Chapter 10
“Me?” Temperance touched between her breasts, expression stunned.
Owen was surprised too. He was also still twitching with aggression after getting into a scuffle and nearly having to shoot a man. That sort of tension always had him blurting out the worst things, trying to defuse a situation with humor.
“You seem to have a gift for making people never want to see you again. This is the second time today.”
“And whose fault is that?” she cried, glaring at him with all the frustrated animosity that typically greeted his poorly-timed jokes. “I didn’t cause this brawl. He did.” She told Fritz while pointing at Owen.
Owen wasn’t spending much attention on Fritz, too busy sweeping the room with an unflinching glance, making sure everyone understood he was still armed, watching for anyone making a sudden move.
Sureshot had lost his bluster. He was slouched on a stool. His friend stood beside him, still rubbing the dent of Owen’s knuckles out of his jaw. The rest of the men were looking down, searching for any coins that hadn’t already been found. A few were shoving elbows at each other, unhappy with whatever amount they’d managed to recover. Owen had lost his stake before he left the table so he didn’t claim any of it.
“That’s another reason I don’t want you here,” Fritz was saying to Temperance. “You’re rude to my best customer.”
“I’m your best?” Owen echoed. “Shit. That’s quite an honor, Fritz. Worth a free drink, I’d think.”
Fritz ignored him, too bent on taking out his riled temper on Temperance.
“You’ve been nothing but trouble since you walked in here, getting this one birthing babies out of my best gal.” He nodded at Jane who had approached the bar with her tray and a wary expression.
“I didn’t get Mavis pregnant, did I?” Temperance cried.
“It’s your fault she’s leaving, though, Ain’t it?”
“She’s leaving because she had a baby. Is this any place to raise a child?” She waved wildly at the men still collecting the crates they used as chairs and setting them upright. One spit into a bucket while another let out a loud belch.
Owen might have mentioned that he was actually the one who had arranged Mavis’s departure, but Cornelius, an old-timer at the end of the bar, piped up, “And she’s drinking cold tea while charging for bourbon. That’s what that fella said.” He pointed at Sureshot.
“And why would that be, Mr. Fritz?” Temperance charged, standing tall and glaring at the saloon keeper.
It was an old trick that Owen had seen in California. Men wanted a woman to drink with them, but if she wanted to keep her senses, she drank tea. Most drunks were none the wiser. Fritz must have put her up to it.
“Probably because your real name is Temperance,” Fritz said as though it was the crime of the decade. “I knew right when I heard that, that you don’t belong here.”
“Your name’s not even Rose?” the toothless Cornelius lamented. “That ain’t right, lying about your name.”
“For God’s sake. Do you honestly believe that man’s name is Sureshot?” Temperance pointed.
“No, it ain’t right,” Fritz agreed. “So you git now. I don’t want you living here or coming back here to interfere with my Jane, either. You’re bad luck.”
Owen loved nothing better than theatrics over nothing, but the shaken way Temperance drew a breath made his chest tighten.
“Come on, Fritz,” Owen chided. “It’s freezing outside. She didn’t cause this. You know that.”
“You want to chase this skirt, you can chase her right out of here, but I won’t have her in my saloon. I’ve decided,” Fritz said with a firm drop of his fist onto the bar.
“Well, I’m not leaving until you’ve paid me what you owe me for this evening,” Temperance said, pressing closer to the bar in a defiant manner that was pure bravado because anyone could see she was on the verge of tears. “I’ve turned in four dance tokens and you’ve set twenty-two marks under my name on your slate.”
“Some o’ them was tea.”
“Shut up, Cornelius,” Owen ordered, then gave Fritz a hard look. “Square up with her. It’s only fair.”
Fritz begrudgingly jangled into his cash box beneath the bar before dropping a handful of coins into her hand.
Temperance’s mouth quivered as she counted it. Then she swallowed and reached into the collar of her gown and withdrew a few more coins. She set all of them on the edge of the bar in front of Owen.
“As promised, I have paid back what I owe you as soon as I was able,” she said with threadbare dignity.
Oh, that made him feel small. “Temperance.”
She ignored him and turned away to say to Jane, “Thank you for your help, Jane. I’ll fetch my things from your room and say goodb—” Her voice hiccupped. “—goodbye to Mavis and Freddie.”
Jane’s eyes were huge. “Be well.”
Temperance turned and, as the ruffle of her skirt brushed across Owen’s boot, offered him a scathing look that blamed him for the cold weather, the hot tempers, and every crime ever committed between here and the Mississippi River.
Ah, hell.
Owen pushed the money she’d given him toward Fritz and said, “For the men who lost their drinks,” before he turned to follow her.
The door opened as she reached it.
“Ma’am.” Elmer Greenly tipped his hat and stepped aside, holding the door for her.
Temperance sailed past him, silent, chin high.
Elmer, the womanizing sack of shit, stood there watching her go until a chorus of, “Shut the door!” resounded.
“Owen, let’s talk land.” Elmer steered him back to the bar. “Two, please, Fritz. Who’s your new gal?”
“She ain’t Rose, and she only drinks tea.”
“I swear to God, Cornelius,” Owen warned the man with his ugliest glare.
Cornelius huffed and went back to the shot of whiskey Fritz refilled for him. The rest of the saloon was settling back into their drinking and the squeezebox emitted a few high-pitched notes.
“I don’t have much time,” Owen said to Elmer, keeping his eye on the door to see if anyone went after Temperance. “Have you made a decision?”
“I have.” Elmer picked up the glass Fritz poured for him. “I’ve also figured out what you want it for. You’re opening your own saloon. Aren’t you?”
“Is that true?” Fritz asked behind Owen, pulling back the drink he’d poured.
