Texas Lucky (3 page)

Threatening clouds were approaching from the distant mountains. A brisk wind was blowing, whipping her skirt about her ankles. She stumbled on the uneven planks. Sand was blowing in her eyes, and she blinked furiously, unable to see where she was going. It was a terrible time to be out, and now she knew that was the reason no one was else was about.

The shops were all closed, even the trading post, where she gazed through the window longingly at a basket of apples. Oh, why hadn’t she gone out earlier? she chided herself. Why did she have to be such a willy-nilly? Probably if hunger hadn’t driven her, she’d have stayed holed up forever.

That was something that greatly bothered Tess about herself—her cowardice. For a longtime, she had excused it as merely being shy, but then Perry had accused her of letting people walk all over her, never standing up for herself. He cited an example of how the butcher had once sold her spoiled meat, and she’d not gone back to complain, wanting to avoid confrontation.

There were other examples, as well, but Tess had not worried about it. She did not like arguing; instead she sought to get along with everyone, and had always tried to be a good and obedient daughter, never crossing her father over anything.

Until he sold her to Saul Beckwith.

She supposed she should feel some kind of sadness over Saul Beckwith’s death but couldn’t. After all, she had not known him, and though it was unfortunate he had died so uselessly and tragically, the only sorrow she felt was for herself and her predicament.

She had thought a lot about Curt Hammond and guiltily had to admit to a moment of excitement when she had believed he was the man she was to marry. Despite what he was—a killer—in the scant moments they’d had together, she had found him interesting and appealing.

Strange, too, that she could feel remorse over him but not for Saul Beckwith.

But maybe, she reasoned, that had to do with wondering whether she should have kept still and let him get away instead of acting like a hysterical fool, as she was prone to do when things went awry.

Her aunt had even taunted her when she put her on the stagecoach that it was a good thing Saul Beckwith would be unable to get his money back. When he found out how nerveless she was, he’d know she was not suited for the rugged life of the West and realize he’d made a mistake by making the bargain without seeing her first.

He would also be angry to see how skinny she was, Aunt Elmina had warned. Not enough meat on her bones to feed a crow, she’d snickered. Tess feared if she did not find something to eat soon, the crows might have a chance to find out if it was so.

She was almost at the end of the boardwalk. In the blowing sand, she could see another building just beyond the alley. The church and a few small houses were situated beyond that, as though built to escape the bedlam of the town as much as possible.

Tess did not see the two men step from the alley and bumped right into them.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I…” She trailed to frightened silence.

They were huge men, both of them, wearing the outfit of most cowboys she had seen—denim pants, cotton shirts, cowhide vests, boots, and hat. But what startled was how they were looking at her, eyes narrowed to thin slits, twisted grins—leers, almost—on their whisker-stubbled faces.

“Well, now, li'l lady”—the taller of the two grinned—“where you rushin’ to in this storm?”

“I…I…” Tess could not find her voice and began to shrink away from them.

“Aw, look, Billy Joe,” the man said to his partner. “She’s scared. Now, why do you suppose that is? Do we look all that fierce?”

She smelled liquor, and her terror increased.

“Naw, Pete,” the other answered. “We ain’t fierce a-tall. We’re real nice. Maybe we should show her just how nice we can be.”

Tess struggled to speak past her tightly constricting throat. “No…I…leave me alone, please…”

“Leave you alone? Did you hear that, Billy Joe? She ain’t friendly a-tall. I think we’d better teach her some manners whilst we’re showin’ her how nice we can be.”

“I think so, too.”

And they were upon her, one dipping to take her ankles while the other grabbed her around her waist.

She screamed, and the one with his arms about her waist managed to lift a hand to hit her on the side of her head. “You shut your pie hole, damn you, or I’ll wring your neck like a chicken.”

Her head pounding from the blow, Tess fought to hang on to consciousness as she was carried deeper into the shadowed alley.

They dropped her roughly to the ground.

