Shaken to the Core

by Jae

  Did she experience the same forbidden rush of feelings that Kate did when looking at another woman’s bare skin? Kate shook her head at herself. Surely not. As a doctor, Lucy Sharpe saw half-dressed women every day. For her, it was probably a very ordinary thing that didn’t make her heart race.

  Too bad Kate didn’t share that sentiment. She shuffled her feet while she lingered next to the bed, trying hard to keep her gaze elsewhere until Giuliana had pulled the dress back down.

  The doctor rubbed her hands together as if to warm them…or maybe because she was nervous after all. “Let’s see.” She stepped up to the bed and bent over Giuliana’s foot. “How did this happen?”

  “I fell down a chair,” Giuliana said, her cheeks reddening.

  Dr. Sharpe chuckled. “You fell off a chair? What were you doing up there? Replacing a lightbulb?”

  “Oh, no, I do not touch them. I dusted.”

  “Have you hurt your ankle before?” Dr. Sharpe asked while she manipulated the injured appendage, gently moving it in various directions.

  Giuliana shook her head.

  “Did you hear a popping sound when the injury happened?”

  “No. Only the sound of the books falling down.” Giuliana stared down at her leg, watching each of the doctor’s movements.

  Was she in pain? Kate wanted to reach out and touch her hand in reassurance, but that just wasn’t done between a young lady of her standing and her maid.

  Dr. Sharpe started to press on several points of Giuliana’s foot. “Does that hurt? No? How about here? And here?” Each of her questions was answered with a shake of Giuliana’s head.

  Kate couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “That’s good, right?”

  The doctor glanced up at her before directing her attention back to the injured ankle. “Yes, it is. There’s no bone tenderness, so I’m confident that it’s not an ankle fracture.” She looked at Giuliana. “That means the leg isn’t broken.”

  Twin sighs of relief came from Kate and Giuliana, making the doctor grin.

  “You did sustain an injury to at least two ligaments, though,” Dr. Sharpe said to Giuliana, who blinked up at her.

  “Ligament? Eh, what is that?”

  “Ligaments are the bands of tissue that connect the bones of your leg to the foot,” Dr. Sharpe said, lightly touching Giuliana’s foot to demonstrate where they were located.

  Kate’s gaze followed the gentle touch. That strange feeling of resentment toward the doctor returned and only disappeared once Dr. Sharpe moved her hand away.

  “When you fell off the chair, you must have twisted your ankle in a way that stretched the ligaments too much,” the doctor said. “Luckily, I don’t think they’re torn.”

  Giuliana brightened. “So it will get better all by itself, no? I can go home?”

  “Not so fast.” Dr. Sharpe chuckled and held on to Giuliana’s leg as if she would otherwise jump out of bed and leave. “I want to wrap your ankle first.”

  Was all that touching really necessary? As the doctor stepped away from the bed for a moment, Kate breathed more easily.

  Dr. Sharpe returned with bandages and wrapped them around Giuliana’s left foot, from the toes to the middle of her calf. “Try not to walk on it for a couple of days.”

  “Not possible. I must work on Monday,” Giuliana said, sounding desperate.

  Kate couldn’t hold back any longer. She stepped even closer and lightly put a hand on Giuliana’s arm for a moment. “I’ll tell my parents to give you a day or two off.”

  “No, Kate…” Giuliana blanched and covered her face with both hands. She peeked out from behind her fingers as if to judge how angry she’d made Kate. “Miss Kate. I am so sorry. I did not mean to call you—”

  Kate pulled Giuliana’s hands away from her face and gave her arm a quick squeeze before retreating. “It’s all right. I did tell you not to stand on formalities while we’re alone, didn’t I?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “No buts. I do want you to call me Kate.”

  Giuliana nibbled on her bottom lip and didn’t reply.

  Dr. Sharpe looked back and forth between them. “So Miss Russo works for you?”

  “For my family, yes,” Kate answered. What was so startling about that? Surely other people had brought in their maids before. “Why does that surprise you?”

  “It doesn’t. I just thought you…”

  “What?”

