Chapter 10: Eli's POV: The Booth

Eli's POV

The applause started and it died before it finished.

Four hundred people clapped for a man announcing a baby.

Then they remembered which wife was standing in the room, and which sister was in a sling.

Cora did not move.

She stood beside me in the green dress and the gray coat.

Her hand on my arm had gone cold through my sleeve.

I did not look at the collar of that coat.

I hadn't looked at it since I turned it flat in the car.

If I looked, I would say something I had promised myself I would not say until she asked.

"Cora," I said, very quietly. "Do you want to leave?"

"No."

"Then I'll be behind you."

She nodded once.

On the stage Porter waited with his arms open like a man expecting a hug.

At the foot of the steps, Daisy had gone the color of her dress.

She had her good hand up at her mouth.

She stared at Porter.

He had just told the city that Cora was pregnant.

He had told it in front of Daisy, who had called herself pregnant two days ago.

I could not have designed it better.

"Eli Draper."

The voice came from my right shoulder.

Frederick Ellsworth stood there with a glass of scotch he hadn't touched.

"Mr. Ellsworth."

"Walk with me. Just to the bar."

"Her husband is making a speech, and she doesn't need you holding her up for it."

"I'm not holding her up. She's standing on her own."

"Then you won't be missed."

Cora's fingers pressed once on my arm and let go.

"Go," she said without looking. "I'm fine."

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