used to look up to her? It’s positively embarrassing to think of it now.”
On another day Gloria might’ve been offended by their barbed words. But now all Gloria could think of was Jerome, and how Forrest’s sadistic father had him locked up God knew where. Pembroke had refused to say anything about what he’d done with Jerome—only that he was alive. Alive was not necessarily synonymous with safe or unharmed. She couldn’t stop imagining Jerome’s soft brown eyes widened in terror, or his normally deep voice pitched in a cry for help that no one would hear.
“Where is Pembroke now?” Gloria asked Forrest.
“In the far right corner, by the vase of lilies,” Forrest replied immediately. His eyes hadn’t strayed from his father for a moment since they’d arrived at the Plaza.
Gloria peeked over the many wide-brimmed hats and delicate headdresses. Pembroke stood as he always did, silent and imposing with his hands folded behind his back.
He wasn’t playing the servant today—his black tuxedo was of finer quality than half the guests here. His black bowler hat pitched low over his eyes and made his garish scar less obvious, but Gloria could still feel his stare. When Pembroke made eye contact with Gloria, his lips peeled back to reveal a smile that was more of a sneer.
Gloria tugged on Forrest’s sleeve. “Come on, I’ve got to join the wedding party.”
They made their way through the crowd and under the domed ceiling of the Plaza’s Palm Court. Large tables were already set up with place cards and more silverware than one person could ever need for the reception that would follow the ceremony. Gloria and Forrest walked between the columns and began to climb the steps.
“You don’t have to go with your father,” Gloria pled with Forrest under her breath. “You’re a better man than he is.”
Forrest refused to look at her. “I have to help him. He’s my dad.”
“Yeah, well, your dad is holding my fiancé hostage. And I doubt he got that scar rescuing small children.”
“He’s not a good man, I know,” Forrest admitted. “But without him, I’m just another poor boy—no mansion, no musicals, no shot to win the heart of Ruby Hay worth.”
“But you were planning to leave him,” Gloria said when they reached the second floor of the hotel. They walked quickly past the entrance to the ballroom, where several men and women mingled and smoked cigarettes. “You wanted to run away to Paris with Ruby,” she whispered. “What happened?”
He gave her a bleak smile. “You happened, Gloria. How am I supposed to leave now, knowing you’ll probably turn my father over to the feds before my boat’s even left the harbor? I owe everything I have, everything I am, to my father.”
They reached a long hallway. Gorgeous landscapes and portraits of women in elegant gowns hung between the doors. Gloria stopped walking and leaned against the wall. Her bare arm brushed up against the rough texture of the painting behind her. From here she could see the ballroom entrance to their right and the stairs beyond it. Pembroke was nowhere in sight. “What happened between you and Ruby? She said you two were planning to elope when you were younger.”
Forrest stopped as well and leaned on the wall beside her, a gold candelabra sconce right above his head. “We were seventeen,” Forrest said in a dreamy voice. “Even before she was onstage, a spotlight seemed to follow Ruby Fredericks everywhere she went. I could hardly believe my luck, that a girl like that would even notice me, much less love me back.”
“Why, though?” Gloria asked. “You’re a charmer, Forrest, and you’re not too horrible to look at, either.”
Forrest frowned as the memory slipped away. “I was poor. And to people in Ruby’s world, that was all that mattered.”
Gloria could understand that. Even if Jerome had been white, her family never would’ve accepted her love for a penniless piano player.
“She said the money didn’t matter to her,” Forrest said. “But it did, in the end. Money kept her from running away with me, and sent her straight into the arms of that block of wood, Marty. I was so angry with her at first. But then I realized I couldn’t blame her. I had expected her to walk away from everything she’d ever known. All the little comforts she’d grown so used to would be gone.”
Gloria flinched at the heavy sadness in Forrest’s voice. Ruby wasn’t as blameless as he claimed, Gloria didn’t think. Giving up a