“Knock it off, both of you,” ordered the worst of the lot. His foul breath even reached Lilly’s table. “We gotta meet Wally in Dodge City in a week. He ain’t gonna take it kindly if we’re late.”
“What’s he gonna do ‘bout it, Earl?” Drake sneered.
“Shoot ya dead, if in you piss him off,” Earl replied while chewing a huge chunk of ham he’d stuffed into his mouth.
“Aw, he ain’t gonna do that, especially if we happen to take a few of them pretty women with us,” Drake countered.
“Now why would we go and do a thing like that?” Carl demanded, seemingly confused.
“So’s we can have some fun with them. Then we dump them in Dodge. I figure they ought to be pretty well used up by then,” he chortled. “Besides, I hear tell some of them whore houses in Dodge pay damn good for a pretty girl, no questions asked.”
“That so?” Carl asked, obviously more intrigued by the money than the use of the women. “Might be Wally wouldn’t mind a cut of that.”
“Sounds like a heap of trouble to me,” Earl stated. “They’ll be after those girls quicker than shit. It ain’t worth it.”
“They won’t I tell ya,” Drake insisted. “Them girls is whores. I don’t give a never mind what they say. Ain’t nobody going to chase a group of outlaws to get back some whores. Not unless theys in a hurry to meet their maker least ways,” he chortled. “We could have a lot of fun between here and Dodge City,” he wheedled.
“I guess we could at that,” Carl finally agreed.
“Well, I ain’t interested, “Earl snapped. “It’s a plum stupid idea and they’ll only slow us down. Now forget it. How you plannin’ to get them out of there anyways?”
Lilly laidsome coins on her table and rose. Quietly she approached the men, keeping her attention on ‘Earl’ who seemed to be in charge.
“Excuse me, gentlemen,” she said. “No, no don’t get up. I don’t want to draw any more attention to us than I have to. I have the shop next door, and I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation. When you’ve finished here, you might want to come around to my back door. I have a few things I’d like to say to you, regarding…”
“Not meaning to impolite, ma’am,” Earl said cautiously, “but we was just shooting the shit, I mean joshin’. We didn’t mean nothing by it. Just men talkin’”.
“Be that as it may, I’d still like you to stop over to my place. Make sure no one sees you.”
“Pardon my question, ma’am, but…”
“No, no more talk here,” she whispered stiffly. Then she walked away.
Laurie watchedfrom the kitchen in shock. Why in the world would Lillian Piersal, the most self-righteous female in town, speak to those men? It didn’t make a lick of sense. Shrugging her shoulders, she turned away and went back to kneading her bread. Oh well, Lillian was a strange woman at times, one minute so sweet she about gave you a toothache, and the next so cold butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. It was a shame Mead Whittaker was planning to marry her. She’d make his life a misery as far as Laurie was concerned, but that was neither here nor there. If she didn’t get the bread baked there would be no boxed dinners for Thursday night!
Lillian strolledto her shop and unlocked the front door. She did not turn the pretty stenciled ‘Open’ sign around. Instead, she locked the door behind her and hurried through the room, stocked with various hats, netting veils, gloves, and parasols. One glass counter held perfumes from as far away as Paris, and she proudly paused to adjust the bottles. Then she continued on, passing through her workshop and storeroom to the back room. Unbolting the door, she opened it a few inches and waited. As soon as she heard quiet voices, she opened the door wider and quickly ushered the men inside.
“Don’t touch anything,” she ordered, lifting her scented handkerchief to her nose. Good heavens, they were rank! Closing the door behind them she locked it again. Then it occurred to her she’d just put herself in a highly dangerous situation. She didn’t know these men, or what they might be capable of. Certainly, they were among the worst of society, but what could she expect when what she wanted them to do was deplorable under normal circumstances. However, these were not normal circumstances, indeed they weren’t! In fact, if she wanted her growing little town to remain respectable, she’d better do something about getting rid of the trash across the street. It didn’t seem as though anyone else in town was going to do what needed to be done. Squaring her shoulders and stiffening her spine she took three steps back.
“Gentlemen, I could not help overhearing your conversation at the café,” she began. “Were you in fact speaking the truth?”
“Now, ma’am, we was just flapping our jaws,” Earl said, finally having the sense to remove his hat.
Beneath it he was bald as a melon and Lillian’s mouth dropped open in surprise.
“I see,” she replied. “So, it was all just talk? You have no intention of removing those…women living upstairs at The Duchess from town?”
“Ma’am, pardon me for saying so, but it almost seems as though you found the idea to your likin’,” Earl stated.
“I do. They are a blemish on this town, and I find the entire situation highly offensive,” she hissed. “This used to be a nice place. I’m engaged to be married. I run a respectable shop for ladies of quality and having women of that ilk right across the street is an affront to every decent woman in town. I hardly want to raise any children I might one day have in such an environment,” she insisted heatedly.
“But even if them girls were gone, if they somehow…um, disappeared, the saloon would still be running,” Drake said, removing his own hat and scratching his greasy head.
“That is true, it might, but I hardly think it would draw quite so many questionable characters to the area if the main attractions were removed. Eventually, the proprietress might even have to close her doors.”
“I heard tell it was a woman running the place, but I didn’t hardly believe it,” Carl put in, ignoring his cohorts, and leaving his hat firmly on his head. “How would we even get them out of town?” he asked, shaking his head. “Without being caught, I mean.”
“Yes, that would take some doin’” Drake agreed. “If in we were seen, we’d end up locked up, and we got plans of our own, don’t we fellas?”
