THE COW HE CAME TO BUY

by

Chapter 11

THEME:
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"No."

I looked at him.

"You came here on business. We will finish our business."

I turned back to the page.

My hand trembled.

I hated that Curtis could still do that to me.

"I will take the work."

Adrien did not smile.

He understood enough not to make victory out of it.

"All right."

"I'll take the advance."

"All right."

"I repay five dollars a week until it is cleared."

"Three."

"Five."

"Four."

I looked at him.

"Four."

He nodded.

Curtis stared at me.

"You're taking money from him?"

"I am earning money from him."

"You haven't worked a day yet."

"I will."

"Rosalie."

I signed the agreement.

My name looked stronger than I felt.

Rosalie Dunore.

Adrien tore out the duplicate sheet and handed it to me with the forty dollars.

I took the bills.

The difference between charity and wages was only a promise.

But it mattered to me.

Perhaps more than it should have.

I folded the money into my apron pocket.

I would ride to town that afternoon.

The bank note would be paid.

Clover would stay.

Oscar would keep his friend.

For the first time in weeks, I could see June without fear.

Curtis stared at the pocket where the money disappeared.

Something passed through his eyes.

It was not jealousy.

Not exactly.

It was humiliation.

I recognized it because I had lived with my own for years.

Adrien put away his ledger.

"A wagon comes by tomorrow morning. You can ride with Eli. First workday, if that suits you."

"It does."

"Seven o'clock."

"I'll be ready."

He turned toward his horse.

Oscar came running.

"Mr. Brandt?"

Adrien stopped.

"Yes?"

Oscar pointed toward Clover.

"You can scratch her before you go."

Adrien's face became very serious.

"The left ear?"

Oscar nodded.

"Only the left."

Adrien walked to the fence.

Clover watched him.

He held out his hand first and let her smell it.

Then he scratched carefully behind her left ear.

Her eyes half closed.

Oscar beamed.

I stood with my hand over the forty dollars in my apron.

A ridiculous pressure gathered behind my eyes.

Curtis watched all of it.

That evening, after I returned from the bank with Peabody's receipt folded safely in the biscuit tin, Curtis appeared again.

This time he came on foot.

His horse, he said, was at the livery.

I did not invite him inside.

He sat on the porch step.

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