Part 23 (2/2)

So now Mac sat stiffly in her seat, toying with the plumes on the ridiculous bonnet and trying to distract him with nonsensical questions. She wouldn't get off so easily. He set the horses to a faster gait in order to keep Perry and Caroline in sighta”where he intended to be every step of the way to Cliff House.

”So, Mac,” he said, ”it was Caroline's idea to make you my guest on this expedition.” He shook his head. ”It's no wonder I was confused.” He guided the horses down the hill and onto Market. ”I would hardly have recognized you dressed as a woman.”

”Oh, you mean this?” she said, plucking at her skirt. ”Caroline was very generous in lending it to me.”

”Ah, yes. My ward. She seemed anxious to help you, and you were amenable enough to her little trick. So eager for my companya”Rose?”

A stain of red darkened her ears. ”I never did tell you my first name,” she said. ”You never asked.”

”I prefer Mac. It suits you far better.” He steered the surrey along the vast cobbled river of Market Street, dodging other carriages, horsecars, hacks, wagons, pedestrians, and even the rare lopsided bicycle. Perry's gig was still in clear view.

”And now,” he said, ”perhaps you'll explain to me what you were doing with Perry and Caroline.”

She clasped her gloved hands in her lap. ”It's simple. Perry offered his help, to enable me to make my way in the city. I took him up on his offer. He suggested that Caroline would help me find clothes and other things I needed.”

”And so you simply went with him. Without consulting me, withouta””

”I didn't know where you'd gone!” She turned in her seat to glare at him. ”I knew you and Perry were rivals, but you didn't leave me any choice. I wasn't going to sit in that room and wait for you to decide my fate.”

Liam took a firmer grip on the reins. ”I had plans for you, Mac. Plans to take care of youa””

”You never consulted me,” she interrupted. ”You just left.”

”And you expect me to believe that was your only motive for coming here with Perry.”

”By now I know better than to expect you to believe anything.”

He remembered her stories of time travel back in the jungle, and his anger began to dissolve, softened by unantic.i.p.ated worry. He kept forgetting that Mac was more than a little mad. Not able to look after herself in a place like this. A man like Perry would find it easy to take advantage of her.

It gave Liam surprisingly little pleasure to be at odds with her now. In the jungle it had been different, with just the two of them, but herea Something had changed.

He didn't a.n.a.lyze the thought further. ”Do you like animals, Mac?” he asked.

She started at his about-face. ”Of course I like animals. If you mean the sealsa””

”Not quite.” Liam whistled. A ba.s.so bark was the only warning of Norton's flying leap from the floorboard onto the rear seat of the carriage. The vehicle rocked with the force of the wolfhound's landing.

Liam reached back one-handed and undid the latch of the special traveling basket on the back seat. b.u.mmer the Second squirmed out and began to bark, scrambling from one end of the seat to the other. Norton thrust his s.h.a.ggy muzzle across Mac's shoulder and gave her a great sweeping lick that caught her right across the cheek.

All at once the strained atmosphere of anger and suspicion was gone. Mac was laughinga”not a quiet, feminine t.i.tter but a full-throated sound of genuine amus.e.m.e.nt.

”Friends of yours?” she asked. ”I didn't know you kept such good company.” She caught b.u.mmer and lifted the terrier over the back of the seat and into her lap. Sometime in the last minute she'd managed to pull off her gloves; now she held the terrier down with one hand and patted Norton's muzzle with the other. ”What are their names?”

Of course she wouldn't be discomposed, even with a pair of boisterous canines shedding and s...o...b..ring all over her carriage dress. Caroline would be outraged at the affront to her toilette, and he wouldn't hear the end of her complaints that he'd brought the dogs along.

”How remiss of me not to offer introductions,” he said. ”This is b.u.mmer the Second, and”a”he jerked his thumb toward the rear seata””that's Norton.”

”Nortona”as in Emperor Norton? He just died a few years ago, didn't he? And b.u.mmer was one of his dogs. Did you name yours for his?”

”You seem to know a great deal about the emperor.”

She grinned. ”He is in all the San Francisco history books.”

Not giving up on her crazy story even now. Liam eased the carriage past a cable car rattling along in its tracks as they pa.s.sed the unfinished hulk of the city hall dome and turned onto Fell. ”Eventually I'll call your bluff, Mac.”

She gazed at the cable car while b.u.mmer barked at a mongrel on the sidewalk. ”What's going to happen when someone calls yours?”

Liam snorted and directed the surrey onto the broad gravel paths of Avenue Park. Other carriages and their occupants were taking the air on this fine autumn day: victorias and landaus, rockaways and gigs and buggies. Children and dogs played on the patches of groomed lawn to either side of the lane.

And just ahead were Perry and Caroline in Perry's rented gig. Caroline's head was very close to Perry's as they chatted with a society matron in her landau.

Liam ordered Norton out of the carriage and coaxed the horses alongside the gig. Mac set b.u.mmer on the back seat.

Perry looked up. ”What kept you?” he asked. ”Liam, you do know Mrs. Wyndham.”

Liam made the slightest of bows. He knew her, all right; she was one of the social arbiters who determined when one had become rich or fas.h.i.+onable enough to be part of the n.o.b Hill seta”the society Liam had exerted himself to join for Caroline's sake.

Perry, however, had his uses for Mrs. Wyndham and her ilk. They had the money he lacked; he had the culture they desperately aspired to. He knew how to make the most of his aristocratic heritage.

At the moment he clearly wished to present his supposed ”cousin” to San Francisco society. He made introduction of Miss Rose MacKenzie to Mrs. Wyndham, relating the outrageous story of Mac's fabricated origins.

Mrs. Wyndham, rotund and severe in a dark brown carriage dress, examined Mac with considerable interest but didn't question Perry's story. She gave Perry a regal nod.

”I trust you will take good care of your cousin while she is with us, Mr. Sinclair,” she said. ”And Miss Gresham, I shall be delighted to attend your ball. I hope to see your new protegee there. Mr. O'Shea, Miss MacKenzie.” With a lift of her beringed hand she waved her coachman on.

”I knew you would be found acceptable with a little help,” Caroline said, beaming at Mac. ”The ball will be so much fun.”

”Uma”ball?” Mac echoed.

Caroline's brow wrinkled. ”Surely you've been in mourning for your poor father long enough?” She turned to Perry. ”Hasn't she, Perry? The ball will not be too early?”

Perry patted Caroline's hand. ”I think it best if Rose is encouraged to put her losses behind her rather than dwell on them.”

Liam coughed. Three sets of eyes focused on him. Caroline s.h.i.+fted in her seat.

”I knew you could not object, Liam,” Caroline said, her tone deceptively humble. ”I thought it only right that Rose should be invited to my birthday ball.” She turned to Mac without waiting for Liam's response. ”You will adore it, Rose. I shall present you to all my friends. And it will be your firsta”

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