Shaken to the Core

by Jae

  They stared at the scratch and then grinned at each other.

  Kate took the crank from inside of the automobile and walked around to the front. “Get in. We’ll be off in a second.”

  Giuliana stepped onto the running board and slid into the passenger seat. Oh, how wonderful it felt to be off her feet and let her aching back and shoulders be cradled by the soft leather! She might never get up again.

  The engine started almost immediately, sending vibrations through Giuliana’s tired body.

  Grinning broadly, Kate placed the carrying case at Giuliana’s feet before climbing behind the steering wheel. She caressed it with both hands, as if reuniting with an old friend…or a lover.

  The sight parched Giuliana’s dry mouth even more. She knew she should look away from those gentle yet strong hands, but she couldn’t. Had she ever looked at another woman’s hands with the same attention? She could vaguely remember her mother’s callused palms and her grandmother’s age-dotted hands, but that was different, wasn’t it?

  Was she looking at Kate the same way Turi had looked at Antonina, the Galatis’ daughter, who’d sold crabs next to their stand at the pier? Back then, Giuliana had laughed at her brother when he’d dropped a box of fish because he’d been too busy staring at Antonina.

  Now she wasn’t laughing anymore. Now she understood.

  It should be impossible for her to look at Kate this way—they were both women after all—but she was. Madonna help me, I am.

  Kate stepped on the brakes, and the automobile stopped, jolting Giuliana from her thoughts.

  They had reached the crest of a hill, where they could look down at Italy Harbor—or at least they would have been able to, if not for the impenetrable curtain of smoke.

  Oh no! Was the boat landing with all its feluccas on fire too?

  Slowly, Kate maneuvered the automobile into the smoke, which seemed to part in front of them.

  Giuliana still couldn’t see what lay at the foot of the street, but the smoke to the right grew less dense so she caught a glimpse of the eastern waterfront.

  Flames shot skyward along the piers. Several sheds, warehouses, and factories along the waterfront were on fire. Fireboats and navy tugs sprayed streams of salt water onto the fire, keeping it from spreading. The boom of dynamite blasts came from behind a column of smoke.

  “Heavens,” Kate mumbled next to her. “If the piers and the wharves burn, the city will be cut off from the rest of the world. And my father’s company will be ruined too.”

  Diu, and here she was, worrying about a simple fishing boat. Kate’s family had much more at stake. Giuliana covered one of the hands she’d studied so closely with her own.

  Kate turned her hand palm-up. Their fingers interlinked naturally, fitting like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

  Amazing. Giuliana stared at their hands. She found herself trailing her thumb along Kate’s. Just that tiny little touch sent a strange, but not unpleasant tension through her entire body. Kate’s skin was rougher than it had been a week ago, but it still felt wonderful.

  Kate’s hand trembled beneath hers.

  Giuliana looked up from their entwined fingers to study Kate’s face. For a moment, she thought Kate might be afraid of what the future would bring if her father’s business burned, but what she saw on Kate’s face wasn’t fear, was it? At least not fear that had anything to do with her father’s shipping business. She looked so vulnerable. Was she afraid of Giuliana’s touch and what it meant?

  Hesitantly, Giuliana started to withdraw her hand.

  Kate tightened her grip on Giuliana’s fingers, stopping their retreat. She stroked her thumb along the side of Giuliana’s index finger.

  Now Giuliana was the one who started to tremble. She swallowed heavily. They really needed to talk about…this. If only she had the right words. She opened her mouth to say something, not yet knowing what it would be.

  A nudge from Kate interrupted her.

  “Giuliana! Look!”

  The smoke to the north had parted for a moment, revealing Italy Harbor at the foot of the street.

  Dozens of feluccas bobbed on the water. Somewhere in this tangle of masts had to be Turi’s boat.

  “It is safe!” She squeezed Kate’s hand.

  Kate squeezed back and beamed at her. “Do you want me to drive all the way down and—”

  “No. We cannot take it with us. The boat is safe. That is enough.”

  “But what if someone steals it to escape the fire?” Kate asked.

  Giuliana hesitated but then shrugged. “If the boat saves a life, Turi would be happy.”

