The Chili Queen (18 page)

Ned did not correct him to say it had been twice in two days. Instead, he glanced at Emma, who was lying on her side. Her eyelids flickered, and he knew she was only pretending to be in a very sound sleep. Black Jesse prodded her with his toe, and said, “Hello, the house.” Emma sat up. If she was frightened, she did not show it. In fact, she covered a yawn with her hand.

“Me and Earlie stayed up there, in that little house. You remember it, Ned boy? It’s big enough to room us all. You could have slept there, too, out of the rain,” Black Jesse said.

Ned remembered the house, of course, and with a sickening feeling, he remembered, too, how he knew about it. He and the Minder brothers had camped there.

“We finished up our whiskey and was just wondering what to have for breakfast, and we seen your horse tracks,” Black Jesse continued. “But you can’t tell from the trail of a snake if it’s coming or going, so we sneaked up, and here you are.”

“We haven’t much, but you’re welcome to it,” Emma said. She pulled on her boots and reached into the pile of provisions, but Earlie stepped on her hand. Emma winced but said nothing.

“I guess I’ll take your guns first,” Earlie said. He picked up Ned’s gun, which was next to his saddle, and Black Jesse kicked aside Emma’s blankets and found hers. Earlie continued to hold his gun on Ned, while Black Jesse built a fire. Moving slowly and deliberately, Emma found the coffee beans and spread a handful of them onto a rock, then smashed them with a stone, and dumped the grounds into the pot of rainwater. She made a fire and set the pot on the flames. Then she laid out the two tin cups she had bought in Jasper and the canned goods and told the Minders to help themselves. Emma was so calm that Ned wondered whether she realized the danger they were in.

He reached for one of the cans, but Earlie cocked his gun, pointing it at Ned’s head. “Us first.”

Ned grinned at him, and crossed his legs, leaning back against his saddle. “I guess I’m not hungry.”

Earlie slid his eyes to Emma. Ned didn’t like the look, and he started to say something to divert Earlie’s attention, but Earlie cut him off. “I guess I’m not hungry, neither.” He licked his lips. Emma glanced at him, then lowered her eyes, and Ned thought she trembled a little. “You aren’t really Ned’s sister?” Earlie asked her.

“My name is Emma,” she replied. She had gotten up, and she stood beside the fire then. Her arms were crossed protectively in front of her chest. But her feet were a little apart, as if she were ready to spring. Ned hoped she wouldn’t until he figured something out. It would be almost impossible for the two of them, without guns, to take the Minders. He hoped Emma wouldn’t panic.

Earlie continued to stare at Emma, a little leer on his lips. “No, I guess I ain’t so hungry just yet.”

Emma sent Ned a helpless look, and Ned glanced around for some kind of weapon, but Earlie was too smart for him. He kicked a stone out of Ned’s reach.

“Come here,” Earlie told Emma.

She stayed where she was.

Earlie’s voice grew hard. “Do what I say. You don’t think you’re too good for me, do you?”

Emma shook her head. “No,” she said in a tiny voice. She seemed unable to move.

Suddenly, Earlie reached out and gripped her, yanking her so hard that she cried out in pain. Ned half-rose, but Earlie pointed the gun at him. “If you move again, I’ll kill you—her, too,” he said, and Ned knew he would. But he couldn’t let Earlie take Emma. He knew what the man could do.

“Come on to Nalgitas. I’ll get you all the girls you want,” Ned said easily. “Young ones. They know how to take care of a man.”

“Maybe—when I’m done here,” Earlie replied.

Ned moved his legs a little, ready to spring at Earlie. He would likely get killed then, and that would leave Emma on her own. She turned her head to Ned and mouthed the words, “Two evils.”

