Astonished, Vanessa turned her head to stare at him, wondering what he could be laughing at. He merely shook his head, his eyes twinkling, and led her forward to join Paulette and Mr. Talverton in purchasing oysters.
Chapter 5
“Why aren’t you resting, my dear?” inquired Amanda Mannion when Vanessa entered the parlor late that afternoon.
“I don’t know.” She shrugged and smiled gently. “I guess I’m just not tired.”
“It’s fortunate I did not accompany you. From all the packages that nice clerk of Charles’s delivered here this afternoon, I’d have thought you trudged the length and breadth of New Orleans. Such exertions would have me recumbent the entire afternoon.”
“I find that difficult to believe,” Vanessa said, laughing. “I suppose we did indulge ourselves, though.” She sat down on the small sofa across from her mother’s quilting frame, tucking her feet up beside her. “Mr. Danielson was correct. The shops are bursting with new and quite exciting items. Mama, I tell you we saw some lace the like of which I have never seen before. It was exquisite!”
“Did you buy any?”
“It also commanded an exquisite price,” Vanessa responded dryly.
Amanda chuckled warmly. “What about Paulette? Did she purchase any of this exquisite lace?”
“She wanted to, but I diverted her attention.”
Her mother shook her head and laughed again. “You are very like your father. You will not spend a penny unless you are assured of getting its value in return. Worse, you will not allow anyone else to spend theirs!”
Vanessa shrugged and gave her mother a wry smile. “I guess I’m a merchant at heart. Sometimes I think it was a pity that I was not born a boy,” she finished softly.
“Vanessa, I’m shocked at you.”
“I’m sorry, Mama.” She rose and began to pace the room. “But there are so many things I’d like to know and understand. It’s not as if I’m bookish or anything of that nature, for in truth, I see no reason to read those dreadfully dry accounts of long-dead Greeks and Romans. I’m more interested in the world around me.”
“So much so that you’ve persuaded Jonas to save your father’s newspapers for you to read.”
Shocked, Vanessa wheeled around to face her mother. “You know about that?”
“Of course, darling. There isn’t much that goes on that I don’t know.” Mrs. Mannion tipped her head to one side as she contemplated her daughter, her needle still, poised above the fabric. “Though I’ll admit, at the moment, I have no idea what is troubling you.”
Vanessa sighed and blindly stared at the ceiling for a moment. “Maybe that’s because I don’t know either.”
She turned away from her mother, her skirts swishing behind her. Aimlessly she wandered over to the fireplace and picked up a porcelain statue from the mantel. It was a figurine attired in eighteenth-century court costume. She ran a delicate finger over the porcelain cast powdered wig and the masses of ruffles on the gown. “We ran into Mr. Talverton today. He had oysters with Paulette, Charles, and me down by the marketplace,” she said absently. She set the statue down again and stood studying it a moment. “I don’t know why it is, but when I’m with the man, I get irritated and end up saying or doing something to embarrass myself.”
“Really?” Mrs. Mannion’s needle resumed its course through the fabric.
“Yes, and he began talking to us about his business, which fascinated me and about which I’d love to know more. But what did I do?” she asked aggressively, whirling around to pace the room again. “I acted capriciously and insulted him by doubting his sincerity to better the lot of the mill workers.”
“And to say the least, that ended the conversation swiftly,” Mrs. Mannion ventured, looking up from her work and smiling slightly.
Vanessa nodded ruefully. “Just when it was getting interesting, too. I don’t know what made me speak in such a rude manner.”
“That does seem a pity,” her mother responded noncommittally.
“It doesn’t help that he teases me.”
“Teases you?”
“Sometimes he says things merely to get me to react. And I do! In the next moment, however, he can be charming and gallant. He even purchased flowers for Paulette and me before we left the market.”
“My goodness,” murmured Mrs. Mannion, struggling to maintain her poise.
Vanessa stopped before the sofa, sighed, and sat down again. “I do want to be nice to him and like him for Paulette’s and Mr. Danielson’s sakes, you know. But he elicits such odd feelings in me. I feel out of balance.”
“I see. That is a rather unusual circumstance for a gentleman you have seen on merely two occasions,” her mother observed.
