Authors: Blazing Embers
“Will you go to Chicago when Peggy’s baby is due?”
“Yes. I told her I’d spend a couple of months with her and Jack. Just long enough to help them with the baby while they get used to being parents, you understand. I don’t want to be a burden.”
“You won’t be! Peggy is tickled pink that you’re going to spend some time with her.” Cassie laid a hand over Jewel’s. “Jewel Townsend, I want you to listen to me. Your two children want to love you and be with you. Don’t go thinking that you’re a nuisance, because you aren’t. Why, Rook thinks the sun rises and sets on you!”
“Well, he used to before you came along,” Jewel said with a tender smile.
“He still does think it,” Cassie reassured her. “No one will ever take your place in his life or in Peggy’s.”
“When are you moving to town?” Jewel asked, changing the subject before she began to cry again.
“Real soon. I’m making a deal with Will Knickerbocker to lease my land as pasture for his sheep. You know Will?”
“I’ve known Will Knickerbocker since he was in short pants. What’re you going to do with your chicks?”
“I’m moving them and Hector and Slim to town with me.” Cassie laughed at Jewel’s exaggerated sigh. “I could never leave them behind! They’re my buddies.”
“I never saw anything like you, girl.” Jewel chuckled
and adjusted her straw bonnet. “What are you going to do with all those diamonds?”
“I’m talking with the Arkansas-Ozarks Mining Company. We shook hands on a deal this morning before I came here to see you off. It’s a fair deal, and I should come out right fine.”
“If you need any financial advice, just ask me. I’ve been making my own way and investing money for many a year. Not many women have owned their own businesses like me.”
Cassie nodded, smiling at Jewel’s boast. But the older woman had good reason to be proud. True, she’d made her money by shameful means, but she’d done well for herself.
“Of course, you’ll have Rook to advise you, and he’s no dummy. A man’s got to be right smart to become a lawyer.”
“I’ve noticed that people in town are treating me different now that word’s out about my mine. Folks who used to stare right through me make a point of wishing me a fine day.”
Jewel’s smile was tinged with irony. “I know the feeling, hon. When I first came to town and opened up my business, folks used to spit on me, but then I started keeping some mighty powerful secrets about who came to my place and what they did while they were there and—lo and behold!—folks started saying howdeedo to me on the street.” Jewel made a sound of contempt. “But those people are fickle friends and not to be trusted. Remember that, Cassie Mae.”
“I will,” Cassie vowed, thinking that Jewel’s life hadn’t been a bed of roses. “I’ll never forget the people who laughed and pointed at me and Pa when we’d come to town, like we didn’t have feelings or pride.”
“Be polite, but keep your distance,” Jewel advised. “If you run out of money, they’ll run out on you.” Jewel stiffened and then sat up straight when the platform vibrated under her shoes. “Here it comes.” She shifted sideways and grasped Cassie’s hands. “Next time I see you we’ll be in-laws. That means a lot to me, honey.”
“To me too.” Cassie swallowed hard, and her chest seemed about to explode.
“If it’d been up to me to pick my own daughter-in-law, I would’ve picked you.”
“Jewel.” Cassie shook her head as her voice failed her. Her eyes brimmed with tears. She pulled her hands from Jewel’s and flung her arms around Jewel’s neck to give her a heartfelt hug. Jewel hugged her back and sobbed softly.
“I told myself I wasn’t going to do this,” Jewel whispered against Cassie’s neck.
“I know, but doesn’t it feel good?”
“Yes.” Jewel laughed tearfully and sat back to gaze with unconcealed love at Cassie. “It sure does, honey. Take care of him. I know good and well he’ll do the same for you.”
“I love him like a rock, Jewel. Like a rock.”
Jewel placed a hand against the side of Cassie’s face and nodded in understanding. Then she stood up and motioned to a porter.
“These two and the trunk,” she ordered in a way a woman of means talks to those meant to serve. “Now where did Delphia go? Del
pheeee!
”
“Here I be!” Delphia trotted along the platform, swinging her two small valises at her sides. “I was buying some postcards so’s we’d remember what this place looks like.”
Jewel rolled her eyes. “As if either one of us could ever forget.” She made a shooing motion toward the train. “Well, get on board. Make sure the porter gets all my luggage while you’re at it.”
“Yes, Miss Jewel. Oh, I be so excited I think I might faint dead away!”
