The Chili Queen (6 page)

“A what?” Startled, Emma looked at Addie, then back at Ned.

Addie shook her head at Ned, but he ignored her. “Honey, you must know what this place is,” he told Emma, as he moved his empty plate aside. He folded his arms on the oilcloth that covered the table.

“Ned!” Addie said, but Ned ignored her. Maybe he was getting even for the knot on his head.

“Ma’am, you just spent the night in a whorehouse and no mistake,” he told Emma.

“Addie here’s the head—” Ned stopped at last when he saw Addie glaring at him and finished, “She’s the madam is what she is.”

Emma didn’t move a muscle, but the blood drained from her face until Addie wondered if the woman might faint dead away. Being left at the railroad station would be nothing to her compared to spending a night in Nalgitas’s only whorehouse. Addie glanced at Ned, who seemed pleased with himself. He put the tip of his finger into a drop of syrup on the oilcloth, then licked the finger. Emma continued to stare at him, then slowly she turned to Addie, who quickly glanced away. Emma looked at Welcome then. The big black woman folded her arms across her chest and grinned. “I guess you are bad mortified,” she said.

Emma blew out a breath. “I am. I am mortified, indeed,” she said. “What will people think of me?”

“What do you expect they think of you anyway, coming here like you did to marry a man in a picture?” Addie asked, offended.

Emma’s lip trembled. “You should have told me. Yes, you should have.”

“You expect me to stand up in the train and announce what I do and maybe get thrown off? You chose to sit next to me. I didn’t ask you. I didn’t invite you to The Chili Queen, either. You did that yourself. I fed and homed you. You had my bath, and you were so busy feeling sorry for yourself that you never once said thanks to you.” Addie was feeling plenty sorry for herself, too, and she leaned forward to say more, clutching the robe that gaped open.

But Emma broke in. “No, I did not, and I say it now. Thanks to you for the hospitality. If there is fault to be found it is with me.”

“Oh,” Addie said, a little deflated.

“And I’m sorry about the bath. I didn’t know. I intend to pay you board and room. I do.”

“Oh, that’s all right. I wouldn’t know what to charge.”

“Hell, Addie, it’s not like you didn’t ever charge anybody before,” Ned put in.

“
You
never paid,” Addie shot back, then added, “I never charged a
woman
. And I never charged for
supper
.”

“I shall certainly find a room elsewhere,” Emma said.

“There ain’t hardly nobody in Nalgitas that’ll take in such as you,” Welcome told her, “only bad women would.”

Emma shivered a little. “Then I shall find a little store and live there. I am thinking of setting up a millinery shop. Miss French says there is none in Nalgitas.”

“A what?” Welcome asked.

“A hat shop. I fancy I am rather good at making hats.” She looked down modestly.

Welcome snorted and went to the stove, stirring up the fire. “Well, if you made that hat you brung with you, you won’t find nobody here to buy it. Even Miss Addie’s whores wouldn’t wear one of those. Ain’t that a fact, Miss Addie?”

Now Welcome was the one being cruel, although Addie agreed that someone had to disabuse Emma of the idea of a hat shop. “Mind your business,” Addie retorted, but Welcome only laughed and asked Addie if she wanted some fried-up eggs.

Addie ignored her and stared at Emma, wondering what to do with her. It was a dilemma, because there was only one thing Addie knew to do with women. In the morning light, Emma wasn’t so bad. At the moment, Addie supposed, Emma looked better than she did. Emma appeared younger than the day before, and from what Addie could tell, Emma’s body was firm, even if it was scrawny. But although Addie was short one whore, she didn’t believe Emma was much of a prospect. She’d surely be insulted at the offer, although it paid considerably better than anything else in Nalgitas, certainly more than making hats. As Addie stared at Emma, the woman looked up at her and smiled. Then she began to chuckle.

“What?” Addie asked.

“I was just thinking how John would respond to this. What would he do if he knew I’d spent my first night in Nalgitas inside a…a…”

“A hookhouse,” Ned said.

“Yes.”

“Who’s John?” he asked.

“My brother. He has a farm in Kansas. He’s the reason I can’t go back. She knows.” Emma dipped her head at Addie.

“Yeah.” Addie didn’t elaborate. She leaned back in the wooden chair and rubbed her eyes. She was tired enough to sleep sitting up.

“What am I going to do, Miss French?”

Addie slowly focused on Emma, wondering why the problem had been turned over to her to solve. “I’ll sleep on it,” Addie said.

