The Whippoorwill Trilogy

by Sharon Sala

  “Sorry,” she said. “I had an unfortunate encounter with a skunk.”

  Despite the woman’s objectionable smell, Fannie grinned.

  “Bless your heart,” Fannie said. “I can’t say I know how you feel, but I can honestly say I know how you smell.”

  It was the forthrightness of the remark that made Letty laugh.

  “At last, an honest woman,” Letty said, and then reached in front of Fannie and lifted the top bolts away, giving Fannie access to the cloth she’d been eyeing.

  “Thank you,” Fannie said, as she pulled it out from beneath the pile. “My name is Fannie Smithson.”

  “I’m Sister Leticia Murphy, traveling associate of Reverend Randall Ward Howe. He’s come to Dripping Springs to marry a couple.”

  Fannie gasped. “Oh! How fortuitous! I’m the one who’s going to get married.”

  Letty smiled, although it had to be said she felt a moment of pure envy. Why couldn’t she find someone with whom to spend the rest of her life? This little woman was somewhat homely, yet even she had found true love.

  “Well, now,” Letty said. “It seems congratulations are in order. I’ll bet you’re as nervous as a cat, aren’t you?”

  “Not so much nervous as just uncertain,” she said, then fearing she’d said too much, began fiddling with the fabric, unwinding some and then holding it up to the light to see if it was sheer enough to pass as a veil.

  Letty glanced toward the back of the store where the owner was still deep in conversation with the farmer who’d brought in the eggs. After her success with the young woman in the other town who’d tried to do herself in, she felt it was her duty to caution new brides. Not that she knew what the hell there was to caution them about, but it seemed like a duty that a traveling association of a preacher should do.

  “You say you’re uncertain. Are you referring to your feelings, because if you are, you should not marry a man you don’t trust.”

  Unconsciously, Fannie clutched the fabric against her breasts as if it was a shield. She started to speak and then stopped. It seemed ridiculous to confide in a total stranger. But then the more she thought about it, the less ridiculous it seemed. Who better than a stranger? She would never see the woman again. What did it matter if she embarrassed herself once if it got her the answers she so desperately desired.

  “It’s not that I don’t trust him,” Fannie said. “Because I do. He’s a wonderful man.”

  “Then what’s the problem?” Letty asked.

  Fannie glanced over her shoulder, making sure they were still alone, then lowered her voice.

  “He doesn’t have a problem. I fear it is I who is lacking.”

  Letty frowned. “Lacking how?”

  Fannie glanced at Letty, then quickly looked away.

  Suddenly, it dawned on Letty that the girl was embarrassed, and if that was the case, it had to be about sex.

  “Have you spoken to your mother about your fears?” Letty whispered.

  Fannie quickly shook her head. “My mother is deceased and I can’t speak to Father about such things.”

  Letty stifled a smirk. Being skunked hadn’t dulled her instincts. It was about sex and the Good Lord only knew she was an expert at such.

  “What things are you talking about?” Letty asked.

  Fannie blushed.

  Letty put a hand on the young woman’s back and pushed her toward the door.

  “Let’s take a little walk, shall we? I know I smell bad and it’s not so disgusting in the fresh air.”

  Fannie didn’t realize how desperate she looked as she laid the fabric down.

  “I shouldn’t bother you with such things,” Fannie said.

  Letty grinned. “Trust me, dear, it’s not a bother.”

  Fannie beat her to the door.

  “Ask away,” Letty said. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”

  Fannie clasped her hands beneath her chin and swallowed nervously.

  “Truly?”

  “Truly.”

  “Are you a married woman?” Fannie asked.

  “Not now,” Letty said, letting the young woman assume that she had been but was now widowed.

  “Oh. I’m so sorry for your loss,” Fannie said. “Maybe I shouldn’t. My asking you about such personal things could only bring back sad memories for you.”

  Letty slipped her hand beneath Fannie’s elbow and started walking her down the street.

  “Memories are nothing but parts of the past that I haven’t had time to forget,” she said. “Now tell me, what do you know?”

