"I thought about it for a long time. I think I was more scared of failing Zac than I was of Setter beating me. It took me two days to decide. It took me another day to work up the courage to tell Setter I was leaving him."
She walked several paces but kept her back to Lily.
"I wouldn't let Zac tell Setter because I was afraid of what Setter would do to him. I should have worried more about myself. He nearly beat me to death. Then he went after Zac. I don't know how I did it, but I followed him.
"Setter busted into Zac's place, shouting he was going to kill him. Zac simply stood up and invited him to try. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself. Setter pulled a knife on him, but somehow Zac got it away. Then Zac beat him until he couldn't stand up. For a while I was afraid Zac was going to kill him, but he just threw him into the street and said if he ever came near me again, he'd kill him."
Dodie took another sip of brandy, but this time she turned to face Lily.
"I warned him Setter would come back with a gun, but Zac told me not to worry. It was almost a month before it happened. Setter came busting through the door with a double barrel shotgun screaming he was going to blow Zac into a million tiny pieces. What he said he would do to me gives me chills even today.
"Men dived through windows, doorways, behind anything they could find. Women screamed all around me. Setter told Zac he was going to blow the place to smithereens, then he was going to kill Zac."
Dodie took another sip of brandy.
"He shot mirrors, tables, and chairs into splinters. Zac just stood there watching him. That made Setter furious. He waved the shotgun at me. I couldn't move I was so scared. Zac told him if he even thought about pulling that trigger, he'd kill him. Setter just laughed. He swung the shotgun to the side and unloaded two barrels into the wall. Some of the buckshot ricocheted off the wall and buried itself in my back. Setter laughed even louder when he saw the blood. Then he aimed the shotgun straight at me. Zac calmly pulled a small gun from his inside pocket and shot him dead."
Dodie finished the rest of the brandy in one swallow. "Now you know why I'll do anything I can for him as long as I live."
Unable to move, even to nod her head, Lily stared at Dodie in wide-eyed disbelief.
"Don't go out there right now expecting to see him in his suit of shining armor," Dodie said, "because you won't. It's like he's two people. Most of the time he's exactly what you see, a selfish, lazy, lucky gambler, not interested in anything but having a good time. When there's real trouble, he turns into somebody else."
"I don't like it when he does," Lily said.
Dodie set the empty glass down. "Zac's too lazy to like violence, but he's not afraid of it." Dodie studied Lily. "That goes against your beliefs, doesn't it?"
Lily nodded.
"Then you'd better do like Zac told you and go home."
"I'm not going home. How many times do I have to say that?"
"Then get used to an occasional bit of savagery. It's men like Zac who keep those three men, and others like them, from taking any woman they want. Now enough lecturing for one day. I'd better go see how things are going with your little friend. Zac will be the one to win her heart and undying loyalty, but I'm the one who'll have to figure out what the hell to do with her."
Lily remained in the office after Dodie left. It was difficult for her to digest what she had just heard. She could believe Zac would defend a woman, even if it put him in danger. But to kill a man, even a man who was about to kill someone else! That jarred Lily to the very foundation of her soul. She'd always been taught to do everything possible to save life, no matter how degraded it had become. It seemed incredible that someone like Zac would take it away.
She told herself he had done it to save Dodie's life, probably his own life as well. She could understand that. She was honest enough to admit she would probably have done the same thing, if she'd had a gun, and if she'd known how to fire it and hit what she was aiming for.
But that didn't lessen the shock. Zac had killed a man. She wondered if Setter was the only one.
* * * * *
Lily had been fired again. She didn't dare tell Zac. It would add more fuel to his argument she ought to go straight back home to Virginia.
"I could beat him up for you," offered one of the men accompanying Lily back to Bella's rooming house.
"I don't think that would answer."
"It would teach him not to fire a beautiful woman like you," said another.
"Who else could attract so many people into his shop?" asked a third.