  Kate squeezed her fingers once more before withdrawing her hand to steer the automobile west, toward Golden Gate Park.

  Giuliana curled her fingers into a loose fist. If she focused, she could still feel the warmth of Kate’s hand against her own. You’d better focus on what you wanted to say.

  She knew they should spend the ride to the park talking about what was going on between them, as she’d planned to before they’d found the two charred soldiers and then before catching sight of the feluccas.

  But luck wasn’t on her side this time either.

  They hadn’t even made it to the next intersection before they came across an old man whose arm had been badly burned and crushed by a smoldering beam.

  By the time Kate carefully maneuvered the automobile across Van Ness Avenue, four injured passengers were squeezed together on the backseat.

  Firefighters with axes and rugs were climbing over the smoldering piles of rubble on the east side of the avenue, putting out the flames, but the fires no longer seemed like an unmanageable inferno in this part of the city.

  The three conscious passengers in the back patted each other’s shoulders as if they had single-handedly saved the Western Addition.

  With that kind of audience, Giuliana didn’t dare start a conversation about what was happening between them.

  Kate peered over at her and then back at the street ahead. “Later,” she whispered, barely audible over the humming of the engine and the moans of the woman with the worst injuries.

  Giuliana lightly touched Kate’s knee and then quickly withdrew her hand. “Later.”

  * * *

  Giuliana glimpsed the expanse of white and mustard-colored tents from blocks away. They seemed to stretch out as far as she could see, sheltering thousands of homeless people. It should have been a bleak sight, but somehow, it wasn’t. Despite the stench of the latrines, the long lines at the food stands, and the rats that crawled out from their hiding places at night, being back here felt good. It felt right.

  With Kate next to her, even a spot on the damp grass would feel like home. At the thought, her fingers flexed in her lap. So far, home had always meant Santa Flavia. Now it was San Francisco—and Kate. When had that happened? She shook her head.

  “What is it?” Kate asked as she steered the automobile through the park’s entrance. “You look…stunned.”

  “It is nothing.” Giuliana wasn’t ready to voice her thoughts yet and certainly not with other people listening. “I am only very tired.”

  Kate gave her an encouraging smile. “Me too. We’ll find a spot to rest in a minute.”

  But before they could settle in—and finally talk about what had happened earlier—they needed to safely deliver their passengers.

  When Kate stopped the automobile in front of the makeshift hospital, Lucy was sitting on a folding chair outside of the tent, her legs stretched out as if her feet were aching just as much as Giuliana’s. She held a tin bowl and shoveled food into her mouth, barely chewing, as if she hadn’t eaten in weeks.

  Nurses and physicians rushed past her to lift the patients from the Packard and carry them inside.

  The sight of Lucy brought a smile to Giuliana’s face. This might be what it would feel like to return to Sicilia and see her sisters. She jumped down from the running board with an energy she hadn’t known she still possessed. “Lucy!”

 
Lucy looked up from her food. A bright smile lit her tired features. She set down the bowl and stepped toward them. “What are you doing here? Not that I’m complaining, mind you, but I thought you two were leaving the city? And why do you look like you rolled around in a pile of ashes? Are you all right?”

  “We’re fine,” Kate said and added a mumbled “More or less.”

  Lucy regarded them with a frown. “Market Street isn’t still burning, is it?”

  Kate paused to help down the old man with the injured arm, while clutching her carrying case with the other hand. “No. But North Beach and the waterfront are.”

  “North Beach? What were you doing up there?” Lucy glanced toward the makeshift hospital, probably making sure that other physicians were taking care of the new patients. “I thought you wanted to head to the ferry building?”

  “We did,” Kate said. “There was no more room on the ferry to Belvedere.”

  Lucy’s gaze flicked to Giuliana. “What about the ferry to Oakland? Was that one full too?” Her knowing grin indicated that she already guessed the answer.

  Did she suspect why Giuliana had stayed? Heat drifted up Giuliana’s neck. She hoped the soot staining her cheeks would hide her blush.

  The growing smile on Lucy’s face told her otherwise. “Well, well. It seems there is something for you in San Francisco after all.”