At first, Ned didn’t know what she meant. Then he remembered what she had told him after he’d related the story of the Minders and the redheaded boys. She’d said that sometimes a person had to choose between two evil things. Maybe she had come to the same conclusion Ned had, that he ought not to get killed right away, that maybe in a minute, he could come up with a way to rescue her. Ned thought that what Earlie would do was a terrible thing, but it was not as bad as both of them getting killed. And Ned was sure that if the Minders killed him, they would kill Emma, too. Still, he couldn’t let Earlie ravish her. “Don’t do it,” Ned said in a low voice.

Earlie only laughed. “If he moves, you kill him, Jesse. You get your turn next,” Earlie said, as he dragged Emma away. “Now, come on peaceable. You can’t think of any way you’d better like to have it.” With one last look at Ned, Emma went with Earlie.

“Stop him. I’ll make it worth your while,” Ned told Jesse in a low voice.

But Jesse only grinned at him and raised his gun a little higher. “Earlie’s made funny,” he explained. “He don’t like nobody to watch. I hope he don’t cut her. They’re no good to me after he cuts ’em.” Jesse shook his head. “Maybe she won’t mind. Some women, the worse you treat them, the better they like you.” He frowned, then added, “Earlie’s some worse than when you knew him.”

Earlie and Emma had disappeared behind an outcropping of rocks. Ned heard a scuffle, and Emma’s faint voice pleading, “No, please,” then a slap.

Black Jesse didn’t pay attention. He reached for one of the cups and threw it at Ned. “I’d like some coffee right well.”

Ned swallowed hard to control his voice. “I’d like it right well myself. Any objections?”

Jesse thought it over. “I don’t expect Earlie would mind.”

Ned was deliberate and slow, just as Emma had been when she’d made the coffee, so as not to alarm Jesse. He set one of the cups beside him, then used his shirttail to lift the coffeepot from the fire. “Let’s see if it’s done,” he said, opening the lid and raising the pot so that he could peer inside.

At that moment, there was a scream of terror, an inhuman high-pitched sound that hung in the air. For an instant, Ned thought that Earlie and Emma had been attacked by a panther, but in his gut he knew the scream was Emma’s. The sound was so piercing that it startled Black Jesse, who half-rose and turned toward the noise. Ned saw his chance and flung the coffee into Black Jesse’s face. Jesse dropped his gun as he put his hands to his burned flesh. Instead of going for the weapon, Ned picked up a huge rock with both hands and brought it down on Jesse’s head. Jesse didn’t yell. He made a single noise that sounded like “Whoomp.” Made strong with madness, Ned hit him again—and again, until the top of Jesse’s head was smashed in, and blood and gore covered his face. Jesse fell forward, his arm in the fire.

Ned didn’t look to see if Jesse was dead; he knew he was. He grabbed the man’s gun and started after Earlie and Emma. He moved stealthfully, not knowing if Earlie had heard the sound of the rock against Jesse’s skull. It would be safer to circle around and catch Earlie from the other side, but Ned knew there wasn’t time. He hoped he wasn’t too late and he rushed forward—and found himself looking down the barrel of Earlie’s gun. Beyond was a body on the ground.

Ned didn’t stop to think. He would die, but Earlie would die, too. He raised his gun, hoping he could get off a shot before Earlie killed him, when Emma’s voice pierced through the fog of his mind. “Ned!” she cried, and he looked up to see that he was facing Emma, their guns pointed at each other. As if she had exhausted her control in that single word, Emma dropped the weapon, just as her legs gave out. Ned caught her as she fell, and he lowered her to the ground.

“He’s dead,” Emma told him.

“Black Jesse, too,” Ned told her. “I smashed his head.”

“I stabbed Earlie. I stabbed a man to death,” Emma told him.

“He wasn’t a man. He was an animal.” Ned put his arms around Emma and held her, not asking her what had happened but waiting for Emma to tell him.

She didn’t cry then. Instead, she went limp. Ned cradled her for a long time, rocking back and forth with her, until she roused herself and said, “I had a knife in my boot. He didn’t expect it. When he turned away, I stabbed him in the back. Did you hear him?”

“I thought that was you.”

