His Little Red Lily

by Amelia Smarts

  “What’s going on?” a voice called out suddenly.

  Both Elijah and Lily turned to look at where the voice came from. Approaching them was Jesse, looking as tetchy as a teased snake. Lily breathed a sigh of relief even before Elijah’s grip on her softened. He freed her arms and turned to face the saloon owner, and Lily felt her body sag against the wall. She felt exhausted, like she’d just completed a day’s worth of chores.

  “I’m having a discussion with my fiancée, that’s what’s going on,” Elijah said.

  Lily didn’t correct his use of the word fiancée. Elijah hadn’t proposed to her yet, but he still assumed they would be married. Her parents and everyone else she knew assumed the same.

  “From what I saw, it didn’t seem like the kind of discussion that ends well for the lady,” Jesse replied. His eyes flashed with fury, and Lily felt the sudden desire to run into his arms. She knew Jesse cared about her, and she wasn’t sure in that moment whether Elijah did.

  Lily rubbed her aching limbs, certain that bruises were forming as the two men spoke. Jesse noticed her rubbing her arms. “Are you hurt?”

  “I would never hurt her,” Elijah cut in before she could speak.

  Jesse acted like Elijah hadn’t spoken and continued to look at Lily, waiting for an answer from her.

  “I’m fine,” she said quietly and looked down.

  She wasn’t fine. She felt conflicted about her feelings for Jesse and the desire to be a good person and settle down with the preacher. It was the first time Elijah had scared her, and his actions introduced new confusion into Lily’s mind. He was the preacher, a good man, and she was the one at fault for not listening to him. In the moments before she spoke, she concluded that she deserved his rough treatment of her.

  Lily worked up enough energy to straighten and address Elijah. “Forgive me. I don’t feel so good. I think I’ll go home. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She looked at Jesse and said, “Goodbye, Jesse.”

  “I hope you feel better, Miss Lily,” Jesse said, his voice gentle.

  Elijah gave her a stiff hug and kissed her cheek roughly. “Goodbye, darling. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

  Lily nodded and then left the two men to end the conversation alone. She walked home. When she arrived, she headed to her bedroom, removed her dress, and examined her arms in the mirror. Just as she expected, Elijah’s grip left stripes of purple bruises around her upper arms.

  She almost doubted what she saw, though it was right in front of her. She never would have imagined that the preacher would one day hurt her in such a way. When he grabbed her, she had felt real fear, and she had felt a huge wave of relief upon seeing Jesse. She knew things were not as they should be, and she felt responsible for that. God must be punishing her for her impure thoughts about the saloon owner. She resolved to never do anything to make Elijah angry again. To her, that was her only choice, the only solution to her problem.

  Chapter Four: The Attack

  The following day Jesse rose at his usual early time and walked down the steps from his quarters to the ground floor of the saloon. He filled a bucket with soap and water, plunged a mop into it, and cleaned the tiles, starting at the front by the double swinging doors and making his way to the back door near his office.

  His mind was filled with thoughts of Lily as he prepared the saloon for the day’s customers. He’d attended church the previous day in order to find out more about the preacher. Jesse had his suspicions about the kind of man he was after hearing what Lily had to say, and his suspicions were more than confirmed when he witnessed the preacher grab her violently. He hadn’t heard the words of the conversation that happened prior to him grabbing her, but he’d heard Elijah’s angry, accusing voice and Lily’s soft, placating tones. The memory of it angered him, and he worked it out on the floor, scrubbing it with zeal.

  Jesse had never been opposed to a man taking a wayward woman in hand, as Lily had discovered about him less than a year ago. He believed it a man’s duty to protect and discipline those of the weaker sex who acted recklessly. After all, the men who cared for them were responsible for their safety. Women were obliged to obey or else suffer the consequences.

