XII. Competition
Animals preoccupied with mating instinctually are belligerent to others around them, and the human male is no exception to the rule. Mary gloried in Daniel's possessive animality of her at its subtle beginning despite its sudden new potency. But her allowance of it had been improvident to the consequences of letting him have her. The act they'd committed on the night of her eighteenth year of life established his undisputed ownership of her, body and soul, any relationship she had with anyone else be damned. She was familiar with this psychology from her observance of the animal kingdom both on the farm and in the wild. Unlike others, she saw it for what it truly was. Everyone on the outside ascribed his fierce protectiveness to the fact that she was now a legal adult and ripe for violation should any of the men decide to take advantage of her. H.W. wasn't beyond teasing her about it either after he noticed the overnight change in his father.
Things were overwhelmingly awkward for Mary who was wholly inexperienced in this sort of affair. She dreaded that the dysfunctional relationship she now carried with her father figure was obvious to everyone else. Afraid that she acted differently around Daniel, she made an extra conscientious effort not to, which she believed made it glaringly obvious that there was something between them. Possessiveness notwithstanding, Daniel was well practised in deception and handled it better. From his vantage point all was normal. That was a gift from age and experience she did not yet have but wished for now.
Be carefull what you wish for, she reminded herself when she saw how Daniel scowled at Fletcher when he reviewed a batch of paperwork with her a few days later. After watching for several minutes, he interrupted out the blue and requested her to break for a walk with him. The abrupt forward rudeness dumbfounded Mary and Fletcher but the young woman obliged and left the office.
"What's wrong, Daniel?" she inquired, worried that something might be.
"I wanted to spend time with you."
"But I was working—"
"Do you regret what happened on your birthday?"
Mary's face turned cherry-red and this time the broad daylight let him see it. Intrepid, she shook her head and prepared for whatever punishment he was about to dish.
"Good," he said. "I'll visit again tonight. Lock your door and I'll use the master key to get in."
Already Mary felt the ache in her lower half.
"But H.W….."
"Tell him you're not feeling well and retire early."
She could only nod.
"I'll be in around nine."
From then on the day couldn't darken fast enough. She did her best to keep as busy as possible, planning fatigue as the excuse to retire at eight. Usually her evenings after supper consisted of reading in the library with H.W. and discussing literature or the newspaper with him. But that night H.W. was crushed when she reported her intention of going to bed early. Giving him a loving good night peck on the lips, she resisted the temptation to ask that he join her and Daniel but she knew neither man would have it. Fifteen minutes after her bedroom door shut behind her, she heard her sweet boyfriend adjourning to his own room farther up the hall, briefly pausing outside her door before moving on. The breath she held interim escaped her lungs in a violent huff.
Daniel was punctual, entering her room by way of the mansion's skeleton key. This time she was prepared for him, her garments discarded directly after entering the room. Kissing him in zealous welcome, she was again acutely aware that there was no trace of whiskey on his lips or breath. Flattered that he wanted this experience sober, she allowed him to sweep her into his arms and carry her to the bed.
Without prelude, he set to work igniting her with his kisses; lingering anticipation of it highly sensitised her body and he brought her off straight away. As on her birthday, his routine professional diligence shined in bed, not stopping even after she came. Gentle with slow, languorous movements, he was hard and vigorous only when she neared climax. No longer was she embarrassed by the lewd sounds of his enjoyment but instead directed and praised him, singing her own enjoyment with loud, throaty moans and high pitched shrieks. Her fingers ran through his hair, pulling him in closer as she urged him on, spreading her legs wider apart then wrapping them around him. He serviced her for several long minutes before leaning back, likely out of exhaustion.
That was when Mary realised he was still fully clothed…just like he had been on her birthday. Taking advantage of his resting state, she dove for his trousers but was instantly fended off. Sitting beside him, she flashed a look of wounded affection.
"It's fair of me to return the favour," she insisted.
"No, my sweet Mary," he protested. "This is for you and only you."
"But lovers share and reciprocate. How will I ever learn if you don't teach me?"
"You'll learn enough on your own. For now, be happy and enjoy what I do."
Foiled, she compromised by kissing his hand.
"Before I came in here," he said to her, "I received a message, delivered from a courier boy. It was from Matthew. Ruth gave birth last night."
An excited spark jolted her with newfound energy.
"Is she well?" she inquired. "How is the baby?"
"Calm down, my sweet! All is well. Both Ruth and the baby are fine."
"Thank the Lord! Niece or nephew?"
"It's a boy."
"A boy! Oh, Daniel! I'm an aunt!"
Throwing her arms around his neck, she planted a tender kiss on his lips, unmindfull of her own scent and taste upon them.
"It was a difficult birth," he informed. "Labour began after they departed here on your birthday and lasted for fifty-eight hours."
"Oh no! How did they get home?"
"They didn't. They stopped at a farm on the way."
"Poor Ruth! All alone in a stranger's home during a terrifying ordeal!"
"She wasn't alone. Her husband was with her."
"Her husband! That brute was the one who did it to her!"
His hand freely explored her body, her unwanted right to complain abnegated willingly in trade for physical pleasure. She wouldn't complain any way, even as she damned Matthew for the male privilege to mate without the exorbant pain a woman is doomed to.
"She wanted it too, Mary," he insisted. "She was fully aware what touching a man in that way could result in. She still let him do it."
Obstinate and burning with repulsion, she pried from his hold and grumbled, "Well I won't let any man do that to me!"
He chuckled and reclaimed his property with one proprietal embrace that dragged her back against him.
"You've already forfeited that decision to me, my sweet. You gave me your body to do with as I please. I own you and you enjoy it. You love how it makes you feel. It excites you to be something owned."
If she wanted to protest she couldn't thanks to the surge of pleasure his lissome fingers wrought from between her legs. After a few moments of recuperation, he was at her again, freeing her mind of all spoken concerns.
At her frantic behest, H.W. drove her to the Atkins' residence the next day so that she could visit Ruth, check on her well-being and meet her new nephew. The first thing she did was lock a bed-ridden Ruth into a fierce embrace as she interrogated her on the experience and her health. Over the duration of her older sister's story, Mary glared at her obviously happy brother-in-law in the dimmed light of low opinion. Her nephew was brought in and introduced to her. While she cradled little Peter Thomas Atkins in her arms and talked to the pink and perfect bundle of cooing joy, she recalled with gut-wrenching horror that Daniel's wife had died in childbirth. Her eyes located H.W. with the wrath of an avenging angel that only a female of the species could understand.
Only H.W. was as blissfully ignorant of it as Matthew was. Instead, he beamed at her in a way that he never had before: in the approving way that a man watched his love interest interact with children because he expected her to bear his someday. Unnerved by it, she hurried Peter back to Ruth's arms.
"I almost lost you because of him," she remarked coldly.
"But you didn't," reminded Ruth, "and he was worth it. Besides. You can't blame him. He's just an innocent baby."
"No. I don't blame him."
Her stern gaze traveled to the men busy with written communication on a small blackboard.
