The Heart of a Soiled Dove

by Sarah Jae Foster

  “I’ll send Philippe, and then I’ll be right back with you Josie.” Aurora hesitated leaving, for even a moment. “I’ll return straight away.”

  Josie closed her lids and tears eased from them. “I ain’t never going back, Aurora. Never.”

  “My home is yours, Josie. You’re safe here.”

  Josie running away immediately brought an end to the faux deal she’d had with Corbin. She shuddered and prayed, knowing she’d gone too far on making things happen on her own. She didn’t want to go it alone anymore and asked God to give her both direction and common sense.

  Chapter Seventeen

  A week later, Aurora went to town to get some more salve from Dr. Hendrix. They were almost out of laudanum as well and she hoped he would be kind enough to replenish it. She noticed Christopher’s horse tied to the post in front of Kate’s Place. Maybe he was talking some sense into Emmy. Lord knew she’d been trying. Every letter she’d had delivered to Emmy had been returned by messenger, unopened – five letters in all. It was evident she neither cared for Aurora nor wanted the friendship offered. Well, she had Josie to think on now and that is where her attentions must be. A bell chimed when Aurora stepped inside Dr. Hendrix’s office. He welcomed her.

  “I came for some more salve.” She handed him the empty container to refill.

  “I figured you’d come sooner rather than later. Some of Josie’s old and untreated wounds have reopened. It’ll be a spell for her recovery. How is she doing?”

  “She can sit up now, and rest her back against pillows, and she’s eating.”

  He nodded amiably and she continued, “It’s at night when she’s… well, in pain and restless.” Nightmarish would more accurately describe her fits at night. She must ask this, for Josie. “Could you send a little more laudanum as well?”

  He tugged at his short beard and Aurora knew she was in for a lecture. “I’ll send another week of treatment. Only give it when necessary. We don’t want her relying on it for sleep and ease of mind.”

  “Yes, I’m aware of what laudanum can do.”

  He raised his bushy brows. “Is that so?”

  “May I get the salve and laudanum, Dr. Hendrix?”

  After a final, heavy look, he placed the items into her waiting hands. “She’s lucky to have you. It took a lot for her to seek your help, and a lot of bravery on your part for receiving her.” Dr. Hendrix patted her shoulder. “If only there were more like you around here.”

  His words sparked her temper. “It doesn’t take anyone special to do what I’m doing.”

  “But it does. This town needs someone like you.”

  When Aurora stepped out of Dr. Hendrix’s office, Sheriff Bradbury was waiting for her. “What do you have there?” His deep voice sent a shiver throughout her.

  She clenched her fingers around the precious laudanum. He’d inflicted enough pain onto Josie, and she would be hanged before he took away her comfort. Today though, he frightened her. Tolerance was absent from his presence. His look was reckless. She tried to walk around him, but he blocked her path. She tried the other side, same thing. What an infantile game he played. She cocked her head and finally looked into his eyes. “What do you want?”

  His smile was shrewd. “You know what I want.”

  “Josie’s with me now. Safe. I am no longer obligated to you seeing as how she left on her own accord.”

  “She will not be there forever. I am a patient man.”

  “There is no reason for your bribery now. The fact that she’s out of your hands means that I am, too.”

  A tendril of hair came loose from her pin and he possessed it and twirled it into his finger. “Send her back. You don’t want Thatcher involved.”

  Aurora lifted her chin in defense. “It seems that you don’t want him involved.”

  Roughly, he grabbed her wrist and pried open her fingers, displaying the salve and laudanum. “These are for her aren’t they?”

  “Please, she needs that.”

  Wrenching her wrist, he picked up the vial, the balm. “No.”

  If she had to beg on her knees, she would, to get that back for Josie.

  No one paid attention to the actions of this sheriff, to his bullying behavior. He had free reign to act as deplorably as he wanted. Maybe it was the sly smile he displayed to every man, woman and child walking past. A real charmer. Suddenly he snatched her forearm and pulled. “You’re comin’ with me.”

  “No!” This could not be happening. “I’ve done nothing wrong.”

