Belle Starr by Speer Morgan

Author:Speer Morgan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: historical fiction, historical novel, native americans, oklahoma, arkansas, outlaws, 1800s, western historical mystery, love and murder, indian territory, female heroine
Publisher: Speer Morgan

Chapter 12

But she was smiling. Her face looked odd when she smiled, the gesture of the mouth inconsistent with the fixity of her eyes. It was a smile on an unsmiling face. For the second or third time in a few days, he saw briefly another face out of the forgotten center of his memory. It was even less clear than the others: time-ravaged, a smile overladen by sadness. The memory unsettled him. He could not quite grasp it.

Belle was seducing him. She always started it with this smile. And then she went quiet for a while. Without further conversation they ended up back in the house in a bedroom taking off their clothes. They stripped naked and got into the bed and looked at the ceiling in silence for a while. She always seemed to think very hard during these moments. Her body felt hot and jittery next to him. And when they started to touch each other, their hands were wooden, her mouth limp. Memories of the schoolteacher made it seem futile. Before he could do this he had to give up and start from nothing. Blank out the last fifteen or twenty years of his life.

After a few moments she quit the rigid pressing forward of her body and lay back, daubing the back of her hand to her cheek and forehead. "How'd they do it in the Tribe?"

"What?"

"Courting -you know."

"For courting, they gave meat."

"Didn't mess around, huh?"

"No, I mean they gave presents of meat. They would send the present to the young woman and wait outside for her response."

"Did you ever do that?"

"I don't think so. I did not have my manhood yet."

"Why'd they put those screws into your chest if you didn't have your manhood?"

"The manhood of the body--I had that. I didn't have the manhood of the dream."

"Well to hell with the dream, you should have scratched around under that buffalo robe and got you a little bit of it preliminary."

"I guess."

"I thought wild Indians did it every which away."

"I don't think so."

"That way you could teach me a thing or two."

"I didn't think you liked being taught."

She daubed at her face again. "Oh yes. I do. I like to be taught if you catch me in the mood. Like right now I'm in the mood."

"You have more experience than I."

"That's the silliest thing I ever heard." He lay back and looked at the ceiling.

"Do you realize how silly it sounds for a big fine man like you to lie next to a woman and tell her you don't have no experience?"

"I didn't say that. I said you have more experience."

"So the hell what?"

"I did not mean anything by it. I was only making conversation."

"Why don't you quit making conversation and do something else."

"I was waiting for you to quit making conversation."

"God damn," she groaned.

"What?"

"I feel like I've been married to you for twenty-five years. Do you reckon we're too old?"

"For fucking?"

"Praise the Lord."

"What?"

"You said the word. I didn't think you used coarse terms."

''I'm learning.

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