Hope, page 11
part #3 of Brides of the Rio Grande Series
She was still thinking about Billy’s brother when a voice startled her from her thoughts.
“What the goldarn hell are you doin’ here?” Charity stomped over to the table with her usual lack of social grace, then plopped down in one of the wooden chairs nestled against the table, her soiled clothes creating puffs of dust when she moved.
“Charity! You mustn’t sit on the furniture in your dirty clothes.” Hope wrinkled her nose in her sister’s direction. “You smell like a horse.”
Her sister stood and looked behind her to see if there was damage done to the boardinghouse furniture. “It ain’t hurt none. Besides, drifters come in here all the time and they ain’t clean.” Charity sat back down and motioned for the waitress.
Hope knew her wild sister didn’t understand the rules of society and even if she did, she wouldn’t care to obey them anyway.
“Whatcha gotta talk to Billy about and why are you grinning like one of them stupid cheesy cats?” Charity’s question pulled her back to the reality of the present. She didn’t think sharing her encounter with Billy’s brother with her gun happy sister would end well. Charity would just threaten to shoot him. Or punch him in the face. Or a number of other dastardly threats her unconventional sister kept in her kick ass arsenal. Perhaps a redirection of her sister’s attention to the second part of her question.
“It isn’t cheesy cats, Charity. It’s Cheshire Cat. And for the first time in a long, long time, I’m happy.”
The waitress filled Charity’s cup with coffee. It was no surprise to anyone she drank it black. Her sister nodded her understanding.
“Are you happy because of Billy? Is that the question you need to ask Billy? Are you going to ask him to marry you?”
“Charity! Women don’t ask men to marry them. The men do the asking.”
“See, that’s another goldarn rule that don’t make sense. If you ask me—”
“No one did. That’s just the way it is. Now, let’s talk about something else.” She could tell her comment didn’t sit well with Charity. Her sister didn’t understand why there was one set of rules for women and another set, a more liberal and less constrictive set, for men. In Hope’s mind, that was just the way it was and if you bucked the system, you would pay a price. Her goal was to get along with everyone.
“How you likin’ workin’ for Doc Howard?”
Now there was something she could talk about. “I love my job. Can you imagine, Charity? Me, a respected member of this community? Who knew that was even possible? Certainly not in Kansas City. But here, in Creede, it’s like—anything is possible. Anything at all.”
“Who gives a bastard rat’s ass about being respectable? All that does is put you in a box. You gotta act like people tell you to. You gotta sit all stiff and uncomfortable. And you gotta wear a dress that smothers the life out of you. I don’t give two hoots or a holler to be respectable because I don’t care what people think.”
“Not even a certain sheriff in this town?” Hope watched her sister’s face fall, the stubborn lines replaced by sadness.
“Not if it means I gotta act like somebody I ain’t. But that don’t matter. I don’t want you to get hurt in case somebody don’t agree with your declaration of respectability.”
Hope laughed at her sister’s comment. “I’m not going to stand on the street corner and yell to the world about it. I’m going to slip into it nice and easy. You know, helping this person and that person until everyone forgets where I came from.”
“Well, that’s good for you, Hope. I gotta say, I wish all your dreams come true. Just be careful not to let them ole busy bodies in town say something to hurt your feelin’s. But you know if they do say something, you can tell me and I’ll beat—”
Hope laughed at her sister’s intensity. “I know, you’ll beat them senseless. I promise to be careful, and thank you, Charity. You are a good sister. A little unconventional sometimes, but a good sister.”
Charity’s fair complexion blushed with embarrassment. She rose and threw her coins on the table for her coffee. “Yeah. Well. I gotta get goin’. The farrier should have finished shoeing my horse by now. You never know when the posse has to ride out and catch a criminal.”
“I thought the sheriff said you couldn’t ride with the posse.” Hope was surprised the sheriff would entertain the idea of Charity riding along, much less approve.
