The Whippoorwill Trilogy

by Sharon Sala

  But then he smiled, and as he did, Letty was startled by the way it changed his face. It was the first time she’d actually seen Robert Lee as the man he was, and not just an employee and a friend. It also struck her that, for a man who’d lived such a hard and dangerous life, he was actually quite handsome.

  “I’m proud for you, ma’am,” he said softly. “It must give you a real good feeling to know that Eulis is still with you after all.”

  Letty thought about it a moment, then nodded.

  “You’re right, Robert Lee. You put a good name to the feeling that’s in me. I’m sad that my baby will never know its father. Still, I’ve had a dream all my life of one day sitting out on the back porch of my house with my child at my feet, watching the sun go down and the moon come up. And as the darkness comes to the land, we’d be listening for the first call of the whippoorwill. I used to do that with my Mama before she died. Then, after the way my life turned out, I never thought I’d get to do it with one of my own.”

  Robert Lee heard the longing in her voice and wanted to weep. Instead, he pulled his hat down a little lower over his forehead and urged the horse forward. With every step that brought them closer to the house, Letty Potter was growing farther and farther away from him, and there was nothing he could do about it.

  Within the month, everyone in Denver City knew that the Widow Potter was carrying her dead husband’s baby. Even the hardest of men were touched by the situation.

  After a quick examination, Dr. Warren pronounced Letty and her baby healthy and forbid her to ride until after the baby was born. For Letty, it was a small price to pay for the joy of becoming a mother. At first, she’d been uneasy that Alice would be upset, maybe even envious that Letty was having a baby when hers was dead. But she wasn’t. It was Letty’s first lesson in knowing how the heart of a mother can work. Alice had taken Katie into her life as readily as she’d accepted the baby to whom she’d given birth. One had been taken away, but another had been given. Life wasn’t easy. Raising a child to adulthood was even harder. Alice knew that firsthand. Letty prayed to God that it was something she never had to face.

  Letty’s pregnancy had, in an odd way, eased Robert Lee’s yearnings. He still cared for her—dreamed of her, yearned for her. But he was well aware that her entire being was focused on nothing but the baby she was carrying.

  Because she couldn’t ride out to the mine anymore, he made a habit of stopping by the house more often. The ease of the routine into which they’d settled was pleasing to both. Letty didn’t realize how much she’d come to look forward to Robert Lee’s visits until he’d gone three days without stopping by.

  Letty stared at her growing girth in the full-length mirror in her bedroom, then turned sideways and cupped her hands beneath her belly to test her size from that angle as well.

  “Amazing,” she muttered, then slowly smiled as she patted her belly. “Come on, Little Bit, it’s time we started our day.”

  She moved out of her room and headed down the stairs, taking care to hold onto the railing as she descended. Once light on her feet, she now moved at a slower, awkward gait.

  The imminent arrival of a baby in the house had set every female hormone into overdrive. Alice was piecing a baby quilt. Delilah was saving and hand-hemming flour sacks to be used for diapers. Mary Whiteside had traded a traveling salesman a nugget of gold for two skeins of cotton yarn to knit the baby a bonnet. Even little Katie had involved herself. With Alice’s help, she was making a rag doll for the baby out of a couple of handkerchiefs and a stocking.

  And, unknown to all the women in the hen house, Robert Lee was making a gift of his own. He’d built a cradle out of hickory, honed it down to a smooth, satin sheen, and spent his nights carving figures into the headboard by candle light. He’d finished the little bird he’d put in the center of the design, and was working on a small rabbit. He had plans to put a turtle on the other side to balance the image, and imagined tiny fingers tracing the shapes of what he was carving into the wood. When he was deep into the dream, he imagined himself teaching the baby the animals’ names and the baby trying to repeat the words.

  Letty was all the way down the stairs and moving through the parlor into the kitchen before she realized the house was completely silent. With so many women in residence, it wasn’t often the house felt like this.

