Ill Repute

by Nanette Kinslow

  “It would be insane to haul a cast iron stove up here. They’re too heavy. I built this one from metal I brought in.”

  Alice looked at the stove and it made sense to her. It looked like a large, silver box with a door on one side. All the seams were folded over and attached together. On the top he had built another box to collect the heat before it escaped up the chimney, making an oven of sorts.

  “You told me you would teach me about the bread starter.”

  “It’s called soured dough. The starter is a yeast mixture. When you mix yeast with flour and water and other ingredients it comes alive. It makes a brew that gives the bread a sour flavor. You take some out to bake with and put fresh ingredients back in to replenish and feed the brew. The water has to be just barely warm. Too cold or too hot and it kills the starter. You take the starter you pulled out and mix it with your bread ingredients instead of yeast. We can do that in the morning.” Joseph laid his head back on the pillow.

  Alice watched him drift off and she put away the footwear and hung the native shift beside her bedroll. Except when they lay in bed at night she was rarely without work or something to keep her occupied. She decided it was best to stay indoors and thought that while he was sleeping she might enjoy a bath so she went out and collected a few buckets of water.

  Setting the buckets on the stove to warm, she opened her luggage and sorted through her belongings. She put aside the new silken stockings she had brought, deciding they were of no use to her in the cabin. She sorted through her more elaborate lingerie and pulled out all but the simplest pieces. She had a few simple dresses that she kept unpacked, then she took all but the plainest and put them back into her bags. Alice folded the clothing neatly and set it at the foot of her bedroll and then went to check the water.

  Joseph seemed to sleep soundly and she noticed that his color seemed good so she carried the pails to her bedside and undressed quickly, listening for his steady breathing. She’d not been able to bathe for days and the heavy work left her feeling dirty and uncomfortable. She had thought she’d ask him to stay outside longer so she could wash when they returned home that day, but if he slept she wouldn’t have to inconvenience him.

  She pulled a chair over silently, slipped out of her dress and lingerie and laid them over the back of the chair. Gathering a soft flour cloth piece, she dipped it into the warm water and lathered it with a fine soap she had taken from her bag. The water felt wonderful as she ran the wet cloth along her shoulders and her arms. She could feel the warm wetness running down between her breasts and she sighed with pleasure.

  Joseph opened his eyes to the sound of her soft movements and lay completely still. Her naked form was silhouetted against the light through the window and her hair clung damply to her shoulders and bare back. Her backside was rounded and shapely and she turned slightly revealing a firm and rounded breast. He closed his eyes and did not move. He felt angry with himself at his sudden desire for the girl and he gritted his teeth.

  Alice had made no more jokes to him, no more playful teasing about her profession and she had become quiet about her background. Joseph knew she was making every attempt to be more discreet and respectful of the fact that she was in his home. He could not fault her for trying to bathe while he slept, but her display only convinced him that she did not belong there with him. He had the thought before, and now he was sure he needed an alternative. In the morning he would talk to her about going to stay with Jack.

  Jack’s cabin was quite small, but the prospector was rarely there and she would have the place to herself. She could even have sex with Jack if that’s what she wanted. He decided he would tell her in the morning and resolved to drive the vision of her bath from his mind.

  Alice tiptoed outside in a fresh dress and dumped the buckets behind the cabin. Then she returned and sat on her bedroll brushing out her hair. Joseph opened his eyes, a narrow sliver and watched her. She seemed sad and pensive and he heard her sigh softly. Then she lay on the roll and grew silent. After a while he drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter Eleve n

  Joseph slept fitfully through the night. He dreamt about Yvonne several times, imagining her delight when he returned and her father shaking his hand once he knew how much gold Joseph had found. His head pounded and once he woke up to find that Alice had placed a damp cloth across his forehead. The coolness was soothing.

  When he woke later and was chilled she appeared beside the bed and brought more blankets and tucked him in gently, crooning softly and putting her hand on his forehead.

  He sat up ill in the bed and she was there immediately with a pail and put her hand on his shoulder. She held back his hair and she did not recoil when she washed his beard gently with a cooling cloth. He lay back on the pillow as she cared for him, feeling better with his stomach emptied and he watched her.

  Her face was calm and sweet and she wrinkled her nose while she washed his face and then smiled at him reassuringly. The bridge of her nose was freckled now, despite the fact that she wore the hat he had given her most of the time while outdoors. She had braided her hair on either side and she smelled fresh, like the Alaskan air. He decided that she looked open and wholesome despite her profession. Joseph wondered how he would feel about her if she were like any other woman, innocent and untouched. He considered what she had said to him about there being two kinds of women. She would be one of the lewd ones he thought. He considered that maybe there was a third kind of woman, a woman who was neither lewd nor pure, but someone genuinely between the two.

  “This beard does not work well with being sick,” she remarked. “You look like you’re feeling better now though.”

  “I am. I guess that collapse in the shaft was worse than I thought. I admit that I have a rather impressive headache.”

  “Do you think you’ll be alright for a moment while I gather something to make a tea for you? I’ll be back right away and I’ll get some fresh water.”