  However, he loathed the out-of-control violence he saw written all over the preacher’s face along with his white-knuckled grip on Lily’s thin arms. To Jesse, discipline and violence were as different as night from day. A proper spanking made the recipient feel protected, noticed, and cared for. Violence led to fear, uncertainty, and a crippled sense of worth. Lily’s sense of worth was already delicate, he knew, since she’d confided in him years ago that she believed that she was unimportant, and the fact that the preacher may very well have provided her with a reason to give her words merit infuriated him. He wanted nothing more than to rescue Lily from her bad matchup with Elijah, and he intended to do just that.

  Finished mopping the floors, he picked up the bucket of dirty water and walked out the back to dump it. As he returned, he heard a thumping sound and a woman’s shriek coming from inside. Following that was the sound of feet pounding down the stairs. The back door burst open, and Jesse watched in disbelief as the very man on his mind tore out of the building, not even noticing Jesse’s presence in his hasty exit. Furrowing his brow, Jesse watched Elijah make hurried tracks out of sight.

  He walked inside to find Maria, one of the younger whores, stumbling down the stairs clutching her face. Blood escaped through her fingers as she sobbed.

  Jesse shouted, “Flo, you’d better get down here.” He grabbed a clean bar towel and guided the woman to a chair around the poker table. “Let me see your face, Maria.”

  She slowly removed her trembling hand, and Jesse took in a sharp breath as he placed the towel over what looked like a long, deep knife wound.

  Florence rushed down the stairs. “What happened?” she exclaimed.

  “He cut me,” Maria cried. “I laughed at him and he cut me.”

  “Fetch the doctor, Flo. I have no doubt she needs stitches,” Jesse said.

  “Oh, my heavens,” Florence said when she saw the blood. The madam never swore, even under duress. “All right, Maria, hold on. I’ll be right back with the doctor.” Florence hustled out of the saloon.

  Several of the saloon girls heard the ruckus and joined Jesse and Maria downstairs. They crowded around and murmured comforting words to the injured young woman.

  Jesse continued to hold the towel over her cheek. “Did the preacher do this to you, honey?”

  She nodded slightly. “How did you know?”

  “I saw him run out the back. Don’t worry, he’ll pay for this. As soon as you get stitched up and are feeling better, we’ll report this to the marshal.”

  She looked afraid but didn’t argue.

  “What kind of preacher carries around a knife?” he muttered to himself.

  Maria moaned. “He does whittling. He was showing me one of the ugly wooden houses he whittled, and I laughed. That’s when he cut me.”

  “I see.” Jesse felt great consternation at the knowledge that the preacher had it in him to enact such violence against a woman. He realized it would only be a matter of time before he seriously hurt Lily, if she stayed with him, which Jesse had no intention of allowing to happen. And to think that his own words contributed to her being with him in the first place. He could kick himself.

  “No one will believe me over a preacher,” Maria sobbed. “They’ll think it was my fault because I’m just a worn-out strumpet.”

  “The marshal will believe you,” Jesse stated firmly. “He’s a good man, not easily fooled by pretenses of virtue. Plus, I will say what I saw, and what I saw was the preacher running out of here like the building was on fire.”

  To Jesse’s relief, that seemed to cheer her up. The other women murmured their agreement with his words, and Maria’s cries had died down by the time Florence returned with the doctor in tow. The doctor slowly peeled away the towel so he could examine the wound.

  Jesse addressed his partner. “F
lo, will you go with her to report this to the marshal when the doc’s finished? I’ll stop by later to give my account of what happened, but I need to pay someone a visit first.”

  Florence nodded distractedly. “Yes, of course.”

  The doctor opened his medicine bag and pulled out a needle and thread. At Maria’s gasp, he said to her, “I’ve got some ether to help with the pain, darlin’, and I promise I’ll do this as quick as I can.”

  Satisfied that his presence was no longer required, Jesse grabbed his Stetson and headed for Lily’s place by foot. He didn’t bother going to the cabin, knowing that Lily would be on the farm somewhere attending to her morning chores. He found her in the barn sitting on a hay bale, staring idly at the stall door in front of her. She wore a faded green dress, and her hair was braided in a single long plait down her back. She looked so wholesome and innocent, and his heart constricted in his chest painfully, thinking about how close she was to marrying a man willing to cut a woman’s face.