A startled cat let out a loud screech before scrambling away.

A trash barrel overturned, and Tess was dimly aware of the stench of rotting garbage.

She felt rough fingers slip inside the collar of her dress and yank downward, exposing her chemise, and then that, too, was torn away.

Someone grabbed her breasts and painfully squeezed. Beyond the buzzing, she heard their gloating voices. “Look at them teats. Who woulda thought a skinny thing like her would have such nice uns?”

“They’s nice, all right, but let’s see the rest of her. It’s liable to start rainin’, and I want my turn.”

“Well, you’re gonna wait’ll I get mine, by gum, ’cause I saw her first.”

They were tearing at her skirt, her petticoats, and she tried to kick them, but they merely laughed at her sudden show of spirit and worked faster to render her naked.

“Gonna be good….” The one called Pete cried as he positioned himself between her thighs and tugged at his trousers. “Gonna be real fine, and—”

“And it’s gonna be the last thing you ever do, you son of a bitch.”

The loud, grating voice cut into the stillness.

Billy Joe went for his gun, but a sharp blow to his crotch with the butt of a shotgun took him to his knees with an agonized grunt.

Pete, having leaped to his feet, also tried to draw against the intruder and was greeted with the next swing of the gun butt right across his face.

A jawbone cracked, and two teeth flew out of his mouth as he fell backward to slide down the wall behind him in a heap to the ground.

Tess managed to lift herself up on her elbows and stared in disbelief, thinking surely she was still dazed. The old woman standing over her holding a shotgun could not have been her savior.

“You okay, li’l gal?”

“I…I think so.”

“That bastard didn’t get it in ya?”

Tess did not have to be painted a picture to know what the woman meant. Gathering the remnants of her clothes about her, she said, “No, he didn’t, and I really appreciate—”

“The only thing you ought to appreciate is learnin’ how to fend for yourself, girlie.” The woman held out a hand to her and yanked her to her feet. “My name’s Lulie Hayes, and I’ll bet you were the one supposed to be Saul’s bride.”

“You…you knew Mr. Beckwith?”

“Yeah, and—” Out of the corner of her eye Lulie saw the man she had hit in the crotch creeping away and ran to grab him by the back of his neck and spin him around. “You ain’t goin’ nowhere and leave your trash behind.” She waved the shotgun at the one on the ground. “Take him with you, and if I see you tryin’ somethin’ like this again, they’ll be takin’ both of you to the undertaker. You hear me, you no-good piece of coyote shit?”

The man grabbed his partner and, still doubled over with pain, managed to drag him out of the alley to disappear around the corner.

“Come on and let’s see if I can find something that’ll fit you.” Lulie made a clucking sound. “Lord, but you’re a skinny thing. Saul would’ve wanted me to fatten you up before he took you out to that shack he called home.”

Tess had no other choice but to follow her. She sure couldn’t continue on to see the minister with her clothes hanging in shreds.

She followed Lulie out the rear of the alley and to the back door of the building next to it.

“This here’s my boardin’ house,” Lulie said proudly. “Ain’t got no name to it. Everybody knows it’s here. So did Saul, ’cause he stayed here every time he come to town. Loved my cookin’, he did.”

Tess quickly understood why. They were in the kitchen, which smelled deliciously of frying chicken, simmering potato soup, and fresh-baked cider pies. And it was a cozy place, with flowers on the table and ruffled curtains at the window.

“I was just gettin’ ready to dish up supper to the boarders, but I ain’t called ’em yet. Good thing I didn’t. Might not have heard you screamin’. Now let’s get you cleaned up and changed, and then you can eat, too, and—”

But Tess heard nothing more as she dropped to the floor in a dead faint.

Chapter Three

“I’ve never fainted before in my life,” Tess said, embarrassed, as Lulie sponged her face with a wet cloth. “I don’t know what came over me.”

“You ain’t in the family way, are you? Saul wouldn’t have liked it one little bit if your family pawned you off on him already poked.”

