A Tale Out of Luck Read Online Free Page B

time in jail, before the lynching. Her mother hugged her and stroked her hair as if she were a little girl again, though she knew she never would be. She closed her eyes against the tears, and sniffed in the aroma of the pine forests outside. Then Jane had started to cry.
    “Mama, what are they gonna do to you?”
    “Listen to me, Jane. You’re a very pretty girl. You’ve got to watch out for men who want that—men like that son of a bitch I shot. But you can use it to your advantage. Use it to find a nice man with money. You don’t have to be in love with him, and he doesn’t have to be young or handsome. Do you hear me?”
    Jane nodded, but didn’t understand why her mother was telling her all this right now. “But, Mama . . .”
    “Hush, girl. Just listen. Go to my cousin Jenny’s in Luck, Texas. It’s out past Austin somewhere. You’ll find it. Luck, Texas. Remember that. Go there and find Jenny and tell her what happened. Find a nice man with money. You promise me, right now!”
    Jane had promised. She had come to Luck, but no one knew what had become of her mother’s cousin, Jenny. Flora Barlow had taken her in, but Jane was still looking for that kind, not-so-handsome, rich man her mother had told her to find six years ago. Neither man nor boy had gotten close to her since her mother shot that freighter. She held them all at bay with an icy demeanor and a knack she had developed for keeping to herself.
    Jane knew everyone thought of her as tough, but she just felt scared most of the time. The truth was, she was a little relieved to have a safe escort in the form of Jay Blue Tomlinson walking her home tonight. But he was not the man her mother told her to look for. He was just a cowboy.
    “Her face launched a thousand ships,” Jay Blue was declaring. “They started a war over her.”
    She realized he was still talking about Helen of Troy. “A thousand ships?” She surprised even herself with the depth of sarcasm in her voice.
    “Can you believe that?”
    “No, I can’t. It’s just a stupid old story.” They had passed the blacksmith shop and the lumberyard, and Jane could now make out the adobe walls of the house she stayed in at the edge of town. It was just a vacant shell with a leaky roof, but no one objected to her staying there. “I can see my house from here,” she announced. “You can have your coat back now.”
    “Not at all. I’ll walk you all the way to the door. A gentleman wouldn’t leave a lady out in the cold right here in the street.”
    “I’ve got a mean dog in there, so don’t think you’re coming in. He’ll tear you to pieces.”
    “I didn’t figure on coming in tonight.” Jay Blue left his pony at the rail and accompanied her up the walkway to her front door.
    “Not tonight or any night.” She stopped at the door and started removing the coat.
    “You want to put some money on that?” he suggested.
    “As if you had money? Take your coat and go home. You’re just a boy.” She shoved the garment at him, feeling the cold night air envelope her again.
    “I’m older than you are.”
    “You’re older in years, maybe. But that’s all. Good night, Jay Blue.” She reached for the latch on the door.
    “Hey, let me meet your dog,” he said.
    She slammed the door in his face, shutting herself inside the cold, dark room. Too bad he wasn’t the one her mother told her to find. She kind of liked him. She felt very alone there in the dark. The old adobe smelled musty. She wanted to cry, but that had never gotten her anywhere, so she sniffed her childish sorrows aside and felt her way to the bed. Perhaps the lynch mob would stay out of her dreams tonight. She just wanted to go to sleep, and wake up to her mother’s voice in her ears, and her mother’s gentle hands brushing her hair back from her cheek.
    Skeeter woke, briefly, from his dreams of girls in calico dresses and fried chicken on a Sunday afternoon. He thought he had heard something outside. A rattle of