Eugenia's Embrace

"It's called highgrading. Stealin' the ore from the mines. I filled this case of my watch with only the richest gold dust. I made it past the inspectors many times. Then this last time they caught me."

"And that pouch of gold? Was that yours, too?"

"Yep. They went through my horse's pack-saddle and found it. I'd been savin' it for some time."

Drew shut the watch, eyeing it closely. Then he handed it to Eugenia. "Here. I want you to have this," he said thickly, his eyes wavering as Eugenia stared up at him in surprise.

"Me?" she said timidly. No man had ever given her anything before, except for Frederick, and he didn't count—not in the way Drew did.

"Really mine?"

Drew forced it into her hands. "Yes. You. Now keep it until we meet again."

Eugenia's brows furrowed. "Do you really mean you're goin' to leave me? I ain't really happy here. I hate opera. I hate havin' to speak so proper."

"Now, now. Watch the temper. And I don't hear you speakin' so proper now."

"I don't care either if I don't have silk and satin gowns. I only want to be with you, Drew."

"It would be awful hard on your behind havin' to sit in a saddle day in and day out."

"We could find our own little homestead. Like my Mama and Papa. Have young 'uns. Please, Drew?"

"You'd want kids, huh?"

"Sure would. I'd want a little boy with dark curly hair just like yours. And I'd name him Drew. After you."

"Maybe someday," Drew said, taking a long drink from the wine bottle.

"Do you mean you are going to leave me? Just like before? Don't you love me, Drew?"

"Sure I love you, hon," Drew said, pulling her into his arms. "But I want more in life than what I have now. I want to be able to provide for you in the grandest manner. Maybe even set you up in a house just like this someday."

"But I hate Frederick and Clarissa."

"Have they given you reason to be afraid of them?"

Eugenia remembered Clarissa's fingers on her earlier in the evening, but pushed that from her mind. "No. Not really."

"How does that fat German treat you?"

"It's strange, Drew," she said, frowning. "He doesn't treat me much like anything. Not like a daughter, sister, or anything. And he most certainly hasn't approached me sexually. I don't know what he wants from me."

"Did you say that you hate opera?"

"Yes."

"Is he trying to teach you opera?"

"Yes."

"Well, I think I have the answer to all your questions," he said. "I think this Opera House owner is trying to make a protegee out of you. Someone he can show off later, when you are prepared."

"What's this big word 'protegee' mean? And how do you know such big words?"

Drew laughed. "I'm not as dumb as you might think, Eugenia. And it's just as I said. Frederick's tried to make a lady out of you, then given you opera lessons, to enter you himself into the world of opera. It could give him much recognition all over the world if he was a success at doing this."

Eugenia laughed. "Well, he's wasted his time with me. That's for sure."