PluckingthePearl (23 page)

“Get on your knees so I can fuck you.”

A fire of her own raced through every limb at Caleb’s words.
Of all the positions she’d tried, being taken from behind was the best of all.
Remembering the night he’d fucked her in front of the oven sent sizzling juices
streaming from her pussy.

As Pearl’s bare knees pressed into the wool of his
outstretched coat, Caleb’s sheathed, poker-hot cock teased her opening. Her
clitoris throbbed as she rubbed it against the swollen head.

“Take me now,” she begged.
Take me for the last time.

But instead of filling her as she so desperately needed, he
brushed one of the dangling garters across her bare ass cheek. She shuddered
from the light, unexpected sensation.

“The last time we were in this room, you were saving
yourself for marriage,” he pointed out. “Little did we know you were saving
yourself for me. For this.”

Before she could answer, he slid all the way inside her. Her
fingers dug into the coats as she struggled to adjust to his deepness. The
scent of her juices filled the air, hiding the smoke.

The Klan and the hostile outside world ceased to exist. For
these short, beautiful moments, this was their room, their sanctuary, and no
one could take it away.

“My woman. My wife,” he chanted as he slid in and out of
her.

Don’t say that! I can’t ever be your wife now.

This would be the last time she made love, she realized. She
would never let another man touch her for the rest of her life.

“After I rebuild, we’re marrying,” he continued. “No one
will stop us.”

His hands reached inside her bra as he drove into her. The
extra sensation of his fingers on her tender nipples sent her hurtling toward
the edge. She gasped for breath as her belly tightened.

“Scream, honey,” he said in her ear. “Scream for everything
we lost, everything we’ll get back.”

Coaxing her toward climax, he pulled almost all the way out
and brushed his finger across her clitoris. Then he pushed all the way in,
still stroking her. The flame erupted inside her, consuming her on the second
stroke.

“Caleb!” she screamed.

He hammered her with short, hard strokes as he reached his
own fulfillment. They both collapsed on the table, tangled in the coats. He
flipped her over and stared into her eyes. The pale blue depths burned
themselves into her soul where she’d never forget them.

“I love you, Pearl,” he said.

Weak from their explosive lovemaking, she couldn’t hold back
the tears.

He touched them and frowned. “Why are you crying, honey?”

She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Because…because I
love you so much.”

There was no need to spoil this special moment by telling
him her plans now. He’d find out soon enough.

* * * * *

The next morning, Pearl went to the plant, which had
reopened. Caleb had a team of builders in place and a partial workforce of
shuckers, including her family. Not wanting Caleb to know why she was there,
she rushed to Aunt Wilma’s side and urged her to come outside.

Weak sunlight did little to warm the air. Pearl shivered,
realizing the cold weather wouldn’t make her trip any easier. The breeze blew
tendrils of gray hair around Wilma’s face. To her surprise, the older woman
hugged her.

“I can’t believe what’s happened,” Wilma said. “Thank
goodness you’re all right.”

“We’re sure the Klan did this,” Pearl replied, looking at
the charred marks on the white clapboard siding. “They didn’t like the fact
Caleb didn’t join and they don’t approve of his involvement with me.”

The older woman shook her finger. “Didn’t I tell you getting
involved with white folks would be nothin’ but trouble?”

Pearl nodded, wishing her lips wouldn’t tremble. “He wants
to marry me but he’s already lost too much. That’s why I’ve decided to leave
him.”

“Move back into the cottage,” her aunt said. “They’s extra
room now with Sadie gone.”

“No.” Pearl shook her head. “He’ll find me there.”

“Then where?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Pearl said, “and don’t you dare say
anything to him.”

“All right but that man loves you. He’ll surely come aroun’
asking questions.”

“Don’t tell him anything. Remember all that money I gave
you? I need some of it back. Can you bring it tomorrow?”

Wilma reached inside her bodice. “I’ve got it right here.
With all the stuff burnin’ lately, I don’t leave nothing valuable at home
anymore. How much do you need?”

“Whatever you can spare after Charlie’s…expenses.”

