by Nerys Leigh
He glanced across the room to where Peg was talking to another customer. When she noticed him, he nodded to her, lips turned up in a smirk. She quickly turned away.
Jo had a very strong desire to reach across the bar and scratch his eyes out.
Taking another swallow of gin, he tilted his head to one side, as if sizing her up. “Do you...?” He jerked his head towards the stairs.
Her smile remained carefully in place. “I just serve drinks.”
“Pity. Anything I can do to change your mind? I have money.”
Was that why Rufus allowed him to get away with being rough with the women?
“So do a lot of the men who come in here. I’m good right here, flattered as I am.”
He picked up the glass. “Well, maybe another time then.”
Watching him drain the rest of the glass made her feel just a little better.
He slapped it back down on the bar and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Josephine. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think Rebecca is getting jealous that I’m paying you so much attention.”
She was worried he’d decide to go straight upstairs, the only part of her plan she couldn’t control, but instead he strolled over to the faro table where Rebecca was acting as banker. Jo took his glass and washed it thoroughly in the sink behind the bar. Then she washed it again, just to make sure.
She lost sight of him for some time, with the men gathered around the bar blocking her view, but around an hour later she glimpsed him leading Rebecca towards the stairs, his hand wrapped around her wrist. Jo wished she could go over and reassure her rather than simply watch as she followed him, shoulders slumped, resigned to her fate.
Using the powder wasn’t an exact science so she couldn’t be sure when it would start to work, but going on past experience, it ought to be soon. She didn’t even know what was in it, but she knew it worked. It was possible in New York to purchase such things, if you knew where to go. Truth was, she’d hoped to never have to use it. It was somehow disappointing that this was the second time since arriving that she had.
A few minutes after Dunbar and Rebecca left, there was a commotion from the top of the stairs. He came rushing down, shirt hanging off one arm and feet bare. Scrambling desperately around the tables, he crossed the room and plunged through the door at the back that led to the yard outside where, among other things, the privies were.
There were a few seconds of surprised silence before everyone in the room went back to their drinks and food and cards.
Peg walked to the back door which Clay had left hanging open and pushed it shut, glancing at Jo as she did so.
Jo gave her the smallest of nods.
Peg’s smile said it all.
Chapter 25
It was two days before Clay Dunbar returned to the saloon.
His usual swagger was subdued as he walked up to the bar.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Dunbar,” Jo said. “Are you feeling all right? You don’t look so good.”
Dark shadows circled his eyes, his skin pale and haggard. She’d used a higher dosage of the powder than she ever had before, almost certain it wouldn’t kill him. Although by the looks of him, it had come close.
“I haven’t been well.” That had to be severely understating what he’d been through.
She very carefully didn’t smile. “I’m sorry to hear that. I do hope your stomach is settled now.”
He stared at her suspiciously for a moment. “It’s much improved.”
“And the gut cramps and sweats? Are they gone too?”
His frown deepened. “How do you know that’s what was wrong with me?”
She lowered her voice. No one was currently nearby, but she didn’t want to risk being overheard. “It came to my attention that you like to hurt the women here.”
A nerve twitched in his jaw.
She picked up a glass and began wiping it with a cloth. “I haven’t worked here very long,” she said, her tone conversational, “but it’s been long enough to know that these women don’t deserve that kind of treatment from anyone.”
“What did you do?” he growled.
She rubbed at a non-existent stain on the surface of the glass. “A smart man would realise that anything that has happened to him since he was here last was just a warning. And if he doesn’t want anything worse to happen, he’ll treat the women here with the respect they deserve.” She raised her gaze and fixed him with a level stare. “I take a dim view of men who think they can hurt women.”
“Why, you little...” His hand darted across the bar.
She jerked back, releasing the glass to shatter on the floor. “Let go of me!”
Surprise flitted across his face and he looked at his hand as if expecting it to be holding onto her.
All eyes in the room turned towards them.
“What’s going on over there?” Hiram shouted.
“Please!” she cried. “Don’t hurt me!”
Solomon started towards them. Some of the regulars were getting to their feet, anger clouding their faces.
“I’ve told you, I only work at the bar,” she said, loud enough for her voice to carry across the room. Would a few tears be overdoing it?
Chairs scraped on the wooden floor as more of the men rose. They liked her here. Anyone who threatened her was walking on thin ice.
Finally realising the danger, Dunbar stepped back, glancing around. “I didn’t touch her, I swear.” He gave an unconvincing laugh. “The little whore is lying.”
That was a mistake. The anger on the men’s faces grew.
“He was saying vulgar things,” she said, a single tear rolling down her cheek. Oh, she was good.
Hiram started across the room, the others in his wake. “No one talks to our Jo like that!”
Dunbar flashed her a glare. “You’ll regret this.”
For a moment, as it looked as if the entire saloon was coming to lynch him, Jo thought she might have gone too far. Fortunately, Solomon reached them before the irate mob.
“I think it’s time you left,” he said, grabbing the back of Dunbar’s shirt and practically lifting him from the ground as he propelled him in the direction of the door.
