by Nancy Pirri
He was so busy staring at her lips he missed every word she said.
James cleared his throat when he noticed her staring at him with a quizzical expression. “Excuse me?”
“Biscuits?”
“Oh, yeah, biscuits, fine.”
“Be back in a minute.”
She turned away, but he stopped her when he said, “One more thing, Miss Katie.”
She whirled around to face him. “What would that be?”
“Coffee would be mighty good.”
She grinned. “Of course.”
James let her go then, watching her hips swing as she sashayed toward the kitchen. Sweet woman, he mused, wondering why he’d ever doubted her and her business. She and her Palace seemed to be genuine and exactly like she said. A boarding house, restaurant and saloon—no brothel.
While eating his supper, thoughts of Katie filled his mind. If Bozeman turned out to be as safe, sleepy and quiet as it appeared to be, maybe he could take a wife. But only one woman would fill that need inside him. Katie. He hadn’t known her long, but he knew he wanted her—only her.
By week’s end, Katie wanted to pull her hair out at the roots. She was also ready to evict her new tenant. While she needed the money, James Freeman’s presence was another matter. His persona, while dressed in his lawman gear, appeared terse, cool and suspicious. Terse and cool she could deal with, but suspicious—no. It meant he didn’t trust her. She liked him so much better when he dressed in his black suit, his manner toward her gentlemanly and friendly. She had no idea why he kept changing clothes, instead of always wearing his lawman’s clothing, as the previous lawmen of Bozeman had done. The man was an enigma, and he’d been tricking her—lulling her into trusting him when what he really wanted to do, she suspected, was close down the Palace.
A week had passed since he’d moved in, and now, on this balmy Friday evening, Katie found herself peering over the swinging doors to the kitchen, watching James from his typical position at the back of the dining hall. He’d settled his Stetson low on his forehead, his intent gaze focused on two men she didn’t recognize sitting at the bar, chatting with Marion and Ethel. The women were former owners of a small brothel down on Cook Street. She’d hired them to wait tables but found them more often jawing with the customers rather than serving them. The women were a bit older than her, heavy in the hips and breasts, which appeared to greatly interest the two men at the moment.
Katie had given the women free room and board and small pay for their work. Katie knew she offered them a second chance in life, and a nice deal living and working at the Palace. Even though they weren’t earning their keep, what could she do? She couldn’t leave them out on the street—homeless.
She sighed. James was dressed in his black suit—civilian clothes—and hadn’t pinned on his tin star. He was setting a trap. She could feel it inside her. Her gaze darted back to the women. She saw the lewd looks on the men’s faces, and the heated desire in her employees’ eyes. Please, don’t do anything foolish, ladies!
Annie called to her then. “Katie! Table five’s been waiting ten minutes for their food! It’ll be ice-cold by the time you deliver it,” she scolded.
“Sorry,” Katie murmured. Snatching up the two plates of fried fish, she headed out of the kitchen. Quickly, she made her way to table five, setting the plates down carefully in front of two cowboys, strangers in town. “Sorry about the wait,” she muttered.
The men said not a word but gave a curt nod and dug into the food.
Glancing at James again, Katie saw him still at his table, leaning forward with his hands folded in front of him. His hat he’d settled further back on his head and, with his head turned to one side, it appeared he was trying to listen in on the animated conversation at the bar. Katie wondered how long he planned on staying. He’d already been sitting in the same spot for two hours. Deciding her employees’ behavior was over the line, Katie made to intervene into the foursome’s conversation at the bar when Annie called to her again.
She grabbed two more plates of fish, which happened to be the night’s special, when she heard loud laughter and the pounding of feet up the stairs. She hurried from the kitchen and found James still in the same position, saw him glance down at the watch he’d pulled from his pocket. He looked up, pierced her with a long, hard look before looking at the stairs. Katie glanced at the bar and saw the two men and women had left. James had been waiting for something to happen—and it had. The two men were not boarders at the Palace but cattlemen who’d arrived in town this morning.
