“Oh, I like him pretty well. But…”
“But what?”
Claire took a final stitch in a seam and snipped off the thread. “I sure wish we had a sewing machine. Maybe we ought to save up for one. We could buy it together. It would make sewing ever so much easier.”
“You’re changing the subject. Maybe you ought to tell me why you brought up this true love business.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Steve is fine, but I just don’t get all sticky inside when I think of him.”
“I’m glad.”
“You don’t like him?” Claire asked, pausing with her needle in the air.
Nell was sorry she’d said anything. “I’m not the one going out with him. But he seems awfully fast.”
“Yes, I’ve had to tell him to keep his hands to himself. But I like him because he makes me laugh. And he reads the newspaper—all of it. Do you know how many boys I’ve gone out with who never get beyond the sports pages? You’re lucky that Mr. Moran is so up-to-date on things. I’m tired of dates who think I’m so stupid I don’t have opinions of my own. They’re surprised I know who the president is. The men I meet don’t think much of women,” Claire said.
“I am lucky I met Wade,” Nell replied, and she knew she was. They often discussed politics and world affairs, although Wade sometimes frowned when her opinions differed from his own. Nell didn’t believe Steve was much interested in Claire’s mind, however. “Do you think these blues go together, or do they clash?” She held up two scraps of flowered fabric.
“Um, I don’t like them,” Claire said. “Why don’t you try the blue with the green?” She reached into Nell’s sewing basked and removed a length of material.
“I wonder if a year from now, we’ll be sitting here sewing and talking about men,” Nell said with a laugh.
“Me maybe, but not you. You’ll be married by then.”
“I’m not so sure. Wade’s never said anything, and I don’t know what I’d reply if he did.”
“Of course, you haven’t known him very long, but I’m sure he will.” Claire laughed as she glanced out of the window. “Maybe today. There he is now.”
“Don’t bet on it. I never knew of a man who proposed at the movies.” Nell set aside her sewing.
Wade knocked on the door just as Nell answered it. As he walked into the room, he took off his hat and glanced at the sewing baskets. “Such a nice scene of domesticity,” he said. “Am I early?”
“No, we were talking and forgot the time,” Nell said. She reached for her wrap.
Wade invited Claire to go with them, and Nell urged her roommate to say yes, but Claire demurred. “I have an engagement with Steve, although I think I would very much enjoy going out with the two of you.”
“Perhaps another time, then,” Wade said. He didn’t suggest that Steve join them, and Nell wondered if it was as obvious to Claire as to her that Wade didn’t like him.
They left just as Steve drove up too fast in his autocar. He slammed on the brakes, sending up a shower of dirt, then revved the motor. “I’m taking Claire for a spin,” he said. “Pity this thing has room for only two, or we’d all go together.”
“Pity,” Wade said.
“Where you going?” Steve asked.
Nell wanted to say it was none of his business, but instead, she replied, “To the pictures.”
“Then to dinner,” Wade added.
Nell and Wade walked to the corner and took a trolley to the movie palace. The feature was a comedy. Nell didn’t care for slapstick. When the film broke and the lights came on while the film was being repaired, she complained of a headache. The flickering of the picture had brought it on, and now the bright lights and the noisy theater made it worse. She asked Wade if she could go home. “I’m awfully sorry, but I’m wretched company tonight. I would like to take a headache powder.”
“We could stop at a drugstore on the way and find something to treat you,” he suggested. “Abby got headaches, and aspirin and soda water helped.”
Nell liked that he was so thoughtful, although she knew his wife’s remedy wouldn’t do her any good. “No, my grandmother makes up a compound with feverfew in it that works better than anything.”
“Then I shall take you home.”
He was solicitous as they got off the trolley and walked the block to Nell’s house. He held tight to her arm and talked in soft tones, almost whispering, because when they left the theater, she had held her hands over her ears to keep out the noise. He opened the door quietly and held it for Nell.