“If you do, I’m leaving you behind.”
“I won’t faint,” Delphia promised. “I was only funnin’.”
“Well, fun yourself aboard the train.” Jewel turned back to Cassie and shrugged. “I couldn’t leave her. She’s been with me too long. I wouldn’t know what to, do without Delphia to worry with.”
“She doesn’t seem to hate me as much as she used to,”
Cassie observed as Delphia glanced in her direction without so much as a surly frown.
“That’s because she’s going with me and you’re not. I told you that she was purely jealous of you. I’m glad y’all kept Cookie on. She’s a good old gal and as faithful as blood kin.” Jewel ran her hands over her waist and hips and looked down at her simple olive green dress. “I look like an upstanding woman, don’t I? I don’t want to embarrass Pearl.”
“You look like the lady you are,” Cassie assured her, then smiled tremulously as she realized it was time to say their farewells. “Take care, Jewel.”
They embraced once more. Then Jewel, keeping her emotions in check, boarded the train. Cassie wept openly as the train pulled out of the station, taking with it the woman who had befriended her when others had shunned her. Jewel Townsend, Eureka Springs’ retired madame, was beyond any doubt the finest lady Cassie had ever known.
Drying her eyes on a lacy linen handkerchief, Cassie climbed up onto the buckboard bench and laid the reins over Hector’s scooped-out spine. He laid back his ears, snorted contemptuously, then shook himself before taking a step. Cassie laughed at his showy laziness.
“Hector, of all the presents Jewel gave me, you’re the best,” she told him, then wiped at her eyes as a new batch of tears stung them.
She stopped at the feed store for another sack of chicken feed and a sack of oats and stood back as the proprietor insisted on carrying the sacks out to the buckboard for her. She was amused by this gesture, since Clem Forrester had never offered his assistance before, and she’d bought many a sack of feed from him in the past.
“Clem, I’m telling you we’ve got to build with stone or brick and stop encouraging everyone to build with lumber,” said Harold Bacon, the town barber, as he lectured Clem and waved a finger in the storekeeper’s face.
“Wood has always been good building material,” Clem said, flinging the last bag of feed into Cassie’s buckboard.
“Yes, but this whole town could go up in smoke if we have another fire. The last one took a big part of it. We
just can’t fight those fires fast enough to save the buildings.”
“The chance of us having another fire is mighty slim,” Clem said as he touched two fingers to his forehead and smiled at Cassie. “Have a good morning, Miss Cassie. Always nice to see you.”
“Same here, Miss Cassie,” Harold said. “How you been doing lately?”
“Fine, thank you.” Cassie paused a moment in confusion when Harold offered her his hand; then she shrugged and let him help her up into the buckboard. “Good morning, gentlemen.”
Both men waved at her, and Cassie raised her brows in sly amusement. Diamond dust must be glittering all over her, she decided, and that was why the town was so friendly toward her of late. Guess the diamonds had made it easy for them to forget that she’d shot Boone Rutledge, which was a very unladylike thing to do. She was sure everyone had been shocked at first when Rook and Cassie had brought Boone’s body into town in the back of her buckboard, but her story was corroborated by Rook and got around town like a fresh batch of corn liquor. Since the Rutledge family accepted Cassie’s account with nary a question, Boone was buried and the town forgot him almost immediately. Cassie found herself feeling sorry for Boone. All he’d wanted was the town’s respect, and it had turned its back on him. The Rutledge family and the bank employees were the only ones at his funeral, and his mother was the only one who shed a tear for the recently departed.
The events of the night Cassie had faced Boone for a final showdown had left Cassie shaken and weak. Jewel had come out to the homestead and stayed a fortnight with her after the doctor had removed the bullet from her shoulder and ordered her to bed. Rook had visited, but Jewel had made it clear that he was to let Cassie rest and not “pester her for kisses when she’s been to hell and back.”
It was during Jewel’s stay that she told Cassie about her decision to retire and move to New Orleans. It was also during that time that Cassie accepted Rook’s marriage proposal and they began making hasty plans for their future
together. It was a time, Cassie thought with a sentimental smile, that she would never forget.
Cassie passed the bank and couldn’t help but glance toward it. Aaron Rutledge was standing outside, and he tipped his hat to her in a neighborly gesture. She nodded to him, acknowledging his peace offering but feeling odd all the same. She was a stranger who knew a deep, dark Rutledge secret. She’d never be able to pass any of them on the street without feeling like an interloper.