"That was the problem," Lily said. "He was trying to sell books. How many books have you read?"
"One," the first man said. The other dozen men apparently hadn't read any.
"But we bought a lot," one man said. "I think we ought to burn down his shop."
"No! It's not his fault."
"It's certainly not yours. You're the prettiest bookseller in San Francisco."
Zac was waiting on the porch with Bella when Lily got home. She didn't know whether she was more pleased Zac had come to see her or mortified he should see the men trailing along behind.
"The crowd gets bigger every day," Bella commented. "Go on with you," she shouted at the men like she was shooing away livestock. "You've seen her home."
"How long has this been going on?" Zac demanded, annoyed, as Lily came up the steps. "You look like you're leading a parade."
Lily didn't know whether she thought he had any right to be pleased or displeased. Until now he'd never bothered to worry about how she got home.
"They were feeling sorry for me. Mr. Hornaday dismissed me right in front of everybody. If I hadn't let them escort me home, they might have done him some harm."
"You got fired again?" Zac asked, following her into the parlor.
"I really did try this time. I didn't smile at the men or encourage them to stand around talking. I told them if they didn't leave, I would get in trouble. That only seemed to make them more determined to stay."
"I'm not surprised," Zac said.
"What are you going to do now?" Bella asked.
"Look for another job. What else can I do?"
"You can go back to Virginia," Bella suggested.
"Can't you help me find another job?"
"I've helped you find two already, and you've lost them both."
"Maybe you should look for one where they aren't any men," Zac suggested.
Bella laughed. "There's no such place for women like Lily."
"I never had this trouble in Salem," Lily said.
"I imagine your father's position in the community protected you in a manner you've been unable to appreciate until now."
Lily had been hearing a lot of home truths lately she'd just as soon not have to face. This was another one of them.
"You don't think I'm going to make it in San Francisco, do you?" Lily asked Bella.
"No, I don't. First, you know nothing about people. You trust everyone when you should trust no one, especially men. Second, you have no skills. How can you possibly support yourself? Third, you are exactly the kind of woman men will pursue until they get what they want."
"They won't get anything from me," Lily snapped. She couldn't remember when she'd been so angry. She knew she had a lot to learn. She also knew she tended to be very trusting and think the best of everybody. But to be written off as a total failure after a week was too much.
"I will make it," Lily said, her chin jutting, her lips compressed with determination. "Nobody in my family has ever been a failure. Papa says people only fail because they're too lazy to work hard. Well I'm not lazy. I'll find a job, by myself if I must, and I'll find one I can keep for more than two days. I'm going to stay in San Francisco. I'm going to make it."
"Well, you can worry about that tomorrow," Zac said. "Tyler invited us to the hotel for dinner."
Lily felt a little rush of happiness. She had expected a lecture. She had expected Zac to try to convince her to go bac
k to Virginia. Instead, he was taking her to dinner. He'd never taken her anywhere before. The day didn't seem quite such a terrible failure anymore.
"Actually Daisy ordered me to bring you over," Zac confessed. "I think she's worried I'm not taking proper care of you."
"You're not," Bella stated flatly. "Now leave. Lily's got to hurry if she's going to get bathed and dressed by the time you pick her up."
"You don't have to do anything special," Zac said. "We're just going to dinner."
"Leave it to a man," Bella said, "to say that an invitation to the Palace Hotel is just going to dinner."
* * * * *
Lily was absolutely certain the Palace Hotel was the most enormous building in the whole world. Towering over everything in the city, it rose seven stories and covered an entire block. Her eyes grew wider as the cab drove through a huge archway in the middle of the building. She found herself in a circular inner court with a paved carriage drive. A giant palm tree stood in the center. When Zac handed her down, she looked up in amazement. All round her arching balconies rose one above the other until she had to crane her neck to see the top. The whole court was covered by a glass roof that allowed the sunlight to filter through in soft rays.