Ned yawned, then stood up and stretched. “I’m going to bed, too.”

He started for Addie’s bedroom, but Welcome gave a warning, “Uh-uh.” When Ned stopped, Welcome asked Addie, “You want your brother to sleep in the barn?”

Addie looked confused for a moment, then said, “Oh, yeah.” She looked at Emma. “My brother always sleeps in the barn. He came through my bedroom window because the back door was locked.”

“Aw, come on, Addie. She knows who you are. She knows who I am, too,” Ned protested.

Addie stood up and drew the wrapper around herself, sashing it so tightly that she looked like a mattress-worth of feathers stuffed into a pillow tick. “The barn,” she said stubbornly.

She didn’t care if she annoyed Ned, but she hadn’t. He rarely got angry. He grinned at Addie and gave a mock bow. Then he turned to Emma and touched the sore spot on the top of his head. “Ma’am,” he said. “Good night to yourself and to my sister—my older sister.” He went outside, the screen door banging behind him, and called over his shoulder, “My
much
older sister.”

Addie went back to Miss Frankie’s room and fell asleep. When she got up, it was dinnertime, and she went into the kitchen, where Welcome was working at the stove. “The girls are fed and gone to town.
She’s
out back taking wash off the clothesline. A man brung your trunk from the station, and I unpacked it, and she washed up your things, the sheets on your bed, too. Maybe she expects to stay. She earns her keep.”

“Doing your work, you mean,” Addie said.

Welcome ignored the remark. “I got the kettle on. You smell like chickens. Tub’s in there.” Welcome nodded at Addie’s old bedroom.

Addie had enough dirt on her to grow beans. She went into the bedroom and stripped off her robe, then got into the tin tub and scrubbed herself until there was a thick scum on the water. Addie toweled herself and put on a clean gown and told Welcome she was going into town and would be back by suppertime. When she returned, Ned and Emma were sitting at the table, drinking coffee, waiting for her.

“I told them I wasn’t dishing up till you come back,” Welcome said.

Addie blinked at the hired woman’s sudden deference. “Oh,” she said, waving her hand graciously. “Well, you can see I am here.” She sat down at the head of the table.

“Miss French—” Emma began, but Addie stopped her.

“Addie’ll do. You call me Addie. I’ll call you Emma. We’ll both call him Ned.”

Ned smiled at her, and Addie felt warm to her bones. “We’ve been talking about what she ought to do,” Ned explained. “She told me all about her brother and why she can’t go home. She even told me about the family money that’s hers by rights. But I guess she can’t do anything about that. There isn’t any school in Nalgitas where she can teach, and you already got a cook. Hell, I don’t know what to tell her. I haven’t worked a real job myself since I left Iowa.” He turned to Emma. “That was twenty-and-one years ago, during the war. My father was a devil for work. He cuffed me every day for no good reason.” He glanced at Addie and winked. “Our pa, I guess I should say.”

“I guess,” Addie said.

“You’ve been an outlaw since then?” Emma asked, her eyes wide.

“Well, I just rightly never held a job, except now and then,” he said. There was a touch of pride in his voice. “I didn’t have to. I’ve had a rambling time.”

Addie gave him a warning look, but Ned said, “Oh, that’s all right, Addie. You told her yourself that I work the other side of the law.” He explained to Emma, “There’s not much law in Nalgitas. Seems like half the people in town have a price on them. The only folks who think they’re quality are the blacksmith and his wife.” He winked at Addie.

“Emma here could make herself two hundred dollars turning you over to a U.S. marshall,” Addie warned him.

“Oh, she wouldn’t do that.” Ned turned his sleepy grin on her, and Emma smiled back a little uncertainly. Addie felt a tiny shock of jealousy. “Besides, anybody who turned on me wouldn’t have long to spend the money,” he added. He continued to grin, but Addie knew he spoke the truth. Emma studied Ned for a long time, then exchanged a glance with Welcome, who set down three plates of food on the table.

Addie looked down at the potatoes and some kind of meat on her plate. She figured it was best not to know what the meat was. The first week Welcome was at The Chili Queen, one of the girls asked about the supper, and Welcome told her it was hog jowl and black-eyed peas. “You ought to study on how to get at that money of yours,” Welcome said.

“Go about your business. You’re not supposed to be listening,” Addie told her.

“Then stay out of my kitchen. You expect me to plug up my ears with chicken grease? Besides, it rightly don’t matter what I hear. It only matters what I tell.”