When they entered the front hall, Nell thought they were alone. Then she heard the sound of something falling and a loud cry. “Stop it. Get off me. You’ve no right.” Claire’s voice was high and out of control.
“You want this. You know you do. You girls always say no, but that’s not what you mean.”
“Stop it!” Claire shouted.
“You’re all alike. You let us spend our money on you, and then you won’t put out. What’s so special about you, anyway?” There was the sound of a slap.
Nell froze. For an instant, she could not move, as the horror of what had happened to her in the restaurant came back to her. “No,” she muttered. “Oh no, Wade. Stop him.”
She took a step forward, but Wade pushed her aside and rushed past her to the living room. He stood in the doorway a second, letting his eyes adjust to the dark room. Nell was behind him, and she looked past Wade’s shoulder. Claire thrashed about on the sofa, Steve on top of her, his hands pinning her shoulders to the back of the couch so that she couldn’t get up. “Stop it!” Nell yelled.
Steve heard them and turned and snarled, “Get the hell out of here. Mind your business.” His face was twisted with anger, and Nell saw in it the determination of the man who had attacked her. With a cry of fury, Nell took a step toward them, her fingers outstretched, her nails ready to tear into Steve’s back. But Wade held out his arm to stop her.
“This is my business,” Wade said. “Get out!” he told Steve. His voice was strong and steady. Nell had never seen him angry before.
“You get out. This is between me and her,” Steve shot back.
“I told you to leave.” Wade’s voice carried a sense of authority.
Steve released his hold on Claire. He turned to Wade and said, “All’s I wanted was a little kiss. You’re a pious son-of-a-bitch. You don’t have the nuts to do this yourself.”
Before Nell could think, Wade was at the sofa. He grabbed Steve by the arms and threw him onto the floor. Although it had been years since he’d worked as a hired man, Wade was strong. Steve was younger and fit, and Nell thought he would strike Wade. She looked around the room for something she could use to hit Steve and grasped an umbrella. Wade stood over Steve, his fists up, and said, “If you touch her again, I’ll kill you.”
Steve got to his feet and started to leave the room, but then he whirled around and struck Wade in the jaw. Wade lurched to one side, and Nell started forward with the umbrella. Before Nell could strike, however, Wade shook his head and punched Steve in the stomach and then in the chest, and finally in the head.
“You bastard!” Steve muttered as he fell to the floor.
Wade might have kicked him, but Wade was like the cowboys, Nell thought. They believed it wasn’t fair to strike a man when he was down. “Stand up,” Wade ordered.
“Aw, hell. Can’t a fellow have a little fun? All I wanted was a kiss,” Steve said, then scrambled to his feet and darted out of the room. “I didn’t mean nothing by it,” he added as he ran out of the house to his horseless carriage.
Nell rushed to Claire, whose clothes were mussed, and put her arms around her roommate. “I’m so sorry. It’s awful,” Nell murmured. “Go ahead and cry.” She held Claire, who began to sob. “It’s all right,” Nell muttered. “You’re safe.”
As she rocked Claire, she heard Wade in the front yard. “I know who you are,” he called in a measured voice. “You are never to contact Miss Claire again. If you eve
r so much as drive down this street, I’ll have the police on you. And don’t think I don’t know the chief of police himself.” Steve’s autocar started up. The engine roared. Then it grew softer and died away as the vehicle sped down the street.
Wade came back into the house. “You will not see him again.”
“Do you really know the chief of police?” Nell asked, looking up at him in admiration.
Wade smiled. “No, of course not, but he doesn’t know that.”
“Should we call the police?” Nell thought of her own ugly incident and how the police had arrested her attacker and thrown him into jail.
“I wouldn’t advise it. It would just be her word against his.”
Nell glanced at her roommate. Maybe Steve had indeed only intended to kiss Claire. That was what he would claim, anyway. And she hadn’t seen anything more than Claire pinned to the sofa, Steve’s face against her friend’s. Maybe after what had happened to her in Denver, Nell had suspected Steve of trying something more than he’d intended. Nell would never know for sure, and most likely Claire wouldn’t either.