Hiram reached Jo and grasped her hands over the bar. “Are you all right? Did he hurt you?”
Looking round at the crowd of concerned faces, she didn’t have to feign her smile. She’d intended for Solomon to come to her aid. She hadn’t expected the rest of them to be so protective of her.
She blinked away her fake tears. “You are all so wonderful.”
Shrugging, Hiram actually blushed. “Well, we wouldn’t let anyone hurt you. You’re our girl.”
The others around him nodded and added their affirmations that she belonged to them, in the nicest way possible. At the door, Dunbar cast her a scowl before Solomon threw him roughly onto the boardwalk outside.
“Would you like us to go and teach him a lesson?” a regular named John said.
She suspected there was a possibility Dunbar wouldn’t survive such a lesson.
“No, thank you. I’m just glad you’re all here.” She smiled around at them. “You make me feel so safe.”
There were embarrassed laughs and shrugs and smiles and even a few more blushes. Peg, Rebecca, and a couple of the other women who were about came behind the bar and hugged her, murmuring their thanks. Peg had evidently spread the news of Jo’s part in Dunbar’s sudden departure two days before.
Beyond them, Jo glimpsed Rufus watching from the other side of the room, his expression unreadable. She didn’t know what his relationship was to Clay Dunbar and there was a danger she might have made trouble for herself. But at least the women wouldn’t have to endure him any longer.
To her, that made it all worth it.
~ ~ ~
Zach hadn’t arrived to walk her back to the hotel when Jo finished her shift that evening. She was a little disappointed. She wanted to tell him what had happened with Clay Dunb
ar, now it was over and she could.
Pulling her shawl tight against the chill in the air, she walked down the steps in front of the saloon and started in the direction of the hotel. He had probably just been delayed at work. She could tell him when she got there.
She looked up at Mrs. Trenchard’s boarding house as she passed. The three storey wooden building stood beside the saloon and didn’t look like a bad place, if a little shabby. Certainly much better than many places she’d stayed over the years. It wouldn’t have been the end of the world if she’d had to stay there, but she was glad to be able to live at the hotel for now. Mostly because she was saving money. Perhaps just a little because she got to spend more time with Zach.
Well, maybe more than a little. Much more than a little, if she was honest with herself.
She hated being honest with herself.
I will not fall in love, she thought as she walked. Love got me into this, I won’t make the same mistake twice. No matter how tempting Zach...
Fingers grabbed her arm and yanked her into the shadows of an alleyway. Her back slammed against a wall and a hand slapped across her mouth. The hand on her arm moved to her throat.
“Make a sound and I’ll snap your pretty neck.” Clay Dunbar’s thin lips twisted into a smile. “’Course, I might do that anyway.”
She fought to push him away. The hand on her throat tightened, cutting off the flow of air to her lungs.
“Go ahead,” he rasped, “struggle. I like it when a woman struggles.”
She immediately stilled and his grip on her throat loosened just the tiniest bit, enough so she could breathe again. That was good. If she could breathe, she could fight. Forcing herself to ignore the hammering of her heart, she focused on keeping her breathing steady.
She glanced around the alley. It was too dark to see much, but there was enough light from the moon to reveal shapes. There was nothing of use to her left. To her right, a plank of wood leaned against the wall of the building opposite.
“I bet you thought you were clever, poisoning me and then riling up those men against me.” His breath skittered over her cheek. “Well, thanks to you, I’ve now got a real powerful itch. So I figure it’s only fair you help me scratch it.”
Six feet at most to the plank. Two seconds, if she was fast. Another two to pick it up and swing it.
“So I’m going to let go of your mouth, and if you make a sound, you’ll be dead before anyone even hears it. Understand?”
She nodded, as much as she was able with his grip on her neck.
Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides.
“Good. I knew you were smart enough to know when you were beat.”
The hand released her mouth and she gasped in lungfuls of air. He reached down between them, snatching hold of her skirt. The grip on her neck loosened.
Jo grasped the thumb on her neck and bent it backwards as hard as she could. He yelped, snatching his hand away. She jerked her knee up and he staggered backwards with a grunt.
Finally free, she lunged across the alley and grabbed the plank of wood, screaming as she spun back round to face him.
Despite the pain he had to be in, he was almost on her. The plank hit his shoulder rather than his head, but it was enough to send him stumbling sideways.
Not waiting to see what would happen, she dropped the plank and sprinted for the mouth of the alley.
Chapter 26
“Sorry, Zach, I got held up helping Papá with a leaking pipe out back.” Javier pulled off his coat and threw it over the chair behind the reception desk. “Hope you’re not too late.”
Zach was already to the door. “Thanks, Javi. I’ll be back soon.”
He couldn’t complain that Javier was late relieving him on reception since he was doing Zach a favour by covering for him while he walked Jo home every night. Zach would find a way to make it up to him, but there was no way he was leaving her to come home from that place by herself, especially not in the dark.
