Shaken to the Core (35 page)

The woman distributed the food that was left in a blackened pot among them. It was barely enough to cover the ground of the bowl, but Giuliana found it incredibly generous anyway.

Mrs. Winthrop peeked into her bowl with a frown.

Giuliana had seen it too. Bits of ashes were mixed in with the beans and the slices of potatoes. She shrugged. It couldn’t be helped. The ash was everywhere, raining down on them like a light drizzle of snow. With gusto, she dug into her food.

“Eat,” Mr. Winthrop whispered to his wife.

At the look on Mrs. Winthrop’s face when she put the spoon into her mouth, Giuliana nearly burst out laughing. She glanced over at Kate, whose lips were twitching. They grinned at each other from opposite sides of the fire.

A few tent rows over, the man at the piano started to play “Home Ain’t Nothing Like This.”

Giuliana smiled. No, it sure wasn’t. But sitting at a warming fire with her aching feet stretched out, enjoying a bit of food and coffee, watching Kate tap her foot to the music, she was content for the moment.

* * *

“Hey, you!” A soldier stepped out from between two tents and waved at Giuliana’s group. “Put out that fire.”

“Why? We need it to ward off the chill,” Mr. O’Brien called back.

“Put it out. The whole damn city is burning. We don’t need a repeat of that here, just because everyone fell asleep instead of tending to the fire.”

The O’Briens looked at each other. He then got up and shoveled damp soil onto the glowing embers, smothering the fire.

Other soldiers went from tent row to tent row, handing out blankets.

Within minutes, the fires all over the park had been extinguished. Everything went dark, except for the red glow of the fires east of them. The expanse of that glow made Giuliana shiver. Would the fires ever stop or burn right through the rest of the city until they reached the ocean?

All around them, refugees bedded down for the night. Those who’d been lucky enough to get a place in the tents closed their flaps against the wind. The O’Briens crawled beneath their makeshift shelter and cuddled up to each other and their children.

Giuliana took the blanket a soldier had given her and lay down as close to the still-warm ashes as she dared. The grass beneath her was dewy, immediately soaking her skirt and shirtwaist. She pulled the coarse blanket up to her nose so the cold wind couldn’t reach her. The dampness made her shiver. Her feet felt like blocks of ice.

The glow of the fires in the east cast reddish shadows over the camp. Giuliana watched as refugees cuddled together for warmth. Even Biddy was sharing a blanket with the maid of another family. Giuliana looked across the circle of ash and half-burned twigs, over to where Kate lay.

Kate was buried beneath her blanket, only the upper part of her face sticking out. Her blanket-covered shape shivered visibly.

Should I…?
Giuliana looked over with longing. Just imagining what it might feel like to cuddle together beneath the blanket made her feel a little warmer. But a strange shyness kept her rooted to her sleeping spot. She couldn’t just get up and invite Kate to share a blanket, could she?

Why not?
another voice in her head piped up. If Biddy could cuddle up with a stranger she’d met only a few hours before, what was stopping her from sharing body heat with her friend?

She was fairly sure Kate’s eyes were open—and looking directly at her.

Stop being a fool! What are you afraid of, idiota?
She shied away from answering that question. Instead, she got up, the blanket around her shoulders, and tiptoed over to Kate.

“Can’t sleep either?” Kate asked. Her teeth were chattering.

Giuliana shook her head.

They stared at each other.

“Um, do you think…we should…?” Kate pulled one hand out from under the blanket and gestured around at the other sleepers, paired up like animals boarding Noah’s ark. “I mean…we’ll never g-get any sleep if we don’t get warm, right?”

Grateful that Kate had been the one to make the suggestion, Giuliana nodded.

Kate looked up at her, the white of her eyes gleaming in the glow from the fires. “So how do we do this?”

“Like this,” Giuliana whispered. She spread her blanket across the cold ground and waved at Kate to lie down on top of it. When Kate did, she lay down next to her and spread Kate’s blanket over them.

They lay close but not touching for several moments.

Having a blanket to lie on as well as one to cover her helped a little, but Giuliana was still shivering and Kate’s teeth chattered. Giuliana stared up into the night sky, where smoke blotted out the stars. “Are you still cold?” she whispered after a while.

Kate nodded, her teeth clacking against each other.

