Ruby (9 page)

“We get ours from old man Johnson. Sometimes, if he ain’t home, I got to milk the cow.”

“Milk the cow?”

“I’ll explain some other time.”

Ruby could hear them through the window she’d opened to let in the breeze that cooled the heat from the cookstove and the steam from the boiler where sheets were bubbling. Doing the wash over the campfire outside was not to be tolerated. She’d peeked in a couple of the rooms that weren’t let and immediately ripped the beds apart. There would be clean bedding in her hotel, and scrubbed floors would be coming very soon.

Milly and Opal returned quickly, and the
girls
ambled in just as Ruby was setting the food on the table. And just before she went to knock on their doors. They wore wrappers and makeup left on from the night before.

Ruby swallowed the words that bubbled up like a kettle on fast boil. No sense getting off to a wrong start.

Belle yawned and scratched under one arm. “My, this does look good. Shame it couldn’t be an hour later when I’d had time to get really hungry.”

Ruby passed the platter of scrambled eggs and slices of bacon. She nodded to Milly to pour the coffee.

“Thanks.” Charlie was the only one to use a kind word of appreciation, or any words for that matter. The others just fell to eating and made short order of the platters of food.

Opal’s eyes rounded like the plates before them, looking from Ruby, who gave a slight shake of her head, back to the women who seemed to be making Opal a believer in the value of manners.

Ruby felt like the inside of her mouth was all in tatters from biting her inner lip, her cheeks, and even her tongue. When the plates were empty and the coffee cups refilled, she took the envelopes from her pocket and stood at the head of the table.

“I know you are all very curious as to what will happen next here at Dove House, so I would like to read my father’s last will and testament. He gave me this before he died, and . . .”

She almost mentioned the promise he had extricated from her but held back. When she caught Belle’s glance, she knew the meaning of the phrase
evil eye
. If she’d not been fortified by tea and prayer, she knew she would have withered away.

She kept the personal letter and deed separate and read the will.

“I, Per Torvald, being of sound mind write this as my final will and testament. While I know this will make Belle furious because she believes this place should be hers should I pass on, I will Dove House to my daughters, Ruby and Opal. I have sent for them, and unless I hear from them otherwise, this property belongs to them. Should they not come to Little Missouri to claim their inheritance, then, Belle, you will have your chance.

“But no matter who is in charge, you must take care of the girls, making sure they have a home for as long as they want. To Charlie I leave the gold nugget we dug out of the Black Hills and the right to run the saloon here at Dove House.

“Thank you all for being my friends, and may you remember me with favor.

“Per Torvald, March 29, 1882

“Dakota Territory in the United States of America.”

Ruby looked up from the paper. “As you can see, we did arrive in time to talk with our father, and according to this will, my sister and I are the owners of Dove House. Far as I can determine for right now, we should continue with business as usual, even though I hate the thought of a saloon. I have gone through my father’s ledgers and—”

“Who’s going to help you run this?” Belle stood, leaning toward Ruby as if to snap at her.

“I . . . I said, business as usual.”

“Are you going to deal?” Belle stabbed the air with a finger.

“Cards?” Surely they didn’t play whist.

“That’s what your father did, along with taking in the money. Or, if Charlie was dealing, Per took care of the bar.”

“I see.”
God, I sure do need your help here
. “Perhaps then you should each tell me what you do here. Outside of Milly, for I know her position.”

Ruby looked to Cimarron, her red hair all a tumble, who leaned back with one arm draped over the chair. “And what is it you do?”

“I’m a singer and dancer and one of the doves.”

“I see.”
What is a dove? Is she trying to make fun of me?
“And you, Jasmine?” She turned to the dark-haired woman, who had yet to speak.

“Like her.” Jasmine tossed her head. “I sing, dance some, I can play the piano when Belle is busy, and I’m a dove.” She and Cimarron exchanged winks.

“I see. And men pay you to dance with them?”

“Guess you could call it that if’n you want to.”

Ruby looked toward Charlie. “In the ledgers, there is a constant reference to hospitality. Are all of you part of . . . hospitality?” She said the word with hesitation.

Charlie shook his head, his eyebrows caterpillaring across his brow. “Not me. I just pour the drinks and knock a few heads together and throw ’em out the door if they get too rowdy. We keep a safe place here.”

