then she smiled and he started convincing himself that this one wouldn’t matter. She sold herself on a daily basis and nothing he did to her could be misconstrued as a lie. It wasn’t as if she would expect anything from him other than her pay. It wasn’t as if she counted. She was only a whore. He never even noticed when the wagon master drove away.
Letty had seen the clerical collar. It was the preacher everyone had been waiting on. She was beside herself with glee. Will the Bartender would never believe it, but she, Leticia Murphy, was going to be the one he would first greet. She pulled her feather boa across her cleavage in an attempt to cover her breasts and took a step forward.
“Welcome to Lizard Flats. I’m Letty,” she said.
It was all Randall could do to nod.
Letty got nervous. Embarrassed by the flush that spread up his neck and cheeks, she looked away. It shamed her to think he must be shocked by her appearance. But curiosity won out and she started the conversation over again.
“You are him, ain’t ya? I mean… you are the preacher everyone’s been waitin’ for?”
Randall doffed his bowler, bowing just low enough to get a better than average view of her barely concealed bosom.
“Yes, madam, I am. Reverend Randall Ward Howe at your service. Maybe you would be so kind as to show me to an hotel?”
His voice made Letty shiver. It reminded her of the culture in James Dupree’s speech. Then, angry that he’d made her think of Jim, she blurted out.
“The hotel has been full for days, but there are a couple of rooms over the saloon that Will the Bartender sometimes rents out. He went to get himself a haircut for the funeral, so I can’t let you have no key until he gets back.”
Howe frowned. “What funeral?”
She eyed the preacher up and down, taking absent note of the fine cut of his clothes and thinking of how this man was going to put his blessing on Sophie and Alfonso’s wedding.
“I guess the one you’ll be performing tomorrow after the wedding, and as I hear it, none too soon. The old codger they brought in to bury is stinkin’ up the place somethin’ fierce.”
Howe dabbed at the sweat coming from the roll of fat beneath his chin. “Good Lord! Don’t you people have an undertaker?”
This time Letty laughed aloud and pointed behind her to a man who was passed out in the floor and slumped against the bar.
“All’s we got is Eulis, there. When he’s sober, which is hardly ever, he digs the holes and plants the bodies. When he’s drunk, he sometimes forgets to cover ’em up.”
Howe tried not to show the horror he felt. Maybe he’d been wrong last night. Maybe God had truly forsaken him by abandoning him to this wasteland. And if that was so then it shouldn’t matter if he sinned just one more time—for old times’ sake—before he continued down the missionary trail that fate had set him on.
Howe gave her one of his show-me-some-pity smiles. “I’m travel-weary to my bones. And since your boss isn’t here, would you be so kind as to consider letting me, ah… rest in your rooms until his return?”
Letty had heard too many invitations in her lifetime to ignore the one she’d just been handed. She started to snort, and then inhaled instead. Maybe she was mistaken. It would be a disaster if she offended the man the whole territory had been waiting for. Then his gaze slid downward and she saw that he was peering through the feathers to the valley between her breasts.
Letty knew leers when she saw them. So preacher man. You got itchy man parts just like every other male who comes through these doors.
“Would you care to follow me?” she asked.
Howe picked up his bags, watching her hips swaying beneath her dress as she led the way upstairs. His loins were beginning to surge as he watched the ripple and roll of her body beneath the tawdry silk.
I’m not going to mind this ride at all.
When the door closed behind them, Letty turned, and the glitter in her eyes was as hard as Randall’s dick. “It’ll cost you a dollar.”
Howe’s hands shook as he dug in his pocket. He would have given her a five-dollar gold piece and considered himself getting the best of the bargain.
Letty took the money and tucked it away when he wasn’t looking. It didn’t pay