CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Hank arrived back in Denver on Tuesday evening. Mrs Brady looked up as he walked into the kitchen, her face breaking into a smile.
"Why, Hank, yer back!" she exclaimed. "Did ya have a good trip?"
"Yeah, I found a little town sixty-somethin' miles from here. Got me a saloon there," he said. "We'll be leavin' week after next."
"Well, I'll miss ya," she told him. "Not to mention the regular income."
"Where's Clarice?" Hank asked her.
"Went out a couple hours back," Mrs Brady said. "Said she was goin' to work."
Hank's smile vanished. What the hell was she thinking? Didn't she quit right after she told him she was pregnant? He went out again, climbed back onto his horse and urged the exhausted animal across town, his temper mounting until by the time he reached Red's saloon, he was ready to punch someone.
He threw himself off the horse, shoved open the swing doors and marched inside. The place hadn't changed a bit. Red was behind the bar, leaning on the counter talking to a customer. Jenny was still there, handing out drinks to a bunch of men sitting around the poker table. Then he saw Clarice, sitting on some man's lap, her arm around his neck, giggling and sipping a glass of whiskey.
"Hey!" Red rounded the counter and appeared in front of Hank. "What the hell are you doin' here?"
"I've come for my girl," Hank grunted and turned away. Clarice looked up as he approached. He said nothing to her, but grasped her by the arm and jerked her to her feet.
"Take yer hands off her!" Red exclaimed. "You ain't welcome here and I ain't havin' ya manhandling the merchandise!"
Hank let go of Clarice and turned to face him, his fists clenched. "She's mine!" he snarled. "And she's pregnant. I'm guessin' that'd be off-puttin' to most customers."
"Pregnant?" echoed Red.
"How dare you!" Clarice cried now. "That ain't no one else's business!"
"No, it ain't; it's yours and mine." Hank grasped her by the wrist again and began to head towards the door. "She quit!" he yelled over his shoulder to Red, yanking Clarice outside into the street.
"Let go of me!" she spat. "Ya got no right treatin' me like that in front of everybody!"
"I got every right. Yer havin' my kid. I've been gone less than a week; what the hell're ya thinkin'? Ya could be puttin' it in danger! What if one of the fellas got rough?"
"Ya mean like you?" Clarice retorted, jerking her wrist free of his hand. "What was I supposed to do; just sit around in my room waitin' for ya? I was bored."
"Bored? So ya go back to whorin' for somethin' to do?"
"I never stopped," Clarice said.
"But ya went to see Red and quit," Hank reminded her.
"No, I didn't. I just told him I was sick and I'd need more days off for a while."
Furious, Hank grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, making her teeth rattle.
"Keep goin', maybe it'll cure me of pregnancy!" she hissed.
Hank let go immediately and took a step back, cursing himself. "Get on the horse," he said. "We're goin' home."
"I'll walk," Clarice said sourly and turned away.
Hank sighed heavily and watched her flounce off up the street. He wondered how many men she'd entertained while he'd been away and it made him sick. It had been bad enough just putting up with her job in the beginning, but now she was pregnant it horrified him. He began to wonder what kind of a life they were going to have in Colorado Springs and doubted it was likely to improve.
"Hey, Mister!"
He turned around at the sound of another female voice and found himself staring at a beautiful young girl of around his own age. She had straight dark brown hair hanging to her waist and chocolate brown eyes, her voluptuous figure filling out a very tight pink dress, her breasts almost spilling out of the bodice. Hank swallowed his rage temporarily.
"Yeah?"
"D'ya know if they're hirin' in there?" she asked, pointing to the saloon. "I got into town yesterday; need a job."
"Entertainin', right?"
"How'd ya guess?" She pouted and giggled. "So are they hirin'?"
"They ain't, but I am," Hank said. "If ya don't mind movin' on again. I'm leavin' Denver soon. Got a place waitin' for me south of here."
"Don't much care where I go so long as I'm earnin'," the girl said.
"Got much experience?" Hank asked.
"Four years."
"How old are ya?"
"Twenty."
He nodded. "What's yer name?"
"Lissy."
"Well, Lissy, yer hired," Hank said. "Meet me tomorrow at the café across town, say noon. I'll need to get ya to sign a contract."
"Sure."
"Ya got somewhere to stay for a few days?"
"Yeah, I'll be alright. I got a few bucks."
Hank nodded. "See ya tomorrow."
He mounted the horse again and rode slowly back to the boarding house, expecting another confrontation with Clarice. He was still furious and for a brief moment had been tempted to stay out and let Lissy cheer him up, but decided against it. Halfway back, he caught up with Clarice and jumped to the ground to walk with her. She ignored him for a minute or two and he said nothing until she eventually turned her head to look at him.
"Sorry," she said grudgingly. Another moment of silence. "I seem to be sayin' that a lot lately," she added.
"It's alright sayin' it, but d'ya mean it?" Hank replied.
"Yes, I mean it. Yer right, I could've harmed the baby. I was missin' ya. My head gets stupid sometimes; I know I'm horrible to live with and I wouldn't've blamed ya if ya hadn't come back."
"Ya thought I wouldn't?"
"I dunno what I thought. I just got miserable. Ya gonna tell me about yer trip?"
"Sure." Hank told her about Colorado Springs and the scruffy little saloon he'd won in a poker game from the grouchy old barkeep. Then he told her about Lissy too.
"Lissy….what's she look like?" asked Clarice suddenly.
"Straight brown hair, brown eyes, all curvy," Hank said with a grin. "Said she's twenty."
