Page 48 of The Harvey Girls

Thirty-Six

For the briefest moment, Charlotte considered turning on her heel, running back to the dorm, and letting Will handle the tour himself. He’d been doing it on his own for years, after all. But that would have meant conceding to shame, and Charlotte hoped to be done with that.

“Hello,” she said. “Nice to see you again.”

The two women stared at her, and then Gertrude Turner spoke. “Listen, I don’t know what you’re playing at—”

Winnie put a hand on her sister’s arm. “Gert, why don’t you and this gentleman give us a moment.”

Gertrude frowned at her sister. Winnie raised an eyebrow, and Gertrude gave her blond head a little shake of frustration.

She turned to Will and hooked her arm in his.

“Mister, you and I are getting the bum’s rush.

Let’s take a walk, and you can tell me what’s so great about this hole in the ground. ”

When they’d gone, Winnie turned her gaze to Charlotte without a word and waited.

“I’m sorry I lied to you yesterday,” said Charlotte. “I was embarrassed.”

“I’m not one of those society girls, Charlotte. You know I wouldn’t think less of you for doing honest work.”

“Yes, but I was one of those society girls, and I’ve been thinking less of myself. That is, until I realized that lying to you was far more shameful than working here.”

Winnie’s expression softened. “I don’t want to pry, but if you’d like to tell me what happened, I promise to keep it between us. I did always wonder why you disappeared after sophomore year.”

Charlotte had been keeping the secret of her relationship with Simeon for two and a half years now: guarding it, lying about it, acting like a felon running from the law.

But she was no criminal, and the only thing she was running for was her life.

Winnie Turner was smart and worldly and, most important, compassionate.

“I would like to tell you, if you don’t mind hearing some unpleasant details.”

Winnie smiled. “I’m going to be a doctor. I imagine I’ll be hearing unpleasant details all day long.”

The next day, in the wee hours of June 25, a newly minted sixteen-year-old woke with a smile on her face.

She suspected that Henny and Charlotte were cooking up a surprise for her birthday, maybe even some sort of party, because there had been some switching of work shifts that she wasn’t supposed to know about.

But what she was really hopeful about was hearing from Leif. Finally. He’d said he would send her a letter for her birthday, and while it had been disappointing that he hadn’t sent one sooner, she felt certain he would keep his promise. Almost certain, anyway.

This made Billie feel strangely guilty. She’d spent a lot of time with Robert over the last month, and she really liked him. They were friends, she told herself again, though that was becoming harder and harder to believe. They held hands all the time now.

“Are you going steady with that park ranger?” one of the other girls had asked her last week.

Billie didn’t know how to answer. Going steady where?

“You know, is he your sheik?”

“Sheik?”

“Ah, for the love o’ Mike. Your beau .”

“Oh!” said Billie, filing this all away for later use. “No, we’re just friends.”

The other girl looked at her like she was dumber than a bag of rocks.

When Charlotte got back at five o’clock from a tour to the Cameron Trading Post, she found Mae Parnell, the dorm mother, soothing a bawling Billie.

“Whatever is the matter?” she asked.

“The mail came,” said Mae.

“What did he say?”

“NOTHING!” Billie wailed. “He said NOTHING!”

Charlotte looked at Mae. No letter , the older woman mouthed.

“After I wrote him the sweetest, nicest—” Billie dissolved into tears again.

“Oh dear,” said Charlotte. “I was sure he would write.” She shook her head. Why were men so utterly contrary? You wanted them to contact you, and they didn’t. You wanted them to leave you alone, and they tracked you to the ends of the earth.

“Let’s have a bite to eat and maybe a little rest.”

“I DON’T WANT TO EAT! I WANT TO… I DON’T KNOW WHAT I WANT!”

Mae met Charlotte’s eye. “You want to give him a piece of your mind!” Then she gave Charlotte a little nod.

Charlotte got the gist. “You want to say, How DARE you treat me with such disregard? ”

“You want to kick him in the shins!”

“Report him to the authorities!”

“Stab him in the neck!” said Mae. The other two women stared at her. “All right,” she conceded, “maybe not the neck.”

This made Billie giggle through her tears.

Mae smiled. “Come on. Let’s get you some toast.”

After Billie ate toast and a bit of leftover chicken and drank a glass of milk, she went upstairs and took a very long soak in the tub, even though another girl banged on the door and said she was being selfish.

The whole world is selfish , she thought bitterly as she studied her prune-y finger pads.

When she finally got out and went back to the room to change, Charlotte had laid out a dress that Billie had never seen before.

It was light cotton voile fabric in lilac with cap sleeves and a simple V-neck with a lovely long tie that dangled down.

It had no waist at all and ended in a stylish hanky hem. It was simple yet striking.

“Henny made it,” said Charlotte. “I bought the fabric.”

“Charlotte, it’s… it’s wonderful!”

“Put it on.”

“Oh, no. I don’t want to wrinkle it. I’ll wear it when there’s another party at the community hall.”

“Well, you should try it on, in case Henny needs to make any adjustments.”

“Where is Henny, anyway? Shouldn’t she be here to see me in it?”

“She has the dinner shift.”

Billie was fairly certain that wasn’t true, but she tried the dress on anyway. It was so light and airy it felt like a cloud against her skin. Charlotte held their small mirror in front of her so Billie could see the skirt swish back and forth around her calves.

“Let’s take a walk so you can really see how it feels.”

Now Billie knew something was up. Charlotte never walked at night if she could help it.

“That’d be the bee’s knees!” she said, knowing it would go right up Charlotte’s spine.

Satisfyingly, Charlotte rolled her eyes and puffed out a little sigh.

They strolled south, away from the canyon, and over toward the community hall.

“Do you mind if we stop in?” Charlotte asked. “I think I left my sweater in there.”

“The windows are dark. It’s probably locked.”

“Let’s just check.” They walked up the steps, found the door open, and stepped into the shadowy room.

Suddenly all the lights were ablaze, and the room was full of people yelling “Surprise!” and Billie felt a little bit swoony.

Until she saw her idol, Gertrude Turner. Then she felt very swoony.