Addie had to agree with the wisdom of that. Welcome was no gossip. But then, there wasn’t anybody for her to gossip with. She left The Chili Queen only to buy fixings, and as far as Addie knew, the woman hadn’t made any friends in Nalgitas. Besides, Addie trusted her. She liked her, too.

Welcome poured hot water from the teakettle into a basin and began to hum softly as she soaped the pots.

“You got how much coming to you, was it?” Addie asked Emma.

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe a thousand dollars,” Emma said, looking wary.

“I thought you said five thousand,” Welcome put in.

“It doesn’t matter to me. I’m not after it,” Addie said, hurt that after all she’d done for Emma, the woman didn’t trust her.

Emma at least had the grace to blush. “I guess five thousand dollars is about right.”

“There ought to be some way for her to get that money. Then she wouldn’t have to make hats. Shoot, maybe we could help her. We could all come out a little bit richer, you know, get our cut from her brother,” Ned said. He winked at Addie.

She returned a faint nod. “You got your name on his bank account?” she asked Emma.

“Oh, no. It’s all in John’s name.” Emma took a tiny bite of potatoes and looked over her shoulder at Welcome and nodded her approval.

Addie furrowed her forehead as she thought. “I could take him in a card game easy.” Ned had never seen her work a sucker at cards, had never seen her perform sleight of hand at all, and Addie thought it would be a fine thing to show him how good she was.

Emma swallowed the potatoes, then wiped her mouth with a napkin. Addie noticed the napkin lying next to her own plate and put it into her lap.

“John doesn’t play cards,” Emma said.

“You say he’s greedy, do you?” Addie asked.

“Yes, he’s greedy.”

Ned stopped eating, and with his fork in the air, he studied Addie.

“’Times a man gets so greedy, he don’t think good,” Welcome put in.

“I was going to say that.” Addie used her hand to wipe her mouth, then remembered the napkin and touched it to her lips. “Didn’t he tell you to watch out for an investment? Didn’t I hear him tell you that?” Addie asked.

Ned put down his fork, while Welcome turned her back to the dishpan and folded her arms in front of her. Addie was on to something, and the three of them waited for Emma to answer. It was so still in the kitchen that when Ned scraped the floor with his boots as he leaned back in his chair, Addie jumped.

“Well?” Addie asked when Emma didn’t reply.

Emma nodded, glancing furtively at Ned, then at Welcome.

“Then I guess the way to get your money is to find something for him to invest in.” Addie nodded once to emphasize her words, and forked a piece of meat into her mouth. She studied the way Emma held her fork between her thumb and forefinger, then looked at her own utensil, which was held in her fist like she was grasping a bucket handle. She changed her grip, then glanced around to see if the others had noticed, but only Welcome was watching her.

“But what?” Emma asked. “That’s the question, isn’t it? What could we get John to put his money into? He won’t just send me the cash, you know. He’s not stupid.”

“Oh,” Addie said. “I guess that’s right.”

Ned pursed his lips together as he thought. “Why don’t you tell him you found a gold mine.”

Emma laughed and set down her fork in the middle of her plate, the knife beside it. Addie wondered how she could eat so fast taking those little bites. “There’s no way in the world John would invest in a gold mine.”

“Maybe he’d set you up in the hat business. How about that?” Addie asked.

Emma shook her head. “No, I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing I didn’t get married. Besides, the only thing John likes is land. He bought so much after Father died that I warned him we’d be land poor.”

The three of them studied on it, while Welcome brought a pie to the table and, using a butcher knife, cut it into slices.

“What’s that?’ Addie asked.

“Custard pie. She said you wanted it.” Welcome pointed at Emma with the knife, then slid it under the pie and dished up the dessert onto the dirty plates. Addie wondered whether she should ask for clean dinnerware, but she didn’t want Welcome to chide her about putting on airs. She held her fork awkwardly as she cut a piece of her pie that was steeped in gravy.

“Maybe you say you found you a farm to buy, a good one,” Welcome said as she licked the sharp knife.

Emma ate slowly, thinking. “John trusts my judgment on land, but I don’t know if he’d buy me a farm.”

Welcome snorted. The three looked at her as she set the knife on the table and pulled out a chair and sat down. “I guess I’m better at figuring than you white folks. You tell him you found good land, and you’ll pay up half iff’n he’ll put up the other half. All he has to do is send you the money.”