“Oh.” She turned to glare at the three women who were snickering to each other.
What do they think is so funny?
She drew up into her schoolmarm self, the persona that could keep the three older Brandon children under control even when Alicia and Jason ganged up on her.

“Is there something I should know that you would like to tell me?”

“You haven’t asked what I do.” Belle raised an eyebrow, her eyes anything but friendly, something like a rat that she had cornered near the feed bin in the carriage house one time. Ruby still shuddered when she thought of the malevolence of the creature.

She expected Belle to twitch her whiskers at any moment.

“Pardon me. Belle?”

“I been with Per for five years, we met up in Deadwood. I play the piano, deal some, and while I watch out for the girls, I ain’t been a dove since we came here.” She dug a thin cigar from the nether regions of her bosom, and Charlie rose to take a spill, light it in the stove, and then light her cigar.

Opal stared with utter fascination as Belle blew smoke from between pursed lips.

Oh, Lord, preserve us
.

“Ruby, what’s a dove?” Opal leaned forward to ask.

“A dove? Why you’ve seen doves in the park, not much different than a pigeon, only prettier.”

“But . . .” The two sisters stared at each other, then the women as they burst out laughing.

Belle waved her cigarillo, the end of it now lodged in a long stem sort of attachment. “We ain’t the pigeons, sister.”

This brought on another wave of laughter.

Ruby looked at Charlie, who was fighting hard to keep a straight face. He gave a slight shake of his head when he caught her eye, but she had no idea what he meant.

Ruby closed her eyes and counted to ten in double-quick time. While these people were adults, they had worse manners than children—at least the children she had known.

When Opal started to say something, Ruby laid a hand on her shoulder. The squeeze meant not now. Opal subsided, muttering half under her breath. “So what’s wrong with doves?”

More snickers and an outright guffaw.

Belle leaned forward like she was conversing friendly like. “Not just doves, dear, soiled doves.”

Ruby rapped her knife handle on the table. “That is enough. Since you are taking such delight at our expense, this meeting is adjourned.”

“Now, it ain’t fair to ignore your baby sister like that.” Belle drew in another mouthful of smoke and blew a thin stream out of the side of her mouth.

The rat was about to bite, and short of running out of the room, Ruby had no idea what to do.

“Some folks call us ladies of the night?” She waited to see if that rang any bells.

“That’s enough, Belle.” Charlie shifted in his chair. “Milly, why don’t you pour us some more coffee? There’s a good girl.”

Belle hissed another term, then shook her head at the look of confusion on Ruby’s face.

“I said, that’s enough.”

“You don’t own me, Charlie boy, and don’t you forget it.” Belle pushed back her chair. “If she ain’t smart enough to know what’s going on here, this country’s goin’ to eat her up and spit out the bones to bleach on the prairie.” She took her cup of coffee with her as she stalked out of the room.

Cimarron glared after Belle, then leaned forward. “Honey, you send your little sister out with Milly, and Charlie can go set up the bar. We got to have a little talk.”

“I’ll be upstairs.” Jasmine headed out the door as if chased by a fire-breathing dragon, and Charlie rushed out too, presumably to set up the bar.

Ruby, her throat suddenly dry as the dust she’d seen under the beds, sent Opal out with Milly, then took the seat right across the table from the woman.

“Now, you know you got Belle by the ostrich feathers. She’s mad ’cause she’s runnin’ scared.”

“Oh?”
Belle certainly didn’t look scared. I’m the one that’s shaking in my shoes
.

“You know when you asked about that there hospitality?”

Ruby nodded.

“And we all was so rude and laughed at you?”

Ruby nodded again.
Lord, if this is what quicksand is like, please keep me out of it
.

“Well, we, ah, we do for men what their wives would do if’n they had wives. You get my meaning?” She waited. “At night, in bed.”

Ruby could feel the heat flare from her chest to the ends of her hair. She was sure she could hear it sizzle. “Oh. Oh!” If only she could melt under the table and drain out through a knothole in the floor.
Lord, help me. What do I say? What do I do?

“But . . .” She clamped her lower lip between her teeth.

