move out on her own in truth, or accept Daniel as her husband. He wouldn't wait forever. It was a terrible decision to have to make. She was glad she didn't have to make it immediately.
Filled to overflowing, they traversed the streets more sedately a little while later. Georgina didn't even object when Daniel wrapped his fingers around hers and held her hand. She rather liked the casual possessiveness of his grasp. Peter had never held her hand. He had always offered his arm when required, but even a stranger on the street might do that. She liked knowing she was a little more than a stranger on the street.
She didn't like the direction they were taking, however. She recognized it instantly, and her heart beat in trepidation as the scarlet geranium came in sight. She didn't want to deliberately walk into a place where she would be looked on with scorn. She pulled on Daniel's hand, trying to hold him back, then trying to escape when he continued walking.
His hand crushed hers as he glanced back at her. "You can't hide from the world, Georgina. You have to confront it and shake your fist at it and go on. I have enough battles of my own to fight. I don't want to have to fight all yours, too."
That got her dander up. Glaring at him, Georgina caught up her skirt and stalked down the street. She wasn't any vapid heroine who needed a white knight to rescue her. Janice Harrison was an arrogant pigheaded fool, and she was going to prove it to her.
She did very well when the spry old lady answered the door. Georgina smiled and greeted her and pushed her way into the house without invitation. That was when her determination faltered.
Janice knelt beside a makeshift bed in the front room, a look of worry and exhaustion lining her porcelain face in shades of gray. On the bed lay a frail golden-haired child, her closed eyelids veined in blue. Even her lips were blue against the pinched thin skin of her face. Georgina halted, speechless, while Daniel placed a hand on her shoulder.
Even in her weariness, Janice's anger came through as she looked up at the intruders. "Get her out of here," she whispered, not moving from the child's side.
"Georgina's my wife, Janice. We're here to help whether you like it or not. Betsy's had another of her spells?" He nodded toward the child on the bed.
"She walked clear out to the end of town, looking for wild strawberries, then some fools tried to steal her pail, and she had to run all the way home. The doctor said she shouldn't overexert herself. Her heart's too weak to stand it." didn't comment on Georgina's new status.
That didn't keep the old woman from cackling over it. "Found yourself a good man, did you?" She gestured toward a lumpy stuffed chair near the door. "Have a seat. It's good to see a smiling face once in a while."
Janice scowled, but taking one look at Daniel's expression kept her from driving their visitors away. Instead, she gave Georgina a malicious glance. "What happened to your rich beau? Frighten him away?"
"I couldn't marry a man who would hire a scoundrel like Egan." Georgina took the seat offered although she was certain her light gown would be soiled forever. There wasn't any way these people could beat out the grime that coated this neighborhood.
Janice snorted. "I could marry a man with two heads and horns if he could give me everything Peter Mulloney could give me. You're a fool."
Georgina smiled sweetly. "I'll introduce you two sometime."
"If you'd married him, you could have persuaded him to fire Egan and fix up these places," Janice pointed out, dipping a sponge into a basin and carefully mopping her sister's forehead.
"If I'd married him, I could have grown old talking to the walls. It would have done as much good. The only way to persuade Peter to do anything is from the wrong end of a gun." Georgina looked up to Daniel hopefully. "Could we do that? Could we hold him at gunpoint and force his father to sign over the houses or something? I'd dearly love to see Peter at the wrong end of that rifle."
Daniel's lips quirked up in agreement, but then he turned his attention back to the woman at the bed. "Do you have more of that medicine the doctor prescribed last time? That seemed to work."
Georgina felt a breeze of