OLD DEADWOOD DAYS (Tales of the Soiled Doves)
Chapter Seven
The Day The Blondes Descended On Deadwood (part four)Jenn Fourcade and Lurlene Johnson glared at each other from opposite sides of the small parlour. Blood trickled down Jenn’s face and from Lurlene’s nose. Both women were breathing heavily, both were in pain, but both would rather die than submit to the other. Lurlene suddenly rushed at Jenn, her sky-blue eyes flashing, her lips curled into a twisted snarl. She threw wild swinging punches at the older woman, in a kind of mindless fury. Jenn bent her legs, hunched her shoulders and brought her fists up by her head. She easily blocked most of Lurlene’s windmill punches and the ones that connected did little damage. The blonde left herself wide open and Jenn took advantage, sending a hard right crashing into Lurlene’s snarling lips. The younger woman staggered backwards into a small spindle-legged wooden end table that collapsed under her weight sending them both crashing to the floor.
Jenn couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. The furious blonde grabbed the crystal decanter that had been on the now-destroyed table and hurled it at the laughing brunette. Jenn ducked and the decanter shattered against the wall.
“Vad som hander har?” (“What is going on here?”)All three in the parlour (Jenn, Lurlene and C.C. Cleever who was still slowly edging his way out the door) turned to see Miss Johnson’s youngest newest girl, Gunilla, in the doorway, a stunned look on her beautiful face. Gunilla had arrived in America just six weeks earlier, a mail-order bride from Sweden who spoke hardly any English at all. The Swedish immigrant who sent for her was a farmer from Mankato, Minnesota, twenty-seven years older than the homesick eighteen year-old girl. She was so unhappy that she sneaked away from the farm one night while he was sleeping. Lurlene found the young blonde waiting on tables in Cheyenne and took her in. Now Gunilla stared in shock at her madam who, seeing Jenn distracted, picked up one of the busted table legs and flung it at her.
Jenn cried out as the broken piece of wood hit her in the forehead, opening a nasty gash that quickly started to bleed. Lurlene scrambled to her feet and charged at her enemy like a blonde bull. Jenn was busy wiping the blood from her face when the younger woman slammed into her, forcing her back up against the wall and began pounding her wildly with her fists. A hard left slammed hard into the brunette’s ribs making her groan in pain. This was followed by an equally punishing right. Then the blonde took a quick step back and her right knee found an inviting target in Jenn’s lower belly. The older woman’s legs buckled but she willed herself to stay on her feet. She tried to cover up the best she could and fired back some hard punches of her own. These punches packed a lot of power, Jenn was able to bury her fist deep into Lurlene’s belly which the blonde left unguarded as she flailed away at her enemy. The younger woman staggered away, clutching her belly with Jenn in hot pursuit.
Gunilla shrieked,
“Sluta med det!” (“Stop that!”) The young girl started to go help her battling madam but Cleever grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the parlour. The fight raged on as he led the confused Swede to the door. He held her shoulders and leaned close, speaking loudly and slowly.
“You. Go. Get help.”
The girl stammered in her broken English, “H-Help?”
Cleever nodded. “Help. You go. Get Kassi. Heidi. Savvy?”
Gunilla worked it out. “Kassi. Heidi. Help.” A loud crash of even more breaking furniture in the parlour made her jump. Then it dawned on her. Her pretty face cleared. “Ah! Help! Kassi, Heidi!
Hjalp!”
The young girl rushed out of the house, her skirts swishing as she ran. Cleever watched her go, then stepped out onto the porch, closing the door behind him. He could still hear the snarled curses, cries and crashes coming from the parlour.
“Ain’t no sense getting myself killed trying to break them two hellcats up,” he muttered. “Best I can do is let ‘H’ know the shit he started.”
With that, he sauntered down to the telegraph office.
