The Whippoorwill Trilogy

by Sharon Sala

  Despite Doctor Warren’s temporary location, he was doing a booming business. People had sores and foot rot from walking around in wet shoes all day, and children were coming down with coughing spells that turned into pneumonia.

  Denver City had been a place of chaos since the first gold strike had been announced, but this latest event had caused a different kind of chaos. Last winter’s smallpox epidemic had been a tragedy. The flood was causing a different kind of disaster, but in a way, winding up with the same results. People were dead. A few more would wind up the same way, and those who survived would never be the same.

  Letty’s new house smelled of freshly sawed wood and dampness. But the fire she’d built in the parlor fireplace was taking the chill out of the air, as well as providing her with a place to cook their food. Eulis had intended it to be a focal point of the room—a grand edifice that would impress their guests and give them comfort through the long winters. The opening was six feet wide with natural rock facing the mantle and wall all the way to the ceiling. The hearth extended more than six feet into the room, providing a safe boundary for any escaping sparks or embers. It had not been intended for cooking, but Letty was a practical woman. Her new cookstove was en route somewhere between Boston and Denver City. She would make do with what she had and be thankful.

  She’d put a pot of stew on to cook less than an hour ago. It would be a few more hours before it would be done. She would have loved to ride out to the mine and check on Eulis and the men—maybe take Robert Lee some fresh supplies, but if she rode off and left the food unattended, most likely the fire would go out or the food would burn. So, she was stuck in a house full of empty rooms, with memories yet to be born.

  Frustrated, she walked out onto the front porch. T-Bone was lying near the front steps. He looked up and wagged his tail when he saw her.

  “Hey, puppy,” Letty said, and sat down on the steps, absently scratching behind the pup’s ear as she looked down into the valley.

  The tents of Denver City looked like so many toadstools, and the people moving about on the streets were hardly larger than ants. Still, she could see enough to know that people were in a bad way. She hadn’t been back to town since they’d left the hotel, although Eulis came and went with some regularity. Because of the rains, they’d temporarily stopped hauling to the smelter. After they’d spent most of a day digging the last ore wagon out of the mud, Eulis had stopped hauling, using the down time to shore up braces inside the mine, and replace a few others.

  Weather had little effect on their work, but it had brought Letty’s plans to a halt. Cooking one meal a day was hardly what she called work, and she’d been taking care of herself for so long, that being idle didn’t set all that well with her.

  She went back into the house to stir the stew, added a couple of sticks of wood to the fire and went back outside. T-Bone whined as she resumed her seat on the porch, but she didn’t respond. Ever since she’d held that dying baby in her arms, she’d had a feeling she’d left something undone.

  And while she was struggling with new emotions and a whole new way of life, Robert Lee was also changing. He’d gained some badly-needed weight, and followed Eulis’ lead by shaving nearly every day. He’d gotten a haircut and some new clothes with his first pay and for the first time in years, felt good about life.

  And there was also the fact that he had fallen in love with Letty.

  He’d admired her from the first day they’d met, when she’d calmly announced the fate of men who tried to cross her husband. But after she’d taken a bullwhip to the man who’d beaten his wife, he’d been in awe. In his eyes, she could do no wrong. She was what God meant a woman to be—beautiful, strong, and faithful.

  No one knew how he felt, and he would have died before admitting it. He knew she was devoted to Eulis, and he admired the man tremendously. Anyone who’d gone from the drunk he remembered in Lizard Flats to this stoic, hard-working man demanded respect. Still, it was Letty who held his heart.

  It was a little past noon when it began to drizzle again. Letty’s stew was finally cooked, and she’d taken it off the fire and set it aside. It wouldn’t take long to warm it up when Eulis got home. She wanted to make some bread to go with it, but she was out of flour and cornmeal. Despite the weather, she decided to saddle up her horse and ride down into Denver City. She might get some of that fabric she’d been looking at down at the general store. She didn’t need furniture to begin making curtains, and it would be something to do.

  She dug an old poncho out of the trunk and pulled it over her head, then grabbed her hat on the way out the door. T-Bone was sitting in the rain beside the saddled horse, making sure that she couldn’t slip away without him. As soon as she stepped off the porch, the rain blew into her face. She settled her hat a little firmer on her head as she mounted. Even though she was soon soaked to the skin, it felt good to be outside and moving. The trail down into town was sloped and winding, but it was solid and in some places, sheltered by the trees. It seemed like no time before she was riding into town.

  Shock came quickly.

  The roar of rushing water from Cherry Creek was plainly audible, and the number of displaced people was obvious. They huddled anywhere there was shelter and their misery was reflected in the gloomy looks they cast her way.

  She ducked her head and kept on riding until she got to the general store. She dismounted in ankle deep mud, and when she tried to walk, struggled to stay in her boots.

  “Here ma’am, take my hand,” a man said, and she did, thankful when he pulled her up and onto the narrow wooden sidewalk.

  “Thank you,” she said, and ventured a quick look at his face. He was a stranger to her, and from the cut of his clothes, probably a gambler—certainly not a miner. However, a gold camp brought in all sorts of people hoping to capitalize on the gold dust and money rolling around.

