Page 91 of So in Love
She lifted her hand to her mouth.“Oh.I see.”She blinked.“I take it there’s new information here.”She’d lost hope of finding anything.Her efforts to locate Dorinda’s descendants—and the letters she’d written to her family in New York—had led nowhere.
“Yes.A full telling of Dorinda’s struggles in Oregon and of her friendship with Rose.”
She wanted to read it—and she would.But right now she wanted to hear it from him.Share it with him.She closed the cover and clasped her hands over it.“Tell me.”
He dropped his pen on the puzzle and turned in the chair, facing her and kicking his legs out from beneath the table.“It’s as you expected—Dorinda converted the boardinghouse to a brothel.A woman staying with her had worked at one on the eastern side of the state.She’d saved enough money to get out of the business and strike out of that town to start over.She’d stopped in Ribbon Ridge on her way to McMinnville where her cousin had settled.Dorinda took her idea and found some women who wanted to work there.”
Crystal was afraid to ask the question that had burned in her mind.“Did Dorinda… Was she a prostitute?”
“Rose doesn’t say, actually.It seems evident that she wasn’t by the time Rose arrived, which was in 1900.”
“So Rose was a prostitute?”
“No.She’d been run out of the town she’d lived in after her father died—you can read all about that in the diary.Dorinda took her in, and she did chores at the ranch.Seems like things were just fine until Turner Stowe visited the brothel.Instead of spending the night with one of the ladies, he met Rose.They fell in love—you really have to read those entries for yourself to grasp how star-crossed they were—but when his family found out, that’s when things turned bad.”
“Because she was mulatto?”
He nodded and pulled his legs up, scooting back up closer to her.“They organized the KKK crew to torch the ranch, but Turner warned them just before the group arrived.Dorinda got everyone out into the woods and faced them down herself.”
Crystal tensed, and she gripped her hands tightly together.“What happened?”
“Hoyt demanded Dorinda turn Rose over.”
“What did they plan to do with her?”Crystal’s voice climbed.
He put his hand on hers.It was warm and comforting.“I don’t know.She doesn’t say.Maybe she didn’t know.”
“Maybe she didn’twantto know.Better that way, I think.”
“Probably.Dorinda refused to give her up, so Hoyt shot her.Then he dragged her body into the house, and they torched it.”
“Oh my God.She didn’t really die in the fire.”
He shook his head.“No, she died facing down hatred.Rose and the others watched from the woods—Turner wouldn’t let any of them help Dorinda.He told them they’d all die, and he was likely right.”
Crystal couldn’t find the words to describe her feelings of horror and sadness.“I can’t believe you found this diary.”
“Ididn’t.”
She exhaled, pushing the tension from her body.“You know what I mean.It means so much to me that you’d bring it all the way here.Thank you.”A tear suddenly fell from her eye.
He reached over and wiped it away.“I told you you’d cry.”
Emotion overwhelmed her.She leaned over and kissed him, reaching up to wrap her hand around his neck.
He clasped her head and pressed his lips against hers.He felt so good, like the sun after days and days of cold rain.
“Well, if it isn’t the town slut.”
Crystal pulled back, her hand covering her mouth.She whipped her head around but already knew who’d said it.
Jamie jumped up from his chair.“Who the hell are you?”
She smirked.“Patty Barlow.She probably hasn’t told you about me.Or Tommy.No, she ditched him and this town the first chance she had.Luckier than a winning lottery ticket is Crazy Crystal.”She smiled at Crystal, but there was no warmth.Just judgmental frigidity.She looked over at Jamie.“Do you know what you’re getting with this one?”
He took a step forward and put his hand on Crystal’s shoulder.“Yep.And I’m pretty damn lucky.”
Patty scoffed.“You say that now.Just wait.She’ll lure you in and break your heart, just like she did my Tommy.Wait, I forgot the part where she messes you up with drugs.”
