are what, a cynic?”
“You think someone so young—and let me guess, female—shouldn’t be a cynic?”
“I don’t actually. I’ve seen plenty of women—young and old—carrying their families on their backs. That’s the difference between people like you and people like me. Maybe your people shelter women as the ‘fairer sex,’ but on the dirty streets of New York and in the tenements piled on top of one another like the layers of human sweat that fill the air, the working class in this country doesn’t have that luxury.”
My gaze narrows speculatively. It’s another facet to him that I wouldn’t have predicted. Despite his wealth, he wears his disdain for money as well as his impeccably tailored clothes.
“Is it odd being part of a society that you hate?” I ask.
Now it’s his turn to look surprised. “Pardon me?”
“You’re one of the wealthiest men in New York.”
I’ve done my research, too.
“Perhaps your origins aren’t up to Mrs. Astor’s standards,” I add, “but you cannot pretend you don’t rub elbows with some of the same people you decry in the same breath.”
“Yes, but rubbing elbows with them is not the same as being part of their little world.”
“So, you seek to create change from within?”
“Is that a note of censure I hear, Miss Harrington? You have this delightfully prim way of making one feel entirely put in their place when you open your lips.”
I flush at the intimate description. It’s not so much that he lacks the manners necessary to navigate polite society, for there are certainly moments when his bearing is flawless; it is more that he sometimes clearly doesn’t give a fig about deploying them.
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t you? You remind me of a schoolmistress. I half expect you to take a ruler in hand. How did you end up in the newspaper business, anyway?”
For some reason, giving him the same explanation I shared with Pulitzer in his office—about Nellie Bly and feeling as though I was seen in her writing—feels too intimate, as though I am providing him with a deep insight into my personality I’d rather he not have. He’s already too perceptive by half.
“I suppose I just saw enough around me that made me angry, that made me want to do something to make things better. My father was like that. It annoyed my mother tremendously. He could never let things go like she wanted. He believed if you saw something you didn’t like in the world, you should do what you could to change it.”
“He would be very proud of you, then.”
“I hope so.”
“How did he die, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Pneumonia. After all he’d been through, fighting in the war—they said it changed him, all that he’d seen, the men he’d killed. He didn’t come back the same. He had health problems. Sometimes he would be quiet for long periods of time. He told me once that when I was born it felt like he got a new start at life. He was a good man. I never imagined I’d lose him at such a young age. And then one winter when I was a little girl, he got sick. He was gone a few weeks later.”
“You must miss him very much.”
The kindness in his voice catches me off guard.
“I do miss him.” I clear my throat discreetly, past the emotion there. “He was my best friend. I looked up to him quite a bit.”
I can’t bear to meet Rafael’s gaze after sharing something so personal, so I turn my attention to the crowd before us, only to be surprised by how many people are staring back at us. Our conversation has drawn its share of notice, and I know I’m hardly the cause of them. I’ve been out of society so long, I’m quite sure I’ve been forgotten. But the glances our way are coming from the feminine quarters of the room.
Suddenly, he leans in closer to me, his lips an indecorous distance from my ear. “Do you want to get out of here?”
I lurch backward. “Mr. Harden, if I have given you the impression that I am interested in you in any way, I do apologize. I am not one of your women, nor am I—”
Rafael lets out a sharp bark of laughter. “Good God, I wasn’t asking you to come with me so I could have my way with you.”
My cheeks must be flaming red.
“I very much doubt we would suit. But, since you do have your notepad