A Home for Her Heart (4 page)

“Thank you and John for allowing me to shoot these. I’m glad to be able to help garner attention to these places. Surely something will be done.”

“That’s what we’re hoping for.”

“Are we done for now?” John asked.

Elizabeth nodded. “I suppose so. I’ll let you know which ones my editor wants to use, Millicent. I have no doubt that he’ll want several.”

“Thank you, Elizabeth. I guess I’ll go join the others in the parlor. Sounds like they’re having a sing-along.”

The sound of piano music drifted down the hall. “It does sound like that,” Luke said. “Want to join them, Kathleen?”

“I’d love to.” She turned back to Elizabeth. “You coming?”

“Not tonight. I think I’ll go up and take some notes on what I saw today and what Millicent’s photographs have brought to mind. I’ll see you all in the morning.”

“What about you, John?” Luke asked.

“No, I think I’ll go down and put the finishing touches on my article. Thank you for suggesting this, Kathleen. I think this may get me promoted one of these days.”

And that’s what it was all about for him. Making a name for himself, getting it splashed on the front page of the
Tribune.
Elizabeth headed out the door, photos in hand. If she wasn’t so frustrated with him, she might feel sorry for him.

* * *

John felt unsettled as he went back to his room. He wasn’t in the mood to sing around a piano tonight. He’d upset Elizabeth and felt bad about it. She had a right to be angry with him for grabbing the photos before she’d had a chance to look at them. But even though he’d apologized and she’d seemed to accept it, he could tell she still wasn’t happy when she went upstairs.

And that wasn’t like Elizabeth at all. She was usually the most even-tempered of all the boarders, so much so that he sometimes liked to “get a rise” out of her as Ben had put it the other day. Her hazel eyes would flash almost gold and her face would flush a lovely shade of pink that went clear to her light blond hairline.

But the last few days had been different—she’d seemed out of sorts ever since their collision the other day. He knew she’d been irritated about the last-minute summons to her aunt’s; maybe there were family problems he knew nothing about. There was more he
didn’t
know about Elizabeth than what he
did,
after all.

And it did him no good to surmise what might be wrong. As the fiasco with Melody had shown him, his instincts where women were concerned seemed to always be wrong and weren’t to be trusted.

Instead of working on his article, he took a seat in the easy chair Mrs. Heaton had added to each of the men’s rooms and leaned back his head.
Melody.
He didn’t think of her often anymore, only as a memory to remind him that he never wanted to put his heart on the line again.

He’d thought he had it made down in Natchez, Mississippi. He was lead reporter of the
Natchez Daily,
and the owner’s daughter had begun to flirt with him, asking him to go on a picnic with her and even inviting him to dinner on occasion. John had begun to believe he had a real chance with her and had actually dreamed of the family they might have one day, if he ever got up enough nerve to ask her to marry him. But then his dreams crashed around him.

A young new reporter was hired at the paper and began flirting with Melody. When John questioned her about it, she told John he was imagining things and not to worry, he was the one she cared about. But when John caught the two kissing in a darkened hallway, a fight ensued. Evidently the kiss wasn’t all one-sided because Melody took up for the other man and blamed John for the fight.

Her father believed her, of course, and fired John then and there. Realizing that a terribly spoiled Melody had only led him on—whether out of boredom or cruelty, he didn’t know—but feeling he’d been made a fool, he caught a train to take him as far away as he could get the very next morning.

From then on he decided never to fall prey to a woman’s wiles again—and particularly wealthy young women who gave no thought to others’ feelings. He might get lonely from time to time, but his heart was whole now and he intended to keep it that way, even if there were times when he longed for more.

He had a good life and couldn’t complain. He enjoyed the family atmosphere living at Heaton House gave him and things at the paper were looking up. With his editor interested in a series of stories, he felt certain he was on the verge of getting the byline that would name him one of the best reporters in the city. And right now, that was all that really mattered.

