Chapter Eighteen
Miss June to the Rescue
We didn’t speak much on the ride back to The Angel. I supposed we were reeling from the discovery of our old friend, living in a hovel with three children who called her ‘Momma’ with no man around and pretending everything was fine, when it clearly wasn’t.
We stabled the horses with William and went to see Miss June. She wasn’t in the parlor so we headed to the kitchen, where she liked to spend her time during the day, chatting with Cook, sewing or doing a number of other things that contributed to the effective running of The Angel.
As we walked down the hall, she came out of the kitchen and saw the three of us. Her eyes flew wide, and she stopped in her tracks.
“Did you find Cal?”
“We found her,” I said.
Miss June’s hands flew to her cheeks, and she gasped. “Well? Is she all right?”
“Well, she is and she ain’t,” I said, and glanced to Trick for some assistance.
Miss June ushered us into the kitchen, and we sat around the big wooden table. Cook continued her business at the stove but she had one ear on our conversation, I reckoned.
“She’s livin’ on a small”—I glanced at Oscar. Could I even call it a farm?—“farm…in the Wildman’s Creek area.”
“Cal says her husband’s away to look for work, that he sends her money when he can and that she and the children are fine,” Trick added.
Miss June blinked. “The…children? Cal has children ?”
“Sure. I don’t know where the original momma is, but Cal’s their momma now.”
Miss June blinked, absorbing this news. She huffed a laugh, and I could see she was taken aback at this news. “Goodness.”
Oscar smiled. “That was the only comfortin’ thing about any of it. You should have seen Cal with those young uns—like she was born to it or somethin’. They called her Momma, and she was real good with ’em.”
“That’s a fact,” I said. “They were good kids, too. They helped us to clean up a bit. The place was a shambles.”
“Oh dear.”
“I reckon Cal’s in over her head,” Trick said, “though she wouldn’t admit it.”
“How old are the children?”
I glanced at Oscar and Trick for help. I didn’t know much about children, but neither did they. Nobody said anything, so I took a shot answering.
“Well, the smallest one, he’s only a baby still, though he’s walkin’…well, runnin’, I should say. That’s how we found them. He was tearin’ toward the road, and Cal came out from behind some trees to get ’im.”
“Oh my,” Miss June said, putting a hand to her mouth.
Trick chimed in then. “I asked Lizzie how old she was, and she said she’s seven, Samuel’s one and a half and Peter’s ten.”
I’d assumed Peter was older than that, simply because he’d acted like he was in charge of things. But he was pretty young, too.
“They’re smart, they looked healthy and they love Cal. You could see it,” Oscar said.
“Sure,” I said. “That’s true.”
Miss June was silent for a long while, gazing at all three of us.
“Well,” she said finally, clasping her hands together. “I’m going to want to pay Cal and the children a visit tomorrow. Do you three want to come with me?”
I glanced at Oscar. “Might be best if you and Trick go. Cal didn’t seem to want Oscar and me in her home. She don’t seem to think you needed to get us to come help.”
“Yeah, because everythin’ is fine and dandy,” Oscar said in a sardonic voice. “’Cept it ain’t. For sure, it ain’t. But she won’t tell us the truth.”
“No, I want you to ride out with me…and Trick. But the three of you can wait outside while I go in and speak to Cal on my own. Perhaps you can entertain the children.”
“Sure,” Trick said. “They like the horses. And Cal seems to trust us with ’em.”
“All right. Gosh. I don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight, but we’ll ride out early tomorrow, and go pay our dear Caliope a visit. I want to get to the bottom of this.”
* * * *
We left The Angel at ten the next morning and rode out to Cal’s place. Miss June borrowed a horse from one of her regular clients, who was given some extra time with his favorite girl as a trade.
“You have a lot of skills, Miss June,” Oscar said, watching her handle the unfamiliar beast with ease.
Miss June smiled at him. She’d kept her skirts on but had hiked them up so we could see her bloomers as she rode astride the black gelding. Her hair was wrapped neatly around her head, although a few tendrils escaped in the breeze. I reckoned she’d been mighty handsome when she was young.
“Yes, I do—more’n you’ll ever know.”
Oscar laughed. “More’n I’d wanna know. Though I figured, since you’re runnin’ a cathouse.”
“I always said, the best two skills a girl could have were how to ride a horse and how to ride a man.”
Trick cackled.
I felt my cheeks heat at the thought of my beloved Miss June spreading her legs for someone, but there was a question I wanted to ask. “You ever work—that way—anymore?”
Miss June snorted. “What? No. The men who come to The Angel want the young ’uns like Trick and Sally. They don’t wanna pay for my old ass.”
“Aw shucks, Miss June. You’re still pretty and allurin’,” Oscar said, waggling his eyebrows. “And you got the experience of many years of tumblin’, I reckon. You could charge a fortune for your services.” He grinned, playing with her.
