Page 13 of The Gilded Lady (The Gilded West #3)

Chapter Seven

T he room was quiet but for the steady sound of Glory’s voice as she read a bedtime story to her charges.

Most nights she was able to escape the business of Victoria House to put the children who resided in the nursery of the boardinghouse to bed.

It was her favorite time of day. She loved spending time with them and came over quite often, but the evenings were particularly sweet.

Victoria House could be bustling with greed and lust, but she only had to escape to this room for a few minutes to be reminded that there was so much more to life.

The children’s innocence and enthusiasm gave her hope.

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.” She read, but after a moment a sound in the hallway outside caught her attention.

The heavy scuff of boots on the hardwood floor when the boardinghouse so rarely saw men enter its doors.

Her heart skipped a beat as she recognized the distinct cadence of Zane’s steps.

Funny how she had already memorized it in so short a time.

But she’d listened to it last night and again this morning from her bedroom as he’d walked around her parlor.

She stuttered over the next line and five pairs of eyes stared up at her, eagerly anticipating finding out how Rapunzel would escape from the evil enchantress.

Smiling at them, she stared down at the book in her hands and continued reading.

It didn’t matter that she couldn’t see Zane.

She could feel the weight of his stare when he looked around the partially open door, and she could sense his presence as he took up his self-imposed sentry post outside the room.

When the story was finished, she closed the book of fairy tales and sat it on the table next to her rocking chair. The children were spread out on the rug staring up at her.

“That’s all for tonight. Time for bed.”

There was a chorus of groans and complaints, but she and Charlotte managed to get them to the bunks that lined one wall.

Charlotte took the newcomers; the two boys who’d arrived with their mother a couple of weeks ago, escaping an abusive home.

Glory took the other three. They were children who’d been raised at Victoria House.

Though she encouraged her ladies to take steps to prevent pregnancy, it sometimes happened.

Particularly when the woman had a regular customer who charmed her with gifts and sweet talk.

That was the case for Emily and Edward, whose father had come into town around five years ago.

He’d spent all his nights with their mother and had eventually left, leaving her broken-hearted and pregnant with the twins.

They’d grown up here, along with Sarah who was nearly eight, whose mother had arrived when she’d been a baby and had chosen to stay and worked most evenings at Victoria House.

Though Charlotte was Glory’s assistant, a large part of her job was caring for the children.

Glory spent some time every morning and evening with the children overseeing their studies and playing with them.

“Miss Glory, do we have to go to bed so early?” Sarah complained. “The sun’s still out.”

Glory smiled and pulled the thin sheet up to Sarah’s chin. “Yes, you have to go to bed now.” They had the same discussion almost every night in summer when the sun didn’t set until well after nine o’clock at night. “You have a busy day tomorrow. Charlotte says you have two exams.”

Sarah pulled a face, and Glory hid her laugh as she walked to the window to pull the curtains closed. “Good night, little ones.” Glory gave them each a kiss on the forehead, even the two newcomers who still stared at her with big owl eyes, unsure of their world now that it had been upended.

Her heart ached for them. Their mother spent most of her time in her room, withdrawn from everyone.

Glory knew from experience that it would take time to recover from whatever had brought her here.

When she was ready, Glory would help her find a position in another town as a shop girl or maid or whatever lent itself to the skills she had, then she’d send the family off with enough money to get them by until they could get on their feet.

It wasn’t a lot. In the future she envisioned a school where she could train them for professions far more lucrative and dependable than shop girl that would keep them self-sufficient for the rest of their lives.

But for now she took comfort in the fact that she’d helped many women find, hopefully, better lives in the years since she’d opened her boardinghouse.

“Do you want me to stay with them and make sure they go to sleep?” Charlotte asked when they stepped into the hallway. Zane was there, but Glory wasn’t ready to acknowledge him yet. She still didn’t know how she felt about this arrangement.

“Give them a few minutes, and then go on up to your room. You’ve earned a well-deserved evening off.” Thanks to the faro tournament across the road, business was exceptionally slow tonight. She expected last night and Sally’s second performance tomorrow night to more than make up for it.

Charlotte pushed a strand of dark hair back from her face, looking younger than her twenty years.

She’d shown up at Victoria House four years ago, a new bride escaping an abusive husband.

Sometime after she’d arrived, Glory had discovered she had excellent penmanship—far better than Glory’s own hasty scrawl—so she’d made her an assistant.

She also had a gentle way with the children and doubled as a teacher for them.

Glory had yet to find a trained schoolteacher who’d take the job here, so they made do with what they had.

“I have a few letters to finish that need to post in the morning. I’ll go back to my desk and finish those first,” said Charlotte.

Glory waved her off. She did deserve an evening off, but more than that, Glory didn’t want her questioning why Zane was in her suite.

So far that day he’d been a silent fixture in Victoria House, and if anyone found his constant presence odd, no one had asked because it wasn’t that noticeable.

If he was known to be in her suite, however, that would be noteworthy.

“Besides, you’re still working.” Charlotte teased.

Glory put on her best hostess smile to cover her unease. “I’m always working. We have a rare night off, go enjoy it. Go have fun with the other ladies. I hear there’s a high-stakes dice game going on in the courtyard again tonight.”

Charlotte gave a hesitant smile and nodded. “You’re right. We don’t get many nights like this.”

Glory swallowed her sigh of relief. “Have fun.” Then she turned to Zane, reading the displeasure in his eyes. She raised an eyebrow and subtly gestured to Charlotte, indicating that he should keep quiet until they were alone.

He waited until they were outside in the courtyard. “What the hell was that, Glory?” He kept his voice low, but the undercurrent of anger was there.

“What are you talking about, Mr. Pierce?” She knew exactly what had him so upset, but she found she delighted in taunting him.

“You left the house without letting me know. We agreed that either Able or I would be with you at all times.”

Plastering a smile on her face because they were approaching the women playing dice, she waved to them as a few called out a greeting and asked her to join them. “I hardly call crossing the courtyard leaving the house. I declare, you’re behaving as if I took a jaunt across town.”

Tension rolled off him as he waited for her to politely decline the women’s invitation. As soon as they were past the group, he let out a huff of breath through his nose. “Whatever you call it, it was wrong and potentially dangerous.”

Glory couldn’t help but notice how several pairs of eyes lingered on them as they passed.

Rumors would be flying soon if they weren’t already.

At least no one knew that he’d spent the night in her room last night.

Hopefully they’d find the perpetrator quickly and this would be over.

“Well, as you can see, the children aren’t really that dangerous. I’m fine.”

He narrowed his eyes at her, letting her know that her attempt at levity had been a failure.

“It’s not the children I’m worried about.

It’s you. You are my only concern right now and I can’t keep you safe if I don’t know where you are.

Whoever got into your office, could be there waiting for you, knowing that’s where you’d least expect it. ”

She frowned. She supposed it made sense if she looked at it from his point of view; however, she also believed that he was making a huge jump from finding a letter attempting to extort thousands of dollars from her to her safety being imminently at risk.

“No one is going to be waiting in a dark corner to jump out at me. I appreciate your concern and dedication, but right now we should be more concerned with keeping my past in the dark. I really don’t think my life is at risk.

Yet.” She added that last part because she did believe that her life would be at risk if her past ever caught up to her.

He was silent as he followed her up the back stairs to her suite.

The frustration pouring off him was nearly palpable.

It warmed its way up her spine and wrapped around her in a way that wasn’t unpleasant.

It meant that he cared, that he planned to do everything in his power to keep her safe, and while she might take issue with his methods, she appreciated that she could depend on him.