Twin of Ice (23 page)

Houston called her mother first and interrupted Opal in a fit of crying. After Houston’d managed to calm her mother without giving her too much information, she persuaded Opal to help her call some of the members of The Sisterhood. The only suitable meeting place, where they were sure of not being overheard, seemed to be the upstairs of the teashop.

“At two o’clock, then,” Houston said as she hung up and began calling the others who were on the telephone system.

When the women finally met in Miss Emily’s parlor, they all looked askance toward Houston. She was sure they were dying to hear the truth of what had happened last night when everyone left Kane’s house. She walked to the front of the women who stood waiting.

“Last night, I found out some very important information,” she began. “Jacob Fenton knows about our going into the coal camps. I’m not sure exactly how much he knows, but I called this meeting to discuss it.”

“But the guards don’t know, do they?” Tia asked. “Is it only Fenton himself who knows? Has he told others? How did he find out?”

“I don’t know any of those answers. All I know is that he’s aware that we disguise ourselves and go into the camps…and he’s threatened to prosecute me.”

“You?” Blair gasped. “Why you, particularly? Why not all of the drivers?”

Houston looked at the floor. “It has to do with my husband and Mr. Fenton, but I don’t believe that I will be arrested.”

“I don’t think we can chance it,” Blair said. “You’ll have to stop driving.”

“Wait a minute!” Miss Emily said. “Fenton must have known about this for a long time. He didn’t just learn about it yesterday and come storming to your house to threaten you. Is that right, Houston?”

She nodded.

“It’s none of our business, of course, but am I safe in saying that a great deal happened at the Taggert house last night, and that it’s likely that Fenton’s declaration of his knowledge of you was only part of what happened?”

Again, Houston nodded.

“My guess is that Fenton has decided that what we do isn’t all that harmful, and so he allows us to go safely into the camps. If I’m correct, and I do know Jacob, he’s probably had a few laughs about the silly women dressing up and enjoying themselves. I say that we continue the visits. For myself, I feel better knowing that, in a way, we’re protected.”

“I don’t like it!” Meredith said.

“And how do you propose secrecy?” Sarah asked. “It doesn’t matter about Fenton, anyway. He overlooks half of what goes on at the camps. Remember last year when that union official was found beaten to death? The official verdict was ‘death by person or persons unknown’. Surely, Fenton knew who did it, but he keeps his hands clean. Do you think he’s going to prosecute the daughters of the leading citizens of Chandler? My father, after removing some of my hide, would go after Fenton with a shotgun.”

“If we’re an object of humor, and we’re protected by the mine owner himself, then what’s the use of all the secrecy?” Nina asked. “Why don’t we wear lace dresses and travel in pretty carriages and just distribute the goods?”

“And which miner will let his wife accept charity from the rich town women?” Miss Emily asked. “I think we should keep on with things just as they are. Houston, I want you to consider this very seriously: do you think Fenton’ll press charges against you or the other women?”

And risk exposing that he’d stolen everything from a three-day-old baby, Houston thought. “No,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll be arrested. I say that we proceed as always. The few men who know what we do have a vested interest in keeping our secrets. If that’s everything, I say we adjourn and go home.”

“Just a minute,” Blair said, standing. “Nina and I have something to say.”

Together, Blair and Nina told of an idea they’d been working on for weeks, of a ladies’ magazine that, in code, informed the miners of what was going on throughout America concerning the organization of unions. They showed sample articles and talked of distributing the magazine as a gift to the women in the coal mines.

The women of The Sisterhood were hesitant at first to agree. They’d already experienced fear when they’d learned of Fenton’s knowledge.

“Are we committed or not?” Miss Emily asked, and the women began discussing the new magazine.

Hours later, it was a quiet group who left Miss Emily’s parlor, each woman thinking about the possibility of arrest of either herself or one of her friends.

“Houston,” Blair said as the others left. “Could we talk?”

Houston nodded, but couldn’t bring herself to tell her sister what’d happened. Blair just might start blaming herself again, and Houston didn’t need more misery right now.

“You want to tell me what happened last night?” Blair asked when they were alone. “The gossip says that you left him. Is that true?”

