9. Chapter 9
Chapter 9
W hile he waited for the others, Will took a table in the corner of the saloon, one that offered him a good view of the establishment.
The saloon was the center of activity for the town. It wasn’t evening yet, and already most of the tables were full and the atmosphere lively. Men drank, ate, gambled, or did a combination of all three. At one table, the group had brought a stack of pistols, displaying them like fresh vegetables on the market and showing them off to each other. Another man, who’s had a glass too much, made his way to the piano in the corner and hit a few off-key notes. Molly nimbly made her way through the tables, bringing and dispatching drinks.
It had taken them exactly a week to get here from Boston, leaving Will one more week to return. Right now, he should be preparing to start his work at the lab tomorrow.
The future was always so different than one expected.
If he meant to get back by the time he’d promised Professor Ralkin, he and Emily would have to be in Denver in the next three days. Doable. The problem wasn’t the schedule; it was this . The town, the saloon, even her own brother, were clearly not what Lady Ross had expected. Neither did Will.
But you’d seen he cares about his sister. He’d agreed to help. So why do you care?
“Hey, honey.” Molly stopped by his table with a tray full of empty glasses. “Can I bring you something?”
Will waved his hand. “Thank you.”
Instead of leaving, though, she sat down and leaned forward. Her blouse, already lacking a few buttons at the top, opened up more. Will quickly averted his eyes.
“A little shy, aren’t you? Don’t worry. I can work with those kinds, too.”
Not this again. And this time, he couldn’t even blame Charlie.
When she showed no sign of leaving, Will cleared his throat and returned his gaze to her, keeping it very clearly on the face level. “You’ve been here long?”
“For a few years, yes.”
“Do you know Lord—uh—Winters?”
“I know Jimmy very well.” She lazily drew her finger around the top of a glass. “Or as well as anyone can. He came to the town three, four months ago. Told us he’d worked at a ranch before.” Molly smiled slyly. “Never did say anything about being an aristocrat.”
“And now he owns the saloon?”
“Oh, not owns it, honey. Jimmy’s just working in here, same as I. The saloon is Gibsy’s.” She nodded over her shoulder, pointing to an older man sitting alone near the counter. “Gibsy’s the legend of this town. Real nice man, too. Allows Jimmy to get lodgings and food for free in exchange for tending the bar. The profits all go to Gibsy. Jimmy says he don’t need none of it.”
“Is that so,” Will murmured to himself.
“On top of that, he does some other work around the town. Mostly taking care of the horses.”
A busy man, then. A lot busier than Will had surmised from the tales of gambling and womanizing. Although the last part was clearly still true.
“Now, are you sure—”
In a whirlwind of skirts, Emily plopped on the chair next to Molly. “Houston, we have a problem.”
“I don’t know what that means,” Will said.
“Me neither, but I’ll leave you to it.” Molly picked up the tray and winked at him. “Later, honey.”
Emily followed her with a frown, then turned to Will. “Did she just—never mind. Here’s the deal. Sylvia owns an almonite necklace.”
“Almo—”
“Yup. Saw it with my own two eyes. She’s got this pendant, dark blue and shiny, just like the almonite in my watch—at least before it got fried. And when I touched it with a nick on my finger, my skin turned blue.”
“Impossible. The Watchers destroyed all the almonite that was left after the accident.”
“Well, they missed one. If you don’t believe it, see it for yourself. She’s coming to dinner soon.”
“How come we’d never seen it before now?”
“She wears it under her clothes. And you know how she’s always buttoned up to her eyes.” Emily tapped Will’s hand. “There she comes.”
A rush of silence fell over the saloon. One last sad note sounded from the piano .
Lady Ross stood at the entrance, a vision in icy blue silk. Buttoned up to where? Her heart-shaped bodice was low-cut—though not nearly as low as to be indecent—and held up by straps of coiled fabric, not thick enough to be called sleeves. The skirt consisted of layers of different, but matching fabrics—one in an embroidered floral pattern, one beaded the same way the bodice was, one plain blue, gathered at the back to form a train.
My God, she looks beautiful.
A few jaws dropped. Will was sure he was staring—probably very obnoxiously—but he couldn’t force himself to stop. In the middle of the dusty, brown old saloon, she shone like a beacon—her dress a waterfall, her hair a flame—and Will had the sudden, irresistible urge to go up to her and ask her for a dance.
One of the pistol-polishing men whistled and strolled up to her. “Now, ain’t that a sight for sore eyes.” He circled around, a smile slowly spreading across his face. Lady Ross tensed, her shoulders drawing back. Awakened from his daydream, Will had lifted half the way off his chair when a voice interrupted him.
“If you wouldn’t mind, Garrick, that’s my sister.” Winters made his way down the stairs. Lady Ross released her shoulders as he came to stand next to her.
“I see she’s got all the looks. And based on your behavior, the brains, too!” Garrick chuckled, slapped Winters on the back, and retreated to his table. Winters led his sister to Will and Emily, while the mood in the saloon slowly recovered. Something else was different about Lady Ross, though. She’d already sat down when Will realized—her hair. The top was … gone?