Wilma pointed to her left hand. “That ring is worth
something.”

Pearl looked at the pearl on her finger. It had become such
a natural part of her she’d forgotten about it.

“If I try to sell this, people will assume I stole it.”

She would tie it around her neck so no one would see it. It
would give her something to remember Caleb by.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come home?” Wilma asked
after handing Pearl the money and stowing her envelope again. “Charlie won’t
last much longer and Leroy’s itching to move out and start his own family. They
ain’t gonna be anybody left.”

The fact that Wilma had once kicked her out hung between
them.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” Pearl asked. “You’ve
hated me since the day I arrived on your doorstep.”

Wilma sighed, her lined face filled with regret. “When I
looked at your pretty face, I saw everything I’d wanted in life and never had.
Can you forgive a bitter old woman?”

Pearl hugged her. “Of course, Aunt Wilma.”

“Take care of yourself, child, ‘specially with the Klan
around.”

To Pearl’s surprise, the older woman’s eyes were luminous
with tears when the hug ended.

“I will,” she replied, “and thank you for the money.”

Wilma paused and turned as she headed to the plant’s front
door. “They’s a women’s college down in St. Mary’s County. Colored folk work in
the dining hall and kitchen. Maybe cleanin’ too.”

As Pearl walked back to Caleb’s house, she patted the
envelope tucked in her dress pocket. Now that she had the money, there was
nothing keeping her here.

By nightfall she’d be out of Caleb’s life forever.

* * * * *

Late that night, fear clawed at Caleb’s gut as he steered
his boat down Crab Creek. It was low tide and he could hardly see where he was
going but he couldn’t wait a moment longer.

The last thing he’d expected to find when he came home late
from his most exhausting day of work ever was an empty house. There was no note
or sign of a struggle. It was as if Pearl had vanished. Screaming her name in
every single room hadn’t made her appear either. With two devastating losses in
one week, it was a wonder he could even steer this boat.

He’d gone to Henry’s place first, tempted to throttle him
again, but his brother swore he didn’t know where Pearl was.

What if the Klan had kidnapped her or worse?

But Henry assured him he would have heard about it if they
had. Pearl must have needed some time to herself. Caleb couldn’t blame her
after all that had happened. Hell, he’d cried in her lap like a little boy. But
why didn’t she just tell him where she was so he wouldn’t worry?

He’d seen her talking to her aunt earlier so she must be
staying with her. All he had to do was bring her home where she belonged.

After tying up his boat at the Johnson place, he carried his
lantern and pounded on the door. Minutes later, a sleepy-looking Wilma
answered.

“Get Pearl,” he asked. “I’m taking her home.”

A guarded expression appeared in the woman’s dark eyes. “She
ain’t here.”

“What do you mean she isn’t here? Where the hell is she?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

Caleb felt like throttling her too. Why didn’t anyone have
any answers? He held the lantern up to her face, as if the light might force
the truth out of her.

“That’s not an acceptable answer,” he said slowly. “I saw
the two of you talking at the plant today.”

The woman’s lower lip trembled. “She told me she was leavin’
you because she didn’t want to bring no more trouble on you.”

He cursed under his breath. “Where did she plan to go?”

Wilma shrugged. “She didn’t know herself. She said she just
had to leave.”

Caleb’s blood rushed through his ears so hard he could
hardly hear his own voice. “Did you suggest someplace for her to go? A job,
maybe, or more family?”

“The only f-family she got left is right here.”

“Do you think she might have gone back to Annapolis?”

The woman just shrugged again.

“You’d better not be holding anything back.” He leaned close
until his nose nearly touched hers. “Pearl is alone out there in the night with
the Klan at large. She could be dying in some ditch as we speak. I can’t help
her if I can’t find her.”

The older woman’s hand clutched the collar of her bathrobe.
“I-I told her there’s a college in St. Mary’s County but she may not go. If
they ain’t no jobs there, she’ll move on.”

Caleb nodded, satisfied. “That gives me a place to start,
anyway. If you hear anything, send word to my brother at the plant.”

“I will,” Wilma promised.