Emma shook her head against Ned’s chest. “I must have killed him the first time, but I kept stabbing and stabbing. I couldn’t stop.”

For the first time, Ned saw the blood on her shirt. The shirt was ripped, too, and he asked, “Did he—?”

“No,” Emma replied. “No. He only tore my clothes.”

After a few minutes, Ned lifted Emma to her feet. “I’ll have to bury the bodies so no one will find them. I ought to bury them in a ditch like dogs, but there aren’t any ditches,” he told her. “You sit by the fire.” He led her back to their camp and wrapped a blanket around her, then built up the flames, although it was already hot in the canyon. Then he went back for Earlie’s body. While Emma huddled beside the fire, crying silently, Ned dug a grave in the soft mud. Before he buried the two men, he found their horses and went through the saddlebags, pulling out a canvas sack filled with money. He dumped the loot beside Emma, then threw the bag and saddles into the grave. He removed the bridles from the horses and dropped the bridles in, too. At last, he dragged the two bodies to the grave and buried them facedown. Ned shoveled in the dirt and smoothed the mound, covering it with rocks and broken branches.

It was almost noon when he finished and sat down beside Emma. “The horses are better than ours, but someone might recognize them,” Ned said. “The saddles, bridles, I don’t want them. But the money, well, I guess we deserve it.”

“What?” Emma asked, and Ned realized she hadn’t even seen the money bag he’d put down beside her.

He reached over and opened it, extracting the money and counting it quickly. “Over thirteen hundred dollars,” he said. Then he went back through the money, dividing it into two piles, and put one in her lap. “Fifty-fifty,” he said. Emma just stared at him, so he tucked the money into her saddlebag. He put his share into his coat pocket, then threw the bag into the fire.

“We ought to get out of here,” he told her after a few minutes. “Can you sit a horse?”

Emma nodded.

“If we ride hard, we can make it to Nalgitas tonight. But we don’t have to. We can camp again, if you want to.”

“No,” she told him. “We must get back.”

While Ned saddled their horses, Emma went through their things and took out a blouse. She stripped off her torn shirt, ripped it into pieces, and flung them about. She found a depression in a boulder where rainwater had collected and washed the blood off her face and arms, then put on the blouse. By the time she returned to Ned, the horses were saddled, the bedrolls secured. Ned had even tidied up the campsite so that anyone coming across it would not know they had been there.

Emma let Ned help her mount, and he stood beside her a moment, his hand on her leg. “We won’t tell anybody about this,” he said. “If Addie asks, and she will, we’ll say the Minders got to the bank first, that we saw them.”

“How will we explain the money?”

“We won’t tell anybody about that, either. There’s no way Addie will know, and who is there for you to tell?”

Emma thought that over. “I would rather endure their ridicule at our failure than have to relive this morning for them.”

“Earlie and Black Jesse were common dogs. Perdition is too good for them. We had no choice. Remember that. There was no choice.” Ned looked up at her for a long time, while Emma stared down at him.

“No choice,” she repeated.

He started toward his horse, then turned and went back to Emma, reaching up for her hand. “I don’t like this life much anymore. When I buy that ranch…Well, do you think you’d like to live on a ranch?” Ned hadn’t meant to blurt that out, but he felt joy on the way when he said it. His green eyes crinkled as he smiled. “With what you get from your brother, we could put our money together. I guess you know what I’m asking.”

Emma touched her hand to her mouth in surprise. There was a cut on her lip, and her cheek was bruised, probably where Earlie had struck her, and her eyes were red, but Ned thought she was beautiful. He was glad he had asked her to marry him.

“I don’t know what to answer,” Emma said at last. “I can’t think about that now.”

He’d surprised her, Ned thought. Well, by zam, he’d surprised himself. He should have waited until they were out of this place and the Minders were far behind. It hadn’t been the right time. But he wasn’t discouraged. He mounted his horse, then he leaned over and kissed Emma on the mouth.

