PluckingthePearl (17 page)

When he stepped inside the restaurant, he just stood at the
door and blinked. For the first time in his life, it didn’t feel like home to
him. It was too noisy and too busy. A busboy almost stepped on his foot and
somewhere in back a glass shattered.

He’d rather hear Pearl play the piano.

“Caleb, over here!”

Caleb followed his brother’s voice through the smoky air and
sat across from him in a booth near the window.

“You looked pretty lost,” Henry commented. “Are you all
right?”

Betty Lewes, the restaurant owner’s daughter, gave him a big
smile. “What would you like? Tonight’s special is meat loaf.”

“I already ate,” he replied. “Just get me a Scotch.”

Henry studied him over his glass of beer. “You only drink
Scotch when you’re upset. Are you having trouble with your new housekeeper?”

Caleb frowned. “Of course not. Why would you say that?”

“Because you spend even less time at home than you did
before and you look angry enough to chew oyster shells.” Henry leaned closer.
“I thought your new
situation
would have the opposite effect on you.”

When Betty brought him his drink, he took a big swallow but
the numbing burn didn’t erase his brother’s disturbing suggestion.

“What are you getting at?”

Henry leaned even closer. “Come on, Caleb. Do you think I’m
stupid? I know you’ve got something going on with that little colored gal.”

Caleb’s face burned as he looked around. “Keep your voice
down. Do you realize what’s at stake?”

“Of course I do,” Henry replied, “and I suggest you get a
new housekeeper. I looked at the latest inventory records today and they’re a
mess. You can’t run Rockfield’s properly in the shape you’re in.”

Caleb paused, needing to confide in someone about this
maddening confusion but afraid to do it. If he couldn’t trust his own brother,
though, who could he trust?

“It’s not what you think,” he said. “She acts like a proper
lady.”

His brother nodded slowly in understanding. “So that’s the
problem. She’s not…producing.”

“You make her sound like a milk cow. I have feelings for
her. I wish—”

“Good Lord, it’s worse than I thought.” Henry shook his head
and then glared at Caleb. “Get over those feelings, fast, or you’re going to
have more problems than you know what to do with.”

This outing was proving to be even more depressing than
being at home, Caleb thought as he hung his head and rubbed his forehead. How
could Pearl make him feel so wonderful and horrible at the same time? When
they’d made love on the island, he’d felt complete. Now there were a bunch of
pieces missing and Henry was right. He couldn’t go on this way.

Betty came over and rested her hand on his arm. Caleb
realized she was bending extra low to expose her generous cleavage.

“Can I get you fellows anything else?” she asked.

When they shook their heads, she left the check on their
table. Henry shot Caleb a knowing look.

“Why don’t you let
her
satisfy your needs? She looks
more than willing. Hell, she’s wanted to marry you for years.”

Caleb watched her walk away. Maybe his brother was right. He
could easily make Betty his lover and satisfy his needs as long as her father,
his biggest customer, never found out. Pearl didn’t have to know but if she
ever found out, it would hurt her badly.

Of course, he hadn’t made any romantic commitment to Pearl.
She only wanted to be his housekeeper. Nevertheless, being with another woman
would violate something sacred and he just couldn’t do it. After a time or two,
he doubted he could continue to get hard for Betty anyway. She would be a body
to him. Nothing more.

And not the silky, creamy-sweet coffee body he needed so
much.

How could he live the life of a monk for years and now be
unable to live without sex? It didn’t make any sense. Pearl’s passion must have
changed him.

“You’re considering it, aren’t you?” Henry asked. “Go on.
Ask her for a date. You might even get lucky with her later tonight.”

It was out of the question, Caleb decided, but it had given
him an idea. If it worked, he might be able to get Pearl back into his bed
after all. Maybe then he’d be able to think clearly and run his business
properly before he made a complete mess of it.

Henry tapped him with his foot under the table. “Look sharp.
The mayor is coming this way.”

