Blood Valley by William W. Johnstone Read Free Book Online Page A

I really didn’t know what to make of it. Least that’s what I kept tellin’ myself.
    â€œEnjoyin’ yourself, Miss Pepper?” I managed to ask. Least I hadn’t tripped over my feet yet again.
    â€œI’d enjoy it more if I knew why you haven’t ask me to dance.”
    â€œI never learnt how! You get me out there on that flat and you’d have sore feet for a month.”
    â€œWell, at least you’re honest about it. I better warn you, Sheriff . . . what is your name? I’m not going to call you Sheriff forever.”
    â€œCotton.”
    â€œJust . . . Cotton?”
    â€œJust Cotton.”
    She smiled, a mischievous look creeping into her eyes. “You wanted by the law, Cotton?”
    â€œOh, no, ma’am!”
    â€œWell, if I leaned rreeaall close,” she said softly, “would you whisper it in my ear?”
    With a sigh, I agreed.
    She leaned close, Rreeaall close. I could smell the flowery perfume she was wearing and the clean scent of her hair. I whispered in her ear.
    I knew what she was gonna do. Ever’body does the same thing.
    She started gigglin’. Really had to struggle to keep from bustin’ out laughin’ and drawin’ a lot of attention to us. She put her little hand on my arm and kind of guided me along, out of the lamplight. I got a little edgy about that.
    â€œThat really your last name, Cotton?”
    â€œSure is.”
    â€œBut Cotton is not your real first name? Surely not!”
    â€œYes, ma’am, it sure is. My daddy had a funny sense of humor.”
    We stopped under a tree. The lights and the whoopin’ and hollerin’ kids and the music and the gaiety seemed to be far away. It was kind of a nice feelin’.
    She leaned against the trunk of the tree and fanned herself with a little hanky. “I declare,” she whispered. “I do believe I’ve gotten too warm dancing.”
    I was gettin’ a little warm myself.
    I got a hell of a lot warmer when she undone the top three buttons of her dress and fanned her pale skin with that little hanky. It was just a damn good thing I didn’t have no chaw of tobacco in my mouth. I’d have swallowed it for sure.
    I looked in ever’ direction there was except the . . . upper part of her. “You, ah, was gonna warn me about something, Miss Pepper?”
    She laughed softly. “So you can be trusted, too, Sheriff,” she said. Kind of a strange thing to say, I thought. “Mike Romain would have had me raped by now.” She buttoned herself back up. “Forgive me?”
    â€œSure. I, ah, kind of enjoyed it, tell you the truth.”
    â€œThat’s good. I was beginning to think that you were made of stone.”
    â€œFar from it, ma’am.”
    â€œWould you please stop calling me ma’am!”
    â€œYes, ma’am.”
    She laughed and took my arm. “Come on, let’s walk back. Tongues are wagging now. Cotton, I . . . may have set you up for trouble. If so, I’m sorry. I simply cannot abide sharing my box with that Mike Romain another time.”
    There was two ways to take that, but since I figured her for a nice lady, I elected for the fried-chicken side of it.
    â€œBig Mike has made up his mind that I’m the woman for him. No one else will bid against him.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œThey’re afraid of him. He’s crazy.”
    â€œI didn’t figure his wagon was loaded full. And you want me to bid agin’ him, right?”
    â€œYes.” I could feel her eyes on me in the darkness. “For more than one reason, Cotton.”
    I could see my ranch fadin’ away into the distance, ’cause if it took all that was in that hat, I was gonna have a taste of Pepper’s box. “I’ll go as high as the traffic will bear, Pepper.”
    Her eyes had kind of a frightened look in them. “No one has ever gone over ten dollars.”
    â€œI got a hunch this