by Micki Miller
He was a U.S. Marshal. Being a lawman wasn’t just his job, it’s who he was right down to his marrow. He couldn’t go back to farming. He wasn’t a farmer anymore. He’d have to be, though, if he wanted to support a family without leaving them alone for weeks, even months at a time.
Staring at her silhouette behind the screen, Garrett knew he would sacrifice his career in law for her. He would pay any price if in this moment of utter clarity he could hear her say those three words again.
Penny glanced at the screen beside her tub. He was so quiet. Was he worried she would tell him she loved him again? Was he afraid she’d gone marriage minded and was trying to corner him? The fact that she did love him both irritated and pleased her. It also terrified her. He didn’t feel the same way about her, obviously. She was a naïve little fool and Garrett was simply trying to spare her feelings.
“About what I said…”
“Yes?” Garrett prompted when she didn’t continue. Why didn’t he just say it first? Garrett knew the answer before he’d finished the question. He didn’t want her to doubt those words, and she might. The room had one bed. It wasn’t unheard of for a man to use those precious words to get a woman between the sheets. If Penny said it first, though, he could lay his heart bare for her. And he would. If he had to bust sod the rest of his days, he’d do it, if it meant he could spend those days with Penny.
The silence in the room intensified. In the hearth, the flames barely shimmied. Even the daylight slanting through the window held still, as if pausing in its descent.
“I…”
Garrett and Penny both sat in similar deportment, facing each other on opposite sides of the gauzy privacy screen.
Penny bit her lip to keep from blurting out her feelings hadn’t changed, that she did love him. He was bossy and arrogant, but he was also heroic. Garrett was a man of honor. He took his job seriously and she’d spent the last two days making his job more difficult. If she told him what was in her heart, it would only make things worse for him. He didn’t share her feelings. He certainly would have said so by now if he did.
“I’m sorry about that, too,” Penny said, just loud enough for him to hear.
Garrett sat back in the cooling water. After a moment, he mumbled. “No need to apologize.” It was better this way, he reminded himself. He was good at his job and there was important work that needed doing. The inner discourse didn’t make him feel better, though. In fact, he felt like hell.
After the boys had collected the water and hauled away the tubs, Garrett tied the rope he’d used on Penny around Frank’s neck so James and Willie could take him for a walk.
“We’ll give him a bath, too,” Willie said.
“For an extra charge, of course,” added his big brother.
“I wouldn’t expect you to work for free, boys. A bath is a fine idea.” Stepping out into the hall with the boys, Garrett gave them another errand to run, too.
He and Penny ate a quiet dinner in their room at the small table between the fireplace and the window. The scene was cozy, lovely, really, after the last days they had spent out on the road. They were warm and clean, yet wound tight with the unresolved tension of their true desires.
Around the time they were down to just picking at what was left of their dinners, the boys returned with Frank. The dog was clean, still a little damp, in fact. Garrett rubbed the dog’s head and caught a whiff of something more pleasant than wet dog. He bent down to give Frank a sniff.
“We sprinkled some of our ma’s rose water on him,” Willie told him.
Garrett smiled, sure their mother was unaware her boys had used her rose water to freshen up a dog. “He smells good, like a flower garden.”
“We fed him, too,” Willie added.
Garrett turned to James then who stuffed his hand into his pocket and pulled out three silver bells tied together with several long, sturdy strings. He handed the mess to the marshal who thanked them and gave them both a generous tip before sending them on their way.
“What’s that for?” Penny asked after he closed the door.
Garrett tied the string of bells onto the doorknob. “It’s so you don’t go sneaking out of here in the middle of the night.”
Penny didn’t argue. He didn’t know if it was because she surrendered to his command or because she believed she could sneak past the bells. Right now, she was preoccupied with other thoughts, he could see, as she was looking at the bed.
Garrett took the blanket folded at the foot of the bed, scooted Frank out of the way and laid it on the rug before the fire. Then he took one of the pillows and tossed it on the blanket.
