Chastity (7 page)

    "Good Lord, woman! What did you do to this man?"

    Reed was acutely aware that Chastity was   still lying across his chest as she responded, "You told me to clean him up if I had the chance."

    "That I did." The annoying physician struggled against a smile. "And you did a hell of a job! Seems to me I got here just in time before the jugular was endangered."

    Reed did not bother to comment.

    "Let her go, Reed."

    "No."

    Dr. Carr persisted, "Whatever you had in mind, I can tell you now, it's not going to happen. So you might just as well do as I say."

    Uncertain if it was the subtle, feminine scent of the woman sprawled across him or his debility, Reed could feel himself weakening. Looking into the pale face so close to his, he said, "Don't ever try coming at me when I'm sleeping again. You won't get off this easily if there's a next time."

    He saw Chastity's small features twitch with an anger held tightly in check as she whispered in a voice meant for him alone, "Don't worry. As soon as you let me go, I'm going to get as far away from you as I can!"

    "That suits me fine!"

    "Good!" Chastity snapped back awkwardly as Reed released her. Regaining her feet, she turned toward Dr. Carr and handed him the razor. "Here. You can finish. He slept all the while you were gone. I applied hot compresses to his leg and it's looking better, and I managed to get    him to swallow some water. The rest is up to you. I'm leaving."

    "Come now, dear" Dr. Carr accepted the razor with a conciliatory smile” you’re exhausted and you need some time to yourself. I've arranged with Sally Greenwood for you to use the bathtub downstairs for a nominal fee. You'll feel much better after you've bathed and changed your clothes, I'm sure. I'll take care of your husband until you're done."

    Reed saw determination flash in Chastity's eyes before she announced abruptly, "Dr. Carr, this man is not my"

    "Do as the doctor says!" Uncertain of his reason for interrupting her, Reed continued flatly, "He'll take care of things here."

    "He'd better." Chastity's response held a caustic note.
"Because I'm not coming back."

    "Chastity, dear…" Dr. Carr smiled sympathetically. "You're tired. You don't mean what you're saying."

    "Yes, I do." Chastity turned abruptly toward Reed. She challenged, "Tell him! Go ahead!"

    Aware that his silence infuriated her even more, Reed watched, satisfaction burgeoning as Chastity drew her tall, slender, disheveled self up sharply, picked up her bundles, and turned toward Dr. Carr. "Thank you for arranging for my bath, and thank you for your competency. Good-bye, doctor."

    Turning her back on Reed without another word, Chastity quietly pulled the door open and disappeared into the hallway.

  Deep in thought, Reed did not realize he was still staring at the closed door until Dr. Carr snapped, "You really are a hard case! I don't know how she puts up with you. It would serve you right if she didn't come back!"

    "She'll be back."

    Dr. Carr glowered. "And you're damned arrogant for a man of the cloth!"

    "
it
isn't arrogance." Reed frowned, cursing under his breath as a wave of weakness again assailed him. He stated flatly, "I need something to eat."

    "Sally's making you up a tray now." Dr. Carr paused,
then
added, "I may be an old, small-town doctor, but I pride myself in knowing people. And something tells me you pushed that woman a step too far just now. She might not come back."

    "She'll come back."

    "Damned arrogant pup…"

    Reed did not bother to reply as Dr. Carr turned toward his bag with a soft curse. Instead, he picked up the hideous, wire-rimmed spectacles that had fallen onto the bed beside him, and with great satisfaction, slid them under his pillow.

    Oh, she had never felt so good.

    Leaning back in the tub, Chastity recalled her incredulity when she first entered the primitive bathing facilities. She supposed her experiences of the past few days should have prepared her for the room that was nothing more than a   shed added to the rear of the hotel, and a tub that was nothing more than a canvas sling attached to a frame that appeared too fragile to support even her weight. Still furious from her parting conversation with the Reverend Reed Farrell, she had momentarily considered abandoning the whole idea of bathing. But all her reservations were dismissed the first moment the warm water touched her bare skin.

    Luxuriating in the steaming water for a few mindless moments longer, Chastity sighed aloud. She reached onto the stand beside her and picked up the washcloth and soap she had purchased from the loathsome storekeeper earlier. The fragrance of roses reached her nostrils as she worked up
a lather
, and Chastity sighed again. Aunt Harriet and Aunt Penelope had detested floral fragrances, but she had always loved the scent of roses. Somehow, it stirred blurred images of her mother and returned to mind more vivid pictures of bathing with her sisters in a common tub. She remembered that the aroma of roses had been strong as their mother had dutifully scrubbed them clean, and that the fragrance had often been accompanied by the sound of petulance in her sisters' voices.

"
It
isn't fair, Mama! Chastity's hair is prettier than ours!
"

    
"
That's
not true.
? Mama had been insistent.
"
Chastity's
hair is a more brilliant color, true, but Honesty's hair is as black as satin, just like your father's Irish great-grandmother, and Purity's hair is the color of corn silk, like mine. Your father is proud of you all. He says all his girls are beautiful.
"

    "I know, but Chastity's hair is curly, like Papa's, and it's prettier."

    "I wish I had hair like Papa's."

    "It isn't fair."

