The Chili Queen (5 page)

“Ha!” said Welcome. Addie turned to her, but all she could see in the dark corner was Welcome’s white apron.

“You do take women, don’t you? Your card says, ‘Men taken in,’ but I hoped…” She left the sentence hanging in the air as a question.

“There isn’t room,” Addie said. “We’re full up.”

“Let her taken Miss Frankie’s room, but she can’t call me ‘nigger.’ Miss Frankie did, and I told her ‘git.’”

“That’s my business to put her out,” Addie protested.

Welcome chuckled in the darkness. “You take Miss Frankie’s room, Miss Addie, and give up yourn to the lady. Since it’s off the kitchen, she won’t be bothered by any goings-on.”

“Who are you working for?” Addie asked her.

“Put her upstairs, then,” Welcome suggested.

“It’s just for tonight. I’ll look for a housekeeping room in the morning,” Emma said. “But if you have a vacancy, I’d be pleased to be your roomer.”

“You’re staying on?” Addie asked.

“What else can I do?” Emma shrugged. “You heard my brother. I can’t go back home. And I wouldn’t if I could. I thought…” She paused and looked down at her hands, embarrassed. “I thought maybe I could set up a hat shop. I think I have a talent for trimming hats.”

Addie gave her an astonished look and was about to reply when the bell on the front door rang. Welcome came forward, and she and Addie exchanged glances. “You got you a caller,” Welcome said.

“I can hear that.”

“If you have company, I can go on upstairs.” Emma stood up and reached for her hat. “If you would just tell me which room.”

“You want me to show her?” Welcome asked. She appeared to be enjoying herself.

“I could go back to the depot. There’s a bench there that I could sleep on. I don’t want to intrude,” Emma added.

“No,” Addie said quickly. “You let me get my things, and you can stay in my room. I’ll go upstairs.”

Emma yawned. “I’m so grateful. I’m awful confused and so tired I could sleep until the roll’s called up yonder.”

“You do that,” Addie said.

“That’s a real nice thing you done,” Welcome told Addie, who was surprised at how she was warmed by the compliment.

Welcome picked up Emma’s valise and took it into the bedroom, Addie following behind. “Get the door and show him into the parlor. I’ll take my clothes upstairs. And make sure those lazy girls are ready. You tell them I’m home, and I don’t tolerate slackers,” Addie told Welcome. She glanced at Emma to see if it had dawned on her what she was talking about, but the woman had sat down on the bed and leaned her head against the bedpost. She was almost asleep. Addie sighed, wondering why things never seemed to work out quite right for her. The Chili Queen was hers, paid for by her hard work. But she was headed upstairs to a hooker’s room while Emma was about to go to sleep in her bed. Addie’d always thought of herself as kindhearted. Now she wondered if she were just an easy mark.

Business was good at The Chili Queen that night, so good, in fact, that Addie herself had taken care of three customers. When the last one left, she locked the front door and sent the girls upstairs to bed. In the kitchen, she found Welcome still awake, scrubbing out the little bathtub. “You was working, so I give her the bath,” Welcome said. “You want one?”

But Addie was too tired to wait for Welcome to heat fresh water. She started toward her room.

“Uh-uh. Where you going?” Welcome asked. “’Member, you got a lady in there. You’re sleeping in Miss Frankie’s room.” She pointed to the ceiling and laughed out loud.

Addie turned around and made her way to the stairs. Broken-Nose Frankie’s room was the smallest in the house, but it didn’t matter where she slept, Addie supposed, as she threw her clothes onto the floor. Like Emma, she could sleep until judgment day. Addie climbed into bed and sank down, nearly to the floor, it seemed. In the morning, she’d ask Welcome to help her tighten the bed cords. She shifted around on the cornshuck tick to get comfortable. The tick crackled and scratched, and Addie wished she had her own feather mattress under her. But she found a comfortable spot and closed her eyes. Then she sniffed. The odor from the sheets made her gag. It wasn’t just the smell from the night’s activity, either. Miss Frankie had been none too clean, and the sheets hadn’t been washed since she left. Maybe they hadn’t been washed in all the time Miss Frankie had worked there. And the room was close. Addie got up and opened the window as wide as it would go, which was only a few inches. Parlor house madams, even those whose establishments were as fine as The Chili Queen, nailed strips of wood to the window tracks in the boarders’ rooms to keep men from climbing in and the girls from sneaking out.

