Free One Bright Morning by Alice Duncan

flashed through her brain at Dan’s words,
which was where she was supposed to bathe with her house full of
strange men. It was, after all, pretty nearly the dead of winter,
so the porch would be too blamed cold. She decided she’d ask
later.
    It turned out she didn’t need to. Four Toes
Smith rigged up a curtain out of two bedroll blankets in a warm
corner of the kitchen. Then he carried in the heavy tub as though
it weighed a mere pound or two and set it down behind the
screen.
    Maggie and Ozzie used to have to struggle
and struggle to get that tub into the kitchen. During the summer,
Maggie used to bathe on the porch because it was easier. It was too
cold for that during the winter, though, so she usually only gave
herself thorough sponge baths. This tub bath would be a rare,
welcome pleasure for her.
    “ Thank you very much,” she
murmured when she saw what the two men had rigged up for her
bathing pleasure. She was very grateful.
    Then Four Toes began to heat water on the
stove for her and Maggie thought her cup might just overflow. She’d
never had anybody to heat bath water for her. She was infinitely
grateful to be spared the back-breaking work of filling the tub for
herself.
    Before she took her bath, she tiptoed into
the bedroom to fetch clean clothes and check up on Jubal Green. Dan
Blue Gully was sitting next to the bed, staring down at his
friend’s face.
    “ How’s he doing?” Maggie
whispered.
    Dan Blue Gully shook his head slowly, as
though he couldn’t quite believe what he were about to say.
    Maggie immediately feared the worst had
happened.
    “ He’s doing good, ma’am.
It’s because of your fine care, and I thank you. I don’t know what
I’d do without Jubal Green. Him and me has been partners
for-damned-near-ever.” then he looked up quickly, and amended his
words. “I mean we’ve been together a long time, ma’am. I didn’t
mean to swear.”
    Maggie was so relieved she actually smiled.
“It’s all right, Mr. Blue Gully. I understand. I’m just glad I
could help.” She didn’t bother to tell him that she herself had
taken to swearing like a drunken cowboy during the last few
months.
    Maggie took her clean clothes behind the
screen with her. When she sank into the tub, she thought this must
be pure bliss, to be able to bathe in her own warm kitchen and not
have to think about anything at all for a while. She fell asleep in
the tub.

Chapter Four
     
    It was while Maggie dozed in her bath that
Jubal Green came fully conscious for the first time since French
Jack’s bullets had knocked him senseless.
    Dan Blue Gully still sat at his side. He was
staring at Jubal’s face with a frown, and that was the first thing
that Jubal saw when he, with a monumental effort, pried his
heavy-as-lead eyelids up over his bloodshot eyes.
    “ Jesus Christ,” Jubal
whispered when he saw the Indian’s ferocious scowl. “Whatever it
is, I didn’t mean it.”
    Jubal had a faint, misty memory of waking up
once before and finding an angel in his bed. No, he corrected
himself. It hadn’t been an angel. It had been a—what? A whore? No.
Nor a devil. He decided that that particular memory was buried too
deeply and that it would require entirely too much energy to dredge
it back again to investigate, so he gave up.
    He had no trouble at all in recognizing Dan
Blue Gully, who gave an enormous start at his friend’s words.
    “ You’re awake,” Dan said,
emotion making his voice a bland, toneless rumble. Emotion always
did that to Dan Blue Gully, which was one of the reasons nobody in
the world except Jubal Green ever knew what he was
thinking.
    “ What happened?” Jubal
asked, conversationally. He was almost afraid to find out. Whenever
Dan sounded like that, Jubal knew whatever it was that had happened
was really, really bad.
    “ French Jack shot
you.”
    Jubal frowned so hard at his friend’s words
that his head began to ache, so he stopped frowning and merely
glared.
    “ No he didn’t,” he