Page 40 of The Women of Wild Hill
“Something my aunt discovered.”
“Hmm. She must be an interesting woman,” the man observed.
“High praise from a man who teaches in a department that doesn’t make it easy for women to learn.”
“That is not a decision I would have made,” he told her. “My mother was a chemist, too. Better than every man at this university. She taught me everything I know.”
“Your mother is a chemist?”
“Notis. Was,” the man corrected her. “She didn’t want to leave her lab in Berlin. By the time she looked up from her research, it was too late.”
“I am sorry,” Lilith said.
He accepted her words with a resigned shrug. “Perhaps you have noticed, brilliant people can be very stupid,” he said. “Maybe you are one of them? What you are making might be dangerous. You are aware of that, I hope?”
As the daughter of a woman who’d had to murder her husband, Lilith had grown up mistrusting men. But this one was forcing her to question many of the assumptions she’d made over the years—including a few about herself. “It’s deadly,” she told him. “That’s why I’m making it. To rid the world of men like the ones who murdered your mother.”
Whether or not he believed her was something they’d joke about later. All that mattered was that, at the time, he didn’t blink an eye. “Okay,” he said. “As long as you know.”
She watched as he loped away. The hair on the back of his head was matted. He hadn’t brushed it in ages. His tweed suit, while of excellent quality and exquisite taste, was badly worn around the elbows. She suspected he was wearing the only suit he owned.
“You’re going to let me stay and finish?”
“Of course.” He stopped at the door and turned around. “Your work is interesting. You are welcome here on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays when I’m on duty. If you need anything, my office is just down the hall.”
When he disappeared, she realized she didn’t want to see him go just yet.
“Excuse me?” she called out.
He popped back around the corner. “Yes?”
“What I really need is some dinner,” she said, knowing full well she might be taken for presumptuous, bossy, and downright rude.
He nodded. “Tomorrow,” he told her. “I am an excellent cook. I’ll bring enough for the two of us.”
She smiled. “I’m Lilith.”
“Levi,” he said.
AFTER THREE MONTHS OF ROMANTICdinners lit by Bunsen burners in the lab at Havemeyer Hall, they decided to marry.
“I can’t wait to find out what you make for breakfast,” Lilith said. Levi was, just as advertised, an excellent cook.
“MyEierkuchen mit Apfelis magnificent,” he told her.
And it was.
THEY PLANNED THEIR WEDDING FORthe following spring. Ivy was delighted. Sadie, on the other hand, did not bother to hide her skepticism. She would never recover from the loss of her daughter—or forgive the male half of the species for its role in Rose’s death.
“Who will marry you?”
“A judge at city hall,” Lilith said. “We’ll have the reception here on Wild Hill.”
“What if Bessie throws a fit?” Sadie asked.
“She won’t.” Even at the age of twenty-two, Lilith was still hiding the truth from her grandmother. She’d seen the ghost on countless occasions, and she knew exactly how Bessie would feel, having asked for her blessing.
“This man will take you away from Wild Hill,” Sadie said.