  He cleared his throat. “Hello, Lily.”

  His voice startled her. “Jesse?” She stood and walked to him as he removed his hat. “What are you doing here?” she asked, beaming at him.

  Jesse didn’t answer right away. He gazed at her, taking in the sight of her simple, unassuming beauty. Sunlight peered through the rafters, setting her hair aglow. Her cheeks looked rosy, as though she’d recently finished an activity that required exertion. He reached out and removed a piece of straw from her hair. “I’m afraid I have some disturbing news, honey. Let’s sit down.” He led her to the hay bale she’d just been sitting on and sat next to her. He got right to the point. “Lily, your beau Elijah used a prostitute’s services last night.”

  Lily frowned at him, looking confused. “That can’t be true.”

  “It is, and that’s not the worst part.” Jesse looked down and fiddled with his hat, trying to think of a way to lessen the impact of what he had to say, but he couldn’t come up with any words to soften the blow. “The lady he slept with, apparently she made fun of him, and he responded by cutting her face with a knife. I saw him run out the back of the saloon after the attack.”

  Jesse tried to read Lily’s expression, but her face remained devoid of emotion. “But… he’s a preacher,” she said finally, not seeming to understand. “He doesn’t believe in adultery.”

  Her words made Jesse feel the same ache in his chest. His voice was gentle when he responded. “Do you remember what I said to you a few days back? Sometimes those you think are good turn out not to be. I think we can safely say that’s the case when it comes to the preacher.”

  Lily looked down and tracked circles in the dirt with the tip of her shoe, then looked at him again with a plaintive expression on her face. “I thought being with him was the right thing for me to do.”

  Jesse hated himself in that moment. “I know, honey, and I feel responsible for that. I told you to go find yourself a beau you could settle down with, and you listened to me and did just what you thought you were supposed to do.”

  Lily reached out and touched his hand. “It’s all right, Jesse. Don’t feel bad. My parents also thought it was good for me to be with Elijah.”

  He shook his head and sighed. “It seems the people around you who should be protecting you aren’t doing a very good job of it. But I can promise you this, Lily, I won’t make the same mistake twice. I’m fixin’ to make sure you’re good and safe always. Now, Elijah will probably be arrested and locked up for some time, and then you’ll be properly shed of him. If he seeks you out before that, though, under no circumstance are you to go anywhere alone with him. Do you understand?” His voice became stern as he issued the command, and he watched her body respond by straightening a little.

  “Yes, Jesse. I understand.”

  “Good girl.” Jesse rewarded her willingness to obey with a smile and stood. “I need to get back to town and let the marshal know what I saw at the saloon, but I’ll come back real soon to discuss something else with you, all right?”

  “All right. What do you want to discuss with me?”

  He hesitated a moment, but then answered. “My feelings for you.”

  She looked surprised. “Good feelings?”

  “Yes, honey, very good feelings.”

  A smile lit up her face. “All right, Jesse. I look forward to hearing about these good feelings of yours.”

  He headed to town and walked into the marshal’s office. It was empty, so he returned to the saloon. Florence saw him enter the double doors and hustled over. It was rare for Flo to appear upset by anything. She managed the girls fairly but pragmatically, and no one dared cross her. Sometimes a girl would come to Jesse with a request, hoping to circumvent the madam, but Jesse had learned very quickly that becoming involved in women’s issues never led to anything good. He would admonish the complaining woman to mind the chain of command, and after a few times, the girls learned it was useless to approach him about anything but their safety. In that, it was up to Jesse to manage anything that went awry.

  It angered him that one of the girls had been injured at his place of business. He felt a sense of failure, though he knew it wasn’t his or anyone else’s but the preacher’s fault. Jesse was well acquainted with most of the men who frequented the women’s chambers, and he made a point of nipping any unwanted rough sex in the bud. Those men who liked it rough, he steered to the right women—those who enjoyed a bit of pain with pleasure. Maria, however, wasn’t one of them. Not that any of the ladies of the line would welcome a knife to her face.