“You would not want it to get into the newspapers. Miss Claire’s reputation would suffer, and she might lose her job,” Wade continued. Nell knew he was right. Even if the incident wasn’t Claire’s fault, she could get fired. The school board didn’t like scandal.
“If you hadn’t come…” Claire said.
“But we did,” Nell told her.
“He thought you wouldn’t be back this soon. We went for a drive. He had a flask and was drinking. When we got home…” Claire began to cry again.
“You’re safe,” Nell told her. She handed her roommate a glass of water that Wade had fetched.
“I never should have let him come inside when he was drunk. And I shouldn’t have accepted his presents. That seemed to make him think he had the right … It’s my fault—”
“It’s not your fault,” Wade broke in, and Nell wondered at his compassion, surprised that he should understand the guilt Claire felt. Maybe he remembered what Nell had told him about the attack in the café and how she had blamed herself.
“Wade’s right. You can’t blame yourself,” Nell repeated. “Steve Sorel is a wicked man. He got what he deserved.”
Wade left the room, and Nell heard him moving about the house, checking the doors and windows. When he returned, he said, “He will not be back. You don’t have to worry about him. Tomorrow, I’ll have my lawyer contact him. When my solicitor is finished, you will not have to worry about Steve ever again.” Wade reached for his hat, which had fallen onto the floor. “I’ll come by in a day or two to make sure you are all right.”
Nell walked him to the front door, saying, “I don’t know what she would have done if you hadn’t taken charge. I am so grateful.”
“I remember what you told me about the man who … came into your café,” he said. “I was so angry. It was as if I were rescuing you.” He took a deep breath, then kissed Nell on the cheek. He’d never done that before.
When Nell returned to the living room, Claire was standing up. “I have to take a bath. I feel so dirty,” she said. Nell understood, and she turned on the taps in the tub while her roommate undressed. Claire was in the bath a long time. Nell picked up the living room, then went into the bedroom and turned down the sheets. When Claire emerged from the bathroom, her face was bruised. “I will have to say I fell down the cellar stairs,” Claire said with a tiny laugh.
“If you can laugh, you’ll be all right,” Nell said. Then she told her roommate she would sleep on the couch.
“No!” Claire said. “I would feel so much safer if you were here.” So Nell undressed and got into the bed they shared and held her roommate until Claire went to sleep.
Late the next morning, a boy came to the door with a bouquet of red roses for Claire. The note with it was signed simply “Wade.”
* * *
Nell’s headache turned into a bad cold that forced her to stay home from work. She had agreed to go with Wade to Helen’s charity event the following Saturday night, but she telephoned him that morning to explain she was still too sick to attend.
“Would Miss Claire care to go in your place?” he asked. “It won’t be the same as having you there, but she might enjoy getting out. And I do need to escort someone.”
“It’s a wonderful idea,” Nell said, thinking the outing would take her friend’s mind off Steve’s attack.
Claire agreed, and put on the blue silk dress that Nell had worn to her first dinner with Wade.
“You look better in it than I did,” Nell told her.
Wade arrived with a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of ginger ale for Nell and a corsage of gardenias for Claire. As Nell pinned them on her roommate, Wade said, “I didn’t know what to bring, but these were a favorite of my…” His voice trailed off.
“They’re lovely,” Claire replied.
Nell was asleep when her roommate returned, but she woke up as Claire quietly undressed. “How was the evening?” she asked.
“It was fine. If he weren’t your beau, I’d go after him myself. He’s thoughtful and charming—and he wouldn’t stop talking about you. I think you are the luckiest girl in the world, Nell. I’m surprised he hasn’t proposed by now. He must be waiting for the right time.”
“You mean he didn’t talk about his wife?” Nell asked.
