Page 4 of Silver Lining
"Aw hell, Low Down." Frank Oliviti frowned. "Are you saying you want one of us to… ?" A mottled red flush climbed the back of his neck, and he kicked at a clump of columbines. "Damn it. Are you sure you wouldn't rather have a bag of gold?"
She hadn't peered into a mirror in months, but judging from the way every man took a step backward, she decided she must look like hell. And she wasn't a beauty to start with. Nevertheless, she hadn't expected them to be so appalled at the prospect of bedding her. It was damned insulting, that's what it was.
Who the hell were they to be so particular? She'd seen most of them buck naked, and she didn't recall grabbing her heart and swooning over any perfect sculpturelike bodies.
"You asked what I wanted, and I told you," she said, raising her chin and narrowing her eyes. "If you didn't mean what you said, that's fine. I didn't expect anything anyway." She glanced at the angle of the sun. "Let's finish our beer and go back to the diggings. We've still got a few hours of good work light."
"Now, just hold it a minute." Billy Brown faced the men from Olaf's porch and raised his hands. "All right, boys, this ain't what we expected." A chorus of low swearing erupted. "But we did mean what we promised." A threat glittered in his gaze. "We voted on this. We agreed we'd give Low Down whatever she wanted. We made a commitment, and by damn, that hasn't changed."
A rumble of muttering and mumbling rose and fell, then silence returned. A resigned voice inquired, "So what happens next? How do we decide who has to do it?"
"A volunteer would simplify matters a whole lot." Billy skimmed a hopeful eye over the men, none of whom would look at her. "Do we have a volunteer?"
When no one stepped forward, Low Down felt a wave of heat flood her cheeks. Even her eyes felt hot.
"To hell with all of you," she shouted, twisting pride and humiliation into a knot of anger. "I don't want to sleep with any of you either, so just forget it!" She'd never felt so offended in her life.
Worse, she had relied on the wrong proverb. The one she should have remembered stated: Promises are like piecrusts, made to be broken. They hadn't meant it when they told her to pick the thing she wanted most and she could have it.
Preacher Jellison grabbed her arm as she spun to storm down the mountain and back to her tent. "Let me go!"
This was no longer her proudest day. All she wanted to do now was pack up her few belongings, get out of Piney Creek, and pretend these last minutes of stupidity on her part and insult on their part had never happened.
Preacher Jellison held her at arm's length, keeping his body away from her kicking feet and flailing fist.
"Shame on you, gentlemen. The angel of mercy who put herself in grave peril to save your worthless hides… "Pausing, he took a minute to stare into the unhappy gaze of every man present. "… wants a baby."
Billy Brown rose to the occasion. "And by God one of us is going to give her one," he promised grimly, speaking between clenched teeth. "We are going to repay the debt we owe. Aren't we, boys?"
They looked at her now, sliding sidelong glances of speculation in her direction before they looked up at Billy Brown again. A long sigh of resignation skittered down the mountainside like an ill wind.
Stony Marks stepped forward. "I think Low Down is a good-hearted woman, and she might be right tolerable if she was cleaned up some," he said gamely. "But much as I'd like to honor our debt and do my part to repay her for keeping my butt alive, I can't be the man who does the poking. I'm married." He looked to Preacher Jellison to back him up. "It wouldn't be right to ask a married man to sin against his innocent wife."
"Well, damn. He's got a point, Billy." Preacher Jellison tightened his iron grip on Low Down's arm. She tried, but she couldn't pry off his fingers.
"Damned if he don't," Billy Brown agreed unhappily. "But we can cope with this development. You married men step over there beside the big spruce." He counted the bachelors remaining in front of Olaf's porch steps. "All right. We got twenty-three contenders."
"We got twenty-four," Jack Hart said sharply. "McCord, get over here. You ain't married."
Max McCord appealed to Billy Brown and Preacher Jellison. "I'm as good as, since I'm pledged to marry in two weeks, and I'm leaving tomorrow."
"Yeah, well, you ain't wed yet. You wouldn't even be alive to think about getting married if Low Down hadn't nursed your sorry butt back to life. So get on over here with the rest of us!"
For the span of a heartbeat, Low Down thought McCord would refuse. Since she'd read his letter to Miss Philadelphia Houser, she would have understood. But he marched forward with a frown and joined the men waiting in front of the steps. The bachelors glared at the married men, who had helped themselves to more beer and who grinned back. Then everyone scowled up at Billy Brown, waiting for whatever would happen next.
"I'm asking one last time for a volunteer," Billy Brown said in a coaxing tone.
The only thing Low Down heard was her own teeth grinding together as she considered taking a bite out of Preacher Jellison's arm and breaking free. To hell with them all.
Except she wanted a baby. And they had promised.
"It isn't you," Albie Davidson said, spreading his arms and giving her an apologetic look. "Well, it's you, but what I mean is, I just can't think of you as a woman. You're one of us, you know? One of the boys."
"You're all bastards," she shouted, struggling to jerk free of Preacher Jellison's grip.
Preacher Jellison hissed at her. "This is what you want. Now stop fighting and take whatever you're given. The Lord works in mysterious ways."
She couldn't argue with that. Because the Lord had sent an epidemic down on Piney Creek, she had a chance to get the one thing she longed for. That is, if one of these bastards agreed to sleep with her and if she could stomach sleeping with him. At the moment, that was a big if. She hated them all. But she reckoned she'd put up enough of a fight to appease her injured pride so she didn't stomp off in a huff when Preacher Jellison released her.