  Unbidden, Giuliana’s gaze went to Kate, whose face had turned the color of a tomato beneath the soot and ash. Lucy didn’t seem to resent them for wanting to stay together, so Giuliana looked her in the eyes and nodded. “Yes, there is.”

  She gazed at Kate, who looked back at her. For a moment, she forgot about Lucy as she fell into the shining blue of Kate’s irises. She and Kate were both beaming like fools.

  “Hey, Doc,” a soldier limping past on crutches called over to Lucy. “Whatever medicine you gave these two ladies, can I have some too?”

  Lucy burst out laughing. “I wouldn’t mind some of it myself, but I’m all out of that type of medicine. Sorry, Private.” She turned back toward them. “Come on. I’ll show you where you can wash up, and I’ll bring you fresh clothes and something to eat.”

  That sounded like heaven to Giuliana. With tired steps, she followed Lucy and Kate.

  CHAPTER 19

  Golden Gate Park

  San Francisco, California

  April 20, 1906

  “Home, sweet home.” Lucy lifted the flap of a rectangular tent next to the makeshift hospital and waved at them to enter.

  Giuliana ducked inside, followed by Kate, and let her gaze trail through the tent.

  At first glance, it looked like an improvised storage room, and it probably was. Medical supplies were stacked up along the canvas walls. But between boxes of bandages, tins of ointment, and stacks of metal bowls, a heavy gray wool blanket was spread out on the ground. Another blanket sat above it, folded several times to act as a pillow.

  Lucy followed them inside, set down the bucket full of water, and handed them each a white linen towel and a piece of soap. “The soldiers and the male doctors know not to come in here, so take your time getting clean. I’ll be right back with new sets of clothes.”

  The flap fell closed behind her, leaving Kate and Giuliana alone in the tent.

  Giuliana stared at the linen in her hand and then peeked at Kate, who looked at her out of the corner of her eye.

  Their gazes veered apart, and both shuffled their feet.

  Were they supposed to undress in front of each other? Lucy apparently expected it. A few weeks ago, Giuliana wouldn’t have thought anything of it. She had often bathed with her younger sisters, and she’d seen the other female tenants of the boardinghouse in just their drawers and chemises on washdays. They were all women after all, so there was nothing to it. Nothing to it now either, right?

  But as much as she tried, she couldn’t make herself believe it.

  Caught between wanting to see more of the fair skin hiding beneath Kate’s soot-stained clothes and being too embarrassed to even look in her direction, she stood rooted next to the bucket.

  Kate set down her carrying case and cleared her throat. “The water is getting cold.”

  “Yes.”

  Neither of them moved.

  “Do you want me to…?” Kate waved toward the tent flap.

  They were being ridiculous. She had scrubbed Kate’s underthings when she’d been the Winthrops’ maid, for heaven’s sake! Another glance at them wouldn’t kill her—even with Kate wearing them this time. She swallowed at the thought. Before her determination could wane, she said, “No. We both get clean. Lucy promised us food when we are done.”

  As if by unspoken agreement, they turned their backs to each other.

  Slowly, very aware of Kate’s presence, Giuliana lifted her hands to the top button of her shirtwaist.

  Cotton rustled behind her, and then there was the sound of Kate’s shirtwaist dropping to the ground.

  Giuliana was slower, either because her fingers were trembling or because the bandage around her right hand hindered her a little. She admitted it was probably the former. Finally, her soiled shirtwaist joined Kate’s on the ground. Her skirt, stiff with soot and sweat, followed.

  She wasn’t wearing a petticoat or a corset, so she stood in the middle of the tent in just her drawers, a chemise, and a pair of black stockings. Should she take them off too or try to wash around them?

  A quick sniff answered the question for her. You reek, Giuliana Russo.

  “Ugh,” Kate muttered next to her, as if she’d come to the same conclusion about herself.

  A girlish giggle escaped Giuliana.

  “What?” Kate asked.

  “Nothing.” She couldn’t very well admit how nervous she was. Clothes rustled behind her, so Giuliana found the courage to let her stockings, the chemise, and finally the pair of drawers slide to the ground too.