  “Hello,” she called. “Where is everybody?”

  A floor board creaked behind her. She turned, expecting to see one of the women, but there was no one there.

  “Probably out in the vegetable garden,” she said, and headed toward the kitchen.

  The screen door squeaked as she walked out onto the porch. T-Bone was noticeably absent and the women were nowhere to be seen.

  Enemy Within

  After calling their names with no answer, Letty began to feel uneasy. She circled the house, thinking they might have gone into the woods to look for berries, but when she went back into the house and searched the kitchen, the berry basket and both bowls they might have taken were still on the shelf.

  She turned and gazed out the window toward the forest, hoping to see the women emerging from an early-morning walk—certain that wherever they were, T-Bone would be running in circles around Katie, waiting for her to toss a stick for him to fetch.

  Lost in her muse, she stared out the window for several moments, trying to shake a feeling of unease. It wasn’t until a bird flew past her line of vision that she shook off the feeling of malaise and decided to look for them in earnest. She was all the way across the kitchen and reaching for the screen when she saw the first drop of blood.

  It was the size of a pea and almost lost in the shadow of the threshold. Startled, she went down on her knees and then touched it with the tip of her finger. It was still sticky.

  Breath caught in the back of her throat. When she looked up, she saw a trail of blood drops leading all the way out the door and off the porch. By the time she dragged herself to her feet, she was trying not to panic. There were all kinds of reasons why the blood could be here. Children get nose bleeds, and Alice was known to nick her fingers now and then when peeling vegetables.

  She sidestepped the drops and then followed them out the door and off the porch. It took her a few moments to find the small droplets in the grass, but when she did, she continued to follow them. She was halfway across the yard when she realized that the door to the root cellar was open, and that the blood trail seemed to be leading in that direction.

  She couldn’t imagine why they would all be in the cellar at once, or why they hadn’t answered when she’d called before, but her heart was lighter as she started toward it.

  “T-Bone! T-Bone!” She whistled sharply, expecting the dog to come bounding up the steps. When he didn’t, she couldn’t help but frown. Whatever was going on still didn’t feel right.

  She was less than twenty feet from the cellar when a man emerged and started toward her. Letty was so startled by his appearance that it took her a few moments to realize he was holding a gun on her.

  He waved the gun in her face as he grinned.

  “Well, well now… I was just comin’ to get you. After all, you’re the belle of the ball.”

  Instinctively, Letty cupped her hands across the swell of her belly and took a step back. Even from where she was standing, the stranger’s stench was evident. A few seconds later, she doubled up her fists as she stared down the barrel of the gun.

  “What have you done with my family?”

  He laughed, revealing a mouth full of broken and rotting teeth.

  “They’re all fine… just a little tied up right now,” he said, and then waved the gun at her again. “You and me got some business to do. If you’re real good, I might be persuaded to turn everyone loose.”

  “What do you want?” she asked.

  “Want? What do I want?”

  Letty shuddered. The flat, almost vacant stare on his face was more frightening than if he was screaming at her.

  “Y
ou can have anything on the place. You want a horse? Some food? Just take it and go.”

  The man’s eyes narrowed as his smile disappeared.

  “Now, now… it’s not all that simple, missy.”

  It was at this point, Letty realized part of the stains on his hands were blood—almost as red as the drops she’d seen on the porch. She didn’t want to think of who he’d hurt—maybe beyond redemption. Despite the fear roiling in her belly, she remembered something she’d learned the hard way a long time ago. Never let them see your fear. Never let them see you cry.

  “Then speak your peace and get off my property,” she snapped.

  The stranger was startled by her behavior. He was the one with the gun. He was the one in charge. She was supposed to be crying. She was supposed to be scared.

  “You’re not the one callin’ the shots,” he said shortly. “Shut up and get over here.”

  “Or what?” Letty challenged.

  Again, the man felt as if he was losing some ground. This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.

