Smiling broadly because of her gatherings, she ran barefoot up the spiral staircase, then stopped in front of her bedroom door. She remembered the coldness of the tower room, so she rushed inside her room and grabbed a blanket from her bed. Eyeing a pillow that she knew would give Drew comfort, she stopped herself from taking it, knowing that would give her too much to be responsible for.
With her arms so full she couldn't light the candle. She felt her knees trembling from fear as she made her way up the narrow staircase in the darkness, then down the long hallway that led to where Drew was waiting. Just the thought of rats running around made her almost grow ill inside. But surely Drew had only been teasing her. She knew, from her brief meetings with him, that he was that. One big tease. Oh, how much fun it would be to live with him. Every day. Forever.
When she reached the door, she tapped lightly with a foot and waited for him to open it. She was anxious to show all that she had brought. They would have a feast. Not only while looking at one another, but while eating and drinking to their pleasure.
"I was beginnin' to get worried 'bout you, Eugenia," Drew grumbled as he threw the door open. Then his eyes settled on her filled arms. "Jesus! What'd you bring? The whole damn kitchen? And what's this?" he added, pulling a blanket from her arms.
"To keep you warm, my love," she said, entering the room. "While I'm out of your arms."
"Damn. You think of everything," he said, shutting the door behind her.
Giggling, Eugenia held the bottle of wine up in the air, letting the moonlight reflect onto it in shimmering lights of white and blue. "And wine?" she said, handing it to Drew, watching the amusement in his eyes. She could tell that he was enjoying this just as much as she was.
She spread the blanket out on the floor and began to pull food from the basket. "Roast duck, sir?" she giggled once again, handing Drew a drumstick. He already had the cork removed from the wine bottle. "And cheese?" she added, "… and bread? Freshly baked today by the hands of the one and only Kiyomasu."
Drew sat down beside Eugenia and took a drumstick and piece of cheese, handing her the bottle of wine. "Drink lightly, my love," he said. "I feel you're already a mite too drunk."
"I do feel drunk, Drew," Eugenia giggled once again. "But only because of your presence by my side. Nothing more."
"My sweet one," Drew said, kissing her lightly on the cheek.
"Now. Tell me. How did you happen to get in that jail, darling?" Eugenia asked, sinking her teeth into the thickness of a duck's wing. "Something about stealing gold?"
Wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve, he pulled his gold watch from his jacket pocket. He removed it from its chain. "See this watch?" he asked.
"Uh huh."
"This is a turnip watch," he said, opening it, revealing an empty case inside, behind the face and hands.
Looking more closely, Eugenia saw that all works had been removed from its insides. "Why would you have a watch that wouldn't work?"
"This watch is how I stole much gold from the mine I was workin'."
"In heaven's name how?"
"It's called highgrading. Stealin' the ore from the mines. I filled this case of my watch with only the richest gold dust. I made it past the inspectors many times. Then this last time they caught me."
"And that pouch of gold? Was that yours, too?"
"Yep. They went through my horse's pack-saddle and found it. I'd been savin' it for some time."
Drew shut the watch, eyeing it closely. Then he handed it to Eugenia. "Here. I want you to have this," he said thickly, his eyes wavering as Eugenia stared up at him in surprise.
"Me?" she said timidly. No man had ever given her anything before, except for Frederick, and he didn't count—not in the way Drew did.
"Really mine?"
Drew forced it into her hands. "Yes. You. Now keep it until we meet again."
Eugenia's brows furrowed. "Do you really mean you're goin' to leave me? I ain't really happy here. I hate opera. I hate havin' to speak so proper."
"Now, now. Watch the temper. And I don't hear you speakin' so proper now."
"I don't care either if I don't have silk and satin gowns. I only want to be with you, Drew."
"It would be awful hard on your behind havin' to sit in a saddle day in and day out."
"We could find our own little homestead. Like my Mama and Papa. Have young 'uns. Please, Drew?"
"You'd want kids, huh?"
"Sure would. I'd want a little boy with dark curly hair just like yours. And I'd name him Drew. After you."