"Tyler had to have the biggest hotel in the world," Zac said. "He spent every cent he had on this place. It cost him more than five million dollars."
Violet had never known there was that much money in the world.
"George was afraid he'd go broke, but I told him it was outrageous enough to become the rage. It did. Tyler's got eight hundred rooms, but the place stays full."
Lily was speechless. She allowed Zac to lead her into the main lobby. Marble columns supported a painted ceiling twenty feet above her head. The lobby was so big that if it had been a field, it could have grown enough corn to feed all the cows in Salem for a year.
Lily was relieved when Daisy emerged from one of the small offices.
"I wasn't sure you'd come," Daisy said to Zac, a disarming smile on her lips.
"I respond very well to orders from the family."
"When it suits you."
"Well, yes," Zac admitted with a grin.
Lily was feeling quite nervous. Daisy had seemed so ordinary, so human when she was in Virginia. But seeing her now as the owner of this incredibly grand hotel, well, she seemed like someone else altogether.
"Introduce me, Zac," Daisy prompted.
"You already know her. You met four years ago."
"She's changed a lot since then. I wouldn't have recognized her."
"This is Lily Sterling. She's some sort of cousin. My sister-in-law, Daisy Randolph."
"I'm delighted to see you again," Daisy said. "I hope you'll come to visit me often. It can be lonely in San Francisco."
"For your own safety," Zac said to Lily, "you ought to know she's got two little monsters she calls children hidden somewhere around here. I hope they're tied, gagged, and stowed in a tunnel under the hotel for the evening."
"They've already had their dinner and been put to bed," Daisy said, her gaze never leaving Lily. "I hope that won't deter you."
"Oh, no," Lily assured her. "I love children."
Before Daisy could come to the defense of her children, something Lily was certain she intended to do, the door opened, and Tyler entered.
"Gaston told me you had another dazzling woman on your arm," he said to Zac. "I don't know how you keep finding them. I certainly don't know how you're going to top this one. She's a stunner."
"I apologize for my husband's lateness and his crassness," Daisy said to Lily. "If you'd been a plate of chicken Bolognese, he'd have been more suitably appreciative."
Tyler grinned sheepishly.
"I think it's time we went in to dinner," Daisy said. "I had intended to use one of the private dinning rooms, but we've had a last minute reservation."
"And waste showing her off," Tyler said with a mischievous grin. "Bring her here every evening. We'll double our business."
"I'm continually apologizing for my husband," Daisy said. "He only thinks of food and money. I'm not sure which comes first."
"You do, my dear."
"Only if someone makes a perfume that smells like roast beef."
* * * * *
Zac didn't know why he hadn't brought Lily to the hotel before. He was a fool not to have done so the night she showed up. Daisy would have taken care of her, and he wouldn't have had to worry about a thing. They were getting along famously.
"You'll have to come back soon," Daisy said.
"For a dinner like this, I'll be here every night," Lily said.
"Tyler is a good cook," Daisy said modestly. Tyler had disappeared into the kitchen the minute dessert was finished, leaving them to enjoy their coffee.
"He's wonderful. Everything was delicious."
"Better than pork belly and blood sausage?" Zac asked.
Lily laughed. "You're never going to let me forget that, are you?"
"You are going to explain that most peculiar statement," Daisy said.
Lily laughed again. "It's a silly story. I'm ashamed to tell it."
But before Lily could begin, a young man came up to the table. "I haven't seen you in a long while," he said to Zac. "Where have you been keeping yourself?" The entire time he spoke he couldn't take his eyes off Lily.
It immediately occurred to Zac that he'd made another mistake. He'd failed to introduce Lily to any eligible young men. There were quite a few handsome, young bachelors in San Francisco who would have been only too happy to become interested in a woman like Lily. With a little effort, her social calendar could have been filled by now. Really, if he hadn't been so lazy, he might even now be completely relieved of all responsibility for Lily.
