Tenderness (24 page)

Nothing seemed real.

“How are Delilah and her family?”

“The pups are venturing out of the barn on their own.”

“Todd had the time of his life with them. He told Papa you had goats. I didn’t see them.”

“One goat. Her name is—”

“—Don’t tell me her name is New Year, or Easter.”

“Would you believe Thanksgiving?”

“No! Did you or Jody name her?”

“That’s what he wanted to name her, but I put my foot down. Her name is Puddin’.”

“His favorite food, no doubt.”

“All food is his favorite. His stomach is like a bottomless pit.”

“He’s a growing boy.”

They followed the walk to the end of the block and turned toward the creek that curved around the town. The sun had completed
its journey across the sky and was a red globe sinking on the western horizon. The two of them could have been any place and
at any time during the history of mankind as they continued to walk, aware only of each other.

Suddenly a big green horsefly buzzed across their faces. Wade lifted a hand to shoo it away. Then a horde of mosquitoes descended
on them. He turned Jesse around to face him. One had settled on her cheek. He quickly brushed it aside.

“This is the wrong time of day to be down by the creek. The mosquitoes will be as thick as hair on a dog’s back.”

“I know another place.” Jesse tugged on his arm to turn him around. “The ball park. The purple martins feast on the mosquitoes
there.”

“Sweetheart,” he drew the word out into a long, soft caress, “I can’t hold you and kiss you in the baseball park.”

Jesse felt her heart jump out of rhythm. “You can… after dark.” They started walking again.

“I don’t know if I can wait that long.”

“Oh, Wade.” His name came shivering and sweet from her throat. “What is this wonderful thing that has happened to us?”

“I know what’s struck me. I’ve fallen tail over teakettle in love with you, something I never thought I’d do.”

“Didn’t you
want
to fall in love?”

“I never thought it would be something for me. I figured someday I’d meet a woman who would be pleasant company, one I could
respect, who would keep my house, give me children. Every man likes to think he has left something of himself to mark his
time on this earth. I’ve never been loved by anyone other than Granny and my pa, to a certain extent. I had no idea that loving
a woman would consume me until all I could think of was her, all I lived for was to see her again. At times, Jesse love, I
was sick with longing to be with you.”

Jesse didn’t say anything. Her throat was clogged, her eyes misty. She breathed deeply in an attempt to get her emotions under
control.

“I… wish it was dark,” she whispered between quick breaths.

The town barber, cleaning his flower bed, paused, leaned on his hoe and watched the couple approach.

“Miss Jesse—” He had a puzzled look on his face.

“Evening, Mr. Baker,” Jesse called.

Widow Armstrong, who had lost her husband during the war and never remarried, saw the couple walking arm in arm down the walk
and clicked her tongue in disapproval.

The butter maker and his wife, sitting on a porch, gawked.

“What in the world is Miss Jesse doin’ strollin’ along, bold as brass, with that hellion from the hills?”

The wife sniffed. “I swan to goodness. What’s the world comin’ to? Young people now days don’t have no sense of propriety
a’tall. I never thought it of ’er. The doctor better watch ’er. She’ll be having a woods colt, sure as shootin’.’

Jesse and Wade strolled on, oblivious of the stir they were creating by being together.

The ball park was a field at the edge of town. Rows of plank seats stretched down two sides of the diamond. Jesse and Wade
walked across the infield to the far side and sat down—close so that her shoulder was tucked behind his arm.

“Do you like baseball?” Jesse wiggled her fingers until they were laced with his.

“Yeah. Jody and I go over to Coon Rapids and watch a game now and then.”

“There’ll be a game here on Sunday.” The invitation was in her voice, in the eyes that looked into his.

“Sweetheart… are you sure you want me to come?”

“I was never more sure in my life.”

“If we’re seen together publicly, your standing in this town will hit rock-bottom.”

“We’ve already been seen together publicly. I could almost hear the tongues wagging as we walked down the street. As far as
my standing in this town is concerned, I don’t feel the people here have the right to choose my friends, or—my young man for
that matter. I’m my own person, not an extension of this town.”

Wade’s arm slipped around her. “Is it dark enough?” he whispered, nuzzling her ear.

