by Zina Abbott
It was time to leave. He bid the pastor farewell, and started walking Delphinia in the direction of the boarding house.
After they entered Howard’s, Bennett pulled Delphinia into the parlor. “I will leave you long enough to go home to change clothes and get my fishing poles and other supplies. I suggest you get ready while I’m gone. When I return, we can either eat here, or we can take our food with us.”
“I’d rather not eat here.”
“I guessed as much. Now, remember I said we needed to discuss terms for this trip.”
Delphinia glared at him with suspicion. “What terms now, Mr. Nighy? This is only a fishing trip.”
“First, you continue to wear sensible boots like you currently have on. Where we are going, the ground is rocky and uneven. I don’t want you slipping and falling.”
“That is agreeable, Mr. Nighy.”
“Second, you’ll have to wear your hair differently. The way you have it now looks quite stunning, but I suspect it could easily come undone. Perhaps you can change it to a simpler style.”
Delphinia gave a furtive glance to each side of them to assure they were alone. She leaned forward and whispered. “I will not wear it loose down my back, Mr. Nighy.”
Bennett forced down a smile as the vision of her long hair falling over her shoulders and down her back filled his mind. “I don’t expect you to. If there is any kind of a breeze, it could get caught in your line, and then we would really have a time getting it untangled. I was thinking a braid, or a simple bun in the back.”
“A braid? A bun? Mr. Nighy, I don’t wear my hair in those styles.”
Bennett wrinkled his forehead. “How did you wear it when you used to go fishing?”
Delphinia jerked up straight. “In two braids down my back. But Mr. Nighy, I was still in short skirts the last time I went fishing. I’m not going to wear twin braids at this time in my life.”
“You haven’t been fishing since then?”
“No. Ever since I started to grow brea…” Delphinia cleared her throat. “Once my mother determined I was beginning to mature, she decided it was improper for me to spend so much time with my father. That is when she determined that all my hair and clothing styles should prepare me to take my proper place in society. Fishing didn’t fit in with her vision.”
“You decide how to fix your hair, Miss Blakewell. It is just that I suspect if you leave it as it is, it will end up undone and loose about your shoulders without me needing to remove a single comb or hairpin.”
Delphinia sighed. “Is that the last of your conditions?”
“No. Third, as much as I do not wish to embarrass you by bringing up the topic of our underpinnings, no corset. Take it off and leave it here.”
Delphinia stared at him in disbelief. “That is highly improper. Besides, I need to wear it for my clothes to fit properly. Without it, I may not be able to fasten all my buttons.”
“Find something that will fit without it. Borrow a gown if you have to.”
Delphinia’s thoughts went to the gown she had bought at the second-hand store in Lexington, what she thought of as her Virginia Mason dress. She had worn no corset and stuffed her underclothing to make herself appear heavier. From Lexington to Chicago, she had walked and sat with a stoop in an effort to appear shorter and heavier. Her hair under an oversized straw bonnet she had powdered to appear lighter in color and she had worn glasses with blue lenses to disguise the color of her eyes. Grateful she still had the disguise should she need it again after she left Jubilee Springs, she could now use the dress while fishing.
Bennett waited until he once again had her attention. “I have my reasons. I don’t want you so stiff and immovable you lose your balance on the rocks and fall in the water. Even though the sun is out right now, the weather has been cold. I have no desire to go in the river after you.”
Delphinia issued an exasperated sigh. “I know how to handle myself around water, Mr. Nighy.”
“Do you know how to swim?”
“No.”
“Are you aware how quickly your muscles can cramp and make it difficult to move in cold water?”
No answer.
“No corset, Miss Blakewell. If you have to, wear one of your nightgowns with a skirt and put your warmest coat over everything. No one will know.”
“I have a gown I can wear.”
