“I don’t know if anything will keep him from doing that. He’s so disgustingly honest!”
“You see, this is why women don’t do well in the game. You let your heart rule your head and end up falling for a mark.”
“He’s not the mark.”
“And it’s a good thing he’s not, because this really would curdle, but I think we still have a good chance. Tell Bates you’re in love with him.”
“I will not!”
He raised his eyebrows. “Why not?”
Why not indeed? “Because . . .” Because she couldn’t bear for Gideon to know how much it would hurt when he turned his back on her, and besides, “It won’t make any difference.”
“What makes you think so?”
“Because he’s so honest! He’ll do what’s right, no matter what I ask him to do.”
“And if he thinks he can have you, he’ll decide that what you ask him to do is the right thing.”
“Don’t you understand it yet? Now that he knows what I am, he won’t want me anymore.”
His eyebrows rose again, but he said, “All right, let’s put it to the test, shall we? Let him know that you return his tender feelings . . . somehow,” he added when she was about to protest. “Then find out what he plans to do. If he’s set on warning Thornton off, I’ll send the boys to get him.”
“Isn’t there another way?”
“We could forget the whole thing. I can smuggle you out of here and put you on a ship, and we can hope Thornton doesn’t ever find you.”
And she would be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life.
Elizabeth knew when she was beaten. “I’ll find out what he’s going to do.”
“And let me know?”
“And let you know.”
• • •
Elizabeth entered the Bateses’ home quietly, half-afraid of attracting Gideon’s attention and half-afraid of not attracting his attention. But apparently he wasn’t home yet. Mrs. Bates was in the parlor, reading her mail.
“Did you have a nice day, dear?” Mrs. Bates asked.
“Yes,” she lied. “Did they wear you out at the hospital?”
“They always do.” She held up the letter she’d been reading. “I received a note from Mrs. Belmont herself about the Woman’s Party conference this weekend. She is urging me to attend. It’s going to be a very big celebration.”
“Then you should go.”
“You and Anna should go, too. You both suffered far more than I did at the workhouse.”
Elizabeth sat down beside her on the sofa. “I don’t think Anna and I would enjoy a conference nearly as much as you would, and quite frankly, I don’t think Anna is strong enough yet for another trip. I wouldn’t dream of going without her, either.”
Mrs. Bates smiled and patted her hand. “I can understand that. I do hate to disappoint Mrs. Belmont, though. She’s done so much for the cause.”
“Then don’t worry about us. Surely, I can stay with the Vanderslices while you’re away.”
“I’m afraid not, but perhaps Anna can stay here with you and Gideon can stay at his club.”
That sounded perfect. Anna would be delighted to spend time with her, and she wouldn’t have to worry about seeing Gideon. Only one thing sounded strange. “Does Gideon have a club?”
“Everyone has a club, dear,” Mrs. Bates told her with a grin. “Some men have more than one. Gideon doesn’t spend much time at his, but he does belong to one.”
Well, then. “I’ll ask Anna tonight! That is, if you don’t think Gideon would mind.”
“It doesn’t matter if he does or not. He’ll do the proper thing.”
Yes, that’s exactly what Elizabeth was afraid of.
Elizabeth took the coward’s way out and hastily changed her clothes so she could go right over to dine with the Vanderslices before Gideon got home. She’d have to face him sooner or later, but later seemed like a much better idea. As she had predicted, Anna was delighted at the prospect of spending more time with her. They passed a quiet evening playing cards and ignoring Mrs. Vanderslice’s hints that they should invite the general over again very soon.
When David walked Elizabeth home, the hour wasn’t late, but she felt oddly weary. The pressure of her plans weighed too heavily, she was sure. At the Bateses’ doorstep, she lifted her face for David’s chaste kiss, but he said, “You were awfully quiet tonight. Is something wrong?”
She hadn’t expected David to be observant. How inconvenient. Now she had to make up a lie for him, too. “Not a thing. Perhaps I used up all my energy last night on the general.”
“He is certainly an interesting man.”
“Do you suppose your mother is really interested in him?”
“I’m sure she could be, if he were interested in her,” he replied with a smile.
“I can’t imagine they’d suit.”
“Certainly not as well as you and I,” David said with more confidence than he had any right to. “I wish you’d set a wedding date. People keep asking me, and it’s embarrassing that I don’t have anything to tell them.”
What a stupid reason to set a wedding date! But she said, “I’m sorry. I had no idea it was such a trial for you. I promise to set one soon. Anna and I will put our heads together while she’s staying with me, and we’ll figure it out.”
He smiled, pleased to have gotten his way. He kissed her cheek and waited until the maid let her in before setting out for home.
When the maid had taken her coat, she looked up to find Gideon standing in the parlor doorway. “May I have a word with you before you go up?” It didn’t sound like a request.
She laid a hand over the sudden quivering in her stomach and stepped into the parlor. Once again, he closed the door behind her. “Mother has already gone up,” he said, so she knew they could speak freely.
