The Mavericks (26 page)

“We've never had a fire,” the manager had said. “Our customers are very well behaved.”

Men who hadn't seen a woman in several days, sometimes weeks or months, were never well behaved. For those men, women belonged to two distinctly different and separate groups.
Nice
women were usually left back home. The nice ones who came west almost invariably avoided any contact with strangers, never set foot in saloons or theaters, and kept their daughters safe at home at night. Women who worked in saloons and theaters were considered only a small step above soiled doves, and all were fair game. Suzette had never liked that attitude, but she'd accepted it as part of the job.

“Can you start tonight?” the manager asked.

“We just got into town,” Josie said. “We don't even have a place to live yet.”

“That's no problem. I know a real nice widow who's looking to rent some rooms. Her husband was killed in an accident at the railroad, and she's got five kids to feed.”

Suzette wasn't sure she could live in such a house. It would remind her too much of her own mother after her father died.

“I don't know,” Josie said. “We haven't had a chance to practice since we left Globe. After riding in a wagon for a week, I doubt I can do a high kick.”

The manager's eyes grew about as big as a full moon in the night sky. “I'll give you all the proceeds of the front row,” he said.

Josie turned to Suzette. “What do you think?”

Suzette wanted to turn on her heel, walk out of this place, and never look back, but she'd laid out a careful plan for her life years before. It was too late to change it now. Hawk had no room in his life for a woman, and she couldn't afford to make room in her life for a man like him. It was time she stopped thinking about the impossible and started concentrating on the necessary. Pure chance had brought her together with Hawk, but the natural course of their lives would keep them separated.

“I suppose we could do it,” Suzette said, “if we can find a place to stay and run through a couple of numbers with the pianist before tonight.”

“Are you sure?” Josie asked, looking at Suzette more closely. “You don't look like yourself. Are you sure you're not too tired?”

Suzette knew that what ailed her had nothing to do with being tired. She also knew it wouldn't be cured by inactivity. She needed to focus her attention on her work. If she had to think about a man, she ought to look around for a nice, wealthy mine owner or merchant who was in the market for a wife. Her being a dancer was a drawback, but being attractive was in her favor.

It was time to stop kidding herself. A month ago she might have been able to marry a man she didn't love, but that was impossible now. She would have to earn all the money her sister needed, so she couldn't afford to be sick or to sit around feeling sorry for herself. Hawk was gone. She had to get on with the rest of her life.

“I'll be fine.” Suzette forced herself to smile at the theater owner. “All I need is to hear the sound of applause
and see a theater full of eager faces. You know how performers are.”

The look Josie gave Suzette said she didn't believe a word she was saying, but they made the final arrangements with the owner and then headed out of the theater with the address of the needy widow in their hands.

“Once we get settled in our rooms, we're going to sit down, and you're going to tell me exactly what's bothering you,” Josie said.

Suzette stood looking down the street in one direction and then the other. This was a different town in a different area full of different people, but it looked exactly the same as all the others. It could have been any one of a dozen towns she'd been in. As far as she was concerned, they consisted only of saloons, hotels and restaurants, and were filled almost entirely with men anxious to make a fortune and go back to the world they had left behind. Even for them, living here was only a temporary existence.

But places like this
were
her life. She was locked in with no escape. Even after her sister got married, she'd have to go on living in a town like this. She wouldn't be welcome anywhere else.

“There's nothing to talk about,” Suzette said. “I admit I'm feeling a little down. It always takes a while for me to start feeling at ease in a new town.”

Josie turned to the left. “Jerome Street is supposed to be two streets over.” They started walking in that direction. “Don't think we're through talking.” Josie looked down an alley to make sure no one was coming through. “Something's wrong, and I mean to find out what it is.”

