“Why do you need so much money?” I asked.
“It’s better to have immediate access in an emergency than to have to make a trip to the bank.”
He treated me as his actual partner.
The widow Peralta was patient with me and it turned out I’d picked up more in the kitchen than I thought. Apparently, years of watching the staff paid off somewhat. Still, it took two weeks before I was able to prepare a dinner on my own.
The summer heat raged on, oppressive when the sun was at its highest to barely cooler at night.
We slept with fans on in the bedroom and the windows open in the lightest fabrics we could find. Orin even chose to only wear bottoms which I found distracting.
One particularly hot night, I woke up because the heat made it impossible to sleep and I found myself alone in bed. I assumed Orin also had trouble sleeping so I decided to search him out.
The house was empty.
Without any other ideas as to where I could look for him, I poured a glass of lemonade from the icebox then returned to the bedroom. Instead of climbing back onto the bed, I stepped out onto the balcony. I sipped the glass of cold liquid and let the slight breeze lift my blonde hair off my shoulders.
I shut my eyes to enjoy the moment.
When I looked back out into the darkness, I saw him.
Orin lurked on the edge of the forest. Every muscle in my body froze so I wouldn’t alert him that I was watching. I wanted to see what brought him out in the dead of night and watched until he disappeared back into the forest.
He was naked and alone.
Chapter Fifteen
My husband spends time in the woods naked.
I decided almost immediately not to say anything about Orin’s visit to the woods.
He’d told me when we met that there were things in his life he could never reveal. I assumed that this was one of those things. Though what someone would get out of walking around the woods naked I’d never know.
I saw him go out there the next two nights as well and remembered that the first time I came to his house I’d found him coming from the woods naked.
Orin read the newspaper each morning after finishing breakfast. He’d sit, relaxed with a small smile on his face and I couldn’t be sure if his satisfaction was due to his nightly naked visits outside or his nightly naked visits inside with me.
As a proper lady, I wasn’t supposed to enjoy our time in bed (or the couch, or leaning against a wall) as much as I did. I’d suddenly become very OK with not being respectable.
I pushed food around my plate while thoughts of what he might’ve been doing in the trees alone at night ran through my head. Deciding not to mention it to him didn’t stop my curiosity from taking over sometimes.
“What?” He peered over the paper surprising me.
I’d been so lost in thought and his movements were so quick that I didn’t expect it.
“Nothing,” I said back.
“Tell me.” He continued with the grin on his face.
That look made me wonder how long he’d known I’d been watching him. After all, he seemed to notice everything.
“I was thinking about what I should wear tonight,” I said, dropping my gaze back to the table and pretended that my eggs had gotten very interesting. I focused so hard that my vision became tunneled but I couldn’t look at him. He’d know that wasn’t what had been on my mind.
“Ahhh, yes the wedding. We’re going?” He neatly folded the paper then set it on the edge of the table.
“I want to. When I saw Olivia, she was adamant that I was still invited.”
“That invitation extends to me?”
“You’re my husband,” I said quietly.
“Come with me.” Orin stood, taking my hand to pull me along behind him.
We climbed the stairs. I moved quickly trying to keep up with his easy movements although I stumbled several times. Grace and athleticism were not my forte. My toe caught a rug threatening to propel me to the ground. Orin steadied me so I didn’t hit the floor then he stopped once we were inside one of the bedrooms.
“What are we doing in here?”
The guestroom hadn’t been touched and I assumed it would stay that way for the foreseeable future. He went to the closet and pulled out several boxes I’d never seen before as I watched in confusion.
“What is all this?” I asked.
He didn’t answer and instead flipped the lids off the boxes until all six were opened. Inside each one laid a beautiful dress or varying colors and level of elegance.
They were all breathtaking.
“Where did all this come from?” I asked.
“The city. I saw a few things and thought you might like them. You’d never ask for anything but wanted to have some on hand for an occasion such as this.”
“A few things?” My voice was soft with emotion and my eyes locked with his.
Orin stood there smiling at me. I had to swallow back the lump in my throat. I’d had many beautiful dresses in my life but they’d all been purchased for a specific reason. Not because someone thought I’d like them.
Orin crossed the slight distance between us, kissed my forehead and said he had things to take care of. I listened to his footsteps go back down the stairs and toward his office where the door closed behind him. All my years of tracking my father’s location through sound alone sometimes paid off.
I settled on the red dress. Red. The color of harlots. The thought made me smile.
Pulling the dress out of the box, the first thing I noticed was that it did not adhere to the modern style. These days everything was about androgyny. Girls who were thin and flat. Dresses hung from their bodies loosely.
But this one… this would hug my curves in a way that wouldn’t have been acceptable in my previous life. Wearing it now would make me feel free and reckless.
The wedding was in the evening with the reception at Olivia’s parent’s house. Everyone I knew would be there. Yet bold from Orin’s support, I decided to leave my hair down on my shoulders in finger waves.
When I finished getting ready, I found Orin handsome as I’d ever seen in a tailored suit waiting at the bottom of the stairs.
