Free From Riches to Rags by Mairsile Leabhair Page A

her?”
    This is not getting me anywhere. Stonewall Jackson over there has already made up her mind about me, and I don’t know how to change it. What can I say that will show her I only want to help? Offer her money? No, that would only prove her point. I was stalling for an answer when I put my hand on my arm, where Chris’s touch still lingered.
    “Look, I like her, a lot, and I just want to be her friend, with no strings attached.”
    I was as surprised as they were to hear those words come out of my mouth. I’d never said that about anyone before and meant it. But this time I wasn’t trying to get someone into bed nor was I trying to soften the blow before dumping someone. No, this time, my heart was speaking for my brain. It was a strange, sweet prickly kind of feeling, and if it weren’t for Bumgartner’s mocking eyes, I would have enjoyed experiencing that feeling a bit longer. 
    “Ms. Blackstone. I know you can have me blackballed. You can have me run out of town on a rail for what I’m about to say, but I don’t care. I’m going to say it anyway. You couldn’t possibly be her friend because that requires compassion, and you don’t know what that word means. No, I think you’re probably just in heat. And when Blackie Blackstone is on the prowl she thinks the good people of Memphis will pull down their pants and spread eagle for her.”
    I gave her an angry sneer and she retaliated with a snide remark. Why am I taking this shit off of her?
    “Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you liked talking about yourself in the third person. Listen, you know how to buy, bribe or drink your way into a person’s bed, until you get bored with them, and toss them to the side like so much trash. You probably think you will rush in and sweep her off her feet. Take her back to your mansion, where you’ll ply her with booze, screw her with drugs, and leave her when she gets too predictable. Chris is not one of your floozies that you pick up at a bar. She’s making a difference in people’s lives. Not because she has to. Not because she has millions of dollars to give to a bum on her doorstep. It’s because she wants to, that she gives her hard earn money to a drunkard. It’s because she has a heart that she gives her only companion, a kitten, to an old lady who has nothing. It’s because‒”
    “But I got her kitten back for her. I got the old lady another kitten so Chris could have her pet back.” I knew that I was on the defensive, but that sounded weak, even to me. Still, I thought I saw her hard eyes soften… briefly.
    “And you think that makes you a hero, don’t you?” Bumgartner asked sarcastically.
    “No, that’s not why I did that. I felt bad for her. I just wanted her to be happy, that’s all.” I didn’t have time to properly analyze whether she was right or not, but I really did think it was to make Chris happy… and make me her hero.
    “Ms. Blackstone, I will not tell you what happened to Chris that has brought her to this point. It’s not my story to tell. But I wonder if you can honestly tell me why you are pursuing a poor girl from the streets?”
    I have been honest with you, damn it. This woman was being a real hard ass, yet she believed in Chris to the point of risking my wrath. I felt like I had just been stripped naked by her words and my bones left for the buzzards to pick apart. But even though her words have cut deeply, there was no asperity left in me. I have no desire to take retribution on her, although I clearly have cause to. No, in fact, from her words, I gleaned a sliver of hope. I no longer want to be that person she obviously loathes, I want to be something more. So I decided to tell her the truth and hope she understood me.
    “I’ll admit that at first, I wanted to get back at Chris for telling me off in front of everyone. And yes, I was glad when they fired her. But something kept eating away at me, until I realized, it was because Chris put me in my place that I wanted to