“I know what that stubborn man said, but it’s my decision, not his.” Charity tossed her long auburn braid over one shoulder in an act of defiance. “Besides, what he don’t know can’t get me in trouble.”
Hope watched the stubborn set of her sister’s jaw. Dear Lord, Sheriff Grayson had no idea what he was up against.
“I’m not certain that’s a true statement, Charity. I would imagine the sheriff can say who does and does not ride in his posse. Just…please be careful. I’d hate for you to be one of my first patients or end up on the wrong side of the law.”
Hope grinned. She was teasing her sister, but there was always the possibility where Charity was concerned those words could become prophetic.
Charity gave her an awkward hug and made her exit from the boardinghouse through the front door, leaving it standing wide open. Hope quickly stood and followed her sister’s departure.
“Were you born in a barn?” Hope called out to her sister’s retreating backside.
“How the hell would I know? I was raised in an orphanage, remember?” Charity replied over her shoulder, grinning from ear to ear.
Hope closed the door against the chill of the waning December day, offering apologies to anyone sitting near the drafty exchange. She glanced around the room in search of the doctor. She found him still conversing with the older couple. It appeared from the serious look on their faces, he was going to be awhile. She might as well head home.
Hope returned to her table and offered to pay for their food. The waitress refused, stating she owed Doc Howard for taking care of her kids when she didn’t have money to pay. Their meal was on her.
Wrapping her cloak around her shoulders, Hope picked up her satchel full of her medical notebooks and left the warmth of the boardinghouse. The sun was sinking in the west and a cold wind blew down Main Street from the north. Snow was on the way. She could feel it in the air.
She walked down the boardwalk toward the Hanover home where she knew she would find warmth and a sense of belonging. Was it enough? A sense of loneliness hit her deep in her gut.
Billy would be home tomorrow. At least, she hoped he would. She still hadn’t made up her mind whether she could forgive Billy for his indiscretion with John’s first wife. It was a pretty big hurdle to overcome and trust had never come easy for Hope. Not after the life she had been forced to lead. But she did miss him and she did love the man with all his flaws and quirks. Now that she knew about what Billy’s brother had done, Buchanan wasn’t exactly a name to be proud of.
A board creaked behind her and she spun around to see who was there. She saw no one. The sun sank lower, lengthening the shadows across the empty streets between the work of the day and the activities of folks who only came out after dark. She pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders. She felt silly. Now, she was imagining things, especially after meeting Bobby Buchanan face to face. She had experience in dealing with a certain kind of man working in Rosie’s saloon back in Kansas City. They were selfish, angry, heartless men and they took what they could get when they wanted it. That was why a young lady had to be smart.
Hope glanced around the darkening streets again. A chill crossed over her body leaving goosepimples in its wake and she turned toward home and picked up her pace. She had a feeling Billy’s brother wasn’t one of the usual kinds she and her sisters had had to deal with. No, she was fairly certain after all was said and done, he was pure evil and she had best stay on her toes where he was concerned or there would be hell to pay.
Billy arrived early that afternoon and he was dog tired. He wanted to stop by Doc Howard’s office to catch Hope before she left work. He hurried to brush down his team and he made sure they were fed and watered. Soon, he was on his way to Mrs. Bennett’s boardinghouse when a voice called out to him from across the street.
“Billy! When did you get back in town? I’ve missed you so much.”
It was Cora and he was in no mood to dodge her advances in the middle of Main Street.
“Hi, Cora. I can’t talk right now. I’m in a hurry.” Billy kept walking, hoping to dissuade her from following him. The girl was persistent as a mosquito on a humid summer night.
“That’s alright, Billy. I’ll walk with ya. How ya been? You ain’t been by to see me lately and I thought I mighta made ya mad.” Cora stuck her arm around Billy’s and hung on. He tried to pull her off of him, but she seemed just as determined to hang on as he was to let her go.
He nodded to passersby, their curious stares wondering about the two of them. There was no two of them and he wanted to make that crystal clear.