Katie moved to the stairs, stopped, and stared up at the top, listening. All was quiet—which was not a good sign. She looked at James again, saw him staring directly at her. As he slowly rose from his seat, he kept his gaze on her. Then he ambled to her side and stopped, looking down at her. For once she wished she wasn’t so much shorter than him.
“Any reason why I should be suspicious of the foursome who just traipsed upstairs, Miss O’Malley?”
Katie’s skin prickled at his calm question, hearing and not liking the accusation in his tone. “No. You know that, aside from the rooms I let, there’s a card parlor upstairs.”
“Then you won’t mind if I follow them?”
She shrugged nonchalantly, though her heart beat a rapid, nervous staccato. “Do what you like,” she snapped. “I’ve nothing to hide.”
His expression and voice softened somewhat. “I hope not,” he said. “Move aside then.”
“I’ll come with you.” She plucked up her skirts and turned but she froze when she felt his hand at her waist. She looked at him then over her shoulder and saw the cold look on his face.
“Stay put,” he ordered.
She stopped with one foot on the first step and glared at him. “This is my place, Marshal. I’ve a right to check on my guests.”
“You mean you have the right to warn your guests, don’t you?”
Katie felt the chill in the air from his frosty words. She took umbrage at his comment and said, “There’s no need for me to warn them of anything! I’m certain they aren’t doing anything illegal.”
“If that’s the case, you’ll stay down here until I’m through upstairs.”
He sent another warning her way. Helplessly, she stayed riveted on the step until he reached the hallway upstairs then disappeared from sight.
Katie counted to ten before rushing up the stairs after him, praying Marion and Ethel were behaving themselves. Just before reaching the landing, she heard angry female shrieks and bellowing male voices.
She saw James standing outside an open door in the middle of the hallway a moment before disappearing inside. Katie groaned, knowing it was Ethel and Marion’s room. She tore down the hallway, came to a screeching halt at the sight within. The women reclined on their beds, shirtwaists and camisoles removed, corsets unlaced, breasts bared. The two cowboys had removed their vests, unbuckled their belts and dropped their pants. Katie grimaced at the sight of the denim pooled around their ankles, buttocks on display while they each bent over a woman.
Chapter 4
If the sight hadn’t been so pitiful, Katie would have thought it laughable. She stared at the horrified looks on the young men’s faces. They scrambled from the beds, bent and tugged up their britches.
“Get out,” James ordered. He stepped into the room, allowing them space to leave.
Leaving behind their vests, the men tore out of the room, nearly knocking Katie over in their rush to leave.
James glared over his shoulder at Katie. “Didn’t I tell you to stay downstairs?”
“You did, but I’ve never allowed a man to order me about and don’t plan on starting now.” She groaned inside when she saw money on each bedside table, knowing how damning the evidence appeared. She was in trouble!
He sighed. “You’ve got problems,” he said. “I’m afraid you’ve been lying to me about the legitimacy of the Palace, which is a damned shame.”
Katie ignored him. Later she’d
consider how he’d condemned her and her place. For now, she looked at Marion and Ethel who sat up in their beds, the bedding pulled high over their bosoms. “Explain yourselves, ladies.”
Marion said, “Charlie passes by every year to visit me when he’s through with his cattle run.”
Sullenly, Ethel added, “Same with Sam, Miss Katie.”
Disappointment set in. The two women had been in her employ almost a year, and never before had they broken Katie’s rules for working and living at the Palace. “Didn’t I tell you I don’t run a brothel? That the Palace is legitimate?”
“Yes, ma’am,” they said in unison.
“Then I’m afraid you are both through working for me.”
“They’ll have to be,” James said. “They’re going to jail until the circuit judge comes by to hear their case. Sorry, Miss Katie, but I’m afraid you’ll be jailed, too.”
“What!” Katie exploded. “What did I do?”