  The doctor turned away. “Nothing. Just my turn to make assumptions that I shouldn’t have made. I forgot for a moment that things in San Francisco are not the way they are at home.” She walked out and returned a minute later with a pair of crutches.

  What was that supposed to mean? Kate was still puzzling over what kind of assumption the doctor could have made while Dr. Sharpe gave Giuliana instructions on what to do and what to avoid.

  “Put some ice on your ankle for the next few hours, but only twenty minutes at a time.”

  “I do not have an ice box,” Giuliana said, sounding a bit embarrassed.

  “Then at least put your foot up,” the doctor said. “Elevate it with a pillow or two so that it’s higher than your heart.”

  Giuliana nodded. “I can do that.” She sat up in bed and started to roll her stocking back up her leg.

  As if on command, Kate and the doctor turned away. Their gazes met, and again Kate had the feeling that she was facing a kindred spirit in more ways than one. Could it really be that Lucy Sharpe…? She swallowed and didn’t dare finish the thought.

  When Giuliana thanked Dr. Sharpe and wobbled to the door on her newly acquired crutches, Kate watched her for a moment to make sure she wouldn’t fall and then directed her attention back to the doctor. “What do I owe you for your treatment?”

  “Nothing,” Dr. Sharpe said.

  “It’s all right. I promise I won’t take it out of Miss Russo’s wages. So, how much?”

  “Nothing,” the doctor repeated. “Miss Russo spared me from having to treat the accident victim and possibly getting blood all over my blouse. Blood is so hard to get out of white fabric, you know?”

  Kate looked into her eyes. She had a feeling Dr. Sharpe couldn’t care less about bloodstains. Finally, she nodded and smiled. “Thank you.”

  * * *

  Kate held on to Giuliana’s elbow until she’d safely made it up into the Packard’s passenger seat. With a mild feeling of regret, she stowed her unused camera equipment in the back of the automobile, walked around to the front, and turned the starter crank a few times. When the engine came to life, she climbed up behind the wheel. “So, where to?”

  Wordlessly, Giuliana pointed back to Market Street. They rode along in silence for a moment before she added, “Sixth Street. But you can let me out of the automobile on the corner. Then you can drive up the street and be home fast.”

  Kate stepped on the brake as a horse-drawn buggy crossed Market Street directly in front of their automobile without even looking left and right. Once the street ahead was clear, she turned her head to look at Giuliana. “No. I told you I’d take you home, and I always keep my promises.”

  “I want no trouble for you.” Giuliana fiddled with a bit of her skirt.

  “I won’t get into trouble.” Even if her parents caught her sneaking in, the earful she’d get for venturing out unescorted after sundown would be worth it to see Giuliana home safe and sound.

  At the intersection with Sixth Street, she slowed the automobile and turned her head to give Giuliana a questioning gaze.

  Giuliana pointed to the right.

  They headed south on Sixth Street. Kate downshifted and slowed the automobile even more, not just because the street now got worse but also because she wasn’t often in this part of the city and wanted to look around. Everything seemed so different here compared to the sections north of Market Street that she could almost believe that she had entered another city altogether. The stacks of factories rose into the night sky. Warehouses and cheap wooden rooming houses warred
for space on both sides of the street, the buildings so close together that their walls seemed to touch.

  The corner of each intersection was dominated by large boardinghouses. In between, smaller rooming houses crowded together. Rusty signs hanging over dirty canvas awnings announced that the lower floors were occupied by barber shops, eating houses, laundries, and bakeries, while the upper floors rented out rooms to laborers and their families.

  “This is it.” Giuliana pointed at a five-story rooming house at the corner of Sixth and Howard Streets. It towered over three smaller hotels that occupied the block to the north.

  Kate pulled the automobile over to the curb and set the brake. One foot already on the running board, she hesitated. Would the Packard be safe in this neighborhood? She eyed the residents who were smoking cigarettes on the wide front stoop of Giuliana’s boardinghouse, relaxing after a long workday.

  But when Giuliana moved to climb down on her own, Kate quickly jumped down and rushed around to help her. One of the crutches clattered onto the cobblestones. Kate bent and picked it up. “Here.”

