Ride The Wild Wind (Time Travel Historical Romance) (9 page)

CHAPTER SIX

Albuquerque,
New Mexico Territory

September 1863

Halle
bit a chunk from one of Mama Rosa’s thick, steaming g
ordita’s
fresh from
the cast iron griddle and gobbled down the thick, hand-patted corn tortilla. Rosa’s
fare was the absolute best! Molly, an entertainer at Elena’s and Halle’s
partner in crime, snitched one for herself as well. Rosa
made a face and smacked at Molly’s hand.

Holding a mouthful
of partially chewed, hot tortilla, Halle
asked, “Okay. Who is this guy you were talking about earlier? Why is he coming
here?  She paused to catch a chunk of dough that tumbled from her mouth
into her lap. Popping it back in, she chewed a little more, making a manageable
lump before swallowing.

Rosa
glanced looked up from dicing crisp onions and juicy green and red peppers.
Beads of sweat sprinkled her brow, dampening silvery wisps of hair that escaped
from her once neat, coiled bun. “Whitehorse
is Elena’s man. He owns this house. He bought it for her many years ago.” Halle
watched as Rosa carefully lifted the chopping board to
the boiling pot of broth.

“Interesting name,
Whitehorse? Native American?”

Rosa
looked perplexed.

“Indian,” she
corrected.

Rosa
nodded. Using the knife’s blade, she raked the vegetables into a bubbling
liquid. “That is why Elena is in one of her moods. She wants everything to be
perfect for his visit.”

So that’s what the
buzz was about. From the chaos around Elena’s that morning, Halle
figured the Queen of England was en route. Instead, it was the man they called Whitehorse.
Elena’s lover and pimp.

Molly flashed a
wicked smile. “Too bad Elena is in town. I wouldn’t mind entertaining him for a
couple of hours.”

Rosa
shushed her and lowered her voice. “Elena would cut your throat for that
remark. He
is
her
man. No woman here dares look at him.”

“A girl can dream
big
.”
Molly laughed
,
then wiggled a brow at Rosa.
“I showed him a good time once when Elena was indisposed and I ain’t ever
forgot. Damn, but that man is hung like a mule!”

Rosa
made a face of disgust. “That is all you think about!”

“Well ‘scuse me
but I’m a whore, Rosa, not a goddamned nun. Men
are
my business. And so
what if I like a little roll in the hay? Let’s just say that Whitehorse
left me with a smile that a bucket of water and three cakes of lye soap
couldn’t wash off my face for a month.”

Halle
squirmed uncomfortably on the stool. She shouldn’t give a flip about this Whitehorse
dude. No, she really didn’t. After all, she’d since learned he was her
employer’s long time lover. Besides, they hadn’t done anything actually. He’d
kissed her once…had touched her  breast. It wasn’t as if they had a
relationship or anything. But a twinge of jealousy struck at Molly’s
confession. Halle considered Molly
her friend now, but she had known Whitehorse
intimately, at least on one occasion. Did that mean he’d slept slept with some
of the other women as well? The idea made her nauseous.

“Halle,
you all right?” Molly asked, clipping her beneath the chin. “Come on, girl. Why
the long face?”

 Halle
shrugged. “I um…was just lost in thought.”

Molly smiled big.
“You were thinkin’ about him weren’t you?”

Halle
flinched. “What? Who?”

“Whitehorse.”

 Hell no.
Yes. “No, of course not!”

Molly leaned in
closer and lowered her voice. “Word was before Whitehorse
brought you in, the two of you had already done the deed.”

    
“Sorry to spoil the story for you but we didn’t.”

    
“You sure ‘bout that? Elena was pretty certain for a while you was knocked up
with his kid. ”

    
Halle rolled her eyes. “You have to
do more than kiss to get pregnant.”

    
“And….”

    
“And….nothing.”

    
Molly smacked her on the upper arm. “You’re lyin’. There was more, wasn’t
there?”

   
Rosa had since put her spoon down and was staring
intently. Halle swallowed hard. “He
just…touched my…”

  They were
both silent, staring.

  “My boob.”

  Molly’s
shoulder’s slumped and Rosa went back to stirring the
soup as if this revelation was no big deal.  Apparently Molly was
satisfied, if not bored by her answer. Molly flicked a piece of dirt from
beneath her fingernail, adding, “Well, hopefully Whitehorse’s
visit will make Her Highness happy. Anything to appease that bitch for a while
is worthwhile.”

