“Noble, yes.” He bends his neck to one side, and a joint pops. “But a printer’s life means late hours. Constant soot. Work that wears the fingers to the bone...” His eyes drift back toward the print shop. I can’t help wondering if he is thinking about his mother.
I adjust my hat, which has scooted so far down on my forehead as to act as a blinder. “Late hours. Constant soot. It sounds dreadful. If it is such a concern for you, you could always prepare a disclaimer, much like the horse breeders do.”
His eyes crimp. “That would certainly give new meaning to the wordmare-ried.”
“Yes. ‘Here comes the bridle.’”
He tucks his chin, hiding his grin, just as I conceal one under my scarf. But I must shake myself loose of the sticky web that has trapped us both. “Mr. Bell, I seem to have used up all my stationery.”
“Say no more. If there’s one thing we have, it’s paper. Payne Mills supplies ours at a good discount. It’s one of the reasons we can afford to stay in business.”
“PayneMills?”
“My father and Mr. Payne attended Yale together.”
“Oh.” I’m not sure which surprises me more, that Mr. Bell knows Mr. Payne or the other way around. He disappears for a moment, and when he returns, he passes me a package whose weight suggests a fifth ream of a hundred sheets, plus a box of envelopes. “There you go. Enough for several letters and maybe a few memoirs while you’re at it.”
“Is that a comment on my age?” I snap.
“No, only your experience, which of course must be vast.” He leans forward, as if to catch a glimpse under my hat.
I recoil so quickly, I give myself a crick in the neck. “Of course it is. Well then, good night.”
“Before you leave, I have been doing some thinking. You see, I’d attributed Bear’s poor manners to a regression in training. But she also gets excited when she encounters people with whom she has developed an affection. She starts herding them, as if she wants to protect them.”
A cold sweat makes me itch to molt my clothes and slither away. But I don’t move a muscle.
“Is it possible that we... know each other?” The words fly like darts looking for a mark.
It takes me a moment to recover my wits. “There are some people, when you meet them, you feel as if you’ve known them all your life. And then there are people who live under yournose all your life, yet you don’t know them at all. Perhaps the same is true for dogs. I bid you good night.”
I leave him to untangle that and stumble away. I can’t help feeling that despite the layers, he has somehow managed to see right through me.
Twenty
Salt and Pepper swirl through the front door of the Payne Estate like soap bubbles pushed in by a breeze, their faces glowing.
Salt looks especially fetching in a dress of watermelon pink, her plush smile brimming with pleasantries. She dips side to side as I help her remove her coat. There’s a giddy energy about her that makes even her Eau de Lilac perfume bounce around in my nose. “Guess howwegot here?” Salt asks Caroline, who sashays down the staircase at a regal pace.
“Adam and Eve had too much time on their hands?” Caroline says dryly.
“No. Bicycles!” Salt claps her gloved hands. “Miss Sweetie called them ‘freedom machines,’ and they are such fun.”
The sneeze building in my nose screeches to a halt, like the rest of me. It wasn’t just my imagination. More women are trying out the safeties.
Salt runs a hand down each narrow sleeve. “We ‘exercised our limbs.’”
I swear Caroline turns a shade of green equal to Pepper’s mossy dress. She trudges to the drawing room without even waiting for her guests.
Pepper sheds her coat and hands it to me. “Thank you, Jo. Remember this hat? You made it for me last spring, and it’sstillmy favorite.”
“Of course, miss. I’m pleased you still like it.” The color sets off her eyes, and the pheasant feather is still tight and shiny.
In the drawing room, the ladies arrange themselves around the card table, and Noemi pushes out the tray.
Salt tugs off her riding gloves with delicate plucks of her fingers and tucks them into a fashionable chatelaine bag that hangs from her waist. “It only took us two days to learn the safeties. You should’ve seen all the looks we got from the boys.”
“There’s only one boy who should matter,” Pepper chastises. “Mr. Q accepted Melly-Lee’s invitation to the horse race.”
