Janet Dailey Calder 01 This Calder Range

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stray in that direction was considered shocking.
"Do you suppose ... I mean, I've heard ... it's very painful for a woman." Sue
Ellen lowered her voice and glanced apprehensively toward the back room, where
her mother and Mrs. Pearce were having tea. "It ... sounds degrading to let a
man do ... those things to your body, doesn't it?"
"Maybe it won't be so bad." Lorna felt hot and trembly all over, embarrassed
yet excited in a frightened kind of way.
"I guess you eventually get used to it," Sue Ellen offered as consolation.
"I've even heard that you can get to where you can pretend it isn't happening.
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You can think about something else instead, and block it out altogether."
"Really," Lorna murmured, and tried to laugh away her uncomfortable feeling.
It came out forced. "I guess I'll be finding out for myself soon enough."
"Oh, Lorna." Sue Ellen's chin quivered when she gazed sad-eyed at her friend.
"I wish you weren't going away. I don't want you to leave."
"Don't start crying, Sue Ellen, or I will," Lorna warned.
"But you're going so far away," her friend protested. "Maybe we'll never see
each other again."
"Yes, we will," she insisted with a determined tilt of her chin. "And we'll
write each other-regularly."
"If I were you, I'd be scared of living way up there in that Indian country."
Sue Ellen shook her head, silently marveling at Lorna's courage.
"Benteen will be with me," Lorna asserted.
"But he'll be away sometimes, looking after the cattle. What if the Indians
come while you're alone? They might capture you and take you prisoner." Her
alarm grew in proportion to her expanding imagination. "I've heard stories
about what those savages do to white women. They take turns with her, making
her commit all sorts of vile, unspeakable acts."
"Sue Ellen, stop it," Lorna demanded, struggling with her own growing fears.
"I'm sorry." Her friend was immediately contrite. "It's just that I get so
worried when I think about you all alone-with no doctors for hundreds of miles
probably." She realized that she was doing it again. "I won't say anything
more. I promise."
Lorna hoped she meant it. She already had enough misgivings about leaving her
home, her parents, her friends, and the only kind of life she'd ever known.
The shop bell above the door signaled the entrance of three customers. Lorna's
glance was absently drawn to the sound, and immediately she recognized the
heavily rouged women with their bright-colored gowns. Her reaction was an
instant withdrawal of obvious interest. A respectable female didn't
acknowledge the presence of "scarlet ladies of the night." They dressed to
draw attention to themselves-"attract business" was the way they put it. Lorna
was aware they frequented the millinery store for the latest creations in
outrageous hats and bonnets. In the past, Sue Ellen had whispered many of the
conversations she'd overheard, censoring the foul language and guessing at the
definition of terms neither she nor Lorna had ever heard before.
"I'd better go get Mother," Sue Ellen whispered, too reticent to wait on them
herself. "You can come in the back room, if you want, and wait until they're
gone."
"No, I'll be fine." Lorna turned back to the mirror and lifted touching
fingers on the lace veil.
She was slightly amused by her friend. Sue Ellen acted as if she would be
contaminated by the presence of the three sporting ladies in the same room
with her. Although Lorna didn't admit it, she was a tiny bit curious about
these women who were shunned by respectablee members of the community. As long
as she ignored them, she saw nothing wrong with remaining where she was.
Reflected in the mirror, she saw a henna-haired woman waylay Sue Ellen before
she could escape into the back room. "Excuse me, miss. I've stopped to see if
the hat I ordered has arrived yet." Her voice had a cultured sound to it.
Sue Ellen turned red all the way to the roots of her hair. "I'll get my
mother." She backed hurriedly away from the woman.
Lorna heard the titter of laughter from the other two when Sue Ellen
disappeared in a red-faced panic. "Lordie, Pearl," one declared. "You
embarrassed the lady. I'll bet her knockers turned red."
"She was embarrassed by her own imagination," retorted the henna-haired woman
named Pearl.
Just for a second Lorna wondered if that was true. Sometimes Sue Ellen seemed
very preoccupied with the intimacies between a man and a woman. She didn't
have to dwell on the thought, distracted by a glimpse of a black-haired
prostitute who had wandered over to look at some hats displayed near Lorna.
"Pearl. Jenny. Come look at this," she called to the other two.
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With all three gathering near her, Lorna concentrated on her reflection in the
mirror. She didn't want to appear to be taking any notice of them.
But the red-haired Pearl didn't find it necessary to ignore Lorna. "That is a
beautiful veil," she declared, and came over for a closer look.
"Thank you." Lorna's response was coolly polite and nothing more.
"You must be getting married," Pearl guessed as she was joined by her two
compatriots.
"Yes, I am," Lorna admitted, and caught a hint of envy in the woman's look.
She experienced a small twinge of compassion because no decent man would ever
marry women of their profession.
"You'll make a lovely bride," she declared, and turned to her friends. "Won't
she, girls?"
"Indeed," agreed the black-haired girl.
The third, named Jenny, didn't look any older than Lorna, even with the rouge
and painted mouth. "Who's the lucky man? Maybe we know him," she suggested
with an arching smile.
Lorna almost didn't tell them, but she changed her mind. "Benteen Calder."
Part of her said she shouldn't be talking to these women at all.
"Benteen Calder," the black-haired girl repeated with a quick glance at
Pearl. "I think I have seen him around."
Lorna stiffened, but the red-haired Pearl quickly explained the blurted
comment. "Don't worry about it, honey. Dixie just means that she's seen him in
one of the saloons, having a beer. Girls like us don't forget when we meet a
man like Benteen Calder."
It sounded like a compliment. Despite Pearl's assurance that she had no cause
for concern, Lorna couldn't help wondering if they didn't know Benteen better
than she did.
"Let me give you some advice, honey," Pearl said with a melancholy smile. "If
you don't want your man slippin' away to see our kind on the sly, you'd better
be wilder in bed than he is."
Such talk first drained the color from her face, then sent it flooding back.
Lorna wanted to shut her ears, but she couldn't. Somewhere she lost her voice,
too.
"I've learned a lot about men over the years." The woman made it sound like a
long time, yet she didn't look any older than her mid-twenties. "They may want
a lady on their arm, but they want a whore in bed. I know that shocks you,
but, honey, there's a helluva lot of truth in what I'm sayin'. If wives took
that advice, we wouldn't have so many married men for customers."
"Miss Rogers!" The shocked voice of Liza Mae Brown, Sue Ellen's mother,
brought a quick end to the conversation. What was worse, Lorna realized the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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