Days of Gold Read online

  “Sell the farm, make thousands, and marry someone else,” Edilean said quickly.

  “You seem sure of yourself,” Harriet said as she picked up a plum and inspected it.

  “Is it good enough for our table?” There was amusement in Edilean’s voice.

  “Why don’t you go look around and see what the others have to offer?” Harriet said impatiently. “But just look; don’t buy.”

  As Edilean took her up on the suggestion and began to walk around, she saw what Harriet meant. Several of the carts held produce that didn’t look fit to buy. It had been thrown into the wagon, so it was bruised, which meant it would rot in a day or two.

  When she got to the end of the long row, there was a woman with her back to her who looked familiar. When she turned, Edilean saw that it was Tabitha, and in spite of herself, she almost felt that she was seeing an old friend. Edilean knew so few people in America, and here was one of them.

  She wasn’t sure if Tabitha saw her, but when she moved away, Edilean followed. She turned a corner, then stopped, for Tabitha had disappeared.

  In the next second, Tabitha slipped out from beside a building and confronted Edilean. “What do you want?” Tabitha asked in anger. “You didn’t get enough of hurting me the last time? You came back to do more?” As she spoke, she was looking Edilean in her silk dress up and down with contempt.

  “What happened to you after our confrontation?” Edilean asked, noting that Tabitha was filthy. On the ship she’d had enough pride in herself that she’d kept her hair neat and her clothes clean, but now she looked like she’d given up.

  “What do you care?”

  “I don’t,” Edilean said as she started to turn away.

  “I could kill you for what you done to me,” Tabitha called out after her.

  “Whatever do you mean?” Edilean asked, looking back at her. “You’re the thief, not me.”

  “How was I to know your lover had diamonds? I thought they were just glass. They were in his pocket like so much rubbish, and when I brushed up against him, I just slipped them out. Who carries diamonds about in his pocket?”

  Edilean wondered the same thing but didn’t say so. “And I took them from you and gave them back to him. Is that why you’re so angry and so...” She looked her up and down.

  “Dirty?”

  Edilean gave a little shrug.

  “They... the people in the camp took the bracelets, then threw me out on my own because of what you did to me. They said I was worthless to not know what I’d taken—and to let a lady like you beat me in a fight. But you was fightin’ for your life. I wasn’t.”

  “True,” Edilean said coolly. “But I did beat you.” She knew that, logically, she owed this woman nothing, but still, she couldn’t seem to make herself leave. “Where are you living now?”

  Tabitha’s face hardened. “Anywhere I can. With whatever man will have me for the night.”

  A month ago, Edilean wouldn’t have fully understood what Tabitha meant, but she did now. To think of doing that with a man you didn’t love! It almost made her sick at her stomach. And Edilean well remembered that Tabitha had loudly declared she was no whore. She’d been branded by a man rather than bed him. But because of what Edilean had done to Tabitha, the woman was now walking the streets. “I have to go,” Edilean said. “Someone is waiting for me.”

  “People always wait for rich women like you,” Tabitha said with a sneer.

  Edilean’s temper rose to make her face red. “You may think you’ve had it easy, but I’ve been betrayed as often as you have!”

  “So you didn’t get the man?” Tabitha smiled. “At least I’ve heard something good today.”

  Edilean couldn’t help it as her hands made into fists and she had an urge to punch Tabitha. They were glaring at each other like two dogs about to fight when Edilean said, “Why did you leave your father’s farm?”

  For a moment Tabitha looked startled, but then she straightened her shoulders. “He wasn’t my father but my stepfather, and he married my mother to get at her daughters. After three years of it I ran away. What does that matter to you?”

  Edilean took a step closer to her. “What kind of farm was it?”

  “What does that mean?”

  Edilean stared at her.

  “It was a farm with cows and pigs and corn. What other kind of farm is there?”

  “What if I bought a farm and gave you a job?”

  “You? Buy a farm?” Tabitha asked, her lips curled into a sneer.

  Edilean turned and started back down the street.

  “Wait!” Tabitha called out.

  Edilean stopped walking but she didn’t turn around.

  “Who else would be on the farm? I can’t do it all by myself. There’s a lot of work on a farm.”

  Edilean turned back around. “I haven’t thought about this, so I don’t know the details, but some man died a few days ago, and I think his farm is going to be for sale.”

  “And you thought you’d ask me to run it?”

  “Why not? Or would you rather keep on making your living stealing and doing vulgar things with men?”

  “I’d rather—” Tabitha started to make a sarcastic remark but thought better of it. “Will you get men to run the place? I have trouble with men.”

  “We all do,” Edilean said with a sigh. “I was happy until I met James, then my uncle. And Angus...” She waved her hand. “That’s over with. Harriet—she’s the woman I live with—thinks I’m useless. In fact, nearly everyone I’ve met in the last year thinks I’m useless. I’d like to prove them wrong.”

  “You can’t run a farm with just women.”

  “Why not?” Edilean asked.

  “Because men have to... They have to lift heavy things.”

  “We’ll get some big horses. I rode on a wagon pulled by Clydesdales, and they could have hauled mountains.” As she spoke, what had been just a flippant thought was forming in her mind in a solid way. Why couldn’t women run a farm business? They’d be known for having the best fruit at the market. It wouldn’t be bruised and they’d display it beautifully. Edilean had a vision of green pears on yellow, watered silk.

  She looked Tabitha up and down and remembered what she’d looked like when she was clean—and a picture began taking shape in her head. “Bound Girl,” she said.

  “What?”

  “I’ll form a business. ‘Bound Girl.’ That’s what I’ll name the company.”

  “Company?”

  “Yes,” Edilean said, then narrowed her eyes at Tabitha. “I know you’re a liar and that you love to tell people long, sad stories about your life, but I’ll tell you now that if you lie to me and if you ever so much as steal a hairpin from me, I’ll throw you out. No second chances. No amount of begging and pleading will make me forgive you, and you’ll be out on your own. Do you understand me?”

  “Yeah,” Tabitha said insolently.

  “I’m serious and I want you to be too. Do we have an agreement?”

  Tabitha thought about what Edilean was saying, and she took the smirk off her face. “You get me off the streets and I won’t steal from you or lie to you. I won’t say the same about what I’ll do to others, but I’ll stay away from you.”

  “You steal from men and you’ll find yourself in prison if not hanged, but that’s up to you,” Edilean said. “Now, come along. I have to tell Harriet.”

  Ten minutes later, she’d made her way through the crowd to Harriet, who was haggling with a man about the price of beans. “He’s a thief,” she said when she saw Edilean. “And look at these things. They have bugs on them.”

  “Take ’em or not, it don’t matter to me,” the man by the wagon said.

  Muttering to herself, Harriet put them in her basket with the other produce she’d bought, and glanced at Edilean. “Why do you have that look on your face?” She leaned closer to her. “And why is that dreadful woman following you?”

  “This is Tabitha.”

  “The one you..