Chapter 31 #2
“A full page?” Maggie stared at him in dismay. There had been quite enough advertising already, and a full page was surely far too extravagant. “Theo, surely a quieter, more… dignified opening would be more appropriate? This is a small establishment, not a commercial palace like Field’s.”
“And so? We need people to know about it.” As ever when questioned, Theo became the tiniest bit sulky. Maggie was used to it now, but it still alarmed her, how ephemeral his moods could be, and how she’d fallen into the role of managing them.
“Yes, but… too much advertising could set us up for a fall,” she explained carefully.
“If you trumpet something too much, people can want it to fail, especially since they know my background.” The comment about the “shopgirl from Field’s” still stung, sometimes more than a little.
She wanted to prove everyone wrong, but quietly, not in a big spectacle that could leave her falling flat on her face.
“Maggie, you’re far too cautious,” Theo proclaimed, smiling, although his tone was a little irritable. “Why can’t you simply enjoy all the effort I’m going to, as well as appreciate it?”
“Theo, I do—”
“Then show me,” he demanded, his eyes flashing, and Maggie took a step back.
The workmen were in the backroom, and Molly had gone home for the day.
They were as good as alone, and she felt a flutter of trepidation, although she hardly thought Theo meant anything nefarious.
The memory of O’Malley’s assault was still fresh in her mind.
“What,” she asked shakily, “do you mean by that?”
He blew out an exasperated breath as he shook his head.
“The look on your face! What do you think I mean? Maggie…” He reached for her hands again.
“I just want you to trust me, that’s all, and stop questioning every little thing I do.
You worry far too much, do you know that?
” He squeezed her hands lightly. “In any case, we’ve worked enough today. Let’s have some fun.”
“Theo, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Maggie said quietly as she tugged her hands from his. “Our relationship has to be entirely respectable. You know that.”
“And it is. I’m not asking for you to join me in some sort of debauchery!” Determinedly, he reached for her hand again, and sensing the intractability of his mood, Maggie let him. “Let’s go skating on the Midway. It’s frozen solid, and I’ve got skates in the carriage waiting outside.”
“Skates?” Maggie stared at him in surprise. “I’ve never skated before.”
“All the more reason to learn. You’ve been working hard, Maggie.
Let’s have some fun.” He smiled appealingly, and Maggie hesitated, more tempted than she knew she should be.
The last three months had been a blur of work and worry, and besides, if she refused, Theo would be even more annoyed, and that was something she wished to avoid, especially at this delicate juncture, with her shop about to open.
“As friends,” he continued in a cajoling tone. “You’re so worried about what people will think, but no one of any account will be on the Midway. And we can have a gander at Jackson Park—the buildings are all almost finished.”
Maggie hesitated another moment, her hand linked loosely with Theo’s, and then she nodded. “All right,” she said. “But only for an hour or two.”
The day was bright and clear and blindingly cold, the sun sparkling on the snow, so Maggie’s eyes hurt to look at it.
Jackson Park, now nicknamed the White City, was a maze of imposing neoclassical buildings, nearly all of them now finally finished, in preparation for the Exposition in just a few months.
The Midway Plaisance, a mile-long thoroughfare through the center of the grounds, was set to be an amusement park, with rides and games, vendors and stalls, with the now half-constructed Ferris wheel at its center, when the fair opened.
For now, the sunken lawn was used as an ice skating rink for the Chicagoans who wished to try their hand at the sport.
As Maggie strapped on her skates, she wondered at the wisdom of what she was doing. “If I break a leg, it will be all your fault,” she warned Theo, who laughed in response.
“I’ll make sure you don’t,” he told her, taking her by the hands once she’d finished doing up her skates. She rose unsteadily, letting out a little yelp as she nearly fell over, and Theo slipped his arm about her waist so they could skate side by side, with him guiding her.
As ever, Maggie knew she should resist, and she almost did, but like Theo had said, she had been so cautious, and she was well and truly tired of second-guessing every single thing she did, wondering and worrying how it might look to any passerby.
They weren’t doing anything questionable, and there were plenty of other young couples out on the ice, enjoying the bright winter’s day, and no one of society who might look askance.
While the last three months had been exhilarating in their own way, and full of work, they’d also been long and lonely.
She hadn’t seen Brendan or Danny once; they hadn’t reached out to her, and in her wounded pride she had not reached out to them.
It saddened her to think of the distance that now lay between them, but just as she had set her course, so had they, and it was without her.
“Look at you!” Theo enthused. “Like a natural.”
“You’re the natural,” Maggie protested as Theo skated a little ahead, still holding her hand, so he could whirl her about.
Maggie spun dizzily, letting out another little yelp as her skate slipped and her free arm began to windmill, the slick ice seeming to loom up darkly in front of her.
Before she could fall, however, Theo had his arm around her waist again and was drawing her close to him.
“I would never let you fall,” he promised her as he looked down at her with a small, tender smile.
Maggie blinked up at him, her heart racing, and not just because of the near-slip.
Her body was pressed close to Theo’s, his arm snugly around her waist. All her intentions to be respectable, to resist, seemed to evaporate in the unexpected heat of the moment.
Her heart seemed to stutter as she continued to stare at him, and Theo dipped his mouth down close to hers.
“I promised I wouldn’t kiss you again without your permission,” he whispered against her lips. “But you should know how much I want to, Maggie O’Halloran.”
Maggie’s eyes fluttered closed as everything in her willed him to do as he wanted to—with or without her permission. She didn’t feel strong enough to refuse, but she wasn’t weak enough to agree.
“Maggie…” Theo’s breath feathered her lips.
It would be so easy to give in, Maggie knew, and yet it could be disastrous. As soon as she let Theo kiss her again, she became compromised. Brendan’s accusations, any gossip that was being bandied about… it all became true, and that, Maggie knew, she could not allow.
And so, with what felt like a huge amount of effort, she opened her eyes and pushed herself away from him, wobbling alarmingly before she righted herself and stood tall and proud.
“We came here to skate,” she reminded him tartly, and then turned and skated on, inexpertly in the extreme, away from the true danger out here on the ice.