But she continued to regard him hopefully. “I pray you will reconsider, Mr. Morrison. That is one of the hardest things about Stanley’s death, my fear that all his dreams, his ideals, are going to die with him.”
Zeke tugged at his starched collar. He was vastly relieved when the widow’s attention was claimed by the minister and his wife. He didn’t want to add to the woman’s grief by telling her exactly what he thought of her crazy notion. He felt he had said and done all that was necessary. Now he just wanted to escape.
When he turned, he was disconcerted to find Rory and Duffy had been hard on his heels and apparently had overheard the entire conversation. They were both regarding him with that same hopeful expectancy he found so unsettling.
“Say, Morrison,” Duffy said, “that was a great idea of Mrs. Addison’s. I can see the headlines now.Tycoon Throws Hat in Mayoral Race.”
“Go soak your head in your inkwell,” he growled at the reporter, tucking Rory’s arm through his. “I’ve had enough of politics and funerals. I just want to get out of here and go have a drink.”
“Suit yourself, Morrison. But you can’t think this is over because Decker is dead. There’s plenty more villains where he came from. I may take over for Addison and do a little more digging myself.”
“Dig away, but just don’t go down so deep you end up like Addison, six feet under.”
Duffy stalked away in disgust, but Zeke took little notice of his departure, being more concerned with Rory. She had volunteered no remarks during this exchange, merely bitingdown upon her lower lip. Yet it was what she wasn’t saying that Zeke found disturbing.
He halted by the cemetery gate, gazing down at her. “Rory, you can’t also be imagining that Mrs. Addison had a good idea. Me as a reform candidate, running for mayor!”
“I think you’d make a very good mayor.”
Zeke gave a snort of contempt. “Oh, yes, I have such excellent credentials. A dockworker, a former gang member, a one-time gambling house operator.”
“But that’s exactly what makes you so well qualified. You’ve seen life on both sides of New York, Fifth Avenue and the East Side. You wouldn’t be all idealistic and impractical like Mr. Addison.”
“No, what I would be is smart enough to know better. It’s hopeless to think you can ever change anything over on the East Side. The best a man can hope for is to look after his own interests and get himself out.”
“Then why did you ever finance Mr. Addison’s campaign?”
“That was different. It’s one thing to give money, quite another to-to?—”
“Give anything of yourself?”
Her words were spoken softly enough, but he felt the sting of them like the lash of a whip. She didn’t look angry with him, only unhappy, her eyes clouded with a look of disappointment that made Zeke’s heart sink. He had seen that expression before. He would count it forever among his most haunting memories of his mother.
He compressed his lips together. “The subject is closed, Aurora. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
“Whatever you wish,” she said primly. Her own mouth was taut as he handed her up into his open carriage. He sprang up across from her, and they sat facing each other in tense silence. He tore at his collar, which seemed to be choking him.
He hadn’t expected attending Addison’s funeral to be pleasant, but he hadn’t quite bargained for anything like this either. He dusted his hands as though he could still feel the earth from the grave clinging to them.
He had hoped to put the morning’s bleak event behind him by taking Rory on a drive through Central Park. Her engagement ring reposed in his front pocket, a huge chunk of a diamond, the biggest Tiffany’s had had to offer.
But when he suggested the outing to her, she demurred. “I would rather you just took me home, Zeke.”
He gave an exasperated sigh. “Why? Are you still sulking just because I’m not willing to make an ass of myself, following Mrs. Addison’s ridiculous suggestion?”
“No, it has nothing to do with that. I simply have things to do. I have a balloon company to run.”
“I have been endeavoring to forget that wretched fact.”
The corner of her mouth twitched with irritation, but otherwise she appeared determined to ignore his remark. “I have a lot of preparations to make for Friday.”
“Friday? What happens on Friday?”
“I haven’t been idle either since we returned to New York. I have been in contact with that man from Washington who handles the army contracts. He’s coming back to New York, to give me another chance.”
Rory smiled as though she actually expected him to be glad of such tidings. For her sake, he wished he could have been, but he felt nothing but a lump of dread settling into his stomach.
“A chance to do what?” Zeke demanded. “Get yourself killed?”
