Chapter 21
Posted: July 23, 2007 - 09:13:43 pm

Belle showed up right on time the next day and sat down to memorize the words to the song as I hummed the melody and the Hombres fleshed out the music. We were in the dancehall while Pen and Liz were interviewing dancers.

Pen had a good system for the dancers who sold a little companionship on the side. The bartender at the bar near the stairs that led up to the second floor rooms controlled the keys during the evening. A man who wanted some private companionship made his deal with the girl on the floor. The barman rented the key to the woman's room to the patron for five dollars for an hour. No money changed hands between the patron and the woman, unless it was for performing more than the standard service. Every time a key left its hook, a colored tag replaced it. When the key came back, it was hung over the tag. At the end of the evening, the woman was paid three dollars for every tag on her hook. Between dancing and going upstairs, the full service women made ten to twenty-five dollars a night. That was huge money in eighteen-seventy-seven.

We ran through the song a couple of times as I made a few suggestions on timing to Belle. She caught on right away, and before you knew it, she had transformed herself into a soulful chanteuse. Belle stayed with me all afternoon. She had her song down pat, although she had to glance at the words I had written out a few times.

After we rehearsed for an hour, we went into my office and talked. Belle thought the song I'd written her was wonderful and asked me how I did it overnight like that. I shrugged and said it was a gift, I guessed. While we were talking, a gust of wind blew some sand against the panes of my office window. The wind made me think of another favorite of my dad, performed by Patsy Cline. I asked Belle to give me a minute, grabbed my pen, and dipped it in my crystal inkwell. I wrote for about five minutes as the lyrics popped back into my head. When I finished, I handed the lyrics to "The Wayward Wind" to a very curious Belle.

"That's how it works," I said. "Something as simple as that gust of wind triggered the idea for a song. I write down the words as they pop into my thick skull, and think up the melody at the same time."

Of course that was all a big load of hogwash, but pretty little Belle didn't need to know that.

She read through the words and asked about the melody. I sang a few lines for her, stressing the key words, and she nodded excitedly.

"I think I've got it, let's go see if the musicians can play this."

I knew by now the Hombres could play anything I could hum a few bars of, so I took her back out. The fellows were about to leave, but Belle charmed them into going through the song with her a couple of times.

After the Hombres headed off for their siestas, Belle and I went back to my office again. I was about to walk around and sit behind my desk, when she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me. I put my arms around her waist and kissed her back with passion. When we finally came up for air, she leaned back in my arms and smiled shyly.

"I hope you don't think me a wanton Jezebel, Ty, but I grew weary of waiting for you to take the initiative. You are making me feel things I thought I'd never feel again; that is both exhilarating and frightening."

I told her we would go at the speed she was comfortable with, and reminded her that I was seeing other women. She laughed when I said that and hugged me.

"So you've heard the rumors, huh? I think you might need to take what people say with a grain of salt, you being an attorney and all. Besides, I don't have a shotgun out here... yet. I also don't see you as being the marrying type, so you are safe enough."

The way she said all that, neither confirmed nor denied the rumors about her past. But she still eased my mind some by what she said. As far as the part about being the marrying type; well, look at my track record, I was oh for four so far.

Belle and I kissed and fooled around a little more, but didn't get too serious about it. I meant what I said about us taking our time, and let her set the pace. Around four, we both left the Toro and headed home to take a little nap before the night started. Belle said she'd see me at ten and kissed me one last, lingering time. I was feeling pretty darned chipper as I headed back to Molly's.

I had six new women working in the dancehall that night and all of them fit right in. It was another insanely busy Saturday night, with all the tables filled and men standing two deep at the bar. By the time Belle arrived at ten, we had already sold three thousand tickets.

The ten o'clock floor show was welcomed by the dancers, as they had a chance to catch a break while the Hombres and I did our act. They took turns sitting in the audience and whooping it up with everyone else. We had a loud and good natured crowd that night, so I tried out my newest version of Alley Oop. This time, while it was still a sing along, I had Conchita and three of the other dancers as my back-up singers. I had taught them some of the moves I remembered from the nineteen-sixties girl groups. They were behind me as I sang, doing the oop-oops and shaking their booties. They were having fun and the crowd loved it.

At ten-twenty or so, Feleena walked in. When the Hombres struck up the intro to El Paso, everyone yelled 'FELEENA'. I sang the song and Feleena gave me the nicest smile I'd seen from her in quite a while.

I went to her table and said hello, then walked back to the band. I held up my hands and asked for quiet, it took a minute or so, but I finally had everyone's attention.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I know that you love listening to me and the Hombres, but I'll bet you've wondered why we don't have a lady singer. I wondered that too, so I went out and found one. I am proud to introduce for her first time on stage, the El Paso Nightingale, Miss Belle Boushell."

