Torn in Toronto: Sweet Victorian Romance (Yours Truly: The Lovelorn Book 6)

by Wendy May Andrews

  Torn

  in

  Toronto

  Wendy May Andrews

  ∞∞∞

  Sparrow Ink

  www.sparrowdeck.com

  Contents

  Torn

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2020 Wendy May Andrews

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced, transmitted, or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN - 978-1-989634-18-9

  www.wendymayandrews.com

  Could love be the greatest adventure of all?

  Caitlyn Doherty wanted more adventure than her proper life in upper class Toronto allowed. It took a struggle against her parents’ restrictive views for her to be able to accept a position as telephone operator. She wanted to experience more than just finding a rich husband to marry.

  Connor Dalton was too busy overcoming his childhood of poverty by becoming a fabulously wealthy businessman to even consider starting a family. But he feels so drawn to his telephone operator, it puts him in a very awkward position.

  When Caitlyn’s mother pushes her toward Connor’s business rival, Connor and Caitlyn must both decide what they value most.

  If you like sweet, swoony love stories set in the adventurous, late 19th century, then you’ll enjoy every minute of reading Torn in Toronto.

  Dedication

  My aunt Marlene inspired my love of historical romance and was deeply supportive of my writing career. She died just before this book was finished but I know she would have loved it just as she loved all my sweet stories. She loved words, she loved life, she loved her family and we all loved her deeply in return. This book is dedicated to her memory and for all those who love words too.

  Acknowledgements

  My beta readers are my support team. Thank you Alfred, Monique, Suzanne, and Christina.

  My editor, Julie Sherwood, is fabulous to work with. She takes the steaming, hot mess and helps me turn it into something for others to enjoy. She does great work. Any remaining errors are the author’s fault.

  Thanks to V. McKevitt for the beautiful cover.

  And extra special thanks to Mr. Andrews for being the best cheerleader and formatter a girl could ever ask for.

  Chapter One

  Toronto, September 1881

  Biting her lip as she checked to ensure her hat was pinned on straight, Caitlyn tried to still the tremors in her hands. She needed to concentrate on the current task and not allow her thoughts to stray too much toward her excitement about the rest of her morning. She hadn’t yet gotten inured to the thrill of riding the streetcar, nor how much she loved her job. Her mother’s strident voice interrupted her task.

  Caitlyn stared at her mother’s reflection in the mirror, her heart filling with dismay.

  “What do you mean you want me to accept Mr. Westridge’s courtship? I barely know him. And I’ve told you, Mother, I don’t want to be pursued by any man right now. There are so many opportunities nowadays. Marriage isn’t the only option for young women. Not anymore.”

  At her mother’s shocked gasp, despite knowing it couldn’t be genuine since this was far from the first time they had discussed this exact subject, Caitlyn hurried to reassure her mother.

  “I’m not saying I don’t ever wish to marry, but I’m just twenty. There’s plenty of time for that. I want to explore other ideas first.”

  “You’ve been spending too much time with your wild, modernizing friends again,” Mother sputtered. “I won’t have it. You will not bring shame on this family, Caitlyn Doherty.”

  “I have absolutely no intention of bringing shame on this family. There is nothing shameful in wanting to get a job and experience a little bit of independence.”

  “Yes, there is. People will think your father isn’t able to provide for you. Or that no young men will have you.”

  “And we wouldn’t want that now, would we?” Caitlyn muttered sarcastically under her breath before immediately feeling guilty. She was usually a biddable, respectful daughter, and she didn’t mean to upset her mother. She reached over and hugged the older woman despite her mother’s resistance. “I’m sorry, Mother. I don’t mean to be a disappointment to you. But I really want to do this a little longer. It’s such great fun.”

  Mrs. Doherty threw up her hands. “You and your modern language and your modern ideas. I don’t like it. But your father says I mustn’t give you trouble for your ideas. That you’ll tire of working soon enough. He should know. He works so hard for us every day.”

  Caitlyn did her best to press her lips together and not give in to the temptation to argue further with her mother. Mama just didn’t understand. She was from a different generation. There weren’t the same opportunities when the older woman was her daughter’s age. Today, everything was so fresh and new and thrilling. How could anyone possibly expect Caitlyn to sit on the sidelines and allow the excitement to pass her by? No one reasonable could expect that, at least not in Caitlyn’s opinion.

  She had no desire to disparage her father’s support of their family. The fact that she wished for a degree of independence was for herself and had nothing to do with her parents. Keeping her smile as neutral as she could manage, Caitlyn slipped from the room and hurried out of the house.

  “I’m sorry to be late, Mr. Dalton, I had a situation at home.”

  “Is everything all right, Miss Doherty?”

  Her smile felt tight, but Caitlyn offered it to him anyway. “Just fine, thank you.” How could she possibly explain to the open-minded businessman how very repressed her mother was? Caitlyn certainly didn’t want him to paint her with the same brush as her mother, so she kept her thoughts to herself. She hurried to seat herself at the table that housed Mr. Dalton’s telephone just as it started to ring. A thrill ran through her as she answered, but she was pleased to hear her voice didn’t reveal her excitement.