Addie got back into bed, but something hard in the mattress poked her, and she moved around like a nesting bird to find a satisfactory place. She was nearly asleep when a horsefly buzzed about her head. Addie swatted the fly, and it flew off, but in a minute, it was back. In the moonlight that filled the room, Addie saw it land on the iron bedstead, and she smashed it. Then she picked it up by a wing, got out of bed, and flung it out the window, stopping to watch as Welcome walked from the back door of The Chili Queen to the shack where she slept. She was an odd one, but Addie was too tired to think about Welcome. She glanced at her hand and saw that the fly’s wing was stuck to the palm, so she went to the washstand and poured water into the bowl, rinsing off her hands. The towel was gone, and Addie dried her hands on the sheet.

The bed was hot, so Addie took off her nightdress and lay down on top of the sheet, banging the pillow to fluff it up. She hoped Emma had had just as much trouble falling asleep, but she doubted it. Addie felt a bite on her leg and hoped Miss Frankie hadn’t left behind bedbugs. She spread her nightgown over the top of the bed and lay down again. There was yelling and a gunshot from the direction of the saloons. Then a horse galloped past The Chili Queen. Those were comforting sounds, and lulled by them, Addie at last fell asleep.

She did not know how long she’d slept, but the sky was light when a woman’s scream made her jump out of bed. Probably, one of the girls had had a bad dream, most likely Miss Tillie, who had been in a sour mood all evening and so unpleasant with a cowboy from Raton that Addie had returned Miss Tillie’s half of his money. Addie settled back in the bed. But the woman screamed again, and Addie sat bolt upright, as she realized the sound wasn’t from one of the girls. It had come from downstairs: The mail-order bride was the one having a nightmare. There was nothing Addie could do about it, and she settled back in bed. But the woman screamed a third time, making so much noise that Addie knew she’d have to shut her up or she’d awaken the whores, and they would go downstairs, and Addie was too tired to explain to Emma what a pair of hookers was doing in a boardinghouse. So she got out of bed again, wrapped the soiled robe about herself, and barefoot, she made her way down the dark stairs, stepping on something wet. She prayed it was water but didn’t think so.

As she reached the kitchen, Addie heard a key in the back door, and she picked up the poker from the stove in case of an intruder. But it was Welcome who came through the door, muttering, “That noise pesters me. It’s louder than a skeleton dancing on a tin roof. Is it Miss Tillie again?”

Addie was glad Welcome had come. If Emma had the hysterics, it might take two of them to calm her down. Addie jerked her head toward the bedroom door. “No, it’s that damned old maid, probably dreaming about her wedding night—which is as close to it as she’s going to get.”

But just then, they heard a swack and a man cried, “Ouch!”

Addie swore softly, starting toward the room. But Welcome got to the door first, opened it, and rushed in ahead of Addie. Emma, clutching a hairbrush, was standing over a man, who had his hands to his head. “Addie, by zam, it’s me,” he said.

Welcome gave a deep, throaty chuckle. Then Addie, too, began to laugh. Emma raised her arm to strike again. “He came through the window. I believe he is a masher.”

Addie grabbed the hairbrush from her. “Naw, he’s no masher. He’s Ned.”

“Who?” Emma asked, looking around for a second weapon. The man on the floor had lifted his head and was staring from one woman to another.

“He’s Ned. Ned Partner is who he is,” Addie said.

A look of terror crossed Emma’s face as she recognized the name. “The outlaw?” she asked, drawing back against the bed, her hands crossed over her chest.

“Oh, Ned won’t hurt you. He comes here all the time. He’s my—” Addie stopped, suddenly shy in front of Emma. She tightened the belt of the wrapper and pulled the lapels over her chest. “He’s my brother.” She couldn’t say why she’d become self-respecting all of a sudden.

“What?” asked Ned, as he got to his knees. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Oh, she won’t tell anybody about you. This here is a maiden lady I met on the train. She doesn’t know anybody in Nalgitas. I gave her my room,” Addie explained, then added, “just for tonight.”

Ned got to his feet, gently touching the spot on his head where Emma had hit him, then checked his fingers for blood. There wasn’t any. “You picked a maiden lady with a good arm,” he said. “You got any ice for this goose egg?” he asked Welcome.