The visit was cut short when Mary began to feel faint. Getting H.W.'s attention, she bid Ruth, Peter and Matthew a quick good-bye then they parted ways. For the entire ride home, H.W.'s hand affectionately grasped hers but all she thought was what she dared not say: You killed your mother and you will not be the death of me!
Concerns of dying in childbirth didn't deter her from intimacy with Daniel, although she resolved to never let him go further than she already had. After the second tryst, the oil man visited every other night, never letting her return the favour or do as little as divest him of his clothes. He began positioning her differently, each time performing orally with never a hint that he wanted to go further. His technique was expert, knowing precisely when, where and how to bring her body to ecstasy with his daedal tongue. Soon even the walks with him on the estate grounds or the beach ended in the same way the night visitations did: sneaking into hidden spots for their profligate activities. No satiety could be had for either of them and danger of public exposure added to her arousal. What detracted from the outside environment was her limited freedom to vocalise as much as she wanted out of the probability that a third party would stumble upon them. Stifled or not, her gratified whimpers were the sweet notes of a symphony to him.
While living under the roof of Little Boston's most pious hypocrites, she'd often received relentless lectures and warnings that she would burn in eternal hellfire if a boy so much as looked at her. Thus it was fitting for Daniel to be the one at fault for her sexual awakening and liberation. Free from the bonds of her misogynistic upbringing, she was a new woman who reveled in the extreme opposite: a vivacious polyandrist madly in love with the two men she lived with. Now with the lenient Plainviews, she lived in an abundance of independence that permitted her to be courted by the son and take the father as a carnal slave every chance she got; she could now officially live up to Eli's accusation of being the Plainviews' whore. She still didn't care.
For the sake of curious variety, she wondered if she could find someone else with which to perform the acts of reciprocation that Daniel did not allow. Her rapacious appetite for the joys of the flesh were not exclusive to Daniel but transferred to H.W. too and her adamant pursuit to coax him into acts beyond the loving kisses frustrated him. Once during their nightly reading ritual, she waited for him to initiate with a French kiss before fingers flew to his trousers. But he shied away from her, shaking his head.
What are you doing? he asked with a worried expression.
Don't you want to make love to me? she returned.
Yes. More than anything. But on our wedding night. I want to give myself to you on a night that means more than a whim of boredom.
Mary was stunned. You want to marry me?
I've always wanted to marry you. But we are not yet ready.
Why not?
He glanced through the door left ajar to the closed one across the hall. The closed door belonged to Daniel's office.
There is unfinished business I must tend to, he told her.
A sense of dread settling in her bones, she nodded.
You're right, she assented. I'm sorry. I love you so much. I just wanted to share a special experience with you.
H.W. smiled and retorted: Every moment with you is special.
Choking back emotion, she embraced him. Nuzzling against his ear, she murmured: "I love you more than life itself. But I've always been in love with your father."
Sweetly kissing his cheek, she let him lead her upstairs to the door of her room. Remorsefull for the aggression, she invited him in to hold her for a while which was readily accepted with immediate forgiveness in his heart. The only thing that could rival having Daniel between her legs was being in H.W.'s arms. Comfortable and cozy were the ingredients for a soporific effect that lulled them both asleep.
It wasn't until after midnight when Mary's eyes ripped open with the realisation that she wasn't alone in bed. Whether the body beside her was H.W. or Daniel, it would wreck havoc with whoever it wasn't. Shaking the slumbering form she was relieved to discover as H.W., she frantically signed: We fell asleep! You have to leave!
Panic shot adrenaline through his body as the pair of sweethearts rushed from the bed in a whirlwind of bed clothes and limbs. Opening the door slowly, Mary peeked out carefully to make sure the hall was clear. Finding it empty, she gestured for the young Plainview to hurry. In the doorway, he paused to give her a long kiss while locking in an embrace for a lengthy period, simply enjoying each other's proximity before parting.
Sighing relief while exhaustion crept back into her body, she waited until H.W.'s door shut before stepping backward to retire back into her private space. But a shape out the corner of her eye magnetised her attention to Daniel who stood outside of his own bedroom door. Fully clothed and door slightly opened, he must have been turning in when her door unfastened, attracting his tired interest. Even from the distance that separated them Mary saw his resentfull objection. The only thing she could do was smile in return and shut her door.
Why would he be mad? He knows H.W. comes in sometimes! He can't be upset because my boyfriend, his own son, was in my room!
Nevertheless, fatigue abandoned her and she lay wide awake as if she was never tired in the first place.
No mention of the incident on the older man's part put his teenage lover on pins and needles for several days before she decided that he helplessly accepted her love affair with his son. Or at least she prayed that he did. She lionised Daniel and adored H.W. and was appreciative to have them both. During the nights Daniel didn't sneak into her bed, he holed himself up in his office drinking, making up for the sober nights spent with her. She started keeping her door locked and when questioned about it by H.W., who'd tried to sneak in one night, she provided an hortative explanation that she didn't want to continue taking an unnecessary risk. H.W. was reasonable and agreed that she was well worth the wait but it wasn't worth incurring the wrath of his father just to sleep in her arms.
Whether paid visit by Daniel or not, Mary seldom slept. On nights with him she squirmed beneath his tongue in unutterable bliss. On those without him two things occurred. First, she manually stimulated herself, the memories of his incredible prowess so realistic that she could almost feel him against her tormented flesh. Afterwards, as she calmed from the fevered lust, she worried for his well-being. She hated it when he drank; all the horrid possibilities that could befall him while intoxicated scared her, which made seeing him the next morning a reprieve.
It also escalated his possessiveness of her, as many of the roughnecks discovered the hard way. One of them, a late twenty-something named Samuel Brunner, was in conversation with Fletcher one afternoon when he noticed her struggling with the office door while balancing a large box on her knee. Like any gentleman would, he rushed to relieve her of the cumbersome burden and hold open the door for her. He was just being polite but a bit flirtatious with a discreet wink that Mary took with a grain of salt yet Daniel viewed it another way. Noticing the wink with his keen eye, he charged forward from where he invigilated at his desk to take over. The last time she witnessed that murderous appearance on his face was when he'd attacked Eli and, for a lingering moment, she feared for the worker. As Samuel left, Daniel remarked about not tainting what was his; the roughneck had no choice but to pretend he didn't hear. Disturbed by this all day because of her knowledge about Henry's slaying, she was put to rest only later that night when he came to her again showing the side of him nobody else was privy to seeing.
Samuel, as it turned out, was not easily bullied. On the rare occasion when she was without one of the Plainview men, he approached her with the doughty intention of conversing with her.
"Miss Mary?" he addressed. "Might I have a word with you?"
"Of course you can, Samuel."
She led him away from the rest, hoping to steer them from any place Daniel may find them.
"You really like working out here with us men?" he asked. "Or are you pretending for Mr. Daniel's sake?"
"Why, Samuel, I thought you boys liked my presence!" she faked offense.
"We do, Miss Mary. Like a dying man in the desert rejoices in seeing a raincloud."
