PluckingthePearl

by Afton Locke

  * * * * *

  Caleb walked briskly toward the Sapphire Crab. He was grateful for the cool fall breeze tonight and had already begun wearing his fedora, instead of the boater, for the change of season. The smell of sea salt cleared his head and the chill cooled off his body. Boats in the harbor creaked from being jostled by the restless sea, making an eerie sound.

  Try as he might, though, he couldn’t chase away the image of hurt he’d seen in Pearl’s eyes when he left. No matter how hard he tried to be good, he seemed to bring nothing but shame into her life. It had to stop.

  He didn’t have any answers yet but maybe his brother and a stiff drink could get his mind off his troubles for a while. When he approached the entrance to the Sapphire Crab, he stared at the segregation signs out front. This time, anger sizzled down each nerve ending.

  Why couldn’t he marry Pearl and eat with her in this restaurant? For the first time in his life, he hated Oyster Island. If it weren’t for society and its stupid rules, he’d be home in bed with her right now instead of here, looking for a fight.

  When he stepped inside the restaurant, he just stood at the door and blinked. For the first time in his life, it didn’t feel like home to him. It was too noisy and too busy. A busboy almost stepped on his foot and somewhere in back a glass shattered.

  He’d rather hear Pearl play the piano.

  “Caleb, over here!”

  Caleb followed his brother’s voice through the smoky air and sat across from him in a booth near the window.

  “You looked pretty lost,” Henry commented. “Are you all right?”

  Betty Lewes, the restaurant owner’s daughter, gave him a big smile. “What would you like? Tonight’s special is meat loaf.”

  “I already ate,” he replied. “Just get me a Scotch.”

  Henry studied him over his glass of beer. “You only drink Scotch when you’re upset. Are you having trouble with your new housekeeper?”

  Caleb frowned. “Of course not. Why would you say that?”

  “Because you spend even less time at home than you did before and you look angry enough to chew oyster shells.” Henry leaned closer. “I thought your new situation would have the opposite effect on you.”

  When Betty brought him his drink, he took a big swallow but the numbing burn didn’t erase his brother’s disturbing suggestion.

  “What are you getting at?”

  Henry leaned even closer. “Come on, Caleb. Do you think I’m stupid? I know you’ve got something going on with that little colored gal.”

  Caleb’s face burned as he looked around. “Keep your voice down. Do you realize what’s at stake?”

  “Of course I do,” Henry replied, “and I suggest you get a new housekeeper. I looked at the latest inventory records today and they’re a mess. You can’t run Rockfield’s properly in the shape you’re in.”

  Caleb paused, needing to confide in someone about this maddening confusion but afraid to do it. If he couldn’t trust his own brother, though, who could he trust?

  “It’s not what you think,” he said. “She acts like a proper lady.”

  His brother nodded slowly in understanding. “So that’s the problem. She’s not…producing.”

  “You make her sound like a milk cow. I have feelings for her. I wish—”

  “Good Lord, it’s worse than I thought.” Henry shook his head and then glared at Caleb. “Get over those feelings, fast, or you’re going to have more problems than you know what to do with.”

  This outing was proving to be even more depressing than being at home, Caleb thought as he hung his head and rubbed his forehead. How could Pearl make him feel so wonderful and horrible at the same time? When they’d made love on the island, he’d felt complete. Now there were a bunch of pieces missing and Henry was right. He couldn’t go on this way.

  Betty came over and rested her hand on his arm. Caleb realized she was bending extra low to expose her generous cleavage.

  “Can I get you fellows anything else?” she asked.

  When they shook their heads, she left the check on their table. Henry shot Caleb a knowing look.

  “Why don’t you let her satisfy your needs? She looks more than willing. Hell, she’s wanted to marry you for years.”

  Caleb watched her walk away. Maybe his brother was right. He could easily make Betty his lover and satisfy his needs as long as her father, his biggest customer, never found out. Pearl didn’t have to know but if she ever found out, it would hurt her badly.