Chapter Four

N
ormally Elizabeth would have stayed down and enjoyed the company of the other boarders, but she was still aggravated with John and didn’t feel up to faking a good mood.

She went upstairs wondering why she was letting John get under her skin so much lately. Normally she was able to throw off her irritation at him, and sometimes even enjoyed the usually good-natured sparing back and forth between them.

As she readied for bed, she wondered why things seemed to be changing. In the past few months, since they’d started working together to bring attention to the needs in the tenements and their first articles had received good attention, the spark of friendly competition that had always existed between them seemed to be settling down. Until tonight, when it was obvious that John was intent on getting the photographs
he
wanted before she had a chance to look at them. She hoped this working together, as Kathleen wanted them to, wasn’t going to turn that spark of competition into a flame.

She couldn’t let that happen. It would affect all the others at Heaton House, almost forcing them to choose sides, and she couldn’t do that to them or Mrs. Heaton.

She felt even worse about her attitude in front of Kathleen, Millicent and Luke. She tied her wrap tight around her waist and sat down at her writing desk. She pulled her Bible close and held it to her chest as she whispered, “Dear Lord, please forgive me for acting the way I have today. Please help me not to get so irritated at John—and please help me to control my words and actions when I do. I don’t know what it is about him that gets such a rise out of me, but please help me to laugh things off and not get so upset with him. I do want him to succeed at the
Tribune.
I want him to become a lead reporter. I just wish he weren’t so...full of himself so often.”

She sighed and shook her head as she continued praying. “I’m sorry, Lord. There I go being judgmental of him. Please forgive me. I don’t want to be that way about anyone. I don’t want to be irritated at him. I don’t think he means to hurt my feelings or insult my work. At least I hope not. Please help me not to take his remarks so seriously, and not to show my temper when I do. Thank you for all my many blessings. Please help me to write these articles in such a way that they can help and, that in all I do, I bring glory to Your name. In Jesus’s name, Amen.”

She took a cleansing breath, pulled her notepad toward her and began looking over the photos Millicent had taken. Ideas on each photo began to bubble up and she wrote notes on each of them. She wanted to get the story to her editor as soon as possible in the coming week. John’s article would be sure to come out first—the
Tribune
was a daily paper after all. But it was a good thing, because when the
Delineator
came out on the first of the month, her article would serve to reinforce the need for action on the part of the city to do something about the neglect. Together, their staggered articles could help, and that was what she concentrated on as she mulled over where she wanted to start and what she wanted to get across to her readers. And in such a way that it wouldn’t be considered
fluff
by John.

* * *

John had worked into the night and was nearly late for church the next morning. He slipped into the pew next to Elizabeth just as the congregation started singing the first hymn and breathed a sigh of relief when she smiled at him and offered to share her hymnal.

She looked lovely, her blond hair piled up under a feathered hat that brought out the green in her hazel eyes. At least she didn’t seem upset with him anymore and for that he thanked the Lord. She actually looked more relaxed than she had since she was summoned to her aunt’s.

He wasn’t sure why it bothered him so much when she was upset, but it did. He wanted to help but usually ended up being part of the problem when he said or did something stupid. He might as well face it. He was awkward around women. Didn’t know what to say half the time. Maybe it was because he hadn’t had a mother’s influence growing up. At least that was what he told himself most of the time. Truth was, most of the time, his instincts where women were involved seemed nonexistent—or at the very least—wrong.

The sermon that morning was one on forgiveness and not judging each other. He prayed that Elizabeth had forgiven him for his selfish action of scooping up the photos he wanted before she had a chance to look at them the night before.

Deep down he wished he wasn’t so quick to put himself first in situations and tried to tell himself that it was only because he’d been on his own too long and was used to looking out for himself. Without anyone to encourage him, to stand up for him—to just be there for him—at least until he came to Heaton House. He’d made real friends here, and yet he’d been let down so many times, he was a bit leery of trusting that those friendships were lifetime ones—no matter how much he wanted them to be.

