Jack by Shannon LC Cate

Author:Shannon LC Cate
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: queer, young adult, teens, biracial, lesbian romance, transgender, old new york, transgender teens
Publisher: Shannon LC Cate

CHAPTER TEN

Five of Clubs

Lucy sat on the front porch mending her Juliet costume. There was no show tonight and neither her mother nor Mr. Steel wanted her near the saloon when she wasn’t performing. She had no interest in being there anyway. She usually spent her nights off in her room, to avoid her stepfather, but while he was away she could enjoy the evening air.

Evelyn was in town. Since her husband had left town, she had been going out often and staying out late. Lucy was surprised the Sheriff had not said anything about it.

When it was too dark to sew, Lucy brought a lamp out and opened yesterday’s Gold Dust Ledger, but she found nothing interesting enough to keep her mind off of her worries.

Was Jack really a bank robber? She knew he was a petty thief—back in New York he’d always been “finding” things just when he needed them.

But all of the street boys in New York stole little things for survival. It was the only way they could eat most days, and the rich people whose pockets they picked, whose walking sticks or parasols they made off with, were hardly the worse for their small losses. Lucy had not minded it. She had not thought the less of Jack for it. Some weeks, it was only Jack who kept food on Evelyn’s table. And sometimes, he bought Lucy hair ribbons or stockings or—on her thirteenth birthday—a warm wool cloak with the money he got.

But however glad she had been to see him again, Lucy had to admit she didn’t know who Jack had become since she and Evelyn had left him at the train station four years ago. For all Lucy knew, he had only come to Gold Dust for the money. Maybe he was a vicious criminal. Maybe…

But her heart couldn’t follow this line of thinking. Jack was Jack. That was all. She loved him in spite of herself—in spite of his silence for all these years—and she couldn’t bear not to believe he loved her too.

She didn’t want him to hang—she knew that for a certainty. But she couldn’t imagine Jack crossing Mr. Steel in the way he had told her he planned to do and surviving.

Just as she was thinking so, Mr. Steel’s carriage came into view, and the stable boy came running. He helped Evelyn down from the driver’s seat and she stumbled up the front walk to the house. Lucy could almost tell how many glasses of whiskey she’d had by the length of time it took her to make her way up the front porch stairs.

“Do you need help getting to bed, Mama?”

Evelyn blinked slowly. She gave Lucy a long, sad look. “No, child. I can manage. Goodnight.”

She opened the door and went in. Lucy heard her heavy tread on the stairs. She lay aside the newspaper. She realized only now that she had been waiting for Evelyn to make it home safely. She was tired. She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes for a moment.

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