Hyacinth (Suitors of Seattle) Read Free

asked, surprised. 
    "Well, she knows that you courted Amaryllis for a bit."  Hyacinth looked down at the bag on her lap that contained her notebook.
    "I wouldn't call what Amaryllis and I did courting .  We were more...friends than anything else.  I'm only twenty-seven." 
    Hyacinth smiled.  "She won't keep us from being friends, then.  I'm certain Mother thinks you're interested in me, and I didn't explain about our mutual interest in writing.  I hope you don't mind."
    He shook his head.  "Of course, I don't mind.  I like knowing there are some things that you confide in me."  He grinned over at her in the darkness.  It was December, and it got dark earlier than usual.  He was thankful the street lights had been lit.
    She looked down at her hands, blushing slightly.  She hadn't thought of what she'd told him that day as confiding in him, but she guessed it was.  There was no one else who knew who she was a writer.  "Sometimes I think I need to tell someone or I'll burst."  She took a deep breath.  "I'm mostly done with my novel, but I'm really not certain what I should do with it once it's finished.  I mean, I could always just let it rot away in my dresser drawer, but I don't think that's what I want.  I'm not looking for fame or fortune, but I think my story's good and someone somewhere might want to read it."  She hoped he didn't think she was bragging by saying she thought it was good.
    "I'm sure it's wonderful.  May I read a bit of it so I can talk to my publisher about it?"
    She shook her head adamantly.  "No, I just need your help with the process.  Do I just contact a publisher directly?  Or how do I do it?"
    "Well, I make my agent do all the legwork for me.  I just send him my finished manuscript and he shops it around.  At least that's what I did at first.  At this point, I'm writing a series of Western novels, and my publisher knows they will purchase the next one each time.  Once you've had your first book published, the others do become easier."  He stopped the buggy and jumped down, tying off the reins before walking around and helping her down.
    Hyacinth took a step back from him as soon as her feet hit the ground.  It felt...strange to be so close to a man when she never had before.  He offered his arm to her, and she took it, walking into the restaurant with him.  "Mr. Bennett, welcome back!  I see you brought a beautiful young lady with you."
    Lawrence smiled at the host.  He ate at the restaurant a great deal more often than he ate at home, because he liked to watch people.  Every person he met somehow became a character in one of his books. It wasn't deliberate, and he never really copied a person exactly, just a little piece here and another piece there.  All the strange little traits he saw added together could make up a very interesting person. 
    "Could we sit back in a corner somewhere?" he asked.  Usually he preferred to sit off to the side of the main dining room where he could see everything that happened around him.  He knew there was a quieter corner off to one side, though, where he would be able to talk to Hyacinth more easily.
    Hyacinth felt funny letting him hold the chair out for her.  No one had ever done that for her, except maybe when she was a child.  She sat in the chair and did her best to act as if she'd had men perform the service for her all the time.  She looked down at the menu on her plate and sighed.  This was the nice restaurant in town.  The fancy one.  She'd been to the diner many times with her sisters, but never to the nice one.  There were restaurants associated with the hotels and saloons in town as well, but this one was the one for a romantic evening.
    Waiting until he'd seated himself, she nodded down at the menu.  "What's good here?"  It was as good of an opening for conversation as she could come up with, having no real idea how to talk to a man.  Of course, she could later put her heroine in the same position, so maybe