Lulie, with amazing strength despite her diminutive size, had managed to get Tess into her room just off the kitchen and onto her bed.

Tess bolted upright to vehemently protest. “No. That’s not true. I swear it.”

Lulie shrugged. “You ain’t got to prove nothin’ to me, ’cause it ain’t none of my business. How long since you ate?”

“Day before yesterday. I had breakfast at the last way station and nothing since.”

“Well, that’s why you fainted. You’re starved. Come on and let’s get some grub in you. I had to go ahead and call my boarders to the table while I was waiting for you to come around, and they done finished, but I set some back for you. I’ll go get it.”

While she was gone, Tess looked about the room and saw that it was every bit as cozy as the kitchen, from the colorful quilt on the bed and the hooked rugs on the floor to the flower pots on the windowsill and the rocking chair with its pillowed back.

Tess felt comfortable there, just as she felt comfortable being with Lulie despite her hardness and bizarre appearance. Her gray hair hung wild about her leathery face, and her brown eyes were deep-set and brooding like an old man looking back on his life and not liking what he sees.

“I heard you’d got into town,” Lulie said when she returned with a tray of food. “Also heard what happened at the hotel, how that man you had in your room turned out to be the murderer they was lookin’ for.”

“I didn’t
have
him in my room. He was there when I got back from taking my bath. He tried to make me think
he
was Mr. Beckwith. I guess he heard me asking about him when I got off the stage.”

Tess began to eat ravenously and, between eager mouthfuls, worried out loud, “I surely hope they didn’t hang him. He said he didn’t do it.”

“Naw. Worley wouldn’t let that happen. He’d rather wait for the circuit judge to come through and get everybody excited to think there’s going to be a hanging, ’cause when men get excited, they drink more, which means more killins’ and more undertakin’ business for him, the greedy son of a bitch.”

Tess felt better to hear Curt Hammond would get a fair trial. If a jury believed he was telling the truth, he would go free, and she would not bear the guilt of having sent him to the gallows merely because she refused to help him.

Lulie settled in the rocker and bluntly said, “I told Saul he had to be out of his mind takin’ a city slicker for a wife, but he said when your pa told him how you’d been keepin’ house for him for years, he knew you’d make a good one.

“But tell me,” she went on, rocking to and fro, “what was you doin’ walkin’ around by yourself when it was almost dark?”

Tess explained how she had been so frightened after what happened she had locked herself in her room all night and all day, until hunger finally drew her out. “I saw a church when I first got into town and thought I could find the minister there and ask him to help me.”

“There ain’t one here except when the circuit rider comes through maybe every three or four weeks. What do you need help for, anyway? All you got to do is pay Sam to take you back so you can head home. I hear he’s still raisin’ hell at the saloon. Him and Rooney both. Soon as they sober up, they’ll be leaving.”

“You don’t understand. I don’t have any money, and now that I’m here I’d rather stay if it’s possible.” She told Lulie of the miserable life that waited if she returned to live with her aunt, and how she wanted to send for her brother to get him away from her, as well.

“Life ain’t easy out here, girlie,” Lulie said. “Especially for a
green onion
like you. Look how easy those yahoos got you in that alley. You didn’t know how to fight back…didn’t know to kick ’em in the balls and dig your thumbs in their eyes. All you did was scream like a baby bein’ yanked from a teat.

“So the best thing for you to do,” Lulie went on, “is hightail it back east. You’d never survive out here.”

“You have,” Tess pointed out.

“Yes, but it damn sure wasn’t easy. My man got hisself killed by injuns when we first come out here in ’54. I didn’t have no home to go back to, so I stayed and learned how to shoot and take care of myself. I made it ’cause I had grit. Made it on my back, actually”—she paused to snicker—“and once I had enough to open up this place, I quit whorin’. I’d had enough of men that way. That’s how come I never got hitched again and ain’t never regretted it for a minute.”