The Only Gold (24 page)

Returning to the room, he found Reid up and dressing. Reid handed him a clean collar, and after watching him fumble with it, came up behind him to assist. “We won’t be too late. Simon can handle things.”

Jonah met his glance in the mirror. “You’re speaking of Simon Campbell? Our first teller?”

Reid laughed. “He does, as you would say, his job.”

“Yes, well, he needn’t do mine and yours, in addition.”

“That’s what’s bothering you?” Reid asked mildly.

Jonah turned to meet his eyes. “Won’t it seem peculiar we’re both late?”

Reid shrugged. “We’ll say we met for breakfast.” He smoothed Jonah’s tie. “No one will think twice about it.”

“And when everyone asks where I was last night?”

“I’ve already sent a note ’round, telling them we supped late and you stayed with me rather than brave the cold night.”

“Really? I’m glad I mentioned it, then.” Jonah sat on the bed to wait as Reid dressed. “Your neighbors think you’re a clerk.”

“No harm in that.”

“Why do you live here?”

In the middle of buttoning his waistcoat, Reid cast him a narrowed but smiling glance. “Why do you live uptown? It suits you. I like it here. Besides, there’s less risk for both of us this way.”

Jonah realized Reid must have had others spend the night, but he didn’t want to confirm it. “I suppose falsehoods will always be the order of the day.”

“Father Francis used to say falsehoods are as necessary as the truth for a contented world.”

Jonah raised an eyebrow. “You’re sure he was a priest?”

Reid only laughed. “Get your coat and let’s go before Helen and Simon start quarreling and it ends with a run on the bank.”

Though he was joking, Jonah shivered at the thought. He didn’t have a moment to worry further as Reid hurried him out and they headed for the street, pulling on coats along the way. From the rain-soaked curb, Jonah looked around for a streetcar and realized Reid was chasing after one already overloaded with passengers. Jonah ran after him and leapt aboard, catching Reid’s outstretched hand. The car began to pick up speed, and Jonah staggered into him. “You might’ve told me you planned to risk life and limb, diving for the first car past.”

“I thought by now you’d assume it.” Reid tugged at his lapel. “Button your coat.”

“I’m too warm—” Jonah stopped as Reid held out a familiar pocketbook. “You….” He thrust a hand in his pocket, to find it empty. He looked into Reid’s smiling face in disbelief. “You picked my pocket.”

“Consider it an object lesson. Nothing gladdens a thief’s heart like the sight of a man with his coat hanging open, especially on a crowded car.”

“Under ordinary circumstances, my coat is buttoned. But ordinary circumstances seem to have gone to the devil.”

“You’re not considering last night another lapse in judgment?” Reid spoke lightly—but he was braced, Jonah realized, for an answer he didn’t want to hear.

“It was most certainly a lapse in judgment. Just one I can’t bring myself to regret.” Jonah leaned in, lowering his voice. “Making a habit of late hours will be our undoing.”

Reid gave his lapel another tug. “You know, I’d have stolen your watch too. If you had one.”

“I meant to get a new one.” Jonah hesitated, then went on. “Perhaps this evening.”

“Have supper with me?”

Jonah couldn’t suppress a laugh. “Somewhere along Broadway, I suppose.”

“I’ll send you home at a respectable hour. I swear it.”

Reid’s smile had him wanting to yield. But he was afraid when the time came to leave that warm bed for the cold streets, he would succumb to the desire to stay. And he’d already created enough suspicion in everyone’s minds.

It was only when they reached the bank that he thought he might be treading too cautiously. No one seemed particularly perturbed at their absence, perhaps trusting that neither cashier nor assistant cashier would be so remiss as to upset the morning routine. Margaret gave them a distracted glance as they passed her desk, and the clerks were hard at the exchanges. With the lies safely unspoken for the moment, Jonah followed Reid into the cashier’s office. “Where did we dine this morning, by the way? It will have to be a place with accommodation sufficient to cover the fact we weren’t actually there.”

“For someone with a dislike of subterfuge, you’ve got a gift for it.” Reid pushed the cylinder back, sending scraps of paper fluttering. “Years of practice?”

“If you’re inquiring into my past, there’s very little to relate.” Jonah surveyed the clutter obscuring the desktop. “I wish I could return the compliment and say you’ve a gift for organization, but….”

“Under ordinary circumstances,” Reid said dryly, “I’m organized.”

“I see. So you’re blaming this on me?”

“You did have a hand in making the circumstances extraordinary.” Reid’s voice had gone quiet, which only sweetened the flavor of his words and the affection in them.

Jonah, wanting to tell him to have a care, instead moved to his side and began to gather papers. “Let me assist you.”

“I’ll do it.” Reid shoved all the papers to the back of the desk, and picking up the pile of newspapers and letters Simon had left, assigned them to the space he’d cleared. “On second thought, you’d better take the letters and leave me the exchanges.”

“I’m perfectly ready to face everyone, if that’s your concern.”

“And lie through your teeth? I have the feeling I’m a little better at it than you.”

“I can tell falsehoods with a skill equal to any man’s,” Jonah retorted.