"Then I'm afraid I'm unclear of what you mean to say."
"It's Daniel, Miss Mary. We see how he watches you. We know you've known him almost your whole life and whatever relationship you have with him is none of our business. But a lot of the other roughnecks have known him for longer than you've been alive."
"I thought you men left gossip to women." Her voice was even, though her body felt broken.
"We know you took to him as a daughter. But you don't know—"
"I am very aware of his temper, if that's what you're driving at. I've seen it first hand. But he's never been that way with me. You don't know him the way I do either."
"Of course not, Miss Mary. You might be right. I'm sure you are. I hope I didn't step out of line and if I have, I apologise. In case I'm not wrong about him, you have me you can count on."
"Thanks, but I have H.W. to watch out for me."
"H.W. is his son. They are thick as thieves. Will he come to your defense against him? You can't have too many friends."
Mary paused to absorb this information before nodding.
"Yes, you're right, of course. Thank you, Samuel."
"Miss Mary, if I may be forward…"
"By all means…"
"Be it far from me to impose on another man's territory but I've always been fond of you. If things don't work out between you and H.W. then I'd be interested…"
"Thanks again, Samuel, that's very sweet and noble of you but I think H.W. and I are synonymously inseparable."
Samuel smiled playfully, planted a hasty kiss on her lips, then in parting told her, "I don't see H.W. around right now."
Since then, Mary took Samuel's amorous play as a woman who knew she was in control and that things would never progress between them. Samuel neither came on stronger nor begrudged her for laughing off his courtship. A secret, unspoken friendship formed through brief glances, concise comments and more gallant gestures. H.W. took it lightly, even teased her about it, but Daniel was another story. There was rapid decomposition in his once tight relationship with the roughnecks. Specifically Samuel was his prime target and the careless, good natured roughneck provoked his boss as much as Eli did.
It came to be that Daniel's vigilant eyes never left the men when Mary was near. If he was anywhere in the vicinity when she was around any of them he rushed to help her himself or kept a listening ear on anything they said to her. Some of them became aware of it and avoided her altogether, frustrating Mary to no end. What bewildered her was she expected Daniel to demand that she either be confined to the office or to fire then banish her to the mansion like the housewife he fought to keep her from being. Neither action was taken. He let her continue as if all was well, parading her around like a trophy, still showing her off as his star pupil. In meanness he flaunted her in front of Samuel, strategically wrapping an arm around her waist, taking her by the arm or interlacing their fingers to pull her close against him. Wanting to make an example out of the blazon roughneck, Daniel made sarcastic, malicious comments to the man untill, having enough, the roughneck stood up to his employer directly.
"I have a girlfriend, sir," Samuel reminded with venom. "And I understand that Miss Mary is spoken for by your son, no less. She's a grown woman and doesn't need an old man like you fawning over her every minute of the day."
Whether Samuel's outburst referencing a girlfriend was true or if it was just said to call Daniel out and put the oil man in his place Mary wasn't sure. Originally she wrote off the flirtation as harmless because she liked Samuel well enough to want to believe he was sincere. Sincerity went out the window after hearing the stunning confession that jogged her memory on the perfected deception, the mythomania that men practised whenever they wanted something out of a woman. Perhaps Samuel was no gentleman after all. In the end it didn't matter any way because she still had love in both of the Plainview men.
However, Daniel's animosity seethed and Samuel was fired on the spot in an array of choice curse words and a violent removal from the fields by the irate boss himself. Over the course of one week, ten others followed in Samuel's wake, four released in a repeat performance of Samuel's firing while six opted for an exit before Daniel's indiscriminate eye found fault with their interaction with Mary too.
"You're my property," he muttered in her ear one night after ravishing her with his mouth. "Anyone else who violates you is a trespasser."
Raw excitement made Mary shiver uncontrollably. The declaration was so primal and sexual that she couldn't help but to respond accordingly. Heightened by his greedy hand caressing down her side, her aroused body convulsed in instantaneous release as soon as his fingers located that most sensitive spot between her legs.
One orgasmic release wasn't enough for him and he sent her into a writhing, crying, moaning absolute hysteria. Prying his fingers off her slickened flesh, she clung to him in a feverish embrace.
"Yes, yes!" she sobbed, breathless. "I'm yours! I'm yours!"
The hand slid from between her legs, over her hip and gently groped her bare bottom. This was how she fell asleep.
There was one person, however, who could not be as easily appeased regarding Daniel's firing rampage. In the second week after dinner on the fourth evening, H.W. decided to be diplomatic and confronted his father about his unorthodox behaviour. Asking Mary to leave the room so that he might speak to his father in private, he sent her to retrieve George to do the translations on her behalf. Without argument she went. This was the men's business she wanted no part of.
George was on the porch reading by the last light of the day and she dispatched her boyfriend's message to the teacher. But when the dining room door shut behind H.W.'s beloved interpreter, Mary lurked outside to overhear the muffled conversation because she knew it would involve her. She was right.
"I've noticed the recent rash of firings and workers who have chosen to quit," George decoded H.W.'s signing for Daniel. "There is a heavy tension between you and the men that had never been there before. Our business used to be a tight-knit family that we were all a part of: you, me and them. It worked to our advantage for many years. Family first, you always said, and it held true on every occasion."
"What is this about, H.W.?" growled Daniel. "If you have something to say, say it. Don't stall and draw it out like the plague."
"You've always been protective of Mary and I appreciate that. She loves you so much and I know through your actions that you love her equally. But your latest measures to care for her by lashing out at the men are inadmissible. Those men weren't trying to steal her from me or to cause her any detriment. Like we have, they've watched her grow up and learned to respect and love her. They would never cause her any harm."
"Samuel Brunner—"
"Samuel Brunner was Mary's friend. Nothing more. His courtship of her was for sport. She played along and I was aware of everything. Do you think I would ever allow harm to come to her?"
There was a pause and Mary pictured Daniel's caustic glare drilling a hole into his son. Then his voice broke the silence in response.
"What would you have me do? Hire the men back? Beg their forgiveness?"
The patronising tone in Daniel's voice was conspicuous and she knew that H.W. didn't need his ears to hear it either. They both knew the old gaffer well enough.
"No, father," George responded as H.W.'s voice. "I know pride in your judgement defines you. But I would ask that you no longer take your fears and frustrations out on the men. If any of them disrespect Mary she is capable of putting them in their place herself. Just like you taught her to do. She is headstrong and independent, but if she needs one of us to defend her then she will have us. But I know she will also have most of our men watching out for her too."
"You're sure about that?" Daniel questioned, unconvinced.
"I'm positive about it."
"Will it make her happy if I let her deal with things her way?"
"Without question."
"Then I will do what you ask. For her sake."
"Thank you, father. I love you."
"I love you too, son."
Daniel's voice was as cold as a January night and the iciness made Mary shiver even as she raced away.
The talk worked, for what it was worth, as Daniel alleviated his pressure on the roughnecks although his critiquing eye never withdrew from them whenever Mary was present. She smiled at him tenderly, showing him that everything was well, and it helped quell his authoritarian restlessness. Conditions with the men were never the same again but were improved as opposed to the last few weeks after Daniel curtailed his jealousy.