  “Or I’ll do more than bloody that dark-haired bitch’s nose.”

  Letty hid a shiver. So Delilah was the one that he’d hurt.

  “I want to see my friends,” she said. “Show me they’re all okay and then we’ll talk.”

  A long string of curses spilled into the air between them as he pulled back his jacket and took another pistol out of the waist of his pants. Without taking a breath, he fired into the ground right in front of where Letty was standing. Dirt showered up onto the hem of her dress, but she didn’t move.

  “Is that supposed to reassure me that you the kind of man who keeps his word?”

  “Damn it all to hell, woman. Shut up! Shut up! Just don’t talk. I’m the one who’s talking. I’m the one with a gun. You don’t talk. You don’t do anything but what I tell you.”

  Letty swallowed past a knot in her throat. It was all she could do to maintain eye contact with him, but she knew his kind. Showing fear would feed into his power. It was the last thing she intended to do. So she stood without moving or talking, waiting to see what happened next.

  “They say you’re rich. Are you rich, lady?”

  “Yes.”

  He giggled.

  The sound turned Letty’s stomach.

  “Well then… here’s the deal. You share some of the wealth and we’ll see about lettin’ them bitches down in the cellar go free. How much money you reckon you got in the house?”

  “Maybe ten or twelve dollars.”

  His eyes bugged. “What the hell are you doing… trying to play me for a fool? You got money. Lots of money and don’t say you don’t cause I know better. You’re the woman who went and struck gold, so where is it?”

  She pointed toward town.

  “Down yonder in that bank, and in a bank in Philadelphia, and in another bank in New York City, and in a bank in Boston.”

  A drop of spittle slid from the corner of the man’s mouth as his nostrils flared.

  “You’re lyin’!”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Why would you put your money in all them banks so far away?”

  “So people like you couldn’t get their filthy hands on it.”

  He reeled as if he’d been slapped. Before Letty could react, he had crossed the distance between them and put a knife to her throat.

  The coppery scent of fresh blood went up her nostrils, as did the rotten smell coming from his body. She couldn’t bring herself to look directly at his face for fear he’d see the terror she was trying to hide.

  “I’ll teach you to smart-mouth me,” he said, and gave her a back-handed blow to the face.

  Letty dropped to her knees as blood spurted inside her mouth. She bent over and spat blood into the dirt. The skin on her face burned, as if he’d pushed her too close to a fire.

  “Now get up!” he yelled, and grabbed her by the hair and dragged her to her feet. “You and me are goin’ inside that fancy house of yours and get me some money… a lot of money. If I find out you been lyin’ to me, I’ll shoot you where you stand.”

  Letty didn’t argue for fear that if he hit her again, the baby might suffer. With one last glance toward the cellar, she let him drag her toward the house.

  Robert Lee was hitching a team of mules to an ore wagon when one of the miners yelled out.

  “Hey! Look there! Ain’t that Miz Letty’s dog?”

  Robert Lee looked up to see the huge brown and white dog coming toward the mine at a lope. Although the dog had been here many times before, he’d never before come alone. Robert Lee dropped the harness and stepped out from behind the wagon for a better look.

  Moments later, the dog ran up to him and dropped at Robert Lee’s feet. Robert Lee’s stomach rolled when he realized there was a long bloody cut on the dog’s back leg. Even though he knew Letty had been forbidden to ride until after the baby was born, that didn’t mean she was beyond defying orders. He stood up, searching the valley for sight of her, but saw nothing.

  “Something’s not right,” he said, and pointed to one of the men. “Harness up the team and go ahead and take that load into town. I’m going to Miz Letty’s house to check on them.”

  “Sure thing, boss,” the man said, and picked up the harness as Robert Lee mounted his horse.

  Before he knew it, T-Bone was back, running at his side. He spurred his horse and then leaned into the ride as his horse broke into a gallop. Everything went through his mind and none of it good, but he wouldn’t give in to the fear.

