And when he had his back turned and he was off guard, Blair grabbed a discarded paddle and pushed him in the back with all her might. To her great joy, Leander went face down in the mud at the edge of the lake.
But Blair didn’t have time to enjoy her success, because she saw that Alan was still floundering in the water. She thanked heaven for her years on the women’s rowing team as she made her way out to Alan in Lee’s boat.
“I never learned to swim,” he said, as she leaned over to help him over the side. “Just to tread water.”
They managed to get him inside the boat, Alan coughing, dripping water and weak, after what, to him, had been a harrowing experience. Blair glanced toward shore and saw Lee standing there covered with mud, and that gave her some satisfaction.
Expertly, she turned the boat and rowed them to the other side of the lake to the rental place.
She took care of the rental while Alan stood to one side and sneezed, then got them a hired carriage to take them back to the Imperial Hotel where he was staying.
Blair was so angry that she didn’t even look at Alan all the way through town to the hotel. How dare Leander treat her like that in public—or in private for that matter, she thought. She had made herself perfectly clear that she wanted nothing to do with him, yet he insisted on forcing himself on her.
She followed Alan up the stairs to his room. “If I ever get my hands on that man, I’ll kill him. He is the most insufferable creature! Thinking that I could ever possibly want to marry someone like that is just a perfect example of his self-centeredness. Give me your key.”
“What? Oh. Here. Blair, do you think you should go into my room with me? I mean, how do you think it will look?”
Blair took the key from him and opened the door. “Could you imagine living with that man? He is like a very large spoiled boy who has to have his own way. Now, he’s decided that he wants me, probably because I’m the first woman to ever say no to him, and so he sets out to make my life miserable.” She stopped and looked at Alan as he stood dripping on the hotel room floor. “Why are you standing there in those wet clothes? You should get undressed.”
“Blair, I don’t think you should be here, and I certainly don’t plan to undress in front of you.”
Blair began to come back to her senses and realized where she was. “You’re right, of course. I guess I was too angry to think. Will I see you tomorrow?”
“If I don’t die of pneumonia before then,” he said with a smile.
She smiled back at him, started to leave, then, on impulse, she turned back and flung her arms around him as she pressed her mouth to his.
He held her tentatively at first, as if he didn’t want to get her wet, but as Blair applied more pressure and more passion, he held her closer, turning his head as he became more involved in the kiss.
Blair pulled away. “I have to go,” she said softly, as she moved toward the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Alan stood still for a while after Blair’d gone, not bothering to change out of his wet clothes. “You didn’t say no to him, Blair,” he whispered, “and when I kiss you you have to go, but he can make you stay all night.”
On Thursday morning, Blair burst into the Chandler house, tears running down her face, and ran upstairs to her room. She had to plow through several bouquets of flowers before she could get to the bed. Sweeping aside a half dozen boxes of chocolates, she flung herself on the bed where she spent an hour weeping. Leander Westfield was making her life impossible. Yesterday he’d once again ruined a pleasant afternoon with Alan. She and Alan had gone on a picnic in the country and Lee had shown up, firing a six-gun in the air to frighten the horses, and trying to pull Blair atop his horse. But, again, she’d managed to thwart him by making the horse rear, and she got away.
Alan had stood there watching them, not able to participate since he knew very little about the temperament of horses that weren’t attached to a carriage. In fact, Blair’d had a difficult time talking him into taking a ride, rather than renting a buggy as he preferred to do.
When Blair had gotten away from Lee and his rearing horse, she mounted one of the horses that she and Alan had rented—the other one had run away at the sound of Lee’s pistol—and spent some moments persuading Alan to mount behind her.
Blair’d spent a great deal of her childhood on a horse, and she needed all her skill now, as she raced to get away from Lee. As she turned back to look at him once, with Alan holding onto her for dear life, Alan screamed in fear. They were fast approaching a tree, and the horse was going to hit it if he wasn’t given room to pass it.
Leander saw the danger at the same time and, in a lightning-fast movement, swerved his horse so hard that the animal unexpectedly reared, throwing Lee into the dust. Because of his action, Blair and Alan were able to get away safely.
Unfortunately, or fortunately from Blair’s point of view, Lee’s horse kept on going, heading for the safety of his stable.
Alan was clutching both Blair and the saddle as she kept up a brisk pace back to town. “Aren’t you going to give him a ride? It’s miles back to town.”
“It’s only about six miles,” she answered over her shoulder. “And, besides, he should be used to walking by now.”
That had been Wednesday, and compared to today, that had been a day of thanksgiving. Early this morning, Gates had started on Blair because he’d finally heard what had happened at the lake, and how Blair had been seen with another man, and how she’d humiliated Lee before everyone.
Blair didn’t want to argue with him, so she said that she was to meet Lee at the hospital this morning. She lied and said that Lee wanted to talk to her about medicine, but the truth was, she was hoping Lee wouldn’t be at the hospital, because she certainly didn’t want to see him.
Gates insisted that she go with him as he left for work, and when he dropped her off, he waited to see her go through the doors. Like a prisoner, she thought.
The inside of the hospital was familiar to her, and the smell of carbolic, wet wood and soap was like coming home. No one seemed to be around, so she started wandering about the wards, peering inside the rooms, glancing at the patients and wishing that she could get back to Pennsylvania and go to work.
It was on the third floor that she heard something that she identified at once: the sound of someone trying to breathe.