Wonderful.
Caleb wished he’d taken refuge in his
office tonight instead.

The mayor had a drink in one hand and a newspaper in the
other. “Caleb Rockfield, I’m glad you’re here. I need to talk to you.”

Henry slid across his booth seat toward the window to make
room for him. “Mayor Carter, won’t you join us?”

The older man eased his bulk into the seat and shoved a
newspaper beneath Caleb’s nose. “Have you seen this?”

Caleb nodded. He skimmed the paper every morning but today
he couldn’t recall any of it. If nothing had been important enough to remember,
why was the mayor’s face so red? The man’s short finger pointed to one of the
headlines.

“Negro strike gets out of hand in Cambridge, Maryland,”
Caleb read out loud. He remembered the title but hadn’t read the article.
Cambridge was across the Chesapeake Bay and not his concern.

“We read about that,” Henry supplied. “Didn’t some colored
workers at a crabmeat picking plant go on strike from a wage cut?”

Mayor Carter slapped the paper on the table. “Yes, and a
couple of them got into a scuffle with management. Who knows where that would
have ended up if not for the Klan.”

The Klan?
Caleb’s Scotch burned his stomach. Maybe he
should have taken the time to read that article after all. He grasped his glass
with both hands to prevent his hands from trembling. The mayor had a savage
look in his eyes tonight that raised the hairs on the back of his neck.

“Well, luckily we don’t have those troubles here,” Caleb
said slowly. “The workers are happy and the harvest is so good I wouldn’t dream
of cutting the wages.”

“What if the harvest is bad next year?” Mayor Carter jabbed
his finger into the wooden tabletop as he made his point. “What then?”

Henry’s worried gaze shifted over his beer glass from one
man to the other.

Caleb shook his head. “I think you’re overreacting, Mayor.
If some white workers had had a little scuffle with white managers, no one
would think a thing of it.”

His brother kicked him under the table again.

Mayor Carter stood, donned his hat with authority and
grabbed his paper.

“Well, I’m not taking this lightly. It’s my duty to protect
this town and its
businesses
.” He glared at Caleb. “I’ll expect you to
be more supportive when I put together a plan of action.”

“A plan of action?” Caleb asked Henry after the man left.
“What the hell did he mean by that?”

Henry’s brow looked creased and grim. “It sounds to me like
he plans to bring the Klan to Oyster Island.”

Caleb gulped more Scotch at once than he should have.
“That’ll never happen.”

“It could and you know it. He’s probably a Klan member
himself already.” Henry’s eyes glittered with emotion as he drained his beer
and set down the glass. “But you need to at least pretend to be supportive. I
can’t believe how rude you were to him just now.”

Caleb grabbed the paper napkin next to his place setting and
tore it to shreds. “The man makes me sick.”

Henry put some money on the table and stood up. “You might
want to consider getting another housekeeper and adjusting your attitude. I
wouldn’t want anything to happen to you or Rockfield’s. Our daddy built that
company, you know.”

“I know.”

His brother squeezed his arm. “Take care and go easy on that
Scotch.”

After he left, Caleb stared at the table and bits of napkin
he’d shredded. Where was all this anger coming from? Was it sexual frustration,
the mayor or both? Henry was right. He needed to pull himself together before
he lost everything.

Even though he still had Rockfield’s, it was now painfully
clear he wasn’t the real king of Oyster Island. He never was.

When Caleb walked into his house a few days later, Pearl
rushed to the door. She wasn’t used to wearing a full-length skirt so she
almost tripped over the rug. Even though he’d hardly been home since the night
he’d seen her in the bathtub, her nerves still tingled when she looked at him.

She’d fixed the stupid bathroom lock herself, resolving
never to be so careless again. Never before had she witnessed someone so
tortured by desire. It had torn her inside to hear him rattling the furniture
and getting his pleasure himself instead of with her.