I was damned proud of the stage name I'd made up for Belle, to me it sounded pretty classy.

Belle walked out and looked a little nervous. I moved away from the stage and found a seat at a table close to the band. To my surprise, Belle gave the guys a little follow me signal and came over to where I sat.

She took a breath and started singing a cappella:

"I fall to pieces,
each time I see you again.
I fall to pieces,
how can I be just your friend?"

Wow! She put something into that song that wasn't there this afternoon. I think singing in front of an audience souped her up or something, because she was amazing. The Hombres started playing softly as she started the second verse of the song, and her voice grew strong to be heard above them. Her voice was sexily soulful and crystal clear as she hit each note. I have to admit that I was getting a lump in my trousers from her voice and the way she looked at me while she sang.

Belle finished the last stanza in a throaty warble that sounded as if she were about to burst into tears:

"... But each time I go out with someone new,
you walk by and I fall to pieces."

It was dead silent for about a two count, then the applause and cheering started. Belle curtsied, then launched into 'Wayward Wind'. The 'Wayward Wind' was a good song to sing in El Paso, because one of the verses mentions her meeting a guy down in a border town.

After her singing debut, Belle ran over and gave me an excited hug.

"I was so nervous at first, Ty, and then I looked at you and felt calm and serene."

As we hugged, I saw Feleena watching us intently. I sat Belle down at the table I was at and went to sing a couple of numbers my self. I still think the mariachi version of 'Ring of Fire' that the Hombres played was the best version I'd ever heard, even with me singing.

Sunday morning, Molly and I had more slippery fun in her bathtub. This time we were even friskier than last week. We were both looking forward to spending the night together.

After bathing and shaving, I put on my charro suit and headed to the stables. I had rented a small two-seat surrey for the day, and had even practiced hitching Melosa to it so she could go with us to church. She was dubious at first about pulling the rig, but didn't put up a big fuss. I swear if I could find a woman that was always sweetly disposed and eager to see me as Melosa, she'd be wife number five in a heartbeat.

Melosa and I moseyed on over to the Lopez hacienda and I took a seat on the porch with Hector and the other suitors. Hector was smiling like he'd gotten away with something as he held court.

"So Tyler, you are here to court Maria, eh?" Hector asked teasingly.

I decided to give it right back to him.

"Yes sir," I said with a straight face. "I'm tired of fighting the attraction. Would it be so bad having a gringo for a son-in-law?"

That wasn't what Hector was expecting to hear. His jaw dropped open and he started to sputter. I let him off the hook by laughing and punching him on the arm lightly.

"I am joking Señor Calis, but I would like your permission to escort La Señorita Maria to church this morning."

Hector looked at me as if I was crazy for a minute, then smiled and shook his finger at me.

"Ah, very funny, Tyler, but be careful who you say such things around. Had one of the women in my family heard you, the church would already be booked for the wedding."

I was saved from further embarrassment by the women coming out of the house. I could tell right away that Maria had some help getting ready that morning, because of how she was dressed and the way her hair was styled. The Lopez women were making a point that Maria was a woman, I guess, as she looked as if she were in her twenties, with her hair upswept and wearing a dress that was well fitted to her very nice body.

We lined up our little wagon train and headed off to church. Maria and I, as the youngest couple, were bringing up the rear. Maria sat as close as she could possibly get to me in the small buggy's seat. I didn't mind that even a little bit.

"Maria, you are one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen," I sincerely said.

She looked sharply up at me to see if I was teasing. When she saw the look on my face, she smiled and turned on that smoldering Lopez eye thing. When she spoke, her voice had the low smoky quality that Juanita and Anna used on me. Either someone had been coaching Maria, or else she'd blossomed overnight.

"So you finally noticed I was a woman and not a girl, eh, Charro?"

I shivered involuntarily when she said that, I swear it was Anna's sexiest voice speaking.

"I've noticed you as a woman all along, Maria. Never for a second have I considered you anything else. The problem is, I am not ready to marry and settle down and I promised your sister I would not sully your virtue."

She looked at me for a second as she digested what I said. Then she nodded and spoke in her normal voice.

"I thought as much. Maybe I don't want to get married either, and maybe you would not be my first man," she said matter-of-factly.

I pulled back on the reins and stopped the buggy. "What!" I said, hugely surprised.

Her eyes got big and round as if she'd said more than she intended. Then her chin came up defiantly.

"I've never told another soul about this, but Juanita isn't the only one Jorge seduced. He had me when I was fourteen, and I didn't know what a maricón he was. I was luckier than Juanita, and didn't get pregnant."

