Crimson Palace (9 page)

Finally, finding an empty spot of ground on the outskirts of town, they pulled off to set up camp.

"Let’s have ourselves a cup of coffee and a bite to eat. Then we can take a stroll around town and see just exactly what we’ve gotten ourselves into," Sofie suggested. "Come on, Tim, pull yourself up a stool and join us. The three of us have some plans to make."

"As a matter of fact, Tim, Sofie and I have more than our plans to discuss with you," Alex spoke, his town unusually somber. "We have a confession to make, and along with it an apology to you."

Alex’s tone of voice caught Shinonn’s attention immediately. She wasn’t at all sure she wanted to hear what he had to say.

"For reasons we hope you will understand, Sofie and I felt forced to enter into a bit of a deception when we joined the wagon train. The truth of it is, Sofie and I have never been married, and we didn’t come west to go gold panning."

"At least not in the usual way," Sofie added with a soft chuckle. "We’ll be doing our ‘mining’ from a saloon and pleasure house, rather than digging in the dirt with our hands."

"If we had been truthful at the start, those good, self-righteous wagon train folks would have run us right out of St. Joseph. We knew no wagon master would have allowed the likes of us to travel with them, so we decided to tell them what they would rather hear."

"We sure hope you don’t hold it against us, Tim. You’ve come to mean so much to us these past months, we’d hate to lose your friendship," Sofie added.

Shinonn took a deep lung full of the brisk mountain air, then exhaled it slowly. Feelings of relief and trepidation battled within her. They’d been honest with her, now it was time to return their respect.

Bracing herself for the worst, she faced them.

"As long as we’re making confessions here, I guess I’d better get mine in too." Although she was trembling inside, ashamed and afraid at the same time, Shinonn knew she must be as honest with Sofie and Alex as they had been with her.

"My name isn’t Tim O’Brien. It’s really Shinonn Flannery."

"What?" Sofie exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock.

"I decided when I left home that I would be safer traveling as a boy than as a woman. I knew, just the same as you did, that if Ed Peterson knew who I really was, he’d never allow me on his train. I guess we’re all kind of in the same boat."

Relief swept over her when instead of reacting in anger, both Sofie and Alex hooted with laughter at her confession.

"Who would have guessed that me, of all women, could have fallen for your trick?" Sofie laughed so hard she could barely speak.

"Careful, my dear, you wouldn’t want to lose your golden touch with men, would you?" Alex teased. But when Sofie finally was able to control her laughter, he turned a serious face to Shinonn.

"Tim, oops, sorry. I guess it will take me a while before I can think of you as ‘Shinonn’, but what I was going to say was, I think you might consider keeping up your little charade as long as you’re out here in the gold fields. If you should decide to stay with us, unless you want to engage in Sofie’s line of work, you'd be better off if everyone in town thought of you as a boy.

"Something tells me you’re not the type of girl who would want to work one of my cribs, Shinonn.

Actually, Alex and I thought you might want to help him in the saloon. We could use a boy to help keep the place clean and restock the bar. If you’re not too put off by our wicked ways, the offer’s still open.

As far as we’re concerned, you can be whoever or whatever you want to be - Tim or Shinonn, it makes no difference to us."

"I don’t know what I want to do yet, Sofie. To tell you the truth, I’m not rightly sure why it is I came all the way out here to California. After my mother died, well, California just seemed like a good place to be. And I thought I might run into my brother Patrick out here, but I really don’t have any idea where he is."

She evaded telling them about Lincoln Bradley. Heck, she hated admitting even to herself that in truth she had just traveled thousands of miles just to look once again into his eyes, hoping to see that special look she had seen there so many years ago.

"You mean to tell us you came all the way out here looking for your brother, and you don’t even know where he is? That seems a mite drastic," Alex said.

"If I find him or not isn’t all that important. I guess I’d like to see him again, but all he ever meant to me at home was trouble. But since he’s my only living kin, I suppose I should try to find him. But still and all, he can be more than a handful, if you know what I mean."

"But other than your brother, there’s no one else?" Sofie asked gently.

