In The Beginning by Gail Daley (top 100 books of all time checklist .TXT) 📕

father concerning their engagement, she had said she needed to check on her cheeses. Carlos and King George eyed each other over the sturdy gate enclosing the goat pen. George reared up and put both front hooves on the gate giving Carlos an assessing stare. He was large enough he could see over the top of it if he stood on his hind legs. Briefly, Carlos wondered if the damn animal was deciding if he was worthy of his mistress or not.

"Where do you suppose she is George?" Carlos said aloud. He was wondering if Iris was avoiding him.

"I hear you want some investigating done," said a voice from behind him. Carlos turned to find Henry Miller standing there. He had heard about Henry from Mike. After Iris had left, Mike had suggested he hire Henry to investigate the bluestone thefts at the mine.

"I need an investigator," Carlos agreed. "Someone familiar with how shifts at a mine works." He walked over to a stone bench under the fruit trees, gesturing for the older man to join him. "Let’s talk."

Peeking around the corner of the goose cote, Iris saw the two men talking with every appearance of comfort. Obviously, Carlos hadn’t tried too hard to find her, she thought to herself, or he would have checked in here too. She jumped as Jeanne’s pet goose Lulubelle nipped her upper thigh from behind. Angrily, she slapped at her and Lulubelle hissed back in retaliation. She knew she would have to leave the cote before the bird become more aggressive.

Resentfully, she wondered she was hiding in here anyway. So what if Carlos was on the patio? She would just ignore him and walk across the patio to go up to her room.

As she crossed the patio, she heard Carlos say, "You can start whenever you feel is right. I’ll tell the day shift supervisor to expect you."

She had almost made it to the door when Carlos caught up to her. "Where were you?" he asked.

"I was looking for Jeanne," Iris said. "I thought she might be in the goose cote, but she wasn’t. Was there something you wanted?"

"Yes," he replied. "I thought we might go for a ride this afternoon."

Iris hesitated, "I don’t know if I can. I need to make sure Gran doesn’t need my help with the wedding reception arrangements. She said something about driving into town to talk to Georges Coudoual about them."

"Let’s talk to your Gran," he said, smiling. "If she wants to go in, I’ll drive the both of you in the buggy. We can stay at the hotel tonight. It will be a good chance for the two of us to spend time together."

"I have to do the morning milking—" she protested.

"Oh, I’m sure your helpers can handle it for one day," he said. "I know how much you like to be involved in the day-to-day stuff, but if we spend more time together the way Mike wants, you need to train a supervisor to handle the milking for you.

Giselle was in the parlor waiting for lunch to be ready. Reading Iris’s flushed face and Carlos’s amusement, she threw herself into the plan to stay in town overnight. She winked at Carlos as she demolished Iris’s excuses for not going. Directing her granddaughter to tell Lisette to pack for them both, she sent Paco to tell Patrice, Iris’s head milkmaid, she would need to be in charge the next day.

That evening when it was time for dinner, Giselle pleaded a headache and declared her intention of going to bed to sleep it off.

"I’ll stay with you," Iris said.

"No, Lisette will do all I need. The pair of you go eat in the dining room. I intend to have a bowl of soup sent up and take my powders. They will put me to sleep almost at once."

Iris opened her mouth to argue, but Giselle cut her off. "Please dear," she said. "I need the quiet."

Once she had shooed the pair out the door, Giselle collapsed into one of the comfortable chairs in the sitting room.

"You are a sneaky old woman," announced Lisette coming out of her bedroom.

"Yes, I am, aren’t I?" Giselle agreed with some satisfaction. "At least the boy is courting her. I was thinking he didn’t have the gumption. Did you order dinner?"

"Yes. We’re having cold melon consommé, roast chicken with mashed potatoes and new peas. I asked them to send up a bottle of that bubbly wine too."

"Do you think it will work out between that pair?" Giselle asked her longtime friend.

Lisette shrugged. "They have further to go to find love than Bethany did. Bethany was ready to love a man who could appreciate her, and McCaffey seems to be that man. Iris hides herself away in dreams. She needs to see Carlos as a real man, not some character out of a book. Carlos is almost as bad—he needs to see her as a woman to walk beside him, not a fragile doll to be put on a pedestal."

Georges Coudoual the Hotel owner came to the table where Iris and Carlos were dining to give them tickets to the revue held that evening. Several years ago, Coudoual had seen the need for a more gentile kind of entertainment than that provided by gambling halls and saloons, so he hired entertainers who agreed to present shows suitable for families. Coudoual set up chairs and tables in the ballroom for guests, sold tickets and during the breaks between skits made lots of money selling refreshments to the crowd. The entertainment was a little risqué, but a man could feel comfortable taking his wife and children to see the show. The black-clad servers kept any singles from misbehaving.

Iris had a good time. She had been nervous at spending time with Carlos while he was courting her but relaxed as the evening progressed. With her attention focused on Carlos she wasn't aware she had caught the eye of the handsome, sandy-haired man leaning against the refreshment bar.

Mike