  “One moment, please, Mr. Smith, and I will connect you.” She smirked as she turned to Mr. Dalton. “Mr. Smith for you, Mr. Dalton.”

  “Thank you, Miss Doherty. I’ll close the door so it’ll be quieter.”

  During a brief lull between phone calls, Caitlyn reached her arms up over her head to stretch out her back muscles. She was still getting used to all the sitting required of a telephone call receiver. As she brought her arms down, she reached around and hugged herself. She loved this job so much.

  Her mind drifted to all the times in her life she had been told she couldn’t do something because she was a girl. Many of them she had learned to do, despite her mother’s insistence that they were boy activities. To this day, Caitlyn could climb a tree with barely an ankle being on display, let alone losing her modesty entirely. She could skate, play hockey and football, and even ride a bicycle, all while still maintaining her femininity and remaining perfectly proper. Her mother might be aghast at the thought, but it was possible.

  And now she was employed. Gainfully employed. B
ecause Mr. Dalton found that a female voice was somehow better received while answering his telephone calls, he was willing to pay her generously despite her lack of experience. Since she was only working each morning, it wasn’t going to add up to a great fortune, but she enjoyed receiving her fresh and crisp five dollars at the end of each week. She had this job and received that payment because she was a girl. It was the most delicious turnabout she had ever experienced in her life. She would cherish the experience as long as she could.

  Caitlyn stifled her sigh as she remembered her mother’s insistence that she ought to allow Rafe Westridge to court her. One of the reasons her mother favored Rafe also contributed to why Caitlyn likely wouldn’t. As he was the younger son of a nobleman, Caitlyn couldn’t imagine that Rafe wouldn’t have old fashioned ideas about a woman’s place. Although, she chastised herself for a moment, she oughtn’t judge him for being a nobleman. Wasn’t that exactly what she didn’t want people to do to her?

  Mrs. Doherty was deeply enamored with anything connected to the Kingdom. Caitlyn understood her mother’s loyalty. It was a part of her heritage, this deep connection to the Queen. Caitlyn’s great grandparents had settled in Canada due to their loyalty to the Crown, fleeing the States as they sought independence. She knew that, and it was a part of her identity. But even that was important. They were ruled by a Queen. Shouldn’t that impress everyone with the fact that women were intelligent and capable?

  The ringing telephone pulled Caitlyn from her tumultuous thoughts, and she put her worries on hold for the moment.

  “Good morning, this is Caitlyn of Dalton Industries, how can I help you today?” She couldn’t keep the grin off her face as she said it.

  She was kept quite busy for the next three hours taking diligent notes while Mr. Dalton was occupied or connecting his calls to him when he wasn’t. Her hand was beginning to cramp, and she realized she was being too nervously uptight. Her sigh of disquiet must’ve been too loud, and she felt hot color splash into her cheeks when the handsome man stuck his head around the corner of his office.

  “Are you quite all right, Miss Doherty? It’s nearly time for you to finish for the day. Would you like to leave early?”

  “Not at all, Mr. Dalton.” Caitlyn cringed over how prim she sounded, but that couldn’t be helped. “In fact, I need to remain later, not leave early, since I arrived late.”

  “That isn’t necessary. But if you insist on staying a little bit longer, would you be so good as to run next door to pick up my lunch?”

  She jumped up from her chair. “Of course, right away.”

  His low chuckle warmed her belly, and she fought to ignore the sensation. “It didn’t need to be on the instant.”

  “Well, for once the telephone is silent, so I ought to take advantage. I guess everyone is thinking of their noon meal.”

  “Thank you, Miss Doherty. Once you’ve brought my lunch, you may be excused for the day.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Dalton. I’ll be as quick as I can.”

  Caitlyn slipped from the office, hoping it wasn’t terribly obvious how desperate she was to avoid him. It wasn’t that he wasn’t a nice man, he most definitely was. He wasn’t cruel to any of his employees. He had been willing to hire her, a female, and have her trained for the job as his telephone operator.

  It was actually because of all those redeeming qualities that she wished to avoid him. Adding those things to the fact that he was the most handsome man she had ever laid eyes on, and it was all she could do to not quit her job. Those were the most contrary thoughts ever! She wanted to quit her job so she didn’t fall in love with her boss and want to quit her job.

  Blowing a stray curl out of her eyes as she waited in the line and ignored the ogling glances of the men around her, Caitlyn thought back to the first time she had realized she was falling for him.

  They had known each other for quite some time, but Caitlyn had tended to look upon him in the light of a slightly annoying older brother or cousin. Not that she had been boy mad in her youth, but he had certainly never been one she would consider her ideal when she had giggled over boys with the other girls in school. Then Connor had gone away for a few years, and it was as though he had returned a very different person.

  Caitlyn couldn’t have even explained what exactly the difference was. But when she had walked into her mother’s withdrawing room that day, her eyes had been unable to reconcile the familiar face with the deep voice and the strange thrill that had shimmied up her spine all at once. Thankfully, composure had been bred into her bones, so she hadn’t betrayed her consternation with anything other than a slight hitch in her step as she approached the group assembled there. She would like to think she hadn’t acted any differently either, but she couldn’t be completely sure since her head had been buzzing and she was barely aware of what was being said around her and had next to nothing to add to the conversation until about halfway through her first cup of tea.