    And later, when her sisters stroked her hair as they lay abed, "
You're so lucky, Chastity.
" A familiar sadness welled inside Chastity. She recalled so little about her sisters, but she remembered that Honesty had been the most beautiful of the three of them, and the most willful. She remembered that Purity was fair and angelic looking, but that she often tested Papa's patience with her mischievous nature. She recalled that she had been happiest when following in the footsteps of her two older sisters, and that she was proud to be the one who had inherited Papa's curly red hair and his brown eyes that danced with flecks of green. She recalled crawling up onto his lap and staring nose-to-nose into his face, so intently that he laughed aloud. She had loved to hear him laugh, and she had known no greater joy than to cuddle on his lap with his arms around her.

    Chastity wiped away a straying tear. Her parents had perished when their wagon was swept away in the flooded river that day, she was certain. If they had not, they would have found her sisters and her and brought the family together again.

    But her sisters were alive. She was certain she could feel their hearts beating when she clutched her locket the same kind of locket her father had given to each of his girls and she was just as certain that she would find her sisters if she had the courage to try.

    Although they had never actually said the words, Chastity knew that Aunt Penelope and Aunt Harriet had not shared her belief just as she knew that as conservative as they were, they had been uncomfortable with the bright shade of her hair and its persistent curl. She knew they felt the color was garish and that it stirred too much comment, because they encouraged her to conceal its unusual color as much as possible and to confine it tightly to control the curl. Knowing in her heart that her dear aunts had her best interests at heart, she had eventually put aside her childish pride and accepted their counseling.

    ''Are you ready for some more hot water, dearie?"

    Chastity looked up with a start to see Sally Greenwood standing beside the tub, holding a steaming pot in her hand. The older woman's features were brightly painted, her hair color enhanced to a startling gold, and her matronly figure clothed in a dress obviously styled for a younger woman. It occurred to Chastity that Aunt Harriet's spontaneous comment would be that the woman's appearance was appalling, while Aunt Penelope would most likely disapprove of her outspokenness while silently agreeing with her sister. But Chastity had looked into Sally's heavily kohled eyes and seen only kindness.

    She replied, "Yes, that would be nice, Sally."

    Sally poured the water slowly. "Doc Carr told me that the parson was real sick. I just took a tray up to him, but Doc took it at the door, so I didn't get to see the parson at all. I hope he's feelin' better."

    Chastity avoided the woman's gaze. She lathered the cloth again and rubbed it against her shoulder. "He's a little better. The infection will take a while to clear up."

    Sally shook her head. "Doc says the reverend kept mumblin' about the mission and his delay in meetin' somebody. He says he seemed real worried. They're
    
waitin' for him out there, you know."

    Chastity looked up with surprise. "Oh… yes, I suppose they are."

    "I know, because I worked for a while with the old parson when he went out convertin'."

    Chastity could not hide her surprise.

    Sally laughed. "I don't look much like the type to go out convertin', do I? Well, the truth is that I wasn't always." Sally settled back against the nearby stand, continuing, "I spent a good part of my life workin' in a saloon just like the Roundup across the street.
I wasn't never as pretty as you are, but there was a time when the fellas really took to me.
Of course,
them
days are long gone."

  Chastity felt obliged to counter, "No, that's not completely true."

    "Don't worry. It
don't
make me feel bad to speak the truth."

    Sally smiled. "But the time came when I started feelin' empty inside. With you bein' a preacher's wife, you know the way I mean."

    Chastity's conscience nagged at her, but she said nothing.

    "That was when I took all the money I had saved up and bought this hotel. I made a good livin' at it, too, but I was still feelin' empty. Then I met old Reverend Stiles. Hell, he was so old that he needed somebody to take care of him or he never would've made it back from the wild country alive. So I put my hotel in the hands of a friend, and I started travelin' with the reverend. He died a year ago."

    "Oh, I'm sorry!"

    "The mission he started out in Injun Territory ain't had a preacher since. They heard a preacher was comin', though. A preacher and his wife, they said. But they're goin' to be real surprised to see a preacher with such a
young
wife."

    "Oh, I'm not that young!"

    Why had she said that?

    "Anyways, I suppose it's my good fortune that the parson got sick and had to get off in Sedalia before goin' all the way to Baxter Springs, or I wouldn't have had the chance to meet you both."

    "Reverend FarrellI
mean
Reed didn't intend going to Baxter Springs. Sedalia was his destination, and he was determined to get here at any cost."

    
"Really?"
Sally shrugged. "I can't rightly understand that. Baxter Springs is right on the edge of the Injun Territory, but I guess a man has a right to make his way on the road he knows best."

    Growing increasingly uncomfortable with the conversation, Chastity smiled. "I'm sure Reed is as anxious to reach the mission as they are to have him." She inquired politely in an effort to change the subject, "Could you tell me what time it is?"

    "It was a little after three o'clock when I came in here." Sally smiled. "I suppose I'd better let you get on with your bath. You just call if you need anythin'. I'll hear you."

    "Thank you, Sally."

    Chastity silently groaned as the door closed behind her. Lies of omission… deliberate subterfuge. She could not take much more of it. She glanced toward the new clothing she had so carefully spread out nearby, knowing that in the pocket of the simple dress she had purchased was tucked the rail ticket that would take her on to Caldwell. She had already inquired when the train would leave. Two more hours and she would be away from here and back on track, in more ways than one.

    Disturbed when that thought did not comfort her, Chastity submerged herself briefly beneath the water and then began soaping her hair.
She  would
wash the last residue of Sedalia off her person, and she would strike these two difficult days from her mind if it was the last thing she ever did.