The Hired Girl(122)
“Tell them what?” I was bewildered. I hadn’t counted on everyone coming in at once, and I was slow to figure out what they were thinking. Their eyes kept looking past David and me to the rumpled bed. Then I caught on: they thought David and I were in the middle of doing what I’d said I might do in Paris. Oh, but I was mortified; I wanted to die of shame! I covered my face with my hands and turned my back on them all.
David yanked the counterpane away from my shoulders. “Look at her! She’s fully dressed. I wrapped her in the bedspread because she was soaking wet. That’s all.”
The silence that followed was oddly blank — I think because Malka had stopped screaming. Mrs. Rosenbach commanded, “Miriam, leave the room.”
Mimi darted a look from her mother to her father. They frowned at her like two gargoyles, so she had to obey. After she went out, Mr. Solomon seemed to recall that he was in his nightshirt. He turned beet red. “I’m sorry, David,” he said formally. “I guess you’d like some privacy.” With that, he left the room.
Mrs. Rosenbach said, “David, what is she doing here?”
I shivered. I thought of what she would say if David told her I’d come to offer myself to him, body and soul.
David said lamely, “She wanted to say good-bye. Anna told her I was going to Paris.”
Mr. Rosenbach spluttered, “Pah! Through the pouring rain she comes to say good-bye? Tell the truth! Has she come to your room before? Did you ask her to come here tonight?”
“He takes a shiksa to his bed!” wailed Malka. “A poor ignorant girl, he seduces her and lies about it! Now he’s ruined her! She was a decent girl when she came —”
“I haven’t seduced anyone!” David cast a frustrated look in my direction. “The last thing I expected was for her to come here tonight! I don’t mean it’s her fault,” he added hastily. “She’s quite innocent. All she wanted was to say good-bye.”
Mrs. Rosenbach’s voice was harsh. “An innocent girl doesn’t go to a man’s bedroom.”
I wanted to defend myself, but my mouth was too dry. A sound from the hall distracted Mrs. Rosenbach. “Mirele! I told you to go to your room!”
Mimi peered around her mother. “I guess I won’t. Seems to me I’m the only one who knows what’s going on here.” She pushed her glasses higher on the bridge of her nose and jerked her head at David. “He’s been kissing her, so she fell in love with him —”
Mr. Rosenbach confronted his son. “Is that true? Have you been making advances to this girl?”
David reddened. “No! I mean, yes! I mean, they weren’t advances, but I did kiss her. It was an accident. Afterward I told her it didn’t mean anything —”
“That’s not true!” Indignation restored my power of speech. “You said you were sorry, but you never said it didn’t mean anything!”
David winced. “I don’t mean it meant nothing. What I meant was —” All at once his face softened with a dreadful pity. I braced myself. “You’re a peach of a girl, Janet. I like you an awful lot. But I wasn’t serious when I kissed you. I kissed you because I like kissing girls. I always want to kiss a pretty girl. Some more than others. . . .” He appealed to his father. “The cat scratched her. I was putting peroxide on her face, and I lost my head. It was stupid, I admit it, but I kissed her. Then for some reason she thought —”
He stopped. I felt my cheeks get red, because I knew he was going to say, She thought I was in love with her. I waited for this final humiliation, but he didn’t say the words. He looked anguished, but I didn’t pity him. His agony was nothing compared to mine. “Janet,” he said wretchedly, “I’ve done you an injury. I beg your pardon.”
I didn’t want him begging my pardon. I stared down at the carpet. There was a loose thread that the electric carpet sweeper had left behind. I bent down and picked it up.
Mrs. Rosenbach cleared her throat. “You will leave this house tomorrow, Janet.”
“Mama —” protested David.
“Freyda —” Mr. Rosenbach began.
“It’s impossible that she should stay here,” said Mrs. Rosenbach. “I won’t have this kind of thing going on under my roof.” She silenced her son’s objection with a sharp movement of her hand. “Enough. I’m sorry, Janet. You’ve been a good worker, and I don’t doubt David is to blame, but you’re old enough to know you shouldn’t kiss young men, or go to their rooms at night.”
Laura Amy Schlitz's Books
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