Bound For Eden (9 page)

‘Blackie Junior will do fine,' Alex interrupted them, sensing Adam's dismay. She was rewarded with a glowing smile from her brother, and a disgruntled look from Luke. ‘But what on earth are we going to do with him?'

‘I know a place you can stable him, for a small fee.'

‘Of which you get a commission,' Alex guessed sourly. ‘As long as it's cheap – we're pretty broke now, and we still have to buy the oxen.'

‘But we've got Blackie Junior now,' Adam protested.

‘He's not for pulling the wagon.'

‘Is he for riding?'

‘I guess.' Alex was a mess of nerves as they walked through Independence. The Gradys were sure to see them. She chewed on her lip. She might have to keep them all locked in the hotel room, just as they'd stayed locked in their cabin on the steamboat. Only there were still oxen to buy, and supplies to lay in. She had too much to do to hide in the hotel.

Alex couldn't believe it when she realised where Luke was leading them. ‘You want to stable my horse with a bunch of whores?'

‘Dolly's stable is cheap and the kid takes good care of the horses. My horse is here.'

Alex was too tired to argue. She settled herself on a hay bale while Luke went inside to rustle up Dolly's boy. She listened to Adam murmuring to Blackie Junior and closed her eyes, leaning back against the stable wall.

‘I just had to come and see the record-breaking horse for myself,' a strident female voice announced.

Dolly stood silhouetted in the doorway, a crimson ostrich feather curling around her painted face.

Alex saw her kohl-lined eyes widen, and then the scarlet lips split into a smile.

‘My dear,' Dolly drawled, ‘that outfit does absolutely nothing for your figure. Why, one would hardly know you were a female.'

Nine

Alex gaped.

Dolly gave a playful laugh and strolled into the stable, cocking her head and sweeping Alex with an evaluating gaze. ‘Women are my business, darlin'. I can spot a pretty girl, even underneath an acre of filth.'

Alex rose from the bale, sick with shock and dismay.

‘Don't worry,' Dolly assured her, ‘your secret is safe with me. For now.' She strolled over to the stallion, giving Adam a seductive smile. ‘My, aren't you a big one.'

‘Leave him be.' Alex hadn't meant to sound so sharp, but her nerves were shot after the events of the afternoon.

Adam was gaping too – at Dolly's exposed cleavage.

‘I'm having a quiet day,' Dolly pouted, running a finger up Adam's arm, ‘you'd be doing me a favour, keeping a lady company . . .'

‘Please,' Alex said helplessly, ‘he's . . . he's not right.'

‘I'm not one to judge.'

‘Please.'

Dolly sighed and gave Adam a brisk pat, in the fashion of a mother rather than a whore. ‘Can't blame a girl for trying to rustle up a bit of business, can you?' She threw Alex a rueful grin. ‘Now, boyo,' she said to Adam, ‘why don't you lead your priceless horse into that stall down the end, next to Luke's mare. You give him one of them blankets and some feed and water while I talk to your
brother
.'

Still slightly bewildered, Adam did as she suggested, after looking over at Alex for her approval. She gave him a nod and watched as he and Blackie Junior disappeared into the depths of the stable.

Then she watched warily as the whore approached, crimson feather bobbing with every step. ‘There's no need to look so frightened,' Dolly objected, ‘I don't bite. At least, not unless I'm paid to.' She grinned and settled herself on the hay bale and patted the spot beside her. ‘Now why don't you sit right here and tell me what you're doing in that get-up.'

Alex looked nervously over her shoulder.

‘You worried about Luke?' Dolly guessed. ‘Don't tell me that lummox ain't figured it out yet? Men are about the dumbest creatures God put on this earth, I swear. Don't you worry your pretty head about Luke.' She patted the hay bale again. ‘Seline caught him and, believe me, she won't be letting him get away in a hurry.'

Dolly laughed when she saw the shadow pass over Alex's face. ‘Not you too? That man sure does leave a string of broken hearts behind him.' She began to laugh harder. ‘And as far as he knows, you're a
boy,
so he ain't even turned the charm on you yet.'