***************
“I really don’t know how much help Heidi coulda gave, Bill. At the moment, she was in the fight of her life. And not doing too good either.”Heidi struggled as Jo’s wet naked body on her back pinned her facedown on the dirt floor of the bath house. The taller blonde’s mound pressed down on the silk panties covering Heidi’s butt. Heidi cursed below her breath as she thrashed under the weight of the thin blonde on top of her. Jo’s fingers were snarled in Heidi’s curly locks and she pushed down hard with her hand, mashing the smaller blonde’s face into the cold dirt.
Jo snaked her other arm around the squirming girl’s neck and started squeezing as she leaned close and hissed into Heidi’s ear. “You actually tried to fuckin’ drown me!”
Heidi forced herself not to panic, realizing she was in for a serious beating or worse if she didn’t do something fast. Her enraged enemy’s arm was tightening around her throat and she started making hoarse gagging noises as the pressure increased.
“How’s it feel to not be able to breathe?” Jo taunted. “Not fun, huh?”
Heidi decided to risk a big gamble. If it worked, great. If it didn’t, she was gonna end up unconscious anyway so she figured, the hell with it. She let her whole body relax, like she was too weak to fight back. She fluttered her eyes, let out a long gasp, and went limp, hoping to fool the taller blonde. It worked. When Jo shifted her weight to get in a better position to punish her victim some more, Heidi sprung her trap. She bucked up so suddenly that the other girl was caught totally off-guard. As Jo struggled to keep her balance, Heidi grabbed her forearm with one hand and pulled it off her neck. At the same time, she brought her other hand down and behind her back. To keep from falling off, Jo had to brace herself with her arm. Heidi turned her head back and saw that the taller blonde was vulnerable. She reached her hand between Jo’s legs, clamped her fingers on her wet mound and pinched viciously.
Jo’s sudden piercing scream echoed in the small room. Hearing it, Crutch called out from the other side of the flap, “Clean water, fifteen cents. Hot water, ten cents extra. But we ain’t got no hot water.”
***************
“I didn’t like the look on his face, Bill. It really gave me the willies, ya know? An’ all his palaver about titty biting, it just didn’t sit right. I mean, Sethro was acting about as hinky as a plug nickel, he’s twice my size and I was all alone up here with the goofy galoot. He was pissing me off and scaring the crap out of me at the same time. Without thinking, I grabbed hold of the gravedigger’s shovel and . . . ”“I ain’t gonna tell you again, Sethro! You leave me be or I swear to God I’ll brain you!”
The tall farmboy took a step toward me, then stopped. A puzzled frown came across his face as he thought things over. Or tried to.
(“Brain power definitely isn’t Sethro’s strong suit.”) Then he waggled his bony finger at me.
“Shit, you’re too damn short to reach my head with that thing,” he snorted a laugh. Then he got serious. “Now you stop playin’ with me or I’ll give you what for. You’re just a little whore, you’re supposed to do anything I want without complainin’. Now put down that shovel like a good girl. Don’t make me get all mean on you.”
He started toward me again. I raised the shovel even higher as I took a step backwards. When he got close enough, I swung it at him as hard as I could. But he jerked out of the way and then yanked the shovel out of my hands before I could swing it again. He flung it into a patch of chokecherries as I started to run down the hill toward Deadwood. But my short legs were no match for his much longer ones and he caught me before I even made twenty yards.
Sethro clamped his big hand over my mouth and half-dragged half-carried me over by a gnarled twisting cottonwood tree. I squirmed and kicked at his legs the whole time. My heart was pounding and I swear I’ve never been more scared in my life. I kicked him a good one in his shin that made him grunt and his hand slid across my face just enough for me to clamp my teeth on his finger and bite down as hard as I could.
“Sonofabitch!” he bellowed. He jerked his hand away, grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me down hard on the grass. Then he dropped down to his knees straddling me as I lay on my back glaring up at him. He was shaking his hand and I could see that my bite drew blood. That was something anyway.