“Why is everyone looking at me like that?” Lady Ross asked.
“Silly, don’t you think you’re a little dressed up?” Winters said gently.
“But you said we were having dinner. I dressed for dinner. ”
“Dinner out here isn’t exactly the same as dinner back home.” Winters twisted in his chair to signal Molly for food and drinks.
Will threw a quick glance at Lady Ross’ neck. No necklace.
“Did you cut your hair?” Winters asked. “I could’ve sworn you had it longer earlier.”
Emily’s cheeks grew a bit red; Lady Ross’ surpassed them by a few shades. “I … uh … yes. More casual this way, isn’t it?”
With narrowed eyes, Winters checked her dress again. “Sure.”
“Sylvia! Did you lose the necklace?” Emily asked too cheerfully.
“I left it in my room. Jewelry like that does not suit the dress.”
“Oh. Yeah, obviously. It’s real pretty, though. Where did you get it?”
“It’s been in my family for generations. Papa gave it to me.”
Emily set her elbows on the table and interlaced her fingers under her chin. “Cool, cool. What material is it?”
“I must say I never asked.”
Emily caught Will’s gaze, flicked her eyes to the back of the saloon, then repeated the motion two more times.
“You all right there, Miss Willburne?” Winters asked.
Emily coughed. “I … may have a situation. Cousin, would you mind helping me with something?” She stood and motioned to the back.
“If you’ll excuse me.” Will bowed his head and followed Emily through the crowd. She went all the way to the kitchen, where they were alone.
“This is the opportunity,” she whispered. “She left the pendant in her room. Let’s go get it!”
“Now?”
“It’s almonite, I’m telling you. Don’t you think this is too much of a coincidence? Sylvia is married to the man who has some nefarious purposes with the Watchers. Now she owns almonite?”
“I don’t think she knows what it is. However, it is suspicious.” Will rubbed his chin. What were the odds?
“Do you think Ross knows?” Emily gasped. “Do you think he married her because of it? Then we definitely need to get it! This could be the last bit of almonite in the world—and we’re all after it!”
“You’re getting ahead of yourself. We have no proof Ross knows. He was concerned about his device, not Lady Ross’ jewelry.”
“In any case, it doesn’t matter. We need to go and steal it now.”
“We’re not going anywhere.”
“You’re right. It’ll be too suspicious. Only you should go.” Emily grabbed his shoulder. “I’ll distract them. Say you have bowel movements and stuff. You can pick the lock to her room, find the necklace, you’ll be in and out in fifteen minutes, and she’ll think she lost it.”
“Emily.” Will put his hand on top of hers. “We are not stealing from Lady Ross.”
Emily slumped her shoulders. “Fine, then what? You have a better plan?”
“Yes. We’ll go talk to her tomorrow. She has to give us the device, and we can ask a few questions while we’re at it.”
“Oh, and you have to make more almonite barrels!”
He nodded. “If we leave the day after tomorrow, that will give me enough time to make one for emergencies. It will take me the morning tomorrow, though.”
With Emily finally agreeing to their plan, they returned to the main room. In the meantime, a plate of roasted beef, a pile of steaming potatoes, and a bowl of beans had been brought to the table. Winters had already dug in while Lady Ross hesitated with her fork over the small portion on her plate.
“You two leaving soon, then?” Winters asked .
“If possible, the day after tomorrow,” Will said.
“You got a ride?”
Will shared a look with Emily. “Not really, no. I’d assumed there would be someone going out of town …”
“Artie, from the General Store, would usually go. He says he got some supplies today, though, so I reckon he won’t be leaving again for a week.” Winters had slipped back into his lazy drawl.
“Nothing until then?” Emily asked. He shook his head. “Wonderful. So by getting ourselves a ride here, we missed one back.”
“You could always ride a horse. We’ve got plenty of them. Vince has two you could borrow—he can give you an address where to leave them in Denver.”
“That’s very generous of you,” Will said.
“I don’t know how to ride a horse,” Emily admitted. Lady Ross raised her eyebrows at her. “What? We don’t need them where I’m from. Do you know how to drive—”
“Emily.” Will put his hand on hers.
“That’s no problem. You can learn.” Winters gulped down the beef with a sip of his drink. “Want me to teach you?”
“No, thanks.” Emily gave him a not-falling-for-it smile. “Will can teach me, right? It will take, what, half an hour?”
“Not exactly,” Will said.
“You’ll have to get to know the horse—I’ll ask Vince to bring the one you’d ride back—learn the commands, adapt the proper posture,” Winters explained. “We’ve got plenty of trails around here nice for learning. It’ll take at least half a day. But I got the morning free.”
“I can take care of … the rest,” Will said to Emily, hoping she understood. He could visit Lady Ross and get the device—and the pendant. He’d be bu sy making the almonite barrel. Surely that took precedence over who taught Emily how to ride.
“Oh, fine,” she succumbed. “Bot none of those sidesaddle thingamajigs, all right? I’m riding normally.”
Lady Ross opened her mouth.
“Your wish is my command,” Winters beat her.
Emily rolled her eyes and stabbed a potato.