“I doubt that. Anyway, I’m busy enough running the place and keeping my girls safe.”
Trick was shaking her head at the turn of the conversation.
“Now, I’m not saying I haven’t been propositioned once or twice,” Miss June admitted. “But I always pretend they’re joking and send them one of the younger girls. This old body ain’t up to it no more.”
“But don’t you ever…” Oscar said. “Don’t you ever wanna…get up to somethin’ with a man? You ain’t that old.”
“Well, thank you, Oscar. It’s nice to hear someone say that now and then,” she said. “As to your question, sometimes I do,” she admitted, with a sparkle in her eye. “But I’ve got ways to satisfy that urge all by myself.”
Oscar’s eyes flashed wide, and I gave a hearty laugh. ’Twas a good, light conversation, to relieve some of the tension we felt heading into a bad situation.
Miss June’s expression sobered as we rode into the Wildman Creek area, and she took in the state of the homesteads.
“This doesn’t look very promising, now, does it?” she said.
“No, ma’am. It ain’t the best place to be raisin’ children, I don’t think.”
“Perhaps not. But I reckon most of these folks don’t have a choice about where they’ve got to live.”
“True. But they don’t have to be so churlish when approached by a stranger,” Oscar muttered, referring to those efforts we’d made to speak to several of the local residents.
“This is the place,” I said as we got closer to Cal’s homestead. “Just behind those trees, there.”
“It’s a pretty spot,” Miss June says, her forehead creased with concern.
“Sure,” Oscar says. “Fine piece of land, but nobody to work it with Cal’s husband gone. She’s got her hands full.”
“I’m sure she does,” Miss June says. “Three children are a lot to look after.”
“Did you ever want wee ones?” Oscar said, looking at Miss June with an eyebrow raised.
Miss June snorted. “I’m the second oldest girl in a family of twelve. I’ve already looked after enough children for my own satisfaction, thank you very much.” She gazed at Trick. “Now I’m a momma to the grown women in my care, and that’s much more rewarding.”
We rode around the trees and up the gentle slope toward the house. Miss June noticed the small barn.
“Do they have any animals?”
“Not even poultry or a milk cow,” I said. “Things seem pretty desperate.”
I took off my hat and swiped it against my leg. “I’m not sure Cal’s husband is much of a worker, to tell you the truth, whether ’tis here at home or out and about.”
Trick spat into the dirt. “I agree. I wouldn’t be surprised if Cal’s lyin’ through her teeth about him sendin’ any money. I don’t think he’s comin’ back.”
Miss June contemplated this. “Why wouldn’t she tell us? If she was so desperate?”
“Pride,” I said.
“Shame,” Oscar added. “She left her security at The Angel for a dream that didn’t turn out so good, seems like.”
Miss June gave a nod as we dismounted.
“I’ll go in by myself and see if I can persuade her to send the children out to see the horses. And you keep them busy, all right?”
“Of course,” I said. “I wanna have a look in that barn and see if ’twould be all right for stock, if Cal had any.”
“All right,” Miss June said, nodding with approval.
I figured maybe we could get Cal a cow or some chickens. Peter and Lizzie were old enough to help with milking and feeding, and at least they’d have fresh milk and eggs to eat, without having to spend on anything but grain and hay. I was willing to build a coop, but a cow would need the barn.
We waited with the horses until the children came out of the house. Peter led little Samuel by the hand, with Lizzie following.
When they got near to us, Trick crouched down and extended her hand to the little girl in the ratty dress that was a mite too short.
“Hey there, Lizzie, you wanna feed Willow a carrot?” She took the vegetable out of her pocket and held it up in front of the approaching children.
They stopped, Peter and Lizzie’s eyes going wide as they homed in on the huge orange root in Trick’s hands. Samuel started to cry. Lizzie whispered something to Peter, who nodded and straightened up, giving Trick a sober stare.
“We ain’t had any breakfast,” he said, in a small voice, as if he was too scared to ask for the carrot outright.
Oscar and I exchanged a glance as Trick lowered her hand.
“Well now. You know, Willow had some grain back at The Angel. So, I reckon she don’t need this here carrot,” Trick said, holding it out to the children. “You want it?”
“Yes, ma’am. I reckon ‘twould hit the spot,” Peter said, taking it from her like ’twas made of pure gold.
He held it carefully, blinking at it, as if he couldn’t believe he was holding a whole carrot in his hands and was only waiting for someone to snatch it away.
When that didn’t happen, he took a deep breath and broke it into three pieces.
He gave the long, narrow end to Lizzie, the fat end piece with the greens on it to Samuel, and he took a bite from the middle piece.
Peter’s eyelids closed as he chewed, as if he hadn’t had a solid piece of nourishment in weeks.