Deborah Camp (30 page)

“Thanks for what you did,” she said, her voice hoarse and full of pain. “I’ll never forget it.”

Adele patted her hand. “You’ll be all right now.”

The train whistle sounded again as the iron horse pulled into the station. Reno nodded toward the depot.

“Go on, Dellie, and tell Mrs. McDonald and the others. I’ll stay with Little Nugget until the doc can fix her up, then I’ll take her back to my place.”

“I’ll send Mrs. McDonald to be with her as soon as I can,” Dellie promised. She rested a hand on his shoulder and rose up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Thank you, Reno. You’re my hero.”

She thought he blushed, but she couldn’t be sure, as he turned quickly and carried Little Nugget into the doctor’s office. Lifting her skirts, she nearly flew down the street to the depot. Spotting her from the window, Colleen rushed outside.

“We heard gunshots. What happened?” Colleen
asked. “Holy Moses, is that blood on your dress?”

“Blood?” Adele glanced at the red drops on her sleeves. “Yes, but not mine. That animal—” Her voice shook with a flash of rage and she drew in a breath to steady herself. “Terrapin took a whip to Little Nugget right in the middle of Main Street.”

“The Devil take him,” Colleen said, her eyes growing wide. “Is she …?”

“The doctor is with her. Reno stopped Terrapin before he could kill her.”

“Mr. Reno?” Colleen sighed and looked at Helen. “Didn’t I tell you he was a champion, that one? Did he slay the monster?”

“No, but he made him dance a jig in the street.” Adele giggled. “Oh, he was magnificent! You should have seen him, so tall and strong and in control. Terrapin didn’t have a chance against him! Where’s Sally?”

“In the kitchen with Mrs. McDonald.”

Adele brushed past them and walked through the restaurant to the kitchen, where she found Sally slicing pies into wedges. Mrs. McDonald toiled at the stove, her hair hanging in wet curls around her face as she lathered butter onto hot baked sweet potatoes.

Sally dropped the knife she was holding. “Good gracious, what happened to you? You’re bleeding!”

“No, not me. Little Nugget is bleeding, thanks to your husband-to-be, the
pig
.” Adele spat out the last word, abandoning all pretense of restraint and decorum.

“Little Nugget?” Mrs. McDonald spun around and backhanded the hair out of her eyes. “What happened to her?”

“Terrapin flayed her skin with a bullwhip while every coward in this small-minded town watched and did nothing to stop him.” Adele rounded the table and pressed her face close to Sally’s. “And he would have been willing and ready to apply that whip to me if Reno hadn’t taken aim at him. Reno saved her. Reno, of whom you think so poorly, Sally. He stepped forward and stopped that madman.”

“Did Reno hurt him? Are you telling me that my Taylor is dead?”

“No, not yet.” Adele shook her head slowly, disgusted. “
Your
Taylor is like any other rat. He’s hard to kill. Reno only meant to stop him from murdering Little Nugget. If Reno wanted to shoot him dead, he had a perfect opportunity today. Terrapin’s hired gun had gone to fetch the doctor and wasn’t around to protect him. But Reno isn’t cold-blooded like
your
Taylor. Murder isn’t something he can do as easily as he would clip his fingernails.”

Sally fell back a step. “That … that … she must have done something terrible for him to be so angry.”

“Little Nugget? Oh yes. She did something despicable, all right. She told him she wanted to work for Reno at the Lucky Strike. Terrapin took a bullwhip to her, laying her clothes and skin open as she ran, screaming.” Adele narrowed her eyes. “Sally for God’s sake, quit being so stubborn. How can you love such a man?”

Sally’s lips trembled and her eyes filled with tears. “I can’t believe that he’d … If Taylor did this, then he probably caught her robbing or cheating him.”

“You can’t justify it,” Adele said. “If you do, then you’re as bad as him.” She grabbed Sally by the
shoulders and shook her. “Please, Sally, use your head!”

Sally refused to see reason. “I’ll talk to Taylor. He’ll tell me why he did this.”

“I give up!” Turning, Adele pushed through the kitchen door and went to her quarters, hardly aware of the restaurant customers she passed along the way.

Going straight to her desk, she removed a strongbox from the bottom drawer and unlocked it with a key she wore pinned to her garter. Inside it she located a paper folded in three and checked to make sure it was the right one before locking the box and replacing it in the desk drawer.

