Texas Tiger TH3 (10 page)

Daniel stepped closer, staring her down. "You still don't know what you're talking about. I took you to see people who grew up here, who speak English. I bet you don't realize most of the people in that slum don't even know the language. They're Germans and Jews and Italians and Poles and even Negroes from Africa. They drink. They smell. They look different. Now, how do you feel about this noble cause you've taken on?"

She had never met an Italian or a Negro, but Blucher was German. Of course, he spoke English, but people could learn. After carefully contemplating Daniel's revelations, Georgina shook her head until her curls bounced. "People are people. You probably drink, too, and I know you smell."

She grinned as he backed away. "Not speaking the language doesn't make them less than people. There's a lot in this world that needs changing, and what you've got in this paper is just the very tip of it. Have you noticed that women keep getting the worst end of the stick? Even in Mulloney's the men can hope to become something more than clerks, to earn a little more, to have it a little easier. What do the women have to hope for? Nothing! We are nothing in the eyes of the men who own this town. We have to marry to survive, and men like it that way. Just look at your friend Janice and see what I mean."

Daniel stuffed his spectacles in his shirt pocket and looked at her approvingly. "My, my, we have been studying the situation, haven't we? And what does your fancy boyfriend think of your radical opinions?"

"Will you quit calling him my boyfriend?" Irritated, Georgina stalked to the window and stared out. "His name is Peter, and he doesn't know I have any opinions. Even if I told him what I just told you, he'd pat me on the head and smile and say, That's nice, dear.' But I intend to make him sit up and take notice now. I can't go to the mill or the gas company, but I can get into my father's factory. My share of it will go to Peter when we marry, so he'll notice."

"No, he won't. I fully expect him down here the minute he sees the kiosk practically in front of his store. I'll tell him I developed the pictures for you and stole those. And he'll believe me. He won't know anything about your radical notions."

When Georgina turned to face him, she was wearing her hostess smile. "Well, that's just fine, darling," she drawled in blatant imitation of his Texas accent. "Just don't let him smash in your pretty face too badly. You have an invitation to the mayor's house on Friday, and you're going to be there, whether you like it or not."

She dropped the invitation at his feet, picked up her skirt, and walked out.

Chapter 8

Daniel leaned against the front window frame, waiting for the beautiful woman in white to reappear on his doorstep below. He enjoyed the sassy spoiled brat in her, but she had just shown him a side that he hadn't known existed, and he was fighting a losing battle with admiration. Spoiled, she might be, but dumb, she was not.

He grinned with another kind of admiration as Georgina sailed out the front door. She was a vision in white, trailing silken gauze and lace, and smelling of lilies, as he ought to know. The scent still lingered in the air around him. Peter Mulloney didn't have any idea how lucky he was. One of these days, Daniel was going to have to get around to telling him.

He sent the heavy vellum invitation plummeting out the window toward her feet. His aim was off. It hit the parasol first before bouncing into the dust.

She looked down at the invitation, bent to pick it up, then turned the parasol back to look up at him standing in the window. Daniel crossed his arms and called down to her, "The mayor isn't likely to want to see me after this edition hits the streets."

Instead of answering, she swung around and stalked back toward the front door.

He hadn't expected that. Or perhaps he had. Ladies didn't yell from the street. He hadn't wanted her to leave so precipitously. He wanted to share the triumph of his first creation with someone, and Miss Georgina Meredith Hanover was the ideal companion. Of course, he had in mind breaking out champagne and laughing and hugging and that kind of celebration, not a first-class, genuine, knock-down brawl, but he would take what he could get.

He rebuttoned his shirt, shoved it into his pants, and raked his hair back out of his face. He really was going to have to get a haircut. Evie would be ashamed of him. But he was grinning widely when Georgina sailed back into the room.

She slapped the invitation at the arms crossed over his chest. "You can be very certain the mayor will want to see you after the paper comes out, if only to have you hanged. But it's his wife who wants to see you. And if you don't appear, she won't give me the information on ABC Rentals. Now do you want that information the easy way, or would you prefer to work for it?"

Her blue eyes sparkled like rare diamonds, and her cheeks were flushed with heat and probably ire. Daniel couldn't help thinking that her lips were a delightfully kissable pink, but that was because she was pouting. He'd have to make her laugh and chase that thought away.

"What kind of work do you have in mind?" he asked innocently, knowing Miss Georgina Hanover had no notion of what was going through his mind right now.

She looked at him suspiciously, but since he had taken the invitation, she modified her tone. "I haven't any idea how a newspaperman works to get information out of people. I suppose if you kicked around a few people as you did that Mr. Egan, you might find one or two willing to talk. I just thought you might prefer to do it by having a nice dinner instead."

"Will you be there?" He dangled the invitation between two fingers.

"Peter and I are invited, yes." She held herself stiffly against any attack of disapproval.

"Good. I'll get to meet the infamous Peter. If I don't meet him tonight, that is."

Daniel seemed serenely unconcerned by the prospect of being beaten into a pulp by her fiance. Georgina shook her head at his foolishness. "I'd suggest finding somewhere else to go once you send those papers out into the street. Peter is bigger than you are, and your fancy kicking isn't likely to impress him any."

Daniel bent the invitation and shoved it into his trouser pocket. "I'm not a fighter, Miss Hanover. I don't take pleasure out of hitting people. If your Mr. Mulloney can't be reasonable about this, then I'll have to show him out. How I do that will be up to him."

