Chapter 3
Carine takes Eli to eat something and Edyth goes with them, though mostly for curiosity’s sake.
Rosalie stays with Esme, sorting through whatever clothes would fit the bigger woman.
“She’s a very handsome girl,” Esme teases gently, smiling as Rosalie folded a few of Carine’s old union suits – all much too small for Eli.
Rosalie shrugs, “You know I’m used to the very best of things,” she replies and that prompts a laugh from both of them.
Esme rummaged through the church donations she was organising and makes a pleased hum at what she pulls out. “Here – knickers pants,” she says, showing Rosalie the baggy fabric.
Esme adds a few knit shirts and a sweater on top of the knickers and a pair of plus-fours. “Where on earth did you get those?” Rosalie asks her. She’s sure she had last seen her grandfather wear a pair of fours.
Esme shrugs lightly, “They’re Carine’s old pair. Must be thirteen years past now. I’ll take them up to be knickers too, if she wants.”
Rosalie goes to her own room with the clothes and dumps them on the couch. She surveys her own room. Sparse – Esme took to decorating after Elsie De Wolf for their house in Knoxville and Rosalie was sure the spartan elegant furnishings were at odds in the relatively small Southern town. She goes to her drawers and rearranges her clothes – enough to give Eli one drawer of her own. By the time Rosalie had designated space in the wardrobe and on her dresser, she could hear Eli exclaiming loudly, coming through the clearing. Rosalie watches them from the window.
Edyth looked distinctly upset. “It’s still taking a life!” she argues, arms crossed tightly over her chest.
Eli shrugs her round shoulders, “I’ve killed animals for their meat – what’s so different about their blood?” she asks easily, wagging a finger under Edyth’s upturned nose, cautioning, “You don’t get to call working class men and women making their dinner ‘murderers’, you’ll sound like a spoilt little brat.” She looks up and brightens immediately when Rosalie opens the window and waves down at them. “Hello angel! I got two foxes and a rabbit – I’m gonna make you a pretty little fur,” she tells her, chest puffed out proudly.
“Thank you very much,” Rosalie replies as a reflex. She was more interested in the state of carnage the woman was in. Ripped, bloodied shirt beyond repair, and her trousers did not stand any better. Carine seemed to have been caught in the splashback, as his own sweater and neck were dribbling scarlet.
“Well!” Esme’s voice came from the back door, out of Rosalie’s line of sight as all the women who had been hunting look down towards her. “I haven’t seen anything this messy since Rosalie was still new,” she says, though she sounds more amused than anything.
Rosalie takes her time down the stairs to the muckroom as Eli recounts a vicious battle fought by sticking her arm down a hole under the tree to pull a rabbit out.
Edyth sat on the porch steps, looking very mulish. “Little Edie here tried to console me for having to take a life – as though I’ve never killed before,” Eli adds, brows dancing in amusement at the redhead’s sulky posture.
Rosalie always enjoys Edyth getting knocked off her high horse. Esme dashes off to fetch a few ripped up shirts and a bucket of water for them to clean off before they walked into the house. Carine begins to strip off calmly and Eli seems about to do the same.
Rosalie instantly became missmish, saying, “I’ll leave you all to it,” and made to return into the house.
But Esme waves her off, “No, I don’t want Eli breaking my bucket – you brought her here,” Esme says sternly, “you help her clean up.”
Rosalie frowns a little, hoping to keep a bit more mystery about her, but when Eli’s thick fingers circle her wrist and give her a prompting tug back towards her, she sways over and smiles as Eli peels the last of her old shirt from herself.
“Thank ye for the help,” Eli says, grinning as Rosalie takes a rag and wrings it out a little. She averted her gaze from Eli’s face, trying to remain coy as she wipes down Eli’s torso.
Eli had a thick belly, not fat or round, but she was wide. Her breasts were high on her chest, flat and spread. And incredibly small, not large enough to droop at all, as Rosalie’s had a habit of doing.
She was quiet as she rubbed off all the grime from Eli’s chest, she felt a little like she was in a trance. This captivating woman in her hands wasn’t like anyone she had ever met before. As Rosalie becomes accustomed to the reverence, she begins to wonder why Eli herself was so quiet.
Glancing up, Rose saw that someone else had Eli’s attention. Wide-eyed and mouth agape – Eli was staring at Carine.
Carine had also stripped down and was washing his forearms. His torso was bare, and revealed the strange quality he had. On his chest were no nipples, but uniform grooves stretching from his sternum to just under his armpits.
“What … happened?” Eli asks him slowly, looking confused.
Carine calmly meets her gaze, “Scraped them off myself, dear,” he says, smiling politely as Eli gasps, registering that the grooves were careful finger-marks. Carine had cleaned off by then, though, and absently pets the girl’s curly head as he moves his way inside. Eli meets Rosalie’s gaze, still looking very flustered.