“Me too.” Giuliana rolled onto her side, facing Kate, and moved closer. She lifted her arm and hesitated.
She’s a woman. There’s nothing to it.
She wrapped her arm around Kate and welded their bodies together.

Kate shivered against her, so Giuliana chafed her good hand along her back to warm her. More shivers went through Kate’s body.

Madonna, the poor thing had to be freezing!

Her own skin prickled with their closeness.
Just goose bumps,
she told herself, but deep down, she knew it wasn’t just the cold sending shivers through her. Something else, something strange, was going on with her, but her brain was too tired to think about it.

When she cuddled closer, the goose bumps didn’t go away—quite the opposite. Every inch of her body, from her scalp to her toes, tingled.

After a minute or two, the chattering of Kate’s teeth stopped.

Giuliana’s skin was heating up, but she still couldn’t stop shaking. The closer she pressed to Kate, the more her body trembled, but she couldn’t stop herself from nestling closer. Her bare feet pressed against warm skin.

Kate jerked against her. “Heavens! Are those your feet or blocks of ice?”

“Sorry.” Giuliana started to pull them away.

“No, no, leave them, or you’ll never get warm.”

With a grateful sigh, Giuliana snuggled her feet against Kate’s legs. How soft her skin felt! And how did Kate manage to still smell so good even after not being able to wash since yesterday morning?

They lay pressed together from head to toe, sharing the same pile of moss for a pillow. Neither of them closed her eyes; they kept looking at each other in the semi-darkness. With the soft glow lighting her fair features, Kate looked like the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen. Giuliana’s fingers itched with the need to touch her face and trace the contours of her eyebrows and the curve of her cheekbones.

A thunderous boom in the distance startled her. Their heads nearly knocked, their mouths now just a breath apart.

“They’re still dynamiting,” Kate whispered.

Her breath puffed across Giuliana’s face, starting that prickling sensation all over her body again. A part of her wanted to press even closer, but another part wanted to pull back in panic and get some distance between them. Caught between those two conflicting impulses, she remained where she was. Her heart beat so loudly that she feared Kate would be able to hear—or feel—it. Or was Kate’s heart racing just as fast?

She was afraid to ask. Even if she weren’t, she didn’t know how to ask…what to ask. How could she find words for what she didn’t fully understand herself?

Sleep. You need sleep.
Tomorrow, the fires might be out, and life in the city—and her feelings, whatever they meant—would go back to normal. After one last glance at Kate’s face, she forced her eyes closed. Now, robbed of sight, her other senses intensified. In the cover of the darkness, she allowed herself to enjoy Kate’s warmth, her scent, her softness. After a while, she became aware that she’d been trailing her foot up and down Kate’s smooth calf. She froze. “Oh. I am so sorry. I only try to get warm.”

“It’s all right. It feels good.” Now Kate froze too. “Uh, I mean, it’s nice not to feel so alone after the day we had.”

Giuliana hummed her agreement.

Both lay still for a while, neither moving an inch.

Giuliana peered at Kate from beneath half-lowered lashes. Had Kate fallen asleep?

“What’s good night in Italian?” Kate whispered.

The question made Giuliana smile. Her tense body relaxed against Kate a bit. “I am Sicilian, not Italian.”

“But Sicily is part of Italy, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but the languages are different.”

When Kate nodded, a few strands of her hair tickled Giuliana’s cheek. “All right. What’s ‘good night’ in Sicilian, then?”

“It is bona notti.”

“Bona notti, Giuliana.”

“Bona notti, Kate.” With the smile still on her lips, Giuliana closed her eyes.

CHAPTER 17

Golden Gate Park

San Francisco, California

April 20, 1906

Giuliana cuddled closer, entwining their legs.

The gentle pressure of Giuliana’s thigh between hers coaxed a low moan from Kate’s throat. She gasped and couldn’t get her breath.

Leaning over her on one arm, Giuliana lowered her head and whispered a kiss to Kate’s forehead.

Kate’s eyes fluttered shut—then flew open when Giuliana’s lips, cool against Kate’s overheated skin, moved down and kissed a path over her cheek toward the corner of her mouth. She started to tremble. “W-what are you doing?”

Giuliana looked down at her. The glow of the distant fires made her brown irises seem to spark. “Life is too short to throw away love, no matter what form it comes in.” Before Kate could say a thing, Giuliana leaned down.