  Of course, he hadn’t made any romantic commitment to Pearl. She only wanted to be his housekeeper. Nevertheless, being with another woman would violate something sacred and he just couldn’t do it. After a time or two, he doubted he could continue to get hard for Betty anyway. She would be a body to him. Nothing more.

  And not the silky, creamy-sweet coffee body he needed so much.

  How could he live the life of a monk for years and now be unable to live without sex? It didn’t make any sense. Pearl’s passion must have changed him.

  “You’re considering it, aren’t you?” Henry asked. “Go on. Ask her for a date. You might even get lucky with her later tonight.”

  It was out of the question, Caleb decided, but it had given him an idea. If it worked, he might be able to get Pearl back into his bed after all. Maybe then he’d be able to think clearly and run his business properly before he made a complete mess of it.

  Henry tapped him with his foot under the table. “Look sharp. The mayor is coming this way.”

  Wonderful. Caleb wished he’d taken refuge in his office tonight instead.

  The mayor had a drink in one hand and a newspaper in the other. “Caleb Rockfield, I’m glad you’re here. I need to talk to you.”

  Henry slid across his booth seat toward the window to make room for him. “Mayor Carter, won’t you join us?”

  The older man eased his bulk into the seat and shoved a newspaper beneath Caleb’s nose. “Have you seen this?”

  Caleb nodded. He skimmed the paper every morning but today he couldn’t recall any of it. If nothing had been important enough to remember, why was the mayor’s face so red? The man’s short finger pointed to one of the headlines.

  “Negro strike gets out of hand in Cambridge, Maryland,” Caleb read out loud. He remembered the title but hadn’t read the article. Cambridge was across the Chesapeake Bay and not his concern.

  “We read about that,” Henry supplied. “Didn’t some colored workers at a crabmeat picking plant go on strike from a wage cut?”

  Mayor Carter slapped the paper on the table. “Yes, and a couple of them got into a scuffle with management. Who knows where that would have ended up if not for the Klan.”

  The Klan? Caleb’s Scotch burned his stomach. Maybe he should have taken the time to read that article after all. He grasped his glass with both hands to prevent his hands from trembling. The mayor had a savage look in his eyes tonight that raised the hairs on the back of his neck.

  “Well, luckily we don’t have those troubles here,” Caleb said slowly. “The workers are happy and the harvest is so good I wouldn’t dream of cutting the wages.”

  “What if the harvest is bad next year?” Mayor Carter jabbed his finger into the wooden tabletop as he made his point. “What then?”

  Henry’s worried gaze shifted over his beer glass from one man to the other.

  Caleb shook his head. “I think you’re overreacting, Mayor. If some white workers had had a little scuffle with white managers, no one would think a thing of it.”

  His brother kicked him under the table again.

  Mayor Carter stood, donned his hat with authority and grabbed his paper.

  “Well, I’m not taking this lightly. It’s my duty to protect this town and its businesses.” He glared at Caleb. “I’ll expect you to be more supportive when I put together a plan of action.”

  “A plan of action?” Caleb asked Henry after the man left. “What the hell did he mean by that?”

 
Henry’s brow looked creased and grim. “It sounds to me like he plans to bring the Klan to Oyster Island.”

  Caleb gulped more Scotch at once than he should have. “That’ll never happen.”

  “It could and you know it. He’s probably a Klan member himself already.” Henry’s eyes glittered with emotion as he drained his beer and set down the glass. “But you need to at least pretend to be supportive. I can’t believe how rude you were to him just now.”

  Caleb grabbed the paper napkin next to his place setting and tore it to shreds. “The man makes me sick.”

  Henry put some money on the table and stood up. “You might want to consider getting another housekeeper and adjusting your attitude. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you or Rockfield’s. Our daddy built that company, you know.”

  “I know.”

  His brother squeezed his arm. “Take care and go easy on that Scotch.”

  After he left, Caleb stared at the table and bits of napkin he’d shredded. Where was all this anger coming from? Was it sexual frustration, the mayor or both? Henry was right. He needed to pull himself together before he lost everything.

