"Why, you're right, Ned," Jessica agreed. "I hadn't even noticed that. What I'd been thinking of was how tired and unhappy everyone looks."
"That, too," Ned said with a nod. "I don't think I'd like to live in this town."
"Me neither. Well, as soon as we get some supplies and see the sheriff, we can get out of here. But you know what else I think? I think maybe we better get a couple rooms at the hotel first and clean up before we go to the bank. The men don't expect us back until tomorrow anyway, and I'd sure feel better if I met this Mr. Baker looking a little cleaner than I do now."
Jessica started to rise to her feet, but stopped when Ned reached for her arm.
"In a minute, Jes. First, I want to talk to you about something."
Jessica sighed deeply and settled back on the bench when Ned turned to face her. "Spit it out, Ned. I've known all morning something was on your mind."
"Guess we both know each other pretty well, Jes. Hell, there was times I...."
"Changed my nappies when Mattie was too busy after my mother died," Jessica interrupted. "Yes, Ned. You've told me that before. How could we not know each other well, when just about every memory I have includes you and Mattie?"
"Then I guess you remember that little coyote pup you brought home?" Ned went on.
"What about it, Ned?"
"You remember what you told your daddy and me first about how you came to have that pup? How it had followed you home? Hell, that little pup wasn't hardly old enough to eat, let alone walk down out of the hills by itself."
Jessica's face took on a defiant look. "I didn't think Daddy would let me keep it! He said coyotes ate chickens and were a nuisance. And someone had shot its mother. I couldn't leave it out there to die, too. Besides, for heaven's sake, Ned, I was only six years old."
"But he did let you keep it, Jes. Until you had to set it free to go back to the wild."
"I remember," Jessica said with a sigh. "Daddy penned the chickens up after that so one of the men wouldn't shoot the pup by mistake if it came back."
"Yeah," Ned drawled. "You were only six years old then. I guess at one time or another, every little kid growing up thinks they can slip something over on their mommy or daddy. You never tried anything like that from then on."
"Are you trying to tell me I've lied to you about something, Ned? I don't appreciate that insinuation one damned bit!"
"Don't reckon you do," Ned said mildly. "And, no, I'm not saying you lied. You're old enough to have a right to your privacy about some things. After all, you're twenty years old — almost a woman grown."
"I am grown, Ned. I've had to be these last two years since Daddy died."
"Maybe so. Maybe that little tic on your face last night didn't mean nothing. Only thing is, the last time I saw that happen to you was fourteen years go."
Ned kept his gaze steadily on her, noticing the flush staining her cheeks and the way she dropped her brown eyes from his.
"You know, Jes, I never heard of nothing like what happened to us ever happening before. Whoever would of thought someone would steal our food, then slip back into our camp and leave us some more."
"Perhaps your ghost had a tender heart!"
"Maybe so. Sure are a lot of unanswered questions about the whole mess. Why didn't you call out to us when we were hunting you, Jes? We were close enough for you to hear us for a long time before you let us know where you were. Why'd you let us worry about you so long?"
"You're correct about one thing, Ned. I'm definitely old enough to have a right to my privacy." Jessica rose to her feet. "Now, are you ready to go over to the hotel? I'm also old enough to enjoy the thought of a good long soak in a hot bath."
Ned chuckled as he rose beside her. "Didn't used to, Jes. Why, I remember when we had to chase you down on Saturday night to scrub you in the tin tub before church the next day."
Jessica groaned under her breath and turned her back on him to stride down the walkway, but Ned quickly caught up to her and took her arm.
"Guess you'll tell me what happened out there when you get ready," he said quietly. "I just hope it's not something you should've let me know right away. Baker's Hotel is just a couple doors down," he said with a quick change of subject when Jessica flashed him a belligerent glare. "I saw it when we rode in. We might as well go there. Reckon from what I've seen of this town it'll be the only place renting rooms."
Neither of them noticed the old prospector cross the street and fall in a few yards behind them.
