Free The Redemption of Jake Scully by Elaine Barbieri Page A

most of the Gold Nugget women lived. Rosie was standing outside the door, holding her cheek and sobbing while an unfamiliar fellow turned and walked angrily away from her. He was gone in an instant, the same instant it took for Lacey to start in Rosie’s direction.
    Rosie had already slipped through her boarding house doorway when Lacey reached it. Determined, Lacey was about to follow when she heard a female voice say, “Don’t do that. It won’t help.”
    Lacey turned to see Jewel behind her. A tall cowboy stood silently at her side. Not bothering with an introduction, Jewel turned toward him and said, “Go back to the ranch, Buddy. I’m all right. I can take care of Rosie.”
    Lacey noted the fellow’s reluctance before he nodded. With a tip of his hat in her direction, he was on his way.
    Jewel turned back toward Lacey. She still wore the satin dress and heavy makeup of her dancehall trade, but her expression was sober and concerned when she pushed back a straying strand of dark hair and said, “Rosie wouldn’t like it if you saw her right now. She’d be embarrassed. She always is when Riley treats her like that, but she’d be especially embarrassed if she knew you saw him hit her.”
    “But she might be hurt. I only want to help.”
    “If you want to help her, don’t let her know you know what happened. Rosie likes you. She likes to think you like her, too.”
    “I do like her.”
    “Then let her believe you don’t know about the way Riley treats her. She thinks you’d lose respect for her. She doesn’t have much, and that’s important to her.”
    “But—”
    Jewel’s dark eyes grew suddenly moist and her voice hoarse. “Rosie’s a good girl who’s had a hard life, Lacey. Riley treats her pretty good for the most part. He just gets out of hand sometimes.”
    “But he hit her.”
    “And he’ll come back tomorrow and tell her he loves her. To Rosie, that means a lot. Not too many people have told Rosie they love her in her life.”
    “That Riley fellow couldn’t love her if he’d do that to her.”
    Jewel shook her head.
    “What does that mean?”
    “I know Riley doesn’t really love Rosie. He just enjoys his power over her. You know it…and in my heart, I think Rosie knows it, too. But she’s alone, and right now she figures he’s the best she can do. I know how she feels because I’ve been there, too.”
    Lacey glanced spontaneously in the direction into which Jewel’s quiet cowboy had ridden off, and Jewel responded, “No, not Buddy. He’s all right.” Her voice softened with suppressed emotion as she said, “Buddy’s a fine fella, but he’s not the first man in my life. I don’t expect he’ll be the last.”
    Sadness and frustration combined to tighten Lacey’s throat as she whispered, “What can I do for you both, Jewel?”
    “I’m all right. Rosie’s the one who has trouble right now. If you want to help her, just be her friend. You’re not like the other people in this town. You don’t treat Rosie any different than anybody else just because she works at the Gold Nugget. She appreciates that.” Jewel hesitated, then said, “I do, too.”
    Lacey still had not found the words to respond when Jewel turned away and slipped through the boarding house doorway.

    “Can I have some more coffee here, Lacey?”
    Lacey turned toward the young, curly-haired wrangler who had made the request. The restaurant had been filled since the door opened that morning. She had responded to the rush with instinctive haste, but her mind had not yet left the moments she had spent with Jewel in the doorway of her boarding house.
    Lacey refilled Todd Fulton’s cup, then felt his callused hand touch her forearm to stay her as he said, “Is something wrong, Lacey?”
    The thought that if not for her grandfather’s Christian teachings, his dying guidance and Scully’s boundless generosity, she might now be standing in Rosie’s or Jewel’s shoes had lodged deep inside