[Dakotah Treasures 01] - Ruby

by Lauraine Snelling

  “I didn’t know you knew how.”

  “That is not the point. Marriage is a serious business, and if you think I want to undertake such a momentous thing with you . . .” She could hear her voice raising higher so she sucked in a breath of air, forcibly lowered the pitch, and leaned slightly forward. Her whisper left no room for him to claim misunderstanding. “You are addled.” She closed her eyes and shook her head as if it were too heavy to hold up any longer. “Good day, Mr. Harrison.”

  She left the room without looking back, straight-arming the door to the kitchen so that it slammed against the wall.

  Charlie came in through the back door as she blew through the front. One look at her face, and he took a step backward.

  “Whoa, what happened now?”

  Ruby rounded on him, shaking her finger at him as fast as she talked. “You men, what in the world is the matter with you? Thinking all women are just panting to . . . to . . . and just taking what you want without even asking. You ought to be tarred and feathered.” She clamped her hands at her sides, fighting the scream that threatened to deafen them all.

  “Wait, now!” He held out his hands in a placating motion.

  But Ruby ignored him. “No matter how hard we try to turn you into civilized creatures, you persist in . . . in . . .” She grabbed the sides of her hair with both hands. “I could just scream!” She huffed out a breath and stared at the ceiling, fighting the tears that shrieked for release. I will not cry! I will not scream! I am a lady! I will behave like a lady!

  Charlie wisely kept his mouth shut and, deducing that whatever set her off was beyond that swinging door, went on into the dining room only to see Rand stomping out the front door, setting the bell to jangling so hard it looked to fall off its hook. Returning to the kitchen, he found Ruby scrubbing potatoes so hard the red skins disintegrated before they hit the water.

  “Where is everyone?”

  “Milly and Daisy are cleaning rooms. Opal is reading to Cimarron, and Belle . . . well, who knows what she is cooking up now.” Her glare accused him of something over which he had no idea or control.

  “I see.” He sniffed. “I take it we are having apple pie for supper. Can I help you with something?”

  “The old hen you butchered this morning will soon be ready for dumplings.”

  “And the potatoes?”

  “These will be mashed. The carrots are about done and . . .” Ruby felt an attack of the vapors or a deep tiredness roll over her so that she could scarcely breathe. She closed her eyes and let her head fall forward.

  Charlie’s hand on her shoulder and his gentle, “Are you all right?” cracked the staunchly fortressed dam. One tear meandered down her check, then another. She sniffed and swallowed hard. “I will be.”

  “Why don’t you take a glass of tea out on the back porch and enjoy the sun setting over the rocks. Let me finish up in here.”

  She nodded and did as he suggested. But the thoughts continued to batter her, Who, why, what? Fiends of Satan himself attacked, regrouped, and attacked again.

  Guilt headed the troops.

  By the time she caved in to all the “you ought to’s” and “you should have’s,” she wished only that she could go to sleep and not listen to them any longer. Instead, she dragged herself back into the kitchen and went about her duties for supper, not daring to look Charlie in the face for fear of mortification swamping her. What all had she said to him?

  With only two guests, supper was a silent affair, the rest of them taking their cues from her. While the others cleaned up, Ruby took the ledgers into the dining room, lit a lamp on one of the tables, and set to work.

  Sometime later Charlie placed a cup of tea on the table beside her, along with the piece of the pie she had turned down at supper.

  “Thank you.” Why are you being so good to me when I ranted and raved at you, and it wasn’t even your fault?

  “Mind if I join you?”

  “No, take a chair.”

  He took a bite of his pie. “You know, you’ve gotten to be pretty good in the cooking department.”

  “Thank you.” Why don’t you just yell at me so I’d feel better?

  “How bad are things?” He indicated the ledgers.

  “Thanks to our treasure hunt the other day, we can make the loan payment at the bank and catch up at the mercantile.”

  “That’s good.”

  “I suppose so. I just want to pay off the debts, and so far there is no way to do that. If only I could find Far’s buksbom.”

