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way.”
    Pointedly ignoring her, Otis said, “So, the bell rings, and everybody come pourin’ outa the wool building, as usual. That Virgil, he was waiting for Bridie to get off work, only always before he kind of hung back where he wouldn’t attract too much notice. That evening he was waiting right up by the front door.”
    “Was he often waiting for her when her shift ended?” Nell asked.
    “Three, four times a week,” Otis said, “but always on Friday and Saturday. I don’t know what they did on Fridays, but—”
    “Don’t you?” Ruth snorted with laughter; her friends followed suit.
    “On Saturdays they left town,” Otis said. “I was talkin’ to one of the other spinners a few weeks ago—fella name of Nate. Nate had finally worked up the nerve to ask Bridie to go walkin’ with him after work one Saturday, only to have her tell him she couldn’t, on account of her fella was meetin’ her to take her to the White House.”
    Nell frowned, wondering if she’d heard right.
    “Not
the
White House,” Otis said. “That’s just what she called it—maybe ‘cause it’s white, I don’t know. She said it was an old farm nobody worked no more, but the farmhouse was still there, and that’s where her and Virgil went to be alone.”
     “So he was waiting right up by the front door that Friday evening...” Nell prompted.
    “Right, and soon as he sees Bridie, he grabs her kisses her—but good—with everybody standing around watching, including Mr. Harry. You should of seen him. Hoppin’ mad, you could tell, but holding it in till he went all purple-like.”
    “Why do you suppose he was so upset?” Nell asked. “I mean, it’s not as if they were real sweethearts or anything. From what you say, he had plenty of other girls willing to...give him what he wanted.”
    “I know, it don’t make a whole lot of sense,” Ruth said. “But I’ll tell you what, he was fit to be tied. Went stormin’ back inside. Bridie and Virgil took off, but then a few minutes later, us all are headin’ back here for a smoke, when we hear her voice. Her and Virgil are havin’ a little set-to in the woods there. She was mad as a wet cat that he went and kissed her like that, in front of Mr. Harry.”
    “She mentioned Mr. Harry by name?” Nell asked.
    Otis grinned. “Yeah, seems he knew about Mr. Harry, but Mr. Harry didn’t know about him.”
    “Until that kiss,” Mary said. “Bridie was all het up over it, tellin’ Virgil he went and ruined everything. Said, ‘We won’t get so much as a nickel five-cent piece out of him now.’”
    Nell looked up from her sketchbook. “She said that? Are you sure?”
    “Oh, yeah.” Otis flung his cigarette butt into the stream. “She musta decided she wanted more than just trinkets outa him. Mostly what we heard from Virgil was just him tryin’ to shush her. He talked some, but we couldn’t make it out real good. Didn’t have no trouble hearin’
her
, though. Them Irish girls, they can get riled up good.”
    “Was Evie with you?” Nell asked.
    “Yep.”
    “When did Bridie get fired?”
    “Next day,” Ruth said. “Saturday. We was waitin’ on the dinner bell, so it was near to noon. That flunky of Mr. Harry’s—Carlisle—he come down to fetch Bridie upstairs. She struts off with that
smile
of hers, like she’s somethin’ special ‘cause she spreads her legs for the likes of him. I seen her take her rouge pot outa her apron pocket as she heads into the stairwell. Ten minutes later, she’s back, red as a beet, with her eyes all swollen. Me and Evie, we asked her what happened, but she wouldn’t even look at us. Never said a word, just took off her apron and grabbed her shawl out of her cubby and left. That was the last I seen of her.”
    Mary squirmed, rubbed her arm. “You done yet?”
    From the direction of the mill came the pealing of the bell summoning them back from their dinner break.
    “Yes, I suppose I am,” Nell said.
     
     

Chapter