The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,260

strike had been announced, but this latest event had caused a different kind of chaos. Last winter’s smallpox epidemic had been a tragedy. The flood was causing a different kind of disaster, but in a way, winding up with the same results. People were dead. A few more would wind up the same way, and those who survived would never be the same.

Letty’s new house smelled of freshly sawed wood and dampness. But the fire she’d built in the parlor fireplace was taking the chill out of the air, as well as providing her with a place to cook their food. Eulis had intended it to be a focal point of the room—a grand edifice that would impress their guests and give them comfort through the long winters. The opening was six feet wide with natural rock facing the mantle and wall all the way to the ceiling. The hearth extended more than six feet into the room, providing a safe boundary for any escaping sparks or embers. It had not been intended for cooking, but Letty was a practical woman. Her new cookstove was en route somewhere between Boston and Denver City. She would make do with what she had and be thankful.

She’d put a pot of stew on to cook less than an hour ago. It would be a few more hours before it would be done. She would have loved to ride out to the mine and check on Eulis and the men—maybe take Robert Lee some fresh supplies, but if she rode off and left the food unattended, most likely the fire would go out or the food would burn. So, she was stuck in a house full of empty rooms, with memories yet to be born.

Frustrated, she walked out onto the front porch. T-Bone was lying near the front steps. He looked up and wagged his tail when he saw her.

“Hey, puppy,” Letty said, and sat down on the steps, absently scratching behind the pup’s ear as she looked down into the valley.

The tents of Denver City looked like so many toadstools, and the people moving about on the streets were hardly larger than ants. Still, she could see enough to know that people were in a bad way. She hadn’t been back to town since they’d left the hotel, although Eulis came and went with some regularity. Because of the rains, they’d temporarily stopped hauling to the smelter. After they’d spent most of a day digging the last ore wagon out of the mud, Eulis had stopped hauling, using the down time to shore up braces inside the mine, and replace a few others.

Weather had little effect on their work, but it had brought Letty’s plans to a halt. Cooking one meal a day was hardly what she called work, and she’d been taking care of herself for so long, that being idle didn’t set all that well with her.

She went back into the house to stir the stew, added a couple of sticks of wood to the fire and went back outside. T-Bone whined as she resumed her seat on the porch, but she didn’t respond. Ever since she’d held that dying baby in her arms, she’d had a feeling she’d left something undone.

And while she was struggling with new emotions and a whole new way of life, Robert Lee was also changing. He’d gained some badly-needed weight, and followed Eulis’ lead by shaving nearly every day. He’d gotten a haircut and some new clothes with his first pay and for the first time in years, felt good about life.

And there was also the fact that he had fallen in love with Letty.

He’d admired her from the first day they’d met, when she’d calmly announced the fate of men who tried to cross her husband. But after she’d taken a bullwhip to the man who’d beaten his wife, he’d been in awe. In his eyes, she could do no wrong. She was what God meant a woman to be—beautiful, strong, and faithful.

No one knew how he felt, and he would have died before admitting it. He knew she was devoted to Eulis, and he admired the man tremendously. Anyone who’d gone from the drunk he remembered in Lizard Flats to this stoic, hard-working man demanded respect. Still, it was Letty who held his heart.

It was a little past noon when it began to drizzle again. Letty’s stew was finally cooked, and she’d taken it off the fire and set it aside. It wouldn’t