“Then you must dine with us tomorrow evening, too,” David said.
She gave him her hand and a dazzling smile that made Gideon grit his teeth. “Of course I will. Until tomorrow.”
“Take good care of her, old friend,” David said to Gideon, slapping him on the back.
Gideon intended to.
Then they were ready. The Bateses’ home was only two blocks away, so they were going to walk. Gideon picked up Elizabeth’s suitcase and almost staggered under its weight. Could she have put rocks in it?
“Are you sure you can manage that, Mr. Bates?” she asked sweetly.
“Oh yes.” He was gritting his teeth again. Sometimes getting what you wanted wasn’t such a good thing.
? ? ?
Gideon hadn’t expected to see Elizabeth at breakfast the next morning, but she was already at the table when he came down. She looked fresh and beautiful until she saw him. Then she looked fresh and beautiful and angry.
“Good morning,” he said, determined not to notice her hostility. “This is a delightful change. Usually, all I have to look at in the morning is the newspaper.”
She completely ignored his implied compliment. “I need to send a telegram this morning.”
“All right,” he said, nonplussed. “Just write out the message, and I’ll be glad to send it on my way to my office.”
“I would prefer to send it myself, but after what happened the other day, your mother suggested I ask you to escort me to the telegraph office.” The Vanderslices had told them at dinner yesterday how Elizabeth had become lost when she’d tried to send a telegram. He couldn’t blame her for not wanting to repeat that unpleasant experience, and he was grateful for an opportunity to spend a little time with her, even if he was a bit disgruntled to learn she didn’t trust him with her messages.
“I’d be happy to escort you. It’s right on my way. I suppose you want to give your aunt the happy news of your engagement,” he said in an attempt at conversation.
“Thank you.” She rose from her seat. “I’ll be waiting in the parlor.”
Gideon’s face burned with humiliation as he watched her leave. Only then did he notice the remains of her breakfast. She’d made sure to be finished before he came down. If he thought he could win her away from David by having her here, he was obviously going to have to work a lot harder than he’d expected.
By the time he’d finished his own breakfast, he’d given the matter a bit more thought, and now he had a completely new question: why was Elizabeth so angry with him for taking her away from the Vanderslices?
Could he have misjudged? Was she really madly in love with David and furious at being parted from him? Was he just an infatuated fool for thinking otherwise?
Or did she have another reason to be angry?
And why did these new questions make her even more fascinating to him?
By the time he reached the parlor door, she was waiting for him with her coat and hat on. He put on his own coat and hat, then opened the front door and gave her a little bow.
Did she really roll her eyes? Fortunately, he liked a challenge.
She hesitated on the front stoop while she put on her gloves, although he thought she was also surveying the neighborhood. What was she looking for? Signs of wealth? She wouldn’t find many in this part of the city. Those with true wealth had moved uptown ages ago.
When she was satisfied with her gloves, she started down the steps. He followed and fell into step beside her. He’d been debating how to start with her, and he decided to be reckless.
“He’s not rich.”
She looked up in surprise. “What?”
“I said, he’s not rich.”
“Who isn’t rich?” she asked, but he could see she knew full well.
“David.”
“Do you think I’m a gold digger?”
He hoped not, because he wouldn’t be in the running, either. “I just thought you should know.”
“I only expect him to be comfortably fixed,” she said with a sly grin that reminded him he’d used those very words to describe himself.
He absorbed the sting of that barb and soldiered on. “I sense that you’re angry with me, Miss Miles.”
“Why would I be angry?”
“I was hoping you would tell me.”
She pretended to consider that. “Perhaps I’m put out with you because you separated me from my fiancé.”
“I hope not, because Mrs. Vanderslice would have realized the problem soon enough, and if she didn’t, her friends would have, and they would have descended like a flock of hens to make you notorious.”
“And you saved me from that.”
“I did indeed.”
“Do you think I should be grateful?”
“That is my sincere hope, although I suspect I will be disappointed. I also know my mother is very fond of you, so I thought she would invite you to stay with us, which would make her very happy.”
“Then you were only being a thoughtful son.”
“And a good friend to David for keeping you so close. His mother might have sent you back to South Dakota.”
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to change my opinion of you, Mr. Bates.”
“You are?”
“Oh, yes. You are far more devious and conniving than I originally thought.”
“You wound me to the quick.”
“I doubt it.”
They’d reached the corner and she stopped, waiting for him to indicate in which direction they should head. He pointed to the right, so she went in that direction.
“How can you question my motives, Miss Miles?”
“Easily.”
“Then what do you think they are?”
“I hesitate to guess.”
Gideon couldn’t resist. “Do you think I hope to steal you away from David?”
She looked up at him in surprise, then turned her face away again. “How could you hope to steal me away from the man I’ve fallen in love with and plan to marry?”
“Because that’s impossible.”
This time she frowned, apparently confused. “It’s not impossible. We’re engaged.”
“It’s impossible that you’ve fallen in love with him.”
She stopped dead in her tracks, nearly causing the people behind them to knock them over. “How dare you!”
He took her arm and pulled her into the safety of the nearest shop doorway. “I’ve known David all my life. There’s nothing about him that would make any woman fall in love in a few days, much less a woman like you.”
“And exactly what kind of woman am I?”
“You’re smart and spirited and strong, and you deserve a man who’s your equal.”
Every ounce of that spirit flared in her remarkable eyes for an instant, and then someone clapped a hand on his shoulder.
“Is this gentleman bothering you, miss?”
Gideon turned to shove the interloper out of the way, but he stopped when he realized it was Thornton’s man, Lester. “What are you doing here?”
Lester stepped back and held both hands up in a sign of surrender. “Nothing much. Didn’t realize that was you, Mr. Bates. I just saw what looked like some man forcing his attentions on this lady here.”
“I’m not forcing my attentions on her.” Well, maybe he was.
“That right, miss?” Lester asked.
“Of course it is. We were just having a serious discussion, but this is not the time or the place, is it, Mr. Bates?”