Reid’s lips twitched. “That so?” He moved nearer, plucking a stray thread from Jonah’s coat. “One wrong tug and you might come unraveled.”

“I’m practiced at keeping things all of a piece.”

“Like you did last Saturday night?”

Jonah noted the amusement that brightened hazel to gold. He swallowed, and somehow kept a stern countenance. “I will take the exchanges.”

Reid was still smiling as he sat and leaned back in his chair. “If you’re determined. Just remember the details, will you? Since we’re sharing the same lies.”

It proved not as difficult as Jonah expected, perhaps only because he’d carried the stern countenance with him into the lobby and no one dared offer more than a “good morning” while he oversaw preparations for the day. Still, he didn’t cease worrying, until another matter captured his attention.

“Mr. Campbell, what are you wearing?”

Simon grinned, and smoothed the impeccably tailored lapels of the morning coat. “Fine piece of work, isn’t it, sir?”

“Don’t be clever, Mr. Campbell. We’re quite clear on the matter of attire.”

“But Mr. Hylliard—”

“The cashier’s attire is his own affair. The attire of clerks and tellers is mine. Leave the cutaway for garden parties. I will expect to see you dressed properly for work tomorrow….” Jonah trailed off as Reid, pushing through the gate, came past.

“Handsome coat, Mr. Campbell,” he remarked—quite deliberately, Jonah knew—before he moved on to the clerks. “If I may have everyone’s attention, please. Our new sign is scheduled to be installed on the twenty-seventh. On the first, we will commemorate the installation, and as Mr. Grandborough has also scheduled a photographer, you will all want to save your Sunday best for Thursday.”

Excited chatter rose and Jonah sighed. “They’ll never settle back to work.”

“Give them a minute. Mr. Campbell, are the exchanges ready to go?”

“Nearly, sir.” Simon leaned in eagerly. “Sir? My new coat… I’d like to wear it on the first.”

Reid surveyed him with a critical eye, then suddenly grinned. “I don’t see why not.”

Jonah held his tongue with an effort, and when the exchanges were on their way to the clearing house, he stormed the cashier’s office. Reid, in the midst of penning a letter, did not look up. “Mr. Woolner?”

“We must set new rules.”

“I think we’ve enough to last a while.”

“I’m talking about….” Jonah lowered his voice. “Between us.”

“So am I.”

Jonah pulled a chair beside the desk and sat. “We may have found a way to work together….” When he hesitated, the faintest smile pulled at Reid’s mouth, though his pen continued to scratch across the page. Jonah went on with redoubled reproach. “But you mustn’t entertain the idea that just because I may enjoy your company away from the bank….”

Reid put his pen aside, and folding his hands on the desk, gave Jonah the full scope of his attention. Jonah went on warily. “That I will defer to you whenever we are at cross purposes.”

“This particular cross purpose being your disapproval of Mr. Campbell’s coat.”

Jonah frowned. “This particular cross purpose being my duty to be sure every clerk and teller in this bank comports himself appropriately in dress as well as manner.”

Reid nodded thoughtfully. “You find Mr. Campbell’s cutaway in bad taste?”

“Well, no—”

“It’s really quite becoming, isn’t it.”

“That’s not the point.”

“In a way, it is. If Mr. Campbell does his job well—and he does—will the cut of his coat really undermine the public’s confidence?”

Sensing he was losing the battle, Jonah persisted. “I imagine the public would be quite aggrieved to see the guardians of their financial security become slaves to every turn of fashion.” He dropped a pointed glance at Reid’s coat and tie, and Reid laughed.

“Yet you have no objection to the man beneath the blue striped tie,” he murmured, and seizing the arms of Jonah’s chair, rolled him nearer. “You might take it as a compliment.”

Jonah set both feet flat on the floor before Reid drew him too near. “How so?”

Reid swiveled the chair one hundred and eighty degrees and dragged it closer, pinning Jonah to the spot with hands resting on his shoulders. “Same dusky blue as your eyes.”

Caught off guard, Jonah could only laugh. “And you’re asserting you chose it for that reason.”

“It did come to mind while I was dressing.” Reid’s fingers brushed the nape of his neck. Pulling away was the last thing Jonah wanted to do.

“Someone will see us,” he said quietly.

Reid swiveled him back around and flashed a rueful smile. “To work, then. You have an appointment with Mr. Hook this morning?”

“I shouldn’t be long. Then I can take my share of the correspondence.”

It was only after Jonah left the office that it struck him how neatly Reid had derailed their discussion of Simon Campbell’s coat. Determined to bring the matter up at supper, he proceeded to forget it entirely after a delectable hour at Delmonico’s and another three in the clamorous, tumbledown rooming house, where he again lost himself to the deplorable power Reid had over him.

When the hour struck ten, he did not want to leave the warm nest of blankets nor the kisses, tender on his skin, from a sleepy-eyed Reid. But the thought of Liliane and Winnie was enough to rouse him, and before the cold room and colder night without changed his mind, he got up and threw on his clothes. He was in the midst of buttoning his coat when Reid reached from under the blanket and caught the hem of it. “Did you discuss Darlington’s loan with Mr. Hook today?”