The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,263

looked away.

She rode up to the saloon, dismounted into the mud once again, and tied her horse to the hitching rail. As she stepped up onto the wooden sidewalk, her steps were somewhat muted by the rain.

“Alice.”

Alice Mellin jumped. Whitewashed with guilt, she looked up, once again, finding herself face to face with Letty Potter.

“It’s you.”

Letty sighed. “Yeah, last time I looked I was still me. What about yourself?”

The pallor of Alice’s skin turned even paler.

“I’m… uh—”

Letty pointed to her horse.

“Can you ride?”

Alice looked startled. “I guess, but—”

“You interested in spending the rest of your life spreading your legs for those bastards inside?”

Alice froze, too shocked by the question to answer.

“Well? It’s what you’re thinking about, isn’t it?”

“You don’t understand,” Alice finally said.

Letty laughed, but it was not a happy sound.

“Oh, I understand, all right. More than you will ever know. Now. Are you going through that door, or getting on that horse with me?”

Alice looked at Letty as if she’d lost her mind.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Can you cook?” Letty asked.

Alice nodded.

“Are you good at it?”

“Some say I am,” Alice said.

“Then come with me,” Letty said softly, and held out her hand.

It was the first step that was the hardest. After that, Alice moved rather quickly, although it took some doing to get mounted.

Letty swung up behind her, settling herself behind the saddle, then took the reins.

“Just hold onto the saddle horn,” she said. “We’ll be home before you know it.”

Alice didn’t know what she was getting in to, but it was the word ‘home’ that settled her indecision. Even if the home wasn’t hers, it was a better place to be than where she’d been heading.

And One Sorry Ass Judge

Eulis thought he’d gone beyond being surprised by anything Letty did these days. But when he got home from the mine and found a strange woman stirring stew in his parlor, he was more than a bit taken aback. That the woman looked like she’d been beaten to hell and back was of minor consequence to the reason for her presence.

“Ma’am,” he said, and quickly yanked off his hat, then started through the house, calling Letty’s name.

Letty appeared at the top of the stairs with an armful of quilts.

“I’m up here,” she said.

Eulis took the stairs two at a time, and then took Letty by the elbow.

“There’s a woman stirring stew down in the parlor.”

“That’s Alice,” Letty said, and spread one of the quilts down on the floor.

Eulis blinked. “Oh. Then that explains her face.”

Letty nodded. “Her poor body doesn’t look any better.” Then she frowned. “I don’t think it’s proper to talk about a woman’s body to a man, so forget I just said that, okay?”

Eulis wasn’t about to comment regarding female body parts.

“What’s she doin’ in our house?” he asked.

“I hired her to cook.”

Eulis frowned.

“I like your cookin’ just fine.”

Letty kept fussing with the quilts because it was easier than explaining the real truth to herself and to Eulis.

“She didn’t have anywhere else to go,” she finally said.

“What do you mean?” Eulis asked.

Letty dropped the rest of the quilts and lowered her voice.

“She was standing outside the door of one of the saloons in town. I couldn’t make myself ignore what that meant.”

“Oh.” Eulis laid a hand against Letty’s cheek. “You keep that secret of yours pretty good, you know.”

“What secret?” Letty asked.

“That one about your heart bein’ all soft and gentle.”

“You aren’t mad are you?”

Eulis grinned.

“No, but I have yet to see that matter when you’ve made up your mind.”

Letty grinned back.

“It will be all right. There’s plenty of room here for her, and it won’t be forever. Just until she heals up good and can find some direction in her life.”

“It don’t matter,” Eulis said. “If it makes you happy, it makes me happy, too.”

Letty stilled. The honesty in her husband’s voice humbled her. If she let herself think back to all the times in their past that she’d been downright mean to Eulis Potter, she would never be able to face him again.

“There are times when I think I don’t deserve you,” she said quietly.

Eulis smiled, and as he did, his love for her was so strong it made his well-worn face almost handsome.

“Well now, reckon that might get me a second helpin’ on the stew cooking downstairs?”

Letty threw her arms around him and kissed him soundly.

“Seconds on the stew and the dried apple cobbler Alice said she was making.”

Eulis rolled his eyes.

“I’m in heaven.”

A gust of wind rattled the windows.

Letty turned