It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own (Code of the West) (5 page)

“Yes, that’s him. Are we very far from the ranch?”

“I’m not real good on distances, but I reckon it’s a
nother seventy miles or so.”

“And you still know him?”

“Oh, sure.”

“But I thought he didn’t have many friends up here.”

“He’s just modest.”

“Tell me about him.”

“You mean, what he looks like?”

“Yes. And his personality, his character.”

“Let’s see. He’s about medium height, medium build, dark hair—”

“Dark brown?”

“Yeah, but you know those cattlemen. He always has his Stetson on. I hope I’m not steppin’ out of line, Miss Cedar, but he really is a handsome man.”

“That’s just the way I imagined him.” Su
zanne Cedar drew each breath slowly. “Miss Paige, can I call you Aimee?”

“Just call me Pepper. I wouldn’t know how to respond if anyone called me something else.”

“That is an unusual name for a nurse. Anyway, tell me, what is Mr. Hatcher like?”

“I can tell you this. I’ve been in this country for four years, and I ain’t never heard one mean word about Zachariah Hatcher.”

“He seems to be a kind, sensitive man.”

“You took the words right out of my mouth.”

“So heavy . . . on my chest. Are you pushing me? And it’s so cold. Is a window open? I feel  . . . Is that snow?”

Pepper Paige moved closer. Suzanne Cedar’s eyes stared blankly toward the ceiling. Her color was nearly the same as the gray fla
nnel sheets. Pepper pulled the blankets up around Suzanne’s neck, took hold of her hand, and rested the other one on her forehead.

“Pepper?”

“I’m here.”

“I’m not going .
 . . to live . . . to see Mr. Hatcher . . . am I?”

“No, ma’am. I don’t believe so.”

“My heart breaks.”

“I know you’re hurtin’ real bad. I wish I could do som
ethin’.”

“I’m ready for my Jesus." She gasped at some surge of  pain. “I should not have come. I didn’t even . . . last three days.”

“I guess the good Lord has our days numbered.”

“Yes. That's right.” After a pause, “Pepper? Are you still there?” she whi
spered.

“I’m here, darlin’.”

“You’ll tell him, won’t you?”

“Mr. Hatcher?”

“Yes. Tell him I loved him . . . with . . . all my heart."

Pepper Paige took a deep breath. “I’ll tell him. You can count on it.”

“You know what? I think you might be an angel.”

“A what?”

“From the Lord. An angel.”

“Nobody ever called me an angel unless he was tryin’ to get me to give him somethin’.”

“What do you . . . look like?”

“A lot like you. About your age. Blonde hair. Green eyes.
’
Course, you look like a beautiful porcelain doll that’s been kept on the shelf. I look like an old gunny sack doll that’s been tied to a rope and drug behind a wagon.”

The woman groaned at every breath. “I can’t take this pain anymore,” she gasped.

“Miss Cedar, I’m terrible sorry, but we don’t have any laudanum. I can get you some whiskey if you’d like.”

“Hurts so much.”

“Maybe it’s time to let go. I can guarantee that Heaven’s got to be a better place than this.”

“Pray for me.”

“But . . . I don’t know how.”

“Lord,” Suzanne Cedar rasped, “take good care of my Zach
ariah. Secial blessings to my angel, Pepper. I don’t know what I would . . . Oh!”

It was over. No more pain. No struggle for breath. No more pressure on the chest. No more cold wind. No more anxiety over a lover she never met.

Pepper folded Suzanne Cedar’s arms on her chest and pulled the flannel sheet over her head. “Good-bye, darlin’. It would have been nice to have more time to visit. But we didn’t exactly travel in the same circles.”

Pepper dabbed at her dry, dry eyes.

At daylight Pepper, draped in her robe, shuffled down the wooden stairs barefoot and across the sticky floor of the main room. Within minutes she had the wood stove in the kitchen stoked and water beginning to warm. The coffee was ready by the time Danni Mae Walters came in wearing a long flannel gown and red satin lace-up boots.