Now he realized why Pearl had cried after they made love in
the shucking room. Her mind must have already been made up then. When his plant
had burned, he thought he’d lost everything. Now he knew how loss really felt.

He had to find her.

Caleb woke up cursing at dawn the next morning. Every muscle
in his body had a cramp in it from sleeping in his cold, hard car at an angle.
A light layer of frost covered the windshield. He’d run off the road in the
dark last night and busted his tire. The rough roads in this county were even
more primitive than the ones where he’d come from.

If he’d been sensible, he would have waited until morning to
come down here. When it came to Pearl, he felt anything but sensible. Her loss
was a gaping chasm in his body and soul.

By the time he got the tire fixed, who knew where she would
be. He’d comb this entire county if he had to. If she really wanted to end
things with him, she’d have to tell him to his face.

His spare tire was flat too and he had nothing to patch it
with. He wrestled off the wheel with the bad tire and walked with it back to
the service station and general store he remembered passing the night before.
It would take some time to fix, the men told him, so they recommended he relax and
have some breakfast.

Caleb was anything but relaxed and he had no appetite.
Instead, he walked. The land looked wilder here. Civilization was spottier. It
had been years since he’d come down here since he never liked to leave the
plant for long.

When he noticed the remains of an old building near the
marsh, he walked through frost-coated weeds to take a look at it. For all he
knew, Pearl could be hiding here. His breath quickened as he wondered if
finding her could be that easy. Maybe his tire had busted for a reason.

“Hello!” he called out once he’d pushed past the lopsided
door.

A mouse squeaked from the corner but no one answered. He
should have known finding her wouldn’t be this simple. The cold made him shiver
inside his coat. Wherever Pearl was, he hoped she was someplace warm.

As his gaze traveled across the broken concrete floor and
wooden walls with gaps in them, he realized this was a bigger version of the
shack on his island. Visions of making love to Pearl while the rain streamed
down tugged at his mind until he forced them away.

He ducked into a smaller room where he saw some rusted
equipment. On the back side near the water, he found boat anchors, oyster tongs
and even a winch. This place must have been a seafood plant.

Excitement percolated in his veins, chasing away the chill.
Why had this plant failed? The more he looked, the more he saw what it could
be, not what it was now. Had his daddy felt this way when he’d started the
business? Running Rockfield’s for so many years had been satisfying and
interesting but Caleb had never been this excited before.

After exploring everything in detail, he walked back to the
station to see about his tire.

“Did that used to be a seafood plant down there?” he asked
the old colored man sitting in a rocking chair near the stove inside.

“Yes, indeed, sir. Crabs and oysters.”

Caleb thrust his hands into his coat pockets. “Well, what
happened to it?”

“Owner died some years back.” He looked down at his gnarled
hands. “Used to work there myself before the rheumatism got me.”

“Is there any trouble here with the Klan?”

The old man looked at him warily from underneath the brim of
his faded cap. “No, sir. No trouble like that here.”

Further conversation revealed this was a peaceful and
primarily colored community.

“What about the government?” Caleb asked next.

“Most of that’s up in Leonardtown. Say, you sure ask a lot
of questions.”

“I just have one more. Who would I see about buying that
place?”

After the man gave him the information he needed, Caleb
picked up his repaired tire. He even sang a tune as he put the wheel back on
the car. The future was clear to him now. He just had to find Pearl so she
could be part of it.

* * * * *

Pearl sat up in the narrow bed she’d slept in, reaching for
Caleb’s familiar warmth. This wasn’t Caleb’s bed, she reminded herself. She’d
left him. Her hand reached for the ring she’d tied on a string around her neck.
She squeezed it hard until the worst of the sadness passed and her eyes stopped
burning.

As she looked around the small room, she didn’t recollect
where she was and how she’d gotten there. It came back to her bit by bit as the
morning sun poured through the small window.

She was in a spare room at the women’s college. Getting here
had been easy enough. She’d hitched a ride with a farmer and had walked the
short distance from the main road to this dormitory where the students lived
and ate.

