Elise Page 12

  The sight of Julie right there in Gabe's office with him had been quite a shock to Elise when she'd come to the door, and the emotions she was feeling, thinking of him spending time with the other woman, were troubling.

  "Distractions aside, we had business to take care of, and you didn't show up," he pointed out, not even wanting to talk about how he'd just gotten trapped into going to dinner at Julie's house the next evening.

  Elise slanted him a triumphant smile as she said seriously, "I've got our lead story for the next issue."

  "Oh, really? And that is?"

  "I want to do a story on what it's like to work in one of the saloons in town."

  "You what?" He was certain he hadn't heard her right.

  "I want to do a story on working girls in a saloon. I've already got everything arranged. All I need is your approval to do the article, and I can get started."

  "Wait just a minute. I'm not giving my approval on anything right now. I don't even know what you're talking about."

  "It's a sad story really," she began. She related all that had happened in the mercantile. "All Suzie wanted to do was buy some ribbon, and Mr. Perry wouldn't sell it to her. He all but threw her out of his store. I was right there. I saw the whole thing."

  Andy had been trying to listen to what she was saying from his desk, but when she'd mentioned the High Time Saloon, he'd come to stand in the doorway. "If you need any help doing any investigating at the saloon, I'm here only to serve. I volunteer. I'll be glad to do my fair share-and then some," he offered, smiling at the thought.

  "Stop it!" Elise knew what he was thinking. "I'm serious about this. Mr. Perry was downright cruel to Suzie, and all she wanted to do was make a purchase from him. I followed her to the High Time and spoke with her and the woman who runs the place. Her name is Fernada."

  "You've already done all of that without permission?"

  "I didn't know I needed to get your permission to follow leads on breaking stories," she stated almost angrily. How dare Gabe question her methods?! He wasn't even really an editor yet.

  "It isn't proper for you to go into such a place," Trace told her.

  "I can't go into the High Time, but it's all right for Suzie and Fernada to work there?" she countered quickly. "You sound a lot like Mr. Perry."

  "I'm not condemning anyone or anything. I'm saying that as an attractive young woman, you could be putting yourself in a difficult situation."

  "Nothing happened today."

  "Good."

  "But I'm not through. Here's what I want to do and I already have Fernada's permission to do it."

  "Do what?" Trace demanded, at a loss to figure out what she wets planning.

  "I want to work at the High Time and then write an expose on what the life of a working girl is really like."

  He stared at her in complete and utter disbelief as he told her, "No."

  "What do you mean no?" she challenged. "This could be a great story."

  "It's too dangerous," he argued, knowing full well what could happen to her in such a place.

  "Too dangerous?" Elise repeated, giving a disbelieving shake of her head. "How can this be too dangerous? I've already dealt with the likes of Preacher Farnsworth. How can I be in danger at the High Time?"

  "What exactly do you plan to do at the saloon?" Andy asked from where he stood in the doorway.

  "Well, Fernada said she could help me with the clothes and makeup-"

  "She what?" Trace blurted out.

  "She and Suzie are going to help me dress for the work, and then I thought I'd try my hand at dealing cards and plying drinks, just like any ordinary working girl. What do you think?"

  "No."

  She looked at Gabe in irritation. "This will be a great story. I want to reveal what life is like from their side. Who are they? How did they get where they are? Why are they there, and why don't they leave? Some of them do, you know." Her excitement grew as she realized the humanitarian element to her story line. "When people like Mr. Perry see a girl from the High Time, they immediately judge her as being beneath them and basically of no worth. I want to change that perception. I want to show everyone the goodness in all people-no matter what their status in life."

  "So write about the Ladies' Solidarity, if you want to write about good people," Trace told her sternly.

  "I want to do this," she said, growing even more serious. "I promise you, you won't be sorry!"

  "I already am sorry. The High Time Saloon is no place for you."

  "The High Time Saloon is no place for any woman, but some women are forced by circumstances beyond their control to make a living working there. It's their story I want to tell. I want to show what their lives are really like."

  He saw the earnestness of her desire. "All right, I agree-but only on one condition."

  "What's that?" As uncomfortable as Gabe was with her idea, Elise wondered if he'd ever met or dealt with women like Fernada and Suzie before. Staring at him now in his eyeglasses and bow tie, she realized that a man like Gabe had probably never spent any time in a place like the High Time.

  "My condition is that you don't go alone there. I want to be with you whenever you're there."

  "That would ruin everything!" she protested, thinking of having him sitting right beside her as she tried to convince some cowboys that she was one of Fernada's girls.

  "No, it won't. I'll keep my distance."

  "You promise?"

  "No one will ever have to know that I'm there to keep an eye on you."

  The thought of Gabe "keeping an eye on her" made Elise smile. It would certainly be interesting to see how he reacted to the surroundings. "Do I have smother choice?"

  "No.

  "Oh, all right." She had feared that he might not allow her to do the story at all, so she was pleased with the way things were turning out.

  "When do you plan to start on it?"

