Deborah Camp (3 page)

Smiling weakly, Cassie remembered the first time she’d been invited into Jewel’s parlor for tea and cookies. Her eyes had damn near popped out of her head when she’d confronted the red velvet draperies, velvet-covered furniture, crystal chandeliers, and cut-glass dishes. The teapot had been real china with little rosebuds painted on it. The cups were so tiny that Cassie had trouble crooking her finger in the cup’s handle. She’d only managed to squeeze her fingertip through it. So many fine things, all crammed into one room! She could still remember the awe she’d felt when she’d looked up at the curving staircase and wondered about all the riches housed up on the second floor where “the girls” did their business.

Jewel had given her a few floral sachets, which Cassie had placed in her bedroom. They were still there, dried and dusty now, but still holding a faint, sweet scent that never failed to make Cassie feel all soft and cuddly.

The rest of the cabin smelled like wood smoke—dark and cloying. Cassie forced herself up from the chair and closed the shutters over the windows. She ran her hand down the splintered wood and thought fleetingly of curtains—white ones with pink tiebacks. Foolish, her mind chastised her. Fancy things would look silly in this place. She went back to the chair, easing her weary body onto the hard seat and resting her forehead against her folded arms on the table top.

“It’s been a long day for you, hasn’t it, honey?” Jewel
said sympathetically as she began cleaning the caked blood from the man’s shoulder.

“I feel so old, Jewel,” Cassie admitted with a worried frown. “Like I was a kid yesterday and an old woman today.”

“That’s normal. We all feel older when we lose our folks. You’re nobody’s little girl anymore. You’ll feel better after you get something in your belly and rest awhile.”

Nobody’s little girl anymore. Tears pricked her eyes, and Cassie felt them squeeze out from the corners and roll down her cheeks. Pa was gone. The truth of that hit her like a hard fist in the stomach and she gasped, drawing Jewel’s sharp glance.

“Poor darlin’,” Jewel crooned. She left the prone man and folded Cassie in her warm embrace. “I clean forgot your own grief. You must be plumb worn out.”

“I’m glad you came by,” Cassie admitted, breathing in the flowery smell of Jewel. Jewel always smelled so good. “I don’t know what I’ll do now that Pa’s gone.”

“Did you find him?” Jewel asked, straightening up. She lit one of the lamps and adjusted the wick until an amber glow lit the room.

“Yes. I had supper ready, but he didn’t come when I called, so I went out looking for him.”

“Where was he?”

“Out by the old mine.” Cassie glanced sharply at Jewel and caught the other woman’s scowl of contempt.

“The mine,” Jewel said disparagingly. “Shorty was obsessed with that thing. Did you see anybody else around?”

“No, just Pa. He was lying on his stomach, shot in the back. He was dead when I found him.” Cassie drew in a sharp breath as the memory flooded back. “Blood all over his back …” She bit her lower lip to keep from sobbing aloud. “Who would have done it, Jewel? Pa never did anything to anybody.”

“It don’t figure,” Jewel agreed. “Could have just been a crazy, ornery snake in the grass. Some men like to spill blood.”

Cassie’s gaze moved past Jewel to the sleeping man on Shorty’s cot. “Like him, maybe.”

“I don’t think so, honey.”

“Why not?” Cassie’s gaze swung back to Jewel and sharpened. “You know him, don’t you?”

“Honey, I’ve seen so many men in my time …”

“And you’ve never forgot a one of them,” Cassie added. “You know him. Who is he?”

“I’m not sure …”

“Jewel! I thought we was friends.”

“We are. I don’t recall his name, but I don’t remember him being an outlaw or anything like that.” She went back to the man to bandage the cleaned wound. “Are you sure you didn’t see anyone hanging around the day Shorty was killed?”

“I’m sure. You hungry? I could warm up some beans.”

“Yes, you do that. Which direction was this man headed?”

“Toward town,” Cassie said, placing an iron pot of beans on top of the stove. “I’ll whip up some spoon bread to go with this.”

“You’re a good girl, Cassie.”

“Maybe there’s a reward for him,” Cassie said, thinking of the few dollars left in her ma’s music box. “We could take him to the sheriff and collect it.”

“What?” Jewel spun around to face her. “You’d take money for turning in another human being?”

“Well, why not?” Cassie asked, propping her hands at her waist and refusing to be browbeaten by Jewel. “I’m almost broke. I got nothing but this piece of ground and an abandoned mine. I gotta live just like everyone else.”