“Any gentleman would have come in at the door, but I guess you ain’t one of them. Now come along,” Welcome told him, and the two went into the kitchen, followed by Addie and Emma, who had slipped a robe over her nightdress. Addie wondered, with the heat, how Emma could sleep in a long-sleeved bedgown that was buttoned up to her neck, especially with all that hair hanging down her back. Emma’s hair might have gray streaks, but it was long and thick and curled prettily around her face. Addie twisted her own scraggly hair into a knot at the back of her neck.

Welcome used a pick to chip off a piece of ice, then wrapped it in a towel and placed it on Ned’s head. “You hold that,” she told him. “I’d be guessing you’ll want eatments.”

“I guess,” Ned said.

Welcome stirred up the fire in the cookstove, then picked kindling from the box and fed it into the coals. She sliced bacon into the skillet and mixed up batter for hotcakes. “You want I should fix your breakfast, too?” she asked Addie.

Addie had had too much whiskey the night before, which had caused a hurting in her head, and the idea of food made her stomach churn. She shook her head. Welcome turned to Emma, who replied, “I would, if it’s not too much bother. I could help.”

Welcome shook her head, and Emma sat down at the kitchen table as far from Ned as possible, staring at him.

He stared back, amusement in his eyes. Ned’s eyes always laughed, even when he was angry, Addie thought. Ned was the best-tempered man she’d ever known—and the handsomest. He was just under six feet tall and muscular, and he had green eyes and curly brown hair that turned a little red in the sun. Women could just hardly keep away from him. Still, with all that temptation, Ned was loyal. He was loyal to a hooker, and that made Addie feel good.

“You have the advantage over me,” Ned said to Emma. “You know my name, but I don’t know yours.”

“Oh, she’s Emma Roby, and she’s a mail-order bride from Kansas, only her intended thought she was too old and left her at the station,” Addie said. Emma bit her lip, and Addie felt ashamed of herself. It wasn’t necessary to be so cruel. “If you ask me, she’s better off,” she added lamely.

“So you’re going back home?” Ned asked.

“She can’t. Her brother won’t take her back.”

“You got a tongue, or just a right arm?” Ned asked Emma.

The corners of Emma’s mouth turned up a little, and her eyes, almost the color of forget-me-nots, got bigger. She seemed less frightened when she glanced at Addie, who nodded for her to answer. “I thought I’d stay here a few days, with Addie, with your sister,” she muttered.

“My what?” Ned asked.

“Your sister,” Welcome said. The sound of batter poured into the hot skillet didn’t quite drown out her chuckle. She browned sugar in a saucepan and added water.

Addie wondered why Welcome went to the bother of making syrup, since she’d always set a can of molasses on the table for Addie and her girls and for Ned, too. Then Addie realized Welcome was putting on airs. Most likely, she had worked for gentry once. Addie didn’t know, because in the business she was in, you didn’t inquire into a person’s background. For sure, Welcome thought Emma was more refined than a house full of whores, and Addie was offended. “We don’t need napkins.”

Welcome didn’t reply. She flipped over the hotcakes and put them on a plate, pouring syrup over them. Then she set down the plate in front of Emma.

“I expect that’s Ned’s plate,” Addie said.

“Ladies first,” Welcome told her.

“Then it’ll be for me.” Addie hoped she’d made it clear that this was her house, and she came first. She wasn’t sure she had.

Emma smiled and pushed the plate toward Addie, but the smell of food gagged her, and she felt foolish, remembering she had told Welcome she didn’t want breakfast. “No, you take it,” Addie said. The plate sat between the two of them until Ned put down the ice and reached for it and began to eat.

Welcome set down another plate before Emma, then brought coffee. She picked up Ned’s empty plate and stacked half a dozen flapjacks on it and handed it back to him. While Ned and Emma ate, Welcome leaned against the kitchen wall, watching Emma, who took tiny bites and chewed delicately. When she finished, she put the fork upside down, the tines in the center of the plate.

“When do the other boarders eat?” Emma asked as Welcome removed her plate.

Welcome shrugged. “They sleep till noon. Sleep after noon, too. Sleep all the time except when they’re working.”

“That’s very accommodating of you. If I ran a boardinghouse, I would insist people ate at regular hours.”

Ned laughed and looked up at Addie. “I know you got boarders, but I never knew you to call The Chili Queen a boardinghouse.”

Addie mouthed the word “no” at him.

Emma looked confused. “It’s a boardinghouse. The Chili Queen takes in boarders. What else would you call it?”

“A hookhouse,” Ned said with a grin.