“I… don’t care about that either.” She placed her cheek against his shoulder and tilted her face to his.

“You’re so… pretty and… sweet,” he breathed against her mouth, his voice thick yet full of wonder.

His lips moved across hers slowly and gently, as if to savor every tiny line. His arms held her tightly against him. Then
a little noise came from his throat and, drawing her closer still, he let gentleness give way to greed and his kisses became
harder, more demanding. His mouth was moist and firm, forcing hers to open so that his tongue could wander over her soft inner
lips before venturing deeper.

Jesse ached for him, heat gathering in the sensitive areas of her body and giving rise to an urgency that was strange and
new to her. She responded to his kisses eagerly. His hand moved to her breast and closed possessively over it. His fingers
sent delicious shivers through her. His kisses were breathtaking, hot and voracious. His hand kneaded and caressed her breast,
her waist, her hips. He was hungry for her—starving for her. He began to tremble violently and moved his mouth to her cheek.

“Oh, love… oh, love. One sweet bite of you calls for another. I must stop while I can or I’ll have you right here on the grass.”
An outpouring of love rushed in to meet their passion.

He got to his feet and reached to pull her up beside him. “Let’s walk.” His voice was rough. “I’m sorry—”

Jesse wrapped her arms around his waist. “You’ve nothing to be sorry for. I’m not a naive young girl. I know about the strong
desires of a man… and a woman.” She moved her hand up to his cheeks and forced him to look into her eyes. “I’ve never loved
like this before. But I know that it’s sometimes… painful to have unfulfilled desires.”

“I want you so badly.” He whispered as if he were talking around a huge lump in his throat. “I’ve dreamed of you in my house,
in my bed, having my children; I’ve thought about growing old with you, loving you. But… it’s not fair to ask you to give
up your life here and share mine. You’d never be welcome in this town again. And your father—he’s a respected doctor, mine
was hanged in the town square.” Jesse had never heard such anguish in a man’s voice.

“Why don’t you ask me if I want to share your life? Ask me and let me decide.”

“You mean—?”

“Ask me.”

“Would you”—he swallowed painfully—“be willing to live with me… in the hills?”

“Only if you marry me.”

“Oh, love—” He grabbed her, hugging her to him, lifting her off the ground. His big hard body was still trembling. He bent
his head and buried his face in her neck. “I just want to… pull you inside me and take you wherever I go.”

“You’d get tired of that,” she whispered happily. “I can be stubborn and as irritating as a prickly pear at times.”

She held him for a long while and smoothed the black hair at the nape of his neck. Gradually his taut body relaxed, and a
strange quiet came to both of them. She held him like a tired child,
as
she sometimes did her brother Todd, and stroked his head lovingly, wishing she could protect him from all the problems that
plagued him, wishing she could keep him safe and secure here in her arms.

Wade stirred, raised his head, and looked into her eyes, blue and shimmering and beautiful. His were filled with love. He
kissed her lips, gently, reverently.

“I don’t deserve you,” he whispered in a softly slurred voice.

“Yes, you do. And I deserve you. You’ll never be anything less than my love, the one person in all the world I want to spend
my life with. I never thought I’d say that. Just a little while ago I was thinking of our different backgrounds and had decided
that you had changed your mind about wanting to court me.”

Wade inhaled deeply and let the air escape slowly from his lips. “I was afraid. You’re so beautiful, sweetheart. Not only
your face but inside you as well. I’ll be the luckiest man in the world to have you by my side. I know what you’re giving
up. Oh, God, I hope you’ll not be sorry someday.” He hugged her close and buried his lips in her hair. “I’ll love you and
cherish you and protect you with my life. I swear it.”

Jesse laughed with pure exaltation. It was all Wade could do to keep himself from lifting her in his arms and carrying her
away. Her face seemed to glow with happiness. She lifted her lips, sweet and softly parted, to his. His kiss was gentle and
reverent, for she was infinitely precious to him.

They began to walk.

“We have so much to talk about. I want to know all about you and I want you to know all about me,” she whispered.