  Even though he still had Rockfield’s, it was now painfully clear he wasn’t the real king of Oyster Island. He never was.

  Chapter Sixteen

  When Caleb walked into his house a few days later, Pearl rushed to the door. She wasn’t used to wearing a full-length skirt so she almost tripped over the rug. Even though he’d hardly been home since the night he’d seen her in the bathtub, her nerves still tingled when she looked at him.

  She’d fixed the stupid bathroom lock herself, resolving never to be so careless again. Never before had she witnessed someone so tortured by desire. It had torn her inside to hear him rattling the furniture and getting his pleasure himself instead of with her.

  Satisfying herself in that tub had been wrong. Not as wrong as sharing her body with Caleb but certainly not the way a proper housekeeper should behave. Upon seeing her engorged nipples and swollen labia, he must have known what she’d been doing. What if he’d walked in a few moments earlier? She vowed not to make that mistake again. Her hungry body would have to starve.

  If only she could give him what he wanted. Unfortunately she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she did.

  He looked at her from head to toe. “Pearl, what the hell are you wearing?”

  She ran a hand over the thick, gray fabric. “I found some old drapery material in the attic and decided to put together an outfit that wouldn’t tempt you so much.”

  When he threw his head back and laughed, she nearly cried for joy. He hadn’t been happy enough to laugh like that since she’d moved in.

  “You never stop surprising me,” he told her. “Now I insist on getting you at least one new dress.”

  The sound of voices spilled from the dining room. She didn’t enjoy sharing the house with others but things hadn’t been very comfortable between the two of them. Maybe having guests would help ease the tension.

  He frowned as he took off his jacket. “Who’s here?”

  She took his things and hung them on the coat tree by the door. “Your wife’s sister and husband stopped by for a short visit.”

  “You’re kidding me.” He smoothed down his hair. “I haven’t seen them in years.”

  From the tone of his voice, he didn’t want to see them now either.

  “I have to go to the kitchen and check on the pork chops,” she told him. “Dinner will be served shortly.”

  Dinner passed slowly as Pearl concentrated on doing a good job. Being a housekeeper alone with Caleb had been one thing. Now she was being judged by strangers. Thank goodness she’d learned the job growing up. All she had to struggle with here was hiding her feelings for Caleb.

  Even though she’d always tried to be a proper housekeeper, she and Caleb had been closer than they should have. A real housekeeper and her master wouldn’t have laughed at the door just now about her clothes like two intimate friends.

  She wasn’t prepared for the way Mrs. Abbott stared down her large, hooked nose at her. Her gaunt-looking husband was worse because he looked right through her as if she weren’t even there. She’d experienced this before, of course, from the guests she and her mother had served in Annapolis.

  If it hadn’t bothered her then, why did it disturb her so much now? Had Caleb really changed her so much?

  The chandelier light made the china plates and silver gleam against the white tablecloth on a table fit for royalty. It was strange to watch him eat at the table with other white people while she stood in the corner, waiting to see if they needed anything.

  She’d never felt so different from him before. It was as if she were looking at him through the window of another world, so close but so out of reach. The memory of his pale cock thrusting into her dark folds seemed so impossible now she wondered if it had really happened.

  “Girl!” The sound of fingers snapping in annoyance pulled Pearl out of her thoughts. “For the third time, I would like more gravy.”

  “Yes. Yes, ma’am.”

  Pearl almost tripped on her skirts and fell on her face as she rushed to do the woman’s bidding.

  “Honestly, Caleb,” Elizabeth Abbott said. “I realize you’re in the boondocks here but surely you could find a better housekeeper. She’s hardly competent.”

  Caleb’s jaw twitched. He looked at Pearl from across the table, his expression just as pained from this ordeal as she felt inside. Seeing his sympathy made her feel even worse. Part of her wanted to run into the kitchen and stay there.