“I’m ashamed of you, Cassie Potter!” Jewel pursed her lips as if she’d bitten into a lemon. “I know you’re scared and all, but this man hasn’t done anything to you. What’s got into you? You’ve never been a hard-hearted girl.”

Cassie rubbed her face with her hands and then turned to stir the beans. She wasn’t a hard-hearted girl, she thought. Just scared. Scared of tomorrow and the day after and on and on. How would she live? What would she do? “I gotta be hard now, Jewel. Pa’s gone. There’s nobody to protect me. I gotta look out for myself.”

“Me too, but you don’t see me turning in men and taking
money for it like they were animal pelts! Lordy me, Cassie. There’s all kinds of ways to make money.”

“I’m not making it your way, and you don’t hear me sermoning you about how you make a living:” She began mixing up the bread with brisk, angry strokes of the wooden spoon. “Shorty and me never blamed you for running a whorehouse.”

“If it’s money you need, I’ll give you some.”

Pride surged through Cassie, and she flashed a warning glance at Jewel. “I ain’t asking for charity neither!”

“And I’m not giving it,” Jewel shot back, clearly irritated. “I’ll pay you to look after this man.”

Cassie turned slowly to watch Jewel lift the man’s head and force a pitcher of water to his lips. He sputtered and then drank a little of it.

“That’s it, hon,” Jewel whispered, letting his head rest on the feather pillow again.

Curiosity fingered Cassie’s mind, and caused one of her finely shaped brows to arch. She tipped her head to one side and eyed the other woman speculatively. Something was amiss … something just didn’t sit right. When Jewel glanced in her direction, Cassie shook a finger at her and her lips curved into a teasing smile.

“You’re not shooting straight, Jewel Townsend. Why are you so good to him? Why offer me money to look after a stranger? You don’t know that he ain’t wanted for killing or stealing.”

“I believe in giving everybody a chance,” Jewel said, dipping her lacy handkerchief into the water and running it across the man’s forehead. “He hasn’t done anything to me—or to you. He’s just a body who needs help. You don’t know that he isn’t a man of means who might pay you handsomely once he’s back on his feet.”

“I don’t think a man of means would be riding out here with a hole through him,” Cassie noted with a little sniff of contempt. “He didn’t have nothing in his saddlebag, ’cepting for a razor and soap. A man of means he ain’t.”

“Maybe he was robbed,” Jewel countered with a quick, hard glance. “You think the worst of everybody, Cassie
Potter. The same man who shot Shorty might have robbed this man and shot him.”

“And he might be the man who shot Pa,” Cassie returned, refusing to be boxed in by Jewel’s arguments.

“Cassie Mae!” Jewel flung up her hands in a helpless gesture. “What have you got against him?
What
?”

“Nothing,” Cassie said, turning away from Jewel to tend to the food again. “He’s nothing to me. I don’t want him around here, that’s all.” She dipped the spoon bread mixture into the hot skillet. It sizzled and bubbled and began to brown around the edges. “I barely got enough to eat. I don’t have food for him.”

“I told you that I’d pay you,” Jewel reminded her.

“And I told you that I don’t want your charity.”

“It isn’t charity.”

Cassie wiped her hands on her apron and looked over her shoulder at Jewel’s round, sweet face. She was a good woman, Cassie thought with a sudden burst of affection. Ever since she and Pa had moved out there, Jewel Townsend had been their good friend. Someone they could always depend on. Maybe it was because they were all outcasts. Hardly anyone in Eureka Springs went out of their way to speak to them. Everyone looked down their noses at Jewel and thought Shorty and his daughter were plumb crazy to be working a mine when everybody knew there wasn’t any gold thereabouts. But Jewel had always made Shorty and Cassie feel decent, respected, and befriended. Never a question about it.

“Why would you pay me to look after a stranger?” Cassie asked again, still stuck on that jarring chord. “You know him, don’t you?”

“I told you that he’s a customer, but I haven’t seen him around for a while.”

“And you look after all your customers like this?” Cassie shook her head in a firm denial. “It don’t wash.”

“Let’s just say that I’m a more generous soul than you are—and proud of it.” Jewel moved away from the cot and sat in one of the straight-back chairs that stood by the kitchen table. Her silk skirt rustled, and high-button shoes peeked out from under the hem. “Men have been good to me.
They’ll be good to you too, if you let them.” She shook her head sternly when Cassie opened her mouth to speak. “Not like that. I know what you’re thinking. But Cassie,
all
men aren’t out to hurt you. Some are good souls, and this one might be one of them.” She placed the back of her wrist against her forehead and sighed. “It might be good for you to do something good for somebody.”

