“Your pathetic altruism with the reporter is noted,” chuckled Dyer, rising and studying the countryside racing by. They had entered the Catskills, the plateau-topped mountains rising high. He’d buy a mountain or two and build a castle for Elizabeth.
“It was a little excessive. I need to compensate for all the negative news.”
Dyer’s hands curled into fists. Rourke was everything he was not. Young, handsome, all that would attract Elizabeth.
Dyer had kept tabs on them. How she had been with Rourke at Central Park cavorting in inappropriate pastimes with those wretched orphans. Rourke’s many visits to the orphanage when she was there. Elizabeth risking her reputation visiting his factory. Tea at the old biddy’s home, Mrs. Merriweather’s. The way he held her too tight at the ball. Dyer was the one who hadinformed Alva of Elizabeth’s absence—unchaperoned with the cowboy in Merriweather’s library. Edward and Alva had caught them before a scandal ensued. Oh, yes. Dyer was aware of all her movements, and the cowboy spelled trouble. He seethed. To have every bone in the cowboy’s body broken?
“I am pleased with the zeal and activity Mr. Rourke has proven.” Dyer let that thought snake over and strangle Spencer.
“Be wide awake, know what is going on soon as anyone and make use of the information,” said Edward.
Dyer huffed. “You mean when we will be ready for the kill?”
Edward puffed on his cigar. “Let’s not sound so bloodthirsty. We are businessman looking for advantages like everyone else.”
“The best person to get information would be your eldest daughter,” said Dyer.
Edward’s brandy glass arrested halfway to his mouth. “What?”
“My sources say she is much in the company of the cowboy.”
“We’ll burn him down by bankrupting him and stealing his invention.”
“In time, Edward. In time.”
Chapter Twenty
Elizabeth, Fiona, and the orphans visited the American Museum of Natural History housed on two floors of the Arsenal. How delighted Elizabeth and Fiona were with the children’s fascination of insects, stones, fossils, mammals, birds, and reptiles.
She ran her gloved hand mindlessly over a brass railing as the children oohed and aahed over an arachnid display. Elizabeth touched her heart. She had not seen Zachary for weeks nor did he come to the museum despite her invitation. Had her father intimidated him? Suggested he would withdraw his financing? When questioned, her father assured her he did not threaten Zachary. A disturbing niggling told her otherwise. Hadn’t her father and she always had a close relationship? Hadn’t she always held him in high esteem? Hadn’t he sent her to college? Championed her against her mother? No. Her father would not lie to her.
She tapped her finger to her lips, searching for a reason for Zachary’s distance. Had her confession extinguished any remaining friendship? Did he consider her flawed? Was she even worthy of love? Best to tuck away the fanciful illusion of romancewith the frontiersman than to get hurt. Her idle fantasies hadn’t even begun to match reality.
She existed as a set of Russian stacking dolls with each interior layer represented self-loathing, disgust and a painful past. The shining exterior sparkled with a smiling and charming false bravado, hiding the layers beneath. Her shoulders slumped, and then she automatically straightened, the residual torturous Medieval device her mother had implemented to correct her posture planted firmly in memory. From morning until night, she had a steel rod rammed down the outside of her spine. Strapped at the waist and around her shoulders with another strap circling her forehead and then affixed to the spinal bar, she listened to her mother’s daily recital.Every lady must have good bearing, however painful.
All preparations were for the road ahead, succumbing to a loveless marriage prearranged by her parents.
The bulk of the children moved onto the bird’s nest and egg collection.
“Look at the pretty colored eggs,” said Caroline, tugging on her hand and pointing. She smiled down on her daughter. The only part of her life that gave her joy. It was wondrous seeing the world through her daughter’s eyes. Caroline skipped to Joseph who hailed her to the fossil exhibit.
Perhaps Rawlins was right. Zachary was a fortune-seeker, a wandering rootless man. And maybe her idle fantasies hadn’t even begun to match reality.
Or maybe he was busy with building his engine. She entertained a multitude of possibilities and with bleak admission understood that he no longer wished to continue their friendship.
Fiona pulled Elizabeth from her woolgathering. Teachers ushered the children outside and lined them up for their trip tothe orphanage. Caroline and Joseph waved hearty goodbyes. At least she had the love of her daughter.
Fiona nudged Elizabeth. “Look over there.”
Elizabeth ground her back teeth together. Roderick Hawkes, her brother-in-law stood next to an attractive woman laughing at some witticism he had voiced and then hooked his arm with hers. “Far too casual. Let’s pay him a visit.”
Roderick stopped mid-stride with his sister-in-law descending on him. He disentangled from the woman and shooed her away. “Elizabeth so glad to see you.”
“Who’s your friend?”
Roderick’s gaze followed the woman down the street. “A distant cousin. Louise and I are going to seeLed Astrayat the Fifth Avenue Theater tonight and would love for you to attend. We won’t take no for an answer. We depart at eight.”
He tipped his hat and dashed off before Elizabeth could decline. “The way he shoved his hands in his pockets and ran away confirms he cheats on my sister. I thank providence to have not married him. My sister and he deserve each other.”
