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Perhaps she had not heard him correctly over the music. “Mr. Ruben? Please, would—”
“Nope.”
“Oh, it’s not for me, it’s for my husband.”
“I said no. ‘No’ means not a chance in hell.”
Leah blinked. “But—”
“Bar’s closed,” he snapped. “At least to Celestials. Now, git!”
She gaped at the rotund little man. “That is unfair,” she said in a quiet voice. She could not tell if he had heard her, but he avoided meeting her eyes. Squashing down the stab of pain in her chest, she turned her back on him and recrossed the floor.
Thad took one look at her face and the empty glass in her hand and jerked to his feet, fists clenched.
“Don’t, Thad. Don’t make a scene and spoil the Jensens’ party.”
“I damn well will make a—”
She grabbed at his shirtsleeve. “Do not,” she murmured.
Teddy tugged on his father’s pants leg. “You sure look mad, Pa. What’cha gonna do?”
Leah waited, watching the muscles in Thad’s jaw flex as he ground his teeth.
“Pa?”
She leaned down to the boy. “Do not ask him anything right now, Teddy. Your father is…thinking.”
“Thinkin’ ’bout what?”
“Oh, about…some more fences that might need mending.”
“We don’t have no broken fences! I know, ’cuz I check ’em out with Pa every spring.”
Thad was paying no attention to their exchange, but Leah could tell something was on his mind. His mouth had firmed into a flat, unsmiling line.
“I’ll be right back, Leah.” Deliberately he moved off toward the refreshment table.
“Gosh,” Teddy grumbled. “Pa’s been real funny ever since Ma died.”
Leah’s chest tightened. “That must have been a hard time for you both.”
“Ever’body tried to help. That sewing lady, she brought pies and things most every day.”
“You mean Verena Forester? The seamstress?”
“Yeah, that’s the one. I didn’t like her one bit.”
“But,” Leah murmured, “your father apparently did.”
“He never said nuthin’,” Teddy mumbled. “And anyway, when Pa asked if I liked her, I told him no, ’cuz that was the truth. After that, she stopped comin’.”
Leah clenched her hands in her lap. That explained more than Teddy could ever know about her marriage to Thad.
In the next moment a small blonde girl in a ruffled yellow gingham pinafore marched up to Teddy.
“M-Manette,” he spluttered. “What’re you doing here?”
“I came with Maman and Papa and Uncle Rooney.”
“I thought Mr. Rooney was yer grandpa.”
“Oui, he is, but he likes me to call him Uncle Rooney, anyway. Do you want to dance with me?”
“Can’t,” Teddy said quickly. “Don’t know how.”
For a long minute Manette’s blue eyes assessed him in silence, then she reached out and grasped both his hands. “Come with me. I will teach you.”
Manette half dragged him onto the dance floor. At the edge of the circling couples, she demonstrated a very simple pattern of dance steps—two forward and two back. He tried it out a few times, but before he could fit it to the music, a male voice rose over the din.
“Choose yer partners for Star of the Sea.” People began to scramble about the floor, forming squares of four couples each.
“One couple needed over here,” the caller yelled. Thad reappeared and grabbed Leah’s hand. Apparently he had dealt with the bartender a bit roughly—his knuckles were scraped. Without a word, he pulled her halfway across the floor to fill out the square.
Leah glanced at the couple across from them and went cold all over. Carl Ness stood with his wife, Linda-Lou, who immediately narrowed her eyes. On her left, a scowling Seth Ruben, with a telltale bruise forming on one cheek, slouched next to his frail-looking silver-haired partner; she pursed her thin lips and averted her gaze.
And, oh heavens, to her right was a hardeyed Whitey Poletti, partnered with Verena Forester. The dressmaker stared at Leah as if she had red spots all over her face, then shifted her gaze to Thad and smiled.
But then, to Leah’s horror, each of the three other couples in the set turned their backs and stalked away, leaving Leah and Thad standing alone on the dance floor. As she passed, Verena slowed her steps to mutter, “You’re not good enough for him. You don’t belong here.”
Stunned, Leah could think of nothing to say. Thad protectively circled his arm about her waist and swept her off the floor past the whispering crowd. “Looks like things are coming to a head,” he murmured.