“You’ve probably heard all the bad things about me and there’s very little good I can tell you. I have what I consider a great
deal of money. I want to tell you about it.”

They sat back down on the bench.

He told her about going to the rescue of an old man and his wife who were attacked by thieves on the wharf in New York City.

“The next morning the couple’s servant came to the morning house where I was staying. I’ve no idea how he found me. The man
gave me a certified check for twenty-five thousand dollars. There was a note from the old man attached. The old man said for
me to please accept the gift and to invest some of it in telephone and telegraph stock, and by the time I was his age I would
have money to give away too. It was signed Andrew Carnegie.”

“My goodness. He’s a famous man.”

“I took his advice, Jesse. We’ll have enough money for most anything we want.”

Jesse began to laugh. “I’d like to see Boyd Harper’s face when he learns you have that much money. I take it you don’t have
it in his bank.”

Wade grinned. “You take it right, lady. It’s in banks in Knoxville and Atlanta.”

“Oh, Wade. You can send Jody to a good school.”

“Mr. Carnegie was a large benefactor of Tuskegee Institute. After reading about him and Booker T. Washington, I’d like for
Jody to go there.”

“I’m proud of you, Wade. You’ve got a heart as big as the ocean. You just don’t want anyone to know it. Look what you’re doing
for Jody. It takes courage to go against the prejudices of your neighbors and friends.”

“I want to see him grow up and not only be able to fend for himself but to do something for his people.”

“You’re very fond of him, aren’t you?”

“Yes. He was like a frightened little wildcat when I found him in that cave. He was hungry and sick but still he spit and
hissed when I carried him out. There wasn’t anyone in the world that cared if he lived or died.”

“You cared.”

“Yes, I cared because he reminded me of myself when I was that age. But I was luckier than Jody. I had my granny when I was
young. Then all too quick she was gone and I was alone.”

“It didn’t matter to you that he was a darkie.”

“He was a human being. I’ve been around the world a couple of times and met people of all colors. A sailor, so black you could
only see the whites of his eyes, jumped into a fight and risked his life to save mine. A Chinese hid me to keep me from being
captured by the captain of a ship who was afraid I would report him for carrying dangerous contraband. The color of a man’s
skin does not keep him from being any better or any worse than his fellow man. I’ve never understood why white people think
they are superior because their skin is white. There are no-good whites just as there are no-good Negroes.”

“Papa says people of any color bleed red blood. I think you and Papa are ahead of your time. Papa heard Booker T. Washington
speak at the Atlanta Exposition and came home saying that the only hope for the Negroes was through education, industrial
skills, intelligent farming, thrift, and applying good manners and morals.”

“I want to go down to Tuskegee and look the place over. Jody needs to stay there and be with other Negroes who want an education.
Because of the way he was treated when he was very young, he doesn’t have a very high opinion of them. He thinks all Negroes
are stupid, but him.”

Jesse hugged his arm tightly. “Wade Simmer, you are a good man and I’ll be so proud to be your wife.”

Wade’s heart swelled with pride, yet he knew it was not going to be easy. Would she be able to weather the hostility their
joining would generate? In the years to come would she become resentful because of it? Most of all, would he be able to live
up to what she expected of him?

Dear God, he hoped so.

* * *

Ethan Bredlow strolled up the walk to the Forbes house. Pauline was so lost in her own thoughts that he was already coming
up the steps when she became aware of him, and it was to late to escape into the house.

“Good evening, Miss Pauline. I can’t believe my luck in finding you alone here on the porch.” He picked up the glass of lemonade
from the porch railing. “Is this for me?”

“If you want it. It’s probably got a dead fly floating around in it.”

“You hope, huh?” He peered into the glass. “Nope. Not even a gnat. Mind if I sit down?”

“Suit yourself.”

“I could sit on the porch rail, but there’s plenty of room in the swing, and I promise not to pounce on you.”

“Just try it, mister, and you’ll get a hatpin in the belly.”

“Ohhhh… It hurts to even think of it. Whose hat and collar?”

“They belong to a friend of Jesse’s. If you came to see the doctor, I’ll tell him you’re here.”

“Don’t get up. I didn’t come to see the doctor. I came to see you.”