Her Independent Spirit

by Zina Abbott

  Once behind the wall separating her from the men, she grabbed the edge of the worktable as she felt her legs go weak. She braced herself as she listened for the sound of Gus’s footsteps. As much as he seemed impressed by Louisa, would it be enough to keep him from marching back into the kitchen and ordering them to leave?

  Nothing happened.

  Beth looked over and stared at Louisa’s ashen face. The woman’s body hugged the back wall next to the rear door. Beth closed her eyes and heaved a sigh of relief when from the next room she heard the scrape of chairs and Gus’s grumpy demand for food orders.

  Louisa spoke in a whispered croak. “Oh, Beth. This isn’t going to work. I-I had no idea it would be this hard. What am I going to do?”

  Beth took a deep breath and moved to the bowl and resumed mixing her dough. In spite of the turmoil still swirling inside her, she forced her voice to stay calm.

  “Reckon for now you best watch me get these here biscuits made, help you recall how. You make the next batch while I watch. I can tend to Sophie Ann if she wakes. Next, I figure we best stir up some bread to rise for Gus while I start puttin’ together my turnover pies.”

  “But, those men will never let me forget. Especially after what just happened, Mr. Herschel will tell me to leave.”

  Beth shook her head. “Them men done riled Gus up a whole passel by orderin’ him around about you. He ain’t goin’ to tolerate that none. Just to spite them, he ain’t sendin’ you away, not no time soon.” Even though Gus remained in the other room, Beth leaned forward and kept her voice low. “Gus ain’t goin’ to chance losin’ his cooks. He needs a body to make biscuits for him. I done tried to teach him, but he ain’t no good at it. Every time he tries, they bake up harder than them rocks miners crush for gold.”

  After Louisa suppressed a nervous giggle, Beth explained in more detail how she worked most of her days in the kitchen.

  Then, Beth began to worry. To her knowledge, Gus had never shown any personal interest in the relatively few women in Lundy. He certainly had never shown anything but a boss-employee relationship between the two of them. By the hours he kept, and the comments Beth occasionally heard about Gus, she suspected he was not one to visit the women in any of the local brothels. For certain, he had never been to the Blue Feather or else Gus and Louisa would have recognized each other. And, Beth knew from the emotionally-charged conversation she once held with him regarding his recipe for bratwurst, he never intended to marry. But, she figured she better keep a close eye on the situation.

  The best thing for Louisa was to get away from the mining communities of the West and start over back east. Keeping the men who knew her from the Blue Feather at bay would be hard enough. The last thing she needed was for Gus to show too much interest in her and the other men in town to pick up on it. They might blow it out of proportion. If either the Germans who owned the Arcade Saloon or Mrs. Ford thought Louisa was at the center of an inappropriate amorous situation, they could cause trouble and jeopardize everything Beth had striven to put together to help Louisa.

  The sound of wood striking wood outside the back door signaled to Beth that Josh was awake and would soon enter the kitchen, something she was not yet prepared for him to do. She quickly wiped her hands on her rag and told Louisa, “You wash up and finish rollin’ and cuttin’ these here biscuits. I aim to talk to Josh a spell.”

  Ignoring the Louisa’s expression of confusion, Beth spun and opened the door a crack to find Josh with his hand already on the knob. She started outside, prompting the teenage boy to step back. “Josh, I need you to stay outside a mite longer. We got the baby asleep inside, but she ain’t goin’ to stay that way if there’s too much talkin’. I’ll bring your vittles out.”

  Beth stepped back inside and closed the door. Gus had returned to the kitchen, but, fortunately for the two women, he chose to ignore them. Beth found only two day-old biscuits left in the warmer plus some fried potatoes Gus had set to the side of the stove. It was not much of a breakfast for Josh, but she decided against taking the time to cook something fresh for him.

  Gus picked up a frying pan and scraped out the specks of remaining fried potatoes from the night before. He grabbed several potatoes and quickly scrubbed them in the wash bucket. Next he snatched his grater off of a shelf and moved to the table opposite to where Louisa rolled out biscuit dough.