A matronly colored lady named Berta Smith had told her there
were no jobs available but had taken pity on her and let her spend the night
out of the cold. After dressing, washing up and forcing herself to eat some
oatmeal with the other dining room workers, Pearl went back to Berta’s office.

“Did you think of anything else overnight?” Pearl asked.

The kindly woman smiled sympathetically. “I’m afraid not,
dear. Our positions are filled until the next term at least.”

“When does the next term start?” Pearl asked.

“January.”

January? That was months away. It might as well be forever.

“I’ll make some inquiries,” Berta told her. “Maybe I’ll hear
of a housekeeping position. Check back in a few days.”

Pearl nodded and stood up. “Thank you for your help.”

The other woman stood too. “You seem like a refined young
lady. Wherever it is you came from, can’t you go back?”

Pearl shook her head.

“Are you in some sort of trouble?”

Pearl was sure the woman wouldn’t look at her so kindly if
she told her the truth—that she’d been fucking a white man she wasn’t married
to for months and had stirred up the Klan.

“No. My mother just passed away.”

In fact, this woman reminded her of her mother more than
anyone she’d met since. How ironic that she hadn’t thought about her as much
lately.

The woman patted her shoulder. “Oh, I’m sorry. Please do
check back. You might also try Point Lookout due south of here.”

“Thank you,” Pearl replied.

She put on her hat, hefted her suitcase, wishing it weren’t
so heavy, and started walking. If she didn’t get a ride soon, she would have to
throw out some dresses to lighten the weight. At least she’d wisely chosen to
wear the expensive dress Caleb had given her. It made a good impression and
kept her warm on this chilly morning. Unfortunately it also reminded her of
him.

It was a shame there were no jobs here, she thought as she
looked at the stately dormitory with its wide front porch, white columns and
grassy lawn surrounded by water. She could be safe and happy here.

The air was chilly but at least the weather was good. She
bit her lip as she headed toward the main road, wondering where she’d end up.
This was even harder than moving in with the Johnsons after leaving Annapolis.
At least they were family and had gotten her a home and a job.

Now she had nothing. She turned around and looked north,
tempted go back to Caleb. No! Despite how alone and scared she felt, Oyster
Island was not safe anymore for either of them. She would find a new life for
herself and the pain would eventually subside. Until then, she’d concentrate on
getting through each day.

When she heard a car park at the residence hall behind her,
she turned around. A dozen emotions burst to life when she saw Caleb get out of
the car. Damn! Aunt Wilma must have told him about the college.

Run! Run before he sees you!
But her feet refused to
move. She couldn’t stop staring at him. His face was so serious and sad. Anyone
looking at him would suspect he’d lost everything.

Pearl stood still, camouflaged by the dappled morning sun
filtering through the trees she stood among. Her heart fluttered wildly in her
chest as the urges to both run toward Caleb and away from him battled inside
her body.

He looked in her direction with studied concentration as if
claiming his surroundings. A hunter looking for a deer. Despite his losses, he
still exuded the power that had attracted her to him.

She studied his eyes, noticing the exact moment he
recognized her. He ran toward her. His hat fell off but he didn’t even bother
to pick it up. The next thing she knew, a pair of hard arms were around her,
lifting her off her feet. Before she could react, his mouth covered hers,
nipping and claiming.

“Why, Pearl? Why did you leave?”

He pinned her against the tree she stood in front of,
gripping both sides of her face.

“You shouldn’t have come looking for me,” she told him.
“This is the best thing for both of us.”

“Haven’t I already lost enough?” The rawness of his voice
tugged something deep inside her. Had he cried again? Or screamed?

“Yes.” She swallowed hard against her shallow, rapid
breaths. “That’s why I left.”

“Did you get a job here?” he asked.

She raised her chin as much as his tight grip would allow.
“No, but I’ll find one.”

“Do you have any idea what you did to me?” he asked, a mere
inch from her face. “I yelled your name in every room of that house, wondering
where you’d gone and why.”

All the pain she’d put him through was plain to see in his
pale eyes. She closed her own eyes, unable to look at it any longer. Had she
really done the right thing? Now she wasn’t so sure.

