Rapture's Rendezvous

Nathan placed his tall silk hat atop his head. “Let's be on our way then,” he said, taking Maria by the elbow, guiding her back outside, where a grand black carriage now sat waiting. A coachman attired in a tall, black silk hat and black coat and breeches jumped from the front outside carriage seat and opened the door, bowing, motioning for Maria to climb inside.

“Thank you,” she whispered, then found herself seated on plump cushions of gold velvet. Nathan moved in next to her, closing the door, leaving them to sit alone in an awkward silence. When the carriage began to be jostled along the graveled country road, Maria craned her neck to look from the window, clinging to the seat so haid, the knuckles of her hands grew ghostly white.

“You must learn many things as my wife,” Nathan uttered coldly. “The first is to relax while in my presence.”

Maria fluttered her lashes nervously, frowning. She glanced sideways at him. “I doubt if I will ever be as you wish,” she hissed. “You must remember. It is not of my choosing to become your wife. It is something you have forced upon me. Therefore, I shall act… as I shall act.” She tilted her chin up into the air, blushing a bit, then gazed out the window again, seeing only barely in the distance the tipple of the coal mine, reminding her of her Papa and Alberto and their fright upon the discovery of her absence. She clasped her hands tightly on her lap, casting her eyes downward, saying, “Sir, I do need something from you,” she whispered.

Nathan scooted closer to her, smiling. He reached for her with his gloved hands, covering her hands with his. “And what might that be, Maria?” he said.

She tensed, but left his hand be. She knew that she would have to get used to his touch sooner or later. Why not now, when the layer of glove divided them? She glanced over at him, forcing a smile. “My family will be so worried when they find I am gone,” she said. “Can't we send word? Especially now that we're to be wed in another city? What can it truly matter to you?”

Nathan's moustach

e worked as his tongue wet his lips. “I think something can be arranged,” he finally said. “I'll have a messenger boy deliver the message. I'll locate and instruct one before boarding the train for Saint Louis.”

An ache circled Maria's heart with another mention of Saint Louis. It reminded her of Michael. Had Ruby been stating a truth when she had said that Michael was still rich? Did that mean that he still most definitely made his residence in Saint Louis?

Maria's hands went to her throat. What if Michael should see her there with Nathan Hawkins? What if he even heard of the marriage? She would just die if he was to hear of this marriage of mockery. How could she even tell him the whys of it? But she knew that her thoughts were on the foolish side. He would never see her … nor she him.

Maria grabbed at the seat when the carriage came to a sudden halt. She was tossed a bit sideways against Nathan, making her pull quickly away. “Excuse me, sir,” she murmured, reaching up to push some loose strands of her hair back from her eyes.

Nathan's right arm reached around her waist and pulled her back next to him. “You must quit calling me ‘sir,'“ he said. “You are soon to become my wife. You must act the role.” His lips puckered and sought hers out, making her cringe when the stiffness of his moustache scratched her face. “Do you understand. Maria?” he added, letting a hand wander, to touch the outline of a breast.

With her face flaming. Maria said, “Yes. I understand. But for now? Can't you just leave me be?”

“It's all too much too fast for my sweet innocent one from Italy,” he said, patting her gently on the cheek. “I understand. Yes, I will wait. We have many years of marriage ahead of us.”

Maria's brows tilted, so wanting to ask him the whereabouts … or fate … of the wives before her. How was she to know how quickly he would tire of her? What would he then do with her? Would she even be free then to return to her family … or maybe even to search for Michael?

“But for now, we must move in haste. The train doesn't even wait for Nathan Hawkins,” Nathan said, reaching in front of Maria to open the carriage door. “I'm sure George, my coachman, has already seen to my luggage and has it in the rented private car of the train.”

Maria stepped from the carriage, all eyes. The black engine of the train sat puffing and wheezing black balls of smoke upward, while a fresh batch of immigrants was being directed from one of the cars of the train. Sympathy made Maria's heart plunge, knowing the kind of life that was awaiting them. She had to wonder just how many more immigrants would be needed by Nathan Hawkins for his slave labor at the mines. The town of Hawkinsville was already too thickly populated for health standards to remain at a safe level. The smell from the privies was already too strong, so strong even, one could hardly stand to enter one's own backyard where the flies buzzed and hatched more flies.

Nathan took Maria by the arm and guided her quickly around the milling crowds. “Do you see that fancier car next to the caboose, Maria?” he said, pointing.

Maria followed his gaze and saw the identical car she had seen once before on the very day of her own arrival to America. She had even seen a partially nude woman when she had stared through its window. “Yes, I see,” she murmured.

“You go ahead and go to that car,” Nathan said, pushing her away from him. “I will go to the depot to direct a messenger boy to inform your family as you have requested.”

“Oh, thank you, sir,” she said, then caught herself. She blushed. “I mean, thank you, Nathan.”

“You hurry and board. I'll be there soon.”

“All right, Nathan,” she said, looking around her once again, guilt then causing her to move on toward the train, knowing that from this moment on. her life would be better than the lives of those Italians who stood as though lost, waiting for one of Nathan's representatives to arrive, to take them to their bleak drudgeries of Hawkinsville.

Lifting the skirt of her dress, Maria climbed aboard the private car of the train and stood looking at the luxuriousness of all that surrounded her, leaving her with mouth agape. She moved on into the car, eyes wide. Green fringe-trimmed curtains hung at the few, small windows, and a huge green-velvetecn-covered bed filled the space on one far end wall.

A liquor cabinet reflected back at her in different-colored bottles of whiskies and wines, and many plush chairs and two desks filled the rest of the empty spaces around her.

Maria went to a window and pulled a curtain aside, watching the immigrants being loaded onto several wagons. Gulping back tears, she turned her head away and went to slouch down onto a chair. When Nathan rushed into the car, panting for breath, Maria tensed, now realizing how alone they were, and in a car where a bed seemed to have top priority. She eyed the bed, then Nathan, barely breathing.

“The trip will take several hours,” he said, pulling his gloves from his fingers, and.then the hat from atop his head. “We must make ourselves comfortable and enjoy ourselves.” He removed his coat, revealing an abun-dance of ruffles on his shirt. Then when he moved toward the liquor cabinet, Maria saw a pearl-handled pistol thrust inside the back of his breeches. Her fear of him heightened

“Why … do … you wear a … gun … ?” she stammered, watching his expression, but seeing that her question didn't appear to affect him in one way or another.

He licked his lips and cleared his throat. “Would you care to share some spirits with me, Maria?” he asked, already pouring some red bubbly liquid into a thin-stemmed glass.

Maria fidgeted with the gathers of her skirt, then with a bow at her neck. “I don't think….” she began, but was stopped short when a glass was forced into her free hand.