The Bounty Hunter

by Cheryl St. John

  Thinking about that shiny forehead, Nate moved so that the exposed tree roots weren’t under him and leaned back against the trunk of the oak.

  She had a pleasant voice. Not shrill or loud. He could listen to a voice like hers without irritation. He looked at her, remembered her presence in his kitchen and on his porch and tried to imagine that as a way of life. Thought about coming home to her of an evening.

  “‘As one who stands in dewless asphodel…’” She glanced up at him and smiled. Surely she hadn’t cursed and then smiled?

  He returned the smile. She was pretty, no doubt about it. Pleasant, too. In a young, fresh, life-is-so-new sort of way. She’d gone to a girls’ school, learned to dance with other girls, been sheltered from men and life experiences.

  Evangeline turned the page and continued to read.

  He’d bet Peyton Gibbs had provided all she’d ever needed or wanted and expected a husband to do the same.

  “‘As a strong tree should rustle thy boughs and set thy trunk all bare…’”

  Nothing like Lily. Lily talked about washing clothing for miners and shoveling horse manure out of the streets—she hadn’t used that word, though. Lily could turn a phrase like a man. She supported herself and even employed and took care of other people. Lily hadn’t been sheltered from life or men. She made her living “experiencing” men.

  Lily wasn’t the kind of woman a man imagined coming home to. Try as he might, Nate couldn’t picture her in his kitchen or on his porch. She was so right in her own surroundings.

  He imagined Lily in her own room, the big bedroom with the dark-stained hickory bed and the blue-and-white quilt. He’d seen a lot of Lily. Bare naked in the painting over the bar. Firsthand in the dark by this very stream in garters and a corset.

  He couldn’t picture Lily reading sonnets, but he had no trouble picturing her beneath him, her wild auburn hair spread across the sheets, the scent of her skin an aphrodisiac. He could easily imagine the pleasure of her body. He already knew the pleasure of her heated kisses.

  “Nathaniel?”

  He opened his eyes and saw blond hair. Innocent blue eyes. “I’m awake. I was listening.”

  “I haven’t been reading for five minutes.”

  “I know. I was listening to the stream.”

  “I like the sound of it, too.”

  What the hell was he doing thinking about Lily Divine when he had a sweet respectable young woman at his bidding?

  “Did you like the sonnets?”

  He moved from his position near the tree so he could sit closer to her. “I’ve never heard anything like them before. Especially the bare trunks and the rustling boughs.”

  She seemed disconcerted at his nearness and looked at her hands in her lap. “Are you going to kiss me?”

  “Would it be all right?”

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  She looked right at him then, expectancy and maybe a little fear in her expression.

  Without hesitation, Nate leaned forward and kissed her.

  She was young and pretty, and what man in his right mind wouldn’t want to kiss her?

  She didn’t move, didn’t even breathe.

  He ended the contact and sat back.

  “That’s it, then?” she asked.

  “That’s it.”

  “That’s not so bad.”

  He couldn’t help thinking of another kiss. “Thanks.”

  After that, she seemed more at ease. They walked along the stream bank for a time, but the place held too many memories for Nate, so he led her back to the buggy. He gathered the tablecloth and basket and helped her onto the seat, then headed for home.

  After leaving Evangeline at her parents’ house, he returned the rig to the livery.

  Wade was hanging freshly oiled harnesses on their hooks inside the door.

  “Have a nice afternoon?” he asked.

  Nate nodded. “How about you?”

  “A mite rough, actually. Fixed my own dinner. Prob’ly be fixin’ my own supper, too. League’s planning a strategy meeting for tomorrow night.”

  “What strategy do they have left?”

  “I dunno.” Wade hung the last piece of tack and stood with his shoulders slumped. “I never liked this women’s temperance thing from the start. But Meriel came west to marry me, like the other wives did. I figured she needed the company of other women like herself. This is a different life than what she was used to back east. Harsher. Women can get lonely. I didn’t want to take that one small comfort from her.”

