A Collar and Tie (Ganymede Quartet Book 4) (5 page)

Russ had brought a plate for Jesse, and at Jesse’s direction
he ate from it, as well, and sipped from Jesse’s punch cup. Henry noted that
none of Jesse’s friends seemed to find this remarkable and wondered if he could
get away with doing it, too.

“Jesse tells us you sit down to eat with your slave,” Gene
noted. “He wants everyone to do it now.”

“Oh, I, uh…” Henry’s voice trailed off, embarrassed. He
didn’t know what to say. “It’s what my father does,” he offered lamely. “Not at
every meal, of course. Just when he’s alone, or when it’s only me. I don’t
think he does it when he’s meeting for business or anything.”

“But you could do a thing like that strategically,” Gene
said. “You could do it to show someone you felt especially close to them,
treating them like family,
or
you could do it to show that you didn’t
respect them.”

This certainly sounded like something Father would consider.
“I suppose he might do it like that,” Henry agreed.

“People would have to wonder which version they were
getting,” Joel said. “The friendly or the disrespectful. You might not always
be able to tell from context.” Vince reached around and took a cookie off of
Joel’s plate and Joel didn’t stop him.

Henry turned to Martin. “Do you want any of this? You can
eat it off my plate if you do.” He wanted Martin to do it; he
willed
Martin to do it.

“Thank you, Sir.” Martin took a cheese straw with a little
hitch in his breath.

Gene watched their exchange and said, “I see your slave—”

“Martin. He’s called Martin.”

“—yes, your Martin is from Ganymede, too.” He made a vague
gesture over his shoulder, back toward Warren. “There are a few other Ganymede
boys here somewhere if you wanted to let him go looking. They’re all a year
older than him, of course, but I imagine it’s still nice to see other faces
from home. Warren and Russ could show him around, don’t you think, Jesse?”

Jesse shook his head. “Henry’s not going to want Martin to
go wandering off,” he said firmly, and Henry was grateful for his cousin’s
intercession.

The other boys looked questioningly at Henry and he tried
not to care that he blushed as he said, “I like to keep him with me.”

“Well, sure,” Perry said. “You must have your reasons, of
course.” There was an empty moment, an expectant one, ready for Henry to fill
with an explanation, but he merely blushed a deeper crimson and kept silent.

Jesse broke the silence. “I’ve known all these fellows since
sixth year,” he said. “Gene didn’t like me at first—”

“I thought he was very peculiar,” Gene noted dryly.

“—but by seventh year he’d come around. I think Eli must
have convinced him I was all right.”

“I liked Jesse right away,” Joel said. “I have a taste for
strange things, though.”

“We became friends because we’re near each other in the
alphabet,” Perry said with a shrug. “There’s just that awful bore Barney Wilson
sitting between us at lunch.”

“Barney’s a good listener, though,” Jesse said.

“Convenient for you, isn’t it, Mr. Chatty?”

“Barney’s all right,” Jesse insisted. “He might come today,
so be nice if you see him.”

“Did you invite
everybody
?” Gene asked.

“Yes, of course,” Jesse said. “It’s my last birthday at
Lawton.”

“Oh,
of course
!” Gene rolled his eyes. “That makes
perfect
sense.”

“I’m just more sentimental than you,” Jesse said. “Barney
Wilson has been a part of my life, after all.”

The rest began listing off other boys that they clearly
hoped Jesse had not invited, and every time Jesse admitted that he had indeed
extended an invitation to one of these pariahs, their voices went up in a
chorus of vociferous dismay. Henry ate his food, offering the plate to Martin
from time to time and occasionally reaching for the punch cup that Martin held
for him.

“Do you want more punch, Sir? More food?”

“Yes, more punch, please,” Henry said. “Maybe food later.
I’m saving room for cake.”

Martin gave Henry’s arm a little squeeze and then turned to
head back to the buffet.

Joel said, “Jesse says you go to Algonquin. That’s a pretty
small school, isn’t it?”

Henry nodded. “There are only eighteen in my class. All the
classes are small like that.”

“You must all be pretty close, then.”

Henry didn’t know that he was actually that close with
anyone, but he wasn’t going to go into that. “I don’t get along with four of
the guys, but I’m friends with everyone else. I’ve actually known my best
friend Louis since we were 4, and he’s why I go to Algonquin in the first
place. His family has always gone there, and so when the time came for me to
start school, my father got me a place. I-I’m pretty shy, you see, so it was
good to have a friend already.”

