The Only Gold (29 page)

Winnie looked stricken. “Oh my dear, it isn’t that we’re upset. More… worried, you know.” She slipped nearer, voice dropping to an anxious whisper. “The women you meet in those places, they aren’t… they don’t… you can’t
marry
them. They will lead you into trouble. Drinking and gambling and… oh, Jonah, we are worried.”

“Places?” Jonah remembered he’d given going to Reid’s club as an excuse for staying away all night. “You think I’m consorting with—”

“We don’t know,” Winnie whispered. “You’ve never been a man to go out all hours. It’s no business of mine, nor Edith’s, but we do care.”

He realized what it had taken for her to even broach the subject. “You mustn’t worry. I’m not in danger of wedding myself to anyone unsuitable, I promise you. And Mr. Hylliard’s club is no sort of common sporting place. If there is drinking, it is discreet, and I do not throw money away on card games. I think you know me better than that,” he added, smiling. “If I’m away the night, it’s merely that I’ve lost track of time and don’t wish to wake the house, coming in past midnight—so I stay with Mr. Hylliard at his hotel.”

“But you needn’t—”

“It’s no trouble. I enjoy his company. The time we spend together is of benefit to the bank.” If not in a way anyone else might imagine. Still, it felt like the least of his lies. “I’m sorry I’ve worried you, Winnie. Will you forgive me?”

“Oh, my dear.” Her face shone. “If I’ve been too forward in assuming… well, it’s just that you’ve been so… happy. You understand.” She patted his hand. “You won’t stay away so often, will you?”

“I suppose I’ve been out rather frequently.” He tried to sound apologetic, but he could not regret a moment of it.

“You may bring Mr. Hylliard to dinner any time you like.”

“I’m not sure Edith would be pleased.”

Winnie lifted her chin, a rare stubborn set to her mouth. “It’s my house as well as hers….” The firm line softened into a chagrined smile. “I don’t think Edith will mind. She misses you too.”

She left him to finish dressing, but as he started to shut the door, he noticed the Hawes’ door standing ajar. “Liliane?”

Through the opening, Liliane peeked, as red-cheeked as Winnie had been a moment ago. Her brows drew together, lips tightening, and she swept out of her room to meet him face to face at his threshold. “You mustn’t be troubled,
mon chaton
. You have eased her worry. That is what matters, yes?”

Jonah tried to hide a sharper stirring of uneasiness. “You think I haven’t told Winnie the truth?”

Liliane’s anxiety was plain in her face. She seized his hand. “You will not be angry with me, Jonah. I couldn’t bear it.” Her face softened as she gazed at him. “We all have secrets. You need not tell Winnie—nor me, as long as your secrets make you happy. And they do.” She let go of his hand and set her soft palm against his cheek. “Your smile is one I know.”

He hadn’t considered that anyone—even Liliane—could guess by his smile that he might have lost his heart. But why wouldn’t she, having lost her own so recently? Still, she didn’t know the whole truth, and he couldn’t tell her. “It is something good,” he said quietly. “But I can’t speak of it. Please understand.”

“You are all right?”

“I am.”

Liliane gave him a kiss. “My worries are eased. Still….” An impish grin suddenly brightened her face. “I wish someday to know it all. Promise you will tell me.”

“Someday. Now you must let me go. I’m already late.”

As he grabbed his coat and hat and headed down the stairs, she called after him. “Promise me!”

“Yes, I promise,” he called back, and she laughed. Escaping the house before anyone else could waylay him with questions or words of advice, he traded streetcar for cab and arrived in the midst of the exchanges, with Reid nowhere in sight. Concerned, he started for the offices and nearly collided with Liam Abbott heading out.

“Mr. Abbott, you are here late. I hope nothing is amiss.”

If Liam’s stare was not as bloodshot as usual, it was still as cool. “With the bank? Or were you meaning me?”

“No need to take offense where none is intended. I’m pleased to see you looking well.”

“Didn’t guess it mattered much to you.”

“It does. I may not express it as well as Mr. Hylliard—”

“Ain’t much of anything you do as well as Hylliard.” Liam’s mouth twisted into a caustic semblance of a smile. “You might learn, though. You might learn real quick.”

Jonah
, reluctant to fall into further argument, could not let that pass. “If you mean to threaten me—”

“I mean to make you pay attention.” Liam’s voice went softer, but his expression only hardened. “For once, pay mind to more than the piles of gold in your vault.”

“I will remind you that it’s your duty as well as mine to protect that gold, sir. If you’ve grown weary of it, you are certainly free to find work that suits you better.”

“I’ve grown weary, all right. And I ain’t the only one.”

Liam shouldered past and stalked through the lobby door with a finality that made Jonah wonder if he intended to return. He could not make sense of the man’s anger nor his threats. Hoping Reid might know what it was about, Jonah went in search of him, to find him in the midst of answering letters. Jonah shut the door; then, upon further consideration, locked it. “What the devil is wrong with that man?”

