“Partners?” she suggests. “Why not? I’ll bet you make an…” She looks me up and down and it dawns on me that I had done no more to my appearance this morning than pull on clothes to take the horse out. “An interesting pair.” A quick glance at the hay on my shirt confirms that I am indeed not at my best, though she’s kind enough to not explicitly point that out as she says, “Opposites can attract, you know.”
I cough, nearly choking on the quick breath I pull in. “No, there is no…attractinggoing on here.”
“I see.” Her shoulders sag a little, but her disappointment is brief. “You must know each other well, though, for a gift this…extravagant. Would you happen to know if he is otherwise spoken for? I mean, is he available? Your friend?”
“Sure,” I say, not bothering to correct her the way I did the boy. What would be the point? “Just save your commissions for bail.”
She laughs, not believing for a second that I’m completely serious. “Well, perhaps when you see him, tell him…” She trails off, waving a hand and averting her eyes. “Never mind. Was there something else you needed?”
“Yes,” I say, still irked. “How much did he pay for this?”
“Oh.” Her mouth presses into a thin line. “It wouldn’t be polite to say. After all, it was a gift.” She looks once more at the watch, then at me. “Do you not like it? He was worried you might not, but he was hoping this one could serve as a replacement for the other. Although, I have to say, that one wasn’tnearthe quality or—”
“He showed you the other watch?” I ask, knowing I’m beingbad-mannered by continually interrupting but unable to prevent myself. “You told me no one came in to sell one.”
“That’s right,” she tells me, her patience clearly just as thin as mine. “He didn’t come in to sell one. He came in to have onefixed. Said he’d been all over town, but no one had been able to help. When I told him I couldn’t either, he decided to buy another.”
I think back to yesterday, to all the shops I had visited looking for him and my watch. I hadn’t described Cypress to any of them, only asked if someone had been in to sell a watch. I’d gone to the right places. I’d just simply asked the wrong question.
“Did he tell youwhyhe wanted it fixed?” I ask. “Why he was going to all the trouble?”
“He did,” she replied, sounding dreamy again. “It was quite sweet, actually. He said he didn’t think you deserved to have something broken.”
“He…” I swallow, the words sticking in my throat as I try to make sense of it all.He doesn’t even know me, I want to say.He has no idea the kind of things I deserve.
Instead, I only tip my hat as I turn away. “Thank you, miss. I’m grateful to you.”
“Hold on a minute,” she calls after me, and I think she’s about to guess at who I am again before I see her carefully slide the watch and the silk wrapping back across the counter. “Don’t you think you ought to take this with you?”
I don’t. But I take it anyway.
I watch Aiden walk by the hotel through the front parlor window, knowing he just came from the direction of the jeweler, and I’m incredibly pleased to see a flash of black and silver still in his hand.
Judging by his expression, his mood is currently about as light as a storm cloud. Looks broody…again.Very likely cursing my name. ThethingsI would do to hear it.
“Well, well, there he is,” intrudes a grating voice to my right instead. “My Lord, he really is insufferable.”
Before I can stop the reflex, my head snaps right to where Maddock is similarly surveying the comings and goings outside, and I see him smirk thinking he has just ensnared a captive audience. Which he has, but not for the reason he thinks.
“Truthfully, when I brought him on, I really thought he’d be more…” Maddock pauses, circling his hand in the air while he rests his shoulder against the tall window frame. “Awe-inspiring. All those stories you hear about him? Not sure if I believe anynow.”
I don’t tell him that I think Aiden is plentyawe-inspiringto look at, frankly because I don’t like the idea of Maddock looking at him at all. Nor do I like the way he’s looking at me, even if it’s the exact outcome I’ve tried to encourage.
This is always the aim, to have them look at me and see one of their own. Upper class. Influential. By all counts, an extremely advantageous acquaintance to make…otherwise described as a self-centered asshole who has no concept of their own inadequacy because the same laws of nature haven’t applied to them.
At least, not until they meet me.
“You do know who he is, yes?” Maddock continues.
“Of course.” I smile good-naturedly, shifting my stance so that we’re facing each other, and adding the extra step of tilting my head slightly to make it clear that I have the option of looking down on him in more ways than one. “I’d know him anywhere.”
Interestingly, Maddock’s mouth falls into a frown, displeased with my response, and something tells me his vexation isn’t only disappointment at not getting to be the first to share this information with me.
“If you ask me, the papers made too much of him,” Maddock goes on, unconcerned that I’ve made no such inquiry. “Hard to believe he’s some legendary gunman when I’ve never even seen him reach for his weapon.”
Now that detail does catch my attention. Because Icertainlyhave. Aiden aimed his pistol steady at me no more than two nights ago, not that I’ll mention that to Maddock.
“Don’t bother asking him about it,” he prattles on. “I’ve tried many times, and he is strangely reluctant to talk about the whole thing.”