  “We’ve looked everywhere I can think of. Unless he took it out and buried it. We’ve been to the bottom of every barrel and crate, tapped on every loose floorboard. I just don’t know where it can be.”

  “If only we could get more people staying here.”

  “We’ve had more this last month than before. And the hunters will start coming now with the cooler weather. Sometimes it freezes here before the end of September. Then we have some beautiful weather before winter sets in.”

  “How are we going to get enough wood for winter?We can’t buy coal unless we don’t pay the bank and mercantile the full amounts due.” Here she’d thought things would be easier with the extra money. Talk about only temporarily plugging the hole in the dam.

  “Milly and Opal can help me get wood. I might ask that young private to help too. He’ll see it as a chance to be with Milly. The two of them are so tongue-tied, they don’t talk without having something to occupy their hands.”

  Ruby smiled in spite of herself. “Charlie, you never miss a thing, do you?”

  “I try to pay attention. Sometimes it keeps you alive out here.” He leaned forward. “I know things are tough right now, but you got to hang in there. The banker said you have until the end of the year to catch up, remember?”

  If it were just the finances, I would not be in such a dither, but Cimarron . . . She shook her head. The latter was so much more important than the former that they shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same breath.

  Later when she lay awake in the darkness of her room, all the arrows of the enemy came flying back. No matter which way she turned, she felt the stings. When she woke after a far too brief sleep, she checked her dried-grass-filled pallet to see if she’d bled all night. Tired as she was, it seemed that the enemy’s arrows might well have caused her to bleed to death.

  At the moment that seemed like a fair idea.

  She sent Charlie off on the train to pay their bills and bring back supplies, even begrudging the cost of the train ticket. He took along a bedroll so he wouldn’t spend money at the hotel, assuring her that someone would loan him some floor space.

  That afternoon she climbed the stairs to check on Cimarron. “I brought you some tea.”

  “Thanks.” The woman on the pallet didn’t even roll over but kept staring at the wall.

  “I’m going to sit here until you drink it with me.”

  Cimarron pushed herself into a sitting position. She ignored the lanks of hair that fell forward and covered her face.

  Even so, Ruby could tell the bruises had turned to yellow and Cimarron was breathing more easily. She hadn’t winced at the movement. Ruby handed Cimarron the steaming cup and sat cross-legged on the floor in front of her. “Amazing how a cup of tea makes one feel better.” Oh, Cimarron, come out of this.

  Though Cimarron sipped her tea, she didn’t answer.

  Ruby cast around for something else to say, but nothing came to mind. Good manners or no, what do you say in this intolerable situation?

  “Has Cat been up to visit you?”

  Cimarron nodded. “With Opal.”

  “She does follow Opal around. She’s never had a pet before. What kinds of pets did you have?”

  Cimarron gave a slight shake of the head.

  “We miss you downstairs.”

  The shrug would have been easy to miss if Ruby hadn’t been watching so carefully.

  “I think it time you come down for supper.” Ruby ignored
the fright that emanated in waves from the woman on the pallet. “Cimarron, I won’t take no for an answer. You can come after the guests have left—so far we only have two or three—and then we will have supper together. Do you need help getting down the stairs?”

  Another quick shake of the head.

  “If you would like a bath, I know Charlie would gladly haul the water up here, but it would be easier on everyone if you took it in the pantry.”

  “No bath.”

  Ruby stood and reached for the cup, laying her hand on Cimarron’s head. She closed her eyes when Cimarron flinched slightly. Those men should be . . . Instead of finishing the thought, she took the empty cup from the woman’s limp hands. “I’ll see you tonight.” She watched a moment, hoping for some sign of the former woman, but when none came, she left the room, heaving a sigh as she started down the stairs. What can I do? What can any of us do?

  When they were all ready to eat and they’d heard nothing from Cimarron, Ruby sighed again. “You go remind her to come down,” she told Opal.

  But when Opal returned shaking her head, Ruby just nodded. They’d keep working every day until Cimarron would come down.