  Florence looked more distressed than Jesse had ever seen her. She wrung her hands and then nervously smoothed the skirt of her red dress. “Jesse, we reported the attack to the marshal, and he’s out looking for the preacher. Maria’s told half the town what happened, and I reckon the other half will know by sundown. It’s going to cause quite a stir.”

  “Yes, I imagine it will,” Jesse agreed. “People don’t expect such behavior from a preacher. Most everyone I know thought he was a decent fellow, including me until recently.”

  Florence sank into a chair at the poker table, and Jesse took a seat next to her. “How’s Maria doing?” he asked.

  “She’s shook up, as you might imagine. But she got through the stitching all right.”

  Jesse nodded and rubbed the back of his neck, his muscles tense and aching.

  “This will affect business,” Florence said. “Since most of the townsfolk like the young preacher, they might side with him.”

  Jesse shook his head. “Nah, I doubt it. We’re the only saloon in town. Those who like to bend their elbow and bed a bawdy broad won’t suddenly stop liking those activities.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  That evening, it seemed Jesse was very correct in his prediction. The saloon was packed with people, most gossiping and speculating about the preacher. The regulars made a point of seeking Jesse out to let him know how angry they felt about one of the girls being harmed and to offer their support. He was grateful that the majority of his male patrons felt some sense of duty to protect the women there.

  After playing several songs on the piano, Jesse asked Daniel to take his place. He walked the few blocks to the jailhouse and entered to find the marshal at his desk writing something with a look of concern on his face.

  “Howdy, marshal,” Jesse said.

  Marshal Davis looked up, his brows scrunched together. “Hi, Jesse. Thanks for coming. We need to talk. Please sit down.”

  Jesse sat across from the marshal’s desk and waited for him to finish whatever he was writing. He looked around the office, which was furnished with little more than a clock and rubbish bin. The three cells in back were empty, which puzzled Jesse. He thought surely the marshal would have found the preacher by then.

  Finally, the marshal laid his pencil down. “Florence said that you saw Elijah Jones running out the back of the saloon after Maria Clark was attacked. Is that what you think you saw?”

  Jesse
was confused by the way the marshal asked the question. “I don’t think I saw it. I know I did.”

  The marshal rubbed the beard on his chin and picked up his pencil. “Tell me what you witnessed exactly.”

  Jesse related the details of the brief event while the marshal scribbled out his notes. When Jesse finished talking, the marshal said, “So, you only saw one side of Elijah’s face while he was running. Is it correct to say you didn’t get a real good look at him?”

  Jesse scowled. “I’m not sure I like what you’re implying, marshal. I know who I saw. It was the preacher, I’m sure as a gun.”

  “Here’s the problem, Jesse,” the marshal said, lowering his pencil once again. He folded his hands in front of him. “I took Maria’s report this morning. She said it was the preacher just like you’re telling me. However, between then and now, four other people stopped by and provided an alibi for Elijah, saying he was leading a small Bible study at the time Maria was attacked.”

  “Balderdash!” Jesse exclaimed. “That’s impossible.”

  “Well, that’s what people are saying. Furthermore, I questioned Elijah this afternoon and informed him that you saw him running out of the saloon. He said that you have an ulterior motive in accusing him. He believes you are sweet on his fiancée and therefore inclined to be rid of him. If that’s the truth, I won’t be able to put much weight on your testimony, and neither would a jury. A defense lawyer wouldn’t have to work too hard to discredit you. As for Maria, she works for you, and it’s not too much of a stretch to believe she would lie on your behalf.”

  Jesse stood, his hands clenching into fists as he did. “This is bullshit, marshal. I’m surprised you would pay mind to such nonsense. I thought you had more than air between your ears.”

  Marshal held up his hand and shook his head. “I’m only telling you how the law works, Jesse. Think about it. I’ve got the word of four people that the preacher was with them during the attack. Then I’ve got the word of you and your employee. I’m sorry, but even if the validity of your report wasn’t being called into question, I’ve got more witnesses saying he’s innocent than I do saying he’s guilty.”