Forever and a Day

Swiveling toward the opposite direction, Georgia resumed her steady march home, which was still a good forty-minute walk. Why couldn’t such refined gentlemen exist in her part of town? It wasn’t in the least bit fair that her only selection of men smacked the bottoms of passing women and whistled through crooked, unchalked teeth. Not for long, though. She was only six dollars short of moving west and couldn’t wait to climb into that stagecoach and leave her piss of a life behind.

A towering, broad frame suddenly appeared beside her and veered in, startling her. “Madam.”

Her eyes widened. Upon her soul, it was her Brit. Slowing her step, she offered a quick, “Yes?”

He swung toward her, trotting backward in an effort to face her before jumping into her path and coming to an abrupt halt.

Georgia squeaked and skid to prevent herself from dashing herself against him.

He leaned toward her. “I can only apologize for being so uncommonly bold, but I must have your name.”

She glanced up in astonishment. “And what do you intend to do with my name, sir?”

He lifted a dark brow. “Perhaps you and I can discuss that over coffee? Couldn’t you make time for one small cup? Just one? My nickel.”

What was he thinking? Did she really look the sort? “I appreciate the offer, sir, but I don’t drink coffee. Or men. I’m swearin’ off both until I move west.”

His eyes darkened. “I am not asking you to drink me.”

Despite the warmth of the day, another shiver of awareness grazed the length of her body, knowing full well what the man meant. “Not yet you aren’t, but you’re invitin’ me to join you for coffee at your hotel. I may be third-generation Irish, but that doesn’t make me stupid.”

He lowered his chin. “Coffee was merely a suggestion.”

“Oh, I know full well what you’re suggestin’, and I suggest you leave off. Do I look desperate for a toss or coffee?”

A smile ruffled his lips. “Have mercy upon a smitten man. What is your name?”

It was times like these that she hated her life. Such an attractive man graced with wealth and status would only ever view her as a one-night commodity. Although she knew better than to want more for herself, given that she was nothing but a Five Points widow, her dear Raymond had taught her she had a right to want the universe, and by God, she was going to get it.

There was only one way to go about protecting what little honor she had. She’d give him the name of the best prostitute in the ward. That way, everyone would benefit from her cleverness should he decide to hunt the name down. “The name is Mrs. Elizabeth Heyer, sir. Emphasis on the Mrs. Sorry I can’t join you. My husband wouldn’t be pleased.” She quickly rounded him. “Now if you’ll excuse me—”

He stepped before her, blocking her from moving any farther. “I ask that you provide your real name.”

“I just did.”

He shook his head from side to side, never once breaking their gaze. “It took a few breaths too long for you to answer and you didn’t even look at me when you said it. Why? Do I unnerve you?”

She glared up at him. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m tryin’ to take my leave.”

“If you were married, you would have mentioned it earlier.” He leveled her with a reprimanding stare. “Do you mean to say that you are the sort of woman who enjoys bantering with men whilst her husband isn’t about? Shame on you if that is true, and shame on you if it isn’t. Either way, the lady appears to be a liar.”

Curse him for honing in on the details.

He leaned in. “Don’t deny that you are blatantly flirting with me in the same manner I am blatantly flirting with you.”

Her eyes widened. She stepped back. “If I were flirtin’, you’d know it, because I’d be draggin’ you straight home instead of takin’ up coffee. I’m not one to play games, sir. I either do somethin’ or I don’t.”

“Then do something.” His jaw tightened, his expression stilling. “I’m not married. An afternoon of conversation is all I ask.” He met her gaze. “For now.”

The smooth but predatory way he said it caused her to instinctively step back. Regardless of the fact that she was no longer married, it was obvious the sanctity of matrimony meant nothing to him. “And what shall I tell my husband, sir, should he ask how I spent my afternoon?”

His eyes clung to hers as if methodically gauging her reaction. “If you are indeed married, I will not only desist, but run. I am not interested in creating a mess for you or myself. I was merely looking to get to know a woman who genuinely piqued my interest. Is that wrong?”

Georgia could feel her palms growing moist. Tempted though she was to experience one spine-tingling adventure of ripping off all the clothes of a most provocative stranger, she knew it wouldn’t end well if Matthew and the boys were to ever find out. They’d probably hunt him down and kill him. After they robbed him of everything he was worth, that is. It’d be a mess either way.