Billy stopped in the middle of the boardwalk and pulled Cora’s hand off his arm. “Look, Cora. There’s something you and I need to get straight. My heart belongs to Hope and—”
Cora squealed loud enough for the whole town to hear. Heads turned and Billy was at a loss to know what was happening. That was, until Cora opened her mouth.
“Oh, Billy. I thought you’d never ask me, but yes, I would love to go to the Winter Dance with you. I already got a perty dress I can wear and I was gonna borrow a pair of velvet dancin’ shoes from my friend, Mabel, and—”
“No, Cora. You don’t understand. I’m not asking you to the dance. I’m gonna ask Hope to the dance.”
Billy watched Cora’s mooneyed expression change to one of disgust. She rolled her eyes and pulled away from him fisting both hands on her hips.
“Gosh, Billy. You are a damn fool if you think that Hope Anderson is waiting on you. Not while she’s working for that handsome Doc Howard. Don’t you know every woman in this town is after that man? Well, every woman in town but me. Do you want to know why I ain’t interested in him? It’s ’cause I only got eyes for you, Billy.”
“I don’t believe you.” Billy’s heart punched at his chest as the thought of Hope and the doctor together behind closed doors in his office. He didn’t believe it. At least, he didn’t want to, but his insecurities were starting to show.
“Ask anybody in town. They was seen together at the boardinghouse late one afternoon this week. They were eating together and talking. Everybody saw them. Ain’t no secret.” Billy’s anger at no one in particular hitched up a notch.
“Hello, Billy. What’s going on here?”
Billy turned to see Hope and her sisters, Faith and Charity, standing on the sidewalk watching his nightmare unfold.
Cora gripped his arm tighter and snuggled in under his arm. Billy tried once more to push her off of him, but he swore, she was like handlin’ a kitten in a bathtub—all claws and growin’ more by the minute.
“Hope, I just got into town and I was headed to see you when I—” Billy stopped short because he wasn’t certain how to proceed at this point. He hated to hurt Cora’s feelings, but she was making his already contentious relationship with Hope even worse, if that was at all possible these days.
He took a good look at Hope, maybe he was thinking if she was guilty of two-timing him behind his back, it would show on her face. He knew better. Lizzie Malone had cheated on John for months and it never showed up until that awful day when the truth came tumbling out.
“When you what? Picked up a piece of trash from the gutter?” Billy watched Hope’s sister, Charity, shoot a smug look toward Cora. He felt Cora’s body tense against him. Oh, this was not going to end well for any of them.
“How dare you call me a piece of trash, you freak of nature. Look at you wearing them leather breeches and toting a gun around like a man. Fighting with your fists and brawlin’ until all hours of the mornin’. Who are you to call me names, you reject from the crazy house.”
Billy pulled Cora’s hand off him and stepped toward Hope and Faith who were watching this verbal exchange, eyes round and mouths opened in shock.
“Hope, I was coming to see you when Cora here stopped me and somehow she thinks I was asking her to the dance, but I swear I wasn’t.”
“You mean-mouthed little tramp. I’ll put my fist right in your face and shut you up for good.” Charity’s words resembled the growl of a snarling wolf Billy had once run across in the woods.
“Ladies, I don’t think this is the proper place to have this conversation.” Billy pulled Hope and Faith to the side of the boardwalk and up against the dressmaker’s store front. He hoped they would be out of harm’s way until he could somehow get this situation under control.
Charity was having none of it and she wasn’t known to be the voice of reason. “I think this is the perfect place to have this conversation. It’s a sad day in Creede when a man, who obviously belongs to another woman, can’t walk across the street without being accosted by a sneaking two-timing pole cat who ain’t got nothing on her mind other than stealin’ another woman’s man. And it’s time I taught this one a lesson. Right here. Right now.”
