These Honored Dead (A Lincoln and Speed Mystery #1) - Jonathan F. Putnam Page 0,7
my position marry for one of two reasons,” Rebecca said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Love or money. I’ve been in love before, once. And watched it get ripped away from me. Have you ever been?”
“Well, I rather think . . .” I gestured vaguely toward the disordered bedclothes and our naked bodies.
She started laughing again, her breasts dancing and her eyes sparkling in merriment. “That wasn’t love, Joshua. It was true. It may have provided both of us with a moment of pleasure. But it wasn’t love.
“As for money,” she continued, pulling a sheet up over her nakedness now, “I’ve been in the trade plenty long enough to know the junior partner in A. Y. Ellis & Co. can’t have much. Your cousin Bell would be surprised to learn, I’m sure, that he’s been dispossessed from his own store.”
I had been caught in my fib, and as I thought about it, I realized Rebecca must have known the real facts from the moment of our first meeting. “How did you . . .” I began, but then interrupted myself with another thought: “Why did you . . .”
Rebecca gave another cry of laughter, but this time she drew me toward her. I felt her breasts pressing against my bare chest and felt her legs intertwining with mine.
“You think too much, Joshua Fry Speed,” she whispered into my ear, her breath hot and scented. “No more thinking.” And we let our bodies speak for the rest of the evening until I fell asleep, fully spent, pressed against her smoldering skin, feeling her heart beat out an unhurried lullaby.
In what seemed like the next instant, Rebecca was shaking my shoulder. I opened my eyes slowly, my head pounding from the aftereffects of liquor and lust. She held a lit candle close to my face, and as my eyes came into focus, I saw that the sky outside her narrow windows was still dark; perhaps there was a faint glow to the east.
“You have to leave now,” she said.
I leaned up to kiss her and she kissed me back, but I could tell at once her manner had changed.
“What happened yesterday evening at Johnson’s,” she said, “dining together, that was unexceptional. The townsfolk here have gotten used to the notion that as an independent woman of business, I’ll interact with other men in the trade. But this”—she gestured toward me lying in her bed—“this, I assure you, is most exceptional. And it’s not something my reputation as an honest woman of business could endure. No one must know about this.”
I was out of bed now, searching around in the candlelight for the clothes I’d thrown off the previous night. I nodded and said, “You have my word. Hickory and I will be on the prairie trail before any of your neighbors’ cocks start to stir. Only”—I gave her a smile full of desire—“I feel as if I would benefit from additional lessons. In frontier shopkeeping, of course.”
Rebecca did not blush but rather answered with seriousness, “I’ve been thinking the same thing. Both of us would benefit from more learning, I’m certain. Same day, next month?”
“Set your calendar by it,” I said, and we both did.
One afternoon some months later I was lingering in her storeroom, waiting for closing time to arrive, when a stout woman bustled in with two small boys in tow. Rebecca was evidently well acquainted with the children, as they scampered over to her and she reached down and embraced them in turn. She handed each boy a sweetmeat to squeals of delight, and she watched indulgently as they scrambled under the opening in her counter and climbed up and down her shelves. It seemed a miracle neither boy was hurt and that the goods on the shelves were only mildly disordered when the whole family departed a half hour later.
I was still thinking about the merry scene as we sat across the table from each other at Johnson’s that evening. “You were kind to those boys,” I said, when she asked what was on my mind.
“Anything to give their mother a respite in which to do her marketing,” she said with an off-hand shrug.
“It was more than that, I think. They took to you naturally, and you to them. Do you ever wonder . . .” I looked up and saw her jaw was uncharacteristically clenched, her eyes hard and unblinking.
“Sorry,” I said quickly. “It’s none of my concern.”