The moment they stopped at the hotel door, two men who surged through a set of batwing doors just down the street caught Jessica's attention. The men laughingly stumbled to a pair of horses tied at the hitching rail and fumbled with their stirrups. One man managed to climb aboard, then sat hooting at his companion's attempts to mount his own horse.
The horse shied sideways, tangling the man's foot in the stirrup momentarily before knocking him off balance. The man sat down, his rear kicking up puffs of dust from the street.
"Why, you stupid son of a ...."
"Watch it, Red," the man on his horse said. "There's ladies around here."
Red jumped to his feet and grabbed the trailing reins of his horse. "I don't give a damn!" he snarled. "This mangy cayuse has throwed me for the last time."
"Ain't the horse's fault, Red," the other man said with a guffaw. "It's all that redeye you drank inside." Throwing back his head, he laughed loudly.
Red snarled an oath and jerked on his horse's reins. The animal neighed loudly and tossed his head, protesting the bite of the spade bit in its tender mouth. When it danced away again as Red tried to mount, he brought the reins viciously down across the animal's soft nose.
"Stop it!"
"Oh, Lord, Jessica. Don't."
Chapter 4
Ned's words fell on deaf ears. Jessica ran down the walkway and jumped into the street. She caught Red's arm as he lifted it for the third time to punish his horse.
"Get out of here, you little...!"
Red shook Jessica off as easily as a fly on his arm and she landed in the dust of the street, dangerously near the prancing hooves of the horse. She lay stunned for an instant, choking on the dust around her, and heard the man called Red land yet another whip of the reins on the horse. Managing to roll to the side a bit, she struggled to get her feet under her and crouched in the street.
Jessica glanced up just in time to see the horse rear over her. The terrified animal's shoulder knocked Red aside, but the deadly hooves poised directly over Jessica.
A scream of panic left Jessica's mouth at the same instant a pair of strong hands grabbed her under the shoulders to drag her out of harm's way. When the horse fell back to earth, its hooves hit the exact spot where she had crouched.
Before Jessica could thank her rescuer, she felt herself lifted up and set her on the edge of the walkway with a thump.
"Stay there, you little fool," the man growled in her ear.
Jessica's mouth dropped open as she watched the old prospector stride back out into the street and approach Red. Surely that old man wasn't going to take on a drunken cowboy!
"You all right, Jes?" Ned questioned as he knelt beside her.
"Fine, Ned. Ned, we can't let that old man get into a fight."
"Looks to me like he can handle himself. These old mountain men are tougher than they look."
Mountain men? Ned's words stirred a flicker of recognition in Jessica's mind as she watched the old man jerk Red to his feet. He did remind her of Uncle Pete, especially dressed in his tattered buckskins with his hair and beard matted. Pete had usually arrived for his visits looking much like the man out there. But Uncle Pete always smelled a lot worse, Jessica caught herself thinking.
Red's companion urged his horse around and jumped from its back just as the old man's arm came back to retaliate for a blow Red had landed in the old man's stomach. The two of them rolled into the dirt of the street and Red pulled his pistol, aiming it determinedly at the other two men, waiti
ng for an opening where he wouldn't hit his friend.
Jessica screamed a warning just as a shot split the air, drowning out her voice. The scene in front of her froze for a second, then Red slowly held his pistol out to his side and the two men in the street separated and rose to their feet.
"What the hell's going on here?"
"Aw, Sheriff," Red whined. "This old buzzard attacked us for no reason."
Jessica gasped in astonishment and scrambled upright. She turned to see the man behind her keeping his pistol trained on the street. A silver badge on his chest proclaimed his status in the town.
"He's lying, Sheriff," she exclaimed. "He was beating his horse and we were trying to stop him. No animal deserves to be treated that way by a drunk who can't even get in his saddle."
"That true, Waco?'
"Weren't me, Sheriff," Waco denied. "It was Red here."
"Thanks a lot," Red grumbled.
"Hey, I ain't takin' no fall for you. Kept you from gettin' the sh...." He glanced at Jessica. "Kept you from gettin' beat up, didn't I?"
"That old buzzard couldn't've...."