“You gettin’ up or goin’ to bed?” Pepper asked her.

“Oh? I just was too tired to pull my boots off. How’s your patient? Still hurtin’?”

“No pain this mornin’.”

“She goin’ to pull through?”

“She’s dead.”

Danni Mae poured herself a cup of coffee, pulled up a wooden chair next to Pepper’s, and plopped down.

“It don’t figure, does it?” she finally mu
ttered.

“Nope. She was a proper lady from back East. Been out here three days, and she’s dead. How many gunfights you figure there’ve been in this dance hall since we came here, Danni Mae?”

“Gunfights? About fifty, I suppose.”

“And how many knifings?”

“Twice that amount.”

“And how many head-bustin’ fist fights?”

“Are you kidding? Who in the world could count those?”

“We live through it all.”

“That’s one positive thing you can say about it.”

“And we got nothin’ when we’re through. Our life is pr
eserved so we can go on gettin’ nothin’. But Suzanne Cedar, she—”

“Who?”

“That dead lady up in my room. We was visitin’ a little last night. She had everything to live for. A rancher who wanted to marry her, a nice home, a future. But she’s dead, and we’re alive. It just don’t add up.”

“Add up or not, personally I’m glad it’s not me lyin’ dead up there.” Danni Mae shrugged.

“When you get tired of doin’ this, what will you do, Danni Mae?”

“Marry some cowboy, I guess .
 . . I don’t know. I just sort of take it one day at a time. Speakin’ of stabbin’s, Selena’s still threatenin’ to knife you.”

“I’m goin’ to take that sticker from her and cut off that black hair if she doesn’t calm down.”

“Watch out for her, Pepper. I hear she got run out of Central City for stabbing one of the girls.”

“Danni Mae, nobody ever got run out of Central City for knifin’ someone. But they might have got carried out in a box. I’ll watch out for her.”

“What you goin’ to do with that body in your room?” Danni Mae held out the front of her gown and fanned it back and forth. She stood up and refilled the two coffee cups and then pulled her chair back away from the wood stove.

“I guess I’ll get Stack to help me bury her out back. Then I’ll send a letter to her mama. If I can find an address.”

“Stack might be late gettin’ around. He had a run-in with Jordan Beckett last night. Several of Beckett’s boys tried workin’ him over.”

“Beckett was here?”

“Yep.”

“Drunk?”

“Yep.”

“He’s a jerk.”

“And he was lookin’ for you. That’s what made him so obnoxious. He wanted to promenade with his ‘golden-haired princess.’ He insisted that you were standin’ him up. You know how mean he gets when he’s been drinkin’. It’s all Stack could do to keep him from bustin’ upstairs.”

“I’m glad I missed him.”

“Oh, he’ll be back. April told him you’d be back on the floor tonight. And he’s threatenin’ to shoot any man who gets between you and him.”

“Yeah .
 . . that certainly gives me something to look forward to. Look, Danni Mae, I’m going to take this hot water upstairs and have a sponge bath. If you see Stack, tell him to build us a pine box and dig out the shovels.”

“Someday it will be me and you up there under a scrawny cedar, Pepper.”

“Not in a dump like this.”

“Sure .
 . . I can think of a lot of places worse than this one.” Danni Mae shrugged.

“That’s where you got me beat.” Pepper scooted toward the doorless entry. “I can’t think of many places more d
epressing than this.”

“Girl, you sure got a bad case of the sours.”

“I think I’m just tired,” Pepper called back toward the kitchen. “Real tired.”

Stack Lowery and a boy named Johnny had dug a hole up on Pingree Hill and left a pine box in the hallway when Pepper finally exited her room dressed for the day.

Pepper dragged the box into her room and scooted it over by the bed.