  “I need to go out anyway.”

  “You do not. You’re staying right here,” she scolded.

  “No, I need to step outside.”

  “Here,” Alice handed him an empty pail. “I’ll turn my back and then I’ll take it with me when I go out. I don’t want you walking around without me. What if you fell?”

  Joseph shook his head.

  She helped him stand up and once she saw he was steady on his feet she turned to him. “I’m going out the door and I will count to fifty. Then I am coming back in. That’s the best I can do.”

  When she returned she found that he had relieved himself, but he looked pale again and she hurried for another empty container.

  “You have to lie down.” She settled him in the bed and tried washing his beard again. “I’ll be right back. Do not get up.”

  He nodded slowly and she hurried out to empty and rinse the pails. Upstream she peeled a wide strip of bark from a willow and she hustled back to the cabin.

  Joseph tore open the letter from Yvonne that Jack had left. He read it slowly, feeling a little disappointed and then tucked it away.

  When she returned, Alice tore the bark into narrow strips, steeped them in hot water and poured the liquid into a cup.

  “This will help.” Alice handed him the cup and he drank down the tea without complaint. By the time she had straightened the bed she could see his expression ease and he lay back quietly.

  “Feeling better?” she asked.

  “As a matter of fact I am. What was in that tea?”

  “A little willow bark, it should take the edge off.”

  He lay back and stared up to the rafters. “Thanks.”

  “What were you dreaming about earlier?” Alice had seen him smile while he was sleeping, a happy expression on his face that she had not seen before. He was so serious most of the time, she thought. He often had a look of determination and his thoughts sometimes seemed far away.

  “Home. The shop. And Yvonne.”

  “Tell me about it. It was a nice dream, right
?”

  “Yes, it was,” he recalled. “Yvonne was in the store with me and she looked nice in an apron, even though that would never happen.”

  “Why not?”

  “Yvonne working in the hardware store? No, that wouldn’t happen. Her father owns most of the county. I can’t imagine her working, she has no need to. She’s so beautiful that she doesn’t need to do that kind of thing. With the gold she’ll never have to do anything and she can have everything she wants.”

  “What do people do with themselves when they have everything they could want?” Alice wondered aloud.

  “Relax, I guess. Take it easy.” He held up his calloused hands.

  “You can have smooth hands I suppose, if that’s something you want,” she said.

  “I’m sure it’s something Yvonne would want. I’ll have to figure a way to smooth mine out before I go back.”

  “When will you go back?”

  He looked at her sitting beside the bed, her knees pulled up to her chest and braids trailing over her shoulders. She looked up at him kindly and smiled.

  “I think we should work as long as we can into the winter and plan on leaving in the spring with the first wagon. We’ve pulled a good amount of gold from that mine. When I get back I should be able to sell the claim profitably too. You’ve worked hard. I’ll give you enough to get home and on your feet, maybe more.”

  “Thank you,” she said. Alice wondered where she would go. “What about your store? Is it very large?”

  “Good sized. It did well enough. I made a nice living. I’ve got a nice place right outside of town. I really enjoyed running the store. Nearly everyone in town came in for one thing or another. I guess I knew practically everyone.”

  “Would you keep the store?” Alice asked. “I mean since you enjoyed it so much.”

  “No, I’ll sell it. Yvonne and her father didn’t care for the prospect of having a shop owner in the family.”

  “That’s nice that you met all kinds of people. I like that. If it’s a good shop I guess people would treat you with respect most of the time.”

  “I really enjoyed my customers. They’d come in scratching their heads and we could try to figure out what tools they would need for their projects or how they might patch or repair something. The carpenters and plumbers would come in early in the morning and again at the end of the day and talk about their jobs. Rich and poor came in and I knew them all.”

  Alice saw the faraway look in his eyes and decided that Joseph seemed to love some things about Alaska but, it was not his home and it was clear he missed home very much.

  “What is it like there, in Pennsylvania?” she asked.

  “It’s beautiful but it’s very different from Alaska. It’s farmland mostly, rolling hills of green. The Amish live there, they’re good people. It snows in the winter but not anything like it does here. It’s pretty though, on the hillsides. And it’s warm in the summer, far warmer than here.”

  “Your hardware store is not in the city?”

  “It’s in a town, not a city. There are cities though. A few hours away there’s Philadelphia. That’s a city. They have the trolleys there and the tall buildings. There are streets filled with shops and homes above them, rows and rows of little homes all lined up together.”

  “Like San Francisco?”

  “A little, but it’s different.”

  “San Francisco looked pretty when I passed through, but I would miss the snow,” she said.

  “You might change your mind about it after we winter here,” he said.

  Chapter Twelv e

  Alice left the mine and squatted at the creek, rinsing the mud from her hands. She froze at the sight of the large bear cub running across the clearing. The animal rushed up and threw himself into her legs. She considered calling out for Joseph, but feared that if she startled the mother, wherever she might be, it would be dangerous. She stepped away from the cub and he threw himself into her legs again, sending her to the ground with a hard thump.

