The Thief Read Online Free PDF Page B

charm.”
    “And the fourth?”
    “Above the Golden Gate. In your flying machine.”
    “Will you marry me?”
    “Of course.”
    “Tomorrow,” said Isaac Bell.

    “T OMORROW?”
    Marion gave him a curious smile. The music stopped. She stepped back out of his arms, looked searchingly into his eyes, then down at her emerald ring. “Funny you should ask.”
    “What is funny about a man asking his fiancée five times to marry him?”
    She did not seem to hear him, but marveled, instead, “At the very last minute as I was racing to Euston Station to catch the boat train I made the driver stop at Hanover Square so I could run into Lucile’s to buy a dress. Obviously, there wasn’t time to make one, but a Russian woman I met in London told me that there was such a run on black dresses for mourning King Edward—it turned out he had many more mistresses than rumored—that Lucile’s had scads of not black dresses just hanging about, deeply discounted. I wanted to ask your opinion of it, before I wore it. Now I can’t.”
    “Of course you can’t. It’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding.”
    She looked him in the face, and her beautiful eyes filled with tears.
    “You’re crying. What’s wrong?”
    “I am so happy.”
    “But—”
    “I love you so much.”
    “But—”
    “May I have your handkerchief?”
    Bell handed Marion a square of snowy linen.
    “I’m surprised by how totally happy you’ve made me. I think I got used to the idea of us always being engaged. That was fine, but I love you with all my heart. I know you love me. But I guess I was holding back a little, because I really, really want to marry you—Isaac, are you sure Captain Turner will marry us? I’ve heard he’s very gruff.”
    “It was touch and go,” Bell admitted. “He has a low opinion of First Class passengers and asked straight off why would we want a ‘bunch of bloomin’ monkeys’ at our wedding. I assured him that some of our best friends were monkeys. He didn’t crack a smile. Just said that having been divorced, he was not, as he put it, ‘much of a hand in the wedding line.’”
    “How did you change his mind? Show him your gun?”
    “I was about to. But he caught sight of you running aboard from the boat train and was suddenly all smiles. Practically fell in the drink leaning over the rail to watch your progress. I said, ‘That is my fianceé.’ Captain Turner said, ‘By Jove, I’ll wear my full dress uniform. The whole bloomin’ rig!’”
    “I would not call my dress ‘full dress.’ It’s not quite white. It is rather creamy, though more an evening dress than a traditional wedding dress.” She gave her eyes one last dab of his handkerchief and handed it back. “Speaking of tradition, Isaac, isn’t it traditional for a man to kiss the woman he’s asked to marry when she says yes?”
    Isaac Bell swept Marion back into his arms. “I couldn’t recall whether it’s bad luck or good luck to kiss the bride before the wedding.”
    “It is required,” said Marion.
    “The very night before?”
    “All night.”

“T HIRD C LASS PASSENGERS ARE NEVER AD mitted to First Class sections of the ship,” Isaac Bell was informed by Mauretania ’s chief purser when they met to arrange the wedding. “Not even briefly to celebrate your marriage, I’m sorry to say. Not even ‘moving picture people’ known to your fiancée. You may invite a few from Second Class, provided they come properly attired, but we draw the line at Third mingling with the superior classes for one simple reason.”
    “And what is that?” Bell inquired with a dangerous glint in his eye. He could not abide bigotry. That Marion’s acquaintances were traveling on the cheap was no reason to exclude them.
    “A reason that even the most ardent ‘democrat’ will sympathize with. Were Third Class to mingle with the superior classes and one of their lot were to arrive in New York exhibiting symptoms of measles or mumps or some