The young man's hand was trembling as he handed the creamy vellum envelope embossed with the FGCC crest over to the older man. Edward Winslow held the younger man's finger between his and the underside of the envelope for an extra couple of seconds before taking the envelope and placing it carefully on the top of the cigarette table beside him. He puffed on his cigar and smiled a satisfied smile to himself. He wanted Bill Brewster to tremble at the thought of handing over that envelope. It was final nail in this particular coffin.
Bill Brewster shifted nervously in his crackled-leather Chippendale lounge chair in the dim corner of the First Gentlemen's Covenant Club smoking room and moved his slender, finely manicured hands together in a tented position, his fingertips centering between his patrician-shaped nose and his full, dry lips. He was doing all he could do to control the trembling of his hands, and he didn't want Winslow to see the trepidation his face surely revealed. He wasn't looking directly at his boss at First Families Securities, but Edward Winslow was looking directly at him and was smiling, clearly enjoying not just the young man's resignation but also his discomfort.
A tall, fine-figured Hispanic in a smartly tailored black silk uniform materialized at the side of Winslow's chair and set down a snifter of port. In withdrawing his hand, he barely brushed Winslow's hand with his. The senior partner of First Families Securities, the son of a son of a son going back to the arrival of the Mayflower on America's shores—the very prize that qualified Winslow for membership in the Beacon Hill First Gentlemen's Covenant Club—twitched his hand back, almost as if he'd been shot, and sent the port in his glass into a brief tempest.
"Damn Mexicans," Winslow muttered, as the servant moved silently behind the two chairs and, appearing at Bill Brewster's elbow, quietly slid the second snifter of port on the cigarette table beside the younger man.
"The old club's going to the damn Mexicans," Winslow continued to mutter. "At least the darkies they had in here before knew to wear gloves."
Bill Brewster picked up the snifter and moved it toward his mouth. But his hand was trembling so hard that he had to take the crystal vessel in his other hand as well to hold it steady. He took a gulp from the glass—quite out of character for a son of a son of a son, who had equal rights to FGCC membership to those Winslow had. But these were circumstances he'd never faced before.
It wasn't until this evening that Winslow had fully believed Brewster would actually go through with it. The room key in that vellum envelope lying beside Winslow's snifter settled that question.
Winslow snapped his fingers and the liveried attendant appeared at his side.
"Casa Blanca Jeroboam. No two. Now."
The servant vanished in search of the cigar humidor behind the long bar.
Winslow looked back over at Brewster, who was breathing heavily, obviously trying to contain himself. This had been a campaign of his for nearly a year. When Winslow had offered the younger man the broker's position, he had made it clear the extent to which Brewster was to show his gratitude. Brewster was a natural for the firm and looked the part perfectly, but he had majored in partying and tennis at Harvard, where only his name had stood him in good stead, and he normally could not have expected to have been given a position in the firm, despite his lineage.
The attendant reappeared, and Winslow snatched one of the cigars from him and motioned with an irritation usually reserved for the slow of mind for the other one to be placed on top of the vellum envelope. He hissed his disapproval that the Mexican had handled the cigars; they should have been delivered on a white linen napkin.
"No training whatsoever," Winslow muttered. "Can't train a Mexican. Heh, William?"
"Ye . . . yes, Edward, that's . . . that's right." Brewster was obviously uncomfortable, but it wasn't about Winslow's berating of the servant, because he added the unnecessary. "Training would be a waste. He'll be slipping back across the border as soon as he's made a few bucks."
"Next time on a napkin, Jose," Winslow hissed.
"Yes, sir," the servant said, his eyes downcast, as he backed into the shadows.
"You know his name?" Brewster asked, the tone of his voice revealing how incredulous he thought the idea that Winslow would take that much notice of one of "them."
"They're all called Jose, aren't they?" Winslow said. And they both laughed, although Brewster's laugh was edged with a bit of hysteria.
"So, are you sure?" Winslow said, fingering the vellum envelope. "I've heard that Fenton and Felton are hiring."
