cigar in hand, and fixed them all with a stern look.
"Seems to me the least we can do is give the filly a place to set until the stage comes back on Friday. Crazy Arrow's been shuttered since her pa died—it ain't like I offered her a room at the King of Hearts."
The men buzzed with outrage. The King of Hearts was sacred, same as Jade's Golden Dragon, one of the few places in a town hellbent on domestication where a man could be a man. Jesse'd played the odds that they'd give up the barber shop and their bedrolls quicker than they'd give up a first rate bucket of blood or a houseful of calico queens and he'd come up aces high.
"Now I understand no clear-thinkin' fellow would cotton to the notion of a gal settin' foot in the King of Hearts. Something like that could cause all manner of trouble." His shoulders rose and fell in a huge shrug. "So I let her stay in her pa's old saloon. Seemed the decent thing to do at the time, her being orphaned and all."
The fact that the orphan involved was blonde and beautiful and a score or so years past diapers and mush didn't matter to anyone there and Jesse held back a grin of triumph as he took another long puff on his cigar.
"Guess there ain't much call to get all riled up," said his pal Sam Markham.
"Guess not," said Luke Foster. "Jest steer clear of the Crazy Arrow and the orphan gal."
"That's all you have to do," said Jesse. "Steer clear of the Crazy Arrow until Friday and the spinsters will be on their way back home." Rising from his chair, he flipped the lid on his humidor and let the smell of fine Spanish tobacco fill the air. "Cigars, anyone?"
One thing Jesse Reardon knew how to do was take his triumphs like a man.
#
For the next three days Caroline stayed close to the Crazy Arrow and far away from Jesse Reardon. Not that Reardon was making it his business to keep tabs on her but she figured keeping out of sight to be her best defense. She and Abby and the other girls spent their time polishing and cleaning the wooden frame building from basement to attic until it fairly glistened with soap and water and wax. Abby thought her crazy for investing so much time and energy in resurrecting something only to abandon it at week's end, but Caroline set her jaw in a stubborn line and continued polishing the brass chandelier in the gaming room.
Abby and the girls made their way to Aunt Sally's each morning and evening for meals that proved only slightly more appetizing than the tin -can beans they'd had their first night in town. Desperate to make her money last as long as possible, Caroline stayed home, rationing out her food money into impossibly tiny increments so Abby could bring back a portion of the day's special in a pink china bowl they'd uncovered in the kitchen.
Despite the fact she'd never lived under such dreadful conditions, Caroline found herself growing attached to the Crazy Arrow and her companions. There was something unexpectedly splendid about making her own decisions, sharing the day's work with other women, carving out a place for herself where none had ever existed. Freedom such as this would be impossible in Boston.
If the fit of life alongside the Charles River had been difficult before, she couldn't imagine how she would ever manage it now that she had had a taste of a different way of living.
But what choice had she? The men in this lawless, godless town would never accept a female saloonkeeper who wasn't willing to provide services like those provided across the street at the Golden Dragon. The rock that had come crashing through her front window her first morning in town had been proof enough of that.
There had to be a way but at the moment she feared she would be halfway to Boston by the time she discovered what that way was.
#
On Caroline's sixth day in Silver Spur, the answer to her prayers appeared at her bedroom door in the form of Jenny Wilder.
"We've been talkin', Miss Caroline," Jenny said, sitting down on
"Seems to me the least we can do is give the filly a place to set until the stage comes back on Friday. Crazy Arrow's been shuttered since her pa died—it ain't like I offered her a room at the King of Hearts."
The men buzzed with outrage. The King of Hearts was sacred, same as Jade's Golden Dragon, one of the few places in a town hellbent on domestication where a man could be a man. Jesse'd played the odds that they'd give up the barber shop and their bedrolls quicker than they'd give up a first rate bucket of blood or a houseful of calico queens and he'd come up aces high.
"Now I understand no clear-thinkin' fellow would cotton to the notion of a gal settin' foot in the King of Hearts. Something like that could cause all manner of trouble." His shoulders rose and fell in a huge shrug. "So I let her stay in her pa's old saloon. Seemed the decent thing to do at the time, her being orphaned and all."
The fact that the orphan involved was blonde and beautiful and a score or so years past diapers and mush didn't matter to anyone there and Jesse held back a grin of triumph as he took another long puff on his cigar.
"Guess there ain't much call to get all riled up," said his pal Sam Markham.
"Guess not," said Luke Foster. "Jest steer clear of the Crazy Arrow and the orphan gal."
"That's all you have to do," said Jesse. "Steer clear of the Crazy Arrow until Friday and the spinsters will be on their way back home." Rising from his chair, he flipped the lid on his humidor and let the smell of fine Spanish tobacco fill the air. "Cigars, anyone?"
One thing Jesse Reardon knew how to do was take his triumphs like a man.
#
For the next three days Caroline stayed close to the Crazy Arrow and far away from Jesse Reardon. Not that Reardon was making it his business to keep tabs on her but she figured keeping out of sight to be her best defense. She and Abby and the other girls spent their time polishing and cleaning the wooden frame building from basement to attic until it fairly glistened with soap and water and wax. Abby thought her crazy for investing so much time and energy in resurrecting something only to abandon it at week's end, but Caroline set her jaw in a stubborn line and continued polishing the brass chandelier in the gaming room.
Abby and the girls made their way to Aunt Sally's each morning and evening for meals that proved only slightly more appetizing than the tin -can beans they'd had their first night in town. Desperate to make her money last as long as possible, Caroline stayed home, rationing out her food money into impossibly tiny increments so Abby could bring back a portion of the day's special in a pink china bowl they'd uncovered in the kitchen.
Despite the fact she'd never lived under such dreadful conditions, Caroline found herself growing attached to the Crazy Arrow and her companions. There was something unexpectedly splendid about making her own decisions, sharing the day's work with other women, carving out a place for herself where none had ever existed. Freedom such as this would be impossible in Boston.
If the fit of life alongside the Charles River had been difficult before, she couldn't imagine how she would ever manage it now that she had had a taste of a different way of living.
But what choice had she? The men in this lawless, godless town would never accept a female saloonkeeper who wasn't willing to provide services like those provided across the street at the Golden Dragon. The rock that had come crashing through her front window her first morning in town had been proof enough of that.
There had to be a way but at the moment she feared she would be halfway to Boston by the time she discovered what that way was.
#
On Caroline's sixth day in Silver Spur, the answer to her prayers appeared at her bedroom door in the form of Jenny Wilder.
"We've been talkin', Miss Caroline," Jenny said, sitting down on
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