Gene snorted. “I don’t know why someone like you would be
shy!”

“What do you mean by that?” Jesse drew himself up tall, his
voice icy and hostile. “What do you mean, ‘someone like you’?” The others were
glowering at Gene, too.

“His last name is
Blackwell
,” Gene explained. “He can
do whatever he likes with whoever he wants, don’t you think? I just wonder what
he has to feel shy about.” He turned to Henry and said, “I didn’t mean anything
by it. I’m just surprised. That was rude of me, and I’m sorry.”

“Th-that’s all right,” Henry said, feeling the heat rise up
from his shirt collar. He sensed Martin had returned and stood at his back, and
he turned to take the cup of punch and drink.

“Are you okay, Sir?” Martin’s voice was almost inaudible,
but his concern was apparent.

“I’m fine,” Henry murmured. “Just embarrassed.”

Joel said, “Well,
anyway
, I was curious about how
many were in your classes because our school is pretty big. There are about
fifty twelfth-year boys alone.”

Henry turned to Jesse, surprised. “And you invited
all
of them?”

“There are at least a dozen who would never even consider
showing up,” Jesse said blithely. “And even if they do, we have a lot of food,
so…” He shrugged. “It’s a party. There should be a lot of people, don’t you
think?” He put his hand on Henry’s arm. “Speaking of which, I should probably
circulate and say hello to my guests. Why don’t you stick with these fellows? I
promise they’ll be nice to you.”

“Reasonably nice,” Joel cut in.

“Tolerably nice.” Perry snickered.

“I’ll just try to avoid being rude again,” Gene said. “Eli
will keep me in line in your absence, Jesse.”

“I’ll be back,” Jesse said, and he pushed through the crowd
with Russ at his back.

“I can’t believe he invited everyone from our class,” Gene
said, shaking his head. “Not to mention, all these girls, and all the guys from
other schools, too. When the band starts up, there won’t be any room to dance.”

Eli said, “I imagine you’ve gotten the idea by now, Henry,
that Jesse sometimes does things to excess.”

“It
can
be fun…” Joel said.

“Or it can be exhausting,” Perry finished for him. “I think
this is going to be an exhausting day.”

Henry hadn’t always had the best luck at parties. There’d been
James’ party in September where he had gotten so drunk. Then there’d been the
Briggs Halloween party with the fortune teller and James threatening to rape
Martin. He’d actually been kicked out of Charles’ New Year’s party because he
wouldn’t swap. It was almost enough to make him want to avoid parties entirely.
However, the Christmas party Henry had attended here at the Wilton house had
been extremely successful—he’d gotten Reggie back out of it, after all, and he
could admit that he’d found Jesse’s exhibitionist behavior more intriguing than
upsetting. Even taking the surprise of Jesse’s voyeuristic game into
consideration, Henry also felt Reggie’s farewell party had been a happy
success. The slaves’ party for Billy and Jane had also been enjoyable. Maybe he
just needed to stick to family parties.

“So what do you like to do, Henry?” Gene asked. “Are you an
artist like Jesse?”

Henry felt his cheeks grow hot at the very idea. “Oh, no. I
don’t have any artistic talent. I can draw a stick man, but that’s about it.”
Wanting to deflect attention from his own likes and dislikes and habits, he
asked, “Has Jesse always been so good at drawing? You know we haven’t been
close until recently. I don’t know him nearly as well as any of you do.”

Eli and the rest of Jesse’s friends were extremely happy to
be able to fill Henry in on the last few years of Jesse’s life. He’d always
been good at drawing. He was better at school than either Perry or Eli, but did
less well than Gene or Joel. He wasn’t athletic, but he liked to dance—which
Henry thought fitting for a Wilton. Although Henry was quite sure Jesse’s
bohemian nature wouldn’t win favor amongst Algonquin boys, Jesse was quite
popular at Lawton and was considered good fun, which explained the crowded
house. He was always able to get contraband of some sort, and all the boys were
quite certain Jesse had alcohol secreted somewhere for later on in the party.