“You’re absolutely ravishing,” he whispered before kissing my cheek.
The church Olivia and I had attended all of our lives and had stood at least a century before we came alone. While beautiful, I’d never felt like I belonged there. I knew the vengeful God. He’d taken my mother which left me alone in a house, unloved.
But the opulence of what the church had been transformed into for the night fit Olivia.
As did the reception where Orin and I swayed to the music filling the air. We danced closer to each other than those around us did. As elaborate as the ceremony had been, the reception had more of a romantic tone and I felt in the deepest recesses of my body.
Orin rubbed his thumb on the back of my neck as he held me to him so tightly I couldn’t take a deep breath. I didn’t mind. If I could’ve gotten closer, I would have.
“I think we should take a break before things get inappropriate,” Orin whispered in my ear, exploding tiny goosebumps over my skin.
“That would be bad?” I cocked my head to the side and watched his face contort with laughter.
“Very,” he murmured so his lips brushed mine with the movement.
I closed my eyes, losing myself in the feel of his smooth lips against mine as he kissed me quickly and let his scent surround me. He always smelled like the forest. The aroma of trees and damp moss clung to his skin even if he recently bathed.
“People are beginning to talk,” Orin said as he led me off the dance floor.
“How do you know?”
“I can hear them.”
“What?” That didn’t make sense. No one talked loud enough for us to understand. Certainly not over the music.
“Excellent hearing. Come on.”
We continued weaving our way through people but stopped several times for b
rief conversation. Everyone seemed to already know Orin when I attempted to introduce him. Though most had never spoken to him. It was an odd juxtaposition. They shook hands anyway.
Catching Olivia out of the corner of my eye, I excused myself from the superficial exchanges and crossed the short distance to my best friend. No one would miss me. They didn’t know how to make conversation with me before and they certainly didn’t try now.
“So you’re a wife now,” I said with a smile once I got over to her.
“I need to talk to you.” Olivia pulled me by the arm to a deserted corner of the room. She squeezed so tightly I’d probably end up with a bruise.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Olivia bit her bottom lip, chewing back and forth.
“Olivia?”
“Nobody will tell me anything,” she finally said. “Even my mother. No details.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Lizzie… ” her voice trailed off.
She acted as if I should know what she was talking about but her words didn’t make any sense. My brows narrowed as I tried to decipher what she meant.
“Lizzie.” she snapped, somehow exasperated with me.
“I’m trying here, Olivia, but you’re not really telling me anything.”
She rolled her eyes and lowered her voice, “You’re married.”
“Yes.”
“Is it real?”
“Of course. Yes, he was a way out of that life, a way to not have to marry Bradley, but I love Orin.”
“You live as husband and wife… ” Olivia’s voice trailed off.
Finally what she was getting at hit me.
Sex. She’d have to have sex with her husband tonight. That wasn’t a topic anyone would’ve talked to her about in any kind of detail.
“Oh. Oh, I see. You want,” I dropped my voice even lower, “details?”
She nodded.
“I’m not sure I can give you those.” I glanced at Orin. He stood across the room engrossed in a conversation of his own yet the corner of his mouth turned up slightly like he’d heard what I said.
“Lizzie, I’m begging you. I know I have to do things tonight but please don’t send me off without any information.” There was honest to goodness fear in her pleading.
“Well, you know what’s going to happen, right?”
“Of course, I know the mechanics.”
“How is it?” She dropped her voice even further. “Is it horrible?”
I burst into a laugh before I could stop it.
“Horrible? Olivia, no, it’s not horrible. Not for me anyway. The stories we’ve been told aren’t necessarily true. It’s actually kind of great.”
She blew out a breath of air.
“It hurt at first but that passed quickly.”
I wet my lips trying to figure out what else I could tell her without getting too personal. I teetered back and forth on whether to decide if I should tell her what surprised me most about being with Orin. But I wouldn’t be her best friend if I didn’t. Though I didn’t think naked visits to the woods were too normal. I definitely wouldn’t mention that part.
“Olivia—” I took a step closer “—there are things, things nobody would probably ever admit to. Intimate things that surprised me, shocked me even, but go with it. If Charles knows what he’s doing, it will be wonderful.”
Olivia’s shoulders fell as she released all the tension she’d been holding and she sighed deeply in relief. “That puts me at ease. Although it also makes me very, very curious.”
I smile and shrugged my shoulders. That she’d have to discover herself.
Late into the night, after a lot of dances and numerous drinks
“Did you have fun?” Orin asked as we drove.
“Yes. I’m surprised there was so much champagne.”
“Why is that?”
“Prohibition. It’s illegal.”
“Somehow I don’t think a lot of the laws apply to people like Olivia’s father.”
True. I’m not sure the police in town would dare to interrupt such an event for something like alcohol.
“Did you hear me talking to Olivia?” I asked as we got out of the car.
“How could I?”
“You have great hearing, remember?”
