“I changed my mind,” Yuri snapped, his words causing the room to go still. “Once we have a plot purchased and construction on the new building is underway, we can revisit the subject.”
“How much is Caldwell paying you to do this?” Bixby growled.
Yuri didn’t meet the other man’s gaze. Instead, his eyes drifted to Rosalind. It was the first time he’d dared to look at her since walking into the room. He expected her to be sitting there with her head ducked and hands hidden on her lap, just as she had for the previous meeting.
But she was looking straight at him, a panicked look in her eyes. “No. You can’t do this. You said we would vote. It needs to be fair.”
That’s what he’d thought too, until he realized there was a very good chance Rosalind would end up with more than just an injured wrist if the library wasn’t named after her father.
“See?” McCreedy slapped his palm on the table. “Not even Rosalind wants the library named after her family.”
“I wouldn’t say that.” Mr. Bixby had leaned over next to Rosalind and was looking at the paper on the table in front of her. “All three of the ideas listed on her paper here have Caldwell in the name.”
Mrs. Pembroke tilted her nose in the air, somehow managing to look down at Yuri and glare at the same time, never mind he was a good eight inches taller than the petite woman. “And here I thought you would be a fair and honorable president of the library committee. Mr. Bixby already asked how much Preston is paying you to do this, and I want to know the same thing.”
He pressed his lips together. The others could think whatever they wanted. The truth was, he had a biblical obligation to help Rosalind. Psalm 82:3–4 was clear.Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
The Bible itself asked that he do justice and rid the needy out of the hand of the wicked There were only a handful of ways he could do that when it came to Rosalind, and he was going to take full advantage of each and every one of them.
Later, after Rosalind was far away from Sitka, the library committee could revisit the name issue in earnest. Hopefully Rosalind would have decided to leave Sitka on her own, but if not, at least she would be married and far enough away from her father that he couldn’t hurt her.
In the meantime, he didn’t care whether everyone else argued or assumed Caldwell had paid him off.
Rosalind grippedher hands together under the table. She’d come to the meeting tonight with so many ideas, and now she couldn’t voice a single one of them, not when everyone was mad at her.
But they weren’t nearly as mad as she was. Fury boiled in her chest every time she looked at Yuri.
What did he think he was doing, barging in late with red-rimmed eyes and a stubbled jaw that made him look like he hadn’t even bothered to shave, then announcing that the library would be named after her family?
Except she knew what he was doing. Of course she did.
He was trying to protect her.
And maybe she should thank him for that, but somehow that only made her angrier.
Because now the rest of the committee wouldn’t even look her in the eye, and no one was inclined to listen to a word she said.
All she’d wanted was for them to consider her ideas, like they had at the last meeting when she suggested purchasing a waterfront plot. But Yuri’s pronouncement about the library name set everything off on the wrong note, and now no one could agree on anything. They argued over chairs and shelfheight and donation lists, and Rosalind didn’t get more than two sentences out the entire time.
When Yuri finally ended the meeting, she shot to her feet, ready to bolt toward the door, but Yuri’s voice stopped her.
“Rosalind, can you stay back a moment?”
More heat filled her veins, but she stilled.
Mrs. Pembroke sniffed again, then headed for the door, her nose high enough that she just might drown if it started raining.
Mr. McCreedy and Mr. Bixby followed without appearing to think much of the two of them being left alone.
The second the door clicked shut behind Mr. Bixby, she whirled on Yuri. “How could you?”
Yuri blinked. “How could I what? Name the library after your family? You know very well why I did it.”
“Now everyone hates me.” She despised the tremble in her voice, but she didn’t know how to get rid of it.
“They don’t hate you. They hate me.” Yuri jabbed a thumb at his chest. “I’m the one who did it.”
“You might be the one who forced everyone into giving you your way, but I’m the one they blame for it.” Tears filled her eyes, but she pushed them away. It was ridiculous to want to cry. Yuri hadn’t hurt her, so why did what he’d done feel more painful than her father’s fists?