When he pulled away, Emma gave him a grave look. “I cannot make plans now. I must wait until after the business with John is done.” She had a look on her face of great sadness.

It was nearly midnight when Ned and Emma rode
up to The Chili Queen. They unsaddled their horses in the barn, then Ned walked Emma to the back door of the parlor house. Through the window, in the dim glow of a kerosene light on the kitchen table, he could see Addie and Welcome. He’d thought Addie would be working still, but it must have been a slow night. Ned didn’t care to go inside, but he couldn’t let Emma face the two women alone. They would pester her with questions, and she might break down and tell them what had happened. That would only cause problems for him and pain for her. So he followed Emma into the kitchen.

“La!” Addie said when her eyes lit upon Ned and Emma. “Lookit who’s here.” She was a little tight. “We had a few less than a hundred customers, so we were obliged to shut up early.”

Ned grinned at her. “We rode like hell to get back. I guess you were worried.”

Addie picked up a glass and drank, spilling a little down the front of her dress. “Not me. I didn’t worry.” She brushed the drops into the fabric.

“Well, I evermore bejesus did. I thought one of them must have got killed, him or she,” Welcome said to Addie. Welcome was full of liquor, too, and Emma eyed her curiously. “Somebody hurt you,” she said to Emma, looking at her closely. It was a statement, not a question.

“I got bucked off a horse,” Emma replied curtly. “I didn’t get killed.”

“Naw,” Ned said. “Neither one of us got killed, didn’t even come close.” He might as well get the telling over with. “Somebody robbed the bank before we did. We had to go north so’s nobody’d suspicion us.” Then Ned told the story he and Emma had made up. “We camped out on the prairie. The wagon broke down, and we left it behind. Then we traded in the team on a couple of horses. When we woke up, one of the horses had got loose of his hobbles, and we spent the morning looking for him. It was a damn long ride home, and I am purely sore,” he finished.

Addie didn’t seem interested. She glanced at Welcome as if the two shared some secret. Then she waved her hand at Ned, dismissing his story. She’d been on the drink for a long time, or she’d have lit into him for abandoning her wagon.

“You got a letter,” Addie told Emma, nodding at an envelope propped up against the lamp. Ned looked from Addie to Emma to Welcome, who glowered at him. Addie might have forgiven him for going to Jasper with Emma, but Welcome had not. Ned didn’t know why Welcome got so agitated about him. There was something uncommon strange about her, but he couldn’t say what it was. Maybe she was just anxious to get her $250.

Ned reached for the letter, but Addie snatched it up and handed it to Emma. The letter was enclosed in a real envelope, whose flap was wrinkled. It had been steamed open, then glued shut with a lumpy paste. Emma examined the flap but didn’t say anything about it. “The letter’s from John,” she said, examining the writing on the front. She slipped into a chair. “Did he send the money?” She looked at Ned, who thought it would be a fine thing if they got both the bank loot and the money from John on the same day.

Addie shrugged. “How would we know? We’ve been waiting for you to get back to find out.” She winked at Welcome.

Emma slit open the envelope with her finger and took out a folded sheet. She peered into the envelope, but it contained only a note. Emma read it to herself. She closed her eyes for a moment—Ned couldn’t tell if it was from fatigue or disappointment. She opened them and muttered, “My brother’s coming here.” She went to the cupboard for a glass, then sat down again and poured herself a healthy slug of whiskey.

“What?” Ned asked.

“He doubtless feels your husband is not to be trusted, and neither are you,” Addie said. “That’s what he says, at any rate.”

“Yes, that is precisely what he says. I should have known it would not be so simple to cheat him. It is John’s earnest request to meet and examine my husband.” Emma took a drink of whiskey.

“It ain’t your lucky day, oh no,” Welcome said, fingering a scar on her arm. Ned hadn’t noticed the lacerations before, and he stared at them, wondering what Welcome had done to deserve them. She sent him a hard look as she rolled down her sleeves, then turned to Emma and commanded, “Read that letter out loud.”