  “Innocent enough if they’d stick to makin’ quilts, I reckon,” Nate replied.

  Wade brushed his hands together. “I got some coffee on in the back. Come have a cup with me.”

  Nate accompanied the stable owner to the rear of the building and accepted a dented tin cup filled with strong brew.

  “Make it the way I like it out here,” Wade said.

  The interior of the building was surprisingly cool, and they sat on nail kegs.

  “Must be some reason the women are so all-fired riled about the saloons,” Nate commented.

  “Jealous, I reckon. Who doesn’t like to have a beer and play a hand of cards?”

  “Jealous of the drinkin’—or the whores?”

  “Both, probably.”

  Nate only looked at him.

  “I ain’t visited a whore since I was wet behind the ears,” the other man said.

  “Does your wife think you have?”

  “I told her I never. Those woman’re mostly old and either skinny or fat, and them places are too dirty.”

  Nate had thought the same about Zeke’s and Bernie’s places. “What about Lily’s? It’s clean and the women are pretty.”

  “In the old days Antoinette ran a clean house. But Lily’s girls ain’t whores,” Wade said matter-of-factly, as though Nate should have known that all along.

  “Lily denies it often enough. Why do you say so? You know for a fact?”

  “I don’t know anybody who ever got a poke at Lily’s.”

  “At least nobody ever told you if they did.”

  Wade shrugged.

  “You ever tried?”

  He tilted his head. “Years ago. Got turned down flat.”

  “I’m not convinced.”

  “You and half the women in town.”

  At that Nate sat up straight.

  “Didn’t mean no offense, Sheriff. It’s just that those of us who’ve been around a good many years know Lily. Newcomers think what they want.”

  “No offense taken,” Nate replied. “I guess I’m gonna have to get it straight on my own. Wade, you ever heard of an asphodel?”

  “Nope, some kind of machine or somethin’?”

  “Don’t know.” He stood. “Thanks for the coffee. Keep me posted if you smell trouble brewing.” He dug into his pocket for a coin. “The buggy was personal, so I’m paying.”

  Wade took the coin with a grin. “How personal was it?”

  Nate cuffed him on the shoulder and left the livery.

  MONDAY MORNING, dressed in her dark-blue skirt, a pink striped shirtwaist and a hat with an enormous sweeping pink ostrich feather, Lily headed down Main Street with money from the safe in her handbag.

  Blythe Shaw paused in cleaning the inside of the mercantile windows to glare at her as she passed. Lily gave her an unconcerned wave and continued on.

  She walked all the way to the west end of town and opened the gate that led to Reverend Bacon’s parsonage. The man answered the door in his shirtsleeves, an oddity even on a hot summer day.

  “Good morning, Miss Lily.” He offered her a warm smile. His spectacles were perched on his forehead. “How nice to see you. Come in. Mrs. Bacon will make us a cup of tea.”

  “Thank you, Reverend.” Lily gestured to the small shaded porch. “Can we sit outside?”

  “Certainly. Just let me ask her to bring a tray.”

  Lily took a seat on a padded wicker chair and rested her handbag in her lap.

>   The reverend returned and sat across from her. “Thank you for the pheasant you sent over the other day. Saul said he shot half a dozen that morning. It was delicious.”

  She nodded and they shared light conversation until his wife brought a tray with tea, biscuits and jam.

  “You came in time for my midmorning ritual,” he said.

  Lily sipped tea and helped herself to half a biscuit.

  She got right to the point. “I’ve come to sponsor a team for the community fund-raiser.”

  The reverend seemed to take a moment to absorb her words. He set down his cup. “A team?”

  “Yes. The fund-raiser for Charlie Stoddard. I want to sponsor a team.” She took twenty dollars in gold coins from her bag and handed them to the reverend. “Our entry fee. And if there’s another team you know of who’s having trouble coming up with the fee, you let me know and I’ll sponsor them. Anonymously of course. All of us at the Shady Lady want to help as much as we can. Charlie was a good man.”

