Tabitha Read Online Free PDF Page A

Those jackals cannot be trusted to behave, you know.”
    I nodded. I was still dazed, but I was grateful. “Thank ya
fer savin’ me.”
    Opal’s smile stretched her mouth and made even more of the
tiny lines appear in her face, but they were pleasant enough lines. Only her
eyes did not truly smile. “I own this store. Let us go up the back way to my
apartment where you shall have privacy.”
    Opal led the way up a back staircase to the second floor. It
was still early; the bar next door was dark and silent. The entrance at the top
of the stairs opened to a hallway. Opal turned right and stopped at the door on
the end.
    “This is my private apartment. Please rest yourself here
while I make arrangements for your bath and a hot meal. Drink as much of the
water by my bed as you wish. You must be parched, you poor dear.”
    I gaped when Opal opened the door. The room was not large,
but it was artfully arranged. The bed was spread with a gay silk coverlet, the
windows with thick drapes. A dressing table and a floral-patterned screen
graced one corner of the room. A pitcher and washbasin painted with roses sat
on a small table near an overstuffed arm chair.
    “Sit here, Tabitha,” Opal suggested.
    I collapsed into the chair Opal indicated.
    She poured a tall glass of water from the pitcher and handed
it to me. “Drink as much as you like, but start with small sips, yes?”
    I nodded and sank deeper into the chair. It was all I could
do to not drain the glass of its tepid water. I sipped at the glass, placed it
on the table, and leaned against the chair’s back to pace myself.
    “I need to give instructions for your bath. I will return in
a few minutes.” Opal glided from the room, closing the door behind her.
    I must have dozed off in the chair. When I awoke, a hip bath
sat on the carpet in front of the bed and two young women were filling the bath
from steaming tea kettles. I sat up and watched them empty the water into the
tub.
    “Hello,” I offered when they finished.
    One of them, a young woman with glowing auburn hair, smiled.
“Hello. I’m Amber. This here’s Saffron.” Saffron’s skin and eyes were a deep
glossy black. Her eyes glittered and her white, even teeth gleamed against her
ebony skin as she smiled and examined me, but she said nothing.
    I nodded. “I’m Tabitha. Thanks fer fetchin’ m’ bath.”
    “Sure thing,” Amber replied.
    They came with filled kettles several times more before
Amber murmured, “That should be enough.” She slanted brown eyes toward me as
though she wanted to say something, but Saffron touched her arm. Amber
shrugged, and they left.
    As soon as the door closed, I stripped off my dirty clothes,
sank under the hot water, and allowed the liquid heat to heal my aching feet
and muscles. I sighed and sank lower.
    Later, my hair washed, combed, and drying, clad in a robe
Opal had loaned me while someone washed my clothes, I tore into the meal one of
the girls placed before me. I wolfed down the biscuit first and then attacked
the chicken and mashed potatoes.
    I was still gnawing on a drumstick when Opal returned
bearing another tray.
    “I am glad you have a good appetite, my dear,” she murmured.
She set the tray down on the bed and poured from a flowered teapot into a
delicate china cup. “Perhaps a cup of tea to finish your dinner? I’ve added
extra sweetening to it to strengthen you.”
    “I’m obliged to’ ya,” I replied.
    Opal took my plate away and handed me the cup and saucer. I
balanced them on my knee, thinking how pretty their pattern was.
    “Thank ya ever s’ much for all this,” I said, staring at the
steaming tea. “Don’ know how I can ever repay ya.”
    “Do not concern yourself, my dear. As I said, Cray and I
have an arrangement. He took care of everything.”
    I sipped on the tea. It was strong and hot and sweet and
warmed my stomach, even after the bath and the meal. “Did he? But still, he
left town ’thout me?” I frowned, wondering how I