It sounded reasonable, I said, but a bit wild to establish a place like hers, and she chuckled confidently.
‘I’m goin’ ready-made, don’t you fret. I’ve got a place marked down in Sacramento, through an agent, an’ I’m movin’ the whole kit caboodle up the river to Westport next Monday – furnishin’s, crockery, my cellar an’ silver … an’ the livestock, which is the main thing. I’ve got twenty o’ the primest yellow gels under this roof right now, all experienced an’ broke in – so don’t you start walkin’ in your sleep, will you, you scoundrel? ’Ere, let’s ’ave a look at you—’
‘But hold on – how are you going to get there?’ says I, cuddling obediently.
‘Why, up to Westport an’ across by carriage to – where is it? – Santa Fe, an’ then to San Diego. It only takes a few weeks, an’ there’s thousands goin’ every day, in carts an’ wagons an’ on horseback – even on foot. You can go round by sea, but it’s no quicker or cheaper in the end, an’ I don’t want my delicate young ladies gettin’ seasick, do I?’
‘Isn’t it dangerous? I mean, Indians and ruffians and so on?’
‘Not if you’ve got guards, an’ proper guides. That’s all arranged, don’t you see, an’ I ’aven’t stinted, neither. I’m a business woman, in case you ’adn’t noticed, an’ I know it pays to pay for the best. That’s why I’ll ’ave the finest slap-up bagnio on the west coast goin’ full steam before the year’s out – an’ I’ll still have a tidy parcel over in the bank. If you got money, you can’t ’elp makin’ more, provided you use common sense.’
From what I knew of her she had plenty of that – except where active young men were concerned – and she was a deuced competent manager. But if she had her future planned, I hadn’t; I remarked that it didn’t leave much time to arrange my safe passage – and Spring’s, for what that was worth – out of New Orleans.
‘Don’t you worry about that,’ says she, comfortably. ‘I’ve been thinkin’ about it, an’ when we see what kind of a hue an’ cry there is in the town tomorrow, we can decide what’s best. You’re safe ’ere meantime – an’ snug an’ warm an’ cosy,’ she added, ‘so let’s ’ave another chorus o’ John Peel, shall we?’
You can guess that I was sufficiently pale and wan next morning to satisfy Spring that he could continue to rest easy chez Willinck. One look at me, and at Susie languid and yawning, and he gave me a sour grin and muttered: ‘Christ, non equidem invideo, miror magis,’fn3 which if you ask me was just plain jealousy, and if I’d known enough Latin myself I’d have retorted, ‘Ver non semper viret,fn4 eh? Too bad,’ which would have had the virtue of being witty, although he’d probably not have appreciated it.
Pleasantries would have been out of season, anyway, for the news was bad. Susie had had inquiries made in town, and reported that Omohundro’s death was causing a fine stir, there was a great manhunt afoot, and our descriptions were posted at every corner. There was no quick way out of New Orleans, that was certain, and when I reminded Susie that something would have to be done in the next few days, she just patted my hand and said she would manage, never fear. Spring said nothing, but watched us with those pale eyes.
You may think that it’s just nuts, being confined to a brothel for four solid days – which we were – but when you can’t get at the tarts, and a mad murderer is biting his nails and muttering dirty remarks from Ovid, and the law may thunder at the door any minute, it can be damned eerie. There we were in that great echoing mansion, not able to stir outside for fear someone would see us from the road, or to leave our rooms, hardly, for although the sluts’ quarters were in a side-wing, they were about the place most of the time, and Susie said it would be risky to let them see us – or me to see them, she probably thought. Not that I’d have had the inclination to do more than wave at them; when you have to pile in to Mrs Willinck every night, other women take on a pale, spectral appearance, and you start to think that there’s something to be said for monasteries after all.
Not that I minded that part of it at all; she was an uncommon inventive amorist, and when you’ve been chief stud and bath attendant to Queen Ranavalona of Madagascar, with the threat of boiling alive or impalement hanging over you if you fail to satisfy the customer, then keeping pace even with Susie is gammon and peas. She seemed to thrive on it – but it was an odd thing – even when we were in the throes, I’d a notion that her mind was on more than passing joys, if you follow me; she was thinking at the same time, which wasn’t like her. I’d catch her watching me, too, with what I can only call an anxious expression – if I’d guessed what it was, I’d have been anxious myself.
It was the fourth evening when I found out. We were in her salon before supper, and I’d reminded her yet again that New Orleans was still as unsafe for me as ever, and her own departure upriver a scant couple of days away. What, says I, am I to do when you’re gone? She was brushing her hair before her mirror, and she stopped and looked at my reflection in the glass.
‘Why don’t you come with me to California?’ says she, rather breathless, and started brushing her hair again. ‘You could get a ship from San Francisco … if you wanted.’
It took my breath away. I’d been racking my brains about getting out of the States, but it had never crossed my mind to think beyond New Orleans or the eastern ports – all my fleeing, you’ll understand, had been done in the direction of the Northern states; west had never occurred to me. Well, God knows how many thousand miles it was … but, by George, it wasn’t as far-fetched as it sounded. You may not agree – but you haven’t been on the run from slave-catchers and abolitionists and Navy traps and outraged husbands and Congressman Lincoln, damn his eyes, with a gallows waiting if they catch you. I was in that state of funk where any loophole looks fine – and when I came to weigh it, travelling incog in Susie’s caravan looked a sight safer than anything else. The trip upriver would be the risky part; once west of the Mississippi I’d be clear … I’d be in San Francisco in three months, perhaps …
‘Would you take me?’ was the first thing that came to my tongue, before I’d given more than a couple of seconds’ thought to the thing, and her brush clattered on the table and she was staring at me with a light in her eyes that made my blood run cold.
‘Would I take you?’ says she. ‘’Course I’d take you! I … I didn’t know if … if you’d want to come, though. But it’s the safest way, Beauchamp – I know it is!’ She had turned from her mirror, and she seemed to be gasping for breath, and laughing at the same time. ‘You … you wouldn’t mind … I mean, bein’ with me for – for a bit longer?’ Her bosom was heaving fit to overbalance her, and her mouth was trembling. ‘I mean … you ain’t tired of me, or … I mean – you care about me enough to … well, to keep me company to California?’ God help me, that was the phrase she used. ‘You do care about me – don’t you? You said you did – an’ I think you do …’
Mechanically I said that of course I cared about her; a fearful suspicion was forming in my mind, and sure enough, her next words confirmed it.
‘I dunno if you … like me as much as I – oh, you can’t, I know you can’t!’ She was crying now, and trying to smile at the same time, dabbing at her eyes. ‘I can’t help it – I know I’m