Rosa
agreed. Molly tapped Halle on the
arm. “Hey, did you tell Rosa we’ve been blackmailing the
man who murdered his niece?”

Halle
flinched. She’d sworn Molly to secrecy! With her eyes, she implored her not to
divulge any more details

 Molly gave Halle
a light smack on the arm. “Hell,girl. Rosa already
knows. I told her after she said Frank Cole came in one night last week. Didn’t
he, Rosa?”

Rosa
nodded. “There is something evil about that man. I do not like it when he comes
here.” She shuddered. “He has eyes like a wolf. Makes my skin crawl.”

A shiver skittered
up Halle’s spine. “Does Cole come
here a lot?”

“Only for the past
two months. Keeps to himself. Drinks, but never too much. Never asks for a
woman. Probably can’t get it up, if you ask me.”

Halle’s
heart lurched. He’d been coming to Elena’s since she began blackmailing him.
Did Cole suspect she and Molly were the authors of the letters?  How? With
money she saved styling the madam’s hair and sewing dresses, she rented a
postal box in Union City a hundred
miles away and bribed the postmaster into silence.

Rosa
lifted a brow. “You stay away from that Cole man Halle.
No more letters. He is no good.”

“But he doesn’t
know it’s us sending the letters,” Halle
offered

Rosa
snorted. “He will find out, and when he does, he will come back and hurt you.
He is so evil he might even cut your heart out and eat it while it is still
beating. The Devil lives inside him. I have seen it in his eyes.” She sketched
the sign of the cross over herself.

Halle
looked at Molly, who gave a dismissive gesture with her hand. “Don’t worry. He
was probably just sniffin’ around and lookin’ for a good time, but like I said,
his good time couldn’t get up.” Molly winked. “Probably heard about all the new
pretty girls Elena hired. Besides, he didn’t find what he came for, so I don’t
think he’ll be back.”

Halle prayed Molly
was right, but something in her gut said otherwise. Frank Cole knew she was
here or at least suspected. She figured it wouldn’t be the last time he’d come
snooping around. Had the postmaster in Union City betrayed her?

Perspiration
poured from her brow. Ordinarily she’d blame it on the stifling heat in the
tiny, windowless kitchen, but that wasn’t the reason she’d broken out in a
sweat. She knew in her heart Frank Cole had found her. It was a matter of time
before she was dead meat.

Halle mopped her
brow with a convenient dish towel. Holy shit, she needed some black hair dye
and sunshades fast! On second thought, darkening her hair might only call
attention to her African-American features. She already treaded on dangerous
ground. Even the suggestion that she might be black, could have disastrous
consequences in this time period.

Could she bleach
her hair so Cole wouldn’t recognize her? Perhaps Rosa
kept ingredients in the kitchen that might be used to cook up a few cosmetics.
Of course, she could always snip off the red tips that had grown out these past
few months and wear her hair short like a boy’s.  She could even dress in
pants and a man’s shirt. Cole would never recognize her then. But would Elena’s
ladies guard her secret?

Rosa
snatched the towel from Halle’s
grip and swatted a lively cockroach off the chopping board. Halle
lifted her skirts as the critter skittered across the floor in a crazed dance
and disappeared beneath a sack of corn meal. Molly hefted the meal aside and
snapped the little bugger beneath the toe of her slipper. Halle
groaned in disgust.

Rosa
laughed. “Toss the
cucaracha
in the soup. It is for the
puta
and
her lover anyway.”

Molly hooted. She
reached down to pick up the dying, wiggling insect by one twitching hind leg. Molly
had almost reached the stew pot with the wriggling bug when Elena appeared in
the doorway. Molly flung the roach aside and assumed her best angelic look,
alongside Rosa who was now the epitome of an innocent old granny.

“What are the hens
cackling about this morning?”

Molly muttered a
good morning to Elena, then rushed past and slipped out the side door. Halle
slid from the stool and eased over to the sink and pretended to be drying
dishes. She dared a glance over her shoulder. Elena’s hands flew to her hips.
Her lips pursed into a thin line as her dark eyes narrowed on Rosa.
“Have you not work to be done? I do not pay my help to stand around and
gossip.”

“Halle
was helping in the kitchen this morning,” Rosa offered.

