Page 119 of Native Hawk
“Wretched.”
“For helping me to escape my wretched kirkum-, circumstances, and I want you to know your gen-, generosity has not been in vain. I am delig-…”
“Delighted?” he guessed.
She nodded. “Delighted to tell you that I have found myself a kind and upstanding gentleman, and I am now…” She gasped in wonder. “Married!”
She grinned up at Drew.
“Go on,” he said.
“Because you were such a freen-…friend to me, I wish to repay your kindness. My new husband is in the retail bus-, bus-…”
He glanced at the page. “Business.”
She blinked and shook her head. These Americans had very strange ways of spelling words.
“Retail business with a Mr. Wine-, Ween-, Weinstock?”
Drew shrugged. “No tellin’.”
“They would be very interested to see your clothing desi-…” She broke off, racing ahead to silently read the rest.
“Designs?”
She nodded, barely able to contain her excitement. “They want to see my designs. It says they want to carry clothings made to order.”
She stared up at him, stunned.
“Well, that’s good news, right?” he asked.
“It is wonderful news!”
He gave her a big hug. But of course, her mind was already hundreds of miles away, planning.
“I’ll send them what I have so far,” she said. She had several designs drawn up.
She pulled out of Drew’s embrace and went to rummage through her portfolio of designs.
Behind her, Drew unbuttoned his shirt.
“Sacramento is a very big city, yes?” she asked, as she pulled out a few of her papers and turned to him.
He shuffled out of his shirt, hanging it over the chair. “Yeah, pretty big.”
Her forehead wrinkled with worry. “I wonder how many orders they will get.”
“Hard to say.” He sat on the bed and kicked off his boots.
She tapped on the papers in her hands. “What if I cannot fill all the orders?”
Drew began unbuttoning his trousers.
She sat on the edge of the bed, worrying her lip under her teeth.
“I wouldn’t worry,” Drew told her. “Things have a way o’ workin’ out.”
That was easy for him to say. He wasn’t responsible for filling the orders.
