Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Author:Sarah Gailey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

CHAPTER

6

The moment Esther and Amity returned to the wagons, Cye was in Esther’s ear like a cactus owl in the hollow of a saguaro. “Here, this should be the last of it,” they said, thrusting a huge, precarious bundle of blankets and cooking pots into her arms. “Sort these into the supply wagon. And don’t go losing yourself in those blankets again, hear?”

“Sure,” Esther muttered. “Taking the corpse out into the desert was fine, thanks for asking.”

“What was that?” Cye called over their shoulder as they jogged toward the horses—but they didn’t wait to hear an answer.

Amity clapped Esther on the shoulder with one strong hand. “Good luck with that,” she said, her tone not revealing whether she meant the supplies or the infuriating Apprentice Librarian.

“Do you want to sort it out with me?” Esther asked hopefully.

“Oh, I wish I could, but I’m afraid I’ve got something urgent to attend to,” Amity replied. She ambled over to a pile of bedrolls that were waiting to be strapped to the horses and sat down with her back against them. She tilted her hat over her head again, just as she had in the desert, and folded her hands across her belly. Esther watched, indignant. After a minute, Amity reached into her shirt pocket and pulled out a toothpick, settling it between her front teeth to worry at.

Esther shook her head, turning toward the supply wagon. “That’s just fine,” she grumbled into the unstable bundle again, trying to make her way across the gravel and sand without tripping over anything.

She didn’t mean to move quietly, but her steps were so slow and so careful that Bet and Leda didn’t hear her approach. She didn’t mean to sneak up on them, but they were so involved in their conversation that they didn’t seem to notice her at all, and she was so focused on trying not to drop anything that she didn’t notice them, either.

Not until she’d deposited her armful of detritus in the back of the wagon.

She climbed into the wagon and started trying to figure out where the cooking pots were supposed to go—she knew that they had specific homes, and Leda was especially particular about the way they were arranged. As she stared at two similar pots, trying to determine which was meant to go where, Bet and Leda’s voices drifted in to her.

She didn’t mean to eavesdrop. Not until she heard her own name.

“… Esther is trustworthy.” That was Bet, and she didn’t sound happy. Esther wondered what the beginning of that sentence had been.

“Why would it be her?” Leda replied. Both of them were speaking softly, in tones that weren’t intended to carry. Esther held her breath—if they caught her listening in, they’d think she was spying. They would send her out into the desert to die, maybe putting a bullet in her back to make sure she wouldn’t tell anyone their secrets.

“I can’t think of any other reason the sheriff would come after us,” Bet hissed. “She must have told someone something.

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