Emma set the paper on the table and flattened it with her hand. Ned could see that some of the ink had run, probably from the steam Addie had used to open the envelope. Emma leaned over the paper, her hands against her forehead, and read the letter to them without stopping:

“Sister

“It is a remarkable peculiarity that you have found an investment you believe is to my advantage, so soon after your marriage. But having heard much of opportunity in the West and the backwardness of those living there in taking advantage of it, I have determined to see for myself whether I should put my money with you. I am not such a fool as to send you the money without proper investigation. But if after meeting Mr. Withers, I am convinced he is to be trusted, I will agree to your terms. I will arrive in Nalgitas on Friday next, the same afternoon train you took. Meet me.

“Your Brother

“John Roby”

“Why, he writes a real pretty letter,” Addie chuckled.

“Jolly enough to make a parson dance,” Welcome agreed, and the two of them broke into laughter. Ned wondered how long they’d been drinking.

Emma finished the whiskey, then crossed her arms on the table and put her head down. “I will get on the train tomorrow and go away. When I am settled and have a position, I shall send you money to pay for my keep, Addie.” She sounded weary, and her words were muffled.

Ned sucked in his breath, but it was Addie who spoke. “Why ever would you do that?”

“Because I do not care to face my own brother and tell him I am a swindler.” Emma rose. “I am very tired, and I must pack my things.”

Addie waved her arm. “Oh, sit on back down. Me and Welcome already figured it out. Ned can pretend to be your husband. It was Welcome’s idea.”

Ned thought it was a good idea and said as much.

But Emma didn’t think so. Instead of sitting down again, she held onto the back of the chair and looked at the others. “I don’t believe that would work. John is too smart.”

Ned shook off his weariness. His plans—Emma, the ranch—depended on the money. She didn’t seem to realize that. “It’s a swell idea. Why, it’s no big thing to convince him we’re married,” he said a little desperately. “Either way, he’ll know you’re a swindler. So you might as well leave Nalgitas with his money as without it.”

Emma closed her eyes, and Ned wondered if she would fall asleep standing there. He was surprised that, tired as she was, she had drunk the whiskey. It would have made him pass out. Then Emma waved her hand. “I am excessively tired. I cannot think clearly. Let me decide in the morning.”

“You got nothing to lose to try it,” Addie told her. But Emma put up her hand and turned around.

After Emma closed the bedroom door, Addie reached for the bottle on the table and poured whiskey into her glass and then into Welcome’s. She didn’t offer Ned a drink. She didn’t even look up as he turned and went out the door. When Ned glanced back through the window, Addie and Welcome were bent over the table, Addie’s curls almost touching Welcome’s head rag, and he heard Addie mimic Emma’s words: “I am excessively tired myself. If she doesn’t decide in the morning, we’ll decide for her.”

Welcome was arguing with Emma out near the clothesline when Ned emerged from the barn the next day, and his first thought was that Emma had made the decision to leave Nalgitas before her brother arrived. Sadness swept over him, for it meant that Emma was leaving him, too. Then he realized that Welcome was talking about him.

“You got no business out with that man on them moon-shining nights,” Welcome said. “You have forgotten way back yonder things?” Ned didn’t understand what Welcome meant by that and was curious to hear more, but Welcome heard his footsteps and whirled around.

“What are you blowing about?’ Ned asked her.

Welcome sniffed. “Miss Addie is full of misery with worry over you.”

“No such a thing,” Ned replied. Addie didn’t worry about his work any more than he worried about hers. But maybe Welcome wasn’t referring to robbing banks. Addie and Welcome might have guessed his feelings for Emma. Ned hoped not. Addie would know soon enough—and he didn’t care about Welcome, of course—but it was best that neither one of them found out until after Emma had gotten the money from her brother. He didn’t want any more complications.

