Lillian’s confused expression no doubt mirrored Eleanor’s. “I thought they’d refused to give severance packages. They wereveryadamant.”
Mabel shrugged. “They changed their minds.”
Lillian tore her envelope open, her eyes widening in surprise. “This is a surprising about-face. I can’t believe it’s out of the goodness of their hearts.”
Mabel took a sip of lemonade. “Brendan said the same thing yesterday… when we met for dinner.”
“Mabel!” Lillian’s voice rose half an octave. “Since when have you been seeing Brendan Wiles?”
Mabel grinned, clearly pleased at how well she’d surprised them. “Since he came toThe Timesto get his check. We got to speaking. I’d never thought he could be interested in someone like me. But I’m a compositor now. I am his equal, and Jessica insisted I approach him to say hello. We are going for dinner again next week.”
The part of Eleanor that was listening was bursting with joy. Mabel was getting the happy ending she’d been yearning for.However, most of her attention was firmly on the line of zeros in front of her. The check was for an enormous sum. It would keep her afloat for months, longer if she was frugal, especially once she’d moved into the boardinghouse.
It would buy her the time needed to pursue her idea without resorting to becoming a governess or secretary.
“Do we think Zoo Man is also responsible for those?” Mabel asked, gesturing to the checks. “Brendan thinks Mr. Bell would never have done it without a strong incentive.”
Eleanor swallowed. “It could be Peter, I suppose.” He had said that he would make amends. Whether he’d written the checks himself or simply strong-armedThe Timeswas neither here nor there.
Mabel pressed her lemonade glass to her lips, studying Eleanor closely. “Zoo Man appears not to be the devil we thought, doesn’t he?”
Lillian also pierced Eleanor with a stare. “He does not. In fact, he seems rather the opposite. Don’t you think, Eleanor?”
She swallowed. “He does seem to be the opposite.” It was time to confess. Maybe they could tell her what to do. “Peter and I have seen much of each other this past week.”
Mabel’s eyes widened. She put aside her drink and grabbed Eleanor’s hands. “Have you come to your senses and fallen madly in love with him?”
“Madly in love” was an overstatement. But she had fallen in like with him. Deeply,deeply, in like. It was a confusing “like” mixed in with an almost unbearable attraction, and an extraordinary amount of respect. That he had gone to such lengths to see to Lillian’s welfare might have just tipped it over into something more than like. Maybe it was love. She couldn’t tell.
“I do not know exactly what I feel for Peter.”
Lillian huffed and slathered jam on a roughly cut slice of bread, but Mabel was not dissuaded. “What does he feel for you? It must be something. He’s gone to great lengths to impress you.”
Had he, though? He’d taken pains to hide his atonement from her. Had Lillian not been a terrible liar and Brendan not suggested that Peter was behind the severance checks, then she would never have known of his good work. If impressing her was the objective, it was not particularly well thought through and she couldn’t imagine that he would make such an error.
But then… “We’ve kissed,” she admitted. She would kiss him again if she could. “But I’m not certain what it means.”
Mabel gasped, her curls bounced giddily as she clapped. “That issuperb. Was it wonderful?”
Eleanor dropped her head into her hands. “It was.” She’d not been able to stop thinking of it. Last night, she’d tossed and turned. Instead of sleeping, she’d lain there imagining what it would be like to do more than kiss him. She’d remembered the touch of his hand on her back and fantasized about the way it might trail down her skin. She’d thought of the first time they’d danced and how easily he’d kept her in rhythm and wondered what other rhythms they might find together. Only the percussor had allowed her to get any shut-eye.
Then she’d woken up, thinking of the Captain, a half-penned letter in her mind already. She didn’t know who she wanted to tell her idea to first: the Captain, with whom she shared all the colorful, hopeful, dreamy bits of her, or Peter, the man who challenged her and without whom she would never have had the courage to attempt such a thing.
Peter or the Captain? The Captain or Peter? Neither? Both?
Mabel squealed. “You could be a duchess. Imagine that, our best friend, suddenly the crème de la crème.”
If Eleanor had been foolish enough to let fantasies of Peter effervesce, those words would have been the oil that smothered them. How could she possibly be a duchess? Men like Peter didn’t marry women like her. It wasn’t the done thing. It would be unwise to let these feelings for Peter grow. “I could not be a duchess. I am notton.”
Lillian tilted her head. “Do we think he cares about that? He doesn’t seem like a man who is beholden to the opinions of others. He did go into trade, after all.”
“That’s true.” Mabel wagged a finger. “Andyoudon’t care about that, surely. If anyone is unkind, couldn’t you simply sit with Lady Wharton and her friends?”
Eleanor didn’t care a whit for theton’s approval and she enjoyed Agatha’s company. But it was not that simple. “Peter loves his sisters and he would not expose them to scandal.”
“Well, that is a legitimate concern,” Mabel said, swatting at a fly that had appeared the moment the jam jar had been opened. “But if they loved him back, wouldn’t they want to see him married to a woman he loves? I hardly think you should make that decision on their behalf.”
Eleanor’s heart pounded. “I did not say that either of us was in love.”