But Rosalie only smiles a little. “I hope you have no inclination to do the same,” she says lightly, tossing the pink rag into the bucket, handing Eli an undershirt that she carefully peels down her torso, “I think I like these,”
Eli winks, grabbing Rosalie by his hips and pressing her closer. “I hope you do!” Rosalie laughs, the weight of Eli on her belly sending a thrill up her spine.
Edyth pushes past both of them, making Eli jolt with surprise, as the redhead glares at them, “I’m going inside and it’s my virtuous and kindly nature alone that halts me from locking you all out!”
Eli moved and spoke with no elegance or lady-like mannerisms what-so-ever. Esme had made a point to have the woman dressed as comfortably as possible – similar to the sweaters and suits Carine had a fondness for as well. But, with some glaring differences.
“Suspenders sir!” Eli had declared, looking at the pair of trousers Carine had dressed in for work. “Can’t we go with the Hollywood look?” she’d asked, lingering over a picture of men’s trousers from the catalog Edyth had brought home.
Though she had specifically, kindly, asked for a pair of over-alls. Her own clothes – her elder brother’s – had been stained with her blood and badly torn.
Rosalie nodded amicably. “We shall get you a pair of smarter pants as well,” she says, already fussing for her hat.
“That won’t be necessary!” Eli says and watches with overt worry as Rosalie places her hat carefully over her curls.
“I want to,” Rosalie says, smiling to assuage Eli’s unhappy look, sure that the idea of the money involved had made Eli uncomfortable. “I like doing what I want,” she adds, and Eli musters up a small grimace.
“I can order the clothes on my own, Rose,” Edyth tells her, picking up her gloves from the sideboard. “Surely you’d rather stay here,” she says pointedly, looking over at where Eli immediately brightens.
“I trust you, Edie!” Eli tells the redhead cheerfully and Edyth gives her a smart nod.
Rosalie scowls while looking between the two of them. “No, I’d rather come along,” she snaps back. Pest, pest, pest, pest, pest. She thinks testily. Edyth’s good humour evaporates and she shrugs once, slipping out the front door while also opening her sun parasol.
“Well I’m leaving now,” the woman grouses.
Eli frowns once again. “Could I go with you?” she asks as Rosalie rolls her eyes and opens the door after Edyth had stormed out.
Rosalie shook her head but by the way Em’s head hangs like a poor old dog prompts Rosalie to pet her cheek lightly. “One day. This way I can surprise you,” Rosalie says, waving at the woman as she hurries after Edyth.
“You are a pest!” Rosalie declares again, slipping under the shade of the parasol. It was overcast today, but treacherous sun occasionally peeked through the clouds. The best weather for them was a light drizzle. No one ever paid attention when it drizzled.
Edyth frowns. “She wanted to stay close to you, pest,” she says just as sharply.
Rosalie shook her head. “I’m aware,” her tone is droll. “My plan is working perfectly, thank you,” she didn’t need to elaborate, Edyth had already nosed her way into her head as always. Rosalie wanted Eli to miss her a little, but it would make her all the more pleased to receive the clothes that Rose would carefully pick out for her.
But Edyth only wrinkles her nose and rolls her eyes. “I think it’s a silly plan and that you are a silly girl!” she declares, “she already wants you, you don’t need to prove anything to her.”
Rosalie scowls, her hackles rising as yet again Edyth’s terrible habit of bossing people around showed up. “You can try and read every thought in my head but the fact of the matter is Edyth, you don’t know how to understand a woman’s charms – you don’t have any.”
Edyth shrugs her off, jerking back her own shade with offense. “Use your own parasol!” she snaps, and Rosalie points her own up and flicks it open lazily.
But Rosalie lets her stomp ahead, and tastes how heavy the air is – it will rain by tonight. Edyth was wrong, though she probably didn’t care enough to give Rosalie any credence. She knew she had nothing to prove to Eli – only that Eli was new and fresh and needed time to settle into their family, and perhaps Rosalie herself needed a slow pace.
“I can trust her.” Rosalie is distinctly unhappy that she sinks into old insecurities. Edyth turns back to glare at her over her shoulder.
“Why should I say?” Edyth’s tone is snide and dismissive. Rosalie doesn’t say anything because Edyth didn’t really have a reason for her huffiness. Though Edyth could at least be able to sympathize – she was also the slow type. “She thinks in pictures regardless. Everything is your face – you’re much the same.”
Rosalie wasn’t satisfied with the answer and leaves the conversation there.
The mood only lightens when they get to the department store. Edyth suffers along as Rosalie mulls over fabrics and buttons and different suspenders.
Edyth talks logistics with one of the shop girls. “We’ll need a few union suits made up … the sizes available won’t cut it, much like my brother-in-law … no, no, a guest ….”
Rosalie allows it to become background chatter, wondering about the picture she would make with Eli, when the woman was a little more stable. Eli would look quite dashing in a casual linen suit, with Rosalie on her arm looking equally as handsome. The thought cheered her immensely, and she hums lightly to herself as she picks out some plain cotton for a few union suits.