Taming of Jessi Rose (35 page)

Later, Jessi heard a commotion. Fanning herself with a newspaper in an attempt to beat back the oppressive heat, she stepped out to the back porch to investigate. Neil and Shafts were standing over Percy, arguing over who was the better shot. Neil bragged that he could take the wings off a fly at fifty paces and his brother bet him he couldn't. Preacher and Griffin were seated on the shady porch watching them as if they were attending a theater show. Percy, on the other hand, had more panic in his eyes, as if this argument would somehow wind up with him becoming involved, and Jessi thought he was probably correct.

Neil stormed into the house and returned with an apple. He set the apple on top of Percy's head. “Since we don't have any flies available, let's use this.”

“Nooo!” Percy yelled, but they ignored him.

Neil took fifty steps, turned, and fired.

Percy's scream mingled with the sound of the Colt. The apple exploded in a hail of pulp, skin, and seeds. Percy's head was still intact, but he'd fainted dead away.

A
fter the sun started to go down and the heat abated a bit, Jessi left the men to go into town. She wanted to see how Joth was faring with Doyle and his nephew and to see if she could find Roscoe Darcy.

Joth greeted her with a hug and a plea to stay another few days. It seemed Doyle's nephew's visit had been extended. Since Doyle had been the one to encourage Joth's plea, Jessi surrendered and agreed. Both boys jumped for joy.

When it came time for her to leave, Doyle walked her back out to the front of the livery. “What did Griffin and his friends do with Percy?”

When Jessi told him the story, he began to laugh. “Really?”

An amused Jessi replied, “They say they're going to keep him that way until he tells the truth.”

“Those Twins are something,” a still chuckling Doyle declared.

Jessi agreed. “They are that. Oh, and Doyle, don't do any more business with Darcy until this mess is over.”

“Why?”

“He's been printing his own money.”

Doyle's eyes grew wide.

Jessi nodded and then told him the information Minerva had given them.

“Well, I'll be damned,” Doyle exclaimed. “Does anyone else know?”

“Probably not. Go ahead and tell Auntie, but no one else. We don't want to spook him before we get what we need from Percy. He says Reed won't be back until tomorrow and that should give the Twins plenty of time to extract the truth. Have you seen Ros in town today?”

“Saw him weave by here earlier. He might still be around somewhere.”

“I need to find him.”

“Good luck,” the big man told her.

He watched her unhitch Snake Eyes and asked with amusement in his voice, “When are you going to replace that spawn of Satan?”

Jessi smiled. The name Snake Eyes was often given to horses with a mean streak, and in his colt days, Jessi's mount had had a very large one. He'd mellowed a bit over the years, and he hadn't shown his temper in quite some time, but he still only tolerated one rider—Jessi.

She mounted and patted his sleek head. “Don't listen to him. I'm not going to replace you. You can even bite him next time he says that.”

The horse turned a baleful eye on Doyle that looked so humanlike, Jessi could not contain her laugh. “Better watch what you say, Doyle. I think Snake Eyes is on to you.”

He grinned and she rode on down the street.

She found Roscoe Darcy sitting in the middle of the wide open range behind Auntie's saloon. He and his bottled companion were alone. She dismounted. “Hello, Ros. What are you doing out here all by yourself?”

“Well, hello there, Jessi girl,” he exclaimed happily. “I'm celebrating.”

“What's the occasion?”

“The running off of my wife.” He raised the half empty bottle in toast. “It is a very good day.”

He took a drink, wiped his lips on the stained cuff of his dirty suit coat and said, “Got up this morning and she was gone. Gone. No more dresses, hats, shoes, trunks, everything gone. Just like that.” He tried to snap his fingers but failed.

Jessi sat down across from him in the grass. “How do you know she won't be coming back?”

“Left me a note. First decent thing she's done since I married her.”

“What did it say?”

“That she was leaving. For good. Hallelujah!” and he took another drink. “Only married her in the first place because Reed made me.”

Jessi began idly pulling grass. “Ros, you have to stop drinking.”

“Don't want to. Like being drunk.”

“But why?”

“I'm not strong like you.”

He looked over at Jessi and asked. “Did you know that your mother was riding back to your father the night she had the accident?”

Jessi stilled. “No, Ros, I didn't.”