“Meaning I ain’t never done no good for nobody?” Cassie asked, her voice rising with ire. “I slaved in that mine for Pa. I cooked his meals and washed his clothes. Wasn’t that doing good?”

“He was your pa,” Jewel said with a roll of her green eyes. “This is different. You’re no relation to this fella.”

“Thank God,” Cassie said, glancing contemptuously at the man. “I don’t think it’s right that he’s in Pa’s bed.” She squared her shoulders and summoned her strength. “And I don’t want to cook and clean for another man.”

“What are you going to do then?” Jewel asked. “How are you going to make a living for yourself?”

“I … I don’t know. I’ll think of something.”

“Shorty should’ve seen you married off before he died.”

“I ain’t a horse to be bought and sold!” Cassie wrung her hands with worry. “I’ll plant a garden for eats. I’ll raise me some chickens and buy a milk cow.”

“With what?” Jewel asked. “You said that you don’t have any money.”

“I’ve got a few dollars tucked back.”

“It’ll take more than a few dollars to buy chickens and a milk cow.”

“I’ve still got the mine,” Cassie said, seizing on her only asset.

“What’ll that bring you? Everybody around here knows that the mine is worthless.”

She was about to tell Jewel about Shorty’s strange discovery, but instead she buttoned her lips and turned back to the stove. “Supper’s ready.”

Cassie spooned up the beans and dropped two rounds of spoon bread on each plate. She set them on the table and poured water into two tin cups. Jewel waited for Cassie to sit down before she tasted the beans.

“Got a good scald on these, Cassie. You always were a good cook.”

“That’s something I could do!” Cassie smiled, liking the idea. “I could hire myself out as a cook.”

“Where?”

“I dunno. One of those places in Eureka Springs, maybe.”

“There’s no jobs for cooks in town.” Jewel’s hand covered hers. “Why don’t you take a few dollars from me to look after this fella while you sort out your life? What harm could come from it?”

“He might … might shoot me once he’s on his feet.”

“We’ll hide his gun. Besides, you’re not defenseless! I’ve seen you handle that whip, girl.” Jewel tossed back her head and laughed. “Lordy, lordy! You could pop the nose off a fly with it!”

Cassie tried to smile, but her mind was full of vile images. “He might try to have his … way with me.”

Jewel shook her head. “He’s not the type.”

“How do you know?”

Jewel winked and laughed shortly. “I’m in the business to know, honey. I can spot a woman abuser a mile away. He’s not going to take liberties unless you let him.”

Cassie cast a fleeting glance at the unconscious man. “I dunno, Jewel. I never been around a strange man. Onliest man I spent time around was Pa.”

“Then it’s time you spent some time with a man.”

“Jewel! You saying that I should take up with him?”

“No, honey. I’m saying that it’s high time you learned that men are people. Some are good. Some are bad. Some are real good company and make good friends.” She dabbed at the corners of her mouth with her handkerchief. “What about two dollars to start off with? That fair?”

“Two dollars for what?”

“For nursing him back to health, of course.”

Cassie shook her head. “I ain’t agreed to that. I’m still athinkin’ on it.”

“You could buy some chicks with two dollars,” Jewel said to entice her. “If he’s still here in a week, I’ll pay you two more dollars.”

“What if the sheriff comes around and finds me here with a man in Pa’s bed?”

“Sheriff Barnes won’t be visiting here,” Jewel said with certainty.

“He’s looking into Pa’s death. He might find out something.” When Jewel angled a dubious glance at her, Cassie laughed softly. “You’re right. That would be like expecting a miracle, wouldn’t it?”

“You’ve got your miracle,” Jewel said, tipping back her head to indicate the man. “There’s your way to earn a little money to tide you over until you decide what to do.”

“I don’t like taking money from you, Jewel. He’s nothing to you. You’re just doing this to see me through.”

“I’m doing this for several reasons.” Jewel smiled and scooped up the last of the beans and bread. “For being my friend, for Shorty’s memory, and for that young man. Somebody plugged him and I don’t want him to die ’cause of it. I got a soft spot for young, dark-headed, dark-eyed men. The first man I fell in love with looked a lot like him.”

“You been in love?” Cassie asked in wonder. She’d never thought of Jewel being in love, and it added a different dimension to the woman.