Ned considered how he would tell Addie, but he knew there was no right way. The two of them had had a good run of it, and their time together was longer than either of them had ever been with anyone else. But they’d both known it would end sometime. They’d made it clear in the beginning that they wouldn’t make claims on each other. Addie’d never pestered him to marry her; that was why things had been so easy between them. Ned hadn’t changed his mind about their getting married, and he believed Addie had not, either. He was fond of Addie and didn’t want to hurt her. But it was best to put off telling her how things stood between them for as long as he could.

Welcome sent Ned a disapproving look. He ignored her and turned to Emma and grinned. “So are you going to marry me?”

Emma’s eyes grew wide, and she clasped her hands in front of her, and Ned could have smacked himself. Emma was thinking about his real proposal. What he was asking her now was whether she’d agree to let Ned pretend to be her husband. “Just for the day,” he added quickly. “Just until your brother leaves.”

“Maybe her brother won’t think you’re good enough for her,” Welcome interjected.

“I’m good enough for anybody,” Ned protested.

Emma ignored Welcome. “I have studied on it and don’t see that there is anything to lose. The only chance I have to get the money is to have a husband. It is a good plan. Besides, I will enjoy John’s surprise when he discovers that I have married such a handsome man.”

Ned flushed and moved into the shade of the barn and hunkered down. “I believe you know that somewhere along the road I came over, I learned a little playacting. I won’t let you down.”

Emma peered into the shadows at him with a smile that told Ned she knew he would not. “John’s coming is a great drawback. He will be wary of your motives, but I do not believe he will question that you are my husband. John thinks himself a fine judge of character, so we must concentrate on his good impression of you.”

“Then it’s settled,” Ned said.

Emma nodded. “I shall have to convince John that he cannot see the land, that to let the seller know we have taken in a partner would be to put the deal in jeopardy. John may agree to it since sometimes he is so greedy that he does not always use good sense.”

Welcome had been listening closely, looking from Ned to Emma. Now she turned to Emma. “It sounds to me like you got more at work here than cheating a man of his money.” The two turned to her. “Oh, the money matters. It matters most. But money gets spent, and bimeby, it’ll be gone. What lasts, what you’ll remember in your certain later time, is you cheated your brother to his face.” Welcome laughed a deep, guttural laugh. “Myself, I never felt sad or glad about what I done.” She shut her mouth, as if she’d said too much.

“What did you do that you feel so right about it?” Ned asked.

Welcome clapped her hands together. “Oh, I ain’t fractious. I just done what I had to. I worked for the end of tribulation and the end of beatings and shoes that fit my feet.”

“Well, you’ll get enough to buy any shoes you want,” Ned said, thinking over what Welcome had told them. She was right in saying that for Emma, the money was only part of the reason she was fleecing her brother. There was something else to it, more than she had said. Perhaps she would tell him sometime. Ned turned from Welcome to Emma. He watched as Emma reached out and patted the black woman’s arm, but Welcome pulled away. “Drop no tears for me,” she said.

Emma’s nervousness increased as John’s arrival drew near. Ned wondered how she could have been so calm in planning the bank robbery but so edgy at meeting her own brother. Maybe it was the memory of the Minder boys that made her act as if she had the jimjams. Now that they were back in Nalgitas, Emma had not brought up the events of that morning in the canyon. Once, Ned had asked her if she was all right, but she had looked through him and not replied. If she wanted to talk about it, he thought, she’d bring it up. Maybe if they didn’t talk about it, she’d forget it. When he studied on it, Ned decided that Emma’s agitation had to do with her brother, and it picked up on Friday, before his arrival. Ned wondered what it was about John Roby that aggravated Emma so. Addie had said that he was a mean man, the kind of mean that would make them all feel good about cheating him. Perhaps Emma feared him, was afraid of what he’d do when he found out she’d taken advantage of him. Maybe she’d begun to feel guilty about stealing money from her own brother, but somehow, Ned didn’t think so. Emma didn’t seem to have much of a conscience. That was an odd thing.