She tore herself away from his grasp. “What are you doing here, Guy?”
Ora had forgotten to keep the venom from her voice, and Ledford’s broad, carefree smirk dimmed significantly. “You didn’t send any word to let me know how you were faring,” he said. “I was growing concerned for your well-being.”
“I have been fine. Only quite busy,” she said.
“Yes. Yes, I imagine that you have,” he said with a suggestive raise of one eyebrow as he glanced from her to John and then back again. “And your fieldwork? It has been satisfactory?”
“Exceedingly so.”
“Exceedingly! My. You’ve found what you came here for, then?” It was clear he did not believe her. Of course, why should he? Though she hadn’t revealed to him the particulars of why she was heading to Maryland before she left Washington, hewould be well aware she was coming here to find a bird that never existed. He was, after all, the one who concocted the whole ruse in the first place.
“As a matter of fact, no, I have not,” she admitted. “I did discover something just as wonderful, though. It may prove even more wonderful, in fact.” Without meaning to, she glanced at John, and he at her.
Ledford pressed his lips together. “Hmm.” Ora could tell this irked him, though whether because of jealousy over her relationship with another man or because he’d gleaned that his plan had backfired, she could not tell.
So she added, “It will be a major boon to my reputation as a scientist.” Just to leave no doubt that she had successfully foiled his pathetic scheme. She’d told John the other day that they would continue to go along with it, make Ledford think she was still unaware of their deal, so that they could keep his money. But as the man she once considered a confidant, someone who was on her side, took in her words with curiosity, she simply could not help herself. “I hear I have you to thank.”
“Me?”He did a rather good job of sounding surprised. Then again, he’d been lying to her for months without her noticing. Of course his acting skills would be impeccable. “I shall take the credit gladly, Ora dear, but do tell me, what have I done to bring this about?”
“You can drop the act, Ledford. I told her everything,” John said from where he leaned against his desk.
“Everything? Everything about what? I—I have no idea—”
“As much as jealousy doesn’t suit you, Guy, playing the dope does so even less,” Ora said.
His dark blond brows came together. At first, she anticipated more feigned ignorance. Instead, he folded his arms across hischest and said coldly, “He says he’s told you everything, but perhaps he’s left out the fact that he deceived you as well.”
“Ledford,” Morse warned.
“And he was so eager! It took so little to convince him. He pretends to be such an upstanding, liberal-minded fellow, but he’s nothing but aneedy little rat,” he sneered, “happy to do whatever one asks if it means he gets his grubby hands on a penny or two.”
Ora stared daggers at her former lover as he gesticulated wildly. “Oh, youdoknow everything, don’t you? Yet you’re still fucking him? My goodness, well that’s wonderful news. If you’ll lift your skirts so eagerly for a pathetic scoundrel like Morse, then surely you should be game for me to take another—”
The punch ceased his advancement and ended his sentence before he could. Ora shook out her hand and John watched, wide-eyed, his lips parted in surprise. His own fist, clenched at his side as if he was about to do the same thing, loosened.
“Jesus Christ!” Ledford whined, clutching at his face, blood beginning to trickle through his fingers. “I think you’ve broken my nose.”
“I thought we were friends!” Ora shouted at Ledford, losing control of herself in the way she’d wanted to for years. If now was not the time to let her fury out, when would it be? “You said you wished me happiness, yet you were actively conspiring against it.” Without realizing she was doing it, she’d moved forward, forcing Ledford to move back until he was pressed against a filing cabinet.
“I do wish you happiness!” he said, and Ora was baffled by how earnest it sounded. More fine acting from the practiced reprobate? “But I’ve begun to doubt that you sincerely wish it for yourself. Because if you wanted to be happy, you could be. You could remove yourself from the daily disrespect, the derision.Every day you enter Smithsonian Castle, you choose to continue living your life as an uphill battle, and I cannot see why except that you enjoy suffering. Or perhaps you are simply too stubborn to take another path now that you’ve experienced how challenging this one is. I conspired with Morse so that I could take over your cataloging project. That is the fact of the matter, yes. But I was not doing it only for my own benefit. I was also doing it for yours. Because Idocare for you, Ora.”
“You paid a stranger to help you steal my best chance to impress Mearns and possibly join Roosevelt in Africa because youcare for me?”
Ledford pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and pinched his nostrils with it as he spoke, muffling his words but not hiding the frustration behind them. “I hoped this fool’s errand might be enough of a setback to get you to finally quit. To go be a normal woman with a husband and children while you still have some youth remaining.” His voice softened, taking on a conciliatory tone. “You still could be, darling. I would be willing to overlook this…little indiscretion with Morse and take you as my own. You wouldn’t have to give up on science altogether either. You could still assist me with my work when your household and motherly responsibilities allow.” He reached the red-stained fingers of his free hand toward her face, presumably to caress her cheek. As if that was going to do anything except make her want to break his every bone.
“Touch me and your nose will be the least of your concerns,” she warned, and was pleased to see how quickly he halted the movement. Still, she stepped back, putting more distance between them. As if his treachery weren’t off-putting enough, the disgust she felt at his presumptuousness was enough to make her want to get as far away from him as possible.
Ledford barely made it off the cabinet in an attempt to follow her before John appeared in front of him and shoved him back against it. “The only reason I’m not going to kill you right now is that I believe Ora would have already done it if that’s what she wanted. Lord knows she’s perfectly capable.”
“It would also make our mothers’ weekly luncheon quite awkward,” Ledford quipped.
“Very far down on my list of concerns,” John responded.
“This is what’s going to happen, you snake,” Ora said from where she rested against John’s desk as she cradled her hand, which still throbbed from the contact with Ledford’s face. “You are going to give Mr. Morse double the amount you originally agreed upon, and I won’t tell Mearns what you have done so long as you never bother me again. Any interaction we have from here on out will be as colleagues.Nothingmore.”
Ledford paused for a long moment, his eyes darting around the small office before landing on something beside Ora’s hip. After a long stretch of silence, he repeated the word “colleagues,” then punctuated it with a derisive snort. “All right, then, Dr. Worthy. Colleagues we shall be. You have a deal.”
John slowly backed away, allowing Ledford to grab his hat from the floor, where it had fallen when Ora struck him. He dusted it off as he made for the newspaper office’s door. When he reached it, he paused. “If you want to be treated as an equal, Ora, then I will treat you as an equal. I intend to show you as little mercy as I would any man, and I suspect you’ll come to wish you’d kept me as a friend instead of forcing me to become your enemy.”