She tried not to think about the consequences or of the friendship she and Sally had nursed along, propped up and resuscitated again and again. Instead she thought of Terrapin and his black heart and that Sally loved him, or at least professed to love him.

Striding into the kitchen again, Adele pushed open the door in time to see Mrs. McDonald wave a spoon at Sally and Sally slap it aside.

“… don’t care what you think,” Sally almost hissed at the cook.

Adele cleared her throat. “Some people are worth fighting for and some people aren’t. I just figured out which kind you are.” Holding out the paper, she tore it in half. “Your contract,” she told Sally, then flung the pieces at her. The pages fluttered to the floor. “You can pack up and leave any time you want. You and Terrapin deserve each other.”

Sally looked down at the pieces of paper. “Adele, surely you know that your contract wouldn’t have held me here anyway.”

“No, but I thought our friendship would. I was wrong.”

With a small choking sound, Sally ran from the kitchen. The door flapped behind her, sounding like the broken wing of a huge bird. Adele turned to Mrs. McDonald.

“You go to the doctor’s place and check on Little Nugget. But be careful. Terrapin is out for blood.” Adele put on an apron. “I’ll take over in here.”

“If you’re sure …”

“Yes, I’m sure. Little Nugget will feel better if you’re with her. But I would like to go to the Lucky Strike tonight. Will you go with me?”

Mrs. McDonald’s eyebrows lifted. “Why, sure thing. It’s Ladies’ Night, I hear.”

“Yes, so I’m told. My husband invited me, and I wouldn’t dare refuse him.”

Mrs. McDonald chuckled and headed for the swinging door. “Now you’re talking, girl!”

“I
’m so nervous,” Adele confided to Mrs. McDonald in a whisper as they walked side by side that night down Main Street toward the Lucky Strike Saloon. Colleen and Helen were in front of them, heads together as they spoke in whispers to each other.

Mrs. McDonald smiled. “Why? Because you’ve never been in a saloon before? I think it’s about time. It won’t turn you into a harlot, you know.”

“I’m not nervous about that. As a matter of fact, I have been in a saloon. My mother and I solicited money for libraries, and we always made sure we visited every saloon in each community, since that was where money was spent frivolously.”

“Then what are you nervous about?”

“Seeing Reno, of course. There is so much I want to say to him, so much I need to explain.”

Mrs. McDonald sent her an odd look. “You want to
talk
to him? I thought you’d want to be doing something else besides
that!
”

“Yes, but I—I only hope I can express to him how
much what he did meant to me. And I hope he will—well, understand. We’re estranged and I …” She shook her head. “I just never know what he’s going to do or how he’s going to act. That’s one of the bad things about him.”

“Or one of the good things. Men you can read like a book don’t offer any sweet surprises.”

Adele slanted her a glance, struck by the woman’s insight. Surprises had never been pleasant for Adele, but Reno’s spontaneity was refreshing. Yes, his unpredictability could be unnerving, but he certainly had made her life more interesting!

Colleen and Helen ducked inside the saloon ahead of them. Adele’s heartbeats accelerated. She stopped and checked her dress, smoothing imaginary wrinkles from the emerald-green skirt. She knew the style flattered her by hugging her figure. The neckline dipped low enough to be provocative but not so low as to be considered scandalous. She had arranged her hair in a loose bundle on top of her head, allowing a few curling tendrils to frame her face and caress her nape. She had applied the rose water Reno liked to her pulse points and had enhanced her cheeks and lips with a touch of rouge.

“You sparkle like a jewel,” Mrs. McDonald assured her. “It ain’t like you’ve got to win him over. He’s already your husband.” She tucked her hand in the crook of Adele’s arm. “Let’s go.”

Adele hung back, her gaze fastened on the saloon across the street. The public whipping had not damaged Terrapin’s business. Both the saloon and the gaming hall were bustling. She looked up and stiffened when she saw Buck Wilhite standing on the second-story
balcony of the Black Knight. He tipped his hat to her.

“That vulture,” she said, striding on with Mrs. McDonald. “He circles and waits for death, and if it doesn’t come quick enough, he helps it along.”

“Any man who makes his living killing for someone else ain’t worth beans.”

“He went for the doctor today. I asked him to stop Terrapin and he wouldn’t do that, but he did go for the doctor.”

“That don’t earn him no admiration or gratitude from me. Any fool can run for the doctor. But there is something I noticed about him.”

“What?”