  With the crutch between them, they faced each other for a moment.

  “Thank you.” Giuliana tucked the crutches beneath her armpits and hobbled toward the building.

  “Wait!” Kate grabbed the carrying case from the backseat and hurried after her. “I’ll help you.”

  The men on the stoop moved aside to let them pass and nodded their heads in greeting but didn’t get up to help. One said something in a language Kate didn’t understand. She thought it might be Russian. Women were looking down from the windows above, where they had hung clothes on lines strung between windows.

  The door creaked as Kate opened it and held it for Giuliana.

  It was dim inside; only a single smoking oil lamp burned at the end of the hall. The smell of cooked cabbage and damp wool hung in the air. A set of wooden stairs led to the building’s other four floors.

  “Where’s your apartment?” Kate asked.

  “My room is on the fifth floor.” Giuliana grimaced as if only now realizing she’d have to climb all the way to the top floor with her crutches.

  “I don’t suppose the building has an elevator, does it?”

  Pressing her lips together, Giuliana shook her head. “Eh, can you hold, please?” She handed one of the crutches to Kate, gripped the rickety banister with one hand, and balanced herself with the crutch on the other side.

  Kate watched as she hopped up one step and then the next. With every step, it seemed to take more effort, and the pauses became longer. By the time she reached the landing of the third floor, even the creaking of the stairs couldn’t drown out Giuliana’s labored breathing anymore. But she said nothing and hobbled up two more steps.

  “Stop!” Kate called when she couldn’t stand to watch anymore.

  Giuliana swayed and then turned. “What?” she gasped out.

  “Those jarring motions can’t be good for your injured leg,” Kate said.

  “I know, but it is the only way. I do not have wings or someone to carry me.”

  Kate hesitated for a second and then took a step toward her. “Well, that can be arranged.”

  Giuliana blinked. A tired smile crept onto her face. “Wings?”

  Kate couldn’t help smiling back. “No. Someone to carry you up.”

  “You mean the men?” Giuliana pointed downstairs to where her fellow tenants were sitting in front of the boardinghouse.

  “Oh no.” The mere thought of one of them touching Giuliana, even just to help her, made Kate grit her teeth. “I could carry you piggyback.” When Giuliana just stared at her, she added, “That means I will carry you up on my back.” She mimed the action.

  Giuliana continued to look at her with wide eyes.

  “I’m stronger than I look.” Kate had been lugging her camera and the heavy glass plates around on the steep hills of San Francisco for years. Carrying Giuliana up the rest of the way should be possible—at least she hoped so.

  “I believe you, but it is not right. I can walk up the stairs.” Giuliana hopped up another step and then another, more pulling herself up by the banister. The wobbly thing gave a warning creak. Halfway up the stairs, Giuliana paused.

  “Giuliana, stop! It’s not safe. Let me help.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Of course. I don’t mind at all.” Kate climbed up so that they stood on the same step. Only now did she realize that she’d have to put down her photographic equipment. She stared at the carrying case in her hand for a moment. Leaving it behind with all the strangers downstairs didn’t sit well with her, but there was no other option. She put the leather case and Giuliana’s other crutch on the step below and bent down a little so that Giuliana could climb onto her back. “Your trusted mount awaits, my lady.”

  Giuliana hesitated. Her cheeks were flushed, either from exertion or from embarrassment—or maybe both. Finally, she leaned the crutch against the banister, pinned the hem of her dress and her one petticoat up, and gripped Kate’s shoulders with both hands. Her legs wrapped around Kate’s waist.

  For once, Kate was glad of the dim light on the stairs, for it hid her face, which was now flushed too. She reached back and gently held on to Giuliana’s thighs so she wouldn’t slide off. Bending slightly forward, she started up the stairs. Admittedly, Giuliana was heavier than she had expected—or maybe Kate wasn’t as strong as she had thought. Her muscles ached, and her back screamed at her with every step, but a part of her still regretted that the piggyback ride was coming to an end when they reached the fifth floor. She’d never been this close to another woman, and feeling Giuliana’s heat against her back was making her a bit dizzy in a very pleasant way.

