THE IMPERIAL ENGINEER (35 page)

"How marvelous! Would you be doing the same sort of work you're doing here?"
She couldn't help think how much more she could do for the suffrage cause if she were
closer to the men who would shape Idaho's state constitution.

"I doubt I'd be cutting hay or roofing sheds. But yes, I'd be designing and
installing telephone systems, wherever there's a market for one in the Territory."

"Have you accepted the position?"

"No. It wasn't a firm offer. And..." He hesitated. "And I wasn't sure I wanted to
leave Hailey."

"Oh." Crossing her fingers, she said, "I hope you'll give it serious consideration.
I'm sure they won't hold the position open forever."

"You wouldn't mind? I thought you and Mrs. Teller--"

"Imajean is no longer actively working for the suffrage organization. I believe
someone in Lewiston has stepped in."

Having tacitly agreed to leave more personal issues for later resolution, they spent
the next hour discussing practical considerations. Lulu was relieved to learn that Tony, for
all his ridiculous prejudices and old-fashioned notions, was perfectly willing to have her
handle their budget. She had been afraid he would give her an allowance and expect her to
account for every expenditure. So many husbands did.

She was waiting for him in bed when he came in after checking on the horse. "I
see what you mean," he said, as he tossed his shirt across the top of the screen. "We need
to figure out a better way to arrange this room. As it is, you're apt to bark your shins good
if you get up in the dark."

"I already stubbed my toe against the corner of the wardrobe. Tomorrow I'll get
Mr. Lee and Ru Nan to help me move things around."

His britches followed his shirt. Quickly he divested himself of his Union suit and
slipped into bed naked as the day he was born. "No," he said, "you won't. Let them do the
moving. You supervise."

Before she could argue, his mouth descended onto hers. After that, she forgot
about moving furniture.

Tony left the lamp burning. This afternoon he had resisted the temptation to
undress Lulu completely, but tonight there was no need to restrain himself. They were
alone, and there was no telephone to interrupt them. As he explored the textures and
flavors of her mouth, his fingers found the row of tiny pearl buttons at the front of her
flannel gown. When he had them open, he kissed the pulse under her ear, worked his way
down the side of her throat until he found the hollow at its base.

Her hands clenched around his shoulders, fingernails digging into his skin with
small, sharp pains. He could feel his own heart pounding, his breath quickening, as he
kissed his way into the valley between her breasts.

When he could go no farther, he worked his way back, delighting in the scent of
her, the taste of her, the incomparable satin of her skin. Again he covered her open mouth,
delved into the moist depths, all but lost himself in passionate delight as she writhed and
moaned under him.

Her legs tangled with his, skin against skin. She arched, but he retreated, knowing
it was too soon. Raising himself on one elbow, he looked down at her.

She lay beneath him, eyes wide, lips parted. "I should have left the nightgown
off," she whispered. "I didn't think--"

"I'd rather take it off myself," he told her, as he let his hand drift lightly across the
richness of her breast, pausing an instant to tease her nipple until it rose firm and proud
into the cup of his palm.

She cried out, arching her back. "Tony?"

His hand found the swell of her belly, a sweet roundness so unlike her slender
waist had been. He spread his fingers, wishing his son could know how much he was
wanted. "Ummm?"

"You're torturing me!"

"I know." He laughed, joy such as he had seldom known suffusing him, filling his
heart until he felt it could burst with happiness. Lulu was his. His wife. Forever.

Catching hold of her nightgown, he pulled it up, slowly, watching as the sleek,
creamy skin of her thighs became visible. "Hard to believe you and Micah are sister and
brother," he said, comparing the warm ivory shade of her skin to the rich gold of his own.
The curls that hid her feminine treasure were as thick and unruly as those on her head, and
only a shade darker, more like weathered copper than rich bronze.

"Mamma says--" She gasped as his finger dipped deeper and found the sensitive
bud.