  Fannie flushed. “I know what happens, but not how or what my part in it has to be.”

  Letty stifled a grin. She reckoned there was going to be one really happy bridegroom when she got through with Fannie Smithson.

  “Okay,” Letty said. “Are you interested in enjoying your wedding night, or are you the kind of woman who just intends to do her duty?”

  “Up to now, I haven’t had much in my life to enjoy, but I would certainly like to enjoy my husband.”

  Letty smiled primly as she aimed them for a bench on the shady side of the street. “I totally approve, now sit with me. We can see who’s coming and going without being overheard.”

  They sat.

  Letty leaned forward until her and Fannie’s foreheads were almost touching, then she started to talk.

  Any passerby that might have noticed them would have seen nothing untoward except the intermittent flush of color on Fannie Smithson’s cheeks. Every now and then Fannie would interrupt to ask a question, which Letty promptly answered in depth. There was no need for the woman to go into a marriage blind. Besides, she wasn’t the prettiest bride Letty had ever seen, but she intended for her to be the wisest. Tomorrow night, Fannie’s new husband was going to think he’d died and gone to heaven.

  A short while later, Letty straightened up and mentally dusted her hands for the job she’d just done.

  “And that’s about the best advice I can give,” Letty said.

  Fannie’s mouth was gaping and her cheeks were flushed, but there was a glimmer in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. She eyed Letty closely.

  “And you’re sure Myron won’t think I’m too forward?”

  It was all Letty could do not to laugh.

  “Honey, I’m sure and then some. I promise you, if you do exactly what I suggested, your husband is never going to have a roving eye, and you’re going to be one happy bride.”

  Fannie nodded briskly. “Then that’s that. I need to be sure, you know.”

  “Why?” Letty asked.

  “Well, because he owns the saloon. The women who work for him sell their bodies to men for money, you know.”

  The smile died on Letty’s face.

  “Yes, I know all about that kind of woman.”

  Fannie frowned. “I don’t think we should judge them, you know.”

  It was the last thing Letty expected to hear from a so-called decent woman.

  “Why not?” Letty asked.

  “I’ve thought about it some,” Fannie said. “And the way I see it, if it had been my father who’d died and not my mother, there’s no telling what would have happened to either one of us. Women don’t have it easy out here, you know, and we rarely have choices as to how our lives will be lived.”

  Letty eyed Fannie with new respect.

  “You’re entirely correct, Fannie dear. And you know what? I think you’re going to be, not only a wonderful wife, but an absolutely marvelous mother.”

  Fannie beamed. “You do?”

  Impulsively, Letty hugged her. “Yes, I do.” Then she remembered she stunk. “Sorry for the smell. I forgot,” she said briskly, and stood up. “So, you better get back to Mercer’s Mercantile and buy that piece of fabric you were looking at. It would make a fine veil.”

  “Are you sure?” Fannie asked.

  “As sure as I am about what I just told you,” Letty drawled.

  Fannie pivoted sharply and started
to walk away when she suddenly stopped and turned.

  “Sister Murphy.”

  “Yes?”

  “Your husband must have been the happiest man on earth before he died.”

  Letty’s heart did a funny little jerk as she thought about all the men who’d laid between her legs.

  “Why do you say that?” she asked.

  “You not only know the way to a man’s lustful natures, but I venture to guess you knew the way to your own man’s heart, as well. I’m so sorry that he’d passed, but he was a fortunate man during his time on earth.”

  Letty couldn’t speak. There was no way she could acknowledge the blessing without lying, and she’d already been faced with Eulis’s fading faith in himself. It didn’t seem prudent to test God’s patience any further by adding pride to the lie.

  “It’s always sad when a good man dies,” she muttered.

  “Yes, ma’am, that it is,” Fannie said. “I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done.”

  Letty shrugged. “Trust me, honey. It was nothing.”

  “I wish there was something I could do for you in return,” Fannie added.

  “The only thing I need is to get this smell off my skin,” Letty said.