He looked as uncomfortable as she felt, but she didn’t give him any help. She just waited while dread coiled ominously through her limbs. After what seemed an age, he said, “I feel I should apologize for my behavior this morning.”
Not what she wanted to hear. “What behavior is that?”
Was he blushing or was that just a trick of the light? “For laying my hands on you.”
“Are you sorry for that?” she asked with some disappointment.
“Not really, but I should be, so I’m apologizing.”
The coiling dread slipped silently away. “Is that all you wanted to say?”
“Of course not. I’m aware that you are most likely waiting to hear my decision about informing Oscar Thornton of your little scheme.”
“Is that what you think it is, a little scheme?”
“Of course not. I’m just trying to annoy you.”
“You hardly need try!”
“But you don’t look very annoyed.”
“Well, I am. In fact, I’m furious with you. I can understand that you think your principles are important, but I can’t understand why you’d protect a man who’d sell faulty rifles to the U.S. Army and who murdered a woman—a woman who was your relative, no less—and who threatened to murder another.”
“When you put it like that, it doesn’t sound very logical, does it?”
“No, it does not. It also doesn’t sound kind or generous or . . . or . . .”
“Loving?”
“Or loving.” Why had she said that? Now she was blushing.
“You’re right. It doesn’t. Do you think a man should put aside his principles for love?”
Why was he looking at her like that? Like he could see into her soul? She didn’t want anyone to see into her soul, least of all saintly Gideon Bates. “Why do you care what I think? You already know I don’t have any principles.”
“I think you have principles. They’re just different from mine. And I’m curi
ous. I want to know what goes on in that beautiful head of yours.”
No, he didn’t, or at least he wouldn’t once he found out. “I think . . .” What did she think, really? She looked at him standing there, so upright and respectable. If she was unlike any woman he had ever known, he was unlike any man she had ever known, too. He cared little for money or power, and he always spoke the truth. He was, as she had said, disgustingly honest and honorable in a way she could hardly even understand. Could she change that? And even if she could, did she want to? “I think you should do what you think is right.”
Surprise flickered across his face but it quickly turned to suspicion. He was right not to trust her, of course. “I suppose you’re going to tell me what you think is right.”
“No, I’m not. I already told you what I want you to do, but I’m not going to try to persuade you. The general . . . Well, I saw him today, and I told him that you know everything. He said I should . . .” Her voice broke but she cleared it and went on. “He said I should tell you I’m in love with you so you’d do what we want, but I’m not going to.”
“And are you? In love with me, I mean?” Was it hope that made his eyes glitter like that?
“You don’t really want me to answer that question, because whatever I say, you’d always suspect it was a lie.”
This time she knew it was anger flashing in his dark eyes. “And what if I decide to tell Thornton everything?”
“Then we’ll abandon our plans.” She wouldn’t let them kidnap Gideon no matter how much the Old Man argued. “The general will disappear and so will I.”
“You? Where will you go?”
“Someplace where Thornton can’t find me, hopefully.”
“But a woman alone . . . How will you do that?”
“I have money put away.”
He frowned at that. “I thought you didn’t have your share of Thornton’s losses.”
“I don’t.” She could get it easily enough, but, “I don’t need it.”
“I see.” He didn’t, of course. He would never understand her world. “And if I don’t warn Thornton, you’ll go ahead with your plans?”
“Yes. I’m supposed to let the general know what you decide.”
“Who is the general to you?”
“Does it matter?” It did to him, but she wasn’t going to ease his suspicions. She needed him to doubt her.
Anger flashed in his eyes again. “All right, then, I’ll tell you what I’ve decided. I don’t know what your general is planning, and I don’t want to know. That way, I don’t have to warn Thornton. I’ll do what David asked me to do and attend the meetings and draw up the documents, but I won’t lie to Thornton or anyone else.”
“You won’t have to,” she promised rashly. “You aren’t part of this at all, and you’ll be just as shocked as everyone else when it goes wrong.”
“Perhaps not quite as shocked as Thornton,” he said with the ghost of a smile. “And when it’s over, what will you do?”
“That will depend on Thornton. If he still blames me, I’ll have to disappear.” And he would, she was sure.
“I can help you with that.”
Anna had warned her he’d follow her to the ends of the earth, but she would never let him do that. “We’ll see.”
“Yes, we will.” He thought it was settled. She could see it in his face.
“I’ll write the general a note and tell him what you decided.” She turned to go.
“Elizabeth.”
She stopped, and when she turned back, she nearly gasped at the naked longing on his face. “What are you going to do about David?”
She gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “I never intended to marry him. I’ll break the engagement as soon as everything is over.” If she had time before she left, of course.
He nodded, and she thought she saw some of the tension drop away from him. She hadn’t told him she loved him, but he believed there was hope. She had no idea why he still wanted that hope. He knew what she was. How could he even imagine they could have a future together?
The Old Man would tell her not to worry about it. The important thing was that Gideon wasn’t going to ruin everything. And if he got his heart broken, well, he asked for it, didn’t he?
Elizabeth had asked for it, too.
