“Did he tell you to woomenow?” Frances held out her hand for the telegram, narrowing her eyes in as threatening a manner as she could.
Edgar laughed and shook his head, putting the paper back in his pocket. She heaved out a martyred sigh. The man was getting too familiar with her attempts to intimidate him and was having nothing of it. She might actually have to shoot him to make a point. When her brother’s cowhands had gotten it in their minds they could bully her, they’d been in for a big surprise when she’d used some of Mr. Ito’s techniques on them.
She wondered if Edgar would have dared laugh had Nick been with her. Not that she needed a man beside her to intimidate another man. It was only Nick’s quiet way which seemed to give credence to her threats. Texas seemed so far away, and she’d found she missed him a lot more than she’d expected to—and she’d expected to miss him. It was the first time, since she and her sisters had come to Lilac City, she hadn’t seen him at least once a day. Hadn’t spent most of every day with him.
She wouldn’t think about it.
“Well, did my uncle give you new instructions about me?” Frances demanded.
“It’s too cold to talk about it outside.” Edgar took her elbow and turned her toward the hotel. “Let me buy you a coffee or some hot chocolate, and we can discuss how to handle his most recent demand.”
Frances went along because she wanted to see what the telegram said, and she knew he wouldn’t show it to her otherwise. When they were seated at a table in the corner of the hotel dining room, and he’d placed their orders, she held out her hand. Edgar gave her the telegram.
You are a failure. Bring Frances to me before April 1 or face the consequences.
“I wonder what the significance is of the date.” Frances handed back the paper to Edgar. “Is it the first time he’s given you one?”
“It is.” He took a sip of his coffee, his expression thoughtful. “How do you wish to go about playing his game?”
“It’d serve him right if I were to marry you and then show up in Indianapolis to claim my inheritance.”
Edgar must have swallowed wrong, because he choked and started coughing.
“I thought you were never going to marry,” he said in a raspy voice, once he was able to speak.
“I’m not, but I hate the idea of having to wait six years before I can get my inheritance. The only way around it is to get married.” She made a face.
“Oh, Frances, and I thought it was only men who dreaded the marital state.”
“Leave it to a man to think he’s doing a woman a favor by marrying her.” Though, if she were honest with herself, her sisters had happily gone into marriage. As had their husbands. And now Luke and Judith were doing the same thing. Not a one of them had been forced either.
“Menaredoing women a service when they marry them. A man gives up a great deal, when he puts on the noose.”
“Noose? Really?Mengive up a lot? For a lawyer, you’re pretty stupid. You know the law. Women give upeverything. Suddenly the fortune that was a woman’s and any property she owned belongs to her husband, and he can do anything he wants with it without even asking her opinion. It’s wrong.”
“Is that what you’re worried about, that you’ll marry, and your husband will misuse your inheritance?”
As she often did, Frances watched him, trying to assess what he was really about. Edgar was a confusing man to her. He tended to wear a public face that was playful and lighthearted, a flirt. There were other times she thought she saw something in his expression that ran much deeper. She wished she understood what drove him because he was different from any man she’d known.
“Wouldn’t you be worried if you got married and your wife had complete control over your life?” Frances asked. “That the simple act of saying ‘I do’ made you little more than a slave to your marriage partner?”
“A slave?” He frowned. “Isn’t that a little extreme?”
“Said by a man who loses nothing in marriage.”
“Freedom—”
“Don’t even talk to me about loss of freedom, when a man can legally beat his wife with no consequences.”
Edgar’s expression turned pained. “Not all men are violent, Frances. Look at your brother. Charles and Marshall.”
“But a woman doesn’t really know a man’s true character until after the noose is around her neck.” Frances sniffed. “Don’t pull that face with me. You’re the one who used the word.”
“True. I cannot speak for other men, but I would never strike a woman.” Edgar said the words with unexpected force. His eyes were as open and honest as she’d ever seen them.
“Why do you feel so strongly about it?” she asked softly.
“Because my father struck my mother.” Edgar rubbed a pale scar on the side of his jaw.
