Chasing Secrets by Gennifer Choldenko

Author:Gennifer Choldenko
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2015-08-04T04:00:00+00:00

At Gemma’s table everyone has moved on to dessert. Hattie is taking tiny bites of chocolate cake; Gemma is dipping her fork in raspberry filling. “You’re up to something,” Gemma whispers when I slip back into my chair.

Everyone stares at me.

“What makes you say that?” How I wish I could lie the way Billy does.

“Lizzie, you have to come with us. We can’t dance without you,” Hattie announces.

I look at Gus. He seems to know what I’m thinking.

“I’m still working on dessert,” he tells her. I thank him with a smile.

When Hattie and her date are gone, I tell Gemma, “I want to talk to Peter—the man who announced us when we arrived. Only, now he’s in the bar and he doesn’t want to come out.”

Gemma leans toward me, her eyes sparkling. “You want to go into the saloon?”

I nod.

“Let’s go.” She grins, scoots out of her seat, and grabs her crutches, with Gus close behind.

I’m starting to see that this is how Gemma and Gus are: Gemma gets bored and comes up with a wild idea, and Gus helps her pull it off. This time it’s my idea.

Still, they didn’t even ask me why I want to talk to Peter. It’s important to me, so it’s important to them. Is this what it means to have friends? How could I have missed Gemma at Miss Barstow’s before? Are there other girls there as nice as she is?

We stop and look around outside the bar. A tea cart is tucked against the wall. Gus borrows a tablecloth from a nearby table and drapes it over the top.

Gemma yanks up the cloth. “Can you fit under this?”

I squat down to see if I can get my ruffles and feathers underneath. Luckily, they’ve loosened up since Maggy laced me in. I nod.

“Gus can push the tea cart,” Gemma says.

“How are we going to explain pushing a tea cart in the bar?” I ask.

“I know,” Gus says, and disappears. In a few minutes, he’s back with a white waiter’s jacket over his arm.

“Where’d you get that?” I ask.

He grins. “I’ve been here with Papa. I saw where they keep them.” He takes off his Prince Albert and hands it to Gemma, then slides his arms into the small waiter’s jacket.

“Don’t button it,” Gemma says. She turns to me. “What will you do when you get in there?”

“I’m going to make that man Peter answer my question.”

“How?”

How do you force someone to tell you something? Hmmm. Then I flash on his shoes. “By ransoming his shoes. He took them off.”

Gemma bursts out laughing.

I crawl under the tea cart. Gemma figures out a way to fold the cloth back so I can peek through. She tucks in my skirt. Gus pushes the cart and leaves me behind.

“Not so fast,” I whisper. “I can’t keep up.”

We practice until we get it. Then Gus maneuvers the tea cart over the doorway bump into the bar.

“Sir,” Gus says when our cart is in line with Peter’s table, “may I take your empties?”

Perfect.

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