Ruby by Lauraine Snelling, Alexandra O'Karm Page A

others?”
    “By the time they take care of themselves and their clothes and things, there ain’t a lot of time left. That’s what your pa hired me for, and that’s all he hired me for.”
    “I see.” But she didn’t see at all.
    When supper was ready, the three of them sat down to eat.
    “What about the others?”
    “I usually leave some things out, and they help themselves when they want.”
    “I see.” I’m beginning to sound like an echo. What is going on here?
    “Do you have a horse?” Opal looked up from cutting her potatoes.
    “Nope.”
    “The captain says he has one.”
    “Oh, the army has lots of horses. But if you need one, you can rent ’em over to the livery.”
    “No,” Ruby stared at her little sister.
    “I didn’t ask yet.”
    “I know.”
    “Gets right purty here in the spring. Grass greens up and flowers bloom near to everywhere.”
    Ruby smiled across the table. “Really, Milly. How nice.”
    “Maybe we can stay awhile, Ruby? Maybe if the captain takes too long, we could rent two horses and go out riding to see the country. Maybe we’ll see buffalo. There was a picture of one in a book I saw.”
    “Nah, there ain’t too many of those left, but you can see deer and elk. Some folks have brought in cattle too.”
    Ruby listened to the two talk with one ear while she puzzled out how to find the ledger books and how to set up a meeting with everyone at once so she could read her father’s last will and testament.
    “Do you know where the ledgers are kept, Milly?”
    “Ledgers?”
    “The big books that my father kept his records in.”
    “Oh, Charlie has those.”
    “After supper, could you ask Charlie to bring them in here?”
    “I s’pose.” The look she gave Ruby clearly asked why she didn’t do that herself.
    Ruby ignored the look. “Opal, when we are finished, you can wash the dishes.”
    “Oh, I just leave ’em in a pan of soapy water on the back of the stove.” Milly offered.
    “I see.” Ruby nodded and swallowed. Getting the kitchen cleaned up might be her first order of business, after the ledgers of course. And after they all had a meeting of the minds.
    “I think I’ll write notes to everyone and set up a meeting time. You can slide them under their bedroom doors.”
    “Notes? Like in writing?” At Ruby’s nod Milly shook her head. “Belle and Charlie are the only ones who can read.”
    “Oh.” Despite all her good training from her mother, her grandmother, and Mrs. Brandon, Ruby leaned her elbows on the table and rubbed her forehead with her fingertips. Was nothing possible here?
    “Please ask Charlie to come in here. Tell him it will only be for a moment.”
    “Yes, miss.” Milly resumed her distance.
    “Opal, you wash the dishes while I go over the ledgers.” Unless of course, Charlie refused to bring them to her. Then what?

CHAPTER NINE
    “Who do you think did it?” Opal asked.
    Ruby stared from her sister to the unmitigated mess of their room. Drawers pulled out, valises gaping open, their trunk riffled, dresses and underthings tossed like a big wind had blown through.
    “I don’t know. But I have a good idea.” Who but Belle would do such a thing? Ruby rubbed her forehead again. The headache that had been creeping in now had taken up residence with a vengeance.
    But if not Belle—and how could they accuse her without proof—then who? Milly had been with them most of the time. That left Charlie, Cimarron, or Jasmine. Or what if someone else came up from the saloon, or what if just anybody came in and it wasn’t just their room that was riffled? With no locks on the doors, anything was possible. Ruby slumped against the post at the foot of the bed. Rubbing her forehead was doing no good, the resident hammer wielder refused to respond to such measures.
    Opal sat down beside her. “You want I should make you a cup of tea?”
    Right now a cup of tea sounded like a gift straight from heaven, but she daren’t let Opal out of the room by