  Fannie frowned, and tried offering some advice. It was the least she could do, considering the advice Sister Murphy had given her.

  “I don’t know how much faith to put in the remedy, but there’s an old trapper who used to come into my father’s barber shop a couple of times a year. I remember him talking about taking a vinegar bath once to get rid of such a smell.” Then Fannie blew her a kiss and hurried away.

  Letty sat back down on the bench with a plop, refusing to look up toward the heavens for fear she’d see God frowning down on her.

  “Vinegar, hunh? Do you reckon it would work?” When God didn’t send her a sign, she quickly added. “I didn’t lie to the girl,” she said under her breath. “It is always sad when a good man dies. I just didn’t bother to say the good man wasn’t mine now, did I?”

  She sat for a moment, waiting for a clap of thunder, or possibly a lightning bolt to come shooting out of the sky and strike her dead.

  A cat trotted by, paused to sniff at her feet then hissed and ran away.

  She frowned.

  “Everyone is a critic,” she said, and made her way across town to the boarding house.

  Maybe she’d send Eulis to the mercantile for some vinegar. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to give the remedy a try.

  Eulis knocked briskly on Letty’s door and then entered without waiting for her to answer. She was lying flat on her back on the bed with a wet cloth draped over her face. Eulis frowned.

  “Are you ill?”

  “I didn’t say you could come in,” Letty muttered, without removing the cloth.

  Eulis looked crestfallen. He’d been so excited about his news that he had forgotten about her extenuating circumstances.

  “Sorry. I’ll come back later.”

  Letty flung the cloth into the floor and sat up.

  “You’re already here, so talk,” she said.

  Eulis frowned. Danged if he would ever understand women. The wedding will be tomorrow.

  “I’m marryin’ the owner of the saloon to the barber’s daughter. It’s the talk of the town.”

  “I can only imagine,” Letty said. “They’re hardly the perfect couple.”

  “Oh, that’s not all,” Eulis said. “Up until a few days ago, she had been engaged for some time to a local rancher. Story goes that her old man paid off the rancher to propose, and then promised him a big dowry to boot. Only the fiancé wasn’t being true to his woman. While he was waiting for her father to announce the proper time, he was messing around with one of the whore’s… uh, women… at the saloon. The bride-to-be got wind of it and had herself a fit. Broke the rancher’s nose, blacked his eyes, and ran him out of her house. Then they say she shot at her father and ran him out, too.”

  By now, Letty was open-mouthed and in shock. The meek and somewhat homely little woman who’d been asking advice about sex hardly seemed the type who would have pulled such a stunt. Suddenly, she was smiling.

  “Way to go, lady,” Letty muttered.

  “What?” Eulis said.

  “Nothing,” Letty said. “What else?”

  “Not much, I reckon,” Eulis said. “Somehow, between that incident and today, she got herself engaged to the saloon owner, and now I’m gonna marry them tomorrow before noon.”

  “Two? She had two fiancés?”

  “Almost,” Eulis said.

  I would be happy with just one. “That’s hysterical.”

  “I guess,” Eulis said, then pointed to the wet cloth she’d flung in the floor. “Are you sick?”

  At heart? Yes. “No, just sick of smelling myself, which reminds me. Someone told me that a vinegar bath would help take away this smell. I want you to—” Then she caught herself. The demanding tone in her voice wasn’t right. “I’m sorry. I meant to say… would you mind going down to Mercer’s Mercantile and see if they have a jug of vinegar? I’m willing to give anything a try.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Eulis said, and patted his pocket, feeling the coins jingle as he did. “Which reminds me, Myron Griggs, the future bridegroom, was so happy to see us that he’s sort of gone overboard on payment.”

  Letty’s eyes narrowed. “How so?”

  “Well, someone told him about the mule and the blind mare, so he’s giving us a wagon and team, and a grubstake to get us going.”

  “You’re not serious?” Letty said.

  “Dead serious,” Eulis said. “And there’s more.”

  Letty leaned against the bed post. “I’m afraid to ask.”