Sethro slapped me hard across the face. He snarled, “So you like to bite, huh? Good. I can play that game too.” I started to flail my arms but he got a tight grip on my wrists and slammed my arms down on the grass. My cheek throbbed from his slap, I was praying for somebody, anybody . . . Charlie Utter, the Reverend, the gravedigger, Miss Featherlegs, one of the girls, shoot, even that damn drunk Calamity Jane Cannary . . . to help me. But there was nobody around except me and Sethro, not counting the gray prairie falcon lazily circling in the sky above us. Feeling totally alone and helpless, I started to cry. The grin left Sethro’s face. His grip loosed a bit on my wrists but not enough for me to break free. He had a concerned look on his face now. Maybe even worried.
(Oh, please, God, maybe he’ll let me go!)“Aw, come on, Little Bit. I thought you was supposed to be a fun girl. That’s all I want, just some fun. Hey, how about you an’ me do a little wrasslin’? You win, I leave. I win, well, we’ll worry on that when the time comes.”
I saw his eyes dart down to my tits when he said that, just for a second, then he brought them back up to my face. He was trying to act normal. But the concerned worried expression on his face was gone. In its place was something scary, almost demented. His watery blue eyes were all bulgy and bugged out, his mouth was twisted in a snarling leering grin, his gigantic yellow teeth were better suited in the mouth of a loco horse.
“I knew right then an’ there, Bill, that no matter what happened, by the end of the day, Sethro was gonna make sure my nickname Tit Bit meant something a whole lot different than me being small. A lot more painful too.”With Sethro kneeling over me pinning my arms down to the grass, there wasn’t much I could do to get the hell out of there. He knew it too and was really enjoying himself. So that was when I hawked up a gob and let it fly right in his face.
***************
After making a quick stop at the Bella Union to take care of some business, Kassi continued on her way to the bath house. She passed a wagon loaded with supplies headed in the opposite direction. Miss Jenn’s two associates, the Albino and the Dwarf, were on the wagon returning to the Academy For Young Ladies. Kassi, trying not to look too suspicious, exchanged a glance with the Albino, then both moved on.
On the second floor balcony of the Gem, Al Swearengen watched the scene on Main Street unfold. He had already seen Miss Jenn Fourcade storming down the boardwalk a while before and could just imagine the fireworks going on at Miss Johnson’s. Now he looked down and saw Kassi on her way to the bath house. The wagon with the Albino and Dwarf going back to Miss Fourcade’s. Swearengen turned to look down the west side of the thoroughfare. He saw Cleever crossing Main Street headed for the telegraph office. That young Swedish blonde rushing toward Star & Bullock’s Hardwares. Across the street, the four members of the Pettis gang were just leaving the Bella Union. Then he turned east to witness Miss Jenn’s girls and their actress friend coming his way.
***************
“Holy crap! I won five dollars! I don’t believe it!”
The small weasel-faced man was jumping up and down on the boardwalk, waving a five-dollar bill in one hand. The other held a partly unwrapped bar of soap. Naturally, curious people started gathering around him, like people always do when somebody mentions easy money. And naturally somebody had to ask him how he won it. The weasel-faced man was happy to share his luck with the others.
“I paid two bits for this here bar of soap. Fellow I bought it from said there might be a prize inside it. And damn if there wasn’t! There was five dollars inside the wrapper!”
Well, this got everybody buzzing. It wasn’t long before the obvious question was asked.
“Where did you buy that lucky soap, stranger?”
Weasel Face pointed across the thoroughfare at a fat sweaty man with piggy eyes standing behind a small table by a hitching post. There were some brown-paper wrapped bars of soap on the table.
“That’s the fellow over there,” Weasel Face said. Curious onlookers crowded around him, blocking the boardwalk. He noticed four young women hurrying toward him and turned to share his good luck with them. “Fellow said there might be a prize in this bar of soap and ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh . . . . . . .”
Whatever word he was planning to say next will never be known. It disappeared in a long drawn-out groan of total anguish. The reason for the groan was simple. Seeing her path on the boardwalk blocked, “Lady” Gemm did the first thing she could think of to clear the way. Without breaking stride, she kicked Weasel Face square in the balls.
“Bloody toss-pot!” Gemm muttered as she breezed past the man who slowly sank to his knees. Clemmy was right behind her.
