Chapter 27

St. Joseph, Missouri-1855

Louise waited until the other girls in her room had fallen asleep before slipping off of her cot, putting her shoes on, and pulling her bag with all her belongings in it from under it, and crept from the room. She moved quietly down the hallway to the room in which the younger girls slept and over to the bed that her younger sister Theresa was asleep in. She kneeled down beside the bed and quietly whispered Theresa's name.

It took a few moments before she saw some stirring under Theresa's eyelids, and then they fluttered open. Another moment before she saw the dark eyes, very much like her own, widen as Theresa became more awake and saw Louise kneeling beside her bed.

"I'm going away, Theresa. I'm going to get a job to make money so I can buy us some land and we can all be together." Louise whispered.

Tears formed immediately in Theresa's eyes n response to Louise's words. Louise choked back tears of her own as she placed a finger to Theresa's lips and shook her head. "No crying, Theresa. I'll be back as soon as I can. I'm going to leave Annabelle Mumblepuss here with you to look after so that you know I'm going to come back."

Louise kissed her sister on the forehead, hugged her, and then slipped quietly to her feet and out of the room. She made a brief stop in the boys' room where Jeremiah was, before continuing out of the orphanage. She was careful not to get caught by one of the Sisters who ran the orphanage as they patrolled the orphanage and its ground before turning in each night.

Louise had chosen to leave the orphanage during the early spring knowing that she would most likely have to spend some time out of doors. She wasn't scared in the least. During the duration of her Ma's long illness she had worked hard doing odd jobs to buy food for her ma, siblings, and herself, as well as buy coal to warm the shack, and clothes for them to wear. She would find a way to make a living so she could claim her brother and sister and they would never be separated again.

Three days later she was sweeping the porch of the General Mercantile when an elegantly dressed man stepped onto it and walked through the pile. Louise glanced up at the man with a darkening expression on her young face.

"Hey, watch where you are going." She said crossly.

Ephraim Wicks smiled down at the young girl, and felt recognition flood over him. She was the spitting image of what her mother, MaryLouise Boggs, must have looked like at that age. He estimated that the girl before him was only about ten or eleven years old, and already a beauty in the making. She would grow into a beautiful woman and make an excellent addition to the high priced bordello he was opening up in town. Of course he would have to wait until she was of a reasonable age, and he had trained her in the fine arts of her future profession.

"I'm sorry, miss." Ephraim told her, extracting a couple of coins from his pocket and holding them out to her. "For disturbing your trash pile and making your work harder."

Louise hesitated only a moment before clasping her hand around the coins and dropping them securely into her pocket. "Thanks, mister."

"How would you like to make more money like that? On a weekly basis, with food and a warm place to sleep?" Ephraim asked her, his piercing blue eyes intent on her face.

"Are you joshing me mister?" Louise asked trying to judge whether or not he was really being serious.

"I'm quite serious young lady. I'm in need of another laundress at the poker parlor I'm opening up. Course you are still rather small so maybe you couldn't do the work-"Ephraim nearly smiled when Louise interrupted him.

"I'm small, but I'm strong mister." Louise told him indignantly. "If there is anything I don't know how to do, I can learn. Please, give me a chance."

"We have a deal then. Once you are finished with your work here, come on down to the Wild Aces saloon. Go around the back and in through the kitchen and my cook Rosie will show you to a room and tell you what to do." Ephraim instructed.

"Yes sir."

Ephraim nodded and continued on into the store. He made his purchases quickly and then headed back to his saloon.

As he walked, he mused over the incredible luck of his having run into the offspring of MaryLouise Boggs. He had replayed his encounter with the beautiful, charming, and fiery woman on the stairs of that Boston hotel. Never had he had a woman turn him down before, or been so indignant about his trying to help her carry her packages up to her suite.

He had seen MaryLouise Boggs on the arm of her husband at any number of social engagements after that, and had even danced with her a time or two. She had never given him any reason to hope for more, but had simply treated him courteously. Each new sighting, each new encounter with her had made him even more drawn to her. It had been by his mother's insistence that he put some distance between and MaryLouise Boggs, and he had reluctantly agreed.

He had traveled for a while before settling in St. Joseph. By the time he had arrived here, he had picked up a companion as well. Charlotte Rowan had made his acquaintance one night in a saloon and he found himself unwilling to leave without here. Charlotte wasn't MaryLouise, but she was beautiful nevertheless. She was smart with a good head for numbers, a more than pleasant bed partner, and she could be counted on to do whatever it took to make a scheme work for them, including sleeping with someone. By working together they had managed to keep each other in a lifestyle they both enjoyed, and he hadn't had to answer to his mother for several years.

Now luck was with him again. He had the opportunity to cultivate MaryLouise's daughter into being the woman that her mother had never been for him. A slow smile played across his lips as he arrived at the saloon and went inside.