  The more Aurora struggled and flaunted her insubordinate behavior, the more sympathetic townspeople seemed to be with him. He was the law after all. She wanted to scream out to them, but the gawking townspeople only glared disapproval. And everyone, she knew, wondered what unlawful thing she had done. Corbin grunted and with a heavy hand, threw her into his office.

  “You have no right to handle me like this.” Her chest heaved and she breathed with frantic puffs.

  “I can handle you any way I see fit. You’re only a woman after all.”

  “You’ve had your fun with me, now let me go.”

  Moving quickly, Corbin had her against the wall. “I’ve only just begun,” he sneered. Her eyes pinched together in pain as he shoved her into a jail cell. “I’m charging you for withholding taxes.”

  She gripped the bars as he locked her in. “Taxes? For what?”

  “Every whorehouse in town pays this community taxes. It uh, keeps the peace from unwanted law coming after the girls for every mishap they commit. Say, lewd behavior, indecency, disrupting the peace….” He held up the laudanum. “Medicinal abuse and the like.”

  Aurora detested his attitude. “Then I’m free to go. I don’t have a whorehouse as you well know. Therefore I don’t have to pay taxes.”

  “Make Josie come back to Poe and I’ll let you go.”

  Aurora held her ground. “She’s a free woman. If she wanted to come back, she would have. You can’t hold me here in blame for her leaving an abusive life.”

  “You are an ex-prostitute, who’s to say you are not still one? You are also hoarding a well-known whore at your place. Another, who recently left your boardinghouse to work at Kate’s. Doesn’t look good, Aurora. You think people will believe you… or me?”

  If she could only smack him now. Her hand tingled at the thought of it. “This is wrong Sheriff Bradbury. Please let me go.”

  “If she stays with you, every girl at Poe’s, or Kate’s, or any other boardinghouse for that matter, will think they can just pick up and go. We cannot have that. If you make Josie leave, she’ll have to come back. She has nowhere else to go.”

  “Josie, or any other whore for that matter, is welcome to stay on my ranch.”

  “You don’t want to make an enemy of me.”

  The bars separating them made her brave. “Are you honestly saying that I haven’t already?” She choked out a laugh.

  “You’ll be going up against Poe. I had hoped to keep you from that.”

  She would be a fool to believe him. He didn’t hope to keep her from anything. “I have no choice. He will kill Josie if she returns.”

  He entered the cell, tied her hands with rope and placed a grimy bandana over her mouth, effectively muzzling her.

  “No, he will kill you,” he said.

  Aurora had been standing for a couple of hours, refusing to sit on the urine stained cot. Her legs were getting numb. She paced the length of the six by eight foot cell trying to figure a way out of this mess. When she’d planned on giving in to her emotional and physical fatigue, she looked at the rat droppings in the corners of the cell and decided not to sit on the floor after all. Since she couldn’t speak, she sent the Lord her thoughts. I trust in you – please see me out of this. She did have a thought of Jonah’s story in the Bible and wondered if this wasn’t God redirecting her. He’d been spit out of the whale’s belly and she could only hope a good ending would be brought her way as well.

  A few minutes after
her plea to the heavens, she heard Luke’s voice.

  Luke was there!

  “You haven’t seen Aurora round about have you?”

  “No, I don’t recall seeing her today.”

  She listened in disgust to his nonchalance but with hands and mouth bound, she couldn’t cry out for help or bang on the bars. She looked around, curious as to what Wally had used to create such havoc before.

  “You sure about that?”

  She imagined the sheriff being defensive. “I said I haven’t.”

  “You and Aurora seem to have had some difficult moments in the recent past.”

  Don’t give up, Luke.

  “We’ve had a few words, but they were just about Emmy. She wanted me to protect her and I said I couldn’t.…” Corbin paused. She waited for him to finish his lying words. “I can’t very well protect every prostitute around these parts now can I?”

  Luke’s tone was full of loathing. “I’m sure no one would expect you could do that, sheriff.”

  “This conversation is over then?”

  “For now.”

