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Chapter Five
To help Eddy pass the time, Jim added a few newspapers to the tray of light fare he brought up for her lunch, and she was grateful. But once she finished both the food and the papers, boredom returned and she spent the rest of the afternoon willing the clock to move faster. She was tired of being alone, tired of the stifling heat, and ready to move to Sylvia Stewart’s boardinghouse. Also vexing her was wondering where Rhine Fontaine might be, what he was doing, and who Natalie might be. None of the questions had answers of course, nor were the questions any of her business, so she turned her mind to other unanswerable questions, such as: What would it be like living in Virginia City, how long would it take for her to save enough money to continue her journey to California, and would she see Rhine Fontaine again after she moved to Mrs.Stewart’s? Groaning over such futile musings, she fell back against the feather mattress and willed herself to sleep away the rest of the afternoon.
But sleep refused to come. Frustrated, she picked up The Elevator, a widely read Colored newspaper published in San Francisco, and was poring over it for the third time when a knock on the door sounded. “Come in.”
It was Fontaine and he asked, “How are you?”
“Doing well. You?”
“I’m fine. I need to get my clothing for this evening.”
She told herself the reason she was so pleased to see him had to do with how bored she’d been, but it was a lie. “Do you want me to sit in the hallway so you can get dressed?”
“Of course not. I can use one of the spare rooms.”
“You have spare rooms?”
He reached into the wardrobe and took out a black formal suit and a shirt. “Yes, two, in fact.”
She was puzzled by that. She’d seen the closed doors in the hallway but had no idea what lay behind them. “Then why didn’t you put me in one instead of letting me take over your bedroom?”
“When Jim and I found you, you were so near death someone needed to be close by.”
“And after?”
He shrugged. “Purely selfish really. I enjoyed being with you.”
Her heart stopped.
With that, he reached back into the armoire and added a few more things to what he was carrying, like his shoes and what appeared to be a shaving kit. “Do you need anything?” he asked.
“No.”
And he was gone. Eddy fell back against the pillows. Lord! Yes, she needed to leave the premises as soon as possible. That he’d openly admitted to being equally drawn to her was as startling as accidentally touching a hot stove. Even though he impressed her as an honorable man, were she to stay even a day longer there was no telling where this might lead.
He returned a short while later, dressed and ready for his outing. The tailored black suit, the snow white shirt, jet black hair, and vivid eyes all added up to a man as alluring as a god. “Presentable?” he asked.
“Your tie’s a mite crooked.”
He walked to the large standing mirror. Upon seeing nothing wrong with the tie, he glanced back at her in confusion.
“Just pulling your leg. You look fine.”
He chuckled softly. “You are not right, miss.”
She smiled in reply. In truth, she’d miss the few moments of light banter they’d shared. “So what is Piper’s?”
“An opera house.”
“Fancy clothes for a fancy place.”
“Exactly.”
She wanted to ask the question foremost in her mind but didn’t.
As if aware of her thinking, he volunteered, “And Natalie Greer is my fiancée. We’re to be married in October.”
“Congratulations.”