  “Let’s eat.”

  “ ’Bout time she gets on down here.” Belle slathered butter on her bread, studiously ignoring the look Ruby sent her.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  “You did what?” Beans stared at Rand as if he’d sprouted buffalo horns.

  “I asked her to marry me, and she blew up like a howitzer.” Rand waved his arms in the air. “You can close your mouth now before a whole flock of mosquitoes flies down your throat.”

  “You been with the cows too long. Even I know that women want to be courted.” Beans slammed the frying pan down on the stove. “You being from the South and all, I didn’t figure I’d have to give you instructions.”

  “St. Louis is not the true South.” Fool old man. Wouldn’ta told you had I thought you’d get all het up like this. Who’d she think she was anyway? Most likely sweet on McHenry. He stepped back outside so he wouldn’t have to listen to Beans muttering and leaned against the porch post.

  Guess I better look elsewhere. Maybe I should write to my sister. She could most likely find me a woman back there.

  He wandered down to the corral where the horses were settling down for the night. Gazing out across the river, he could just see the outline of the buttes in the dusk. Overhead, the sky ranged from cobalt dotted with stars in the east, to the brilliant azure of just-past sunset. The evening star hung halfway to darkness. Frogs croaked from the cattails in the little marsh where the creek took up with the river. The lonesome notes of a mouth organ said that Chaps was killing time before supper.

  Buck ambled over and nudged his arm.

  Rand rubbed his dark furred ears. “She turned me down, Buck. But then you got an earful on the way home. Sad thing is . . . well maybe not sad . . . but you should have seen her. Pretty don’t begin to cover it. She was magnificent. Daddy always said find a woman with spirit and your life will never be boring. I do indeed think I found me one.”

  After another night of fragmented sleep, Ruby was beginning to wonder if she would ever sleep well again. She did her best to be civil to everyone, but they failed to offer her the same consideration. Milly snapped at Opal, Daisy snapped at Milly, and Ruby wished they would all take a long walk in the rain that was coming down in sheets. But most of all, she wished Cimarron would make her way down those stairs.

  When Charlie walked in from his trip to Dickinson, she sent him off to get into dry clothes before he could report on his trip. He shook his head and returned with his bowler brushed off and his short wool coat on a wooden hanger so he could hang it behind the stove to dry properly.

  “What all has gone on here since I left?”

  All four shook their heads.

  Charlie dug in his vest pocket and pulled out a packet he handed to Opal. “This should sweeten things up around here.”

  Opal thanked him and handed around lemon drops before setting the remainder in a dish on the table.

  “I’ll take Cimarron one when I take up her tea.” Ruby smiled at Charlie. “So you had a good trip?”

  “Davis at the bank said yes to your arrangements, and Rums-ford said not to worry, things will turn around soon, but that you could help that by serving liquor again.”

  Ruby huffed a sigh. “I’m taking the tea up, but perhaps Cimarron will come down tonight.” As she climbed the stairs, she could hear a raised voice—Belle’s voice—the words becoming clearer the higher she climbed.

  “Why in thunder did you resist? You been selling it for years. What was one more time? You’ve given free ones before too. Look at you. It’s all your own fault. You know the rules. Whores get hurt. It happens all the time, and no one gives no nevermind. You’re just lucky they didn’t kill you.”

  Ruby stopped only long enough to see through her rage and stormed into the room. She grabbed a startled Belle by the arm and marched her out the door. “And don’t come back.” She added an extra shove, wishing she could send Belle head over heels down the stairs. What kind of female viper had she kept under her roof?

  Picking up the cups of tea she’d had the control to set beside the doorway instead of throwing, she returned to the room to find Cimarron sobbing into her blankets.

  “Hush now, honey, you’ll be all right.”

  “She’s right, you know.”

  “No, she’s not.” Ruby gathered Cimarron into her arms and rocked her as she would a child. “You did nothing to provoke that attack.”

