Arthur
Arthur swirled a finger’s worth of brandy in a bulbous-shaped snifter and watched the brown liquid turn as his thoughts continued to spiral, the sense of security he’d once had unraveling fast while he replayed that evening’s events in his mind. He couldn’t help but feel as though he had simultaneously ruined his progress with the fair and harmed his relationship with Jesse, both in only a few short hours. Because when Arthur had returned from that ridiculous misunderstanding that he’d had with Jesse, he’d felt as though his entire world had been knocked off-balance from it. Dammit, hestillcouldn’t believe how Jesse had reacted to him saying they’d have to reschedule. Arthur had explained that it hadn’t been personal. It hadn’t been because of who Jesse was, exactly, though he’d beena bitconcerned about that, but rather, because, in Arthur’s life, there were fairly strict rules of etiquette to be followed for meetings such as the one he’d planned with Mr. Russell. Normally, Arthur would have been in favor of eschewing some of those rules himself, but when it came to this very particular matter—securing a spot as an exhibitor in the World’s Fair—he simply hadn’t wanted to risk it.
Why hadn’t Jesse been ableto see that?
Arthur had been so taken aback by Jesse’s behavior that he hadn’t been able to be his charming self for the remainder of the evening. Disoriented from their confusing interaction, Arthur had spent the entirety of the meal only half invested in the conversation. He hadn’t even managed to show the extent of his enthusiasm for Jesse’s wonderful idea to modify the Gordon Jobber.
How was it that everything could have gone so spectacularly wrong?
“Not sleeping tonight?” Charlotte asked as she came into the library.
Arthur sighed. “Probably not.”
“Would you like some company?”
“Please,” he said, half-heartedly patting the cushion beside him.
When Charlotte was settled, Arthur handed her the snifter of brandy. She took a sip.
“Did Emma have a nice time with Lizzie?” he asked.
“Yes, I think so.”
“It was probably for the best that she wasn’t here to watch me make a fool of myself in front of Mr. Russell, wasn’t it?”
“Don’t be so critical of yourself. You were a perfectly fine host.”
“Fine host,” Arthur repeated with a scoff. “I needed to beengaging. I needed to beknowledgeable. I needed to becharming. I needed to be so much more than ‘fine.’”
“Every one of the organizers likes you, including Mr. Russell. And you said yourself that they still need to find someone to represent Chicago’s printing companies. You’re the owner of two of our city’s print shops.”
“Not the largest ones.”
“No, not the largest ones, but I can’t imagine that being too important, not when your two shops have such a variety of types of presses, and not when your name is known by most people here inour city. Goodness, even in New York, people know of the Chicago Hughes family.”
“Because of my father,” Arthur grumbled.
“Does that matter?” She took one more sip of brandy before handing it back to Arthur. “Mr. Burnham will choose you.”
“We’ll see.”
Arthur took a large swig of brandy. Charlotte crossed her ankles and sat back against the cushion, stretching out her legs.
“Are you worried about Jesse?” she asked.
Arthur twirled the snifter around in his hands. “Yes and no.” He threw back the rest of the brandy in one fast gulp and set the glass on the side table before reclining back. “I feel horrible that I’ve upset him. Truly. ButI’mupset, too. It’s hard for me to believe that someone as clever and observant as Jesse wouldn’t know that there are rules to follow when inviting someone in for a formal dinner like that. I mean, it was a business meeting. I couldn’t have had one of my employees strolling in uninvited. Even though Mr. Russell wouldn’t have suspected that Jesse and I are together in a romantic sense, he still would have thought that it was rude of me not to tell him that someone else was coming, either beforehand or within the first half hour of his visit.” He clicked his tongue. “Which means that Jessewasaware of these things, only he expected me to... to what? Ignore them? God, Charlotte, there areconsequencesfor that sort of thing. Exhibiting in the World’s Fair is important to me. Even though I’ve never told Jessewhy, he still knows that it is. And that ought to have been enough for him. Why would Jesse want me to hurt my chances of being chosen?”
Arthur crossed his arms with a huff.
“I’m not meaning to be captious, but haven’t you been ignoring plenty of society’s rules and expectations when it comes to Jesse?” Charlotte asked.
“So?”
“So, how could he have known that you’d be so stubborn about this one particular meeting, then?”
“Because it was an important meeting!”
“But imagine how it lookedto him. Over the last few weeks, you’ve been behaving as though you’re not someone who cares for these rules, but then, suddenly, you seemed to care very much. In fact, you caredso muchthat you wouldn’t even let the poor man come inside.”