Zac got to his feet. "This is Anthony Bellrose. Meet my cousin, Lily Sterling, and my sister-in-law, Daisy Randolph."
"How do you do?" Anthony said to Daisy, but his attention quickly returned to Lily. "May I join you?"
"Certainly," Daisy said. She motioned for a waiter. "Would you like coffee?"
"No, thank you." Anthony barely took his eyes off Lily long enough to answer.
Zac winked at Daisy and settled back to see what happened.
What happened was that four more friends wandered up, pretending to have been looking for Zac but quickly focusing their attention to Lily. Before long she was at the center of a group that virtually excluded Zac and Daisy.
"It seems your cousin has acquired a handful of suitors," Daisy observed. "A very distinguished handful at that."
"Good," Zac said. "Maybe one of them will become interested enough to marry her."
Daisy regarded him with raised eyebrows. "You trying to get rid of her?"
"It would be the best thing. She should never have come to San Francisco. She doesn't know a thing about how to take care of herself."
"And it would relieve you of a great worry," Daisy said, not the least bit fooled.
"I don't know a thing about looking out for young women. You have no idea how wearing it can be."
"You think it's going to be easier to sort through prospective husbands? You'll have to know their income, analyze their prospects, study their character, make certain they're not being carried away by youthful ardor, interview the parents, decide--"
"Stop!" Zac implored. "I'm not her father!"
"But you'll be acting in his place."
That put a whole new shine on the ball of wax. Regarding the five swains in this new light, Zac had to confess he didn't much like what he saw.
* * * * *
"What would you think about moving into the hotel?" Zac asked Lily on the way back to Bella's.
"What for?" she asked, surprised.
"It's a nicer place, Daisy would make good company, and you could enjoy Tyler's food every day."
"And be plagued by all those young men?"
Zac couldn't figure out why Lily's attitude didn't upset him more than it did. It threatened to ruin his whole plan. "They're f
rom some of the best families."
"I can find a dozen more like them in Salem," Lily said, blithely dismissing several of San Francisco's most eligible bachelors.
"You might find you liked one of them, or one of their friends."
"I'm not out to marry a rich man," Lily said. "I want to learn to take care of myself."
"But what will you do after that?" Zac asked, alternately disappointed his idea was sinking so quickly yet relieved Lily wasn't overly impressed by those wealthy young men.
"I'm not certain. Ask me that when I've held a job for at least a month.”
* * * * *
Lying in her bed a week later, Lily wasn't certain she'd ever manage to keep a job for a month. She'd been fired again. Zac's friends had further swelled the ranks of her admirers. Her latest employer, a restaurant owner, hadn't cared at first. The men might sit for twice as long as they should, but they also ate twice as much. But when two of them got into a fight over who should sit at her table and who had to sit elsewhere and just watch, he drew the line. He gave her a week's wages and told her to leave immediately.
She had walked half the streets in San Francisco since then, but no one would hire her. In a way she couldn't blame them. No matter what she did, things just wouldn't work out. Still, she was determined to try. She refused to return home defeated, begging to be taken back.
She wondered what her family thought of her now. There probably hadn't been enough time for her letter to reach Salem. There certainly hadn't been enough for an answer to reach her. She wanted to hear from them, but she was afraid of what they would say. Especially her father.
She still doubted he would come after her. She had dared to defy him. He was more likely to declare her dead to the family, even if he thought she was still innocent, which he probably didn't. Hardly anybody in San Francisco thought so. She'd gotten plenty of offers for employment she couldn't accept.
She was determined not to ask Zac for help again. She didn't want him to frown or groan or roll his eyes when she entered the saloon. She would have given just about anything to have him act like he was glad to see her.
Zac was never down. Even when he was fussing at her, he made her smile. He talked nonsense, but it always made her feel better. She guessed that was why she had been crazy enough to take the gamble of following him to California. He made her feel better than she'd ever felt around anyone else before.
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