  "Fernada said that it didn't matter. I could do whatever I wanted to do," she said. Thinking quickly and remembering Julie's dinner invitation, she added, "So I'd like to start tomorrow night. It's the end of the month, so there should be some cowboys in town, ready and willing to be parted from some of their wages. I know you've already got plans for the evening, so I can go ahead and do it by myself."

  "Elise-" There was a warning note in Trace's voice. He knew how wild things could get in saloons. As sheriff, he had done his fair share of keeping things under control on payday in Eagle Pass. "I'll cancel the dinner arrangements."

  "But you just made them. I hate to ruin your evening," she said almost too sweetly. "I'll be fine, really. I'm going for journalistic accuracy. That's all. I need to experience it so I can write about it," she said with dignity.

  "Let's just make sure you don't experience more than you planned on," he muttered, less than enthusiastically.

  "It's going to be fine. Just you wait and see," Elise assured him.

  "I hope you're right, because I'm going to let Julie know I can't make dinner, and I'm going to be there at the saloon, making sure everything goes as it's supposed to."

  For some reason she couldn't quite explain, Elise was pleased that he was going to be with her the next night and not Julie.

  "So you're really serious about doing this?" Femada asked Elise when she arrived at the High Time late the next afternoon.

  "Yes, I am," Elise answered, more than ready for whatever her new investigation would hold. She'd been awake most of the previous night thinking about the incident at the mercantile. She wanted the article to reflect Suzie's and Femada's side of the story. She wanted the general public to understand their plight in a world that could sometimes be cruel and unforgiving.

  "Your boss at the paper really gave his approval for you to write about this?" She was shocked.

  "You sound surprised."

  Femada shrugged. "I know how the good folks of this town feel about us, and I didn't think anybody would be particularly interested."

  "Mr. West is new at his job, but he
trusts my judgment. I'm convinced that this is a story that needs to be told."

  "How do you want to do it?"

  "I want to be one of your girls for a couple of nights. You tell me what I should do, and I'll do it-within reason."

  Fernada smiled at her qualifying statement. "So you don't want to experience everything?"

  "Not everything."

  They shared a look of understanding.

  "As one of my girls, you'll be taking care of our customers. Our aim is to give them what they want-and when they come in here, they want a good time. We want them to be smiling when they leave."

  "You sound like a much better businessperson than Mr. Perry."

  "If I don't keep my customers satisfied, they'll go somewhere else," she explained simply. "Now, the first thing we have to do is get you some different clothes. If you're going to play the part, you have to look the part." The old woman looked her over, studying her thoughtfully. "You're on the tall side, so I think you're probably closest to Jenny's size. Let's go see if she's got anything we can use."

  She led her down the hall to a room near the far end and knocked on the door.

  "Who is it?" a muffled, slurred voice called out.

  "It's Fernada, Jenny. I need to talk to you."

  A long moment passed, and the door was finally thrown open. A haggard and wearylooking woman stood before them. Her long, dark hair was in wild, tangled disarray about her face. Her eyes were bloodshot and her manner was drunken. Elise guessed she wasn't thirty yet, but right now she looked far older.

  "I just got to bed a few hours ago. I was up all night. What do you want?" she asked groggily as she peered at Elise in a dull-eyed manner.

  "This is Elise, the girl I was telling you about. She needs a dress for tonight, and I think she's just about your size."

  Jenny remembered what Femada had told her about the reporter wanting to work at the saloon for a few nights, and she eyed the newcomer up and down. She wondered who would believe that she worked there. There wouldn't be many men who would want her since she was on the thin side and kind of drab and ordinary looking. "It looks like she's going to need all the help she can get."

  Elise felt the sting of her barb, but said nothing as Fernada spoke up.

  "We just need to borrow a dress from you. I'm going to work on her hair and makeup."

  "All right. Just a minute." She shut the door on them.

  Elise gave Femada a questioning look, but the other woman said nothing. They waited for several minutes until the door opened again. Jenny shoved a red satin dress into Elise's hands.

  "Here. This is one of my best. See if you can fill it out and give all them good-looking cowboys a thrill."

  "Are you sure you want to part with your red satin?" Fernada asked, knowing how much she liked that particular dress.

  "I made me so much money last night, I'm going to get a new one," Jenny cackled in delight. She was exhausted from her long evening, but pleased with the way everything had turned out. "I got lucky last night-real lucky."

  With that, she disappeared back into her room and shut the door on them again.

  "Let's go on to my room, and we'll get you changed and ready."

  They started back down the hall to begin her transformation.

  "I take it Jenny likes this dress a lot?" Elise asked, glancing down at the vibrant red and black-trimmed satin garment she was holding. She had never worn anything like this in her entire life. She wondered what it was going to feel like to put it on. She wondered, too, how she was going to look. She tried to imagine Gabe's expression when he saw her in it the first time.

  "It's always been her favorite. She must have had some very generous cowboy with her last night for her to give it up without a thought."

  They entered the haven of Fernada's own private room. A large bed with a massive wooden headboard dominated the room. The headboard in particular amazed Elise, for carved into it were erotic scenes of embracing figures engaged in sensual acts. Elise couldn't stop herself from blushing at the sight.