“Honey, we’ll just put you out on the mou
ntain until your kin claims ya. It’s the best we got out here. You were travelin’ mighty light on dresses. I suppose they’re back at Fort Collins with your baggage. I want you to look nice. Now I know you ain’t never worn a dress like this green satin, but I want you to be buried in it.”

It took her a good hour to pull the dress onto the body of Suzanne Cedar, wrap her in an old quilt, and lay her in the pine box. She was nailing the lid down when Stack Lowery a
ppeared at the door.

“Miss Pepper? You ready for me and Johnny to put her under?”

“Yeah . . . I’ll go with ya,” Pepper announced as she picked up a black Bible from the dresser.

“You goin’ to read over her?” Stack asked.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“A man learns somethin’ new ever’ day. I never knowed you had a Bible.”

“It belongs to her. It just seems like the right thing to do.”

“Yes, ma’am, it surely does.”

Hardly anyone talked about the death of Suzanne Cedar that night as a crowd started to belly up to the bar and then stagger out to the dance floor. Pepper’s feet were already tired when Jordan Beckett walked in and headed straight for her.

“Here’s my golden-haired, green-eyed darlin’,” he blu
stered. “Why did you hide from me last night?”

“Let’s just say I was sittin’ up with a very sick friend.”

“Yeah, sure. And did she have a miraculous recovery tonight?”

“Nope. She died.”

“And I say you was jist tryin’ to dodge me.” He grabbed her arm tight, and pain shot up to the shoulder. “You and me is goin’ out behind the barn for a little private talk.”

“Beckett, I do believe you’re the most eg
otistical, cold-hearted, foul-mouthed, repulsive, tobacco-chewin’ jerk in the state of Colorado. There isn’t a lady on the face of the earth who would walk out behind the barn with you.”

The big man’s face flushed red.

“I ain’t talkin’ to no lady. I’m talkin’ to you, Pepper Paige. I paid my money, and I get my choice. You’re it!”

At great pain, she pulled her arm free and turned her back on Beckett. Everyone had stopped to watch the two of them. Stack Lo
wery stopped playin’ the piano and started workin’ his way through the crowd toward her.

“It ain’t goin’ to work. I ain’t leavin’, and there’s no one here who can stop me,” he shouted.

She noticed that Stack was held at bay by two of Beckett’s men who pointed carbines.

“You see, Angel, this is your lucky night.”

“What did you call me?”

“Angel. I called you Angel. Why?”

“Come here.” She slipped her arms around his black leather vest as he stepped closer, hugging him close.

“Ya see, boys, you jist got to know how to treat them. Now that’s better, Angel—”

Pepper had Beckett’s gun out of its holster and jammed fully cocked, into his ear.

“You listen, and you listen good. There ain’t no one left on this earth who gets to call me Angel. You got that? Now you turn around and walk out that door. Don’t you ever, ever lay your filthy hands on me again,” she yelled.

“You can’t treat me this way,” he blustered. “You’ll pay for this.”

She jammed the revolver, still cocked, down the front of his trousers behind his belt. “You better thank your lucky stars that I didn’t pull the trigger,” she said with a sneer. Then she turned around and scooted up the stairs to her room.

The room filled with shouts and laughter. It would not be long until she would have a visit from April.

She closed door. When her mind fully focused, she n
oticed that Suzanne Cedar’s valise was missing. She ran down and kicked open the door at the end of the hall. Selena Oatley was digging through the leather bag.

“Gimme that,” Pepper snarled.

“It ain’t yours. I got as much right to it as you do.”

“You got no rights at all. I’m turnin’ it all over to her f
iancé.” Pepper wrenched the bag away from the dark-haired girl.

Selena yanked out her knife and waved it at Pepper. “You ain’t gettin’ nothing but the sharp end of a steel blade.”

Pepper swung the leather bag at Selena’s extended arm, knocking the knife to the far wall. Selena took a wild jab, but Pepper ducked. She caught the other girl with a doubled-up fist to the stomach. Another quick punch to the chin. Selena sprawled across her bed.