The Bachelor's Bride (The Thompsons of Locust Street #1) - Holly Bush Page 0,78
stood.
“Elspeth?” Aunt Murdoch laughed. “Did you hear that there were dumplings for dinner?”
She stood in the door, pale and taking deep breaths. She smiled. “I did hear that, Aunt.”
“I’ve taken your place, Miss Thompson,” he said. “Please sit.”
“That’s no problem, Mr. Pendergast. We can easily fit another chair here, between you and her sister,” Mrs. McClintok said and hurried away for a place setting.
James pulled a chair from the side of the room and smiled at her. “Here you are,” he said as he pushed the chair between Alexander and Kirsty.
Alexander waited while she stood at the doorway. Everyone else began talking, he thought perhaps to make her feel that she was not the center of everyone’s focus. He smiled at her and held the back of the chair as she slowly walked toward him. There was some truth to the poet’s saying that time occasionally stopped. It was if the two of them were completely alone and that her arrival at the table had much greater significance than sitting down for a meal.
Alexander seated himself after helping Elspeth with her chair. Mrs. McClintok reached around her and put a plate and silverware in front of her.
“Would you like some wine, Miss Elspeth?” the housekeeper said.
“Ah,” she began and stopped to clear her throat as everyone at the table waited for her to speak. “No. No, thank you. Just some water, please.”
Conversation resumed again, and Alexander leaned close. “May I serve you some chicken? It looks delicious.”
“Mrs. McClintok’s meals are always delicious. She is my cousin, you know,” she said softly.
Muireall glanced at the two of them, but Elspeth didn’t appear to notice. “The green beans are very good too, Elspeth,” she said. “We’ve got several crates of them in the basement, ready to be canned.”
Elspeth’s head came up and she looked at Muireall. “I’ve been remiss. You and Kirsty have had to do my share of the work in the kitchens, haven’t you?”
“No, they haven’t,” Payden barked from the other side of the table. “Robert and I have been doing the extra, but we don’t mind. We got to skip reading Homer!”
Everyone at the table laughed, and Alexander thought Payden looked more like a carefree young man today than he did in a filthy alley, his face covered in black grease, just a few weeks ago, giving directions to men older than he and more experienced.
“Dumplings?” she asked him softly.
“Yes, please,” he said, and she spooned two gravy-covered dumplings onto his plate, her hand shaking ever so slightly.
He noticed she had taken very small amounts and ate slowly, taking studious care with every bite. She did look thinner, although she was so beautiful she took his breath away. The bruises on her face were nearly faded, and her hands were healed other than the scars circling her wrists. Those would be a constant reminder of her ordeal.
“It’s a beautiful day out, Miss Thompson,” he said. “Would you like to take a walk after our meal?”
Conversation continued, but every eye around the table was on Elspeth. Perhaps he should have waited for them to be in private before asking her, but he could hardly stop himself. There was so much he wanted to say, so much he wanted to ask her. But maybe coming to the dining room for a meal was all she could manage. She was silent so long that he feared she would never answer. And then she did.
“I would enjoy that, Mr. Pendergast.”
He felt like jumping up and down. He felt like shouting from the rooftops. He was the luckiest man on earth.
James looked at him and nodded, and even Muireall smiled at them.
“Take a wrap, Elspeth,” Aunt Murdoch said. “I don’t want you getting a chill.”
“Oh, Aunt. It’s hot outside. She will be fine without a shawl, won’t you?” Kirsty turned to Elspeth. “Eat, Elspeth. You’re thin as a rail, although you have some color today. I can cover what’s left of your bruises with some rice powder, if you’d like.”
James shook his head. “My God, Kirsty. You’re as subtle as Mr. Ervin’s dog in the trash piles.”
Payden and Aunt Murdoch laughed. Alexander grinned and looked at Elspeth, hoping she wasn’t shrinking in her chair, embarrassed or uncomfortable. But he heard a soft laugh from her, and he nearly sobbed with the sound of it.
“Thank you for pointing that out, Kirsty,” she said in a confident voice he hadn’t heard from her in quite a while.