Satisfying herself in that tub had been wrong. Not as wrong
as sharing her body with Caleb but certainly not the way a proper housekeeper
should behave. Upon seeing her engorged nipples and swollen labia, he must have
known what she’d been doing. What if he’d walked in a few moments earlier? She vowed
not to make that mistake again. Her hungry body would have to starve.

If only she could give him what he wanted. Unfortunately she
wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she did.

He looked at her from head to toe. “Pearl, what the hell are
you wearing?”

She ran a hand over the thick, gray fabric. “I found some
old drapery material in the attic and decided to put together an outfit that
wouldn’t tempt you so much.”

When he threw his head back and laughed, she nearly cried
for joy. He hadn’t been happy enough to laugh like that since she’d moved in.

“You never stop surprising me,” he told her. “Now I insist
on getting you at least one new dress.”

The sound of voices spilled from the dining room. She didn’t
enjoy sharing the house with others but things hadn’t been very comfortable
between the two of them. Maybe having guests would help ease the tension.

He frowned as he took off his jacket. “Who’s here?”

She took his things and hung them on the coat tree by the
door. “Your wife’s sister and husband stopped by for a short visit.”

“You’re kidding me.” He smoothed down his hair. “I haven’t
seen them in years.”

From the tone of his voice, he didn’t want to see them now
either.

“I have to go to the kitchen and check on the pork chops,”
she told him. “Dinner will be served shortly.”

Dinner passed slowly as Pearl concentrated on doing a good
job. Being a housekeeper alone with Caleb had been one thing. Now she was being
judged by strangers. Thank goodness she’d learned the job growing up. All she
had to struggle with here was hiding her feelings for Caleb.

Even though she’d always tried to be a proper housekeeper,
she and Caleb had been closer than they should have. A real housekeeper and her
master wouldn’t have laughed at the door just now about her clothes like two
intimate friends.

She wasn’t prepared for the way Mrs. Abbott stared down her
large, hooked nose at her. Her gaunt-looking husband was worse because he
looked right through her as if she weren’t even there. She’d experienced this
before, of course, from the guests she and her mother had served in Annapolis.

If it hadn’t bothered her then, why did it disturb her so
much now? Had Caleb really changed her so much?

The chandelier light made the china plates and silver gleam
against the white tablecloth on a table fit for royalty. It was strange to
watch him eat at the table with other white people while she stood in the
corner, waiting to see if they needed anything.

She’d never felt so different from him before. It was as if
she were looking at him through the window of another world, so close but so
out of reach. The memory of his pale cock thrusting into her dark folds seemed
so impossible now she wondered if it had really happened.

“Girl!” The sound of fingers snapping in annoyance pulled
Pearl out of her thoughts. “For the third time, I would like more gravy.”

“Yes. Yes, ma’am.”

Pearl almost tripped on her skirts and fell on her face as
she rushed to do the woman’s bidding.

“Honestly, Caleb,” Elizabeth Abbott said. “I realize you’re
in the boondocks here but surely you could find a better housekeeper. She’s
hardly competent.”

Caleb’s jaw twitched. He looked at Pearl from across the
table, his expression just as pained from this ordeal as she felt inside.
Seeing his sympathy made her feel even worse. Part of her wanted to run into
the kitchen and stay there.

“You need a wife to keep her in line,” Mrs. Abbott
continued. “Why haven’t you remarried? Gertrude has been gone for some years
now.”

Pearl’s heart almost stopped when she thought of Caleb
bringing a wife into this house. They’d talked so much about her marrying
Jimmy, she’d never even considered the possibility of his marrying. Acting
proper around him was one thing. Losing him to another woman would be another
thing altogether.

Hearing him make love to another woman in the bed that
should be hers would kill her.

Pearl clasped her hands together so hard they hurt as she
waited to hear his reply.

Caleb shrugged. “I don’t need a wife. I’m happy as I am.”

She knew he wasn’t happy but his words nearly made her swoon
with relief. Realizing the woman seated before her was just a white version of
sour Aunt Wilma gave her strength too.