“True enough,” she said, refusing to cry. “I’m staying with Pamela Younger, Jacob’s daughter.”

Blair looked at her sister for a long time but offered no advice nor any comment. “If you need me, I’m here to listen, but in the meantime you’ll need something to keep you busy. The first issue of Lady Chandler’s Magazine will have to be submitted to the Coal Board for approval and I want it to be as safe and innocuous as possible. I need articles on how to clean clothes, how to take care of your hair, how to dress like a duchess on a coal miner’s salary, that sort of thing. I think you’ll do a great job of writing them. Can you go with me now and we’ll buy you a typewriter? I’ll show you how to use it this afternoon.”

Houston hadn’t thought about how she’d spend her time when she didn’t have Kane to care for, but now she realized that, if she didn’t do some work, she’d sit at Pam’s and curse herself for being such a fool as to love a man like Kane Taggert. “Yes,” she said, “I’d like to be busy. I’ve had some ideas about how the miners’ wives could brighten up the cabins and how they could add a little beauty to their lives.”

Blair put Houston to work with so much to do that Houston didn’t have time to think about anything. As soon as Houston got one article completed, Blair had an idea for another one. Pam was so interested in Blair’s magazine that she converted her kitchen into a stain-removal center and tried to find a really effective way to clean velvet. The entire house reeked of ammonia by the end of the day, but Houston was able to report that “two tablespoons of ammonia and two of warm water rubbed well into the velvet with a stiff brush” did the job. Blair said she might make it the headline story. Pam smiled at this, but Houston knew her sister was being sarcastic.

The writing gave Houston a perfect excuse to stay inside and not face the townspeople. Pam left the house often, telling no one where she was going, and was able to keep Houston up to date on the gossip, reporting that Kane stayed alone in his big house with no servants and no friends.

“And no relatives. That should make him happy,” Houston said. “Now, he can work uninterrupted, with no interference.”

“Don’t be bitter, Houston,” Pam said. “Regretting what could have been makes a person miserable. I know. What do you think of including this dye recipe in the first issue? A pennyworth of logwood and a pennyworth of soapbark. I’ve renewed my black felt hat with it twice, and it worked quite well.”

“Yes, of course,” Houston said absently, as she scrubbed away the ink that filled the typewriter keys. Blair had told her that when Remington first issued the typewriter, the keys were constantly jamming together. When the owners looked into the matter, they found that the typists were too fast for the mechanics of the machine, so they decided to make the keyboard as difficult as possible to use. They placed the most frequently used keys all over the board so the typist would have to reach constantly, and thus she’d be slowed down. By chance, the top letters spelled QWERTY.

Two weeks after Houston left Kane, the railroad car that he’d had made for Opal arrived, causing a great stir in the town. With tears running down her face, Opal went to Houston and talked about what a wonderful man she’d left, and how could she do such a thing, and a woman wasn’t a woman without a baby and, with Houston not even having a husband, it was all too horrible to contemplate.

Houston managed to tell her mother that it was Kane who didn’t want her, not the other way around. It wasn’t quite the truth but, somehow, lies to one’s mother, to placate her, were acceptable.

Houston returned to her typewriter and tried not to think of what was past.

Opal Chandler Gates slowly made her way up Hachette Street toward the Taggert Mansion. She was supposed to be shopping downtown this morning, and Mr. Gates had never questioned why she was wearing her new fox-trimmed suit with the little matching fox hat, but then men rarely understood the importance of clothing. Today, she had to took her best, for today, she was going to beg Kane to take Houston back—if he’d indeed thrown her out as Houston’d intimated.

Houston could be so rigid, Opal thought. She was so much like her father in that. Bill would be friends with someone but, if that person broke his trust, Bill would never,
never
forgive him. Houston had a tendency to do that. Opal knew that after what Leander had done to Houston, he could disappear for all Houston cared.

And now, something had to be done about Kane. Opal was sure that Kane had done something dreadful, something clumsy and awkward and stupid. But then, that was one of Kane’s most appealing characteristics: he was as rough as Houston was polished. They were perfectly suited, and Opal meant to see them together again.