“He don’t care for the way Taylor does business. Buck ain’t too pleased with what’s going on around here and his part in it. I think he believed Taylor was a bigger man in a bigger town. Buck’s out to make a name for himself, but it will be hard work in this town.” She let loose a bark of laughter. “Whistle Stop ain’t Dodge City!”

Adele sighed. “Maybe he’ll move on and we can all sleep easier.”

“Let’s not waste another thought on him.” Mrs. McDonald squared her shoulders and placed a bright smile on her face. “After I make sure Little Nugget is resting easy, I’m going to snag me a partner and dance my shoes off!”

They opened the double doors and stepped inside. The tinkling of a piano and the joyous strumming of a banjo greeted them. More than half the people inside were women. Adele was taken aback by that. Ladies’ Night, she reminded herself, but she was
surprised to see which town ladies were present.

Salt of the earth women. Adele spotted Clarice Nolan, the General Store owner’s wife, and Lucille Miller, the proprietor of the boardinghouse. Oh, and wasn’t that Opal Martin, the doctor’s wife? Colleen and Helen sat at a table with Henry Staples, one of the town bachelors and a frequent restaurant customer.

Catching sight of a man’s chiseled profile and blue-black hair, Adele’s hungry eyes latched onto them. Reno stood beside the piano, looking sophisticated in a dark-blue suit and white shirt, black tie, and gold vest. He laughed at something the piano player said. Adele held her breath, waiting for him to notice her.

Around her the voices ceased to whisper and the bodies stilled. Reno furrowed his brow, evidently sensing the decrease in activity and the unnatural hush. He surveyed the area, and his gaze landed on her. A smile touched the corners of his mouth. Adele released her pent-up breath and realized that he wasn’t the only one staring at her. She commanded all eyes in the room. The music dwindled to a few trailing notes before subsiding altogether.

Glancing around, Adele felt as conspicuous as if she were stark naked. She felt her face flame and she took an involuntary step backward; she might have fled if Mrs. McDonald hadn’t kept hold of her arm.

Reno walked toward them, his gaze on Adele, his route direct, unwavering. People eased out of his way, giving him ready access to her. He dipped his head slightly.

“Good evening, ladies.”

“We came to check on Little Nugget,” Mrs. McDonald
said when it became obvious that Adele had lost her voice.

“You’ve come to make a sick call in those dresses?” he asked, his eyes alight with mischief.

“If she’s on the mend and doesn’t need me, I hope to take a turn on the dance floor.”

Reno moved to one side. “I believe she’s doing well. She’s upstairs. Let me show you the way. After you, ladies.”

Adele followed Mrs. McDonald and Reno followed Adele. Intensely aware of his trailing presence, she tried to move with grace and quickness. She wove around tables and chairs and smiled at the people she recognized. Although it took less than a minute to reach the stairs, she felt she had traveled a mile.

On the second-floor landing, she and Mrs. McDonald waited for Reno to open a door to their left. They went inside a room lit by the low flame of a lantern, which illuminated the bed where Little Nugget was recuperating from her unspeakable ordeal. She raised her head from the pillow and smiled wanly.

“I knew you’d come,” she said in a hoarse voice. Lying on her side, she lifted a hand toward them. “Come here, Doris. And Mrs. Adele. I owe you my life.”

“Oh, no,” Adele said, shaking her head. “Reno is the one to thank for that.”

The door closed softly behind her, and Adele turned to find that Reno had left them. Her heart sank a little.

“So how are you feeling?” Mrs. McDonald asked, approaching the bed.

“Tender,” Little Nugget admitted. “My back is on fire. The doctor said there wasn’t much he could do. He cleaned me up and slathered the wounds with some kind of stinging, smelly medicine, then bandaged me.” Her light-brown eyes filled with tears. “I’m going to be scarred.”

“Oh, honey.” Mrs. McDonald dropped to her knees beside the bed and stroked Little Nugget’s pale blond hair. “I’m just thankful you’re alive. That man almost killed you.”

Adele walked around to the other side of the bed. Through the gauzy material of the girl’s nightgown she could see the crisscrossing bandages, stained pink. She perched on the edge of the mattress and ran a hand down Little Nugget’s arm.

She was so small and fragile, Adele thought, her stomach twisting into knots. But she was tough. That was what was so endearing about Little Nugget. That huge spirit and big heart housed in a petite package. How could anyone beat her? She’d been through so much. Her young life had been full of disappointments and loss and fear. Little Nugget turned her head and her large brown eyes located Adele. She smiled, and Adele’s heart melted into a puddle.