Elaine Barbieri - The Redemption Of Jake Scully

“You don’t have time for a good morning today, Scully?”

Scully’s gaze swept over Charlotte briefly. He remembered the first time he saw her, when she came into the saloon looking for a job a year earlier. He had known at a glance she’d be an asset in his establishment.

Scully’s smile softened. He and Charlotte had both been on their own long enough to be well versed in what the world had to offer people like them.

He responded, “You’re in early today, aren’t you?”

“Maybe.” Charlotte smiled with a quirk of her arched brows. “I’ve got a lot of energy stored up, I guess.”

“Charlotte…”

She said unexpectedly, “I like her, Scully. Lacey’s a real nice girl…innocent, you know? Not like you and me, who’ve seen it all and made our choices.” Charlotte took a step closer. “I expect she’ll make some rancher a real good wife someday. She’s suited to that life. She’ll take to it like a duck to water.”

Charlotte’s heady perfume filled his nostrils as she added, “I’ll see you around, Scully.” She winked. “You know where to find me.”

Charlotte walked back out through the saloon doors, disappearing as quickly as she had appeared, and Scully looked up to the expressive wiggling of Bill’s hairy eyebrows as the rotund bartender stood behind the bar. Bill had the keenest eye in town, but Scully resented having it turned in his direction. He made a mental note to tell him so, too.

That thought firmly fixed, Scully turned toward his office, and within seconds he had slammed the door behind him.

“You’re sure you don’t know of any positions that might be open for a young woman in town…anything at all?”

Wilson Parker stared at Lacey Stewart from his customary position behind the mercantile store counter. He had been standing in this same spot ten years earlier when a bedraggled little girl walked down the town’s main street dragging a scrawny burro behind her. Nobody had been more shocked than he to see how that pale little girl had turned out.

“Mr. Parker…?”

And no one was more incredulous than he as he responded, “Do you mean to say Scully thinks that you should…that he expects…”

“Scully has nothing to do with what I’m intending.” Lacey’s gaze pinned him as her smooth cheeks colored. “Is there something wrong with supporting oneself, may I ask? If I were a man, everyone would expect it of me. Certainly being a woman doesn’t change things that much.”

“But you’re not a woman. You’re a lady.” Lacey snatched back her well-groomed hands as Mr. Parker said, “Scully wouldn’t have to support you forever, just until the right fella comes along.”

The right fella, Lacey thought. There it was again.

Lacey controlled a spark of impatience as she responded, “I have plans for the future that don’t include waiting for the ‘right fella’ to turn up, and I’ll need to earn some money in the meantime.”

“Still, I don’t think—”

“That’s the trouble.” Lacey turned toward Sadie Wilson as the matronly restaurant owner interrupted their conversation. Sadie continued, “You don’t think, Parker. You just react, and this lady here is the kind who chooses to use the abilities God gave her to support herself instead of depending on others. I’d say that’s admirable, wouldn’t you?”

“Admirable?” Mr. Parker shrugged his narrow shoulders. “For a woman your age, I suppose it is, but Lacey—”

Sadie turned her back on the storekeeper, dismissing him with a roll of her eyes that said she had heard it all before. Addressing Lacey directly, she said, “I couldn’t help hearing your conversation, and I’m thinking it might be lucky for both of us that I happened to come in here to get some things I ran out of in the restaurant this morning. The fact is, I’m going to be shorthanded at the restaurant soon. Millie—you know, the redhead with all the freckles—she’s leaving to get married at the end of the week. I’m going to be needing somebody who’s looking for good, honest work.”

Lacey’s heart jumped a beat.

Sadie searched her expression. “It’s not easy work, mind you. There’s a lot of running involved when things get busy.”

“I’m not afraid of hard work.”

Appearing pleased at her response, Sadie replied, “Well then, as far as I’m concerned, you’re hired. The restaurant is busiest in the early morning and during the supper hours. I have a woman who helps at night, so I’ll try you out in the morning. If you’re agreeable, you can start at the end of the week when Millie leaves. I’ll pay you what I was paying her.” Sadie winked. “I’ll be expecting to get more work out of you, though, because Millie’s mind hasn’t been on her job lately.”

“That’s fine with me.” Lacey added, “And…thank you.”

Lacey watched as Sadie walked to the back of the store to scout out her purchases. Her heart was pounding. She had a position and she’d start at the end of the week! She’d have money to pay for her board at the boarding house and she—

Lacey’s high spirits plummeted as she bid the disapproving storekeeper goodbye and started back toward the Gold Nugget with the prospect of moving from the Gold Nugget suddenly looming closer. Also plaguing her was the prospect of informing Scully that she had agreed to take a job. He’d be angry, but she’d remind him that she’d be able to take the room at Mrs. McInnes’s sooner than she thought. That would please him. Lacey pondered that thought. But how would she feel about moving to the boarding house? Mature…responsible…finally self-supporting?

Lonely.

She’d had enough of loneliness. She had thought her loneliness had come to an end when she came home and Scully had welcomed her with open arms.

It looked as if she was wrong.

Scully looked up at a knock on his office door. The knock was tentative…uncertain. It could be no one else.

“Come in, Lacey.”

“How did you know it was me?”

Lacey stood framed in the doorway, platinum hair piled casually atop her head, intense blue eyes putting to shame the pale blue of her dress, delicate features composed in a half smile. A lovelier picture than Scully had ever expected would be his, even temporarily. The thought was disconcerting. He refrained from answering her question. Instead, he stood up, reached for his hat and said, “Come on with me. I have something to show you.”

Around the desk in a moment, Scully took Lacey’s arm. She hesitated momentarily, then said, “I suppose we can talk later.”

Talk. Talk meant continuing the same argument they’d had earlier that morning. He’d had enough of it for the day.

He drew her out of the office with him toward the saloon’s rear door.

“Where’re we going, Scully?”

Again ignoring her inquiry, Scully ushered Lacey along with him, then pushed open the door of the back entrance and urged her out ahead of him into the narrow yard.

He felt the shock that rippled through her.

Lacey gulped. She took a deep breath. Tears brimmed in her eyes as she started toward the hitching post where the small burro was tethered.

It couldn’t be…but it was!

“It’s…Careful!”

The burro’s name emerged from her lips with a sob as Lacey reached the animal in a few running steps. Careful turned his head toward her with a welcoming bray and tears streamed down her cheeks. She slid her arms around Careful’s neck and hugged him tight….

She was a child again. The days were long and sun-filled, and Careful was her loyal playmate, helpmate and friend.

The choking stench of the fire hung on the air. Her grandfather lay dead in front of her and the charred remains of her home behind her. She was terrified and alone, but Careful stood steadfast nearby.