"All right, that's enough," the sheriff said. "Both of you get on those nags and hightail it back out to the Lazy B. I don't want to see your ugly faces in here again until the end of the month when you get paid. Else I might just have to tell Mr. Baker how his fine livestock's being treated."
"What about him, Sheriff?" Red's nod indicated the old mountain man, who had been standing by silently. "Thought we had a law in this town against vagrants. Bet he don't have a dime in his pockets."
"That true, old man?" the sheriff asked.
The old man bent down and rescued his hat from the dust before he answered. He slapped the dirt from the ragged headgear and plopped it into place.
"Well," he drawled in a cracked voice. "I ain't so sure I wanta answer that."
"You can answer it here or we can go over to the jail where I can search you," the sheriff returned flatly. He moved the barrel of his pistol slightly to emphasize his words.
"Oh, put that gun away, Sheriff," Jessica demanded. "That man works for me. I've hired him as a guide."
"What the hell...?"
"Shush, Ned," Jessica interrupted. "He's the man I told you about a while ago. Remember?"
Ned immediately caught on to Jessica's ploy. "Oh, he's the one, huh?"
"And just what is the name of your guide, Miss?"
"Carson," Ned said.
"Jedidiah," Jessica said.
"Well, which is it?" the sheriff demanded with an exasperated sigh.
"Carson," Jessica said.
"Jedidiah," Ned said.
The old man shuffled over and climbed the steps. "It's Jedidiah Carson, Sheriff," he said as he extended his hand.
Jessica looked at the old man skeptically as he shook hands with the sheriff. Did this old reprobate really have the strength to pull her out from under a rearing horse and set her down on the steps? Even Ned, a good head shorter but at least twenty years younger than this man had to be, would have had trouble doing that.
He looked large enough under those tattered buckskins, but Jessica noticed his hand, covered with age spots, tremble when he pulled it back to his side. The brim of the slouch hat hid what little of his features escaped the straggly hair and beard on his face, except for the dark eyes with sun-squint wrinkles in the corners.
Whatever. She couldn't bring herself to let him go to jail after he rescued her. She could release him from his supposed job later.
"You any kin to Kit?" she heard the sheriff say.
"Naw, don't think so," Jedidiah replied. "Say, anybody got a chaw?"
Ned chuckled and dug into his shirt pocket. He watched the old man take a hefty bite from the plug of tobacco, then shook his head when Jedidiah held it back out to him.
"I got plenty," Ned said. "And we better get on over to the hotel now. Wouldn't want all them rooms to be full and us have to sleep in the livery."
"I assume your guide is going to be staying at the hotel with you, Miss...?"
"Callaghan," Jessica replied when the sheriff raised a questioning eyebrow. "And of course he is."
"Now just a minute," Jedidiah said around the cud in his mouth. "I...."
Jessica firmly placed a hand in each man's arm and started to lead them back toward the hotel before the sheriff could question her further. After a few steps, she glanced up in surprise at Jedidiah. An unexpectedly muscular arm lay under the buckskin sleeve. No wonder he had been able to lift her so easily. Why, she even felt a stir of pleasure....
Jessica flushed and dropped the arms of both men. But when she slowed her steps and glanced curiously at Jedidiah, he wrapped his arm around her waist and urged her forward.
Jessica pulled at the fingers digging into her side. "I can walk perfectly well by myself. Let go of me," she insisted.
The fingers refused to loosen. "Got spunk, don't she?" Jedidiah tossed across her at Ned. "Too bad she don't know when to use it and when to keep it bottled up."
Instantly Jessica recalled his words when he set her on the walkway. He had called her a fool! She dug at the fingers on her waist, but they only shifted and caught her just below her breast. Astonishing her, her nipples pebbled. Sputtering ineffectively around the confusion clouding her mind, Jessica's feet barely touched the sidewalk as Jedidiah resolutely marched her toward the hotel door.
At the door, Jedidiah released her and Jessica turned her furious gaze on him.
"If you ever...!"