The madam was
dressed in a low-cut, peach-colored gown with creamy, ostrich feathers at the
neck—one Halle had sewn from a
hand-drawn pattern.
Damn.
She’d done a fab job with the dress. It was
positively stunning on Elena.

Elena’s dark,
shiny hair was still perfectly coiffed in the 1960’s beehive she’d styled
yesterday. This morning, however, Elena had added her own special
touches—flashy rhinestone pins. The madam was as graceful and poised as a Victoria’s
Secret model, only not as tall.

Realizing she was
staring, Halle turned to scrub a
greasy frying pan with a stiff bristled brush.

Elena thundered
out, “Why does she wash dishes! The girl is not a servant. She is smart. She
can sew better than any seamstress in the Territory. She can read and
write—unlike you, Rosa.
Pendeja
!”

Halle’s
heart dipped. She turned in time to watch Rosa’s
shoulder slump.

“Do you see this
gown I am wearing? Halle designed a
pattern for this dress. It is like one from the finest Parisian catalogues. She
is sewing another one for me exactly like it out of red organza.” The thwack of
Elena’s magazine hitting the table caused Halle
to jump.

Elena hooked a
finger at her. “You. Come upstairs with me at once. You do not belong in the
kitchen among the help.”

Elena turned on
her heels and sashayed from the room.

Halle
made a face at Rosa who rolled her eyes and muttered between gritted teeth, “
La
puta esta loca
—always like this when her big dick comes to town. Molly was
right. We must all pray that Whitehorse
leaves her with a smile that lasts a year.”

Halle
gave Rosa’s hand a gentle pat. “Don’t take Elena’s words
to heart,” she whispered. “You know how mean she can be sometimes. We’ll talk
later.” She  ran to catch up with Elena.

Elena had grown
noticeably bitchier these past few weeks. Word in the house was she’d been
holding out for Whitehorse for over
a year. That wasn’t counting the secretive sleepovers of one of the newer gals,
Lola, a bisexual.

Halle
followed Elena up the red carpeted stairs and down a narrow hallway. Elena
paused at her suite and turned the ornate golden knob, then pushed open the
door. Halle followed her inside and
clicked the door shut behind.

Elena’s room,
unlike the rest of the plainer ones in the two story stone and stucco house,
was decorated like a palace with gilt framed oil paintings of nudes adorning
silver foil-papered walls and garish, ornate carved furnishings.

Elena paused at
her writing desk to lift a gold cigarette case with mother-of-pearl inlay. She
turned around, struck a match, then lit a thin hand-rolled cigarette in its holder
and took a long, deep pull.

Halle
squinted and braced herself for the onslaught of second-hand smoke. The madam
blew softly and white, misty rings swirled about her face as she eyed Halle
up and down. Elena seated herself on the edge of her credenza. “I have a
proposition for you,
mi hija
.”

A red warning flag
shot up in Halle’s mind. A
proposition
?
Not a comfortable word choice, considering she was employed
as a hairstylist-slash-seamstress-slash-secretary in a brothel.

Elena took another
slow drag off the cigarette and blew a smoke ring. Halle
watched, mesmerized as the little “o” grew bigger, warping into a shape
resembling a gauzy figure eight before dissipating. The madam’s gaze settled on
her again and Halle felt a shiver
race up her spine. Why was Elena looking at her that way? Uncomfortable, she
plucked at the starched, high necked collar on her dress. Elena reached for a
tin of candy, opened it and held it out. “Take a
chocolate.
They are
from Europe.”

Halle
did as she was instructed and popped the sugary delight into her mouth.

“As you know, my
pretty girl, Sarita and Lucy have been dismissed for contracting a most
unfortunate affliction.”

She did know.
She’s also heard through the grapevine that Elena was looking for fresh blood
to replace them. Surely Elena wouldn’t…

Halle watched with
trepidation as Elena placed the burning cigarette into the crystal tray beside
her. Uh-oh. There was more to this private meeting than she’d suspected.

“I operate a clean
establishment, Halle. I cannot have it told that my ladies carry diseases. I
would be out of business within the week.” The madam shifted, crossing one leg
over the other. “I rather suspect both women arrived here with the pox and did
not acquire them while in my employ.”

Halle suppressed a
snort. With as much activity as this brothel saw on a daily basis, not to
mention how ignorant women of this time period were about sex and transmissible
diseases, it was a miracle more of Elena’s ladies hadn’t contracted STD’s
or become pregnant.