  "That headboard is something, isn't it?" Fernada bragged. "I've had that for a lot of years now. One of my best customers a long time ago was quite a woodworker."

  "It's definitely... interesting."

  "Go ahead behind the screen there and change," she directed, pointing her in the right direction. "We can keep talking while you're getting ready."

  "Thanks."

  Elise disappeared behind the partition, and she was glad that it provided at least a little bit of privacy. After quickly taking off the demure daygown she'd worn, she slipped into the satin dress. The slick material felt cold against her skin, and she shivered at the contact.

  "Do you need some help fastening the back?"

  "Yes, if you don't mind?"

  "Come on out here so I can see what I'm doing."

  Elise emerged from behind the screen, trying to hold the back together as she clutched the low-cut bodice to her. She turned her back to Femada, and the other woman made short work of fastening the gown for her.

  "There. Now turn around and let me get a look at you."

  Elise did as she was told.

  Fernada gave her a critical once-over. It was obvious the dress was too big in the bosom for her, but it wasn't because she was so small. It was because Jenny was so well endowed.

  "The color is good on you-real good-but it looks like you need some help up top there," she remarked with a wry smile.

  "Obviously, Jenny's much bigger than I am," Elise said, embarrassed by the way the bodice gaped open. If she went out into the saloon dressed like this, she would have few secrets from the men who were there drinking.

  "Not as much as you'd think," she told her. "There are ways to make what God gave us look better than it really is. Turn around for me."

  Again Elise did as she was told. Fernada unfastened the back, then went to her dresser and dug through one of the drawers.

  "Here," she said, turning to her and holding out a fancy black corset. "Go on back behind the screen and put this on."

  Elise looked down at her bosom again. "Do you think it will help that much?"

  "It'll help some, but this will do the most for you." She took some wadded-up soft material out of the drawer, too. "See what you can do with it."

  "What should I do with it?" Elise stared from the corset and stuffing to Fernada, completely at a loss how to go about the necessary enhancements.

  Fernada chuckled. "You really are an innocent, aren't you? You put that corset on and stuff the material in the bodice. It'll lift you up and make you look bigger."

  "Oh." Elise turned almost as red as the dress she was wearing. "It is important, isn't it?"

  "The men who come into the High Time like buxom women. It'll be the first thing they'll look at when they see you downstairs."

  "Doesn't it bother you to have them ogling you that way?"

  "It's a part of our job. The better we look, the more money we make. We want them to notice us. The more they like us, the more they'll pay us for the pleasure of our company."

  "So whoever Jenny was with last night must have really liked her."

  "He liked her very much," she confirmed.

  "Doesn't any of this ever bother you?"

  For a moment, Fernada's expression was haunted, as if she were remembering something painful, but then the look was gone. "Honey, after all these years, nothing much bothers me anymore."

  "That's not true," Elise said softly. "I saw the way you were taking care of Suzie yesterday. You were hurting for her."

  "I care about my girls," she said defensively. "Suzie is still very young, but she's learning. I honestly think she believes she going to find a man who will rescue her from this-this way of life."

  "Maybe she will."

  Fernada gave a cynical laugh. "Even if she quit tomorrow and walked away, the good folks of this town would never let her forget where she came from."

  "How can you be so sure?"

  "Because
there are too many people like Mr. Perry in this world."

  Elise's expression darkened as she remembered the scene that had brought her to this. "Suzie really is young. How did she come to work for you?"

  "She was orphaned and had no other way to support herself. She's been working for me for over a year now."

  "What about Jenny? Have you known her for very long?"

  "For years," she answered, a note of sadness in her voice. "And for all the time we've spent together, I've learned very little about her past."

  "She doesn't talk about it?"

  "Hardly ever that I can remember. All I know is that she was running from something. I tend to think it was her family, but I was never sure and knew better than to ask. Whatever it was, it pushed her to drinking. She can't make it through a day without her liquor."

  "It must be a hard life, living that way."

  "She's hiding from something, but we'll probably never know what. I figure if she hasn't told me by now, she ain't never going to. The only thing I've ever heard her say is when she's real drunked up, she asks me if I've seen Hunt around, but I have no idea who he is or why she wants him."

  "Someone named Hunt..." Elise could only imagine what terrible secrets haunted Jenny's past. "What about you? How did you come to be working at the High Time?"

  "I was widowed many years ago. Lost my husband to a fever, and times went from bad to worse. I had to support myself somehow." Fernada was thoughtful as she remembered the frightening days after her husband Jim's death, when she'd been close to destitute. "I met Sam Vaughn then. He took me in, and I've been with him ever since. He's the owner of the High Time, you know."

  "Actually, I didn't know that. Will I get to meet him?"

  "I'm sure you will. I had to make sure with him that it was all right for you to do this. He said it was all right, but he was worried that there might be trouble."

  "Don't worry. I won't cause any."

  Fernada laughed. "I know that. It's just that sometimes the boys get a little wild. We'll just have to make sure you stay close to me and Dan, the bartender."

  "I will," Elise promised. "Femada, are you really happy here, living like this?"