Chen turned his expressionless gaze on him. “One man practicing kindness in the wilderness is worth all the temples in the world.” It was all Chen would allow.
Chen had just purchased all the temples in the world and all centered on Anhe. Zachary began to whistle “Goodbye, Liza Jane.” Was the poker-faced monk to give up his celibacy?
Qing-Nan Li had no idea he’d lost a daughter.
Chapter Eleven
“Ican imagine you had a time finagling this evening,” Zachary said, holding out her chair in the Spencers’ opera box. God, she was lovely. From the top of her buttery blonde hair to the delicate curve of her cheekbones to the tips of her soft leather slippers, she was sophisticated and respectable. Careful Zachary. Don’t fall off a cliff.
“I informed Father of my gambling debt to you and that the Spencers always paid their debts.”
“That’s all?”
Her face was framed by an inviting dimple that enchanted him. “Mother raged. My punishment is to be saddled with my sister and her husband, Roderick, as our chaperones. They are visiting the Vanderbilts across from us.” She nodded, explaining their absence. “At least for now, we have some free time to talk. What is your opinion of the ostentatious spectacle of New York’s “upper tens” in their boxes?”
Zachary looked over the layers of private viewing balconies that held the most prominent and financially successful families, and then glanced at the crowded seats below. “Just like the Indians, chiefly elites, commoners, slaves or war captives,” he said. “What’s more important is your assessment.”
Her gaze settled briefly on him before flitting away to the curtained stage. The entire situation became even more peculiar as she seemed to be at a loss for words. The intelligent, educated woman stunned speechless? He could get accustomed to using inquiries to fluster her and liked even the better the apple-red that rose to her cheeks.
“What is the opera about?”
She fluttered her gloved fingers and straightened into a most erudite pose. With an undercurrent of ostentatious aloofness imbued in her voice, she sermonized. “Faust is an old scholar spending his life on books until the devil convinces him to sell his soul for youth in order to gain the affections of a village girl.”
That aloofness more than her blush or anything else exposed how he affected her far more than she wanted to acknowledge. The idea satisfied him enormously, though he didn’t really know why. So, what if there was a shared attraction between them? It couldn’t lead to anything. She was scarcely going to indulge him in a private assignation.
In the back of his mind, she had already been abused by someone and deserved the best that life could offer her. Not him.
Zachary could understand Faust selling his soul for a girl. Elizabeth Spencer was a rare diamond. He could fall for her, but that was not his destiny. Neither did he desire to cause a ruckus with her father and his financing. What’s more, he’d learned the hard way from prior experience. Put the brakes on, Zach. You don’t want to go down that rabbit hole. “How did you arrange to work at the orphanage? I can guess the matter was no easy feat.”
“I attended the Academy of Mount St. Vincent and manipulated my initial interview with Mother Superior. My father did not know that part of the curriculum included students to attend the poor. I declared I’d volunteer to attend the needs of the children at Fitzgerald Orphanage. My fatherchoked and informed Mother Superior that his daughter would not move about with the common masses.”
Elizabeth paused for a moment before continuing. “But Mother Superior’s voice had rang more effective than any command or sword and cut my father down before he could utter another word.”
She looked Zachary over. “Every human being has dignity and worth,” Elizabeth pontificated, in a flawless intonation that mimicked Mother Superior’s authoritative and no-nonsense voice. “Your daughter’s wishes are admirable. True charity is never an act of condescension. It is always an act of love between equals. The Fitzgerald Orphanage is a few miles from our college. Your daughter may use our coach as transport to volunteer.”
Zachary chuckled. “I applaud your shrewd tactics, Miss Spencer. You are a survivor.”
Louise and Roderick Hawkes entered the box. Her sister barely nodded. Resentment flashed across her face, her aqueous blue eyes watchfully round, bugged out from sallow, bumpy skin. Her head was long, the forehead high and bony. Her hair was crisp mouse black with a smattering of premature graying. Below her perpetual scowl, her face was small, converging to a point. Her extraordinarily insensitive mouth snarled briefly, flickeringly, inwardly–like a streak of light on a razor.
Elizabeth’s brother-in-law was a tall, shriveled person, with bad teeth and a nauseating air, a tidy beard hopelessly layered in incongruous grays, and savage eyes, narrowed to slits. His voice came raspy and his tone mocking. When Elizabeth attempted introductions, he interrupted.
“I know who he is. How is it a cowboy wants to see an opera? Out of railroad ties to spike?”
“I can imagine the best form of entertainment you’ve experienced, Mr. Rourke, is a whiskey-soaked saloon.” Louisesmirked as her husband seated her, and then fished through her reticule. “Oh, no. Oh, God. I forgot my binoculars. I couldn’t possibly be so stupid.”
Zachary leaned over and whispered to Elizabeth. “She shouldn’t limit herself. She can be anything she wishes.”
Elizabeth pressed a finger on her mouth to hide her mirth. Her sister catapulted from her seat.
“Elizabeth, where are my binoculars? Tell me, and don’t tell me a story. Speak to me.” Louise stamped her foot, making a scene.
“I can’t speak well enough to be unintelligible,” Elizabeth said beneath her breath. Then to cull her sister’s behavior, she dug into her reticule and handed over her binoculars. “You can use mine.”
Zachary groaned. The insult rolled over Louise’s head.
“I get the feeling you are hiding something,” said Louise.
How did the younger sister’s face compress, even collapse with wrinkles, yet remain impassive as a China statuette’s every time the sluggish music turned her around?
