Page 44 of A Story of Love

Fast would have liked to tease her all night but decided to have mercy. “What is the occasion?”

“Occasion?”

“For the new gown.”

“Perhaps I am on the catch for a wealthy husband.”

Fast laughed.

“Why is that so amusing?”

“You strike me as a woman who has no use for a husband.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean I cannot see you promising before God to obey any man.”

“And that is how you view marriage—as an opportunity to exert dominance over your wife?”

“If you were my wife, I’d enjoy establishing a bit of dominance over you.”

She gave a startled, breathy laugh and looked away, for once disconcerted by his crude, suggestive comment.

Fast experienced a rare twinge of guilt for teasing her. She might be a sophisticated newspaperwoman, but she’d as much as admitted that she was still a maiden. “I apologize, I shouldn’t be so vulgar.”

Her head whipped around. “Why not? Because I’m a woman?”

“That, and also because you’re young.” And likely a maiden.

“I assure you, I am not a child.”

He smiled. “No? How old are you?”

“It is rude to ask a lady’s age.”

Fast laughed at her quick retort.

“How old are you?” she asked.

“Given your investigative skills I suspect you already know the answer to that, Miss Fontenot.”

She laughed, her intensity giving way to amusement. “I do indeed. And far more besides.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Fast said dryly.

“So, you don’t talk to other young ladies the way you talk to me?”

“No.”

“Not even Miss Pascoe?”

“No.”

“Why is that?”

“Because she’s not the sort of woman who’d climb a mountain of packing crates to peer inside a brothel. Tell me,” he said, changing the subject, “why haven’t you been shadowing me lately?”

“Why? Do you miss me?”