“Then we gave half of what we earned to your pa. So if Dove House closes, we would be out of work, at least in a place as nice as this. We could go to the cribs, but that would be awful. Our line of work doesn’t exactly make us popular with the other women in town. Not that there are many.”

“I . . . I imagine not.” The meaning of the short and brightly colored dresses they wore became clear to her. If only she had a fan. “If you’ll excuse me, please.” Ruby pushed back from the table. “Tell Milly to send Opal up to me. I’ll be in my room.”
Packing
.

CHAPTER TEN

“But, Ruby, you promised Papá . . . er, Far.”

“Opal, you just don’t understand.” Ruby jerked another frock off the hook in the armoire and stuffed it into the trunk.
All those men—and the girls!
She laid a hand against the base of her throat. In the hall and . . . It didn’t bear thinking about. And part of the horror was that she had brought her little sister into this awful place. And their father! Whatever had he been thinking? She poured herself another glass of water and downed it in one long gulp. A glass wasn’t enough. She needed a pond or a lake.

“You always say I don’t understand.”

What would Mrs. Brandon have to say about such a mess as this? That didn’t bear thinking about either.
Father God, how could you have let us—I mean, I was only obeying my earthly father. How could you let us. . . ? Why?

“But, Ruby . . .”

“What?” Ruby jerked her mind back to see the consternation on her sister’s face. She knew the word came out too sharply even before she saw the hurt in Opal’s eyes. But as she watched, the hurt changed to a tightened jaw and flashing eyes.

“You said we always have to keep our word. And you gave Papá your word.” The last was delivered with all the regalness of a queen confronting an errant subject.

But you don’t understand
. Ruby kept the words from her lips, took in a deep breath, let it all out, unclenched the fists at her sides, took in another deep breath, and collapsed on the side of the bed. She reached for Opal’s hands and drew her close to stand right in front of her so they could look eye to eye.

“Opal, dear, there is so much here you don’t understand. There’s a lot here I don’t understand either, and I think the best thing for us is to be gone, to get back on the train and return to New York.”

“Best for us or best for them, the girls you promised to take care of?”

But they don’t want us to take care of them. They are happy with the way things are
. But were they really? Belle said she was, but what about the other two? Could they really be happy doing what they were doing with different men?

Would I be happy with that? How could anyone. . . ?

She clenched her fists against her mouth, bit down on her knuckles to drive the inner arguments away. Maybe if she hurt bad enough herself, she could quit thinking.

“Please, Ruby . . .”

“Opal, you don’t know what you are asking.” Ruby reached out and stroked the curly wisps of hair off her sister’s forehead. Pulling her down beside her on the bed, she kept an arm around Opal’s shoulders. “Yes, we should always live up to our word. It’s not just me or Mrs. Brandon who says that, but God’s Word says so too.”
But how can I stay here to keep my word and live with myself?

“Take care of the girls.”
What if they really don’t want to be taken care of?
Would I want to be taken care of?

Yes! If it is like the Brandons’ home in New York. But didn’t you wish for an opportunity to meet a fine young man and perhaps marry and have children of your own? Lord, what am I to do? What is your will in all of this? Are you listening?

Ruby had no answers.

“Can I go help Milly? She works awful hard.”

“I better go downstairs too.” Ruby took Opal’s hands again. “You have to promise me you will not go into the saloon or into any of the girls’ rooms.”

“I promise.”

“And you won’t talk with any of the men who come here.”

“I don’t anyway. But what about Mister Charlie?”

“You can talk with him when he is not in the saloon.”

“I want to gather the eggs again, and I won’t let that old broody hen get me this time.” She pulled away. “I’ll ask Milly if she knows where we can get a cat. I ain’t never had a cat before.”

“Don’t say ain’t.”

“The others do.”

“We don’t.”
Lord, see it has already begun. All my teaching blowing away like the wind
.

Opal darted out the door before she could hear any more restrictions.

Ruby leaned her head against the bedpost.
What can I do, Lord, what can I do?

She eyed the trunk. Packing and leaving would be so much easier than the only other possibility that lurked in her mind. She thought of the money in the envelope, a small fortune to one who’d never had more than five dollars at a time in her entire life.

“Why would I decide to stay here?”

