Heaven and Hell by John Jakes Read Free Book Online Page B

was the price for her New York debut, damn him, she wouldn't pay.
    "Begin," he repeated, with a harshness that alarmed her. He caressed her arm again. She tried to draw away. He simply moved and kept at it, blowing his bourbon breath on her.
    "/ have given suck, and know--" She faltered. "How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me."
    "Do you, now?" He bent and kissed her throat.
    "Mr. Wood--"
    "Go on with it." He seized her shoulders and shook her, and that was when freezing terror took hold. In his black eyes she saw something beyond anger. She saw a willingness to hurt.
    "/ would--while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nip Pte from his boneless gums-- "
    Wood's hand slid from her arm to her left breast, closing on it.
    You wouldn't pluck it from mine, would you?"
    She stamped her high laced shoe. "Look here, I'm an actress. I w°n't be treated like a street Page 37

    harlot."
    He grabbed her arm. "I pay your salary. You're anything I say y°u are--including my whore."
    "No," she snarled, yanking away. He drew his hand back and rove his fist against her face. The blow knocked her down.
    34 * HEAVEN AND HELL
    "You blonde bitch. You'll give me what I want." He caught her hair in his left hand, making her cry out when he pulled her head up.
    His right fist pounded down on her shoulder, and again. "Does that convince you?"
    "Let go of me. You're drunk--crazy--"
    "Shut up!" He slapped her so hard, she flew back and cracked her head on the front of his desk. "Pull up your skirts." Lights danced behind her eyes. Pain pounded. She reached up, fingers searching for some heavy object on the desk. He stood astride her right leg, working at his fly buttons. "Pull them up, God damn you, or I'll beat you till you can't walk."
    Out of her mind with fright, she found something on the desk-- the prop dagger. He reached for her wrist, but before he could stop her
    she swung it down. Although the point was blunt, it tore through the plaid fabric of his trousers because she struck so hard. She felt the dagger meet flesh, stop a second, then sink on through.
    "Jesus," Wood said, groping with both hands for the prop weapon buried two inches in his left thigh. He struggled with it, bloodying his fingers. "Jesus Christ. I'll kill you!"
    Wild-eyed, Willa pushed him with both hands, toppling him sideways.
    He shouted and cursed as he overturned a fake palmetto plant.
    She crawled to the chair, snatched her things, and ran from the office and through the dark. At the door she struggled with the bolt, shot it open, and half fell into the rainy passage, expecting to hear him in pursuit.
    /,
    , do solemnly swear in the presence of
    Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect and defend the constitution of the United States and the Union of the states thereunder, and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support all laws and proclamations which have been made during the
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    existing rebellion with reference to the emancipation of slaves. So help me God.
    Oath required of all Confederates
    seeking presidential pardon, 1865
    I must take this oath?" Cooper Main asked. He'd ridden all the way to Columbia to see about the matter, and suddenly had doubts.
    "If you want a pardon," said lawyer Trezevant, from the other side of the flimsy table serving as a desk. His regular offices had burned in the great fire of February 17, so he'd rented an upstairs room at Reverdy Bird's Mortuary on the east side of town, which the flames had spared. Mr. Bird had converted his main parlor to a shop selling cork feet, wooden limbs, and glass eyes to maimed veterans. A buzz of voices indicated good business this morning.
    Cooper stared at the handwritten oath. He was lanky man and had a lot of gray in his untrimmed hair, though he was only forty-five. The scarcity of food had reduced him to gauntness. Workdays lasting sixteen hours had put fatigue shadows under his deep-set brown eyes. He was laboring to rebuild the