Chapter Eleven #2
Unfortunately, they weren’t directly behind Annabelle and Kenneth.
They were a couple seats away from them. Which made it hard to see
exactly what was going on.
Was Kenneth sitting too close to her? He’d
been hoping his parents would be the ones attending this event
tonight, but they had opted to stay home and spend some time alone.
He rolled his eyes. His parents were too old to do anything
interesting. What could they possibly do alone that they couldn’t
do around other people?
Kenneth whispered something in Annabelle’s
ear, and Annabelle softly chuckled.
Mark frowned. Why did they have to be so far
away?
Kenneth sat back in his seat and turned his
attention to the opera singers.
Mark resisted the urge to let out a
frustrated sigh. Why did Ben have to be so stubborn? Why couldn’t
he do something to stop this travesty playing out before Mark? Ben
could make an effort to court Annabelle, but he refused to do it.
And why? Just because he was afraid Annabelle would tell him no? If
she told him no, then that meant Ben had to work harder to win her
over.
One wouldn’t know it to look at Ben, but his
parents were well off. Mark’s parents were well acquainted with
Ben’s parents. Mark and Ben, after all, had attended the same
school. After going to seminary, Ben had chosen to give up the
rights to his inheritance, leaving everything to his younger
brother.
Mark had thought that was as ridiculous as
Tony giving up the family business to live on a farm. Tony, at
least, had kept the rights to his share of the inheritance. Ben had
told Mark that being a servant of other people was more important
to him than money. At the time, Mark had thought Ben intended to
become a butler, but then Ben had left to become a preacher. He’d
only asked for enough money from his parents to pay for his
schooling at the seminary. After that, he had returned and picked
one of the poorest churches to preside over. Not that he thought
less of Ben because of it. He didn’t. What Ben had done was
admirable. Mark didn’t think he had it in him to be as
self-sacrificing as Ben was.
Which would make Ben an excellent husband for
Annabelle. Annabelle would do very well to marry someone who could
put everyone else, especially her, first. While Mark liked money a
lot, he did agree it wasn’t everything. Annabelle wasn’t a snob
like some of the elite in Omaha were, either. They’d both had
humble beginnings. They hadn’t started out wealthy. It was only
when Mark was five that the wealth began to accumulate in the
family business. Surely, she could be happy living with Ben even if
he had given up all of his family’s money. She could bring money
into the marriage. She was good at saving. She could tuck all of
that money away or use it for herself. She didn’t have to give up
everything to be with him.
Kenneth shifted in his seat. Mark watched
him. Kenneth adjusted his cufflink then turned his attention back
to the stage. Good. He wasn’t going to say something else to make
Annabelle laugh. It was just Mark’s luck that Annabelle liked men
who had a sense of humor. If Kenneth kept making her laugh, it
could spell disaster for everyone.
Mark felt a tickle in his throat, so he
pulled out one of the honey candies Uncle Joel had given him. He
popped it in his mouth. Thankfully, it did the trick. He only
coughed twice until the urge to keep coughing subsided.
He sucked on the candy for half a minute
before Kenneth leaned over to whisper in Annabelle’s ear. Annabelle
gave Kenneth such a sickeningly sweet smile that Mark knew
Annabelle was falling in love with Kenneth—and fast. Mark gasped,
and the candy slipped down his throat. He coughed, trying to bring
it back up, but he swallowed it. He coughed again. And again.
Since he couldn’t stop himself from the
series of coughs that overtook him, he jumped up from his seat and
hurried out of the theater so he wouldn’t annoy anyone.
By the time he made it to the entrance, he
was frantically digging in his pocket for another honey candy. This
was just his luck. Not only was Annabelle falling in love with
Kenneth, but he couldn’t stop coughing.
“Sir, would you like a drink of water?” one
of the ushers asked him.
He nodded as he finally got the tin can out
of his pocket. He opened it and took out one of the candies just as
Natalie came up to him. He accepted the glass of water from the
usher and drank it. Thankfully, the water did the trick. Once he
finished the glass, he was done coughing.
“Are you alright?” Natalie asked.
“I’m fine. I swallowed the honey candy by
accident, and then I couldn’t stop coughing.”
He handed the empty glass to the usher and
thanked him. He led Natalie to an area where they could talk
without being overheard. Since he didn’t need the candy anymore, he
put it back into the tin.
“I was right about Tony and Velma being happy
together, wasn’t I?” he asked. “Even when it looked like things
weren’t going to work out, they did.”
“Yes, they did work out,” she replied. “I
suppose I owe you an apology for not believing you.”
“An apology isn’t necessary. You were right
to be upset.” So they wouldn’t keep talking about Tony and Velma,
he continued, “I’m worried about Kenneth and Annabelle. They aren’t
a good match. Annabelle won’t be happy with him.”
“She looks happy to me.”
So Natalie had noticed the disgusting way
Annabelle was giggling at all of Kenneth’s ridiculous jokes. In
that case, it was more important than ever to deal with this
situation.
“I’m asking you to trust me,” he told
Natalie. “My instincts are never wrong about this kind of thing.
Kenneth’s hiding something. I don’t like him. He has this…” How
could he explain it in a way she’d understand? No one ever
understood how his instincts worked. “There’s something about him
that keeps warning me to keep him away from her.”
“And you don’t know why?”
There it came. The demand for a logical
explanation that he couldn’t provide because his instincts ran on
emotion rather than reason.
“Will you do me a favor?” he asked, deciding
to try a tactic he’d never used before. “Will you watch Kenneth
tonight? After this, we have the dinner party, and there’s probably
going to be some dancing. You don’t have to follow him all over the
place, but would you just take note of what he’s doing? See who he
talks to. See if you can get close enough to hear something he’s
saying. Just pay attention to him.”
“It sounds like you want me to spy on
him.”
“It’s not spying if we’re all in public.”
After a moment, she finally conceded.
“Alright, I’ll pay attention to what he’s doing.”
Good. Maybe nothing would come of it. He
couldn’t be sure what to expect, but it was possible that she might
see something that would make her believe he had a reason to be
concerned.
“Are you ready to go back in there and watch
the rest of the opera?” she asked.
He nodded. “Yes. I’m all done coughing.”
With a smile, she slipped her arm around his,
and they returned to their seats.