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“I don’t know, Hannah. I don’t know what I’ll do.”
“If you tell Daniel and he comes here, I will tell him the same thing to his face. I will drive him off. That would him hurt worse. I don’t want that, believe me. I don’t think I could take an ugly scene.”
Beau shrugged. “I don’t know if that would hurt him worse. I’m not a husband whose wife has left him. I just don’t know how to think about this, Hannah.” He shook his head. “But what I do know is that you’ve been like a rock to me. Knowing you’re in that farmhouse safely with the man you love, that gives me cause to hope for something better for myself. The world is a miserable place with Hannah Crowe toting laundry in a whorehouse. It isn’t right. It isn’t right.”
“But it’s the way it is, Beau,” she tried again.
He nodded grimly.
There were no more promises to extract from the man, he wasn’t offering any pledges, he wasn’t changing his attitude on anything. Hannah could see that in the blank expression in his eyes. The bewilderment, the betrayal, the emptiness.
***
Beau was arrested and put in jail two days later while he was working up the courage to face his brother-in-law. He’d been to the farmhouse once, and Daniel wasn’t there. His friend Travis wasn’t there either. He bet they were out looking for Hannah.
He got drunk when he returned to town that night and sought out Millie Peacock for what he didn’t get at Mamie’s. Then there was a scuffle with some boys that he never got along with. Eldon Tremaine was in the middle of it, drunk as he was, spouting horrible lies about his sister that couldn’t go unanswered. Before their drunken brawl was over, Beau had struck a bit of terror in the belly of his foes. That was shortly before the sheriff appeared and clamped handcuffs on his wrists. Beau, Eldon and several others were taken to the jailhouse.
“You gotta fine Daniel,” he slurred his words, desperate to relay his important message to the sheriff. “I know where shueee is. Gotta… yes… sheeeua there.” That’s all he said before he passed out.
***
A loud rapping on the door came early in the morning. Most of the girls were still sleeping—recovering from a night of drunken ruffians passing through Swollen River, thinking it right to leave a few bruises on the girls they slept with. Mamie finally drove them out with her shotgun. The hole in the porch roof could be repaired was the logic she used when she surveyed the damage she’d done with the single shot. After the commotion died down, she put the girls to bed for the night and turned out all the lights—first time in years that she wouldn’t be taking guests.
Still, the visitor at the front door kept banging until it was clear he wouldn’t stop.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” the Madam exhaled tiredly, as she hustled from her downstairs bedroom to answer the knock.
Hannah was already in the kitchen with the first pan of biscuits ready to go in the oven. Mamie wouldn’t let any of the girls, including Hannah, answer the door after what happened in the night.
The handsome man standing on Mamie’s porch didn’t look like the men who generally frequented her establishment. Alarmingly handsome in a rough sort of way, his visage was filled with darkness and worry that gave Mamie the shivers. She stood firmly in the doorway, shotgun at her side, planting her feet like tree trunks and barring him entrance until he explained himself.
“I’m looking for Hannah Crowe,” he said.
“And why would that be?”
“She’s my wife.”
Mamie’s firm expression softened but just slightly. If he weren’t the right kind of man, she wouldn’t let him take Hannah, that was for certain. And unless he showed her more than this chiseled expression, she knew he didn’t deserve the girl.
“Why would your wife be here in my house, hmm?”
“That’s what I need to discuss with her, ma’am.” His face turned weary but hopeful. Mamie could see the longing in his eyes now and she softened a little more.
“So, how do you know she’s even here?”
“I don’t…” he stopped and tried to smile, “what is your name? Miss Mamie?”
“That’s my name.”
“Her brother Beau was here a few days ago. Beau Noble. Maybe you know him? He said I’d find Hannah with you. I don’t mean any trouble; I just need to fetch her home.”
Mamie nodded, and finally opened the door and stepped aside.
“I’ll see if I can find her. But you watch yourself. I’ve been around men who abuse their wives. That girl needs more than a firm hand; she needs loving and looking after. And someone wasn’t doing it. If they had, she wouldn’t have been banging on my door in the middle of the night looking for a place to stay.”
His face was suddenly a sheet of ashen worry. “I love her ma’am. Whatever caused her to leave I knew nothing about it until a few days ago. There’s a lot to repair, but I need to see my wife!” His passion swelled with determination, matching the tone of his voice.
Mamie liked that. “Wait here for just a minute.”