  Beth regarded the pair out of the corner of her eye while she split the biscuits open. Gus, his face void of expression, watched the new cook working across from him. She saw Louisa’s eyes flicker up before her gaze dropped to focus on the biscuit dough once she realized that Gus studied her. No one spoke.

  Beth opened the pie safe she had bought with her own money to hold her personal baking supplies and pulled out a jar of her personal cache of jam she had purchased at the Pioneer Cash Store. She spooned generous portions on the two biscuits. Just before she opened the door to take the meal out to Josh, she caught Louisa’s attention and pointed toward the flat piece of metal she used as a baking sheet and then up to the can that held grease drippings. She trusted the woman to understand she intended them for baking the biscuits. Without a word, Louisa nodded and began to cut the dough into pieces.

  Outside, Beth stepped over to Josh who had settled on one of the stumps he used as a stool and handed him his meal. She waited until he took his first bite before she spoke. “Josh, I’m countin’ on you helpin’ me make life better for Miss Parmley.”

  “All right. This is good jam, Mrs. Dodd.”

  “I hope them biscuits are tolerable, Josh. We was late this mornin’ due to gettin’ Miss Parmley settled, so I was late gettin’ fresh ones started. Figured jam might soften them a mite.”

  “They did.”

  “Now, afore you meet Miss Parmley, reckon we best talk. You recollect how bad things got for you after your pa got killed in the mine and you got yourself crippled up?”

  “Yes, but I’m better now, Mrs. Dodd, even though I still need this crutch to walk good. And I’m starting to think faster now.”

  “Reckon you are, Josh, especially with you gettin’ proper vittles and all. But, you recollect how it was for you afore we done took you in so you could care for my chickens and guard our firewood for your food and clothes? Things was bad for Miss Parmley, too. We’re fixin’ to help Miss Parmley like we done for you.”

  “That’s real good, Mrs. Dodd. Can I meet her soon? I want to see her baby.”

  “Directly, Josh. First I need to know, who you done told she’s comin’ here?”

  Josh straightened his body and stared at Beth, perplexed. “I didn’t tell nobody, Mrs. Dodd. You told me not to.”

  “I’m right pleased, Josh,” Beth sighed with relief. “I druther you still not say nothin’ about her bein’ here. I may need you to help keep an eye out for men comin’ in back or tryin’ to cause trouble, sayin’ things they got no call sayin’. We plumb don’t need no trouble.”

  It’s a mite late for word not gettin’ out with them miners inside knowin’.

  “I’ll help keep her safe, Mrs. Dodd. I just want to see the baby.”

  “I’d be beholdin’, Josh. When you get done eatin’, reckon you can fetch me a bucket of water and leave it outside. As soon as the baby wakes, I’ll call you in to see her.”

  Josh’s face brightened with his usual good-natured grin as he offered a profound statement. “Sounds like things are going to change with a baby in Gus’s kitchen.”

  ****

  It wasn’t the presence of the baby in the kitchen that worried Beth. Between her and Louisa, they would be able to take care of Sophie Ann. She suspected the real trouble would start once some of the men in town figured out she now worked as a cook in Gus’s kitchen during the day and spent her nights sharing a room with Beth at the Pioneer Lodging House. The end of the main mining season was six months away. Both women needed the money they would earn during that time to move forward. For the time being, Gus and Mary Ford were willing to work with Beth in
her effort to help Louisa. But, if the people in town caused trouble because of Louisa’s past, would the two continue to stand by her?

  CHAPTER 7

  Louisa often thought back on her first day working for Gus. The entire time she feared that she would be booted out on the street. It would not have been the first time in her life she had lived through that experience. But, this time, she had more than herself to worry about—she had Sophie Ann. The more she considered it, though, she realized things had worked out almost as if she had found a new family.

  Although he had not said much, she had been painfully conscious of Gus listening to everything said in the kitchen. He never showed his approval of her or her efforts, but he didn’t criticize, either.