  “But if I hadn’t fought them I . . . I was so stupid. I was just beginning to think I really could have a different life, that I could have something more than one man after another. But it’ll never be any different.”

  “Cimarron, oh, dear Cimarron . . .” Ruby stroked the stringy hair back from the woman’s eyes and face, gently rocking all the while. “You are wrong there. You will heal. You already are, and you have a home here for as long as you want. You are beautiful and—”

  “I wish I was ugly as sin.”

  “It’s not you. It’s men who can’t control themselves.” Belle, how could you do such a thing? I thought Cimarron was your friend. Lord, I cannot handle all this.

  “Here.” Ruby picked up the cup of tea from where she’d set it on the floor. “Drink this and you will feel better.” A cup of tea is all I have to offer her? I should have some answers.

  Cimarron rubbed her eyes with the sheet and took the tea, clasping both hands around the cup. “I’m so c-cold.”

  Ruby reached over and pulled the blanket free to wrap it around her shoulders. “Come down by the stove, and let us all take care of you.”

  “I can’t.”

  “I’ll help you.”

  Cimarron shook her head and kept on shaking it. “Not today.”

  “All right, then, tomorrow. If you don’t come down of your own accord, we will come up and get you. We love you, Cimarron, and we miss you dreadfully.”

  Cimarron’s look of disbelief stayed with Ruby as she descended the stairs. She stopped on the second floor and turned down the hall to Belle’s room.

  Pushing open the door without knocking, she caught Belle lighting a new cigarillo. “Out!” Ruby pointed at the door. “Get out now!”

  “You can’t throw me out. I paid my rent.”

  “I’ll give it back. Anyone who would treat a friend like you did Cimarron is not fit to be around the rest of us.” Ruby grabbed the fancy garments tossed across the door of the open armoire and threw them out in the hall.

  Belle’s scream made Ruby’s ears ring. “You’ll ruin my clothes. Stop that! You think you know everything. No, give that back. You . . .” The string of vile names rolled off Ruby as if she were waxed.

  “What is going on?” Charlie burst through the door, tripping over a froth of petticoats that clogged the entrance. He caught himself with a hand on the wall. “Miss Ruby, what’s got into you?” />
  Ruby stopped scooping up another armload of clothes and let those in her hands drift to the floor.

  “She’s gone crazy!” Belle snatched back her garments.

  “What did you do?” Charlie turned on Belle.

  “She . . . she was cruel, mean, and vicious to Cimarron. No one should ever treat a friend like that.”

  “Huh.” Belle looked to Charlie. “She just don’t understand. I did it for her own good.” She took a drag on her cigarillo. “Cimarron’s got to get back on her feet.”

  “Her own good?” Ruby took two steps forward, her hands coming up like claws.

  Charlie stepped between them. “You don’t want to do that, Miss Ruby.” His voice sneaked gently past Ruby’s haze of red.

  She spun on her heel and strode out of the room. Where can I go? Upstairs is Cimarron. Downstairs, all the others. Where can I go? She felt like shrieking the last. God, where can I go?

  Dry-eyed, she turned left instead of right and slipped into the empty room at the end of the hall where she and Opal had stayed when they first came to Dove House. Hot, as if she had a stove burning within her, she crossed to the window and threw up the sash. Wind and rain blew in, and she fell on her knees at the windowsill.

  Within minutes the rain had soaked her fire out, and she shivered in her wet clothing. Rising, she shut the window and began pacing, her arms wrapped around her for warmth.

  “I cannot stay, but I cannot leave. What kind of mess am I in?” Not one of my own choosing, that’s for sure. Why? Why did Far do this to us? Did he hate us? He said he loved us. What kind of love is it that saddles your daughter with something like this? The window darkened and still she paced, her clothes now dry from the heat of her body. How could I? Why did you? The questions with no answers swirled, kicked up by the winds of rage as the falling leaves whirled from the trees, driven by wind they could not see but could not withstand.

  When she finally ceased her ranting, she could hear again. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

  “But I need more than rest.”