“You don’t understand them,” she said. “Mrs. McKinley is a fragile, difficult woman, but her husband dotes on her anyway. He dances attendance on her. You ought to see how solicitous he is.”
He snorted. “So are you.”
“The difference is that I’m being paid, and he has to put up with her for free.”
Laughter bubbled up inside, and he didn’t bother to hide it. Caroline laughed too, and he pulled her into another hug. They needed this. No matter how hard these days were, and there were plenty more darkening the horizon, it was important to celebrate these small flashes of happiness.
Annabelle would be a big part of the happiness he wanted in his life. He missed her. It had been a week since he’d left for Cuba, and he was ready to pick up where he’d left off. Perhaps this weekend they could take a trip to Mount Vernon, where she’d have a chance to pay homage to the man she’d always admired. Her wholesome, unabashed joy in the commonplace things he took for granted always impressed him. Looking at the world through her eyes was teaching him to savor the bounty around him, and now more than ever, he needed her in his life.
Luke had been corrupted and Otis may have betrayed them all, but Gray could depend on Annabelle to light these dark days.
Twenty
Annabelle had been at her new job for only a week, but she loved every moment of it. The Department of Agriculture was huge, occupying one of the largest buildings in all of Washington, DC. Each morning Annabelle climbed to the third floor, where she worked alongside Horace Greenfield to study durum wheat. Horace was a voracious gossip, gleefully spreading the latest chatter generated in Washington’s tight-knit group of government employees. While she didn’t mind listening to him, she never let a word about her own life slip, for doing so could make it fodder for the Washington grapevine.
In her second week, she began measuring the effect of deep freeze on the wheat. The kernels had been in cold storage of varying conditions for three months, and she studied each batch beneath the lens of a microscope, searching for frost damage.
“Visitor for you,” Horace said.
She pulled back from the microscope and froze, for the last thing she expected to see was Gray Delacroix standing in the open doorway with a rumpled shirt and a two-day growth of beard shadowing his jaw. He looked exhausted, but his eyes burned with a quiet hope. He held a bouquet of daises in his hand.
“Congratulations,” he said, slowly walking into the lab and handing her the flowers. She’d never been given flowers in her life, and it made her heart skip a beat.
“For what?”
He looked around the laboratory, his gaze tracking along the black slate tables and banks of steel cabinets lining the walls. “On your new job. Coming to work for the enemy, I see.”
There was no heat in his words, only a gentle humor, but Horace overheard, and his eyes nearly popped from his head. The sight of a handsome, disheveled man carrying flowers in hand and his heart in his eyes would stoke Horace’s gossip-hungry appetite for weeks.
“You don’t mind?” she asked.
Gray tilted his head as he gazed down at her, affection blazing in his face. “I don’t mind,” he murmured softly. “I’m proud of you.”
Her heart turned over, wondering what he would say if he knew how she’d gotten this position. She glanced away, pretending to admire the flowers. What had happened to Luke wasn’t her fault. She must smother these guilty feelings and look only forward, never back. She set the daisies on the lab table, covering the pale splotch where Horace once spilled bleach. There was no need for Gray ever to learn what she’d done in regard to his brother.
Given the shadows beneath his eyes and rumpled clothing, the trip to Cuba had been difficult, and she needed to hear about it, but not within earshot of the gossipy Horace Greenfield.
“Let’s step outside for a few minutes,” she said, and Gray nodded.
The moment they were in the stairwell, he pulled her into his arms. Before she could even gasp in surprise, his mouth closed over hers, kissing her long and deep. She returned his embrace, clinging to him and giving as much comfort as she received. Relief trickled through her. He had no suspicion of her, noinkling about her role in this. She wasn’t to blame, anyway—it was Luke’s doing, not hers. Gray was her future. The stars were coming into alignment, and all was right with her world.
He lifted his head. “I really missed you,” he said, a world of longing in his voice.
She wanted to drown in it but managed to hold on to a slim thread of composure. “I missed you too.” Somewhere on a floor below them, a door opened and footsteps echoed in the stairwell, causing her to pull back and smooth her blouse. “Let’s head outside where we can talk.”
He didn’t argue as he followed her. It was a crystal-blue sky, and she led him past the rose garden and experimental herb station and toward the arboretum. Pathways meandered through trees and led to a koi pond in the center of the arboretum. They were in the middle of the city, but the sheltering screen of trees provided complete privacy. She settled onto a bench and he joined her, clasping her hands tightly.
It would be best to get the hard part over with. “Tell me about Luke,” she said.
“He’s guilty. He admitted it.”
It wasn’t a surprise, but it hurt to hear anyway. “Gray, I’m so sorry.”
“He’s a grown man, and he knew what he was wading into. I paid for a lawyer to defend him at trial, but he plans to fall on the mercy of the court. If he’s lucky, he’ll get a life sentence.”
She tensed. “And if he’s unlucky?”
“Then he hangs.”
