“You can trust Rose.”

They left the kitchen together and didn’t come back ’til we finished the dishes. When they walked in, Mary saw Gentry’s face and started snickerin’.

“Don’t you dare laugh!” Gentry said, makin’ a fist. She had some sort of yellow cream all over her face and neck.

“What’s that?” I said.

“A poultice,” Rose said. “In two days Gentry will be the prettiest girl in the county. Next to me, of course.”

It was true that Rose was beautiful. She had thick black hair and milk-white skin the sun couldn’t darken, even the slightest shade. Her eyes were big and green, and her brows angled sharply above ’em, as if shaped by a sculptor. She was slight, but sturdy, with a useful swell in her chest, and long legs. Her hips were narrow, and better for starin’ at than birthin’ babies.

I’d originally planned to spend the afternoon buyin’ supplies for the trip, and roundin’ up the town whores and gettin’ their stuff packed on the wagons so we could leave the next mornin’. But there weren’t no Springfield whores to take, and Rose already had the supplies we’d need, so we loaded two wagons instead of three, hitched the oxen to ’em, and began our western journey a day early.

Since Rose’s oxen were better suited for pullin’ wagons, she paid the whores a fair price for their horses and mule, and kept ’em in her corral, where Roberto could tend to ’em. Scarlett drove the whores in one wagon, and Rose and Phoebe drove the supply wagon. Major and I led the way.

Because the Kansas draught had turned normal people desperate and deadly, I decided to take the old hunter-trapper trails, instead of the main ones. The problem with that plan was there’d be no water ’til Cherryville, some hundred and twenty miles from the Missouri border. If the draught was still goin’ strong, the water Shrug and I knew about in Cherryville might be dried up as well. If that turned out to be the case, we wouldn’t be able to fill the barrels ’til we got to the Arkansas River, thirty miles west of Newton. Of course, Wichita was closer, and had plenty of water, bein’ located right beside the Arkansas River. But I wanted to avoid goin’ there ’cause demand for whores was so high, if the locals knew I had a wagon full of ’em, they’d likely kill me and force the women into service.

Plannin’ for the worst, we loaded six large water barrels onto Rose’s wagon, intendin’ to fill ’em at Copper Lake, twenty miles outside the Kansas border.

“Do we need that many barrels for the trip?” Phoebe asked.

“No. Two for us, two for the livestock.”

“And the other two?”

“I brought a couple of women to East Kansas a few months ago,” I said. “If they’re still where I dropped ’em off, and alive, they’re gonna want some water by now.”

“Why Emmett,” she said. “That’s quite noble of you.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just said, “Thank you.”

“Don’t be modest,” she said, “it’s very gallant. You’ve caught me by surprise.”

“How’s that?”

“I wouldn’t have expected such thoughtfulness.”

“From a coward who can’t shoot rabbits?”

She smiled. “Perhaps I was a bit hasty in my assessment of you.”

“Perhaps you were,” I said.

“Well then, I apologize.”

I nodded. “Apology accepted.”

“Your soul might be worth saving,” she said.

“You think?”

“Every now and then a glimmer shines through.”

“Well, maybe I’ll bring you somethin’ next time I come through Newton,” I said.

“I doubt I’ll be wanting for anything,” Phoebe said, “but a visit would be most welcome, I’m sure.”

“Then I’ll look in on you sometime,” I said, and meant it.

I worried for Phoebe’s future.

I doubted the rancher she planned to marry had any cattle left, or grass to graze ’em. The great draught of 1856 had been bad, but this one was far worse. Problem with Kansas, there ain’t no natural lakes. What water they have comes from rivers and rain barrels, and last I heard, the Kansas River had got so narrow, it could be forded at any point. I figured half the population of East Kansas would have moved away or thirsted to death by now.

 


 

 

 

22.

 

A couple hours into the trip, I heard the whores callin’ my name.