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As she reached the center of town, her mood lifted and a smile spread across her face.
There was Dr. Widdershins’ wagon, right where she had hoped it would be. The good doctor must have come into town just before sunup, and now he was preparing for a long day of selling his wares. A table in front of his wagon contained numerous bottles of rose-colored fluid. Beside the table, a sandwich board sign proclaimed:
Dr. Widdershins’ Cure-All Elixir
~ THE Remedy ~
For Whatever Ails You!
The doctor himself was standing behind the table, arranging his bottles. Though he professed to be ninety-nine years old, in reality he was closer to sixty, and he dressed himself like a young dandy in a velveteen coat and ribbon tie. When he saw Shannon walking, his face brightened.
“Why Miss Duffy, what a pleasant surprise! I didn’t expect to see you quite so early.”
“Hi, Doc,” Shannon said, returning his smile. “I had to come into town yesterday evening on business, and I decided to stay the night. Figured I’d come visit you first thing.” Then, in a softer voice, she added, “I’m out of elixir.”
“Ah! You’ll be wanting another bottle then. No problem, Miss Duffy, no problem at all…” He lifted his bushy eyes inquiringly. “But I wonder if you wouldn’t mind coming back a little later perhaps? To help break the proverbial ice.”
Shannon and Dr. Widdershins had a little routine they would often follow. While he was loudly proclaiming the many wonderful benefits of his elixir, a small crowd would always gather round, but nobody wanted to be the first to make a purchase. That was where Shannon would come in. She would enthusiastically buy a bottle, and without fail, several other customers would follow suit. Of course, the stuff which Dr. Widdershins gave to Shannon was not his ordinary snake oil.
It was omega suppressant.
Before he had become a traveling salesman, Dr. Widdershins had worked as a chemist up in Wyoming. Then his daughter, Abigail, had presented as an omega. Unwilling to allow her to be claimed by an alpha, he had skipped town and headed south. Along the way, he had met up with a band of Kiowa who taught him of an herbal remedy that could suppress an unmated omega’s heat cycle. With his knowledge of chemistry, Dr. Widdershins managed to strengthen the suppressant to the point that it could completely mask an omega’s traits.
Shannon wasn’t sure exactly how her father had first encountered the doctor, or how the two men had come to find out that they were both harboring omega daughters, but she was glad they had. Ever since she’d presented as an omega at the unlucky age of thirteen, she’d been taking Dr. Widdershins’ suppressant daily. It allowed her to hide her true nature, and avoid the oppressive laws that governed omegas all throughout the west.
“I’m sorry, Doc,” Shannon said. “I wish I could stick around to help you, but I’ve got some important business to attend to this morning.”
The doctor shrugged. “Very well! Very well! Just a moment, my dear girl.”
He went to the wagon and rummaged through the crates stacked there. After a moment, he came back with a bottle of elixir. It looked just like all the others, except it had a red “S” stamped on the top of the cork.
Shannon held out her last remaining coins for payment, but Dr. Widdershins pushed her hand away.
“This bottle is on the house,” he said.
“Doc, please I—”
“No, no, I insist! It was Abigail’s birthday last week, and since I couldn’t givehera gift, I’ll give you one instead. She would have been just a little older than you.”
The man’s eyes were filmed with tears. His daughter Abigail had passed away several years before from tuberculosis.
Shannon stepped forward and hugged him tightly.
“Thank you, Doc.”
“Think nothing of it, my dear girl!” he said, recovering his composure. “Now, run along. Whatever business you have, I wish you the best of luck with it.”
“Thanks,” Shannon said, stowing the bottle of suppressant in her saddle bag. “I think I’m going to need it.”
Actually, she was going to need more than luck.
She was going to need help.
Shannon Duffy was no tenderfoot. She’d grown up in this hard and unforgiving land. But the path that lay ahead of her passed through some of the most dangerous places in the entire southwest. To try and go it alone would be suicide.
And it wasn’t only her own life that was on the line. There was the ranch to think about, and all the hucow women who lived there.
After a few more minutes of walking, Shannon came to a stop in front of Rosie’s. The place was a lot quieter at this hour, and it looked a whole lot less intimidating in the light of day.