  Reverend Bacon looked at the coins in his palm. His expression showed surprise and hesitation. “I don’t know what to say, Lily.”

  “Well, don’t say anything. Just sign us up. And let me know if I can be of more help.”

  Something like real pain glimmered in his eyes.

  A terrible feeling rose in Lily’s chest. “You’re not going to deny us entry, are you?”

  “Who’s your team?”

  “We are. Does it matter?”

  “Do you know how to play base ball?”

  “Does anyone else? How difficult can it be?”

  “It takes a lot of practice.”

  “We’ll practice. Reverend?”

  “This will cause problems, Lily, you know it will.”

  “There isn’t a good reason on God’s green earth why the Shady Lady shouldn’t have a team. We live in Thunder Canyon. We all knew Charlie. We’re part of the community and we want to help.”

  “Maybe you could help by being silent sponsors.”

  “Invisible, you mean.”

  He closed his fingers around the coins. “You’re right. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a team. Mind you, not everyone is going to be pleased about this.”

  “I’ll try not to cry myself to sleep at night over the rejection.”

  “You joke, but I know it hurts to have people think badly of you and disapprove of every little move.”

  “Only some people.”

  He studied her for a long moment. “I wish everyone knew your heart the way I do, Lily. You’ve given so much to the community, in ways they don’t even know about.”

  “Ways they don’t want to know about,” she replied.

  “Like the new pews you paid for. Should be about another month until they’re finished and installed.”

  “You can’t know what pleasure I’ll get from knowing the good people of Thunder Canyon are sitting on those pews every Sunday morning.” Lily smiled.

  He studied her and finally laughed.

  “I’ll deposit this entry fee in the bank and enter your team in the competition.”

  “And?”

  “And if someone expresses a desire to have a team but can’t afford the entry fee, I will let you know.”

  “Thank you.” She brushed a few crumbs from her skirt and stood. “I’d best be about the rest of my errands now.”

  The reverend wished her a good day and she left his house with a determined spring in her step. Nothing like a fair challenge to get her blood going.

  They opened the saloon midday as usual, and the local miners gathered to share news. Lily noticed a female miner she’d met on several occasions, a woman who dressed and spoke and drank like a man. She’d already been to the bath house and the barber and had her hair shorn like any of the others.

  “Hey, Lily.” Her voice was as rough as her chapped hands. She was taller than most of the men in the place.

  “Hello, Charlotte. How’s your claim panning out?”

  “A little silver dust here and there. Enough to keep me in vittles and whiskey. I’m gonna hit it big one of these days, though.” She settled on a stool at the bar. “’Tween you an’ me, I’m gettin’ too old for winters in the mountains.”

  “You could winter in town.”

  “Don’t know what I’d do. Cain’t afford a room.”

  “You could probably get work for a few months.”

  “Cain’t cook. Too old and ugly for whorin’.”

  Lily laughed. “I’d give you a job.”

  Charlotte looked wide-eyed at Helena and Rosemary, who stood near a table talking with a group of miners. “Doin’ what?”

  “I’ll be outfitting a livery in a few weeks. You any good with horses?”

  Her eyes brightened. “Matter of fact I ain’t half-bad with horses. Groom ’em, feed ’em, clean their hooves. Simple. They ain’t half as ornery to get along with as people.”

  “Want me to save a job for you come fall?”

  Charlotte’s gaze left Lily’s face and seemed unfocused for a moment as she thought. With a twitch of her mouth, she made up her mind. “I’ll winter here.”

  “What are you drinking?”

  “Whiskey.”

  “Old Jess, set up a whiskey and a sarsaparilla, please. To seal the deal.”

  They raised glasses and drank.

  “You won’t forget?” Charlotte asked.

  “I won’t forget.”

  IT WAS A PARTICULARLY hot evening. Miners had crowded the Shady Lady since afternoon. Lily had looked forward to the sun going down and the evening cooling off, but so far no cool breeze was forthcoming from the mountains.

  She stood on the boardwalk for a breath of air.

