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As she rode next to the buggy, she glanced over at Reginald. He was neatly dressed in his usual black suit and white shirt, with a thin black tie at his collar. His thinning reddish-brown hair, worn to his collar, was blowing in the breeze, revealing more scalp than she knew he wanted anyone to see.
She would have thought that he was the one needing something to wear on his head, not her! But she had never seen him wear a hat.
Why should he care whether she had a bonnet or not? She knew he wanted her to make a good impression among the townsfolk. But up to now he had bought things without her being with him. He had had several pretty dresses and hats already waiting for her when she’d arrived at Tombstone.
She wished that she could feel better about him as a person, for she did enjoy being treated to new things. For so long she had not had the money to buy trinkets or pretty dresses.
A preacher’s salary had not gone very far, and usually her husband had spent most of the money helping others who were less fortunate than him and his wife.
Jessie and Reginald rode in silence the rest of the way. After they reached the ranch, Jessie left the horse in the stable and quickly returned to the buggy. She noticed that Reginald was gazing at her attire, and as she sat down on the seat beside him, he began his scolding again.
“You should change into something more appropriate, but too much time has already been wasted by my having to search for you,” Reginald said, snapping the reins and sending the horse and buggy down the long, white gravel road toward town.
“Why the rush?” Jessie murmured.
She could not help feeling uneasy, for she didn’t trust this little weasel of a man any farther than she could throw him. Everything about him seemed loathsome to her now.
Yet she knew there were many who admired him. How could she feel one thing for him, when so many others felt the opposite?
Perhaps she was wrong to have judged him so quickly. He might be a genuinely nice person. . . .
She shook her head when she recalled Lee-Lee and Jade. Nothing about how he treated them was kind. No genuinely nice person made women live in cribs, forced to sell their bodies to filthy, drunken men.
And no decent man struck a woman!
She felt Reginald’s eyes on her.
“Why the rush to get into town?” he mocked. “Jessie, be quiet. Just always do as I say and we’ll be able to get along fine.”
She looked quickly at him, stunned that he would say such a thing to her!
Jerking her head so that she no longer looked at Reginald but instead at the false-fronted buildings that came into view as they approached the main part of the town, Jessie forced her thoughts away from her cousin. The more she tried to understand him, the more confused she became.
But for now, she did as he asked. She sat quiet.
Her mind was now on something far more pleasant: Thunder Horse and how genuinely kind and soft-spoken he was, and handsome.
She wondered why she got such a tender feeling when she thought about him. He should not matter at all to her.
Yet she couldn’t help being intrigued by him. As strange as it seemed, he was all that made her feel sane or safe since her arrival in Tombstone. Her cousin only made her feel confused, even threatened.
If it weren’t for Thunder Horse, she would truly feel threatened and trapped, for she had no money to go anywhere else. She had no one to go to.
She was at the mercy of a man she now saw as a total stranger . . . even a madman!
She gave Reginald a slow glance, wondering if she had ever known him at all.
As they entered Tombstone’s main street, the first things Jessie saw were the tiny, horrible houses . . . cribs . . . used by prostitutes.
It was unbelievable that some were actually owned by Reginald, who pretended to be so holy and proper. If the townsfolk knew the truth, how would they treat him then?
Like the devil, she was sure!
Her insides grew cold when she saw Lee-Lee standing in her assigned window, sparsely dressed again, as men stared at her, thrusting hands filled with coins toward her.
Jessie flinched when she saw one of them go into the tiny window space from the back side and get Lee-Lee. Both then disappeared into the room behind the window.
It made Jessie sick to her stomach to imagine what was about to happen to the poor girl!