Then came the day when Eli returned to Little Boston and arrived at the mansion with mother for a visit. Mary knew that the lone reason Daniel didn't monitor the appointment was because mother was there. Had he stayed in the room his reason for doing so would've been to intimidate Eli as a cat would toy with its rodent prey than to fend off other lions at a feast as with the roughnecks. Eli peered at her throughout the two hour visit with condescending antipathy and said very little to her. At the end of the call, mother was being helped into Eli's brand new automobile by one of Daniel's servants when the older brother attempted a half-hearted conversation with her.
"I'm happy that you're happy, Mary," he told her in a saccharine tone that would sway anyone who didn't know better. "You're doing quite well for yourself. Except, perhaps, from the social stance. Everyone's noticed how eager you forsaken the church in favour of the office. That isn't all they've noticed. Your unconventional relationship with a father and his son…" He stopped short, breathed deep as if to shrug off the disgrace, then changed the path of discussion. "Don't let the town's gossipmongers upset you. I'm sure H.W. hasn't tainted your purity in any way and Daniel himself keeps you under lock and key to ensure it."
The way his disgusted eyes crawled over her body felt like rape.
"I am well cared for," she played along, aloof because she knew it infuriated him. "Thank you for your concern."
"I hope you fare well and that you find bliss in your den of iniquity."
"There is no evil here unless you seek it. The worst things done to me were the worst things said to me by my blood relatives. But it was nice seeing you again, Eli."
She watched the car's departure from the estate with an abundance of relief then went back inside to check on Daniel. Not much time or effort was required to find him; he was in his office where the bulk of his time was spent. Entering without a knock, she shut the door behind her.
"Thank you," she said to him, "for leaving me alone in the company with my disagreeable brother. It meant a great deal to me that you allowed the right for me to face him on my own."
"You're an adult. I have confidence that you can handle your own matters wisely."
Strolling towards him, she placed herself upon his knee, a chaste gesture for a father and daughter that was contorted by their real relationship, slipped her arms around his neck and cradled her head on his shoulder. His arm innately wrapped tight about her waist, he lit his pipe and deeply inhaled the cherry scented tobacco.
"I couldn't help but overhear the conversation you had with H.W. about the men you fired," she owned up. "Did you truly believe that they were interested in me?"
"I saw how they looked at you. I disapproved."
"You most certainly did. But they did nothing wrong. Not even Samuel. Especially not Samuel. He was so light-heartedly innocent, like a schoolboy with a crush. But I didn't mind your jealousy. It was flattering and sexy. It verifies you want me."
A silence blanketed them while he smoked, she imagining patterns and figures in the smoke as if she were on her back in the desert doing the same with clouds.
"I want you for myself but there are others who feel the same way. I don't share anything with rivals," he warned, his voice dripping with envy even as he insinuated that the one he truly referred to was his own son.
"Give me the word and I'd leave him for you."
Pressing her lips to his coarse cheek, she kissed him sombrely because she knew that as selfish as Daniel was he adored H.W. and the tie he had to his son bound him to honour the young man's first claim on her. He would voice his frustration that he couldn't have her entirely for himself but he would continue taking what piece of her that he could when he could.
"You've stolen my heart, Daniel," she proclaimed in a gentle mutter. "It should come as no surprise to you since you make a habit of taking what isn't yours."
The predatory look he gave enlivened her and she wondered if it was how a lioness felt in the wild during mating season when a male locked her in his sights.
"But you are mine, my sweet Mary. You've been mine since the moment you saw me."
"You know then, how I've always felt?" she questioned softly.
"You wear your heart on your sleeve," he told her in earnest. "The only reason H.W. hasn't figured it out is because he is blind with love for you. Anyone else can see through your transparency."
"Is it a terrible thing, then, for you to be my first love? My only love?"
"Despite my jealousy as you call it? My heart is envious when others have what I want, I never keep that a secret about myself." Then he averred, "It's H.W. who borrows you from me. And I'll prove it again tonight."
Wet heat throbbed in her loins and she squirmed on his lap, much to his undisguised satisfaction. Rising from his lap, she pressed her lips to his for a brief, solemn moment before departing from the office, bumping into H.W. in the hallway.
Speaking with the old man again? H.W. teased with an ignorant, genial smile.
About his exhaustive over protectiveness, yes, she replied.
He isn't treating the men badly again, is he? queried H.W., a concerned look replacing the affable one.
The great promising businessman in H.W. shined through his irenic negotiations with his father and she smiled supportively.
Not at all. He even allowed me to speak to Eli alone today.
H.W.'s smiled returned, relieved.
Thank God, I was beginning to worry. For a while I thought that he was a threat to us.
What do you mean? Mary's heart sank with her feigned ignorance.
It appeared that he was jealous not just of our defiant playboy Samuel but of all the men, as if he is your lover. I feared that perhaps he planned to issue a challenge to me for your heart.
All of Mary's fears became realised and her blood rushed with a quickened pulse. The chemistry was so volatile between her and Daniel that H.W. needn't to have heard her moans in the night to figure out what was going on behind closed doors underneath his nose.
Don't be silly, my love, she misled her hapless betrothed. He is a father to me; the touchstone for the woman I've become, the standard bearer for all that I consider good in a man.
Then you do not see his faults.
I love him despite those faults when I see the perfect son he's produced.
The smile on H.W.'s boyishly handsome face couldn't be wider. He asked her to join him for reading in the library but she excused herself by reasoning that meeting Eli had been taxing on her emotions and she needed to go to bed. Pecking her sweetly on the lips, he let her go and she felt immediate shame for her incestuous liaisons. Not bothering to shed any light in the salving darkness of her room, she disrobed and cried herself to sleep.
Indescribable pleasure awakened her with a moan that tore from her throat at some time in the night and her fingers found Daniel in place between her thighs. The familiar warm wetness of his mouth against her moist and receptive flesh was welcomed as he tasted her otherwise untouched feminine features. The guilt melted away like a spring rain washed away the dirt of winter. Moaning and panting his name with abandon, she cried that she loved him when she climaxed, her entire body twitching. This time rather than persisting, he positioned her on her side then slid his clothed body behind hers and settled. Contented, she pressed back against him with a sigh.
After a lengthy pause she dared to ask what she'd been wondering ever since their first night together: "Why don't you make love to me?"
"I am making love to you," he murmured in her ear, the vibrations of his voice tickling her. Taking her leg and draping it back over his, he brought his hand down to manipulate the tiny button of aroused tissue he addictively and regularly supped on. "This is still sex."
He secured her against him in an embrace as he gently rubbed her; she bucked her hips in wanton need, gasping in rapture.
"I realise that, Daniel. I may have been raised in a religious environment but I know what sex is. I've seen animals mating plenty of times on the farm. I meant I want you inside me."
