Defiantly, she straightened her shoulders, crossed the street, and marched up the block to the imposing Driskill Hotel, recently built at the corner of Brazos and Pecan. The cost of lunch in the ladies’ dining room—a whole dollar—was outrageous. But the table was spread with a snowy damask cloth, the crystal goblet held cold water and little cubes of real ice, and Annie’s meal of veal cutlet, mashed potatoes, fried okra, and baked apple was served on the hotel’s elegant gold-rimmed china. Placing the damask napkin on her lap, she glanced around, noticing the other women. They were all beautifully dressed—out-of-town visitors, wealthy enough to afford one of the lavish rooms upstairs at the Driskill, which were rumored to cost as much as four dollars a night. As she ate, she tried to pretend that she wasn’t a working woman who had just lost her job—both of them!—but was one of those ladies of leisure, come to Austin to enjoy some sightseeing.
After lunch, still trying to keep up her private pretense, Annie put up her parasol and strolled north on Congress Avenue to observe the newly built state capitol building. Dedicated just three months before, the building was constructed of native red granite dug out of the hills to the west of the city. It was immense—the seventh largest building in the world, it was said—with an astonishing 392 rooms and a dome that rose a breathtaking three hundred feet in the air. It was topped by a huge statue of a woman. Her upraised hand held a star, representing the Lone Star State.
Annie stood for a few moments, gazing wide-eyed at the awe-inspiring dome. But if she had hoped that some of the Lone Star’s proud bravado might rub off on her, she was disappointed. The impressive size of the capitol building only made her feel small and insignificant, and the heat—the sun had slid behind clouds but the air was heavy and sultry—was making her light-headed. The hem of her gray poplin skirt was dirty, her hair straggled in damp curls around her face, and the underarms of her jacket were wet. Wearily, she turned and trudged back down Congress to catch the train to Pecan Springs, wishing she hadn’t spent that small fortune on lunch at the Driskill when a Pork Barrel sandwich would have done just as well.
To make matters worse, as she sat in the station waiting for the train, Delia Hunt came tripping along and plumped herself down on the waiting-room bench. She looked cool and summery in a pink ruffled dress with (of course) a stylish bustle that required her to perch on the very edge of the bench. Her golden hair was caught in a pink net snood and she wore pink lace mitts—the very latest fashion—and smelled of a flowery perfume. She was carrying a basket filled with several parcels and chattering like a jaybird about what she’d bought and how much everything had cost and how annoyed Adam would be when he saw the bills—especially for the new earrings she had just purchased and that now dangled from her pretty ears. Pink amethysts, set in delicate gold-filigree lace.
Delia pouted. “Adam always tells me I shouldn’t spend so much. I try to be good and mind him, of course—until I’m tempted past all resistance.” She touched one earring. “I can simply never say no to a pretty pair of earrings, and these were only ten dollars. Real amethysts, too.”
Ten dollars. Annie pulled in her breath. She and her girls had to work for a week to earn ten dollars!
“And anyway,” Delia went on, “I needed something to go with this dress. Caroline and I are taking the train to Galveston tomorrow. With luck, we’ll be there for a couple of months.”
Delia had grown up in Galveston, and she returned every so often to visit her sister. Annie often thought that Pecan Springs must feel like a frontier village compared to Galveston, which at the last census had been the largest city in the state. Brightened by tropical flowers, it was also the most beautiful, everyone said, and certainly the most cosmopolitan, since it was a seaport and entertained people from the farthest-flung corners of the world.
Delia was smiling. “Of course, while I’m there, Clarissa and I will be going to all the best parties. The summer season isn’t as grand as the winter, but it’s still a great lot of fun.” She turned to glance down her nose at Annie and, for the first time in a while, seemed to see her. She frowned at Annie’s sweat-stained jacket and straggling hair.
“I wonder at you, Annie,” she said. “I really do. Your husband’s been dead for—what? Two years? Three? Isn’t it time you fixed yourself up and went looking for another one? It’s rather brave of you to try to manage on your own, of course. But that’s no kind of life for a woman. Like it or not, we all have to marry, if we can. And if we can’t—” She gave a short, brittle laugh. “Well, as I said, that’s no kind of life, is it? But then, I imagine you’ve already found that out.”
Annie sucked in her breath. She had always tried to return Delia’s habitually disparaging remarks with something polite and neutral. But it didn’t matter what she said. Delia was a silly chatterbox, impervious to even the most barbed rebuke. She was either completely unaware that her remarks might be hurtful or she didn’t care. Annie had always suspected that it was the latter.
And this afternoon, the secret resentment she often felt toward Adam’s wife suddenly bloomed into a hot red coal burning deep inside her. In Delia’s pretty, perfumed shadow, Annie could
