Around the River's Bend Read Online Free Page A

you be needing exactly?”
    â€œOh, just one full outfit please.”
    â€œSmall clothes, too?”
    â€œWhy, yes, if you please.”
    â€œAnd how big would this person be?”
    â€œOh, about my height and somewhat heavier.”
    Sabrina left the store ten minutes later with the garments wrapped in coarse paper. It was after noon now, and she knew that the boxing match was to take place sometime after dark. She had asked her father particularly, and he had shrugged, saying, “Well, these things are never very punctual. The word is about six, but it could be later. I may be home rather late. Don’t worry about me.”
    Sabrina made her way back to the Red Lion and ignored the whispers and the bold glances that followed her. Going up the stairs, she entered the room, shut the door, and locked it. She unwrapped the clothing and laid everything out on the bed. For a moment she wondered if she had lost her mind, but she put this thought aside. She still remembered Charles’s words telling her that she must not go to the boxing match. Indeed!
    She took off her feminine clothing and began putting on the men’s clothes. It was something new, different, and daring—just the sort of thing that Sabrina Fairfax loved to do! The clothes were rough, suitable for a man of the poorer classes, and they felt out of place on her pampered skin. She pulled on the white stockings and then the knee britches, which fit her rather loosely, put on the white shirt and the waistcoat, added the tie, and then slipped into the roughly made black shoes, which were somewhat too large for her. Topping it off, she put on the coat, which came down to her knees, and buttoned it across the front. She had no mirror, but she could see that the clothing covered the curves of her body well enough.
    To complete the boyish look, she began to pin her hair up, and when she had fastened it as tightly as she could, she tied it up with a silk scarf so it would not come loose. She put on the large hat with the floppy brim, and was relieved to find that it fit nicely over all the hair piled on her head. The last step was to scrub at her face until all traces of powder and rouge were gone, and then she brushed her hand across the floor and picked up enough dust to scour her face with it.
    Finally she stowed the money she had brought in an inner pocket of the coat and stared out the window at the overcast afternoon. She was impatient for darkness to arrive. As she watched the crowd, everyone seemed to be headed down toward the wharf. She could hear two men who had passed beneath her window, one of them saying, “It won’t be much of a match.”
    â€œYou don’ think so, Henry? Who is this fellow they found to fight the champ?”
    â€œNever ’eard of him, but ’e won’t be no match for Big Ben. . . .”
    Their voices faded as they headed down the street. Taking a deep breath, Sabrina left her room and found she could walk through the lobby with no one paying any particular attention to her. She held her breath as she stepped out onto the street, wondering if she really looked like a man. She ignored the vendors she passed who begged her to buy their wares.
    â€œBuy a ’andkerchief, mister?” A young woman held up a handkerchief, and Sabrina was pleased that the woman thought she was a man.
    She pulled a coin from her pocket and, making her voice as deep as she could, said, “That’s a nice kerchief.”
    â€œOh, thank you, sir!” The young woman took the coin, her eyes bright.
    The crowd all seemed to be going the same way, and most of the talk that Sabrina was able to pick up was of the match that was to come. She listened carefully, moving slowly, until finally a woman stepped out of the shadows of an alley and took her by the arm. She was a rather chubby woman with a heavily painted face, and she said impudently, “Come along, husband. I’ll show yer a good