Firefly (43 page)

Julie stood at the top of the stairs and raised a finger to her lips when Wilhelm looked her way.

"Ssshhh.  Mama is asleep."

"Then wake her," Wilhelm barked.  "Tell her to come down here now."

Julie felt her face pale.  Something was up, something she knew she should be prepared for and yet wasn't.  Though a few minutes ago she had been confident of the future she was going to make for herself, a tiny niggling doubt had remained.  She could not count her single chicken before it was hatched and peeping in her hand.

"Yes, Papa."

"And be quick about it."

"I'll tell Mama to hurry."

Katharine, of course, did not hurry.

"Oh, Julie, please, let me sleep longer," she begged first.  "My head hurts so bad."

"Papa insists.  Please, Mama, I don't want him angry again like he was last night.  And Hans is here, too.  It would be embarrassing if there was another scene."

And so Katharine managed to drag herself out of the bed with a profusion of groans and moans and long, weary, overly dramatic sighs.  She refused, however, to go downstairs until her hair was combed and pinned into a neat chignon--and it had to be done three times before it suited her--and she changed her choice of dress twice before she settled on the peach muslin.  In the midst of all this primping, Julie suddenly realized she still wore the shabbiest of her clothes and that the faded brown gingham was now speckled with food and soap stains.  Her hair hadn't been properly combed since last night, and she felt sticky all over with sweat.

She laughed, thinking that she had actually gone to find Morgan and declare him her heart's desire looking like this.

"Is something wrong, dear?" Katharine queried, giving her daughter a strange look.

"No, Mama.  I'm just tired, that's all."

"Well, so am I.  Let's go downstairs and see what it is your father wants now and then I simply must get back to sleep.  I can hardly hold my eyes open as it is."

She yawned delicately to punctuate that claim, then rose from her chair and headed for the landing.

Julie followed her and didn't bother even to smooth her hair back from her face.  She didn't care what she looked like and almost wished she had her spectacles back.

Hans got clumsily to his feet from the sofa when Katharine entered the parlor, but he was seated already when Julie walked in just a moment later.  He slouched forward on the center cushion of the sofa, leaving her to take a place on one side of him or the other, unless she wished to stand.  As little as she liked the thought of being so close to him, her legs demanded that she sit.  The sofa enfolded her; she could not avoid leaning back and actually relaxing for the first time all day.  If Wilhelm had not immediately begun his spiel, she probably would have fallen very quickly asleep.

"Hans and I have reached an agreement," he said with no preamble.  "You will marry him next Sunday."

"What?"

With total disregard for grace, propriety, or even decent manners, Julie struggled to a more upright position while her father went on.

"I find it necessary for the sake of the family that something be done about your conduct."

"My conduct?  But, Papa, what have I done?"

She glanced at her mother, fully expecting Katharine to swoon, but Katharine merely wiped the back of her hand across her brow and yawned again.

"I saw you last night with him," Hans blurted out.  "You were in your... your nightdress."

"It was an emergency!  Mama needed the doctor and she told me to go without taking time to dress.  What else was I to do?"

As though her explanation were so worthless that it need not even be argued, Hans went off on a different tack.

"People are talking about you.  They say you go to his house early in the morning."

She blushed, for she had not thought anyone knew of the two times she had indeed wakened Morgan, but even that did not quell her indignation.  She was innocent of any wrong-doing and would not let them make her guilty.

"He was needed to tend to other patients and it was--it is--my job to find him." She wished there were some way to get away from Hans, for arguing at this close range was very uncomfortable.  But she did not want to stand and have all their accusing eyes on her.  And it would be too easy then to flee.  For the moment, she must bear the burden and wait.  Later she would have somewhere to run to.

"Nevertheless," Wilhelm resumed, "people are talking.  I will not have it, Julie, not again.  So I have decided.  The wedding will be next Sunday."

"But what about Mama?  She's not well enough to take care of the household alone."

As if to underscore that statement, Katharine sighed and pressed her fingertips to her temples.

"Please, Wilhelm, I must go back to bed," she whined.  "Let us hurry this up."

"You see!" her husband verbally pounced.  "That doctor's treatment has worked no better than any other."

"But, Papa, she has been getting better."

"Oh, yes, for a day or two, and then she goes right back to being as sick as ever.  She is never going to recover, and there is no sense waiting for a miracle.  I will have to engage a nurse to take care of her."

Julie glanced at her mother then and noted a slight frown pucker Katharine's brow.

"And where do you think you will find a nurse out here?"

"There is that Tucker woman, the widow with the young boys.  I think she would be grateful for a small salary."

Wilhelm's attention to details served to discourage Julie slightly, but only for a moment.  She knew Liza Tucker.