She glanced around, ensuring she didn’t see anyone she recognized. “Unlike you, sir, I’m lookin’ to marry. Not dance. A woman of little means, such as myself, needs a dependable relationship better known as forever and a day. Not your version of a day and a night. I think that about says it all. Good day.” Without meeting his gaze, she swept past.

He wordlessly angled away, allowing her passage.

Georgia quickened her step and scolded herself for having encouraged him in the first place. Fifteen decades on the rosary praying for her Jezebel soul ought to readmit her into heaven. Although fifteen decades wouldn’t even begin to include Matthew’s sins from this week alone that she had yet to pray for. That man required a set of his own damn beads. Not that he believed in God or anything else for that matter. All he believed in was money, money, money.

She paused on the pavement and instinctively tightened her hold on her reticule, allowing others to weave past. For some reason, she had this niggling feeling that she was being followed by the Brit she thought she’d left behind.

Pinching her lips together, she swiveled on her heel and froze upon glimpsing him four strides away, despite her having already forged well over a block. Her reticule slid from her calico-sleeved elbow down to her wrist, mirroring her disbelief that the man was following her like a dog she’d unknowingly fed scraps to. “Are you following me?”

Gray eyes heatedly captured hers as he came to a halt. “Instead of coffee, how about you and I go for a walk and get to know each other that way?” He smiled, ceremoniously announcing that he was capable of being respectable and that it was now up to her to decide as to how they should proceed.

Georgia dragged in a much-needed breath, her heart frantically pounding. Did he actually think she was going to change her mind based off that smoldering need blazing in those gunmetal eyes? She didn’t even have time for a tryst. Not with all the laundry she had yet to do.

A quick movement shadowed the corner of her eye as a youth darted in and yanked back her wrist with the violent tug of her own reticule. The glint of a blade whizzed past.

Her eyes widened as she jerked around, realizing that the strings on her reticule had been slit by a passing thief. “Ey!” Georgia pounced for it, trying to reclaim what was hers, but the lanky youth skid out of reach, shoving past people, and dashed out of sight.

Her heart popped realizing she’d just been robbed by a ten-year-old. Hiking up her skirts above her ankle boots, she sprinted after the damn whoreson, shoving herself through those around her. “You’d best run!” she shouted after the boy, trying to keep up. “Because I’m about to shuck you like an oyster!”

“I’ll anchor him,” the Brit called out from behind.

His broad frame sped past her, and dodged left, then right, then left again, disappearing into the bustle of Broadway.

Having lost sight of him and the boy, Georgia paused to frantically ask others if they had seen a youth being chased by a gent in a dove-gray hat. She was repeatedly pointed onward and downward. So onward and downward she went.

Dragging in breaths, she tried to keep up with the pace of her own booted feet as the jogging facade of Broadway shops tapered into pristine Italian row houses. If she didn’t get that damn reticule back, she’d have to dig money out of her box to make the rent. Again.

Shouts and a gathering crowd of men on the upcoming dirt road made her jerk to a halt and snap her gaze toward a pluming dust that was settling. An overturned dove-gray top hat lay oddly displaced outside the crowd in the middle of the street.

She sucked in a breath, scanning the men who were yelling at women to stand back. What—?

The driver of an omnibus, who had already brought his horses to a full halt, untied the calling rope from his ankled boot, hopped down from his box seat and hurried into the crowd as passengers within the omni craned and gaped through the small windows.

“Oh, God.” Her stomach clenched as she scrambled forward.

The Brit had been struck by the omni and was lying motionless there on the street corner of Howard and Broadway.

LIGHT EDGED IN THROUGH the waving darkness and pulsed against his eyelids. Slowly opening his eyes, he squinted against the glaring brightness of the sun that pierced through a cloudless sky. Taking in several jagged breaths, he drifted, unable to lift his head from the dirt-pounded street that dug into his shaven cheek and throbbing temple.

Several booted feet and countless hovering faces blocked his skewed view of painted placards posted on buildings and a blue sky that rose beyond a street he did not recognize. Shouts boomed all around him and the dust-ridden, heat-laced air made it difficult for him to breathe.

A bearded man with a cap slung low against his brow leaned over him. “Good to see you stayed below the clouds, sir. Are you able to get up?”