Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Tommy held his breath as he waited for Minnie to respond.
So far, she was just standing there, staring at him, eyes wide and lips slightly parted.
He didn’t think it was a good sign.
“Minnie?” he said hesitantly. “Did you hear me? I said—”
“I heard what you said,” she cut him off, her words coming out in a rush. “At least, I think I did. It’s taking me a moment to consider what you asked. You do know what you asked?”
“Of course I do. I asked if you would marry me. Now you’re just staring at me with your mouth open like a freshly caught fish.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Well, if I were going to say yes, now I’m not sure that I would.”
“You were going to say yes?”
“I hadn’t decided on my answer yet.”
“Then what were you doing, standing there so still?”
“I was… thinking.”
“What did you think about?”
Minnie ran a hand over her brow.
“I was wondering whether you were in your right mind.”
“Minnie—” he protested, slightly hurt at her words, even if he did understand them. His question had come out of nowhere.
“I like you too, Tommy,” she said, his chest puffing out a bit at that response, “but we hardly know one another, and you do not seem the type to be desperate for marriage. What made you ask me?”
“Well,” he said carefully, trying to come up with a plausible explanation that wouldn’t make her suspect her father.
“I had… heard that you had a need to be married. I figured, why not to me? We know one another, we get on well, and if I’m not mistaken, we have some attraction to each other.
I am happy to let you live how you’d like. I’m not a controlling man.”
“My parents have wanted to see me married for years, so why now? Where did you hear that I needed to be married?”
“Well, I just assumed, as you’re a young lady of some means, coming to an age…” he said, fumbling his words. “I know both Emmaline and Lily faced the same concerns.”
“This is not exactly a romantic proposition,” she finally said, and Tommy swallowed hard, realizing where he had gone wrong.
He had been so intent on saving her that he hadn’t considered that perhaps he should have put some effort into this.
He knew from his mother and sister that, regardless of the circumstances, women enjoyed feeling appreciated.
They had reached the end of the Manchester street, which sloped down gently toward the bank of the River Irwell.
The gentle rush of water calmed Tommy’s usually restless soul, while the moon reflected off the surface, casting shimmering reflections.
It was in stark contrast to the factory buildings that loomed in the distance and the street of shops and taverns that led to it.
“Hold on for one moment,” Tommy said, lifting a finger between them before he hurried forward to the riverbank. He knew what grew along the banks of the river, and he quickly scoured the edges for what he was looking for.
He returned up the riverbank, holding what he knew was likely pitiful, but the best he could do in the moment.
“For you,” he said, holding out his makeshift bouquet of hastily picked wildflowers.
It wasn’t until he held them out before him that he noted the different lengths of the stems, that the purple wildflower was tipping over to the side, and if he wasn’t wrong, that was a beetle crawling over the top of the yellow one next to it.
“Thank you, Tommy,” she said graciously, accepting the bouquet and holding it before her.
“Let me try this again,” he said, bending to a knee in front of her. He had one talent that he knew, from past experience, could turn simple adoration into blatant sexual attraction, and if there was ever a time for it, it was now.
He took one of her hands in his, holding her fingers softly, before he opened his mouth and began to sing.
“Believe me, if all those endearing young charms,
Which I gaze on so fondly today,
Were to change by tomorrow and fleet in my arms,
Like fairy-gifts fading away…”
When he was finished, he waited expectantly, but she was still unmoving, resembling a statue except that she blinked now and again.
Finally, her lips parted. “Tommy,” she said, her voice just above a whisper, “where did you learn to sing like that?”
He shrugged. “Just born with the voice of an angel,” he said. “If I had planned this better, I would have brought my guitar.”
“Your voice is…”
“Surprising? I sang in the church choir for a while, until I began apprenticing with the blacksmith, and football took most of my extra time. Now I sing for fun. Mostly in the bathhouse with the fellows or while working. But we’re getting off-topic. Have I convinced you?”
“Tommy,” she said with a sigh. “I appreciate the gestures, I do. And while I can understand that you might be acting on impulse, there must be a reason why. So, confess.”
“No reason,” he said, holding his hands out. “It just seemed like good timing.”
She stepped closer, narrowing her eyes as she studied him. “You know, don’t you?”
“Know what?”
“That my father plans to marry me off to pay off his debts.”
She would have knocked him over with her words had he not been so solidly planted on the ground.
“You know that he plans to marry you off?”
“Yes. I found evidence of it in his study last night. But how could you possibly know any of this?”
Tommy sighed before taking her hand and leading her over to a relatively flat piece of ground. He paused, shrugging off his coat before laying it on the ground and helping her sit down upon it.
“I was at a tavern the other night,” he began before launching into his story. “I overheard who I later discovered was your father, talking to another man about you. I’m not ashamed to say I listened in. When I realized the plan, I knew I had to do something.”
“Why not just tell me this?” she asked, leaning in closer, biting her lip in a way that tugged at something deep within him.
He looked down, unable to meet her gaze, for then he might reveal something all too vulnerable. “I didn’t want you to learn what your father had done,” he admitted.
