there was a tilt to her chin and a glint in her eyes that was more suited to Lola’s way of life.
Letty smiled, but it was a cool, calculating smirk that matched the jab of her words.
“I had a dress just like it about three years ago. Course it’s a long ways from nowhere out here. Stands to reason that the fashions would be out of date.”
While Lola was still smarting from the slight, Letty turned to Harley.
“Too bad about your face,” she said. “You must have been a nice looking enough fellow once.”
Harley’s face turned a dark, angry shade of red. “Lady, how dare you!”
Letty shoved a finger against Harley’s chest.
“Heard about your last visit to the Smithson’s. It’s a damn shame Fannie didn’t shoot you while she had the chance,” Letty said, eyed Lola once more, then grinned at Harley as she shook her head. “Man, oh man, you are the prince of losers. You gave up a woman who cooks food fit for a king, keeps a spotless house, and who knows ten ways to bring a man to the point of ecstasy, four of which are without using her hands.”
Harley’s mouth went slack, revealing the space where his three front teeth used to be.
“Uh—”
Letty leaned forward until her mouth was against his ear.
“I know this, because I told her how. In fact, I taught her everything I know.” Then she put her hands on her hips and thrust her breasts outward in a sexual taunt, to assure him she knew of what she spoke.
Harley looked sick.
Letty grinned. It was time to finish him off.
“It must make you crazy to know that for the rest of your life, the only women who’ll ever have anything to do with you again are the ones that you have to pay.”
Harley gave Lola a wild-eyed look, and when she flushed and looked away, he gasped. Cursing beneath his breath, he shoved Lola out of his way and headed for his horse. Dust from his hasty departure was still thick in the air when Eulis finally pronounced Myron and Fannie husband and wife.
A cheer erupted.
Letty eyed Lola with disdain. Lola glared back.
“You smell like a skunk,” Lola said.
“Mine will wear off,” Letty said. “What’s your excuse?”
Lola doubled up her fists.
Letty leaned forward. “Honey, trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to mess with me.”
There was something in the tone of Letty’s voice that got Lola’s attention. Instead of punching Sister Leticia in the nose as she’d intended to do, she stomped her feet in frustration, and took off in a huff.
Letty sighed. Not one bit of that had been proper godly behavior. Her redemption must be wearing off. She was going to have to get Eulis to say a prayer for her soul. Then she glanced back toward the happy couple, eyed the preacher dressed in black, and headed for the rooming house. If they were going to go panning for gold, she was likely to need a different kind of wardrobe.
Emory James was forty-seven years old and just under five feet, six inches tall. His elongated face was partially hidden beneath a long, red beard and even longer hair. He was a trapper by trade and a scoundrel by nature. He’d gotten away with thievery and fraud so many times that he’d come to believe he was impervious to the rules and laws that others lived by. He’d made a pretty good living at it for a good number of years, and then he’d run afoul of an Apache half-breed who called himself Black Dog.
If he’d known the Kiowa woman sitting on the Appaloosa pony outside the Sutler’s store at Ft. Mays had belonged to a man who didn’t like to share, he would have left her alone. But it had been almost a year since he’d seen any sort of female that didn’t walk on four legs. He’d manfully ignored the long scar down the right side of her face and neck and offered her some beaded necklaces for a roll in the hay. The upside of their meeting was that she’d taken the necklaces and giggled all the way to the livery stable where their rendezvous was about to take place. The downside of it was that Black Dog found his woman down on her knees with her face in Emory’s crotch. He’d managed to get away, only because the Kiowa woman had thrown herself at Black Dog’s legs, begging for forgiveness. Black Dog promptly