He stood with the others for the final hymn and closing prayer, getting a whiff of Elizabeth’s perfume as she stood beside him.

As the group filed out into the aisle, Elizabeth smiled at him again. “I thought you weren’t going to make it this morning when I didn’t see you at breakfast.”

“I thought the same thing when I realized I hadn’t set my alarm clock and was late waking up.”

They met up with the others at the bottom of the steps and everyone began the walk back to Heaton House. He and Elizabeth fell into step behind Luke and Kathleen with Mrs. Heaton and her family taking the lead.

“Did you get much done on your article last night?” John asked.

“Actually I did get more done than I thought I would.”

“Good. I’m about finished with mine. I wondered...do you think we might have better luck in talking to some of the landlords of the places Kathleen tells us about if we visited them during the week? Do you think your boss would let you do that?”

She seemed a bit surprised as she looked up at him. Maybe she didn’t want to work with him anymore after his photo grab the night before. “I promise, I’ll let you get first choice of the next batch of pictures.”

She smiled then and the tightness in his chest relaxed.

“I’ll keep you to that promise, John. And I’m sure I can go during the week. I think you’re right. We might have a better chance of getting information from some landlords during the week—at least they should be around. We can try it anyway. What day and time did you have in mind?”

He shrugged. “How about tomorrow just after lunchtime? In fact, I’ll treat you to lunch and we can go from there. Surely we can catch a landlord in the early afternoon.”

“Tomorrow should be fine. Where do you want to meet?”

“I’ll come to your building and we’ll go from there.”

“Okay. I’ll meet you in the foyer at noon.”

That’d actually been easier than he thought it would be after last night. He had a feeling Elizabeth wasn’t thrilled to be working with him, and there were times he felt the same way. But Kathleen expected them to do so and neither of them had much choice in the matter. Might as well make it as pleasant as possible.

They arrived at Heaton House to the smell of roast chicken, one of John’s favorite meals. He loved Sunday dinner at Mrs. Heaton’s. She often had her son, Michael, and his wife, Violet, over, and now with her daughter, Rebecca, and granddaughter, Jenny, added to the mix, John felt he and the other boarders were part of a large, loving family.

Everyone hurried to wash up, take off their hats and in no time at all they’d gathered in the parlor in anticipation of Mrs. Heaton’s announcement that dinner was ready.

Two more leaves and four more chairs had been added to the long table for the company. Michael and Violet sat adjacent to Mrs. Heaton on her left and Rebecca and her daughter sat across from them, leaving it easy for the boarders to figure out where their regular seats were. John pulled out Elizabeth’s chair for her and slid it in before taking his own beside her.

“Will you say the blessing, Michael?” Mrs. Heaton asked.

“I’ll be glad to, Mother. Please bow with me, everyone.”

John bowed his head as his friend began.

“Dear Lord, we thank You for this day and for the people gathered around this table. We ask You to guide us to live each day in the way You would have us do and we ask You to bless this food. It’s in Jesus’s name we pray, Amen.”

Several “Amens” were added from around the table before the clink of silverware against china competed with mingled conversation. John smiled and settled back to enjoy his favorite meal.

As Maida and Gretchen, twin sisters who worked for Mrs. Heaton, began serving, John’s mouth began to water. Besides the roast chicken, there were mashed potatoes and two kinds of gravies, creamed onions and peas, carrots and crusty rolls—all favorites of his. It seemed everything served at Heaton House had become a favorite of his.

Elizabeth nudged his arm and nodded toward Jenny, who was thoroughly enjoying her mashed potatoes. “Looks like everyone has a favorite tonight.”

John grinned. The little girl had added another level of family feel to Heaton House. “She is enjoying herself, isn’t she?”

He took the basket of rolls she handed to him and placed one on his plate before handing it off to Matthew Sterling, one of the newer boarders. He was a builder helping to put up one of the tallest buildings in the city.

“Thank you, John.”

“You’re welcome. How is work going on your building?”

He grinned. “It’s getting taller every day.”