With Sofie looking like her like that, so friendly and all, Shinonn couldn’t stop herself from speaking words she had kept hidden within herself for over five years.

"Well, there was this man I’d sort of like to see again... kind of a special man. I’m not sure where he is, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find him in a gambling hall in one of the gold camps.

"Oh, I’m being a fool again. He’s nothing to me. No, you two are all I’ve got now, so, if you still want me to help out, I guess I’m your man," she laughed as she reached out to shake Alex’s outstretched hand.

"Well, if you’re going to keep on being Tim, I’d suggest another hair cut," Sofie laughed with her.

"And a new pair of britches and a couple more of those loose fitting shirts!" Alex added.

Within days they had set up a tent, brought out the whiskey and beer and were in business.

"This set-up is just temporary, of course," Sofie explained to Shinonn. "But until we’re sure we’ll be staying, this will do just fine."

Their establishment consisted of a strange, multi-roomed tent. The main room was where Alex ran his saloon. Rough planks of wood, balanced between two whiskey barrels, served as the bar. Out of their wagon they produced two tables, with chairs for each table. Standing beside the bar was Sofie’s ornately carved upright piano.

Along the back of the tent, opposite the bar, were three tiny, curtained rooms. These were the cribs where Sofie’s "girls" would work.

"A girl’s got to make money somehow," she explained to Shinonn with a shrug. "These miners get lonely for their sweethearts back home. My girls and I just do our best to make them happy for awhile."

"You don’t owe me any explanations, Sofie. That kind of work’s not for me, but I’m not about to criticize you. Still, it’s hard to imagine how you ever came to be in such a business."

"You might say I came by it honestly," she chuckled ruefully. "As a matter of fact, I’m only carrying on the family business. My mother, Ada Gunderson, was one of the most famous madams in New Orleans.

Oh, I never knew what she did for a living when I was young (she put me in boarding school as soon as I was old enough), but when I turned eighteen she sent Alex to bring me home and I soon learned how she earned her money."

"It must have come as a terrible shock."

"Oh, honey, did it ever! I took it real hard at first, hating the very sight of my poor mother. Then Alex sat me down and had a long heart-to-heart talk with me. Poor Alex, he was more in love with my mother than any man ought to be. He worshipped the ground she walked on. He tried to make me understand, but I still resented who and what my mother was.

"Then she took sick, and before long I knew she was dying. I couldn’t let her die with the hard feelings still between us, so I did everything I could to bury them.

"After she died I was stuck with her house and all the girls who worked there. I couldn’t just turn them out in the streets, so, with Alex’s help, I kept the place going.

"Alex was wonderful. I never could have managed without his help and advice. I’ll never know who my real father was, but in my heart I’ve chosen Alex. He’s more father than most girls could ever hope for."

"Why did you leave all that to come to California?"

"A few years after my mother’s death, I came to see that as long as we lived in New Orleans Alex would never get over her. Everything reminded him of her. So, I sold the house to one of the girls and come out here with the idea of starting over.

"Trouble is, the only business Alex and I know is that of selling pleasure. Luckily, we do it very well!

You can bet everything you own I’ll have the cleanest, most refined ladies this town has to offer. And Alex runs an honest bar."

Shinonn walked over to one of the cribs and pulled the curtain aside.

"You’ve got it fixed up real nice, Sofie. I’ve never seen rugs like those before."

Each cubicle was outfitted with a brass bed covered with a colorful, thick quilt. Beside it stood a chair and a night stand with a pitcher and bowl. A vase filled with fresh wild flowers decorated each dresser.

On the floor beside each bed Sofie had placed colorful Arabian Rugs. Although her "house" was made of canvas, she managed to make it attractive and inviting for her "guests."

"I’ll never hire a tramp to work a crib, and I’ll not expect my girls to work in any but the best available surroundings. As soon as we get ourselves established we’ll be building us a proper house. Until then, we’ll just have to make the best of what we have."

"It’s real nice, Sofie."

