The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,109

that point, he got out of bed as the chamber pot beckoned.

Later, as he dug through the preacher’s bag for a clean shirt, he began planning his next move. When he was dressed, he strode to the mirror, turning first one way, then the other, looking at his own reflection with a judgmental eye. He thought of that wanted poster under his bed over at the White Dove Saloon.

Dodge City wasn’t all that far. He looked at himself in the mirror again. His eyes were bloodshot, his cheeks were red. He needed a drink in the worst way, but his gaze slid back to his reflection. Baths and new clothes and another man’s name might give him a new start, but before he could begin a new life, he needed to put the old one to rest. He’d have a little whiskey in his coffee. That should perk him up some. And he’d be weaning himself off the drink a little bit every day.

“I’ll have to learn to read some better,” he said aloud. “But it’s a powerful long way between some towns out here. I can practice on the way.”

He began to pack. “And I know there’s a better way to baptize, but I’ll watch one done before I try another.”

With that vow set firm in his memory, he checked Randall Howe’s ticket for his next destination.

“I’ve always believed that a man should see what he can of the world a’fore he passes, but Sagebrush Pass will have to wait a bit until I get back from Dodge City.”

He frowned and rubbed his belly, ignoring the tremble in his hands. The need for drink was strong, but the urge to escape Lizard Flats was stronger. He laid Randall’s bible on the top of his clothes and then fastened the straps on the suitcase. The more he talked to himself, the better it sounded. By the time he went down to get breakfast, the decision was firm in his mind.

Right in the middle of his bacon and eggs, Letty showed up wearing a dress he’d never seen before. Somewhere she’d found a new set of clothes to go with her new identity. He paused in the mid-bite, wondering if this was where he ran like hell, or stood and offered her a chair.

“Preacher?” There was a question in her voice that he wasn’t sure how to answer. Either she was asking for permission to sit down, or checking on his identity of the day.

She blinked and then smiled, so he swallowed his bite. It seemed it would be the chair.

“Miss Letty, won’t you join me?”

She sat. When her food arrived she picked at it like a proper lady, afraid to show her appetite for anything, especially life. Her bites were dainty and she kept dabbing at the corners of her mouth with her napkin as if she’d suddenly sprung a leak.

“What are your plans?” she asked, then leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Will thinks Eulis left town with the last freight wagon. He’s not too happy on having to sweep his own floors, and just so you know, I gave him notice that I’m leaving, too.”

Eulis gawked. He couldn’t get over the change in her. She was a different woman, right down to the way she ate.

“Where am I going? I’m going to Sagebrush Pass, by way of Dodge City,” he said.

She nodded and used a bite of bread to sop the egg yolk from her plate.

“I can play the piano, when there’s one to play,” she offered. “And as you know, I sing. I can also count money and read real good. I got all the way to through the first primer before Daddy died.”

Eulis was beginning to sweat. What was she saying?

“That’s fine. Real fine, Miss Letty.”

“Leticia, if you don’t mind,” she amended, batting her eyes like a vestal virgin.

Eulis choked on his swig of coffee and mopped at his chin, hoping he hadn’t splattered his clean shirt.

“Leticia. Of course, of course,” he said. “Leticia it is.”

She fixed him with a hard blue stare. “Then you’ll be taking me with you. After all, you’re gonna need to practice up on several things, includin’ baptizin’ your congregation.”

It wasn’t a question. It had been a demand. And he took instant offense to her criticism of the way he’d handled the situation last night.

“I don’t know as how I was so far off. It seemed to do you a world of good,” Eulis said, and tried not to frown. He