  Running footsteps alerted her, and she glanced up the street. The runner came into view. It was Mitch Early.

  “What’s the hurry?” she asked.

  “It’s the women,” he panted. “They’re in a fit. I heard from George and Joel that they heard you were signed up for the base ball tournament.”

  “That the Intolerants heard?”

  “Yeah. That on top of yesterday’s meetin’ at the church has ’em fired up.”

  “They’re just gonna have to get used to it. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Celeste inside?”

  “Yep. Go on in and tell her I said your dance is on the house tonight.”

  “Thanks, Miss Lily.” He pushed through the bat wing doors.

  Lily thought about a swim. The water sure would feel good tonight. Maybe she could get someone to lend her a horse. She looked at the mounts tethered along the hitching post and glanced at the level of water in the trough.

  In the darkness, she made her way around back and pumped the well. After four trips, there was sufficient water for the warm night. She used the last of the water in the pail to dip her hands and pat her neck, face and chest.

  The sound of women’s voices nearby surprised her because she hadn’t heard them coming. No singing tonight?

  “The wages of sin is serious business,” someone was saying.

  “We’re not going to just stand by and let this woman sully our town and lead our husbands astray!”

  The Women’s Temperance Prayer League was a slim gathering that evening. Beatrice wasn’t with them, nor were a few of the other regulars, but what they lacked in numbers they made up for in zeal.

  Lily moved to the top of the stairs as they approached.

  “This is it, Lily Divine!” Blythe shouted. “This is the last time we’re going to let you throw your sordid ways and your tainted money in our faces.”

  “You think you’re so much better than the rest of us,” Meriel called. “You might have money and clothes and friends, but you came by them in a sinful manner.”

  “I never thought I’d miss the singing,” Lily replied.

  “We’re done singing. We’re taking God’s work into our own hands.”

  “That’s a big job,” she replied. “Hope you’re up to it.”
>
  “Oh, we’re up to it. We’re filled with righteous fervor.”

  Lily thought it was more like self-righteous fever, but she bit her tongue.

  “This is it,” Dinah Sadler said. “Let’s go.”

  With a combined shout, the women rushed onto the boardwalk and passed Lily.

  She didn’t have a good feeling about this. They meant trouble, and she knew it. But she couldn’t hold them back single-handedly. “Be glad to serve you a drink, ladies,” she said as they passed. “But don’t bother the other customers.”

  She hurried in behind them and caught the sleeve of the first man she recognized, a miner.

  “Rory, go get the sheriff. This doesn’t look good.”

  The man got up and loped out the door.

  Meriel was shouting above the sound of the piano. “This wickedness must stop! Men, go home to your wives and families! Addiction to liquor and these women is blinding you to the truth about your behavior. This is evil disguised as fleshly pleasure!”

  Wade had been inside earlier, and Lily looked for him now to see his reaction to his wife’s tirade. Sure enough, he got up from a table where he’d been playing cards with Doc Umber and Thomas and hiked up the waist of his trousers before walking toward the irate women.

  “Meriel, you’re makin’ a spectacle of yourself. You’d best get on back home.”

  “Oooh!” Dinah screeched. “Oh, the shame!”

  The women turned to look at her, then followed the line of her horrified stare. One by one their heads turned toward the painting of Lily behind the bar.

  CHAPTER TEN

  BLYTHE’S HANDS came up to her cheeks.

  Dinah’s face blazed with embarrassment and shock.

  Meriel fumed.

  A collective intake of breath sucked the air from the room, and for a minute Lily could hear the beat of her own heart.

  Then Meriel turned in a blur of skirts and grabbed the six-shooter out of the holster of the nearest miner—Charlotte.

  Charlotte was so surprised she dropped the glass of whiskey she’d been holding and took a step back with her hands up.

  But Meriel turned toward the bar and aimed the gun at the painting with both hands.

  Everyone within the semicircle of her range ducked. Old Jess scurried to the end of the bar and Lily’s heart skipped half a dozen beats.