“I’ve been a housekeeper since I was a child.” Pearl grabbed
the half-empty gravy tureen. “And I can see there’s plenty of gravy here. Would
you like me to pour it for you?”

The woman’s head bobbed like a flustered chicken’s. “Well, I
suppose so.”

Amusement glittered in Caleb’s blue eyes as he leaned back
in his chair. He was enjoying this! Well, Pearl would give him a show. She held
the gravy tureen higher than she should have but not high enough to splatter
the gravy. The rich scent of it filled the air. Mrs. Abbott watched the brown
stream, her face glazed with shock.

“Is that enough gravy?” Pearl asked sweetly.

“Quite! Caleb, this girl should be fired at once. Gertrude
never would have tolerated this.”

Caleb cleared his throat. “Pearl, can I see you in the
kitchen a moment?”

This was beyond humiliating, she thought as she followed him
to the kitchen.

“I’m sorry but she was so rude to me.” Pearl folded her
arms. “Go ahead and punish me if you must.”

A ball of heat shot through her belly when he stood close
behind her, his hard cock pressing against her, and whispered close to her ear.

“Don’t tempt me,” he said. “I ought to lift that ridiculous,
long skirt and spank your bare bottom.”

The thought of it made each muscle in her pussy tighten
almost to the point of pain.

“I had to at least pretend to reprimand you or I’d never
hear the end of it.” Caleb laughed into his hand to muffle it. “Did you see the
look on her face?”

She laughed into her hands too. “She did ask for more
gravy.”

Caleb bent over, laughing even more. “If it were me, I would
have poured the whole damn thing in her lap.”

“Caleb, you’re awful.” She touched his shoulder, electrified
by the warmth coming through the cotton shirt.

With no warning, he grasped her shoulders and kissed her
hard. Her mouth melted under his, needing him with desperate urgency. When he
pulled back, his eyes glittered with emotion. She knew she should object to the
kiss but being close to him again sent joy soaring through her veins. With
guests in the house, at least she was safe knowing the kiss could go no
further.

“Shall I play the piano for your guests?” she asked, making
her voice innocent on purpose.

Caleb’s jovial expression turned sad. “I wish you could,
honey, but I don’t think it would be wise.”

“I’ve been listening to your radio on nights when you’re out
and learning the songs.”

A mixture of sadness and wonder filled his face. “Have you?
I-I’m sorry I missed it.”

He looked as if he were about to kiss her again so she
nudged his arm.

“Come on,” she said, “before they look for us.”

As they returned to the dining room, warmth filled Pearl’s
chest from the shared laughter and kiss. Was denying their love really the
right thing to do? Was it right to miss out on so much joy? No one ever said
being a lady was easy. Each day she kept her distance from Caleb proved hard
and harder.

She wasn’t sure how much longer she could continue this.

* * * * *

Two nights later, Caleb sat at his dining room table with
the Abbotts again, eating the crab bisque Pearl had made. Elizabeth fanned
herself from the Indian summer heat. Knowing his tiresome guests were leaving
tomorrow helped him endure another meal with them.

More importantly, it was time to enact his plan. If it
worked, Pearl would be back in his bed by sunrise. He hated hurting her but
he’d also seen the pain in her eyes when he’d kissed her. She missed him as
much as he missed her. This was for her own good.

Pearl cleared away their empty soup bowls. “Will there be
anything else while we wait for the main course?”

He looked at her from across the table, his eyes telling her
he wanted a lot more than food. At least she’d forgone the long skirt and worn her
most attractive dress, the blue one. Forced to stay home to entertain his
guests, he couldn’t escape temptation by going out. At least he’d gotten some
reprieve when he’d taken the Abbotts to the Sapphire Crab the night before.

Mrs. Abbott sniffed as if she smelled something bad. “Caleb,
your girl is more competent this evening but now she’s putting on airs.”

Caleb leaned back in his chair. “I suppose I’ll have to
punish her again.”

