Annabel smiled and nodded. "You just keep on thinking like that, sweetheart" Cole saw satisfaction shining in her eyes.
When the family had moved on, and before Cole could ask her what that had been about, Annabel crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back against the stone bench. "You know, I've got another bone to pick with you. I heard what you said to Patsy earlier."
Cole frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"When you said I wasn't your girl."
"I didn't think you were," he said. "I thought you were a lot more interested in getting into the fire department than you were in me."
"That's crazy! How can you say that after the other day?"
He didn't answer the question, muttering instead, "That was Patsy's fault. He gave me some advice, and I was a big enough fool to follow it"
"Then I owe him my gratitude. You're going to have to introduce me to him so that I can thank him personally."
Cole lifted his head and looked toward the spot where the wagons had crashed together. Worry intruded back into his mind. The ambulance had come and gone, bearing Patsy away to the hospital. "I've got to go see about him," he murmured.
For a second, Annabel looked like she wanted to argue, but then she nodded. "You're right. We'll go together and make sure he's all right"
Cole stood and held out his hand. Without hesitation, Annabel took it and came to her feet Hands clasped together, they started walking toward the edge of the park, where they could catch a cable car.
They had gone only a few yards when Cole said quietly, without looking at her, "Thank you for what you did on the wagon. I'd have fallen off if you hadn't been there to catch me."
"It was my pleasure," Annabel told him.
"You know," he mused, "those were good men on that wagon; I'd fight a fire with any of them. But none of them had the presence of mind and the courage to do what, you did."
"You started it," she said, sounding a little uncomfortable with the praise. "I saw you going after those reins and knew you might need help."
His free hand clenched into a fist "I'd like to get ahold of that driver from Oakland. If he hadn't taken such a foolhardy chance. . ." Cole drew in his breath and controlled his anger with an effort. "We probably lost the race because of it, even though I don't really care about that. As long as Patsy's all right that's all that matters."
"There'll be another race next year," Annabel said. "At least I suppose there will be."
"I don't know. This may have been the end of the competition."
They walked along in silence for a few moments, then moved off the path as they heard the hoofbeats of a horse coming up behind them. Cole stopped and looked back, seeing a black buggy with brass fittings approaching them. Lucius was at the reins, and Mrs. Noone and Mellisande Dupree were riding inside the vehicle.
Lucius brought the buggy to a halt and Mrs.. Noone leaned out to say, "Hello, my dears." She looked at Annabel and added, "I take it the great masquerade is over?"
Annabel shrugged and smiled faintly. "There doesn't seem to be any point to it anymore, does there?"
"How is your friend, Cole? Mr. O'Flaherty, isn't that his name? The man who was injured in the race?"
"I don't know," Cole said. "We were just on our way to the hospital to see how he's doing."
"We'll take you there," Mrs. Noone offered. "It will be faster than taking a cable car. Annabel, dear, you can ride back here with Mellisande and me, and Cole, there's room on the driver's seat with Lucius for you."
"You're sure about this?" Cole asked.
"Of course! Come along now, time's a-wastin', as they say."
"All right. Thank you, Mrs. Noone." Cole helped Annabel into the buggy, then swung up onto the driver's seat next to Lucius.
"Quite a bit Of excitement, eh?" the servant commented as he got the buggy horse moving again.
"Too much," Cole said. "I just hope Patsy's not hurt too bad."
"The way I understand it, there was nearly a riot following the collision of the two fire wagons," Lucius said. He gave a dry chuckle. "It seems that your compatriots from the San Francisco Fire Department were quite incensed at the rather unsavory tactics of the driver from Oakland."
"You're saying a brawl broke out between the two departments?"
Lucius chuckled again. "They say it took nearly the entire police force to bring things back under control."
Cole wondered-how he had missed all that excitement, but it was really pretty simple, he decided. Between the concern he felt for Patsy and his declaration to Annabel, there could have been an earthquake going on and he might not have noticed.