"Later," he murmured, intent on his exploration. He learned her body, as he'd
always dreamed of doing, learned the places where she was most sensitive to his touch, the
places that made her gasp with pleasure, or moan with need. He learned that when he
nipped at her ankle, she giggled, but when he laved the delicate flesh at the back of her
knee, she cried out with impatience.

When he drew the gown from her body at last, he sat back on his haunches and
gazed at her. She would have concealed herself with her hands, but he said, "No. Let me
look. I've imagined you like this so often, for so long." Eyes wide, locked on his, she let
her arms fall to the bed alongside her body.

He gazed his fill, seeing in the woman a memory of the child she'd been. They had
swum together, naked and innocent, until her breasts budded and she turned from a
playmate into a mystery. From one summer to the next, everything had changed between
them. He had mourned that change, but now he gloried in it. "Oh, God, Lulu, I've waited
so long."

Once more Lulu saw in his face the boy she remembered. Her best friend, who
had often known her thoughts almost as well as she herself. They had dreamed together,
planned together for a bright future filled with grand adventures, exciting exploits,
celebrated triumphs. She would change the world into a place where no one was enslaved,
while he built soaring, beautiful structures that would last as long as time itself.

She quickly pushed the pain of disappointment and failure deep, deep inside her
soul. They were for the darkest of nights, when she was alone. Now was for loving. For
sharing.

Tony's gently erotic touches turned into something more intense, more urgent. Her
body responded without prompting, and a surge of breathless desire burned through her,
stronger, more insistent than anything she had ever experienced before. She was aflame,
and only his mouth, his hands, his body could quench the flame.

Quench? Nay. He fed the flame, as he caressed and kneaded her breasts, as he
breathed warmth into her most private places, as he dipped his tongue into her, suckled
her, carried her over into a place of pure sensation, where nothing mattered except the
feverish imperative to soar higher and higher. To touch the sun.

No sooner had she found the shattered, scattered pieces of her soul, than he was
pushing her higher again. "No! I want you with me," she cried, as she clutched his
shoulders, wrapped her legs around his lean hips. His strong shaft prodded her, found slick
moisture, and slipped into her, filling an emptiness that seemed to have always awaited this
moment. She arched against him, wanting to take all of him.

He was damp with sweat, his muscles tight with tension. She licked his chest,
tasted salt and desire. He trembled, even as she did, and she knew this was true passion, the
elemental need that drew man and woman together despite all obstacles. As it had drawn
her to him, when her mind had warned her away. She cried out as he moved, as he
withdrew, then drove deeply again. He moved slowly, teasing her, inflaming her.

"No! I want..." She fought him when he withdrew again, bucked against him. And
felt his control shatter. Once, twice, he drove into her, and she met each thrust with her
own, demanding, insisting.

Thrice, and together they crested. Clung together. Sated. Exhausted.

Secure in his arms, Lulu drifted until he moved. She gave him up reluctantly, but
he only rolled far enough to reach the lamp, turning the wick down until the flame
flickered out. He returned to her then, taking her into his arms and tucking the covers about
them both. "Sleep," he said softly. "It's late."

Lulu snuggled against him. As she drifted off, she wondered if she was being
foolish in her willingness to set their personal differences aside for the time being. Would
they soon become complacent and forget how far apart their beliefs and convictions were?
Would their fragile truce be shattered as soon as one of them spoke carelessly or acted
thoughtlessly?

* * * *

Mr. Lee and his son arrived about ten the next morning, bringing Xi Xin with
them. They had, Ru Nan told her in his broken English, gone first to the Eagleton
ranch--"Boss boss place"--to care for the stock. Lulu put them to work arranging the furniture
first, lending a hand when she could. She was amused when Ru Nan informed her she was
not to lift anything heavier than a lamp. Tony must have spoken to them this morning.
After three tries, they got the bedroom arranged so one could get to either side of the bed
without endangering toes and shins.

After dinner, Lulu sat at the kitchen table with pad and pencil. "We must make a
shopping list," she told Mr. Lee. "Since you will be cooking, you must tell me what you
need."

He looked at Xi Xin, eyebrows raised. The girl spoke at some length. He replied,
at even greater length.

