Gentry winked and blew me a kiss as I passed by. Scarlett stood to meet me and held out her hand.

“I’ll clean ’em for you, Emmett,” she said.

I handed her the perch.

“Thanks, Scarlett. If you start these, I ought to have some more by the time you’re done.” I looked around. “Anyone seen Phoebe?”

They hadn’t.

I was a little surprised, but not concerned. It wouldn’t be dark for another half hour or more, and Phoebe had gotten a late start. Also, proper women take twice as long to wash their clothes as whores, ’cause whores will strip naked and wash everythin’ at once. Proper women remove their clothes one piece at a time to wash ’em. I figured to give her another fifteen or twenty minutes, and if she weren’t back by then, I’d take one of the women with me to fetch her. I’d do it myself, ’cept I wouldn’t want her to think I was spyin’ on her.

“Emmett?” Gentry said. “Can I fish with you?”

A couple of the women snickered.

“I reckon you can,” I said.

Gentry’s face lit up and she scrambled to her feet and raced to my side.

Monique rolled her eyes and declared, “Elle baiserait une pile de roches en souhaitant un serpent.”

“Don’t wait up for us,” Gentry said, laughin’.

“Measure him close,” Emma said. “We’ve got money on how big he gets.”

“Oh, Lord,” I said.

“If he wears you out, give me a shout!” Leah hollered.

As Gentry and I passed the point where we could be seen, I heard Scarlett sigh, “Guess we’ll have to make do with four perch for dinner. Anyone got some corn dodgers?”

 


 

 

 

18.

 

I had every intention of puttin’ my line in the water and provin’ Scarlett wrong, but once we sat down on the riverbank Gentry was on me like sparkle on gold dust. She coaxed sounds out of me I would a’ laughed to hear come from another man. While it ain’t no secret whores know how to pleasure a man, in my experience them that love doin’ it are few and far between. If Gentry didn’t love what she was doin’, she sure had me fooled, ’cause she was the best I ever had. So skilled was she at ruttin’, I may have said I loved her! I may have said it twice, even though the whole episode took less than five minutes. Durin’ the time I said it, I did love her. If I thought for one minute she’d continue to service me like that into old age, I’d a’ promised to make an honest woman of her right then and there. But passion don’t stay put in a younger woman’s heart, and it would only be a matter of time before she’d want to rut a man her own age. And when that time came, she’d do so, whether I loved her or not.

“Scarlett said you were a screamer,” I said.

“Did she?”

“But you never screamed tonight.”

Gentry placed her palm on my cheek and kissed my lips. “I didn’t need to scream tonight, Emmett.”

“Why? Was I that bad?”

“A’ course not!”

“Then why?”

“I didn’t scream because I love you.”

“That don’t make sense.”

“I didn’t have to pretend tonight, Emmett.”

“You sayin’ you enjoyed it?”

“A’ course I did!”

I stroked her hair.

“Emmett?”

“Yeah?”

“Why did you ask me that?”

“Well, we were both doin’ it, but I was the only one makin’ all the noises.”

“So?”

“I’m not sure I did my best.”

“Oh, Emmett,” she said. “It’s not how you do it that counts.”

“It ain’t?”

“Hell’s bells, Emmett! Anyone can fuck. It’s what’s between us that makes our fuckin’ special.”

We were quiet a minute. Then I said, “Still, I like to feel I did my best. And this went awful quick.”

She giggled. “I suppose it did.” Then she said, “You wanna try again?”

“I do indeed.”

She pulled me onto her and said, “Then, come and get it, cowboy!”

And I would’ve, except that somewhere down river, Phoebe started screamin’ fit to bust.

 


 

 

 

19.

 

“Go back to camp and tell the women to get their guns out!” I said.

“Don’t go off and get yourself killed, Emmett,” Gentry said.

I pulled up my pants and strapped on my holster.

“Run!” I said.