Ned dropped a hand on Jessica's shoulder and gave her a little shake. "Now we wouldn't want our new friend to think we don't appreciate his help, would we? You know, we really oughta find out your true name before we register in here," he continued smoothly when Jessica drew in a startled breath at Ned's defense of the old mountain man.
The old man hawked the chaw from his mouth and spit it into the street before he answered.
"Jedidiah Carson will do just fine. Fact is." He scratched his bushy beard for a moment. "Fact is, I been in the mountains so long, I cain't rightly remember my name. Maybe I never had one."
Jessica watched in amazement as Ned nodded his agreement and held the door open for her. She gritted her teeth and walked stiffly through the door, but not before she tossed one last, gold flecked glance of anger at Jedidiah.
At the hotel desk, an elderly clerk curtly pushed the register across at them. Jessica wasn't a bit surprised that he withheld the pen for her to sign her name with until she dug into her pocket with a sigh.
"One night's eight bits each," the clerk informed her when Jessica raised a questioning brow at him. "Figure on staying again tomorrow, I'll need another eight bits each by nine tomorrow mornin'."
"By nine?" Jessica asked in astonishment. "Why, the bank probably doesn't even open until nine. I have business there that may extend into tomorrow."
"Then perhaps you'll want three rooms for two days?"
"No," Jessica denied. "We'll manage. But we will each want a bath, and I'll need a maid to press the wrinkles from the dress I have in my bag."
"That'll be an extra four bits each for the baths, lessen you want to use the one down at the barber shop. Only costs two bits there. I guess my missus could press your dress for you, if you give it to her when she comes up."
Ned slapped the required money down on the counter before Jessica could open her coin purse, then he withdrew two quarters.
"I can use a haircut," he said when Jessica looked up at him. "I'll be back later and meet you before we go over to the bank. What about you, Jedidiah?"
"Ned, I'm not going to let you pay for my room," Jessica said with a frown.
"Too late," he returned. "I already did. Jedidiah?"
"Well, now," Jedidiah drawled. "Ain't been in a hotel for a long time. Think I'll just go on up an' see if them beds are as soft as I remember." He dug into the pocket of his buckskins and pulled out a small, leather pouch. "But I kin pay for my own room."
Ned acce
pted the coins Jedidiah held out to him without protest and settled his hat more firmly on his head.
"See you later," he said with a nod to Jessica.
Before she could register another objection, Ned turned and left the desk. He ignored her call after him and let the door slam behind him.
The clerk scrunched up his shoulders, expecting a crack to appear in the window glass on the door at any moment. When it failed to materialize, he let his breath out in a sigh. At least he wouldn't have that deduction from his small salary this month. Reaching behind him, he handed Jessica and Jedidiah each a key from one of the hooks on the wall behind the desk.
"Your room's 'bout half way down the hall on your left, Miss. Number eight. Number ten, for your friend. I'll send my missus right up."
The hotel door opened again and Jessica turned to see Ned toss two packs inside. "Figured you might need these," he said before he quickly disappeared.
Jessica recognized her own pack, but a strange one lay beside it. She glanced questioningly at Jedidiah.
"Yep, it's mine. Left it out there by your horses. I'll get 'em for us."
Jessica didn't wait for Jedidiah. She quickly began climbing the stairs, but a second later, she heard the whisper of Jedidiah's moccasins behind her. Determinedly ignoring him, she went directly to the door of her own room.
Jessica felt her pack nudge her in the side and she took it without looking at Jedidiah. Her eyes slid sideways, though, when she sensed him move away and she watched him walk down the hall to the door adjacent to hers. Darn it, she should have insisted the clerk give him a room on another floor. She firmly turned away to fit the key into her lock, but as she opened the door she heard Jedidiah call out to her.
"'Preciate the job offer, Miss. I got a couple things to do, so don't worry if you don't see me 'round this evenin'. I'll be there when you need me."
"Jedidiah, that job offer...." But his door closed behind him, cutting off Jessica's words. "...is no longer open," she said to the closed door. She shook her head and for a moment considered knocking on his door to demand his attention. The thought of a hot bath to soothe her travel-worn muscles won out. She could tell him later.
Montana Surrender Page 5
