Chapter 4
“What is wrong with you?” Michael demanded.
They were in their tent, and Troy was watching his brother pace up and down the small space. He had been doing that for a while now, and Troy was finding it uncommonly annoying.
“How could you invite that woman to come here and not tell anyone or make any plans? That was a juvenile thing to do!” Michael roared. “Did you think everything would just work itself out?”
He’d been saying things like that for the last twenty minutes.
Troy sighed. “If you would just listen …”
Michael turned and glared at him, his hands on his hips. “Well?” he demanded. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
Silence.
“Oh, can I talk now?” Troy asked, acting all innocent in a manner that he knew would annoy Michael more. It probably wasn’t wise, but he didn’t care. He had had enough. He glared at his brother.
“I am waiting for you to explain, yes,” Michael said, folding his arms across his burly chest.
Troy wondered if it would be worth it to explain to his older brother how things had gotten out of hand. Would it make any difference, or would Michael only pretend to listen and then start yelling at him again? Well, it was worth a try.
“I didn’t ask Emily to come here,” Troy said quietly.
“In fact, in my last letter to her I broke it off. I told her I didn’t think we had anything in common.
I swear to you, Michael, the only thing I was expecting from the train station today was a box of parts for the elevator and a few other things.
I told you before, and I’ll tell you again—I made no commitment to Emily. ”
Michael regarded him in a way that made Troy wonder if his brother was weighing the merit of his words. He most likely was.
“Okay,” Michael said. “I believe you. Then what is Emily doing here?”
Troy shook his head. “I have no idea. She mentioned something about a bothersome relative. Maybe something happened to make her leave Washington, DC.”
Once again, Michael looked thoughtful, as though he was playing out scenarios in his mind. Then he turned to Troy.
“Whatever the reason that made her leave her home, she came out here for you,” Michael said. “You’re going to have to talk to her. Who knows, you might find you fall in love with her.”
Troy frowned. How could he tell his brother that he was pretty certain that no amount of time in Emily’s company would make him love her?
Their brief correspondence had already confirmed that.
But now it was even more clear when his heart was beating to a different drum, which only said one name: Lizzy.
Despite his misgivings about ruining their friendship, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was falling in love with the woman he had rescued from the bandits several months back.
She had found a very special place in his heart, one that could never be replaced by another.
The whole writing letters to Emily thing should have been finished and dealt with when his last letter reached her.
Troy should have been free and clear to declare his intentions to Lizzy and court her.
But somehow he was still tied to Emily. He couldn’t understand how that had happened.
All of this flew through his mind in the blink of an eye. He shook his head.
“Michael, I don’t think … Can I just be honest with you for once and not have you judge me?” he asked.
Michael looked angry again, but so what? He was always out of sorts with Troy nowadays. He shrugged and nodded. “Sure, Troy, go ahead.”
Troy drew in a deep breath. “I’m seriously thinking about courting Lizzy.
” There. He’d said it. “She’s so easy to talk to.
I feel like we speak the same language when everyone else looks at me like I’m speaking in tongues most of the time.
She loves to work with machines as much as I do, and I have the best time when I’m with her.
” He paused, thinking of how much he’d enjoyed their morning together in spite of the near-catastrophic fall.
“I don’t want to lose that, Michael. Spending time with Emily might jeopardize everything. ”
Rubbing his hands through his hair so that it stood up in spikes, Michael groaned. “You have too many women, and I have too few.” He sighed and smiled reluctantly. “Quite the brothers we are.”
Troy chuckled.
“Okay,” Michael said after a moment’s thought. “Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to spend some time with Emily.” He held up his hand when Troy began to protest. “Now hear me out, okay?”
Biting his tongue, Troy waited for Michael to lay out his plan.
“You just have to at least give her a week or so,” Michael said. “She came all the way out here to meet you. It’s the least you can do. It’s the gentlemanly thing, Troy.”
Troy nodded reluctantly. “You’re right. It wouldn’t be decent not to at least spend time with her.”
“And if in a week you still feel that Lizzy is the woman for you and that corresponding with Emily was a mistake, then you can tell her,” Michael said.