“Well…” Claire replied, and they both laughed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
On a fine Saturday morning in November, Wade knocked on the door of Nell’s house. He was dressed in a motoring cap and a duster, and a pair of goggles was perched on his head. Nell looked beyond him to a horseless carriage parked in the street. It had yellow spoke wheels and red trim.
“I’m thinking of buying it, so I’m taking it out for a test,” he said. “Want to come along?”
“Of course,” Nell said. She had never ridden in a motorcar.
“I’ve a pair of goggles for you, but you’ll need a coat and a hat. The car’s an Oldsmobile Curved Dash, and it goes very fast—up to twenty miles an hour. I want to take it out of the city before I make up my mind whether to buy it. I thought we could motor to Liberty and have dinner. I will get you home before evening. The Oldsmobile has lamps, but still, I don’t care to drive it after dark.”
Nell quickly put on a coat and tied a scarf over her hat so that it wouldn’t blow off. She’d seen hats flying down the street behind motorcars and didn’t want to lose hers. As she started for the door, she asked Claire, “Want to come?”
“Yes, please do. I think we can fit three on the seat, although it will be crowded,” Wade said.
Claire shook her head. “I have papers to grade. You go ahead and have a good time.” She walked outside with them to admire the motor.
“Don’t expect us until you see us,” Wade said as he helped Nell into the auto.
Despite the time of year, the sky was clear with no trace of clouds, and the air crisp. The leaves were turning, and Nell thought it was a glorious day to be riding to Liberty in a new autocar. She smiled at Wade as he climbed into the Oldsmobile beside her. “I’m so glad you invited me to come along.”
“I want your approval. I hope we will be riding in this horseless carriage for a long time. I’m told there are even a few women who drive them. Perhaps you will be one.” He smiled back at her.
“I wasn’t sure you would ever want a motorcar,” Nell said.
He thought a moment before he turned to her. “You mean because of Abigail and Margaret?”
Nell nodded.
“It took me a while to make up my mind. But then I realized that it wasn’t the car that killed them. It was the driver.” He started the engine, and saying “hang on!” he drove slowly along the street. Wade was a cautious driver, not at all like Steve, who had liked to start up quickly and speed away, drawing as much attention to himself as possible. Wade avoided busy streets, driving quietly through neighborhoods, so it took a long time before they were
on the Liberty road. He didn’t talk but instead concentrated on driving. Once they were out in the country, he relaxed.
“Have you driven before?” Nell asked, above the sound of the engine. She was holding on to her hat so that it wouldn’t blow off.
“Not alone. But the salesman showed me how. It’s not so hard.” He jerked the tiller to avoid a hole in the road, and the Oldsmobile swerved to the left. Nell slid over on the seat until she was next to him. “Well, I haven’t quite mastered it yet,” he said, laughing, as Nell righted herself.
She liked driving in the country, although at nearly twenty miles an hour, it seemed that they were going so fast she could scarcely see a building or an animal before it was behind them. The farms with their white houses and red barns reminded her of Harveyville. She missed that farm, but she would be there at Christmas. Perhaps she should take Claire with her, but she dismissed that idea. There were things she didn’t want Claire to know. Maybe she could invite Wade instead. Her grandparents would like that, but Wade might not think it proper. Perhaps later, if they were engaged. She was sitting closer to him now and wondered if he would put his arm around her. But he kept both hands on the tiller.
“The bank has made a loan on that place,” he said, nodding at a yellow farmhouse. “The people there reminded me of your grandparents when I worked for them. They are hardworking folks.”
“You handled the loan, then?” Nell asked.
“Yes, I’m making more and more loans on farms and ranches. That seems to be my specialty now. The collateral is good, but I’m betting on the people. I think I’m pretty good at sizing them up.” He glanced at Nell, and she wondered if he had sized her up, too.
“Does that mean you’d give me a loan if I had a farm?”
Wade laughed. “You’re a woman.”
“Oh, you noticed.”
“Of course I did. The first time I met you.”
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