I awoke with Pearl in my room again. Only she was quiet this time. I wasn't used to sleeping around others, and simply the fact that someone else was there had awoken me.

She had pushed back the curtains and was gazing out of the window; her violin case was tucked neatly under her arm. I cleared my throat and she turned towards me.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She blinked sheepishly at me. "I didn't mean to wake you, honestly. I just needed to get away and I didn't know where else to go."

I sat up to look at her. "I didn't see you after you went to church yesterday."

"My mother and aunt wanted to have a very serious discussion with me yesterday." Her lips pulled tight over her teeth. I had never seen her so upset. "Serious, indeed. It's obvious that I dislike their ideas of what and who are best for me, and my father doesn't care much for it either but he's too busy to defend me most of the time."

I groaned, wiping my face with one hand. "What did they have to say about me now?"

"It wasn't very much about you, to be completely honest. Of course, they did say things about you, but mostly it was about my harlot ways." She sighed. "How I am unappreciative and disobedient. I go out by myself, I talk to people without being formally introduced. I think it's all ridiculous. It's not that they think you're a bad person, Jack, it's that they are elitists. They say you aren't of the same class as we are."

She scoffed. "I don't even understand what that means anymore. We aren't really wealthy people. The only way I know to describe our social class is saying we are financially secure. They think so highly of themselves." She paused. "Anyway, they wanted me to meet some man they thought it would be in my best interest to consider a courtship with. He was an older man who had been married before but lost his wife, and he already had a child. I have no interest in that."

"Don't get me wrong, Jack. It isn't like I have suitors who come calling every day. I told you about my sour reputation, but there are a few who show up." Her face twisted in disgust. "They are all the same, Pig-headed men that hear about me and they see me as some sort of challenge or even an animal. A horse they can tame, or a knot that's difficult to untie. They aren't interested in anything but controlling me. They want to control what I do, what I say, who I speak to, what I think and feel. It's suffocating and I hate it."

"Well, what are you going to do about it, then?"

"I know very well how to deal with these things. I chase them away with bad manners and language. It sends them running."

"But your mothers always find new ones?"

"Usually, yes, but now my mothers are threatening to send me away to my Grandmother's house back in New Orleans so I can learn how to be an honest Christian girl and marry a suitable husband. That's not going to happen. I don't want to leave, and I'm not going to."

"But I thought you did want to get married someday?"

She laughed and set her violin on the couch. "You really are stupid sometimes, Jack."

"Wait, hold on." I realized what she was doing and stood, grabbing the violin and setting it back in her hands. "You've run away, and you want to stay here."

"I never said that."

"You didn't have to say it, stupid, you brought your violin." I tapped on the side of the case. "You know that I know that this is the only object on earth that you really give a shit about."

"Well, so what if I do want to stay here?" She set the violin back down. "Are you going to tell me no?"

I gave the violin back to her again. "Yes, I'm going to tell you no. I mean, no, you can't stay here."

She snatched the violin and stared up at me in disdain. "And why can't I?"

"Because your mother will probably run to the police and say I kidnapped you, and did all sorts of bad things to you." I crossed my arms. "And they would hang me for it."

"They wouldn't go that far. Anyway, we could go someplace else, where they won't find us, and when I'm ready to go back and confront them you can take me back." She grinned. "We can even take a wagon so no one sees us leaving town on your horse."

"Oh my god," I groaned to myself, realizing she would keep coming up with compromises until I finally agreed. "You're nothing but trouble."

"Only the fun kind." She laughed. "Now get dressed and let's go someplace interesting."