It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own (Code of the West) Read Online Free Page A

might not be too ugly. I once knew a little Baptist girl down in San Diego that could dance up a storm, when her pappy wasn’t lookin’. Don’t you worry about nothin’, Zach ariah. I’ll see that she ain’t so disappointed. It’s the least I could do for a dyin’ man.
    “Yes sir, Mr. Zachariah Hatcher, as the song goes, ‘it’s your misfortune and none of my own.’”
     

    2
    S eptember 1882, upper Cache la Poudre River, Colorado.       .
Pepper heard the jingle of the bells on the heavy front door of the dance hall and saloon below. She scooted across the bare wooden floor of her upstairs room, flinging a glance in the mirror as she passed by.
    “Girls, I need you on the floor,” April Has tings shouted.
    Pepper took a second look in the mirror and brushed her blonde curls back on her for ehead. Then she ran her fingers across the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes.
    Girl, you aren’t that old. So put on the smile, straighten your dress, don’t drink too much, and don’t bust his nose when he i nsults you. Remember to bat your eyes coyly when he says, 'Little Lady, you could have been an actress,' instead of sayin’, 'Listen, mister, I’m an actress playing a part every night of the year.'
    “Pepper, get down here,” a voice boomed out.
    Scurrying out of her room, she left the door open. Another girl was at the top of the stairs. The hall smelled of stale smoke and the bitter tinge of liquor.
    “Danni Mae, what’s all the shoutin’ about? Did the army send out another patrol?”
    The girl with long, brown hair draped across her back to her waist shot a worried look at Pepper. “There’s been an accident. Some people got injured.”
    By the time she reached the lower level of the two-story building, Pepper could see April Hastings, most of the girls, and a couple of men standing around the green velvet love seat in the parlor. Several voices fought for control of the convers ation. Stack Lowery sat at the piano bench smoking a cigarette, but he had stopped playing.
    “What happened?” Pepper asked.
    “The pass got washed out last night in the rain storm. Judd hit it straight on. The coach went over the edge.”
    “How bad was it?” Pepper asked, still u nable to see who was stretched out on the love seat.
    “Judd broke his leg, and a couple of men got some cuts and bruises. They’re taking some horses and pushing on up to Laramie to get the doctor.”
    Shouldering her way past Paula and Danni Mae, Pepper glanced down at a woman in a torn dark dress with a bulky, crude bandage wrapped around her head.
    “Who’s she?”
    “A passenger on the stage,” one of the men reported.
    “She don’t look too good. You’d better get her up to Laramie, too.”
    “Cain’t do it. She’s too busted up to move,” the man replied. “The way she’s spittin’ blood, she must be busted up on the inside, too.”
    “You tend to her, Pepper,” April Hastings instructed. “These men need to get Judd up the road.”
    “Tend to her? I ain’t no doctor,” Pepper protested.
    At times April Hastings had the look of a schoolteacher with fire in her eyes and a ruler in her hand. This was one of those times.
    “Pepper, you’re the closest thing we got to a doctor for a hundred miles—you and all those home remedies. Now you jist see what you can do. Maybe you can concoct somethin’ that will help her be peaceable. ’ Member how you helped Stack when he took that knife in the back?”
    Pepper Paige, doctor and nurse.
    Stack? He’s so strong he could recover from fightin’ a hundred men with knives.
    Those crowded around the injured woman backed away to make room for Pepper.
    She surveyed the injured woman up and down. What in the world are you doin’ out here? "Paula, bring a basin of water and some towels. At least we can clean her up.”
    “Not here,” April Hastings insisted. “I’m not runnin’ no ho spital. I’ve got a business to keep going.”
    “Then where?”
    “Stack,” she