another kiss to her throat as he murmured something agreeable. At this moment he didn't give a damn about department stores or babies or teas. He had one thing only on his mind, and it was so close, he could feel it.
"Don't you think it's time to retire for the night?" he murmured, nibbling his way up to her ear.
Too excited to sit still, Georgina jumped from his lap and rushed to the door. "Let's go out and see what they're talking about over at the cafe."
Daniel closed his eyes and stifled his groan of agony. He'd rather be punched in the face any day than suffer another moment of torment with Georgina. Apparently, he had a masochistic streak he had known nothing about.
He got up and followed her out.
* * *
"Yes, Georgina, dear, I did read Mr. Martin's extraordinary newssheet. It's made me quite anxious. What if my favorite seamstress over at Mulloney's has a starving child at home and is so worried she sticks me with pins or ruins my rose organdy? After reading those articles, I'm quite surprised some of those clerks don't come after my purse with a knife. It's quite scary."
Loyolla Banks took a deep breath and gently chided the preacher's wife. "Now, Lolly, you've missed the point. Just think how much you paid Mulloney's for gowns last year. Don't you think your favorite seamstress should have received a little more out of them than the cost of a few quarts of milk?"
"Now, Loyolla, don't you get started on women's rights again. This has nothing to do with our rights. This has to do with clerks who take their money home to be spent on whiskey every Friday night." The wife of the man who owned the local lumber mill spoke up. "That's where the money goes. Not on baby's milk. Why, my Harry can scarcely keep the mill open on Saturdays after he pays the help. They all stay home sick or come in so hungover he has to send them back home again. If he paid them more, they wouldn't come in at all. They're little more than animals."
Georgina wanted to reach over and pull the woman's hair from her head, but she demurely spoke over the top of her teacup instead. "I'm quite familiar with a number of Mulloney's clerks, Mrs. Garrison. One family comes from an English vicarage, others are descendants of well-respected craftsmen driven from their homes by religious or political persecution. Their families try hard to learn the language and the customs and make a new life for themselves here, just as our families did when they first came to America. Most of the clerks at Mulloney's are second-generation Americans, but due to deaths or illness in the family, they have very little money and must work hard for a living. I should think Mr. Mulloney could sacrifice a carriage or two to let them live a little better."
"Well now, you remember to tell Peter that, Georgina, when he offers to buy you your first carriage. You just tell him to put that money into a clerk's salary. Just see how well that goes over."
How odd. Peter hadn't mentioned their broken betrothal to anyone. And if her family hadn't mentioned her marriage, these ladies would have no idea she was living on the other side of town. They didn't talk to their servants.
Georgina sipped her tea and let the silly conversation go on without her. It was patently obvious that selfishness and a lifetime of never thinking for themselves made these women worse than useless for her purposes. It wouldn't improve her position to tell them she was married to the newspaper's editor, but she'd dearly love to stand up and announce it to them all just to see the shock and horror on their faces. But if neither her father nor Peter had made the announcement, she wasn't going to take it upon herself.
With a sad shake of her head Georgina set her cup down and made her excuses to Loyolla. This was the wrong group of women to talk to about forming a ban on Mulloney's. She would have to think of another route.
Loyolla accompanied her to the door, holding her hand and patting it gently. "You've just tried to do too much at once, dear Georgina. I know your heart's in the right place, but standing up to Mulloney's won't make the world better. Why don't you wait until you're married, and then you'll understand things