bite.” She patted the seat again. A couple of the girls encouraged her.
The notion was appealing on one level. She didn’t want to be late for services. If she was going to woo the townsfolk to her cause, she had to do everything right. That included being timely and courteous. Besides, John Gardner had said he’d wait for her in the vestibule. She owed it to the banker to be on time.
On the other hand, arriving early aboard a surrey with a bevy of soiled doves would not advance her cause. Nor would it recommend her to the townspeople as a suitable role model to teach their children. On the contrary.
“Thank you, Mrs….” What was the woman’s surname? She never did find out.
“It’s Delilah, honey. Nobody except lawyers and bill collectors call me anything else. Come on, now. Time’s wasting.”
Chance trotted up on Silas. The mere sight of him, and the unpleasant thought of him following her the rest of the way into town, was enough to sway her decision. Dora climbed up onto the surrey, and Delilah snapped the reins.
They were late for the service anyway, and in the end Dora was relieved. Delilah had refused to drop her off before they reached the church, so she could walk the last few blocks on her own, without the company of seven prostitutes and the gambler who rode behind them.
Mercifully, John Gardner was already in his seat when Dora entered the church. She joined him. Chance, Delilah and the girls sat in back. It astonished her that no one seemed to pay them any mind. They appeared to be as welcome as the rest of the congregation. In fact, following the service, the preacher walked right up to Chance and shook his hand. She wondered if he, like Mr. Grimmer, was another of Chance’s victims at the card table.
“I’d be happy to escort you home,” John said to her on the front steps of the church after the service.
Moments ago he’d introduced her to a half-dozen businessmen, some of them members of the town council. Before she could tell them of her plan to turn the Royal Flush into a school, they’d gushed on about how wonderful it was that she’d taken over her father’s business, and oh, what a fine business it was, drawing all kinds of people to Last Call, and wasn’t that good for the town’s economy.
“She has a ride,” Chance said, appearing at her side.
“With you?” John’s face was stone.
“No, with us!” Delilah waved her over. She and the girls were already seated in the surrey.
“You came with them?”
“Oh, no, I…” How was she to explain? “I mean yes, I did, but not by design.” What on earth would he think of her? It was bad enough that she owned the Royal Flush and was living there. There were still no vacancies in town.
“Her buckboard threw a wheel,” Chance said. “Let’s go, Miss Fitzpatrick.” He took her arm and pulled her down the steps.
“Wait a minute!”
She didn’t even get to wish John Gardner a proper goodbye. A few minutes earlier, before he’d introduced her around, the banker had asked her if she’d join him for luncheon in town on Wednesday. He’d said he wanted to speak with her about her father’s mortgage. She’d hadn’t had the opportunity to reply.
John was a nice man and wildly attractive. She was surprised he wasn’t already married. She was doubly surprised he showed an interest in her, an interest that seemed to go beyond a discussion of her father’s affairs, if she was reading his eyes and his mannerisms correctly.
“Wednesday, then,” she called out to him on impulse.
“I’ll pick you up. Noon all right?” His smile was like sunshine.
“Perfect.”
Chance looked positively irritated as he helped her onto the surrey. Delilah drove them out of sight before she had an opportunity to wave goodbye to John.
“I’d watch him, if I were you,” Delilah said, as she guided the surrey onto the bumpy road leading out to the ranch.
“Mr. Wellesley?” she said, glancing back at Chance, who followed them on Silas.
“Him, too. But I meant the other one. That banker.”
“Why do you say that? Mr. Gardner seems like a perfectly amiable gentleman.”
Delilah arched a brow at her. “He may be, on first blush and all, but there’s somethin’ about the man I never liked. Can’t exactly put my finger on what it is, but I’d be careful if I was you.”
It was clear that, despite what the other townspeople thought of Delilah and her girls, John Gardner did not approve of them. That, in and of itself, might be the sole motive behind Delilah’s dislike of the man. Dora brushed it off.
“You’d best listen to her,” one of the girls whispered in her ear.
Dora slid around on her seat. “Daisy, isn’t it?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And I’m Iris,” the girl sitting next to her said. “And this here’s Lily—” she nodded at the girl to her left, then pointed to the back “—and Columbine and Rose.” The two girls waved to her from the back seat.
“You’re all named after flowers. What an odd coincidence.”
They laughed, all except Lily, who was the most striking. Dora guessed her to be about her own age, twenty-five or so. A tumble of dark hair framed her delicate features and set off sharp green eyes that watched Dora like a hawk.
“No coincidence,” Delilah said. “I rename each of my girls when they first come to work for me. It’s better that way. Gives ’em a fresh start.”
Fresh start was not exactly the term Dora would have used to describe a woman’s entrance into employment at the Royal Flush. All the same, she didn’t wish to appear rude, nor did she wish to probe.
“Lily makes all the gentlemen call her by her proper name,” Iris said.
Delilah rolled her eyes.
“Which is?” Dora looked to Lily herself to answer.
“Mary Lou Sugrah,” Iris blurted.
Lily shot her a look. “Miss Sugrah to you.”
The girls dissolved into giggles.
Dora twisted around farther in her seat and smiled at the last girl, jammed into the back seat beside Rose and Columbine. She looked younger than the others, and had big doe eyes that lent her a fragile, almost childlike quality. “And what’s your name?”
The girl smiled back. “I’m Susan, ma’am. Pleased to meet you.”
“Susan? That’s not a flower name.”
Delilah snorted, and the rest of them, all except Lily, laughed.
Rose was the first to recover. “Miss Delilah named her Lazy Susan, seeing as how she’s