“You’re sleeping on the floor?” she asked.
“Unless you want to share the bed with me,” Garrett said, his voice more gruff than he’d intended.
“No, of course not,” she replied. Penny used the best of her learned propriety to shield her pride. No matter what he said, after the way she’d behaved last night, he might be under the impression she wanted to share the bed with him. It aggravated her that he’d be right.
“Go to sleep, Penny.”
Penny spun away from him in a swirl of wrinkled, white cotton, and slipped beneath the covers. She scooted to the far side and lay with her back to Garrett. A moment later, Frank hopped up on the bed and walked in a circle before lying down beside Penny. Garrett looked at Frank who returned his gaze with one tinged with regret. Not too much regret, though. The wry notion picked at him as the dog made himself comfortable on the soft mattress.
Garrett lay down with his blanket beside the dwindling fire. With his head pillowed in his hands, he stared at the ceiling. At a rustling from the bed, he turned to look, thinking that maybe Penny would be peeking over the edge at him, wondering if she was thinking about him the way he was thinking about her. No, that would be impossible. She didn’t have the experience to put those explicit images in her head.
Instead of an inviting look from Penny, he got an eyeful of Frank’s furry snout poking over the edge of the bed. The dog snuffled once. Maybe it was a condolence. Maybe the raggedy beast was gloating.
Watch her, Garrett mouthed to the dog with a nod toward Penny.
Frank puffed air from his nostrils, which Garrett took as a ‘yes sir’. The dog then disappeared again. The mattress springs creaked as Frank settled into the cozy bed, followed by a contented sigh as Frank drifted off for a good night’s sleep. The damn dog was having a better life than Garrett was. The scene was so ridiculous, him on the floor while a dog lay in the bed next to Penny, he could almost laugh about it. Almost.
He sure as hell wasn’t laughing when he woke up the next day. Penny was gone, again.
Chapter 10
“Penny!” Garrett shouted as he sat up on the floor where he’d slept. He looked toward the privacy screen standing across the room, lifeless, as no shadow moved behind it.
He called out her name even though his gut told him he was talking to no one. Oddly, he’d sensed her absence the second the morning sunshine thrust through the window and landed on his face. He knew she was gone before he even opened his eyes.
“Penelope Wills!” he yelled, jumping to his feet.
Frank jerked into a sitting position atop the otherwise empty bed, looking sleepy and rankled. Garrett ignored him. He stomped across the room, grabbed the screen, and flung it to the floor. Frank barked once. Garrett gave him a quelling look. The dog put his ears back, managing to appear both offended and apologetic.
Garrett stomped over to the door. The bells were in place. He flicked the sting with his finger and they all three rang out, just as he had planned. Then, with a sickening fear, Garrett turned in a slow rotation toward the window.
It was open. When they’d gone to sleep last night, he knew he’d left it closed.
He ran to the window and shoved his head out through the full opening. Garrett looked down hoping his memory of the narrow ledge was incorrect. But no, he remembered it right. The ledge was no more than a foot wide. His
stomach roiled at his mind’s image of her inching her way along toward the awning off to the right, and then climbing down the pole. This of course, is exactly what she’d done.
Damn her!
He scanned the street below…pointless. Penny was long gone.
Garrett pulled his head in and looked to the corner where he’d placed her Winchester. It was still there. His gun was still there, too, lying on the floor next to his bedding. He grabbed his bag. The gun Penny had taken from Bentley was gone.
“Damn it all to hell!” he shouted. He swore several more times, and several degrees more vulgar in the few seconds it took him to kick his feet into his boots. He was out the door before his body heat had evaporated from the blanket, Frank at his heels.
Garrett questioned the clerk, the same prim man who’d been there when they’d checked in. Worry wrinkling his smooth forehead, he told the marshal he hadn’t seen his prisoner.