Because you promised
. The words rang in Opal’s voice. Ruby crossed to the window and leaned her forehead against the glass. Down on the street, she saw two men ride in on horses, dismount, and flip the reins over the railing in front of the porch. While they disappeared under the porch roof, she could hear the thud of their boots and the jangling of metal. The door squeaked when they opened it, and the sounds she’d now come to understand as normal spilled out into the air, then dimmed again with the squeaking close of the door. A scruffy dog sniffed a clump of weeds and lifted his leg to water it before trotting off. Sunlight sparkled on the river as the Little Missouri wound its way between cliffs of preposterous colors and shapes. Trees along the river wore a haze of green, new buds just sprouting on their branches.

What would it be like to walk down by the river? To sit on a rock in the sun? To ride a horse up on the hills as Opal wanted?

She straightened and saw a clean spot on the glass where her forehead had rested. “Ugh.” Dipping water out of the pitcher with a cloth, she rubbed her forehead clean again, and after straightening her hair and clothing, she donned an apron and headed out the door. Perhaps she would get a good idea or two while she was cleaning. And of that there was enough to keep her busy for weeks. Unless she could recruit some more help— from the “girls.”

She met Charlie in the hallway.

“Can we talk a minute, Miss Ruby?”

“Of course.” She gave him a smile that she hoped signified confidence.

“I . . . I need to apologize.” He studied the lay of the floorboards.

Ruby waited, not sure what she should say.

“I . . . ah . . . I didn’t know you didn’t know. I mean, what we . . . we got here. I’m sorry we embarrassed you so.”

Ruby could feel the red heat creeping up her neck again. What to say? “Thank you,” she finally said.

“If’n there is any way I can help you, besides tending the bar, that is, I hope you will let me know.”

“I will, and thank you again.”

“I hope you stay.”

She darted him a look of inquiry.

“I mean, no one has said nothing, but your leaving wouldn’t surprise any of us.”

“And that is what Belle is counting on?” She watched him closely to see if he would defend Belle or answer straight.

Charlie nodded.

“And you?”

He looked her straight in the eye. “I want you to stay. Your pa bragged about his two treasures, as he called you. He always wanted you to come west and be with him.”

“Then why didn’t he send for us sooner?” The words ripped out of her heart and flew across the brief space.

“He figured he didn’t have a place for you, and then when things were gettin’ better, like here, he started feelin’ poorly. He didn’t plan on dyin’ so soon.”

“No one does.” She swallowed the tears that burned at the back of her throat.

“He carried a picture of you in his watch, you and your mother. All those years.”

“I didn’t see a watch in his things.”

“It was gold. I don’t think he ever gambled that away. You might ask Belle.”

As if Belle would give me anything of my father’s
.

“Hey, Charlie, you’re needed down here.” Belle’s voice echoed up the stairs.

“I better go. Please don’t give up too soon. Think on it?”

“I will.” She watched him head back down the hall, a slight limp on his right side. One more thing to think on—where had her father’s watch gone?

She descended the backstairs to find the kitchen cleaned up again, the washed sheets hanging on the clothesline out back, and ham and beans baking in the oven. The aroma drew her to open the oven door and check to see what was cooking.

When she opened the pantry door, a mouse scampered along the counter and down the other, diving into a hole in the baseboard. She clamped her hand over the shriek and shuddered instead.
You silly, why didn’t you take a broom after the filthy thing?Because I don’t even know where the broom is kept, but I sure am going to find out
. She began opening cabinets, pulling out drawers both in the pantry and in the storeroom they’d started cleaning the day before. She found a broom and a bucket on the back porch. Opal was coming back from the necessary that stood out behind the chicken house.

“You want to see the chickens?”

“No, thanks.”

“Milly showed me where the garden was too. We could plant lots of stuff there pretty soon.”

“Is it dug up?”

“No, but we’re going to spread chicken droppings on it before we dig it up.” Opal screwed up her face. “Won’t that make the vegetables taste terrible?”

“No. You remember Mr. Klaus used to spread straw and such on the gardens at home. He’d buy a load of manure from a farmer who brought it to town.”

Opal made a face.

Ruby returned the grimace. “I just saw a mouse.”