Adding her hand to his, she grinded and contorted with approaching orgasm; her leg clamped tighter over his and their movements sped up to compete with her shallow breathing. With a throaty groan her body was sent into uncontrollable quivers as she met release.
"No," he finished the conversation, his voice firm. "You will be pure on your wedding night."
The statement did not fall on remissive ears but before she could ask what he meant by it he was again between her legs, kissing her where no father figure should've kissed the little girl he all but raised. Whatever reason he had to not consummate their relationship was his own as he made amends for his refusal by inserting his tongue inside her, giving her a new reason to whimper his name. When he was done she begged him to stay and hold her for the night, all previous words forgotten at the summit of her climax and her desperate new want of penetration.
To her surprise, he submitted to her wish, agreeing to stay in her room, in her bed, with her in his arms as both daughter and lover. She'd never had a more perfect sleep, not even on his first night in Little Boston or her first night in the cottage.
When the chamber maid knocked on the door to wake her for breakfast and inform her of the late hour and that H.W. was worried about her, adrenaline pulsed through her body like lightning. Replying that she'd merely overslept and would be down in a moment, she rushed to dress then waited to hear the maid's footsteps leave the door before trying to shake Daniel from his sleep. Getting him up was impossible, as usual. He slept like the dead awaiting judgment in their graves and after trying for the better part of fifteen minutes she simply tossed a blanket over him and gave up, taking the precaution of locking the door behind her.
Of course once she arrived at the breakfast table H.W. was eager to kiss her and held her hand beneath the table while they ate. Half way through their meal, he asked her where his father was since he was still absent.
Probably already out on the field or in his office, she fabricated. He's always been an early riser.
With the exception of this particular day, of course; yet H.W. believed her lie because he hadn't a reason not to. For this she felt horrible. She trusted H.W. wholly without any breach of that trust. He on the other hand had probable cause to disbelieve her prevarications: his father's unfair treatment of the men, the covetous way he leered at her and scowled at even Fletcher and H.W., the way her and Daniel were always found together all made for elliptic contestation.
Perhaps H.W. had an astute grasp on her and Daniel's mutual cupidity and chose to say nothing as long as there was peace and everyone was happy. Perhaps he didn't object to it in the least and remained sedentary so that the fey affair could run its inexorable course. Or there was the possibility that he was anchored within his own loving trust for Daniel and lacked the insight to question either his father's or his girlfriend's probity. After all, they were the ones who he loved the most in the world and who certainly loved him in return. Why would he dispute the integrity of those not out to cause him harm?
Then he casually blind-sided her.
I think my father has taken a lover.
How do you know? She asked after a stunned pause.
Last night I went to speak with him in his office but he was not there. Nor was he in his bedroom. I searched the whole mansion and still could not find him.
Maybe he was out in the fields.
No. I asked Fletcher who'd just come in after working the night shift in the field and he said father never appeared all night.
That is suspicious.
Yes. And this isn't the only time I've gone to see him and couldn't find him.
It isn't?
No. I'm certain of it, Mary. He has a lover. I think it would be a great thing for him. He needs a woman who could tear him free of his work once in a while.
Mary smiled and nodded.
I told him it would. Maybe he's taken my advice.
Which would mean an end to an era. The almighty Daniel Plainview: listening to someone else for a change.
Then her boyfriend left her alone with her fearfull thoughts. How often had H.W. been unable to find Daniel when they were together? The prospector hadn't been with her every night. Was it far fetched to believe he had another woman? Could it be the same whore Eli tattled about? Since she had H.W., did she have any right to want her extracurricular lover to remain faithfull to her? The assumption would be unfair to Daniel and would rank her a hypocrite like Eli.
Her ponderous wonderings spanned through the course of the work day while down at the office in the fields. Finally they took another turn as she and H.W. were going over the paperwork for a newly acquired lease when he started his customary invective about his father's spending habits and pecuniary interests.
He wants to buy up the world just for the privilege to say it's his, griped H.W. with a stoic shake of his head. He purchases all this land with fierce voracity and does nothing, absolutely nothing with what he already has. I fear for his financial stability and his sanity.
You know he'll be fine. What else does he have in his life? You've grown up and he has nothing more to focus on.
He is going to burn himself out. Rome collapsed because it did not know when to quit expanding.
You liken your father's business practises to the Roman Empire?
Isn't it one in the same by the course of its nature? His carnivorous appetite for power has consumed everything stretching for miles. The Plainview Empire is going to implode and crush him beneath the added weight.
The squeaky springs in the door as it was opened then closed sidetracked Mary's attention and she turned her head over her shoulder to see who was joining them. Daniel had finally arrived and she prudently squeezed H.W.'s arm to signal that his father was with them. He gave Daniel a nod of hello but the patriarch seated himself behind the desk without returning the gesture; instead he peered straight at Mary.
"I apologise for this morning," he said, evidently without care that H.W. could read lips. "I'm a heavy sleeper, as you are well aware of."
The girl flinched at the casual openness with which her deception was mentioned. Nevertheless she nodded and replied that it was fine, that she didn't mind. Sensing her stiff constraint upon Daniel's influx, H.W. motioned for her to go outside with him rather than signed to enable his father's understanding his intent without disrespect. She exchanged a weary glance with Daniel who looked back with the interest of a proprietor surveying the leasing of what he owned.
She followed H.W. hand in hand as they walked to the beach, enshrouded in hospitable silence and away from Daniel's monopolising gaze. While those domineering green eyes thrilled her one minute, they frightened her equally the next. No thanks to the close call she had with him earlier she was happy to be away from him if for but an hour. Night would be a different story, but now she wanted her stolen private moments with the younger Plainview.
H.W. spread his jacket out across the sand so he could lie back and put his head on it, pulling her down into his arms. Stroking her bare arm lightly with his finger tips and nuzzling against her, he dozed fitfully only minutes later. Her head placed upon his gently rising and falling chest, Mary listened to the slow, steady drumming of his heart. Mixed with the blood pumped his undying devotion to her and she translated the beats as tantamount to a profession of love.
Was she worthy of that pure dedication after she'd disgraced him behind his back? Maybe she deserved the rapacious incubus who snuck into her room at night rather than the decent virgin she rested with now. She didn't know precisely when her innocent standpoint mutated into its current state. There always was an underlying crush on him inside her but even then she never imagined her father figure would ever be sexually objectified. Though he came to her in the night, she initiated by expressing an interest in their carnal indiscretions and thus was a voluntary accomplice to making a cuckold out of her sweet boyfriend. It stung her like the barbs of a jellyfish to doubt herself as a person after the strict way she'd been raised. She should've known better; better had been instiled within her since birth. H.W. was the sort of man mother hoped she would have someday: good looking, successfull, tender-hearted, and without an ounce of malice in his soul.
How ironic it was to think that in her determination to spite Eli and her father she became what she herself was against in her newfound freedom. Reflecting back on it, it didn't seem like such a bad thing and she wouldn't have it any other way. Daniel became a demon in those aspects and H.W. was the angel while she became fit to be the greedy oil tycoon's successor more than his son. It was the way Daniel groomed her to be and how Eli and father had pushed her to be: a product of their joint efforts. Should she be blessed with a daughter of her own someday, she was what she hoped the girl would grow up to be.