He smiled and took my hand but didn’t answer as we approached the house. It was ridiculous to think he’d heard me, he’d been across the room for us the entire night, yet somewhere deep down I honestly though he had.
The next morning arrived bright and finally mild. The crushing humidity that punctuated summer melted away, at least for that moment.
When I woke, I was once again alone except for the bird chirping a happy tune outside my windows.
I continued with my morning routine, trying not to wonder what Orin was doing. It didn’t work. I couldn’t help but want to know what he got up to in the woods every day. Especially since the one time I followed him in there, he’d been burying a dead body. Instead, I tried to busy myself by answering a few congratulatory letters we’d received.
At the beginning of my second letter, someone banged loudly on the front door.
“Orin?” A man’s voice boomed around the entryway, calling in through the screen.
The day was so beautiful that I’d left it open to cool the house. I froze momentarily then found my courage to see who was out there.
“Can I help you?” I approached slowly, my heart hammering against my chest.
The man looked familiar but I couldn’t place him. I didn’t think I’d seen him before.
“I’m looking for Orin.”
“He isn’t home right now.”
“Where is he?” The voice boomed louder, forcing me to take a step back and grip the door so I could slam it in the man’s face if he made a move toward me.
“I-I don’t know.” He legitimately scared me and even more than ever I wished Orin was with me.
“I’m his—” the man dropped the volume of his voice, “—I’m his father, this is his mother.”
“Oh,” I smiled widely, “Mr. and Mrs. Vilkatas, please come in. I don’t know when Orin will be back. I’m Elizabeth.”
They both took a step inside but didn’t go any further than the front entryway. Something about this made the hair on my arms stand straight up. Not due to it being cold in the house. It was my reaction to him.
“What about his wife?” he asked.
Orin’s mother hadn’t said a word. She watched me with curiosity and didn’t try to hide it.
My mouth opened and closed but I said nothing. I knew what I should’ve said but the words wouldn’t climb my throat and come out of my mouth.
“Oh my, Antan, this girl is his wife.”
“That’s impossible.” Orin’s father’s voice boomed again making me jump back even further and wrap my arms around myself.
“She isn’t… she can’t be… where’s my son, girl?”
The demanding nature of his voice isn’t what scared me. That same tone had come from my own father a thousand times, but this man seemed to grow larger, more intimidating, and inch closer the angrier he became.
“What did he tell you? Where is he? If you’re his wife, you ought to know.” Mr. Vilkatas kept up the interrogation without giving me a moment to think or answer.
Not that I had one.
“I don’t know,” I screamed. “I don’t know.” I tried to yell over him but my voice couldn’t match his. Tears pooled in my eyes to go with the brick lying in my stomach. “I think there’s been a mistake.” I started to shake. This was so much worse than when Father got upset.
“I demand to know what’s going on here.”
“Antan, calm yourself,” his wife stepped in. “You’re scaring this poor girl half to death.” Mrs. Vilkatas’ voice did what mine could not. She was heard.
“I don’t care,” he barked to his wife. “I want answers now.” He stepped closer.
My legs hit the sofa so I began searchi
ng for an escape. I had nowhere else to go.
“What’s your name, girl?” He asked only a breath away.
“Elizabeth.”
“Your surname.”
“Vilkatas.”
His jaw tightened.
“D-Davis before.”
Antan began another rant so loudly it became all I could hear. He came closer with each passing word.
I moved to my right slowly to get away from him and closer to the back door.
He wouldn’t stop.
Suddenly Orin blocked me from his father.
“Dad, calm down,” Orin said firmly, as demanding as his father had. “What are you two doing here?”
“You think we wouldn’t come? You’ve taken a mate. But she’s not… ” His father stopped short of whatever he was about to say.
“No. Let’s talk about this.”
“Talk about this?” his father roared.
Orin met rage with rage and the two men stepped toward each other which put them away from me. I worried about Orin but had no power to help the relief that washed over me now that he was there.
They grew so loud I couldn’t understand what they said. Then I realized they weren’t even speaking English anymore. But I didn’t need to understand the language to understand what the tone meant.
Orin and his father pushed into each other which bounced them into the kitchen. I tried to stay within Orin’s reach without getting into the argument so I stumbled along with them. His mother followed yet didn’t look concerned. More like she was annoyed.
I stood too close. When Antan thumped into Orin, Orin fell into me and I stumbled into the stove. The sharp corner sunk deep into the tender flesh on my forearm then sliced toward my wrist as I fell.
I gasped and bit my lips together to keep from crying.
“Outside.” Mrs. Vilkatas’ voice boomed loudly.
They followed her direction but gave no sign that they actually heard it or that they knew I’d been hurt. They sprang out of the house then down the steps.
I followed onto the porch and stopped there. A trickle of blood ran down toward my elbow as I held it to my chest.
Even though I knew it was impossible, each man seemed to grow larger as the adrenaline took them over.
Ripping material shredded the still afternoon. I couldn’t put together what I was seeing. My heart thumped erratically against my chest.
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