“The infraction happened in your business. Ultimately, it’s your responsibility to keep your place legitimate. I’m closing down Katie’s Palace.”
Katie couldn’t believe he doubted her integrity, and that hurt. Closing down her business? No! Her mother had worked hard to establish herself in Bozeman, and Katie planned on keeping the business, no matter how tough she suspected it would be. What pained her most was that she’d grown to like James Freeman, had entertained the idea of his possibly courting her. He was a fine, upstanding man—who gave no one the benefit of the doubt. To him the law was the law, no matter who you were. No more ideas of courting entered her mind. She wouldn’t cross the street with him now.
“But…but…why, that’s the most ridiculous thing I ever heard!”
“Ridiculous or not, that’s the law.”
“And you just love enforcing it, don’t you?” she snapped.
He sighed. “It’s my job. Come along now, the three of you.”
All of Bozeman was in an uproar over Katie being jailed. Within a day, townsfolk already felt the loss of Katie’s Palace. There were no other eating establishments in town, and the unmarried men were in a quandary as to how to feed themselves.
Luckily, there were several smart lawyers in town who came a-calling on Miss Katie to represent her. She chose Richard T. Jackson, a seasoned veteran of the criminal justice system, who crisply quoted the law to James. The solicitor informed James that, upon receiving two-hundred dollars bail, he had to release Miss Katie, then he produced the cash.
James had no choice but to release her.
“No leaving town, Miss O’Malley. Judge Hopkins won’t be here for another two weeks,” he reminded her.
Lordy, but she was a beauty, he mused, watching her storm past him. He hadn’t wanted to jail her, but he’d based his whole life on being honest and law-abiding—and protecting women, even if it meant jailing them. He expected no less from everyone in Bozeman. Already he regretted closing down Katie’s Palace, but she’d given him no choice.
“Where would I go?” she snapped. He cringed when she slammed the door.
James was beginning to see the error of his ways when he once again took up a bed in the jailhouse—in the cell next to the one that housed Ethel and Marion. The women hollered the roof down for hours, refusing to sleep in the cell next to him. When he realized he wouldn’t get any sleep that night, he left the women, locked up the jailhouse and slept on the ground with his horse’s saddle and bedroll under the starry night. Midway through the night, a summer storm passed through. By the time he found shelter under the eaves of the jailhouse, his clothes were soaked through to the skin.
Quietly, he entered the jailhouse, took the hardwood chair from behind his desk and went out the door again. He dropped it on the wooden planking, then settled down under the eaves for the rest of the night. He woke the following morning to a warm, clear-sky day. Groaning with stiffness, he raised himself up from his slouched position on his chair, opened his eyes and found himself staring into a pair of pretty gray eyes.
“My, my,” Katie drawled. “Did you have a comfortable night’s rest, Marshal?”
“What do you think?” he groused. He rose to his feet, his bones aching, his clothes still damp, his boots wet, too. Damn! My good boots! How in the hell did I forget to remove them last night?
She just smirked at him, and he sighed.
“What’s that?” he asked, eyeing the picnic basket over her arm.
“Breakfast for Ethel and Marion.”
“Sorry. Visiting hours aren’t until noon.”
“I see. What will you do about serving them breakfast then?”
He blinked and thought what he usually did; order breakfast from Katie’s Palace. He hadn’t found the need to do this very often since it was rare for anyone to be incarcerated in Bozeman.
“Uh, hadn’t thought that far ahead yet.” Gruffly, he added, “Seeing as you’ve already got it made up and all, you can just leave it here and I’ll give it to them when they wake up.” He dug inside his pocket and pulled out a dollar. “Here ya go.”
“We’re already awake!” Ethel shouted.
Instead of taking the money, she stepped back. “Since the ladies will be here for a while longer, I’ll bill you at the end of their stay.”
He looked at the barred window. Sure enough, he found the women staring out between the bars, eyes riveted on the picnic basket.
