Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Blog

Blogathon 2006: Chapter 25.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

He'd barely set his hat on the bed he'd been dreaming about all those nights in the cave when he heard the unmistakeable rustle of fabric too fancy to be a man's. He wasn't alone in his room.

"What made you this way?" Lily asked, emerging from the darkness between the furnishings. This was not in his plan.

"All I did was kiss a girl," he said softly. "Now I'm a great believer in doing nothing."

"I don't believe that."

"Is that why you're here? You think there's something more to what's going on?"

"That's not why I'm here," Lily said, pulling a deringer out of the folds of her dress. "I have other business."

He'd had a lot of guns pulled on him in his life, but never in such a regular succession. It was almost becoming predictable. He sighed. "Lily, what do you think you're doing?"

"I told you to keep ridin' through, but you had to stay and stick your nose where it didn't belong."

"This ain't no business of yours, Lily. There's nothing about you in it."

A sad smile flitted across her face before a peculiar hardness crossed her brow and erased the beauty that had once seemed strong. "There's everything about me in it."

"You don't want to do this."

She laughed, hard-edged. "What kind of woman do you think I am?"

"I think the entire county knows what kind of woman you are," he said sadly.

She rubbed her finger across the hammer. "You don't know who I am, you don't."

"I'm probably the only man around these parts who can say that." He paused, watching her face about to crumble. "Or maybe I'm the only one who really saw you for what you are."

"What, did you think I was a whore with a heart of gold?"

"No, only half that." All gold's fool's gold, anyway, he thought.

Dove had been edging his way towards Lily. Though she waved the gun like she meant business, he could tell she was using the weapon more to make a point than to point and kill. With a quick flick of his wrist, he knocked the deringer from her grasp and it skidded into the corner of the room.

"Tell me what you want without the gun. I can't hear you with the gun talkin' so loudly."

Lily's face crumpled in tears. "You ever hear of the Ruby Hills?"

< Start . Next >

Labels: blogathon