Quicksilver Passion (164 page)

She hadn’t run a gambling hall without learning to bluff at poker.
You give me a hard time and I’ll quit. You know how hard it is to get a governess for a little girl? How would you like Waanibe running amok through the Palace at all hours?”

He smiled slowly and looked down at his hand with the port wine stain between his fingers.
Feisty brat, huh? Wal, maybe that’s to be expected.”

May I go to my room now?” She said it stiffly and he moved and let her pass. She didn’t look back but she could almost feel his gaze like hot hands on her body as she marched upstairs.

Inside her room, she locked the door and leaned against it, trembling. She no longer felt safe behind her old maidish costume. All the old terrors of the things men had done to her came back with a rush. She knew from the gossip that Jake was sleeping with both the Duchess and any of the whores he chose. There had been whispering about what went on when he went into a girl’s room and closed the door. No one, especially the girls he chose, wanted to talk about what he did to them.

Worse yet, in the few days he’d been here, the climate at the Palace had changed. It had always been a tough place, but Jake was adding all sorts of erotic and perverted ideas. Not that they didn’t bring in money. The Palace had customers they had never had before and there was whispering about what went on in some of the rooms upstairs ... for a price. It was being whispered about around town, too; Silver had heard the shocked words, the anger. Back in ’62, an angry mob had burned down the River House Saloon because its excesses had finally pushed even a tough boomtown like Denver to righteous indignation. Although if the truth be known, Silver wasn’t sure that the Duchess hadn’t had a hand in encouraging the mob to destroy her competition.

Could something like that happen at the Palace? It was the only frame building left on the street after the blaze had almost wiped out downtown Denver a year ago last spring. It was the sort of thing either the Duchess or Big Ed Chase would do to a competitor if they got the chance and they had been rivals a long time.

Still unsure what to do next, Silver went to the washbasin to clean up and get ready to face another day with the little girl she could neither steal nor desert. Wannie was holding her when, deep in her heart, Silver knew that for her own safety and her own happiness, she should leave.

His vision was definitely improving, Cherokee thought with relief as the Indian boy came to take him to breakfast. If this kept up, in a few days, he might not need Keso anymore.

They had breakfast and then went outside into the cold November morning. Anytime now, the blizzards would blow through the Rockies. Keso said there was already snow in the high country; it shone on the mountaintops.

Cherokee imagined cold winter days with himself at the head of the dinner table in a cozy log cabin. There would be a wild turkey, quail, or venison he had shot. Silver and the little girl would be making biscuits or maybe pies from berries and tart sand plums.

Keso took his hand and Cherokee smiled at a sudden thought. They might make room for Keso, too, but probably the boy would think a settler’s life out in the woods dull after living in Denver.

Keso said,
Boss, there’s a crowd gathered on the street corner, and some man is speaking. It looks like Jake Dallinger.”

They walked closer.

Is it?” Cherokee whispered.

Yes.”

Cherokee hesitated.
What was Jake up to?

The big man cleared his throat and continued haranguing the crowd.
Gawd Almighty, folks, like I was telling you, the army is protecting those red devils out there at Fort Lyon! We good folks of Denver need to help Colonel Chivington.”

Some of the crowd murmured agreement. A prospector yelled,
What do you think we should do?”

Jake cursed.
Those damned Cheyenne have about starved us out, cut off our mail and supplies. What would you
like
to do about it?”

A roar went up from the crowd.
He’s right,” someone shouted.
All able-bodied men ought to go out and join up with the colonel on his campaign. We’ve had enough of these Indian attacks, of our women raped and children carried off!”