The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,26

into her grief.

Helpless to move, she sat down on the fifth stair from the top and started to shake as what was left of James Dupree was carried out of the room.

Will hurried up the stairs to her.

Letty grabbed his arm, unable to speak.

He patted her shoulder. “Sorry you had to see that,” he said. “But the man came out of nowhere. Said Gentleman Jim had cheated him the other night in a game of five card stud. Shot him square in the chest then yelled out that he wasn’t gonna hang, and shot himself before anyone could stop him.”

“Who was it?” Letty asked. “Who killed my Jim?”

Will missed the personal reference as he glanced back down at the floor, making sure that Eulis was doing what he’d been told.

“Some drover from the Lipton ranch. Old man Lipton’s foreman has done carted him off. Come on down, will you, honey? Liven up the place for me. Pete’s gonna play that new song you like and Eulis is almost done mopping up the mess. It’ll be like old times in nothin’ flat. You’ll see.”

Letty stared at him as if he’d just lost his mind.

“Liven up the place? Just like old times? Have you no heart? For God’s sake, Will, a man is dead.”

Will frowned. “Well, hell, Letty, he was just some deadbeat gambler. Besides, it ain’t like you never saw a dead man before.”

Letty drew back her hand and slapped him. He staggered backward from the impact, more stunned that she’d done it than from the force of the blow.

“He wasn’t a deadbeat. He was my… my…”Her voice broke. “He was my friend. As for livening up the crowd, I’d sooner set myself on fire. You want songs… sing them yourself.”

Then she ran down the stairs and out the back way into the night, sobbing as she ran. She ran until the tinny sounds of Pete’s piano were nothing but a memory and the lights of Lizard Flats were barely faint pinpricks of illumination in the dark.

It wasn’t until a horse and rider almost downed her in the dark that she realized where she was. The rider dismounted on the run, certain that his horse had trampled her. He was surprised and relieved to find her standing.

“Lady? Are you all right?”

Letty smelled the scent of sweat and horse upon the man’s body and wanted to die.

“No. I will never be all right again,” she said, and fainted in his arms.

Up close, he recognized her as the whore he’d paid a dollar to only a week or so ago. He didn’t know what had happened to her, but he knew where she belonged.

With little effort, he slung her unconscious body across the back of his horse, mounted up, then started back to town.

Eulis was dumping out the mop water when the cowboy rode up at the back of the saloon.

“Uh, hey, Eulis… Miss Letty has taken ill, I think. Reckon you could help me get her to bed?”

For Eulis, the shock of seeing Letty draped across the saddle was like cold water in the face. He took one look at her and then pointed to the door.

“Bring her in here,” he said, and held the door as the cowboy carried her inside.

It was morning before Letty woke. She rolled over on her back, staring at the dusty, cobwebbed ceiling and trying to figure out where she was and how she’d gotten here. Then she heard a muffled snore and leaned over the side of the bed. That was when she realized she was sleeping on a bug-infested cot only three feet from Eulis Potter’s unconscious body.

She bailed out of bed with a shriek.

Eulis had been dreaming and Letty’s shriek settled into the dream with such reality that he sat up with a jerk before he was truly awake. All he saw were flaring nostrils and the flash of a red dress before he realized it was Letty who was wearing both.

“Letty, I—”

“Why am I in your bed?”

The shock in her voice was turning to fury. He could hear it coming and started to talk before she got the wrong idea.

“Some cowboy brung you back to town. And don’t go bein’ all mad at me. I ain’t the one who shot your friend.”

It was then she remembered, and with the memory came the pain.

“Where is he?” she whispered.

Eulis shrugged. “At the undertakers, I reckon. I got to dig me a grave before noon. It’s too hot to let him wait.”

Letty’s eyes were glittering