The Arrangement

Chapter 1-2

Lorena Simms found herself unexpectedly distracted as she went about the business of checking into the hotel. Luckily, the man at the front desk did not seem inclined to give her any trouble, not after the surreptitious glance at the wedding band on her left hand and the mourning locket of jet that glittered at her throat. Lorena still felt rather conspicuous about wearing color, but nearly five years had passed since Walter’s death. No one could fault her for taking off the unbecoming grays and lilacs of half-mourning. The wine-colored gown she wore now was her way of telling herself that it was time to move on.

In more ways than one. As she signed her name to the register, she couldn’t quite keep her thoughts from straying to the man she had passed when she entered the hotel. What a striking figure he had been, tall and with coal-black eyes that didn’t seem to miss a single detail of her person. However, he had been carefully polite, with only a tipped hat and a murmured “ma’am” to indicate that he had noticed her at all.

But she rather thought he had. She was used to that sort of thing, had been pursued in her youth as a beautiful heiress, and again now that she was a wealthy, attractive widow. It was not vanity to admit such things to herself, only a recognition of the way things were.

However, she could tell from the expensive silk brocade of the stranger’s waistcoat and the richness of the gold watch chain draped across it that he certainly did not lack for wealth himself. So she did not think he was a bounder, the sort of man always on the lookout for an unattached woman with money. And the way he had stood there, watching the street beyond the hotel, made her think rather of a ruler surveying his kingdom. He clearly belonged here, was as much a part of this place as the high mountains and deep forests that ringed the town.

She had intended her stay in Flagstaff as only a brief stop, a few days to stretch her legs and take in some scenery before continuing on her way to San Francisco. After all, she was expected there. While Walter was alive, they had enjoyed their positions as some of that city’s greatest hosts. With her deep mourning behind her, and after spending the years since his death in their other home in New York, she intended to return to the West Coast and take up her role as the doyenne of a fashionable salon. Perhaps that would be enough to erase the ache inside her, the emptiness she still couldn’t quite fill, no matter how many exhibitions and concerts and balls she attended.

Now, though….

She thought of the man she had just seen, of the way those piercing black eyes met hers and then shifted away. The smallest of shivers went through her, but they were pleasant shivers, evoking a time when she and her body had both felt alive.

Perhaps she would extend her stay.

She needed to find out who he was.