“Which man?”

“Liam Abbott.”

Reid spared him an amused glance. “Words again?”

“Yes, in the shape of threats. I don’t know what’s got him so angry. I thought you might enlighten me as to the secret of conversing with him—” At the window, Jonah turned to see Reid had set aside the work to fix him with an assessing eye.

“He threatened you?”

“It sounded like a threat, if a rather vague one—”

Reid snorted impatiently and stood. “What did he say?”

“Only something about making me pay attention. To what, he didn’t clarify.”

“Was that all?”

Aware of the quiet tension in those words, Jonah quickly amended his own. “I’ve made it sound more than it is. I didn’t intend to add to your worries about the deposit.”

“Jonah….” A smile seemed to creep up reluctantly on Reid. “I think I’m still working on the secret of conversing with you. What did Liam say?”

Jonah told him, while a worry of his own grew. “Reid, if you are entertaining any particular suspicions about Mr. Abbott….”

“Not really. It’s no easy thing to give up liquor when it’s been a longtime salve for old wounds. Liam has demons to face.”

“He seems to think I’m one of them.”

“I think he just imagines you in league with the authorities that have tormented him in the past.”

“And you have spared yourself that by befriending him.”

Reid smiled. “It was the most expedient method of helping him.”

Jonah could not conceal his apprehension. “I never thought it wise to nurture friendship between officers and staff. Mr. Crowe warned against such familiarity. But then he warned against so many things. I don’t believe the staff ever liked him. And they don’t—”

“The staff likes you. And they respect you. Liam’s just a harder case. It’ll take more time, but it’s not out of the question.”

Jonah marveled at his gift for engendering trust. “Are there no strangers in your ken?”

Reid’s smile broadened. “I won you. The possibilities are limitless.”

Saturday
, to Jonah’s relief, passed without further misadventure, leaving nothing more in its wake than a keener chill in the air and a tired staff ready for their Sunday off. Jonah found new appreciation in the day of rest, himself, lying blissfully abed at the late hour of nine, with Reid’s head pillowed on his stomach. Reid, having tangled them both hopelessly with the sheets and each other during the night, snored softly—an indolence Jonah might have been happy to indulge in for another hour, were it not for the warm, steady gusts rousing a well-spent organ back to life. He endured it a long minute before shifting in an effort to encourage Reid to snore in any other direction. Reid’s laugh vibrated through him, and Jonah let out a breath of relief. “How long have you been awake?”

“Long enough to know you woke first.” Light fingers traced the length of his erection. Jonah, melting through the blankets, thought he might sink on down into the warm, dark earth as Reid twisted around to lie on him and molded his lips against Jonah’s. Muscles shifted with building tension as Reid rocked against him, and Jonah, shivering at the friction, fell with him into a slow rhythm—awkward at the start, but improving beyond every expectation as they progressed.

It wasn’t long until his muscles ached, but the burn of pleasure dominated as Reid slid, slick and heavy, against him. Reid’s gaze seemed to hunger for his; that, above all else, heightened sensation until the most sublime crashed over him. He gasped, and Reid’s gasp against his neck was a muffled echo. Jonah arched toward him with no hope of regaining that friction—just to feel Reid’s skin on his. Reid’s arms tightened around him, and a rush of breath carried Jonah’s name on it—with such trust in Jonah’s feelings for him and confidence in his own, Jonah might have yielded his heart, then—if he hadn’t already. He drew Reid’s head down to kiss him, and Reid breathlessly returned it before collapsing on him.

“Jo?” He made the diminutive a personal possession, one that had belonged to him well before Jonah had ever given him permission to use it. “I’m going to church.”

“I know. I’ll come with you.”

“You don’t have to.” Reid sounded pensive.

Jonah slipped both arms around him, conscious of his own possessive desire. “I know.”

“It’s a rough neighborhood.”

“I’ll look out for you.”

Reid laughed. “I’ll be glad for your company.” His amusement faded, but not the affection, nor the barely damped fire beneath it. “Always glad.”

“I am too. Glad for your company. I’ve wanted to tell you—if it hasn’t been terribly obvious.” He closed his eyes. “You’re right. I can’t flirt.”

“That stumbling confession is better than all the flirting in the world.”

The day was gray and stingingly cold, but Jonah, strolling Broadway with Reid beside him, mused that the dripping awnings and slushy sidewalks had a wintry charm. They walked to Park Row, where Reid hailed a cab to take them to the church. Buried under a mantle of snow, the churchyard was as serene as Jonah remembered. A chorus of reverent voices drifted from the nave, and Jonah, not wishing to interrupt that nor the pensive mood fallen over Reid, stayed quiet. He was lost in his own thoughts when Reid shifted beside him and glanced at him as if just remembering his presence.