Wicked Wyoming Nights by Leigh Greenwood

children old enough to attend any school she runs.”
    Unaware of the dark mutterings, Eliza met Cord with unalloyed pleasure. “Have you seen the schoolhouse? Mrs. Baylis says it will be finished before nightfall. Can you believe it? It’s a miracle.”
    “It is something of a surprise. Seems you only have to make a wish, Miss Sage, and it’s gratified.”
    “Please don’t call me by that hateful name,” she begged. “I could never bear it if you only thought of me as a saloon singer.”
    “I’ll always think of you as the girl in the brown dress with her cow mired in the mud.” A glimmer of merriment chased her frown away.
    “Uncle still gets angry whenever he sets eyes on that cow. To hear him tell it, she intentionally got into trouble so you’d have to stop and lend me a hand.”
    “Do you have any other animals in need of help? A lame horse? A chicken that won’t lay eggs?”
    “Now you’re teasing, and I never understand it when people tease me.”
    “Then I won’t do it again. You have enough trouble without my adding to it.”
    “Not as much as before. Mrs. Baylis went to Lavinia’s two days ago and took all my things to her house. I heard there was an awful scene, but now Lucy comes to me. It makes singing not half as bad.”
    “Mrs. Baylis is a very kind woman.”
    “There’s more to it than that, but no matter how much I plead, she won’t tell me. Oh, dear, I’m chattering again.”
    “I don’t mind.” Cord’s eyes were wide open and friendly, but his gaze was so heated and the tension caused by his closeness so intense, Eliza suddenly felt uncomfortable.
    “Let me show you the school house,” she said hurriedly. Cord thought it would have been better if the men didn’t see Eliza acting quite so friendly, but she was totally unaware of the tension. Leading him around the structure, she explained how each part would offer some advantage on that much anticipated day when it would be filled with the bright faces of dozens of eager children. Her ingenuous enthusiasm garnered a few smiles from the fond pupils’ fathers.
    “She never showed half that much interest in singing,” observed one.
    “Why would a pretty gal who can sing better than any I ever heard want to waste her time teaching?”
    “Whatever her reason, you oughta be grateful. After what happened with the last teacher, we’re not likely to get another one out here for some time. Especially not for the pay this town offers, and school only lasting four months. A body can’t survive on that.”
    “Did you see the way she went slap up to Stedman just like she’d known him all her life? If one of us was to speak to her, she’d run like a doe.”
    “She’s probably just grateful. Since he dropped those cowboys, there hasn’t been any more trouble at the saloon.”
    “Would you touch any girl Stedman had his eye on?”
    “Don’t be a fool. I wouldn’t touch anything Cord Stedman said to leave alone, especially his girl.”
    The Sweetwater had been refurbished and the inside glittered with bright lights, but a new building was already under construction that was three times as large, and when Croley and Ira finished turning the old saloon into a dining hall with rooms upstairs for lodgers, they expected to have a virtual monopoly on the trade.
    Ira mingled with the customers, enjoying his new stature as Eliza’s uncle and a successful owner. He had started to wear fancy clothes, this evening a burgundy-colored suit with lavish dull-gold trim and off-white hat and boots, and was rather vain about the figure he cut about town. He stopped at a table where a group was discussing Nash’s death, now some two months past, and after listening for only a few minutes, he drew up a chair.
    “Stedman’s behind it,” he said, “but he’s too clever to be seen in it himself.”
    Two men familiar with Ira’s prejudice winked at each other, but the third man took him seriously. “Cord isn’t connected with the