  The cub was large, over twenty pounds Alice estimated. His fur was a thick golden brown and he had a white marking like a collar across his upper chest. She scrambled to her feet and looked around for a way to get back to the cabin. If she tried to run it could provoke him and even if she made it to the cabin she was afraid Joseph would stumble across the cub. Alice looked up into the willow tree and decided to climb and then call out.

  She removed her moccasins and tucked them into her belt. Then she climbed the tree carefully and pulled herself up onto a sturdy branch. The cub thought her game was entertaining so he dug his claws into the bark and ran up behind her.

  Alice tried speaking to him softly and he groaned affectionately. She growled at the cub to chase him off and he hung his head as if apologizing. Alice could not suppress her laughter.

  Joseph set down the pickaxe and wiped his brow. The nugget in his hand was sizable and he knew that after winter was over he would be leaving Alaska more successful than he ever imagined. He could show that the claim was valuable as well and make a good amount selling it. He decided that he would make sure that not only would he have plenty to impress Yvonne and her father, but he could give enough to Alice that perhaps she never had to set foot in another whorehouse. When he first considered the idea he thought she’d waste it all away somehow or give it to someone with no scruples. One might imagine a person of her vice would do something like that. Instead, he began to see that she was intelligent and never afraid of work. She was thoughtful and well-mannered, not at all what he expected. If she went back into the world and told no one about her past she might make out very well. He began to think he wanted to do that for her.

  He wondered why she hadn’t returned with the water yet and strolled towards the creek.

  When he heard the growl of the cub he stopped and looked around.

  “Joseph,” Alice whispered loudly. “Up here.”

  He looked up into the tree and saw her sitting in the fork of the large branches of the willow with a massive grizzly cub in her lap.

  “What are you doing?” His voice was alarmed and puzzled.

  “I tried to get away from him and he just climbed up after me. I can’t see the mother, but I’m sure she’s not far. What should I do?”

  “You need to get down here immediately!”

  “He climbed up after me,” she said.

  “And so will his mother. Get down now!”

  Alice tried to move the cub aside but he wrapped his arms around her and hugged hard. Joseph watched her and paced the clearing in distress. She wriggled free and climbed down the tree as quickly as she could with the cub climbing around her, much more agile than she. When she jumped to the ground the cub barked loudly.

  Joseph grabbed Alice’s hand as they heard a loud, growling reply to the baby’s call and the pair ran towards the cabin, splashing along the creek and through the woodland. They could hear the cub following them and wailing out and Joseph called to Alice to run faster.

  They entered the cabin just as the cub and his mother burst into the clearing, Joseph slamming and barring the door behind them. They fell to the floor both gasping for breath as the grizzly let out a massive roar and ran back into the woods.

  “Damn!” Joseph cursed. “What the hell were you doing?”

  Alice grabbed the stitch in her side and began laughing uncontrollably. She opened her mouth several times trying to explain the situation but the image of Joseph’s face when he looked up and saw her in the tree with the cub on her lap brought tears to her eyes and she could not contain herself.

  “You could have been killed, we both could have!” He sat sprawled on the floor, coughing and shaking his head.

  “He ran into me.” Alice swallowed and tried to explain between gasps. “He knocked me down and I thought I should get away.”

  “That would have been a good idea!” Joseph took a deep breath.

  “Well, I climbed the tree, but the thing climbed right up after me. The bears
in Montana do not do that!” Alice exclaimed.

  “These do!”

  “I know that… now.” She began laughing again.

  Joseph took another breath and looked at her, nearly rolling on the floor with laughter. The sight of her in the tree had terrified him. He knew even the cubs could get rough.

  “I never saw a more surprised expression in my life!” Alice pointed at him and laughed again. “You didn’t expect to find me in a tree with a cub apparently, not ever,” she laughed.

  “No, not ever.” He began to chuckle.

  There was a huge thump against the door. Alice screamed and they crawled quickly across the room. They sat up against the bed together completely silent and held their breath. After several seconds they heard the bear growl from the woods and both began to breathe again.

  “What was that?” Joseph gasped deeply.

  “It sounded like a bear,” Alice laughed.

  “I don’t think it was Jack.”

  “No, Jack is far uglier than a grizzly bear!”

  “You think so?” He watched her face. She had been so kind to him after the mine collapsed he had given up the idea of sending her to stay with Jack.

  “With all the hair you have all over your faces how would I know? If Yvonne doesn’t like a man with calloused hands I’m sure she’ll not care for all of that.”

  Joseph grabbed his beard and gathered it into his palm trying to imagine what Yvonne would think if she were to see his beard.

  “She might run like we just did from the grizzly,” Alice laughed.

  “Hey, that’s not nice!” Joseph scolded.

  Alice got up on her knees and put her arms in the air, curling her fingers like claws. She growled at him on the floor beside her. “Grrrrrrr….!”

  “You don’t scare me!” He lunged at her and she scrambled across the floor. He caught her by the ankle and she began to squeal loudly and push him away with her other bare foot.

  “You need to apologize!” he bellowed.