“Then she’ll have had a chance with you, and I think she’ll feel better about it.
Also, in that time we can see if there’s any chance of finding her somewhere to fit in here. ”
As Michael spoke, the expression on his face suddenly registered with Troy. His eyes widened. “You like her!”
“Don’t be silly,” Michael snapped. “I’ve known her for three minutes. Not even known her. I’ve spoken two words to her!”
“But you think she’s pretty, don’t you?” Troy asked. He was starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
“Well, she is,” Michael said defensively. “And she seems lovely from the letters she sent you. Smart, well-read?—”
“You’ve been reading my letters?”
His brother had the good grace to look a little ashamed. “You leave them lying around.”
Troy grinned. “I’m not angry. Perhaps she is perfect for you and all your love for poetry and novels and things like that,” he said with a laugh. “This is wonderful. Why don’t you just step in and get to know her?”
“Because Emily has the right to choose for herself,” Michael said. “And right now she seems to have chosen you. Although I don’t know why any woman would. You spend more time mooning over machines than noticing when a woman makes an effort to look nice in the hopes of attracting your attention.”
“Lizzy does no such thing!” Troy protested. “She doesn’t have to. She looks nice all the time!”
They regarded each other, and Troy thought he saw something like hope pass through his brother’s eyes.
“Okay,” Troy said. “I’ll give it a week, but I’m still working with Lizzy. We have far too much to do for this to get in the way.”
“Do what you have to do,” Michael said with a grin and a shrug.
Troy nodded. “I’ll go and speak to Emily. I owe her that. And she owes me a proper explanation.”
The walk to the hastily erected tent that Emily would be calling home was far too short.
Troy hadn’t quite worked out what he would say when he got there.
He coughed politely, which had taken the place of knocking on doors in the tent community.
Then, when no one answered from inside, he added, “Knock knock.”
“Oh? Is someone there?” Emily called.
“It’s Troy,” he said.
She appeared, lifting the tent flap a moment later. “Hello. I was hoping you would come by. This is not how I expected our first meeting to go.”
“I wanted to apologize for my reaction,” Troy said. “You caught me by surprise.”
“I suppose since you didn’t get my telegram, it’s understandable that you were not expecting me,” Emily said. She looked very nervous, standing just outside her tent, biting the inside of her cheek.
“I really didn’t get a telegram,” Troy said.
“But you’re glad I came?” she asked, looking so terribly hopeful that Troy’s heart melted. How could he dash her hopes? He didn’t think a week in her company would change anything about how he felt about Lizzy.
She was waiting for him to answer. What should he say?
“I am glad to meet you,” he said.
She smiled and Michael was right, she was pretty.
Although it was in a proper and refined sort of way.
He couldn’t imagine her dangling upside down from the framework of the elevator and shrugging it off as Lizzy had.
He thought of how it had felt to hold her close afterward and wondered how he’d get through a week pretending to be interested in Emily.
“I just had to get out of DC,” she said.
“Oh? Why?” Troy asked.
“I needed something new,” Emily said with a smile that made Troy think that wasn’t the whole truth.
They stood awkwardly. Troy couldn’t think of another thing to say.
She was so unfamiliar to him, and he didn’t know what she was thinking.
He wasn’t even sure if he should ask. Maybe that was enough for one day.
It had been so much easier with Lizzy, even from the day she first opened her eyes in Julie’s apothecary tent and smiled blearily at him.
“So, I guess we’ll see each other around …” He suddenly itched to go find her.
“Oh? Aren’t you going to show me around the camp?” Emily asked, sounding afraid and hopeful at the same time. “I thought perhaps you would, so that I could get my bearings.”
Troy blinked. He hadn’t meant to start spending time with her now.
He was pretty sure the parts for the elevator had been on the cart, and he needed to get that done.
There was also the rock-crushing machine.
With so much to do, playing guide around a camp that really took almost no time to walk around seemed silly and pointless.
Perhaps she was just nervous. This was a new place for her. He should be kind.
“Okay, we could go on a quick walk around,” Troy said. “I have to get back to my work though.”
“Right, and that is mining, isn’t it?” Emily asked.