  She stomped as much of the mud from her boots as she could before entering the general store, only to find it so packed with people she could hardly move about.

  She nodded to some of the women she recognized, and then kept moving toward the counter to where Milton Feasley was standing.

  When he saw her coming through the crowd, he beamed. At last, a paying customer.

  “Howdy, Miz Potter. How can I help you today?”

  Letty nodded at the store owner, and as she did, the image of Vern Goslin popped into her head. Vern had owned the general store back in Lizard Flats and was the exact opposite of Milton in every way possible. Vern had been the human equivalent of a grizzly bear and smelled worse than the buffalo skins he was so fond of wearing. Still, he’d been kind to her when nearly everyone else had judged and found her wanting. She wondered how Milton would behave if he knew what she’d been in the past, then figured from the glitter in his eyes that he wouldn’t care as long as she could pay.

  “I’m needing some flour or cornmeal,” she said. “Can’t cook a proper meal for my husband without fixing him some bread.”

  Milton nodded. He was partial to bread, himself.

  “Yes, ma’am, but it’ll have to be cornmeal. I’m plumb out of flour until the next freighter comes through.”

  “That’s fine,” Letty said.

  “…oughta’ be ashamed.”

  The words drifted over the murmur of voices from the crowd gathered inside the store. She knew they were talking about her. God only knew how many times she’d been judged before and found wanting. It shouldn’t have mattered. But it did.

  She turned away from the counter and moved toward a table where Milton had displayed about a dozen bolts of fabric. Letty had seen them plenty of times before, and had made up her mind as to the pieces she wanted for curtains.

  Milton followed her to the table.

  “Will you be needing some fabric today, Miz Potter?”

  “Yes.” She pointed to a couple of different patterns. “I’d like ten yards each of those two.”

  “…showin’ off cause she’s rich.”

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nbsp; Milton glanced nervously at Letty, well aware that she’d heard that comment, too. He’d expected to see tears, or at the least, a show of emotion. He was wrong.

  Letty lifted her chin and turned abruptly, catching the women who were talking about her before they could look away. Startled by the confrontational look on her face, the women found themselves under scrutiny, as well.

  Letty stared at each one as if she’d never seen such a specimen before, eyeing them from head to toe, taking in the sodden state of their clothing as well as their raw, chafed hands and faces. They had to be miserable. They didn’t have to be rude.

  “Mr. Feasley, I’d be obliged if you’d go ahead and cut off those lengths for me. I’ll be right over to pick them up.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said quickly, and took the bolts to another counter to measure off and cut.

  Letty pushed her hat to the back of her head and then sauntered toward the women. The room grew quiet. The women who’d been hiding behind the anonymity of the crowd were suddenly singled out by Letty’s stare. With her between them and the door, they were forced to stand their ground.

  “Ladies,” Letty said. “Real miserable weather we’ve been having, isn’t it?”

  One of them started to speak, but another woman, somewhat older and definitely more aggressive, elbowed her and frowned.

  Letty grinned, changing tactics.

  “I’m sorry. I just assumed you could speak English. Obviously that’s my mistake. I knew there were a lot of foreigners who’d come chasing gold, but I guess I didn’t realize how many.”

  Two of them fidgeted. Letty could tell they wanted to answer her, but the big one was obviously in charge, and she wasn’t talking.

  Letty peered at the woman, then took a step closer and raised her voice to just below a shout.

  “Maybe you just can’t hear me good. That would be my mistake, too. Lots of people are hard of hearing. There’s no sin in that. I suppose I should have spoken up. I said… real miserable weather we’re having, isn’t it?”

  Someone snickered in the back of the room. Letty heard it, but never broke her stare. It was past being a matter of pride.

  The big woman lifted her chin and stared down her nose at Letty, as if she was looking at a bug.

  Letty looked around at the people who were staring, and shrugged.

  “Any of you people speak their language?”

  No one spoke up, although a couple of men standing nearby grinned.

  “Too bad,” Letty said. “Someone needs to tell that big woman in the middle that there’s a dried-up booger hanging out of her nose. With her being taller than just about everyone in the room, it’s a right scary thing to be looking at.”

  The woman gasped and reached for her nose as the crowd erupted into laughter. When she felt the offending bit of offal hanging from her nose, she turned a bright shade of red.

  Letty, however, was done with the drama and turned toward Feasley, who was waiting with a sack of cornmeal and her fabric.

  “Reckon I’ll be needing a packet of needles and some thread, too.”

  “Yes, ma’am, got ’em right here. I’ll send the bill to the bank as usual. Will that be all right, Miz Potter?”

  “That’ll be fine,” she said, and gathered up her purchases, dropped them into an oilskin bag, and headed out the door.

  The crowd parted to let her pass and then closed up behind her.

  Letty tied the bag behind her saddle, and then with monumental effort, managed to mount by herself, despite standing in the mire.

