“No dinner party is going to fix that.”
“She knows, but it’s something she can do and she believes she needs to do something.”
“So Fedora is the catalyst for a much larger experiment.”
Lily laughed. “I reckon that’s true.”
“And you said Hitch will be there?”
“He’ll be invited. I think it would take a town brawl to keep him away.”
“It seems the doctor is also matchmaking.”
“She’s rounding out the number of guests.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, she is.” Lily paused and then reluctantly admitted, “And also playing Cupid.”
“Playing with fire is more like it. Hitch’s mother will get wind of this, and I don’t imagine she will approve.”
“Maybe not, but she doesn’t have a say.”
Roen had not known Amanda Springer long, but he couldn’t think of a situation where she didn’t have something to say. He let it go. “What prompted your interest in Fedora Chen? You said yourself you’ve only exchanged a few words in passing.”
“I suppose Hitch got me thinking about her when he was at the house. I knew from Clay that he liked her, and when he came in carrying your things, I don’t think his feet touched the ground. And I thought, her being Chinese and Amanda being, well, being Amanda, that courting her was going to be difficult for Hitch. That was probably the seed. Then Ben watered it some when he told me about the way Fedora is treated, or maybe I should say mistreated. My mind wandered back to the reception at the Songbird and how encouraging and kind everyone was to us, and I was reminded that folks in Frost Falls have been good to me—very good—and I decided right then that I should return that goodwill. Fedora Chen seemed the best place to start.”
Roen said nothing for a time, taking all of it in. “You know, Lily, some of the people at the reception are among those who have no use for Fedora.”
“I know.”
“They might not be so encouraging and kind when they learn you’ve taken up with her. They might even see it as some sort of betrayal of their goodwill.”
“No one thinks worse of Ellie for standing by Fedora.”
“You don’t know that. There are subtle ways people maketheir disapproval known. Maybe they don’t visit the hotel dining room as frequently. Maybe they don’t visit at all. They might make themselves more of an annoyance to Ben just because he’s her son. He usually has a busy Saturday night pulling people apart. It wouldn’t surprise me if Ellie receives the occasional cold shoulder when she’s with Fedora. She’d notice and she’d pretend she hadn’t, but Ellie Butterworth impresses me as someone who keeps score. That’s what she would do.”
Lily sighed. “You’re thinking about her shooting targets again, aren’t you?”
“I kind of came around to that.”
“You’re like the railroad,” she said. “One track.”
Roen grinned. It wasn’t a compliment, but from Lily’s perspective, he thought it was probably true.
•••
Mrs. Rushton had dinner started by the time Lily and Roen returned home. Roen tried to pay her, but she would only accept his thanks. Once she was gone, Lily washed up and took over. Roen said hello to the children before he secluded himself in the workroom to finish his drawings and calculations. Lily stirred the stewpot while imagining Roen hunched over the table with one pencil in his hand and a spare tucked behind his ear.
“I would have rather been with you,” Lily told him much later. She was lying on the side of the bed closest to where Roen’s blankets were spread. After he once again refused her invitation to join her in the bed, she shifted her position so that she occupied the usually vacant space. She dipped her head over the side. The room was only dimly lit, but she could make out Roen’s rather stoic features. She supposed that stoicism went hand in hand with that noble profile. “After spending the day with you doing important work, stirring a stewpot was not particularly satisfying.”
“I submit it was more important in the moment than what I was doing, and I know four hungry mouths who would agree with me.”
“I suppose,” she said, unconvinced.
“You could have joined me, Lily. I would have welcomed it.”
“And you would have had no dinner. I need another me.That’s a thought I’ve never had before. It used to be that I was up to every task.”