At the big front door of the house, she knocked but there was no answer, so she opened it and went inside. The hall echoed with emptiness and the lonely feeling of an unoccupied house.

Opal ran her finger along a table in the hall. It was amazing how much dust could collect in two short weeks.

She called Kane’s name, but there was no answer. She’d only been in the house once before and didn’t know her way around very well. It took quite a while to walk through both the downstairs and the upstairs. While she was upstairs, in Kane’s bedroom, she looked out at the gardens and saw him walking across the lawn.

She practically ran down the stairs and across the grass that badly needed mowing. Following a twisting path downward, she found him at the bottom, standing near a tree, smoking one of his lovely, fragrant cigars, and staring into space.

He turned to look at her as she approached. “And what brings you here this mornin’?” he asked cautiously.

Opal took a deep breath. “I hear you got angry and tossed my daughter out of your house.”

“Like hell I did! She walked out on me! Said somethin’ about she didn’t respect me.”

Opal sat down on a stone bench under the tree. “I was afraid of that. Houston’s just like her father was. Would you tell me what happened? Houston won’t tell me a word. That’s also just like her father.”

Kane was silent as he looked back into the garden.

“I know it’s private, and if it has anything to do with…well, the bedroom, I know Houston is probably a little frightened, but I’m sure that if you’re patient—.”

“Frightened! Houston? You’re talkin’ about the woman that married me? She ain’t afraid of nothin’ in bed.”

Opal fidgeted with her gloves, her face red. “Well, then, perhaps it was something else.” She waited. “If you’re worried about secrecy, I assure you—.”

“Ain’t nothin’ much secret in this town. Look, maybe you can understand what made her so mad, I can’t. You know I used to work in Fenton’s stables? Well, all the time I worked there I was never allowed upstairs in his house, and I always used to wonder what it’d be like to be master of a big house like that. And later, when I wanted to marry Fenton’s daughter, he said I wasn’t good enough for her. So I left and started makin’ money, yet in the back of my mind was this dream that someday I’d have him to dinner at my house, which was bigger than his, and I’d have a lady-wife sittin’ at the end of the table.”

It took Opal a few moments to realize that this was the end of his story and she was going to have to piece together the rest of it. “My goodness,” she said after a moment. “Do you mean that you built this enormous house and married my daughter to fulfill your dream?”

There was no answer from Kane.

Opal smiled. “Well, no wonder Houston left when she found out. She must have felt quite used.”

“Used! She was damn well usin’ me, too. She married me for my money.”

Opal looked at him seriously, all smiles gone. “Did she? Do you have any idea how hard Mr. Gates worked to keep her from marrying you? In fact, many people advised her not to marry you. But she did. And as for money, neither she nor Blair have to worry about money. They aren’t rich, but they have enough to buy all the dresses they need.”

“Considerin’ Houston’s dress buyin’, that’s a fortune,” he mumbled.

“Do you think Houston wants more, the kind of riches only you can give her?” Opal continued. “Does she strike you as greedy?”

Kane sat down on the bench.

Opal put her arm about his big shoulders. “You miss her, don’t you?”

“I’ve only known her a few months, but I guess I…got used to her. Sometimes I wanted to strangle her because she was always makin’ me do things I didn’t wanta do, but now…Now, I miss steppin’ on her hairpins. I miss havin’ her interrupt me and Edan. I miss Edan. I miss baseball with Ian and my son. I miss—.” He stood, his face angry. “Damn her! I wish I’d never met her. I was a happy man before I met her and I will be again. You go tell her I wouldn’t have her back if she came crawlin’.”

Kane started up the path toward the house, Opal hot on his heels.

“Kane, please, I’m an old lady,” she called after him, trying to keep up.

“Ain’t nothin’ old about a lady, he shouted over his shoulder. “I shoulda stayed with prostitutes,” he mumbled. “They only want money.”

Opal only caught up with him when he was inside his office, papers in his hand. “You have to get her back.”

“Like hell I do. I don’t
want
her back.”

Opal sat down, fanning herself, out of breath. Surreptitiously, she adjusted her new health corset that was boned with thin blades of steel. “If you had no hope of getting her back, you’d be on a train to somewhere else.”