“Did you kill it?”

“With what?”

“Cook used to use a broom. She broke a teapot one day when she missed on a swing.” Opal acted out Mrs. Klaus flailing at a mouse. She came to Ruby’s side and looked out over the hills. “Sure is pretty here, don’t you think?”

“More like a strange and terrible beauty.” Ruby knew she was quoting someone but had no idea whom.

“Sure different than New York.”

It was Ruby’s turn to nod. “That is the truth.”

“Milly said Mrs. Fitzgerald and Mrs. McGeeney are the only married ladies in town, and they don’t even speak to each other. No one even knows why. Strange, huh?”

“What other bits of interest has Milly poured in your oh-so-willing ears?”

“Well, the army is housed in those buildings down the street. They call that the cantonment. Some of the soldiers are regulars at Dove House.”

“Opal!”

“Well, they come to play cards most nights. That’s what Milly said.” Opal stepped off to the side in case she needed some space to keep from getting her arm grabbed.

“Most supplies come in on the train. There’s only a small store here, owned by someone named Johnny Nelson. Seems there ain’t much here . . . er, isn’t.”

“Thank you.”

They studied the landscape in silence. “We are going to stay, Ruby, aren’t we?”

“We shall see. Where’s Milly?”

Opal shrugged. “She said she had some mending to do. She takes care of those fancy dresses the girls wear. Wouldn’t you like a pretty dress like some of those Belle wears?”

“Opal!”

“Not clothes they wear in the saloon but like that beautiful aquamarine silk we saw hanging in the armoire. Blue always looks good on you.”

“Well, right now I wish I had more serviceable skirts like my black wool. Clothes for cleaning is what we need. Most of our new things are too nice for that.” She turned and went back in the door. “You coming?”

“I guess.”

That night Ruby found herself turning and sighing, tossing and sighing again. The noise from downstairs made sleeping nigh on to impossible, but even after that all shut down, she couldn’t close off the thoughts chasing through her mind. If she could only take a broom to them like she should have taken it to that mouse. Finally she slipped out of bed and relit the lamp, carrying it over to the table where she had the ledgers spread out. Now all the entries made sense, horrible sense in her estimation. She stared at the notes and numbers until her eyes went out of focus and they all jumbled together.

How could she take care of the girls without the saloon and the other business? She didn’t need to add all the figures to see how much the girls contributed to the coffers.

“Do all to the glory of God.”
The piece of a Bible verse floated through her mind.
So what could Dove House become that would be to the glory of God?
She removed her father’s letter—now permanently wrinkled from the many readings—from her pocket and reread it again. Hotel—that’s what he’d written. Dove House would make a fine hotel.

“Good food and a clean place to sleep.” That’s what she would want. But these men out here on the frontier didn’t seem to care about a good bed. They’d rather have a place to drink and carouse around. So was playing cards wrong?

She shook her head. “I don’t know.” Could the men play cards and drink coffee? Would they?

She could feel the ideas coming together like butter in a churn.

If they turned the saloon into a dining room, moved the card room off to the side, used the bar for checking in those who would rent the rooms—for sleeping only. The girls could be waitresses; she and Charlie could do the cooking. Ruby ignored the voice that said she’d never cooked a full meal in her life. Not to mention preparing three meals a day. Could Charlie cook that well? He seemed to know his way around the kitchen. And Milly seemed to know something of cooking too, and the cleaning.

Where do we get the supplies?

Off the train, of course, but where was a town big enough to provide what they would need? Charlie would know.

Perhaps Belle would like to be in charge of the card room. She wrote down ideas as they came to her, filling up two pages of the ledger before she realized she was running out of both kerosene for the lamp and stamina for her eyes.

“Don’t you ever sleep?” Ruby asked Charlie when she found him already downstairs after the rooster had crowed only once. Her many new ideas had awakened her after only an hour or two of sleep.

“You look mighty perky this morning too.” He leaned back in his chair. “’Sides, I like the early mornin’. ’Specially now, when spring is here and summer on the way. Step outside, you can smell the world changing, coming alive again.”

“Charlie, how good a cook are you?”

He blinked at her, shrugged with one shoulder, and sucked through the slight gap between his front teeth. “Passable. Why?”