"Maybe someday," Drew said, taking a long drink from the wine bottle.
"Do you mean you are going to leave me? Just like before? Don't you love me, Drew?"
"Sure I love you, hon," Drew said, pulling her into his arms. "But I want more in life than what I have now. I want to be able to provide for you in the grandest manner. Maybe even set you up in a house just like this someday."
"But I hate Frederick and Clarissa."
"Have they given you reason to be afraid of them?"
Eugenia remembered Clarissa's fingers on her earlier in the evening, but pushed that from her mind. "No. Not really."
"How does that fat German treat you?"
"It's strange, Drew," she said, frowning. "He doesn't treat me much like anything. Not like a daughter, sister, or anything. And he most certainly hasn't approached me sexually. I don't know what he wants from me."
"Did you say that you hate opera?"
"Yes."
"Is he trying to teach you opera?"
"Yes."
"Well, I think I have the answer to all your questions," he said. "I think this Opera House owner is trying to make a protegee out of you. Someone he can show off later, when you are prepared."
"What's this big word 'protegee' mean? And how do you know such big words?"
Drew laughed. "I'm not as dumb as you might think, Eugenia. And it's just as I said. Frederick's tried to make a lady out of you, then given you opera lessons, to enter you himself into the world of opera. It could give him much recognition all over the world if he was a success at doing this."
Eugenia laughed. "Well, he's wasted his time with me. That's for sure."
"But why?"
"I can't carry a tune," Eugenia giggled, taking another bite of duck. "And you didn't tell me. How do you know such a big word as 'protegee?' "
"I've had some schoolin'," Drew answered. "And I thought you were supposed to have read so many books. You should have known what that meant yourself."
"Maybe I'm dumber than you think," she argued, feeling hurt by his implications.
Again, Drew pulled her into his arms, caressing her face, tilting her chin upward so their lips could meet. "This ain't no time for arguin', my love," he said. "Our time is too short."
"I know, Drew," she said, trembling inside with each added touch from Drew. She wondered if he would always have control over her in such a manner. It had to be true love for sure. Then she cringed inside when she heard horse's hoofs nearing, and the sound of carriage wheels squealing in the silence of the night.
"It's him. He's back," she said, suddenly rising. "I must rush. He may be fat, but he makes it to his room mighty fast."
Drew thrust the watch in Eugenia's direction, her having laid it on the blanket beside their picnic lunch. "Here. Take it."
"But you will be here in the morning, won't you?"
"More than likely, my love," Drew said. "No other way out of here 'cept by nightfall. I 'magine we can have some hours together tomorrow if you can get away from this Clarissa you speak of."
"Oh, yes," she whispered, watching him rise to a standing position before her. She tilted her face upward, feeling the warmth of his breath, then the softness of his lips as he bid her good-bye.
"Until then, my love," she whispered, then hurried from the room.
She became breathless when she reached the foot of the steep staircase, then stiffened inside, knowing that she had only a little
way to go to reach the safety of her room. If only she hadn't lingered too long with Drew. If only she could rush through the semidarkness before Frederick came up the spiral staircase. She stepped out onto the hallway floor, listening, then hurried on her way when she heard the tapping of Frederick's cane coming closer, up to the top of the stairs. She flung her door open, then closed it silently behind her, leaning against it, breathing laboriously. She put the gold watch to her chest and hugged it to her. She would always cherish it. It was a part of Drew. Oh, how she loved him. She could hardly wait until tomorrow. To be in his arms once again, to be carried to such heights of gratification.
* * *
Chapter Eleven
The clattering of horse's hoofs and the sound of carriage wheels against brick awakened Eugenia with a start. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, stretched, then bolted upright, remembering the night before… and Drew. Her eyes sought the clock on the nightstand beside her bed. She let out a loud gasp, realizing she had slept much later than planned. Being with Drew half the night had tired her more than she had realized.
