Devils Unto Dust(11)

“How’ve you been, Clem? They treating you right here?”

“Pearl’s been decent to me. She takes care of all us girls.” Clementine glances back over her shoulder quickly, then leans in closer to me. “What about you, Will? I saw you talking to the Judge. Is everything all right?”

I can’t lie, not with those big honest eyes staring at me. “No, it ain’t.” I put my head in my hands. “I’m hard pushed here, Clem, and I’m only making it worse.”

“Here, now, stop that worrying. You’re getting a fine wrinkle between those eyes.” Clem gently touches my forehead with her thumb, smoothing out the line.

“Leave off,” I say, swatting her hand away. “It’s my wrinkle. I earned it, I’ll keep it.”

“So it’s true, then?” Clem asks gently. “What they’re saying about your pa?”

I sigh, long and loud. “Yeah, it’s true.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Not unless you know where to get four hundred dollars fast.”

Clem crooks an eyebrow. “I do, but you won’t like the answer.”

I shake my head. “Clem, please . . .”

She slides gracefully onto the stool next to me. “Maybe you don’t want to hear it, but it is a way to make money.” She folds her hands neatly on top of the bar. “I know most folk look down on us line girls, but I don’t go hungry and I always have work. Maybe it ain’t what I wanted for myself, but one day I’ll have enough money saved to buy my way out of this town.”

I look up, surprised. Clem and I used to talk about getting out of Glory. It was just child’s talk, though, running away to have adventures, before life became real and messy. I gave up on those dreams a long time ago.

“That’s the whole point, ain’t it?” Clem asks. “To get you and yours out? Isn’t that what we always said?”

“I didn’t think you remembered. Where will you go?”

“North. Edgewater, maybe. Anywhere that isn’t here. I’ll get as far from Glory as I can, and find myself a rich husband who will keep me in ribbons and lace, and I’ll spend the rest of my years trying to forget the last two.”

Clem sounds as bitter as I’ve ever heard her, and I feel a pang of regret that I never guessed what was hidden under those layers of makeup. I touch her shoulder lightly.

“Sorry, Clem. I know—I know it must be hard here.”

The smile Clem gives me is brittle, but real. “Life’s hard any way you take it, Willie. You know that.”

And she’s right; I do. All we have are bad options, and you pick the one you can live with. You keep moving forward, because what other choice is there? As far as I’m concerned, Pa made his choice, and now it’s time to make mine. It comes down to this: I won’t let anything hurt my family, not if I can help it.

“So what are you going to do?” Clem asks.

“Whatever it takes,” I answer. “I’m going to track down my father and get back what he stole. And if it’s gone, then I’m gonna drag his ass back to Glory and he can answer for what he’s done.”

“You can’t go out there alone,” Clem says, her eyes wide.

I survey the room full of rowdy, reeking men, men who would probably kill me for less than what I have in my pockets.

“No,” I say, my stomach sinking. “No, I can’t.”





9.


My hands are sweating, but at least I made a decision. Maybe it’s a bad one, maybe it’s all kinds of foolish, but it’s something, and I cling to it.

“Oh my,” Clem says. “Here comes Ned to make sure I’m not corrupting you. Take care, Willie.”

Ned Evans walks behind the bar, setting a drink in front of me. He nods a brief good-bye to Clementine as she eases herself off the stool and glides away with a rustle of silk and perfume.

“You look like you could use this,” he says with a wink. He’s Elsie’s uncle and a kind one, even if he’s partial to gambling.

“Thank you. I surely could,” I say, and wrap my hand around the glass so hard I can see the white of my knuckles. The glass is cloudy and there’s a chip in the rim; I wonder how old it is, how many lips drank from it, how many hands clasped it. I’d be willing to bet this glass is older than me, if I had money to bet. I take a sip, letting the amber liquor burn down my throat and settle in my empty stomach.

“Judge rattles everybody, sweetheart. Don’t pay him no mind. Elsie says you’re looking for your pa.”

“I am.” I take another small sip and grimace. “Any news?”

“Well, I spoke to Santos, he was on the gate. Said your pa ducked out just before sunrise with Washburne,” he says, naming a hunter Pa likes to run with.

“Any idea where he was headed?”

“Santos says east.”

“Best, then,” I say, turning the glass around in my hand. He has a few contacts there who still bother to buy whatever sorry hides Pa’s selling. Best is due east, maybe two days out; Pa’s probably halfway there by now.

“That would be my guess. Can I get you anything else?”

I drain my glass and set it down hard. “A hunter to go with me to Best.”