‘He does seem a bit of a flirt,' Alex said darkly, succumbing to Dolly's beckoning pats, and joining her on the hay bale. She didn't want to admit it to herself, but she was hungry for details about Luke Slater.

‘Oh now, he don't mean no harm. It's just how he is. Mix that gentleness and sweetness with those looks, and he don't even need to flirt.'

‘But he does.'

‘He sure does,' Dolly agreed, ‘but there ain't a woman in the world who'd want him to stop.'

‘I heard mention about a girl back in Oregon?' Alex fiddled with a stalk poking up out of the bale.

Dolly's eyes narrowed. ‘You've got it worse than I thought.'

Alex flushed and was glad for the layer of dirt to hide it.

‘Whyn't you tell me why you're hiding behind that muck?'

There was so much concern in Dolly's voice that Alex found tears springing to her eyes. It seemed so long since anyone had asked after her. She'd spent every waking moment since her foster parents had died worrying about other people. She'd forgotten how nice it was to be the centre of someone else's attention.

Dolly noticed the tears and removed a handkerchief from her corset, pressing it into the girl's hand. She rubbed motherly circles on Alex's back and clucked softly.

Against her better judgment, Alex poured out the entire sorry tale. Except for the bit where she stole the gold. ‘Silas won't stop until he's got me in front of a preacher,' Alex said despairingly.

‘Oh pet.' Dolly drew Alex to her bosom and dropped a sympathetic kiss on her head. She knew how it felt to be responsible and alone.

‘You sure don't waste any time,' Luke drawled from the doorway.

Alex leapt free of Dolly's embrace. How much had he heard?

‘I think he's a little young, Doll.'

There was a woman hanging off him, Alex noticed. The same redhead she'd found him in bed with. She was out in broad daylight in her underclothes, with her corset laced so tight it pushed her large breasts almost all the way to her chin.

‘Too young?' Dolly tossed her head, sending the crimson feather shivering and dancing. ‘Darlin', as long as the equipment's all there and operating, who cares how old it is?'

‘I care,' Luke said shortly. ‘The boy and his family are travelling with me and I promised his sister I'd watch out for him.'

Alex's mouth popped open. What had Victoria said?

‘She pretty, this sister?' Seline asked, narrowing her eyes.

Alex thought she saw a flash of impatience on Luke's face but it was gone almost before she could register it. He looked down at the redhead and grinned. ‘Now don't be jealous. You know nobody can compare to you.'

Dolly cleared her throat.

‘Except for your employer, of course. She outshines the sun itself.'

Dolly snorted. ‘Enough nonsense. I've talked to the boy about that overpriced gluepot. I'll keep him on one condition.'

‘What's that?' Luke and Alex asked simultaneously.

‘The boy has to come up to the house and take a bath. He's a disgrace.'

‘I told him so the other night,' Luke agreed, ‘but he wouldn't wash.'

Alex was shaking her head vehemently. What was the crazy woman thinking?

‘You take his brother back to his hotel,' Dolly instructed Luke, ‘and I'll take care of the boy.'

‘No,' Seline whined, wrapping herself around Luke. ‘He was going to come upstairs with me.'

‘He can go upstairs when he comes back.'

‘I have to buy some oxen first. Give me what's left in that bag,' Luke held his hand out to Alex, ‘and Adam and I will buy the animals.'

‘I think I'd better come,' Alex said hurriedly, thinking of the Gradys.

‘Nonsense,' Dolly snapped. ‘I'll bet you know next to nothing about livestock. Let Luke go.' She snatched the bag of gold from Alex and tossed it across to Luke.

‘It'll be safe with me,' Luke said softly, meeting her eye. And for some reason she believed him.

‘Now, come on with you.' Dolly grabbed Alex by the arm and marched her out of the stable, ignoring her protests.

‘What are you doing?' Alex demanded, but Dolly refused to answer until she'd ordered a bath from the kitchen maid and sequestered them in a room upstairs.

‘Here,' Dolly said abruptly, removing a key from the bunch at her waist.

Alex looked at the key in bewilderment.

‘This room is empty at the moment. Delia went and married one of those wagoners.' She pressed the key into Alex's palm. ‘There's an outside staircase to the balcony and the door opens onto the landing right outside this door. You can come and go as you please.'