  He rode hard. By the time he got to town, his horse was heaving for breath. Flecks of lather from the horse blew onto the legs of his pants as he rode, and he could hear the heavy groan from his near-spent mount. He knew the animal was almost past going, and yet he didn’t dare slow down for fear that whatever was going on, he would arrive too late to help.

  When he rode through town at a hard gallop, several people stopped, curious as to what was happening. More than one yelled out as he passed by, but he didn’t take time to answer. His gaze was fixed on the roof of Letty’s fine house that sat on the hill above the town.

  When he was less than a hundred yards from the house, he heard a gunshot and immediately reined in his mount. The trembling horse was wild-eyed and snorting as he sat, listening for a second shot. He knew that the women had a rifle which Letty kept loaded. But the shot he’d heard was from a handgun, not a rifle, and as far as he knew, there wasn’t one on the place.

  He spurred his horse forward and rode into the yard at a gallop. He didn’t know what was happening, but he sensed Letty was in danger. He dismounted quickly, then pulled his gun and started running around the side of the house, taking care to stay concealed until he knew for sure what was wrong. When he saw the man holding a gun on Letty, something inside him snapped. Without thought for anything but Letty, he walked out into the yard with his gun drawn.

  “Let her go!” Robert Lee yelled.

  When Letty heard Robert Lee’s voice, she went weak with relief. Even when the stranger pulled hard on her hair and yanked her backward, she didn’t panic—not even when he used her body for a shield and put a gun to her head.

  “I’ll shoot her!” the man screamed. “I will! I’ll shoot her dead!”

  Robert Lee fixed his gaze on Letty and spoke to her, as if the man wasn’t even there.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Yes,” Letty said, unable to hide the quaver of fear in her voice.

  “Get back! Get back!” the stranger screamed.

  Robert Lee’s voice didn’t falter, nor did his gaze as he kept coming closer.

  “Do you trust me?” he asked softly.

  Letty swallowed nervously.

  “Yes.”

  “Close your eyes. No matter what you hear, keep them closed.”

  She shut her eyes as the stranger began yelling at Robert Lee.

  “Listen here… you can’t—”

  The gunshot was loud—the scent of gunpo
wder strong in Letty’s nose. Something wet hit the side of her face at the same time she fell free. In shock, she staggered. Even though she couldn’t see him, she knew it was Robert Lee who caught her before she fell.

  “It’s me, it’s me,” he said softly. “Keep your eyes closed and just listen to the sound of my voice.”

  He scooped Letty up in his arms and carried her into the house, then set her down in a chair. She heard him pouring water into a basin. When she felt a wet rag on her face, she flinched.

  “It’s just water, honey,” Robert Lee said. “It’s just water.”

  He didn’t tell her that he was washing the dead man’s blood off of her face, and she didn’t ask. He just kept wiping and rinsing until it was all gone.

  “Where are the others?” Robert Lee asked. “Where’s Alice and Mary and Delilah… where’s little Katie?”

  Letty shivered as his thumb traced the curve of her cheek, unaware that he was rubbing off a rather large splatter of blood.

  “I think they’re in the cellar. He was coming out of the cellar when I saw him. I woke up and couldn’t find anyone. T-Bone was gone and the women were gone and—”

  “T-Bone came after me,” Robert Lee said.

  Surprised by the news, Letty opened her eyes, and found Robert Lee’s face only inches away from hers. Mesmerized by the sight, she froze.

  When he realized she was watching him, his first instinct was to pull back. It wasn’t until he saw his own reflection in her eyes that he knew he was close to losing control.

  “I, uh…”

  Letty grabbed his hand, took the wet rag from him and tossed it into the basin.

  “You saved my life,” she said softly.

  “I only—”

  Letty put her fingers across his mouth, silencing whatever he’d been going to say. At that point, the baby kicked. Letty winced, then, still holding his hand, laid it palm down on the swell of her belly.