Pulling a robe around her, Eugenia jumped from the bed and went to the bedroom window. Looking downward, she could see that someone had shoveled the snow from the brick drive that led to the front door, and she could see a black carriage pulling up in front. The roof of the porch kept her from seeing who it was climbing from the carriage, and she hadn't been able to make out who was in the carriage earlier because this carriage had a fringed top over it.
Knowing that visitors were a rarity at The Towers, Eugenia began to hurriedly dress. Her thoughts raced, wondering if it could be someone searching for Drew. And if so, why they had decided to check this house?
A light tapping on her bedroom door startled Eugenia to attention. She buttoned the last button on the back of her silken dress, a dress with a small blue and green background and small flowers dotting its skirt, adding a bit of spring to this cold day of December. She flipped her hair behind her shoulders, running her fingers through its long tresses, then went to her dresser, searching for the combs that her Papa had made for her. Then she remembered, Drew had removed them right before they had made passionate love. She smiled, thinking of him possibly clasping onto them all night, thinking of her, just as she had done, sleeping with his watch at her side.
"Eugenia? Aren't you up?" Clarissa's voice spoke through the door.
"I'll be with you in just a minute, Clarissa," Eugenia said, her eyes flashing toward the bed, so glad that she had remembered the watch. She hurried to the bed and threw the covers back and pulled the watch to her lips, kissed it softly, then tucked it inside some of her soft underwear in a drawer of her vanity. Surely no one would ever find it there. It would be there for her to pull out whenever she thought of Drew, and what they meant to one another. Something deep down told her that he wasn't going to take her with him when he left this house. But surely he wouldn't leave her. She could hardly wait until she could find some free time this morning to sneak up into the tower room. She could already feel his hands on her body, his lips parting her womanhood. No, she just couldn't let him leave her. How could she be without his love, and what he could do to her? But she knew that he had implied strongly that he was leaving. She would just have to persuade him to do differently!
The door flung open wide. Clarissa entered, frowning. "Eugenia, there's a lady here to see you. She calls herself Dawn. I thought you said you didn't know anyone in town?"
Shutting the vanity drawer with a bang, Eugenia could feel her face reddening, seeing Clarissa's eyes settling on Eugenia's fingers still tightly clutching onto the knobs of the drawer. Could Clarissa tell that Eugenia had just hidden something inside the drawer? Now Eugenia didn't know what to do. "Did you say Dawn?" she asked meekly, remembering Dawn well, and also how Dawn resembled her sister Elizabeth so much. "We met briefly that first day I arrived in town. She's the one who told me about the Hillcrest Hotel."
"So it isn't family or a close friend?"
"No, Clarissa," Eugenia said, not liking the third degree she was being put through.
"Well then, hurry along," Clarissa said. "We must present you in a proper manner. We don't want anyone leaving here saying you're not being treated right."
"I'm feeling a bit too faint again this morning," Eugenia said, brushing the back of a hand against her forehead, shutting her eyes momentarily. She was afraid to leave the room now, afraid that Clarissa suspected that she was behaving a bit irrationally. She was afraid too that Clarissa would open the drawer and find the gold watch. She would only have to guess where she had gotten it.
"We don't entertain guests in bedrooms, Eugenia," Clarissa said stubbornly, tilting her head upward. Eugenia had grown used to this stubbornness, and when she saw Clarissa's lips grow tightly together and her dark eyes snapping angrily, Eugenia knew that there was no swaying Clarissa in any way.
"Oh, all right," Eugenia said, now thinking of Dawn, wondering why she was visiting her. Eugenia had put Dawn and her parlor from her mind long ago. She took another fast glance toward the closed drawer, then walked on past Clarissa, but not before Eugenia gave Clarissa a look of dislike. Oh, if only Drew could take her away. She had to talk him into it. She just had to!
Clarissa began to follow close beside Eugenia. "What would this Dawn want with you?" Clarissa asked, pulling the black skirt of her dress up as she stepped from one step to the other of the spiral staircase.
Eugenia groaned inwardly. She was so sick and tired of seeing Clarissa dressed in black. Next to Clarissa's dark skin, it indeed made her look like a Negro. Eugenia would always wonder about this.