“Good. If you have a warm shawl—not that frilly one you wore last night, but something heavy—bring that too and possibly a warm hat. I’ll start a fire, and we’ll come home when it gets too cold, but I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”
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CHAPTER 24
~o0o~
Bennett and Delphinia arrived at a bend in the Arkansas River after a half hour of walking in silence, Bennett carrying two fishing poles, a small bucket, a bulging tow sack filled with supplies over one shoulder and a rolled blanket secured with rope over the other. Delphinia carried a basket loaned to them by Clara Howard. Once Mrs. Howard realized the pair intended to take their lunch on a picnic, she had helped them pack the basket with food plus a glass quart jar of drinking water.
Bennett announced with a sweep of his hand. “This is it.” While he unloaded what he had brought and undid the blanket for them to sit on, out of the corner of his eye he watched Delphinia walk to the edge of the ledge above and peer down its steep sides to the river below. The sound of water crashing over rocks and broken tree branches in the distance filled the air.
Bennett walked over and stood next to her. “What do you think, Miss Blakewell?”
My father used to call me Delly, him and my brothers, unless they were angry with me or we were in public. Never my mother. She gave me the name Delphinia, and that is all she would ever call me. Very rarely does anyone call me Delly anymore, but when they do, I think about the times I used to go fishing with my father.”
Bennett looked at her with a raised eyebrow as he listened to her reminisce. He was starting to see a different person than the stiff and proper society woman he had first met. “I like the name Delly. Would you mind if I called you Delly, at least when we are alone? And I’m known as Ben to my friends, if you are comfortable calling me that.”
“Ben.” Delphinia tried the name out. “It is a plain and simple name, but yes, I like it. For business, you should use Bennett. It sounds more professional. But for close associations, Ben works well.”
Bennett smiled and shook his head. “I’m glad you approve, since that is what I have been doing.”
“I’d like it if you would call me Delly. Someday I’d like to live someplace where everyone would know me as Delly.”
“Why not here?”
“People here have heard me referred to by so many names, I fear one more would thoroughly confuse them.”
“Come over to the blanket, Delly. We’ll eat our lunch. Afterwards, it may be late enough the fish might be biting.”
Delphinia took off her coat and sat on the blanket. While basking in the sun, the wool shawl over her shoulders provided enough warmth to keep her comfortable.
Bennett looked over and studied her cotton gown with its small yellow and brown floral print with green leaves on a cream background. “I see you found something to wear. It definitely is not your usual style. The skirt’s a little short on you, but just right for climbing down to the river and back. Did you borrow it?”
Delphinia shook her head and laughed. She told him about her Virginia Mason disguise, and how she had used it on the stretch between Lexington and Chicago in an effort to throw anyone tracking her off scent. “My biggest challenge was getting the names changed on my trunks, and worrying someone would question why a woman so poorly dressed would be travelling with two trunks of obvious quality.” She grew serious. “Please, Ben, I beg you. If I end up leaving Jubilee Springs, don’t tell anyone about my Virginia Mason disguise. Even if I use a different name, I don’t want someone searching for this dress or a
woman wearing blue glasses.”
Bennett studied her face with its imploring expression. He wanted to tell her to not leave; she didn’t have to leave. Something warned him that was not what she needed to hear. “I won’t. I promise, Delly.”
The two finished their meal in silence. Bennett lay on his back with his hands under his head while Delphinia sat on the corner of the blanket facing into the sun, her face upraised and her eyes closed. “You’ll get freckles looking into the sun like that.”
“I don’t freckle. My former lady’s maid, she was Irish, and oh my, did she freckle. But I only tan. I won’t have to worry about it too much, though, not this time of year.”
Would the Sarah Brown who had walked in his office a few days before have been that unconcerned about risking a tan, Bennett wondered? He fell asleep with that thought, and was awakened later by Delphinia shaking his arm.
“Ben. It’s time to fish. I need you to bait my hook.”
Ben sat up and stared at her dumbfounded. “You’ve gone fishing, but you don’t know how to bait your hook?”
