Magnificent Devices, Tome 10 : Fields of Air

Chapter 1

Philadelphia, the Fifteen Colonies

January 1895

She had not even been home a month, and she'd already had two proposals of marriage. This, it seemed, was the difference between being the heiress to a fortune, and the actual possessor of it.

Gloria Meriwether-Astor, guest of honour at a private ball hosted by the Main Line Hadleys, declined yet another offer of punch from a gentleman whose name she could not remember, and accepted the hand of Mr. Elias Pitman, one of the senior members of her father's board of directors, for the next dance.

'Thank you for the rescue,' she said with a smile as he held her very properly and turned her about the ballroom floor in a sedate waltz. 'One more offer of punch and I fear I might turn it over the poor man's head.'

'You are the guest of honour, my dear, and one of the wealthiest young woman in the Fifteen Colonies,' he told her. 'You could turn the entire bowl over his head and the newspapers would merely report that he had been impertinent to you. Tell me, are you tempted to accept either of the offers presently n hand?'

To shudder would be dramatic, but her rejection of such an idea was real, considering the sources. 'Heavens, no. I have far too much to do to be side-tracked by matrimony.'

'But you will be twenty-four in the summer.'

Gloria struggled to keep her expression pleasant for the benefit of all who were watching. 'You speak as though that were the end fo the world,' she said through a smile.

'Perhaps not, but the quarter-century may mark the end of such fine expectations as you enjoy now.'

'Mr. Pitman, I have no doubt that my expectations, as you call them, have more to do with the depth of my pocketbook that of my wrinkles.'

'You are a long way from that, my dear.'

'Then let us have no more discussion of the subject.' He turned her in front of the orchestra and whirled her back down the length of the room. 'Instead, I wish to know what to expect on Tuesday, at he board meeting.'

'Now?'

'Time is of the essence, and I wish to know your private thoughts, not those you may feel it is appropriate to express int front of others.'

He was silent a moment. 'Have you heard form your young cousins?'

'Not a word since Egypt.'

'The pigeon carrying our notice of the board meeting did not find them in Gibraltar, to my knowledge. Despite qui astonishing advances in technology, on the drawbacks of traveling so extensively is that communication becomes increasingly difficult. That will work in your favour, I believe.'