It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own (Code of the West) Read Online Free PDF Page A

business went on as usual for the others.
    Without asking, she barefooted her way down to April Has tings’s room and dragged the big oak rocking chair back down the hall. Closing the door, she dimmed the lantern, pulled the quilt off the top of the bed, and sat down in the rocker to face the woman. Pepper folded her long, thin legs under her in the chair and wrapped up in the quilt.
    “Honey, I don’t think you will make it through the night. I surely hope you had a be tter time of it than me. You got such soft, white skin. Yet you got calluses on your hands. I cain’t figure if you are some fancy Eastern city woman or a farm wife who knows how to keep herself.
    “Now, look at me, for instance. I’ve been workin’ at jobs like this since I was fifteen. That’s almost ten years of smoky rooms, dim lights, vile language, cheatin’ card dealers, coarse jokes, and smelly men pawin’ at ya. It’s life in the shadows, that’s what I call it. Others get to live out there in the daylight where ev erything is bright and beautiful, fresh, and full of promise. We jist live here in the shadows . . . pretendin’ to be happy . . . pretendin’ to be busy . . . pretendin’ our life is leadin’ somewhere.”
    She fell silent for a long moment.
    “Well, that’s enough about me. Tell me about yourself.”
    Pepper waited.
    There was no answer.
    She could still hear the woman’s labored breathing.
    Pepper leaned her head back on the chair and closed her green eyes. Talking softly, she continued, “Did I tell you I almost got married once? Yeah, I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. About four years ago I was up in Idaho workin’ for April. This broad-shouldered straight-shooter came in and chums up to me. He was just the cutest thing I ever saw. He had a sparkle in his eyes, and I just wanted to melt ever’ time he smiled at me. Why, the first time he held my hand I thought I’d died and gone to Dixie. His name was Gideon Lane. Isn’t that a handsome name?
    “I suppose you’re wonderin’ jist what ha ppened? Well, he asked me to marry him. We was goin’ to have a big weddin’ right there on the north fork of the Clearwater. Everything was all planned for a certain Saturday ceremony. But I woke up Wednesday mornin’, saddled my pony, and rode off.
    “Yep. I rode away without sayin’ a word. Missy, I jist couldn’t do it. I’ve never had much of a family, and I su ddenly realized I didn’t have any idea in the world about how to be a wife. It scared me to death. Gideon deserved somethin’ better than me, that’s for sure. I worked down in Boise City until April decided to open up in Colorado. She gave me this job.
    "You got a mighty pretty ring on your hand. You must be quite a charmer, but you shouldn’t pin up that beautiful hair. Us blondes has got a divine right to flaunt our hair, don’t you think so?”
    About midnight the lantern flickered out.
    At 2:00 a.m. the activities downstairs began to wind down.
    At 3:00 a.m. April Hastings opened the door with a lantern and peeked in. “Pepper, what are you doin’ in bed? Oh, there you are. That gal sort of looks like you—in the shadows. I thought it was you under them covers. Is she still alive?”
    “Yeah. But she hasn’t woke up or said an ythin’.”
    “Here’s her valise.” April set a leather case i nside the door. “I guess she left several trunks at the Wemberly House in Fort Collins. At least, that’s what Judd reported.”
    “Where was she going?”
    “Don’t rightly know. She told Judd she was expecting to meet some man out here somewhere.”
    “I don’t think she’ll make it. I got your rocking chair.”
    “I figured as much. I’ll see you in the mornin’.” April closed the door.
    Scooting through the dark, Pepper re-lit the lantern and toted the leather case back to the rocking chair. “Honey, maybe there’s some clue to who you are in here. So I hope you don’t mind me snooping around. Ain’t that fancy?