“I don’t know how you work up that high,” Millicent said from across the table. “The very thought makes me queasy.”

“Oh, I love it. The view is worth it. You can see the whole city from up there.”

“I’d love to take photos from up there,” Millicent said.

Matthew shook his head. “It’s much too dangerous for women up there.”

“Maybe you can go up in the elevator once it’s finished, Millicent,” Elizabeth said.

“I don’t think it would be quite the same as getting shots with it in this stage,” Millicent said.

“It wouldn’t,” Matt said.

John wondered if Matt was trying to irritate Millicent on purpose and then realized he often tried to get a rise out of Elizabeth in the same way. He hoped he didn’t sound quite as sharp as Matt did. What was it about a woman that made a man want to ruffle her feathers? Maybe Matt didn’t understand women any better than John did. Maybe it wasn’t just him after all.

For now, he set about enjoying his meal and the conversations going on around him. Elizabeth and Kathleen were talking about wedding plans and he could hear Ben asking Rebecca if she was looking forward to living at Heaton House.

“I am. It will be good to get settled, although we’ve loved staying with Michael and Violet. However...” She broke off and looked at her brother.

As if planned, Michael stood and clinked his goblet with a spoon.

The table quickly quieted. “If I can have your attention, I have an announcement to make.”

“Oh? What is it, son?” Mrs. Heaton asked.

Michael looked down at his wife and grasped the hand she held out to him. “Violet and I have an extra surprise for you. We’re going to start a family. Our baby is due around Christmas.”

Mrs. Heaton was on her feet in a flash as everyone clapped and congratulated Michael and Violet. With tears in her eyes, she hugged her daughter-in-law and son. “Oh, Michael, Violet, that is wonderful news.”

“I almost gave it away, didn’t I? I was about to say you’d have a full house soon,” Rebecca said, a huge smile on her face. She leaned over and gave Jenny a hug. “You’ll have a little cousin to play with before long, Jenny!”

Jenny clapped her hands as if she knew what her mother was talking about and Mrs. Heaton wiped her eyes and headed back to her seat to hug Rebecca and Jenny. “How blessed I am to be getting two grandchildren in less than a year. I don’t know what to say except thank You, Lord.”

The joy on her face had John clearing his throat as several of the women wiped their eyes. John wished he could excuse himself. All of this emotion was something he wasn’t comfortable with. He was happy for everyone, especially Mrs. Heaton. She deserved all the happiness she was experiencing now. But the talk of weddings and starting families brought thoughts to mind he wanted to forget.

* * *

The next morning, Elizabeth watched her boss look over the photos she’d brought in and waited for his reaction to the ideas she’d told him about.

Mr. Dwyer laid the last photo on top of the others and looked over at her with a smile. “I’m very impressed with all this, Elizabeth. I like your ideas about doing a series of articles, too. In fact, I wish we were a daily publication so that we could get more information out about the condition of the tenements.”

“I’m so glad you want a series. What about the photographs? Do you want to use any of them?”

“I do. I’d like to run a two-page spread, at least for this one. And I’d like you to continue to stress the need for the child-care homes in the city as you did in the first article we published about the tenements.”

“I’ll be more than happy to. I’ll get the first draft to you this week.”

Mr. Dwyer smiled. “I look forward to reading it.”

For the rest of the morning, Elizabeth worked on the article and tried hard not to watch the clock. Excited as she was about her boss’s response to her ideas, it was hard not to think about meeting John for lunch. She was ready and waiting for him in the foyer of the
Delineator
’s office building ten minutes early.

She looked at the clock just over the receptionist’s desk. It was 11:55 a.m. now. John should be showing up anytime. Elizabeth still wasn’t sure what to make of his suggestion that they go back to the tenements today. She was pretty sure he wasn’t any happier about working with her than she was about working with him. At first. But now she couldn’t deny that she was looking forward to spending more time with him, although she wasn’t sure why. She’d like to do some more investigating, too, and at least this way, they would both have the same information to work with.