  “Which room is it?” she gasped out and hoped Giuliana would think it was the exertion making her breathless.

  “This.” Giuliana pointed over Kate’s shoulder to a door at the end of the landing.

  Each of the doors Kate passed had a three-digit brass number on it, but the first number on Giuliana’s door had fallen off, so now it just said 12. The once-white paint was peeling off the door.

  When Kate stopped in front of the room, Giuliana slid down and produced a key from somewhere.

  “Wait. Let me get your crutches.” Kate rushed down the stairs, glad to have a moment alone. Thankfully, the carrying case and the crutches were still where she had left them. She picked them up and then turned back around. By the time she made it to the fifth floor, she was thoroughly winded. She pulled on the lace collar of her dress. “Could I beg a glass of water? I’m parched.”

  It was true, but admittedly, she was also curious to see how Giuliana lived and didn’t want to be turned away at the door.

  “Oh. Scusa. Come in, please.” Giuliana shouldered through the door on her crutches, just pausing to light a single kerosene lamp.

  Kate followed her in and looked around. Not that there was much to see. The room was tiny. Two narrow beds stretched along the walls to the left and right. Between them was a single window, which faced north, overlooking the dirty roofs of other boardinghouses. There was no sink and no other door that might lead to a water closet. Two chairs, a small table, a trunk, and a shelf were the only furniture. How could anyone live in this broom closet of a room?

  Well, at least it was neat and tidy, and several trinkets lent a more homey feel. A yellowed photograph of a couple and a gaggle of children in front of a fishing boat leaned against the shelf, next to a large sea shell. A pipe filled the room with the spicy-sweet scent of tobacco, and a leather strop hung by the washstand in the corner, but the razor belonging to it was nowhere in sight.

  An invisible male presence seemed to linger in the room. Did Giuliana live with a man? But surely Kate’s mother wouldn’t have hired a married woman, would she? Did that mean that Giuliana was living in sin? And where was her…companion?

  Giuliana crutched over to a pitcher next to the washstand.

  “Oh, no. You sit. I can do this.” Kate gently p
ressed her down onto one of the beds and piled the two pillows up for Giuliana to rest her foot on, which she did with a grateful sigh.

  Her gaze followed Kate across the room as she took the two tin cups from the shelf, filled them with water, and carried them over to Giuliana. She handed Giuliana one of the cups and sipped from the other while she sat on a chair next to the bed and looked around the room again. “Can I ask you a question?” she said before her courage could abandon her.

  Giuliana looked up at her, her dark eyes wide as if she was afraid of what Kate might want to know. But finally she nodded. “I can ask you too, yes?” Her eyes widened as if she was surprised by her daring words.

  Fair enough. Kate was the one who had wanted them to act like equals, forgoing formalities, so now she had to live with the consequences. She nodded and took a deep breath. “That leather strop…” She pointed. “Who does it belong to?”

  Giuliana followed her gaze and then looked away. She took a moment adjusting her leg on the pillows before answering. “It was of Turi…Salvatore. But no one called him that.” Her voice wavered.

  Kate wanted to ask who he had been to Giuliana and what had happened to him, since Giuliana had spoken of him in the past tense, but she wasn’t sure if more questions would be welcome. She sensed that this might be a painful topic for Giuliana, so she curbed her curiosity and remained silent.

  A baby started to cry in the room next door, sounding overly loud through the thin wall.

  Giuliana took a sip of water and then, as if that had fortified her, added, “He was my brother.”

  “What happened to him?” Kate blurted before she could stop herself. Quickly, she put her hand on Giuliana’s arm. “You don’t have to tell me if it pains you too much to talk about it.”

  “He…” Giuliana’s hand holding the tin cup trembled. “He died not long ago. A few days before I work for your family.”

  The baby next door stopped crying. In the sudden silence, Giuliana’s words kept echoing through Kate’s mind. He died. Then another thought came: So that’s how she knows Dr. Sharpe. She must have treated her brother. A lump formed in her throat.