  Beth treated her like a younger sister.

  And then, there had been her introduction to Josh. Louisa immediately had taken a liking to the young man. She smiled as she recalled how excited he had been when Sophie Ann woke up from her nap and Beth let him in to see her.

  There had been adjustments that Beth helped her work through. Once Sophie Ann woke up, she immediately need to be changed into dry clothes and fed. Louisa recalled the brief look of panic on Gus’s face which was quickly replaced by a scowl once he realized Beth intended for Louisa to use the area behind the curtain as the place where she could nurse her baby in privacy. He had insisted the two women wait while he disappeared behind the curtain. After several minutes of shuffling and banging while Gus straighten his belongings, Louisa entered to find a pile of items stacked on top of a small trunk and his bed pallet doubled over with the blankets sandwiched inside.

  Beth had brought in the one and only stool from the kitchen for her to use. Once she had closed the blanket curtain, except for the light that filtered in above the rope holding up the blanket, the space became cast in shadows and the odor of unwashed wool permeated the air.

  The arrangement, less than ideal though it was, quickly became routine. That first day, Louisa enjoyed the time alone with her baby, protected from not only censure by the customers, but the threat of dismissal by Gus.

  Even the difficulty of the first time Sophie Ann had filled her diaper had been resolved. At the time, Gus had scrunched his face and backed away from the baby. When Beth had looked towards Gus’s sleeping area, Gus shook his head. He would not allow them use his bed for a changing area. Then Josh had volunteered his lean-to space.

  “If I can abide the smell of Mrs. Dodd’s chickens, I can abide your baby’s britches, Miss Parmley,” Josh told her with a grin.

  Louisa had entered Josh’s place with even greater trepidation than she had Gus’s personal area. With no windows, and only a few cracks between wood planks for light and air flow, it had taken Louisa a few minutes for her eyes to adjust. She made out the pallet on the ground, the small wood stove still warm from a nighttime fire, and the stack of firewood along one wall. The stink of chicken manure coming from a large cage in the back assaulted her senses, overwhelming the odor of Sophie Ann’s messy diaper. She did her best to ignore the squalid conditions as she laid the clean cloth she had brought with her on top of Josh’s blankets and changed the baby.

  Although Josh’s living space was a far cry from the comfortable room she had lived in for years at the Blue Feather, Louisa admitted to herself it wasn’t much worse than the patched and tattered tent she had shared with her father and brother out on the claim. She focused on how grateful she felt that Beth had invited her to share the small but clean furnished room at the boarding house with her and the baby.

  When the time had come to close the eatery, Louisa was further surprised. While she and Beth pinned their hats on and wrapped their shawls around their shoulders, her eyes grew wide with apprehension as she watched Gus grab his meat cleaver. He hefted it in his hand to get a good grip on the handle. He motioned the two women out the back door of the kitchen. Beth followed his direction as if it were an everyday occurrence. Louisa tagged along with caution.

  Later that evening, Beth explained that except for when Val was in town to walk with her, Gus had developed the habit of seeing her safely home.

  “I done told him I got my Derringer and my pa’s huntin’ knife strapped to my leg, but he figured he wasn’t takin’ no chances of losin’ his cook. Gus don’t own no gun, but that don't matter none. Word done got around quick Gus knows how to swing a meat cleaver."

  ****

  Only once did Gus need to raise his cleaver in her defense. A miner she had known from the previous year tried to approach her on their way back to the boarding house. She began to shake as he ran toward her, calling her name. Would she never be free of these men who only saw her as a prostitute?

  “Lulu, I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Why aren’t you at the Blue Feather?”

  “She ain’t Lulu no more. You ain’t got no business with her no more, so clear on out of here.”

  Ignoring Beth’s words, the man persisted. “If you wanted to get away from the Blue Feather, you could have taken up with me instead of him.” The man nodded in Gus’s direction. “I would have taken care of you and the baby, at least until it was time for me to go back to Bodie. I mean, that baby could be mine.”

