CHAPTER FIVE

Pretending she were working weren’t distracting her in the slightest.

With a sigh, Pearl pushed back from her desk. She’d done her best to order her thoughts all morning, but nothing could stop the same one swirling around her head.

Garrett had money. Moreover, he were rich.

Brows drawn, she stared unseeingly at the wall. How could Garrett be one of those Garretts? Six years it had been since he had first come to Ironwood, and not once had she an inkling he came from wealth. His clothing was well-worn and well-mended, his hat looked years old, and his leather duster had dull elbows and looked butter soft. Nothing about him suggested he had more than two pennies to rub together, and she’d never given thought to where he’d made his home before, but then why would she? He had always seemed to be what he appeared.

The Garretts. One of the richest families in Boston, they owed their wealth to warehousing and shipping, so it were strange Garrett were employed as Alice’s surveyor, scrabbling in the ground for coal deposits. Had Alice known about him? If she had, it would have been a kindness to mention such to her. Alice knew how she felt about rich men.

Damn it, why did she even care? Garrett were nothing to her. He were simply one patron amongst many, that she sought him out most nights to spar with were neither here nor there, and that he hadn’t been at The Diamond, that she had noticed and an ache had started in her chest, well, that were a weird aberration that also meant nothing.

She had no notion why she’d reacted as she had learning he had wealth. Imagine bowing and scraping to Garrett. She’d clearly been loose in the head to do so. For a moment she’d forgotten herself, reverting to when she were younger and hadn’t known any better. Most like it had been shock, which were also why that pain in her chest had started. It had nothing to do with how the gap between her place in the world and his had of a sudden become a chasm.

She shoved herself to her feet. Why were she wasting time thinking on this? Winter were coming fast, and there were preparations that needed to be arranged to weather the cold months ahead. Besides, she had promised herself a long time ago she would never again let a rich man have hold over her and now that she knew Garrett were one, she would not think on him again.

The floor of the Diamond were quiet, only those finishing up the lunch the Diamond offered free of charge remaining, and it were well before those who came of an evening. She breathed a sigh of relief Garrett weren’t among them. Now that it were colder, he usually came every day for lunch, but he were nowhere to be seen. Maybe it were he were taking his meals with his mother, fancy food Pearl had probably never heard of.

Polly stood against the bar, watching those before her. She smiled as Pearl joined her. “Boss.”

Pearl nodded a greeting. “How’s the morning been, Polly?”

“Pretty quiet. Slowing down now the snows are nigh.” She looked at Pearl askance. “Heard some more about that rich lady, if you’re interested in hearing.”

She weren’t interested. She weren’t. “What did you hear?” Damn it.

Expression eager, Polly leant forward. “She’s Portia Garrett, of them wealthy Garretts in Boston. Word is she came here to collect a son what’s fled from a marriage arranged for well over a decade. And get this.” She lowered her voice. “The son she’s chasing? It’s that surveyor of Miz Llewellyn’s, Ethan Garrett.”

Garrett were engaged? But he— And then she— She had not thought… A roil started in her belly.

“Apparently he and some fancy lady in Boston have been engaged since they were young ones and now mamma has come to demand he do his duty. Have you ever heard of such?” Polly shook her head. “Rich people are another thing.”

She couldn’t move on from the casual drop Garrett were affianced. He’d never even looked at a woman that she knew of, not in the all the time he had been in Ironwood. He hadn’t courted no one, and he didn’t patronise Miss Rose’s Boarding House, though she’d heard more than one of Miss Rose’s girls lament the fact. Maybe it was he kept himself apart because of this betrothed.

The roil in her belly churned faster.

She shook herself. It didn’t matter to her one way or another if Garrett were engaged to be wed. It weren’t none of her business. This was nothing like Edmund and what he had put her through. It shouldn’t hurt her she’d had no knowledge of Garrett’s betrothed. Especially now she knew him to be a rich man, probably even richer than Edmund ever was.

“Do you know where George has gotten to? I need to discuss preparations for winter with him.” she asked.

Polly’s brows lifted in surprise but she didn’t question. “Think he’s out back stocking up the coal and firewood.”

Pearl nodded her thanks and then made for the back. She had business, she shouldn’t be wasting time with useless thoughts on a man that mattered not at all. Garrett was neither here nor then for her, and most especially now she knew his people. She and Garrett were nothing, and that he had concealed a fiancée weren’t a betrayal of any kind.

Besides, he were a Garrett of the Boston Garretts and she…she didn’t hold with rich men.

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