"Yes, I'm sure," Brewster responded in a small voice. The mention of Fenton and Felton, a decidedly plebian firm, was pregnant with meaning.
"You'll have to ask for it," Winslow said. "I'll not force it."
"Yes, thank you, sir. I understand," Brewster said. "But you will . . . we can . . . you know, what we agreed on."
"Yes," Winslow whispered sotto voce, his voice laced with exasperation. "If you have a blindfold, you can use it. And I have restraints. If it's easier for you, we can do that if it makes you feel less guilty."
"Light," Winslow said in a louder voice like the flick of a whip. He snapped his fingers as he said it, and the Hispanic attendant materialized from the shadows and lit Winslow's cigar for him. And then he faded away as quietly as he had appeared.
"Well, you'd best be going up," Winslow turned to Brewster and said. "I'll be up shortly. I don't care if the lights are off and you are blindfolded. You are going to enjoy it, so don't look so glum."
"Yes, sir," Brewster muttered in misery. He gulped down his port and moved unsteadily toward the door and to the elevator.
Nice ass, Winslow thought, as he watched the young man move away. Good looker, nicely muscled and trim. Just the way I like 'em. And young men of his pedigree are hard to come by. As only America can produce through generations of residence.
Winslow closed his eyes and let his head loll back into the enfolding leather of the Chippendale chair and dreamed of fucking the very presentable and finely familied William Brewster. A year's campaign but all worth it. After a brief reverie of taking the young man from several positions, Winslow realized his cigar had gone out. He snapped his fingers.
"Light."
Nothing happened. Winslow's eyes shot open and he looked to his left, where the Hispanic attendant should be standing. No one was there, but Winslow's empty snifter had been cleared away. No servant, though, and Winslow's cigar had gone out.
"Damn wetback," Winslow muttered. "Probably already half way back across the border. Probably an illegal too. The club standards have gone to shit."
He leaned over and smashed the ash end of the cigar in a crystal ashtray, and, while struggling up out of the mothering clutches of the deep armchair, took up the second cigar, put it in his shirt pocket, and took up the precious vellum envelope.
While waiting for the ancient elevator to clank its way back to the public room floor, he opened the envelope and took the key out.
612, he thought. I didn't know the club even had six floors. Must be in the attic. I wonder who Brewster ticked off at reception when he checked in.
* * *
Bill Brewster was naked and lying on his belly on the silk sheet covering the double bed in the middle of the club guest bedroom. He lay in the dark, his eyes covered with a blindfold, his eyelids held tightly shut, and his breathing ragged and his body twitching at what was about to happen.
He heard the key in the lock, and he almost whimpered in uncertainty and fear as he sensed more than saw the brief invasion of light from the hallway before the door was clicked shut and subtle sound of the rustling of shed clothing reached his alert hearing.
This was his future. He'd made a deal with the devil. He'd been told that Winslow was cruel but that he didn't sustain interest. A couple of months, not more, and he'd move on to other quarry. And then Brewster's future would be made. He'd just have to steel himself. His ancestors had taken the risk and grabbed for the gold ring when they'd sailed for the New World on the Mayflower. At least Winslow had the right pedigree. Brewster could still hold his head up after this. Just some pain and private humiliation and then his future would be made.
Brewster lurched and made a little yipping sound as he felt strong callused hands taking his wrists and tying them together and then forcing them over his head and tying them off at the headboard.
Such strong hands. A little surprising, the strength, but Winslow bragged incessantly about his garden and how he worked it himself. Brewster shivered a bit. Strong hands. Would that mean other strengths as well?
Those callused hands were running all over his body as he lay stretched out on his belly. He was trembling and trying to think of anything else but what was happening—what was happening at last after nearly a year of putting it off. If he'd let Winslow bed him as soon as the employment deal was set, it would be all over now. It would be done and Winslow would probably already have moved on to fresh tail. No use crying over that now. Just bear it. Pretend to be somewhere else altogether.