"He say you tell him what you want to eat, he will buy. To fill pantry, you must
buy flour, salt, sugar, coffee, tea, corn meal, rice..." She spoke slowly enough for Lulu to
write each item down, stopping often to prompt Mr. Lee.

The list grew long. At last Xi Xin said, "He asks do you want him to make
soap?"

"I don't think so," Lulu said, remembering the harsh lye soap she had hated as a
child. "We will continue to take our soiled clothing--and yours--to your uncle's laundry.
And we shall purchase what soap we need for personal hygiene and dishwashing."

Shortly after one o'clock, she and Ru Nan set off for town, armed with a shopping
list fully three times as long as anything Lulu might have conceived. They left an order
with the butcher first, then went on to the grocer.

Lulu was browsing the shelves, tempted by the wide variety of canned
goods--imagine spiced peaches in a can!--when she looked up to see a large, well-dressed woman
approaching her. After a moment's blankness, she remembered who the woman was, but
not her name. "Good afternoon," she said reluctantly. Someone who had threatened her
with bodily harm was not apt to become her friend.

"I understand you have hired Chinese servants," the banker's wife said, without
responding to her greeting. "Obviously you are not aware of prevalent opinion in this
town."

"I beg your pardon?"

"It is understandable, since you are clearly unused to the ways of our western
society. We are not anonymous in small towns as you were in the Eastern cities, Mrs.
Dewitt. Your husband should have informed you. I am amazed, in fact, that he did
not."

Although she knew perfectly well she should do her best to avoid riling the
woman, Lulu yielded to temptation. "I'm afraid I don't understand, Mrs...?" She
deliberately let the sentence trail off, as if she were unaware of the woman's importance in
Hailey.

"I am Mrs. Axminster. We do not tolerate the Chinese in this town, Mrs. Dewitt.
They have been ordered to depart from the area. Right-thinking citizens no longer employ
them, and those who do will find their own welcome rescinded in short order."

Reaching for a can of the spiced peaches, Lulu pretended to find the label
fascinating. After a calculated pause, she said, "And are you charged with making certain
no one is allowed to disagree with the right-thinking residents of Hailey, Mrs. Axwister?
Do you perhaps keep a list?" With the last sentence, she looked furtively to the left and
right.

"Axminster. Mrs. J. Mortimer Axminster. You are pert, Mrs. Dewitt. You would
be advised to listen to those of us who are older and wiser than you. And to mind your
manners." She raised her chin higher and stared down her short, pudgy nose at Lulu. "Your
husband is employed by one of Hailey's leading citizens. What you do could have an effect
on how long he is thus employed."

Lulu had never reacted well to intimidation. She turned to face Mrs. Axminster
directly. "I follow my conscience, ma'am, and do not bow to local opinion. My servants are
taxpaying residents of this town and this county, and as such are entitled to be free to
choose their place of residence. As long as they work for me, they will remain in
Hailey."

She gave the older woman a small bow and turned her back. As she strode toward
the front of the store, she wondered how much damage she'd done Tony and Mr. Eagleton
by speaking her mind.

They would simply have to live with the consequences, no matter what they were.
Some principles could not be compromised, no matter the economic incentive.

She finished collecting the groceries on her list and went to the counter to give the
grocer her order for flour and cornmeal. Mrs. Axminster was just leaving, and cast a
vindictive look back over her shoulder.

Lulu returned the look with a guileless smile, but inside she was worried. She
really didn't want to cause trouble for Mr. Eagleton. She and Tony could leave, but
Eagleton had too many irons in the Wood River fire to pull up stakes easily.

She was very much afraid she had just stirred up a hornet's nest. Sooner or later
she or Tony could get stung.

  There are too many good old soldiers in this community to permit any humbuggery.
The TIMES has aided, and will continue to aid its home. It lives here, it works here, it will
stay here; and anything that injures the community injures the TIMES.
  "God hates a coward," and the TIMES will tell its people the truth as nearly as it
knows the truth.
  Don't be humbugged. The Chinese question will be settled, but not by
blatherskites.