With a start, H.W. awakened and she leant over to kiss him the way she was taught to kiss by Daniel: fierce, passionate and hard, taking him by surprise. When he tried to sign what she was doing she blocked him then mouthed the sacred truth: I love you. The revelation was nothing new to him yet he was oddly surprised to hear it. Cupping her face in his hands, he kissed her deeply in a mimic of his father's kissing method, only H.W. replenished and gave back what Daniel stole and took from her. Making love to both father and son at the same time would've been a fantastic experience: as one sucked the life from her lungs, the other could breathe it back into her.
H.W.'s resuscitation of her was put to an end when the night bruised the horizon. Hunger and cold ocean breezes urged them back to the office all too soon and from there they took their private car back to the mansion.
Daniel was nowhere to be found when they returned and his absence was attributed to the fields. George didn't know where he was either, excusing his ignorance with whiling the day away writing correspondence in his room. Time furnished neither man nor answers but only stressed Mary with worry.
See? I told you. H.W. stated without a visible concern. I know it. He's gone to visit his lover.
But I'm his lover! she thought.
Forcing her troubled countenance to fake ease, she nodded.
Not until after dinner when Fletcher called did they learn what happened.
"Daniel was at work earlier today," he told Mary. "But a courier arrived with a telegram."
The telegram was handed to her and she skimmed it. Aghast at its content, she passed it to H.W. who read it leisurely, absorbing its contents. From a neighbour of the Atkins' farm, the telegram relayed that they had Mary and Peter with them, that there was an incident that occurred and someone from the Plainview home was to come immediately. Daniel had gone to answer the emergency.
Mary's most urgent reaction was to go herself but H.W. stopped her.
Where are you going? he inquired.
To help my sister! she responded, flushed and flustered.
My father is well adept at solving problems and thinking quickly. Whatever happened, he is capable of taking care of it himself.
H.W. held her fast until her body slackened. She had no choice but to relinquish, knowing that he was right that Daniel could fix the problem, whatever it was, on his own. But having not one but two of the most important people in her life in jeopardy was all it took to give her insomnia. H.W. kept her company in her room but his presence didn't help. While he slept, she lay wide awake, wondering what was going on and how long it would take before she was able to find out. Trying to exhaust her fired up body, she left bed to nervously pace.
Moments later the sound of the front door to the mansion downstairs suddenly closed, alerting her to the muffled voice she knew was Daniel's and the squeal of the floorboards beneath their feet as they ascended the stairs. Mary rushed to her door, a hand on the knob and ready to open.
"You can take this room tonight," Daniel's voice wafted through the door. She resisted the urge to charge through and trap them in a fierce embrace. "If it's not to your liking you can choose another tomorrow. Don't worry about anything. You'll be well cared for and are welcome to stay here for as long as necessary."
"I don't know what to say, Mr. Plainview," Ruth replied. "Thank you."
"That's all I need to hear. Go on. Off to bed with you. We've both had a very long day."
"Thank you again."
"Sleep as long as you want tomorrow. Breakfast will be waiting when you wake."
A door down the hall from her own opened then closed. Mary's hand started to turn the knob to her own door until the sounds of Daniel's heavy gait stopped directly outside. For an unknown reason she could not manage. She knew the worst probable scenario lay beyond the door and tonight perhaps knowing her lover and her sister were safe were enough for now. She supposed Daniel felt the same because his booted footsteps moved on, not in the direction of his own room but back down the stairwell. Likely to the refuge of the office on the bottom level.
Mary allowed herself leeway to loosen up and rejoin H.W. in the invitingly cozy bed. Instinctively when he sensed her near, he slung an arm around her. Knowing all was as well as it could be, she let herself sleep.
A note had been left on her door.
Mary:
Meet me in my office as soon as you're up.
Daniel
The late night had rendered the morning lark H.W. still asleep in bed, sleep easy in confidence that the situation was under control while Mary was too desperate to learn what transpired the night before to be able to sleep in.
"Your sister Ruth is here," he told her, wasting no time.
"But why? Has something happened?"
"Her husband didn't seem to understand his marriage vows. He forgot what the words love, honour and cherish mean."
Mary stared at Daniel in blank disbelief, letting his words soak in.
"What has he done to her? I'll kill him myself!"
Angry and breathless, she started for the door but he stopped her.
"There's no need, sweet Mary. He's been taken care of."
Frozen in her tracks, she dared ask, "Taken care of? Like Henry taken care of?"
"No. Not Henry taken care of. But he won't be hitting your sister again."
News that Ruth had been abused, had inadvertently followed the vicious circle that Mary had been fortunate to break, sent her running from the room with a murmured excuse in search of her sister. The logical place to look first was the bedroom she saw Daniel usher her into last night. Lightly knocking on the door, she softly called Ruth's name. From inside came a bid to enter after her name formed as a question. When Mary opened the door she intended to run straight into Ruth's arms but stopped short when she found her elder sister feeding her baby. Instead she first halted then sat on the bed next to her sibling.
"Daniel told me what happened," Mary informed.
"I guessed that he would."
"Are you hurt?"
That was when Mary realised that Ruth hadn't looked directly at her yet. When Ruth turned to face her completely she displayed the black eye that was hidden by the turn of her head. Instantly, Mary's eyes filled with tears as she gasped then cursed.
"You've gotten bold since you moved in with the Plainviews," Ruth acknowledged. "You take the Lord's name in vain often?"
"Every chance I get," answered Mary with a slyness that her sister understood. "Enough of my profanities. They're quite irrelevant at the moment, don't you find?"
Ruth's gaze dropped down to Peter who was clutched against her chest, cradled dearly in her arms.
"What happened, Ruth? I thought things were going well for you and Matthew. I thought you escaped."
"So did I, Mary."
"Well, what happened?"
Ruth offered a slight shrug. "Supper wasn't ready fast enough. The food was over or under cooked. There wasn't fresh milk on the table. Peter wouldn't stop crying. Take your pick."
Mary's heart died in her chest when she read between the lines of her sister's dialogue. "Ruth! No!"
"Don't worry. Daniel showed him he meant business."
Mary cringed. "What exactly did he do?"
A smile played across Ruth's lips. "He didn't even lay a hand on Matthew. He tore into the house like a terrible avenger, backed Matthew into a corner, looked him dead in the eye and that was it. He told me to take the baby and get in the car. Seeing him in such a state I knew refusal was not an option."
"How do you know he didn't do anything to Matthew after you went out to the car?"
"He came out right behind us. Seconds passed. Believe me, Mary, he didn't need to do much but stare Matthew down. He meant business and Matthew knew it. He told me that I could stay for as long as I wanted. I'm telling you, Mary, I saw first hand why you called him your guardian angel for all of those years. You were right. I never saw anything more frightfully fierce and never was I so happy to see something that frightfully fierce."
"How long do you plan on staying?"
