Page 13

“I’m sorry that took so long, Mrs. Munro!” Milton Duffery said as he joined Mary inside the vestibule of her building. “The cab driver was slow to make change. That’s how they try to get a bigger tip out of you, you know.”

“Is it, Mr. Duffery?”

“I’m afraid so,” he said, making no move to leave, his jacket folded over his arm. “Is it always so dark in here?” he asked, squinting. He looked up at the sputtering light fixture. “Ah. Another aging gasolier. That explains it.”

“I don’t know how many times I’ve asked Michael to replace that fixture,” Mary said with a sigh. “He never seems to get around to it.”

Mr. Duffery nodded. He frowned. He shifted from one foot to the other, then suddenly leaned forward, craning his neck like an ostrich and startling Mary so badly that she backed away from him before she realized he was trying to kiss her.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Munro,” he said, mortified. “I did not mean to offend you. I only thought—”

“No, no, it’s quite all right, Mr. Duffery,” Mary said, flustered. “I just…I wasn’t expecting—”

“I was too forward. Do forgive me. I do not wish to press unwanted attentions upon you. ”

“I am not offended, Mr. Duffery. Truly, I am not.”

“I am relieved to hear it, Mrs. Munro,” said Mr. Duffery, as he nervously shifted his jacket from one arm to the other. “You are a very attractive woman, Mrs. Munro, and I—”

His words were cut off by a small, sudden clunk, followed by a metallic ping.

“Oh, no. Oh, dear!” he exclaimed.

“Did you drop something?”

“My sister’s ring,” he replied anxiously.

“ Again ?”

“I’m afraid so,” he said, bending down to pick up the ring box. But as he straightened, they both saw that the box had sprung open and that the ring was not inside it.

“What will I do, Mrs. Munro? My sister will be so angry with me,” Milton Duffery lamented. “It was our mother’s ring. It means the world to her.”

“Don’t lose heart, Mr. Duffery. I’m sure it’s here somewhere,” Mary soothed. “It’s so hard to see anything in this terrible light. Let’s both look, shall we?”

Slowly, they moved across the floor, bent over, eyes sweeping side-to-side. They peered into corners and along baseboards. They poked under the coat rack and moved a small table but could not find the ring.

“What if it fell into a crack between the floorboards? Or down a mousehole?” Milton Duffery fretted.

He draped his jacket over the banister and got down on his hands and knees.

Mary joined him and they redoubled their efforts, crawling across the floor, sweeping their hands out in front of them, poking their fingers into knotholes.

Just when Mary was starting to lose hope, Milton Duffery let out a victorious whoop.

“Here it is! I have it!”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Mary said. “Where was it?”

“Wedged into a crack by the newel post. No wonder we didn’t see it.”

Mary stood, eager to get off the hard floor. As she did, Milton Duffery, winded and flustered, rose to one knee and held the ring out to her.

“My eyes aren’t very good in this light. Is it all right, Mrs. Munro?”

Relieved that it had been found and eager to assure the worried Mr. Duffery that all was well, Mary took the ring and nodded.

“Yes, Mr. Duffery!” she exclaimed, smiling.

Just as the words left her lips, she heard the front door creak. She turned toward it, but no one was there. And yet the door was slightly ajar.

“That’s strange,” she murmured. Perhaps Mr. Duffery failed to close it all the way and a breeze had pushed it open.

She took a step toward it, meaning to close it, but a grunt from Mr. Duffery stopped her.

He was trying to pull himself up on the newel post, huffing and puffing so heavily that Mary felt obliged to help him.

“It appears Miss Drayton isn’t the only one with old bones,” he said as he straightened. “I shall employ several of my joint wraps tonight.” He retrieved his jacket from the banister and put it on.

“I’m so relieved that you didn’t lose the ring,” Mary said. “Get it home safely and give it back to your sister before it tumbles out of your pocket again. ”

“I certainly will,” Milton Duffery said, as he tucked the ring box back into his pocket. “Good night, Mrs. Munro.”

And then he leaned in close and fumblingly kissed Mary on the mouth. His lips were soft and moist. A cloud of menthol and mustard enveloped her. As he pulled away, she forced a smile and stifled a sneeze.

“Goodnight, Mr. Duffery,” she said. “Thank you for a lovely outing.”

Milton Duffery gave her a shy nod and then he was gone. As Mary watched the door close behind him, a shudder ran through her. The kiss had been so damp, so chilly, it was like kissing a wet rag. If that’s how his kiss felt, what would the rest of the business be like?

No one was perfect, and she was prepared to overlook flaws in a man, knowing full well that she had a few of her own that needed overlooking, but was it so wrong for a woman to long for a real kiss?

The kind that took your breath away and made your heart pound?

The kind that led to a stolen hour in a sunlit room with his clothing and yours tangled up on the floor?

Wrong or not, it was what she wanted, and though her head urged her to follow a practical course, her heart would not be reasoned with.

It might be a fragile and damaged creature, but it was also an insistent one, and it refused to settle for a life without love, without the promise of a sunlit room.

“Well, that’s it then, isn’t it?” she whispered to herself in the gloom of the entryway.

She would call it off with Mr. Duffery the next time they met.

It wasn’t right to encourage affection when she did not return it, and she was certain now that she could never love him, not even a little.

His kiss had decided her. After she had broken things off, she would move out of Michael’s building.

She wouldn’t stay here any longer, wishing for things that were never going to be.

It would be hard to take herself away from the man she did love.

But not as hard as it was to be near him.