Delphinia sat back and stared at Bennett as if he had asked the most ridiculous question in the world. “Of course not. My father always baited my hooks.”
“Then I suppose you didn’t learn to take your catch off the hook either.”
Delphinia shook her head.
“I won’t even ask if you learned to clean your own fish. I know the answer.”
“Of course I didn’t. None of us did. We just took the fish we caught to Cook and let her take care of them.”
Bennett rolled his eyes and reached for the bait bucket. His head remained bowed as he focused on threading the squiggly worm on her hook. “There you go, Delly. But, I must warn you. If you continue to go fishing with me, you will need to learn to bait your own hook and take your own catch off the line.”
Delphinia gulped. “I’ll try. But I can’t clean the fish, Ben. I can’t do dead. I can’t even eat a fish that is already cleaned and cooked if the head is still on and I have to see that dead eye staring up at me.”
Bennett looked up to see her forehead wrinkled with worry. “I’ll clean the fish, Delly. I’ll cut the heads off and get rid of them before we cook the fish. Here’s your line. I’ll help you down the bank to the river’s edge where the water runs deeper and slower. You choose the spot where you want to fish and I’ll pick another.”
At first Bennett found himself paying more attention to Delphinia than he did to his own fishing. Even though she said she hadn’t been fishing since she was a child, she appeared to know how to handle her pole and where to cast her hook. He soon became absorbed in his own fishing, letting his mind contemplate the events of the last few days. He wondered how one woman breezing into town, and then breezing into his store, could have brought so many changes to his life.
A shriek of delight captured Bennett’s attention. He looked over to see Delphinia’s body wriggling with excitement, her tightly-wound bun at the back of her head now missing pins and half of it hanging loose down her back. “Delly, didn’t anyone tell you that if you make too much noise you’ll scare the fish away?”
“I got one! I got one!”
Bennett propped his pole against a log and braced it with a heavy rock before he trotted over to investigate. Delphinia was still in the process of bringing it in, but he could see a big brown fighting to get free of her hook. “You get it closer, Delly, so I can grab it long enough to toss it on higher ground.”
Between laughs of delight and careful maneuvering of her line, Delly pulled her fish close enough to the river’s edge that after several tries, Bennett managed to grab onto it long enough to toss it on the ledge behind them. “Looks like you caught our supper, Delly.”
After checking the position of the sun, Bennett soon pulled in his line and helped Delly up to where they had their supplies. Bennett took the fish off the hook to clean it while Delly began to gather small pieces of kindling for a fire. Bennett returned and started a small blaze in a fire ring he had used in the past. He left Delly to tend the fledgling flame while he gathered larger pieces of wood for a cook fire. Bennett brought out two small potatoes and a yellow onion which he took to the river and washed. He brought out two enameled plates and began to slice potatoes in one. He peeled the onion and sliced it in the other.
Delly watched with interest, but leaned away from the one plate as soon as he began to cut into the onion. “Oh, that’s strong. It makes my eyes water. How can you stand it?”
“I stand it because it tastes good when it’s cooked up with potatoes and fish.”
Soon the campfire had burned down to produce a bed of coals. In a cast iron skillet, Bennett melted lard from a small can he had brought, and dumped in the sliced potatoes. He next produced a flour and corn meal mixture, explaining he had already added salt to it. He smiled at the sight of Delly watching his every move with intense interest as he used the dry mix to coat the fish inside and out. “You’ve never eaten fish caught and cooked outside like this?”
Delphinia shook her head. When she saw him start to dump the chopped onions in with the potato, she held out her hand to stop him. “Save some potatoes aside without the onions, please.”
Bennett looked at her, his eyebrow raised. “You don’t like the taste of onions?”
“I do. But they get on the breath and offend. I won’t eat them if I am going to be around people.”
You aren’t around people, Delly. You’re only with me. Besides, that mostly applies to raw onions. Cooked onions won’t offend, especially since I’ll be eating them too.”