What would Mrs. Abbott say if he enacted the “punishment”
across the dining room table? He quickly lifted his arm to muffle his gasp of
laughter. Luckily the tablecloth hid the bulge in his pants because thinking of
Pearl’s bare cheeks in his hands made him harder than concrete.

A restless wind blew outside the open window, which faced
the street, scattering some dried leaves across the sidewalk. In the distance,
thunder rumbled.

“I believe a storm is brewing,” Mr. Abbott commented as he
sucked his teeth.

Pearl served the roast beef with green beans and potatoes.
After they’d eaten for a while, Caleb spoke while she refilled their water
glasses from a glass pitcher.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said, Elizabeth.” Caleb
watched Pearl’s expression as he spoke. “Maybe I should remarry.”

Alarm flashed in Pearl’s eyes and her hand shook. Caleb
winced inside, hating himself for putting her through this.
This will be
over soon, honey. Trust me.

The older woman smiled with approval. “Excellent. That young
lady, Betty, at the restaurant had her eye on you all night. It’s unseemly of
her to be a waitress but if she stands to inherit the restaurant, she’s a good
enough match for you.”

Caleb dabbed his mouth with a napkin. “She’s the daughter of
my best customer too. You’ve convinced me. I’ll court her.”

Elizabeth Abbott reached across the table and patted his
hand. “We should have visited you sooner.”

“If everything goes well,” Caleb said as he carefully set
down his napkin, “Betty Lewes will be my wife in time for the holidays.”

A small sound escaped Pearl’s throat as she rushed into the
kitchen with water sloshing from the pitcher she carried. The sound of
shattering glass sent Caleb’s heart into his throat. He almost knocked over his
chair in his haste to get to her.

“I’ll take care of this,” he told the stunned-looking
Abbotts.

He walked into the kitchen to see Pearl’s face wet with
tears, her mouth trembling and shards of glass on the tile floor. Hell! What
had he done? The pain in her eyes made him wish he could undo his miserable
plan. Now that he’d gone this far, though, he needed to see it through.

“We’ll talk upstairs in my room,” he told her.

* * * * *

Pearl ran upstairs with her hand over her mouth as thunder
from the storm grew louder. Her chest felt as if one of those shards of glass
had lodged in it. When Caleb ushered her into his bedroom and locked the door,
it reminded her of their trysts in the shucking room.

How could he do this to her!

She clenched her hands into fists and took a breath so deep
it filled her lungs. “I cannot live in this house with you and a…a wife.”

Caleb’s face was solemn and unreadable in the dim, stormy
light. “And I can’t keep living with this temptation. I’m a man and I have
needs.”

Pearl folded her arms. “I don’t understand. You told me you
lived like a monk for years after your wife died.”

“That was before I met you.” He smacked the nearest bed post
with an open hand. “It’s not just about sex, Pearl. Believe it or not, I could
live without that. You won’t even let me hold you, kiss you or love you.”

“I explained my reasons,” she said, “and I-I don’t want you
to marry anyone else. Please, Caleb.”

His eyes flashed with blue fire as he glared at her. “You
can’t have it both ways, honey.”

She walked to the window and looked out at the leaden sky.
Drops of rain speckled the roof of the back porch below and the wind pulled the
river into white-capped peaks. Despite the furor outside, she’d never felt more
dead inside.

“I suppose I need to find another job and place to live,”
she said to the windowpanes.

“I could find another housekeeping position for you,” he
replied from across the room.

As she nodded and leaned her forehead against the glass,
more tears slipped down her cheeks. Caleb cursed under his breath. Moments
later, he came up behind her. Feeling his warm hands on her shoulders and his
breath on her neck tugged at the knots she’d tied so carefully over the last
few weeks.

“I don’t want to marry Betty,” he told her. “I want you.
I’ve always wanted you, Pearl.”

She’d once said those same words to him when Jimmy was in
her life. Lightning flashed, illuminating the reflection of their faces in the
window—black and light.