"Now comes the hard part, recruiting the girls. As I said, I won’t stand for any girl who doesn’t show some class. We want our establishment to be known for its refined tastes. I only want decent men in here, and decent men want decent women for their entertainment."

Within a few days Sofie had collected three "fallen doves" from among Placerville’s bawdy houses. Her offer of better pay and fewer hours were appreciated by all the girls. And when they saw the spotless linens on the beds, and the attractive furniture in the rooms, they were all certain they had made the right choice.

Business was brisk from the first day they were open. Alex poured an honest drink and allowed no rough housing from the men. His quiet, gentle personality set the tone for the saloon, and it soon became the favorite drinking and sporting emporium in town.

Sofie’s warm good humor charmed the men and girls alike. Every night was one rousing party after another with Sofie playing the piano while couples danced together in the tiny space between bar and cribs. She knew dozens of slow, songs which helped to keep the business in the curtained cubicles brisk.

Although Shinonn found working for Alex and Sofie to be pleasant enough, she soon found herself growing restless. While her friends were used to working nights and sleeping late into the morning, she found it impossible to lie in bed after the sun had risen. So one day she went to the hardware store and purchased a few miner’s tools.

It wasn’t easy to find a spot not already claimed, but at last she found a location which all the others had passed by. She soon discovered why no one else wanted to work the claim. It was about the poorest dirt in California, but she didn’t mind. The panning gave her something to do with her spare time and also enabled her to perfect the skills she would need if she ever decided to prospect in earnest.

On a good day, after several hours of hard work, if she was extremely lucky, she might pan out one or two ounces of the precious metal. On most days she was lucky to find any color at all.

"The more you work that crazy claim of yours, the more you look like one of the boys who come in here," Alex commented after Shinonn had been working her claim for a couple of weeks. "Next thing we know, you’ll be taking off like the rest of them, heading for better diggings."

"I just might, Alex. You know I never did mean to stay here in Placerville forever. I’m still looking for something. What that something is I don’t rightly know, but I got to keep looking just the same."

"You’ll know it when you find it. You’ve got a good head on your shoulders for someone so young. I just hope you’ll be satisfied when you find that dream of yours.

There’s some folks who walk right past their dreams, not recognizing them when they see them. When you find your dream, you grab hold of it and never let go, hear me? Never let go."

"The only thing is, Alex, I don’t think I’m going to find it here working in the saloon."

"We know that, Shinonn. Sofie and I were talking about you just this morning. She said she felt you’d be leaving us soon. We’ve both noticed how restless you’ve gotten lately. I suppose we always knew you would be traveling on someday."

"Yeah, it’s getting onto that time, all right. You don’t know what a relief talking to you has been. There’s nothing in the world I’d hate more than hurting either one of you. I’ve been trying for days now to figure out how I was going to tell you I was going."

"Don’t waste another minute worrying about it, son, I mean, Shinonn. Darned if I can remember that you’re not a scruffy lad, you play the role so well! But just you remember, we want nothing but the best for you. And if you ever find yourself this way again, you know you’ll always have a couple of friends here waiting for you."

With misty eyes, Shinonn gave Alex a big hug.

"Ill miss you, Alex."

"I know, I know. But you must do what’s right for you, and both of us know the bordello and saloon business isn’t it."

When told of Shinonn’s decision to leave Placerville, Sofie startled her by saying, "You’ve got to find that man, don’t you?" she asked softly.

"What man are you talking about?"

"Oh, you know who I mean. That man you said you would like to run into some day. You were cool enough when you mentioned him, but I saw that look in your eyes. He’s someone special, someone you can’t get out of your system. Believe me, I’ve seen that look in too many girl’s eyes to have misunderstood it. He’s like an itch you just can’t reach. You can’t forget him, no matter how hard you try."

"Don’t be daft! It’s not like that at all. He’s just a gambler I met a long time ago - I was just a kid. He doesn’t really mean anything to me at all. And I don’t even know if he’s here in California. I just thought he might be, seeing as how so many gamblers have flocked here. And even if he was standing right here in front of me, why, I don’t know that I’d want to have anything to do with him. By all rights I should hate him."