An Heiress to Remember (The Gilded Age Girls Club #3) - Maya Rodale Page 0,38

he didn’t recognize.

Dalton barely registered the disruption. He paused and noted that the Goodwin’s he had once known was gone. Much of the store was deep in the throes of dusty, intensive renovations. But still, enough remained to remind him.

Memories had a way of tugging on the heart and whispering, Remember? when you were only trying to forget.

He remembered being a mere delivery boy who never wanted anything as much as he wanted to belong in that store.

He remembered falling in love here. And never wanting anything as much as he wanted to be with Beatrice.

He remembered being cast out of paradise.

In this moment he wanted to torch the place as much as he had on the first of June in 1879.

Beatrice turned, caught sight of him, strolled over.

“Oh, hello, Dalton.” She smiled like she knew exactly why he was here. He nearly lost his temper on the spot.

“You’re stealing my shopgirls and you greet me with a cheerful ‘hello, Dalton’? I don’t think so.”

“They are freeborn human beings, Dalton, I’m not stealing them. I simply posted notices that I was hiring. Didn’t you see them?”

“I saw the notices,” he said tightly. “It’s not like one could miss them, the way you plastered them all over the front of the store.”

“Well, you know that I fired the previous staff,” she explained calmly, which only angered him more. “You didn’t think I was going to run a store of this size without clerks, did you?”

“Of course not. I just didn’t think you would hire my salespeople. There are enough people looking for work in this city that I thought you’d get—and train—your own. I thought you would have some notion of fair play.”

But no.

They were going to fight and the gloves were off. Fine. He’d been too close to satisfying his revenge to start losing ground now. But he was. First it was seven salesclerks, and then more would inevitably follow. He could and would hire more, but as he sacrificed the time to train them, Dalton’s renowned and impeccable service would slowly falter.

Rule: please a woman and she’ll be yours. Keep her waiting and she’s gone forever.

It wasn’t just seven salesgirls.

Dalton, seething, took a step closer and looked down at her. It was, admittedly, a move designed to intimidate and one he’d employed when necessary in conversations with other businessmen. But this, oh, this, was not the same. His heart was thundering and he became acutely aware of the rise and fall of his own chest as he breathed. If he weren’t so angry it would have felt like desire.

But it was rage, certainly.

Pure molten rage that had no other feelings mixed in.

Yet Beatrice tilted her chin up stubbornly and refused to step back. She held her ground. In fact she stepped closer.

“A very qualified bunch of candidates applied. I hired them.”

“I know they are a very qualified bunch of candidates, Beatrice. I know it because I’m the one who trained them.”

“And I’m the one paying them more.”

Dalton and Beatrice were toe to toe now. Tempers flaring, heat rising. He imagined he could feel the heat from her body, drawing him closer. But he could not allow himself to think of her body now.

“You have poached them. You could at least apologize.”

“They’re my employees now. And there is no point in quibbling over them. They are humans with free will to make choices. Such as the choice to work for a woman who understands their circumstances and offers them a higher wage. And who gives them a break during the long workday.”

“A higher wage? What are you paying them?”

There was a beat of silence.

“What they’re worth.”

He gave a short bark of laughter. “You’ll never turn a profit like that.”

Beatrice wasn’t intimidated in the slightest.

“Best not let Josephine Shaw Lowell hear you say that. She’s putting together a list of stores that treat their female employees with decency so the women of Manhattan know where to best spend their money. I know Goodwin’s will be on The White List. But will Dalton’s?”

She lifted one brow.

He felt another surge of anger.

Because this was the first time he was hearing of Josephine Shaw Lowell and her White List. Who the devil was she and did he really have to care?

Beatrice was fighting back. Dalton was not about to argue any of her points. He was going to learn how much she was paying and give all his employees a raise accordingly. It would cut into his profits but he had plenty of profits.