Chapter 5

The stew was eaten. Bob, knowing the women would feel more comfortable bathing if he wasn't in the building, said he was going over to the saloon for a drink and to play a game or two of cards.

Millie tested the water in the tub, which was still steaming. Boots stood nearby, having announced that she was going to remain there to assist the bather in and out of the tub, and "deal with any trespassers." Millie was fairly sure nobody would molest them, but she didn't say anything. She'd been confident that visiting the privy at the train station would be uneventful too.

She winced as she removed the dress, stretching her wounds. "The only dress I own and it's filthy," she sighed, as she looked at the dust-streaked material.

"I'd say wash it now, before you dirty up the water," said Boots.

"I hadn't thought of that," said Millie. "I wonder if I've ever done this before."

"Took a bath?" Boots sounded incredulous.

"No, I wonder if I've ever done laundry," said Millie. "I'm not sure how to proceed."

"You can remember when this here state got admitted to the Union, but you cain't remember if you ever warshed out clothes before?" Boots looked skeptical.

Millie looked upset. "I remember some things, and I don't remember others. I can't help that!"

Boots held up a hand. "Don't cry, now. It just seemed odd, that's all. Warshin' out yer clothes is easy. You just get it wet and wad it up and work the dirt out of the threads, and then squeeze it as dry as you can," said Boots, pragmatically.

Millie bent over the tub and worked at her task. Once she was finished, she turned and handed the wet dress to Boots, who was staring at her.

"What's wrong?" asked Millie.

"You're just mighty pretty," said Boots. "I guess I never got to see another woman in the altogether. It helps some."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, over the last few years, my teats have gotten all big and wobbly, an' I was afraid maybe there was somethin' wrong with 'em. But yours are big and wobbly too. Makes me feel better."

"Oh," said Millie. "I never thought about that, I suppose. Or at least I don't remember thinking about it."

"An' there's something about you that makes me want to look at you. I mean even all banged up like you are, you're real pretty. I never wished I was pretty until I got a look at you like this."

"You're pretty," said Millie automatically.

Boots hacked and spit, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

"I ain't never been pretty, and I never will be."

"Nonsense," said Millie. "You dress like a man, and you act like one too, for the most part. Of course you don't feel feminine. I could help you do yourself up. I know you'd be pretty enough to turn men's heads."

"Oh, I turned a man's head once," said Boots. "He took a real lively interest in me. And when I got the chance I put him in the ground because of it."

Millie thought the girl was joshing her. She was also distracted by a memory that had flitted into her mind as she stirred the water in the tub with her fingers, in preparation of getting in. Instead of thinking about what Boots had just said, she shared her renewed memory.

"I just remembered something."

"What's that?" asked Boots.

"I remember having to have second water in the bathtub when I was little. I hated it."

"Somebody has to take a bath second," said Boots, again pragmatically.

"But it was always me," said Millie. "I never got to go first."

"Who did?"

"I don't remember that part," sighed Millie. She looked at the young woman beside her. "We can share. The tub is big enough. You don't have to take second water, Boots."

The frontier woman stared at the young easterner. "You saying I should get in there ... with you? Both of us? At the same time?"

"Why not? I remember hating second water so much. It's the only memory I have, and it's a bad one. I'd feel horrible making you take second water tonight."

"I don't really need a bath," said Boots. "Like I said, it's only been a month since I was thorough wet."

"Yes you do," said Millie firmly. "And you know it."

"But we'd be ... nekkid ... together."

"So? Who would know besides us? We're friends ... aren't we?"

"I don't know if we're that kind of friends or not," said Boots, sounding doubtful. In her memory, the only time two people bathed together was when one of them - her - was being assaulted by the other. Quite suddenly she realized that that wasn't the kind of life Millie had led. Millie had probably never been forced to lie under a man while he used her. She was aware that most women lived normal lives that were nothing like hers had been. But her former life had left its stamp on her and she couldn't change that.

She relaxed shoulders that had gotten tense.

"I don't suppose it would be the end of the world to share a bath," she said.

Millie grinned like some special treat had been given her. "Well hurry up, the water's cooling!"

Boots felt completely vulnerable as she stood, naked, in Doc's tiny living area, even though her pistol was lying within easy reach on the chair she'd pulled beside the tub. She glanced again at the curtain that covered the only window in the room. She knew it covered well, because she'd put it there herself.

"What in the world happened to you?" asked Millie, sounding shocked.

Boots knew Millie was seeing the scars Jasper had left on her. He had loved to inflict pain while he had sex. He'd loved to inflict pain when he was mad about something too.

"You fall off a horse a few times and land in sagebrush or cactus, and you'll look like this too," she said, darkly.

"I'm so sorry," said Millie. "That looks like it must have been very painful."

"It's all healed up now," said Boots. "Not worth talkin' about."

"All right. But I just think it's important for you to know that, aside from those scars, I think you're quite pretty, Boots," said Millie. "And they don't show when you're dressed."

Boots looked at the other woman. Millie's breasts were round and looked heavy, with well-defined shockingly pink nipples set on tiny, but darker areolas. A thin waist below was set off by widening hips. Millie was shaped like a woman, no doubt. The only things that detracted from her beauty were the marks and scars of her injuries. Boots looked down at her own breasts, which looked a little larger than Millie's, to her mind. She didn't like looking at her breasts. Her own nipples reminded her of a man she had seen once, another trapper, who had eyes that looked in different directions. She never knew his name; only that Jasper knew him from before he had bought Boots. They had run into the man on the trail, and the men decided to camp together that night. The man had shown Jasper four or five gold nuggets he claimed to have found somewhere to the west. When Jasper suggested to the man that if he gave Jasper one of the nuggets he could have sex with Boots, the man had called Jasper a son of a bitch, and said he wouldn't camp with a pre-vert. It was a word Boots remembered, but didn't learn the meaning of for several years. She remembered it because, when the man turned to pack up his gear and leave, Jasper shot him in the back, and then took all the nuggets. Those odd eyes stared off in different directions even in death, and she never forgot it.

Of course she hadn't looked like this back then. Back then she'd hardly had any teats at all. And up until the last couple of years, she'd had to wear a belt at all times, lest her pants slide right down over her hips. Jasper hadn't minded that she'd looked like a boy. He hadn't been picky as to which hole he'd used either. And even though he was gone, the things she'd experienced with him still affected her to this day.

Take for example the fact that while she'd hated it when Jasper touched her, some of the places she remembered hating him touching had started feeling mighty good when she touched them herself. One of those places was those nipples that looked off to the sides.

And the only person she'd ever seen naked before this was Jasper, something she had tried to forget. She couldn't ever remember wanting to see another person unclothed, so she was confused by the fact that seeing her friend naked ... she liked looking at her! It made her feel like touching her nipples.