"I know her!" Clarice exclaimed. "At least I think it could be her. She worked in a saloon with me a coupla years back. Got on like a house on fire 'til I did my usual thing and upset the saloon keeper, then sneaked off at dawn one day. I always wondered what happened to her."
"She was outside Red's lookin' for work," Hank told her. "Just arrived in Denver yesterday."
Their fight forgotten once again, the pair continued to chat about their plans with growing excitement, only wishing the next week would pass more quickly so they could leave.
A couple of days later Hank bought a wagon and another horse, realising it was going to be the only way to transport four girls to Colorado Springs without throwing away a lot of money on stagecoach tickets.
Lissy did turn out to be Clarice's old friend and he heaved a sigh of relief as the two girls instantly became as thick as thieves and Clarice's unpredictable temper lessened enormously. For those last few days leading up to the poker game at the bar, Lissy moved into Clarice's room at the boarding house and looked after her when she was sick.
Hank went looking for Myra the day before the game, remembering she said she and her sister were staying in a shack by the creek. He found the pair of them heading towards town. Suzannah looked very like Myra, only even tinier and with long straggling pigtails.
"Hey, Myra." Hank stopped and waited for them to reach him.
"Hank! This is my sister, Suzannah."
The younger girl shrank back and clutched Myra's hand shyly. Hank grinned.
"We'll be leavin' in a coupla days," he said.
"Ya found a place to go?"
"Yeah, little town called Colorado Springs. It's about two days' ride. Got a saloon waitin' for me there; if ya can call it that. Place looks like it needs a lotta work, but at least we'll have a roof over our heads." He stopped for a moment. "You two wanna get some lunch with me?"
"Thanks, that'd be nice," said Myra.
Hank took them to the café and bought them stew and apple pie. Suzannah quickly got over her shyness and chattered like any ten-year-old girl. Myra had been telling her they were moving to a new home and she was excited at the prospect of an adventure. After the meal, the young girl spotted one of her friends at another table and excused herself.
"How're we gettin' to Colorado Springs?" Myra asked then. "Ya mentioned ridin'?"
Hank grinned. "Can ya ride?"
"Not very well and Suzannah's never been on a horse."
"Don't worry, I got a wagon," Hank told her. "There's gonna be five of us." He went on to tell her about Lissy.
"So there's three girls altogether?" asked Myra. "Includin' Clarice?"
"Yeah, well she ain't actually gonna be workin'," Hank admitted. "Unless she sticks behind the bar."
"Why not?" Myra looked up at him and then smiled suddenly. "Are you and her together?"
"Yeah, I guess ya could say that."
"Ya don't sound too happy about it."
"Thing is, she's pregnant," Hank blurted out. "It ain't doin' much for her personality. We rub each other up the wrong way all the time. Both of us got nasty tempers. She calmed down a bit since Lissy turned up, though. Turns out they knew each other before." Hank pulled a cigar out and lit it. "Hell knows why I'm tellin' ya this," he muttered, grimacing.
Myra smiled again. "Ya can talk to me if ya want," she said. "I ain't a gossip. Ain't much good with advice neither, but I can listen."
Hank stared at her thoughtfully. He barely knew her, but it was clear she was the complete opposite of Clarice. He couldn't imagine Clarice offering a friendly ear if her life depended on it.
"Thanks," he said now. "I better go, I got things to do. Meet me here Sunday for lunch. I'll bring Clarice and Lissy. We're gonna be leavin' early Monday so long as I don't lose everythin' at poker tomorrow."
"Alright." Myra got to her feet. "Thank you for lunch. Good luck tomorrow." She called out to Suzannah and he left them to it, then went to the store to stock up on supplies for the journey. He reasoned that the four girls could sleep in the wagon the one night they would have to sleep rough. He'd bunk down underneath it. He bought a few blankets, some food and oats for the two horses and then returned to the boarding house.
Hank was uncharacteristically nervous at the start of the poker game the next day, but reasoned that he'd never had so much riding on it before. It was a fifty dollar buy in and there was no leaving the game before the end unless you'd lost everything. His four opponents were all much older and he recognised one of them from a previous game at Red's place, remembering the man had given him a run for his money.
However, by the end of the first hand he relaxed and everything went the way he hoped. He walked out of there at the end of the day with six hundred dollars, enough money to improve and expand the saloon, buy stock and keep himself and the girls until they all started making money.
Sunday, he took Clarice and Lissy to the café for lunch where they joined Myra and Suzannah and made plans to leave at eight the next morning. Myra and Suzannah were to walk to the boarding house to meet the others and then they would be on their way.
Mrs Brady made up a large picnic basket early the next morning and reluctantly said goodbye to Hank, telling him there would always be a room for him if he ever visited Denver in the future, although her sideways glance at Clarice told him she wouldn't welcome the girl back if she could avoid it.
Finally the wagon set off, Clarice riding up on the front seat with Hank, the other three in the back with the supplies and Hank and Clarice's enormous collection of clothes. As they turned out of the street, Hank almost halted again as someone called out the name he hadn't used in a year.
"Hans!"
It was his father, dour-looking in one of his dark suits and a tall hat, a prim-looking middle-aged lady on his arm. So he'd found a woman apparently. Hank slapped the reins against the horse's flanks and it increased its pace to a trot, passing Jorgen and heading out of town.
"Who was that?" Clarice asked, glancing over her shoulder.
"No one important," grunted Hank.
"What did he call ya?" she persisted.
He simply turned and glared at her and for once, she shut her mouth and tucked her hand through his arm instead, leaning against his shoulder as they began the long journey to their new home.