"Do you hear me, Eugenia?" Clarissa snapped, with her white teeth shining in Eugenia's direction.
"I truly don't know, ma'am," Eugenia mocked, laughing to herself.
"You've become impossible lately," Clarissa hissed. "I'm going to mention this to Frederick. You're of no more use to him anyway. How he ever thought he could teach you correct manners and how to sing at his Opera House is beyond me."
Eugenia stopped and turned toward Clarissa, her eyes wide. "What do you mean?" she asked, feeling a coldness seeping in around her heart. Drew had apparently been right about Frederick, and the reason for Frederick having brought her into his house. But what did Clarissa mean by saying that she was of no more use to him? If Drew hadn't arrived on the scene, what would Frederick's further plans have been for her?
Clarissa coughed nervously and continued on down the stairs. "Forget I said that, Eugenia," she said. "My tongue has a way of getting ahead of my thoughts."
Eugenia's heart was pounding hard as she followed after Clarissa. It hadn't been wise to be so openly rude to her. Clarissa was Frederick's ally, not Eugenia's. And if Clarissa didn't want Eugenia around any longer it was more than likely Frederick wouldn't either. Clarissa stopped at the foot of the stairs and whirled around to face Eugenia. "In the library. I put your friend in there."
"Thank you," Eugenia said meekly, swallowing hard. She would now have to try to make up to Clarissa the rudeness she had just shown her. She could still hear Drew speaking of leaving her here. She had to be on the best of behavior to be able to stay. Where else had she to go?
Almost gliding, with the fullness of her skirt and many petticoats beneath, Eugenia went into the library and saw this tiny figure standing with her back to Eugenia in front of a fire in the fireplace. Dawn's black hair was pulled back with a strand of tiny pearls clasped around the thickness of her curls. When she turned to face Eugenia, Eugenia felt her heart skip a few beats. Not only was Dawn frail as Eugenia remembered, but now she was even more so. If not for the thick layer of powder over a tinge of rouge, Eugenia knew that dark circles would be quite visible beneath Dawn's eyes. And again remembering the resemblance to her sister Elizabeth, Eugenia went to her, having to refrain herself from drawing Dawn into her arms, to greet her like sisters would after many months of being apart. Even though Eugenia knew the darkest of secrets about Dawn, she could
n't help but be glad to see her. In a sense Dawn was her only friend in Cripple Creek, except, of course, for Drew.
"Eugenia?" Dawn said in a quiet, soft voice. "I only found out yesterday where you might be living." Dawn pulled her black velveteen cape from around her shoulders, revealing a body that had withered away to almost nothing.
"Dawn," Eugenia gasped. "Have you been ill?"
A sudden noise behind Eugenia made her turn. She sighed with relief when she saw only Clarissa carrying a tray of small cakes and steaming tea toward she and Dawn. She hadn't wanted Frederick to find her with this friend, knowing many questions would follow. She waited for Clarissa to set these down on a table, then thanked her as Clarissa walked from the room.
Dawn sat erectly on a chair in front of the fireplace, holding her head up proudly. When her gaze met Eugenia's, Eugenia noticed that her eyes were even more empty appearing than before. The blue seemed to have washed away.
"Yes," Dawn answered, straightening the hem of her full, navy blue woolen skirt around her ankles. "I've been quite ill," she added. "That's why I've been searching for you."
Eugenia poured two cups of tea, handed one to Dawn, then sat down on a thick cushion in front of the fire, holding a cup of her own. "Why would you need me?" Eugenia said, handing the tray of cakes to Dawn, only getting a nod for no in return. Feeling famished once again, Eugenia placed one in the saucer beside her cup of tea.
"I've thought of you often since you left," Dawn said, smiling. "I had so worried about you. Where you had gone. Sometimes this town of Cripple Creek isn't the best place for an innocent body such as yourself to be set free in."
"Do you remember telling me about the Hillcrest Hotel?" Eugenia asked, nibbling on the cake.
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