“’tis”
“Then you can get the hell out too.”
Temperance had offeredher carpet bag to Mavis, thinking she would be staying in this cabin for the foreseeable future. She refused to take it back, even though Mavis tried to insist.
“No, you’ll need it when you travel with Freddie. If I don’t see you before you leave, I w-wish you both safe travels.” Temperance was trying to be brave, but she was terrified.
She gave Freddie’s soft cheek a rub with the back of her knuckle, then finished rolling her belongings into the thin bedroll she’d been sleeping in. It wouldn’t be nearly warm enough for a night like this.
Her hands were shaking as much from upset and fear as the cold. She didn’t know where she would go. Even if Mrs. Pincher would have taken her back, she wouldn’t answer the door at this time of night. How much would the hotels charge, she wondered? Her last few coins might get her a night or two. Then what?
She firmly tied her bonnet into place and said a final, “Bye Mavis.” When she stepped outside, the wind nearly cut her in half.
As she came toward the street, a dark shadow peeled itself away from the side of the saloon.
“I’m armed, sir,” she lied in her most threatening voice.
“With what?” Owen asked. “A spare petticoat and a bar of soap?”
“You. Why are you so determined to ruin my life?”
“Last I checked, I keep saving it. Come on. I’ll take you to my room.” His silhouette turned to start across the front of the saloon where light spilled from the window.
“That is very presumptuous.” She stood her ground. “We are square. I owe you nothing.”
“I was under the impression you felt I owed you something.” He turned so the light from the window slashed across his face, illuminating his mouth while leaving his eyes in the shadow of his hat. “Do you really want to stand in this wind and argue about it? Clarence is there. He’ll play chaperone.”
“That animal? After what he tried to do to Mrs. Greenly’s dalmatian?” For some reason, the memory of Woodrow Greenly spinning around, trying to keep his dog from begetting pups by Clarence, gave her the strongest urge to laugh when she actually wanted to cry herself into a heap.
Owen’s teeth briefly flashed in the frame of his stubbled beard.
Her heart took a dip and twirl while the rest of her felt terribly shy all of a sudden.
Then the harsh wind slapped her face.
What a terrifying predicament to be cast out on a night like this. Hugging her roll of, yes, a spare petticoat and not much else, she ducked her head and practically ran along beside Owen, only thinking she wished to survive until morning.
Her eyes and nose were running, her lips were numb, and her toes were aching by the time they crossed the bridge into Denver. A few more blocks and they were at the corral where wagons could be stored and animals stalled and fed. They each used the john, then he lit one of the discarded candle nubs from the shelf at the bottom of the stairs to light their way up.
When he closed the door, Temperance was firmly trapped in a smaller room than the one she’d shared with Jane and Mavis. It smelled of the livestock below and the dog who picked up his head and tapped his tail silently into the blanket on the bed.
The very narrow bed.
Clarence had the sense to stay curled up where it was warm, but where would he stand if he came off the bed? The tiny space was taken up by a wash stand that held a basin and jug and a chair. There was a rag for a curtain and a couple of hooks on the wall for hanging clothing, but nothing else, not even a stove for warmth.
“How much are these rooms?” Her words were slurred by her frozen lips.
“I paid ahead, but on a night like tonight, they’re five dollars and all full.”
She didn’t even have an entire dollar after paying him out. At least she was out of that infernal wind, but she continued to hug her roll as though it was her childhood ragdoll. As though it was one of the twins who had snuck into her bed after waking from a nightmare.
“I suppose I’ll take the floor.” It had a blood stain on it and didn’t look as though it had been swept since the walls had gone up.
“We’ll share the bed. It’ll be tight, but at least we’ll be warm.” Owen removed his holster and hung it from a hook. He set the other pistol on the wash stand.
“I don’t think sharing the bed is appropriate.”
“Let’s save arguing about that until morning.”
Such a vexing man. She was too overwhelmed to fight his warped logic, though. And too cold to remove a stitch of clothing. In fact, she carefully unrolled her blanket and set her small bundle of clothes on the shelf under the wash basin before she wrapped her blanket around herself.
“Top to toe?” she suggested as she took stock of the way Clarence was hogging the center of the straw-filled mattress.
“I would love to say that dog will stay on the floor if I put him there, but he won’t. You take the wall, I’ll take the edge. We’ll use him as a foot warmer. Come on, Clarence.” Owen snapped his fingers near the foot of the bed. “Come on down here. Oh, for Christ’s sake.”
Owen had to pick up the dog, so Temperance could pull the blanket free from under him. She threw down her thin pallet across the straw mattress as a little extra padding, before Owen set Clarence on the bottom of the bed. They both removed their shoes. Temperance crawled to the inside, still wearing her blanket like a cape. She turned her face to the wall.
Owen draped the blanket over the whole bed, including the dog. He topped it with his jacket, then blew out the candle before he came in under it, turning his back to her. The ropes groaned and his weight sagged her into rolling backward into him.
It was unseemly, no doubt about it, being back to back and bum to bum with a man she barely knew, but Clarence’s furry hide provided a nice place for her stockinged feet to rest. The sensation of being in a snuggly nest was nice, not that she cared to admit it.
“Why are you helping me?” she asked softly.
“Because I want something from you. Why else?”
She snapped her eyes open to the dense darkness. “Like what?”
“I’m not telling you until you’ve had a good night’s sleep. Otherwise, you’re too crotchety.”
“You really think I’m going to wake up whistling after sharing a bed with y—” She clenched her eyes shut, cringing while his body began to shake with laughter against hers.
“Oh, go to sleep,” she muttered.
“Sweet dreams, Rose.”