“Then why make this harder?” she finally asked. “I refuse to
live in Oyster Island with you and watch everything you built turn to dust.”

He breathed hard. “I thought you loved me.”

Sadness filled her chest until it ached. “I do love you.
Don’t you see? That’s why I’m doing this.”

“It must have taken enormous willpower to do what you’ve
done. Your strength is something I’ve always admired,” he admitted, “but it can
be damned inconvenient at times.”

“You’re better off without me,” she insisted.

“Let me be the judge of that,” he said. “Do you remember how
I did the same to you on the island, pushing you away for your own good so
you’d marry Jimmy?”

A faint smile pulled at her lips. “I’d forgotten.”

He smiled back. “Well, I haven’t. You made it plain you
wanted to make your own decisions. So do I, damn it.”

She pushed against his chest. “I can’t go back there and
look over my shoulder all the time, wondering if they’ll kill us.”

Caleb loosened his grip and his eyes suddenly looked
peaceful and very blue. “Who said we have to go back?”

She frowned. “What are you talking about? Oyster Island is
your home.”

“It’s true I’ve lived there all my life but it stopped being
home when you left.”

“Miss Wilson, is everything all right?” Berta walked toward
them, her brow lined with concern.

Caleb let go of Pearl and stood back. “Ma’am.”

Pearl’s face burned with embarrassment as she wondered what
went through Berta’s mind when she saw her pinned against a tree by a white
man.

“I’m glad you’re still here,” she told Pearl. “I just got a
call from a lady whose mother has had a fall. She’ll need a caretaker for
several months and I thought of you.”

“That’s wonderful.” Pearl clasped her hands together. “Tell
her I’ll take it.”

Caleb looked at her with sad eyes. “Please don’t.”

Berta fiddled with her hands, looking uncomfortable. “What
should I tell her?”

“Pearl, there’s something I need to show you,” Caleb told
her. “If you still want to take this job afterward, I won’t interfere.”

Pearl looked from one person to the other. Confusion tied
her in so many knots she didn’t know what to do.

“Please,” Caleb said, squeezing her hand as he turned toward
Berta. “Ma’am, can you hold that job until the end of the day?”

“I suppose I could, sir.”

A waiter emerged from the dorm, calling Berta away and
leaving Pearl and Caleb alone again. He tugged on her hand.

“Come on. Let’s get in the car.”

Her legs barely worked after standing frozen in front of
that tree for so long. “You’re just going to take me back to Oyster Island.”

A mysterious smile flashed beneath his moustache. “No, I’m
not.”

“Then where?”

“You’ll see,” he replied.

As he opened the car door for her, he looked serious. “I
mean it, Pearl. If you still want to go your own way after this, I won’t stop
you.”

While he retrieved his dropped hat, she finally got into the
car, realizing she was already losing the battle against Caleb. Breathing his
scent and hearing his familiar waterman’s accent spoke to something primitive
and deep inside her. He’d become part of her.

Pearl hoped whatever he had to show her would be over with
before she completely succumbed to his charms. A job and a new life were
waiting for her and she had to take them for both their sakes.

* * * * *

Caleb’s hands shook so hard he could barely hold the
steering wheel. Pearl was back in his car and hopefully his life. Part of him
did want to take her back to Oyster Island and lock her up in his house.

He noticed his ring was gone. Maybe she’d sold it for money.
She’d never really accepted it anyway. She’d turned down every commitment he’d
tried to make to her, including marriage.

His chest felt tight as he wondered how she’d react to the
ruins of the seafood plant. She’d probably tell him he was crazy and ask him to
drive her back to the college so she could take that job.

He had to at least try. At least he’d get to say goodbye to
her on his own terms. Maybe he’d even spread her beautiful legs on the front
seat of his car and take her one last time.

The ruins were so out of the way he almost missed them. When
he helped Pearl out of the car, she looked around.

“What did you want to show me?”

He pointed at the ruins. “That.”

She squinted in the sun. “That? It’s a shambles. What is
it?”