‘I don't understand.'

Dolly rested one hand against Alex's grimy cheek. ‘You ain't got the slightest idea of the trip ahead of you, darlin'. It's going to be long and difficult, and you're going to be coated in that muck the entire way. Let me at least give you a place you can come to before you leave; a place where you can be a girl for a bit. You get in that bath when it comes and you enjoy it, you hear? You can dirty yourself up again right after, but at least while you're in here you can be fresh and pretty again for a while.'

Alex could feel the tears welling again. ‘Why would you do this for me?' she whispered.

‘Because I know what it's like to be a woman alone in this world, and it ain't easy.'

‘I'm not alone.'

Dolly rolled her eyes. ‘You're worse than alone, pet. You're
responsible.
'

The door creaked open and the kitchen maid appeared with a tin tub. Alex turned away to hide her tears.

‘You ask a couple of them lazy whores to help you haul some water, Mary,' Dolly told the maid sharply. ‘Don't let them get away with sitting on their fat behinds while you do all the work.'

When they'd heard the maid's steps fade down the stairwell, Dolly's scarlet lips split into a terrific grin. ‘Now, let's see what I've got for you.' She opened the wardrobe and began pulling out petticoats and gowns, feathers and ribbons and lace. ‘I want to see how pretty we can make you!'

She had no idea.

As Alex undressed, Dolly couldn't believe what she was seeing. Gone was the ragtag boy, with his beanpole figure and big childlike eyes. In his place was one of the most spectacular women Dolly had seen in her entire life. And she'd seen a few.

She wasn't supposed to be looking, but she couldn't resist – she peeked in the mirror as Alex undressed. And was so surprised she turned and stared openly.

She could make a fortune if she had this one on her books.

The girl had an almost perfect hourglass figure, with a dramatic waist and lusciously curving hips. Her breasts were full and firm, and her skin was creamy and unblemished, the shade of a ripening peach in its first sun-warmed blush.

Dolly had to force herself to turn away. She was having fantasies of taking the chit downstairs and auctioning her off, the way the stallion had been auctioned off earlier in the day. Dolly thought Alex would have a fair chance of fetching even more gold than the stallion had. ‘What did your people do?' she asked, trying to distract herself from thoughts of all that money . . .

‘Pa Sparrow was a preacher,' Alex sighed as she sank into the deliciously warm water.

Ah. Dolly's fantasies evaporated. She had no chance of turning a preacher's daughter into a whore. Resigning herself to simply being a good Samaritan, Dolly moved to the tub and helped Alex wash her newly-shortened hair. Alex scrubbed her face and slowly the mask of dirt dissolved. Dolly found herself once again astonished.

‘How can anyone think you're a boy?' she exclaimed. The girl was simply beautiful – ripe lips, smoky-gray eyes, and a stubborn little chin with the hint of a cleft. There was nothing masculine about her whatsoever.

‘They don't, unless I wear all the dirt,' Alex admitted ruefully. ‘And those,' she gestured a dripping hand towards the bandages lying discarded on the floor. She still had marks on her chest from where the bindings had bitten into her flesh.

‘I can see why that Grady varmint ain't giving up without a fight!'

Alex pulled a face at her, and then sighed happily and reclined back in the tub. She hadn't felt so relaxed since . . . she didn't know when. She inhaled the scent of the soap, a pleasant musky rose, and wished she could stay right here forever – warm and clean and safe.

‘You'll wrinkle up like a prune if you stay in much longer,' Dolly clucked. She noticed the disappointment on the girl's lovely face and smiled. ‘I ain't kicking you out.' She gathered up Adam's old clothes with a grimace. ‘I'm going to take these filthy things and get Mary to wash 'em for you. It's a warm enough day – they ought to dry on the line in no time. In the meantime, why don't you lie down and have a rest. I'll bring your clothes back when they're dry.' She tossed some clean undergarments on the bed before she left, her crimson feather dancing merrily.

Alex looked at the brass bed. Its covers were turned down invitingly and a couple of plump feather pillows beckoned. She supposed a little nap wouldn't hurt . . .