Suzette came to a dead stop. “If you must know, I miss Hawk. It was stupid to allow myself to care so
much, but I couldn't help it. It just happened.” She started walking again. “I can't fit into his world and he can't fit into mine, so that's the end of it. It'll take me a while to get all that straight, but I will. The sign on the side of that building says Jerome Street, so we're almost there.” She stopped in her tracks and turned to face Josie. “Let's make a pact. No more talking or thinking about Zeke and Hawk.”

“I'm not thinking about Zeke.”

“You can save yourself the trouble of telling me lies. I know better.” She grabbed Josie's hand. “We've got to do this.”

“I don't see how just mentioning their names—”

“Promise me.”

“What if they come into town?”

“They won't. Tombstone's much closer to their ranch.”

“How do you know?”

“I asked. Don't tell me how desperate that sounds. I had to know. Now promise me. I don't think I can make it alone.”

Suzette didn't like the hesitation she saw in Josie's eyes. She'd been depending on Josie's strength of will to sustain her until she got her emotional feet back under her. But if she was any judge, Josie was having trouble accepting that Zeke had walked out of her life just as abruptly as he'd walked into it.

Josie squeezed Suzette's hand. “I could use a bit of help myself. Think we can do this together?”

“What other choice do we have?”

“We got no business coming into town.” Zeke had to walk fast to keep up with Hawk. “We ought to be at
the ranch getting ready to ride out first thing in the morning.”

Hawk didn't turn around or slow down to answer. “We can still do that.”

“Not if we spend half the night getting drunk.”

“You know I don't drink.”

“You don't need to. You're already drunk on Suzette. You stay around her much longer, and you're liable to pass out.”

Hawk kept right on walking. “I told you I wanted to make sure they had a good place to stay and the job was working out.”

“If that widow woman was any more respectable, she'd have to take up living in the church.”

They hadn't had to ask where Suzette and Josie were staying. That was all everybody was talking about. Half the men in Benson must have seen the two women on their way to the Widow Jameson's house. The other half had seen them make their way to the theater. Both halves were planning to be at the theater tonight. Zeke thought it was good everybody was so excited about their appearance. The sooner they earned a lot of money, the sooner they could stop dancing. Hawk didn't take any comfort in their apparent good fortune. In fact, he seemed downright upset by it. Zeke knew Hawk was sweet on Suzette, but he hadn't realized it had gone this far.

“I'm not worried about their landlady.” Hawk slowed down as they approached the theater. There was a line in front to purchase tickets.

When a few of the men started pushing and shoving, Zeke got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. Even though this was a theater instead of a saloon, beer and
whiskey were on sale for anyone with the price of a drink.

“What are you doing here?” one of the men demanded of Zeke.

“We want to see the show.”

“We don't want no blacks in our theater. No Injuns, either,” he said, eyeing Hawk.

They'd encountered this kind of prejudice most of their lives. Even though it still made them angry, they'd learned the only way to handle it was to ignore it or pretend indifference.

“There's no law against it,” Zeke said.

“There ought to be.”

Hawk ignored the man, and Zeke didn't answer. They reached the front of the line.

“I want a seat in the front row,” Hawk said to the man in the ticket window.

“They're all gone.”

“How about the second?”

“I've got two left, but it'll cost you double.”

Hawk reached in his vest pocket and pulled out a gold coin. “Give me both of them.”

The man at the ticket window gave him his change and the tickets. “They've got numbers on them,” he said. “You gotta take the seats with the right numbers.”

The lobby was packed with men drinking or men trying to get to the bar to order something to drink. Already the heat of so many people in the confined space had caused the smell of liquor and unwashed bodies to reach an unpleasant level.

“Let's go to our seats,” Hawk said.

They worked their way to the front of the theater. It was surprisingly large and decorated in white and silver.
The stage curtain was deep blue with silver fringe. Some kind of blue material was looped over the balcony railing. Already the balcony seats were filled with men crowded too close together. Zeke and Hawk had to climb over eight people to get to their seats. The seats were covered in what looked like red velvet, but they were so hard, Zeke figured there was no padding underneath. They got angry looks from several men, but that changed as soon as a man sat down at the piano and started to play. As best Zeke could tell over the noise of men rushing to their seats, he was playing a collection of Stephen Foster melodies. Zeke wondered if any in the audience knew those songs had been made popular by black-face minstrel shows back East.