“I don’t know…”
Bennett scraped the almost cooked potato and onion mix aside, added more lard and put on the fish to fry. He checked the underside frequently. When it was cooked crisp and brown, he turned it over. Using a fork, he checked the inside to be sure it was cooked through. He removed the fish, then holding it by the tail, flaked the meat on one side off the bones onto one of the plates. He turned the fish over and repeated the process on the other plate.
Delly looked at him in amazement. “How did you learn to do that? I’ve never seen it before.”
“My father taught me. Wait, don’t tell me. At your house, Cook already had it off the bone and on a platter before you saw it.”
“Yes. How did you know?”
“Lucky guess.”
Bennett scooped potatoes and onions onto the plates and handed one to Delly. “Watch for bones. Sometimes it’s hard to get them all out.”
They enjoyed their meal in silence. Bennett noticed Delphinia ate with more gusto than she had when he had taken her to the River Valley Inn. He also noticed she shoved her grilled onions to the side of her plate. “The onions taste better while they’re still warm. If you like onions, you should eat them now.”
Delly pulled a small bone out of her mouth and tossed it aside. “I do like onions, but I don’t know…”
Bennett scooted until he sat next to her. “Then let’s do an experiment. First, I’ve been eating onions. Do you smell them on my breath?”
“Not particularly.”
“Now take a few bites of your onions.”
While Delphinia ate her onions, Bennett took note of the relative positions of their shoulders as they sat next to each other. Like he had suspected that morning, most of Delphinia’s height must be in her legs—no doubt very long, lovely, slender legs—while more of his height was in his torso. She looked up at him—looked up, he noted with satisfaction—after three bites.
“What now?”
Bennett set his empty plate aside with his left hand as his right arm slid behind Delphinia’s back. He pulled her closer until her side butted up next to him, his eyes never leaving her face. Without her corset on, her side molded into his, a state he found rather distracting. “I don’t smell onions on your breath. Is my breath offensive to you?”
Delphinia stared at him as if hypnotized. She shook her head.
Bennett leaned forward and
slowly kissed her lips, lips that not only did not pull away, but responded. Reluctantly, he ended the kiss and leaned back. “What about now?”
Delphinia looked into his face, her eyes traveling to his mouth and back up to meet his eyes. “No. I didn’t find it offensive.”
Bennett needed no more encouragement. He reached over and pulled her in his arms and kissed her again. He heard her plate and fork clatter on the ground as her arm reached over to embrace him. Before he knew it, one of his hands reached up and began pulling what remained of her pins and combs from her hair. She broke off their kisses as he raked his fingers through her tresses, fanning her silky brown locks across her back and shoulders. He willed his breathing back under control. Finally he dared look into her face once more. “Please don’t leave Jubilee Springs, Delly. I want you to stay. I want more fishing trips like this with you.”
I want more of you.
“I’ve enjoyed today also. I know you didn’t want to discuss the terms of my marriage proposal until you’re ready, Mr. Nighy, but I have decided I want to add one more obligation on your part for consideration. If I do stay and we enter into this business arrangement, will you agree to take me fishing at least twice a month?”
Bennett tilted his head and raised an eyebrow.
So we are back to Mr. Nighy, are we?
He refused to give up Ben and Delly so soon. He wasn’t ready to give her up at all.
Bennett smiled as he leaned forward to nuzzle her cheek next to her ear. No, he didn’t wish to discuss terms of a business arrangement in the form of a marriage of convenience proposal, but he was willing to see how far he could get with this stipulation she wished to add. “I can agree to taking you fishing a minimum of twice a month, but only as long as the weather allows. This isn’t the right place for ice fishing.”
Delphinia smiled and nodded. “I can agree to that.”
“But you still will need to learn to bait your own hooks and take your own catch off the line.” Bennett sat back and grew serious. “I don’t mind doing it, Delly, but it would be wise for you to be able to do it. You never know what the future brings.”