She recalled a time not long ago when she dreaded any trip into town. She’d seen Eureka Springs back then as a cold place, full of unfriendly people who laughed at her pa and ignored her as if she were made of sawdust and straw. Sometimes she flatly refused to accompany Shorty into town because she couldn’t stand the ridicule. She preferred the country, where it was warm and familiar and people or creatures were equal. That’s the way God intended, she’d tell Shorty. Nobody should look down their noses at nobody. We’re all His creation.
But she’d been a naive wisp of a girl until a few short months ago, before necessity had forced her to grow up and Rook had brought out the woman in her. Town was no longer a dreaded place but a place where she had as much right to be as anybody else. She took second place to no one and looked every man, woman, and child square in the eye.
Diamonds sure did work magic in Eureka Springs. Overnight they’d changed her from “crazy Shorty Potter’s girl” to “Miss Cassie.”
Hector’s ears pricked forward when he spotted Jewel’s house, and he went around back to the stables without any prodding on Cassie’s part. Cassie put on the brake and climbed down from the buckboard, leaving Hector to the stable hand. She entered the house through the back door, which opened onto the kitchen. Cookie was leaning over a stewpot on top of the stove. The smell of turnip greens permeated the air.
“ ’Morning, Cookie,” Cassie said. “Is Rook upstairs or downstairs?”
“Hi ya’, Miss Cassie. Upstairs, I think.” Cookie dimpled
as she looked Cassie up and down, taking in the lemon yellow dress with its lacy collar and cuffs. “You sure look pretty, Miss Cassie.”
“Thank you.”
Two local carpenters were measuring the rooms upstairs. Rook had hired them to transform Jewel’s bordello into his home and law office. Cassie went up the arching staircase toward Jewel’s bedroom and parlor, where she knew Rook would be waiting for her. She closed the door to the parlor behind her and smiled when he came out of the bedroom and stopped on the threshold. He was in his shirtsleeves, and he pulled his dangling suspenders up over his shoulders as she looked on.
“Did you see her off?” he asked.
Cassie nodded.
“Did she cry?”
Cassie nodded.
“Did you cry?”
Cassie nodded and her eyes filled with tears again.
“There, there.” Rook came across the room to take her into his arms. “We’re going to see her in less than two weeks!” Keeping one arm around her shoulders, he guided her toward the sheet-draped settee and sat down on it with her. “As soon as I’m satisfied with things here, we’ll set off for New Orleans to be married.”
“How long will we be in New Orleans?” Cassie asked, although they’d discussed the same thing a dozen times or more.
“About a month. I’ve got to close my law practice there and make arrangements to move everything here.”
“Are you sure you want to make this place our home?”
Rook scrutinized her carefully. “I thought you liked this house.”
“I do. I meant this town.”
“What’s wrong with Eureka Springs?”
“You must have bad feelings about it. Blackie was killed here. Boone’s buried here. New Orleans might be a better place for you.”
“My feelings for New Orleans aren’t all that much better.
What’s wrong, Cassie? Don’t you think we can let bygones be bygones?”
“Yes, but can they?” she asked, nodding toward the window to indicate the town beyond it. “They’re falling all over themselves now because they’ve heard tell that I’ve discovered diamonds, but Jewel is right. Those people are fickle and no friends of mine.”
“You’ll find that in any town,” Rook assured her. “You’ve got to learn to rise above it. People are basically good at heart. I really believe that, Cassie.”
“After all you’ve been through …” She shook her head, amazed at his goodness. “I can learn tolerance from you.”
“Eureka Springs will be good for us and we’ll be good for Eureka Springs,” he assured her. “Believe me?”
If he’d told her that he’d captured the moon and the stars and put them in their stable she wouldn’t have refuted him.
“I believe you.” She sat back on the settee to unbutton her shoes before kicking them off and wiggling her cramped toes. “I’ve had me a morning, I’ll tell you. Been up since before dawn and running around like a chicken with its head cut off.”
Rook chuckled and examined her mud-caked shoes. “Have you been wading in cow pastures?”
“No. We picked wildflowers and then went over to the cemetery to put them on Blackie’s grave.”
“Why in hell did you do that?” Rook asked but looked apologetic when Cassie sent him a chastising glance. “I meant, that was sweet of you, but—”