“That’s getting to be a habit with you, Gemm,” Clemmy said with a giggle. “How many is that now since we got here? I lost count.”
“Beats talking to them, doesn’t it?”
Clemmy looked back at the scene. “I don’t think he’ll be talking much for a while.”
The injured man’s moan had turned into a high-pitched squeak
(“You know, Bill, the kind only dogs can hear.”) and his mouth was open wider than his now bulging eyes. Tee Poo snatched the soap from his hand, finished unwrapping it, and crammed it into his gaping mouth. Miss Sara Atherton picked up the five-dollar bill that fell onto the boardwalk by Weasel Face’s knee. Before he could grab it back, the actress had already handed it to Reverend H.W. Smith who happened to be passing by.
“This is for you, Reverend,” Miss Sara smiled. “To help you do the Lord’s work.”
“Why, thank you, sister,” Reverend Smith pocketed the bill. “Maybe you would like to join me in a prayer of thanks?”
But Sara had already moved off, catching up to Gemm, Tee Poo and Clemmy on their way to the house of the Queen of the Blondes.
“I swear to God, Gemm,” Tee Poo was saying, “it WAS him! I know it was. Right there in the telegraph office, big as life!”
“Oh, bollocks!” the British girl snapped back. “Get your head out of your arse, will you now? You’re an even bigger star fucker than Little Bit with her bloody hero Bill Hickok!”
Now that the show was over, the crowd went about their business. Even the fat man selling the soap had vanished. Weasel Face was left all alone, on his knees, gurgling and frothing up foam, clutching his ravaged balls.
***************
“You bloody couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?” Jenn panted. “I left Virginia City, it was all yours,” she continued as she stalked her younger rival. Both women were exhausted, bleeding, hurting all over. Only hate and adrenaline were keeping them on their feet. Jenn moved in closer. She faked a punch and when Lurlene lifted her arm to defend, Jenn lashed her foot out instead, smacking her boot heel just below the blonde’s knee. Lurlene yelped in pain and crumpled to the floor on her knees. The brunette grabbed the blonde’s hair and used it to drag her enemy across the floor. Lurlene cried out in anger and shame as she stumbled along on all fours. Jenn was having a great time humiliating the young blonde bitch she hated with such passion.
“You finally got what you wanted out there. The number one house in the territory. Why the hell did you come here to Deadwood?” she asked as she continued to pull the younger woman around. Lurlene’s blue eyes, wet with tears, flashed angrily as she glared up at Jenn from her hands and knees. Her scalp was on fire and she saw long strands of blonde hair slowly fluttering down to the floor. Her eyes came to rest on one of the broken table legs close by. She quickly grabbed it and swung it hard at Jenn’s knee. A loud thwack filled the room as the hard wood met hard bone. Jenn screeched, let go of Lurlene’s hair, clutched her knee and stumbled backwards, sitting heavily on the yellow and brown leather settee.
Lurlene managed to pull herself up to her feet, favoring her leg. “You think I wanted to fucking come here?” she yelled. “This was all H’s idea, not mine!” She dove onto Jenn with such force that the settee tipped over backwards, sending both women to the floor in a heap. The blonde ended up on top but not for long as Jenn rolled her over. Lurlene reversed it and once again regained the dominant position. Her fingers clutched at Jenn’s hair and, securing a good grip, she used the brunette’s hair to lift her head up off the floor and smash it back down again. Once. Twice. Knocking Jenn woozy. Before she could do it a third time, Jenn’s talon-like nails once again found the blonde’s face and neck and she clawed away as if her life depended on it.
***************
As Kassi got closer to the bath house, she heard a tortured shriek coming from inside. A grizzled dirty old man sat on a stool by the flap, drawing circles in the dirt with the tip of a wooden crutch. He was humming a tuneless melody, totally oblivious to the commotion.
