Free If I Had You by Heather Hiestand Page A

poverty with the first boy she kissed, no matter how handsome. No matter how good a kisser.
    Marriage could be an adventure, but there was no point in having a bad adventure, just for the sake of having one.
    â€œWho are you arguing with?” Ivan asked, having circled back around to her.
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œYou have a very intense expression on your face.”
    â€œOh. My sister. She’s much more modern than I am. And prettier.”
    â€œOlder?” He took out a packet of Wrigley’s chewing gum and offered her a piece.
    She shook her head and watched him put a piece in his mouth, as elegant as if he were lighting a cigarette. “Younger.”
    â€œHuh.”
    â€œWhere did you get the gum?”
    â€œAmerican who is staying on the fifth floor. Likes to tip with gum. I suppose he works for a candy company or something.” He grinned. “I’m developing a taste for the stuff.”
    â€œI guess people can treat you however they like.” She paused. “At work, I mean.”
    â€œYes, but the uniform commands respect from most people.” He shrugged. “Anyway, you are quite pretty when you make an effort. I doubt your sister is more attractive, but if she is . . .” He made a fanning motion with his hand.
    She dismissed his words. He didn’t find her pretty, whatever he said. She’d seen how men treated girls they fancied, with care and consideration. Not dismissiveness. “Don’t worry, she’s safe in Bagshot.”
    â€œOne of you has to be sacrificed to the greater good?”
    â€œI don’t see it that way. Our grandmother is gone, and our mother. Grandfather is all we have.”
    â€œWhat happened to your parents?”
    â€œMy father was an antiquarian bookseller. He took my mother out to Boston to see Charles Lauriat Jr., who was a famous bookstore owner. He had an old-book room at the store and lots of the stock came from English estates.”
    Ivan leaned against the counter and crossed his arms over his broad chest. “Your father procured for him?”
    â€œYes, though Mr. Lauriat spent months each year in England himself. He kept doing business throughout the early days of the war, and nothing went wrong. The passenger steamers were supposed to be immune from attack.”
    â€œBut they weren’t.”
    â€œNo. My mother had been ill and my father wanted her to rest. They chose a sea voyage. So they went to Boston, hand delivering some lovely sixteenth-century books, and then came back on the Lusitania with Mr. Lauriat.”
    â€œThey died in the submarine attack.”
    He said it so flatly. She wondered what he’d seen when he fled Russia, to find spectacular deaths in a famous shipwreck so uninteresting. And she wondered why he had fled his homeland in the first place. “Yes. My grandmother’s death was of the mundane variety. Pneumonia after a long bout of influenza.”
    The curtain parted and Mr. Grinberg came out with an envelope for her. “The ticket is inside as well. Make sure you get her directly back to her employers, Ivan. It wouldn’t do to lose her now.”
    â€œI’ll take good care of her,” Ivan said, straightening. He snapped his gum.
    â€œFilthy habit.” Mr. Grinberg sighed to Alecia. “I quite despair of this boychick.”
    â€œHe thinks the brooch might have belonged to his mother,” she said.
    Mr. Grinberg put both hands over his waistcoat. “He’ll have to bring his sister in for a look. But you need to take that money to your employer, first.” He made a shooing motion. “Find a cab, Ivan.”
    With a half smile, Ivan shook his head and went outside.
    â€œI despair,” Mr. Grinberg repeated. “He should be fawning all over a pretty treat like you.”
    â€œSuch applesauce.” She smiled politely but without much warmth, as she would with a parishioner of her grandfather’s that