waved at Gleezer as he picked his way down the moss-covered stone steps. She shut the door, whirled around, and slapped Hope across the face. "How dare you! You ungrateful little bitch!"

Hope pressed a hand to her throbbing cheek and gaped at her stepmother in shock. She hadn't been struck since she was a child.

"You'll marry him, or you'll regret it," she raged. "This is my chance to be set for life, and you're not going to ruin it for me! "

He's paying her! I knew she had to be getting something out of this, and Gleezer is buying himself a wife because it's the only way he can get one. He'd been married twice before. His first wife had died for reasons not made public, and the second Mrs. Gleezer had vanished without a trace. The rumors were that she'd either run away, or he'd killed her.

"I told you I'm already engaged—"

Rose laughed mockingly. "Who'd have you?"

I never should have said that. She racked her brain for a name she could use. She thought of a couple of men, bakery customers, but it wouldn't be fair to drag unsuspecting strangers into her misfortune. Who knew what troubles would rain down upon them?

Her stepmother smirked. "Just as I thought. You're lucky the mayor is willing to marry you at all, given how homely and mousy you are," she said, glancing into the mirror. She couldn't pass one without preening.

When her father first married her, Hope had thought Rose was the most beautiful woman in all of Terra Nova. She had flawless caramel skin, lustrous, long hair, and huge, thick-lashed brown eyes. But she soon discovered that her stepmother's beauty was only skin-deep, and under outward perfection beat a heart blacker than her hair. Had her father ever seen beneath the fa?ade? Maybe not. He'd died a mere year after the wedding.

Some twenty years later, Rose was still a beautiful woman, but when Hope looked at her, all she saw were the thorns. "You marry the mayor, then. I'm sure he would rather have someone of your beauty," she said.

"No doubt he would, except he needs an heir, and alas, I have no desire to birth offspring."

And she was past the age when she could, Hope thought. Besides, her stepmother wasn't stupid. No woman in her right mind would voluntarily have anything to do with Ivan Gleezer.

"Well, you two are going to have to make other arrangements. I'm twenty-six years old, a legal adult, and I don't have to marry anyone I don't wish to."

"You're right. You don't. And you also don't have to live here. You can pack up your stuff and get out." With a toss of her head, she swept out of the vestibule.

That's what I'll do, then. Hope was shaking in reaction to everything that had transpired, but a feeling of relief swept over her. I don't have to live with this horrible woman. I can leave. I have a job. If I'm not giving half my money to Rose, maybe I can afford my own cottage. I can probably stay with Prudence and her family while I save some money.

The horrific marriage non-proposal had been a blessing in disguise. It had given her the impetus to do what she should have done a long time ago.