Sometime late into the night, Hunter awoke. With careful movements, he extricated himself from the warmth of Meredith’s embrace and slipped out of the bed to where her reticule and cape lay on the floor. The cold air prickled his bare skin. The fire in the woodstove had dwindled to embers. He should stoke it and add another log but he didn’t want to wake Meredith. Not yet.
He picked through her clothes until he found the reticule, carefully extracting the ledger sheet. With quiet footsteps, he walked over to the lamp still burning low on the table next to the bed and stared at the numbers and symbols again. Their meaning remained as elusive as when Meredith showed him the paper earlier, but there was something else. He stared at the writing on the paper as the light flickered over it.
This time, he couldn’t deny what he saw.
Chapter Fifteen
As the sun started to creep over the edge of the horizon, Meredith awoke, stretching her body against Hunter’s warm length. She wished she could spend the day here, the two of them getting reacquainted, burrowing in and forgetting about the Syndicate, the trial, everything that conspired to tear apart their budding happiness.
But real life refused to be ignored, and she still had to slip out of Hunter’s room and make it across the street to The Klein without being noticed. Surely it was safe to return now, though she knew Hunter would not let her make the trip alone. Another hurdle. If anyone spied them together, with her in nothing but her nightdress and a cape, her reputation would be destroyed and any hope she had of convincing the council to grant her business proposal at tonight’s meeting forever lost.
“Wake up.” She nudged Hunter’s arm. “I need to get back to my room.”
A slow groan escaped him as he rolled onto his side and gathered her against him. “That’s not a good idea.”
“It isn’t an idea, it’s a reality. My proposal is there, as are all my belongings. You can follow behind me, but I need to go.”
He lifted his head. “Proposal? What proposal?”
“I’m addressing the council tonight at the town meeting. I want to open my dressmaking shop in Hattie’s Hats’ former building.”
Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’d forgotten about that. Do you have to do that now? Can’t it wait until after?”
After. After they brought down the Syndicate. Except they didn’t know how long that would take and as each day passed her nest egg dwindled.
“No, it can’t.” She took a deep breath and sat up. “I’m not as well off as I may have made it seem.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I need to open my business soon, or what money I do have saved is going to be gone.” She explained to him Aunt Erma’s belief you had to look successful to be successful, but she carefully left off the hope that she would show him, too, and make him regret having thrown her over. None of that mattered now that she knew the truth.
Hunter shook his head. “I just think putting yourself out there could make you more of a target.”
“Well, I can hardly hide out in my room. They’ve already come after me there.” Hunter’s face tightened at the reminder. She reached out a hand and touched his arm. “I’ll be fine. I need to do this. I’m not going to let the Syndicate rob me of one more day. I’m presenting to the town council this evening.”
He was silent a moment. “You know my father is on the council?”
“I do.” She pushed out of the safe cocoon of his arms and dropped her feet over the edge of the bed. The floor was cold. She shivered, the pull to dive back between the covers with Hunter strong. She resisted.
“Do you want me to speak to him?”
“Do you think speaking on my behalf would help my case?” She smiled at Hunter’s scowl. “No, I didn’t think so. But thank you for the offer.”
She picked up her nightdress and glanced over at Hunter who had propped himself up on his elbow and was staring at her.
“Are you getting up?”
“Yes.” But he didn’t move and Meredith realized from the foolish grin on his face he meant something else entirely.
She laughed. It felt good. “Beast.” She dropped her nightdress over her head and let it slither down her body covering his view of her backside. Behind her, he let out a dramatic sigh. Meredith bent and tossed his denims and shirt at him. “Hurry. The sun will be up soon.”
Hunter went first, entering the hotel from the front door. Meredith followed shortly behind, going up the stairs she had escaped down the night before. By the time she made it to the top, Hunter was already in the room, pushing the window open for her to crawl through with his assistance.