• • •
The next morning, Elizabeth gave her letter to the maid to post. The Old Man would receive it that afternoon or the next day. Meanwhile, she had nothing more to do. The Old Man and his mob would take care of the rest of it. The general had told him the tale, and now Thornton was on the send, figuring out how to turn everything he owned into cash so he could buy up as many rifles as he could find. He was going to find them pretty easily, too, once he had the cash.
Mrs. Bates was packed, and they put her on a train to Washington City for the Woman’s Party conference and the awards ceremony she wanted to attend. Gideon left for his club, and Anna arrived at the Bateses’ house with her bag.
“We’ll have such fun,” she said, and although Elizabeth didn’t feel like having fun, they still managed. They went ice-skating with David and shopping with each other and visited Cybil and Zelda, who were trying to convince Anna to enroll at Hunter College. Since she knew she would never marry, Anna needed a profession so she could support herself, they argued.
On Sunday, Elizabeth attended church with the Vanderslice family, and she spent most of the service wondering if she could ever be like the rest of the people sitting in the pews. The Old Man would say they weren’t all as pious as they pretended, and he would be right. The question was if Elizabeth could pretend to be pious along with them. The hardest part was knowing Gideon was there, too. She caught him watching her a time or two from his seat on the other side of the church, and after the service, Mrs. Vanderslice invited him to join them for Sunday dinner.
As they sat around the table, David took the opportunity to inform Gideon that Thornton wanted to meet with the general on Monday to discuss terms. He was apparently buying up whatever guns he could find, and he needed to know how much the government would pay so he didn’t overspend.
“I’m sure the general will pay whatever Thornton asks,” Gideon said with a meaningful glance at Elizabeth.
“The general is the only one who can affirm that,” David said. “Do you want to attend this meeting?”
“I probably should,” Gideon said with another glance at Elizabeth. Was he seeking her opinion? Or perhaps her approval? She had no idea, but she saw no reason he shouldn’t meet with the others. It would give the general an opportunity to see for himself how Gideon would act with Thornton. When she made no protest, he said, “Once they agree on terms, I can prepare the bill of sale and the other documents and have them ready.”
“That’s a good idea. I’m sure Thornton won’t want any delay once he’s ready,” David said. “I heard he’s even mortgaging the house.”
“Marjorie’s house?” Mrs. Vanderslice said in dismay. “Can he do that?”
“He owns it now,” Gideon said. “He can do whatever he likes with it.”
“But it’s been in the family for years,” Mrs. Vanderslice said. “What if he loses it?”
“He’s only mortgaging it, Mother,” David said. “As soon as he sells the rifles, he’ll pay it off, I’m sure.”
Marjorie’s house. Elizabeth couldn’t believe it. Even Marjorie would get some revenge.
“I’ll be glad when this is over,” Mrs. Vanderslice said. “You know I hate it when you discuss business at the table.”
“I apologize, Mother,” David said, his good humor undaunted by her disapproval.
“I think it’s all very interesting,” Elizabeth said. “And how nice that we can do something for Mr. Thornton to repay him for his help.”
Elizabeth didn’t dare meet Gideon’s eye after making such a r
idiculously hypocritical remark, and even Anna pulled a bit of a face. Poor David was oblivious, of course, and Mrs. Vanderslice shook her head.
“You’ll change your mind after hearing years of it, I’m sure, my dear,” she said. “Now tell me, Gideon, when do you expect your mother to return?”
“Tomorrow. Mrs. Belmont offered to bring her back along with some of the other former prisoners in her private railroad car.”
“I can’t imagine anything more boring than sitting in meetings and listening to lectures on women’s rights,” Mrs. Vanderslice said with a delicate shudder. “Oh, I know it’s important,” she added when Anna was about to protest, “but why do they have to have so many meetings?”
For some reason, Elizabeth felt compelled to defend Mrs. Bates. “I’m sure the meetings are very interesting.”
“I hope you never have to find out, darling,” David said. “You and Anna have already done more than enough to promote women’s suffrage.”
“But we’ve hardly done anything at all,” Anna said. “We’ve only gone to one protest.”
“Are you calling the time you spent in that horrible place ‘hardly anything’?” David asked.
“Many of the ladies have been jailed several times,” Elizabeth pointed out, glad for the time she’d spent with Mrs. Bates learning about the history of the movement.
“Ladies with no family to look after them, I’m sure,” David said.
So David was showing his true colors. Elizabeth didn’t dare glance at Gideon. “By ‘families,’ do you mean husbands?”
“It’s a husband’s duty to keep his wife safe, and you can be sure I take that responsibility very seriously, my dear.”
“What about a brother’s duty to keep his sister safe?” Anna asked with feigned innocence.
David, still oblivious, didn’t notice she was feigning. “I take all my responsibilities seriously, which is why I won’t allow either of you to put yourself in harm’s way again.”
“You won’t allow us?” Elizabeth asked sweetly.
“A wife must be ruled by her husband,” Mrs. Vanderslice said. “David only has your best interests at heart.”
City of Lies Page 27