“That is very kind of you,” she said, before looking forward, “but unfortunately, I know all too well now what I am worth to my father. The amount of his debt.”
“Did your father defend his actions?” he asked.
“Not really,” she said with a sad smile. “He thought I would understand how important it was to his business that his debts not become known.”
“As though it was up to you to save him.”
“Yes, in essence,” she said before cocking her head, studying him. “So, you were willing to give yourself, your chance of marriage to another, to me to protect me and to keep me safe?”
“Yes,” he said simply.
“That is… actually more romantic than anything else you could have done.”
“Even my song?”
“Even your song,” she said, before sighing and surprising him by leaning her head onto his shoulder. He hesitated for a moment before wrapping his arm around her, pulling her in next to him, allowing her to rest on him and take whatever support he could offer.
“I’m sorry he did that to you,” Tommy murmured.
“Thank you.”
“I still mean it, you know,” he said into her hair. “I would like to marry you.”
She leaned back, looking up at him. “What’s in this for you?”
He met her gaze, soaking in the deep blue of her eyes, as he decided that, for once in his life, he would answer as honestly as he could.
“Two reasons. First, you don’t deserve this.
I don’t want to see this happen to you. If I can provide you with another option, even if it’s not one that you were expecting or necessarily wanting, then I’d like to give that to you.
Second, I want to get to know you better.
I’ve been wanting it for a long time. How am I supposed to do that if you’re married to someone else? ”
Her tongue darted out over her lips as she searched his face as though trying to determine the authenticity of his words. “What if you get to know me and decide that you don’t like me?”
“Somehow, I don’t think that’s possible.”
“Do you even want to be married?”
He shrugged. “Hadn’t thought too much about it yet. Was too busy having fun. But I have a feeling that I might enjoy being married to you. And if we both understand what this is, that we can have freedom, then I’d be fine with that.”
She was silent for a moment, opening and closing her mouth a couple of times as though there was something she wanted to ask, but thought better of it.
“What is it?” he urged her gently.
“Nothing.”
“Go on. Ask away.”
Her eyes darted away from him as tendrils of hair blew across her face with the gentle breeze. “What exactly do you mean by… freedom?”
“Freedom to do what we please, to not have to answer questions to one another,” he said with a shrug, although he could tell that she wasn’t satisfied with his answer. It took him a moment to determine the heart of her question. “Ooooh, you are wondering whether we can take other people to bed.”
Even though it was dark, he had this feeling that her cheeks were turning pink. He loved her innocence and tried not to smile in case she thought he was laughing at her.
“I-I suppose I just wanted to understand the details.”
He reached out, cupping her chin between his thumb and index finger. “I can tell you this, Minnie. Since I met you, I’ve barely thought of another woman. I don’t know how I could ever consider taking another to bed if I had you in my house.”
“What if I’m not in your bed?”
Disappointment laced through him, but he hadn’t proposed this to her merely to satisfy desire for her.
“This arrangement can be however you’d like it, Minnie,” he said softly.
“It doesn’t seem fair of me to ask you to stay out of other women’s beds if I do not accept you in mine,” she said. “But I’m not sure I’d be ready for that. Not right away, at least.”
He leaned in, taking her hands in his. “Then we would take things however you’d like them. As slow or as fast.”
“Thank you,” she said, her voice just above a whisper. “It’s hard to imagine that this is happening to me. It’s all come to pass so quickly.”
“I can understand that,” he said. “But I’m here for whatever you need.”
She nodded, not saying anything, but from the way her lips pressed together and her rapid blinking, he guessed that she was trying to keep her emotions in check.
“I need a night to think this over, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course,” he said, although he worried that even a night might be too long, that her father might set things in motion faster than she could even imagine. “You can find me at the blacksmith shop two streets up from here or send word through Lily or Emmaline.”
“If we did this… it would have to be done quickly. My father wants to marry me off within the week.”
“I know.”
“How would we even do that?”
“I’m not sure yet, but I’ll think of something. I always do.”
Silence reigned for a moment, and he could tell that this might be too much for her. “Are you ready to go back?” he asked, and when she nodded, he helped her up, shaking off his coat before redonning it.
They returned without speaking, each lost in their thoughts, Tommy realizing that while he had initially proposed this as a favor to her, now that he had actually asked her, he wanted her agreement more than he had ever realized. When they entered the tavern, she turned to him.
“Thank you, Tommy,” she said softly. “For everything.”
He nodded, his gaze fixed upon her. He had told Jonny there was no reason a woman like Minnie would wish to speak to him, and now, looking into her upturned face, he could scarcely believe she had.
That she might even contemplate marrying him seemed beyond all reason.
Perhaps he had been a fool ever to suggest it.
“Goodnight, Minnie,” he said, even though the last thing he wanted was to walk away from her.
“You’re not staying?”
“Not tonight,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve got too much on my mind. Unless you need me?”
“No, I should be fine,” she said. She paused, looking at him, before quickly standing on her toes, placing a quick peck on his cheek, and then dissolving back into the crowd before he could even respond.
His lips curved into a smile.
As much as she likely shouldn’t, she would say yes.
He was sure of it.