“She
was
going to run away with my father, but she got to our place about an hour earlier than the agreed upon time. She found Reed in bed with Lydia Cornell.”

Jessi stared.

“It's true, Jess. I was there, and do you know why I was there?” he asked quietly.

“No.”

“Because Reed said it was about time for me to learn what a man needs to learn, so he made me sit at the foot of the bed and watch.”

Jessi's heart turned over. Roscoe had been only twelve at the time, just like Jessi. How could Reed have
done something so perverse to someone as sensitive as Ros? “What did my mother do?”

“Didn't say a word. Just turned and left.”

So her mother had been returning home, not because she loved her husband but because she'd seen Reed's true colors. As distraught as she must have been, she probably hadn't been paying very close attention to her driving, thus the accident. More than likely, getting away from Reed had been uppermost in her mind. And all these years, Lydia Cornell had known the truth.

“Do you know what it's like waking up each and every day knowing no matter what you do, it won't be good enough?” he asked her then.

She did. In many respects their fathers had been cut from the same cloth. “According to Gillie, Reed's father treated him much the same way.”

“All the more reason for him to have treated me better, don't you think?”

Jessi agreed. “Ros, do you know that Reed's printing counterfeit money in your barn?”

“I know. Your man going to bring him before a judge?”

“If he can.”

“I like that man of yours, Jessi girl. Just the kind you've been needing.”

“You think so?”

He nodded and took another drink. “Yep.”

Ros then began to search the pockets of his coat, for what, Jessi didn't know. “Give him something for me.”

The search continued as the inebriated Ros stuck his hands into the pockets of his trousers, and then into the inner pocket of his coat. When he looked her way and smiled, she knew he'd found what he'd been after. He handed her two keys. “I thought I still had them. This one opens the bank. That one opens Reed's office. The counterfeit plates are in the safe.”

Jessi was so bowled over she didn't know what to say.

Ros asked, “Do you think you can remember the numbers to the safe if I tell you?”

Jessi nodded, so he gave them to her.

“But why would you do this?”

“Because we were friends once many moons ago, and because my family owes you. For many things.”

Jessi was moved by his confession. “How can I thank you?”

“Put Reed in jail and invite me to the wedding.”

“You have a deal.”

He nodded. “Well, think I'll go home and take a nap. Maybe after I get up, I'll take a hammer to his printing press. Can't print money without a printing press. Can't own a hotel if it burns down, either,” and he began to laugh.

Jessi stared. “Did you burn the hotel?”

“Yep, then I sat in the alley and watched. Reed was mad as a Democrat in a Black Republican parade.”

“But why?”

“Why not? How else was I going to pay him back for all the years he's had his foot on my neck? If your man can send him away for good, I'd be much obliged.”

Jessi did understand. Ros had not had an easy life growing up as Reed's son. “All right, thanks for your help. Will you do one thing for me?”

“What is it?”

“Stop drinking.”

He gave her a drunken salute. “I'll think about it.”

Jessi sighed her frustration, then mounted Snake Eyes once more. She hoped Ros would pull himself together; being drunk would not exorcise the demons he carried inside.

She stopped in to see Gillie before leaving town; she needed to talk with her about her mother's death.

While she waited for Gillie to finish helping a customer, Jessi spent a few minutes eyeing her nearly completed wedding dress. It was truly lovely. The green brocaded silk suit was trimmed with deep flounces of lace. The overdress, also of brocaded silk, fell in heavy folds in front and looped at the side. It had a pointed waist and vee-cut bodice under which would be worn a black velvet vest. Jessi lifted up the full skirt to view the beautiful green silk, only to have Gillie walk up behind her and ask very politely, “Are your hands clean?”

Jessi dropped the fabric immediately. No, they weren't.

A chagrined Jessi turned and took the offering of a glass of lemonade from her old teacher's hand.

“Have a seat and tell me all that's happened in the past few days.”

Gillie laughed at the fate of Percy West, then listened as Jessi told her Minerva's story about the counterfeit plates.

“Well, I'm glad you told me,” Gillie pronounced. “He'll do no business here.”

They spent a few more moments discussing Minerva's leaving and Jessi's conversation with Ros, then Gillie asked, “Did you tell Roscoe why she left?”

