When the door opened, Ruby's brown eyes traveled over Alberto, seeing the state he was in. “Alberto? What's the matter?” she said in her slow drawl. “You've never come to Ruby's house so early. And you look so distraught. What has happened? Have you finally suc-ceeded in finding Maria? Are you upset. .. about. . . your findings?”
Alberto looked quickly from side to side, swallowing hard, then eyed Ruby with pleading. “Can I come in, Ruby? I need to talk with you. I have nowhere else … to . . . go,” he stammered.
“Yes. Come on in,” she said, smiling awkwardly. “But what do you mean … you don't have anywhere else to go? You have your home in Hawkinsville. What's happened, Alberto?”
Once inside, Alberto lowered his eyes, feeling so awkward in the position he had put himself in. “Like I said,” he mumbled. “I'd like to talk with you. In private.”
“Do you mean … in … my room .. . ?” she said softly.
Alberto's eyes wavered as his face flushed crimson. “Yes. If you only would,” he blurted. His eyes raked over her and her skimpy attire. Seeing the fullness of her breasts and the way they came to such sharp points beneath the chemise made a throbbing begin in his manhood. He had never seen her dressed so skimpily.
He had most surely caught her as she had emerged from her bath, or possibly as she had begun to prepare for her evening's activities. His gaze traveled lower and saw the darkness of the vee between her legs. The brown flesh of her thighs looked like velvet, making Alberto lick his lips hungrily. Maybe Ruby could help him. She was already affecting him in a strange way. He even felt a bit giddy being so close to her as she began to guide him up the narrow staircase, then on into her private room. Once inside, all he could see was the greatness of the bed and the red satin sheets and pillow coverings. But instead of guiding Alberto to the bed, Ruby directed him toward .a chair.
“Now, Alberto, please tell me what has happened?” Ruby said, stretching out on her stomach on the bed, resting her head in her hands.
“I don't know where to start,” he stammered, stretching his long, lean legs out before him, flushing once again when he realized just how dirty he was. Coal dust. The damn coal dust that he seemed never to be able to wash off. It was worse than the dust from inside chimneys. Oh, how he hated it all. His existence had become almost unbearable.
“The beginning,” Ruby said, moving to an upright position, reaching for a cigar, lighting it. She'began to blow circles from between her thick lips, waiting.
“Maria has returned from Saint Louis,” he began, speaking so softly he wasn't even sure if Ruby could hear. But he had hated to say the words aloud. He hated to say that Maria was now … Mrs. Nathan .. . Hawkins. It still didn't seem possible. His Maria. His sweet, innocent Maria.. ..
“She has? When did you see her? Have you talked with her?”
“I went to Nathan Hawkins's house. Only a short while ago. Maria was there,” he said, then lowered his head into his hands, cursing softly to himself.
“You knew that Maria was with Nathan Hawkins,” Ruby said, drawing once again on her cigar. “What has upset you about that? I thought you had had enough time to get used to it. What has renewed your anger so?”
Alberto rose and began pacing the floor. “She not only was with Nathan while in Saint Louis,?
? he said, now angrily, “but she came back to this area with Nathan Hawkins . . . bearing … his name.”
Ruby jumped from the bed and took Alberto by the arm, stopping him. “What did you say?” she said. “What do you mean .. . bearing his name … ?” Had Clarence been telling the truth then that day he had come racing back on horseback? When he had told her that Maria was marrying Nathan, Ruby had laughed in her husband's face. Should she have taken him seriously? She hadn't… for … so … long….
“What the hell do you think I mean?” Alberto stormed.
“That she is now . . . Mrs. Nathan Hawkins?”
“Yes. She is now Nathan Hawkins's wife,” Alberto said, suddenly weeping, holding his face in his hands, as his body shook in violent trembles.
Ruby mashed her cigar out in an ashtray, then went to Alberto and pulled him into her embrace. “My God, Alberto,” she murmured, running her long, lean fingers through his hair. “Oh, my God. Maria? I hadn't under stood for one minute why she had gone to Saint Louis with Nathan. That was a puzzler. But now?To find that she's married him? Maria? Why? Why would she do such a dumbass thing as marrying that bastard? She doesn't love him. She loves. . . .”
Alberto tensed and withdrew from Ruby. “She loves? What do you mean? What did you start to say?”
Ruby covered her mouth and swung around, placing her back to him. She had almost mentioned Michael Hopper's name. She went to her liquor cabinet and poured a glass of whiskey and swallowed it in two fast gulps. She turned to face Alberto once again. “I meant to say that no one could love Nathan Hawkins,” she said. “There has to be more to this than what you've told me.”
“That's all one has to know, isn't it?” he said. “She's married to the man who imprisons all us Italians. She is no better than him now. Marrying him meant that she must approve of his evil practices.” He stomped back and forth across the room, glaring. “No. I cannot think it was for any other reason than that she had grown tired of the kind of life that has been forced on us in America. She took the first chance she was offered to free herself of such blight. Maria is no longer a Lazzaro.” He gulped back more tears. “She is no longer . . . my . . . sister. . . .”
Ruby went to him and tried to console him once again by whispering soft murmurings into his ear. When Alberto reached and touched a breast through the thin chemise, she leaned into his touch and moaned softly. “Alberto, what has taken you so long to desire me?” she whispered, beginning to unbutton his shirt. Her fingers were quick and sure as she reached downward and unbuttoned his breeches and helped to lower them to the floor.
“Ruby, there's something I need to tell. .. .” Alberto began, but was hushed by her fingers sealing his lips.
“Hush. I'll help to erase all sadness from your mind,” she said, urging him to step from his shoes, then guiding him onto the bed.
“But, Ruby. . . .” he said, almost choking on his words, fearing the worst. . . that he once again wouldn't be able to be a man … not even with Ruby. What then? Oh, God. What then . .. ?
“First some soft oils to perfume your body with,” she whispered, pouring some sweetly fragranted liquid into the palm of each of her hands. “After being in the depths of the earth all day, this will take the stench from your body. You will smell like a spring flower when I get finished with you. Then I shall slide my body up and down yours until you will beg to be finished with.”
When her fingers made contact with his flesh, Alberto closed his eyes, groaning softly. He moved his body with her as she rubbed and kneaded him, first his taut stomach muscles, then lower, to ease the liquid onto his manhood.