He didn't seem to have any doubts that he could do it. Remembering the wide shoulders and muscular arms she had seen earlier, Georgina didn't argue. She didn't know what Peter looked like beneath his frock coat and cravat, and she didn't intend to think about it. She took a gulp of air to clear her brain, but before she could give him a good reply, the downstairs seemed to erupt into commotion.

"I brought 'em, Mr. Martin! Are they ready? Can we go out now?"

Shouts and whistles and stamping feet echoed up the stairwell. Georgina turned in time to see a herd of grubby boys in all sizes and shapes pouring into the room. Corduroys and suspenders and knickers and bulky shirts and even a sporty cap or two abounded as they spread out, filling the small room with their energy.

"The first batch is coming off the press right now. You can catch the factory workers coming out for lunch. The next batch needs to go downtown. By evening, I want you all over town."

Georgina watched in amazement as Daniel sprang into action, sorting through the boys, sending two to pick up the sheets rolling off the press, setting two of the weakest to folding, adjusting the carrier pouches over the shoulders of the smaller ones, and instructing them carefully in their duties. He had the patience of two saints as he explained the same details a dozen times. Some grasped the idea quickly, grabbing their sacks and the first papers folded and running out the door. Others hung back, uncertain, waiting for understanding to dawn.

As they understood that they were to charge two pennies for each paper and bring back one penny to buy more, they began to bounce in anticipation. Georgina watched as one small boy continually got pushed to the back in the jostling, shoving crowd. Swiping a carrier pouch and filling it with freshly folded newspapers, she leaned over the heads of several larger boys to hand it to the small one.

His freckled face broke into a wide grin that revealed two missing front teeth. "Thankth, mith," and he was off.

After that, Georgina joined in, leaving Daniel to return to his presses while she kept order in the folding process and saw that everyone was supplied with the same number of papers. As soon as the room cleared of one batch of carriers, the first ones started to return, their hands clutching dozens of grubby pennies.

She didn't know how Daniel would make any money off the pittance that she carefully divided in half, returning one half to each boy along with a corresponding number of papers. Pennies didn't buy presses. Pennies wouldn't even buy paper. She hoped he knew what he was doing.

There wasn't time to question. One of the presses stuck, and cursing, Daniel yelled for one of the boys to give him a hand. That left Georgina helping to fold papers as well as count cash and replenish pouches. Perspiration poured from her forehead, and she was in dire fear that the underarms of her gown were soaked, but no one seemed to notice. The boys just grinned and thanked her and ran out again.

As the boys spread further into the city, their returns became less frequent. By midafternoon, there was a lull, and Georgina stood up to stretch her aching muscles. Daniel appeared from the back room, ink smeared from ear to ear but grinning happily.

"They're out there, Miss Merry. We'll be the topic of discussion at every table tonight. Doesn't that make your toes tingle?"

What was making her toes tingle was the expression of warmth and admiration and approval in his eyes. Georgina wasn't used to anyone looking at her like that. And the name he had given her made her somehow feel special, as if they shared a secret between them. Avoiding these thoughts, she glanced down at her ruined gown and tried to shake out some of the paper shreds.

"I'm all a-tingle, Mr. Martin, but I suspect it's dust and fleas. Anticipating yelling and cursing does nothing but make me want to bury my head until it stops."

His grin disappeared, and an expression of concern formed lines between his eyebrows. "We'd better get you home. I don't think it's a good idea to let anyone know you're involved with this at all."

Georgina gasped as she remembered the time and Blucher waiting for her back in town. "What time is it? Blucher will think I got lost. They'll be sending out search parties. Oh, dear, I have to go." She looked around dazedly for her parasol and whatever accouterments had accompanied her.

Daniel located the parasol in the rumpled covers of his bed, where the boys had been tussling, and Georgina found one of her gloves under his table. There was no sign of the other. There wasn't time to look. She hurried for the door, unaware that Daniel was following her until she reached the stairway.

She turned and waved him away. "Go back to your presses. I can always go to my father and tell him I got lost. He'll believe that sooner than the truth."

Daniel glanced down at her ink-stained skirt and up to her dust-smudged cheeks, and shook his head. "If you walk in like that, he'll be after heads, specifically mine. I think we'd better smuggle you into the house and let you clean up before you go telling any stories. How good are you at lying?"

Georgina gave a radiant smile. "Not very."

"Good." Not explaining that reply, Daniel caught her elbow and hurried her down the stairs.

They met Janice hurrying up. At sight of Georgina, she froze, but she couldn't hide the desperation in her eyes as she appealed to Daniel. "The paper's all over town. Mulloney's is in an uproar. They're looking for the sheriff to have the newsstand closed down. And they fired Audrey because someone told them she had been talking to you."

Janice didn't say what they all knew: The little household couldn't survive without Audrey's meager income to supplement hers.

Georgina knew this woman disliked her, but she was determined to right the injustices of her world. "I'll talk to Mr. Mulloney," she offered at once. "I can make him see that your sister didn't do anything wrong." Her face lit up with a new idea. "I'll tell him that I'm the one who gave Mr. Martin the information!"

A flicker of hope crossed the other woman's face, but Daniel dashed it with a scowl as he pushed Georgina forward. "I don't want him to even know we've met. I'll talk to your hotheaded boyfriend myself, just as soon as I get you out of here."