“Oh, Miss Katie. How thoughtful of you to think about us in this awful place, and after us disappointing you and all. It’s horrible! Hot and stuffy and just plain…awful!” Ethel wailed.
“What did you expect?” James said. “Modern conveniences in jail?”
Ethel ignored his reply and shouted, “We’re starving!”
“Come on then,” James said. He turned, unlocked the door, and motioned Katie in ahead of him. Closing the door behind them, he leaned against it and watched her open the basket and take out the most heavenly smelling food. Moving closer, he saw her remove a towel, revealing a platter heaped high with scrambled eggs, onions, and green peppers. Below that platter was another with fried potatoes on one half of the plate and crisp fried bacon on the other. His stomach lurched, hunger calling to him when he smelled golden brown biscuits and churned butter.
“If you’ll serve up the food on these plates,” she said, looking up at him and producing three white dishes, “there’s plenty for you, too. I’ll be back in a minute.”
She headed for the door but paused when he said, “Where you off to?”
“Coffee. I couldn’t carry the pot and the basket.”
“I’ll go back and get it while you dish up the food,” he said gruffly.
“All right,” she said, turning back to the basket.
He watched her a moment, his gaze lingering on her calico-gowned figure. She was such a sweet thing. Was it possible he’d made a mistake about her? She seemed too innocent to run an illegal business. But then he yanked down his still damp vest and left the jailhouse. He returned within moments with the pot of coffee and four white cups and set them down on his desk.
James saw she’d served the women and had dished up a plate for him. He motioned to the chair beside his desk. “Join us, Miss O’Malley.”
She shook her head. “No thank you. I’m meeting with my solicitor this morning.”
“I see,” he said, unable to keep the stiffness out of his voice. “So you can plan strategy, I assume?”
“You are bound and determined to think the worst of me, aren’t you?” She jammed her hands on her hips. “Have you always been such a bad judge of character?”
James felt his face grow warm at her question. Had he been a bad judge? No. He’d never made a mistake in judgment, though he had his doubts a few times about Katie.
“Thanks for the breakfast,” was all he said. He tucked into his food, cringing when he heard the door slam. He suddenly lost his appetite.
Katie was furious as she strode back to her establishment. How dare the man entertain such evil thou
ghts about her! She’d never broken the law and was, in fact, a victim of circumstances. Then her anger turned to Ethel and Marion, who hadn’t been able to control themselves. The others in her employ had been so happy to have a second chance when Katie offered them jobs, they’d followed all the rules. Quite a few of the women had gone on to marry and live respectable lives.
Then she thought about James—and his personal vendetta in cleaning up Bozeman, expecting and demanding respectability from everyone in town. Maybe someday she’d find out his true reasons for his high expectations of all living creatures. Still, it hurt that he had put her in the same category as criminals. He’d soon learn how wrong he was about her.
As expected, two weeks later Judge Hopkins arrived. Upon hearing the evidence and listening to the entire town’s testimony on Katie’s unblemished character and honesty, the judge dropped the charges James had filed against her. Ethel and Marion were initially charged with prostitution until, much to the surprise of the marshal, the two cowboys declared their love for the women and asked to marry them. Judge Hopkins was happy to perform the marriages and planned on doing so the following day before leaving town for his next destination. Before the judge left the Presbyterian Church, the only place large enough to hold court, James confronted him.
Stepping in front of the dark-haired man with greying temples, as he left the church, James said, “A word if you will, Judge Hopkins.”
“Of course, Marshal Freeman. What seems to be the problem?”
“Was there a reason you made me look like a fool today?”
The judge offered James a sympathetic smile. “Miss O’Malley was innocent, and you know it. You simply didn’t have the proof. She had numerous good people of excellent character step up with believable character recommendations about her. She was a victim of an unfortunate incident.” Looking around, the judge lowered his voice and added, “This personal vendetta has to end, James. Since you’ve shut down every other place in town, Katie’s Palace is the only one left where people can go for room and board.”