  “No!” Louisa had cried with a determination that surprised even her. “You are not this baby’s father.”

  At that point, Gus stepped forward, his arm raised, the grip on his meat cleaver clearly signaling his intent. “Go! Avay from voman and baby stay.”

  “Lulu?” the man implored, his eyes full of longing as he backed away.

  “Don’t come near me and my baby again,” Louisa insisted, embarrassed for Gus’s sake that the man assumed she was Gus’s mistress. “Please don’t ever talk to me again. Go home to your wife, and leave us alone.”

  Louisa still shook to her core as they continued walking. Gus moved behind them to make sure the man did not turn back and follow them.

  “You sure that man ain’t Sophie Ann’s pa?”

  Beth’s question caught Louisa off-guard. She blurted an answer without thinking. “I don’t know. It happened in June when the mines were full. We were busy, so it could have been any number of men. Some like him”—Louisa nodded in the direction the man had gone—“were married and talked constantly about how much they missed their families. But that didn’t stop them from wanting to come up to my room with me. Every one of them got what they paid for. None of them are good enough to be Sophie Ann’s papa and I won’t let any of them try to claim her.”

  Then Louisa realized she had blurted out her words on a public street with Gus listening to everything she said. Mortified, she leaned toward Beth and begged in a whisper, “Could we please not talk about this anymore?”

  The next morning, Louisa shook at the thought of how Gus would look at her when she arrived at work. She feared he might tell her she was no good and he didn’t want her in his kitchen anymore. Much to Louisa’s relief, he nodded his usual greeting and treated her no differently than he had in the past.

  Louisa soon realized she enjoyed cooking, especially baking. She quickly remembered the proportions of ingredients for making fluffy biscuits and bread rounds. No one could tell hers from Beth’s. Making pastry crust had been new to her, but she also learned to do that well along with making the fillings with the right amount of seasoning or spice. Each time she pulled a delectable treat from the oven, her heart swelled with satisfaction.

  Louisa knew many men earned their livings as bakers, enough to support their families. Even though she would be paid less because she was a woman, if she could just convince the right bakery owner back east to give her a job, she could easily earn enough to support both her and Sophie Ann. If not, there was always the opportunity to go into service as a cook, even though it would mean finding the right family that would allow her to let her baby stay with her.

  Louisa hadn’t said much to anyone, not even Beth, but she still had money left from her days of working at the Blue Feather. She had used quite a bit of her savings to pa
y for room and board at the brothel during the last months of her confinement once Dr. Guirado told her she needed to stop working. In spite of Miss Flora’s disgruntled response to the news, Louisa had greeted the doctor’s orders with relief. She still had a place to live along with a reason to no longer entertain men in her bed.

  Once she made the decision to leave the brothel, Louisa had been prepared to pay for a room for several months while she learned how to cook. However, she had been more than happy to share a room with Beth once the offer was made. It meant no privacy, but it also meant that she could save more of her money toward the time when she left Lundy and started over on her own.

  Besides, Beth had been right when she reminded Louisa that respectable women who have never been married do not live alone. If she had known how to contact her mother’s side of the family back east after her father died, she could have gone back to live with them. But, the knowledge of how to reach them died with him. By Beth inviting her to share living quarters, her benefactor started her back onto the road of respectability.

  Louisa recalled the day she decided to purchase her own stool so she didn’t monopolize Gus’s. Once she told Beth what she wanted, on a weekday morning when they weren’t busy, the two women, with Sophie Ann in Louisa’s arms, had walked down to the furniture store owned by Andrew Barnes. Beth knew him well since the man also built coffins and was the mortician who had taken care of the body of Beth’s late husband until the ground had thawed enough for him to be buried.

  Other mornings, they shopped at the Pioneer Cash Store. Louisa bought more flannel for baby diapers and more infant gowns. She also bought a few dresses and bonnets for when Sophie Ann grew older. Now that she knew she was keeping her baby, she indulged her desire to buy her child pretty clothes.