“I was just explaining how taxation works.”
“Do you think that’s appropriate conversation for a young lady?” David scolded him. “No wonder she’s frowning.”
“My apologies, Miss Miles,” Gideon said, relinquishing her to David with a small bow.
She would have been gratified if she’d thought for one second that he meant the apology. “Dear me, I don’t think anyone has ever apologized for boring me before.”
Gideon laid a hand over his heart, as if she had struck him there, but his eyes danced with amusement in the moment before he turned away to find his seat.
Mrs. Vanderslice directed them to their places. As the most important guest, the general was on David’s right, and Thornton was on hers. Elizabeth was between Thornton and David on one side of the table, and Gideon and Anna sat on the general’s side, with Anna in the middle. Because they didn’t have enough ladies, Elizabeth would be tasked with skipping over David to entertain the general when conversation turned that way. Given the general’s personality, she didn’t anticipate that would be difficult. What would be hard was conversing with Thornton, who sat to her left.
“Where are you from originally, General?” Elizabeth asked as the soup was being served.
He regaled them with the story of his upbringing on various military bases, since his father before him had been a lieutenant colonel. The military, it seemed, was in his blood. When they’d exhausted that topic, David asked if he’d served in Cuba during the war with Spain nearly twenty years earlier. As it happened, he had been sent to the Philippines, where the climate had been horrible and the people had shown little appreciation for being liberated from Spain.
Then, halfway through the main course, Mrs. Vanderslice turned the table, and Elizabeth had to turn her attention in the other direction, to Oscar Thornton. At least there were only the two of them on this side of the table, so he wasn’t close enough to actually touch her. She could still feel the way his man had wrapped his arm around her throat and the terror that had gripped her when Thornton told her what he was going to do to her. Her expression betrayed none of that, however. The casual observer would have thought Thornton a stranger to her, as he was supposed to be.
“Do you do business with the government often, Mr. Thornton?”
“I’ve dealt with the State of New York a time or two, but this will be my first experience dealing with the federal government, Miss Miles.” His eyes glittered like broken glass. He was probably remembering his threats, too.
“I suppose it’s pretty much the same.”
“Yes, except for the size of the sale.”
“Indeed, that’s true, Thornton,” the general said, breaking protocol to address Thornton across the width and length of the table. “I can purchase as many cases of rifles as you can lay your hands on.”
“I’ve got a hundred ready and waiting for you, General.”
The general’s smile faded to nothing. “Only a hundred?” He turned to David. “You told me this sale would be worth my time.”
“But, General, that’s two thousand rifles,” David protested.
“Which wouldn’t outfit even one brigade. I’ve got a whole army to equip, son. It’ll take me years to do it if I have to deal with every mother’s son who has just two thousand rifles to sell me.”
Elizabeth hazarded a glance at Thornton, and he looked thunderstruck.
“Please, General,” Mrs. Vanderslice said gently. “We’re trying to enjoy a pleasant dinner, and we ladies have no interest in armies or rifles and certainly not in wars.”
“I beg your pardon, dear Mrs. Vanderslice. I’m afraid I’ve been too long out of genteel company, and I’ve forgotten my manners. Can you forgive me if I promise not to discuss this matter again in your company?”
“Certainly,” she said with her sweetest smile. “You’re very understanding, General.”
“But we will discuss this when the ladies have left us, won’t we?” Thornton said.
“Of course, of course,” the general said, waving away Thornton’s concerns with a flick of his hand. “I shouldn’t have been eavesdropping in the first place. I will now return my attentions to the lovely Miss Vanderslice.”
Anna seemed a little disconcerted, but she recovered quickly. Society girls were taught to make conversation under even the most adverse circumstances. She quickly asked the general to tell her which, of all the places he had lived, was his favorite place on earth.
Elizabeth turned back to Thornton, who was now an unbecoming shade of scarlet. His eyes were like hot coals in his ruddy face. “He better not change his mind,” he said softly, so as not to be overheard.
“He’ll buy your rifles. David will make sure of it,” she promised rashly, keeping her voice low, too.
“And if he doesn’t?”
“He will! You heard him; he actually wants more rifles than you have to sell him. A lot more! Why don’t you just buy more so you’ll have more to sell him?”
“It’s not that easy,” he said through gritted teeth.
“But you have contacts,” she reminded him. “You got that first batch of rifles, didn’t you? Maybe you can get more.”
“Since when are you an expert in firearms, Miss Miles?”
She didn’t miss the quiet menace in the question, but she smiled the way she’d taught herself to smile no matter what the situation. “I’m not, of course. I’m just a silly woman who knows nothing about rifles or armies or war, but I’m sure David will help you with whatever needs to be done.”
Thornton’s gaze slid past her to where David was watching the exchange. “Yes. He’d better.”
Elizabeth glanced over to see Gideon watching them with a slight frown. Did he have any idea what they’d been discussing? She gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.
After that, Thornton practically ignored her. She was left to chatter on about the weather and the museums David had taken her to visit, so the others would assume they were conversing. She almost wept with relief when Mrs. Vanderslice rose, which was the signal for the ladies to retire so the gentlemen could smoke their cigars and drink their brandy and discuss whatever men discussed when women left the room. She gave the general a big, hopeful smile and followed Anna and her mother out of the room.
? ? ?
Gideon watched the women go, or so he told himself. Really, he just watched Elizabeth go. She’d done yeoman’s service in trying to engage Thornton. The man was an impossible bore and rude into the bargain. He’d known other men suspected of murder who could still manage to conduct themselves properly in society, but Thornton apparently didn’t consider proper behavior necessary. Which he proved the next time he opened his mouth.
“Did you mean you won’t buy my rifles at all, General?” he asked as David filled the brandy snifters.