His For Christmas (6 page)

Her
partner
said
in
an
equally
quiet
voice,
“
I
’
ve
seen
her
before.
She
was
at
the
station
begging
for
a
ticket
to
New
York.
Something
about
her
maid
having
stolen
everything
and
left
her
there.
”

The
first
woman
tittered.
“
I
heard
something
very
scandalous
about
her.
”

And
despite
himself,
his
ears
perked
at
that
word.
He
couldn
’
t
help
it.
Scandalous
was
very
similar
to
libel
and
it
was
his
trade,
after
all.

“…
at
that
brothel
…”

Brothel?

“
Get
out!
”

A
woman
cried out and
suddenly,
someone
plowed
into
his
side
.

“Whoa there!” He
wobbled
in
place,
fighting
vainly
to
stay
in
place,
or
more
importantly,
keeping
a
hold
on
all
the
articles
in
his
arms.

But
it
was
a
losing
battle
and
in
a
split
second,
Elliot
knew
he
was
going
to
drop
everything
on
the
presumably
muddy
ground
of
Main
Street.

He
did.

Drop
everything,
that
is.

Only,
he
didn
’
t
drop
them
on
the
ground.

Someone
screamed
as
a
sack
of
potatoes
fell
on
a
dark
heap
on
the
snowy
ground.

And
the
bacon.

The
length
of
dark
wool
meant
to
be
winter
coats
for
he
and
Timothy.

Finally,
the
sack
of
flour
slipped
off
his
shoulder
and
landed
with
a
very
decided
‘
thud
’
on
the
coat--wrapped
thing
he
realized
was
a
person.

And
not
just
a
person.

A
girl.

His
mind
curiously
blank,
not
even
registering
the
scream
like
a
whistling
tea
kettle
from
Ms.
Blakely,
he
fell
to
his
knees
next
to
the
unmoving
pile
of
herringbone
patterned
coat
and
tangled
dark hair.

Timothy
set
down
his
packages
with
much
more
care
than
he
and
hastened
towards
him.