Miner's Daughter by Duncan Alice

Author:Duncan, Alice
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: historical romance, southern california, great dane, silent pictures, borax mining, humpor
Publisher: Alice Duncan

Chapter Twelve

Halfway through dinner, Mari realized she’d come feel absolutely comfortable in the company of these two men. What a change this was. At first, she’d not only mistrusted them, she’d felt like an unwelcome, interfering insect in their presence, kind of like an ant a picnic. She’d felt as though they were merely tolerating her for the sake of her mine.

Not any longer. Now both Tony and Martin talked her as if she mattered, and they included her in their discussions as if they cared about her opinion. The sensation of belonging was a new one to Mari, and she cherished it.

She feared she was also coming to cherish Tony, and that worried her. She didn’t need another complication in her life, and falling in love with a millionaire from New York would be a definite complication. For her. She was pretty sure she wasn’t important enough to Tony to count as a complication, even if they were getting along together much better since their trip to Los Angeles. He was being very nice about imparting social lessons to her, which she appreciated.

Maybe they could at least be friends. The notion gave her a chilly sensation around her heart that she chose not to think about.

Martin drew Ben, the cameraman, and George, the set designer, into their security discussions after dinner. They met at a table Mr. Nelson had set up in the parlor. Mari felt like an interloper in a political meeting, only they weren’t in a smoke-filled room because none of the men smoked. That was something of a miracle, and one for which she was glad.

She was terribly impressed when Martin divulged that George was Brenda Fitzpatrick’s brother-in-law. Brenda Fitzpatrick was one of the most famous actresses in the whole world. Mari had never stood close to royalty until the Peerless folks came to town. Now she knew both a millionaire and the relative-by-marriage of one of the nation’s most beloved actresses. Brenda had retired from stage and celluloid a year or so ago, but Mari still had trouble containing her awe. She wanted to press George for details about her. She didn’t, though, because even though she didn’t know squat about society manners, she knew better than to pry into another person’s business.

George said, “You don’t know for certain that anything’s amiss, Martin.”

“You don’t consider the destruction of two state-of-the-art cameras as something amiss?” Ben glared at George as if he’d just denied the existence of God.

George, an amiable lad of twenty or so, grinned. “I didn’t mean that, Ben. Of course, it’s something. It’s a disaster. What I meant was that we don’t know if a person’s behind it. Maybe it was an accident.”

“We found fresh wood chips in the shed,” Martin said darkly. “It looked a lot like someone went to the trouble of hacking that roof beam away from its moorings.”

“Also,” Mari said, having just remembered something else, “for the beam to crush the cameras, the cameras had to be moved, didn’t they?”

All four men gawked at her for several seconds.

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