  She struggled with a sigh of defeat as she rode away from the store, and told herself she didn’t care. She was halfway out of town when she happened to glance toward one of the saloons. Through the doorway, she saw a room full of men availing themselves of the amenities offered, as well as the women who were part of the deal. Thankful that she was no longer a part of that life, she started to look away, when a familiar face caught her eye.

  Alice Mellin was standing near the doorway and looking in at the crowd. Her shoulders were slumped and Letty could tell she was trembling. Her features were gaunt, and the dress hanging on her body was soaked clean through. She had no coat, no jacket, no extra clothing of any kind to protect her from the chill of the rain. At that moment, a knowing shot through Letty that caused her actual pain.

  Alice Mellin was on her last legs. Either she gave up her dignity and walked through those doors, or she was going to die.

  Letty pulled her horse to a stop and turned it toward the saloon. She had the means to stop this woman’s step into hell, and knew that she would never be able to face herself again if she looked away.

  She rode up to the saloon, dismounted into the mud once again, and tied her horse to the hitching rail. As she stepped up onto the wooden sidewalk, her steps were somewhat muted by the rain.

  “Alice.”

  Alice Mellin jumped. Whitewashed with guilt, she looked up, once again, finding herself face to face with Letty Potter.

  “It’s you.”

  Letty sighed. “Yeah, last time I looked I was still me. What about yourself?”

  The pallor of Alice’s skin turned even paler.

  “I’m… uh—”

  Letty pointed to her horse.

  “Can you ride?”

  Alice looked startled. “I guess, but—”

  “You interested in spending the rest of your life spreading your legs for those bastards inside?”

  Alice froze, too shocked by the question to answer.

  “Well? It’s what you’re thinking about, isn’t it?”

  “You don’t understand,” Alice finally said.

  Letty laughed, but it was not a happy sound.

  “Oh, I understand, all right. More than you will ever know. Now. Are you going through that door, or getting on that horse with me?”

  Alice looked at Letty as if she’d lost her mind.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Can you cook?” Letty asked.

  Alice nodded.

  “Are you good at it?”

  “Some say I am,” Alice said.

  “Then come with me,” Letty said softly, and held out her hand.

  It was the first step that was the hardest. After that, Alice moved rather quickly, although it took some doing to get mounted.

  Letty swung up behind her, settling herself behind the saddle, then took the reins.

  “Just hold onto the saddle horn,” she said. “We’ll be home before you know it.”

  Alice didn’t know what she was getting in to, but it was the word ‘home’ that settled her indecision. Even if the home wasn’t hers, it was a better place to be than where she’d been heading.

  And One Sorry Ass Judge

  Eulis thought he’d gone beyond being surprised by anything Letty did these days. But when he got home from the mine and found a strange woman stirring stew in his parlor, he was more than a bit taken aback. That the woman looked like she’d been beaten to hell and back was of minor consequence to the reason for her presence.

  “Ma’am,” he said, and quickly yanked off his hat, then started through the house, calling Letty’s name.

  Letty appeared at the top of the stairs with an armful of quilts.

  “I’m up here,” she said.

  Eulis took the stairs two at a time, and then took Letty by the elbow.

  “There’s a woman stirring stew down in the parlor.”

  “That’s Alice,” Letty said, and spread one of the quilts down on the floor.

  Eulis blinked. “Oh. Then that explains her face.”

  Letty nodded. “Her poor body doesn’t look any better.” Then she frowned. “I don’t think it’s proper to talk about a woman’s body to a man, so forget I just said that, okay?”

  Eulis wasn’t about to comment regarding female body parts.

  “What’s she doin’ in our house?” he asked.

  “I hired her to cook.”

  Eulis frowned.
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  “I like your cookin’ just fine.”

  Letty kept fussing with the quilts because it was easier than explaining the real truth to herself and to Eulis.

  “She didn’t have anywhere else to go,” she finally said.

  “What do you mean?” Eulis asked.

  Letty dropped the rest of the quilts and lowered her voice.

  “She was standing outside the door of one of the saloons in town. I couldn’t make myself ignore what that meant.”

  “Oh.” Eulis laid a hand against Letty’s cheek. “You keep that secret of yours pretty good, you know.”

  “What secret?” Letty asked.

  “That one about your heart bein’ all soft and gentle.”

  “You aren’t mad are you?”

  Eulis grinned.

  “No, but I have yet to see that matter when you’ve made up your mind.”

  Letty grinned back.

  “It will be all right. There’s plenty of room here for her, and it won’t be forever. Just until she heals up good and can find some direction in her life.”

  “It don’t matter,” Eulis said. “If it makes you happy, it makes me happy, too.”

  Letty stilled. The honesty in her husband’s voice humbled her. If she let herself think back to all the times in their past that she’d been downright mean to Eulis Potter, she would never be able to face him again.

  “There are times when I think I don’t deserve you,” she said quietly.

  Eulis smiled, and as he did, his love for her was so strong it made his well-worn face almost handsome.

  “Well now, reckon that might get me a second helpin’ on the stew cooking downstairs?”

  Letty threw her arms around him and kissed him soundly.

  “Seconds on the stew and the dried apple cobbler Alice said she was making.”