Just before their lips could meet, a touch to her feet startled Kate awake.

Breathing heavily, she stared up at the dark sky.
Just a dream. Of course. Giuliana would never do something like that.
She pulled her hand out from beneath the blanket and pressed it to the corner of her mouth. It had been so real. She could still feel the caress of Giuliana’s lips on her face and the warm press of Giuliana’s breasts against hers.

Even as the last wisps of the dream faded away, she still felt that soft pressure on her chest. When she looked down, she discovered that it was real.

Giuliana’s head rested on her chest. Her arm was wrapped tightly around Kate’s waist, and her good hand was tucked beneath Kate’s hip.

Kate lifted her head off the ground so she could study her features, entirely relaxed in her sleep.

The small movement made Giuliana cuddle closer. She mumbled something in Sicilian and nuzzled her face against Kate’s uncorsetted breasts.

Heat shot down Kate’s body and pooled at that spot between her legs. With both hands, she clutched at the damp grass
. Oh merciful heavens!
She should move away; she really should. Her chest heaved beneath mouthfuls of gulped-in air, pressing Giuliana’s face even closer.

Just when Kate thought she’d melt on the spot or burst into a million pieces, another touch distracted her.

Something skittered over her feet.

Was that Giuliana’s ice-cold toes again, or…? She peered down, right into two pairs of gleaming eyes.

Someone’s lap dogs had gotten loose and had come over to see what the two humans were doing. At least that was her first thought. Then another small shape scampered through the grass a few feet away.

Rats! The biggest rats Kate had ever seen were rustling through the grass. They were everywhere!

Kate sat up so fast that Giuliana’s head landed in her lap.

“What…? Kate?” She lifted her head from Kate’s thigh and stared up at her with flushed cheeks. “What did I—?”

“Rats!” Kate pointed with a trembling finger.

They jumped up, clutching each other for reassurance.

Two of the rats skittered away, but a third tried to crawl into an abandoned soup bowl.

Ugh!
Kate kicked at the bowl, making the rat squeak and dart away, into the darkness.

All around them, people started to scream and jump up.

A stream of dark shapes, almost as big as cats, rushed along the row of tents and makeshift shelters.

The earthquake must have driven them out of the sewers. They were just as homeless as the refugees camping out in the park, but Kate still shivered with revulsion. She pulled Giuliana closer, the blankets around both of their shoulders.

A few yards away, her mother let out a bloodcurdling scream.

“They’re gone. They’re gone, Millicent,” her father said. “Calm down. Let’s go back to sleep.”

But her mother kept sobbing and pacing. “Sleep? I can’t sleep in this awful place.”

“Where else are we supposed to sleep?” Kate asked.

“I don’t care. I’m not lying back down. If those rats come back, we’ll catch the plague or some other horrible disease.” Her mother bent to tie the shoes she’d loudly complained about just a few hours ago.

Kate’s father sighed and began to fold his blanket. “It’ll be dawn soon anyway. At least we’ll be the first ones in the breadline.”

* * *

Giuliana sat in the damp grass and carefully examined her blisters and the deep bruises her feet and legs had taken when the boardinghouse had collapsed on her. Her left ankle was swollen from all the walking she had done. Her entire body—or at least what she could see of it—looked as if an artist had dipped it in paints of red, blue, and purple. Still, she had gotten lucky.

A horse-drawn wagon jangled through the park’s entrance, making her look up.

A huge barrel had been tied to the back of the wagon. Liquid sloshing around in the barrel sounded like the most heavenly sound she’d ever heard.

Water!

Giuliana shoved her mangled feet back into her shoes and got up.

Several other refugees had already spied the wagon too and were rushing toward it with empty bottles, canteens, and buckets.

Her gaze darted around, searching for something she could use to get water. The O’Briens’ dented pot rested next to the cold fire. She grabbed it. Surely they wouldn’t mind, especially if she shared the water with them.

Within minutes, hundreds of people had lined up at the water wagon.

It was a good thing Giuliana hadn’t gone to wait in the breadline with Kate and her parents. By the time they returned, there might not be any water left. Biddy wasn’t there to get water either. After the rat scare, she’d said good-bye to her employers and left to search for her sister.