“You promised you could keep her restrained,” the clerk said in an accusatory panic, but Garrett was already halfway to the door.
He ran past the restaurant attached to the hotel by way of an open arch, giving it only a cursory glance. Penny hadn’t snuck out of a second story window to go have breakfast. She was going after Cotter.
Garrett burst onto the boardwalk and then stopped to think. Frank took the opportunity to relieve himself on the very pole Penny shimmied down sometime last night, damn her. The day was bright with a potential to warm, not that he noted the weather. Garrett focused all of his attention on finding that blasted woman who seemed determined to worry him into an early grave.
The day was just beginning and only a few people were about. Across the street was a dress shop. A slender woman in a pine-green gown with a matching, thin brimmed hat was unlocking the door. Several other businesses were beginning to open, too. Next to the dress shop, a young man emerged from the milliner’s with a broom in his hand. Just inside the window beside the door, a woman rearranged a display of bonnets.
Two dusty cowboys passed by on their horses, apparently in no hurry. A Conestoga wagon ambled in from the other direction. From inside the covered wagon he could hear the voices of several children singing. There was no sign of Penny.
The outside door to the restaurant was to the right and a shop not yet opened was to the left. Next to that was a saloon. A sign over the boardwalk dangling from two short chains read, The Rusty Nail. All was quiet in both directions. Garrett turned to his right and ran for the stables.
Almost as soon as he entered the stables, he found Penny’s speckled mare. The horse was nibbling on some sweet hay. Lady Bell was right beside Lulu. Good, Penny was on foot. That’ll make it easier. Now, where would she start? She was an inexperienced investigator, but not stupid. Well, with the exception of her personal safety, he amended with an audible growl. Garrett and Frank ran back to the saloon. He had the dog wait outside, hoping he’d bark if he saw Penny.
The gaming tables inside The Rusty Nail were empty, the winners, and losers asleep in their beds. The other tables were empty, too. The place had a well-worn look about it, but it was roomy. Lots of scarred tables, the green cloths over the faro and poker tables had faded in the places where they got the most play, the gold fringe on one table hung loose. There was an upright piano against the far wall. The round stool before it sat empty.
The two cowboys he’d seen ride in sat at end of the bar. They glanced at him, and then turned their attention back to their breakfasts of whiskey. Garrett approached the bartender who barely looked up from the glass he was cleaning.
“Name’s Smoky,” he said with a pleasant smile his profession required. “What can I get you?
He was a barrel of a man with arms like tree trunks and a nose crooked enough to tell it had been broken, at least once. His dust-colored hair was thinning and frizzed above leathery skin. However, the graying didn’t deter from his tough presentation in the least. Smoky here had broken up his share of bar fights and left the troublemakers to regret crossing him. In one meaty hand, he held a glass, in the other, a rag with which he was wiping it dry. Scrapes marred both sets of his knuckles.
“Has a young woman been in here today, about so tall?” He held his hand chin high. “Blonde, pretty, dressed in boy’s clothing and asking questions.”
Smokey was nodding before Garrett finished his description. “She was in here all right,” he said on a chuckle. “Behaving all proper, just like she was wearin’ a ball gown, she was. Even dressed like that, she was a pretty thing, friendly too, but serious. Said she was working with a U.S. Marshal on a federal matter, a manhunt. That be you?”
Pressed for time, Garrett merely grunted a non-response. “Do you know where she went from here?”
“She was looking for someone. Don’t remember the name, but she had a good description of him. A fella looked just like that was in here last night.”
Garrett stiffened. “Tell me about him.”
“Well, the man looked a rough sort with a bad scar on his face, and he didn’t smell too good, neither. But he was quiet, didn’t bother no one. Had himself a few drinks ’fore he took himself upstairs with one of our girls, Slena. Musta fallen asleep, and I guess Slena let him be. He left here not more than an hour ago.”
“Do you know where he went from here?”
Smokey frowned at him. “I don’t pry into my customers’ personal business.”