“No, I didn't have the heart to. He said he married her only because Reed forced him to, but you never know how he truly feels underneath all that whiskey.” She then added somberly, “Ros told me what really happened to my mother the night she died. She had decided to leave my father, but she walked in on Reed and Lydia Cornell. Mama was headed back home when she had the accident.”

Jessi chose not to dwell on how a mother could've turned her back on her daughters because Jessi had no idea of the depths of her mother's misery, and because it hurt too much to think about.

Gillie's voice was as quiet as the little shop. “She did love you and your sister very much, Jessi, believe me, she did.”

“I'm sure she did, but from where I stand now, it must not have been enough.”

“You shouldn't judge. We all make mistakes.”

Jessi nodded. “I know, but since that day, I always hung onto the hope that she really hadn't planned to leave my sister and me—that all the gossips were wrong. This summer has opened my eyes, and I'm not sure I like what I see.”

“You can't change the past. That's why the Good Lord gives us the future. Look forward, little girl, not back. You've got a man who really loves you. Let that fill your heart, not the pain of something over which you had no control.”

It was sound advice, Jessi knew: she just hoped she'd be able to apply it to her own life someday. Right now, she wasn't so sure.

“So when are you going to come for your next fitting?”

The question lightened Jessi's mood a bit and she gave Gillie a small smile. “Just as soon as you like. I told myself I'd let you make me as many dresses as you wished because Griffin seems to like them.”

Gillie snorted. “As if I believe that. Like I said before, if you had your choice, you'd go to your grave wearing nothing but denims.”

“It's the truth.”

“Well then, come in tomorrow or the day after and prove it.”

Jessi went over and gave Gillie a parting hug. “I will. Thank you, Gillie, for everything.”

“You're welcome. Now go and get back to that handsome train robber of yours.”

Griff was ecstatic over Ros's gifts and he and his
friends decided not to waste time. As soon as night fell, they planned to ride into town to remove the counterfeit plates from Reed's safe.

In the meantime, they still had to extract the truth from Percy. Jessi arrived just in time to see the newest twist in the game. Neil was sitting on the ground in front of Percy eating a very sumptuous meal. On the plate were collards, rice and beans, fat, succulent slices of ham, and big squares of corn bread running with butter. Percy stared longingly as Neil ate. It was quite obvious they'd not fed him.

“How's Joth doing?” Griffin asked, after Jessi went in and came back with a full plate of her own.

“Fine. He's going to stay another few days. Doyle said he'd bring him home once his nephew leaves. How's the game going?”

Preacher chuckled. “Percy is losing badly. Let's see, he's had all manner of fruits and vegetables shot off the top of his head. They've poured buckets of water on him, refused to feed him, and they had ants crawling on him just before you got back. I don't think he's going to last much longer.”

Griff added, “I take my hat off to him, he's played the game a lot longer than I thought he would.”

Preacher shook his head. “But he's losing points for all that screaming he's been doing. When they dumped that ant nest on him, you could hear him clear to Austin.”

Jessi was amazed. “Where on earth did they find an ant's nest?”

“By the barn. Shafts is still out there seeing what else he can find.”

Jessi didn't think Percy would last much longer, either. He looked beat, desolate, and just plain done. He had scraps of vegetables, fruit, and Lord knows what else on his face and littering his hair. His ferret face
looked as if the ants had bitten him a time or two. She almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

Two Shafts came back from the barn, and after greeting Jessi said, “I found a skunk.”

Percy began to moan fearfully.

Neil looked up from his plate with bright eyes. “Where?”

“In Jessita's barn. Looked to be full grown.”

A smiling Neil looked at Percy. “Isn't that something? Would you like to play with the skunk?”

Percy started yelling for help.

Neil chided him pleasantly, “You won't need help to play with the skunk, Percy.”

Percy's head began twisting and turning as if he could somehow screw himself out of the ground. He couldn't, of course, but he put up a damn good try. “Get me out of this damn hole!”

“But you don't remember anything about the murder,” Neil reminded him.

“I do!” Percy yelled, as his wide eyes spied Two Shafts walking back toward the barn. “I remember it clear! Good and clear!”

Griff walked over and took a seat by Neil. “So tell us what you remember.”

“Darcy wanted her pa killed. Told me to do it and paid me fifty dollars.”