Free Too Rich for a Bride by Mona Hodgson Page B

the books where they sat and descended the narrow staircase. Halfway down, she found herself swaying to the tune of the sentimental ballad coming from the parlor. One of the three two-minute cylinders Miss Hattie had for her Edison Home Phonograph. Already, Ida had heard all three songs multiple times. When she achieved a modicum of success working with Mollie O’Bryan, she’d spend fifty cents and buy the woman a fourth cylinder.
    Miss Hattie waltzed out of the parlor wearing a cropped tent dress. She met Ida at the bottom of the stairs, her warm smile creating soft folds at her ears. “You look nice, dear. And quite professional.”
    “Thank you.” Ida tugged at the embroidered cuffs of her jacket.
    “Since you are ready for your interview more than an hour early, might you have a few minutes to spare before you leave the house?”
    Ida couldn’t afford to be late, but she had plenty of time, and this was her home until she’d achieved enough success to have her own built. “Yes, I’d like that. Let’s sit for a few minutes.”
    The landlady captured her hand and pulled her toward the parlor.“You’ve been so busy since you arrived in town that we’ve hardly had a moment to ourselves for a visit.”
    Hattie sat on one end of the sofa. Ida chose the wingback chair across from her and set her reticule on the sofa table between them.
    “You met your brothers-in-law Monday night. What did you think of them?” Miss Hattie asked.
    “I found them both quite likeable. Morgan still has a lot of the Boston way about him, while Judson is much less reserved but just as charming.”
    “Did your sisters tell you I helped things along with both couples?”
    “They did.” Ida didn’t need or want that kind of help. “Judson seemed very attentive to Nell. And Morgan and Kat appear to have a spark that suits them. I’d say my sisters have done very well for themselves.”
    “You will too, dear.”
    Clearly, the woman required a more direct approach. “I don’t want what my sisters have, Miss Hattie.”
    “You want success in business.”
    “Yes, I do. That’s why I’m here.” She met the woman’s attentive gaze. “Not to seek out a husband.”
    “Who says you won’t have both?” Miss Hattie cocked a salt-and-pepper eyebrow above a thinly disguised grin. “You and the young Mr. Raines seemed to have a bit of a spark yourselves Monday afternoon.”
    “I’d hardly call dropping a hatpin in his boot a spark.” She was only curious about him. Concerned about him was even more precise. She and her sisters were all alarmed by his abrupt flight from the parlor.
    Her landlady had an endearing and motherly way about her, and since Ida’s own mother had passed many years ago, Hattie’s warmth felt good. Especially now, as she started her new life in Colorado. The matchmaking, however, she couldn’t and wouldn’t tolerate.
    “Ida, dear, you’ve only been here a couple of days, but I can already see you are bright and well studied, conscientious and professional. I’m sure Miss O’Bryan will see those qualities too.”
    “I wish I knew more about the stock market and the mining business. I’ve heard she’s become quite involved in them.”
    “That she has.” Miss Hattie looked down and fiddled with a button on her skirt.
    Ida subdued a sigh and met her landlady’s gaze. “You don’t approve of Miss O’Bryan’s business dealings?”
    “I don’t really know the woman past hello.”
    “But you have reservations?”
    “She sat at my table at the Women for the Betterment of Cripple Creek luncheon last month. I gathered Mollie may have her ducks lined up too tightly.”
    Ducks?
    “It’s something my mama would say.” Miss Hattie glanced at the ceiling as if she might glimpse heaven there. “It meant I needed to leave room for God to work out His own plans.”
    “I see.” Ida chose to keep her own adage to herself— God helps those who help themselves . She hadn’t talked to God more than once