Plain Bad Heroines: A Novel by Emily M. Danforth

Author:Emily M. Danforth [Emily M. Danforth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780062942876
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2020-10-20T04:00:00+00:00

“I’m in a position to help you, Libbie,” Harold said. “We can help each other.”

“I’m listening now,” Libbie said. “Please go on, Mr. Brookhants.”

He nodded, seemed to gather his words again. “We’re alike,” he eventually said. “I think you know that already, don’t you?” He smiled at her, almost shyly.

“I’m not sure I do know,” Libbie said.

He gathered more words. “In the way we love, that is—our own kind. I love men as you love women.”

“Well, at least one time she loved a man as you love men,” Madame Verrett said. Then she took a very loud bite of the very large lemon ice that had just been served to her in a sweating silver chalice and added, “Here we are, after all.”

Harold ignored her. “I’ve always wanted a child, but—with the way I am, I didn’t know quite how. I didn’t want to marry, not even as a ruse. I don’t think you do, either. Am I right about that?”

“You are,” Libbie said. “For now. Today I don’t.”

“It’s much simpler for a man not to, of course. Not easy, always, for a man like me. But much simpler than for a woman.” You could tell he was building up to something: one eye had gone twitchy and he’d puffed up his chest a bit. “But if we were to marry—”

“You could be her grandfather!” Alex said. “It’s preposterous.”

“It does seem very unlikely,” Libbie said as if there were many other crueler words she could have chosen than unlikely.

“It’s obscene,” Alex said. “If Libbie’s going to marry someone to hide this, she’ll find someone her own age. Or closer to. She’d have choices.”

“Not many, in her condition,” Madame Verrett said, scooping another bite of her ice. “This I like,” she said. “It’s tart and cold.”

“I don’t think—” Libbie said.

“Please,” Harold said. “Please let me finish.”

She nodded at him to go on.

He did. “I have money. I have more of it than you could spend in twenty lifetimes. I have a beautiful house in Pittsburgh and one in New York and one in France, of course.” He smiled at the Madame, who was still looking at her ice. “But the one I’ve been building on the ocean in Rhode Island is the most special of them all. Or it will be, when I’m finished with it. It comes with land—it’s touched, this land. Madame Verrett led me to it and it’s full of the most magnificent vitality. It hums with it. I want to establish a school there, that’s what this land wants—I feel so sure of it—a school for young women, and now I know the woman to run that school. The women.” For the first time since he’d begun his pitch, he looked at Alex.

She looked away.

Harold didn’t let this deter him. “I don’t have much time left in this realm, Libbie. Or on this earth, if you prefer. You could let me do this for you before I leave. I could give you such a beautiful life in this special place.

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