“I hold your intellectual abilities in very high regard and value your input too much to ever want to discontinue our association.”
Theo began blinking rapidly, but before he could ask her if she’d gotten something in her eye, a server appeared directly beside her, handing her a menu that she promptly disappeared behind.
Beatrix received a menu next, but she set it aside and nodded to Norman. “You may order for me.”
“I don’t know you well enough to know what foods you enjoy.”
“But that’s what will make this more of an adventure. I may be pleasantly surprised by a dish I’ve never tried before.”
“Or you could be rendered nauseous if Norman chooses poorly,” Theo said, peering over the top of her menu.
“Which will only add to the sense of adventure,” Beatrix returned with a grin.
The sight of her grin had Norman’s thoughts turning somewhat muddled, but thankfully Theo launched into telling the server what she was going to order, that being oysters and fresh bread. By the time the server turned to him, his thoughts had returned to relatively fine form, which allowed him to order exactly what Theo had ordered, but choosing chicken stew and salad for Beatrix, deciding it was the safest choice and shouldn’t render her ill, even if it wasn’t the most adventurous of meals.
Once they’d been served tea and coffee, Beatrix took a sip, then set aside her cup.
“Now that I can think clearly again, I’d like to return to the near disaster we almost suffered. I’ve been wondering if we might have been the intended victims of a pickpocket.”
“I did feel someone grab me around the waist,” Norman said slowly. “I just assumed that someone was trying to halt my descent to the ground.”
“Pickpockets are normally more stealthy than that, having practiced their trade to where their victim doesn’t feel a thing,” Beatrix said.
“How would you know that?”
“I often travel to Five Points in New York, where many a pickpocket has tried to relieve me of my valuables.”
Norman frowned. “What do you do in Five Points?”
“This and that,” she said, which was hardly helpful, but before Norman could voice a complaint about her less-than-informative response, she continued. “If you weren’t the intended victim of a pickpocket, though, I have to wonder if our accident was another attempt to part you from your research.”
Norman took a sip of tea. “As I’ve said more than once, there’s little likelihood the culprit now in possession of the faulty yet remarkably complex research has realized my duplicity.”
Beatrix opened her mouth, but before she could voice what was undoubtedly going to be an argument on her part, the server returned. That server then went about placing small plates and slices of bread in front of everyone before he bowed and walked away.
Beatrix buttered a piece of her bread, took a bite, and sighed. “Ah, delicious,” she said before she smiled at Theo. “Because Norman is obviously reluctant to entertain the idea that someone could still be after his papers, allow me to change the subject so we won’t spend our meal bickering. Tell me about the research you enjoy.”
Theo immediately looked delighted, probably because no one usually bothered to ask her many questions. While Theo launched into a discussion about chemicals and chemistry, her science of choice, Norman watched as she became more and more animated, that animation increasing with every question Beatrix asked her.
Five minutes later, Theo abruptly stopped talking and frowned. “I once overheard a society lady state that a person should never monopolize the conversation, something I’m certainly doing. So enough about me. Tell me more about Marshall Field & Company. What time do you arrive for work in the morning?”
“We’re expected to be at work a half hour before the store opens, which means I get there at seven thirty, and then leave between four and five.”
“That’s a lot of hours of work to only get paid what amounts to pennies more than a dollar a day,” Theo pointed out.
Norman set aside his cup and nodded to Beatrix. “You’re definitely earning a less-than-acceptable wage.”
“I’m in full agreement with that, but there are relatively few positions available to women in respectable establishments, which allows those establishments to pay their workers so poorly.”
“You can always come work for me,” Norman said, refusing to wince when he realized he’d just made a most impulsive offer, one that was quite unlike him to make.
Theo immediately choked on the sip of coffee she’d taken while Beatrix stared back at him, her mouth slightly agape.
Taking a second to butter his bread, as well as to think through the implications of what he’d just said, Norman felt an unusual surge of anticipation flow through him.
That he’d not had any intention of offering Beatrix a job was not in question, but oddly enough, now that he considered the matter, it held a great deal of appeal.
He’d been worried about her for days, but if she worked for him, he’d be able to keep an eye on her, which would then allow him to return to his work without the distraction his worrying had caused.
“What type of work could Beatrix do for you?” Theo asked, drawing his attention.
Norman shrugged. “I could use an assistant.”
Beatrix blotted her lips with her napkin, then sent him a smile that was filled with genuine warmth, one that left him feeling somewhat addled, which was not a feeling he was accustomed to in the least.
“You’re a far more complicated gentleman than I gave you credit for at first,” Beatrix began, “and while your offer of employment may be one of the nicest offers I’ve ever received, I’m afraid I can’t accept it.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t know the least little thing about
