Page 56 of Ordered Home for the Holidays
When his gaze searched the room and finally landed on her, he smiled broadly.
Nearly the entire bench in her row was empty, so there was no reason for him to slide into the empty spot beside her. Unless he’d showed up because he knew it would aggravate her.
“What are you doing here?” She muttered under her breath.
“Your brother Liam said this is where you’d be. You’ve been avoiding me. I saw you hiding behind all that fabric in Randall’s.”
“I wasn’t hiding. The children need new clothes before winter truly sets in and the broadcloth was on sale. Why was itso imperative to see me that you went to the forge to ascertain my whereabouts?” Her head was spinning and her heart was thudding in her chest.
“I went to the forge because one of the carriage horses threw a shoe yesterday. Tracking you down was a benefit of that excursion.”
“You shouldn’t be here. Your family’s money has contributed to the ills of the working class.”
He stretched his legs in front of him and crossed his ankles. Then he crossed his arms - tightly stretching the material over his shoulders and the broad planes of his chest.
Deirdre looked away and thrust out her chin, determined to ignore the long, lean heat of his body reclining beside hers. Determined to ignore the lick of hot want it made her feel.
“When I have access to the fortunes my father and his firm handle, I intend to be far more ethical about the investments.”
She couldn’t hold in the snort of disbelief.
“I’d imagine that’s what all privileged sons say - and then when the money’s at their disposal they sing an entirely different tune.”
There was a flash of vulnerability in the look he shot her, and if she didn’t know better, she’d say her cynicism had wounded him.
“I’m not like other sons. My father despises me for rebelling against the mold he designed for me. Especially for falling in love with the wrong girl.”
His words were tight and clipped.
“You shouldn’t feel guilty about that,” she said with a suddenly queasy stomach. “The girl became a woman with her eyes wide open. Impervious to the charms of scoundrels.”
Their gazes latched and the flash of vulnerability she’d seen morphed into something else entirely.
“They don’t even think of us as human beings!” The man’s shout at the front of the room burst the tense bubble of silence that had arisen between them.
The man thumped his fist on the table to emphasize his point.
“This is a powder keg,” Cass mumbled darkly beside her.
It was a powder keg, and though the way Seamus was embroiled in it made her nervous, nothing else the workers had done had made an impact.
“Negotiation hasn’t led anywhere,” she retorted as she felt the simmering heat of his stare on her profile.
“We’re good at what we do - we just need them to recognize that they can’t pull black gold out of the ground without us,” another man said, more calmly, very obviously trying to diffuse the other man’s anger.
“We are. And our labor is linin’ their pockets while we go in their caves with our picks and our lanterns. Breakin’ our backs for sixteen hours straight.” The man’s complaint was brimming with fury as he nearly spat the words.
“The work feeds our families and what we’re asking for is reasonable. An eight hour workday. More safety precautions to prevent explosions and cave-ins. We have to make our demands peaceably.”
“Why are you here?” Her companion asked from the side of his mouth as he slouched further and pulled the brim of his hat.
“I’m here because the greed of mine owners left me a widow and left my children fatherless. You shouldn’t be here and you know it. That’s why you’re slouching like a sulking child.”
“I call this meeting to order,” a tall, broad man with a bristling mustache and beard thundered at the front of the room.
“So that’s why you’re here. Because your brother Seamus is one of the organizers.”
Deirdre turned to glare at him. “I’m here because the grievances of this assembly are my own.”
