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She swallowed hard and nodded. “I’ll keep us both safe,” she uttered.
A smile crooked his lips for a moment before he turned back for the store. “Always workin’ me, woman.”
And perhaps he had a point.
She was learning him, little by little, but she wasn’t saying things just to please him.
She was speaking how she felt, and how she believed.
She wouldn’t put him at risk.
Maybe someday he would figure out she wasn’t just maneuvering him.
Perhaps someday, he would figure out she actually cared.
Chapter Eighteen
The three gossiping women were thankfully gone by the time Eliza wandered through the door to the dressmaker’s shop.
After purchasing a length of white ribbon, she stopped to inspect the windows of the dressmaker’s shop. The dresses on display were of plainer quality than she was used to. Less elegant, to be sure, but the differences made the plain fashion more functional for her new life.
Such functionality made the deep red dress she wore even prettier than when she first bought it.
Though Aunt Elizabeth had often spoken of what a plain creature she was, she could wear a dress. Her dressmakers had often remarked on her fine figure. She would take their word over her ornery old Aunt Elizabeth’s any day, if for no other reason than they’d had kinder compliments that were easier for her to swallow.
A man cleared his throat behind her and she spun around with a smile, expecting Garret to be there.
Though her husband was a stranger to her, this man was most certainly not him. His dark blue eyes were familiar, but nothing else. Tall, with graying hair and a humorless posture, he was an older gentleman. From the gold watch fob draped across his waistcoat to the perfect stitching of his jacket, for a town such as Rockdale, his dress was impeccable. He came from money. Walked with the confidence of a man who knew his place above others in the world. Indeed, he was at the top of the food chain. That much was evident even before he opened his mouth to speak.
“Mrs. Shaw, I presume?”
“Yes sir, I am she. Who do I have the pleasure of meeting?”
A tight smile took his thin lips. “I’m Clint Jennings. Nice to make your acquaintance.”
At the introduction of his name, Eliza’s stomach dropped to the floor.
She straightened her spine and lifted her chin higher. “I am Eliza Shaw,” she responded with a small curtsey, and a quick glance around for Garret or Burke. Anybody she recognized would do.
“My daughter has told me some distressing news, and I would like to speak with you on it. If you don’t mind, of course.” The look on his face said he didn’t give a fig whether she minded or not.
She inhaled sharply. “I assume this is about my marriage to Garret?”
A stodgy smile painted Clint’s face, but failed to reach his eyes. He looked around. They had gathered the attention of onlookers. “Would you like to join me somewhere more private, Mrs. Shaw? I wouldn’t want these people to get the wrong impression.”
“Actually, I have to meet my husband. I am already overdue and must go, but it was adequate to meet you.”
Jennings didn’t take hints very well. He grabbed her elbow and dragged her to a lane between the buildings.
“Unhand me, sir,” she protested, shock giving way to indignation. She wrenched her arm out of his grasp and rubbed the limb’s throbbing area.
“Are you aware my daughter was in negotiations to be married to Garret before you came along?”
“Negotiations, huh? Sounds terribly romantic.” Would sarcasm buy her time? She searched the empty alley for any signs of life. An emboldened rat gnawing on trash in the shade didn’t count.
“Who are you, Eliza Shaw, that you would ruin the happiness of two people? My daughter is in tears over this, and I will have retribution for it. Any slight to my family is a slight to me.” He leaned closer, backing her into the wall. “I think you’ll find me a very ruthless man, and not one to be trifled with.”
As she sidled along the wall in an attempt to escape him, he slammed his hand into the side of the building so close to her face, cool air whooshed against her cheek. She gasped and closed her eyes.
