The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,89

clothes. And Letty didn’t know it, but he’d been raised on the Good Book. He knew plenty of passages to get him by the worst of it.

What he didn’t know was if he could keep a straight face. In the years that he’d spent in Lizard Flats, he’d been kicked aside, ignored, or spit at on a daily basis. This was too good to fathom. He kept thinking of Sophie hitting him with her umbrella and the trouncing Alfonso Worthy had given him while he’d been sitting in Pete Samuel’s trough. Now Eulis was going to perform their marriage ceremony and it wouldn’t be worth a hill of beans. It was the best sort of vengeance a man could ask for. Bloodless, but binding, nevertheless.

By breakfast, he was in full swing, bestowing compliments on women who, yesterday, wouldn’t have let him sweep the dirt from beneath their feet, and blessing babies as if he’d brought them into the world himself.

Letty watched from a safe distance away, horrified by the monster that she’d created, yet unable to turn him off for fear of ruining herself in the process. There was nothing left for her to do but ride out the day with as little panic as possible.

No sooner had she sworn to react with calm, than Alfonso Worthy entered the dining room adjacent to the saloon with his fiancée, Sophie Hollis, in tow.

“Reverend Howe, I presume?”

Eulis grinned. Yesterday Alfonso Worthy had stepped over him like a dog turd. Today he was fawning at his feet. Justice had never been so sweet.

“That’s me. I mean… yes, I am he… uh, him,” Eulis stuttered. He had to remember to talk fancy. “And this must be your charming bride-to-be.”

Eulis rose to the occasion by standing, then bowing over Sophie Hollis’s hand before bestowing a gentle kiss upon the knuckles of her right hand with princely grace.

Sophie giggled and blushed as Alfonso announced his news. “We came to inform you that the wedding will be held in exactly one hour… if that meets with your approval.”

Eulis pulled a small book from the pocket of the preacher’s coat, and pretended to consult it for several moments, as if checking a schedule which was actually nonexistent. Howe hadn’t been in town long enough to do anything but die.

Finally, he raised his head and nodded in a pleasant, and what he hoped was, a benign manner. “That will be fine. And where, pray tell, is the ceremony to be held?”

Letty rolled her eyes in disgust at the flowery words Eulis was spouting. If he wasn’t careful, he’d outrun his own wind and blow himself down.

“We’re holding the ceremony at dear Sophie’s house, of course,” Alfonso said, and smiled as Sophie blushed.

She’d been all over him like a cat after fleas for the better part of a week. Alfonso would get the ceremony out of the way, and then get Sophie in bed or know the reason why. Going from the front parlor, to the upstairs bedroom, seemed the simplest and best way to accomplish both.

“I’ll be there promptly in one hour. A man of God always keeps his word,” Eulis said.

Alfonso nodded, content that he’d done his part in satisfying propriety. Once he satisfied Sophie Hollis in bed, he would have it made.

Sophie pranced and giggled. “Do hurry, dear Reverend. I just don’t like to be kept waiting a minute longer than necessary to call this wonderful man my husband.”

Eulis nodded, burped and took another sip of his spiked tea. The weakened whiskey settled his queasy stomach just enough to get him by. It was one thing to become a preacher overnight. It was another thing altogether to get religion and go on the wagon at the same time. Some men might be able to do it. Eulis Potter knew his limitations better than most. He’d do what he must, but he’d do it with a glow, or not at all.

The moment the affianced couple was gone, Letty rushed to his table and snatched the cup from beneath his mouth and sniffed it.

“I should have known,” she hissed. “You’re drinking whiskeyed-down tea. You get drunk on me, Eulis Potter, and I’ll hang you myself.”

“Reverend Howe, to you, my dear. And hadn’t you better get changed? We don’t want to be late for the ceremony.”

“What’s wrong with my dress?” Letty grumbled, smoothing down the red silk with sweaty palms.

“It reveals too much of your, ah, womanly charms.” He waggled his eyebrows and leered at her breasts for effect. “Don’t