Page 44 of The Enchanted Land

“I just don’t like to see a lady’s name maligned.” He emphasized the “lady.”

The bartender brought Janie’s beer, and she drank half of it down in one noisy swallow. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and looked at Seth. “You stayin’ here long?”

“That depends.”

“On what?” Her eyes and voice were eager.

“I’ve been hearin’ that there’s a big outfit working out of here, and I might be interested.”

“You a lawman?”

Seth laughed derisively, held out his hand, and ran a finger across the curves of her breasts. “Do I look like a lawman?”

Janie had had her first man when she was twelve years old, and had long ago lost any feeling about the things men had done to her body. Yet, once, when she was sixteen, there had been a boy, a big, strong, clean, farm boy who had been good to her. He had wanted to marry Janie. He would have, too, if his mother hadn’t found out how Janie had been supporting herself for four years.

Janie remembered the boy with affection, and Seth’s kindness to her made her feel a sensation she had thought long dead.

She gazed up at him, hunger apparent in her eyes. “I reckon you don’t look like a lawman.” She paused. “I sure do like big men.”

Seth leaned closer to her, seeing more clearly the cracks in the heavy makeup she wore. “Well, I got me a partiality to women—all of ’em.” She opened her mouth to speak, and Seth smelled the stale odor of her breath.

“Anything you want, mister, and it’s yours. It’d be my pleasure.” She fluttered skimpy eyelashes at him.

Seth smiled knowingly at her. “What about this Boss I keep hearin’ about?” He motioned his head slightly at Luke and the other men nearby.

Janie looked around to make sure no one could hear. She leaned toward Seth. “Boss Martin’s the leader. He don’t come to town much, but when he does, he stays in that big white house at the end of the road.”

“Well, Janie.” He put his hand on her arm. “How could I get in touch with this Boss Martin?”

Janie put her hand over Seth’s big one. “Cat Man rode in yesterday, and is stayin’ at the Boss’s house.”

“Cat Man?”

Janie shivered. “Yeah, he looks like a cat—real slanty eyes. Walks like one, too. None of the girls like to go upstairs with him. I thought he was goin’ to kill me one time.” Janie smiled. “But this time he brought his own woman. Dressed her up like a boy and took her down to Boss’s house. She’s a real snooty bitch, but nobody deserves what Cat Man does to a woman.”

Seth worked the muscles in his jaw. “This woman he brought—what’d she look like?”

Janie frowned and looked at Seth, but he was staring across the bar, away from her, his eyes seeing nothing. “Yella hair … little, like a kid. What you want to know for? You interested in her?” Janie’s voice was hostile.

Seth turned to her and smiled, showing his even, white teeth, and the long dimples in his cheeks. “I was just wondering what somebody’d bring into town, when they already had so much here.”

Janie smiled back at him, showing a broken tooth on the left side of her mouth.

Seth drained his beer. “I got to be goin’ now.”

“Don’t go yet, mister. I don’t even know your name.” She followed him to the door, hanging onto his arm. “I told you I’d give you whatever you want.” She smiled up at him, coquettishly. “Tell me, is all of you as big as your arm?”

“It sure is, honey.” He pinched her earlobe and left her.

Seth rode out of town past the big, white house. There were two men on the porch, both drinking and arguing loudly. Neither fit the description of Cat Man.

Seth tied his horse not far from the back of the house, hidden halfway down the side of a deep arroyo. When it was completely dark, he made his way down to the house.

“I don’t know why Cat Man has to take so goddamn long, and why one of us ain’t enough to stay with the little girl. What are you laughin’ at?”

“I’s just rememberin’ that woman in the cabin—on the way here.”

“Yeah, she warn’t bad. Not bad at all.”

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