Inside the bath house, Jo sprawled backwards and tried to scoot away on her butt. Unfortunately Heidi wouldn’t let her do that. She had a death grip on the taller blonde’s kitty and was pinching it as hard as she could. Jo leaned back, braced herself on her elbows and desperately swung her long right leg at Heidi. Her foot slammed into Heidi’s jaw hard enough to force her to let go. Jo scrambled to her feet as the dazed Heidi slumped over on her side, shaking her head trying to clear away the cobwebs. Crying openly now, with tears streaming down her face, the furious Jersey girl started to move toward her fallen rival.
But she never got there. From behind, a firm hand got a tight grip on her wet hair and she was jerked backwards, her arms flailing. Before she could react, a boot smashed into her lower back, knocking her to her knees with her tormentor’s fingers still in her hair. A hard knee to the back of the thin blonde’s head made her cry out, a long gurgling sound that turned into a heaving guttural moan as her body sagged.
“You okay, Heidi?”
The woozy blonde looked up, her eyes focusing. Jo was slumped on her knees, her eyes glassy, her limp arms by her sides, with an angry-faced tall blonde behind her, holding her up by her hair.
“Kassi? Oh my god, I’m so glad you got here.” Heidi slowly pulled herself to her knees, breathing hard. She leaned forward, her hands resting on her thighs as she caught her breath. She gasped when she noticed her torn ruined stockings and got to her feet, wincing in pain. “Look what the bitch did to my stockings!” she wailed in fury.
Kassi’s eyes narrowed as she saw her best friend’s cut bruised face and body, her mud-stained skirt and bodice, the shredded stockings. She cruelly yanked Jo up to her feet by her hair as she hissed, “She will pay for this!” The beaten blonde was pretty much out of it, her head lolled, her arms dangling uselessly, her wobbly legs barely able to keep her standing. Kassi pulled Jo’s arms behind her back and held her up. Her entire naked body was vulnerable and open for attack.
And that’s just what Heidi did. While Kassi kept her trapped, Heidi punished the beaten blonde, slamming hard punches into her breasts and belly. Both girls couldn’t help but laugh at Jo’s soft moans and whimpers.
“Looks like we missed one hell of a show!”
Four men had entered the bath house. They stood by the flap grinning at the sight before them. The one that spoke, the leader, was a short man with spectacles and a light gray city-style bowler hat. A taller younger fellow stood at his right, his eyes wide, drool dribbling down his bearded face. A swarthy man with the cold dead eyes of a killer slouched next to a big heavy-set brute with a surprisingly gentle face.
“About time you got here,” Kassi said. She turned to Heidi. “You remember the Pettis gang, don’t you, sweetie? I asked them to drop by, just in case.”
“Of course I do,” Heidi said. “They can help us get rid of the trash.”
“We’d be happy to,” the bespectacled leader snorted. “As long as Mister You-Know-Who rewards us for our efforts.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll be taken care of.”
Kassi suddenly whirled around and, without warning, flung Jo into the side of the tub. The blonde’s head cracked against the wood and she flopped in an unconscious heap on the ground.
Spectacles turned to the drooling man. “Jelsick, go rustle up some towels and blankets from that old bastard out front. And wipe that damn drool off your face!”
Jelsick grinned. “Sure thing, O.W.” He rubbed his big paw across his lips and left through the flap.
Kassi asked, “You think that old man is going to . . . ?”
O.W. shook his head. “Nah, you got nothin’ to worry about. He’s bull simple.”
“Bull simple? What’s that?”
The heavy-set man answered with a laugh. “Got himself kicked in the head by a bull calf one time. Was knocked loopy. Lucky it wasn’t a growed bull or he’d be dead instead.”
Jelsick returned with a handful of blankets and a dirty bedsheet. “I stole these off a China woman down the alley.”
O.W. nodded. “That’ll do. Wrap her up in them. Moze, help him. Ringo, you keep a look-out.”
Jelsick and the heavy-set man moved to the unconscious blonde and rolled her up in the bedsheet as the swarthy dead-eyed man slipped out the flap.
“Where you taking her?” Heidi asked.
“Up the Spearfish Road. I know of a place. Quiet. Safe. Off the beaten path.”
“Good.” The two blondes shared an evil smile. “Old Featherlegs will just shit when she finds out about this!”
TO BE CONTINUED
