“I really must be going.” She tried to scoot around him, but he stayed her with his hand.
“In a moment. But first, tell me how you learned the suffrage anthem.”
She went rigid. “Wh-what?”
“The one you played a few moments ago. What can you tell me about it?”
“I didn’t choose to play it,” she said quickly. “It was an audience request.”
“Who wrote it?”
“It was published anonymously.”
The last word had just left her lips when there was a muffled thud against the door, followed by an uneven clatter of heels and laughter. Olive froze. If the door opened and she was found in the pantry with Mr. Anderson, she’d have a third type of disaster on her hands: social ruin.
“Where did you?—“
She threw herself across the thin divide and clamped her hand over Mr. Anderson’s mouth. The response was instinctual, driven more by the desperate need to prevent catastrophe than good judgment. She realized her mistake when his lips, warm and slightly damp, pressed against her bare palm, his hot breath heating her skin.
Then she met his gaze for the very first time, and the world outside the pantry vanished. It wasn’t the color that stole her breath, though his blue irises were the unfathomable shade of the ocean at sunset. It was the way they locked onto hers with a bold perceptiveness that made everything else—her panic, the whispers outside—utterly insignificant.
He stilled beneath her hand, and if she didn’t know any better, she would have sworn he held his breath the same as she. But that didn’t make any sense. She wasn’t the kind of woman who left a man breathless. They stood like that until the voices moved farther down the hall and disappeared altogether.
“I think it’s safe,” she whispered, drawing her hand away from his lips. She tried to back up, but the pin on her bodice had become entangled in his coat pocket.
Not just any pin; her suffrage pin.
She gasped with dismay. How could she be so foolish as to endanger the movement with her actions? If she had been caught, it would not only be her reputation on the line, but that of all the suffragists.
“I must leave, or you must,” she said, her words rambling. “One of us must leave before we’re caught.”
“Slow down.” The hoarse voice interrupted her tugging, and his fingers rose to work the fastening with calm finesse. “It’s hardly the worst thing to be found together. Plenty of women would love to?—”
“I am not other women!”
He snorted. “Finally, something we can agree on.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she gripped his hand as tightly as she did her little brother’s when he tried to cross a busy avenue without her.
“Listen to me, sir. I have a job. A family that depends on me. And everyone here knows I am a member of the Seattle Suffrage Society. You might escape unscathed, but wagging tongues will use my actions against the movement. They’ll say only loose women want to vote, and it’ll be all my fault.” She released his hand, yanked at the pin until it released with the faint pop of ripping stitches, and clenched it in her fist. “If you wish to report me to Mr. Donnelly, I won’t stop you. But I refuse to be the reason the suffragists are maligned. So please, please, go.”
Mr. Anderson’s brows were in his hairline, but he recovered quickly. “Give me one piece of information, and our business will be concluded.”
“What information could I possibly give you?”
“I’m told you were among the first musicians to play the anthem publicly. Where did you get the music?”
Drat. After everything that had transpired, the man was still on about the music. Her mind raced, and this time, she found a suitable ploy.
“Deep in the bowels of Chase General Music Store. That’s where all the independent songsters are hidden.”
A satisfied smirk played at his lips. “That wasn’t so hard, was it? Now stand back, and I’ll make sure the corridor is clear.”
She moved as far as she could and watched nervously as he opened the door an inch and peered outside. A moment later, he announced, “No one is around. Goodbye, little thief.”
And with a cocky salute, he was gone.
Olive sagged against the cupboard, her heart pounding wildly. She’d come this close to losing everything. But she’d been given another chance. One she didn’t mean to squander on ill-advised boldness. From now on, she would keep her head down, do her job well, and stay far away from Emil Anderson.
