She was tempted to fan the air, such were the waves of irritation radiating from him.
“No, I swear to you. I’m very sorry. That is, Iwasn’tlunging at your feet. I didn’t mean to laugh. It’s... it’s just you reminded me of William.”
“Who in God’s name is William?”
He was so exasperated that it was nearly impossible not to laugh nervously again.
She decided it was wisest to say “No one you know.”
“Then why did you lunge at my feet?” he persisted.
She was certain the truth would madden him, which she would also enjoy. So she told him.
“I saw a rock that I needed. You were about to step on it.”
“A rock youneeded.”
She nodded.
“Was it a diamond?” Dripping with sarcasm, that.
“Oh, God. If only.”
“You do understand that rocks aren’t currency?”
She did not dignify that with an answer.
There was a little pause.
“Why did you need a rock?” He asked it as if he was curious despite himself. As if heresentedthat she’d made him so curious despite himself.
She contemplated whether she ought to lie or tell him the truth.
“It was a sign from my mother.”
She said this specifically in order to see yet another new expression on his face.
And it was everything she’d hoped for.
“A sign from your mother,” he repeated, in that neutral humor-the-madwoman voice she had come to loathe.
“Yes. A sign that I’m on the right path when I need advice. I ask her. And heart-shaped stones always appear when I need them.”
The quality of the silence, and his mood, palpably changed then.
She retrieved the stone from her reticule and displayed it to him on her palm. He peered down at it without comment.
Then he impatiently pushed his hair off his forehead and fussed a bit with the cant of his hat on his head.
“So by your way of thinking, the right path was under my foot?”
“No, no. Of course not. That’s not how it works. And the very notion of you would, in fact, send her to her grave all over again. No offense meant.”
Every offense meant, in other words.
Surprisingly, he said nothing more.
The sky was flooding with deepening indigo now. The lamplighters had nearly finished with this particular part of the street.