  No, Luke, don’t leave – I’m here!

  Corbin burst into the room with the cells and she began to wiggle frantically in an attempt to get out of her bondage.

  “Stop it or you’re going to hurt yourself.” He opened the cell and grabbed her with a rough hand. “Be quiet and I’ll take this off your face.”

  Once the bandana was removed he worked on her wrists. She pleaded, “I beg you, let me get those supplies to Josie.” Maybe he had a touch of mercy in his soul. Her tone fell into a whisper. “She won’t be able to sleep tonight without it.”

  “Oh, that’s too bad.”

  After he’d freed her, she put herself in the farthest corner of the cell.

  “Come here,” he said.

  “No.”

  Corbin swore and, before she knew what was happening, he rushed her. Knowing he could have his way with her, she decided not to fight. It was only her body after all. He could not touch her emotions. God had restored her before, and he would be faithful to do it again. It had been her willingness that Corbin wanted, and he would never get that. He would not get a fight, nor a welcome touch. When her tense body eased, he smiled wickedly and said with delight, “Why you little vixen. Believe it or not, I don’t have time for that.”

  Confusion creased her brows and he jerked back her head and poured laudanum into her mouth. When half the bottle had been drained into her, he clamped his rough hand over her lips and plugged her nose. Forced to swallow, she coughed and spewed.

  “Maybe you’ll be quiet now so I can think.”

  Think? What was going on? Within seconds, Aurora sat on the cot, no longer caring about its frayed edges eaten by rats or the smells that emanated from it. Groggily, she watched Corbin look around her cell, checking for what? He then backed out to close the iron-barred door and turn the key. Her body swayed and a pleasant feeling settled her. Why was he moving so slowly? He was watching her, weighing his actions. This had gone too far, and she realized he must get rid of her before Luke came poking his nose around again.

  Aurora lay her head on the coarse, wool blanket folded at the end of the cot – and fell into a restful sleep.

  She woke up to the sound of people arguing, but her tongue was swollen and so dry she couldn’t utter a sound. She believed the sheriff was speaking but was also unsure if she was in a state of dreaming. Nothing seemed real at the moment except her parched throat.

  “I sent for you because I have Aurora,” the sheriff confessed.

  “Why you….” She heard Luke cuss up a storm and tried harder to rouse herself.

  “It isn’t as you think. I found her, see. She was lying in a heap over yonder and she, uh… had this on her person.”

  She planted her feet on the floor and steadied her aching head with the palm of her hand. Get up Aurora!

  “It’s laudanum, Luke. She was in no shape to be brought home. It looks to me like she paid the doctor a visit, then loaded herself up on this stuff.” He sounded so disappointed in her. “I wonder what’s eating at her to do such a thing.”

  There was a shuffle of boots hitting the ground and Luke’s impatience was evident. “Get out of my way, sheriff.”

  “It isn’t going to be as easy as that. I had to arrest her.”

  “Arrest her? For what?”

  “The laudanum was not for her. I questioned Dr. Hendrix. Apparently it was meant for Josie… though I don’t know why.”

  “I’m sure you do. Now step away from me.”

  Corbin was insistent. “She’s arrested for stealing. Don’t fight me, Luke. I’ll have the town backing me. I’ve proof enough and the doctor’s word.”

  “Aurora would not drink that stuff.”

  “Since it’s her first offense, I could allow her to be bailed out. With a promise, of course, that she will never steal again.”

  “How much?”

  “One hundred ought to do it. I am planning to sweep it under the rug you know.”

  “I ain’t got that kind of money.” Luke sounded as though his heart sank. “I’ll be back later with it. But you best not breathe a word of this to anyone. No one is to know she’s in there, you understand?”

  “I assure you, I wouldn’t do that.”

  Aurora found her voice but by then it was too late. As soon as she uttered the whispered sound of Luke’s name, he’d gone.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The rage in his voice would shake fear into the worst outlaw and Donovan knew it. And still he took no pity on Luke standing humbly before him, hat in hand. He was already displeased about his not showing up for work that morning – now the man had reached his last nerve. His insane request to bail Aurora out of jail of all things. What was Luke thinking?