"And what if Mrs. Tucker finds herself another husband?  There aren't many single women around Plato, Papa, and a lot of single men."  Not very many, but at least one or two.

"Then let it be my worry.  You always complain of the work anyway.  You act as though your mother's care is too much a burden on you, though it is all your own fault.  Even last night was your fault."

Last night.  She wondered again just exactly what had happened between her parents.  Whatever it was, it had caused a total relapse on Katharine's part, and Julie doubted now more than ever that her mother's health problems were real.  But now was not the time to contemplate that question.  More pressing matters were at hand.

Wilhelm did not let her reply to this latest accusation anyway.  He continued with cold calm:

"Hans and I have compromised on the matter of your dowry.  I have said that I must be compensated for the loss of your services tending your mother, but he insists your reputation is now such that he needs additional payment to make you his wife.  I tell you this only so you will be aware of the generosity we are both showing you."

"Generosity?  You call bargaining over me generosity?"

Katharine forestalled Wilhelm's next argument.

"Sit down, Julie.  Your shouting makes my head ache even more," she begged.  Something hard and insistent, not weak and whining, in that plea made Julie obey.

"It is settled.  You will be married next Sunday, as Hans and I have agreed.  You will spend this week preparing to become his wife.  There will be no more working for the doctor.  I will so inform him as soon as we finish here."

"No!"
Julie screamed.

Her single cry echoed and re-echoed, then all was silent for a moment.

"Do you dare defy me?" Wilhelm whispered.  "Your insolence deserves a beating."

He had hit her before in fits of anger, but he had never actually beaten her.  Yet Julie was not certain he would refrain this time, with Hans there to help him.  She was outnumbered and forced herself to accept.  There was always tomorrow.

She took several deep breaths, conscious that both Hans and her father stared malevolently at her.  She felt a strange prickling along her spine.

"I want to tell him myself," she said calmly.

Now it was Hans' turn to shout.

"No!  I don't want you going near him again.  I swore to him I would kill him if he touched you again."

"You did what?"

His blue eyes became pleading, but the desperation in them frightened Julie.  His hands grabbed for hers and she reacted too slowly to prevent his clasping them tightly.

"I have wanted you for so long, Julie.  You know that.  When I saw you with him last night, I swore I would kill him.  And I meant it.  You are promised to me, and I will hold you to that promise."

She recovered from this shock and pulled her hands free.  They felt bruised and sore--and dirtied.

Gathering all her faltering courage, Julie had a threat of her own to make, for she knew begging would accomplish nothing.  Her father and Hans would take advantage of any weakness she displayed.  Only if she responded with strength would she get her way.

"And I swear to you, you will let me tell him myself or I will never marry you.  I would sooner die."

Chapter Twenty-five

Julie bathed in the cool of pre-dawn.  She had slept some, but very little, and the bath served to refresh and waken her as well as cleanse.  She wrapped her hair in a towel and dried her body quickly, knowing it would be less than half an hour before Wilhelm wakened.  She had slipped out of the house twice during the night to check for Morgan, but by one o'clock in the morning he had not returned.  She had gone home to bed then, for she had to be at the clinic as early as possible to speak to him.

She slipped her arms into the sleeves of Katharine's robe and then walked out onto the back porch to brush her hair dry.  The humidity that had followed Saturday's storm had disappeared; the dry heat of the desert returned with a vengeance on this last day of July.  Julie smiled to herself.  Today was her birthday, and she intended to give herself a gift.

She finished with her hair and began to braid it as she usually did, but then she decided to leave it loose.  Ted had liked it that way, and maybe Del Morgan would, too.  It was longer now than nine years ago, and the soft straight strands fell almost to her knees.  She could not remember the last time she had cut it, for she always wore it carefully plaited and coiled.  Surely, though, she hadn't cut it since...since Ted admired it.

The blue batiste blouse replaced the robe, the black buttons shiny even in the half-light of early morning.  Julie fastened the new skirt around her waist next, then sat down on the bench at the kitchen table to pull on her stockings and shoes.  She would have liked a mirror, but there was none here.

After checking the fire in the stove to be sure it wouldn't go out before she returned, Julie quietly opened the back door and stepped outside.  Though it was doubtful Morgan would be at the office this early, she had to see for herself.  He had been gone a good portion of the night and might have brought back a patient.  She dared not go to his house, but there was nothing to stop her checking for him at the office.  Nothing.

The house between Julie's and the clinic belonged to the schoolmaster and was vacant a good part of the summer.  Julie had no worries about being seen, therefore, when she cut across the back yards and walked up to the rear entrance to the clinic.  The pale glimmer of a lamp in the kitchen sent her heart to her throat.  Morgan was there.