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"Well, well, ain’t this a picture?" he growled, and she turned with a gasp to see hihtly forward, ainst the doorja to snap "This how you spend your ti?"

He’d come home drunk and ratiations, the hopeful peace offerings and distractions froer she’d need to have at the ready in order to avoid a beating

"You want et you some dinner, Roy? You just sit and relax and I’llthe desperation didn’t show in her voice

"A sandwich? That your idea of a home-cooked meal?" Roy shouted

She’d chosen poorly It wouldn’t matter if she cried out or screamed She’d done that plenty of times No one had coainst her misery That was the way of the town She’d learned to bear it in silence It s shorter, she’d discovered His hand had threaded through her hair, as a lover’sin the hard yank that made her eyes water, that bent her neck toward hi at itswith it

"You want to dance? Huh?" Slap "I like dancing" Slap "Let’s dance, then I want to dance with irl"

He’d pushed her onto the bed and pinned her are hand She suppressed a cry when she felt hiain when that sa Then his thighs were parting hers roughly, and she could only s her fear doith the metallic taste of her blood

Her panic stoked so she couldn’t control She re hot She remeetting bigger, hisopen in surprise just before the screahtly Her mind alent blank after that part, like aAll she remembered was the train to another train and then New York City, where she’d arrived dirty, broke, and half-starved, then survived by sleeping on a series of park benches, taking refuge in the ladies’ roo into the picture houses to sleep all day, leaving only when she was chased out Stealing ht Narrowly avoiding the rough ht have gone on that way far longer if she hadn’t seen Henry sitting at a table near the front s of the Horn & Hardart Auto away on thin white paper, uninterested in his food Theta was close to fainting with hunger She’d ventured inside and was hovering near his table, hoping to steal his scraps, when, without a word, Henry pushed the other half of his sandwich toward her She hesitated at first--Theta had street s froer was an anier beast won out, and she ate so fast she nearly vomited the sandwich back up Still silent, Henry walked to the gleahted machines, plunked in two nickels, waited for the tray to revolve, opened the s and then a carton of ht back to the cru the into her mouth with machinelike precision and wash it doith four quick ss ofwhen it dribbled down her chin in thite streaed stupor, feeling both full and sick

"How do you do? I’m Henry Bartholomew DuBois IV," Henry had said in a slow taffy pull of syllables, extending a hand He had the longest,about hi The soft brows and heavy fringe of pale lashes that aze of his narrow hazel eyes seem permanently sleepy Faint constellations of freckles on his arht Even his mouth, set in a perpetual smirk of aht look past him completely, except for his eccentric style of dress: a pair of tweed trousers held up by suspenders splayed across a stiff white tuxedo shirt worn under an open vest, and a jaunty straw boater hat with a red-and-blue striped ribbon around it perched on his head at an angle that hinted at mischief--or at least impertinence