  “Donovan, do it for Roman.”

  “Hang it all, Luke,” Donovan shouted. He did not appreciate being backed into a corner like this. But if he didn’t handle it, then Roman would be involved and would pay the blasted fine. Money he knew his brother did not have. “A hundred dollars! If I do this, I won’t let it slip through my fingers easily.”

  “I wouldn’t expect that,” Luke said firmly. “I’m willing to have it taken from my wages.”

  Donovan looked at him sharply. “Why would you invest so much in her?”

  “I don’t expect you to understand that, Boss.”

  Donovan didn’t expect the man’s face to redden as it did. The familiar knot of jealousy came to taunt him, but so did a clever idea. The horse beneath Donovan was getting restless. He held firm the reins and looked down upon Luke. “I want something other than your salary.”

  “What do you want?”

  “A piece of her land.”

  “Aw, come on, you know she won’t go for that.”

  “Take it or leave it.”

  “I ain’t got a choice, now, do I?”

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Donovan asked when Luke turned to go.

  “To tell Sheriff Bradbury our deal. He knows you’re good for your word.”

  “You get to work. I’ll deal with Corbin… and Aurora myself.”

  Luke began to protest, but swiftly, Donovan shot him a warning. “Don’t push me.”

  “Yes, Boss, I’m much obliged to you for helping.”

  On the ride to town all Donovan could think about was how right he was in his initial assessment of Aurora Young. Her fine face and high ways could only bring trouble, and now she was in a heap of it. He approached the jail methodically. Ever since Roman started working for Aurora, he’d thought about buying her out, to give her land to Roman, but he knew she’d never have it. He smiled shrewdly. She’d now made a partial way for that to come to pass. Donovan breathed deep and pushed open the door.

  Corbin jumped to his feet. Clearly he’d been expecting Luke, not Donovan. With all of his self-imposed-god-given authority, Corbin asked, “Did Luke tell you about the bail?”

  Donovan scoured him with
a look, refusing to hold back dislike. “Why do you think I’m here, you idiot? Let’s get on with it. I didn’t come here to shoot the breeze with the likes of you.”

  “I’ll get her.”

  Donovan nodded curtly. This was robbery, blackmail. But it was to his advantage in the end. He would deal with the sheriff’s shortcomings another time. Donovan turned towards the shuffling noise where Corbin had Aurora in his grasp. Good Lord, she was in a pitiful state. Drunken and lethargic. Donovan glared at Corbin. “This is how you found her?” Even he had a hard time believing this.

  “Of course it is. How else would she get this way? She’s been in my cell half the day.”

  Donovan’s only response was a raised eyebrow. He removed a leather bound wallet from inside his vest and threw some money on the desk. “Give her to me.”

  The men were not gentle during Aurora being handed off. She lifted her head towards her new guardian and smiled sheepishly. “Dovonanan,” she purred.

  Donovan cursed at her all the way to his horse. The door to the sheriff’s office shut tight and he glanced back to see Corbin move quickly out of sight. Weasel. Aurora moaned deeply, coming across as a pleasant sigh. Donovan hefted her onto his horse and pulled himself behind her. After gathering her horse by the reins to follow, he headed in the direction of her ranch. The fresh air seemed to appease her senses, and at one point she even snuggled herself solidly into his chest and arms. The whole of his internal self tensed when she whispered, “Donovan Ramsey… you’re the handsomest man I’ve ever laid eyes on.” After an airy kiss, she tucked her head under his chin and passed out cold. A sweet sigh escaped her every now and then. His chest, where her head cradled, ached with tension, leaving Donovan hard pressed to stay focused.

  Carrie Anne kept Donovan’s company and fed him with coffee and thick ham slices sandwiched between fresh bread. When Aurora began to stir on the sofa in front of him, he dismissed his sister-in-law. It was Aurora’s fault he was in a mood, stirring his physical senses the way she did. His eyes were cold upon her so that his unbreakable stare was what she awoke to.