  “There’s talk in town of a gold strike in the Rockies.”

  Letty’s heart skipped a beat. “Gold?”

  “For the taking. Anyone can stake a claim.”

  “Are you giving up preaching?” Letty asked.

  “Not totally,” Eulis said. “If the need arises, I reckon I could always… well… you know.”

  Letty was frozen with fear. After all they’d been through, was it coming down to this? She would rather be dead than go back to being a whore.

  “So, what do you think?” Eulis asked. “Would you like to give this a try?”

  “You mean I’d go with you?”

  Eulis frowned. “Well, yes. We’re in this together, remember?”

  For a moment, Letty was too moved to speak. She cleared her throat and got up from the bed, retrieved the wet rag from the floor and dropped it into the basin.

  “Of course, I remember,” she said. “Now go see if they’ve got that vinegar. I don’t want to be smelling so bad I can’t go see that wedding tomorrow.” Then she grinned. “If it’s your last one, I don’t want to miss it.”

  Eulis slapped his leg and laughed as he ran out of the room.

  Letty sat down on the side of the bed.

  “Gold. He wants to find gold.” Then she started to laugh. “Well, why the hell not? We’ve already found religion, and for two sinners like us, that was near to impossible. After what we’ve been through, finding gold oughta’ be easy.”

  Blessed Assurances And The High Road

  There was a glint in Fannie Smithson’s eyes as she fastened the makeshift veil to her hair. Her father had already yelled at her once to hurry or they were going to be late, but she wasn’t worried. Myron knew she was coming and he would wait.

  With a last look in the mirror, she pinched her cheeks to give them more color, tucked a stray lock of hair beneath her veil, and tugged at the neckline of her dress. It was her newest dress, only a year or so old and it was yellow, which was her favorite color. For the first time in her life, she actually felt beautiful, and she knew it was because Myron loved her.

  Before this day was out, she would be a married woman in her own house. It was with no small amount of relief that she learned Myron had a house on the south side of town. At least they wouldn’t
be living over the saloon. She couldn’t help but wonder what the house would be like, and then accepted the fact that she didn’t care. It would be hers—and she wasn’t being married to a man who had needed to be bribed to propose.

  She felt a moment of sadness; longing for her mother’s arms around her, but her mother had been dead all these many years, and she’d been doing just fine on her own. Confident she had it all under control, she lifted her chin and walked out the door without once looking back, willing to leave the only sanctuary she’d ever known to be Myron Griggs’ wife.

  Letty poured the last of the vinegar into the basin. It was her third bath since last night when Eulis had brought her the jug. Truthfully, she couldn’t tell if it was helping or not. The scent of skunk was so strong in her nostrils that she feared she’d never smell anything else again.

  Last night, when she’d tried without success to fall asleep, she’d even snorted some vinegar up her nose in hopes that it would clear out the scent, but all she succeeded in doing was strangling. She’d coughed and then puked, and this morning, her tongue was sore and a tiny bit numb, as if she’d eaten something too hot.

  Lesson learned. Do not inhale vinegar, no matter what the need.

  Now, in less than an hour Eulis was going to marry Fannie Smithson to Myron Griggs. As the traveling associate of Preacher Howe, it was her duty to be in attendance. But unless this last vinegar bath did more good than the other two, she was going to be standing a good ways downwind.

  She was scrubbing at her arms when a knock sounded on the door.

  “Sister Leticia… it is I. May I enter?”

  Letty rolled her eyes. Eulis was obviously already walking in preacher shoes, so she gave him back an equally flowery response.

  “But, of course you may enter.”

  Eulis was all the way in the room before he realized Letty was naked from the waist up.

  “Oh! Uh… I… you said to—”

  “I know what I said,” Letty said, doused the rag back into the basin of vinegar and then swiped it across her breasts. “And don’t act like you’ve never seen these before.”

  Eulis flushed. “Maybe so, but it wasn’t like I was tryin’ to sneak a peek. So don’t go gettin’ all prissy with me about them things. I sure as hell have seen better.”