Read Online The Chili Queen by Sandra Dallas - Free Book Online

to my sister—my older sister.” He went outside, the screen door banging behind him, and called over his shoulder, “My much older sister.”
     
    Addie went back to Miss Frankie’s room and fell asleep. When she got up, it was dinnertime, and she went into the kitchen, where Welcome was working at the stove. “The girls are fed and gone to town. She’s out back taking wash off the clothesline. A man brung your trunk from the station, and I unpacked it, and she washed up your things, the sheets on your bed, too. Maybe she expects to stay. She earns her keep.”
    “Doing your work, you mean,” Addie said.
    Welcome ignored the remark. “I got the kettle on. You smell like chickens. Tub’s in there.” Welcome nodded at Addie’s old bedroom.
    Addie had enough dirt on her to grow beans. She went into the bedroom and stripped off her robe, then got into the tin tub and scrubbed herself until there was a thick scum on the water. Addie toweled herself and put on a clean gown and told Welcome she was going into town and would be back by suppertime. When she returned, Ned and Emma were sitting at the table, drinking coffee, waiting for her.
    “I told them I wasn’t dishing up till you come back,” Welcome said.
    Addie blinked at the hired woman’s sudden deference. “Oh,” she said, waving her hand graciously. “Well, you can see I am here.” She sat down at the head of the table.
    “Miss French—” Emma began, but Addie stopped her.
    “Addie’ll do. You call me Addie. I’ll call you Emma. We’ll both call him Ned.”
    Ned smiled at her, and Addie felt warm to her bones. “We’ve been talking about what she ought to do,” Ned explained. “She told me all about her brother and why she can’t go home. She even told me about the family money that’s hers by rights. But I guess she can’t do anything about that. There isn’t any school in Nalgitas where she can teach, and you already got a cook. Hell, I don’t know what to tell her. I haven’t worked a real job myself since I left Iowa.” He turned to Emma. “That was twenty-and-one years ago, during the war. My father was a devil for work. He cuffed me every day for no good reason.” He glanced at Addie and winked. “Our pa, I guess I should say.”
    “I guess,” Addie said.
    “You’ve been an outlaw since then?” Emma asked, her eyes wide.
    “Well, I just rightly never held a job, except now and then,” he said. There was a touch of pride in his voice. “I didn’t have to. I’ve had a rambling time.”
    Addie gave him a warning look, but Ned said, “Oh, that’s all right, Addie. You told her yourself that I work the other side of the law.” He explained to Emma, “There’s not much law in Nalgitas. Seems like half the people in town have a price on them. The only folks who think they’re quality are the blacksmith and his wife.” He winked at Addie.
    “Emma here could make herself two hundred dollars turning you over to a U.S. marshall,” Addie warned him.
    “Oh, she wouldn’t do that.” Ned turned his sleepy grin on her, and Emma smiled back a little uncertainly. Addie felt a tiny shock of jealousy. “Besides, anybody who turned on me wouldn’t have long to spend the money,” he added. He continued to grin, but Addie knew he spoke the truth. Emma studied Ned for a long time, then exchanged a glance with Welcome, who set down three plates of food on the table.
    Addie looked down at the potatoes and some kind of meat on her plate. She figured it was best not to know what the meat was. The first week Welcome was at The Chili Queen, one of the girls asked about the supper, and Welcome told her it was hog jowl and black-eyed peas. “You ought to study on how to get at that money of yours,” Welcome said.
    “Go about your business. You’re not supposed to be listening,” Addie told her.
    “Then stay out of my kitchen. You expect me to plug up my ears with chicken grease? Besides, it rightly don’t matter what I hear. It