It was true that he knew many of the men who frequented the saloon, and most of them wouldn’t even think of harming her. His own best friend, Will, had been a regular up until three weeks back. Zach hadn’t admitted how relieved he’d been when Will stopped spending his nights in the saloon and started going to church again. He’d been praying for a long time that Will would come back to God, and it looked like it was finally happening.
But the saloon was a magnet for many who didn’t live in Green Hill Creek. Zach knew the kind of men who drifted through, some from his job at the hotel, most from his other job at his father’s livery. He was far less happy trusting in Jo’s safety with them. So he ran down the hotel steps and sprinted along the dark road towards the Royal Flush, praying she’d waited inside for him. At least she was safe there, with Solomon Filbert keeping guard.
He reached the saloon and was about to go inside when a howl of pain rang out, a man’s voice. Zach whirled round, searching the darkness.
Another cry sounded, a woman this time, and his heart hit his throat. “Jo?”
He ran back out into the street and saw a figure run from an alleyway he’d passed less than half a minute before. Despite the darkness, he knew it was her.
Another figure darted from the shadows behind her and grabbed her arm, jerking her backwards. She fell.
Zach screamed her name, launching himself towards them.
She flipped onto her back as her attacker loomed over her.
He wasn’t going to make it. He was too late. “Get away from her!”
Lifting one leg, she drove her foot into the man’s face. He staggered backwards, one hand clutching at his nose. The other pushed back his jacket and the moonlight glinted off the handle of a gun.
Zach lowered his shoulder and barrelled into the man’s chest, throwing both of them to the ground. He scrambled to his knees and lifted his fist, but the man rolled away and pulled the revolver from the holster at his waist.
“Zach!”
Before he knew what was happening, Jo was running past him. She grabbed the man’s arm and thrust it upwards. A gunshot ripped the night air.
Someone shouted, “What’s going on up there?”
Running footsteps approached from the direction of the saloon.
Jo’s attacker stumbled to his feet. With a scowl at both of them, he took off into the shadows.
Jo swayed on her feet. Terrified, Zach leaped up and ran to catch hold of her.
“Are you all right? Are you shot?”
She turned her wide eyes on him and shook her head. “Are you?”
“No. I’m okay. We’re both okay.” He pulled her against him, wrapping her in his arms. “We’re both okay.”
A crowd of men from the saloon arrived a few seconds later. Some of them went after the man, but he was gone. Someone ran to get the marshal.
Zach just held Jo tight and thanked God over and over for protecting her.
~ ~ ~
It was more than half an hour before Zach and Jo finally got back to the hotel, after questions and statements and talk, mostly by Hiram Henry, of a posse being formed in the morning.
She was uncharacteristically quiet as he walked her to her room and her key fell from her trembling fingers when she tried to push it into the keyhole. Zach stooped to pick it up, unlocked the door, and handed the key back to her. Her fingers were ice cold when they brushed his skin. He wanted to wrap his hands around them until they were warm, but he wasn’t sure that he should.
“Are you all right?”
She lowered her gaze, her lips pressed into a line, and nodded. Turning from him, she took two steps into the room and stopped. Her shoulders rose and fell in a sigh, then she shook her head.
He stepped into the room, closed the door behind him, and waited. She turned to face him and raised achingly sad eyes to his. He opened his arms and she fell into them, pressing her face to his chest. Right over his breaking heart.
They stood there for a long time, arms wrapped around each ot
her in the moonlit darkness, swathed in silence. Eventually, she lifted her face to look up at him.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I should have been there. This is my fault.”
With a sigh, she lowered her gaze. “No, it’s mine.”
Leaving his arms, she walked over to sit on the bed.
He lit the lamp on her nightstand and sat beside her, wrapping his arms around her again. She leaned into him, resting her head against his shoulder.
“I thought I could deal with him by myself,” she said quietly. “I should have been more careful. I’ve become too used to feeling safe.”
“Was that the man you asked me about?” When she nodded, he breathed out a deep sigh. “You told me he wasn’t giving you any trouble. Why didn’t you tell me the truth?” It wasn’t an accusation. He just needed to know why she hadn’t trusted him.
“It was the truth. He hadn’t given me any trouble then. But...” She paused.
“But what?”
“He was hurting the women who work upstairs, so I decided to do something about it.”
She told him how she’d poisoned Dunbar as a warning to get him to stop, threatening to do worse if he didn’t, even though it was a bluff and she didn’t have anything else she could do. Zach had heard what happened when Dunbar returned to the saloon from the men who’d been there, all of them eager to tell Marshal Cade all about how he’d mistreated Jo and they’d sent him packing.
Zach leaned his head against hers. “I wish you’d told me. I could have been there. I could have kept you safe.”
“I’m sorry. I should have known he’d do something. I should have waited for you to come and get me. I should have...” Her voice faded and she pressed her face into his shoulder.
He tightened his arms around her. He couldn’t remember ever feeling so angry, even towards Gabriel Silversmith. “Don’t you dare blame yourself for any of it. This is all on him, you understand? You saw something wrong and you did something about it. I couldn’t be more proud of you.”
