"Miss Crystal, my Pa wrote and told me my letter got to Ma just before she passed. Said she was so relieved to hear from me she just went quietly in her sleep. How can I thank you?"
"Miss Crystal, I caught the bank trying to cheat me. Now I'm not sayin' twernt an honest mistake, but I'd a never noticed it if you hadn't spent all that time teaching me my sums. You sure look pretty. You feeling better?"
"I'm going to be an Uncle, Miss Crystal. I got the letter two days ago and was able to read it all by myself!"
"I got that job in San Francisco, Miss Crystal. I never could have done it without your help answering the advertisement and filling out those papers. I hope you're feeling better soon, honey."
"I passed that Robinson Crusoe book you gave me on to another one of the miners. I hope you don't mind. That sure was a good story, Miss Crystal. I'll come by and check on you again in a few days. Will that be all right? I'm sure glad you weren't hurt worse."
***
A good portion of the afternoon Jasper spent leaning forward, his arms on his thighs as he stared at the floor just listening. Clem amassed quite a collection of tributes from her devoted customers. Peppermint sticks, chocolates, perfume, ribbons, and even a few gold nuggets.
When the last of her visitors had filed out, she was exhausted. Sinking back onto her pillows, she looked at Jasper. He raised his head and pinned her with his eyes. Holding out her hand she beckoned him toward the chair beside the bed but he stayed where he was, just staring at her.
Clem felt her stomach clench.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, his voice deep with emotion, but strangely calm.
"Tell you what?" she hedged, fiddling with her treasures spread around her on the bed.
"You never slept with any of those men, did you?"
"A whore rarely sleeps with her customers," she replied, looking away.
"Clementine," he growled, getting to his feet. "The time for lies and deceptions is over. Now, tell me the truth before I really lose my patience."
Clem snorted. "What patience?"
"The patience that keeps me from pulling you over my knee and giving you what you deserve."
"You can't do that. I'm not well; even Dr. Norwood said I needed rest," she hissed, fighting the rush of panic she felt at his words.
"He said you'd be fine with a little rest," Jasper reminded her. "You can rest on a red bottom as easily as you can on a white one." He approached the bed, but did not sit. Instead he towered over her with an unholy gleam in his eye. "Let me rephrase my question so even a dunderhead like you can understand. Did you have sexual relations with any of those men?"
"No," Clem admitted softly.
"With any men?" he questioned further, placing his hands on his hips.
"Just one," she whispered.
"And the child you carry is mine?" he stated.
"Yes."
"Yet you let me leave town?" he demanded.
"It wasn't as though you asked my opinion," she snapped, bolting upright.
"Don't try to turn this on me," he yelled. "You let me think you'd become a whore when all the time you were running some kind of school house up here."
"I am a whore," she said with an almost proud toss of her head.
"A whore who doesn't sell her body," he snorted.
"I did sell my body, to you, you jackass!" Throwing a box of candy at him, she smiled when it wacked him in the forehead. "It's not as though I kept everything from you," she shouted.
"No, only the really important things! Tell me, what were you going to do about the baby once you finished your 'mission' if you both happened to survive that is?"
"I was going to come and find you," she sighed, deflating back onto the bed, her energy spent along with her temper.
"And how were you going to do that? I didn't know myself where I was going,"
"I don't know," she admitted softly. "I hadn't thought that far ahead."
"Why am I not surprised? You're the most single-minded female I've ever met." Shaking his head, he sat on the bed. "Suppose you finally did find me. Suppose I'd already married someone else?" he asked.
"You wouldn't have," she insisted with great certainty.
"How do you know?"
"You love me," she replied simply, looking at him with her brown eyes shining.
"Everyone gets lonely, Clem," he said sadly, taking a curl from her breast and wrapping it around his finger.
"I know," she sniffed. "I missed you terribly even though you weren't really speaking to me when you left."
"I spoke to you. Told you I was leaving and why."
"That was informing, not speaking. You haven't really spoken to me in weeks."
"Would it have done any good? If I'd prostrated myself before you, begging you not to take any more men upstairs or pleaded with you to marry me, would it have changed anything?"