“Things are just more fun with Jesse,” Perry said with a
shrug. His tawny hair was streaked strawberry blond and he had pale freckles on
his cheekbones, just like Martin had. He wasn’t even handsome, but Henry
blushed to look at him anyway. He wondered what Perry might smell like up
close, what it would be like to kiss him, and was disturbed by how badly he
wanted to know.

He looked around seeking Martin, who stood nearby with the
other boys’ slaves. He was talking to Warren, their heads close together, a
smile on his beautiful face. He looked up and saw Henry watching him and his
smile broadened. Henry’s heart leapt in his chest. Martin was the one he
wanted. This attraction to Perry was some mistake of chemistry.

None of them made any mention of Jesse’s unusual closeness
with Russ, and Henry wondered if it just didn’t seem unusual to them. Maybe all
Lawton boys were demonstrative with their slaves, though he was seeing no
evidence of that now. Certainly, if people thought Jesse was queer, his house
wouldn’t be so full of friends. Jesse had apparently always been interested in
girls and had had numerous small romances. Before setting his sights on
Elizabeth, he’d been secretly courting a beautiful young vaudeville performer
who’d taken him at least half-seriously; he’d broken it off with her by
more-or-less mutual agreement when she’d found an older, wealthy patron and he’d
found true love.

Henry asked, “Have any of you seen the letters he writes to
Elizabeth? Or the ones she sends back?”

“He’s read excerpts,” Joel said.

“She’s got a very dirty mind,” Gene noted. “If I ever meet
her, I know I’m going to blush.”

“We’ll all meet her at the wedding,” Eli pointed out. “We’ll
all be blushing.”

“Assuming they don’t elope,” Perry said. “I really do want
to go to their wedding, though. Did you know? They have this idea of doing a
hand-tying ceremony like slaves do.”

Gene barked out a sharp laugh. “Oh my god. They’re crazy.
Jesse’s crazy.”

“I went to a handfasting ceremony,” Henry offered. “One of
our slaves got married last month and I went to the party.”

“You went to a slave party?” Perry seemed very interested,
and Henry felt a flutter in his stomach as the heat of a flush rose in his
cheeks. “Was it basically an orgy?” Perry asked.

“Basically,” Henry agreed. “The back rooms were full of
people having sex.”

“How did you end up at a slave party?” Gene asked.

“Well, Martin plays violin, so he played for the dance and I
wanted to see him perform. Besides, the party was at my house, so all I had to
do was go downstairs.”

“Oh, wait, Vince was telling me about this,” Joel said. “He
told me that one of the big houses let their slaves hold a shindig right in the
family’s home. That must have been you, then.”

So it had been unusual enough to be talked about.
“Probably.” It worried him a little that people had talked so far and wide, but
these boys didn’t seem to be judging him harshly; in fact, they seemed
impressed he’d been to a slave party at all.

“What are you talking about?” Jesse appeared out of nowhere,
poking his head into the circle between Henry and Joel, his arms around their
shoulders. He didn’t wait for an answer. “Say, fellows, it’s time for cake.”

Everyone mobilized for cake. They followed Jesse through the
crowd, their slaves following close behind. The rest of the Wiltons were in the
dining room with the cake and Henry quickly said his belated hellos. Uncle
Gilbert shook his hand and both Aunt Virginia and Bette let him kiss their
cheeks while one of their slaves lit the candles on the cake.

“Make a wish, darling,” Aunt Virginia said as Jesse bent
over the cake.

“It’ll be about Elizabeth,” Eli said in a low, amused voice,
elbowing Henry in the ribs.

There was a 1-2-3 count and everyone shouted
Happy
Birthday
. Jesse managed to blow out all the candles, though he was wheezing
at the end.

Although it was a very large cake, Henry was slightly
apprehensive about being afforded a piece—as well as one for Martin—because the
crowd of potential cake-eaters was so sizeable. He needn’t have worried,
however: there were two more cakes in reserve. Henry was served a
modestly-sized portion of chocolate and yellow cake in alternating layers, held
together with caramel icing. He followed Jesse’s example and indicated to
Martin that they might eat from the same plate, feeling very daring sharing
cake so boldly, though in truth perhaps half the boys in the room were doing
the same for their slaves and it was apparently entirely unremarkable in Lawton
circles.

“Are you having a nice time, Sir?”

“Jesse’s friends are very nice,” Henry told him. “Are their
slaves nice, too?”