With this story I have a TERRIBLE case of "I know where its going but I don't know what to do with the intermittent chapters!"
But anyway, here's Chapter Five. I hope you guys like it! (And yes Mush and Adele DID get together REALLY fast...it just shows their naivete :))
Chapter Five
Mush and Adele's affection for each other had been set on fire after that night. Sure, both of them had had crushes on other people, both slept with other people, but nothing had been like the way they felt for each other. It was if everything in life suddenly made sense and everything had a purpose. For the first time in her life, Adele felt truly happy and loved, which were the two things she had sought for from her father her whole life.
They spent every possible moment together. Adele claimed that she and a friend from school had started studying until dinnertime and after dinner her fictional friends took a music lesson together on Tuesdays and Thursdays (she added that hoping it would make it more believable). In truth, Adele hadn't made many friends at her new school. She mostly kept to herself, doodling on her work and thinking of the time she and Mush would later spend together.
The newsies got used to her presence at the Lodging House. At first it was jarring for the boys as they had never met a woman of such "status" before. But gradually they began to treat her like the other girls. It was the girls, however, who found themselves quite jealous of Miss Adele.
One especially chilly day in October, Adele made her way into the Lodging House to find her beloved Mush, bearing gifts of new mittens for everyone. She had seen they all must need they badly, so there was no reason why her father's money couldn't go for buying her new friends a treat.
When Mush saw this he grinned to himself wondering how the hell he got to be so lucky. He swooped her up in his arms and kissed her firmly on the lips. She grinned back at him, running her hands through his hair and curling each little curl with her hand.
"Dat's cointly nice a youse." He said with a grin, trying on his new pair of mittens.
She shrugged with a grin. "I've never had real friends before. I figured I should treat them right."
Mush frowned at this and traced her lips. He was beginning to see the two of them weren't much different after all. It didn't matter that she was rich. They were both orphans essentially, neglected by the ones who were supposed to love them.
He sat down on the edge of his bed and pulled her on his lap, ready to tell her a story he hadn't told anyone before.
"Have I evah told you about my past? How I got heah?"
She shook her head. She had never prodded him. She knew what it was like to want to keep things hidden, to be ashamed.
Adele rubbed her hands on his face and kisses his cheek, nodding for him to continue with his story.
"Well, I don't know much of it, but I figahd I should tell you anyways because you know me and you, we ain't so different. From what i know my muddah was a rich white lady, jis' like you. She was beautiful. She got married when she was real young and stahted havin' an affair wid da stable boy...he was colored. And den I was born. She didn't know if da baby was gonna be white or colored so she paid off da midwife ta say da baby was dead if it was colahed. And I toined out. She told everybody she'd had a stillborn, but she'd named it Nicolas. But really da midwife took me away and gave me ta some nuns who took care a colahed kids. I left da orphanage when I was twelve 'cause dey don't really take care a youse no more after dat."
Adele nodded in silence, unsure of what to say. Sure her story was tragic, but his seemed much more so. Her father hadn't wanted her, but he didn't give her up...in so many words.
"How do you know all about this?" she asked gently.
"I gots a lettah she left. I keep it wid me things." He said looking forlorn and kissed her quick. "But let's not tawk about dat...I don't like thinkin' a things like dat."
With a grin, he picked her up, to her playful protest and giggles. He took her to the sick room and made love to her once again. He knew he'd never grow tired of that. He'd never grow tired of knowing a creature so beautiful was all his. He didn't understand how he deserved it, but he did.
After they had finished, he ran his hands through her blonde curls once more.
"Adele?" he asked watching her eyelids grow heavy.
"Hmmm?" she answered, savoring his touch.
"I love you. And I wanna be wid you foreva."
She smiled. "Me too."
When Adele returned home that night (it had been a Thursday), one of the maids noticed her lovesick look and smiled a little.
"Miss Adele?" She asked as Adele took to the business of getting her books organized for the next day of classes. "Sorry if I'm intrudin', but you haven't been taking music lessons have you?"
Adele smiled a little, unable to keep the secret from anyone any longer. She figured little Jane was someone she could trust. No more than seventeen herself, she didn't think she'd take to blabbing to the mistress.
"No," She answered with a grin.
Jane smiled and hung up Adele's coat. As she did this, she noticed something rather odd about it. She leaned in closer. There was no mistaking it. Adele had fleas. She didn't understand why or how. A proper girl like Adele wouldn't be cavorting around with someone who could carry fleas, could she?
Jane dismissed it and took Adele's coat down, inspecting all of her other clothes.
"Why are you taking my clothes for washing? They're not dirty and laundry day is Saturday."
"Oh no reason. But I suspect you might need to have the doctor take a good look at you. And take a bath for heaven's sake."
Adele watched her exit, perplexed by the girl's odd behavior. She shrugged and sat down at her desk, busying herself with her math equations that she was already four days behind on.
As Adele sat and tried with all of her might to solve each equation, she found that she couldn't concentrate. All she could think of was the story Mush had told her a few hours earlier. Why had it all seemed so familiar?