had blond hair and blue eyes. “Good to have you with us, Miss Burton.”
“Thank you, Mr. Roth.” Violet then smiled at Lila. “Butterick! Oh, wonderful! Their patterns certainly have made it easier for the home seamstress to make garments that fit,” Violet said.
Lila gave a half smile and slight nod while Mrs. Heaton continued, “On your right is Luke Patterson. Luke writes dime novels.”
“Dime novels?” Violet asked. She’d never met a real writer before. “How interesting.”
Luke’s blue eyes seemed to twinkle as he brushed his brown hair off his brow and smiled. “I think so.”
Mrs. Heaton continued, “And next to him is Elizabeth Anderson, who works for The Delineator. She’s also the young woman you’ll be sharing a bathroom with.”
“We met at the landing, Mrs. Heaton,” Elizabeth said with a smile. She had blond hair and hazel eyes.
“And Elizabeth was kind enough to accompany me down to the parlor,” Violet added. “I love The Delineator. Mother subscribed to it and we pored over it, looking at all the newest styles.” She looked from Elizabeth to Lila and back again. “Isn’t The Delineator owned by Butterick? Do you two work together?”
Lila gave a brief shake of her head, but Elizabeth explained. “Butterick does own the magazine. And we joke about being coworkers, but The Delineator has its own offices at Butterick Publishing Company on Thirteenth Street.”
“I see.” Violet liked Elizabeth. She was quite friendly and helpful. She wished she could say the same about Lila, who only seemed to smile for Michael’s benefit.
Mrs. Heaton continued with her introductions. “Of course you’ve met Gretchen and Maida. We have another boarder, but he’s out for the evening. You’ll meet him tomorrow.”
“It’s probably better this way. The whole bunch of us at one time might intimidate Miss Burton,” Luke Patterson said.
“I’m sure she can handle being around us all, Luke.” Julia took a roll from the basket Mrs. Heaton passed her and handed it to Benjamin. “She’s got to be a brave woman to move to New York City on her own.”
Violet almost laughed out loud. If Julia could have seen her at the train station today, she might not think she was so brave.
“Violet will be able to handle this household with ease. I’m certain of it.” Mrs. Heaton smiled at Violet and then looked around the table. “What we need to do for her now, though, is try to come up with places that she can apply for employment. Do any of you know of any openings?”
“What is it you are trained to do, Miss Burton?” Julia asked from down the table.
“Well, I can’t say I’m trained to do anything. I can cook and clean. And I can sew, but I’m not sure I could call myself a seamstress. I’ve only sewn for my mother or myself.” Suddenly, Violet realized she wasn’t really trained for any kind of employment. She’d been groomed to be a wife, but that wasn’t anything she wanted any part of at the moment—if ever. “I really don’t know what kind of work I’d be best suited for....”
“Don’t worry,” Elizabeth said with a chuckle. “I most certainly wasn’t trained to work for a magazine. Most of us have positions where we’ve been trained to do the job. I don’t think The Delineator has any openings at present, but I’ll check. I’m sure you’ll find something, though.”
“Lila, didn’t you say recently that Butterick was needing help?” Michael asked.
Lila glanced over at Violet and chewed her bottom lip for a moment before looking back at Michael. Her smile brightened as she fluttered her eyelashes at him. “I believe they were needing help with folding and packaging the patterns or possibly with cutting them out. I know they hired one girl, but I can ask tomorrow if they still need help.”
“Oh, would you, dear?” Mrs. Heaton asked. “I would think of it as a personal favor to me, if you would.”
“As would I,” Michael added.
“Then I will certainly ask.” Lila batted her eyelashes once more.
“Thank you, Lila,” Violet said. “That is very kind of you.”
The other girl’s smile dimmed somewhat as she glanced at Violet. “I’ll let you know what I find out.”
“Anyone else know of anything?” Michael asked.
“I have a friend who works at Tiffany Glass. They might not be hiring right now, but she says someone is always getting married and there are bound to be openings before too long,” Elizabeth said.
“We can look at the classifieds in the morning paper, too,” Michael suggested.
Several other ideas were mentioned as they ate their meal and Violet felt her hopes for employment grow. Surely in a city this large, she could find something before long. At least Harlan Black didn’t have an influence here. He couldn’t stop people from hiring her.
Coconut cake was served with coffee, and Violet enjoyed it while she listened to the others talk about their day. So far everyone seemed nice, but Violet couldn’t help but notice that most all the women at the table seemed to hang on to every word that came out of Michael’s mouth. And if Lila Miller batted her eyelashes at him each time he looked her way, she wasn’t the only one doing so. Even with two other men at the table, Michael seemed to be the one who had the attention of every woman, and—much to Violet’s dismay—that included her. She couldn’t really blame them. Those dimples were hard not to watch for.
* * *
During the meal, Michael watched the interaction between the boarders and Violet. She listened more than she talked, and she seemed to be totally unaware that Luke and Benjamin were both taking in everything she did say. On the other hand, he hadn’t missed the way the two men watched her every move.
A new woman in their midst was always of interest to the male boarders. Just as he supposed a new man would be to the females sitting at the table. But Luke and Benjamin appeared to be totally captivated by Violet. While he couldn’t blame them—she was lovely and quite unpretentious—Michael felt a little out of sorts about the attention they were giving her.
He watched as Violet asked Luke about his writing and wondered, what would she think if she knew Luke sometimes did investigative work for Michael’s detective agency? It was something few people knew about, which worked to Michael’s benefit. No one would suspect one of his agents was the dime-novel writer living in his mother’s boardinghouse. Violet seemed interested in Luke’s writing—was she interested in him?
It shouldn’t matter. Michael had made up his mind never to become interested in any of the women living in his mother’s boardinghouse—an easy thing to do since he’d been burned once and was determined never to let it happen again. But Violet wasn’t just a boarder. They’d lived next door to each other, and their mothers had been best friends. He couldn’t ignore that connection. Nor did he want to.
He glanced her way as she spoke to Elizabeth, and realized how much she’d changed since he last saw her. She seemed to have lost the smattering of freckles that once graced her nose, and her skin was smooth and flawless now, but he found he missed those freckles.