I do not know how I kept from having a stroke right there in that buggy. My blood pressure must have gone off the charts as a wave of fury rolled over me. I gritted my teeth so hard it's a wonder I didn't crack any of them. The only thing that dissipated my anger was the sure and certain knowledge that George Howard just became a dead man walking. I now realized that no matter how I tried to avoid it, killing him seemed to be my destiny.

When I had control of myself and looked at Maria, she was staring at me with big frightened eyes. I gave her a gentle smile and held her hand in mine.

"I'll make a deal with you sweet Maria. If you still feel this way after your next birthday, we will talk some more. Until then, maybe we can show each other more affection without going too far. Will that work for you?"

Her eyes sparkled as she leaned forward and kissed me on the lips. "August the seventeenth," she said after she broke the kiss.

I nodded; the date was sooner than I expected, but far enough away that anything could happen in between.

"Okay, Honey, but I want you to tell your grandmother about all this the first chance you get."

I thought about Maria and what she'd told me all through church that day. My anger had settled into a cold hatred for George Howard that I was going to have to gain control of before I did something stupid. Thinking about my destiny being wrapped up with George Howard put a sour taste in my mouth, but as with a number of things I'd experienced here in this time, I chalked it up as part of the reason I was back in this time in the first place.

I gladly switched to that train of thought. I was beginning to realize that I had many advantages over the average person living back in eighteen seventy-seven, simply because of all I knew that hadn't been discovered yet. It was agonizingly clear that I wasn't destined to invent the automobile or cure polio, yet I had knowledge of things to come beyond just knowing some songs. I just needed to be on the lookout for opportunities when they presented themselves. In the meantime, I was going to keep enjoying the incredible second chance at life that I had been granted.

I felt better after church, and I have to admit that sitting next to Maria as she subtly leaned against me and pressed her warm thigh into mine helped. When everyone congregated in the courtyard of the mission talking, I slipped away from the Lopezes and walked over to Feleena. She smiled when I walked up; it was that warm and genuine smile that I adored. We made chit-chat for a minute, then I said what was on my mind.

"Feleena, may I call on you this afternoon?" I asked formally.

She shook her head with what seemed to be regret.

"I do not receive gentleman callers during the day or all of Sunday," she said.

The woman just didn't get it, so I finally spelled it out for her.

"I don't want you just for your body, Feleena. If that were the case, I'd be at Rosa's every night. No, I want your heart, I want the real Feleena."

Feleena's eyebrows rose in surprise at that.

"I am attracted to you Tyler, isn't that enough? What does my heart have to do with anything?"

I sighed sadly and started to turn around.

"Until you know the answer to that, Señorita, we don't have much to talk about," I said over my shoulder, as I walked away.

It was my day for surprises, as Anna talked Hector and Ramona into letting Maria walk down to the river with me. True, Anna and Joaquin went with us, but they disappeared as soon as we reached the shady spot under the willow trees.

The older couple had no sooner walked away, than Maria was in my arms and we were making out like crazy. It was as if that Lopez witchery had come on line for Maria all at once that Sunday, and I was pretty much just along for the ride.

As we stood there kissing and lightly caressing each other, it occurred to me how stupid my resistance to going further with Maria actually was. I mean she was not a virgin, she was well past the age of consent, and she knew I wasn't likely to marry her, so why fight it? I did control myself though, because as it had with Belle, something told me that for right now, this was as far as Maria and I needed to venture. Maria was panting with passion and her kisses were addictive, but we managed not to go any further.

After another of Ramona's fabulous meals, I wheeled the buggy back to the stables and gave Melosa a good brushing. As I curried her, I told her I didn't think we'd be doing the buggy thing that often. I know it's stupid, but I swear Melosa understood what I was talking about. I know that most cowboys are inordinately proud of their horses, but even in that context, Melosa was still something special. While I was brushing her, I checked her shoes and made a mental note to have the stableman get her reshod this week coming up.

I was also going to give her a good bath one day before Wednesday. Wednesday was the Fourth of July and a big day in El Paso. There were going to be all kinds of shindigs happening, from shooting contests to horse races. I knew from working cattle with Melosa that she could accelerate like she was jet propelled, and I thought she could win any race she ran if it was a quarter mile or less. Heck even in a mile event, I figured with a gimped up Pennington Smythe out of it, she might have a chance.

Thinking about the Fourth and the shooting contests reminded me about an idea I had concerning my pistols. I was going back to see the gunsmith on Monday and change the five and a half inch Colt he sold me for the best cavalry model he had. It had occurred to me that I was cutting my self short by wearing two of the same guns. The increased accuracy of the longer seven and a half inch cavalry model might come in handy one day.
Joe J & Wet Dream-Girl
Chapter 22