City of Ash Read Free Page B

was too bright after the parlor and the dim hallway, electric light illuminating everything too well: my grandmother’s pink scalp beneath her thinning white hair, the fleshiness beginning to show on my husband’s face, the brown age spots at my father’s temples. My grandmother sat in a burgundy-striped chair by the fire, erect and regal. Nathan sat on the matching settee, elbows on his knees, hands clasped between them. Handsome Nathan, his uninjured fingers flexing and unflexing while the other hand was wrapped in a bandage. He looked up at me with reddened eyes—no anger now, but a calculation that made me even more anxious.
    My father stood, half leaning against the expanse of his polished rosewood desk. His eyes, so often laughing, were not laughing now but inestimably sad, as if he’d borne a mortal hurt. “Sit down, Geneva,” he said tiredly.
    I perched myself on the very edge of the nearest chair and folded my hands in my lap. “It’s not what you think,” I said quickly. “I would never … Claude and I are friends and nothing more.”
    “Oh, please, Geneva,” my grandmother said sharply. “Surely you don’t think us fools.”
    “But it’s true. I only posed for him—” Her look made me swallow the rest. I felt guilty in the wake of it, and ashamed, and that made me angry. There had been no affair; there was no reason to feel guilty. “You must believe me.”
    “You’ve put us in an untenable position.” How stern my grandmother sounded.
    I felt the urge to comfort her, to comfort them all. “Yes, ofcourse, but surely it can be mended? Once everyone knows the truth—”
    “Robert Montgomery withdrew his offer to partner with Stratford Mining tonight,” Papa broke in. “He said he does not wish his company to be associated with debauchery.”
    “Debauchery?” Suddenly I was afraid. If there was one thing my father valued above me, it was Stratford Mining. “You cannot be serious.”
    “This is no trifling matter, Geneva. Your behavior has affected my business. You’ve embarrassed your husband and your family. Your lack of discretion—”
    “I tell you there was no indiscretion. And you have a room full of nudes just like that one. You told me it was art. It
is
art.”
    “For God’s sake, Geneva, you’ve exposed yourself needlessly to ridicule and shame, and not just yourself, but your husband. How is Nathan to feel now that the whole world knows you were Marat’s … mistress?”
    My eyes filled with tears. I could not look at Nathan or my father. “I was not his mistress,” I insisted. “It was not an affair. We are friends only.”
    Papa said, “I need someone to oversee the acquisition of a coal mine in Seattle. Nathan has suggested he do so, and that the two of you go there. Which is very generous of him, considering. Therefore the two of you will be leaving for Washington Territory in the morning.”
    It took effort to understand him. I managed, “Washington Territory? I … forgive me, but I don’t understand.”
    “Marat has left the city,” Nathan said tonelessly. “He at least realizes how this looks.”
    Papa said, “I’ve told you this before: you’re a married woman, and it’s time you act like a wife. Your husband is good enough to forgive you and to sacrifice his own happiness on your behalf. You will go to Seattle with him until such time as things are forgotten and you can return.”
    Grandmother said, “It won’t be forever, you know. Something else will take the place of this scandal, and memories fade with time. I should say only two or three years.”
    This was not what I’d expected, not what I’d wanted at all. Why wasn’t Nathan threatening to leave me? “Two or three years? You must be joking. Why should I go? I’ve done nothing wrong!”
    Nathan sighed. “I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but I’ve spoken to Dr. Robertson at Bloomfield Estates—”
    “The asylum?”
    “A place to rest,” he corrected, and there was