The first act was a juggler. He wasn't bad, but the audience was more interested in his pretty assistant, who posed first on one side of the stage and then the other. The juggler didn't seem to mind that he was largely ignored. He obviously knew what made his act popular.

The juggler was followed by a comedy skit. The jokes were poor, the set worse than nothing, and the actors clearly scraped from the bottom of the barrel. Still, they got a round of applause when they finished.

Several more variety acts followed: a singer, a dog act, a magician, a strong man, even a dramatic reading by a woman whose voice was well past its prime. All through these acts, the audience grew more and more restive. They knew the best act always came at the end of the first half. The audience grew silent when the owner came out in front of the curtain.

“We have a special treat this evening,” he announced.
“Straight from Globe, let's welcome Miss Josie and Miss Suzette.”

The piano started playing a spirited tune Zeke didn't recognize, and the curtain opened on a set that looked like the inside of a saloon. For a moment nothing happened; then just as the audience started to squirm, two women appeared, one from each side of the stage. Zeke was sure he'd never seen either of them before.

Both women wore elaborate wigs decorated with ribbons and feathers. They wore bright red lipstick and rouge, but it was the costumes that caused the audience to catch its collective breath. Both dresses were bright red and tantalizingly brief. The women wore long red gloves, but their arms and shoulders were bare. A tiny skirt kept the costume from being indecent while covering only a small portion of long, shapely legs encased in black net stockings. The heels of their shoes were so high, Zeke expected the women to tumble forward any moment.

When the women came to the front of the stage and began their number, the audience made so much noise, Zeke couldn't hear a note of their song. But that didn't matter. He sat there in a state of shock, marveling how the two women he'd traveled with for over a week could have transformed themselves into performers he barely recognized. He'd become so engrossed in studying what they'd done to themselves, he was slow to realize some of the men were standing up and calling out invitations of every description. He didn't like their reaction, but he could understand it. Suzette and Josie were beautiful women, but the two women on stage were exotic beyond a man's wildest imagination. Now he understood why they were so popular.

Suzette nearly forgot her words and steps when she saw Hawk. So many questions flooded her mind, she couldn't focus on any one of them. The only thought that was clear, the only one that mattered, was that Hawk hadn't left, that he was here. She glanced over at Josie to see if she'd noticed that Zeke was sitting next to Hawk, but Josie was performing to the audience in the balcony. She said performing to the men in the front row would encourage them to get too friendly.

They were performing as close to the footlights as possible. Josie said it was good to get close to the audience while still keeping a barrier up. Josie knew all kinds of tricks when it came to putting over an act, but Suzette forgot all of them now. She kept her eyes on Hawk. When she realized he was looking directly up at her, she nearly forgot to execute a flurry of quick steps intended to carry her and Josie to opposite sides of the stage.
They circled to the back, then came together as they danced toward the front and center.

“Did you see Hawk?” Josie asked surreptitiously while continuing to smile broadly at the audience.

“Zeke's here, too,” Suzette whispered back.

They reached the front of the stage and separated. Suzette didn't know why Hawk was in the audience, but she told herself he was just making sure she and Josie had a job before they left for their ranch. That seemed reasonable. After all, the men had escorted them to Benson just to make sure they were safe.

She saw a man in the front row stand up. She tried not to grin when Hawk jerked him back into his seat. The two men exchanged some hot words, but men were always doing that. Some men were far too intense, especially when they'd been drinking. The man jumped up out of his seat again and reached for Josie, but she had no trouble evading him. Suzette expected him to reach for her, was ready for it, but wasn't prepared for him to practically throw himself on the stage. He got his fingers around her ankle, but she was able to break loose without missing a step.