  “You are unusually quiet, Caitlyn. Is that something else new along with your lengthened gowns and more elegant hairdo?”

  The fiery heat she could feel staining her face had made Caitlyn inexplicably angry, but she managed to catch her tongue before it ran away on her.

  “Not at all, Mr. Dalton, but I have learned to use my two ears more than my one mouth,” she had answered primly causing him to laugh, which sent another thrill down into her belly and set off a flutter as though a hundred moths and butterflies had taken up residence. Caitlyn couldn’t decide if it was a pleasant sensation or not.

  Listening to him describe to her father his travels and his business plans had filled Caitlyn with a myriad of emotions as she sat there and absorbed the information. She was proud of the man the boy she had known was becoming. But she was also fiercely jealous. No one would ever think of allowing her to do any of those things. The biggest “adventure” she would be allowed in her life would be to marry and start a family. And while that would, no doubt, be lovely one day, Caitlyn didn’t want that to be the only thing she ever accomplished.

  That last thought brought Caitlyn back to the present, a year after Connor had returned to Toronto and visited her family. And now she was having an adventure. It wasn’t nearly as thrilling as those he had enjoyed, but she would take what she could get. She had a job. She was allowed to venture from her house to his office without an escort. She was handling money. A part of her resisted the thrill it gave her when she remembered that these should be normal things, but for her, they were huge as it had taken a year of fighting with her parents for them to even consider it. She was twenty years old. In their minds, she ought to be thinking about providing them with grandchildren, not wishing to go into business.

  Caitlyn frowned as she stepped out of the shop with Connor’s lunch tightly wrapped in her fist and had to sidestep some youngsters running down the sidewalk. This part of the city still hadn’t been paved. She was grateful there were no puddles that day. Her nose wrinkled. Surely there wasn’t a need for any more children to be launched into the city. It seemed to her that the city was quite overrun with urchins as it was. Connor had told her just the day before that the census was being taken all across the country. She was fascinated by the concept. And she was convinced that it would prove her theory that at least three quarters of the population was under the age of twenty. She smirked at the memory of the conversation.

  “But how will they know it’s accurate? How will they even know if they’ve gone down every single road that exists? Just here in Toronto some of the streets are turning into a maze. And they’re going to go across the whole country? Won’t that take years?”

  The sound of his deliciously deep laugh had sent a quiver through her that brought a frown to her face, but she awaited his answer with baited breath. She was equal parts interested in the concept of the census and anxious to know his opinion.

  “They’ll do their best, Caitlyn, never fear. At least the cities shouldn’t be so very difficult to do. And I can assure you that
the men assigned this task will take it very seriously.”

  This had caused Caitlyn to wrinkle her nose. “Men. Of course. One could never think women would be asked to take on such a thrilling assignment.”

  “Caitlyn. Miss Doherty, do be reasonable,” he had chided. “There is the potential of danger. One never knows who or what might be behind the door. And some people might not take kindly to the government wanting to take a count of them.”

  Caitlyn had huffed, but she hadn’t really meant it. Despite some of her independent inclinations, she wasn’t actually one of those modern women pushing for total emancipation. She just wanted a little bit more time and a few more experiences before she settled down. Glancing up as the streetcar rumbled by, Caitlyn couldn’t help smiling. That was one of the adventures she was enjoying each day as she came into work. Her parents had finally agreed to allow her to take the public transportation by herself. It was a simple pleasure, but it thrilled her each day as she waited and then stepped up into the horse drawn conveyance.

  She particularly loved the order of the streetcar line. Being on rails, it had to run in a very specific route despite being pulled by horses. One never had to wonder where you would end up. The streetcar would get you to your destination. It was vastly entertaining to watch the other occupants of the streetcar getting on and off. Caitlyn entertained herself with imagining their lives. Where they were coming from and where they were going. Her mother would be scandalized, but Caitlyn even, on occasion, had spoken to some of her fellow passengers. It was the most liberated Caitlyn’s life had ever been, and she was loving every second of it. Except, of course, for the pesky attraction she had to keep fighting for Mr. Dalton.

  She wouldn’t even allow herself to think of him as Connor. He had to remain Mr. Dalton in her mind. It helped to keep him at arms’ length. There were any number of reasons why it would be disastrous for her to fall for her boss. Not least of which was the fact that it would just go to prove her mother’s point - that she needed to be married off. Not that her mother would approve of her marrying Connor. Despite the fact that he was obviously doing fairly well for himself with his business concerns, he wasn’t sufficiently well placed socially to please Mrs. Doherty. Not like Mr. Westridge. Connor’s family weren’t Important Personages. Caitlyn didn’t actually know anything about the Daltons. She thought perhaps his family had died, but she wasn’t sure. She had been too young to know anything about it, but she knew her mother had serious reservations about Connor Dalton’s background, unlike Rafe Westridge’s.