Billy watched the two women snarl at each other as the circle of onlookers grew. How on earth had he gone from a simple walk across the street to this public spectacle? A quick look at Hope’s face told him she wanted to disappear underneath the boardwalk boards. He knew respectability was very important to her, but this situation wasn’t of his making and he would make sure she understood that as soon as he could figure out how to stop it.
“Whataya gonna do, you red-headed crazy ole’ bat? You gonna wrestle me to the ground and push my face into the dirt?” Cora taunted. It was obvious the woman had no idea who she was dealing with.
Billy left Hope and Faith next to the building and tried to put himself between the two fighting women. He was a half second too late.
“I think that’s a helluva good idea.” Charity grinned and pulled back her arm to plant her fist in Cora’s face. When Cora saw what was happening, she ducked her head and rammed Charity in the gut, sending them both to the boardwalk. They rolled and tumbled, legs and arms flailing until they both landed in the street. Horses tied at the hitching post reared and struggled to be free from the two women rolling and tumbling on the ground beneath their hooves.
Billy rushed to untie the horses before someone was seriously hurt. He had the reins of three horses and was untying the fourth when a gunshot echoed in and out of the buildings leaving a ringing in his ears. It took him a moment to clear his head enough to figure out that reinforcements had arrived and he was no longer alone to corral these two wild women.
“What is going on here? Billy? Do you want to explain?” Sheriff Grayson stood, legs spread wide, and his gun’s barrel, still smoking in his hand.
“I would, Sheriff, if I could. One minute I was walking across the street and the next minute, I’m in the middle of a female storm not of my making.”
Sheriff Grayson shook his head and re-holstered his peacemaker. Then he turned to the two women covered in the muddy mess that was Creede’s streets after the recent snow. “And what do you two have to say for yourselves?”
Cora was the first to jump up and plead her case to the lawman, staring at them both none-too kindly. “I was just minding my own business, talking to my beau there, when this crazy she-devil came running up to me and—”
Charity bowed up and turned on the lawman. “Oh hell no, Sheriff. That ain’t the way it happened at all. This Jezebel here was trying to steal my sister’s man right out from under her nose, and I’m not havin’ none of it. Not a bit.”
Billy retied his captive horses to the hitching post and came to stand near the women, careful not to get too close in case the sheriff lost control of the situation. It was easy to do, for sure. He could attest to that.
“Billy, what do you have to say for yourself?” Sheriff Grayson looked at him with a hint of amusement, but he didn’t find one bit of this mess funny. Not at all.
“I was walking across the street on my way to see Hope here.” He turned and pointed to Hope still shrinking against the building doing her best to disappear. He supposed pointing her out to everyone wasn’t going to help his cause none. “Anyway, I was headed to see my sweetheart, Hope Anderson,” he emphasized so there was no mistaking which woman he considered his, “when Cora here came running across the street and grabbed me by the arm. Well, Sheriff, one thing seemed to lead to another and next thing I know, Charity and Cora are fighting.”
“Is that a fact?” The sheriff turned to Charity and she was a sight. She was covered from head to toe in mud. “Miss Montgomery, what do you have to say for yourself?”
“I say any woman who tries to steal another woman’s man is a low down pole cat that ain’t worth shootin’ and I aim to right the wrong. Billy Buchanan belongs to my sister and ain’t nobody gonna say different.”
Billy saw Sheriff Grayson’s face pale under the implication of Charity’s words. “I see.” The usually stoic lawman seemed at a loss for words. Billy turned to see a blank wall where Hope and Faith had stood only moments ago. He looked around for where they might have gone, but there was no sign of the two women. He supposed he was gonna have a lot of explaining to do when he caught up with Hope.
Finally, Sheriff Grayson found his words among the snickers and whispers of the gathering crowd. “Miss Montgomery. Miss Ludlow. You two are under arrest for disturbing the peace. I’d appreciate it if you both would march down that street to my office. If you resist, I will be forced to handcuff you and don’t think I won’t just because you two are ladies—I mean females. Ain’t nothing ladylike about either one of you two at the moment.” Billy heard him mumble under his breath.
