the assayer’s office, as Letty passed by. Two were turning a long piece of rope, while the other two were taking turns jumping in. They were chanting a little rhyme as they played, and when one of them stumbled and stopped the rope, the others would squeal out in childish glee.
She paused on the sidewalk to listen. T-Bone had been trotting ahead, but when he realized she was no longer behind him, he ran back and sat down at her feet.
“Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief. Doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief. One of them will make you tarry. Which one of these men will you marry?”
Then they would repeat it over and over until someone tripped. Whatever man they stopped at, was supposedly the man they would marry.
Letty shook her head in wonder at their innocence. By the time she was their age, she’d been orphaned and well on her way to permanent employment at the White Dove Saloon.
It made her sad, thinking about what a rude awakening they were going to get when they grew up. Likely as not they’d all wind up married to some hard-scrabble farmer or cowboy, or end up in the same boat Letty had been in. Life in this country wasn’t easy for anyone, but for a woman, it was quite often brutal and brief.
Case in point, Alice Mellin.
Letty had just come from Dr. Warren’s house. Alice was going to live, but would most likely never be able to have children again. The poor woman was distraught by the news. Letty felt sorry for her, but there was nothing more she could do.
Angus Warren had tended to George’s wounds and dog bites in the sheriff’s office, and then watched in silent satisfaction as the man was put behind bars. As a doctor, he’d taken an oath to do no harm, but for the first time in his life, he could have willingly put an end to George’s life without losing a second of sleep.
Letty was of the same opinion, but she would have much rather seen him drawn and quartered for what he’d done to his wife and child.
There was a small cloud of dust surrounding the girls as they played, stirred up by their stomping feet and the thump of the jump rope against the hard, dry ground. The little girls’ stockings and shoes were covered in dirt, as were the hems of their dresses, but they didn’t care. They were too caught up in the fantasy of fate having a hand in choosing their mate. Their rhythmic chant matched the turn of the rope as they jumped in and out of the wide, dusty arc. When one of them finally tripped, the other three squealed out loud.
“Beggar man. Beggar man. You’re gonna marry a beggar man!” they cried.
Letty shook her head, looked down at T-Bone, and then clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth.
“Come on, T-Bone. Let’s get out of here before the fussing starts.”
The pup was oblivious to everything but the gentle tone of her voice and touch. When she moved, he moved with her.
Letty walked away from the alley, ignoring the whispers and stares from the people she passed. It hadn’t taken long for word to get around about what she’d done now. She’d already been judged and found wanting for wearing pants like a man, and riding astride instead of side-saddle.
Today, she’d just added to her notoriety by taking a bullwhip to a man. While the citizens of Denver City were disgusted by what George Mellin had done to his wife and child, most of them were of the opinion that Letty Potter had overstepped her bounds, and should not have involved herself in the situation.
Letty would have liked their acceptance, but she’d lived on the wrong side of society for so long she no longer cared. Eulis was the only person whose opinion mattered, and so far he had kept his disappointments to himself.
She thought back to the earlier events of the day. When Henry Smith had stopped her on the street, her first instinct had been to send for Eulis. She hadn’t known how much she’d been counting on his arrival until he’d come running through the crowd and snatched the whip from her hand.
And there was Robert Lee. When the sheriff started threatening her, he had immediately put himself between her and the law. It had all happened so fast that she hadn’t realized the impact of what he’d done until it was over,