"Miss Eide has finished her work up at the Burnt Wood Camp and is looking for a place to stay until she can get her bearings," Hosea said. "What do you think, Rebekah, could we take her in?"
Rebekah tapped her foot as though to a song. She wore quite lovely shoes, Thea noticed: ankle-high brown leather boots with mother-of-pearl buttons. A well-pressed gingham dress with lace cuffs and a matching lace bow in her hair. Thea's own shoes were worn-out brogues. Where Rebekah smelled of lavender, Thea hadn't had a proper bath in eight months and her muskiness was downright rank. But despite Rebekah's pearly skin and the scent of her fine perfume and the lustrous hair braided down her back, she appeared more trapped in her finery than at ease. Thea could not help but feel pity for her. She felt, in fact, that she held some advantage over the druggist's daughter.
"Well?" Hosea persisted, taking Rebekah unkindly by the wrist.
Rebekah shook his hand free. "Of course. We should find a place for her to stay."
Up on the third floor of Grimm's apothecary, in the finest quarters Thea had ever seen— the finest by far— Rebekah gathered raiment and hairbrushes and glass bottles of hair oil and bath salts. When all was ready Rebekah led Thea, who had been sitting on the settee with tea, to the bath.
"I thought he'd never shush. He talks just to hear himself. Honestly! Have you ever seen anything like it?" Rebekah was sprinkling the bath salts into the steaming tub. The windows above the tub, looking out over the hills behind their muslin drapes, were clouded with the vapor rising up from the bath. "Be careful of him. Do you understand? Be careful? Especially if he comes around with his camera. He's swine. Sooey, sooey!"
She stopped for a moment and stood before the mirror hanging above the sink, wiping the corners of her mouth with her thin finger. The mirror, too, was beginning to fog. She turned to face Thea. "Well? Get ready for the bath. You must be the dirtiest thing I ever saw. You smell like a horse. Or worse."
Rebekah sat on the edge of the tub. She cupped her chin in her hands and took a deep breath and looked directly at Thea. "You've been through so much. The Evensens and the watch salesman Smith . . ." Her voice trailed off.
At the mention of Smith's name, Thea reddened and turned away. She would have run away were there a place to go.
Rebekah put her fingertips on Thea's shoulder and walked behind her. She began to unbutton Thea's dress. What was left of her dress. When she had it loosened, she slid it over Thea's shoulders and untied her discolored shift and also slid it off her shoulders. For a long moment she let her hands rest on Thea's shoulders. Then she moved around her again and took Thea's hands. "My, what a lovely shape."
Thea reclaimed her hands and crossed her arms at her naked breasts, her chin tucked tightly into her shoulder, her cheeks pink as dawn.
"Why are you blushing? You don't have to be afraid of me."
Thea, her chin still tucked into her shoulder, quickly lowered her stockings and bloomers and stepped into the bath. The water scalded, set her entire body tingling.
Without any preamble, Rebekah removed her own dress and stockings and bloomers and slid into the bath with Thea. If Thea's mother had taught her one thing— beyond piety— it was modesty, and no doubt her expression conveyed this because Rebekah splashed water playfully and said, "Don't be such a grouch, Miss Eide. In Chicago, we girls took our baths together all the time. It's fun! Here —" Rebekah took Thea by the shoulders again and twirled her around so they sat back to belly. Rebekah wet a bath cloth and lathered it with soap and pushed Thea's long braid over her shoulder. She cupped water with her hand and poured it over her back and then began washing Thea with the cloth. "It's a miracle your skin is still so soft, after the winter we had. And you were living up in the woods like a proper creature. Those lumberjacks must have been quite pleased having you around. I bet they ate you up!"
When Thea did not answer, Rebekah continued, "Some of those fellas came into town on Saturday nights. They were all so strong. Even in their filthy clothes and with whiskey on their breath, I loved it when they came in here." Now she was loosening Thea's braid and cupping more bathwater over her hair. "When Hosea wasn't around I'd flirt with them. Some of them I just wanted to grab hold of."
Rebekah watched as Thea's downy hair spread across her back. She wet Thea's hair, the warm water drawing the stench from those blond tresses the way a cold rain brought out a hound's dank odor. She took the bottle of hair oil and poured a drop in the palm of her hand. "This will get the awful stink from your hair. Honestly, you're as foul as those jacks!"