  “You need a wife to keep her in line,” Mrs. Abbott continued. “Why haven’t you remarried? Gertrude has been gone for some years now.”

  Pearl’s heart almost stopped when she thought of Caleb bringing a wife into this house. They’d talked so much about her marrying Jimmy, she’d never even considered the possibility of his marrying. Acting proper around him was one thing. Losing him to another woman would be another thing altogether.

  Hearing him make love to another woman in the bed that should be hers would kill her.

  Pearl clasped her hands together so hard they hurt as she waited to hear his reply.

  Caleb shrugged. “I don’t need a wife. I’m happy as I am.”

  She knew he wasn’t happy but his words nearly made her swoon with relief. Realizing the woman seated before her was just a white version of sour Aunt Wilma gave her strength too.

  “I’ve been a housekeeper since I was a child.” Pearl grabbed the half-empty gravy tureen. “And I can see there’s plenty of gravy here. Would you like me to pour it for you?”

  The woman’s head bobbed like a flustered chicken’s. “Well, I suppose so.”

  Amusement glittered in Caleb’s blue eyes as he leaned back in his chair. He was enjoying this! Well, Pearl would give him a show. She held the gravy tureen higher than she should have but not high enough to splatter the gravy. The rich scent of it filled the air. Mrs. Abbott watched the brown stream, her face glazed with shock.

  “Is that enough gravy?” Pearl asked sweetly.

  “Quite! Caleb, this girl should be fired at once. Gertrude never would have tolerated this.”

  Caleb cleared his throat. “Pearl, can I see you in the kitchen a moment?”

  This was beyond humiliating, she thought as she followed him to the kitchen.

  “I’m sorry but she was so rude to me.” Pearl folded her arms. “Go ahead and punish me if you must.”

  A ball of heat shot through her belly when he stood close behind her, his hard cock pressing against her, and whispered close to her ear.

  “Don’t tempt me,” he said. “I ought to lift that ridiculous, long skirt and spank your bare bottom.”

  The thought of it made each muscle in her pussy tighten almost to the point of pain.

  “I had to at least pretend to reprimand you or I’d never hear the end of it.” Caleb laughed into his hand to muffle it. “Did you see the look on her face?
”

  She laughed into her hands too. “She did ask for more gravy.”

  Caleb bent over, laughing even more. “If it were me, I would have poured the whole damn thing in her lap.”

  “Caleb, you’re awful.” She touched his shoulder, electrified by the warmth coming through the cotton shirt.

  With no warning, he grasped her shoulders and kissed her hard. Her mouth melted under his, needing him with desperate urgency. When he pulled back, his eyes glittered with emotion. She knew she should object to the kiss but being close to him again sent joy soaring through her veins. With guests in the house, at least she was safe knowing the kiss could go no further.

  “Shall I play the piano for your guests?” she asked, making her voice innocent on purpose.

  Caleb’s jovial expression turned sad. “I wish you could, honey, but I don’t think it would be wise.”

  “I’ve been listening to your radio on nights when you’re out and learning the songs.”

  A mixture of sadness and wonder filled his face. “Have you? I-I’m sorry I missed it.”

  He looked as if he were about to kiss her again so she nudged his arm.

  “Come on,” she said, “before they look for us.”

  As they returned to the dining room, warmth filled Pearl’s chest from the shared laughter and kiss. Was denying their love really the right thing to do? Was it right to miss out on so much joy? No one ever said being a lady was easy. Each day she kept her distance from Caleb proved hard and harder.

  She wasn’t sure how much longer she could continue this.

  * * * * *

  Two nights later, Caleb sat at his dining room table with the Abbotts again, eating the crab bisque Pearl had made. Elizabeth fanned herself from the Indian summer heat. Knowing his tiresome guests were leaving tomorrow helped him endure another meal with them.

  More importantly, it was time to enact his plan. If it worked, Pearl would be back in his bed by sunrise. He hated hurting her but he’d also seen the pain in her eyes when he’d kissed her. She missed him as much as he missed her. This was for her own good.