  “You want to go first?” Kate asked.

  “No. We wash at the same time, or one will have cold, dirty water.” A completely reasonable suggestion…only it also meant that they could no longer turn their backs on each other. She would see Kate—all of her. A mix of eagerness and trepidation made her tremble. After drawing a deep breath, she turned toward the bucket and tried not to stare at Kate, who’d done the same.

  Since Lucy hadn’t given them a washcloth, they each dipped one end of their towels into the water and rubbed it over the soap.

  Giuliana scrubbed her cheeks, chin, and forehead and came away with a dirty towel. The water Lucy had heated for them had cooled down and was now only lukewarm, but it still felt luxurious to get rid of the layers of soot, ash, and sweat caking her overheated skin.

  When she wanted to dip her towel into the water again, Kate had beaten her to it. She was bent over the bucket, her bare behind exposed to Giuliana’s view.

  Propriety dictated that she look elsewhere, but she couldn’t drag her gaze away. She took in the lovely spot where Kate’s lower back met the roundness of her buttocks. Kate’s skin seemed so smooth and so much paler than her own, like pure cream. If she dared reach out a hand and touch her, would Kate’s skin feel as soft as it looked?

  The urge to find out gripped her, but she didn’t dare. She’s a woman! A woman! But her body didn’t care. Neither did her heart.

  Kate straightened, the dripping towel in her hand, and half turned.

  Giuliana caught a glimpse of high, firm breasts, smaller than her own, before she quickly averted her gaze.

  “Sorry,” Kate mumbled. “I didn’t mean to hog the bucket.”

  Hog? What did a pig have to do with washing up? Giuliana would have asked, but at the moment, she wasn’t particularly interested in the finer points of the English language.

  “Are you all right?” Kate asked quietly.

  Giuliana nodded. Was she breathing too fast? Was that why Kate had asked? In an attempt to hide her flushed cheeks, she stepped forward and dipped the end of her towel into the bucket.

&nbs
p; The skin along her spine and the back of her thighs tingled. Was Kate looking at her too? Instead of horrifying her, the thought made her wonder if Kate liked what she saw. She peeked over her shoulder.

  Kate’s eyes widened; then she quickly glanced elsewhere.

  Another giggle rose up Giuliana’s chest, so she pressed a hand to her mouth, not wanting Kate to think that she was laughing at her.

  Never in her life had Giuliana taken so long to wash up. It was because she’d also never before been so dirty, she told herself, and had nothing to do with repeatedly becoming distracted by peeking over at Kate, who was scrubbing at her slender arms and then trailing the towel down over the subtle curve of her hips.

  Before the earthquake, she’d sometimes seen the bare chests of the piscaturi down at the boat landing when they’d washed up after cleaning their feluccas. Of course, she’d glimpsed at the suntanned muscles on display. Some of the fishermen looked like works of art. But watching the men from afar had always been enough. Never for a second had she longed to run her fingers over their bronzed chests.

  With Kate, it was different. Giuliana’s gaze followed the path of the towel along one slender leg. The curve of Kate’s calf looked so inviting that her fingers itched to touch it. Her mouth watered as she tracked a droplet running down the length of Kate’s spine, as if she wanted to taste it, taste Kate. Her breath hitched. Heat coiled low in her belly.

  What a strange feeling. She hadn’t expected to ever experience it—and certainly not while looking at another woman—but now she was.

  A gust of wind brushing along her oversensitive, damp skin made her jump and wrench her gaze away from Kate’s back.

  The flap had been opened.

  Giuliana quickly covered her private parts with the towel.

  Kate did the same, but she was taller, so most of her thighs peeked out from beneath the linen.

  Lucy stepped into the tent and closed the flap. She politely kept her gaze on the canvas wall as she held out two piles of clothes. Her cheeks remained their normal color, not flushing at the sight of the two naked women in her tent.

  Well, she was a physician, so she must have seen hundreds of undressed women. Besides, she probably looked at women the way Giuliana had gazed at the bare-chested piscaturi—with an aesthetic appreciation, not with a desire to touch.