The Awakening Read online

  All Amanda wanted was the confusion to stop. She didn’t want to look at an empty chair and wish Dr. Montgomery were in it. She didn’t want to compare Taylor with another man and have Taylor lose.

  “Dr. Montgomery is a frivolous man,” Amanda said. “He goes to motion pictures instead of lectures and he’d rather go on a picnic than to a museum.”

  “He sounds awful,” Grace said, her eyes sparkling. Now she knew for sure that she’d lost her chance to get into heaven.

  “But how do I see him again? Should I invite him to dinner? I don’t think Taylor will like that.”

  And Taylor must always be appeased, Grace thought, rather like an ancient hungry god. She folded the newspaper back. “I just happen to have noticed an ad in today’s paper.” She handed the paper to Amanda and pointed.

  Translator Wanted. Needs to speak and/or write as many languages as possible. Needed to help with incoming hop pickers. Five dollars a day. Apply Kingman Arms. Dr. Henry R. Montgomery.

  “How many languages do you speak, dear?” Grace asked.

  “Four,” Amanda answered, “and I write three others. Mother, do you think I should apply for a job? I don’t think Taylor would approve of—”

  “But you’d be doing it for Taylor. As soon as you spend a little time around this riffraff and see what wasteful lives the others in the world lead, believe me, you’ll come running back to the serenity of life with Taylor. You’ll be glad to get back on a schedule and study something that has some meaning. And then, too, you’ll be sure of your love for Taylor. You’ll get this restless feeling out of your blood. You’ll be a better wife and mother when you’re ready to settle down.”

  Amanda wanted to believe her mother because the idea of the job excited her. And, also, what her mother said made sense. She would be a better person if she got Dr. Montgomery out of her mind. As it was, she found herself getting more impatient with Taylor by the hour.

  She sighed. “I don’t believe Father or Taylor will allow me to do this.”

  Grace clenched her fists. Years ago she’d lost out to Taylor, she’d lost her husband and her daughter to that man’s need for possession, but she wasn’t going to lose again. This time she’d fight until she was bloody. Amanda was beginning to love her again, beginning to come out from under Taylor’s rule, and Grace wasn’t going to let this transformation stop. Thank you, Dr. Montgomery, she thought, thank you for breaking the spell over our house. “I’ll take care of your father,” Grace said, “and your father will take care of Taylor.”

  “Are you sure?” Amanda whispered in awe.

  Grace leaned forward and clutched her daughter’s hand. “I’m very sure.”

  “A job?” Taylor gasped. “Amanda is to work outside her home? As a translator for those…those…?” His upper lip curled into a sneer.

  J. Harker chewed on his cigar. Less than an hour ago Grace had come to him and talked about Amanda working for that Dr. Montgomery. Grace had looked so good and smelled so good, fresh out of a bath, and as she’d sat there her dress kept creeping up over her legs. “If we can’t get the professor to stay here where we can keep an eye on him, we can send Amanda there.”

  Taylor seemed to hear crashing in his ears and knew it was more building blocks of his life falling down around him. He wished he’d never heard the name Montgomery. And to think! He was the one who had wanted him to come to the Caulden Ranch in the first place. “But field workers,” Taylor said in disgust. “A woman of Amanda’s sensibilities couldn’t deal with such men.”

  “I’m beginning to think my daughter has more of me in her than I thought. She’ll go to see about whatever the professor’s doin’ and she’ll come back and report everything. We’ll always be two steps ahead of the unionists. I’ll get my hops picked and I won’t have any union problems. She’s goin’ first thing in the mornin’ to get that job.” Harker didn’t give Taylor time to reply before he turned away. “And she’ll be havin’ breakfast with me in the mornin’. I want her to have some strength tomorrow.” He left the room.

  Taylor sat down and put his head in his hands.

  Amanda had never been so nervous in her life. She gave a quiet burp from the enormous breakfast her father had insisted she eat and looked out the car window. She hadn’t seen Taylor since yesterday, and she knew his absence meant disapproval of what she was doing. She would have liked to have explained to him that she was doing this for the good of both of them but he’d never given her the chance.

  Her father had certainly seemed pleased, though. He’d smiled at her and given her second helpings of everything. Perhaps her mother had explained what Amanda was doing.

  “We’re here, miss,” the driver said.

  Amanda looked out the window and saw the long line of people standing in front of the Kingman Arms. She’d never spoken to the chauffeur before, except to give directions (Taylor said that one did not speak to underlings unless absolutely necessary), but now he seemed almost like a friend. “Why are all those people there?” she asked.

  “Five dollars a day is a lot of money and an awful lot of people speak more than one language.”

  Amanda was surprised that he seemed to know exactly why she was there.

  “Shall I get you to the head of the line, miss? I could go in and tell Dr. Montgomery you want the job. I’m sure he’ll give it to you.”

  Amanda wasn’t as sure. He’d already said some awful things about her money and her snobbery. “No, thank you, I’ll just wait in line with the others.” She grimaced at that because most of the people in line looked as if they hadn’t had a bath in all their lives. A man with a missing front tooth grinned and winked at her.

  “I’ll just wait over here for you, miss, and I’ll keep watch that no harm comes to you.”

  “Thank you very much, uh…”

  “James, miss.”

  “Thank you, James.” She waited while the chauffeur came around to open the door for her, then she got out and walked to the back of the line.

  The people in the line weren’t very pleasant to her and said several unkind things about her clothes, the car she came in, and whether she needed a job or not.

  “The lady’s come down to us,” one overpainted young woman behind Amanda said. “Think a silk dress will get you the job, honey?”

  Amanda said nothing. What had made her think she wanted to do this?

  “Maybe it’s the handsome college professor she wants,” another woman said with a smirk.

  Amanda turned to face the jeering women. “How many languages do you speak?” she asked coolly.

  “It’s none of your business,” the first woman said.

  “I speak four and can write three more,” Amanda said quite loudly, so that most of the people in the line could hear her. James, waiting in the car, smiled encouragement at her.

  “What’s that?” said a young man with a notebook who was moving down the line. “Did someone here say she could speak four languages?” He looked at Amanda and the other three women.

  “I do,” Amanda said.

  The young man looked her up and down. “What are they?”

  “French, Italian, Spanish and German. I can read and write Greek, Russian and Latin.”

  He was writing as she spoke but he crossed the Latin out. “Any Oriental languages? Hindu?”

  “I have only a rudimentary acquaintance with Chinese but I’m afraid I’m not fluent in it.”

  The man gave her a quizzical look. “Any other ’rudimentary acquaintances’?”

  “A bit of Japanese, a bit of Hungarian.”

  People in the line were beginning to leave as they gave malevolent looks to Amanda.

  “Come with me, honey,” the man said and grabbed Amanda’s arm and began pulling her into the hotel.

  The lobby was a mess, with people running everywhere, people shouting, people sitting on every available surface. There were bundles and suitcases piled along the walls. Children were screaming; men were smoking and frowning; women w