The Bachelor's Bride (The Thompsons of Locust Street #1) - Holly Bush Page 0,36

this is resolved. What will you do about the Thompsons? They are the most at risk, wouldn’t you say?”

“I’m going to talk to Elspeth right away. I don’t know if she’ll want me to talk to the eldest sister and brother or maybe her aunt. The night of the boxing match, her brother could barely speak, but he grabbed me by the throat and insisted I tell him who the men were who followed us. As if I knew. There is something going on that I don’t understand.”

“I hope Miss Thompson understands your hesitancy to tell her earlier,” his father said as he swirled the chipped ice in his glass. He looked up at Alexander. “If she is the one, you must say things you may be reluctant to admit. You’ll have to be honest.”

“That is frightening in and of itself, Father,” he said, thinking of what he must be about when he spoke to her, sitting quietly but companionably with the man he considered his closest friend.

“Be careful, Alexander. Do you have anyone at your town house? Do you want me to have Graham send someone?”

Alexander shook his head. “I’ll be careful.”

Elspeth stepped out of the grocer, the basket on her arm filled with spinach and collards for the evening’s meal. The weather was warm as she strolled through the crowds gathered to shop at the markets in her neighborhood. She’d gladly volunteered to make the trip for Mrs. McClintok, away from family and alone with her thoughts, although the housekeeper had been nearly insistent that she take Robert with her. But she wanted some time by herself, and it was broad daylight. Surely she’d be safe enough. She was in a troublesome spot, she thought, and needed some time to reflect on it.

She liked Alexander Pendergast more, much more, than she had ever planned or anticipated, even though they’d spent little time together. Her stomach turned over whenever she saw him, and she could not stop herself from remembering that horribly embarrassing moment when he’d shown up at his family home when she was there with Kirsty and his sister.

She did not believe she’d ever been so humiliated or distressed as she was when she jumped from her chair and he’d been so rude and asked her why she was there. She’d done her best to concentrate on smiling and involving herself in the conversation at the table afterward, but she’d been sick to her stomach. So sick it was all she could do to swallow even one more bite of her meal.

But she did not believe that Mr. Pendergast had been more at ease than she. She thought he may have been just as embarrassed as she was. She had no idea why she felt that way, especially so strongly, but she did. She was convinced she set him on edge much like he set her there as well. Hmmm.

She stopped briefly and looked in the watchmaker’s window. There was a beautiful watch pin that she’d been looking at for weeks. She stared at it, thinking of how it would look on her pleated white blouse and how it would match so nicely with the plaid skirt she often wore to church. She was staring through the glass, wondering if she should buy it for herself, when a person bumped her so hard she stumbled back two steps and nearly fell to the ground, only catching herself on the brick sill under the watchmaker’s window and tearing her glove where she caught herself.

“Oomph!” she said and looked over her shoulder to see the young culprit clutching his wooden scooter and looking back at her.

“Sorry, miss,” he said and ran off.

Elspeth laughed, thinking he reminded her of Payden just a few short years ago, and looked up, her gaze going across the busy street. There were two men there staring at her. A cold chill went down her back as one nodded in her direction to the other. He was one of the men who’d punched Alexander in the alley the night of the boxing match.

She faced forward, hurrying her steps, gripping the handle of her basket and trying desperately to not look over her shoulder to see if they were following her. She made her way quickly down the busy walkway and glanced to her left to see if the men were still there. They were and they were staring at her, moving along at her pace or faster, she thought, and looking to cross through the