Page 12 of The Gilded Lady (The Gilded West #3)
The woman nodded, raising a brow as she took another sip of tea. Zane was beginning to think that she knew more about Glory than he’d originally thought, that she was more than a singer who passed through a couple of times a year.
She waved a hand at him as she lowered her teacup back to its saucer.
“You’re far too big. Not only your height, which would be enough on its own, but your arms, your thighs, your shoulders.
Everything is so thick, so muscular. Glory prefers slighter men.
Men who are fit, but not to excess, who are of a normal stature.
” He must’ve been scowling because she laughed again.
“I didn’t say anything was wrong with how you look.
Many women, myself included—” here she gave him another once-over.
He crossed his legs and began to wonder if he’d make it out of her room unscathed “—prefer men such as yourself. Robust, healthy…” Her gaze made another pass of his person.
“Big.” She gave him another appreciative smile.
“There is danger about you, Mr. Pierce. Not only do you attract it, but you bring danger with you. It’s appealing. ”
He didn’t understand what kind of person was attracted to danger.
Didn’t she realize that danger wasn’t some passing amusement?
It had been a part of his life for so long that it was second nature to him, but not because he wanted it.
Deciding that her likes and dislikes were not any of his business anyway, he steered the conversation back to Glory.
“How long have you known Glory?”
She gave him a knowing look, but to his surprise she answered the question. “Since she came here when she was a girl. I think she was around sixteen years old.”
A cold sensation prickled down his spine, tightening his skin at this unexpected knowledge of her.
He took in a deep breath through his nose.
“What was she like when she arrived?” He knew he was treading dangerous ground.
Glory didn’t want him to know about her past. He reasoned that he needed to know to help her, but deep down he knew he would’ve asked anyway.
He felt like a traitor, but it didn’t stop him from leaning forward so he wouldn’t miss anything.
“Hardly recognizable. She was thin.” Mrs. Roarke shook her head. “She was so thin you could see her ribs. She was pale and she looked like she hadn’t slept for years. She was clearly running from something. They both were.”
“But you don’t know what.” He hardly had to ask to know what the answer would be. Glory had said that she’d never told a soul and he believed her.
She shook her head. “No, but I have my guess. You’ve seen the women in that house of hers out back?”
Over the past week he’d seen a woman and two young children in the back courtyard playing with chalk on the cobblestones.
Another woman kept to herself, but he’d caught a glimpse of her as she ducked inside one day when he’d walked over to check on Cas.
They’d looked different, one tall, and one plump and short, but their eyes had been the same.
Hollow and bleak. He’d started to think of them as the ghost women.
Shells of themselves, because their spirits had run away from whatever had harmed them.
“She was like them?” The words came out harsh and rough. He tried to imagine the vibrant and attractive woman he knew as one of those creatures and it hurt his heart to think of her that way.
The woman nodded. “Worse because it had taken her a long time to get away, I think.”
“To get away from…”
Her brow rose again as if he should know. Zane thought he did know, but he didn’t want to believe the sick twist of his stomach.
“She never said, but only one type of monster can put that look in a woman’s eyes.” She took another sip of tea, staring out the window as if lost in thought.
“A man.” He didn’t need to hear her confirmation to know that he was right.
He needed to say it out loud to make it somehow real.
To acknowledge that some man from her past had hurt her in ways he didn’t want to think about, but he couldn’t not think about them.
She was small, petite was the word he’d heard someone say to describe her.
The thought of some man hurting her made him physically sick.
Setting his cup and saucer on the delicate table between them, he leaned back, rubbing his palms down the coarse fabric of his pants.
Impotent anger raged through him with no outlet in sight.
He wanted to find this nameless person and make him feel some semblance of what she must’ve felt, but he couldn’t. He had no idea where to even look.
The woman seemed to shake off her thoughts, looking back over at him to say, “Glory begged Madam Marin to open the house up to other women, but she refused. I’m not surprised, because she didn’t even want Glory to stay at first. Said she’d scare off the customers.
Able convinced her and soon Glory won her over.
They were close.” She gestured to the room.
“Well, close enough that she left her all of this.”
Zane narrowed his gaze at her, wondering if that was jealousy hiding in her words. “That must’ve been hard for you.”
“How so?” She cocked her head to the side, sending a wave of curls flowing over one shoulder.
“Well, you’d been here longer. I think it’s only natural that you’d assume she’d leave something to you.”
The woman laughed again, tossing her head back.
“Oh, no, I could never run this place. And besides, I was gone by then. A theater owner had heard me sing and offered me a position in Colorado. It turned out not to be that great, but from there I went to San Francisco and then I met my husband who was from St. Louis. I settled down a little, but he died only three years after we were married.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said.
She waved off his concern. “I love singing, love traveling. I have enough bookings over the course of a few months to get me through the year. I’d never want to be chained to a place like this.”
“You wouldn’t prefer, say a few thousand dollars, to retire? To not worry about money anymore?”
She gave him a peculiar look as if just now realizing his questions weren’t strictly about learning more about Glory.
“I am retired, Mr. Pierce. I get to do what I love and I don’t have to do it on my back anymore.
” She gave him a coy smile. “Not that I don’t occasionally indulge myself.
” When he didn’t seem inclined to take her up on what might have been an offer, she straightened.
“Now what is this really about? I thought you wanted to know more about Glory.”
“I do want to know more about Glory.”
Her gaze narrowed in suspicion. “I believe that you do, but there’s more. Tell me.”
“I can’t tell you. But I did come to find out if you mean her any harm, because let me warn you…I won’t let anyone harm her. Not you. Not anyone.”
To his surprise, she grinned and leaned back again with her elbows on the arms of the chair. “Well, now, looka here. Glory has her very own protector. I love it. She hasn’t even slept with you yet to get you all…” she swished a hand in his direction, “all knight in shining armor.”
Zane swiped a hand over the back of his neck, feeling that somehow he’d lost control of the conversation and he hadn’t even seen it happen. “We aren’t sleeping together. She’s asked me for my help.”
“Why does she need your help? Has someone threatened her?”
She looked alarmed enough that he was pretty certain her surprise was genuine. Shrugging, he said, “I can’t explain the details, but she’s had reason for concern.”
The woman raised her brow again as if she knew something he didn’t, and a slow smile curved her lips. “All right, Mr. Pierce, I can assure you that I have no intention of ever bringing harm to Glory.”
“Can you think of anyone who would want to harm her? Someone who lived here at the House when you both lived here?”
She gave a nonchalant shrug of a shoulder. “No and yes. No one that I know has any reason to want her harmed, but who can tell with people? There may have been an odd girl here or there resentful of her and Able inheriting the House.”
That thought had occurred to him, but it’d take a hell of a lot longer than a week for him to track down every woman who’d once lived here. And that was assuming most of them hadn’t simply disappeared. People had a way of becoming other people out here.
He gave her a nod. “Thank you for talking to me.” Standing he said goodbye and let himself out, unsure if he’d actually done what he came there to do or not.
He did have more information about Glory, though, and he was reasonably certain that Mrs. Roarke wasn’t responsible for the letter, so he’d consider it a win.