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Chapter 1: An Accounting and a Showdown
     
    Though some said it was the way her smile turned up her lips on one side and narrowed her eyes, Mary Steward knew she earned the moniker Twisted Mary by reputation. She was a shrewd woman who knew how to take care of her girls. When she made her agreement with Earl Whitman to train the women in his saloon to properly care for a man, she made sure that she secured for them locked doors when they were off duty and a fair share of the money Earl took in for their services.
    Twisted Mary also earned it by her own brand of pleasure, the ability to add a little pain and humiliation into her services and still have her men on their knees, begging for more. These days she took on fewer clients herself, leaving the rowdy cowboys and ranch hands to her ladies. They could more than handle them, and more than a few wondered sometimes how they had managed to spend more in Earl’s establishment than they thought.
    Mary taught her girls a few extra tricks to help them save up for their retirement.
    She still serviced two of the largest ranchers around Alto occasionally, when they managed to pull themselves away from the homestead and their overbearing wives. She also serviced the local doctor on a regular basis in order to secure regular checkups for her girls.
    Most of Mary’s attention, however, was paid to Paul, “Rowdy Paul” Raucous. He was a hero of sorts in Alto. When the big ranchersfeuded, he was the one helping the people caught between them and finding a clever way to put an end to the fighting. The Indians around Alto dislike the intrusion of the“pale man”and while Paul did not blame them one bit, he was still ready to defend hapless miners and ranch hands who accidently ran afoul of the temperamental locals.
    They Mayor of Alto himself credited Paul’s relationship with the local Indians, who had sheltered him in the days when he was not considered a town hero, in helping to ensure that something like peace was maintained between them. Mary was not sure how true that was. She knew that the previous Mayor was not friendly to cowboys at all, and that he had more than a few run-ins with Paul’s one time employer and mentor, a rancher named Lyn Carlisle, a man who passed away due to the natural cause of gunshots through his home.
    The current Mayor was one of Paul’s fellow cowboys and a long-time drinking buddy. Mary supposed that Paul might have said something to his Indian friends when he was with them, when he learned that the previous Mayor was out and a new one was installed. She thought it was more likely, however, that the new Mayor simply exaggerated thestory to make it less likely for men to try to claim the Marshall’s bounty on Paul’s head.
    Mary’s relationship with Paul began simply asa show of appreciation. A man passing through town had decided to be rough with one of Mary’s girls. Paul stepped in and took care of the problem, and Mary decided it was time she gave something back. That something turned into an entire night. Mary could not say if it was his gentlemanly demeanor afterwards or the size of his–endowment. She could only say that after that night she was hooked.
    Paul had tried on several occasions to get Mary to marry him. Mary never considered herself the type suited to matrimony. While Paul promised that he would not take her away from a business that she enjoyed, she could never bring herself to accept his proposal, no matter how much she loved him.
    She always told herself it was because she loved him. Her own mother had been miserable in her marriage. Part of what drove Mary to the lifestyle she now had was the desire to never be at the mercy of a man. Oh, she might be at his disposalfor an hour or two. She made sure she was well compensated for her time, and if she did not like the cut of a client, she could show him the door. Earl liked to call it a“whore’s prerogative.”Mary just called it common sense. There was no point in