“What is it you want, Mezzanotte?” she said, putting some backbone into her voice. “Did you want to kiss me on a crowded train?”
“Is that an offer?” Now his lips actually touched her ear, and gooseflesh raced down her neck and her spine to spark in places best not considered just at this moment.
The train stopped and the passengers inched toward the doors, flowing out over the platform and spreading to the stairwell where they came together again, a river pulsing through a canyon. With the car half-empty there was enough room to step away, but somehow Anna found it almost impossible to move.
It made her angry, how easily he took her calm from her. She said, “You clearly have the wrong idea about me. I’m not a girl looking for an adventure. I’m not even a woman looking for an admirer.”
“Too late,” Jack said. “On both counts.”
She drew in a sharp breath, took three steps back, and forced herself to count to twenty. Then she looked up at him just as the train began to slow again and she saw where they were.
“This is where we get off.”
He caught her wrist as she passed him and drew her back. Jack’s hand was large and warm and rough, the hand of someone accustomed to hard work. She set her jaw and refused to raise her head, but she heard him laugh anyway. A short, low laugh, a satisfied sound.
“This is where we interrupt the journey,” he corrected her. “But not for long.”
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THIS TIME THE passengers were in no hurry, lingering on the platform in a way that made no sense to Anna until the train pulled away and the new suspension bridge came into view. It was monstrous in size, a long neck arching out over the river like a predatory bird watching for prey. Along the metal flanks tenements cowered, saloons and dance halls and alleys all lost in shadow that would never go away.
And still it was beautiful. Anna couldn’t remember the last time she had looked at the bridge closely, and she saw now what had once seemed unlikely: it was very near done. In just over a month it would open to traffic.
The bridge itself crawled with laborers, with drays and wagons and carts laden with building materials. As they watched, a wagon pulled out of the barn-like terminal that stood between the bridge itself and Park Place.
“They just started test runs,” Jack told her.
There would be a huge celebration with bands and fireworks and speeches, a summer party of sorts. She planned to walk from one side of the bridge to the other along the promenade, but she would likely wait until the early crowds had had their fill. She turned to Jack, who was studying the men at work.
“Have you been on the bridge yet?”
He glanced down at her and grinned. “As often as I can find an excuse.”
“What is it like?”
“Windy.”
She raised a brow at him, impatient.
“I think you must be a hard taskmaster with your students,” he said. And when her scowl deepened he said, “It’s like being a bird, looking out over the world.”
“I was just thinking that,” Anna told him. “It’s like a bird of prey.”
“If you want to see it for yourself, I’ll take you up.”
“To the top of the tower?” Her voice broke, but she was too startled at the idea to pretend nonchalance.
“The tower is solid stone. It’s not like a church steeple, you can’t climb up from the inside.”
“That can’t be true,” Anna said. “The towers didn’t grow like beanstalks, after all. There must be ladders fixed to the stone. Look, there’s a flag flying at the top. Unless they’ve got fairies working for them, a human being climbed up there to mount it. I could do that.”
She had surprised him out of his composure.
“You’re telling me that you want to climb the outside of the tower.”
“I said so. Don’t you? Or have you already?”
Jack glanced around himself. Most everyone had drifted away, but he lowered his voice. “A stunt like that could get me suspended, if not fired.”
Anna had to bite her lip hard to maintain a serious expression. “I see. You have been up to the top of one of the towers, but you won’t take me up. Because I’m female?”
“Because you could break your neck.”
She fluttered her fingers. “I was climbing trees at four.”
“Falling out of a tree is a different proposition than falling off a suspension bridge.”
“So you won’t take me up the tower.”
“No. But I will take you to the highest point on the promontory. Just as soon as weather and my schedule—both our schedules—permit.”
Anna considered, and decided to save the battle for another day.
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