“Where’s Slena now?”
Smokey tipped his jaw toward the upstairs. “She’s up there, room three. Your girl went up and talked to her, left about twenty minutes ago.”
Garrett took the stairs two at a time.
The young woman who answered the door was not sleepy-eyed and annoyed, as he’d expected. In fact, she was wide-awake and dressed in a surprisingly simple calico buttoned all the way to her throat. She had light brown hair wrapped into a tidy bun on the back of her head. Pale yellow ribbons dangled from the bonnet she held in her hand. The woman looked more like a Sunday school teacher than a prostitute. Her modest and alert appearance threw Garrett off for a moment.
“Slena?” he asked.
She lifted the chin of her freshly washed face. “Selina. The proper way to say my name is Selina. And I’m not open for business, ever again.”
“I’m not here for…that. I’m looking for a young woman named Penelope Wills. You might know her as Penny.”
Her expression immediately brightened. Selina’s eyes slid to the badge pinned to his shirtfront. “She told me she had a partner in the investigation. You must be Penny’s associate.”
“Her…” Garrett held his tongue. He didn’t have time to set her right and he had a feeling Penny had so won the girl over that speaking of her with anything less than praise would get the door slammed in his face.
“Yes,” he said through a forced smile. “That’s right. I just have a couple of questions.”
Selina opened her door further and said, “All right. You can talk while I finish packing.”
He entered the small room, the contents of which consisted of one narrow bed, an old bureau with a round mirror over it, and a little closet. An old carpetbag sat upon the neatly made bed. It was open and she’d already begun packing her belongings. On the only chair in the room was a pile of bright and bawdy clothing.
“Here, sit down,” she said, scooping up the pile from the chair and moving it to the bed. “I’m not taking these things with me. Figured I’d leave them for the next girl.”
Garrett stood where he was. “You’re quitting the business?”
“Your partner convinced me. She said I’m a worthy person, and I deserved better than this kind of life. And you know what, she’s right,” Selina said with a firm nod of her head.
Garrett couldn’t help but smile. He had no trouble at all imagining Penny riling this girl into betterment. If she’d spent much more time here, Smokey would have to close the upstairs portion of his business.
“I had a little money saved and that sweet angel gave me
the rest of the money I needed to buy a ticket on the next stage out of here. I have folks in Nebraska.” Selina smiled, then, looking happy enough to weep. “I’m going home.”
She continued to sing Penny’s praises while she packed the rest of her few belongings into the bag and then closed and latched it. She started to lift it off the bed, but Garrett got it for her.
“Thanks,” Selina said. “The morning stage is leaving soon. I don’t want to miss it.”
As they left her room, Garrett said, “Did Penny happen to say where she was going from here?”
“After that man I had up here last night. Didn’t she tell you?”
“We keep missing each other,” he said, following her down the stairs.
“Oh, well, like I told your partner, the man with the big scar on his face asked me where he could get a decent breakfast. I told him the hotel served breakfast, but he said that was too fancy for his taste. So, I told him about Dixie’s. She opens a little earlier anyway. Her place is two blocks past the hotel; make a left and one block up.”
As they neared the bottom of the stairs, Garrett looked to his left. The two cowboys were gone, and the bartender was nowhere in sight, for which he was grateful. The last thing he needed right now was to get held up helping Selina out of an ugly scene.
He’d sprung his gratitude a bit too soon.
Just then, the curtain hanging over the doorway behind the bar flapped and Smokey emerged. He took one look at Selina and the bag in Garrett’s hand, and said to Selina, “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
Selina squared her shoulders. “I quit, Smoky.”
“You can’t quit on me now,” he said, incredulous. “I’m already a couple girls short.”
“I’m sorry about that, but I have to do what’s best for me.”
Smokey’s demeanor turned dark. Anger deepened the color of his bronzed skin. His back even hunched a little. He turned a furious gaze on Garrett.
