just said. It was after she’d taken off her skirt and given it a good look that she had to admit he was right. So she wasn’t the best at roughing it anymore. Somewhere between the age of twelve, when she’d had to learn to survive without parents and now, she’d lost her edge. She’d gotten soft, accustomed to having nightly baths and someone cooking her food—wearing soft clothes and sleeping in a clean bed. She looked up at the darkening sky and sighed. If anyone had asked, she would have said she preferred sleeping with a roof over her head.
Then she gave herself a mental kick in the butt, tossed what was left of her skirt in the back of the wagon and started digging through their meager belongings. It didn’t take her long to realize that the only person left with extra clothing was Eulis. She dug through his pack until she found the smallest pair of pants he owned, and held them up to her waist. They were inches too long and even more inches too big in the waist, but they would cover her bare backside, which was all that mattered. She cut a piece of rope to use for a belt, adjusted it around the waist until it was tight enough to keep the pants up, then rolled up both hems until she could walk without tripping. She frowned at the thin kid shoes she was wearing, and told herself the next time she got a chance, she was going to get herself a pair of men’s boots, too.
Later, as she strode around the campsite, rebuilding the fire and washing up the stew pot to ready it for fresh meat, she began to realize how convenient it was not having a whole swath of skirt tail swishing between her legs and dragging on the ground. A few minutes later, she heard a single gunshot.
“That better be supper, ’cause I can’t take any more surprises,” she muttered, and tossed another stick on the fire to bring the fresh water in the stew pot back up from a simmer to a boil.
When Eulis stomped back into camp he was grinning and holding up a freshly skinned squirrel.
“Got it with one shot!” he crowed, then did a double take when he saw Letty in pants—his pants. “What’s that you’re trying to wear on your legs?”
“I’m not trying, I’m doing it,” she said, took the squirrel, hacked it up into a few large pieces and tossed it in the water.
“Them’s my pants,” Eulis said.
“Not anymore,” Letty said.
Eulis frowned. “It ain’t seemly for a lady to—”
“Oh, shut up, Eulis. I might be redeemed and got myself some religion, but that only means my sins were forgiven. It still doesn’t make a lady out of me. I’m out of dresses and you’ve got pants to spare. I can’t cross the Rockies butt naked.”
Eulis sighed. She had a point, but he still hated to give up those pants. Since he couldn’t complain about her mode of dress, he figured he’d take a shot at her cooking skills since they both knew they were nonexistent.
“Don’t forget to toss in a little salt,” he said, as he pointed to the pot.
Letty nodded and reached behind Eulis’s bedroll for the salt bag. She got a big pinch, tossed it in the pot, and gave it a quick stir.
“I’m going to the bushes,” she said. “Be right back.”
“Watch out for—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Watch out for the skunks.”
Eulis frowned. “Just watch out, all right?”
Letty wiggled her fingers beneath Eulis’s nose and made a face at him.
“I’m watching… you do the same.”
Eulis was watching all right—watching her shapely hips swaying hither and yon as she walked into the trees. It occurred to him to be glad that the only emotions he ever felt towards her were either empathy or fear, because she looked a whole lot better in those pants than he did.
So they cooked the squirrel, ate the meal, and passed the night without concern. The next morning they broke their fast, hitched up the team, and resumed their journey. The days and nights became a collage of heat, hunger, thirst, and misery, interspersed with an occasional moment of realization that they might not live to see the Colorado gold fields after all.
Letty couldn’t remember a time when they hadn’t been on the trail. Her years of screwing drunken cowboys seemed like it had happened to someone else. She’d lost weight, but was stronger and browner,