[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

accustomed to the sight and Lorna stopped being an eye-popping oddity. There
was a bit more to the work than Woolie Willis had led her to believe, yet
Lorna discovered she could handle it. She was really quite proud of herself,
too.
It had taken two days to round up the scattered herd. There were ten head they
never found. The third morning, they started up the trail again. Benteen
assigned Lorna to ride one of the flank positions, while Woolie Willis drove
their wagon. He was hobbling around on a makeshift pair of crutches Rusty had
fixed up for him. It was hard work, dirty work that tested Lorna's endurance.
Ten days later, they reached Ogallala, Nebraska, on the North Platte River.
They stopped south of there for a day so Benteen could ride to see if he
couldn't hire a couple extra men. Lorna took advantage of the day's layover to
wash clothes.
When she had her things together, she went through Benteen's bedroll to get
his dirty clothes. A bright brass coin fell out of the roll onto the quilt. It
didn't look like any money she'd ever seen before. Lorna picked it up to
examine it curiously.
On one side, a woman's portrait was stamped. The printing on the other side
read: "Compliments of Miss Belle, Dodge City." It was a coin of some sort, but
it obviously wasn't money or any kind of foreign currency. And who was Miss
Belle?
Curiosity got the better of Lorna. Leaving the clothes in the wagon, she
climbed out. Three of the trailhands had ridden into town with Benteen, and
the others were out with the herd. Woolie Willis was at the river, trying his
hand at catching some fish. There was no sign of Mary, but Rusty was over by
the chuck wagon. Since he'd been practically all over the world as a ship's
cook, it seemed likely that he would know what this coin was, so Lorna went to
ask.
"Rusty, have you ever seen a coin like this?" She showed him the brass coin
lying in the palm of her hand.
He glanced at it, then sent her a sharp look. "Where'd ya get it?"
Something in his tone prompted her to be vague. "I just picked it up." But she
didn't say it had fallen out of Benteen's bedroll. If Rusty thought she'd
found it on the ground, that wasn't her fault.
"One of the boys musta dropped it," he concluded.
"What is it?" Lorna repeated her question. "Is it money?"
"It's a dollar token," he replied, and tried to look busy.
"Do you mean it's really worth a dollar?" Lorna studied it again.
"There's places that accept it as legal tender. I don't know as I'd take it
into just any bank," Rusty hedged on his answer.
"Who's this woman-Miss Belle? Is that her likeness on the other side?" she
asked.
"It probably is." He nodded reluctantly.
The pieces were starting to fit together in her mind. A dollar token. Good in
some unmentionable places. A woman's picture.
"Is it a kind of advertisement?" Lorna guessed.
"Yeah, you could call it that," Rusty agreed.
"What is this lady advertising?" A cold anger was starting to chill her dark
eyes. "It doesn't state what her business is."
Rusty actually started to turn red. The color crept up under his white
whiskers, making his skin ruddy. "Well, now, I don't rightly know," he
faltered.
"Do you suppose she might be a `soiled dove'?" She challenged Rusty, daring
him to deny what she had already guessed.
"If you already know, why'd ya ask me?" he grumbled in irritation. "You
shouldn't be askin' me questions like that anyhow. It's them pants you been
wearin'. They're makin' you forget what's proper."
"I am a married woman," Lorna asserted. "I am not unfamiliar with such women.
Page 107
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
It would be silly to pretend they don't exist."
"I reckon. There ain't exactly a surplus of women out West, an' sometimes a
man gets tired of sleepin' alone." This time his look challenged her.
Her cheeks flamed at his implication that Benteen might be tired of sleeping
alone. Pivoting on her heel, Lorna hurried back to the wagon. The brass coin
seemed to burn her palm. She dropped it on the mattress, then sat down to
stare at it.
Dodge City. He had wanted to make love to her at the hotel when he came to the
room after she had bathed. Only she hadn't been able to freely respond to his
advances. Both nights they had stayed there, he had been out late. That had to
be when he had gotten the coin.
A wild jealousy stormed through her as she was forced to conclude that Benteen
had gone to bed with a whore to satisfy his lust. He had been unfaithful to
her, and she'd kill him for that. Her hands were trembling with rage as she
took the pistol from the valise. He'd regret the day he ever taught her to
shoot.
When she checked to make sure it was loaded, another incident forced its
memory on her. But Lorna wanted to listen to only the part that said "a whore
in bed." But there was a corresponding phrase to it that pushed its way into
her consciousness. "Lady on his arm."
The gun was lowered to rest in her lap. That was what the prostitute had said
when they'd spoken so briefly in the millinery shop. The redhead named Pearl
had advised her that if Lorna wanted to keep Benteen from seeing that kind of
woman, she had to be wilder in bed than he was.
During those first weeks of marriage, Lorna had learned that Benteen responded
to the passion she once tried to conceal. And she had responded to his. Even
though she'd had cause to keep him from her bed, the question was: for how
long? If she wanted her marriage to work-which she did then certain changes
had to occur. She had forgiven him for what had happened; now she must forget
it.
The gun returned to the valise, along with the brass token of the Dodge City
charmer. She gathered up the clothes to wash and left the wagon.
All day long, she had time to think about her decision. When Benteen returned
from town in the late afternoon, Lorna felt quite calm about it. She barely
noticed the package he was carrying-if anything, presuming it was
supplies-until he offered it to her instead of Rusty.
"I bought something for you," Benteen stated with a bland look. "I had to
guess at the size."
Her calmness fled. Lorna hadn't expected a gift, and she was knocked
completely off balance by it. She stared at the package, then at Benteen. His
jaw hardened at her hesitation, taking it as a rejection of anything that came
from him.
Murmuring "I don't know what to say," she reached out to take it from him.
"What is it?"
"Open it and find out," he urged.
It was a flat-crowned cowboy hat. At first Lorna could only stare at it.
Finally she lifted her sparkling gaze to Benteen.
"You looked silly in that bonnet." Warmth gentled his look. "Every cowboy has
to have a hat. You'd better see if it fits."
When she tried it on, the hat was a little snug, but she'd probably be glad of
that on a windy day. Lorna wished she had a mirror handy. For the moment, she
had to rely on Benteen's opinion.
"How does it look?" she asked.
"It doesn't go with the dress." His mouth crooked.
"But I promised not to wear pants around camp." She laughed, but he pulled his
gaze away from her and she knew she'd said the wrong thing.
"The hat looks fine."
"Thank you for buying it for me," Loma offered. "I really like it."
"You're welcome." With the present given, he moved away.
Page 108
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]