Ruth shrugged a little. "I don't know. For as long as it takes for things to sink into Matthew and for him to wonder if we'll ever come back." But she indicated the hidden question behind Mary's words. "I'm sorry to encroach on your personal paradise. I know you've become a greedy little thing, keeping the Plainview men all for yourself."
"It isn't that, Ruth. You can see we have plenty of room here. I don't mind in the least. I've thought about asking Daniel to move all of you and mother up here. There's a whole wing of this place that we don't even use."
"I'm not surprised."
"But truly, Ruth, I'm so happy that you're here. It's great to have a female around who I can talk to. Maybe Eli isn't so far off when he taunts me that I'm losing all of my femininity."
"Let me hold a conference with Daniel and H.W. and I'll ask their opinions on that."
The young women laughed in spite of the situation until Ruth cried in pain from her blackened and still swollen eye.
Days passed and the pair of siblings caught each other up with the latest in their lives. Even Mary's misgivings toward her tiny nephew were vanquished within the time she'd spent with him, time in which she discovered how deep the mother was bonded to her son. They were seldom apart and once in a while H.W. would join their company. Daniel always kept a respectable distance though he eyed them in a strange way that made Mary uncomfortable.
Then she happened upon them one night. Exhausted by a visit from mother and Eli, Ruth went to her room to sleep directly after dinner. The baby was already long to bed in his cradle and Ruth was eager to join him. Daniel had refused to eat with them at the table on the grounds that there was paperwork he needed to finish but everyone knew the unspoken reason was Eli's presence. Eli was only tolerated in the Plainview mansion for the sake of the Sunday women, after all.
En route to her room, she paused outside Ruth's door if for nothing more than to take a quick glance at Peter. Inside the room awaited a different scenario than the one of quiet repose that she'd been expecting. Little Peter must have been asleep in the crib beside the bed because Ruth and Daniel were on the bed together; Ruth was leaning back, propped up on an elbow with Daniel leaning in and one hand hiking up her night dress. Although Ruth protested, it seemed half-hearted. Always relentless, Daniel persisted regardless.
"No, Mr Plainview! We can't do this! You know we can't! I'm a married woman!"
"Look at the man you're married to."
"Mr Plainview, no! Mary!"
Her heart skipped a beat when she heard her name but Mary discovered that it hadn't been an acknowledgement of her spying presence but a declaration to remind Daniel of how she would feel if she knew of this encounter.
"What has Mary got to do with this?" grumbled Daniel, stinging Mary's heart deeper.
"She'll be disappointed in us!" Ruth insisted, breathless from trying to fend off his aggression. "She'll hate us both if she found out!"
Not true! Mary thought bitterly even with tears clouding her eyes.
"Mary isn't here," Daniel returned. "What she doesn't know won't hurt her."
"We'll know! Mr. Plainview, we'll know!" This declaration broke through to him and he withdrew. "If you feel this way about me, Mr. Plainview, I'm sorry but I don't share those feelings."
Mary decided she'd heard enough and slipped away back to her room. That was more than enough excitement she could bear for the night. What bothered her most when dawn broke was how much she realised the scene in Ruth's bedroom bothered her. A less respectable version of the incident seeped into her dreams, waking her up three times only to fall back asleep and have it repeated. Ruth wouldn't do that to her and neither would Daniel. She rejected him and he backed off.
Or was that what they wanted her to believe? Backing down was not part of Daniel's nature. Mary knew that better than anyone. It was what kept her awake that night and gave her a ragged, worn appearance throughout the following day. She desperately wanted to find Ruth and get the dirt about what happened; she wasn't brave enough to ask directly despite her training but instead had the plan to first wait to see if Ruth mentioned it herself but if she didn't, Mary decided to hint and insinuate to dig for information.
Ruth arrived at breakfast with Peter but nothing could very well be accomplished because of H.W. happily munching on toast and raspberry preserves beside her. Conversation was awkward and tension permeated the room so that soon after eating Ruth asked Mary to take a walk over the estate with her, which Mary agreed to. For a while the sisters strolled in silence, each afraid to broach a subject to the other. Just when Mary could take it no longer, Ruth spoke up first. And she asked whether or not Mary and H.W. were quarrelling because of the tension at the table. The younger woman couldn't help to laugh some of her tension away before answering in the negative.
Then she proceeded to question Ruth for details about what happened between her and Matthew, trying to figure out a way to ask what had happened in her bedroom last night. Frustrated at her inability to segue the topic, she switched her line of interrogation to how Ruth felt about Daniel's rescue of her and the oil man in general. Her sister told her everything she asked to know except what she wanted to know. But the way she talked about Daniel wasn't one beyond fatherly. Ruth hadn't outright told Mary that nothing happened but only hinted at it by declaring her agreement that Daniel was a venerated father figure in her opinion as well. With Daniel she planned to be much more direct. Ruth's confession had lent her some relief, nevertheless, but as time wore on in the day the dreaded anxiety crept back upon her, mounting up worse with each moment that Daniel did not appear.
Very late in the afternoon, close to evening hours as the sun was beginning to hide and the hot fields were starting to cool, Daniel finally appeared. Saying nothing, he went directly to his office, sat down and began to work, attempting to finish up the work his late arrival caused him to fall back on as if it was dawn instead of dusk. When she dared to enter the office, he didn't bother to look at her.
"Daniel," she called in an urgent, quiet voice. "We need to talk."
His eyes rolled up from the paperwork to glare at her in an unwelcome way that shocked her.
"We do?" he growled.
"About last night.
"What about last night?"
He was baiting her, she knew.
"I saw you. I saw you with Ruth."
There was a brief, uncomfortable pause settling between them that wasn't like any other pause before.
"It doesn't feel good to see your lover with someone else, does it?"
His response took her aback so that she was utterly speechless. Just then H.W. chose to walk in to collect her for their ride home. Daniel glared wickedly at H.W. whose perspicacity continued to be deficient in the situation around him. They told him to not be long then departed in H.W.'s car for the mansion. Dinner was ready because it was later than usual and this time when her beloved Plainview Junior retired to the library to read she went with him. Only this time there was no reading done; the slam of Daniel's office door announced that the patriarch was home again and Mary nestled by the fire in H.W.'s strong arms in a desire to ward off the green eyed monster for a little while longer that night.
When they retired to their separate rooms she locked the door with the anticipation to be visited by Daniel at a later hour if for nothing but for him to get an answer to his earlier question. It wasn't untill then when she was alone with her thoughts that she reflected and felt that there was something amiss. A great change was brewing amongst them, she sensed it by the way H.W. had become clingy to her in the last few days. Not that this striving for closeness on H.W.'s part was a bad thing, but that it meant alteration and that the inevitable choice she knew she would have to make was swiftly approaching. Woman's intuition told her and woman's intuition was never wrong. Daniel or H.W., father or son? H.W.: the childhood playmate who'd developed into a soulmate; Daniel: the indispensable father figure who'd changed her life forever. How could she pick the one over the other? The very thought of having to decide made her ill. She didn't want to choose. She wanted them both. She was in love with them both.
Soon the worry of it was immediately dispelled as the long years of working a clockwork schedule drove the oil man to be at her door precisely when she knew he would be. Hearing the key turning the lock, she sat up to wait, but only half eager to enjoy him this time. His conduct upon entering was different than it was on other nights prior; he was cautious and hesitant in approaching her and this alarmed her greatly.
"What are you waiting for?" she at last coaxed. "Get out of the dark and come to me. My arms impatiently await you."
"I don't think it's your arms that await me, sweet Mary," he rejoined with a roguish tone that made her quake as he walked toward her. "You'd rather take me elsewhere, wouldn't you?"
Mary accepted him once again into her bed, playing the part of the passionate initiator much to his astonishment. Kissing his face and neck her fingers found purchase at the buttons of his shirt which she feverishly opened, exposing his hairy chest to her starving mouth. At first it seemed as if he would let her have her way with him but then he subdued her when she latched on to one of his nipples.
"Mary, no," he scolded firmly. "We've been through this before. These visits are for you, not for me."
"I want to do this, Daniel, please don't stop me."
She untucked his shirt and began to unfasten his trousers, succeeding in nearly yanking them down until he forcefully stopped her with a strong "No."
Blinking at him through wounded eyes, she brusquely posed to him the question that had been in a corner of her mind since his initial refusal of her reciprocation: "Have you been taking advantage of me?"
Completely derailed, he at first could not speak but replaced his words with an equally wounded expression.
"Why would you ask me that?" were his words when he found them.
She shrugged and answered, "Men always tend to take advantage of gullible young girls in that way."
"Is that what you think this is?" Silence. "Do you honestly believe that I would do that to you? To you, Mary, who I—" His outburst tapered off and he sighed. "You are not gullible. You're an intelligent young woman, Mary, intelligent enough to know I would never take advantage of you." Another pause as he stared at her through the darkness. Whereas she should have been uncomfortable, her unease lessened. "Didn't you want to be my lover?"
"Yes, but—"
"We can stop at any time. I won't force you to do something you no longer want to do."
There was something indistinguishable in his eyes as he gazed upon her that made her lose her breath.
"I don't want to stop. I want to be yours forever. I can't bear to lose you who are my greatest love and made me the woman I am today."
"Who said you were going to lose me?" he questioned but she suspected he knew the answer already.
"Nobody," she answered truthfully because it was true. Nobody ever said she would lose him.
"That's right. Nobody. You're mine, sweet Mary, and it doesn't matter who thinks differently. If I have to mark you as mine like this every night or every time we take our walks then I will. If I have to drag you from the company of the men or from the arms of H.W. so that I can dine on your sweet cunt to prove you belong to me then I will."
The severe crudeness with which spoke made the heat rise in her face and her nether region ache longingly. Daniel took his time in removing her clothing, drinking in her nudity as it was revealed to him. His licentious desire reminded her of a shark about to join a feeding frenzy.
"This further confirms Eli an idiot," he said to her. "There's no need for his kind to go on their crusades." Slowly penetrating her with half of his index finger, he got a squeal from her as he carefully gave her a few gentle thrusts. Then withdrawing, her licked her off of the finger and finished, "The Holy Grail is right here."
He laid flat on his back on the bed then towed her forward, positioning her to squat down over his mouth. At first she surrendered to him, indulging him with what he wanted and moaning to show her appreciation. But it was short lived and she tried to leave him but he held her fast, keeping her in place with his strong hands on her hips untill she groaned his name. Feeling more sentimental than aroused at that moment she pulled free of him, inciting a resentfull curiosity within him.
"What's wrong?" he growled.
"Nothing. Nothing at all. I just want a break…."
"Don't you enjoy what I do?"
"Are you joking? Of course I do! How could you think that I don't? Daniel, I'm in love with you. This has brought us closer together. Why would I complain? I can't complain at all. But I can't say the same thing about you."
"What do you mean, my sweet?"
"You know full well what I mean. Last night…"
"Oh, yes. Ruth. Nothing happened between Ruth and I."
"Nothing?" He sounded sincere. He was a good liar but she was good at knowing when he was lying. And the scheme did seem like something Daniel would concoct to drive a point home.
"Nothing. I only wanted to show you what it felt when I see you with H.W."
"How did you know I would catch you?"
"I knew. I know you well, Mary Sunday."
"Yes, I suppose you do. Tonight I would be happier if you just held me while we slept. You can pleasure me next time. Tomorrow night, if need be. Please, Daniel. Be my father tonight and not my lover."
Sighing in deep resignation he nodded.
"Did you speak to H.W. today?" he questioned. "Did you have a long talk after you went off walking together?"
"Not really," she answered frankly. "We just fell asleep on the beach for a little while. That's all. Why?"
She didn't find it peculiar that he would ask something like that out of the blue after the feelings about the pending situation before he came to her room.
He shrugged and replied, "Just asking." Then after another pause: "I think that maybe I should go."
He began to rise from the bed but she grabbed his arm and yanked him back down.
"No, don't leave! Stay with me again tonight. I love being in your arms."
"You do, do you?"
"There is nowhere else I want to be. I feel safe and loved and wanted."
He gave her a wicked smile and retorted, "Are you sure it isn't because I love to eat your pu—"
"Daniel! Don't be vulgar!"
She was visibly embarrassed by the affronted way she shrank back from him. This did not deter him from drawing her back against him with a laugh, kneading her modest breasts through her nightgown as he kissed her bared shoulder. Despite the prickle of his moustache and the taste of herself on his lips, she kissed him hard on the mouth and he returned it. Making soft love sounds in her throat, she caressed his face as they separated.
"Let's get some rest," he suggested.
She nodded and waited for him to settle on his back again before falling into his arms.
"I see you've given up sleeping on the floor," she adduced. "Do you sleep on the floor in your own room?"
"Yes, I do. But you, my dear, sweet Mary, provide me with cause to give up on many of my bad habits."
Remembering that she hadn't seen him drinking nor had she smelt whiskey on his breath since they began their promiscuous activities she smiled to herself.
"So it seems," she said. "What would you do without me?"
Pushing her hair back from her rosy face he kissed her forehead with the tenderness of an apparition reflecting on what it lost in the life it once had.
"We won't have many more of these nights together left," he muttered distantly, rubbing her arm.
But she was too far gone into sleep to pay him mind.
After one week of asylum, Ruth healed enough to accept a cowed Matthew when he called at the mansion. Under Daniel's unforgiving intense watch, Matthew humbly apologised and talked things out with the older Plainview girl then promised to never repeat his grievous mistake. It was unchristian of him and he was horrified by what he did. Or so he claimed. But Mary knew that was more than likely attrition forced by fear of consequences worse than what had already happened to him. She hated to see her sister pack her things, bundle up Peter and leave with her repentant husband because she felt like she was losing her best friend but she was relieved in trusting that Matthew would keep his promise. So long as Daniel, the personal guardian angel of the Sunday women, was around. Mary knew Daniel Plainview wasn't going anywhere.